For months, Trump said he would release his tax returns. Then he said he was getting them ready. Then he said he would release them once his audit was complete. See RedState for the details.
Now Trump says he won’t release them. Nothing is preventing him but himself.
As Jennifer Rubin points out, GOP delegates can apply some pressure. Trump may have opened himself up to a contested convention, delegates or not. Delegates should abstain unless Trump provides the information.
This is another promise broken and he hasn’t even gotten to the convention.
Month: May 2016
Gospel for Asia Files Response in RICO Suit
In filings yesterday regarding the Dickson v. Gospel for Asia RICO lawsuit, Gospel for Asia’s lawyers claim lawyers for Matthew and Jennifer Dickson improperly brought action against a group of GFA employees without specifying their part in the alleged fraud. GFA’s attorneys do not argue the merits of the allegations but rather ask the court to dismiss the suit because such cases must designate how each person participated in fraudulent activities.
Group pleading defenses generally serve the purpose of making it harder to bring suits when individual agency cannot be identified. Plaintiffs are in a bind, they need discovery to prove the extent of coordinated fraud or cover-up of fraud but a court must accept a group pleading doctrine in order to get to discovery. In any case, in my view, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have provided more than enough evidence to proceed to trial against all defendants. To me as a layman, GFA’s response looks like a lawyerly way to avoid facing the evidence.
GFA’s attorneys also defend the arbitration agreement signed by the Dicksons while GFA employees. GFA argues that the Dicksons should be compelled to arbitrate because their donations to GFA were a part of their employment. All employees are expected to donate to GFA which makes disputes arising from their donations a part of the binding arbitration agreement.
I hope this argument doesn’t persuade the court to compel the Dicksons into arbitration. GFA is essentially arguing that employees have no rights and must be compelled to arbitrate allegedly illegal actions on the part of GFA. GFA also argues that their staff must donate to GFA and have no independent existence as a donor. On a related note, those considering working for a Christian ministry should read these agreements carefully. Arbitration agreements should not serve to shield an organization from whistle blowing.
Background articles on the GFA RICO suit
May 10, 2016 Reply to Response to Motion – GFA seeks to compel arbitration
May 10, 2016 Reply to Response to Motion – GFA asks court to dismiss suit
GFA RICO suit filed (2/8/16)
Details about RICO suit (2/9/16)
Statement from GFA board blaming bloggers (2/12/16)
Response from GFA’s lawyers (4/21/16)
Response from plaintiffs to GFA’s Motions to Dismiss and Compel Arbitration (4/19/16)
The American Counseling Association Moves Conference from Nashville over TN's Counseling Referral Law
Recently, TN’s legislature passed and Governor Haslam signed into law a measure which allows counselors to refer clients if the client’s goals conflict with a counselor’s “deeply held principles.”
Now, the American Counseling Association has decided to move the 2017 conference out of Tennessee.
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Is The King's University Expanding or Contracting?
The school that God asked Gateway Church pastor Robert Morris to host is having a rough patch. According to the most recent board of directors report, the school has lost three branch locations since 2015 and may close another (Olathe, KS) very soon.
Currently, on TKU’s website, Morris promotes the multi-campus model and claims that TKU will expand the number of locations by 2018.
The school boasts that plans call for “20 or more campuses worldwide by 2018.” However, a review of the recent board report paints a different picture. Most students attend the Southlake campus with significant declines in number of credit hours at most campus locations. Three locations have left TKU since 2015 (see the locations in dark grey below).
According to the report, no documentation exists for the Hong Kong campus and the NZ campus is under review. Olathe is being reviewed to determine if it is “feasible to continue.”
In the May 2016 president’s report, it is clear that the administrative staff want to move away from multiple campuses:
First, I (along with the administrative staff) have concluded that it would be in the school’s best interest to pivot away from the directive to establish teaching locations on (at least 30) mega-church campuses. The past three years have provided us with ample evidence to conclude that this labor intensive, complicated, expensive plan is not producing the kind of results we had hoped (see Teaching Locations Map on page 46).
Additionally, we have experienced some significant setbacks in our campus extension efforts. For instance, one year ago we were operating on 10 extension sites around the country with two other locations approved and preparing to launch. However, at the end of this academic year, for various reasons, we are positioned to go into the next academic year with only 7 sites in operation (none larger than 60 students) and neither “approved” location willing to move forward (see Teaching Locations Map on page 46).
Second, these “setbacks” have contributed to our resolve to pivot away from this campus expansion model and embrace instead a two-pronged strategy that emphasizes the intensifying efforts to build a healthy, dynamic home campus with over 1,000 resident student by 2022.
In the April 2016 executive committee minutes, one of four challenges was to change the multi-campus model.
With most campuses in decline, it hard to understand how TKU (or Gateway University as it will soon be known) gets to 20 campuses by 2018. In fact, it appears that the board is going to move away from that approach altogether because at least five of the campuses are stagnant and creating a drain on TKU’s limited resources.
To be fair to TKU, enrollment is up to 747 total students (502 FTE) which represents a 55% increase over five years. However, the promise of a growing multi-location system appears to have faded without prospective students’ knowledge.
Current students who cannot transfer may be left without a clear way forward. Since TKU is not regionally accredited, their credits won’t transfer to accredited schools.
I wonder if campus coordinators are aware that they will be closed down. The ethical thing to do would be to discourage any new enrollments since those students won’t have a future at the regional campus.
What this will probably mean for Gateway Church is a greater burden on their budget since the school now relies on a $1/year lease of facilities as well as cash donations to TKU. Since everything is moving to Southlake, the expenses for a residential campus will no doubt require a greater commitment from the church.
For Mothers Day, Gateway Church Pastor Robert Morris Speaks Conception
He did this last year too. One of Mark Driscoll’s friends and benefactors, Robert Morris believes he can speak conception to infertile couples. Listen to part of the sermon actually delivered yesterday:
This is a transcript of the first view minutes. Near the end of the prayer, Morris “speaks conception” to infertile couples (at about 4:00 in this clip).
I do wanna pray over a specific group of ladies. I do this nearly every Mother’s Day. Um, and that is, if you want to have a child. And the reason I do this is for some reason God has blessed this prayer when I pray it. And I don’t even know why or understand it.
I was getting my hair cut a while back in a specific, where I get my hair cut, and, um, they, there was this lady who I overheard talking about miscarriages and not being able to have a child and she’d been praying for, I think, 12 or 13 years or something. And I just got so burdened so we, I, just went over to her and she got up at the same time I got up and I said, ‘I’m sorry to overhear your conversation but I’m pastor of a church, and would you mind if I pray for you?’ And so I prayed for her right there in the salon. And, um, um, she uh, started coming to the church. She got saved. Her family got saved. And, uh, her husband, and they started coming to small group and she had a baby.
And, uh, so, and what’s amazing is, I was getting my haircut there again today, and we were talking about that and they said, ‘uh, Robert, we, we have people that ask to get their haircut in that wing (hand motion towards wing) of the salon – that are trying to have a baby. And they get pregnant! And then we’ve had employees that say, ‘can I transfer to that wing (more jerking hand motions towards wing) of the salon?’ And they get pregnant so um. So, uh, I’m gonna pray for you now. You don’t have to get your hair cut there. It is a good place, but….
I offer this without much comment on the stories of pregnancies being influenced by where in the hair salon Morris — pastor of the third largest church in America — sat to get his hair cut.
However, these stories and the rest of the sermon is about hearing from God in dreams and the ability to do miracles. Those outside evangelcalism wanting to understand the diversity under that label should make a distinction between evangelicals who believe such things happen frequently and those who don’t.