LOUISVILLE — Angus
Walton, a commissioned lay pastor, was surprised to learn that
his congregation had been sued.
One day a process server showed up at the door of the Sunset
Presbyterian Church, a redevelopment congregation on the edge
of Fort Lauderdale’s inner city, and handed the church secretary
a summons.
That was surprising enough, but the real mind-boggler was the
nature of the complaint: Sunset Presbyterian is accused of brainwashing
people with Jesus.
Why Sunset Pres? Walton has no idea.
“I wish I knew,” he says, in a Scottish brogue purring
with r’s. “I try very hard every Sunday to convince
people that Jesus is Lord and Savior; if that’s brainwashing,
so be it. I knew nothing about this a-tall.”
Walton says he has no memory of anyone of the complainant’s
name who had come to one of Sunset’s Sunday services, in
English or Spanish. He doesn’t remember any angry phone
calls. He doesn’t recall any fussing about the theology
of a sermon or the conduct of worship.
Things had been going very well. A 36-member Hispanic congregation
that had been using Sunset’s facilities recently joined
the larger congregation, pushing membership to nearly 100 and
Sunday attendance to about 120.
Walton, a financial executive in his former life, is fluent
in Spanish, having worked in Peru for 10 years. But he says he
doesn’t know much about brainwashing. In English or Spanish.
The Presbytery of Tropical Florida has asked the Broward County
Circuit Court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the case is
frivolous and interferes with the free exercise of religion, a
right guaranteed by both the state and federal constitutions.
Preparing and filing the motion for dismissal cost $900, which
presbytery Executive Arlene Gordon finds less than amusing.
The civil case was filed in mid-January by an apparently indigent
woman. The process server told a secretary at Sunset Presbyterian
that he had summonses for several other churches in the neighborhood.
According to the circuit clerk’s office in Fort Lauderdale,
the plaintiff filed 11 lawsuits between Jan. 5 and Feb. 17. The
defendants include five other churches, the Bush administration,
Northern Ireland, the People’s Republic of China, a local
television station and a medical center.
Walton first became acquainted with Sunset in 1987, when he
was appointed to a presbytery task force on the future of the
then-dwindling congregation. He’s been a commissioned lay
pastor there for over two years and thought his ministry consisted
of washing away sin.
But, apparently, at least one person thinks he’s washing
away much more.
“I find it quite amusing,” he says. |
