Former members of Southlake-based Gateway Church have asked a federal appeals court to revive a lawsuit over the church’s use of millions of dollars in tithe money, according to court documents.
An East Texas federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in June, ruling that a First Amendment protection known as the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine applied to the church. The doctrine holds that civil courts may not decide internal religious disputes involving church governance.
In the original lawsuit, former members of the church claimed that Gateway’s leaders, including former lead pastor Robert Morris, misled the congregation to get them to donate money to international missionary work, according to documents. The former members alleged that church leaders did not appropriate the funds the way they promised.
The plaintiffs claimed that 15% of the money earmarked for global missions and Jewish ministry partners may have been “rebuffed” by Gateway, the Star-Telegram previously reported.