Gospel for Asia Faces Class Action over Christmas Catalogs
Two couples have separately accused GFA of sending only 13 percent of its donations to the field, not the oft-promised 100 percent. One of the cases has stalled in court. In the other, Brooks took the unusual step of appointing a “special master” to “finally get to the bottom” of the financial trail in June. In September, he green-lighted the switch to a class-action lawsuit.
The class is enormous: It covers about 180,000 donors looking to recover $376 million in donations given since 2009.
GFA contends that the donated money did get to the field, but that proving it was spent correctly would be almost impossible given that “millions of hard copy” receipts are spread across its partners in India. And anyway, the ministry stated, the “100-percent guarantee” that the money would be spent “on the field” didn’t mean it would be spent precisely on blankets and “Jesus wells.”...
Dr. Richard D. Phillips | 5/1/2013
