Ministry files lawsuit against Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling it a hate group

[TexasTowelie]

D. James Kennedy Ministries, based at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, has filed a federal lawsuit in Alabama against the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center for calling the ministry a hate group.

The lawsuit was filed Aug. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery. The lawsuit alleges that the SPLC "illegally trafficked in false and misleading descriptions of the services offered by DJKM and committed defamation against DJKM arising from the publication and distribution of false information that libels the ministry's reputation and subjects the ministry to disgrace, ridicule, odium, and contempt in the estimation of the public," according to a statement by the ministry.

The ministry is named for the late TV Evangelist D. James Kennedy, who was the longtime pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and host of the nationally syndicated "Coral Ridge Hour" TV program. He died in 2007. Kennedy played a role in helping form the conservative Presbyterian Church in America denomination, which organized in Birmingham in 1973 at Briarwood Presbyterian Church.

"We embarked today on a journey to right a terrible wrong," said Dr. Frank Wright, president and CEO at D. James Kennedy Ministries, in a statement released after the filing of the lawsuit. "Those who knowingly label Christian ministries as 'hate' groups, solely for subscribing to the historic Christian faith, are either woefully uninformed or willfully deceitful. In the case of the Southern Poverty Law Center, our lawsuit alleges the latter."

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/08/ministry_files_lawsuit_against.html

[Pachamama]

1. Great News - SPLC documents things and tracks and this lawsuit will expose this hate group posing as

....a Christian ministry and even open up information that the SPLC might not have had access to otherwise...

[zipplewrath]

5. Does seem foolish

SPLC has alot of lawyers, and they will get to depose the ministry and demand a fair amount of documentation. There could be audits as well. Could be a long slog for the ministry with little opportunity to show damage.

[dalton99a]

6. +1

[secondwind]

2. K&R for the SPLC.

[weissmam]

3. the ministry are fools

they are going to get so screwed -and how gives a rats ass about "your" Christian whatever

[HopeAgain]

4. James Kennedy was a deeply hateful man.

I didn't realize they were still spewing hate in his name. I think he chose to be in Fort Lauderdale to attack the gay community here and to stir up direct confrontation and hate. The man was a real profiteer off his hate as well. He died a very rich man.

[raven mad]

7. Rock on, SPLC -

payback on this one should be fun.