The Bible Speaks ministry was founded by Carl H. Stevens Jr. in approximately the 1970s.
In 1987 Stevens and The Bible Speaks were sued by a millionairess parishioner who said that he had brainwashed her to the tune of millions of dollars.
The Carl Stevens and GWWO website summarizes the situation:
Between 1984 and 1985, Elizabeth (Betsy) Dovydenas gave $6.5 million to the Bible Speaks. She also changed her will, leaving her estate to the ministry and disinheriting her husband and children. In 1986 she and her family brought a lawsuit against Carl Stevens and the Bible Speaks, seeking to recover the $6.5 million. The court found in her favor, and this proved to be a pivotal event, as the Bible Speaks declared bankruptcy, lost their property in Lenox MA, and relocated to Baltimore.
The presiding judge said in his 60-page decision that the testimony revealed “an astonishing saga of clerical deceit, avarice, and subjugation” by Stevens, who “has abused the trust of the claimant as well as the trust of many good and devout members of the church.” He described Betsy as intelligent and trusting, but said Stevens achieved “total dominion and control over her.”
The April 4, 1986 Boston Globe article says:
Since moving to nearby Lenox in 1981, Elizabeth D. Dovydenas, a 33-year-old millionairess, became increasingly active in The Bible Speaks, a fundamentalist church with headquarters on 86 lush acres of a former private boarding school in Lenox. During the past 2 1/2 years, Dovydenas, who church officials say was a devoted Christian, gave more than $6.5 million to the church – the largest donations the religious group has ever received.The church, headed by Rev. Carl H. Stevens Jr., used the money to help pay for, among other things, a freighter that makes missionary sea voyages; a Palm Beach, Fla., condominium; antibugging devices for telephones; the conversion of a hockey rink in Lenox into a church; and the church’s $600,000 mortgage balance on its Lenox complex.
Dovydenas initial court filing is posted here:
This page catalogs all of the Boston Globe articles regarding the lawsuit and trial:
STEVENS FOUND GUILTY AND ORDERED TO RETURN MILLIONS
As a result of a jury trial, Stevens was found guilty and ordered to return $6,581,356.25.
Here is the court’s first decision, giving the woman her $6,581,356.25, back:
Stevens appealed the decision. The second decision upheld the first decision in part, andreversed it in part. The judge reversed $1,080,000 of the $6,581,356.25 awarded. However Stevens still owed his victim parishioner $5,501,356.25.
The appeals court document is posted here:
STEVENS CHANGES NAME OF CHURCH TO GREATER GRACE WORLD OUTREACH
After failing in court and dealing with bankruptcy, Stevens changed the name of his church from The Bible Speaks to the Greater Grace World Outreach.
Notably absent from GWWO’s Wikipedia page is any information about Steven’s previous corruption. There is just a sidenote that says GWWO is the “Successor to ‘The Bible Speaks’ ministry prior to 1987, reformed as GGWO in 1987.”
THE LEGACY OF SIN CONTINUES
Despite changing the name of the church, the Carl Stevens and GWWO website reports that alleged corruption and sin have continued. In 2005 a large number of pastors disaffiliated from GGWO and formed the International Association of Grace Ministries (IAGM).
Some ex-members state that they were eyewitnesses to a sordid, but largely unknown, history of sinful and abusive activity on the part of key leaders, followed by cover-up and denial, all of which is justified by distorted teachings on grace and the finished work.
When they tried to go through proper channels and deal with the problems, Pastor Carl Stevens and others in leadership sought to discredit these whistle-blowers, using tactics such as subterfuge, denial, character assassination, and threats of legal action. GWWO loyalists were taught to regard any differences with the leaders as an evil report, and that disagreeing with the leaders could bring harm upon themselves.
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ALLEGED CORRUPTION OF PASTOR LARRY SPEEDY
One GWWO pastor in particular has been exposed by a Greek resident. Pastor Larry Speedy is alleged to have behaved in a sexually perverted fashion in front of multiple eyewitnesses.
An eyewitness also says that Speedy engaged violently with him.
Read more about Larry Speedy, and how the church has kept him in their organization, despite being warned about him.
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