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Church sued over donations

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, USA
Mar. 11, 2004
Christy McKerny, Staff Writer
www.sun-sentinel.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Thursday March 11, 2004

Lucinda Bennett gave until it hurt.

Now, the former West Palm Beach woman, who parceled out all of her $1.8 million inheritance to a West Palm Beach church and its pastor, wants the money back.

Bennett’s father, David Bennett, is accusing the Rev. Keith Thomas, First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach and the Florida Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention of fraud, negligence and civil theft and is seeking $5.4 million in damages on his daughter’s behalf, according to court documents.

Thomas and other church representatives could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.

The lawsuit contends church members knew Lucinda Bennett, 34, had mental and emotional problems, but instead of protecting her from burning through her inheritance, hounded her relentlessly for money until she went broke.

Bennett attended First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach, 1101 S. Flagler Drive, from 1998 to March 2001, according to legal documents.

Her great-grandmother died in 2000, leaving her $1.8 million, after taxes.

“Shortly after Lucinda Bennett received the money from her great-grandmother’s will, Keith Thomas and other agents, servants and employees of the First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach began to systematically, repeatedly and relentlessly solicit money” from her, Orlando attorney Nathan P. Carter, who filed the lawsuit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court on Wednesday, stated in a letter to the church signaling the lawsuit.

Carter said the church and its agents influenced Bennett to such an extent that “they took advantage of the mental and emotional handicaps and conditions they knew” she suffered from.

Church administrators called her at home, urging her to “heed God’s call,” telling her she “signed a contract with God” and challenging her to “outgive God,” the lawsuit said. It also states that Thomas approached Bennett personally for money, and Bennett gave the pastor, his wife, and their four children each $10,000.

She then sold the $530,000 condominium she had inherited from her grandmother, turning over the proceeds to the church.