Lawsuit: Megachurch Staff Covered Up Child Sex Abuse

The Christian Post reports:

A lawsuit filed against MorningStar Ministries earlier this month accuses founder Rick Joyner [photo], along with several top officials of the organization and multiple other staff members, of gross negligence for allegedly engaging in the cover-up of multiple incidences of sexual abuse in the ministry.

The lawsuit names as defendants: Joyner, MorningStar Fellowship Church, Joyner’s second in command David Yarns; the former volunteer, Erickson Douglas Lee; the volunteer’s father and MorningStar Fellowship Church’s head of security, Douglas Lee; Erickson Douglas Lee’s assistant, Chase Portello; along with unidentified defendants.

In his statement this week, Joyner revealed that the family of one of four teenage boys alleging the former volunteer sexually abused them had filed the lawsuit against the church.

From a March 2023 local news report:

Records show a Cornelius police officer arrested for child sex-related crimes was also a church youth leader. According to his arrest warrant out of York County, the allegations against Erickson Douglas Lee were for incidents reported between December 2020 and January 2023.

Deputies said Lee is accused of committing a sex act with a victim less than 16 years old, and said it allegedly happened 30 times in a 1.5-year period.

Warrants reveal the same thing happened to at least three more victims at his home from August 2021 until this January. Investigators said he was their youth leader as well.

Joyner has appeared here multiple times over the last decade, perhaps most notably in 2013 when he prayed for God to cause the US military to overthrow President Obama.

In 2017, he appeared here when he declared that hurricanes are “clearly” caused by the sin of abortion.

That same year he also claimed that God sent hurricanes to destroy Key West and New Orleans for the “perversion” of homosexuality.

In 2020, Joyner contracted COVID after declaring that Christians can ward off infection simply by asking Jesus.

In 2021, Joyner appeared here when he said that Jesus told him that Christians need to arm themselves and join militias to prepare for the coming civil war.

And let’s not forget the time that Joyner claimed Jesus teleported him to a spot two hours away by car because he had trouble driving due to knee surgery.

Embiggen the image below to read the church’s response.