Mclean Bible Church, the home of David Platt, faces a lawsuit from its members regarding claims of critical race theory and vote manipulation.
Mclean, located near Washington DC, is a large church with more than 10,000 members across several campuses. The lead pastor, David Platt, has written several bestselling books, including Radical and Follow Me. The church is a reasonably successful campus, but their recent decisions have caused some to become concerned about their ideas. Select individuals claim that McLean is now a “Woke” church and that it promotes unbiblical teachings like Critical Race Theory and social justice. These critics also believe that the leadership has abused their power and manipulated the votes.
A complaint filed on July 15th claims that Platt and other McLean leaders barred several members from voting on the approval of new church leaders, claiming that the follow-up election is a violation of the church’s constitution. “This is a breach of contract action seeking to remedy Defendants’ illegal actions to deny Plaintiffs their rights to cast a free and fair vote, to have those votes lawfully counted, and to enjoy their right to a secret ballot,” states the complaint.
At the same time, Platt spoke out during a sermon, claiming that these critics had tried to manipulate their local elder election by having former and inactive members attend and vote accordingly. This attempt at manipulation is why McLean has a follow-up election.
It remains unclear if a court gets involved in this conflict, as church constitutions are not something local courts can enforce through specific legal forums. However, Virginia law does require churches to adhere to their constitutions and not to breach said contracts. In filing the complaint, the plaintiffs hope that their lawsuit will void out the previous one and host a new election. This act could set a legal precedent for other future trials or church cases.
Platt and McLean had previously received attention in the news when, in 2019, President Donald Trump showed up on-site with no warning and asked the preacher to pray for him. The decision angered several individuals, including some within his church.
