TEXAS
The Dallas Morning News
By Robert Wilonsky
rwilonsky@dallasnews.com
Until February, Tyrone Gordon was the respected senior pastor at St. Luke Community United Methodist Church — a former executive board member at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology and the successor to Zan Holmes, among the city’s best known clerics. But that all changed earlier this year when two former St. Luke members — who were also employees — sued Gordon, claiming he made unwanted sexual advances toward them, sometimes in his office between services. One alleged that the pastor masturbated in front of him while watching porn during an out-of-town church trip. Gordon, who voluntarily left the church in February to start his own congregation, has denied all the allegations.
But this week two more men filed similar lawsuits against Gordon, St. Luke and the North Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Both suits were filed by downtown attorney Marilynn Mayse, and the allegations ring familiar.
In his suit, Anthony Bollin says he became a member of the church in 1996, and was active in the male chorus and adult Sunday school. He looked up to Gordon, considered him a mentor and spiritual counselor — especially during the early days of November 2010, when Bollin says he was going through a “rocky period.” According to the suit, Gordon said he’d like to hang out with Bollin and began texting him, initially with “uplifting scriptures and motivational messages encouraging Bollin during his difficult time.” As far as Bollin was concerned, theirs was a “pastoral relationship.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.