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Danny Makes Announcement

After years of making threats, 3ABN president Danny Shelton announced to the world on April 22, 2007, on ClubAdventist.com, that a lawsuit had been filed against two unnamed people:

Donor funds and lawsuits
Stan Jensen Apr 16 2007 07:29 PM

I understand the legal expenses of the current lawsuit over save3ABN will not be funded by 3ABN donors?

Do I understand that correct?

  Forum: Interview with Danny Shelton · Post Preview: #121320
Re: Donor funds and lawsuits
Danny Shelton Apr 22 2007 09:23 PM

That is true. We have a donor who has been donating funds for some time for the purpose of legal bills incurred whether lawsuit or not. He is not taking a tax donation for these donations.

He and his family believe in 3ABN and the decisions we have made. They like our 3ABN Board have decided that people who are accusing myself and the 3ABN board of gross misconduct and out right crimes need to be held accountable.

We have filed a lawsuit against two individuals in particular to begin with.

I won't say anymore on that subject right now.

  Forum: Interview with Danny Shelton · Post Preview: #122389

"We have filed a lawsuit against two individuals ... to begin with." To begin with? How many individuals does Danny plan on suing?

We will comment about the suit itself and who the defendants are at the bottom of this page.

Danny Changes Position on Defending Himself

That Danny would publicly announce that a lawsuit had been filed represents a drastic change in his position. While he has privately threatened many times in the past, his public stance has been that he would not defend himself:

"And that's what Brandy always encourages me is, uh, ... 'And ye shall hold your peace.' But man, that's hard to do. ... It's the toughest thing in the world to do. I'm a fighter by, by nature. Other words, you know, if I, boy, if somebody says that I want to stand up and say, 'No, that's not right,' or if they say something about me pers[on]ally, 'That's not true,' you know, 'Prove it,' or whatever else, but, the Lord says, and here's what's happened. I'm learning, and she's really helped me, I can't tell you how much, 'cause I'm learning, and I'll try it sometimes, I'll try to talk to people, and I'll say, well let me explain, and then I walk away and say, 'What in the world have I done, you know, whatever I say never works ....' " (Danny Shelton)

"But I am learning, let God fight the battles, hold your peace." (Danny Shelton)

"... sometimes I fight this thing, you know ...." (Danny Shelton)

"I can't defend myself. You can't defend yourself. I have nothing. The Lord showed me one time, when I said, 'Lord, I'm not guilty things these people are saying.' And the Lord said, 'You are guilty.' ... And I said, 'But I'm not.' And He said, 'No, you're a sinner. And as a sinner,' we're all sinners, and so we're all guilty, 'and you either have to let Me be your attorney all, all the time or not at all.' So I said, 'Okay, Lord, I'm guilty. You take it.' " (Danny Shelton)

"Our greatest and most difficult test under persecution is to resist responding in our own defense." (Shelley Quinn)

("Defending Danny Against Allegations of Sexual Assault (3ABN Live, August 10, 2006)")

How Danny Feels Such a Change in Position Could Affect Public Opinion

On June 4, 2004, Linda Shelton signed a separation agreement with 3ABN that included the odd stipulation that she could not say anything critical in public about her ex-husband. The agreement did not contain a similar restriction on things that Danny might say about Linda. The agreement provided for payments to Linda through the end of 2006 to compensate for her severance from the ministry she co-founded.

A number of issues have surfaced since June 4, 2004, including her desire to have some sort of review of the claimed evidence against her and her side of the story, something she believes she has been denied, and the existence of evidence that Danny Shelton and others associated with 3ABN have defamed her. Thus she has toyed at times with taking these issues to the courts.

Regarding such thoughts of legal action after signing an agreement that she would not sue, Danny had this counsel for her:

-------- Original Message --------
From:  Danny Shelton
To:  Linda Shelton
Date:  Sunday, February 13, 2005 12:48 PM

...

Linda, you may get some money by suing, I don't know and neither do you, but I can tell you that if you do, I believe that and that alone will be the death nail to you ever ministering in the SDA church again. People will not see their hard earned money given for the saving of souls, spent on courts and attorneys, and yes, on Linda Shelton. One settlement is enough in their minds.

I must tell you that I have talked to several people in the last week including one of our popular programmers, who said that they believe if you follow through with a law suit after having accepted a financial settlement from 3ABN already, that virtually any support that you have or would have gained later, will go down the tubes.

I know you have listened to nothing I have told you since this Dr. came into your life. You always said I had more common sense than anyone you knew. You know that one of the reasons for our success at 3ABN is knowing our viewers and how they think. Linda people just won't accept you suing 3ABN and at the same time saying you have forgiven me and the board and you still want 3ABN to survive.

...

Please pray long and hard before you are talked into suing or bringing outside lawyers in on this as our settlement that you signed says that if you have a problem that we are to negotiate within the church without lawyers.

"We Are to Negotiate Within the Church"

The idea Danny Shared with Linda is not just based upon what her separation agreement said, but also upon the counsel of Holy Scripture:

"Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren."

(1 Corinthians 6:1-8)

The only real attempt at mediation within the church that we know of was the ASI tribunal idea proposed by a high-level church official last September. Yet the 3ABN board soon took steps to prevent ASI from ever considering the allegations of child molestation against Tommy Shelton by restricting the investigation to just the topic of Danny versus Linda. Not until January 24 was it known that the 3ABN board has so voted on September 24.

Ellen White on Seventh-day Adventists Suing Other Church Members

When troubles arise in the church we should not go for help to lawyers not of our faith. God does not desire us to open church difficulties before those who do not fear Him. He would not have us depend for help on those who do not obey His requirements. Those who trust in such counselors show that they have not faith in God. By their lack of faith the Lord is greatly dishonored, and their course works great injury to themselves. In appealing to unbelievers to settle difficulties in the church they are biting and devouring one another, to be "consumed one of another" (Gal. 5:15).

These men cast aside the counsel God has given, and do the very things He has bidden them not to do. They show that they have chosen the world as their judge, and in heaven their names are registered as one with unbelievers. Christ is crucified afresh, and put to open shame. Let these men know that God does not hear their prayers. They insult His holy name, and He will leave them to the buffetings of Satan until they shall see their folly and seek the Lord by confession of their sin.

...

I have written largely in regard to Christians who believe the truth placing their cases in courts of law to obtain redress. In doing this, they are biting and devouring one another in every sense of the word, "to be consumed one of another." They cast aside the inspired counsel God has given, and in the face of the message He gives they do the very thing He has told them not to do. Such men may as well stop praying to God, for He will not hear their prayers. They insult Jehovah, and He will leave them to become the subjects of Satan until they shall see their folly and seek the Lord by confession of their sins. . . .

... The world and unconverted church members are in sympathy. Some when God reproves them for wanting their own way, make the world their confidence, and bring church matters before the world for decision. Then there is collision and strife, and Christ is crucified afresh, and put to open shame. Those church members who appeal to the courts of the world show that they have chosen the world as their judge, and their names are registered in heaven as one with unbelievers. How eagerly the world seizes the statements of those who betray sacred trusts!

...

I tell you solemnly that if you take the action which you now purpose to take, you will never recover from the result of it. If you open before the world the wrongs that you suppose your brethren have done you, there will be some things that will have to be said on the other side. I have a caution to give you.

(Selected Messages, bk. 3, pp.299-304)

Quick Trips to St. Paul, Minnesota

Sources close to the situation indicate that the 3ABN jet made special round trips to St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 15, April 29, and May 1, 2007. The March 15 flight stopped very briefly en route in Madison, Wisconsin, near the home of 3ABN board chairman Walt Thompson.

It is not hard to imagine that these flights had something to do about meetings with attorneys at the law firm that sent the cease and desist letter in February, a firm used in the past by Garwin McNeilus, the rumored financier of 3ABN's litigation efforts. Garwin McNeilus is also a member of the ASI Missions, Inc. board, the entity Danny Shelton claimed had been asked to be the constituency for the new ministry created by the proposed merger of Amazing Facts and 3ABN.

Fuel Cost for Those Quick Trips

One kind reader has pointed out to us a fatal flaw in our figures that we posted on this page from May 3 to May 4. The figure for fuel capacity on RisingUp.com is actually in error. Instead of 7,385 gallons it should read 7,385 pounds, or perhaps 7,329 pounds, as Cessna puts it. (we called Cessna to get the right figures.) Divide the pounds of fuel the plane holds by 6.7, and you get a rough figure for the fuel capacity in gallons of a Cessna Citation VI similar to 3ABN's jet.

Please see the bottom of "Concern About the Jet" for the rest of our calculations, which gives us an approximate cost of $1.74 per mile. Since the combined distance of the three round trips referred to above would likely be at the very most 4000 miles, an estimated maximum cost for the jet fuel for those flights would be $6,960.

It is reported that a donor provides $40,000 a month for the jet, which may cover up to $10,000 of expenses above the monthly cost of the lease. Such expenses would include hangar rental, maintenance, pilots, fuel, etc.

In the post at the top of this page, Danny mentioned that a single donor is covering the costs of the lawsuit. Is he also covering the jet operation costs for all the extra trips that presumably will be made to both St. Paul and Massachusetts over the coming months or years? Or do 3ABN's other donors cover those costs?

Papers Served on Monday, April 30, 2007

On Monday morning, April 30, 2007, the day between the quick trips of April 29 and May 1, papers were served by upon Bob Pickle by a representative of Hons Investigations of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Shortly thereafter papers were served upon Gailon Arthur Joy.

The case (07-40098) had been filed in United States District Court in Massachusetts, state of residence of Gailon Joy.

Typically, court documents are available for public inspection, but certain court documents involved in this case, including the complaint, are not because they have been impounded.

For other examples of imposed or attempted secrecy during this still-unfolding saga, see "One-Way 'Gag Order'," "Confidentiality Agreement," "Riva's '03 Threat," "Riva's '07 Threat," and "Gerald Duffy to Gailon Joy: 'Cease & Desist!' "

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