A Fort Mill church and its leaders are arguing about religious freedom in response to a civil lawsuit over a volunteer’s sex assaults against children .
The families of three children sexually abused by Morningstar Fellowship Church volunteer Erickson Lee sued Lee, the church, CEO Rick Joyner and others in August and September. Lee is serving a nine year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty in September. He was a police officer in Cornelius, N.C and a church youth group leader for three years before York County deputies arrested him in 2023 for sex assaults on teen boys, giving them alcohol and showing them pornography.
Lawyers for Morningstar last week filed documents saying legal claims against the church and its leaders may be barred by the legal separation of church and state in what it calls “ecclesiastical doctrine.”…