Rev. Jeremiah Cummings

Elsie Carter and Rodney Daryl-Jones say in a fraud and racketeering suit filed June 3 against Cummings that he behaved like a latter-day Elmer Gantry while serving as pastor of the Amazing Life World Outreach Church in Raleigh, N.C., deceiving them into making contributions to the church which he pocketed for himself.

Cummings built the church “on a foundation of lies, deception and greed,” the complaint says, even pretending to be married to a co-pastor “when in fact they were an unmarried couple living under circumstances of adultery.” He is married to Nancyah Cummings, the vice-president of the Amazing Life International Fellowship in Orlando, Fla.

Carter says she was defrauded of more than $400,000 in contributions to the church of money and property including a 2007 S550 Mercedes and another $151,000 she invested in Cummings' Messiah Records in the belief that it would be used to produce a CD by a singer named “Prophetess” Syvonia McCoy. Daryl-Jones alleges he lost $51,000.

The allegations could be potent ammunition for Lionsgate Corp., the distributor of “Religulous,” whom Cummings sued in January for inducing him to appear in the film under false pretenses and, yes, falsely portraying him as a charlatan.

In interview footage included in the film, host Bill Maher pokes fun at Cummings' expensive suit and lizard shoes, contrasting his attire with the humility of Jesus. The minister stutters when Maher challenges him with the Biblical quotation, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

“I am made to appear to be some money hungry preacher, which is the typical stereotype of black preachers,” Cummings told Beliefnet.

According to Carter and Daryl-Jones' suit, he was positively ravenous for money as pastor of the Raleigh church. “Defendant Cummings ... took advantage of his position as pastor in order to financially and economically better himself at the expense of Plaintiffs and other members of the church,” it says.

Female parishioners, the plaintiffs allege, were wooed into supporting Cummings' “exorbitant need for money and material things,” with Carter signing over the Mercedes to him and the church. When she demanded the return of the vehicle, he sold it “for grossly under its market value and converted the funds to his personal use.”

As for Messiah Records, Cummings has connections to the music business going back to his days as a member of the soul group Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Proceeds from the McCoy CD were supposed to go toward furthering the church's ministry works, the suit says, but the funds invested by Carter and Daryl-Jones “were used personally to benefit” Cummings.

Carter also says the minister breached his fiduciary duty by engaging in a romantic relationship with her “which fostered confusion and disruption of the church” -- no doubt because he was "married" to the co-pastor.

Cummings last month turned down an offer from Lionsgate to settle his defamation suit, in which he is seeking $50 million in damages. It's probably safe to say he won't be getting another settlement offer any time soon.

By Matthew Heller
6/12/09