A woman has filed a defamation lawsuit against a pastor at a Prince George’s County church, accusing him of falsely indicating during a sermon that she had sexually molested him.
Cynthia G. Smith, a Virginia Beach lawyer, claims that Sullivan McGraw, pastor at the New Life Worship Center in Capitol Heights, orchestrated a skit and gave a sermon in which McGraw implied that she was “sexually immoral,” according to the complaint.
The alleged skit and sermon occurred at the 10 a.m. worship service on Aug. 23, 2009, according to the complaint, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.
At the time, Smith was seeking McGraw’s mentorship in her own efforts to join the ministry. New Life is associated with the Assemblies of God, which allows women to serve as ministers.
At the August 2009 service, the lawsuit claims, a short skit depicted a woman who “brazenly performed a solo dance characterized by rapid foot movements,” which upset her friends. That identified Smith as the subject of the skit and sermon, the complaint said.
Smith had been known for dancing at the church, she said in an interview.
At the service, McGraw’s sermon stated that someone had “intentionally rubbed her breasts against him” in a greeting, and had his wife, Jacqueline, demonstrate how the “woman had molested him,” the suit claims.
In the interview and lawsuit, Smith said that, two weeks before the sermon, she had tripped while giving Sullivan McGraw a hug, causing her to fall into him.
In the sermon, McGraw also said that the woman in question was “a sexually immoral woman who purports to attend church in order to worship God but who, in fact, attends church in order to seduce married men,” according to the complaint.
McGraw told The Washington Examiner that his attorney advised him not to comment on the lawsuit.
The complaint estimates that 800 people were at the church during the skit and sermon.
Smith told The Examiner that she asked the McGraws about the matter the following week. She said the two claimed the skit and sermon were fictional. But during the service, Smith said, the pair had noted that they were describing an actual event.
Smith is accusing the McGraw and the worship center of defamation, false light and other civil counts.
