Newspaper Article

Embattled pastor denies charges
By Bill Alnor
Delaware County Daily Times November 30, 1986

MEDIA COURTHOUSE - The Rev. Frederick Drummond denies involvement with the now-defunct Durawood kitchen remodeling firm, and he denies that he and his church force members to obey him through beatings and humiliation.

The denials came in the controversial pastor's recent answer to a lawsuit filed against Drummond, the Church of Our Saviour in Concordville, the Durawood Corporation, and two church members.

The lawsuit, filed on Sept. 9 by Charles P. Fawthorp of Upper Providence, seeks to recover more than $27,000 in loans he claims were made under duress and in the false belief the money would be used to send missionaries around the world.

No missionaries were sent. And dozens of lawsuits were filed against Durawood, a firm in which Drummond was a principal.

The suit alleges that the church and its pastor used public humiliation, insults and beatings of Bible school students to gain cult-like control over the congregation.

It also states that Drummond and two co-defendants induced Fawthorp to secure a second mortgage on his house and loan the money to Durawood.

Fawthorp re-mortgaged his house, loaned $27,319 to Durawood and eventually lost his house after quitting his painting business to work as a salesman for Drummond's company, the suit alleges.

In Drummond's answer, filed by Philadelphia attorney Thomas W. Ostrander, the pastor states that after "careful investigation" he has learned that "Richard Price and David Durham (brother-in-law of Drummond's wife, Lorraine) promised he would be chairman of the board (of Durawood)" but that never happened. He denied using any Durawood money to enrich himself, as the suit alleges.

Drummond also denied allegations that the church enforces conformity by "humiliation of members in public, personal insults, private pressure to conform by ministers and a demand for absolute conformity to the rigid rules of its leader Drummond, infractions of which resulted in beatings to its students and humiliation of its members."

Drummond called those allegations "patently false, slanderous and maliciously averred," according to his answer.