Elizabeth Dovydenas vs. The Bible Speaks

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Elizabeth Dovydenas vs. The Bible Speaks is a landmark and important case involving undue influence of an American heiress of the Dayton Hudson fortune and a ministry of Carl H. Stevens Jr. The Bible Speaks in Lenox Massachusetts.

Between the years 1984 and 1985, Elizabeth (Betsy) Dovydenas donate $6.5 million to The Bible Speaks ministry. As well as change her will, leaving her estate to the ministry and disinheriting her husband Jonas Dovydenas as well as her children.

In 1986 she and her family brought a lawsuit against Carl H. Stevens Jr. and The Bible Speaks, seeking to recover the $6.5 million. The court found in her favor, and this proved to be a pivotal event, as the Bible Speaks declared bankruptcy, lost their property in Lenox Massachusetts, and relocated to Baltimore.

The presiding judge said in his 60-page decision that the testimony revealed "an astonishing saga of clerical deceit, avarice, and subjugation" by Stevens, who "has abused the trust of the claimant as well as the trust of many good and devout members of the church." He described Betsy as intelligent and trusting, but said Stevens achieved "total dominion and control over her."