Earlier today, Reformation Charlotte published an article about FBC Naples that recently rejected a black pastor because he didn’t secure the 85% of votes required. The candidate, Marcus Hayes, only received 81% of the vote.

Several Southern Baptist and Evangelical leaders began immediately to charge the church with “racism” and “white supremacy,” accusing the members who voted “no” to the candidate of doing so based on the color of his skin. As we predicted in our previous report — that these charges are slanderously false and that the church and leadership should be ashamed for launching such accusations against their membership — Reformation Charlotte now has new evidence to suggest our suspicions were on target.

Several members of the congregation who voted “no” have already reached out to Reformation Charlotte to confirm our suspicions and to assure us that we were correct — their vote had nothing to do with race. For their protection, we are not releasing any names at this time.

However, another interesting twist to the story has come to light. The chairman of the search committee — Neil Dorrill — has a history of ethics violations.

According to a 2009 report in Naples Daily News, “Neil Dorrill handed out pay raises to key county employees days before leaving his job as county manager in 1997 to become president of the first Stadium Naples development partnership.”

Now, it’s rather interesting that a man with a history of ethics violations against him who has been charged with running fraudulent scandals would be placed in a key leadership position in a church looking to hire a new pastor. Nonetheless, it was done.

According to this same report, Dorrill “was arrested in October 2001 on charges of racketeering conspiracy in Stadium Naples. He received three years of probation and a $10,000 fine. A find of guilty was withheld.”

Now, let’s place this in perspective. A man with a history of public fraud for the purpose of greed and self-promotion has the gall to lead a search committee in a church that is now accusing its members of “white supremacy” and “racism” with zero evidence to suggest such a thing.

This story is developing, stay tuned for more.