The Texas Supreme Court has denied a review of the Local Church and Living Stream Ministry's $136 million libel lawsuit against Harvest House Publishers and authors John Ankerberg and John Weldon. At issue in the case was the book Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions (ECNR), which The Local Church claimed was defamatory.

The Local Church was appealing a Jan. 5 ruling from the Texas Court of Appeals (First District), which declared “The gist of the church's complaint is that, by calling it a 'cult' and including a chapter on it in the book, the publisher and authors have accused it of every 'immoral, illegal and despicable action' mentioned in the book.

However … nothing in the book singles out the church as having committed (these actions). … Simply being included in a group with others who may have committed such … actions does not give rise to a libel claim.”

After the appellate court denied The Local Church's request for a rehearing, the group appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, alleging that the appellate court had erred by blurring the line “between actionable defamatory conduct … and protected comments about religion” and by creating “a flawed test” for determining whether statements in the ECNR were “of and concerning” The Local Church.

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