Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?

Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?

I say this to your shame Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? (1 Corinthians 6:1-6, NASB)

Does A Pastor’s Personal Opinion Really Constitute Slander?

I received the below today from IPower Web which currently is the host company of the website for Apprising Ministries. Since it involves this AM article A PASTOR’S ASSESSMENT OF RICHARD ABANES and because he says that he is my brother in Christ it seems best to bring this before the Body of Christ.

As far as I know Richard Abanes has never contacted me personally about taking anything down and/or correcting any perceived factual errors. It’s always been my understanding that asking someone to cease and desist should always be the first step prior to taking action such as he has below.

Please also know that I have absolutely no intention of removing that article, and since the host for AM’s website says, “Failure to delete such content within such period will result in termination of your website”, it does bring up an interesting question. Whose website might Richard Abanes be coming to terminate next?

Hello,

We have been advised by a visitor to your web site (at: https://www.apprising.org) that such web site contains content that is alleged to be untrue, offensive, slanderous, harassing or controversial in nature.

Accordingly, please remove such content within 48 hours of this notice. Failure to delete such content within such period will result in termination of your website. The notice we received is below.

As you may know, we are a web hosting company. We are not responsible for the content or links posted by our customers who create and place content on websites that we host. We further do not “monitor” the websites that we host or prescreen the content placed by customers on their sites. However, when we become aware of allegations of improper activity by one of our customers using a hosted site, which would be a violation of our Terms of Service (TOS) governing the web sites, we take such situations seriously, investigate promptly, and take appropriate action.

Should you have further questions, please contact us.

Sincerely,
Customer Support Team

_________________________________________________________________

To: LEGAL DEPT. IPOWERWEB
FR: Richard Abanes
RE: Defamation-Libel – IPOWER hosted website, apprising.org

To whom it may concern,

Ken Silva, owner and operator of apprising.org, which is hosted by IPOWERWEB.NET, has engaged in posting libelous, defamatory statements on his website about me — i.e., Richard Abanes.

By way of introduction, I am an award-winning, bestselling author/journalist with twenty books published by major publishing houses. My public reputation, therefore is of paramount importance to my livelihood and career. Mr. Silva, with no regard for factual information, has posted on his apprising.org website:

– defamatory accusations,
– baseless commentary that impugns my personal/professional integrity, and
– factual errors about my published materials.

I am writing you in response to this libel that has been hosted by IPOWERWEB.NET/IPOWERWEB.COM in the form of statements found at apprising.org and direct your attention to the IPOWERWEB.NET “Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).” as found at http://ipowerweb.net/legal/legal_aup.bml. It reads:

“Prohibited Uses. Users may not: . . . b. Utilize the Services in connection with any illegal activity or activity otherwise prohibited by this AUP. Without limiting the general application of this rule, Users may not: . . . Utilize the Services for or in connection with any activities or content determined by IPOWER, in its sole discretion, to be related to gambling, adult, obscene or pornographic materials or content, harassment, defamation, libel and hate speech or other offensive speech or content, or for any unlawful purpose . . .”

“c. Utilize the Services in connection with any tortious or actionable activity. Without limiting the general application of this rule, Users and Users may not: i. Utilize the Services to publish or disseminate information that (A) constitutes slander, libel or defamation. . . .”

Ken Silva, owner/operator of apprising.org, has violated these above stated restrictions — specifically, in his article titled “A PASTOR’S ASSESSMENT OF RICHARD ABANES,” found at the URL
https://www.apprising.org/archives/2005/09/a_pastors_asses.html.

Before turning this situation over to my attorneys, I respectfully request that IPOWERWEB.NET / IPOWERWEB.COM remove this particular article from it’s servers, and notify Ken Silva to cease and desist the posting similar articles. I have no wish to name IPOWERWEB.NET / IPOWERWEB.COM in a legal suit, and hope to resolve this issue as quickly and easily as possible.

Please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience. I hope to have this issue resolved as soon as possible.

Cordially,
Richard Abanes

See also:

AS IT CONCERNS RICHARD ABANES AND KEN SILVA

KEN SILVA ON CROSSTALK: FREE SPEECH FOR BLOGGERS AND RICHARD ABANES

SETTING RICHARD ABANES STRAIGHT ON MY RICK WARREN ATTACK

RICHARD ABANES: A TRUTH PROBLEM INDEED

TO WHOM DID RICHARD ABANES TELL THE SPECIFICS CONCERNING ALLEGED LIBEL BY KEN SILVA?

KEN SILVA, APPRISING MINISTRIES AND RICHARD ABANES