Can disgruntled parishioners criticize their former house of worship via critical social media posts and articles?

A Mesa, Arizona, church’s defamation lawsuit against two former attendees and two bloggers says no.

But an anti-SLAPP motion filed by the defendants last week argues yes, calling the criticism constitutionally “protected speech.” The defendants also are fighting a temporary restraining order (TRO), which they contend is an attempt at “prior restraints on Defendants’ right to speak freely.”

The lawsuit and TRO were filed in Oct. 3 in Maricopa County Superior Court by Apologia Church and three of its pastors against two former congregants, Cameron and Hailey Merris. Also named as defendants were bloggers Joe and Sarah Young, who founded the Check My Church website.

The Apologia pastors on the initial filing were Lead Teaching Elder Jeff Durbin and pastors Zachary Morgan and Luke Pierson. However, Morgan has since withdrawn from the lawsuit. Durbin told The Roys Report (TRR) that Morgan still supports the suit but removed himself “for his own physical and spiritual and mental well-being.”

Apologia, which has a Reformed Baptist sister church in South Jordan, Utah, is alleging defamation and related claims arising from critical TikTok videos by Hailey Merris and articles by Sarah Young.

Both Hailey Merris and Sarah Young say their spouses did not publicly criticize the church or pastors but were added to the suit regardless. In the case of the Youngs, the complaint says the pair “were, at all times relevant to this action, a married couple acting on behalf of their marital community,” but does not specify what Joe Young did to damage the plaintiffs.

The videos and articles claim Apologia pastors shared confidential information revealed by the Merrises in counseling and details about a July 2024 domestic dispute between the Merrises, which led to police involvement.

In a podcast interview with TRR founder Julie Roys, Young further claimed that Apologia’s lawsuit is an attempt to intimidate her into silence and to stop her reporting about the church. 

She also noted that Durbin has been accused of sharing confidential information involving congregants before.

Five years ago, Young reported that Durbin had recorded “a phone call from (Apologia Church critic) Tim Hurd without his knowledge or consent.” The pastor then “anonymously posted the recorded discussion on YouTube, rather than putting it out under his own name or ministry’s name.”

Blogger Seth Dunn also reported allegations that Durbin secretly recorded conversations with congregants and then used those recordings against them.

On one occasion, Durbin reportedly recorded a father saying his daughter was culpable for “inappropriate behavior” between his daughter and Durbin’s son. Durbin then reportedly used that admission to paint the girl as the predator — a narrative that allegedly was later refuted by saved text messages.

However, Durbin denies that church leaders ever breached pastoral confidentiality concerning the Merrises. And he told TRR that once police were involved, the Merrises’ conflict became public record and was “no longer a private, pastorally protected thing.”

Durbin and the other plaintiffs claim in the lawsuit that Hailey Merris’ videos and Young’s articles damaged their reputations and caused “emotional distress, mental anguish, and humiliation.”

Durbin also told TRR that Apologia has lost 20 families, or about 100 congregants, since this latest controversy erupted, bringing the size of the congregation to about 500 people.

Durbin also defended the church’s TRO, which would prohibit further online commentary about the church and pastors while the lawsuit proceeds.

“We are very strong advocates of free speech,” Durbin told TRR. “. . . However, freedom of speech does not shield one from the consequences of slanderous speech and false accusations.”

Church gossip leads to posts, which prompt lawsuit

According to Sarah Young’s article at Check My Church, Hailey and Cameron Merris participated in marital counseling with the pastors at Apologia in 2024. But on July 25, 2024 — following several months of counseling— the Merrises’ conflict escalated to the point that it involved a gun, and Cameron Merris called police.

Five days later, Cameron Merris confidentially shared the incident with pastors at Apologia, Young reported. The church then asked the couple to leave the church and to seek professional counseling before potentially returning.

Months later — in March 2025 — Hailey Merris received a screenshot of a text conversation in which Durbin’s daughter, Saylor (Durbin) Perez, shared “tea” about the Merrises and the July 2024 incident with a friend. The text was dated July 30, 2024 — the same day Cameron Merris told Apologia pastors about the incident.

Upset, Hailey Merris posted the screenshot on TikTok, followed by additional videos accusing church leaders of gossiping, breaching confidentiality, exploiting her children and engaging in spiritual abuse.

In the lawsuit, the church and pastors claim these videos and Young’s reporting falsely portrayed the pastors as abusive, unethical and engaged in wrongdoing.

Durbin also told TRR, “The claim of a breach of confidentiality is complete fiction.” Durbin said his daughter learned of the police incident when she overhead Durbin from another room “on the phone, discussing the police situation with a gun and Hailey.”

He also noted that the police report of the incident is publicly available.

Yet, in her article, Young noted that the details shared by Durbin’s daughter didn’t match the details in the police report.

For example, Durbin’s daughter claimed Hailey Merris “pulled a gun on her husband,” but the report states that Merris held a gun “with the muzzle facing the ground.” It adds, “Cameron stated that his wife (Hailey) never pointed or gestured the gun at him at any point in time …”

Young also reported that Apologia “threatened Hailey and Cameron with ‘… bringing the matter before the church …’ if they chose to ‘… respond sinfully…’ by speaking to ‘… parties who have no business being in the interior of your marriage crisis.’”

Hailey Merris claims she attempted to reconcile with Apologia’s leaders, but they ignored her overtures.

Durbin, however, told TRR That the church attempted to resolve the dispute through a third-party church elder board outside before suing Hailey Merris, but she refused.

Durbin did not specify who comprised the “third-party church elder board” or their relationship, if any, to Apologia Church.

An attempt at justice or intimidation?

Durbin defended the lawsuit against the Merrises and Youngs, stating, “We believe that the judicial system is supposed to be God’s ordained system of justice. We want justice here and that’s why we’re doing it.”

However, Young stated in her podcast interview that her attorney — Gregg Leslie, executive director at Arizona State University’s First Amendment Clinic — agreed to take the case because he sees it as an assault on free speech.

In an interview with AZ Central, Leslie said, “It’s very common to find yourself in a situation where you’re criticizing somebody and they lawyer up and try to silence you. It’s incredibly intimidating.”

Last week, Leslie filed an anti-SLAPP motion, urging the judge to dismiss the lawsuit. Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) laws are designed to protect people from frivolous lawsuits designed to intimidate or silence them from exercising their free speech.

In the motion, Leslie argued the lawsuit filed by Durbin and his associates “has no likelihood of success on the merits because Defendants’ statements are not assertions of fact and instead represent their subjective opinions. To the extent that Defendants’ statements can be interpreted as making factual assertions, these assertions are verifiably true.”

He also said the suit against the Youngs and Merrises “also fails because it does not and cannot plead facts which establish that Defendants acted with actual malice.”

The motion also asserts the Arizona court lacks jurisdiction over the Montana-based Youngs.

A judge has already heard arguments on Apologia’s request for a temporary restraining order and directed both sides to submit additional briefing.

Last week, Leslie filed a response to the TRO, arguing the request to muzzle the couples “does not meet the high bar required to implement prior restraints on speech.”

The attorney also contends “harm that the Plaintiffs will purportedly suffer because of Defendants’ speech is too speculative to override public policy interests against prior restraint.”

According to media reports, Merris said she believes public criticism serves a broader accountability purpose.

Young, in a press release, defended her reporting and the mission of her website.

“Regardless of what happens, we remain fully committed to reporting the truth to protect the sheep, advocate for survivors, and push for transparency and accountability in Christian ministries,” she said.

The Merrises and Youngs set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for their legal defense, prior to securing Leslie as their attorney. But Young told Julie Roys the First Amendment Clinic is privately funded, so those funds may not be necessary. (The group’s website says it receives funding from the Stanton Foundation, established by former CBS president Frank Stanton.)

The court has not set a timeline for ruling on the motion to dismiss or the restraining order request.

Mark A. Kellner is a reporter based in Mesquite, Nevada. He most recently covered statewide elections for the New York Post and was for three years the Faith & Family Reporter for The Washington Times. Mark is a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands and also attended Boston University’s College of Communication.

Editor’s note: Click below to Watch or Listen to Podcast with Sarah Leann Young: