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Man tries to get church to return large gift

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CLOQUET, Minn. — In January 1998, Marcel Mager gave $126,000 to his church to help ease the pain of his failing marriage. The good feeling didn’t last long, though. Five months later, Mager asked the church to return what amounted to his life’s savings.

According to the Duluth News Tribune, Mager tried unsuccessfully to get Cloquet Gospel Tabernacle leaders to return the money. He filed a lawsuit in 2002 in an effort to prove he was not mentally sound when he made the anonymous donation, two weeks after his wife, Debbie, moved out of the home they shared.

"I was really confused at the time, really depressed," said Mager, now 55 and an unemployed optometrist. "I didn’t even confide in my wife that I had done it."

The church, however, used the money for new family ministry space and has told Mager he could not have his donation back.

Mager said he quietly lobbied the Rev. Richard Doebler, senior pastor, and then the church board, all the while keeping his story from the congregation where he was an usher for 20 years because he didn’t want to start a fuss. He only made his plight public when he could get no resolution from church leaders.

The newspaper reported Mager might have a difficult time getting his money back in court. Richard Hammar, an expert in church law and tax code in Springfield, Mo., said his only hope is to prove he was unsound when he made the donation.

But getting a court to accept that will be difficult. Hammer said families of people with more permanent mental ailments - such as Alzheimer’s disease - have failed to get large donations overturned.

"He really has an uphill battle," Hammer said.

Even rarer is churches voluntarily returning large gifts.

"I tell people that if they do that, they better open up an office for everybody to come make their claim," he said.

Doebler said he is confounded because the letter accompanying the donation seemed so genuine.

"He felt some remorse for some past actions and he wanted to make it right with God," Doebler said, recounting the letter. "At the time, we were taking it on good faith that this is what he wanted. It was hard to know what we were dealing with since it was anonymous."

With a budget of less than $400,000, Mager’s gift represents a lot of money to the church.

"I sympathize with his position, but I don’t agree with it," Doebler said.

Mager told the newspaper he made his story public in hopes the church would do what he feels is the right thing.

"I think if the members knew, they would say give it back," he said. "It’s my retirement. It seems the Christian thing to do would be to give the money back."