Former Southwest Community Church Pastor David Moore had been a very popular minister, preaching weekly to huge crowds at his Indian Wells church. He had taken over as pastor in 1988, when the church had only 400 members. During his tenure, 12,000 people joined to his flock.

The Los Angeles Daily Journal reports that his “Moore on Life” business, which sold tapes based on his sermons, spread his message across the nation.

But in 2000, the teacher of Christian values found himself with his wife and another heterosexual couple in the backyard of a home. They were in a hot tub and the two wives were topless.

The couples decided to take some photos.

After seeing the developed pictures, the couples decided to destroy them. Supposedly, the two women erased the images from a digital camera. That was the last Pastor Moore ever expected to see of those photos.

Apparently, things for the other couple, the Pickerings, didn’t go well. In 2002, Lori Pickering filed for divorce from her husband, Curtis Pickering. In court documents, she said her husband told church members that she and David Moore, the married pastor, had an affair. And she alleged that Curtis handed out photos of the hot tub affair.

The poor pastor denied the affair and claimed he got caught in a nasty divorce. He claimed the photos were innocent and that they were private.

Word got to the leaders of the Evangelical Free Churches of America, and the group investigated the immoral conduct of the pastor. Moore resigned.

Those photos made their way, of course, to a television station, KESQ-TV of Palm Desert. The station decided to broadcast the photographs many times.

In his invasion of privacy suit against KESQ, Moore said that KESQ aired the photos as a “blatant and tasteless appeal to the prurient interests of its viewers.”

Moore also sued for defamation because the station indicated that the women in the hot tub were completely naked, an issue Moore disputes. The photos show the two women kissing Moore.

KESQ claims that Moore is a public figure by virtue of his role in his church. “It raises questions about the moral conduct of a religious leader,” said attorney Brian S. Harnik, attorney for the station.

The First Amendment provides immunity to the media for reporting facts dealing with public figures. Here, KESQ argued Moore was a public figure and the photos were newsworthy.

Moore argues that this was an invasion of privacy because the photos were private, not made in public. He did not intend for Mr. Pickering to make them public.

A few years ago Pamela Anderson and her then-boyfriend rocker Brett Michaels sued to prevent a company from distributing a home video the couple made. The video featured the two making love and they intended it for private use. They claimed someone stole the video and made copies of it. In that case, a federal court ruled that their privacy was invaded, and copying the videos was copyright infringement.

Another case involved a woman who sued her ex-husband when he sent copies of Polaroid photos of her performing sex acts on various people. In that case, the court allowed her to sue because she was not a public figure, the photos were not newsworthy, and she did not know anyone else would see them.

In a case involving Out Magazine, Tony Sabin Prince, an actor/model, sued when a photograph of him at a circuit party appeared in the magazine. He claimed it was an invasion of his privacy.

The Court of Appeal held that, because anyone could purchase a ticket to the party, Prince had no reasonable expectation of privacy at the dance. This was because it was open to the public, there were over 1000 people present and Prince was photographed dancing on an elevated platform.

Based upon these cases, the TV station moved to dismiss the pastor’s suit on the grounds that the suit interfered with its right to report the news. And a trial court has agreed.

Moore’s case just underscores again the hypocrisy of many religious officials. Pat Robertson deplores the sodomy ruling by the Supreme Court. Yet, in 1988, he admitted that his first son was conceived out of wedlock, a crime known as fornication.

While there are no other facts here to indicate it, Moore’s conduct seems comparable to the lifestyle of so called “swingers.” This is a term used to describe straight couples that often swap partners. Historically, this would also qualify as adultery, a crime (i.e., sexual intercourse with someone other than a spouse).

Exposing a public figure’s hypocrisy is a legitimate news target and protected by the First Amendment. While publishing private photos of a nonpublic figure would be an invasion of privacy, the First Amendment should protect the media’s ability to report facts about public figures.