Pastor denies role in tragedies

Former MSU football player, student who died put church under fire

The Detroit News/October 6, 1999
By Kathy Barks Hoffman

Lansing -- The Rev. Phillip Owens said the suffocation death of a former church member and the suicide attempt by Miami Dolphins defensive end Dimitrius Underwood can not be linked to his church.

The pastor of a church that gained attention after NFL player Dimitrius Underwood slashed his throat and another man with ties to the church was found dead said it was unfortunate that both tragedies occurred. But the Rev. Phillip Owens said his church isn't responsible for them.

"I got people here that have car accidents in the same week. I hate to put it on that level, but ... we can't control those types of things," Owens told reporters shortly before leading the service Sunday at Immanuel's Temple Community Church.

Underwood, a 22-year-old rookie for the Miami Dolphins who played three years for Michigan State, used two steak knives Sept. 26 to slash his neck while visiting his children and their mother in Lansing. He now is in an inpatient mental health clinic.

Underwood's mother, ordained minister Eileen Underwood, last week referred to Owens' church as a "cult that's posing as a church."

On Friday, her son's agent issued a statement quoting her as saying that since she and Owens are both born-again Christians, they "should both be on the same accord, rather than creating conflict caused by misinterpretation." Owens said it's clear that Mrs. Underwood has changed her mind about Immanuel's Temple being a cult. "Now that she's got her son in a safe environment, she's now backing off that," Owens told Lansing station WILX. "We never have been a cult. Our doctrine is sound."

Mrs. Underwood could not be reached for comment. Another young man who had attended Immanuel's Temple, 23-year-old Neftali Valdez Greene Jr., was found suffocated in a cramped, unused cooler in a Michigan State dorm basement on Sept. 22.

Police think the former Michigan State student got into the cooler on his own, then could not get out when the door closed and locked behind him. But they are continuing their investigation and hope to know more when toxicology reports are in. Police said Greene had attended Immanuel's Temple for about a year. Owens said Greene had stopped attending the church a month ago, when he left to start his own ministry.

"The police have said it's an accidental death," he said. "There is no connection here" to Immanuel's Temple. Owens also dismissed comments by two Battle Creek women who say they are worried their two 20-year-old children are being encouraged to give to the church beyond their means.

"We went to the church records to check out their giving," he said. "I can't give you a dollar figure, but the giving is (in the) low hundreds" of dollars. One of the Battle Creek women, Betty Gaines-Yager, declined to comment. The other, Deborah Edwards, could not be reached.

On Thursday, Mrs. Gaines-Yager had said Greene was forced to move out of housing he shared with other young men who attended Immanuel's Temple "because the pastor said he won't keep a job." Owens denied that he played a part in Greene's leaving.

"We never told anybody nothing about leaving their home. If they did, that was a situation with the people they were staying with," he said. Between 300 and 400 people attended the 2 1/2-hour service Sunday at the union hall that Immanuel's Temple is using until its $7 million church across the street is completed.

Reporters were asked to leave shortly after the service began. Owens declined to talk further when the service ended. "You have to give us time," he said.