posted 02-18-2013 03:10 AM               

At the heart of this litigation odyssey is the little-known story of how a group of Christian faithful at Johnson Space Center, called the Apollo Prayer League, engineered a plan to have astronauts with the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s ferry microscopic editions of the King James Bible to the moon.

The subsequent dueling court battles center on whether a 91-year-old former NASA chaplain, John Stout, and his wife, Mary Helen — who have been declared wards of the state — are being held against their will in the Texas guardianship program and whether an Oklahoma Christian author, who claims she was given one of these highly collectible religious relics to auction for the elderly couple, was taking advantage of them.

posted 02-18-2013 03:11 AM               

Lawsuits leave lunar bibles in limbo: Legal battle over space-flown scriptures

Miniature bibles that flew to the moon more than 40 years ago are now at the center of a custody dispute between the author who wrote about their history and the state caring for the reverend who was behind their creation.

The two-year legal battle, which became public on Sunday (Feb. 17) through the reporting of the Houston Chronicle, began in 2010 when the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) intervened in a Dallas auction to prevent Oklahoma Christian author Carol Mersch from selling one of the so-called "lunar bibles" at auction.

posted 05-08-2017 10:36 AM               

Disputed 'lunar bibles' land with Oklahoma author after state cedes claim

A six-year custody dispute over miniature bibles carried by a NASA astronaut to the surface of the moon has ended with a state agency dropping its claim to the lunar artifacts.

The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, or DADS, abandoned its pursuit of the religious lunar relics in late April, just days before a court hearing was due to rule on the disposition of the microfilmed King James Bibles, which had been carried by the late moonwalker Ed Mitchell aboard NASA's Apollo 14 mission in 1971. Accordingly, an Oklahoma judge ordered that the small printed squares be returned to Tulsa-based author Carol Mersch, according to the Associated Press.

posted 12-29-2025 03:37 PM               

Pen-L Publishing release

Small Church Seeks Return of Apollo Prayer League Assets It Claims Were Confiscated by State of Texas

Pen-L Publishing reports that members of Faith Presbyterian Church in Pasadena, TX are protesting the Texas Dept. of Aging and Disability Services' (DADS) lack of oversight of what they claim are their church assets, along with the impoundment of an elderly ordained Presbyterian pastor, a decorated WWII disabled veteran.

Rev. John Stout, a former NASA scientist and chaplain to the astronauts, helped form the 40,000-member Apollo Prayer League (APL) made up of NASA employees and supporters around the globe who worked with the Apollo 14 astronauts to land the King James Version of the Holy Bible on the moon in 1971. The League operated under the auspices of Faith Presbyterian Church, a 501(c)3 nonprofit where Stout was an interim pastor and Director of the Apollo Prayer League (APL). The purpose of the APL was to pray for the safety of the astronauts and the spacecraft they flew.

According to court records, in October 2010, DADS took possession of Stout's assets, including various space memorabilia — dozens of valuable lunar bibles in microfiche form that had gone to the lunar surface or circled the moon. A similar one was auctioned by Heritage Auctions in Dallas 2014 for $75,000.

Based on spurious claims by their adopted son that his parents were demented and giving away family valuables, the elderly pastor, age 88, and his frail wife Helen, 86, were declared "incapacitated" wards of the state and relegated to the Heritage Villa Nursing Home, Dayton, TX, as federally-supported Medicaid residents.

In Sept. 2012, a DADS guardianship supervisor confirmed that Stout had indeed been held incommunicado in that facility. According to court documents, his computer was taken away; his mail censored; incoming and outgoing phone calls prohibited, along with stamps or writing materials, deprived of contact with close friends and associates. Nursing home staff had grown fond of the couple and lamented in private: "He is not demented."

The defiant Betty Duke

According to Betty Duke, 92, an Elder and Treasurer of Faith Presbyterian, she and a group of church parishioners went to the nursing home on Sept. 5, 2014, to visit Stout and console him in the recent loss of his wife of 71 years. However, the home's administrator, Dexter Guice, denied access to the group on the grounds "for his (Stout's) own protection."

Duke mailed complaint letters on church letterhead to DADS guardian supervisor Vicki Jones of Houston. The letter began: "How Does it Feel to Be God?" She then mounted a verbal and written campaign against DADS officials, State legislators, and AG Greg Abbott protesting the isolation of Stout in disregard of Abbott's own government website which defines isolation as "elder abuse."

DADS finally dismissed the case in 2017 when national news coverage cast a harsh light on the case and only after the couple had died after six years of isolation, deprived of visits from friends and loved ones.

The battle over the millions of dollars' worth of aerospace and religious artifacts is entering its 16th year in a Chambers County probate court with, inexplicably, no further judicial action in two years.