Alienated by Radio

Alienation of affection suits are relatively rare. What few there are are almost invariably brought by one marriage partner against the other's lover, and they are hard to win. Thus, the chances of Melvin Bradesku, a Cleveland electrician, seemed slim when he decided to file such a suit last year. Or even slimmer, considering the defendant. His wife, he said, had been stolen away from him by a church. The whole thing continued to appear exceptionally ludicrous, in fact, right up until last week when an Akron jury ordered various representatives of the church to pay him $30,000.

Bradesku testified that his wife's affection for him began to wane two years ago. That was when she started listening to broadcasts of the Radio Church of God, a fundamentalist sect that claims 40,000 members and prepares a weeknightly program that is heard on 210 U.S. radio stations. The message got through to Mrs. Bradesku, and she became something of a student of the church's beliefs, according to her oldest son, who testified for his father. What particularly bothered her was a growing feeling that, since her husband had been divorced once, her marriage was adulterous. It was a bit late, considering the fact that they had been married since 1953 and had five children, but she went ahead and wrote to the Rev. David Antion, a minister of the church, to ask: Was her marriage valid? "In God's eyes and according to the Bible," wrote back Antion, "the present state would be adulterous." Four months later, she moved out of the house.

Warmer Higher? The defense argued that the marriage had been on and off the rocks anyway. She testified that he had beaten her the year after they were married; she had filed for divorce in 1966, and then withdrew. Currently, another divorce suit is pending. More important, said the defense, was the fact that "the federal and state constitutions guarantee to all religious groups the right to hold and preach doctrines." If that guarantee is meaningful, then surely a church cannot be liable for the consequences of stating a specific belief.

The jury was not convinced. Although it refrained from awarding punitive damages, it agreed that Bradesku was entitled to compensation. The Church of God promises to appeal the verdict as far as necessary, and it would seem likely that its constitutional arguments would get a warmer reception in higher courts. But the case has been so unusual so far that it would be foolish for anyone to predict the outcome.

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