Personal Property Follows Real Estate

Religion Clause has the following post about a Virginia court ruling that Episcopal congregations that left the denomination cannot take their personal or real property with them. Break-Away Churches Want Court To Reconsider Personal Property Ruling

Slate: A Shunning in Seattle

Slate magazine has a thoughtful story about a former member of Seattle megachurch Mars Hill who instead of submitting to church discipline left. Church discipline, including shunning, is commonly litigated in the courts through defamation and similar claims. It is also an important issue for church leaders to deal with apart from the legal implications. This story gives a window into how Mars Hill handles these issues.
Read the story here: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/faithbased/2012/02/mars_hill_pastor_mark_driscoll_faces_backlash_over_church_discipline_case_.single.html

Catholic Bishops Speak up against Healthcare Law

Leaders of the Roman Catholic church have taken a very strong stance against a rule written under the new Affordable Car Act, including recently reading a letter in many congregations. The rule requires all employers, including religiously run hospitals, to provide insurance for contraception. The rule’s exemption for religious employers does not apply if the organization employs a certain number of people of different faiths.

Here is a collection of recent stories covering the controversy, including a very good piece on this morning’s Morning Edition by NPR’s Barbara Bradley Haggerty: 

• Catholic Bishops Revolt Against Birth Control Rules, Barbara Bradley Haggerty, Morning Edition Feb. 2, 2012  
• White House Press Secretary Responds To Bishops' Criticism of HHS Policy, Religion Clause, Howard Friedman, Feb. 1, 2012 
• Catholics hear anti-Obama letter in church, Brian Montopoli,CBS news, Jan. 30, 2012 
• Contraceptive mandate could face tough sledding in Supreme Court, David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 30, 2012  
• Obama Reaffirms Insurers Must Cover Contraception, Robert Pear, New York Times, Jan. 20, 2012

SCOTUS holds Hosanna-Tabor teacher is a minister who cannot sue church school.

Here is an excerpt from the official syllabus: Because Perich was a minister within the meaning of the ministerial exception, the First Amendment requires dismissal of this employment discrimination suit against her religious employer.
Here is the link to the opinion: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-553.pdf

Photographs and the Internet

Most churches nowadays have a website if not a Facebook page. Many congregations want to give outsiders a window into church life, and one way they attempt to do that is by posting photographs of church events on the Internet. There are many questions that arise when someone wants to post an individual’s picture, especially when that individual is a minor.

The podcast “Digital manners: Manners for the Digital Age” from Slate.com features the online magazine’s technology and etiquette columnists, Farhad Manjoo and Emily Yoffe. They recently answered a question about whether a mother should take down photos of her child’s birthday party from Facebook after another parent asked her to do so. After many comments, they followed up their advice and included a conversation with a lawyer who specializes in this sort of thing. Listen to the podcast here.

The bottom line from the podcast is that your rights—no matter what your age—are based on your expectation of privacy. If you have your windows open and someone can see you from the road or sidewalk, they can take a picture of whatever they can see. Similarly, if there are people taking pictures at a birthday party, you shouldn’t expect to be able to prevent the photographers from posting their pics on the Internet. On the other hand, if someone takes photographs of you by invading your privacy, you could have legal recourse.

These laws vary from state to state, so be sure to check before you rely on anything the attorney in the podcast says. You might also see if your denominational website or offices have any information or advice about handling photos on your church’s website.

Furthermore, there are issues other than the legal ones. Good manners and thoughtfulness should play a role in deciding what pictures to post and which pictures to keep private. Many organizations use forms to have individuals or their parents to agree to the use of their images for the organization’s marketing. This can help prevent any hurt feelings and identify any individuals who do not want to be identified with your church or be located for personal reasons. For instance, some people in the church may have been abused by loved ones and seek to remain as anonymous as possible, particularly  regarding the online world.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts, stories, or questions about this or other legal topics religious organizations have to deal with everyday by posting in the comments or e-mailing me at lawmeetsgospel@gmail.com.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Legal Resources for Church Leaders

For my first substantive post, I'm going to focus on resources for religious leaders who face legal issues. Some of these resources are specific to churches, even specific denominations, but others are more general and can help anyone with legal questions, including those faced by churches.

My new blog

I’m a lawyer with a graduate-level theological education. Naturally, people come to me with questions about how the law affects their faith communities. In talking to many different people, including recent seminary graduates, I realized many church leaders I know could use a place to go to where they could find basic information—even just the questions they need to be asking—about the legal issues that face churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious organizations. Too often these leaders wait too long to think about potential legal issues until they are pressing legal issues.

My practice does not currently include a whole heckuva lot of churches as clients. But I do some work for religious organizations, and I expect to do more in the future. More importantly, as I was earning my two graduate degrees—a law degree and a master's of divinity—I was constantly thinking about how the law treat religious organizations and how religious organizations should navigate the legal waters in which they find themselves.

I intend this blog to be a resource for clergy, lay leaders, and anyone curious about these topics. I will aim to stay true to this purpose. I expect to link to resources and highlight important lessons from them and news stories and other interesting bits from the Internet. I anticipate posting something at least once a week, but only time will tell.

Starting this week, I will start a series of posts pointing to resources on the Internet for church leaders to start when they have legal questions.