The search for theories of recovery that evade the scope of the Ministerial Exception and the Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine is ongoing.  The theories that seem to offer some hope to aggrieved plaintiffs and to survive motions to dismiss, occasionally, are defamation and interference with contractual relations.  However, projecting forward into the future, defamation will almost never yield an economically viable plaintiff’s claim (enough to carry litigation expenses and counsel fees while producing a recovery sufficient to make the risk worthwhile).  Also, again projecting, few pastors and only a few denominational leaders will have outside contracts sufficient or provable upon which to base a claim.  Nevertheless, as will be noted below, such theories may only survive premised on a faulty appreciation of what constitutes a “church.”

In McRaney v North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Inc., Slip Op., (ND Miss., 2018), the former Executive Director of the non-party General Mission Board of the Baptist Convention for Maryland was terminated.  The Plaintiff claimed the termination resulted from defamation by the American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.  The Court held that they were “separate and autonomous” because both were self-governing, i.e., had their own governing boards.  However, the former was a “state convention” of the Southern Baptist Convention and the latter’s board was selected at annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention.  Indeed, these two “separate and autonomous” entities had eight jointly funded staff positions which Plaintiff supervised.  The joint employees were engaged through a “partnership agreement” between the entities.  When the partnership agreement came up for renewal, the Plaintiff declined it.  That position either caused or resulted from a rift which eventually also led to the termination of Plaintiff.  Plaintiff alleged the termination resulted from a threat of the “autonomous” American Mission Board to pull funding if Plaintiff was not terminated.  The Plaintiff also claimed that the American Mission Board tried to cancel Plaintiff’s speaking engagements with a “mission symposium” and the Florida Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference.  The Plaintiff claimed that the American Mission Board posted his photograph in the reception area and labeled it in a disparaging manner causing emotional distress.  The Court overruled a motion to dismiss, which means the case will proceed into discovery and possibly other dispositive motions, or even trial, before resolution.  The Court held the defamation, interference with the speaking engagements and the inducement of termination, which the Court had to assume were true for purposes of the motion, could be decided without interference with ecclesiastical decision-making and that the American Mission Board was not the actual employer so the Ministerial Exception did not apply.

Like all interlocutory decisions, the eventual final decision could result in the opposite result.  But, the premise of this decision, that a denomination can be carved up like a holiday turkey in a tort lawsuit, would seem to invite error.  While evangelical denominations are often not strictly hierarchical, the components are not fully “autonomous” but rather “connectional.”  The Court did not review the governing documents (and may not have been presented the governing documents at this early stage) in the opinion but even so noted that the board of the American Mission Board was interlocked with the Southern Baptist Convention and that the Plaintiff’s former employer was a “state convention.”  Thus, none of the alleged defamation was allegedly “published,” i.e., sent outside the confines of the church.  The contracts allegedly interrupted were all intra-church relationships.  The Court appears to have decided to engage in resolving an intra-church employment dispute brought by an employee the Court held was probably covered by the Ministerial Exception.  Nevertheless, the case is moving forward on a defamation theory and a contractual interference theory and if one court will agree to hear more, others might also.

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