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Can the Government Tell the Church What to Do? By C. Peter Wagner

Mark Virkler's picture

            The Obama Administration recently opened a can of worms by insisting that Catholic institutions provide birth control services to women despite the official doctrine of the Church against birth control. Can the government tell the church that it must violate its own doctrine? Does a liberal interpretation of "women's rights" trump a longstanding church polity?

Similar cases have recently arisen in which certain churches and church institutions have been forced to hire or retain staff members who are practicing homosexuals. Can the government, on the basis of "non-discriminatory practices," force churches to violate their own standards of sexual morality?

Can a preacher preach a sermon on Romans 1, a chapter which directly condemns homosexuality as a sin against God? In other countries as close as Canada, ministers have been arrested by the government for "hate crimes" for doing that very thing. Does this kind of government activity cross the line between separation of church and state?

Our Supreme court has given a very encouraging answer to questions like these in a ruling on January 12, 2012, "Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School vs. Equal Opportunity Commission." In it, the court decided unanimously that churches and church institutions have the right to decide who will or will not be retained to form part of their ministerial staff. This is huge. We will feel the ripple effects of this for many years to come!

One of those implications is that not only churches, but ministries supported by the church are included in this ruling.   Schools are specifically mentioned, but how about a number of other kinds of ministries attached to our churches and apostolic networks? I would think they would fall under the same umbrella. And it will be interesting to see how workplace ministers will be treated since we have begun to officially commission them. Would apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers in the other six mountains be dealt with on par with ministers in the Religion Mountain?

This is a great step forward for our cause. I hope you find time to read the attached summary of the Supreme Court decision which was forwarded to us from Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

Major US Supreme Court Victory for the Freedom of Religious Organizations

 January 12, 2012

On January 12, the US Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision upholding the freedom of religious organizations to decide who will be their leaders and teachers. The case, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was about the validity of the "ministerial exception"--a concept created by lower federal courts in response to the First Amendment's Religion Clauses. Those clauses say that the government must respect religious exercise while not establishing religion. The Supreme Court upheld the reality of the ministerial exception while sharply chastising the federal government for denying its existence.

Some church-state scholars had termed this case the most significant religious freedom case in decades because it deals with the very fundamental question: is there a zone of autonomy such that the government may not second-guess crucial decisions made by churches and other religious organizations about their leadership, their beliefs, and their teachers? In pursuit of its mandate to ensure justice for all and to quash invidious discriminations, governments have asserted ever-more control over private activities, private individuals, and private organizations. Is there a zone it may not invade?

The Supreme Court has now strongly reaffirmed there is such a zone: there is a line of separation between church and state that protects vital church decisions from state rules.

Hosanna-Tabor concerns a "ministerial" teacher in a church-related schools--that's a particular job in a particular setting. Yet the Court's ringing language makes its decision of much wider significance. Note that this was a ministerial teacher, not a member of the clergy. And this was a church-related school, not a seminary or house of worship. Moreover, the Court used very strong language to stress how important it is for government to respect the freedom of religious institutions. So the Court's decision gives important support to institutional religious freedom more generally--the freedom that faith-based service organizations, and not just churches, need in order to faithfully carry out their missions.

Church-state expert Carl Esbeck (University of Missouri law school), said this: "It is not just a spectacular win on multiple issues and with multiple (indeed, all) justices on board, but it is the Court's sweeping language that is so very important. The words in the various justices' opinions ring out like a Liberty Bell for religious freedom. Already I can envision scores of legal briefs being churned out in the future mining the Court's passages reaffirming religious freedom as the First Freedom of the Republic. Of cardinal importance: the Supreme Court relied on the Establishment Clause as well as the Free Exercise Clause as a fountainhead of religious freedom-a contested point until now."

Note these passages from Chief Justice Roberts' unanimous opinion (emphases added):

"The members of a religious group put their faith in the hands of their ministers. Requiring a church to accept or retain an unwanted minister, or punishing a church for failing to do so, intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision. Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs. By imposing an unwanted minister, the state infringes the Free Exercise Clause, which protects a religious group's right to shape its own faith and mission through its appointments. According the state the power to determine which individuals will minister to the faithful also violates the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government involvement in such ecclesiastical decisions." [pp. 13-4]

The EEOC and the fired teacher, Cheryl Perich, claimed that there is no "ministerial exception"; a church's legitimate decision-making freedom instead is protected by the First Amendment's freedom of association. Not so, said the Court: "The right to freedom of association is a right enjoyed by religious and secular groups alike. It follows under the EEOC's and Perich's view that the First Amendment analysis should be the same, whether the association in question is the Lutheran Church, a labor union, or a social club. . . . That result is hard to square with the text of the First Amendment itself, which gives special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations. We cannot accept the remarkable view that the Religion Clauses have nothing to say about a religious organization's freedom to select its own ministers." [p. 14]

"The EEOC and Perich suggest that Hosanna-Tabor's asserted religious reason for firing Perich-that she violated the Synod's commitment to internal dispute resolution-was pretextual. That suggestion misses the point of the ministerial exception. The purpose of the exception is not to safeguard a church's decision to fire a minister only when it is made for a religious reason. The exception instead ensures that the authority to select and control who will minister to the faithful-a matter 'strictly ecclesiastical' [ ]-is the church's alone." [p. 20]

"The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important. But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission. When a minister who has been fired sues her church alleging that her termination was discriminatory, the First Amendment has struck the balance for us. The church must be free to choose those who will guide it on its way." [pp. 21-2]

Source: Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance, January 11, 2012

Another court case victory!

Church Wins Major Supreme Court Battle Against California Lockdown Orders—Interview with Pastor Che


 

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Anonymous's picture

The funny thing is there is a huge difference between "being" a BELIEVER who personally knows the author, Christ Jesus of the gospel vs a BIBLE THUMPER.

ROMANS CH. 1 does clearly show that since people deliberately chose to serve idols & worship other gods, which are of Satan. Our God let them have their way by allowing Satan to have them, thus they ALL turned to every shameful type of wicked disgust.

When you read the rest of Romans. The Lord never said discriminate on any person because it is God's job to judge them & we in Christ Jesus are to help everyone know the love done for the people who died for every single sinner. So you presume yourself perfect & without a blemish of sin and cast stones? Even the Pharisees weren't as bad as the U.S. Christians are today. Changing the traditions of the New Covenant for the sake of yours!

There is a huge difference from judging by the flesh & His righteous judgement, but obviously you can't see with His righteous judgement. Everyone has a chance to redemption in Christ. Now, if they deliberately come against Christ Himself. He promises to recompense. It is not your job to judge that. Our righteous judgement is to review ourselves. Are we loving God first & foremost? Loving our neighbor as God loves us, to have sent His firstborn Son to die on the cross for us because He's crazy in love with His people?

Before you were saved. Have you not drank & partaken in the drunkenness on the sins, the spirit of Babylon. Which is the hour we have been in these past 2 centuries. Now, if a person who is gay became a member of the church. Then rebuke would be necessary if they come to know the decrees in Timothy 1&2. And rebuke as Paul rebuked. He said to be like him. You have to use the Lord graceful approach as you would talk to your loved one because that sinner is His loved one. Who are you without love? A clanging bell that doesn't fulfill the Law. If you treat gays, blacks, whatever color, or any other sinner with selective compassion. You are not of my Father in Heaven, but of the devil himself.

You will be accursed for preaching another gospel. Paul straightened up Peter quick to protect Peter's grace. Why are churches over ran by the government? For this very reason. You don't know the gospel of the finished work. You preach the OLD as if you want to recrucify the Lord. In Jesus name. I bless you that your veil be lifted so you can see He didn't die for nothing, then rose on the 3rd day. Hallelujah.

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Have you ever wished you could just sit down and have a long talk with the Lord? Wouldn't it be wonderful to move beyond having a theology that states that God loves you to actually hearing Him whisper words of love into your heart? When you're worried or confused, wouldn't you love to see the situation from His perspective and hear how He wants you to respond? When things don't seem to be going your way and your prayers aren't answered the way you had hoped, wouldn't it be great to hear Him tell you where He is in the midst of it, and what He is working out in your life? Are you ever just a little bit jealous of others who say with such confidence, "The Lord said...."?

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