Baptist College's Attempt To Exit Baptist Convention Control Involves Ecclesiastical Determinations

In Executive Board of the Missouri Baptist Convention v. Missouri Baptist University, (MO App., Feb. 19, 2019), a Missouri state appellate court rejected attempts by Missouri Baptist University and The Baptist Home to amend their Articles of Incorporation to eliminate the Missouri Baptist Convention's right to select members of their boards of trustees and its right to veto amendments to their Articles.  The attempts to extricate themselves from Convention control followed an ideological battle within the Convention that moved it to the right.  In part the court held that certain affirmative defenses raised by the University concern ecclesiastical matters which civil courts cannot decide, saying:

[T]he University alleges that the Convention demanded that it ... refrain from teaching material that contradicted certain ideas which are clearly religious doctrine, such as the belief that the Earth was created in seven days roughly 6,000 years ago, or the belief that every living thing on Earth is descended from animals rescued from a flood on a vessel roughly 4,300 years ago.... The University claims that these demands ... “anticipatorily breached” provisions of a document entitled “A Christian Higher Education: A Statement of Purpose” which states ... that “... Christian education proceeds without fear into whatever knowledge may come.” ... Considering this defense as it currently is presented requires a court to rule – at least implicitly - on the truth of the story of Noah’s ark or Christian beliefs in creationism. We cannot conceive of a judicial inquiry which would impose on ecclesiastical matters more than this, nor can we find fault in the circuit court’s unwillingness to even attempt to find neutral grounds upon which it could rule when the color and content of the University’s allegations are so nakedly religious.

Vandalizing Religious Building Includes Vandalizing Sign Outside It

In People v. Laduke, (CA App., Dec. 14, 2018), a California appellate court held that defendant could properly be convicted under California Penal Code Sec., 594.3(a) for vandalism of a building owned and occupied by a religious institution after he torched a sign in front of John Paul the Great Catholic University. The court said in part:

Because the vandalism set forth in section 594.3, subdivision (a) prohibits damage to both real and personal property, we reject LaDuke's suggested interpretation limiting that offense to damage to only an occupied structure with four walls and a roof....  [W]e construe section 594.3, subdivision (a) as prohibiting, inter alia, malicious damage to personal property or fixtures located on or attached to the real property of, and related to, a "building owned and occupied by a religious educational institution."

The court also rejected the argument that Sec. 594.3 violates the Establishment Clause and the Equal Protection clause.

New Jersey Court Invalidates Capital Grants To 2 Religious Colleges

In American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey v. Hendricks, (NJ App., May 26. 2016), a New Jersey state appellate court held that grants to two religious colleges for capital improvements violate the provision in the New Jersey Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 3, that bars taxation "for building or repairing any church or churches, place or places of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry...." The Department of Higher Education had awarded two grants totaling over $10 million to a Jewish school, Beth Medrash Govoha, and three grants totaling $645,323 to Princeton Theological Seminary. The court said that a 1978 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling interpreting Art. I, Sec. 8 compelled it to conclude that these grants of public funds were invalid. NJ.com reports on the decision.

Department of Education Will Publicize Religious Colleges That Have Obtained Title IX Exemptions

As previously reported, over the last two years the U.S. Department of Education has granted a number of religiously-controlled colleges an exemption from Title IX where full compliance would conflict with their religious tenets.  With the exemption, the schools may continue to receive federal funds even though they discriminate in various ways on the basis of marital status, sex outside of marriage, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or abortion. In a press release yesterday, Human Rights Campaign says that now the Department of Education has agreed to create a searchable database of educational institutions that have applied for and/or received such exemptions. HRC comments:

While the Department of Education has little discretion to deny these requests for exemptions, religiously controlled educational institutions should not be exempt from full transparency.

DOE Exemptions From Title IX For Religious Colleges Is Growing

Earlier this month, The Column reported that in the last 18 months, the Department of Education has granted waivers to 27 religious colleges and universities in 17 states from the Department's interpretation of Title IX that bars schools receiving federal funds from discriminating against transgender students.  (See prior related posting.) Nine other schools have exemption applications pending. A number of these schools have sought and received even broader exemptions from Title IX based on the school's religious tenets.  For example in February the Department of Education granted a broad waiver to Anderson University:

The University is exempt from these provisions to the extent that they prohibit discrimination on the basis of marital status, sex outside of marriage, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or abortion and compliance would conflict with the controlling organization’s religious tenets.

Christian advocacy groups are providing training and sample documents for schools to use in applying for exemptions. [Thanks to Religion Dispatches for the lead.]