Slippery slope?
A Virginia legislator has authored a bill (requires registering at Washingtonpost.com) that would allow congregations to pull out of their denominations and keep church property. The legislator, an Episcopalian, is in a congregation that has talked of pulling out of the Episcopal Church USA, where tensions have run high since the church confirmed its first openly gay bishop in 2003. Opponents say it would be an unconstitutional intrusion by government while the legislator says it would help distance the government from court disputes.
What do you think?
Comments (2)
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Nancy, I think this would be a disaster. It could lead to chaos in many denominations, as a group of disgruntled people try to convince their congregation to leave the "fold" of their denomination. It is none of the government's business how churches (and other faith groups) organize nor what their policies might be. Anyone is free to leave their denomination and start another church if they wish at any time. Would a business want a law that allows disgruntled employees at a company store to say they no longer want to be associated with, say "Wal-Mart" so they are going to take the store and it's inventory and call it a "K-Mart" or something else? Of course not. What if a majority of the customers at the "Wal-Mart" decided they did not like company policy? Could they rebel and take over the store and call it something else? Certainly not. Perhaps the store would go out of business if all the customers left to shop elsewhere, and perhaps a deonimiational affiliated church will die if all the members go elsewhere to worship, but the principle remains the same. It is not the government's business.
Posted on February 3, 2005 12:28 PM
If in fact the congregations are free to pull out of the National body and form their own church then there is nothing left to quarrell over except who owns the building and the pews . Disputes such as this , even in the sacrament of marriage, are settled by one branch of government the courts. Martin Luther opened the gate for this kind of rebellion when he nailed th 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.
Posted on February 4, 2005 7:19 PM