There are many misconceptions, and often confusion, regarding legal rights that churches and nonprofits hold. Understanding the benefits and requirements of the law will, not only, keep you out of hot water, but also will allow you to utilize the laws that help further the mission and vision of your organization.
Rarely does anyone wake up desiring to violate an employment law. What unfortunately occurs is that, when people have a difficult employment situation, they feel like they are either in the right or they are unaware of the laws applicable to the situation. The law is very nuanced and having an attorney in your corner to help navigate situations is the best way to ensure that you and your organization comply. In this series, we will take a deeper look at employment laws.
Ministerial Exception
Ministerial Exception protects churches, nonprofits, and other religious institutions from employment discrimination laws when hiring or firing ministers.
Based on the freedom of religion clauses of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine prohibits the government from intruding into religious or spiritual decisions within a religious organization.
All Supreme Court decisions in this area employ a “totality of the circumstances” test to apply the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine rather than focus on a specific set of facts. When weighing whether to apply the doctrine to a church’s employment decisions, courts use a specific version of this test called the ministerial exception. With this test, the court applies the totality of the circumstances related to the employment decision to determine whether the government’s intrusion into that decision may violate the religious autonomy principle.
Ministerial exception prevents the application of all federal and state employment statutes.
Caution. The ministerial exception does not bar all civil lawsuits against a church by employees who fall under the ministerial exception (sexual harassment and torts claims have gone through.)
When used properly, Ministerial Exception is a great tool to ensure that you employ the right people to further the mission and cause of your church or nonprofit. Have any questions? We would love to talk to you. Fill out the contact us form and a member of our team will reach out.
The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice or investment advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available in this article are for general informational purposes only. Information contained in this article may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. This article contains links to other third-party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user, or browser; the author does not recommend or endorse the contents of the third-party sites.
Readers of this article should contact their attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter.
Anthony & Sparkman, PLLC is a law firm located in both Dallas/Fort Worth and Georgetown, Texas that provides legal counsel to both churches and nonprofits around the world. John Anthony & Michele Sparkman have spent over a decade providing general counsel to churches and nonprofits on issues ranging from incorporation, governance, employment, policies and procedures, taxes, succession planning, real estate development, and much more. For more information visit our website at www.thenonprofitteam.com.
