I saw that a Romney flyer went out in Virginia recently that had the headline “Our religious liberty under attack” picturing the whole Romney clan. The particular section that caught my attention was in the picture at left. It says “President Barack Obama’s position that the government had the power to tell a church who it must accept as a minister was rejected by the Supreme Court 9-0.”
So if I was to read that part I would be under the impression that the government is telling churches who they can have and not have as ministers. Sounds a little far fetched to me. So I dug into it.
The Supreme Courts decision was about a case brought by one Cheryl Perich, a teacher and a “commissioned minister” for a Detroit-area Lutheran school. She was fired, according to Perich, for her medical condition, narcolepsy. Instead of facing a church tribunal, she filed a discrimination lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The suit argued that all church employees other than a priest or senior pastors should be able to sue for discrimination. The Supreme Court said that since ministers have an exemption from laws regarding hiring and firing, Perich couldn’t sue.
You have to understand that a “commissioned minister” is a lay person who performs “specific church-related ministry by an Association, but does not require the administration of the sacraments, according to a description of “commissioned ministry” by the United Church of Christ. And ministers have an exception from the labor laws such that they can be fired for any reason and they have no recourse in the courts.
So it was not that Obama was dictating who churches could hire or fire as ministers, it was that once you are labeled a “minister” in any way, shape, or form, you can be let go for most any reason, including things that are against the ADA, and you have to suck it up!
As Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, stated, “Clergy who are fired for reasons unrelated to matters of theology — no matter how capricious or venal those reasons may be — have just had the courthouse door slammed in their faces.” So don’t believe this flyer or any political flyer.