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Court Upholds Christian School’s Right to Fire ‘Gay’ Teacher 9/2/2005 Teacher had sued, claiming 'sexual orientation' discrimination.
The original intent of the Founding Fathers was upheld this week by an appeals court in Minnesota, reports the Pioneer Press of St. Paul. The ruling blocked a “gay” teacher’s attempt to sue the Christian school that discharged him because of his homosexuality.
“This was clear-cut,” said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America’s (CWA’s) Culture & Family Institute: “If a church school can’t tell a teacher not to flout Biblical morality, the school might as well go out of business, which is what the ACLU and other God-haters are really trying to accomplish. The court rejected the activist role that other courts have taken, and wisely upheld the First Amendment rights of the Lutherans to determine their own standards.”
The teacher, referred to as John FR Doe in the court’s ruling, was ordained as a minister by Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in 1973. According to court documents, he served as campus pastor to the Lutheran High School of Greater Minnesota in Bloomington from 1976 to 1979. He returned to that position in 1993. His duties included conducting school chapel services and counseling students. When his homosexuality became known to the bishop of Doe’s synod, Doe was asked to resign. He then sued the high school and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod for discrimination.
The Lutheran High School of Greater Minnesota is affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Lutheran schools make up the largest Protestant parochial school system in the United States.
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has taken an unequivocal stance against homosexuality. According to court documents, the synod in 1973 called homosexual behavior “intrinsically sinful.” In 1999 it published a document titled “A plan for Ministry to Homosexuals and Their Families,” which describes homosexuality as “the tragic result of original sin.”
The Minnesota State Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a district court’s decision that hearing Doe’s suit would violate the separation of church and state.
"We all talk about the separation of church and state. This is what it's all about," said the school’s attorney William Hart to the Pioneer Press. "People don't have the right to challenge church doctrine in court. Otherwise, the state would define what religions could and could not believe."
The Supreme Court’s 1971 decision Lemon v. Kurtzman set the standard for determining if a state action violates the First Amendment. According to the so-called Lemon test, the government’s action must have a secular purpose, must not advance or inhibit religion and must not excessively entangle government with religion. If the action meets these three criteria, it is constitutional.
In accordance with this precedent, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that it may not decide whether or not Doe’s discharge was discriminatory. His lawsuit would force the court to conduct a “searching inquiry” into a church’s doctrine and administration. This would violate the Lemon test’s third criteria of avoiding “excessive entanglement.”
Doe also argued the high school’s actions violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which prohibits discharge based on "sexual orientation." Religious associations, however, are exempt from this prohibition. The court rejected Doe’s argument that the high school and the synod do not qualify for the exemption.
In making this determination, the court relied on a 2004 case involving a mailroom employee discharged from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. That decision established that the Minnesota Human Rights Act exemption also applied to nonprofit religious organizations engaged in a religious business activity.
It is not yet known if Doe will appeal the decision.
Reflecting on the court’s decision, David Strand, Director of Public Affairs for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, said, “Of course we’re sad that someone lost their job, but we’re very relieved the court upheld our First Amendment rights.”
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