rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (09/10/85)
Remember my posting a few months ago about the firing of a gay employee by the Christian Scientist Church when her lesbianism was disclosed? The case has been heard in court and a ruling's been made. [ Reprinted from the 8/31-9/7/85 issue of GCN, page 1, without permission. ] MASS. COURT BACKS Monitor IN MADSEN CASE by Larry Goldsmith Boston -- As GCN goes to press, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has issued a ruling declaring "freedom of religion" to take priority over the right of employment without discrimination on the basis of sexual pre- ference. An August 21 ruling in the case of Christine Madsen, a veteran reporter for the Christian Science MONITOR who was fired in 1982 after the Church discovered she was a lesbian, found that Madsen had no legal recourse regarding her dismissal from the MONITOR. However, the court suggested that she might return to a lower court with a claim based on defamation of character, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Justice Joseph Nolan, writing for the majority, found that the constitutional right of the Church to exercise its freedom of religion took precedence over Madsen's right to employment without discrimination. The opinion quoted an article form the COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW that claimed that "when an employee agress to do the work of the church he [sic] must be held to submit to church authority in much the same way as a member... The state may not intervene to protect employees from treatment that is merely arbitrary or unfair; the remedy for that is to resign or renego- tiate the terms of employment." "Modern labor legislation may have deprived secular employers of the fiduciary duty once owed them by their rank and file employees, but to deprive the churches of that duty would be to interfere with an interest protected by the free exercise clause." "In view of the preferred position which the freedom of religion holds in the pantheon of constitutional rights," Nolan concluded, "Madsen's asserted rights must yield... Entanglements of the [Church] in such litigation would involve the court in a review of an essentially ecclesiastical procedure whereby the Church reviews its employees' spiritual suitability for continued employment... Requiring the [Church] tp pay damages to maintain their religious beliefs would constitute `a substantial burden on defendants' right to free exercise of religion.'" Although it struck down Madsen's claim for damages based on wrongful discharge, the court did suggest an alternative legal avenue whereby Madsen could sue the Church for defamation of character or intentional infliction of emotional distress. "Under the banner of the First Amendment provisions on religion, a clergyman [sic] may not with impunity defame a person, intentionally inflict serious emotional harm on a parishioner, or commit other torts," the court noted. Madsen's attorney, Katherine Triantafillou, cautioned against viewing the opinion as a total loss. "I think it's not all that bad because we still can bring actions for defamation and invasion of privacy," she told GCN. "It certainly does not preclude bringing the same kind of action against a secular employer. I don't see it as an anti-gay opinion opinion. I see it as a First Amendment case very strictly construing the ability of a church organization to control employees on religious grounds." ********************** But the ruling may be used by other religions at a crucial moment, ie, now in the Roman Catholic Church in the US. Karel Wojtyla, the Catholic pope, has just demanded that even Catholic institutions of higher educa- tion rigidly conform to doctrine in teaching and adminstration, a demand resented and opposed by many US bishops, who have never taken kindly to Vatican authoritarianism in education. But the above court ruling may give the Vatican a new weapon with which to undercut American opposition by turning aside appeals to pluralism based on US law & the Constitution. (Despite the severe financial crunch since the late 60s, Catholic colleges & seminaries flourish as never before, many showing marked academic improve- ment and displaying an open & lively intellectual life, the culmination of vigorous and socially liberal educational policies pursued for decades by much of the American hierarchy.) Regards, Ron Rizzo