A church facing a lawsuit from former members whom have accused church officials of covering up sex abuse allegations is thinking about using the First Amendment as its defense.
Sovereign Grace Ministries saw a former member indicted this past December on charges that he molested multiple boys in the 1980s, and is now dealing with the very real possibility that multiple members covered up these alleged acts.
Seeming to hint that the church was going to lean on the First Amendment as the members' defense, University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock commented on the matter with the following:
"To the extent that there's a First Amendment issue they're talking about, it is not about sexual abuse as a First Amendment right. It is about the church deciding for itself how to respond to claims of misconduct among its members."
So, let me get this straight. Many members of the church don't believe in the separation of church and state, yet when it comes to a member of the church sexually abusing little boys and other members covering up the crime, they feel these members should go without state or federal punishment and keep that punishment within the church? The First Amendment gives one the right to believe whatever they'd like. It doesn't give a person the right to commit a serious crime like molesting little boys or covering up that very crime. While many members of a particular religion may feel they're above members of all others in this life and into the next, no member of any religion should be above the law. Whenever I hear about a story like this, I just want to look these members in the eyes and say to them, "What would Jesus do?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/first-amendment-defense-sovereign-grace-ministries_n_2726023.html
Sovereign Grace Ministries saw a former member indicted this past December on charges that he molested multiple boys in the 1980s, and is now dealing with the very real possibility that multiple members covered up these alleged acts.
Seeming to hint that the church was going to lean on the First Amendment as the members' defense, University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock commented on the matter with the following:
"To the extent that there's a First Amendment issue they're talking about, it is not about sexual abuse as a First Amendment right. It is about the church deciding for itself how to respond to claims of misconduct among its members."
So, let me get this straight. Many members of the church don't believe in the separation of church and state, yet when it comes to a member of the church sexually abusing little boys and other members covering up the crime, they feel these members should go without state or federal punishment and keep that punishment within the church? The First Amendment gives one the right to believe whatever they'd like. It doesn't give a person the right to commit a serious crime like molesting little boys or covering up that very crime. While many members of a particular religion may feel they're above members of all others in this life and into the next, no member of any religion should be above the law. Whenever I hear about a story like this, I just want to look these members in the eyes and say to them, "What would Jesus do?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/first-amendment-defense-sovereign-grace-ministries_n_2726023.html
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