Defamation in church?

[YoungPastor]

Here goes, thanks in advance to anyone who can point me the right direction.

I'm a young pastor, working as a part time youth pastor while finishing a doctorate. While my ministry has been fairly successful, and I have lasted nearly five years in a church that had fired or defrocked their past two pastors, I have been controversial in some decisions and, as what happens in any religious community, some get upset, etc. This is part of working in a church and I expect that.

One family that had given me a hard time over the past few years finally put into writing their feelings about me in a letter to the primary governing body of the congregation, mostly about theological inaptitude and incompetence in work. I know that the first is an opinion and the second is laughable at best and easily disproven. When the church body reviewed the letter (I was not allowed to see it beforehand) they concluded the same and verbally responded to, or are responding to, the writer of the letter.

No one seemed to take the letter this way, but I read the letter having a nuance of accusation regarding sexual inappropriateness in conversation with minors. (Perhaps I should mention that I am trained as a sex educator in the congregation and we teach a religious sexuality education class in the church.) I don't think this was the point of the letter, but it was implied in the letter.

The church leadership did not think that was really in the letter when I mentioned it, and didn't think it was important. I find this to be very troubling and I want it addressed because any whiff of this sort of thing will destroy my career. Do I have any recourse? Can I sue a church member for defamation? Can I force the church to make a response? The writer of the letter addressed it to a group of individuals, that is, it was distributed for broadcasting. The church leadership will not make a written response but will put the letter "in my file," whatever that means.

The church's executive/sr. pastor, I believe, perpetuated the issue of the letter after lying to me about what was in it, and allowed the letter to be distributed, I believe, because s/he is trying to make me quit.

(I am aware that ministers are usually considered legally exempt over religious employment matters against their churches. But this is about a church member.)

Thanks for your help.

 

[cbg]

Since it would appear that the church body as a whole did not read what you did into the letter, and since it would also appear that you have suffered no damages, I can't see any legal recourse. No, you cannot force the church to respond, particularly where they do not believe the implication you see in the letter. You can't sue for defamation for the same reason; you have no damages. A letter in your file simply documents the situation and their response to it; it has no defamatory purpose.

If at some future time your career should suffer AND you can directly trace it to this letter, AT THAT TIME you may be able to take legal action. At the present time, no.

 

[Scooterdog]

but I read the letter having a nuance of accusation regarding sexual inappropriateness in conversation with minors. (Perhaps I should mention that I am trained as a sex educator in the congregation and we teach a religious sexuality education class in the church.) I don't think this was the point of the letter, but it was implied in the letter.

The church leadership did not think that was really in the letter when I mentioned it, and didn't think it was important.

Well, there are laws lol. There are a few things you could do, but it would probably make things worse.

The leaders may have their reasons for just wanting to ignore that part. I could see the reasoning here, as any action you take to stop them from "hinting" at whatever it is that they are hinting at, would just draw attention to the situation. I don't think you want that.

You may want to do some research on this. You have a right to have a reputation that isn't tarnished do to vindictive persons. It would be like calling someone a drug dealer, when they are not. To accuse someone of a crime is a crime in itself, if they file a charge.

There are groups that have sites on the net that deal more with the church/legal issues. You may wish to look some of these up, and contact them. I would think with a person in your position, doing your line of work, there have been similar cases where certain people have pulled this crap. One of these groups may be more informed/experenced in how to handle these matters when it comes to a church setting.

 

[YoungPastor]

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

I suppose you are right, it would just draw attention to something I don't want attention drawn to.

I looked for some information and I wasn't really able to find instances of pastors suing church members except in the case of wrongful termination, which isn't here. (Like I said, I think my boss is encouraging this kind of thing to get me to just quit, because they know I'm looking for a new job, but it is taking some time.)