Court refuses to judge what adequate spiritual leadership looks like

A recent case out of the Third Circuit, Lee v. Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church of Pittsburgh, No. 17-3086, applies the ministerial exception of the First Amendment and refuses to entangle the court in a breach of contract dispute between a pastor and his former church. The parties had entered into a contract providing that Lee would serve as the Church’s pastor for a twenty-year term. The contract provided for termination if its terms were breached. The Church terminated Lee’s employment and alleged that he had failed to provide adequate spiritual leadership, as he was required to do by the terms of the contract. Lee disputed this, but the court refused to get involved, citing the ministerial exception. Courts aren’t supposed to get entangled in “religious governance and doctrine,” and asking the court to judge the quality of Lee’s spiritual leadership under the contract would be just such an entanglement. 

You can listen to the oral arguments here. Some press coverage of the district court’s decision can be found here.