Recent Developments in Georgia Regarding Clergy Removal

A Georgia court ruled that the first amendment guaranty of religious freedom prevented it from resolving a lawsuit brought by a minister challenging the legality of his removal by his church. A pastor was called by a Baptist church in 1987. The church is governed by a constitution and bylaws, which specify that the "pastor shall be called for as long a period of time as mutual satisfaction shall prevail." In 1994, 46 of the 59 church members who were present at the annual membership meeting voted to terminate the pastor's employment. Following this meeting, the pastor contacted an attorney who wrote the church claiming that the termination was improper because it did not conform to the rules set forth in the church constitution and bylaws. The attorney claimed that those rules mandated that the personnel committee or the board of deacons recommend the pastor's discharge to the congregation, ...