Judge bails on lawsuit involving religion

[Ian David]

Black Collar Cime
Saturday, July 28, 2007 3:31 AM
By Meredith Heagney
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Franklin County judge who thought he was delving too deeply into religious matters dismissed a lawsuit accusing a local pastor of taking nearly $1 million from his congregation, which hoped to get the money back in a judgment.

Some local law professors said navigating religious cases in court can be tricky, but that Judge Charles A. Schneider should have separated the secular issues from the religious ones and ruled on the case.

Eighteen members of World of Pentecost Church at 3431 E. Main St. filed a civil lawsuit against the Rev. David Thompson and other church officials.

The civil suit was thrown out of Common Pleas Court on July 10.

<snip>

They accused Thompson of taking out a third mortgage on the church for $130,000 and of taking $800,000 of the church's money. The suit claims that Thompson said he put the money in an "energies scheme" and that it was no longer available.

More:
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/07/28/churchcash.ART_ART_07-28-07_A1_5U7DC3C.html

[Kagemusha]

1. The judge has my sympathy, but not my approval.

Clearly, he messed up by telling the interim pastor not to talk about the case from the pulpit. That's something you might see in Pakistan and look how well that's going. But I feel like he compounded his error.

[Az]

2. Judge paniced

He should have made the ruling on the merits of the case. The case was not involved in the religious beliefs of the particular faith but rather the simple business procedures it was operating under.