It is no exaggeration to say that this is an Esther moment: The legal doctrine called “the ministerial exception” seriously threatens to negate the legal enforceability of employment contracts held by ETS members. Do not imagine that you yourself, as a high performing scholar who has always enjoyed good standing, can escape from the impending situation.
Religious freedom is under siege. We can blame this entirely on Left-wing forces that champion the LGBTQ movement or we can take a hard look at ourselves and see why the greatest threat to the free exercise of religion comes from the evangelical movement that believes in the inerrancy of Scripture. We are not innocent. It is time for us to wake up before Jeremiah 7 finds a new fulfillment in evangelical entities in America.
“Thus says the Lord, ‘Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord . . . Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. . . Has this house which is called by My Name become a den of robbers in your sight?’”
The root problem that we face is theological. To put it bluntly, we have prioritized money over mission. Collectively we have veered off mission. Instead of standing up in faith for theological principles of truthfulness and justice and wisdom and love, we have bowed down to our fears that prevent us from being institutionally blameless. It is constantly pronounced that evangelicals are “self-righteous”, “hypocritical” and “too political.” It is very well known that many evangelical ministries routinely have engaged in cover-up after cover-up regarding the sexual misconduct of top positional leaders. It is realized but not confessed that we have lost our credibility, perhaps even to ourselves. Everybody knows that we have drifted, as a movement, from our moorings.
Theologically we have not yet dealt with the underlying core issue of allowing our own governing boards to operate without accountability. We have not required trustees to hold our institutions in trust. Underneath our excuses lies our pervasive sin of caring more about the bottom line than about obeying God or thinking theologically about religious entities. As a result, we have resorted to looking for legal loopholes to hide our failures.
But we can change. We can use our theological prowess to rebuild from the inside out. We can repent our way out of this mess, and a strategic way to start is by addressing what is our role – as theologians – in helping our institutions honor God. By God’s grace, we are poised to be highly incentivized because our own livelihoods are now at stake.
This presentation connects the dots between your employment contract, the principle of religious freedom, the ministerial exception, and the very urgent need for Christian organizations to operate with governance integrity.