By: DAVID RICE
To: KEN YOUNG
Re: Cracker Barrel boycott

KY> And how many cases of torture, rape and murder, can
KY> you think of lately, that occurred in the name of
KY> Christianity?

                  CHURCHES SHIFT ABUSE DEFENSES

18-May-94 Denver Post:
Holding Groups Responsible 'violates religious freedom.'
By Virginia Culver

___--------------------------------------------------------------
Attorneys for three local church organizations that recently
lost court cases involving sexual misconduct by clergy claim
that holding churches accountable for ministers' conduct robs
them of their religious freedom.

In "friend of the court" briefs filed this month with the US
Supreme Court, attorneys in two Denver United Methodist cases
and a third involving Denver's Bear Valley Church of Christ say
lower-court rulings making churches liable for ministers'
actions violate the First Amendment by restricting the churches
"free exercise of religion".

The attorneys said that telling churches how to "select, assign,
supervise and discipline clergy, and how religious organizations
may conduct their administration and how a clergy person does
pastoral counseling" violates the First Amendment.

Questioning how churches operate "directly interferes with the
institutions' free exercise of religion," the attorneys charge.

The legal arguments were filed in defense of the Colorado
Episcopal Diocese and its appeal of a sexual misconduct case.
In that case, the diocese is appealing to the US Court of
Appeals a $728,000 judgment to Mary Moses Tenantry.  She alleged
that a sexual relationship with her priest, the Rev. Paul
Robinson, cause her extreme, psychological and spiritual harm.

Tenantry and Robinson became involved when he was an associate
past of St. Philip and St. James Episcopal Church in southwest
Denver.

A jury awarded her $1.2 million from the diocese in 1991.  The
diocese appealed that decision to the Colorado Supreme Court,
which reduced the judgment to $728,000.

The United Methodist cases, both this year, involved Dianne R.
Winkler of Aurora and Christa Bohrer of Denver.

Winkler was awarded more than $163,000 in January by a Denver
District Court jury in her civil suit against the Rev. Glenn
Chambers, former pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in
southeast Denver.  She alleged sexual harassment.  Chambers and
the church appealed the verdict to the Colorado Court of Appeals
this month.

Bohrer was awarded more than $700,000 in her civil suit in
Denver District against former minister Daniel DeHart and the
United Methodist Annual Conference (the equivalent of a
diocese).  She alleged DeHart seduced her into a sexual
relationship when she was 13 and he was youth minister at First
Methodist Church in Greeley.

In the Church of Christ suit in 1992, a Dever woman and her son
were awarded $450,000 by a Denver District Court jury.  The
woman, who son was a minor at the time, claimed the minister,
Homer Wolfe, inappropriately massaged and fondled him during
counseling sessions for five years.  That case is before the
Colorado Court of Appeals.

In all three judgments, juries concluded church officials failed
to properly screen, hire and supervise the ministers.  All three
juries also ordered the church or conference to pay at least
half the damages.

Friend of the court briefs are filed by parties who stand to be
materially affected by the outcome of a pending decision--in
this case, the high court's decision about whether to review the
Tenantry case.  In their briefs, the church attorneys threaten
to appeal their judgments--to the US Court of Appeals, if
necessary.

But an expert in constitutional law at the University of Dever
said he doubts the First Amendment claims will get anywhere.

Stephen Pepper, BU law professor, said for the government to say
how a religion chooses it rabbi or priest "gets into the freedom
of religion."

Religious groups do have the right to the free exercise of their
religion, he said, in all matters of administration, "but if
your minister hurts someone, you'll have to pay."  said Pepper.

He called the First Amendment defense "a live issue" that has
been used in other church cases, particularly those involving
discrimination.  "It's kind of a knee-jerk defense."

"But it's pretty hard to defend against statutory rape and
sexual harassment," he said.

The attorneys filing the friend of the court briefs are Neil
Quigley, who represented the United Methodists in the Bohrer and
Winkler cases and the Church of Christ in the third case; and
Jim Johnson, attorney for Homer Wolfe.

The attorneys say in the briefs that they have been "involved in
many lawsuits in Colorado for almost ten years where religious
institutions have had claims against them for sexual
improprieties."

Devern attorney Joyce Seelen, who represented Tenantry, Winkler,
Bohrer and the woman who sued on behalf of her son, yesterday
refused to comment about the recent briefs.  Two others briefs
supporting the Episcopal diocese and citing the First Amendment
argument have been filed with the US Court of Appeals.

The American Association of Pastoral Counselors, headquarters in
Virginia, said the lower court "did not understand that pastoral
counseling and supervision of parish clergy is not the
equivalent to employment supervision."

The other brief was filed by a coalition of Colorado religious
groups, including Catholics and Protestants.


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