Church Members Not Liable for 'Laying Hands' on Teen

Ruling against a woman who sued members of a church for assault, the Texas Supreme Court has effectively insulated religious organizations from liability for intentional abuse as long as they raise their beliefs as a defense.

Laura Schubert's case is not a “secular matter,” a 6-3 majority of the court said, because it “presents an ecclesiastical dispute over religious conduct that would unconstitutionally entangle the court in matters of church doctrine.”

A jury had awarded Schubert $300,000 in damages on her claims of assault and false imprisonment against the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God church. When she was 17, church members forcibly restrained her for several hours, ostensibly as part of a religious practice that Pentecostals call “laying hands.”

Schubert did not suffer her injuries in an exorcism, as widely reported in the media. According to Pentecostal doctrine, the church “lays hands” on a person whenever the person is believed to be under “spiritual influence.”

“Clearly, the act of 'laying hands' is infused in Pleasant Glade’s religious belief system,” Justice David Medina wrote in the majority opinion, which reversed the jury's award.

But Pleasant Glade never argued that “laying hands” requires physically restraining people against their will for extended periods of time. And one of the dissenters, Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson, chastised the majority for its “overly broad holding.”

“After today, a tortfeasor need merely allege a religious motive to deprive a Texas court of jurisdiction to compensate his fellow congregant for emotional damages,” he said in his dissent. “This sweeping immunity is inconsistent with United States Supreme Court precedent and extends far beyond the protections our Constitution affords religious conduct.”

The Texas high court was similarly deferential toward religion last year when it dismissed a woman's negligence case against a pastor who disclosed her extramarital relationship to church members, citing the church's “interest in managing its affairs.” Westbrook v. Penley, 231 S.W.3d 389.

The alleged misconduct at Pleasant Glade was even more egregious. During the Sunday evening service on June 9, 1996, Schubert –- who had stayed up the night before helping other youth members to “cast out” demons –- collapsed, prompting church members to take her to a classroom where they “laid hands” on her and prayed for two hours.

Three days later, she again collapsed and was pinned down, as the majority opinion put it, “in a 'spread eagle' position with several youth members holding down her arms and legs.”

Justice Jefferson noted that in finding Pleasant Glade liable for false imprisonment, the jury did not have to “determine 'the objective truth or falsity of the defendants’ belief.'” The case, he continued,

as it was tried, is not about beliefs or “intangible harms” -- it is about violent action -- specifically, twice pinning a screaming, crying teenage girl to the floor for extended periods of time.

The court majority said it did “not mean to imply that 'under the cloak of religion, persons may, with impunity' commit intentional torts upon their religious adherents.” But Jefferson concluded it had “essentially bar[red] all recovery for mental anguish damages stemming from allegedly religiously motivated, intentional invasions of bodily integrity committed against members of a religious group.”

By Matthew Heller
7/4/08