The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals has thrown out a $10,000 award in a “wrongful sermon” case against a pastor, finding that the case “requires us to decide matters with which our courts must not interfere.”

Rev. Nimrod Q. Reynolds, pastor of the Seventeenth Street Missionary Baptist Church in Anniston, was accused of defaming one of his church's deacons, Edward Wood, during a sermon in January 2003.

The case went to trial before a Calhoun County Circuit Court judge, who found Reynolds liable and awarded $10,000 in damages to Wood. But the appeals court reversed, citing the principle of judicial noninterference in religious matters.

“The statements at issue in this case were made by a pastor during a sermon and addressed the conformity of a deacon to the church's standards of faith and morality,” the opinion said. “Our courts may not decide the truth or falsity of such statements and, therefore, may not entertain claims pertaining to those issues.”

Wood has said that Reynolds compared him from the pulpit to a Biblical figure who went to hell for not helping someone in need –- presumably, a reference to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from the Gospel of St. Luke.

The Missouri Court of Appeals ruled in 1987 that the use of the pulpit “as the occasion for intentional defamation [ ] is neither justified by privilege nor protected by the free exercise clause.” Hester v. Barnett, 723 S.W.2d 544.

But Presiding Judge William C. Thompson, writing for the Alabama court, expressed "strong reservations about restricting the religious speech of a pastor from his pulpit."

In another wrongful sermon case, a parishioner of an Illinois church has sued a priest who invited the congregation to send him “to hell or another parish.” Attorneys for the church argue in a motion to dismiss that “By requesting the court to evaluate Father [Luis] Rios’ alleged conduct and statements made during Mass, the plaintiff has asked this court to scale the wall between church and state.”

By Matthew Heller
12/30/07