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Posted November 21st, 2011 at 10:01 AM by Lois
I promised yesterday to share why I believe there is good reason to formally resign your membership/ties with an unhealthy or abusive church. I had not realized until a year or so ago, in doing some research on a slander lawsuit case involving a pastor fairly high up in the UPC, that it could be an important move.
Now in what I will share, I want to make very clear that I am NOT at all encouraging or saying that former members should sue their ex churches, especially not for frivolous things. However, some unhealthy churches can do things that really harm a person who left and there are times when a lawsuit may be appropriate, after much consideration, prayer and soul-searching.
There are legal issues involved with officially resigning your membership. For instance, should there be legal trouble at the church where the members are listed as involved, if your name is still active in their records, you might be pulled into it. This would probably be rare. There is also a much more important legal issue involved which protects you when you resign and has been upheld in various court cases across the USA.
Normally the courts do not become involved in matters between churches and its members, even over discipline. That is part of the separation of church and state in this country. But when a person resigns and thus formally cuts ties with a church, that church no longer has freedom to 'discipline' them. Things that an unhealthy church might get away with while you are officially a member, legally they no longer have a leg to stand on when you sever your membership. The legal system can become involved once you are officially no longer a member.
So should the former church slander you in such a way as to cause harm or do anything else harmful, you may only be able to combat that legally if you resigned your membership BEFORE those things happened. This was the case with the lawsuit I researched. A former church has no right to deal with you, discipline you, etc. after you resign. If you do not resign membership, the courts see it as you being subject to the discipline of the church.
The link provided will take you to an article that will shed additional light on this subject, giving some background on prior legal cases. It is because of this, that I now feel turning in a letter resigning membership is a good idea when leaving an unhealthy or abusive church.
http://spiritualabuse.org/experience...eparation.html
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