The court also said that negligence claims against a religious institution are (largely) barred by First Amendment.
by Massimo Introvigne
There is no room in the United States courts for claims that religious institutions submit their members to “coercive persuasion,” a theory popular in other countries, even in cases where systemic sexual abuse is uncovered. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Southern Division, on December 19 agreed with the defendants that “coercive persuasion is not a recognized tort.”
The District Court also ruled that general claims of “negligence” directed against a religious organization’s way of organizing its schools according to certain principles and criteria are barred by the First Amendment. “General negligence claims against religious institutions violate the First Amendment, as it forces [sic] the court to consider how a reasonably prudent religious institution would act, thereby excessively entangle[ing] itself in religious doctrine, policy, and administration.”
The case is even more interesting because it involves a victim of real sexual and other abuse, to whom the court expressed a well-deserved sympathy, and the defendants operated a system of schools where according to Missouri prosecutors sexual abuse was rampant. Although a final decision has not yet been rendered, the schoolmasters of an all-female fundamentalist Baptist school attended by M.W. called Circle of Hope in Cedar County, Missouri, have been charged with 102 counts of sexual abuse and fraud. They include defrauding M.W. of almost all her money after she became an orphan through both threats and false statements.
Circle of Hope (which closed in 2020) was the sister school of the largest all-male Agape Boarding School, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Agape Baptist Church. M.W. sued Agape Boarding School, its directors, and Agape Baptist Church claiming that, although Circle of Hope was legally independent, in fact the ideology that caused her to be abused came from the church and the interactions with the all-male school, which was in turn a hotbed of abuse. Agape Boarding School became itself entangled in several lawsuits where former students alleged sexual abuse, which eventually forced it to close in 2023.
M.W. also accused the church of having neglected the general supervision of Circle of Hope, inter alia by allowing it to provide students with a substandard education, and to have manipulated her through “coercive persuasion” and “undue influence.”
The District Court agreed with the defendants that “coercive persuasion” is not recognized as a tort under U.S. or Missouri law. “Undue influence” is, but is mostly recognized in pressures exerted to sign a contract or a will and cannot be used to attack religious indoctrination, the Court said.
As for negligence, the District Court summarized Missouri Supreme Court case law. The principle it affirmed is that a religious organization can be sued for negligence only in cases totally outside of the field of “religious doctrine, polity, and practice,” such as when pastors are involved in car accidents by their fault. How a church tells a school to organize, and what principles are taught there (even if these are ultimately highly detrimental to students) is, on the contrary, a religious matter on which secular courts cannot interfere.
The court stated that M.W. has plenty of other legal remedies to claim damages as a victim of sexual abuse and fraud. Claims of “coercive persuasion” and “negligence,” however, are not among them.
