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AudioChurch vs. State: A Defense of the Church's Right to Discipline Free from State Intrusion Robert Renaud
Are pastors and local churches subject to secular lawsuits for obeying Christ's command to discipline congregants engaged in unrepentant sin? Specifically, what happens when an adulterer discusses her adultery with a pastor? Does she become immune from accountability before Christ's church for ongoing sins merely because she did not want the pastor ever to reveal facts related to unrepentant and ongoing sins to others?
In this insightful message, Bob Renaud examines the biblical theology of church and state as it applies to this question, explains the Common Law heritage of jurisdictional separation in dealing with such controversies, and highlights a powerful Texas Supreme Court decision issued in 2007 which upheld the right of a church to discipline a member in flagrant unrepentant sin, apart from intervention by the state. Renaud gives a defense of the historic, biblical, and legal right of local churches to exercise self-governance free of state intrusion*.
*Please Note: This message was taken from the 2008 Witherspoon School of Law & Public Policy.