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The Michigan Messenger going forward

By Staff Report | 11.16.11

I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]

Colorado-based abstinence program provided false and misleading information to Michigan students

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.16.11

An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.

Class action lawsuit filed against MERS over unpaid taxes

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.15.11

Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.

Schuette fights important mercury regulations

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By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.14.11

Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

Michigan court stays out of church property fight

By Ed Brayton | 06.29.09 | 12:36 am

The Michigan Court of Appeals refused to get involved in a fight over church property between a local church and the larger denomination that it belonged to, upholding a lower court ruling that the court had no jurisdiction to intervene in the dispute. The case was brought by a local church in Warren, Gospel Lighthouse Church, seeking to break away from the Assemblies of God denomination.

The courts are generally very reluctant to get involved in church property battles because it requires the government inserting itself into disputes between religious groups. Michigan courts are specifically bound by precedent that concludes that the First Amendment “severely circumscribes the role that civil courts may play in resolving church property disputes.”

In particular, the courts are only allowed to intervene in such disputes only where civil law clearly applies. In all other cases, the courts must “defer to the resolution of issues of religious doctrine or polity by the highest court of a hierarchical church organization.”

In this case, the Gospel Lighthouse Church argued that the Assemblies of God did not constitute a “hierarchical church organization” and therefore the court could and should intervene to allow the local church to break away from the denomination and retain the church’s property. The district rejected that argument and the appeals court has now upheld that ruling.

The ruling (PDF) notes that the constitution and bylaws of the Gospel Lighthouse church explicitly places itself as part of the Assemblies of God hierarchy, stating, “we . . . do hereby recognize ourselves as a local fellowship of believers, and a part of The General Council of the Assemblies of God, and of the Michigan District of the Assemblies of God…” The court also pointed to specific provisions in the church’s constitution on the settlement of property disputes:

Finally, Gospel Lighthouse’s constitution makes clear what should happen to the property in the event of a dispute. Article XII, Section 2 of the Gospel Lighthouse constitution provides, “in the event defection shall occur from the tenets of faith . . . resulting in a breach with the Assemblies of God, Michigan District . . . any portion of the membership subscribing to and practicing the aforesaid tenets of faith and the constitution and bylaws of Gospel Lighthouse and retaining membership with Gospel Lighthouse, shall retain possession of, and title to, all properties of said church with full rights thereto . . . .” Article XII, Section 3 states that “in the event this church shall cease to function for the purposes as declared heretofore in the Articles of its Constitution, then, after providing for the payments of its debts, the remaining assets . . . shall revert to, and be transferred to, the Michigan District of the Assemblies of God.”

Thus, the court said, they have no jurisdiction to overrule the plain meaning of the agreement.

Comments

  • onthuhlist

    We need to get the facts straight here: 1. The AG brought suit against the church, not vice-versa. The church had already left the Assemblies of God, and in retaliation the AG sued for their property. Property to which they had never contributed a dime. 2. The church's affiliation with the AG was precisely cicumscribed and defined by the church's Constitution and Bylaws, which the AG completely ignored and was successful in getting the courts to ignore. 3. You misquote the Gospel Lighthouse Constitution and Bylaws, as does the court, who is quoting from the AG briefs. And the AG briefs use anything from selective quotations to downright lies in order to win their case. The actual language of Gospel Lighthouse's constitution and bylaws, Articls XII, Section 2, can be found in the 20+ page exposee on this court case, which will be posted at http://onthuhlist.wordpress.com/?s=aog later today. The church never did defect from the 'tenets of faith'. The tenets of faith are a reference to the AG's Statement of Fundamental Truths, which is a set of 16 theological truths. The church never stopped believing in these. In fact, they are still quoted word for word in the church's updated Constitition and Bylaws, which were changed in 2004 to remove references to the Assemblies of God. But the AG twisted the wording of Gospel Lighthouse's Constitution and Bylaws and argued that disaffiliation from the AG is tantamount to rejecting the faith (what the church believes). The exposee clearly documents that this is not true. You owe it to check into the facts before you believe what the court opinion states, because the court opinion simply quotes the misinformation contained in the Assemblies of God legal briefs, while ignoring the Gospel Lighthouse legal briefs. You need to get the whole story.

  • onthuhlist

    We need to get the facts straight here: 1. The AG brought suit against the church, not vice-versa. The church had already left the Assemblies of God, and in retaliation the AG sued for their property. Property to which they had never contributed a dime. 2. The church's affiliation with the AG was precisely circumscribed and defined by the church's Constitution and Bylaws, which the AG completely ignored and was successful in getting the courts to ignore. 3. The Assemblies of God (by their own admission) is not a denomination, but a fellowship of churches. 4. You misquote the Gospel Lighthouse Constitution and Bylaws, as does the court, who is quoting from the AG briefs. And the AG briefs use anything from selective quotations to downright lies in order to win their case. The actual language of Gospel Lighthouse's constitution and bylaws, Articls XII, Section 2, can be found in the 20+ page exposee on this court case, which will be posted at http://onthuhlist.wordpress.com/?s=aog later today. The church never did defect from the 'tenets of faith'. The tenets of faith are a reference to the AG's Statement of Fundamental Truths, which is a set of 16 theological truths. The church never stopped believing in these. In fact, they are still quoted word for word in the church's updated Constitition and Bylaws, which were changed in 2004 to remove references to the Assemblies of God. But the AG twisted the wording of Gospel Lighthouse's Constitution and Bylaws and argued that disaffiliation from the AG is tantamount to rejecting the faith (what the church believes). The exposee clearly documents that this is not true. You owe it to check into the facts before you believe what the court opinion states, because the court opinion simply quotes the misinformation contained in the Assemblies of God legal briefs, while ignoring the Gospel Lighthouse legal briefs. You need to get the whole story.

  • onthuhlist

    We need to get the facts straight here: 1. The AG brought suit against the church, not vice-versa. The church had already left the Assemblies of God, and in retaliation the AG sued for their property. Property to which they had never contributed a dime. 2. The church's affiliation with the AG was precisely circumscribed and defined by the church's Constitution and Bylaws, which the AG completely ignored and was successful in getting the courts to ignore. 3. The Assemblies of God (by their own admission) is not a denomination, but a fellowship of churches. 4. You misquote the Gospel Lighthouse Constitution and Bylaws, as does the court, who is quoting from the AG briefs. And the AG briefs use anything from selective quotations to downright lies in order to win their case. The actual language of Gospel Lighthouse's constitution and bylaws, Articls XII, Section 2, can be found in the 20+ page exposee on this court case, which will be posted at http://onthuhlist.wordpress.com/?s=aog later today. The church never did defect from the 'tenets of faith'. The tenets of faith are a reference to the AG's Statement of Fundamental Truths, which is a set of 16 theological truths. The church never stopped believing in these. In fact, they are still quoted word for word in the church's updated Constitition and Bylaws, which were changed in 2004 to remove references to the Assemblies of God. But the AG twisted the wording of Gospel Lighthouse's Constitution and Bylaws and argued that disaffiliation from the AG is tantamount to rejecting the faith (what the church believes). The exposee clearly documents that this is not true. You owe it to check into the facts before you believe what the court opinion states, because the court opinion simply quotes the misinformation contained in the Assemblies of God legal briefs, while ignoring the Gospel Lighthouse legal briefs. You need to get the whole story.

Categories & Tags: Separation Of Church And State|