Fraud on the Faithful? The Charitable Intentions of Members of Religious Congregations and the Peculiar Body of Law Governing Religious Property in the United States

This article examines American church property law, past and present, and discusses its inconsistencies and ambiguities. It then suggests how state governments could play an important role in clarifying this area of the law and protecting the intentions and expectations of local church donors who may well be unaware that a general church organization (denomination) is the ultimate beneficiary of their donations. The article is unique in that it is written with a perspective that takes into account the real world contexts of church property disputes, in history and today. (The author was aided in this regard by historic Supreme Court documents that became available to scholars just this spring through a recent digitalization project.)The article begins by placing the reader in the midst of a church property dispute as seen through the eyes of Sandra and John Cook, fictional characters whose experiences accurately reflect those of the author’s former clients. It then proceeds in three parts.The first part is an overview of church property rights under American law and begins with a short discussion of the religious context in which this country was founded, the legal existence and power given religious organizations in the post-revolutionary period, and early concerns about the need to limit the power of church authorities over non-spiritual matters like possession and control of church property. It then discusses the three very different approaches used to resolve church property disputes by different states, at different times. The first is the “departure from doctrine” rule first announced in the Scottish case, Craigdaillie v. Aikman in 1813. That approach turns on a determination of which faction in a church property dispute most closely follows the religious tenets that existed at the time a local church was founded. The second approach is the “deference” approach which was first articulated by the Supreme Court in 1871 in Watson v. Jones, a case arising out of the civil war. Using that approach, if a court determines that a local church belonged to a general church organization having its own authoritative structure and means of deciding disputes, the court must defer to the decision of the highest judicatory of the general church organization as to which party is entitled to possession and control of church property. The third, and now most prevalent, approach is the “neutral principles” approach endorsed by the Supreme Court in 1979 in the case of Jones v. Wolf. Under that approach, a court may decide a church property dispute if it can do so without deciding any religious issue. That is, it can decide the dispute if it can do so by simply applying neutral principles of state property, contract, and trust law. The first part of the article concludes with a summary of how the state courts have applied the neutral principles approach in recent years, which has continued the ambiguity and inconsistency in this area of the law.The second part of the article discusses the context in which individuals today decide to donate money to local churches. It looks at what historic case law provides by way of context as well as at current data on church affiliation practices in the United States.The third, and final, part of the article suggests three ways in which state governments can assume a role in clarifying the area of church property law, a role they have been urged to assume by the Supreme Court for over forty years. The suggested state government actions would also protect the intentions and expectations of potential donors to local churches in a manner consistent with current public policy favoring financial transparency, especially full disclosure in charitable fundraising. One possible action is the amending of state charitable solicitation or church incorporation laws to require specific disclosure of any beneficial interest a general church organization holds in local church property. A second is through vigorous enforcement of existing state anti-fraud laws. A third is through vigorous enforcement of the public policy requirement for continued tax exemption.The article concludes by bringing the discussion of church property law back to real people, like Sandra and John Cook, who are deeply affected by church property disputes, and suggesting that now is the time for state governments to step up and assume the role envisioned for them by the Supreme Court by acting to protect the intentions and expectations of those who give of their time and money to support local churches.