Opinion ID: 2027562
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ecclesiastical Matters.

Text: Marks exhausted the available appeals within the national organization's hierarchical system. When the elders' decision was affirmed by the classis, an appeal was taken to the regional synod, the final court of appeal from all cases originally heard by a board of elders. The church synod affirmed the decision to excommunicate him at both levels of appeal. He now turns to the civil courts in essentially another attempt to contest his excommunication. He asserts that proper procedures were not followed in the excommunication proceedings. The general rule is that civil courts will not interfere in purely ecclesiastical matters, including membership in a church organization or church discipline. 66 Am.Jur.2d Religious Societies §§ 31, 34 (1973); Annotation, Suspension or Expulsion from Church or Religious Society and the Remedies Therefor, 20 A.L.R. 421 (1951 & 1994 Supp.). Iowa's civil courts have a long tradition of refraining from interfering in purely ecclesiastical matters. See, e.g., Third Missionary Church of Davenport v. Garrett, 158 N.W.2d 771, 776 (Iowa 1968); Brown v. Mt. Olive Baptist Church, 255 Iowa 857, 859, 124 N.W.2d 445, 446 (1963); Bird v. St. Mark's Church of Waterloo, 62 Iowa 567, 573, 17 N.W. 747, 750 (1883); Sale v. First Regular Baptist Church of Mason City, 62 Iowa 26, 29, 17 N.W. 143, 145 (1883). Brown was also a suit by individuals who had been expelled from church membership. The plaintiffs in that case sought injunctive relief from their expulsions. Our statement in Brown reflects our approach to cases involving church matters: [O]rdinarily the courts have no jurisdiction over, and no concern with, purely ecclesiastical questions and controversies, including membership in a church organization, but they do have jurisdiction as to civil, contract, and property rights which are involved in or arise from a church controversy. Brown, 255 Iowa at 859, 124 N.W.2d at 446. Trinity's decision to excommunicate Marks was purely ecclesiastical in nature, and therefore we will not interfere with the action. Interfering with the decision would contravene both our history of leaving such matters to ecclesiastical officials and the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. See Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich, 426 U.S. 696, 698, 96 S.Ct. 2372, 2375, 49 L.Ed.2d 151, 156 (1976).