Court Opinion

ID: 9497188
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:45:19.233594+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:02.868433
License: Public Domain

TROTT, Circuit Judge,
Dissenting:
After a three-judge panel decided Bollard v. California Province of the Society of Jesus, 196 F.3d 940 (9th Cir.1999), we took a vote on whether to rehear the ease en banc. The vote failed. Judge Wardlaw, joined by Judges Kozinski, O’Scannlain, and Kleinfeld, then crafted a persuasive dissent from our standard order denying rehearing, a disquisition which has turned out to be prescient. With oracular foresight, she said,
As the district court wrote, “[t]he ministerial exception is a well-established compromise between two extremely important interests' — the interest in eradicating discrimination in employment and the right of a church to manage its religious affairs free from governmental interference.” The panel opinion deviates from that well-established compromise, counter to Supreme Court authority and that of our sister circuits. Because the panel’s decision portends serious consequences for one of the bedrock principles of our country’s formation — religious freedom' — it is undeniably an issue of exceptional importance.
Bollard v. California Province of the Society of Jesus, 211 F.3d 1331, 1332 (9th Cir.2000) (citation omitted).
And here, we are with the predicted serious consequences: the Presbyterian Church, as a hierarchical religious institution, will now be compelled in federal court affirmatively to defend as reasonable its formal internal processing and handling of an ordained minister’s sexual harassment and retaliation claims against another ordained minister and their Church, and be potentially liable for money damages. A secular federal court jury has been given the authority to invade, to evaluate, and to overrule the Presbyterian Church’s final judgment to which the Church says the plaintiff was bound to accept by her religious vows. My able colleagues have done their eloquent best formidably to explain their well-articulated views; but, and with all respect, I simply see this case differently-
BACKGROUND
Borrowing from the district court’s order dismissing Elvig’s complaint for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted, and from other documents in the record, the relevant facts and circumstances at the center of this case — -which materially distinguish it from Bollard — are as follows.
Elvig served as an ordained Associate Pastor of the Calvin Presbyterian Church in Shoreline, Washington from December 2000 to December 2001. The position of associate pastor is a permanent position in the Church’s hierarchy as a minister of the Word and Sacrament. In order to be ordained as a minister, a candidate must formally vow to be “governed by our Church’s polity, and to abide by its discipline.” Book of Order, G-14.0405b.(5).
Elvig alleges that shortly after commencing her pastorship at the Church, *971Rev. Ackles began a course of sexually harassing and intimidating conduct towards her. The conduct claimed to be actionable involved winking, allegedly undressing Elvig with his eyes, and other forms of unwelcome verbal attention which she interpreted as harassing. Elvig did not succumb to Rev. Ackles alleged harassment, and she has not offered any allegation that somehow her job was in jeopardy if she did not do so.
The formal governing processes of The Presbyterian Church, found in its Book of Order, include a published disciplinary judicial process. The process, designated as part of the Rules of Discipline, is initiated by filing a written statement of an offense. Pursuant to this process, Elvig filed an “Accusation by Individual as a Statement of Offense” against Rev. Ackles with the North Puget Sound Presbytery on June 25, 2001.
When Elvig filed her Accusation, she was assigned, as contemplated by the Presbyterian ecclesiastical judicial process, a three-member response team from the Church’s Committee on Ministry. The purpose of the response team was to assist her and provide advice and support while the investigating committee considered her charge and during any appeals.
Pursuant to the Church’s Book of Order, Elvig’s allegations were referred to an impartial Investigating Committee comprised of three women and two men. The Investigating Committee charged with deciding Elvig’s allegations possessed the authority and responsibility under Church law and procedure to make a thorough inquiry, call witnesses before it, examine all relevant documents, resolve discrepancies in testimony, and make a determination whether the charge could be proved. The Committee’s ultimate task was to decide whether charges should be filed against the person accused.
The Investigating Committee fully discharged its formal obligations and ultimately issued a determination on October 3, 2001. The Committee came to a unanimous decision that internal charges would not be lodged against Rev. Ackles.
As was her right pursuant to the Rules of Discipline, Elvig filed a Petition for Review of the Investigating Committee’s decision on October 29, 2001. The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbytery1 then reviewed the matter de novo. On December 4, 2001, the Commission affirmed the decision of the Investigating Committee.
On October 3, 2001, Elvig filed a charge with the EEOC against the Church and the Presbytery, alleging that she had been sexually harassed by the pastor of the Church. Elvig alleges also that, after she filed her complaint, Rev. Ackles began a course of retaliatory action against her, including verbal abuse and other intimidating behavior. On December 4, 2001, the Presbytery placed Elvig on unpaid leave, and on December 19, informed her that it had formally voted “to dissolve the pastoral relationship between Calvin Presbyterian Church and the Rev. Monica McDowell Elvig,” terminating her pastoral appointment, but not her membership in the Church. In January 2002, the Presbytery declined, as was its prerogative under Church governance to allow plaintiff to circulate her personal information file “at this time” to other churches, permission that is required by Presbyterian Church policies and procedures to seek another pastoral position. See Book of Order, G-14.0311.
*972During this process, the Church attempted to mediate the situation with El-vig. First, Rev. Ackles offered mediation with a trained counselor. Elvig refused. Second, the Presbytery offered to mediate the situation with Elvig. She refused. Third, the Church agreed to mediation when she filed her first charge of discrimination with the EEOC. She refused. Fourth, after the second charge of discrimination was filed with the EEOC regarding retaliation, the Church again agreed to mediate. She ultimately refused.
ANALYSIS
A.
Elvig’s case is not easily legally pigeonholed because, although this episode arguably culminated in a tangible employment action against her, i.e.', she lost her position as an associate pastor and was denied permission to seek a similar position with another church, the ministerial exception bars her from pursing redress on that basis. As the majority correctly explains, “[■bjecause the Church cannot be required to articulate a justification for its ministerial decision, Elvig cannot show that those decisions were tangible employment actions related to the hostile environment to which she was subjected.” Accordingly, pursuant to Supreme Court precedent, she is left with an action against the Church only for its alleged mishandling of her supervisor’s alleged sexual harassment, known as the “hostile environment prong” of Title VII. Holly D. v. Cal. Inst. of Tech., 339 F.3d 1158, 1167 (9th Cir.2003) (citing Burlington Industries v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 118 S.Ct. 2257, 141 L.Ed.2d 633 (1998) and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 141 L.Ed.2d 662 (1998)). In this respect, she must prove that she was the victim of a hostile work environment caused by “severe or pervasive sexual harassment.” Id. at 1176.
However, the Supreme Court has established an affirmative defense to such a claim, a defense called the “reasonable care” defense.2 Holly D., 339 F.3d at 1176-77. As recently ■ explained by the Court in Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders, — U.S. -, 124 S.Ct. 2342, 159 L.Ed.2d 204 (2004), pursuant to this defense,
[T]he employer may defeat vicarious liability for supervisor harassment by esr tablishing, as an affirmative defense, both that “the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior,” and that “the plaintiff employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise.”
Ellerth and Faragher also clarified the parties’ respective proof burdens in hostile environment cases. Title VII, the Court noted, “borrows from tort law the avoidable consequences doctrine,” under which victims have “a duty ‘to use such means as are reasonable under the circumstances to avoid or minimize .the damages’ that result from violations of the statute,” The Ellerth /Faragher affirmative defense accommodates that doctrine by requiring plaintiffs reasonably to stave off avoidable harm. But both decisions place the burden squarely on the defendant to prove that the plaintiff failed to avoid or reduce harm.
*973Id. at-, 124 S.Ct. 2342, 2353 (citations omitted).
“Following Ellerth and Faragher, the legal standard for evaluating an employer’s efforts to prevent and correct harassment ... is ... whether the employer’s actions as a whole established a reasonable mechanism for prevention and correction.” Holly D., 339 F.3d at 1177.
Thus, when the Church tenders its “reasonable care defense,” every step the Church took to respond and react to El-vig’s claims will be reviewed by the district court to determine whether it was reasonable. Such an inquiry into whether the Church exercised “reasonable care” will involve, by necessity, penetrating discovery and microscopic examination by litigation of the Church’s disciplinary procedures and subsequent responsive decisions. For an example of how the resolution of these issues will unfold, one need look no farther than Holly D. and our judgmental and detailed analysis of Cal-tech’s behavior in connection with its motion for summary judgment. See id. at 1176-79. Such a searching analysis will now be applied to the internal workings of the Church.
B.
The attempt to negate the Church’s adjudicatory process as simply an “internal grievance procedure,” as Elvig does here, fails to acknowledge its ecclesiastical underpinnings. As revealed by the Church’s Rules of Discipline, the process about to come under secular legal scrutiny is inextricably intertwined with the Church’s religious tenants and is in actuality an integral aspect of its ecclesiastical mission. In Chapter I of these Rules, the Preamble reveals this truth:
Church discipline is the church’s exercise of authority given by Christ, both in the direction of guidance, control, and nurture of its members and in the direction of constructive criticism of offenders. Thus, the purpose of discipline is to honor God by making clear the significance of membership in the body of Christ; to preserve the purity of the church by nourishing the individual within the life of the believing community; to correct or restrain wrongdoing in order to bring members to repentance and restoration; to restore the unity of the church by removing the causes of discord and division; and to secure the just, speedy, and economical determination of proceedings. In all respects, members are to be accorded procedural safeguards and due process, and it is the intention of these rules so to provide.
Rules of Discipline, Chapter I, D-1.0101 (emphasis added).
The power that Jesus Christ has vested in his Church, a power manifested in the exercise of Church discipline, is one for building up the body of Christ, not for destroying it, for redeeming, not for punishing. It should be exercised as a dispensation of mercy and not of wrath so that the great ends of the Church may be achieved, that all children of God may be presented faultless in the day of Christ.
Id. at D-1.0102 (emphasis added).
Elvig’s primary retaliation claim, as articulated during oral argument, is that “by withholding permission to circulate her resume to another church, they are retaliating against her.” Counsel explained that “if you look at the Book of Order, it says that they can only [withhold permission] if charges are brought against Rev. Elvig, which they were not.” It follows, counsel argued, that because the Church did not follow the Book of Order “on its face,” a claim of retaliation is appropriate. This was the exchange between the court and counsel that followed:
*974The Court: Aren’t you asking us to adjudge whether the Church followed the Book of Order ... ‘I
Counsel: Whether there was a good faith reason for what they did, that’s
■ the burden under retaliation.
The Court: So whether the Church had a good faith reason.
Counsel: Correct.
Not unexpectedly, the Church argues that counsel’s interpretation of the Book of Order is wrong, and that, in any event, it is the Church that is entitled to construe its Book of Order and decide when a resume can be circulated, not the federal courts.
C.
I come now to a highly significant issue: the effect of Elvig’s vows “to be governed by our Church’s polity, and to abide by its discipline.” Book of Order, 6-14.0405b.(5). The Church argues that these vows, which Elvig took voluntarily and without which she could not have become an ordained minister, do not allow her to bring her dispute with the Church to any civil court. The Church asserts that by bringing this lawsuit, Elvig “broke her vow,” and says that the “act of filing suit violates Church doctrine; if this Court allows the action to proceed, it gives state-sanctioned approval for ministers to violate Church doctrine.” The Church asks us to recognize her vow as dispositive and as a critical factor distinguishing this case from Bollard.
By analogy, the Church draws our attention to E.E.O.C. v. Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps, 345 F.3d 742 (9th Cir.2003) (en banc), where we held that the Civil Rights Act of 1991 does not preclude enforcement of global agreements requiring arbitration of Title VII claims as a condition of employment. In so holding, we focused on § 118 of the 1991 Act, which provides that:
[wjhere appropriate and to the extent authorized by law, the use of alternative means of dispute resolution, including ... arbitration, is encouraged to resolve disputes arising under the acts or provisions of federal law amended by this Title.
Pub.L. No. 102-166, § 118, 105 Stat. 1071 (codified at Notes to 42 U.S.C. § 1981). I seriously doubt that we would conclude that the Church’s internal process for resolving disputes and accusations is not authorized by law. Indeed, Title VII’s design was “to encourage the creation of antiharassment policies .and effective grievance mechanisms,” Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 764, 118 S.Ct. 2257, in order “to promote conciliation rather than litigation.” Id. Granted, the formal arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act of a Title VII claim is not precisely the same as the resolution of a sexual harassment claim pursuant to a church’s disciplinary mechanism, but post-Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., 500 U.S. 20, 111 S.Ct. 1647, 114 L.Ed.2d 26 (1991), potential Title VII plaintiffs frequently find themselves resolving their problems and grievances in venues other than the judicial system. Gilmer clearly dispelled the notion that the judicial forum cannot be waived for Title VII claims. Moreover, section 118 is not limited to formal arbitration as the only appropriate means of dispute resolution, leaving open other avenues for reconciliation.
At some point on remand, the district court will have to assess and to deal with the effect of Elvig’s vows. Will the Court ignore those vows? Will it second-guess the Church and construe them so as not to require her to be bound by the process she herself invoked? Will her vows to submit to the authority of her Church on these matters be invalidated? Whatever the Court does with the vows, this lawsuit *975cannot go forward without rejecting a critical aspect of the Church’s ordination requirements. I see no way we can cope with this serious issue without profound and excessive substantive entanglement with Church doctrine. Such an intrusion — even if not clumsy — will necessarily trespass upon ground that belongs to the Church.
D.
To sum up, what we have before us is a final decision wrought in accord with a Church’s formal judicial process designed to accomplish unmistakably religious goals, a final decision, which Elvig took formal vows to respect in order to be ordained as a minister and which was animated by religious criteria unknown to the civil law in its resolution of civil lawsuits and designed to accomplish the “great ends of the Church.” I respectfully disagree with the majority that somehow the trial they envision — including Elvig’s charge involving the Book of Order of unlawful retaliation— will involve “a purely secular inquiry,” as the facts and circumstances of this case clearly demonstrate. It is simply wishful thinking to believe that because civil laws against sexual harassment do not conflict with church doctrine, this lawsuit and the judicious control of discovery will not violate the Church. With all respect to my colleagues, does not this view overlook the essence of the Church’s defense and the effect of Elvig’s vows? I do not understand how discrete parts of this episode can be neatly isolated from the whole. What will now occur in federal court amounts to wholesale substantive and procedural entanglement with the business of the Church.
The majority opinion, again with all respect, fails to assign appropriate significance to the fact that this controversy is about ministers, the meaning of their vows, their behavior inside the Church, and their fitness to hold their positions. The Fifth Circuit recognized the clear implications of this special scenario in McClure v. Salvation Army, 460 F.2d 653 (5th Cir.1972):
The relationship between an organized church and its ministers is its lifeblood. The minister is the chief instrument by which the church seeks to fulfill its purpose. Matters touching this relationship must necessarily be recognized as of prime ecclesiastical concern.
Id. at 553.3
The Eight Circuit honored this principle in Scharon v. St. Luke’s Episcopal Presbyterian Hospitals, 929 F.2d 360 (8th Cir.1991):
Personnel decisions by church-affiliated institutions affecting clergy are per se religious matters and cannot be reviewed by civil courts, for to review such decisions would require the courts to determine the meaning of religious doctrine and canonical law and to impose a secular court’s view of whether in the context of the particular case religious doctrine and canonical law support the decision the church authorities have made.
Id. at 363.
When the focus of this matter is shifted from the abstract to the concrete, it becomes clear that Elvig’s lawsuit — even as trimmed by my colleagues — will entail a *976judicial review of the Church’s governance, procedures, and decisions in handling her accusations. The affirmative defense'with which the Church is left is that it handled Elvig’s accusations ,in a reasonable way. What did the Church ultimately do to prevent or correct harassment? Nothing. Why? Because after conducting a full-blown investigation, it did not credit her accusations. This is the decision that may become the basis for civil liability. Elvig argues that by doing nothing to stop the harassment, she “automatically”, wins. This argument is not persuasive. Moreover, her accusations, the Church’s judgment, and this episode became grounds for her removal as an associate pastor and the Church’s declination .to allow her to circulate her resume. Was all of this reasonable? Was it retaliation? Did the refusal to circulate her resume to other churches violate the Book of Order? Can part of this episode be isolated from the whole? Did Elvig’s four refusals to mediate within the Church demonstrate that she “unreasonably failed in her duty to take advantage of corrective opportunities” made available to her by the Church? The federal courts will now decide. This affirmative burden will require the Church in court to justify not only its entire disciplinary process, but also its ultimate decisions — including the bona fides of its decision not to take corrective action. Thus, I repeat, the internal governance of the Church vis-a-vis two ministers will be on trial. This situation, which will involve gross substantive and procedural entanglement with the Church’s core functions, its polity, and its autonomy, seems precisely what the ministerial exception was designed to coyer and to prevent. The Church may have to pay damages to Elvig if a federal court decides that its resolution of an issue between ministers was unreasonable, i.e., that the considered judgment of the Presbytery was wrong, that her refusal to mediate within the Church was reasonable, and that her vows do not méan what they say.
E.
The Supreme Court began in earnest to tackle the scope of the Free Exercise Clause in this context in 1871 in the seminal case of Watson v. Jones, 13 Wall. 679, 20 L.Ed. 666 (1871). That case involved a schism within the Presbyterian Church resulting in an intramural battle between two factions for control of the Walnut Street Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and of its ministry. The dispute landed first in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Kentucky, and then in the Supreme Court. The Court took great pains to articulate the principles which it believed covered such disputes. The Court said, in connection with what the Court later defined in 1975 as “controversies .that incidentally affect civil rights....”, Serbian Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich, 426 U.S. 696, 710, 96 S.Ct. 2372, 49 L.Ed.2d 151 (1976),
In this class of cases we think the rule of action which should govern the civil courts, founded in a broad and sound view of the relations of church and state under our system of laws, and supported by a preponderating weight of judicial authority is, that, whenever the questions of discipline or of faith, or ecclesiastical rule, custom or law have been decided by the highest of these church judicatories to which the matter has been carried, the legal tribunals must accept such decisions as final, and as binding on them, in their application to the case before them.
Watson, 80 U.S. at 727.
The Court continued:
In this country the full and free right to entertain any religious belief, to practice *977any religious principle, and to teach any religious doctrine which does not violate the laws of morality and property, and which does not infringe personal rights, is conceded to all. The law knows no heresy, and is committed to the support of no dogma, the establishment of no sect. The right to organize voluntary religious associations to assist in the expression and dissemination of any religious doctrine, and to create tribunals for the decision of controverted questions of faith within the association, and for the ecclesiastical government of all the individual members, congregations, and officers within the general association, is unquestioned. All who united themselves to such a body do so with an implied consent to this government, and are bound to submit to it. But it would be a vain consent and would lead to the total subversion of such religious bodies, if anyone aggrieved by one of their decisions could appeal to the secular courts and have them reversed. It is of the essence of these religious unions, and of their right to establish tribunals for the decision of questions arising among themselves, that those decision should be binding in all cases of ecclesiastical cognizance, subject only to such appeals as the organization itself provides for.
Id. at 728-29; see also Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral, 344 U.S. 94, 116, 73 S.Ct. 143, 97 L.Ed. 120 (1952) (explaining that the Watson “opinion radiates ... a spirit of freedom for religious organizations, an independence from secular control or manipulation, in short, power to decide for themselves, free from state interference, matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine”).
Ninety-five years later, after the First Amendment had been made applicable to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment,4 the Supreme Court confronted a case wherein the Serbian Orthodox Church had removed a Bishop from his position in response to a dispute between rival factions over control of church property. Bishop Milivojevich brought in Illinois courts a civil action against the church seeking reinstatement. He prevailed, and his victory was affirmed by the Illinois Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari “to determine whether the actions of the Illinois Supreme Court constituted improper judicial interference with decisions of the highest authorities of a hierarchical church in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.” Milivojevich, 426 U.S. at 698, 96 S.Ct. 2372. In ruling for the church, the Court not only affirmed its earlier pronouncements in Watson, but also said in the service of the First Amendment,
For civil courts to analyze whether the ecclesiastical actions of a church judicatory are in that sense “arbitrary” must inherently entail inquiry into the procedures that canon or ecclesiastical law supposedly requires the church adjudicatory to follow, or else into the substantive criteria by which they are supposedly to decide the ecclesiastical question. But this is exactly the inquiry that the First Amendment prohibits; recognition of such an exception would undermine the general rule that religious controversies are not the proper subject of civil court inquiry, and that a civil court must accept the ecclesiastical decisions of church tribunals as it finds them.
Milivojevich, 426 U.S. at 713, 96 S.Ct. 2372.
Moreover, insofar as the Church here will be called upon in the presentation of its affirmative defense to open for exami*978nation its actions as well as its judgment and to defend its construction of its Book of Order and its ordination vows, Milivoje-vich holds that such a detailed review is constitutionally forbidden:
[T]he Supreme Court of Illinois ... invalidated the decision to defrock Dionisi-je on the ground that it was “arbitrary” because “a detailed review of the evidence discloses that the proceedings resulting in Bishop Dionisije’s removal and defrockment were not in accordance with the prescribed procedure of the constitution and the penal code of the Serbian Orthodox Church.” Not only was this “detailed review” impermissible under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, but in reaching this conclusion, the court evaluated conflicting testimony concerning internal church procedures and rejected the interpretation of relevant procedural provisions by the Mother Church’s highest tribunals.
Id. at 718, 96 S.Ct. 2372 (internal citations omitted).
The Court’s summary of its holdings was terse and to the point:
In short, the First and Fourteenth Amendments permit hierarchical religious organizations to establish their own rules and regulations for internal discipline and government, and to create tribunals for adjudicating disputes over these matters. When this choice is exercised and ecclesiastical tribunals are created to decide disputes over the government and direction of subordinate bodies, the Constitution requires that civil courts accept their decisions- as binding upon them.
Reversed.
Id. at 724-25, 726, 96 S.Ct. 2372.
If this lawsuit were to have been filed in the Fifth Circuit, I do not believe it could have gone forward in whole or in part. In Combs v. Cen. Tex. Annual Conference of United Methodist Church, 173 F.3d 343 (5th Cir.1999), the Circuit held in a Title VII gender and pregnancy discrimination case that the lawsuit was barred by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, i.e., the “ministerial exception.” Drawing from longstanding Circuit precedent,5 the court held:
The first concern is that secular authorities would be involved in evaluating or interpreting religious doctrine. Id. The second quite independent concern is that in investigating employment discrimination claims by ministers against their church, secular authorities would necessarily intrude into church governance in a manner that would be inherently coercive, even if the alleged discrimination were purely nondoctrinal. Id. This second concern is the one present here. This second concern alone is enough to bar the involvement of the civil courts.
In short, we cannot conceive how the federal judiciary could determine whether an employment decision concerning a minister was based on legitimate or illegitimate grounds without inserting ourselves into a realm where the Constitution forbids us to tread, the internal management of a church.
Id. at 350.
A similar fate would be almost certain had this case originated in the Eleventh Circuit. In Gellington v. Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, 203 F.3d 1299 (11th Cir.2000), the plaintiffs Title VII claims of sexual harassment, retaliation, and constructive discharge were held barred by the ministerial exception. Drawing from the Fifth Circuit’s decision in McClure, the court said,
*979We noted in McClure “[t]he relationship between an organized church and its ministers is its lifeblood. The minister is the chief instrument by which the church seeks to fulfill its purpose.” 460 F.2d at 558-559. An attempt by the government to regulate the relationship between a church and its clergy would infringe upon the church’s right to be the sole governing body of its ecclesiastical rules and religious doctrine.
Furthermore, applying Title VII to the employment relationship between a church and its clergy would involve “excessive government entanglement with religion” as prohibited by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. See Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 613, 91 S.Ct. 2105, 2111, 29 L.Ed.2d 745 (1971). Investigation by a'government entity into a church’s employment of its clergy would almost always entail excessive government entanglement into the internal management of the church.
Gellington, 203 F.3d at 1304.
The same terminal fate would attach to this case in the Seventh Circuit; see Young v. N. Ill. Conference of United Methodist Church, 21 F.3d 184, 187-88 (7th Cir.1994) (holding that the Free Exercise Clause precluded Title VII gender and race discrimination claims for denial of promotion and discontinuance of status as a minister); Alicea-Hernandez v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, 320 F.3d 698, 703 (7th Cir.2003) (“The ‘ministerial exception’ applies without regard to the type of claims being brought.”), as well as in the D.C. Circuit, see E.E.O.C. v. Catholic Univ. of Am., 83 F.3d 455, 464-67 (D.C.Cir.1996) (holding that nun’s Title VII sexual discrimination suit following her denial of university tenure was barred by the Religion Clauses), the First Circuit, see Natal v. Christian and Missionary Alliance, 878 F.2d 1575, 1577-78 (1st Cir.1989) (holding that clergyman’s wrongful termination action against not-for-profit religious corporation barred by Free Exercise Clause), and the Fourth Circuit, see Rayburn v. General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, 772 F.2d 1164, 1169-72 (4th Cir.1985) (holding that Title VII sex and race discrimination claims brought against church for denial of pastoral position were barred by the Religion Clauses).
CONCLUSION
As the Fifth Circuit said in Combs,
This case involves the interrelationship between two important governmental directives — the congressional mandate to eliminate discrimination in the workplace and the constitutional mandate to preserve the separation of church and state. As this Court previously observed in McClure, both of these mandates cannot always be followed. In such circumstances, the constitutional mandate must override the mandate that is merely congressional.
Id. at 351.
The majority’s decision has approved part of a misconceived lawsuit which, with all respect, is an unconstitutional violation of and an invasion by the federal government into the Church’s core prerogatives and autonomy. If the wall between Church and state is to be respected, it cannot be a one-way wall. The Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals following its lead have never been distracted by the discrete civil legal cause of action pleaded by lawyers, be it one of property as in Watson, or employment rights as in Mili-vojevich, Combs, McClure, and Gellington. Courts, except for ours in Bollard, have always seen through that secular civil legal veil to the underlying constitutional right at issue: the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment.
*980I believe this case to be distinguishable from Bollard. In Bollard, the plaintiff was not an' ordained priest; he was only a novitiate. In Bollard, the plaintiff had not taken a required ordination vow “to be governed by our Church polity, and to abide by its discipline.” And, in Bollard, the plaintiff had not engaged a Church’s internal disciplinary process and followed it through to a final result. However, if Bollard somehow does compel this result, then Bollard is wrong, as suggested by Supreme Court and sister circuit court precedent; and we should revisit this issue en banc. Thus, although I agree with my learned colleagues’ partial shearing of El-vig’s complaint, I respectfully dissent as to their decision that two causes of action— (1) retaliatory verbal abuse, and (2) intimidation and hostile work environment — -may proceed.
Finally, my analysis of this case does not arise from a view that churches should be sanctuaries for sexual harassment — or that sexual harassment ought to be tolerated anywhere — but simply from a view of the First Amendment that my colleagues do not share.

. The Presbytery is a corporate expression of the Church consisting of all the churches and ministers of the Word and Sacrament within a certain district.

. Ironically, this defense might not be available to the Church if Elvig’s claim of a tangible employment action were not blocked by the First Amendment. Holly D., 339 F.3d at 1173.

. The ministerial exception is exactly what its short form title implies: a narrowly tailored exemption compelled by the First Amendment encompassing matters involving ministers and their respective churches. The exception does not provide shelter from the criminal law, nor from behavior — as compared to belief — such as bigamy and polygamy; and neither does it shield the Church as employer from the laws of general application relating to regular lay employees.

. Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 60 S.Ct. 900, 84 L.Ed. 1213 (1940).

. McClure v. Salvation Army, 460 F.2d 553 (5th Cir.1972).