Religious Freedom: Hands Off for Laying Hands On
Texas Supreme Court: Pleasant Glade Assembly of God v. Schubert
If you believe in Jesus, you’ve come to understand him from the New Testament. Well, the same scriptures that teach about Jesus also teach about demons and the laying on of hands by church elders. If you accept Jesus, then consistency demands that you accept the other things the Bible teaches. Or does it?
17 year old Laura Shubert attended the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God Church. In fact, her own father was an Assembly of God pastor and missionary. The Assemblies of God is a Pentecostal denomination. It “believes in the literal teachings of the Bible with respect to spirits, demons, demon possession and the ‘casting out’ of demons.” It also believes that people can be “slain in the spirit,” which, according to the church, “is a positive experience in which the holy spirit comes over a person and influences them.” The Bible refers to this as being “filled with the spirit” and believers are encouraged to be filled with the spirit again and again.
Laura Shubert had such an experience. In fact, she had it twice in a matter of days. While slain in the spirit the second time, however, Laura’s physical reaction was so significant that the senior pastor was summoned. He laid hands on Laura and prayed for her. Because of the animated way Laura was reacting, she suffered carpet burns, a scrape on her back and minor bruises.
Laura’s experience led to a meeting between her father, Pastor Shubert, and Pastor McCutchen, the one who had laid hands on Laura. A theological discussion ensued and both agreed that Christians cannot be demon possessed (there was apparently a question whether Laura was manifesting the Holy Spirit or was being tormented by an evil spirit). As a result of that meeting, the church agreed to teach more on the subject so its young members would better understand what the Bible says about being filled with the spirit and what it says about demons.
Notwithstanding the theological explanations given, Laura subsequently became depressed, dropped out of school and abandoned her plan to attend Bible College. She was finally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and she and her parents blamed the church and sued Pleasant Glade for the injuries and emotional distress she suffered. (There apparently was not much debate about the Bible’s proscription about believers suing fellow believers.)
Laura won at trial. A jury awarded her damages of $300,000 for pain and suffering and other losses. The Court of Appeals in Texas affirmed most of the decision, but the Texas Supreme Court reversed it all.
Laura’s experience, good, bad or otherwise, was not a matter for the courts. As the Supreme Court explained, “Whether the defendants had intentionally or negligently misapplied church doctrine to Laura during these events was not a justiciable controversy...because the ‘First Amendment [gave] Pleasant Glade the right to engage in driving out demons.’”
The court also found that “The ‘laying of hands’ and the presence of demons are part of the church’s belief system and accepted as such by its adherents. These practices are not normally dangerous or unusual and apparently arise in the church with some regularity. They are thus to be expected and are accepted by those in the church. That a particular member may find the practice emotionally disturbing and non-consensual when applied to her does not transform the dispute into a secular matter.”
Laura’s case was dismissed.
The courts have always struggled to balance religious expression and individual rights. In this case, whatever happened “in the spirit” was clearly not the court’s business. But this sort of controversy is not going away. The Bible does more than explore spiritual matters, it judges certain matters of the flesh, including lust, homosexuality, pride and adultery; it is only a matter of time before the words of the Bible are challenged as so offensive they must be silenced. Another, less constrained court, may agree and choose to step into the fray.
God help us.
