Jews for Jesus: Damnation, Salvation or Defamation?
Supreme Court of Florida: Jews for Jesus v. Edith Rapp
There’s a fine, not always so-clear line, between church and state which seems too often to turn on whose ox is being gored or ignored. There’s a different line that can be crossed between individuals when religion is an issue: It’s called defamation. And it’s about as hazy a line as the church-state line. This is a perfect case in point.
Here are the facts: Bruce Rapp is Jewish. He also believes in Jesus and worked for Jews for Jesus, an outreach group which shares the Gospel of Christ with other Jews. His Jewish father Marty and step-mother Edith lived in Florida. Bruce’s father was dying and Bruce spent months sharing his faith with dad, believing that acceptance of Jesus, even for Jews, is the way to salvation. The court quoted Bruce’s account of events from the Jews for Jesus newsletter:
“I had a chance to visit with my father in Southern Florida before my Passover tour. He has been ill for sometime and I was afraid that I may not have another chance to be with him. I had been witnessing to him on the telephone for the past few months. He would listen and allow me to pray for him, but that was about all. On this visit, whenever I talked to my father, my stepmother, Edie (also Jewish), was always close by, listening quietly. Finally, one morning Edie began to ask me questions about Jesus. I explained how G-d [sic] gave us Y’Shua (Jesus) as the final sacrifice for our atonement, and showed her the parallels with the Passover Lamb. She began to cry, and when I asked her if she would like to ask G-d for forgiveness for her sins and receive Y’Shua she said yes! My stepmother repeated the sinner’s prayer with me-praise G-d! Pray for Edie’s faith to grow and be strengthened. And please pray for my father Marty’s salvation.”
This newsletter was published on the internet. It was seen by one of Edith’s relatives (why was she looking at the Jews for Jesus website?). As any Jewish believer in Jesus knows, such news is frequently not well received by Jewish relatives and friends. Whatever Edith did or didn’t do in private, when Bruce’s account of her salvation experience hit cyberspace and became family news, Edith sued.
Edith’s complaint was that Jews for Jesus defamed her by claiming, without her permission, that she had “joined Jews for Jesus, and/or [become] a believer in the tenets, the actions, and the philosophy of Jews for Jesus.” Her complaint alleged “(1) false light invasion of privacy; (2) defamation; and (3) intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
Jews for Jesus moved to dismiss. After considerable battles over whether Edith’s suit even stated a cause of action, after she re-filed new and improved claims and after further motions, the lower court dismissed all of Edith’s claims. Edith appealed.
The Fourth District Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the defamation claim concluding “the ‘common mind’ reading the newsletter would not have found Edith to be an object of ‘hatred, distrust, ridicule, contempt or disgrace.’” In doing so, it also rejected this generally accepted standard for defining defamation: “a communication is defamatory if it ‘prejudiced’ the plaintiff in the eyes of a ‘substantial and respectable minority of the community.’” As for the tort of false light, the court was uncertain such a claim existed in Florida. That question was certified to the Florida Supremes to answer and was taken up by Jews for Jesus.
Essentially, the high court found that defamation and false light claims have many of the same elements: “[F]alse light has the following six elements: (1) publicity; (2) falsity; (3) actor must act with knowledge or reckless disregard as to the falsity; (4) actual damages; (5) publicity must be highly offensive to a reasonable person; and (6) publicity must be about the plaintiff.” “Defamation has the following five elements: (1) publication; (2) falsity; (3) actor must act with knowledge or reckless disregard as to the falsity on a matter concerning a public official, or at least negligently on a matter concerning a private person; (4) actual damages; and (5) statement must be defamatory.”
After reviewing the history of false light claims in Florida and elsewhere, the high court concluded that false light is based on a subjective standard, i.e.,“publicity [which] must be highly offensive to a reasonable person” and thus creates a “moving target whose definition depends on the specific locale in which the conduct occurs or the particular sensitivities of the day.” Accordingly, it dismissed the false light claim. Score one for Jews for Jesus.
But given the sensitivities that surround Jewishness and Jesusness, perhaps more so in Florida than in many other states, the court also scored one for Edith: It found that “the Fourth District failed to embrace the standard that a communication is defamatory if it prejudices the plaintiff in the eyes of a ‘substantial and respectable minority of the community.’” So it reinstated the defamation claim and left it to the lower court to figure out if Edith was prejudiced in front of a “substantial and respectable minority of the community,” namely her Jewish friends and family.
While the District Court found that the “the ‘common mind’ reading the newsletter would not have found Edith to be an object of ‘hatred, distrust, ridicule, contempt or disgrace’" for believing in Jesus, the Supreme Court recognized that there is a potential cost to a Jewish person to profess faith in Jesus or to be spoken about as if they did. A “substantial and respectable minority” may disapprove and cause one to suffer real damages.
Since Jesus walked the earth there has always been a personal cost to Jews who profess faith in Jesus and the issue for the individual has always been the same: Is it worth the cost?
For Bruce Rapp it was. For Edith Rapp, the jury’s still out. As for whether it's defamation to say someone believes in Jesus, it depends which side of the line you're on and what you believe about crossing it.
