Judge Dismisses ‘Gender Discrimination’ Lawsuit From Lady Pastor Who Sued After Church Didn’t Hire Her
A judge has dismissed a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a female minister against a New York megachurch, saying that the church has the legal right to hire or fire based on ministerial needs.
Early last year, professor and pastor Eboni Marshall Turman sued Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, citing “gender bias” and “sexism” after they declined to hire her to become the first female Senior Pastor in the church’s 215-year history.
Forty-seven people applied to fill the position following the death of longtime senior Pastor Rev. Calvin Butts in 2022, and she was one of dozens who were not extended a job offer, which eventually went to Dare to Imagine Church founder Kevin. R . Johnson. According to North Shore News:
In a ruling Monday to dismiss Marshall Turman’s lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Dale Ho referred to the legal concept of “ministerial exception,” which grants religious organizations some protection against employment discrimination claims related to the hiring and firing of clergy.
Ho also said Marshall Turman did not make a sufficiently persuasive case that she was more qualified than the five men who were named as finalists.
Turman graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, the most liberal seminary in the world (see endnotes), and was the only female applicant. She insists she was met with sexism and discrimination during the interview process. One of her complaints is that search committee chair Valeria Grant allegedly told her that Abyssinian would only hire a woman as its Senior Pastor ‘over my dead body.'”
Turman, who was one of the pastors at Abyssinian when she applied for the head job, sued for” lost wages, lost benefits, other economic damages, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, and mental distress”- in the form of unspecified monetary damages.
Commenting on the loss, Turman told the AP: “The case was not dismissed on its merits but on a technicality — religious exception — which contends that the church has a right to discriminate, even though the Bible says, ‘in Christ there is neither male nor female. My moral claim still stands: gender discrimination against me or anyone else has no place in God’s house.”
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