4/14/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly Aside from the deference test, the US Supreme Court also articulated the ministerial exception. Hossana-Tabor explained that the ministerial exception removes religious organizations from the application of employment discrimination laws. Like the deference test, the ministerial exception is also anchored on the First Amendment: The members of a religious group put their faith in the hands of their ministers. Requiring a church to accept or retain an unwanted minister, or punishing a church for failing to do so, intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision. Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs. By imposing an unwanted minister, the state infringes the Free Exercise Clause, which protects a religious group's right to shape its own faith and mission through its appointments. According the state the power to determine which individuals will minister to the faithful also violates the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government involvement in such ecclesiastical decisions. xxxx The purpose of the exception is not to safeguard a church's decision to fire a minister only when it is made for a religious reason. The exception instead ensures that the authority to select and control who will minister to the faithful—a matter "strictly ecclesiastical,"—is the church's alone. xxxx The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important. But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission. When a minister who has been fired sues her church alleging that her termination was discriminatory, the First Amendment has struck the balance for us. The church must be free to choose those who will guide it on its way. In Hossana-Tabor, the US Supreme Court considered the circumstances of Perich's employment and found her to be a minister as defined by the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In its application of the ministerial exception to Perich, the Court considered the formal title accorded to Perich by the Church (Minister of Religion, Commissioned), the substance reflected in the formal title (Perich had to complete extensive religious training, apply for endorsement from her local Synod, pass an oral examination, and be elected by the congregation to become a minister), Perich's use of the title (these included Perich's acceptance of the formal call to religious service, claim to special housing allowance on her taxes, and reference to herself as a minister), and Perich's religious functions for the Church (Perich was a teacher of religion and conducted religion-related activities outside of her teaching hours). The Court dismissed the employment discrimination suit filed by Perich against Hossana-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School. Needless to say, this Court has also found the occasion to rule on the apparent clashes between the exercise of religious freedom and the property rights to income. https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/66079 18/24