Churches ask congregants to “sign away” their legal rights

By Zach Hiner
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
June 17, 2019

https://bit.ly/2wVdLHh

Church members are prohibited from suing church officials, according to contracts that some large Protestant churches are asking congregants to sign. These contracts – often called ‘covenants’ – are dangerous documents that will make it even harder to expose church staff who commit or conceal crimes like sexual abuse.

Major evangelical churches in Dallas, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. – and likely elsewhere - apparently urge new members to sign away their legal rights when they join up. We hope, as information on these contracts becomes more widely available to the public, that no parishioner will sign one of these these pro-secrecy contracts and that any church considering their use will  decline to pursue this idea.

The New York Times last week reported on The Village Church in Texas using these stunning contracts.

According to VICE News, it’s “difficult to estimate just how ubiquitous these documents were in the American evangelical world, which according to Pew includes roughly a quarter of the population and nearly a fifth of millennials.” But according to the Wartburg Watch, it is happening in other places, too.

Apparently the legality of these contracts has yet to be tested. Regardless, we believe their existence is wrong. For the safety of children and vulnerable adults, we urge church officials and congregants – from every faith group – to reject them.