For right now, I’m going to try to get back into the blog with biweekly Web 2.0 for the classroom pieces beginning next week.

God bless as you finish up your school years.

To that end, I have created a proposal for a new, online training course in Lutheran Apologetics for the Guild.  You may download a PDF version of this proposal here.  As you can see, this is not the complete course, rather, it is a detailed explanation of the rationale for it, a defense of the Lutheran apologetic itself, and an outline of the structure of the proposed course.

I am looking for one (or more) volunteers to collaborate with me in fleshing out the details of this course and in actually conducting it for several sessions.  If you are interested, please email me at biddlej@lutheraneducators.com.

You can join the discussion by following this link (you’ll need Adobe’s Flash player).

Sixth Circuit has ruled that a grade school teacher at a religious school who taught primarily secular topics falls outside of the “ministerial exception” to the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”)

The “ministerial exception” allows religious entities to give “preference in employment to individuals of a particular religion” and to “require that all applicants and employees conform to the religious tenets of such organization.” 42 U.S.C. Section 12113(d). The First Amendment free exercise clause implies a safe harbor for religious entities to make employment decisions about staff free from judicial intrusion. For the ministerial exception to bar an employment discrimination claim, (1) the employer must be a religious institution; and (2) the employee must be a ministerial employee. 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 4891, *20 (citing Hollins v. Methodist Healthcare Inc., 474 F.3d 223, 225 (6th Cir. 2007)

The Circuit Court found that the school failed to demonstrate that the plaintiff was a ministerial employee. The Circuit Court reviewed plaintiff’s primary duties and found that “the district court erred in its legal conclusion classifying the plaintiff as a ministerial employee. The plaintiff  spent approximately six hours and fifteen minutes of her seven hour day teaching secular subjects, using secular textbooks, without incorporating religion into the secular material.” Id. at *26.

The Court also determined that the District Court erred in placing too much reliance on the school’s bestowal of a ministerial title on the plaintiff. “[T]he title of commissioned minister does not transform the primary duties of these called teachers from secular in nature to religious in nature.” Id. at *29 (emphasis in original).

So what does this mean? (Good Lutheran Response)

It means we are in trouble!  We need to be looking at our school and what and how we teach.  I have some questions like, why wasn’t this teacher action not reviewed earlier?  How can we have a CALLED TEACHER, not teaching the Law and Gospel in every class?  I taught from Secular books, but as Rob Jacklin will say, your textbooks is not your curriculum!

Where will this go?

If the worst happens, all Lutheran School Teachers will lose their ministerial  employee benefits.  For the purpose of Taxes, we would not have a housing allowance!  Schools would be open to more attack from disgruntled employees.  Non-Lutheran / non-Christians can now sue for not hiring them based on their religion .  The Divine Call would lose all of its meaning!
This is just a FYI… if someone is up-to-date on this court case or can give more information, please add comments