By Baptist Message staff WASHINGTON (LBM) – Fifty former and active leaders with the Southern Baptist Convention as well as Baptist state conventions, associations and local congregations across the country have signed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear former Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware executive director Will McRaney’s lawsuit against the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. McRaney alleges that NAMB interfered in his employment with the BCMD, resulting in his termination, and afterward influenced other Baptist groups not to hire him. NAMB has claimed various defenses, including “ministerial exception,” which is also known as the “ecclesiastical exemption doctrine” – a historic legal precedent which prevents the government from interfering in matters of faith and doctrine as well as religious governance, which includes employment disputes. The signers of the “friend of the court” brief assert that the key doctrine of Baptist polity is at stake, “church autonomy” which emphasizes freedom from hierarchy in relationships between Baptist bodies. They shared that because Baptist churches and organizations are independent of each other and have no hierarchy … [Read more...]