By Jack Panyard –
A Texas judge said courts cannot interfere with church governance and could not “pick sides” in a pastoral succession dispute at Second Baptist Church.
“Disagreements over leadership in so large an organization may be inevitable, even among communities of like-minded believers,” Dorfman wrote in his opinion. “And any court would naturally feel reluctance to pick sides in such a dispute. Fortunately, that is not this court’s role.”
Approaching the case, Second Baptist sought the advice of Jay Sekulow, a high-profile lawyer who represented President Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial and is now the head of the American Center for Law and Justice in Washington, DC. Ben Young and Sekulow both released statements Thursday praising Dorfman’s opinion.
“From the very beginning of this case, we have maintained that decisions about church governance belong to the church, not the civil courts,” Sekulow wrote.
The Jeremiah Counsel, a group of current and former Second Baptist members who brought the lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment.
In their lawsuit, the group claimed that Second Baptist changed its governing documents in 2023 to eliminate the congregation’s power to vote on virtually all matters, including pastoral succession and budgets.
The Jeremiah Counsel said the change was enacted to ensure Ben Young succeeded his 89-year-old father, Ed. The elder Young had led Second Baptist since 1978, during which time it grew to more than 90,000 attendees at six campuses. Ed Young is also a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.