A federal judge has dismissed a gender discrimination lawsuit against Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City and its search committee chair, Valerie S. Grant. The dismissal was based on the First Amendment's "ministerial exception."
The ruling was issued on Monday by U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho of the Southern District of New York. It follows a lawsuit filed in December 2023 by Rev. Eboni Marshall Turman, a Yale Divinity School professor and the youngest pastor ordained at Abyssinian in 2007, against the church and Grant. Turman alleges that she was rejected for the church's top position due to her gender.
Judge Ho concurred with the attorneys representing the church and Grant, asserting that the ministerial exception prohibits the court from intervening in church matters, even if legitimate discrimination claims exist. The ministerial exception is a legal principle that shields religious institutions from judicial interference in their employment relationships with ministers.
Ho emphasized, “To determine whether Abyssinian's proffered reason for declining to hire Dr. Marshall Turman — her lack of qualifications — is pretextual, the Court would have to engage in exactly the type of inquiry-based entanglement from which this Court is prohibited.”
He continued, “Under the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses, it is not the business of this Court to question or otherwise look beyond Abyssinian's stated reasons for finding Dr. Marshall Turman unqualified to serve as its senior pastor.”
The judge pointed out that “there is no way for this Court to resolve Dr. Marshall Turman's employment discrimination claim without becoming entangled with Abyssinian's ecclesiastical inner workings,” concluding that it was appropriate to apply the ministerial exception at the motion to dismiss stage of the litigation. As a result, he dismissed Turman's claims against the church and also noted that “it also shields Grant from liability under the same cause of action. Therefore, the claims against Grant are dismissed.”
Following the death of the church's previous pastor, Rev. Calvin Butts, in October 2022, Abyssinian Baptist Church stated that it conducted a thorough pastoral search process that included 40 candidates from diverse backgrounds across various ages, genders, and sexual orientations. In June 2024, Kevin R. Johnson was appointed as the church's new pastor, taking on the role in July 2024.
In her lawsuit, Turman, who studies gender politics in Black churches, maintained that the selection process was unjust. She accused Grant of posing inappropriate questions that were not directed at male candidates for the position.
The complaint stated, “Gender discrimination motivated the decision not to hire (Marshall Turman), a fact discussed openly during meetings of the Committee, including by Grant and another Committee member, who said that Abyssinian would only hire a woman as its Senior Pastor ‘over my dead body.’”
Turman also alleged that before his death, Butts “told her she could never be senior pastor because Abyssinian would never hire a woman for the position” and worked to ensure that the male line of succession would continue.
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