I'm Going to Sue You!

I am going to sue you. These words are part of the modern lexicon and are bandied about by those who feel that they have been wronged. Did a big truck cut you off on the road? – Sue the company! Did you slip on the floor of a store? – Sue the store! Did you trip over a landscape feature at a neighbor’s home? – Sue the homeowner!

On September 1, 2023, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) Board of Directors went to court with a complaint against Don Christian, the president of Concordia University Texas (CTX), and Christopher Bannwolf, chairman of CTX Board of Regents. The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division. Here is a link to the article.

But what do the scriptures teach us about people of faith suing each other? The Apostle Paul planted a congregation in Corinth around AD 50. This bustling seaport brought people from all over the Roman empire. There was a confluence of many people and ideas. Partly because of the secular setting in which it was planted, the fledgling congregation had many struggles. A few years after the congregation was founded, Paul learned of the troubles the congregation was enduring. He sends the congregation a letter that we know as the First Epistle to the Corinthians. He treats all sorts of matters in that letter, things ranging from divisions in the church, to adultery, to the faithful practice of communion. He also writes to the congregation about how to settle disputes. Here is part of what St. Paul writes:

1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers! (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Co 6:1–8). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.)

What St. Paul writes about believers taking other believers to secular courts seems clear. What is at stake is the witness of the Church – and especially its witness of the Gospel. “So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? … To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?”

I suppose we can throw our hands up in the air and say, “We had no other choice but to sue. And we took the matter to the saints - at the convention. And we have to make them pay for their obstinance.” But the cost is far greater. The stakes are an order of magnitude beyond what a college campus is named, or who governs that campus. The cost is borne by the integrity of the message of forgiveness and reconciliation that Christ has entrusted to the Church.

I’m afraid that our church body, The LCMS, suing the president and the chairman of the regents of CTX is not the way scripture tells us to do things. I’m not yet completely certain where things went wrong in the relationship between the LCMS and CTX. I’m certain that there is fault on both sides because disagreements involve more than one party. But I am also certain that going to the secular courts to settle this is dead wrong.

Full disclosure: I’m an idealist. I want to see the Church live by what it proclaims, and I want its message to have integrity such that it could have been proclaimed by Jesus Himself. I don’t like that the LCMS released news of the legal action on a Friday, the way that secular news agencies release information that is controversial. I don’t like that our church body is looking to the courts to settle a matter rather than using the scriptures to do this.

“Lord Jesus, give wisdom to our leaders… Amen.”