Documents that had been under protective seal since Dec. 4, 2009, including 441 emails between presbytery officials, lawyers and the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Office of the General Assembly staff concerning the case of Carrollton Presbyterian Church v. Presbytery of South Louisiana (PSL) have been released to the public as ordered by a Louisiana judge.
Judge Kay Bates of the 19th Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge in Louisiana ordered the release of the documents when she sanctioned the Presbytery of South Louisiana in the amount of $390,000 after the court “unavoidably” concluded that the presbytery had “in bad faith advanced frivolous arguments in support of a claimed right it knew had no legal or evidentiary support.”
The court order, released in late July, stated that the emails demonstrated “with clarity” a conspiracy not only to defy the court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) but also revealed that the violation of the TRO was “simply a means to facilitate a wider scheme or plan. The PSL has funded the opposition to Carrollton and authorized its attorneys to act throughout on its behalf.”
In imposing the sanctions, Bates’ order read that “There is ample evidence in the record to support a compensatory sanction even without reference to the PSL documents, but those PSL documents confirm that the PSL’s pleadings, defenses and arguments were interposed to harass, cause unnecessary delay and needlessly increase the cost of litigation.”
Of the 441 PSL emails that the presbytery was compelled to submit to the court, Mark Tammen, who at the time was the director of Constitutional Services with the PCUSA Office of the General Assembly and now serves as the general presbyter/stated clerk of the Presbytery of Long Island, was a sender or recipient on approximately 398 of them.
In her order, Bates stated that a “plan” or a “scheme” had been hatched by the presbytery’s New Orleans counsel to “circumvent the facts and the substantive law,” after Tammen had informed the PSL that it could not win the case on merit. “The court is not speculating. The participants to this scheme astonishingly acknowledged all of this in their own words,” wrote Bates.
She wrote that the “scheme could be traced through a number of emails the PSL was compelled by court order to produce.”
The case dates back to March 2008, when Carrollton Presbyterian Church, in Carrollton, La., filed a civil lawsuit against the presbytery seeking a declaratory judgment that it owned its property, free and clear of the presbytery.
The church had been in the process of selling its property to its contiguous neighbor, The Stuart Hall School for Boys, when the presbytery tried to block the sale by asserting that the denomination – not the church – owned the property. The court ruled in favor of the local church, as did the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal. Both the Louisiana Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case when the presbytery filed appeals.
Related documents
Portions of the 441 emails: Part 1 and Part 2
Case timeline and related articles:
August 2013: Presbyterians conspiring to act in ‘bad faith’
August 2013: Presbytery sanctioned by civil court in ‘scheme’ over church property
October 2012: Presbytery denied U.S. Supreme Court hearing in Carrollton property dispute
February 2012: Presbytery denied state Supreme Court hearing in Carrollton property dispute
September 2011: Court rules trust clause negated and state trust laws must be followed
April 2011: Carrollton case has bearing on all former southern PCUS congregations in PCUSA
January 2010: Presbytery appeals decision
December 2009: Carrollton church wins Declaratory Judgment and Permanent Injunction
December 2009: Presbytery forced to release documents
October 2009: Expenses mount
October 2009: Presbytery found in contempt of court
September 2009: Judge orders presbytery to back off
August 2009: Judge issues ‘written reasons’ favoring Carrollton
September 2008: Presbytery votes to aggressively pursue churches contemplating leaving
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So, as I read this, there seems to be no recourse toward Mark Tamman. Should he not have to bear part of the punishment for his leading in this process. The Presbytery received sanctions, but not the direct counsel, and now he is in leadership in another area of the church? No one seems to find trust a hard thing to have with someone who did this? If I was in the Presbytery of Long Island, I would request resignation or at least a leave of absence for the bettering of the Presbytery and the Church as a whole. There needs to be a period of rebuke and correction, prior to placing him back into leadership within the denomination.
As I perused through some of these emails, one piece of Scripture came to mind – repeatedly. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men….” – Colossians 3:23. And I can’t help but wonder, what if… everything everyone did in this situation was being done for the Lord, for His glory, for the benefit of the church He established. What if. Clearly, reading the emails, Jesus and our witness to him seems to be the farthest thing from anyone’s mind.
In all fairness, we are not given the emails that surely were passed around in the Carrollton camp. I wonder if they were more Christ centered than the group that has been released? And I know lawyers will be lawyers (I’m thankful that they have the abilities they have). But still. This whole batch of emails shows a group of people operating from an almost fleshly point of view. And with some of them being top denominational leaders, it is quite striking. And disappointing.
Here’s my point. What if all parties involved in these disputes (and they are growing daily in number) took a deep breath and truly prayerfully considered that they are truly working for the Lord. What would this look like?
*Would we then seriously consider where Jesus is in the dispute?
*Would we then seriously consider what is best for the local church community’s witness to the grace, love and truth of Jesus?
*Would we then seriously consider what is best for the denomination’s witness to the grace, love and truth of Jesus?
*Would we ultimately consider what is best for Jesus and the people we portend to be reaching in his name?
*Might we decide to work together for the sake of gospel in whatever we do? Placing fleshly desires behind?
Clearly presented before us is a massive failing; but we the people have failed Christ so many times. And you know what, he loves us anyway. May we learn from this huge mistake. May His love be shown in all we do.