Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co., a major insurer of churches all over the country, has denied coverage to Michigan's West Adrian United Church of Christ, citing the national governing body of the church's support of gay marriage and ordination for gay ministers.
"Based on national media reports, controversial stances such as those indicated in your application responses have resulted in property damage and the potential for increased litigation among churches that have chosen to publicly endorse these positions," the insurer wrote to the church.
But consider this: The church's pastor says he knows of no acts of, or even threats of, violence against the church. And the church is actually among those that declined to support a resolution by its governing body affirming gay rights!
It's hard to know what's going on here. The insurer appears to be within its legal rights to deny coverage based on its own standards, but neither Church Mutual Insurance Co. nor GuideOne Insurance even ask about churches' stances on gay rights when deciding whether to offer policies.
Religious organizations are important social institutions, and it's bad news for America that law-abiding institutions are being denied coverage based on their stances -- or their governing body's stances -- on social issues. Churches were a leading force behind the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and should be a leading voice in similar struggles today. But that will be tough if they can't get insurance.
I'd like to see other religious institutions cancel their policies with Brotherhood until it implements a policy not to to deny coverage based on stances on gay rights.
If you want to let Brotherhood Mutual Insurance know what you think, contact them on their website.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-12-2008 @ 2:02AM
Mr. Grieves said...
You slipped up on an important fact. You referred to the church that was denied coverage as "law abiding." By Michigan state law, sodomy is illegal and gay marriage is illegal, thus making them not law abiding. A business not only has the right, but has the obligation to distance itself from giving money to organizations that could potentially get themselves in legal trouble for breaking the law. Have you noticed that the fact that gay marriage is illegal in Michigan isn't showing up in these "news" articles?
-Mr. Grieves