“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” Matthew 20:21. “But the ‘conflicting pressures’ exerted by the First Amendment’s free exercise and establishment clauses require courts to walk a fine, and often indistinct, line in adjudicating ownership of church property when hierarchical entities disassociate.” Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth v. The Episcopal Church, No. 18-0438. In this case, which arose from the withdrawal of the Fort Worth Diocese from the national Episcopal organization, the matters at issue were resolved by the laws of Caesar:

“[The Episcopal Church]’s determinations as to which faction is the true diocese loyal to the church and which congregants are in good standing are ecclesiastical determinations to which the courts must defer. But applying neutral principles to the organizational documents, the question of property ownership is not entwined with or settled by those determinations. The Fort Worth Diocese’s identity depends on what its documents say. To that end, the Diocesan Constitution and Canons provided who could make amendments and under what circumstances; none of those circumstances incorporate or rely on an ecclesiastical determination by the national church; and nothing in the diocese’s or national church’s documents precluded amendments rescinding an accession to or affiliation with TEC.”

No. 18-0438 (May 22, 2020).