Thirty-eight United Methodist Church congregations in Maryland and West Virginia have sued the Baltimore-Washington Conference and its leader, Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, claiming the regional body is extorting a “financial ransom” of half their church property value as they seek to leave the denomination.
At issue are demands by the conference — the equivalent of a diocese in other denominations — that the churches pay “unfunded pension liabilities” in addition to the property-value payment.
The complaint alleges that the United Methodist Church pension arm, Wespath Benefits and Investments, “has more than $29 Billion in assets,” which the churches say is “more than sufficient” to handle ensuing decades of pension liabilities. They also say the churches have paid annual “apportionments” to the Baltimore-Washington Conference “for decades,” providing “millions of dollars” to the group.
In seeking judicial intervention, the plaintiffs say the Baltimore-Washington Conference — headquartered in Fulton, Maryland — violates their rights to religious free exercise under the Maryland state laws governing corporations and associations. Attorneys representing the churches filed the civil complaint in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court last Monday, and requested a jury trial.
Mark D. Tooley, a longtime Methodist who is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, said Bishop LaTrelle Easterling and the conference “unlike virtually the entire rest of United Methodism in the United States, has made it almost impossible for churches in its jurisdiction of Washington, D.C.; Maryland. and parts of West Virginia to exit the denomination.”
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