Bethesda University

Bethesda University, located in Anaheim, California, is a private accredited Christian school founded in 1976 and approved by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education of the State of California. From the beginning, the university was founded on Pentecostal theology which shapes the mission and educational goals of the school.

In early 2022, an internal dispute arose among the school’s board of directors. The president of the university wanted several board positions to be filled by non-Pentecostal members.  He therefore deceived the school’s board into appointing these non-Pentecostal members under the guise that doing so was necessary for the school to retain its accreditation. The rest of Bethesda’s leadership later objected, concerned that Bethesda’s very identity as a Pentecostal institution was at stake, because its board retains ultimate power to determine the religious principles and policies governing every aspect of its operations and instruction. Ultimately, the board dismissed the president from his position. He then filed a lawsuit, and a California trial court conducted a hearing under the Corporations Code to determine which group of board members should lead Bethesda.

The California Court of Appeal held that this Pentecostal organization’s foundational documents permit non-Pentecostsals to occupy some of the highest leadership positions despite the school’s religious requirements for those positions. The court waded—or perhaps more accurately dove headfirst—into the forbidden waters of adjudicating on religious doctrine. The court claimed to apply “neutral principles” to choose one side over the other, but it nevertheless determined the leadership and doctrinal direction of a religious institution. This decision improperly entangled the court in religious controversy in violation of the First Amendment. The decision also ignored constitutional doctrines that should have enabled the court to avoid such entanglement.

“How religious organizations choose to operate is a sacred right protected by the First Amendment,” said First Liberty Institute Senior Counsel, Jeremy Dys. “Religious institutions have the right to freely choose who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, carry out their mission, or lead their organization without courts interfering.”

This is an important case for all religious organizations. Secular courts are categorically prohibited by the First Amendment from involving themselves in the mission of religious organizations. If a court can evaluate the religious character of Bethesda University, it can also tell the local church who it must hire to preach their beliefs and allow outsiders to direct the mission of the church, regardless if it is out of step with the religious doctrines of the church. The First Amendment has already struck that balance in favor of church autonomy.

The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that courts are barred from adjudicating church leadership disputes.  Over 70 years ago in Kedroff v. St. Nicholas Cathedral of Russian Orthodox Church in North America, the Court stated that religious institutions have the fundamental right “to decide for themselves, free from state interference, matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.”

In November, First Liberty Institute and Greenberg Traurig LLP submitted a petition to the Supreme Court of the United States, asking it to hear this case.