Posted by:
elderolddog
(
)
Date: December 06, 2023 06:09PM
The guiding principle regarding resignation from a religious organization (including la iglesia mormona) has its cornerstone in the Oklahoma State Supreme Court's decision in GUINN v. The CHURCH OF CHRIST OF COLLINSVILLE, which was handed down on January 17, 1989, with a rehearing denied in May of 1989.
If you're into details, the court's decision can be found at
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14957090786981708632&q=guinn+v.+church+of+christ+of+collinsville&hl=en&as_sdt=2006&as_vis=1The point that the case settled is that a resignation is effective the instant it is received by an appropriate agent of the the religious organization, which includes a bishop and SP or, in the old days, Greg Dodge.
Thus, your resignation was effective when an appropriate official received it, not when you received "confirmation." What, they're going to say you can't resign, or you didn't do it correctly?
What the resignation does, thanks to the Guinn case, is make it actionable, as in, you can sue the bastards if, after proper receipt of the resignation, they do anything that indicates they have any kind of (mystical) control over you.
This was the major point of the cited action: Mariann Guinn, a single woman and member of the defendant's religious organization, was fooling around with a man to whom she was neither plighted nor married.
When the elders of that church, who are also named as defendants in the action, found out about it, they told her to quit it. She didn't, and they confronted her again, telling her that they were going to advise the congregation of the church regarding what a tawdry slut she was for making Jesus cry due to her being so bawdy naughty!.
She wrote a letter and delivered it to them prior to the meeting where the elders planned to out her as a wanton hussy; her letter to them specifically stated she was resigning, and thus, she opined to them her conduct was no longer any consideration of theirs and should not be bruited about to the congregation.
But the elders of her former church very mormonishly decided they weren't subject to such a silly attempt to hide her venality, and one of them took the stand and described her misdeeds.
This was in a small town, and she suffered a public backlash, being labeled an adulterous harlot; smelling salts sales skyrocketed, and she walked around wearing a metaphoric Jezebel sign! Ach du lieber, y quelle domage!
So she sued. The trial court agreed with her position that her resignation made the church elder's revelations to her former congregation pure gossip, which they had no 'right' (obviously they had the power...) to share, and having done so, they were responsible for her suffering. (Don't get me started on rights v. powers!)
The jury agreed with the fallen woman, and she was awarded $205,000 in actual damages and $185,000 in punitive damages, to which the trial court then added $44,737 in prejudgment interest. Nice haul, huh?!
On appeal, an appellate court reversed the judgment on the basis of the perceived standard that temporal courts held no sway over religious institutions. But obviously, the state supreme court felt that what the court of original jurisdiction had done was fine and dandy.
This court verdict is why you hear stories about people attending their Court of Love, and just before the SP hands down the verdict, the guy hands over his letter of resignation. SPs know that they HAVE to stop any further action; they can't hand him the excommunication decree because of the Guinn case.
Well, physically, they can, but that leaves them potentially liable for whatever damages a plaintiff could allege he suffered and get a jury to agree with, not to mention the money it would cost the church to respond to/defend the case.
So... The instant one can prove that an appropriate official of the mormon church received notice of one's resignation, it is effective. If you mail your resignation with proof of receipt added to what you paid to mail it, that's good enough.
Why the church ever started (condescendingly) mailing out 'confirmations' of resignation is suspect, but they are apparently getting away from the formality of days gone by.
And then there's the notion that ghawd never revealed to the prophet just what to do with regard to a member's desire to resign! It's obvious doctrine that if one doesn't follow the gospel path, one is not going to the highest degree of glory.
With this in mind, why resign; ghawd already knows you're not of a mind to follow his commandments... Well, obviously, the point is to create a buffer between you and what church wieners think they're allowed to do in terms of saving you from the consequences of following their orders.
Although turning the garden hose on church representatives still remains a viable option.