By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor NEW ORLEANS (LBM) – On July 16, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave Will McRaney, former executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, a procedural victory in his lawsuit against the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention “for intentional interference with business relationships, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” The BCMD is an independent state organization of Baptist churches and the NAMB is a ministry arm of the SBC, an independent national organization of Baptist churches. The BCMD and SBC are considered in good fellowship with one another, but each is an autonomous organization. A federal district judge in Mississippi had dismissed McRaney’s lawsuit in 2019 based on NAMB’s position that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine (also known as the religious autonomy doctrine, which prevents courts from deciding matters of faith such as religious doctrine) protected them from legal action. But a 5th Circuit panel of three judges ruled against this argument for now, stating that McRaney’s lawsuit was ended prematurely by that judge, because it was not clear that this legal principle was indeed … [Read more...]