COURT: IOWA CHURCH DIDN’T DEFAME

DES MOINES, IOWA The Iowa Supreme Court says an allmale church board’s characterization of female congregants who were pressured into sex with the pastor as sinning “adulteresses” who gave into “temptation” was constitutionally protected religious speech. The court held that members of the Covenant Reformed Church’s board of elders didn’t defame the two women because they were expressing their religious beliefs.

The pastor, who was later removed from the ministry, was convicted of sexual exploitation by a counsellor. Iowa law treats religious leaders as counsellors and bars them from having sexual contact with congregants they’re counselling.