## Facts

- Pleasant Green Baptist Church was an unincorporated, independent congregational church whose business was conducted by majority vote of its members.
- Plaintiffs were long-time church members, some former deacons and officers, who sought access to church financial records and an accounting of church assets and property.
- Defendants included the pastor and church leaders who controlled church property and had authority over church bank accounts.
- After plaintiffs filed suit seeking an accounting, church leadership expelled the plaintiffs from membership.
- The trial court granted defendants summary judgment, concluding (1) expulsion eliminated plaintiffs’ standing to seek an accounting and (2) the court could not review the validity of the expulsions because they were ecclesiastical matters barred from judicial review by constitutional religion protections.

## Issues

1. Whether constitutional limits on civil-court involvement in religious matters bar adjudication of a congregational church dispute seeking an accounting and challenging membership expulsions.
2. Whether a court may review, using neutral principles of law, whether expulsions complied with the church’s governing procedures when expulsion is asserted to defeat standing.

## Decision

- The Kansas Supreme Court reversed the summary judgment and remanded.
- The court held the dispute was justiciable to the extent it could be decided by neutral principles of law without resolving questions of doctrine or faith.
- The court ruled the trial court erred by treating expulsion as automatically nonreviewable and by allowing expulsion to conclusively defeat standing without examining validity under neutral principles.

## Legal Principles

- Civil courts may not decide questions of religious doctrine, faith, or purely ecclesiastical discipline.
- For congregational churches, civil courts may apply neutral principles of law (including governing documents and secular rules concerning property and financial control) to determine civil and property rights connected to membership.
- When membership status affects civil rights (such as voting over property or access to an accounting), a court may examine whether membership actions complied with applicable neutral procedures.
- Church officials cannot avoid judicial consideration of membership-linked civil claims merely by expelling the claimants, where the legality of the expulsion itself is subject to neutral-principles review.

## Conclusion

The Kansas Supreme Court held that, in an independent congregational church, courts may evaluate expulsions and related accounting claims under neutral principles of law, and it remanded for proceedings to determine the validity of the expulsions and address the requested accounting without deciding doctrinal questions.


Kennedy v. Gray, 248 Kan. 486, 807 P.2d 670 (Kan. 1991)