Obamacare Forcing Insurance Companies to Cover Hundreds of Planned Parenthoods
When Congress approved Obamacare, pro-life groups warned the abortion industry would benefit. Now that the implementation stage of Obamacare is in full swing, new reports show hundreds of Planned Parenthood abortion businesses will be covered under it....
Ohio: Obamacare To Increase Individual-Market Health Premiums By 88 Percent
Democrats continue to try to dismiss the evidence that Obamacare will dramatically increase the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own. But on Thursday, the Ohio Department of Insurance announced that, based on the rates submitted by insurers to date, the average individual-market health insurance premium in 2014 will come in around $420, “representing an increase of 88 percent” relative to 2013. “We have warned of these increases,” said Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor in a statement. “Consumers will have fewer choices and pay much higher premiums for their health insurance starting in 2014.”...
The Obama administration has decided to stop trying to block over-the-counter availability of the best-known morning-after contraceptive pill for all women and girls, a move fraught with political repercussions for President Obama.
The government’s decision means that any woman or girl will soon be able to walk into a drugstore and buy the pill, Plan B One-Step, without a prescription...
The New England Patriots Are The Right Team For Tim Tebow
ESPN is reporting that Tim Tebow was signed by the New England Patriots today and will report to the team’s minicamp as early as tomorrow....
On taxpayers’ tab: Muslim prayer room, foot baths at San Fran International Airport
California taxpayers have footed the bill for Muslim airport cabbies to have their very own prayer room and foot baths at the San Francisco International Airport.
Botched Abortion Leaves Baby’s Head Inside Mother’s Womb, Lawsuit Filed
Gravely v. Stephens, filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court, alleges that 26 year-old Gravely changed her mind before the abortion process began when Women’s Health Center could not provide her with adequate anesthesia. Ignoring her pain and instructions to not begin the abortion procedure, Stephens directed employees to physically restrain Gravely and proceeded with the abortion.
Recorded: IRS Agent Telling Non-Profit To Keep Faith To Themselves
"You cannot force your religion or force your beliefs on somebody else…. You have to know your boundaries. You have to know your limits. You have to respect other people’s beliefs."
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Monday, June 10, 2013
A.S. Haley: Federal Judge Returns South Carolina Case to State Court
Monday, June 10, 2013
In a thoroughly researched and well-reasoned opinion released today, Senior District Judge C. Weston Houck of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division, ordered that the trademark infringement and declaratory relief action -- originally brought in State court by Bishop Mark Lawrence's Diocese and its parishes, but "removed" to federal court by the Episcopal Church in South Carolina -- be returned to State court for further adjudication. Judge Houck's order finds that there is no basis upon which any federal court could assert original jurisdiction over the claims asserted in the Lawrence complaint.
The order is a veritable model of how to proceed in analyzing and dissecting opposing arguments, and then applying the law to the facts so discerned. Judge Houck begins by describing the parties to the dispute: the plaintiff Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, a non-profit religious corporation organized under South Carolina law in 1973; the plaintiff Trustees, also a non-profit corporation organized under South Carolina law in 1902 for the purpose of holding title to real property of the Diocese; and the thirty-five plaintiff parishes, each of which is a separate religious corporation under South Carolina law. the rest
In a thoroughly researched and well-reasoned opinion released today, Senior District Judge C. Weston Houck of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division, ordered that the trademark infringement and declaratory relief action -- originally brought in State court by Bishop Mark Lawrence's Diocese and its parishes, but "removed" to federal court by the Episcopal Church in South Carolina -- be returned to State court for further adjudication. Judge Houck's order finds that there is no basis upon which any federal court could assert original jurisdiction over the claims asserted in the Lawrence complaint.
The order is a veritable model of how to proceed in analyzing and dissecting opposing arguments, and then applying the law to the facts so discerned. Judge Houck begins by describing the parties to the dispute: the plaintiff Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, a non-profit religious corporation organized under South Carolina law in 1973; the plaintiff Trustees, also a non-profit corporation organized under South Carolina law in 1902 for the purpose of holding title to real property of the Diocese; and the thirty-five plaintiff parishes, each of which is a separate religious corporation under South Carolina law. the rest
Scrolling around...June 10, 2013
Military told not to read Obama-scandal news
McGee continued, “I am outraged that our government is attempting to censor the information from our military that every citizen in this country is potentially being targeted by our government in a massive overreach of their constitutional powers by unconstitutional surveillance of all Americans and storage of that data.”
Number of lone parents rising by 20,000 a year
...The increase is not being fuelled by divorce but by the surge in cohabitation, the report states. Since 1996, the number of people cohabiting has doubled to nearly six million but cohabiting parents are three times more likely than married couples to separate by the time a child is five, the report states.
The number of lone parents increase by almost a quarter between 1996 and 2012 to just under two million adults, mostly women.
Britain has one of the highest rates of family breakdown in the developed world, with a quarter of families with dependent children being headed by a lone parent...
Why an NFL Player Skipped a White House Visit
Retired Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk, who won a Super Bowl with the team last year, skipped the team’s visit to the White House due to President Obama’s support for Planned Parenthood.
“I have great respect for the office of the presidency but about five or six weeks ago, our president made a comment in a speech and he said, ‘God bless Planned Parenthood,’” Birk, a former Minnesota Viking, told a local Minnesota sports blog. “I’m very confused by [Obama's] statement,” he explained. “”For God to bless a place where they’re ending 330,000 lives a year? I just chose not to attend.”...
Report: Homeschooling Growing Seven Times Faster than Public School Enrollment
As dissatisfaction with the U.S. public school system grows, apparently so has the appeal of homeschooling. Educational researchers, in fact, are expecting a surge in the number of students educated at home by their parents over the next ten years, as more parents reject public schools.
A recent report in Education News states that, since 1999, the number of children who are homeschooled has increased by 75%. Though homeschooled children represent only 4% of all school-age children nationwide, the number of children whose parents choose to educate them at home rather than a traditional academic setting is growing seven times faster than the number of children enrolling in grades K-12 every year.
As homeschooling has become increasingly popular, common myths that have long been associated with the practice of homeschooling have been debunked...
A Map of American Speech
New Age Woman Goes "Breatharian," Tries to Survive on Water and Light
...She said she'll stop her little experiment if she's not thriving. Hmmm. What about weakness, throwing up, dizziness, frozen hands, and sleeping half the day sounds like thriving to you?...
New bestseller in Norway is the Bible-secular nation turns to religious reading
A sudden burst of interest in God's word has meant that the Bible has become a best-seller in Norway, overtaking Fifty Shades Of Grey.
In a surprising move in what is one of the most secular nations in Europe, a new Norwegian language version of the Scriptures has become the country's best-selling book.
The country's fascination with God's message has also spread to the stage, with a six-hour play called 'Bibelen,' Norwegian for 'the Bible,' drawing crowds of 16,000 in a three-month run that recently ended at one of Oslo's most prominent theatres...
What If China Hacks the NSA's Massive Data Trove?
The danger of creating data sets that would permit a foreign government or non-state actor to wreak havoc on Americans...
McGee continued, “I am outraged that our government is attempting to censor the information from our military that every citizen in this country is potentially being targeted by our government in a massive overreach of their constitutional powers by unconstitutional surveillance of all Americans and storage of that data.”
Number of lone parents rising by 20,000 a year
...The increase is not being fuelled by divorce but by the surge in cohabitation, the report states. Since 1996, the number of people cohabiting has doubled to nearly six million but cohabiting parents are three times more likely than married couples to separate by the time a child is five, the report states.
The number of lone parents increase by almost a quarter between 1996 and 2012 to just under two million adults, mostly women.
Britain has one of the highest rates of family breakdown in the developed world, with a quarter of families with dependent children being headed by a lone parent...
Why an NFL Player Skipped a White House Visit
Retired Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk, who won a Super Bowl with the team last year, skipped the team’s visit to the White House due to President Obama’s support for Planned Parenthood.
“I have great respect for the office of the presidency but about five or six weeks ago, our president made a comment in a speech and he said, ‘God bless Planned Parenthood,’” Birk, a former Minnesota Viking, told a local Minnesota sports blog. “I’m very confused by [Obama's] statement,” he explained. “”For God to bless a place where they’re ending 330,000 lives a year? I just chose not to attend.”...
Report: Homeschooling Growing Seven Times Faster than Public School Enrollment
As dissatisfaction with the U.S. public school system grows, apparently so has the appeal of homeschooling. Educational researchers, in fact, are expecting a surge in the number of students educated at home by their parents over the next ten years, as more parents reject public schools.
A recent report in Education News states that, since 1999, the number of children who are homeschooled has increased by 75%. Though homeschooled children represent only 4% of all school-age children nationwide, the number of children whose parents choose to educate them at home rather than a traditional academic setting is growing seven times faster than the number of children enrolling in grades K-12 every year.
As homeschooling has become increasingly popular, common myths that have long been associated with the practice of homeschooling have been debunked...
A Map of American Speech
New Age Woman Goes "Breatharian," Tries to Survive on Water and Light
...She said she'll stop her little experiment if she's not thriving. Hmmm. What about weakness, throwing up, dizziness, frozen hands, and sleeping half the day sounds like thriving to you?...
New bestseller in Norway is the Bible-secular nation turns to religious reading
A sudden burst of interest in God's word has meant that the Bible has become a best-seller in Norway, overtaking Fifty Shades Of Grey.
In a surprising move in what is one of the most secular nations in Europe, a new Norwegian language version of the Scriptures has become the country's best-selling book.
The country's fascination with God's message has also spread to the stage, with a six-hour play called 'Bibelen,' Norwegian for 'the Bible,' drawing crowds of 16,000 in a three-month run that recently ended at one of Oslo's most prominent theatres...
What If China Hacks the NSA's Massive Data Trove?
The danger of creating data sets that would permit a foreign government or non-state actor to wreak havoc on Americans...
Friday, June 7, 2013
Federal court considers S.C. Episcopal division
posted June 7, 2013
CHARLESTON — Attorneys for two factions of South Carolina Episcopalians made their case Thursday to a federal judge over the proper venue for their legal battle — state or federal court.
In a courtroom jammed with more than two dozen attorneys, U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck heard arguments arising from the Episcopal schism in eastern South Carolina.
Last year, the conservative Diocese of South Carolina separated from the more liberal national Episcopal Church over a variety of theological issues, among them gay marriage and the consecration of homosexual bishops.
It then sued in state court seeking to protect the use of its name and a half billion dollars’ worth of property controlled by its parishes. State Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein later issued an injunction saying only the parishes that left the denomination may use the name the Diocese of South Carolina. the rest
A.S. Haley: Decision Time in South Carolina
Today is the day that Senior Federal District Judge Houck hears oral arguments from counsel on the motion by Bishop Mark Lawrence, his Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and more than three dozen parishes to remand (“send back”) the lawsuit they began last January to South Carolina’s Circuit Court in Dorchester County. I reviewed the history of this increasingly complex litigation in this post, and will not repeat it here.
Essentially, what is at issue on the motion to remand is whether or not the Court can fairly read the Lawrence State court complaint to state a “claim or controversy” under the laws of the United States, so that the case could have been brought initially in the federal Court. One would think that a complaint based only upon State trademark law would be left to the State courts to decide, but ECUSA and its Potemkin diocese saw things differently. ECUSA has not done well in the South Carolina State courts, and so they wanted desperately to have the federal courts take jurisdiction of the dispute over who owns the rights to the name “Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.”
If the judge decides to keep the case in his court, then it will be consolidated with the federal lawsuit begun by Bishop vonRosenberg against Mark Lawrence personally, under the federal trademark law (called the “Lanham Act”). But if he does not—if Judge Houck sends Bishop Lawrence’s case back to State court, then look for him to stay the Lanham Act lawsuit until the State court resolves the trademark issues first (since that lawsuit was filed first)....
CHARLESTON — Attorneys for two factions of South Carolina Episcopalians made their case Thursday to a federal judge over the proper venue for their legal battle — state or federal court.
In a courtroom jammed with more than two dozen attorneys, U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck heard arguments arising from the Episcopal schism in eastern South Carolina.
Last year, the conservative Diocese of South Carolina separated from the more liberal national Episcopal Church over a variety of theological issues, among them gay marriage and the consecration of homosexual bishops.
It then sued in state court seeking to protect the use of its name and a half billion dollars’ worth of property controlled by its parishes. State Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein later issued an injunction saying only the parishes that left the denomination may use the name the Diocese of South Carolina. the rest
A.S. Haley: Decision Time in South Carolina
Today is the day that Senior Federal District Judge Houck hears oral arguments from counsel on the motion by Bishop Mark Lawrence, his Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and more than three dozen parishes to remand (“send back”) the lawsuit they began last January to South Carolina’s Circuit Court in Dorchester County. I reviewed the history of this increasingly complex litigation in this post, and will not repeat it here.
Essentially, what is at issue on the motion to remand is whether or not the Court can fairly read the Lawrence State court complaint to state a “claim or controversy” under the laws of the United States, so that the case could have been brought initially in the federal Court. One would think that a complaint based only upon State trademark law would be left to the State courts to decide, but ECUSA and its Potemkin diocese saw things differently. ECUSA has not done well in the South Carolina State courts, and so they wanted desperately to have the federal courts take jurisdiction of the dispute over who owns the rights to the name “Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.”
If the judge decides to keep the case in his court, then it will be consolidated with the federal lawsuit begun by Bishop vonRosenberg against Mark Lawrence personally, under the federal trademark law (called the “Lanham Act”). But if he does not—if Judge Houck sends Bishop Lawrence’s case back to State court, then look for him to stay the Lanham Act lawsuit until the State court resolves the trademark issues first (since that lawsuit was filed first)....
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Scrolling around...June 6, 2013
Jury awards $170,000 to lesbian Catholic school teacher sacked after artificial insemination
Dias is not Catholic. She is, however, a lesbian and it seems obvious that she underwent artificial insemination so that she could have a child without entering into a traditional marriage.
WHO expert team, including Canadian, in Saudi investigating MERS outbreak
The mission is an attempt to find answers to some of the many questions that persist about the puzzling new MERS virus.
More than a year after the first known infections occurred, the world still has no idea where the virus lives in nature, how people are contracting it, how often and under what conditions person-to-person spread occur and whether the genetic sequences of the viruses suggest they are evolving to infect people more easily. U.S. Says Deadly MERS Virus Could Affect Nat’l Security
Boy Scouts: Sending up the White Flag
...You were also the last public institution whose mission was specifically directed to the moral, educational, and social health of boys. It is no surprise that when boys and girls are taught at home, the boys prove to be quite teachable; they do not fail, as they do in our schools. That is not because homeschooling is particularly beneficial to boys, but because our schools have become pernicious to them...
Transgender bill in Canadian Senate will open door to normalizing pedophilia, women’s org warns
“This devious manipulation, using the smokescreen of the transgendered bill to expand legal protection for other problematic sexual activities, is unacceptable as it is contrary to all democratic principles and to the health and safety of Canadian citizens.”
How the Supreme Court Gave Us Gosnell
...Thus, forty years after Gosnell opened his clinic, the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to approve health and safety regulations governing first- or second-trimester abortions, leaving many women exposed to unnecessary risks. First Things
Dolan: Cuomo Bill May Decriminalize Forced Abortions
Embryonic stem cells: Where are the cures?
Thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of lives killed under microscopes.
Not one cure.
Not one apology.
JI Packer: The Gentle Temeraire
...His latest book, Weakness is the Way, is a case in point. It is a fine volume; but I wonder how may of us will really take seriously its message. This brief volume offers some reflections on 2 Corinthians, Paul's letter of weakness. As a man in his late eighties, Packer is physically weak and becoming weaker by the day. It makes him perfectly positioned to write such a book. A younger man, even a man on the cusp of middle age, will probably not have the sensitivity to his own decline that comes naturally to one in his eighties. Dr. Packer clearly feels the gently encroaching presence of his own mortality, as is made clear in the moving video which Crossway have made to promote the book.
This work speaks eloquently of how God uses weakness; and, indeed, of how Christians are to make themselves weak in order for God to be shown to be truly strong. Herein lies the difference between the much-trumpeted theology of the cross and a theologian of the cross. A theology of the cross can simply be a way of thinking, an intellectual technique; as such it can ironically be found on the lips of a theologian of glory if it is simply his sales pitch, his means of drawing attention to himself, of honing a hip patois. Recent days have indeed seen the theology of the cross used by some as a kind of triumphalism; yet for Packer, as for Paul and for Luther, it is a means of seeing through present pain and affliction and the existentially painful contradictions of life to the glories of the resurrection - glories which are real despite their utter invisibility to human experience here and now. A theologian of the cross combines a cross-shaped way of thinking with a cross-shaped way of living, not escaping from pain and weakness but looking through such and that only by God-given faith....
Dept. of Homeland Security: Laptops, Phones Can Be Searched Based on Hunches
...Since his election, President Barack Obama has taken an expansive view of legal authorities in the name of national security, asserting that he can order the deaths of U.S. citizens abroad who are suspected of terrorism without involvement by courts, investigate reporters as criminals and — in this case — read and copy the contents of computers carried by U.S. travelers without a good reason to suspect wrongdoing...
NSA's Verizon Spying Order Specifically Targeted Americans, Not Foreigners
The National Security Agency has long justified its spying powers by arguing that its charter allows surveillance on those outside of the United States, while avoiding intrusions into the private communications of American citizens. But the latest revelation of the extent of the NSA’s surveillance shows that it has focused specifically on Americans, to the degree that its data collection has in at least one major spying incident explicitly excluded those outside the United States...
Obamacare law's unpopularity reaches new highs
...For individuals, the current poll also finds 38 percent of respondents saying that they (and their families) will be worse off under the health care law. That’s the highest percentage of respondents to express a negative outlook toward “Obamacare” since 2010, when the president signed this signature piece of legislation into law following an extended, bruising battle in Congress...
Dias is not Catholic. She is, however, a lesbian and it seems obvious that she underwent artificial insemination so that she could have a child without entering into a traditional marriage.
WHO expert team, including Canadian, in Saudi investigating MERS outbreak
The mission is an attempt to find answers to some of the many questions that persist about the puzzling new MERS virus.
More than a year after the first known infections occurred, the world still has no idea where the virus lives in nature, how people are contracting it, how often and under what conditions person-to-person spread occur and whether the genetic sequences of the viruses suggest they are evolving to infect people more easily. U.S. Says Deadly MERS Virus Could Affect Nat’l Security
Boy Scouts: Sending up the White Flag
...You were also the last public institution whose mission was specifically directed to the moral, educational, and social health of boys. It is no surprise that when boys and girls are taught at home, the boys prove to be quite teachable; they do not fail, as they do in our schools. That is not because homeschooling is particularly beneficial to boys, but because our schools have become pernicious to them...
Transgender bill in Canadian Senate will open door to normalizing pedophilia, women’s org warns
“This devious manipulation, using the smokescreen of the transgendered bill to expand legal protection for other problematic sexual activities, is unacceptable as it is contrary to all democratic principles and to the health and safety of Canadian citizens.”
How the Supreme Court Gave Us Gosnell
...Thus, forty years after Gosnell opened his clinic, the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to approve health and safety regulations governing first- or second-trimester abortions, leaving many women exposed to unnecessary risks. First Things
Dolan: Cuomo Bill May Decriminalize Forced Abortions
Embryonic stem cells: Where are the cures?
Thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of lives killed under microscopes.
Not one cure.
Not one apology.
JI Packer: The Gentle Temeraire
...His latest book, Weakness is the Way, is a case in point. It is a fine volume; but I wonder how may of us will really take seriously its message. This brief volume offers some reflections on 2 Corinthians, Paul's letter of weakness. As a man in his late eighties, Packer is physically weak and becoming weaker by the day. It makes him perfectly positioned to write such a book. A younger man, even a man on the cusp of middle age, will probably not have the sensitivity to his own decline that comes naturally to one in his eighties. Dr. Packer clearly feels the gently encroaching presence of his own mortality, as is made clear in the moving video which Crossway have made to promote the book.
This work speaks eloquently of how God uses weakness; and, indeed, of how Christians are to make themselves weak in order for God to be shown to be truly strong. Herein lies the difference between the much-trumpeted theology of the cross and a theologian of the cross. A theology of the cross can simply be a way of thinking, an intellectual technique; as such it can ironically be found on the lips of a theologian of glory if it is simply his sales pitch, his means of drawing attention to himself, of honing a hip patois. Recent days have indeed seen the theology of the cross used by some as a kind of triumphalism; yet for Packer, as for Paul and for Luther, it is a means of seeing through present pain and affliction and the existentially painful contradictions of life to the glories of the resurrection - glories which are real despite their utter invisibility to human experience here and now. A theologian of the cross combines a cross-shaped way of thinking with a cross-shaped way of living, not escaping from pain and weakness but looking through such and that only by God-given faith....
Dept. of Homeland Security: Laptops, Phones Can Be Searched Based on Hunches
...Since his election, President Barack Obama has taken an expansive view of legal authorities in the name of national security, asserting that he can order the deaths of U.S. citizens abroad who are suspected of terrorism without involvement by courts, investigate reporters as criminals and — in this case — read and copy the contents of computers carried by U.S. travelers without a good reason to suspect wrongdoing...
NSA's Verizon Spying Order Specifically Targeted Americans, Not Foreigners
The National Security Agency has long justified its spying powers by arguing that its charter allows surveillance on those outside of the United States, while avoiding intrusions into the private communications of American citizens. But the latest revelation of the extent of the NSA’s surveillance shows that it has focused specifically on Americans, to the degree that its data collection has in at least one major spying incident explicitly excluded those outside the United States...
Obamacare law's unpopularity reaches new highs
...For individuals, the current poll also finds 38 percent of respondents saying that they (and their families) will be worse off under the health care law. That’s the highest percentage of respondents to express a negative outlook toward “Obamacare” since 2010, when the president signed this signature piece of legislation into law following an extended, bruising battle in Congress...
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Spring garden
Raymond took this lovely photo of the view of part of our garden along the driveway. -PD
SC: Pensions come into question as Episcopal churches split
CHARLESTON, SC
June 3, 2013
The retirement savings of more than 80 non-clergy employees of the Diocese of South Carolina and its parishes are being held hostage by their former pension plan at the Episcopal Church (TEC).
The lay employees have been trying to arrange for the rollover of their retirement savings since February, when they first contacted the Church Pension Group, which provides retirement, health and other benefits to employees of The Episcopal Church, its parishes, dioceses and other institutions. The employees became eligible to rollover their funds into another qualified plan when their employer, the Diocese or the parishes that voted to disassociate from the denomination, officially ceased to be employed by any organization or parish affiliated with TEC.
In mid-March, the Diocese's pension administrator Nancy Armstrong began correspondence with TEC's Church Pension Group administrator to notify it that several Diocese employees would soon begin the rollover process. After numerous emails back and forth, Frederick Beaver, a senior vice president with the Church Pension Group, informed Armstrong that protecting TEC's pension plans is "paramount" and said he would contact her when he has "definitive legal responses." Here
SC Episcopal diocese alleges retirement savings held hostage
...Church Pension Group issued a statement Tuesday saying it is trying to ensure that clergy and employees in parishes that have left The Episcopal Church have access to their funds, in accordance with federal laws.
"In doing so, we are following protocols required by the Internal Revenue Code to avoid any adverse consequences for the participants in the plans," the statement said. "We expect to complete this process shortly. In the meantime, all funds remain invested in the options selected by these employees, and all accounts are fully viewable on (a) website."
Lewis said he has consulted lawyers for the diocese and is unaware of any legal issues precluding employees from rolling over their plans. He believes that preventing employees from doing so could be illegal. Communication between the diocese and Church Pension Group has dropped off, Lewis said.
"We're in the dark, and it feels like rather incommunicado at this point, which is why we're making this situation publicly known, since there seems to be no other way," Lewis said...
Episcopal Church Holding Retirement Accounts 'Hostage
June 3, 2013
The retirement savings of more than 80 non-clergy employees of the Diocese of South Carolina and its parishes are being held hostage by their former pension plan at the Episcopal Church (TEC).
The lay employees have been trying to arrange for the rollover of their retirement savings since February, when they first contacted the Church Pension Group, which provides retirement, health and other benefits to employees of The Episcopal Church, its parishes, dioceses and other institutions. The employees became eligible to rollover their funds into another qualified plan when their employer, the Diocese or the parishes that voted to disassociate from the denomination, officially ceased to be employed by any organization or parish affiliated with TEC.
In mid-March, the Diocese's pension administrator Nancy Armstrong began correspondence with TEC's Church Pension Group administrator to notify it that several Diocese employees would soon begin the rollover process. After numerous emails back and forth, Frederick Beaver, a senior vice president with the Church Pension Group, informed Armstrong that protecting TEC's pension plans is "paramount" and said he would contact her when he has "definitive legal responses." Here
SC Episcopal diocese alleges retirement savings held hostage
...Church Pension Group issued a statement Tuesday saying it is trying to ensure that clergy and employees in parishes that have left The Episcopal Church have access to their funds, in accordance with federal laws.
"In doing so, we are following protocols required by the Internal Revenue Code to avoid any adverse consequences for the participants in the plans," the statement said. "We expect to complete this process shortly. In the meantime, all funds remain invested in the options selected by these employees, and all accounts are fully viewable on (a) website."
Lewis said he has consulted lawyers for the diocese and is unaware of any legal issues precluding employees from rolling over their plans. He believes that preventing employees from doing so could be illegal. Communication between the diocese and Church Pension Group has dropped off, Lewis said.
"We're in the dark, and it feels like rather incommunicado at this point, which is why we're making this situation publicly known, since there seems to be no other way," Lewis said...
Episcopal Church Holding Retirement Accounts 'Hostage
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