Ables v. Garner

• Decision Date: 10 March 1952
• Docket Number: No. 4-9701,4-9701
• Citation: 220 Ark. 211,246 S.W.2d 732
• Parties: ABLES et al. v. GARNER et al.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 732

246 S.W.2d 732

220 Ark. 211

ABLES et al. v. GARNER et al.

No. 4-9701.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

March 10, 1952.

James M. Rowan, Jr., and L. B. Smead, Camden, for appellants.

W. C. Medley, Hampton, for appellees.

GRIFFIN SMITH, Chief Justice.

The controversy involves church property at Cullendale estimated to be worth from $10,000 to $13,000. Included is the Baptist church building erected on land purchased in 1944. At that time members of the Landmark [or Missionary] Baptist Church organized the Immanuel [Missionary] Baptist Church with Clyde Leslie as pastor. Two lots desirable as a building site were bought for $400. Due to the fact that the projected church was without ordained deacons title to the lots was taken in Leslie's name, but admittedly the church membership, or the inchoate organization, supplied the funds. Leslie had no beneficial interest in the transaction.

In May, 1945, Leslie quitclaimed to a newly ordained board of deacons, but the grant was to those named as deacons '* * * of Immanuel [Missionary] Baptist Church of Cullendale, Ark., [known as Landmark Baptist Church] cooperating in and affiliating with the American Baptist Association and the Arkansas Missionary Baptist Association and to the successors of said deacons, including all deacons holding membership in the Immanuel [Missionary] Baptist Church, provided they hold to the doctrines, principles, and practices that the two above Associations now hold'. On the deed there was the following writing: 'In case of division of affiliation the property falls into the hands of those holding to the principles of the American Baptist Association'.

There is testimony that in 1945 Baptist churches known as Landmark, or Missionary, were nearly all affiliated with the American Baptist Association--at that time, according to witnesses, the only national association. As an outgrowth of different religious thought, some of long standing, factional cleavage occurred.

In spite of divergent views, doctrinal beliefs, and impressive observations by Baptist leaders, a point upon which all Baptists appear to be in unison is that each church is independent of any external authority in respect of its own affairs; and further, [says Dr. Henry Clay Vedder, the well known Baptist church historian ¹ they draw a corollary which may be reckoned an undisputed common principle--that church and state should be absolutely separate.

This brings us to a consideration of the controverted rights in the case at bar.

In appellees' brief it is stated that the restrictive clause in the deed was placed there to prevent the property from falling into the hands of the Southern Baptist Convention or any Baptist organization not in harmony with the Landmark or Missionary Baptist Church. Testimony to this effect was given by Bro. Leslie, who considered that those comprising the existing board of deacons were adhering to the principles referred to in the deed. This belief was reasserted on cross-examination, but it was qualified to some extent, the modification being that if a Baptist church fails to send messengers to the American Baptist Association he would not consider that the church was affiliated with the association. The Cullendale Church, he said, sent messengers to the North American Baptist Association as observers, but they did not vote. He also testified that the church minutes, wherein action regarding reservations in the grant were authorized, did not correspond with what was written on the back of the deed.

It will be seen that the American Baptist Association is an entity separate and distinct from the North American Baptist Association.

The Chancellor found (1) that the Cullendale organization was congregational, self-contained, and wholly independent in matters affecting its status as a church; (2) that incidental conduct of the church, such as the designation of messengers as observers and their attendance when the North Association convened, and conduct of the church in purchasing or in not purchasing particular literature,--these were not such departures from the faith entertained by the acting body as to justify civil interference with property rights. Therefore, said the court, Immanuel [Missionary] Baptist Church at Cullendale could not be judicially restrained from...