Religious Organizations in the United States

This book examines the legal structures within which religious organizations conduct their activities. The legal structures of religious organizations encompass not only their corporate organizations, but the many ways employment, property ownership, decisions regarding forms of ministry, and participation in society define a particular instiution. The authors, from a variety of practicing, religious, and scholarly backgrounds, provide a range of perspectives - both practical and theoretical - on these issues. The book fills a void in the current resources, providing a detailed description of policies, identity, and the effect of legal rules on church structures. Contributors include Patricia Carlson, Angela Carmella, Mark Chopko, Carl Esbeck, Patty Gerstenblith, H. Reese Hansen, Donald Hermann, Bernadette Kenny, Douglas Laycock, William Marshall, Martin Marty, John Massad, Patrick Schiltz, Elizabeth Sewell and Rhys Williams.

James A. Serritella is a partner at the law firm of Burke Warren MacKay & Serritella, P.C. Thomas C. Berg is a professor of law at the University of Saint Thomas in Minneapolis School of Law. W. Cole Durham, Jr. is the Susa Young Gates Professor of Law at Brigham Young University School of Law.Edward McGlynn Gaffney, Jr. is a professor of law at Valparaiso University School of Law, and the co-author with Judge John T. Noonan, Jr., of Religious Freedom: History, Cases, and Other Materials on the Interaction of Religion and Government (Foundation, 2001). He served as director of content for the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The Reverend Craig B. Mousin, ombudsman for DePaul University, served as Director of the Center for Church/State Studies at DePaul University College of Law from 1990 to 2001.