By Lacie Pierson, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.V.a. — The West Virginia Senate on Tuesday adopted a resolution that would allow churches in the state to become corporations, if they so choose.
The Senate adopted Senate Joint Resolution 4 by a margin of 32-0 with two senators absent.
The resolution is in response to a ruling in a case in federal district court in Virginia, where a federal judge found that it was a violation of a church’s First Amendment rights to prevent it from incorporating if it was the will of church leaders to do so.
The case was a challenge by the late Jerry Falwell Sr. in his role as pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Falwell sued Virginia State Corporation Commission Chairman Clinton Miller in 2002 over a provision in the Virginia Constitution that didn’t allow churches to incorporate…
