Nonprofit Law for Religious Organizations: Essential Questions & Answers is a hands-on guide to the most pertinent and critical legal issues facing those who lead and manage religious tax-exempt organizations with an emphasis on tax, employment, property and constitutional law. This timely book is a response to the need for guidance, direction, and clarification of legal and tax laws affecting churches and other religious organizations.

Offering extensive international and comparative law materials, as well as discussion of key United States First Amendment cases, international experts Durham and Scharffs bring vision and scope to the study of Law and Religion. The text and its continually updated online Supplement support courses on Law and Religion, Church and State, International Human Rights, Comparative Constitutional Law, and First Amendment. New to the Second Edition: ¿ National: Recent U.S. court cases and legislative moves dealing with religion in conflict with anti- discrimination norms, including immigration; same-sex marriage; and conscientious objection by religious organizations, government officials, pharmacies, businesses (including “wedding vendors”) to providing products, services, and insurance benefits in violation of religious beliefs ¿ International: Landmark religion cases in Canada, Europe, and Asia involving such issues as women’s rights, law school accreditation, display of religious symbols and wearing of face coverings in public (including schools); persecution of religious minorities, including prosecution for blasphemy; discussion of new levels of and responses to religious extremism ¿ Comparative: Discussions across multiple jurisdictions of such issues as education, tax, government regulation of religion, and women’s issues, such as genital cutting (worldwide, including U.S.) and divorce (“triple talaq” in India, Shari’a arbitration in Canada, and Shari’a councils in the U.K.) Professors and students will benefit from: ¿ Traditional law and religion course coverage of U.S. materials, including the major Free Exercise and Establishment Clause cases ¿ Comparative law cases and materials reflecting more than fifty countries and regions, and which include corporal punishment; compelled patriotic observances; state funding of religions; autonomy of religious organizations to choose personnel and provide services; conscientious objection in the military and in personal, employment, and educational settings; parameters of speech regulation, including hate speech and speech that offends religious sensibilities; anti- conversion laws; the rights of women in tension with religious claims of exclusion and divorce practices; and much more ¿ International law materials, including: o Key international and regional human rights instruments; 87 cases from the European Court of Human Rights; and key decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the United Nations Human Rights Committee o Cases covering issues such as the right to register religious associations; headscarves and face coverings; religious slaughter for kosher and halal foods; exemptions from church taxes; conscientious objection; proselytizing; religious oaths; church autonomy; religious education; and conflicts arising between religious freedom and other human rights (e.g., women's rights, rights of indigenous peoples, sexual minorities, and children's rights) o Responses from inside and outside the Muslim world to the rise of violent Islamist extremism ¿ Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and other perspectives on freedom of religion, touching on defamation of religion; the new constitution of Iraq; religious political parties in Turkey; the definition of being Jewish for rights of citizenship in Israel; the right of Muslim and Hindu women to enter sacred space in India; death sentences and extra-judicial lynching for perceived violation of blasphemy laws in Pakistan; and reactions of governments, including the government of Russia, to perceived religious extremism

And academics in religious studies. Students studying law and religion courses. Leaders and engaged members of churches and religious organizations.

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 institution. 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.

Written for lawyers representing religious organizations and other professional administrators who serve religious organizations on a volunteer basis, this guidebook focuses on the daily business activities of a religious organization, such as its status and obligations as an employer; creating and use of materials in programs; fund raising activities; liability for and to volunteers' public liability, and much more.