Enabling Exit: Religious Association and Membership Contract
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Enabling Exit: Religious Association and Membership Contract Élise Rouméas 1,2 Accepted: 11 August 2020/ # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract
This paper investigates the right of exit from religious associations. The liberal state has a compelling interest in overseeing exit, even if it implies some loss in religious group autonomy. Members should not be bound by rules they find unconscionable. They should be free to leave and able to do so. To enable exit, the paper advocates the use of membership contracts. Religious associations should issue a contract for members working for, residing in, or donating money to the association under a regime of legal exemptions. The membership contract publicises the right of exit and offers a basis for negotiating and contesting its terms. It makes exit less “unthinkable” to members and helps tackle unreasonable economic costs to exit. Keywords Right of exit . Religious association . Contract . Religious group autonomy In a powerful testimony about her years in Opus Dei, María del Carmen Tapia relates her experience of joining the Catholic organisation: “Father Escrivá offered the great adventure”, she recalls, “to give up everything without getting anything in return” (Tapia 1998). And indeed, María decided to bypass her family’s opposition, to break off her engagement with her fiancé, and to give up her job to become a full member (“numerary”) of Opus Dei. Her admission involved a number of formal steps, including a letter requesting admission written to Monsignor Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, a 6-month probation period, vows called “contracts” renewed annually for 5 years, until she finally pronounced her perpetual vows, called “fidelity”. The process of joining Opus Dei was highly formalised; so was the departure. After 18 years of zealous service, María had to write a formal letter of resignation to the Father, after being told that she should “choose to leave”.1 Such formalities failed to guarantee freedom of association. María reports that she underwent significant psychological pressure and, at times, physical coercion, in blatant 1
Ibid., 274–275.
* Élise Rouméas [email protected]; [email protected]
1
University of Groningen/Campus Fryslân, Wirdumerdijk 34, 8911 CE Leeuwarden, Netherlands
2
DPIR, University of Oxford, Nuffield College, Oxford, UK
É. Rouméas
contradiction with the oft-repeated organisation’s slogan: “The door to Opus Dei is only open a crack to come in but wide open to leave”.2 Exiting proved immensely costly for María. In her forties, she found herself back at her parents’ house, without any form of compensation or social security. She struggled to account for her years of devout service to the US immigration authorities, since she was denied a work certificate or an official transcript from the religious institution. María’s experience is exceptional in its gravity, but not unique. Some individuals leaving religious organisations report having given years of work or donated assets to later find themselves deprived of substantive op
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