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Pension fight stirs moral issues for ELCA, publisher

As the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America fights to stay out of a legal battle over unpaid pension benefits, all sides agree on at least one point: more is at stake than millions of dollars owed to some 500 pensioners of Augsburg Fortress, the ELCA's publishing arm.

The ELCA asked in late June that a federal court drop the denomination from a suit filed by stakeholders in Augsburg's recently dissolved pension plan. The ELCA contends that it bears no responsibility under the 1974 Em­ployee Retirement Income Security Act because Augsburg Fortress's pension program is a "church plan." Church plans are exempted from ERISA requirements, which include sufficient funding to meet promised obligations.

Some Lutherans, however, don't like what they're seeing. If Augsburg Fortress is indeed a church plan by virtue of its denominational affiliation, they say, then shouldn't the church take responsibility for the publisher's debts?