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?
