Related articles and links |  1 of 2

The Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), a splinter group, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to order that the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) release control of the book Mystery of the Ages. The WCG, which joined the National Association of Evangelicals in 1997, has repudiated the teachings of that book. It has been trying to prevent the PCG from selling the book, written by the late WCG founder, Herbert W. Armstrong.

The PCG, based in Edmond, Oklahoma, has aggressively promoted Mystery of the Ages via a television program and has taken orders for it on a Web site. PCG has also offered a copyright version of another Armstrong book, The United States and Britain in Prophecy. That book advances the theory of British Israelism, identifying Great Britain and the United States as home to people who traced their lineage to the so-called lost tribes of Israel. The current WCG leadership has rejected British Israelism as unbiblical.

In a different matter, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, mother church of the Christian Science movement, is spending $50 million over five years to build a library for the published and unpublished writings of founder Mary Baker Eddy. The library is part of a strategy to extend the church's control of Eddy's writings. (Current copyright law will extend protection for 45 years if the unpublished Eddy items are placed in the library.)

The action follows the church's legal effort to halt the retail sale of two volumes of "collecteana" by and about Eddy that have been distributed widely for nearly 50 years. "It had to do with the Web," First Church attorney David Bort told CT. "People began to advertise these books [for sale] in a way that had not been [done] before."

"This is a struggle between authority and popular movements," said Brenda E. Brasher, an assistant professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, and author of Give Me That Online Religion (Jossey-Bass, 2001). "The Internet brings a new factor into this. It's a global bulletin board. The authorities are saying 'bad, bad, bad' and turning to the Internet to root out unauthorized use [of copyright texts]."

Suits over dissemination of copyright material—some involving the Internet—are far from new in religious circles. The Church of Scientology has aggressively pursued those who post its secret teachings online.

The Norwegian branch of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of New York filed criminal charges against ex-Jehovah's Witnesses Kent Steinhaug and Jan Haugland of Norway in 1997. The charges alleged that Steinhaug and Haugland posted copies of Pay Attention to Yourselves and to All the Flock, a confidential manual for elders. The charges were later dropped, and the volume is still available online.

A judge issued an injunction last year against an evangelical group, Utah Lighthouse Ministries, prohibiting it from posting a confidential article on how members in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) can remove themselves from LDS church rolls (CT, March 6, 2000, p. 23).

A settlement in November 2000 protected the posting of links to Web sites that might contain copyright material.

next page... |  1 of 2

April 23 2001, Vol. 45, No. 6