It’s Summertime, and Denominational Schedules Are Heavy

United Church of Christ (UCC) general synod delegates have adopted a task force report recommending that candidates for the ministry not be refused ordination on the basis of their homosexual orientation.

“In considering a candidate’s qualifications for the ministry, the candidate’s heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual orientation, in and of itself, should not be grounds for denying the request for ordination,” the report states. It concludes “that a person’s sexual orientation is not a moral issue, but that sexual behavior does have moral significance.”

The report also asks the UCC national staff to “facilitate ministry to gay people, whether they choose to affirm their sexual feelings or attempt to change them.…”

The recommendations are not binding on the denomination’s 6,443 churches. Area associations of churches in the 1.75-million-member denomination have the sole power to ordain ministers.

UCC delegates also elected the Reverend Carol Joyce Brun as the denomination’s secretary, the church’s second-highest elective office. Brun is the first woman to be elected as a top officer in the UCC.

In other action, UCC delegates endorsed a mutual United States-Soviet Union nuclear weapons freeze; called on Congress to stop all funding for the MX missile and other first-strike nuclear weapons; and called on churches to push for programs to help victims of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The disease affects practicing homosexuals, Haitians, and users of intravenous medications.

In other denominational meetings held this summer;

• Delegates to the Church of the Brethren annual conference adopted a position paper on human sexuality that supports “the teaching that sexual intercourse … belongs within heterosexual marriage.” The paper lists ways the church can extend “Christlike comfort and grace to homosexual and bisexual persons” and does not call homosexuality a sin.

The church also instructed its congregations to “employ all lawful means to protect refugees” by providing legel assistance and by petitioning Congress and the U.S. State Department to grant refugee status to those fleeing political oppression. When legal means have been exhausted, congregations are encouraged “to prayerfully consider sanctuary as a faith response to the current situation in Central America.” At least 43 non-Brethren churches around the country have provided sanctuary to refugees by giving them temporary havens within church buildings.

• The General Synod of the Reformed Church in America approved one of the strongest antiabortion statements in the church’s 355-year history. Delegates to the synod voted to oppose the use of abortion “in all but very exceptional circumstances.” The decision replaces the denomination’s earlier pro-choice stand.

Delegates also decided to retain membership in the national and world councils of churches, and voted by a two-to-one margin to investigate affiliation with the National Association of Evangelicals.

• A resolution challenging the American Baptist Churches (ABC) prochoice stand on abortion failed by a two-to-one margin at the denomination’s biennial meeting. In other action, ABC delegates passed a nuclear freeze resolution; called for an end to military aid to Central American countries; and suggested that churches and denominational offices pay for basic governmental services such as fire and police protection.

• A decision on the ordination of women as deacons in the Christian Reformed Church was delayed until next year, pending the completion of a report by a Committee on Headship in the Bible.

• The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) invited the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) to join the OPC. Presbyteries of the PCA have been encouraged to ratify the move. In 1981 the presbyteries approved a similar invitation to the Reformed Presbyterian Church-Evangelical Synod, a denomination that joined the PCA last year. However, in that same balloting, an invitation to the OPC failed to receive the necessary three-fourths majority approval.

• The General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church initiated proceedings to unite the 95,000-member denomination with the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church, a primarily black denomination with more than 7,000 members. Unification of the two bodies is set for 1982.

• The General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) voted to recommend that its genera assembly next month ask the United States and other governments to halt military aid to Central American countries.

• Delegates to the general conference of the Evangelical Free Church of America approved the first reading of a proposal that would renew denominational support of Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois. The college severed ties with the denomination in 1975. Under the proposal, the denomination would select two-thirds of the college’s board members and ask its 853 churches to support the college financially.

• The executive council of the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.) restructured its committee on world hunger and relief to place greater emphasis on awareness of the world food problem and to stimulate involvement in solving the problem.

• The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church added 13 new churches, 6 of them from the former Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS). One of those six churches, the 1,500-member First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, South Carolina, became the largest congregation in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. The PCUS merged with the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. last June to form the new Presbyterian Church (USA).

RON LEE

Crystal Cathedral Tax Problem Still Unresolved

Last December, California State tax authorities blew the whistle on Robert Schuller and his Garden Grove Community Church. They claimed the church, because it had become commercialized, no longer qualified for a property tax exemption. Eight months later, the battle still lingers. Schuller calls it “the toughest thing I’ve had to face.” The California State Board of Equalization had billed the church for more than $400,000 in back taxes. The loss of its exemption would cost the church an estimated $250,000 a year. Attorney Thomas Bost, who is representing the church, says, “We feel no tax is due, and we believe the law supports our view.”

Nevertheless, the church appears willing to pay a portion of the assessment just to settle the matter and to keep it out of the courts. Lawyers for the church are trying to negotiate a settlement. But William Grommet, an investigator for the equalization board, says that at this juncture no compromise is forthcoming. He says the law reads that for property to be tax exempt, it must be used exclusively for worship or religious purposes. “That,” says Grommet, “interpreted by us, doesn’t mean you can run your own private business there or rent the property to commercial organizations.”

Specifically, Grommet objects to Schuller operating a family-owned corporation, called “Possibilities Unlimited,” on church property. Orange County assessor Brad Jacobs says the church failed to mention the corporation on forms requesting the exemption. Grommet also objects to the use of church buildings, including the Crystal Cathedral, for business meetings (Amway, E. F. Hutton, and others), fashion shows, and concerts, especially those featuring secular artists such as Fred Waring and Victor Borge.

Jacobs notes that California law prohibits “nonqualifying individuals and corporations” from profiting by activities held on exempt property. This, he says, includes performers like Borge and their agents.

Bost points out that “Possibilities Unlimited” no longer operates on tax-exempt property and that, when it did, it occupied only one small office and a couple of closets among seven buildings on church property.

Regarding the other questionable activities, Schuller believes the church has the responsibility to lend its services and facilities to the community. “Even before we dedicated the Crystal Cathedral,” he says, “we announced that we hoped it would be enjoyed by the community as a concert place.” Schuller allows only activities that “build unity and love in the community.” “Our policy has never been to say ‘no’ just because the activity is secular,” Schuller says. “Our theology says that the secular must become sacred and the sacred must become secular.”

Perhaps the main reason for the controversy is the haziness of the law. It states that exempt property must be used “exclusively” for worship or other religious, or charitable, purposes. But, according to Bost, the courts have interpreted “exclusively” to mean “primarily.” Thus, the question, “How much is too much?” is subject to the investigator’s judgment.

Grommet does not object to churches holding such fund-raising events as spaghetti suppers. But Grommet contends Schuller’s church has gone too far. “This church is commercialized to a much greater degree than I’ve ever encountered in the state.”

In response, Schuller notes that of more than 1,000 activities sponsored by the church over the two-year period in question, only 23 were contested. “I don’t think that is overwhelmingly commercial,” he says.

North American Scene

The Hare Krishna movement is $32.3 million poorer. A superior court jury in California has awarded that amount to a 23-year-old former Krishna member and her mother. The jury concluded unanimously that the girl, Robin George, was imprisoned and brainwashed after joining a Krishna temple as a teenager. She and her mother sued for libel, emotional distress, false imprisonment, and the wrongful death of Robin’s father, who died of a stroke, which, the suit alleges, resulted from stress in trying to locate his daughter.

Groups on both sides of the school prayer controversy have expressed an unwillingness to compromise. At a recent hearing a compromise amendment devised by the Senate Judiciary Committee was denounced from all corners. The amendment, authored by Orrin Hatch (RUtah) would allow silent meditation periods in classrooms, and equal access for student religious gatherings on public school grounds. Conservatives argued that the measure does not move toward returning oral prayer to the classroom. Liberal groups believe that the Constitution already allows for the proposals in the amendment.

After spending nearly five years in an Australian prison, Americans Florice Bessire, 66, and Vera Hayes, 65, are home. The women were arrested in 1978 after 1.9 tons of hashish was discovered in their borrowed camper van (CT, March 5,1982). A massive letter-writing campaign coordinated by Charles Colson’s Prison Fellowship, and begun in 1980, failed to move the Australian government. But a newly appointed attorney general, after reviewing the case and the letters, ordered the two released.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of state legislative chaplains paid at public expense. In a 6-to-3 decision, the high court upheld the practice of presession prayer by the chaplains, citing the long history of publicly supported chaplains at both state and federal levels. Expressing the majority’s opinion. Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote that to invoke divine guidance on a public body entrusted with making laws is not an attempt to establish a religion.

The Supreme Court has refused to review lower court rulings that have prevented a city-owned hospital in Minnesota from refusing abortions. The Virginia Regional Medical Hospital in Virginia, Minnesota, wants to establish its own policy on abortion. The hospital began disallowing abortions in 1973, less than a week after abortion was legalized. The practice was successfully challenged by the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union. The hospital eventually brought its appeal to the high court, which decided 7 to 2 to dismiss the appeal.

Sex outside marriage is acceptable for an elderly man and woman whose financial situation makes marriage impossible. This is one finding from a survey of Lutheran Church in America clergy and laity. Some 2,500 lay people and 1,000 clergy were selected at random from the LCA’S 3 million members. Among other things, the survey revealed that the LCA opposes abortion on demand.

The prolife movement has been dealt yet another blow. A proposed constitutional amendment to allow states to restrict abortions was voted down in the Senate by a 50-to-49 vote. The 49 votes fell far short of the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment. The proposed amendment read simply, “A right to an abortion is not secured by this Constitution.” Prolifers were denied the symbolic victory of a 50–50 draw when antiabortionist Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) refrained from voting on the measure because it would not have banned abortion outright. But prolife groups were encouraged that, for the first time, a full house of Congress debated the morality of abortion.

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