Stated Clerk defends NCC An Analysis by Parker T. Williamson The Layman Online Thursday, December 2,1999 LOUISVILLE - In a three-page memorandum dated November 19, Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), has issued a personal plea on behalf of the National Council of Churches. Kirkpatrick rose to the council's defense after The Presbyterian Layman released numerous articles on the Internet, revealing the NCC's precarious financial condition and questionable management practices by top NCC officials. On the verge of bankruptcy, and facing a $4 million budget deficit in 1999, the NCC can hang on a little longer only if it can persuade its member denominations to bail it out. Kirkpatrick is a co-chair of that campaign. "The National Council's ministries are our ministries," Kirkpatrick wrote. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is committed to working ecumenically, he said. Working ecumenically While few Presbyterians would contest the Stated Clerk's commitment to ecumenism, many object to the narrowness with which he has applied the term. There is nothing particularly ecumenical about the National Council of Churches, a cluster of old-line bureaucracies whose commonality is the fact that the denominations they superintend are suffering massive membership losses. A quick scan of the NCC's membership reveals who is not at the table. None of the rapidly growing evangelical churches is there. A few Orthodox priests attend, but only one of their churches contributes money and several have considered recalling their representatives. The Roman Catholic Church has never joined, nor have the Southern Baptists. Kirkpatrick stated in his letter that at the NCC's 50th birthday party he moderated a panel including leaders of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Billy Graham Association and the Roman Catholic Church, the implication being that the presence of these organizations has somehow expanded the NCC's ecumenical horizons. But the mere fact that these leaders were polite enough to accept Kirkpatrick's invitation to a one-time panel discussion hardly suggests their endorsement, or even their willingness, to be identified with the NCC. In fact, Kevin Mannoia, National Association of Evangelicals president, debunked any claims to such unity: "We can't have unity at all costs," he said. "We can't have a theology of the lowest common denominator. It leads to a relativistic mush. There are, after all, absolutes." The only apparent absolute for the NCC is its wholehearted endorsement of partisan politics. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party never had a more faithful friend. After the Republicans won Congress in 1994, NCC General Secretary Joan Campbell led a delegation to the Oval Office where they prayed against this majority's "unholy" legislation. At the Council's November birthday gathering, NCC leaders discussed various strategies for unseating Republican incumbents in "swing districts," primarily by mobilizing black and Latino voters. Leading the caucus was Welton Gaddy, whose Interfaith Alliance was funded with a $25,000 grant from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. At the NCC birthday banquet, the Democratic Congresswoman from Cleveland brought personal greetings from candidate Al Gore who asked that he "be remembered during the campaign." If Presbyterian Church (USA) leaders truly want to "work ecumenically" – and we certainly hope that they do – they would do well to recognize that the NCC impedes that worthwhile goal. True ecumenism rushes like a mighty wind among mission-minded evangelicals today, drawing them together across old denominational lines as they proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ among all the nations. One can sense it among Pentecostals in Latin America, among ministries to the poor through World Vision, on college campuses with InterVarsity Fellowship and Campus Crusade, at the huge Urbana Mission Convocation, in Young Life Bible studies, among Korean evangelicals who are dispatching missionaries throughout the whole world. Ecumenical activity abounds, but not amidst the decaying structures of the NCC. "We're like an aging city with a crumbling infrastructure," admitted Joan Campbell. Following the money Kirkpatrick is urging fellow Presbyterians to contribute an extra $600,000 in order to bail out the NCC. This denomination is already the NCC's number 1 contributor. According to a Sept. 30 report of contributions to the NCC, the Presbyterian Church (USA), whose membership is 2.5 million, gave $2,066,202 to the NCC. That compares with $1,443,150 from the United Methodist Church, whose membership is more than three times greater (8.5 million). The Episcopal Church, whose 2.3 million membership is roughly equivalent to that of the Presbyterian Church (USA), gave $367,354. And thirteen of the NCC's 35 churches made no contribution at all. Presbyterians are clearly carrying the lion's share of the NCC's financial burden. But there is more to the money issue than equity among contributors. Responsible donors must also consider the NCC's stewardship of money it has already received. By all counts – including some of the NCC's most ardent supporters – this organization has been fiscally irresponsible. Consider the following facts:
Kirkpatrick defends this invasion of Church World Service funds by saying, "the truth is that CWSW is being asked merely to pay its fair share of costs incurred to ensure that CWSW's operations are well administered." In light of the NCC's performance, questions could be raised regarding its ability to "ensure" that Church World Service operations are "well administered." But even more to the point, Kirkpatrick's explanation does not square with the NCC's own report (EB-1) in which it clearly identifies the $1.4 million as a draw on Church World Service assets to offset the NCC's 1999 deficit. Burned churches Rev. Kirkpatrick complains that Presbyterian Layman charges regarding NCC expenditures from the Burned Churches Fund are inaccurate. He says that the NCC never intended to spend all its burned churches campaign money to rebuild burned churches: "From the beginning, the Burned Churches Fund was advertised as a fund which would be divided into two categories, 70 percent of the total going to rebuild burnt churches and 30 percent going to racial justice programs. The 30 percent for racial justice is every bit as much a 'restricted' designation as the 70 percent for churches which fell victim to arsonists." There are numerous numbers flying around the Burned Churches Fund. Rev. Kirkpatrick's recollection differs from that of the NCC General Secretary, who has reported that the amount to be spent on administration and racial justice was 15 percent. These discrepancies – and many others that have arisen regarding management practices – lend credence to the suggestion that the NCC commission an independent audit of this fund. The NCC executive board has steadfastly refused to do so, leaving wide open the question as to its disposition of more than $2.6 million in Burned Churches Fund receipts. Reading between the lines Our examination of a Burned Churches campaign brochure does not reveal the clear division described by Kirkpatrick. "Join with others in your community to raise funds for the burned churches and to eliminate racism," says the brochure. "Contribute to the fund to rebuild churches and to heal the racial divide that has prompted these attacks. Funds will be contributed to houses of worship, regardless of racial background, which have been burned because of hate crimes." While these statements do contain phrases that allow spending on activities other than rebuilding churches, no percentages are mentioned, and the clear focus of these advertisements is on rebuilding churches. It is instructive to note that prior to the Burned Churches Campaign, the already deficit-ridden NCC conducted a fund-raising effort to support its racial justice program. The campaign flopped and was soon abandoned. Shortly thereafter, the Burned Churches campaign was launched. Why did donors respond to the second campaign and not to the first? It seems a reasonable assumption that they did so because, missing nuances in the fine print, they focused on the main message: that this was a campaign to rebuild burned churches. Kirkpatrick's memorandum to Presbyterian Church (USA) leaders is part of a campaign by a handful of denominational executives to resuscitate the ailing NCC. Having won a $100,000 commitment from his Committee on the Office of the General Assembly, he has approached the denomination's program agency, the General Assembly Council, for an additional gift of $500,000. Meeting on Nov. 29 by telephone conference call, the council's executive committee deferred any action on Kirkpatrick's request until the full council meets in February. A Dec. 1 press release from the Presbyterian News Service indicated that the original request for $500,000 has been reduced to $400,000. |
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