c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ The Rev. James M. Bell, former executive director of Interfaith Impact, says the influential religious lobbying group was killed _ and his contract breached _ by a handful of major denominations that feared losing power and influence to smaller groups.

Bell, a United Church of Christ (UCC) minister, made the charge in a million dollar breach of contract suit against his former bosses and the churches they represent. The suit, split into two separate cases because of an appeal on one issue from an earlier court ruling, are before the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

Formed in 1970, Interfaith Impact for Justice and Peace had more than 40 member organizations, ranging from major groups such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the National Council of Churches, to smaller groups such as the Society of African Missions and the Commission on Religion in Appalachia. It also had some two dozen state affiliates.

For 25 years Interfaith Impact was the major umbrella group of the liberal religious voice in Washington, lobbying on such issues as welfare reform, health care reform and a host of other issues. It was best known for its spring seminars in which hundreds of grassroots church members were brought to the capital for education and lobbying efforts.

Bell, along with other paid staff, was terminated in 1995 from his $55,000 a year job as head of Interfaith Impact after the group’s board announced it was”curtailing operations”because of”current financial realities.” Bell, who headed the group for four years, is suing what’s left of the organization and its board members from the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.

The board members’ parent denominations are also being sued because of the actions of their representatives on the board.

In the suit, Bell is asking for $50,000, plus a punitive assessment of more than $1 million.

Bell’s suit contends that in addition to not abiding by their contract with him, board members also defamed him by charging he took furniture from his office that he says was never there. Bell said UCC executives have told him that he couldn’t get another job with the denomination until the”stealing”charges have been cleared up.

Bell is currently the director of research and development for the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education in Chicago.”I honestly believe there was a conspiracy to close Interfaith Impact and I believe I can prove it in court,”Bell said in an interview with RNS.”And I guarantee I can prove they broke my contract.” Bell also vows to detail the unsavory side of some of the churchs’ lobbyists, including an extra-marital affair between two denominational executives and weekly poker parties attended by an evangelical leader whose organization opposes gambling.”I don’t want to do it, but the denominations will be hurt if this goes to trial,”said the 57-year-old Bell.

The two-part suit is scheduled for a hearing April 10 before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, and a May 26 trial is set for U.S. District Court in Washington. The suit was brought in federal courts because the parties are in different states.

Alissa A. Horvitz, one of two lawyers representing the denominational executives, said motions still needed to be filed with the District court and that may delay the trial.

She refused to talk further about the case and said she has instructed her clients not to comment either.

However, a recurring theme voiced by board members in a deposition and other court records is that Bell and other staff members were terminated as part of a”reduction in force”caused by dwindling finances.

But Bell said he was hamstrung by board members whenever he tried to expand the organization’s base of support. Such an expansion, he said, would have broadened grassroots participation and raised the money to keep the organization from financial trouble.”My troubles began a month after I got there,”Bell said. Noting his office was in the same building as the Washington offices of many of the major denominations, Bell said board members would come into the office regularly and dictate orders to the staff.

He said that during board meetings, representatives of the smaller religious groups and the state chapters rarely got their issues addressed because the major denominations controlling board votes were pursuing their own agenda.

According to a June 1996 report issued by Interfaith Impact, four denominations carried two-thirds of the 1995 $250,000 budget. The Presbyterians were pledged to give $86,000; the United Methodists, $40,000; the UCC, $34,000; and the American Baptist Churches, $8,000.

Bell, however, said that during 1995, Presbyterians threatened not to give their full pledge unless all of the staff was terminated. And in a May 8, 1995, letter, the church said it would not contribute to the 1996 budget.

According to the June report, however, Interfaith Impact reported it had received $43,000 during the first half of 1996, including $15,000 from the Presbyterians despite their statement the church would not contribute to the 1996 budget.

Bell maintains the May 1995 letter, obtained from court records and written by Elenora Giddings Ivory, head of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Washington office, to Jane Hull Harvey, a United Methodist who was chairman of Interfaith Impact’s board at the time, locked the other denominations into a plan to terminate the staff.

Harvey’s May 15 response, also obtained from court records, was one of disbelief and concluded that sending copies of the letter to others was”a serious breach in the ecumenical community.”I believe this is a serious breaking of covenant to decide mid-year not to fulfill that commitment unless Interfaith Impact bows to the position of the Presbyterian Church,”Harvey’s letter said.

Harvey cited weekly meetings by a special task force developing a plan to raise money, then added that the Presbyterian action”communicates a total disregard for our collegial efforts. … By sending your letter to others you have made it very difficult to raise any new money.” According to another letter from court records _ from Harvey to board members _ the task force was developing a plan to work around the Presbyterian pullout. Also, according to Bell, an accounting firm under contract for $5,000, was to make a report on the organization that would say that, while there was a deficit, the organization was in a strong position to pull out of the financial crisis.

Instead, the board voted on June 16, 1995, to terminate the staff.

Bell filed suit in late 1995 in Alexandria in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia, but was told to refile it in Washington against the individuals. That court also dismissed on church-state grounds the portion of the suit naming the denominations as defendants. Bell has appealed that dismissal to the Fourth Circuit, contending the Virginia court erred because religious groups are liable for contractual agreements.

Bell also refiled it in Washington, as the Virginia court directed.

In the interview with RNS, Bell said he walked out of the only attempt at mediation in late February when lawyers for the board offered him $20,000 in return for a letter stating his charges are unfounded. Bell said he attended the Washington meeting ready to accept $250,000 to keep quiet.

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Denominational executives named in the suit are Elenora Giddings Ivory, Lionel Derenoncourt, Otis Turner and Vernon Broyles of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Jane Hull Harvey, Jerald L. Scott and Anna Rhee of the United Methodist Church; James E. Lintner of the United Church of Christ; and Robert Tiller of the American Baptist Churches, USA.

MJP END BRIGGS