c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ A regional panel of the United Church of Christ (UCC) stripped Benjamin Chavis Muhammad of his clergy standing Thursday (April 24) saying the controversial civil rights activist has joined”another faith”by joining the Nation of Islam.”He is a member of the Nation of Islam, which is another faith,”said the Rev. Rollin Russell, minister of the United Church of Christ’s Southern Conference, the body with immediate authority over Chavis Muhammad.

The ruling means that Chavis Muhammad may not perform clergy functions in the UCC, such as administering the sacraments.

The action came after a day-long meeting in Durham, N.C., of the Church and Ministry Commission of the denomination’s Eastern North Carolina Association, including a fruitless session with Chavis Muhammad that lasted more than an hour.

Russell said the decision to strip Chavis Muhammad of his clerical standing was based on a statement in the church’s ministry manual dealing with situations in which a minister moves to another denomination.

Chavis Muhammad announced in February he had joined the Nation of Islam.”We felt that that provision applied in the case of moving to another world religion or faith community,”Russell said, adding the termination was made”without prejudice,”meaning no charges were brought against Chavis Muhammad.

The civil rights activist’s clerical status had been temporarily suspended by the regional association in March, pending Thursday’s meeting.

Chavis Muhammad was not available for comment because he left the meeting to catch a plane before the panel announced its decision, according to church officials. Commission members did explain their decision to Chavis Muhammad’s wife, Martha, who attended the meeting.

Chavis Muhammad could appeal the ruling but it is unlikely any new decision will be made before June.”We don’t know whether Ben is of a mind to appeal that far,”said Hans Holznagel, UCC spokesman.

The Eastern North Carolina Association ordained Chavis Muhammad in 1980.

In his meeting with the panel, Chavis Muhammad gave many reasons why he believed his ministerial standing should be retained, according to those present.”He drew a distinction between the Nation of Islam and historic Islam in its many expressions and said that he could be both a Christian and a Christian minister within the Nation of Islam,”Russell said.

Commission members, on the other hand, spoke about the”centrality of Christ in our faith,”Russell said.

Commission members discussed Muslim beliefs in Muhammad, the 7th-century founder of Islam, and the beliefs of the Nation of Islam centered on Elijah Muhammad, who helped the Nation become a national force in the black community. The Nation of Islam is considered a heretical body by mainstream Muslims.”He was more wanting to focus on the ministry in the black community and the needs of the black community and working together to solve those needs, all of which we affirm but felt that he didn’t need ministerial standing within the United Church of Christ to do that within the Nation of Islam,”Russell said.

Chavis Muhammad, who left his position as executive director of the NAACP in 1994 in the midst of controversy over sexual harassment allegations, was a primary organizer of the 1995 Million Man March, led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Prior to those affiliations, he served in a number of positions with the UCC’s racial justice unit from 1968 to 1993. He spent four years in prison in the 1970s stemming from his civil rights activities in Wilmington, N.C.

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In an interview in the April 19 edition of the Sacramento Bee, Chavis Muhammad said his decision to join the Nation of Islam is not a sign he has forsaken his Christian roots.”My foundation is Christian. I am not turning against the church. I’m not turning against Jesus. I still have Jesus in my heart,”he said.”Islam has given me a context to live Jesus.” Chavis Muhammad reportedly described himself in March as a minister in the Nation of Islam, whose members believe, among other things, in the inherent supremacy of blacks over whites.

Russell said the Church and Ministry Commission usually meets with candidates for ministry and less often deals with terminations. Terminations of ministerial standing due to conversions to other faiths are rare not only in his association, but in the denomination as a whole.”That is unprecedented and there’s no real history on that, as far as I know,”he said.

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