c. 2000 Religion News Service

Indianapolis Church Protesting Withholding Tax Laws

(RNS) Maintaining it is exempt from federal withholding tax laws, an Indianapolis church plans to hold a march Saturday (March 4) protesting a federal district court’s demand it pay $5.9 million in back taxes.

“Federal Judge Sarah Evans Barker has made demands on the New Testament church that they cannot meet without disobedience to God,” said the Rev. Greg Dixon Sr., former pastor of Indianapolis Baptist Temple. His son became pastor three years ago upon the elder Dixon’s retirement. “For the church to meet these new demands would be to violate their faith, which is the entire issue to begin with.”

The church faces foreclosure and sale of its property if it does not abide by a ruling Barker made last summer and pay $5.9 million in taxes, penalties and interest it owes from the years 1987 through 1993. Barker did delay foreclosure on the church’s property while it appealed her ruling, as long as the church maintained mortgage and insurance payments and took care of its property.

But in February, following a request from the Justice Department, Barker directed the church to file monthly financial reports and employment tax returns four times a year. She also ordered the church to establish an escrow account covering the cost of the unpaid taxes. The church must make its first payment on the unpaid tax bill on April 10.

Dixon maintains the church will not follow federal tax laws requiring employers to withhold Social Security, Medicare and income taxes from employees because doing so “violates our religious liberty and what this means is the end of religious freedom in America,” The New York Times quoted the senior Dixon as saying. The church has also refused to register as a nonprofit entity, as required by law.

“We are not going to give this property up voluntarily to the courts,” said Dixon. “We have a responsibility to defend God’s house to the best of our ability.”

Dixon said he expects thousands of supporters for the weekend protest, which he says will be peaceful.

Methodists Urge Prayer and Fasting Before General Conference

(RNS) As the nation’s second largest Protestant denomination prepares to tackle thorny questions of gays and lesbians within church life, leaders of the United Methodist Church are urging church members to pray and fast for 40 days leading up to May’s General Conference in Cleveland.

The church, with 8.4 million members, has been wracked by internal division over the issue of gay marriage and whether or not the denomination should delete the church’s position that homosexual acts are “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Those questions are expected to dominate the convention, held every four years. That’s why a group of United Methodist bishops is calling on church members to participate in 40 days of prayer and fasting beginning March 15.

“The discipline of fasting undergirds us by helping us remember that our true hunger and thirst are for the presence of God,” said Bishop Janice Huie of Little Rock, Ark., who is helping to coordinate the effort, in a United Methodist News Service release.

At the same time, one of the leaders of the church’s liberal wing is calling for a spirit of compromise heading into Cleveland. The Rev. Phil Wogaman is pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., a church attended regularly by President and Mrs. Clinton.

Wogaman, in a commentary distributed by United Methodist News Service, said he hopes the church will rediscover “the spirit of United Methodism (that) usually reaches for some kind of middle ground.”

“Openness to compromise is recognition that our adversaries may have some light from God that we haven’t yet seen, just as our contrary convictions also express part of the truth,” Wogaman wrote.

Religious Leaders Back Campaign Finance Reform Activist

(RNS) Three days after arriving in Washington to complete the last leg of her 3,000-mile cross-country walk to promote campaign finance reform, Doris “Granny D” Haddock met Thursday (March 2) on Capitol Hill with legislators and religious leaders from a range of faiths to discuss the role of faith communities in campaign finance reform.

“Is campaign finance reform a religious issue?” asked Haddock, who grabbed headlines with her 14-month-long sojourn from Pasadena, Calif., to the nation’s capital. “It is one of the central religious issues of our time.”

The Rev. Russell O. Siler, director of the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs, applauded Haddock’s efforts and asked the audience to “affirm the principles of justice.”

“Generations ago our forebears were part of the struggle that was based on the premise that access to the electoral process should not be based on the color of a person’s skin and after that should not be based on a person’s gender,” said Siler. “Now we need to affirm the same principles of justice and say that access to our electoral process should in no way be based on the size of a person’s wallet.”

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., decried the influence of money in political campaigns, contending it violated principles of democracy.

“We believe representative government depends on the governed, that the governed must have an equal vote,” he said. “And I believe that if access is sold to that government, and sold to the highest bidder, sold to those people who have money, that this undermines a fundamental principle of government and violates the spiritual basis for democracy as well.”

On Wednesday (March 1), the Senate approved a campaign finance reform bill that sets limits on individual contributions to political parties and candidates for political office.

Promise Keepers to Again Charge Fees for Men’s Conferences

(RNS) Promise Keepers has decided to once again charge fees at its evangelical men’s conferences.

The men’s ministry announced the change of plans Thursday (March 2), saying it will charge $69 for adults and $49 for youths 18 and younger.

Promise Keepers President Bill McCartney had told supporters in a Jan. 28 fund-raising letter that mentioned the upcoming conferences that the ministry was “committed to keep them admission-free.”

But Steve Chavis, Promise Keepers’ director of public affairs, said the ministry’s leaders re-evaluated the decision soon after the letter was mailed.

“It’s really wanting to help conferences be more self-sustaining and continue to grow into these new areas, like the second radio show,” Chavis told Religion News Service.

In January, Promise Keepers launched a daily radio commentary by McCartney called “4th & Goal.”

The ministry also is producing a documentary to mark its 10th anniversary this year and a second radio program called “Promise Keepers Radio Highlights.” It also plans to offer a filtered Internet access system called pkFamily.com.

“The return to charging a fee for conferences comes from earnest prayer and evaluation,” McCartney said in a statement. “Also our attendees have been asking us to return to a fee-based conference.”

Chavis said supporters had an “it wasn’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude about paying the conference fees and wondered why the ministry decided to drop the fees for the last two years.

In January, the ministry announced personnel reductions and regional office closings, which have resulted in a current staff of about 170.

Despite the restructuring and the new fees, Chavis said the ministry expects to continue.

“The financial condition of the ministry is solid,” he said. “We’re not going away. We want to continue to grow. We had the explosive growth, we contracted. There’s a momentum right now.”

Thousands of Black Churches to Observe Week Focused on AIDS

(RNS) Thousands of churches are expected to hold services, workshops, concerts and other events to highlight the Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS from March 5 to 11.

Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is serving as the national spokesperson for the weeklong effort organized by The Balm in Gilead, a New York-based group that works to encourage African-American churches to participate in AIDS-related programs.

“The AIDS epidemic is disproportionately affecting our community,” said Elders in a statement. “We must make AIDS education and prevention a priority in the new millennium. The black church has the power, the prestige and the position to make a difference.”

More than 7,500 churches are expected to take part in activities including services, HIV prevention workshops, candlelight vigils, gospel concerts and youth programs.

AIDS is the number one killer of African-Americans ages 25-44 and officials of The Balm in Gilead expect increased participation in the 11th annual weeklong observance.

“As the AIDS epidemic worsens, we are seeing more and more churches providing prevention information and offering fellowship and support to people and families who are impacted,” said Pernessa C. Seele, founder and CEO of The Balm in Gilead.

Eds: Organizing kits for the Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS are available by calling The Balm in Gilead at (888) 225-6243 or visiting the Web site http://www.balmingilead.org)

Bloodstains Linked to Missing Atheist’s Family Members

(RNS) Texas investigators have linked bloodstains found in an Austin storage unit to the DNA of missing atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s two children.

O’Hair, the famed atheist whose protest led to the Supreme Court’s 1963 decision outlawing organized school prayer, disappeared from her Austin home in September 1995, along with two of her children.

Authorities arrested David Waters, a disgruntled former employee of O’Hair’s organization, on suspicion of plotting the three murders. Investigators also believe Waters and another man, Gary Karr, are responsible for the grizzly murder of Danny Fry, a third suspect in the triple slaying.

The latest evidence was revealed in a prosecutor’s response to a motion by Waters to get back property seized by the government last spring as part of its investigation, the Associated Press reported. Court papers obtained by the San Antonio Express-News show the DNA evidence found in the bloodstains is similar to that of O’Hair’s missing son, Jon Garth Murray, and adopted daughter, Robin Murray O’Hair.

Investigators suspect the three atheists were killed for $500,000 in gold coins they had with them at the time of their disappearance. The bloodstains are the only physical evidence that has ever been found and linked to the three.

According to the reports, officials believe the three men killed O’Hair and her children and then cut them up with a saw and stuffed the body parts into three large blue barrels.

Southern Baptist Women’s Group Receives Contested School Assets

(RNS) The Woman’s Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention has received close to $1 million in endowment funds from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as part of a formal mediation over contested assets of a social-work school.

The mediation reportedly took place in the summer of 1999, but parties involved have declined to speak publicly about it. The transfer of $928,541 from the Southern Baptist Foundation, which held the funds, to the WMU Foundation appeared in an audited financial report of the WMU.

That report was available for review during a February meeting of the SBC Executive Committee, reported Associated Baptist Press, an independent news service.

Last summer, retiring WMU executive director Dellanna O’Brien said she could not speak about the dispute over the endowment.

“Yes, we have had a mediation and settled to each party’s satisfaction,” was all she said at the time.

WMU’s distribution of the money will benefit, among others, the new graduate program in social work at Baylor University and the Eleanor Terry Chair for Christian Women’s Leadership at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. Baylor’s program is directed by Diana Garland, the previous dean of the Carver School of Church Social Work at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

The seminary sold the Carver School name and some of its assets to Campbellsville University, a school in Campbellsville, Ky., that is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

That transaction occurred after a dispute between Garland and Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler over requirements for hiring faculty at the Carver School.

Articles of Incorporation Filed for New Baptist Convention

(RNS) Articles of incorporation for a new Texas-based convention of Baptists were filed more than a year ago by a group of critics of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The documents concerning the “The Baptist Convention of the Americas” say it could include churches in North, Central and South America, reported Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, which received a copy of the articles on Tuesday (Feb. 29) from the Texas Secretary of State’s office.

Herbert Reynolds, a former president of Baylor University, is identified in the documents as the registered agent of the new entity. Reynolds was instrumental in the secession of Baylor, in Waco, Texas, from the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

John Baugh, a Houston businessman, is among those listed as a member of the board of directors of the new entity.

He told Baptist Press Wednesday (March 1) that the entity is not a convention.

“It was suggested as a possible alternative to that which we are involved in now,” Baugh said. “Dr. Reynolds made a public comment on more than one occasion that suggested the possibility of the ultimate formation of something like the Baptist Convention of the Americas. There has been no move whatsoever to implement that possibility into reality.”

Paul W. Powell of Tyler, Texas, the immediate past president of the SBC Annuity Board, also was listed as a board member. He said the articles were filed solely to “preserve a name.”

The articles include descriptions of the new entity’s work, including missionary, religious and educational activities.

Baugh said that although no further steps have been taken, “something will happen eventually.”

Tutu Honored With Greek Orthodox Award

(RNS) Archbishop Demetrios of New York, head of the 1.5 million-member Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, will present retired South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu the Athenagoras Human Rights Award for the year 2000.

The 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner _ recognized for his work promoting human rights _ will receive the award on Saturday (March 4) in Manhattan at the Greek Orthodox Church’s annual Banquet of the Order of St. Andrew, which honors Greek Orthodox laymen awarded the title of Archon by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The Athenagoras Award, established in 1986, is named for Patriarch Athenagoras, a former leader of the world’s 250 million Orthodox Christians. Previous award recipients include Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Quote of the Day: Rev. Bob Edgar of the National Council of Churches

(RNS) “Unfortunately, New York City has a climate in which police feel free to shoot first and ask questions later.”

The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, on the Amadou Diallo verdict.

DEA END RNS