Don’t bail out sinking NCC
The Presbyterian Layman January/February 2000 Volume 33, Number 1, March 27, 2000
On February 15, members of the General Assembly Council will consider giving $400,000 to bail the National Council of Churches out of its latest deficit. You can be sure that your representatives on the Council will hear from the staff in Louisville. (They’re making the proposal.) But they need to hear from the people of this church, especially from your local church session.
We’ve been here before. This year’s deficit is $3,987,000. Last year it was $1.5 million; the year before, $1.6 million. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has poured millions into this virtually bankrupt organization. We’re like parents of a spendthrift teen-ager. Every bailout enables more bad behavior.
And make no mistake about it: this is bad behavior. Consider what independent auditors uncovered: transactions not properly monitored and reviewed, undocumented American Express charges, advances made without sufficient documentation, no apparent audit trail for recording cash receipts transactions, and lax enforcement of supervisory controls on the processing of cash receipts.
This has been going on a long time. In 1993, for example, NCC managers invested $8 million in a fraudulent “prime note scam,” hoping that they could get a $12-million return on their $8-million investment within 12 months. When the notes turned out to be worthless, NCC officials went to court and eventually got back $5.4 million, minus more than $500,000 in attorney and court fees – a net loss of almost $3 million.
The NCC’s penchant for dipping into donor-restricted funds – like the Burned Churches Fund and hunger funds collected by Church World Service – may not be illegal, but it is certainly ethically questionable.
According to the NCC’s Sept. 30 report, we have already given them $2,066,202, more than any other denomination. Surely that’s more than enough! Please tell Presbyterian Church (USA) leaders that it is time to stop bailing out the NCC. (To contact the PCUSA, see Bothered by Bailout?)
Ask your elders to bring this matter up in their next session meeting. Have them write a letter to the General Assembly Council, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40402, urging the Council not to send any more money to the NCC. And if you will send a copy of your letter to us, we’ll make sure that it does not go unnoticed.