Apologies for paying off bad debts
The Presbyterian Layman March/April 2000 Volume 33, Number 2, April 3, 2000
Three actions of the General Assembly Council came with apology attached.
The actions were spending $400,000 to help bail the National Council of Churches out of its $3.9-million, self-generated 1999 deficit, another $5 million as a lifeline to the denomination’s curriculum publishing, and a bundle more to pay off some of the debts of the year-end youth extravaganza known as “The Dawn … An Epiphany.” The only “epiphany” was the revelation that the organizers overspent their receipts by as much as $2.1 million.
Such bailouts are possible because year-end mission income, especially through bequests, surged. Most of that surge owes to unrestricted bequests. Therein lies some irony: that Presbyterians worked hard and saved their money, only to leave it to a denomination so that it could pay off bad debts.
The apology – or, to use the official euphemism “pastoral letter” – is an attempt to mollify Presbyterians into believing that the emergency appropriations were appropriate. Maybe so. There is no honor in refusing to pay your own bills, although a case can be made that you should not be required to pay off someone else’s – even a family member’s like the National Council of Churches.
In a way, Presbyterians should be surprised that the National Council of Churches asked for a handout. You see, the NCC, in alliance with the World Council of Churches, is leading the parade for Jubilee 2000 – a program to lobby U.S. government and private investors into forgiving the debts of poor countries.
In the spirit of Jubilee 2000, the NCC should have lobbied its own creditors to forgive NCC debts and spare Presbyterians from having to ante up $400,000 and offering apologies for doing so.