Ending support for controversial programs could prevent loss of 34 PCUSA missionaries
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, April 24, 2002
Budget-cutting at the national headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Louisville has not yet affected appropriations to four controversial organizations, which, if ended, would free up enough money to prevent the loss of 34 full-time missionaries.
200120022003NCC (per capita)$429,602$421,178$421,178WCC (per capita)431,963440,602440,602NNPCW117,805125,709N/AWashington Office584,749620,201N/AThe four groups are the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches, the National Network of Presbyterian College Women and the Washington Office of the PCUSA.
The World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches are due to receive the same amount of money in 2003 as they are getting this year through the General Assembly’s per-capita budget. (Both ecumenical groups receive additional support through the Mission Budget and in-kind contributions made by PCUSA staff members handling NCC and WCC assignments.)
The 2003 Mission Budget figures for the National Network of Presbyterian College Women and the Washington Office will not be settled until after the Executive Committee of the General Assembly Council reviews staff spending recommendations this weekend. Both groups got more money in 2002 than they did in 2001.
The published budgets of the four groups totaled $1.6 million in 2002. That’s roughly the same amount of money that the Division of Worldwide Ministries is trying to save by not replacing 34 full-time missionaries who are scheduled to retire or complete their mission assignments in 2002.
Per capita budget
The per capita budget ($5.40 per Presbyterian member) for 2003 is $14.3 million. Per-capita pays for the Office of the General Assembly, the General Assembly Council and staff leadership in Worldwide Ministries, Congregational Ministries and National Ministries.
The per-capita, $5.25 for 2002, has been increased to offset an estimated loss of 45,000 Presbyterians and an increase in sessions’ withholding their per-capita apportionments to protest General Assembly and national staff actions.
The PCUSA does not conduct exit polls, but many Presbyterians have told The Layman that they have left the denomination because of what they perceive to be a bias against evangelicals – as sometimes reflected by the four controversial programs.
PCUSA staff are taking a guess at how much per-capita money will be withheld by dissenting congregations. They’ve penciled in a figure of $425,000 for 2003 – which would be nearly triple the $165,000 withheld in 2001. (The 2002 withholding number will not be available until the end of the year.)
Mission budget
The 2003 Mission Budget, which is made up of voluntary contributions (76 percent designated), is $130 million. The budget includes income from the Presbyterian Foundation, special offerings and other contributions.
The nearly $1 million in annual NCC and WCC appropriations are routed through the Office of the General Assembly, whose staff leader is Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick. As the denomination’s top ecumenical officer, Kirkpatrick has been unwavering in his support for the two bodies despite their financial problems and their lack of support from evangelical Christians around the world. He has taken leadership roles in both the NCC and WCC.
National Council of Churches (deficit)
The NCC is a shrinking, once limousine-renting agency that spent itself into a financial crisis and exhausted its reserves. In 1999, auditors discovered that the NCC had run up a $3.9-million deficit, effectively wiping out its reserves.
Since then, the NCC has cut employment from 102 to 36, and still faces a $600,000 deficit for the budget year that ends in June.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) is second only to the 8.5-million-member United Methodist Church in the amount of money it contributes to the NCC.
The NCC membership is principally mainline Protestant denominations. But it also includes a number of Orthodox communions that rarely make contributions. Evangelical denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention, the Presbyterian Church in America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church shun the NCC.
In 2000, the General Assembly Council allocated $400,000 and Kirkpatrick’s office provided $100,000 as one-time gifts over and above the PCUSA’s normal annual contribution to help bail the NCC out of its debt. Nearly 1,200 individual Presbyterians and sessions sent letters and E-mail to Louisville urging Presbyterian leaders not to approve the bailout funds.
The General Assembly has repeatedly voted against overtures that would reduce or discontinue PCUSA support for the NCC.
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches has also been financially strapped because of fallout from its engagement with political and social issues that often do not reflect a Christian worldview. For instance, the council helped fund the revolution led by Robert Mugabe, a guerrilla warlord who became president of Zimbabwe and recently won re-election in a disputed vote.
Under Mugabe, white farmers, whose families had been in Zimbabwe for generations, were murdered and terrorized and their farms stolen by Mugabe’s supporters. The nation’s economy has been shattered. With one-third of its population HIV-positive, AIDS is epidemic.
Evangelicals have also expressed concern that the World Council of Churches, founded after World War II, is moving toward becoming a pluralistic body that includes representatives of non-Christian religions.
Washington Office
The Washington Office has essentially been a booster club for leftist political issues. While the Washington Office has a number of ardent critics and supporters, very few Presbyterians know it exists.
After a national poll of Presbyterians, Jack Marcum of PCUSA’s Research Services concluded, “In short, the Washington Office of the PCUSA is off the radar screen.” Several Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate say they have never had a visit from a representative of the Washington Office.
In a September 2000 exercise intended to establish some guidelines for spending, a General Assembly Council committee ranked the Washington Office and Church and Society Magazine as the lowest priorities in the National Ministries Division. Evangelism was the top priority in that ranking. Nonetheless, full-funding was approved for the Washington Office.
In 1999, a think-tank study by Presbyterian Action for Faith and Freedom showed that the Washington Office had often taken political stances that don’t agree with the General Assembly’s positions.
“The Washington Office is not effective on Capitol Hill,” Presbyterian Action reported. “Its problem is that politicians can count votes, and they know that the office doesn’t represent Presbyterian voters. When we talk with congressional aides, both Democrats and Republicans, say they pay little attention to denominational lobbying offices like our own.”
College Women’s Network
The National Network of Presbyterian College Women is a radical feminist organization that almost lost its lifeline. In 1999, the General Assembly voted the Network out of business, only to give it a second chance after an emotional demonstration that the national staff helped stage on the floor of the General Assembly.
Criticism of the Network focused on its published materials that advocated homosexual relations and New Age-like religious rites. The organization borrowed heavily from the Re-Imagining God movement even after the 1994 General Assembly declared to be beyond the bounds of the Christian faith.
Furthermore, the Network’s Web site provided links directly to pornographic material and a lesbian dating service.
A task force appointed by the 1999 General Assembly recommended that the Network cease publishing its material, submit to theological oversight and stop advocating views that defied Presbyterian standards or theology. Subsequently, the General Assembly voted to continue the Network.
The Network reaches only a handful of college campuses. Meanwhile, the denomination has a presence on about 75 U.S. campuses through Westminster Fellowship or shared ecumenical ministries. The Westminster Fellowships are co-educational.
Other budget issues
While the budgets for the four controversial programs are roughly equal to the costs of maintaining 34 missionaries, money could not automatically be shifted from them to missionary support.
For instance, 20.1 percent of the 2002 budget for the National Network of Presbyterian College Women is in restricted funds, designated only for that purpose. Restricted funds account for 9.9 percent of the 2002 budget for the Washington Office.
But the General Assembly Council, which been challenged by the denomination’s money-managers to set priorities for spending, has demonstrated a knack for thinking outside the box – e.g., finding the bailout money for the NCC.
One priority seems to be a fixed standard. It’s the first of the Great Ends of the Church: the propagation of the gospel.