Despite a turbulent year of scandal, credibility questions, and unflattering press attention, the nation’s religious broadcasters demonstrated last month that they still carry considerable political clout. President Reagan, four of the Republican presidential candidates, members of Congress, and administration officials all made appearances at the forty-fifth annual National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) convention in Washington, D.C. And while the specter of Jim Bakker and the PTL affair was present throughout the meeting, NRB officials attempted to paint the picture of a new era of integrity and accountability for the organization.
Politics
Politics and politicking were dominant aspects at this year’s convention. President Reagan acknowledged the NRB’S support with words of encouragement. “In the past year … your critics have delighted in taking the actions of an isolated few and portraying all broadcast preachers in that light,” he said. “It won’t work,” he added, drawing sustained applause.
The NRB has largely been united behind Reagan for the last eight years, and several of the Republican presidential candidates are obviously hoping to pick up that support. Former NRB board member Pat Robertson, Vice-president George Bush, Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) and Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kans.) all made remarks during convention meetings.
The candidates and their representatives also spent much of the convention wooing potential individual supporters. Many Christian leaders have positioned themselves behind a candidate. Religious Roundtable President Ed McAteer told a news conference about his role as national director of a coalition of Christians and Jews for Bush. Jerry Falwell has also expressed his support for Bush, but he did not engage in political stumping during the convention.
Pat Robertson used an NRB news conference to release a list of 350 Christian leaders supporting him. Included in the list are former Southern Baptist Convention president Jimmy Draper, E. V. Hill, and television preachers Jimmy Swaggart, Rex Humbard, and Oral Roberts. Kemp supporters Tim and Beverly LaHaye and Dole supporter Bob Billings, a former Moral Majority official, were also at the convention.
The realities of primary politics were evident as tensions between the various campaigns emerged. At his news conference, Robertson accused Bush forces in Michigan of “anti-Christian bashing” and “underhanded tricks” reminiscent of Watergate. Robertson said Bush’s son called evangelicals “cockroaches,” and said that when it comes to votes, the vice-president needs to learn the commandment about not stealing.
When asked by a reporter if he was uncomfortable saying such things about another self-proclaimed Christian, Robertson replied, “I leave it to evangelical broadcasters to determine who has been with them over the years and who has not.”
Bush’s son George W. Bush denied any tactics against Christians, explaining that his younger brother’s “cockroach” comment was not meant to be derogatory, but to describe the proliferation of evangelical voters this year. The younger Bush said his father welcomed Christian support and suggested Robertson’s standing in the polls may have prompted such remarks.
Although several Democratic members of Congress attended the NRB-sponsored Congressional Breakfast, the overwhelming majority of political participants in the convention were Republican, prompting some concern about partisan politics. Billy Graham, who said he found the NRB somewhat “over-Republicanized,” told a news conference his personal position was to “stay out of it.” “I’m not going to endorse anyone or get involved in partisan politics,” Graham said.
NRB officials defended the Republican tone of their convention, saying that while the Republicans were concerned about conservative Christians’ issues and support, the Democrats showed no interest. The NRB acknowledged, however, that no Democratic candidates had been invited.
Financial Accountability
The other main order of business during the convention was financial accountability. Delegates approved mandatory compliance with a new self-regulatory Ethics and Financial Integrity Commission (EFICOM) code. Some 330 delegates representing the NRB’s 1,350 members voted for the mandatory code, while 6 opposed it, according to NRB executive director Ben Armstrong.
Under EFICOM, member organizations with an annual income of more than $500,000 will be required to provide “full disclosure of financial information,” including a financial report done by an independent auditing firm. Armstrong said salary figures will be made available to EFICOM, but not to the press or the public.
Member organizations with incomes over $100,000 will also be required to have a board of directors of at least five persons, with a majority “other than those joined by a family relationship, staff or employees.”
Armstrong said applications for EFICOM will be received as of June 1, and members are being given 90 days to apply and two years to come into full compliance with the code. He said the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) will administer the program.
EFICOM did not arise from the PTL financial scandals, according to Armstrong. “We started a year before this happened,” he said, adding that the scandal “did, however, heighten, not lessen, interest in accountability.” He said the code might not have passed without the awareness of the PTL scandal.
The NRB-Israel Connection
Since 1981, the National Prayer Breakfast in Honor of Israel, has been held in conjunction with the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention, leading some to wonder if the breakfast is an event of the NRB.
It is not. The Memphis, Tennessee-based Religious Roundtable sponsors the breakfast, and, in the words of Roundtable founder and president Ed McAteer, its purpose is to allow the Christian community to express its “unconditional love for … Israel.”
McAteer said he and other backers of the event support Israel largely for biblical reasons. The “1988 Proclamation of Blessing,” issued at the breakfast, begins: “As Bible-believing Christians, we believe there exists an iron-clad bond between the State of Israel and the United States.” The proclamation, which is similar to statements released in previous years, purports to represent the “vast majority of evangelicals in the United States,” although McAteer acknowledges that even some board members of the Religious Roundtable hold a different view.
Critics of the breakfast are uncomfortable with the implied support of religious broadcasters for a particular theological view of Israel. Billy Melvin, executive director of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), the NRB’S parent organization, admitted the breakfast has been an “issue for quite a long time.” He said critics, both outside and within NRB ranks, object to the event’s “high visibility at the [NRB] registration area,” and “identification of key NRB leadership with the breakfast.”
Since 1986, the prayer breakfast has been listed by the NRB as an “auxiliary event.” But the NRB’S heavy participation has led critics to dismiss the unofficial status as merely semantic.
At this year’s event, McAteer thanked the staff of the NRB for “helping us prepare and promote this breakfast.” And NRB executive director Ben Armstrong brought greetings from his organization for the seventh straight year, affirming that “for eschatological reasons, I love Israel.”
In an interview with CT, Armstrong said the NRB’S involvement with the prayer breakfast does not constitute an endorsement, characterizing it as merely one of 30 or 40 similar auxiliary events. Armstrong added that while the breakfast has become popular, “if there were an Arab group wanting a breakfast, we certainly would be open to that.”
The NAE’s Melvin said the problem is one of perception. “Because of the way it has been staged, it is still not clear to many that the prayer breakfast has nothing to do with the NRB.”
In addition to emphasis on the EFICOM code, the convention highlighted the importance of financial accountability in other ways. Several seminars were held on the issue, and Billy Graham made integrity the focus of his address. “If you’re going to be a leader … there must be integrity or you’ll soon be found out,” he said. Graham called on the broadcasters to employ integrity, vision, and the presence of God in their ministries.
Armstrong called this year’s gathering of broadcasters the “largest NRB convention ever” and said much growth had occurred over the last year. He said newly elected NRB president Jerry Rose, from a Chicago television station, was poised to lead the NRB into an “even greater future.”
By Kim Lawton, in Washington, D.C.
