In the Matter of the Petition by MISSION TO MEXICO P. O. Box 96, Ashland, Montana for a second-class mail permit for for "MISSIONARY REVOLUTION MAGAZINE." P.O.D. Docket No. 2/129 December 5, 1963 William A. Duvall Chief Hearing Examiner POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20260, APPEARANCES: Vaughn L. Hayden P. O. Box 96 Ashland, Montana for the Petitioner Robert M. Alexander, Esq. Office of the General Counsel Post Office Department for the Respondent
Mission to Mexico, Incorporated, the Petitioner, is a religious entity organized under the laws of the State of Oregon, with headquarters now located in Ashland, Montana. Its principal officers are Vaughn L. Hayden, Director, and Ray W. Swasso, Co-Director. The office of Secretary-Treasurer was vacant as of October 2, 1963.
To further the program of the organization, Mission to Mexico instituted the publication of "Missionary Revolution Magazine." On March 28, 1963, Petitioner filed an application for entry of the publication into the mails as second-class matter.
By notice dated August 1, 1963, the Respondent, the Director, Classification and Special Services Division, Bureau of Operations, Post Office Department, denied the application, subject to the decision in a proceeding such as this, for the following stated reason:
"The evidence submitted does not show that Mission to Mexico, Incorporated is a church or church organization. The articles of incorporation enumerate meritorious objectives for the corporation, but they do not indicate in any manner that the corporation is a church or church organization as required by law (Title 39, United States Code 4355(a)(9); Postal Manual, section 132.232)."
Timely appeal from this notification was filed and the case was heard by this Hearing Examiner in Billings, Montana, on October 2, 1963. The parties agreed that the sole issue to be resolved is whether Mission to Mexico, Incorporated, is a church or a church organization.
The provision of law cited in the Respondent's notice provides, among other things, that mailable periodicals which meet previously specified conditions as to (1) regularity of issuance, (2) issuance from a known office of publication, and (3) formation of printed sheets, are entitled to be entered and mailed as second-class mail when they do not contain advertising other than that of the publishers and if they are published by a church or church organization. Thus, if the Petitioner is a church or a church organization, it is entitled to second-class mail privileges for the publication herein in question.
Mr. Hayden was the first, and the principal witness for the Appellant. By way of background Mr. Hayden stated that he was a resident student at Bible Standard College located in Eugene, Oregon, for a period of three years as a theological student. He is completing his fourth year by means of correspondence courses. He has been licensed as a minister with the Pentecostal Church of God of America. He remained an adherent to the tenets of the Pentecostal Church of God for some time, but, because of a disagreement on a matter relating to the clergy, Mr. Hayden felt compelled to withdraw from that denomination. He is now licensed as a minister in an organization known as Youth Soldiers for Christ, Inc.
The group headed by Mr. Hayden meets for religious services every Monday evening. They now regularly use the church building belonging to the Spanish Assembly of God Church in Billings, Montana, but they have been given the rent-free, three-year use of a building in Billings which is in the process of rehabilitation to make it more useful and appropriate for the organization's purposes.
The meetings usually are led by the Director or the Co-Director, but they may be conducted by any visiting pastor. During the course of the meetings, passages from the Bible are read (Tr. 16), prayers are said (Tr. 13, 15), and talks or sermons are delivered (Tr. 15). Congregational participation takes place in the form of group singing of hymns and by testimonials or statements by individuals (Tr. 15). To be recognized by the group as being Christians, persons must have been baptised by immersion (Tr. 24). The ordinance of communion is also observed (Tr. 25).
Mr. Hayden said that Mission to Mexico, Inc., has the same characteristics, tenets, rituals, articles of faith, and the like, as the Assembly of God Church and certain other denominations, but that there has been added the program of evangelism to the Spanish-speaking people in Mexico (Tr. 13). One feature of this program is that Mexicans will be brought to Billings, where they will be trained in the school belonging to the organization. These graduates will then return to Mexico to win converts and start local churches. At the present time, one such emissary from the group is located in Encinada, Mexico.
One of the principal purposes for the publication of "Missionary Revolution Magazine" is to interest the readers in providing financial support (1) for the building of the school in which Spanish-speaking students will be given religious training and (2) for missionaries who have received training and have returned to their own country to do evangelistic work.
The testimony of Mr. Hayden was supported and adopted by the testimony of Mr. Ray W. Swasso, Co-Director of Mission to Mexico, Inc.
Mrs. Grace Reyes, the wife of the pastor of the Spanish Assembly of God Church, Billings, stated that the meetings of Mission to Mexico had been held for some time in the church building of her husband's church. At the request of Mr. Hayden, Mrs. Reyes has agreed, since she speaks Spanish, to teach in the Go Ye School of Evangelism which is to be established by Mission to Mexico. Mrs. Reyes will give religious training to Spanish-speaking students of the school, who will then go back to teach their own people. In respect to Mission to Mexico, Mrs. Reyes said that its meetings are normal, usual church services (Tr. 30).
The foregoing testimony, together with copies of the Articles of Incorporation of the organization (Pet. Ex. 1), the April and May, 1963, issues of the publication (Pet. Ex. 2) and a copy of the organization's Statement of Faith, 1/ constitute the case in behalf of the Petitioner.
No witness testified in behalf of the Respondent.
Proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, together with supporting argument have been filed by the Respondent. No such document has been received from the Petitioner. In the Respondent's brief, it is conceded that Mission to Mexico is a religious organization and that its purposes are worthy, but Respondent denies that the organization is a church or church organization as those terms are used in the controlling statute.
In order to resolve the previously stated issue, it is necessary to look into the question "What is a 'church'"?
In looking for the answer to this question a search has been made to determine what Congress intended when it broadened the provisions of law to make publications of "a church or church organization" eligible for entry into the mails as second-class matter (39 U.S.C. 4355(a)(9)).
This legislation was introduced as H.R. 4585 during the Eighty-fourth Congress. Its purpose was to relieve churches and church organizations of the necessity of going through the fiction of having part of the dues pledged as support of the churches allocated by the churches as subscriptions to church publications. Neither the Committee Reports in the House and Senate nor the meager debates which took place when the legislation was being considered contain any statement as to the meaning of the word "church." This phase of the matter is not mentioned so we must, then, conclude that the word was intended to have the meaning that it has in its common, everyday usage and as it is generally understood.
Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, Unabridged (1953) includes the following definitions of the word "church" when used in the sense other than the place of worship:
"A body of Christian believers holding the same creed, observing the same rites, and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority, regarded as either the only true representative, or as a separate branch of the church universal, and often confined to limits territorial or historical."
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"A formally organized body of Christian believers worshipping together."
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"Any body of worshippers; ***"
Several additional definitions are given in cases cited in Respondent's brief:
"The very term 'church' imports an organization for religious purposes, and property given to it eo nomine, in the absence of all declaration of trust or use, must, by necessary implication, be intended to be given to promote the purposes for which a church is instituted, the most prominent of which is the public worship of God." McAlister, et al. v. Burgess, et al. , 37 N.E. 173 (1894).
"A church is a building consecrated to the honor of God and religion with its members united in the profession of the same Christian faith." Wiggins et al. v. Young, et al. , 57 S.E. 2d 486 (1950).
Mr. Hayden read into the record (Tr. 10) a portion of the bylaws of the organization in which it is stated that, "Mission to Mexico is not and shall not be a denomination." He said (Tr. 21) that Mission to Mexico has no connection with established churches, and that the organization is not an integral part of any other church. Mr. Swasso said that Mission to Mexico is interdenominational (Tr. 34, 35). None of these statements, however, negates the facts that under the auspices of Mission to Mexico, regular public worship services are held by a group (1) which finds support for its existence in the Scriptures; (2) whose members believe in and participate in the ordinances of baptism and communion; and (3) who subscribe to the same tenets of faith. There are many places today where interdenominational groups function regularly and they are generally recognized as churches. It is recognized that the evangelical program of the group receives great emphasis, but regular worship services are held, and these meetings -- even if only an incident to the primary objective of the group -- are now the main tangible activity of the group and give validity to the proposition that Mission to Mexico is a church.
Reference was made to the small number of persons who constitute the leadership of Mission to Mexico and the suggestion is made that the fact that they are so relatively few in number somehow is incompatible with the organization's being a church or a church organization. This argument is not persuasive, particularly when it is recalled that Christianity, itself, owes its origin and existence to the birth, life, teachings and death of One, and His few early disciples.
Greatest reliance for support of the Respondent's position is placed in De La Salle Institute v. United States , (195 F. Supp. 891, U.S.D.C., N.D. Cal. (1961)). That case, so far as here pertinent, involved an action for the refund of certain corporate income taxes paid by the plaintiff which the plaintiff alleged had been paid in error. The Internal Revenue Code provided for the payment of income taxes on the unrelated business income of religious, charitable, and educational corporations, exclusive of churches, or conventions or associations of churches. Among other things, the plaintiff owned and operated: (1) a novitiate for training persons to play their part in the Christian Brothers Order; (2) certain Catholic schools; (3) Homes for Brothers and retired Brothers; and (4) a winery and distillery. The winery had been transferred to a corporation which represented the head of the San Francisco Province of the Christian Brothers Order and it was then leased to the plaintiff.
The Court concluded that none of the properties listed above nor the Christian Brothers Order, itself, is a "church, a convention or association or churches," although the latter is an integral part of a church, and that, therefore, the plaintiff was not entitled to the refund sought. In reaching this conclusion, the Court made some interesting observations regarding the Revenue Code and the definition of a church.
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"What is a 'church' for purposes of the statute must be interpreted in the light of the common understanding of the word. An organization established to carry out 'church' functions, under the general understanding of the term, is a 'church'."
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"The legislative history of the statute here under consideration imports a restrictive interpretation of the word 'church'."
The Court also approved the following portion of a regulation issued under the 1954 Internal Revenue Code:
"***'A religious order or organization shall be considered to be engaged in carrying out the functions of a church if its duties include the ministration of sacerdotal functions and the conduct of religious worship. *** What constitutes the conduct of religious worship or the ministration of sacerdotal functions depends on the tenets and practices of a particular religious body constituting a church'.***"
It has been pointed out that there is no indication that Congress, in enacting the 1955 amendment to the governing statute pertaining to second-class mail permits, intended that a restrictive interpretation be given to the word "church." The purpose behind the second-class mail statute is quite different from that of the revenue statute. On the one hand the Congress was enacting a revenue-raising measure and the clear purpose was to limit the persons and entities which might be entitled to exemption, while on the other hand the Congress in the amendment of the second-class mail statute had for its purpose the granting of a privilege to an additional class under a statute which originally was enacted to provide wide dissemination of information.
There is appended to this Initial Decision, as Appendix A, a copy of the Statement of Faith of the Petitioner in this proceeding. When recognition is given to this Statement, and when cognizance is taken of the functions of Mission to Mexico, such as regular public worship services, readings from the Bible, sermons based upon the Scriptures, baptism and communion, one is irresistibly drawn to the conclusion that this organization is a "church" as that word occurs and is understood in general usage. There is nothing in any of the quoted definitions of the word "church" which precludes a finding that the Petitioner in this proceeding is a church.
It is the belief of this Hearing Examiner that if the Respondent had available to him the information which was brought out at the hearing, the Respondent would probably have granted the mailing privilege sought. In any event, upon the basis of the entire record, this Hearing Examiner recommends the issuance of second-class mailing permit to Mission to Mexico, Inc., for the publication Missionary Revolution Magazine.
Proposed findings of fact submitted by the Respondent are adopted. Proposed conclusions of law submitted by the Respondent are rejected for the reasons herein stated.
1/ The Statement of Faith was furnished by the Petitioner after the close of the hearing at the request of the Hearing Examiner.