Appeal of P.O.D. Docket No. 2/129 -- MISSION TO MEXICO


 In the Matter of the Petition by 	) April 10, 1964
					)
 MISSION TO MEXICO 			)
 P. O. Box 96 				)
 Ashland, Montana 			) P.O.D. Docket No. 2/129
 					)
 for a second-class mail permit for 	)
 "MISSIONARY REVOLUTION MAGAZINE." 	)
					)
 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

 Bosone, Reva Beck

DEPARTMENTAL DECISION

There is but one issue in the above-named case: Is the Mission to Mexico, Inc., a church or a church organization?

A hearing was held in Billings, Montana, on October 2, 1963. The Initial Decision of the Chief Hearing Examiner was in favor of the Petitioner. The Post Office Department has appealed from that decision.

The evidence showed that the Petitioner is a religious entity organized under the laws of the State of Oregon with headquarters located in Ashland, Montana. Its principal officers are Vaughn L. Hayden, Director, and Ray W. Swasso, Co-Director. There was a vacancy in the office of Secretary-Treasurer.

Mr. Vaughn L. Hayden filed an application for second-class mailing privileges for his publication, "Missionary Revolution Magazine." The application was later denied by the Director of

the Classification and Special Services Division, Bureau of Operations of the Post Office Department. The reason for the denial was that the articles of incorporation of the foregoing-mentioned entity did not indicate that the corporation is a church or church organization as required by law--Title 39 U. S. Code 4355(a)(9); Postal Manual, section 132.232.

The dictionary, the statute and the cases are not definitive sufficiently to give any clear definition of what constitutes a church.

According to Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged, a church is defined as:

"The organization of Christianity or of an association of Christians, as in a nation; esp., the clergy and officers collectively, or as a permanent corporation, in some countries constituting one of the estates; ecclesiastical power, authority, or government; --often opposed to the state."

"The collective body of Christians; all who are identified with Christ as his sincere followers; -- often, as a spiritual society separated from the world, opposed to the world."

"A body of Christian believers holding the same creed, observing the same rites, and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority, regarded either as the only true representative, or as a separate branch, of the church universal, and often confined to limits territorial or historical."

"A formally organized body of Christian believers worshiping together."

"Any body of worshipers; a religious society or organization not Christian, or not distinctively so. Specif.: a. The congregation or company of God's worshipers under the old dispensation or in Old Testament times, the analogue and precursor of the Christian Church. b. A society, school, or the like resembling the Christian church, as in having a set of opinions held in common."

Webster's New International Dictionary, Third Edition:

"Church is likely to stress the existence of an established formal organization and procedure; it may suggest a Christian rather than non-Christian context."

The cases cited in the appeal brief of the Post Office Department are broad in their interpretation of what a church is. These cases do differentiate between churches and some church property that may be taxed but the cases cited pretty well agree that an 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" and "What constitutes the conduct of religious worship or the ministration of sacerdotal functions depends on the tenets and practices of a particular body constituting a church."--De La Salle Institute v. United States, 195 F. Supp. 891.

Title 39 U. S. Code, section 4355, says:

"(a) Mailable periodical publications meeting the first three conditions of section 4354(a) of this title are entitled to be entered and mailed as second class mail when they do not contain advertising other than that of the publisher and if they are--

********

(9) published by a church or church organization."

The Chief Hearing Examiner held that the Petitioner is a church or a church organization and is entitled to second-class mailing privileges for the publication of "Missionary Revolution Magazine."

On January 10, 1964, the Post Office Department filed Exceptions and Brief on Appeal from the Initial Decision. Every effort was made to send the Exceptions and Brief on Appeal by the Post Office to the Petitioner by mail but the Petitioner has not been located. There is no reason at this time to delay a final decision in the above-named matter.

The Hearing Examiner found that Mr. Vaughn L. Hayden was a licensed minister in an organization known as Youth Soldiers for Christ, Inc.--that "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 baptized by immersion (Tr. 24). The ordinance of communion is also observed (Tr. 25)."

The publication in question "Missionary Revolution Magazine" has as its purpose fund raising for the building of a school in which Spanish-speaking students will be given religious training and also for missionaries who have received training and have returned to their own country to do evangelism work. Other witnesses at the hearing supported Mr. Hayden's position.

Since the meaning of the word "church" is not described by statute, cases and dictionary except in general terms it doesn't seem to me that one can be arbitrary in holding that one group which conducts its organization in a similar way as the organization in this case is a "church" and this one, the Mission to Mexico, is not a "church." If the purpose of its publication is for following out its doctrine then the publication should be permitted to have second-class mailing privileges. I agree with the Hearing Examiner's Initial Decision when he says that "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."

I hereby affirm the Initial Decision and conclude upon the basis of the record, that Mission to Mexico, Inc., is entitled to a second class permit for the publication "Missionary Revolution Magazine."