In the Matter of the Petition by WORLD WIDE MISSIONARY CRUSADER, INC., 4606 Avenue H, Lubbock, Texas 79494 Proposed Annulment of Second-Class Mail Pr MISSIONARY CRUSADER" P.S. Docket No. 2/107July 3, 1974
Rudolf Sobernheim Administrative Law Judge
APPEARANCES: Craig Brummett, Esq. Brummett & Brummett 2315 50th Street Lubbock, Texas 79412 for Petitioner D. Scott Railsback, Esq. Arthur S. Cahn, Esq. Grayson M. Poats, Esq. Law Department U.S. Postal Service Washington, D.C. 20260 for Respondent
This is a proceeding initiated by Petitioner pursuant to 39 C.F.R. Part 954 to contest the ruling of Respondent, represented by the Manager of the Mail Classification Division, Finance Department (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the "Manager"), issued on 13 June 1973, which annulled, subject to the outcome of this proceeding, the second-class mail privilege for the "WORLD WIDE MISSIONARY CRUSADER" (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the "CRUSADER").
The reasons for this decision were stated by the Manager as follows:
"Section 132.232, Postal Service Manual, provides that publications that do not have subscribers, do not contain advertising and that are issued as the publication of a church or church organization may be entered as second-class matter. * * *
In a letter dated May 25, 1973, to the Postmaster at Lubbock, Texas, Mr. Homer Duncan, Editor and Executive Director, stated the World-Wide Missionary Crusader, Inc., is a benevolent society. Information furnished with that letter stated 'the principal ministry of the Missionary Crusader is that of publishing a series of 58 gospel books and booklets, some are printed in 60 languages and are sent out to all parts of the free world.'
The term 'church or church organization' as used in the postal regulations under which you have applied for second-class mail privileges embraces churches on the organizational level of an individual congregation. It is not apparent that World Wide Missionary Crusader, Inc., is a church or church organization within the meaning of this regulation. That the organization is established as a 'religious organization' is not questioned. However, the regulation does not embrace religious organizations in general even though they may be organized on a nonprofit basis."
Petitioner at first requested a hearing in Lubbock, Texas, but later because of the absence of its editor-in-chief concurred in submission of the matter for decision on the record without hearing. Both parties thereafter supplemented the record by statements and documentary evidence and filed briefs on the legal and factual matters involved.
1. Petitioner was incorporated in the State of Texas in January 1948 by M. H. Duncan, Jr., M. H. Duncan, Sr., and W. M. Peticolas, Jr. as a non-profit religious organization for a period of 50 years.
2. It was incorporated for the religious and missionary undertaking of proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by disseminating missionary facts and information among Christians in order to arouse in them greater missionary zeal and interest. To this end Petitioner was to publish the CRUSADER, to distribute Christian tracts and to send out and support missionaries.
3. According to a letter of the CRUSADER's editor (Stat. Oliver, Ex. A) Petitioner is recognized as a non-profit religious organization and for three decades has "had a ministry of publishing Gospel literature and sending it out to over 100 nations of the world, literally by the ton." The editor added that the CRUSADER was Petitioner's official publication and "the means that GOD uses to touch the hearts of Christian people all over this country to cause them to send in the funds that was needed for carrying on this work."
4. The CRUSADER, as shown by the issues of February, June and July 1973 which form part of the record, is published monthly. Each issue comprises seventy pages, including the soft covers, and contains editorial matter, articles, news, reader correspondence and poetry of religious and missionary character and in furtherance of religious and missionary character and in furtherance of Petitioner's declared purposes and activities.
5. In June 1957 Petitioner applied for second-class mail privileges for the CRUSADER as a church organization entitled thereto under 39 U.S.C. 229 (later renumbered 39 U.S.C. 4355) and was granted the same for the CRUSADER on 31 July 1957 effective as of 6 June of that year (Att'mt to Am. Answ.).
6. It can be inferred from the record that Petitioner would otherwise not have been entitled to second-class mail privileges because it did not maintain a regular list of subscribers. The CRUSADER does, however, have a subscription price of $3.00 yearly.
7. Based on the foregoing detailed Findings of Fact and the entire record I find:
a. Petitioner is a non-profit religious corporation, created and maintained by private individuals, and is not an organization created by, affiliated with or a part of any church, either at the local, regional or national level.
b. Petitioner is not a church in that it does not conduct religious worship in accordance with its creed or provide for the ministration of sacerdotal functions.
c. Petitioner, as far as the record shows, publishes Christian religious literature to be distributed throughout the world to Christians and non-Christians and raises funds for this purpose by contributions obtained, at least in part, through publication of the CRUSADER.
1. Postal Service Manual (PSM) 132.232 grants second-class mail privileges for publications of "churches and church organizations" although they do not have the list of subscribers required for other publications under section 132.225 of the Manual, provided they carry only the publisher's own advertising or advertising of others under the restrictive terms set forth in section 132.232. These provisions are in substance the same as those of 39 U.S.C. 4355 and no difference in wording between the former statute and the current regulations is material in determining whether Petitioner is entitled to relief from the Manager's decision.
2. Prior to 1955 the postal laws regarding second-class mail privileges (Act of 24 August 1912, 37 Stat. 550) did not mention churches or church organizations, much less religious organizations generally, as entitled to second-class mail privileges in the absence of meeting the "subscriber list" requirement (PSM 132.225; previously 39 U.S.C. 4354(a)(5)). In 1955 the postal laws were amended to add churches and church organizations to the privileged class of organizations which need not meet this requirement (69 Stat. 373). As the legislative history of the 1955 amendment shows, the primary concern of the Post Office Department and the Congress was with the burden on some churches and church organizations to meet the subscriber list requirement and the artificiality of the procedures employed to achieve compliance. H. Report No. 714 (H.R. No. 4585) and Sen. Report No. 826, 84th Cong., 1st Sess. (1955); 2 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News (84th Cong., 1st Sess.) 2500.
3. Decisions under the postal laws, the federal Internal Revenue Code and state law establish that the phrase "churches and church organizations" does not possess the same meaning as the term "religious" organization. Churches are relevantly defined as bodies of believers sharing common tenets for whom their church provides the place and means for worship as well as the ministration of priestly services. These functions distinguish them from among religious organizations at large. Mission to Mexico , P.O.D. Docket No. 2/129 (Init. Dec. 1963; Dept. Dec. 1964); Berean Bible Society , P.O.D. Docket No. 2/250 (Init. Dec. 1967; Dept. Dec. 1968); Kentucky Mountain Mission , P.O.D. Docket No. 2/294 (1968). All of these organizations were found to be churches under the postal laws because of their emphasis on providing religious worship for their believers in the form of church services. See also Maumee Valley Broadcasting Ass'n v. Porterfield , 29 Oh. St. 2d 95, 279 N.E. 2d 863 (1972); Appeal of Upper St. Clair Township Grange , 397 Pa. 67, 152 A 2d 768 (1959).
4. On the other hand, organizations not having a religious character or organizations of a religious character not performing sacerdotal functions or conducting religious worship are not churches and entitled to such privileges as may be accorded to them. Upper St. Clair Township Grange , supra (Grange's use of abandoned church building not a "church" use); De La Salle Institute v. United States , 195 F. Supp. 891 (U.S.D.C., N.D. Cal., 1961) (teaching order not entitled to tax treatment as church).
5. The term "church organization" obviously must then mean an organization which forms part of a church, as defined by the decisions cited above, or an organization composed of units which are churches. See Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, Inc. , P.S. Docket No. 1/10(1972) (P.S. decision denying second-class mail privileges to community service organization formed in part by non-church religious organizations). This proceeding does not require, nor does the record affort adequate opportunity for, exploration of the limits of the concept of church organization and for more precise definition of the meaning of this term under the postal laws.
6. For it is abundantly clear that Petitioner in this proceeding is neither a church nor an organization which is part of a church or of an organization formed by churches. However, the phrase "churches or church organizations" may be specifically defined in particular cases, Petitioner is plainly outside its scope.
7. Accordingly, the Manager's annulment of Petitioner's second- class mail privileges is affirmed. Nothing herein, however, shall be deemed to prevent Petitioner from applying for second-class mail privileges if it believes itself entitled thereto under any other provision of the postal laws or regulations.