‘Reclaim Principles of Right Living,’ Bishops Urge

Methodist bishops, addressing scandals at their own Southern Methodist University, by TV evangelists and in government, have called on followers to “reclaim the simple and ordinary principles of right living.”

The bishops of four denominations, in a recently released, six-page “statement to the churches and nations,” said “the integrity of government” has been compromised by the Iran- contra scandal and the Reagan Administration’s encouragement of “public officials to circumvent the legitimate functions and laws of government.”

“We . . . call upon our governmental leaders to fulfill their responsibilities in accordance with the integrity of the public trust,” the statement said.

The statement was issued by about 150 Methodist bishops from the predominantly white United Methodist Church and three largely black denominations: the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

‘Winning by Any Means’

The four churches have about 13.4 million members.

“No society can endure when basic codes of morality are violated,” the bishops said. “The sad state of much in intercollegiate athletics, misconduct within religious communities, charges of cheating with inside information in the stock market, graft and misuse of public funds, are all symptoms that ‘winning by any means’ is becoming a way of life.”

“We call upon our people, pastors and leaders of institutions to reclaim the simple and ordinary principles of right living,” the bishops said.

Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, has been the focus of one of the worst football payoff scandals in intercollegiate athletic history, prompting stiff sanctions from the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. and an inquiry by a panel of United Methodist Church bishops.

The statement was released as part of a Washington meeting of the bishops this week. As they met, disclosures about a sex and payoff scandal involving Jim and Tammy Bakker, hosts of the PTL Club television program, continued.

The bishops also condemned the “continuing intervention of the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. in the struggles of peoples for independence in Central America and the Middle East,” and urged Methodists and others “to rise up and demand a halt to the arms race and increasing reliance on military power.”