COUNTYWIDE : Broadcasters Add to Comment on Crouch

The yearlong sniping between Paul Crouch, founder of Tustin-based Trinity Broadcasting Network, and the National Religious Broadcasters over ethics and financial accountability continued this week at the NRB’s convention in Washington.

In December, Crouch resigned from the voluntary organization of 1,100 Protestant evangelicals involved in radio and television, citing “lying, trumped-up charges (that) were aimed at the heart” of his 24-hour-a-day Christian programming service. The charges, made by former Trinity employees and Crouch’s business associates, complained of unfair labor and business practices.

The NRB’s executive committee said in December that the group’s ethics committee found there was “insufficient evidence to warrant termination of membership” of Trinity from the NRB.

After the finding was announced, Crouch told viewers: “I don’t need the NRB poking around their nose in my business. Brothers sometimes persecute brothers. . . . I’ve been persecuted by the NRB, and I resigned from the NRB because of it.”

On the same broadcast, Crouch said he was involved in a new, competing, international organization that--unlike the NRB--would admit Catholic broadcasters. The Crystal Cathedral’s Robert Schuller, who addressed the NRB convention in Washington, has cited the exclusion of Catholics as his reason for not joining that organization.

On Monday, after receiving the full text of the seven complaints against Trinity submitted to the NRB’s ethics committee, the group’s 90-member board of directors a issued an additional “Statement of Clarification,” saying the December finding about Trinity “may have been misunderstood or misinterpreted.”

The full board stated that “it is important to understand that the decision of the Executive Committee does not mean that we do not consider the complaints of a serious nature, nor does the decision represent an exoneration (of Trinity) by the NRB.”