Religious Broadcasters Propose Code of Ethics

OKLAHOMA CITY — A group of religious broadcasters Tuesday developed a code of ethics for its members that would make public an annual audit and include a device to expel ministries that do not follow responsible conduct.

The proposal will be presented to a special meeting of the 90-member board of directors of the National Assn. of Religious Broadcasters in Chicago on Sept. 11, said NRB President Robert A. Cook.

The proposal, adopted by the 12-member executive board of the NRB during a meeting here, calls for establishment of an Ethics and Financial Integrity Commission, whose primary responsibility would be screening fund-raising programs. The NRB has 1,300 members.

Broadcast ministries that refuse to submit to the review would be denied membership; the list of those not on NRB rolls would be available to the public. Members who violate fund-raising guidelines would be placed on probation, with memberships publicized quarterly.

Before the board released its draft, it met with what Cook called an “ad hoc group of people concerned about ethics” in the broadcast ministry.

On hand for the meeting was evangelist Jimmy Swaggart of Baton Rouge, La., who has been urging an ethics code for broadcast ministries and outlined his proposal here.

Swaggart has been particularly interested in developing a plan to aggressively monitor television evangelists’ fund-raising activities.

Swaggart’s plan was particularly aimed at evangelist Oral Roberts, who earlier this year declared God would take his life if he did not raise $8 million by the end of March. Roberts later said his life had been spared because he reached the goal.

Cook said although Roberts’ activities created more interest in the ethics issue, the “downfall of our brother (Jim) Bakker” made more urgent the adoption of a code of financial responsibility.

Bakker resigned from his PTL ministry in March after admitting to a sexual encounter with church secretary Jessica Hahn. In May, the Assemblies of God revoked Bakker’s ministerial credentials on the grounds of adultery and alleged homosexual acts.

Cook said the entire broadcast ministry should not be tainted because of “some people’s failure to be responsible” in the running of their ministries.