CHURCH DEMANDS OBEDIENCE TO CODE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 23, 1993                   TAG: 9301230094
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BRIDGEPORT, CONN.                                LENGTH: Medium
CHURCH DEMANDS OBEDIENCE TO CODE
A major Pentecostal church is risking a schism to uphold a code of conduct that disapproves of mixed swimming, dances, women cutting their hair, and television sets in members' homes.
The United Pentecostal Church next month will send letters to its 7,500 ministers requiring them to recommit to its holiness code and other articles of faith or lose their ministerial licenses.
Holiness standards once were a defining part of American Pentecostalism. But, with the passage of time and the growth of a more affluent and better educated membership, the standards have increasingly been forgotten or ignored in major denominations such as the Assemblies of God.
Several United Pentecostal ministers have declared their intention to resign over the recent action, but officials of the 500,000-member denomination said it was time for the church to take a stand.
"We live in a culture today that basically has no morals," said the Rev. David Bradt of the Bridgeport Apostolic Church. "Our leadership and general constituency is making a stand and lifting a voice against what they see as happening."
The Hazelwood, Mo.-based United Pentecostal Church was formed in 1945 with the merger of the Pentecostal Church Inc. and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ. From less than 1,000 churches then, the denomination today has more than 3,700 churches in North America.
The denomination's holiness code expresses wholehearted disapproval of activities considered not conducive to good Christian living. These include "theaters, dances, mixed bathing, women cutting their hair, make-up, any apparel that immodestly exposes the body, all worldly sports and amusements, and unwholesome radio programs and music."
The list would have been shared with many Protestant churches earlier in the century, and was a particular mark of Pentecostalism until the last generation.
At the United Pentecostal Church's General Conference in October, a resolution was approved requiring ministers to sign a statement annually restating their adherence to the articles of faith.
Church officials say the code is biblically based. For example, the standard on women not cutting their hair is based on I Corinthians 11:15, which says "if a woman has long hair, it is her glory."
But some ministers say the Bible has little to do with it. They view the action as part of an effort by an ultraconservative faction to limit believers' freedom to follow their consciences.
"Some of those matters are personal, individual matters," said the Rev. Norman Rutzen of Valley Pentecostal Church in Caldwell, Idaho. "There has to a matter of tolerance and consideration."
Ministers have 90 days after receipt of the letter to sign a statement affirming their belief in the articles of faith.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB