ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 7, 1996 TAG: 9611070048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
Confusion about the potential impact of a proposed constitutional amendment related to the incorporation of churches - mixed with worries about government intrusion into religion - likely contributed to its defeat Tuesday, some observers say.
"I think at the heart of it was some confusion about whether churches were going to be taxed," said the Rev. G. Wilson Gunn, pastor of Peace Presbyterian Church on Cloverdale Road.
"I can't imagine someone really understanding it and not favoring it."
The proposed amendment - which appeared as the last of five on Tuesday's ballots - would have allowed the General Assembly to vote on whether to allow churches or religious denominations to incorporate.
Only West Virginia similarly prohibits the incorporation of churches.
Proponents had touted the measure as a way to make it easier for churches to own and dispose of property, and to allow some degree of protection from liability for church trustees.
Opponents, such as State Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, contended that such measures were unnecessary.
Churches already receive some degree of liability protection when they are engaged in "charitable activities," Trumbo said before Tuesday's popular vote.
And he worried that incorporating churches would take property control away from congregations, placing it with small boards of directors.
The measure would not have required churches or religious denominations to become incorporated, nor would it have altered their tax status.
The Rev. Kirk Lashley, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Baptist Association, said "my only read is that people felt like it represented some sort of intrusion between government and church that was inappropriate.
"But I really didn't hear a lot of discussion about it" either before or after the vote, Lashley said.
For him, "the only compelling reason" to support it was the potential for liability protection for church members who serve as trustees or officers.
The organization Lashley heads is already incorporated, even though it is religious in nature.
When he came to the job, "it did appear to me that this [board of directors] of six to eight people, in effect, could do what they want to with finances and property and not be bound by the will" of the association's members.
"While people trust those of us who are officers [of the corporation], I guess that could get out of hand."
The big advantage for the association was that incorporation allowed it to own property.
Before that, a lay-led mission group held property in trust for the association - including property for future church development.
Now the association owns its offices on Plantation Road Northeast, as well as a campground on Bradshaw Road.
Differences among denominations, however, apparently create differences in the application of the laws regarding incorporation.
Since the Roanoke Valley Baptist Association is a voluntary alliance of congregations that is neither a church nor a religious denomination - the two entities the state constitution says cannot be granted charters of incorporation - it could seek incorporation as a nonprofit agency.
Conversely, the Presbytery of the Peaks is a regional unit of a denomination - the Presbyterian Church (USA). Consequently, it cannot itself own Camp Fincastle.
The camp is owned by an independent property association - which is incorporated and run by a board of directors elected by the Presbytery, Gunn said. However, that board technically is independent of Presbytery control.
"Those folks [on the board] have a vision of serving the Presbytery that is clear, direct and trustworthy," Gunn said, but they conceivably could take some action contrary to the wishes of the Presbytery if they chose.
With the negative vote on the constitutional amendment, however, "We'll just keep on doing what we're doing now," Gunn said.
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