New Fundamentalist Coalition Works to Unite Various Groups

To protest alleged government intrusions into spiritual matters, a fundamentalist-led group called the Coalition for Religious Freedom has vigorously protested the jailing of Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, courted the Hare Krishnas and attracted activist black churchmen.

The group has existed less than a year, and it drew only 100 people to an afternoon rally in Los Angeles this week. But if the Washington-based organization thrives, it would lend credence to a predicted realignment of religious forces in American public affairs.

Sociologists have suggested that conservative religionists would cooperate with fellow conservatives of varied beliefs if they perceive a common threat to religious practice itself. Whereas fundamentalist churches once fought most fiercely about variations within Protestantism, they now often see secularism as the principal opponent rather than liberal-to-moderate churches, which have waned in influence.

The anti-abortion movement has brought together conservative Roman Catholics and Protestants on picket lines and in political lobbying. But the Coalition for Religious Freedom has indicated an eagerness to embrace fervent believers of any religious tradition.

Rally Supported Moon

Last June as an ad hoc committee, the emerging coalition held a rally in Washington to protest the conviction on tax evasion charges of sect leader Moon. The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, co-chaired the meeting with the Rev. Tim LaHaye, a prominent leader in the so-called Religious Right. Lowery is on the board of the coalition and other black pastors have been involved in local branches.

The Rev. Donald N. Sills, who left a church post in Glendale last August to become executive director of the coalition, spoke at a religious freedom rally Tuesday at Second Baptist Church of Los Angeles.

To illustrate the coalition’s willingness to defend its interpretation of First Amendment religious liberty no matter what religious body is affected, Sills described an appearance he had made before a meeting of Hindu-oriented Hare Krishnas, whom he put at ease by tell them, “I’m just as afraid of you as you are of me.”

Sills told the meeting here that the coalition was given money by the Unification Church in its early days. But Sills said that he turned down an offer of $1 million from what he called a “very questionable” organization--which he declined to identify--because accompanying the offer was a request to run ads in the coalition’s newspaper.

Definite Views

Despite the interfaith cast to the coalition, however, the ideological perspective of the coalition is openly anti-Communist and favors minimal governmental involvement in church matters.

Coalition President Greg Dixon was active last year, along with other fundamentalist pastors, in supporting the Rev. Everett Sileven of Louisville, Neb., who was jailed for refusing to comply with Nebraska teacher certification statutes and accreditation laws that applied to his Faith Baptist School.

Sills, who has been active with Christian Voice, was named the coalition’s executive after several years of association with the Rev. William Steuart McBirnie of Glendale. Sills was on the staff of McBirnie’s United Community Church in the late 1960s and during the 80s. He remains an official with McBirnie’s “Voice of Americanism” radio program.

In a talk that alluded to thousands of cases of government interference in church affairs--but gave few details on any one case--Sills urged his audience to march as “God’s army against the evil of Satan” and to “move like an army of God against the forces of evil.”

Communist Influence

Sills said in a brief interview later that he does not believe that government bureaucrats who impinge on church freedom are consciously Communist or acting for Satan. But he said that they have been under “the influence of the Communist movement in this country basically since the 1930s.” He said that Satan, in turn, is using the Communist movement to accomplish his goals.

The Baptist minister said that the coalition is “working closely” with CAUSA, an anti-Communist “educational and social organization” headquartered in New York.

Rabbi Maurice Lamm plans to resign in May as senior rabbi of Beverly Hills’ Beth Jacob Congregation, the largest Orthodox synagogue on the West Coast, to accept an unusual teaching chair with Yeshiva University of New York City.

While maintaining his residence here, Lamm will teach professional rabbinics in the spring term at his alma mater and give lectures and seminars around the country the rest of the time.

To Develop Support Systems

One task, he said, will be to develop support systems for young men deluged by conflicting demands in their first congregational assignments. Another is to teach what he called “halachic anthropology”--insights from Jewish law for life crises of congregants. Lamm is author of “The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning” and “The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage,” both published by Harper and Row.

Lamm, 54, will make the transition at a dinner in his honor May 19 in Beverly Hills.

More names: The Rev. Charles Stanley, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Rev. E. V. Hill, pastor of Los Angeles’ Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, will be the speakers at the opening and closing evening sessions respectively of the 43rd annual convention of the National Assn. of Evangelicals, Tuesday through Thursday at the Hyatt Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. . . . Nicholas Royce of North Hollywood, an independent promoter for public recognition of Eastern Orthodoxy’s place in history and contemporary society, will be vested as an “archon,” the highest rank the Greek Orthodox Church can bestow on members of the laity, by Archbishop Iakovos in New York City on Sunday. . . . Mother Angelica, the Birmingham, Ala., nun who founded the first Roman Catholic television network (Eternal Word Cable Network, carried on 215 cable systems), will address the 35th annual Mass and Communion Breakfast March 10 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for members of the entertainment industry. Actresses Jane Wyatt and Virginia Grey will be readers at the Mass.