Broadcaster Quits Christian Group : Religion: Founder of TBN network claims the organization tried to destroy his ministry with ‘trumped-up’ charges.

TUSTIN —  Paul Crouch, founder and president of Tustin-based Trinity Broadcasting Network, has resigned from the National Religious Broadcasters, citing “lying, trumped-up charges (that) were aimed at the heart” of his 24-hour-a-day Christian programming service.

Crouch, who is in Dallas, did not respond to repeated telephone inquiries to his Orange County office over the past three days regarding his departure from the organization, and his office declined to make available his letter of resignation, which was received by the NRB last week.

“It’s always unfortunate when someone leaves the organization,” said Jerry Rose, NRB president.

“We were sorry to see him resign,” said Robert A. Cook, the executive director.

The NRB is a voluntary association of 1,100 evangelical Christian broadcasters, including radio and television station owners and operators and program producers. The organization’s goals, Cook said, are “to ensure access to the airwaves for the Gospel” and to see that “the best possible standards are preserved.”

Crouch is not the first major figure to depart from the NRB. In recent years, PTL founder Jim Bakker withdrew from the organization and, after an investigation, evangelist Jimmy Swaggart was dropped from the NRB, Rose said.

Founded in 1974, Trinity and its subsidiary organizations own more than 100 television stations, mostly in the United States, and at least a dozen other stations are controlled through large loans from Trinity or by Crouch family members. An additional 100 affiliated stations carry its programming. Paul Crouch puts the network’s market value at more than $500 million and says it is virtually debt-free.

Crouch wrote in his resignation letter that “the past year had been rough, but that God had kept him from being bitter about it,” according to Cook.

Throughout 1989, Crouch and Trinity were the subject of an inquiry by the NRB’s ethics committee, which looked into complaints about his business practices and the treatment of Trinity employees.

However, on Dec. 22, the NRB’s executive committee wrote to Crouch, saying that the organization “did not find sufficient documentation accompanying the complaints to warrant actions such as termination,” according to Rose. The letter also urged that Crouch, “in the spirit of Christian concern, get together with these parties to work out their difficulties.”

Jeffrey Hadden, author of “Prime Time Preachers: The Rising Tide of Televangelism,” said he was not surprised by the NRB’s finding. The group, he said, “has been dealing very gingerly with the crisis in confidence and credibility” created by the scandals of the last two years. “There is an absence of leadership that is willing to . . . clean up the show,” the University of Virginia professor said.

In Trinity’s January newsletter, Crouch announced that he had withdrawn “formal membership from every earthly man-made organization.” He said he made the decision because “lying, trumped-up charges were aimed at the very heart of your TBN.”

Crouch wrote, “It was not a good year to be a TV evangelist! Of course, it was Satan’s strategy to tar all TV ministries with the same brush. . . . Media reports were merciless. Many bought the lie and gave credibility to the enemies of TBN.”

Rose, a Chicago television station operator, defended the organization’s handling of complaints against Crouch and Trinity. “I think they were treated fairly,” he said in an interview. “There was simply not enough evidence or documentation (against Trinity) for us to warrant termination of membership” from the NRB.

Since Crouch is no longer a member of the NRB, any evidence on the existing complaints against Trinity or any new complaints would be moot, Rose said.

One of those who filed a complaint against Crouch was Keith A. Houser, a religious broadcaster in Dallas, who is also involved in litigation with Crouch. Houser reacted sharply to Crouch’s resignation and to the statement by the NRB’s executive committee.

“It is reprehensible,” he said in a prepared statement, “that TBN and Crouch would resign and run from their accusers.”

In a preliminary finding, the NRB’s ethics committee called on Crouch to participate in “Christian arbitration” with Houser, a recommendation that Crouch rejected.

In his January newsletter, Crouch said he was answerable only to “the Body of Christ” and not to any organization. Although ordained as a minister by the Assemblies of God, Crouch gave up his preaching credential when he established his network.

The complaints against Crouch included charges of sex and age discrimination at a Trinity station in Tacoma, Wash., a “hostile takeover” of a Buffalo, N.Y., station owned by Houser, and unfair labor practices against unionized employees at Trinity’s flagship station, KTBN Channel 40 in Tustin.

During the investigation, Crouch acknowledged in a letter to the ethics committee that in 1981 “I probably did pray that God would kill anyone or anything attempting to destroy the ministry. My prayer has not changed today.”

That comment provoked widespread criticism by Southern California religious leaders and theologians. Crouch demanded a face-to-face hearing before the committee, which the committee refused.