Metropolitan Ministries' position surprises donors

A number of companies would have reconsidered supporting the charity if they knew Jews were excluded from its board.

By DAVID KARP, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 29, 2002

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TAMPA -- The marketing director at Raymond James Financial Inc. remembers the conversation clearly.

Before making a donation to Hillsborough's best-known charity for the needy, Larry Silver needed to know about Metropolitan Ministries' religious affiliations. Company policy at Raymond James prevented making donations to political or religious organizations.

"They reassured me," Silver said Monday. "I remember the line, "If someone needed a rabbi, they would find them a rabbi.' "

That's why Silver and other corporate donors were surprised to read in the St. Petersburg Times on Saturday that Metropolitan Ministries would not accept a Jewish woman on the nonprofit's board of directors. The ministries' bylaws require a board member to be a "professed Christian."

"It caught the community a little bit by surprise," Silver said.

Other companies said Monday that they also didn't know about the organization's exclusionary policy. If they did, many companies would have thought twice about giving.

Outback Steakhouse president Robert Basham, who sits on the nonprofit's board, didn't know about the policy, said Outback senior vice president Joseph Kadow.

Outback helped build a kitchen to feed the hungry at Metropolitan Ministries.

"Both the company and Bob were unaware of this policy," Kadow said. "He will insist it be changed."

"We are not going to knowingly support an organization that discriminates," Kadow said.

Even the ministries' top executives say they don't really know much about the exclusionary rule. They couldn't say for sure when the policy was adopted or why.

Top executives said Friday that the bylaw had been in the organization's rules since its founding in 1972 by 13 downtown churches. But, on Monday, officials said the rule wasn't always in the bylaws.

The exclusionary language isn't in the group's 1974 bylaws, said executive vice president Karleen Kos. In fact, she said the 1974 bylaws said the group would accept members from churches, civic groups and synagogues.

Sometime between 1974 and 1987, the bylaws changed, because the 1987 bylaws restrict the board to "professed Christians." Kos doesn't know why the change was made.

Ministries president Morris Hintzman, who became the nonprofit's director in 1982, said he wasn't aware of the change either. But the issue of a role for Jews in the ministry had come up before.

In the late 1980s, Rabbi Richard Birnholz of Congregation Schaarai Zedek said he met with Hintzman when he started noticing a strong religious tone at events. The rabbi knew the group was a Christian ministry, but asked if it welcomed people of other faiths.

"Morris was very clear with me," Birnholz said. "It was set up as a fundamentally Christian organization and that is the way it would be run. He would understand if I didn't particularly feel comfortable."

The rabbi stopped taking an active role in the nonprofit, but he continue to send donations and volunteers. He said he respects the group's right to set its own rules and membership requirements.

A few months ago, Birnholz said he called Hintzman again after congregant Linda Karson learned she could not serve on the ministries board because she is Jewish. TECO Energy, a major corporate donor, had suggested her name. Her husband is a senior vice president at TECO.

Birnholz said Hintzman told him, "This is something that can't be changed."

As soon as it found out about the bylaws, the nonprofit acted as fast as possible to study the issue, Metropolitan Ministries officials said last week. TECO Energy had told the nonprofit it could no longer donate to a group that discriminated.

Last week, with one dissenting vote, the ministries' executive committee voted to eliminate the religious requirement. On Thursday, the full board will vote on the change.

Said Kos, the nonprofit's vice president: "It is the beginning of a new era."

-- David Karp is at 226-3376 or karp@sptimes.com. Times staff writer Jeff Testerman contributed to this report.

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