Ordination Set Aside
Cincinnati, Ohio (AP) — The Presbytery of Cincinnati has set aside the ordination of the Rev. Maurice F. McCrackin, a controversial pacifist who has served a prison sentence for refusing to pay income tax.
The action apparently finished a long dispute with the 57-year-old clergyman. McCrackin still has a congregation — the Community Church of Cincinnati he formed last summer after the presbytery declared vacant his pulpit at the West Cincinnati-St. Barnabas church.
That action came after the General Assembly had upheld his earlier suspension for defying civil law by refusing to pay federal income taxes.
McCrackin contends no true Christian can pay income tax because part of it is used for war-like purposes. He was convicted in for failure to heed an Internal Revenue Service summons to discuss his taxes, and was sentenced to six months in prison. He was released in and still refuses to pay income tax.
Many years later, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church reinstated McCrackin, admitting that it had acted in error by defrocking him.
