July 2, 2010
By Pat McCaughan

Some teachers at a private Christian school in Corona, California, say they lost their jobs because school officials didn't consider their baptisms adequate.

Crossroads Christian Schools, a K-10th grade institution located in but not affiliated with the Southern California Diocese of Los Angeles, did not renew the contracts of at least nine staff, because they were not baptized as adults by full immersion, the teachers contend.

Crossroads also operates a preschool; it is unclear how many preschool employees were impacted by what the teachers describe as a recent school policy change.

"In January, we had a teacher's meeting and they started talking about level-4 Christian living," recalled Marylou Goodman, who taught for a year at Crossroads.

"Afterwards I met with Chuck" Booher, the senior pastor at Crossroads Christian Church, a nondenominational evangelical church with about 8,000 members. The school is considered a ministry of the church.

"He told me at that meeting that the only biblical way to be baptized is by full immersion, that it's in the Bible and that's it," said Goodman. "He said he was requiring all teachers to have been baptized by immersion."

Goodman attends St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Corona. Prior to Crossroads, she taught 14 years at Grace Lutheran School in Corona. When it closed because of financial difficulties last year, she was hired at Crossroads.

She and others contend that staff whose contracts were not renewed are Episcopalian, Catholic and Protestant, from denominations that accept, but do not require, full immersion as adults in the waters of baptism.

Both Goodman and another teacher Sue Fitzgerald said they complied with a directive to sign a statement of faith, which is posted on the church and school websites.

The church and school have separate IRS nonprofit status, but a decision was made to reunite the two entities, according to an April 12 letter from Wes Simmons, a church elder and school parent, to Goodman.

"You are an incredibly talented teacher, and your love for Christ is obvious," Simmons, chair of the school board, wrote to Goodman. But he added that, "though the schools and church have always maintained the same statement of faith, they have not always maintained the same standards. I believe that it is essential as the schools move forward as an integral Ministry of Crossroads Christian Church to have a unified staff with unified standards."

The church was founded in 1892 as the First Christian Church of South Riverside, a name that was changed in 1980 "to get rid of the denominational stigma," according to a historical timeline on the church's website. The school opened in 1979.

Booher, who did not return Episcopal News Service calls, alluded to "a controversy" at the school in remarks prior to a Feb. 7 sermon posted on the church website. "We are making sure our staff at Crossroads Christian School is 100 percent Christian, that they are born again … [and are] level 4 Christians," he told those in attendance.

"If you have a child at the school I want to assure you we are going to make sure your child is only surrounded by a staff that loves Jesus with their heart and soul and mind and is just like what you experience with us at church," he added.

School Superintendent Beth Frobisher, in a letter to parents posted on the school website, echoed a mission statement document called "The Level 4 Living Standard." That document outlines six criteria: worship, service, giving, prayer and study, community and evangelism.

In her website statement Frobisher added that the living standard includes "weekly attendance at a Bible-believing church that shares the values of Crossroads Christian Church." She declined to be interviewed and referred calls to associate church pastor Mike Long. He did not respond to ENS requests for an interview.

Sue Fitzgerald has taught either preschool or kindergarten at Crossroads school since 1996. "When I went there, they knew I was Catholic, I didn't hide that," she said during a recent interview.

But things changed under the leadership of Booher, who became senior pastor of Crossroads in 2007.

At a meeting last August, Fitzgerald said Booher listed about six local churches he considered acceptable for school personnel to attend – none of them Catholic or Protestant. "I walked right up to him and said … I've been teaching here 14 years and I'm Catholic. And he said ‘well, you can't be. You will not be able to teach here unless you change.'"

She was told she could keep her job if she presented a letter from her priest, denouncing her religion, she said.

"It's hypocritical," Fitzgerald said. "I taught their doctrine. I never let any of my own beliefs or Catholicism come in. I had an amazing Bible bulletin board in my classroom, about the story of the man lowered down from the roof (Mark 2:1-13). The kids created the man and cut him out, and the Bible verse was above it. They all wrote stories about it.

"The administration toured my room with new prospective parents to show them the bulletin board. The parents would say they wanted me to teach their children next year. All the while they knew they were going to get rid of me."

Goodman, who had already been informed her contract would not be renewed, said she was fired June 4, about a week before the end of the school year, after sending a farewell letter to parents informing them of the policy shift and that she would not be returning in the fall. Another teacher who sent a similar letter was not fired, she added.

She pointed out that although her employment contract says that the school "does not discriminate in its employment practices against any person because of race, color, national or ethnic origin, gender, age, or qualified disability," religion is not included.

Robin Rezner said she removed her four children from the school after learning by word of mouth about curriculum and staff changes.

"My fourth-grade daughter came home one day and said a girl at school told her she's going to hell because she's Catholic," she said. "This little girl's mother told me her daughter had come home three Friday nights in a row from a [Crossroads Church] youth group called Impact where they've been telling the kids that Catholics are not following the right path to heaven."

Rezner, a stay-at-home mother, said a similar message has replaced formerly simple daily chapel Bible lessons. Staff members lead, using "the same message of intolerance" even at times performing skits in costumes depicting other faith traditions that are labeled as doomed because their beliefs are different, she said.

"One little girl put on huge sunglasses and said ‘this is the blind Christian. They think they know Jesus, but they don't.' Some of the mothers left chapel crying," she said. "They call it evangelism. The kids got the message that there's something wrong with them."

When her daughter Kaitlyn, a fourth grader, started kindergarten at Crossroads, "we checked out what they taught, their beliefs. There were just simple Bible lessons. Nothing about immersion, they never mentioned baptism."

At a subsequent meeting with Booher she shared her concerns, particularly that parents weren't informed about staff and curriculum changes. "The administration insists that nothing has changed, she said.

"How could you not let people know when you're getting rid of teachers? We're not dumb. If they were making a change they owe it to us to tell us.

"From a parent's perspective I thought my kids had the best of both worlds," she added. "We are Catholic and yes we do different things. I didn't care that they believe in baptism at an older age. But it's very hurtful not to have anyone come and tell me this, to have four children in the school and find out through word of mouth that my kids are going to be told that unless they are immersed, they're nothing."

What's also difficult, added teacher Sue Fitzgerald, is that under previous leadership, "this was called a church anyone can come to."

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Pat McCaughan is a national correspondent for Episcopal News Service. She is based in Los Angeles.