| FEATURES
UPDATE:
Amid strong community criticism, Mayor Dennis Donohue removed the $100,000 agenda item from the City Council’s Tuesday evening meeting and said the request from the church would be subjected to the standard city budget process. During public comment, the idea received some public support but a long line of speakers argued that the city should not use public funds for religious purposes.
By Royal Calkins
Expect the philosophical and Biblical as well as the political and practical when the Salinas City Council on Tuesday evening takes up a council-driven plan to help the best connected church in town pay for its recent Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza.
And perhaps making things livelier than many City Council discussions, they’re not talking about the city slipping a few greenbacks into the Compass Church collection plate. It’s about a $100,000 retroactive sponsorship, apparently what the conservative church had hoped to collect to pay for all that red, white and blue on Independence Day.
There has been little publicity about Tuesday’s agenda item but word has spread throughout the city via social media and word-of-mouth, sparking interesting and sometimes heated conversation. Some of the talk is about the city’s budget, which barely has $100,000 to spare, and much is about the invisible and somewhat wobbly division between church and state. Also at issue is how the city would attach its name and money to an event from a month ago.
Actually, the city’s formal position on the divide is not all that murky. Its sponsorship policy states, “The city will not award sponsorships to any religion, church, creed or sectarian organization to promote religious purposes.”
Todd Anderson, the church’s senior pastor, said the event was not a church service and that while the church was the lead organizer, it involved a partnership involving local businesses, non-profits and civic leaders. He said the city’s money “is specifically designated for the professional fireworks display and public safety, secular components that benefit the entire community, regardless of anyone’s personal religious beliefs. All other costs, including the festival, patriotic program, advertising, insurance, signage, ambulances, and logistics, are covered by Compass Church, vendors, business sponsors, and private donors.”
He cited examples of similar celebrations in other cities that involve municipal participation. In an email he mentioned Nashville, Houston, Phoenix, Colorado Springs and Fresno. Fresno does not hold such an event and while Nashville and Houston do, the city governments do not appear to be involved.
Compass, formerly a Presbyterian outpost, espouses a relatively simple theology. It stresses that the Bible reflects “the inerrant word of God” that should guide all things. It is headed by Anderson, who comes from an evangelical background. It claims a congregation in the thousands. Some City Council members are said to be members.
The event at the city’s Rodeo Grounds was sponsored by a who’s who of Salinas institutions, such as Taylor Farms, D’Arrigo and Dole, the Alisal and South Salinas school districts plus Trinity Christian School, Anthem Christian School, Monterey Christian School, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Salinas Valley Ford, David Drew Productions and Pacific Valley Bank.
It was mostly a display and celebration of patriotism, with lots of color guards and brass band music, but two centerpieces were the speech by Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue and the speech by Pastor Anderson. In the mayor’s case, “speech” is the right word but Anderson’s presentation was more of a sermon.
He told the crowd the nation’s founders “knew that we needed a perfect God to lead us.”
He spoke about “God’s blueprint for a great nation” and said “faith is our foundation” and “God’s provenance is our guide.” The pastor is currently studying at a seminary that preaches that the Christian God literally wrote the Bible through the authors’ hands.
Anderson recounted how George Washington’s army was nearly buried in snow at Valley Forge when he knelt in the cold and prayed for the help that got them through it all.
He told the audience, “If you have a silent prayer, I want you to know God is listening.” And “When we stop kneeling to God we end up bowing to fear.”
He only spoke for about 10 minutes but there are several other examples.
As one city resident said on the Next Door site online, “He’s a preacher. What else do you expect him to talk about?
The agenda packet for Tuesday’s meeting – 4 p.m. at City Hall – says the proposed city contribution first came up three days before the celebration, a “request made by several Councilmembers directing the City Manager to identify funding and present a report to Council to consider approving a $100,000 sponsorship to Compass Church for the 2025 Celebrate America Fireworks Extravaganza.”
On Monday City Manager Rene Mendez said the request came from council members Aurelio Salazar and Tony Barrera. The resolution the council will consider Tuesday bears the recommendation of the mayor.
Mendez said the church-state issue has not been examined and likely won’t be right away because the city attorney is on vacation this week.
The church has been a significant player in Salinas spirituality and politics. Formerly known as First Presbyterian Church of Salinas, it operates mainly in an impressive newish building on South Main Street. It features high-tech staging and many other trappings of the suburban super churches that have popped up across the nation, particularly in the Bible Belt.
A 2013 piece in the Salinas Californian by journalist Tom Leyde provides a short but proper history. He wrote that Compass is affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians and was the first of 11 members between Palo Alto and Greenfield to leave Presbyterian Church USA.
Mike Ladra was the pastor at that time. A strong orator given to colorful clothes and a broad smile, he is credited with much of the church’s growth and influence. He retired several years ago when he moved to a 5,000-square-foot house near Boise, Idaho.
Ladra told the Californian the split from the Presbyterians came because they had veered from their spiritual roots. Left unmentioned in the Californian piece, a large issue leading to the divorce was the mother church’s decision to sanction gay marriage.
“We as a congregation are not in alignment anymore,” Ladra said. “Finally, we reluctantly left. We emphasize a personal relationship with Jesus because He saves marriages and turns fathers into dads.”
He said the congregation’s vote to change affiliation was 892 to 8.
Anderson, the pastor, holds a bachelor’s degree in pastoral theology from North Central University, an Assembly of God school in Minnesota. He also holds a master’s degree in Christian Apologetics from Biola University and is working on a doctorate from Southern California Seminary. According to its website, the seminary believes “not only in the inerrancy of the autographs of Scripture but in their sufficiency. We believe that God supernaturally causes the human authors, while using their individual vocabularies and styles, to write the exact words which perfectly expressed the revelation of God.”
Enlarge
YouTube screenshot
Have something to say about this story? Send us a letter or leave a comment below.
SUPPORT NONPROFIT JOURNALISM 
GET OUR FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
What was the total amount spent on the event compared to the amount already donated. Anything reimbursed beyond the remaining balance would simply constitute a donation to the church which would be illegal.
Seems like a large-after-the-fact donation for an event that was, at least in part and by design, a large religious rally.
Is there any breakdown on the costs for the show and the church’s financial ability to pay? It appears the City Council is ready to bail out one of city’s least needy but chosen.ones.