The State - News from May 19, 1989

A committee of the National Religious Broadcasters has urged Paul F. Crouch, president of Tustin-based Trinity Broadcasting Network, to seek “Christian arbitration” to resolve a bitter dispute with a former business associate. The decision appears to be at least a partial victory for Crouch’s longtime adversary, the Rev. Keith A. Houser of Dallas, who has sought such a resolution for nearly three years. The NRB’s five-member Ethics Committee strongly recommended that Crouch and Houser submit the “alleged business practices that relate to contractual disputes” to “a recognized Board of Christian Arbitration.” Houser said he welcomed the finding. Efforts to reach Crouch were unsuccessful. In his complaint last year to the Ethics Committee, Houser accused Crouch of unethical conduct in connection with Trinity’s 1981 purchase of WTBY-TV in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., which Houser helped found.