Within the next two years, all of the U.S. Army’s 780,000 active-duty soldiers are expected to view a film featuring Christian author James Dobson.
Libraries at 225 Army bases around the world soon will be equipped with copies of Where’s Dad?, a film adapted from Dobson’s Focus on the Family series. Where’s Dad? features Dobson delivering a lecture on the need for strong bonds between fathers and their children. Just over half of the army’s active-duty soldiers are married.
Col. Edmond Solvmosy, director of the army’s Family Action Plan, called the film “a building block on which we’ve based our entire program. It is an instrumental part of our philosophy to provide wholesome, functional role models for our men.”
Maj. Jerry Taylor, of the army’s community and family policy office, calls the film a resource for base commanders to use in “creating an atmosphere of caring leadership.” Neither the army nor Word, Inc., which owns the rights to the film, would disclose the amount the army paid for Where’s Dad?
Portions of the film were edited out to broaden its appeal to soldiers who are not Christians. Peb Jackson, vice-president of Dobson’s organization, Focus on the Family, said the original version would have been relegated to use only by army chaplains. By adapting it to avoid charges that the army is pushing Christianity, it will receive much wider exposure. “Its basic truth and its basic impact remain intact,” Jackson said.
Dobson’s film attracted the attention of Pentagon officials when two congressmen, Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Dan Coats (R-Ind.), began promoting it among government leaders. Dobson and Jackson met last year with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to explain the film series.
Romania Says It Will Demolish The Country’S Largest Church
The Romanian government last month gave that country’s largest church less than four weeks notice that its building would be demolished.
Local officials told leaders of the Second Baptist Church of Oradea, Romania, that demolition could begin as soon as the first of this month, according to Keston College, a center for the study of religion and communism.
The government did not guarantee new premises for the church and did not say if it would grant permission for the church to be rebuilt. A meeting between church representatives and government officials was scheduled for later last month.
More than 2,000 people attend Sunday services at the Second Baptist Church. The church has baptized more than 100 Christians this year, and an additional 100 new converts are awaiting baptism.
The church’s pastors, Nicolae Gheorghita and Paul Negrut, have been harassed and threatened during the past year. They are not officially licensed as ministers. The church’s previous pastor is Josif Ton, the Romanian Baptist leader now in exile in the West.
