Rock ‘N’ Rollen Flashes His Gospel Message on Television

He can be seen on camera at sporting events with a sign that reads merely ‘John 3:16.’

Over the past few decades, innovators for Christ have used sandwich boards, puppets, and talking horses to herald the Good News. In more recent years, basketball teams and coast-to-coast runners developed unorthodox methods to spread the gospel.

Now a man named Rollen Stewart, alias “Rock ‘n’ Rollen,” is using an approach that puts him where television cameras can’t miss him. He takes his cryptic message to professional golf tournaments, championship basketball games, the World Series, and major football bowls. He even popped up at the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana and at this year’s Winter Olympics in Yugoslavia.

His eye-catching trademark, a bushy rainbow wig, is designed to draw attention to the printing on his T-shirt. Until recently, JESUS SAVES was emblazoned across his chest. The word REPENT appeared on his back. But now the 40-year-old evangelist relies almost exclusively on the printed Scripture reference JOHN 3:16.

During the past football bowl season, Stewart blitzed eight stadiums within a five-day period to display his large JOHN 3:16 banner for millions of television viewers and the thousands of fans attending the games. Somehow avoiding ushers, he hung his sign at midfield. Later it appeared near the end of the field as cameras focused on goal-line action. Television sportscasters talked about it, though some had little idea of the meaning of JOHN 3:16.

But that’s all part of Stewart’s strategy. “If they don’t know what John 3:16 means, most people will eventually try to find out,” he says. “And some will pick up their Bibles and begin reading it.”

He unabashedly estimates that more people have been exposed to his subliminal message than those who have seen and heard any other TV evangelist. And his message is televised on free time, mind you, with no love offering necessary to keep him on the air.

However, Stewart is not against taking a handout to help cover his travel expenses. Since he sold his 74-acre farm and an auto parts shop four years ago, he has survived on about $10,000 a year. He lives frugally, usually sleeping in his car and accepting invitations for meals and bathroom privileges from the kindhearted.

For Rock ‘n’ Rollen, it all began on Super Bowl Sunday in 1980. Divorced twice, he says he was indulging in sinful pleasures. “I was after the instant high like you see on TV—sex, drugs, and the like,” he says. Then, after attending the Super Bowl game, he went to his motel room and watched evangelist Charles Taylor on television.

“Dr. Taylor gave an altar call, and I received Christ as my personal Savior,” Stewart summarizes. “I had been brought up a Roman Catholic, but had never heard saving grace preached.”

Two weeks later he went on a Holy Land tour and was baptized in the Jordan River. The 13-day experience launched Stewart into intensive Bible study. He became especially interested in prophecy and at one time fell into the trap of setting dates for Christ’s second coming.

A few months after his conversion, Stewart began his unique gospel ministry. He is perhaps best known to the golf world. He attends almost all of the more than 20 televised tournaments on the Professional Golfer’s Association tour. Watching a tiny TV receiver strapped to his waist, Stewart positions himself at key points while television cameras are picking up action. A viewer might see Jack Nicklaus poised for an important drive. In the background will be Stewart wearing his rainbow wig and JOHN 3:16 T-shirt.

NBC’s “Sports Journal” presented a five-minute look at the unusual evangelist. U.S. Open golf champion Larry Nelson told NBC he believes in Stewart’s message and is glad to support him. He even paid his way to the British Open golf tournament last summer.

“They need the message in England as well as here,” Nelson said. “The Bible doesn’t say you should or shouldn’t wear a rainbow wig, but that you should get the message out to people. I don’t think he’s strange. People thought Jesus Christ was strange too.”

A minister interviewed on the NBC program said Stewart was doing more harm than good, giving the wrong image to Christianity. But a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union, considering the legal aspects of Stewart’s tactics to get free television exposure, said the First Amendment gives him every right to do what he does. “If people don’t agree with him, they can ignore him,” the ACLU spokesman said.

Stephen Olford of Encounter Ministries met Stewart at the Western Open near Chicago last summer. He says he found him to be “an intelligent, quiet Christian who feels he has a clear call from God to witness in his unusual manner.

“Some think he’s a nut. He may be a bit eccentric, but he’s no nut. He indicated to me that he has had countless one-on-one conversations with people at golf tournaments and has led some to a decision for Christ.”

But Harry Verploegh, a retired businessman and compiler of A. W. Tozer: An Anthology (Christian Publications), is critical of Stewart. “I approve of Rollen’s message but not the method,” he says. “In my opinion the message is being demeaned. Yet I realize that Paul wrote, ‘Whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached.… I therein rejoice’ [Phil. 1:18]. God may be using Rollen to stir up other Christians to do more witnessing.”

A British Television Series Denies The Deity Of Christ

An independent British broadcasting company last month televised a three-part series that denied the deity of Christ. The programs also charged that Jesus participated in occult practices, magic, and sexual rites.

Called “Jesus the Evidence,” the programs were shown throughout England only weeks before a series of evangelistic crusades to be led by Billy Graham and Luis Palau. The three-hour series allowed only one minute for an evangelical viewpoint.

Produced by London Weekend Television at a cost of nearly $800,000, the programs said the Bible is unreliable as historical evidence. It added that it is impossible to find the historical Jesus in the New Testament. To find “authentic” information about Jesus, the television producers went to the so-called secret gospels and gnostic writings discovered in this century.

The programs argued that the belief that Jesus is God was created by the Roman Catholic church in the fourth century. “He [Jesus] was a man who—like other charismatic figures of the period—healed, exorcized, and preached to the outcast,” the final program concluded. “He was not the Messiah most of his compatriots were expecting.… There is no evidence that he was ever seen as God in his lifetime or that he ever intended to found a new church.”

Palau, who will begin a series of London crusades next month, condemned the programs. “The blasphemy as to the person of Jesus Christ horrifies me,” he said. But he added that the programs will likely help his London crusades. “The Lord usually takes Satan’s strategies and turns them around for his glory. And I believe that he will do the same here.” The evangelist urged Christians in England to use the television series as an opportunity to present “the real Jesus Christ.”

Palau was joined by virtually every major denomination and by individual British Christians in protesting the television series. “All the evidence is one-sided from people who are are hell-bent on knocking Christianity,” said Steve Goddard, editor of the Christian magazine Buzz.

“The television company seems to have incurable preference for inferior evidence put forward by scholars who are on the fringe of, rather than at the center of, New Testament studies,” said Canon Michael Green, an Anglican and one of England’s best-known evangelical preachers.

In the face of such criticism, spokesmen for London Weekend Television denied that they produced the series as an attack on Christ.

“I was keen to make the film because I am fascinated by religion,” said David Rolfe, the programs’ producer. “I’m not an atheist.… I believe Christianity touches us all deeply somewhere. I accept [that] the scholars we used have been branded as radicals. But we feel the balance is right.”

NIGEL SHARPin England

North American Scene

A University of California at Berkeley sociologist says television promotes materialism and makes viewers distrustful of others. At an institute sponsored by the U.S. Catholic Conference, Robert Bellah said television “really doesn’t believe in anything.” At the same meeting, Gene Jankowski, president of the CBS Broadcasting Group, said TV is more likely to reinforce existing values than to change them.

San Francisco’s director of health has banned sexual activity in the city’s 14 bathhouses. Dr. Mervyn Silverman said his decision is an effort to reduce the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), a fatal disease that primarily affects homosexual men. So far, 477 people in San Francisco have contracted AIDS, and 175 have died. Research indicates that AIDS is more likely to affect homosexual men who have multiple sexual encounters.

A federal judge has declared Clearwater, Florida’s charitable solicitation ordinance unconstitutional. The law would have required some religious organizations to register each donation and to keep detailed records of how funds are spent. Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich ruled that the law created an opportunity for arbitrary enforcement.

The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of an Alabama law allowing a “moment of silence” in public schools. The state of Alabama and the Mobile school board are appealing a federal appeals court ruling that the law violates the First Amendment’s “establishment” clause. The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision next year.

A Presbyterian Church (USA) theological advisory council has recommended against the use of “nonsexist” references to the Trinity during baptismal services. The panel affirmed the importance of the words “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” It rejected the proposed alternatives: “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer” or “Shepherd, Helper, and Refuge.”

The Unification Church has started a book publishing company in New York City called Paragon House. The company’s editorial board consists of 18 scholars from universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the University of Chicago. The venture is seen as an attempt to gain respectability for the church, founded by Sun Myung Moon. Paragon will open shop with a five-year, $5 million budget.

The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) has voted to accept women into its priesthood. The vote came after RLDS president and prophet Wallace B. Smith presented a written revelation to delegates at a conference in Independence, Missouri. Most of those attending accepted the document as “the mind and will of God.” The decision heightens the differences between the RLDS and the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), which does not ordain women.

A Seventh-day Adventist runner and Olympic hopeful has refused to run on the Sabbath, and may miss her chance for a medal. Michelle Bush will not run between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday. At the August games, the finals in the 1,500-meter race are set for a Saturday. Bush has been compared to the late Eric Liddell, an Olympic runner whose refusal to race on a Sunday was recounted in the movie Chariots of Fire.

The Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed action on a bill proposing a state-run lottery. The proposed constitutional amendment would allow voters to decide whether they want a lottery. However, the issue might not appear on the November ballot because of the committee’s action. The evangelical Berean League of Minnesota and Minnesota IMPACT, an ecumenical advocacy group, have worked for the defeat of the measure.

Moral Majority will try to register 2.5 million new voters for this fall’s elections. The conservative political organization plans to contact 100,000 churches and hold numerous voter registration rallies as part of the massive effort. Moral Majority’s founder and president, Jerry Falwell, says the campaign could determine the direction of this nation for the rest of the decade.

The Texas Board of Education has repealed a requirement that public school textbooks describe evolution as “only one of several explanations” of the origin of human beings. The rule’s opponents called it an unconstitutional intrusion of religion that inhibited the teaching of accurate science. The same day it repealed the rule, the board of education approved a new provision that “theories should be clearly distinguished from fact.”

World Scene

A Tanzanian government official has ordered the demolition of all Jehovah’s Witnesses kingdom halls (churches) in the country’s western district. The All Africa Conference of Churches said the meeting halls were demolished because members of the sect refused to participate in government-sponsored development activities. Tanzania banned the sect 10 years ago, saying it was “in conflict with the aims” of the government.

New immigration laws in the Netherlands may force many missionaries to leave the country. Holland has tightened its immigration policies because of severe overcrowding and the economic burden of providing welfare for immigrants. Missionaries hope to acquire exemptions by showing that they are not a drain on the welfare system.

Evangelical leaders in Guatemala say President Oscar Mejia’s support of Catholicism is causing problems for their churches. They say the government won’t permit the construction of new churches. And evangelical churches—but not Catholic churches—are forced to pay property taxes. The church leaders also believe the military was involved in the abduction of two evangelical pastors.

A church delegation is urging the worldwide Anglican communion to exert pressure for the independence of Namibia. After visiting the African nation, the group called for the withdrawal of South African forces. The delegation said a democratic settlement cannot be reached without involving the South-West Africa People’s Organization, a black liberation group.

The Sandinista government in Nicaragua has cracked down on the National Council of Evangelical Pastors (NCEP). Authorities have questioned the council’s leaders and have canceled its activities. The action took place shortly after an NCEP-sponsored crusade with Argentine evangelist Alberto Mottesi. More than 288,000 attended the meetings.

Candidates for the ministry who refuse to cooperate with female pastors should be denied ordination. That’s the ruling of the newly instituted church assembly of the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden. But only 6 of the denomination’s 13 bishops say they accept the assembly’s 180-to-71 vote. The other 7 say they will go to court over their right to ordain those who will not cooperate with female pastors.

Tensions between the Vatican and the Czechoslovakian government have worsened, with both publishing articles highly critical of the other. The Vatican is concerned over the government’s refusal to endorse its nominations of bishops. The government complains that the Vatican won’t allow priests to join certain political groups.

The Netherlands’ largest Protestant denomination opposes the deployment of U.S. medium-range nuclear missiles in Holland. The synod of the 2.7-million-member Netherlands Reformed Church sent a letter to the Dutch parliament declaring itself “in favor of the removal of all nuclear weapons from Dutch soil.”

The Polish government and the Roman Catholic church have reached a compromise regarding the recent crucifix controversy. Crosses will be allowed in dorms and reading rooms—but not in classrooms—of a state-owned agricultural school near Garwolin. The compromise came after more than 450 Polish clergymen joined Jan Mazur, bishop of Siedlce, in a fast protesting the crucifix ban.

Deaths

Martin Niemoller, 92, Evangelical Church (Lutheran and Reformed) pastor who led church opposition to Adolf Hitler, spent eight years in Nazi concentration camps, was a former president of the World Council of Churches, commanded a German U-boat in World War I; March 6, in Wiesbaden, West Germany, after a long illness.

Karl Rahner, 80, a leading Catholic theologian, a critic of rigid church doctrine, influential in the Second Vatican Council, helped inspire liberation theology; March 30, in Innsbruck, Austria, of heart failure.

Benjamin Mays, 89, black educator and civil rights leader, mentor of Martin Luther King, Jr., former president of Morehouse College, ordained Baptist minister; March 28, in Atlanta, after an extended illness.

Paul Woolley, 82, a founder of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, professor of church history at Westminster Theological Seminary from its founding in 1929 to his retirement in 1972; March 17, in Athens, Ohio, of heart failure.

Personal

Thomas W. Gillespie was inaugurated in March as the fifth president of Princeton Theological Seminary. He had assumed the administrative role of president seven months earlier. Gillespie pastored First Presbyterian Church in Burlingame, California, for 18 years. He also taught as an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Friedhelm K. Radandt has been named president of The King’s College in Briarcliff Manor, New York. He will take office in July. The president of Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, Radandt will replace Robert A. Cook, who is retiring after 22 years.

James E. Lee, chairman and chief executive officer of Gulf Oil Corporation, has been named chairman of this year’s National Bible Week, November 18–85. The observance is sponsored by the Laymen’s National Bible Committee.

Cristina Ferrare DeLorean, fashion model and wife of automotive entrepreneur John Z. DeLorean, says she and her husband have become born-again Christians. In an interview published in Contemporary Christian Magazine, Mrs. DeLorean says her husband is innocent of criminal charges that he planned to raise money for his company through the sale of cocaine.

Corrections

In an article about Baptist spokesman James Dunn (CT, March 16, 1984, p. 44), CHRISTIANITY TODAY incorrectly stated that in 1983 the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) endorsed a constitutional amendment to allow organized, vocal prayer in public schools. A resolution supporting the amendment was passed by SBC messengers in 1982. Last year, without rescinding the earlier resolution, conventiongoers softened their stance by expressing “confidence in the U.S. Constitution and particularly in the First Amendment as adequate and sufficient guarantees to protect these freedoms.”

In an article about Christian books (CT, Feb. 17, 1984, p. 45), CHRISTIANITY TODAY incorrectly stated that Robert Schuller’s book Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do had not appeared on the Bookstore Journal best-seller list. It has been included on that list.

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