Television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart has responded to a CHRISTIANITY TODAY survey of the 15 most-watched television ministries. Results of the survey were published in the October 16 issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAYs (dd. 46–49).
Jimmy Swaggart Ministries produces daily and weekly television programs. The weekly show, according to the Arbitron Ratings Company, is the most popular religious television program, reaching 1,759,000 households.
The ministry lists Swaggart’s salary at $86,000. He receives no bonuses or royalties, nor does the ministry provide him with a vehicle. Swaggart’s compensation package is determined by a nine-member board of directors. Members of Swaggart’s family, who make up less than half the board, cannot vote on the compensation package.
The ministry employs about 1,500 people, claims a net worth of $150 million, and lists its 1986 income at $141.6 million. The survey response stated that 8.7 percent of the ministry’s income is spent on fund raising. The organization is audited annually by independent certified public accountants. And a full, audited financial statement is provided to donors who request one.
NCC
A New Leader
Patricia Ann McClurg has become the first clergywoman to head the National Council of Churches (NCC). A non-ordained woman, Cynthia Wedel, of the Episcopal Church, served in the top NCC post from 1969 to 1972.
McClurg, 48, is associate executive for missions of the presbytery of Elizabeth, New Jersey. She is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Elected last month to a two-year term, McClurg succeeds Bishop Philip Cousin of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. McClurg said her goals for the NCC include extending its membership beyond the current 32 Protestant and Orthodox member denominations. That will not be easy, she said, because “the name NCC scares some folks” who oppose the ecumenical organization’s liberal agenda.
McClurg made no apologies for the council’s controversial political stands. But she said it is time for the NCC to go “back to the basics: caring about the Bible [and doing humanitarian] work in the world that lives in considerable pain.”
CUSTODY BATTLE
Favoring A Homosexual
A California superior court judge has awarded custody of 16-year-old Brian Batey to the homosexual lover of the boy’s deceased father. The case has attracted national attention in part because the boy’s mother, Betty Lou Batey, is a conservative Christian.
Judge Judith McConnell said the teenager had requested that Craig Corbett become his legal guardian. Corbett was the lover of the boy’s father, Frank, who died in June of an AIDS-related illness. McConnell said Corbett could provide the “stable and wholesome environment” that the boy’s mother could not provide.
Mrs. Batey lost custody of her son in 1982 after a judge ruled that she was denying child-visitation rights to her former husband. She later picked up her son for a weekend visit and then went into hiding for nearly 19 months. She was acquitted of child-stealing charges last May.
“I’m not fighting anymore,” Mrs. Batey said last month after McConnell issued her ruling. “We’re leaving it to whatever Brian wants.”
GAMBLING
Racetracks And A Lottery
Voters approved gambling proposals last month in Texas and Virginia. Pari-mutuel wagering will be allowed on horse and greyhound races in Texas. And in Virginia, a state-operated lottery was approved.
Virginia became the twenty-ninth state to approve a lottery despite the opposition of nearly every government leader who took a public stand, including Gov. Gerald Baliles. Leading business figures and the state organizations of United Methodists and Southern Baptists joined the effort against the lottery. And bishops from the Catholic and Episcopal churches warned that the lottery would impose hardship on the poor.
In Texas, supporters of pari-mutuel betting said racing would be a financial boon for the state, which has suffered economically because of a weakened oil industry. But Sue Cox, campaign manager for the antigambling group Texans Who Care, said voters may have been “duped by claims that pari-mutuel [gambling] will bring economic prosperity.… It is now our responsibility to be watchdogs of the industry, to be sure economic benefits are realized, animals are not abused, and crime is kept out.”
SUPREME COURT
Teenage Chastity
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide the constitutionality of a federal law designed to encourage sexual abstinence as a method of birth-control among unmarried teenagers.
The law, known as the Adolescent Family Life Act of 1981, allows religious groups to receive federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services to promote self-discipline as a birth-control method among teenagers. The law requires programs applying for funds to describe how, in providing services, they will “involve religious and charitable organizations, voluntary associations, and other groups in the private sector.”
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The law was challenged by a coalition including clergy, a taxpayers group, and the American Jewish Congress. In April, Federal District Court Judge Charles R. Richey declared the law unconstitutional because it had “the primary effect of advancing religion and fosters excessive entanglement between government and religion.”
The Reagan Administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Arguing that Richey’s ruling “rests on brittle legal premises,” government lawyers said “large numbers of unmarried teenagers, some pregnant and others likely to become so, may lose vital benefits that Congress intended them to have.”
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