Another Meese Casualty

INTERVIEW

Attorney General Edwin Meese made waves in Washington last month when he unexpectedly dismissed Terry Eastland, who for three years was the Justice Department’s Director of the Office on Public Affairs. The Justice Department called the action a “straightforward managerial decision to make a personnel change,” but many political observers criticized the move because Eastland is highly regarded in government and media circles. In an interview, Eastland, a member of Fourth Presbyterian Church in suburban Maryland, spoke to CHRISTIANITY TODAY about the recent events.

What specifically do you think Attorney General Meese wanted you to do that you weren’t able to?

The attorney general expressed his desire to have someone in the position who would aggressively defend him at any and all times. He apparently concluded that my efforts would not suffice in that regard, even though I have certainly defended him to the best of my abilities, trying to exercise good judgment, and Eastland do so in a manner consistent with the obligations of my office. But I will let others judge the adequacy or inadequacy of my efforts. I believe the attorney general has every right to have whomever he wants in that position. That’s a very important point in politics. We all serve at someone’s prerogative, and I served at his.

Did it come to the point where your position as a government spokesman conflicted with your Christian principles?

No, because—to quote Abraham Lincoln—Ed Meese and I pray to the same God. He is regarded as a Christian, and I am a Christian. I feel a great sadness that this had to come about, but I think that a Christian can certainly work in the position without being compromised.

Is it difficult for people with Christian principles to work in those kinds of positions?

I think any person anywhere with principles faces tests of integrity—wherever those principles may come from. My own principles are determined from my belief in Christ. We all have tests. But I do not wish to suggest something ill about Ed Meese, because I don’t think it’s there.

God sustains you through difficult times and gives you the courage to do what is right.

There has been much made in the media about a “sleaze factor”—advisers of questionable integrity—surrounding the Reagan administration. Do you think that’s a fair assessment of the people the President has chosen to represent him?

No, it’s not fair at all. I guess one of the things I am most upset about in this case is the way the independent counsel is used as a political tool against honest people. I think it enables the perception to spread that there is a sleaze factor, what with the allegations around people under investigation. It is an unequal attack against the administration. Behavior that is regarded as unethical because it is conducted by executive branch people is not regarded as such for Congress and the judiciary. It’s an inequity of the law, and I’m greatly bothered by it.

North American Scene

PORNOGRAPHY

Sleaze Merchants?

U.S. Senator William Armstrong (R-Colo.) has asked Christian leaders to help him in his personal battle against the federal government’s role in selling soft-core pornography.

Since many convenience stores have stopped selling magazines like Playboy and Penthouse, Armstrong says the U.S. government “may be the biggest distributor of soft-core porn magazines today” by selling them on military bases and in federal offices and embassies.

Last fall, after intense lobbying by the senator, President Reagan asked the Justice Department to issue a legal opinion on whether the order would be constitutional. To date, no action has been taken on the opinion.

Armstrong is now accusing the Justice Department of delaying the opinion so the order cannot be issued.

UPDATE

Return To A Troubled Empire

His self-imposed 90-day exile over, Jimmy Swaggart returned to his pulpit last month saying he was back because “Jesus paid the price” for his and all sins.

At one point during the two-hour service, Swaggart invited individuals to come forward for healing of pain or guilt. One of those who responded was an investigator who handed Swaggart and his associate, Jim Rentz, subpoenas on behalf of New Orleans pastor Marvin Gorman. Gorman, who helped publicize Swaggart’s incident with a prostitute, has filed a defamation of character lawsuit against the evangelist.

Swaggart returned to a less-than-full 7,500-capacity Family Worship Center, a further indication of the loss of support caused by his moral failure. In addition to reduced donations, staff layoffs, and cancellations of his television programs by independent and cable stations, his ministry has reduced its overseas operations. The Oklahoma-based Feed the Children ministry says it will incorporate an additional 26,000 children into its existing relief programs in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti in an effort to fill the gap created by cutbacks in Swaggart’s programs. “Feed the Children will not allow the fallout from Jimmy Swaggart’s personal tragedy to result in the physical devastation of thousands of innocent, hungry children,” said Feed the Children’s president, Larry Jones.

URBAN MINISTRY

Stories For The City

Not everyone has money. Not everyone has a formal education. But everyone has a story. Given this, the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE) sponsored the 1988 Congress on Urban Ministry. Its purpose was to explore the role of story in the ministries of urban churches.

Congress chairperson Philip Amerson, of the Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, played a key role in developing the theme for the congress, held in Chicago biennially since 1978. “Story is the currency of the people,” he said. “Jesus himself was a master storyteller.”

Noting trends in the church toward census taking and church-growth statistics, Amerson said, “We’ve left behind the testimony meetings when people just stood up to tell stories that gave witness.” He said one of the goals of the conference was to help make the propositions of the Christian faith relevant and accessible to the people the church is trying to reach.

Some 890 people from 35 states and six countries attended the four-day event.

CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING

Once A Televangelist …

After his unsuccessful run for the White House, M. G. “Pat” Robertson has returned to the place that was his springboard into the public eye: the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Robertson went back to CBN as chief executive officer last month, at the request of the CBN board. According to a spokeswoman, Robertson will be “primarily giving overall guidance and leadership in the planning of the 700 Club [television program] and be involved with development and fund raising.” She said the board decision to invite

Robertson back was prompted by recent declines in audience and contributions.

Last year, CBN President Tim Robertson told Christianity Today, “Regardless of what Dad does with his political campaign … he’s never, ever, ever going to go back to u being Pat Robertson, host of a | 5-day-a-week Christian television program.” However, 5 the CBN spokeswoman said now “it remains to be seen” whether Robertson will again become a regular “700 Club” host. “Things change,” she said.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Sold: Eternity magazine, to the Foundation for Christian Living (FCL), founded in 1940 by Norman Vincent Peale. FCL will assume publishing and marketing responsibilities for the financially strapped magazine, with editorial functions retained by the current staff and parent organization, Evangelical Ministries, Inc., of Philadelphia.

Failed: Petition drive by Americans Against Human Suffering that would have let California voters decide if physician-supplied lethal injections should be legal. A spokesman for the group said efforts will continue in other states.

Revoked: Christian television network PTL’s exemption from federal taxes, by the Internal Revenue Service, which claimed PTL used tax-exempt donations to finance its commercial enterprises, PTL’s chairman, David Clark, called the action “capricious and arbitrary.”

Died: Dennis J. Horan, 56, dean of prolife lawyers and chairman of Americans United for Life Legal Defense Fund. Horan argued more than 62 jury and 20 nonjury abortion-related cases, including one before the Supreme Court.

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