News from the North American Scene: May 17, 1993

SPORTS

TV Halftime Evangelism

Americans routinely make a religion out of sports, but now the cleat is on the other foot.

Non-Christian sports enthusiasts this year have been invited to Super Bowl and NCAA Final Four tournament parties at churches and in the homes of Christians. There, during halftime, they have watched a 12-minute video, one featuring former Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry, the other featuring former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. Both videos have various professional and college championship players describing their thrills—not in sports but in Jesus. The new videos are the product of Sports Outreach America. The next project is the World Series.

Such a plan works, says Ted Haggard, senior pastor of New Life Fellowship in Colorado Springs. His church packed in 2,000 teenagers to watch the Super Bowl on three 10-foot screens. Haggard’s church went one step further—videotaping 30-second testimonies of local Christian athletes and coaches to show during commercial breaks. Since the party, Haggard says youth group attendance has risen by 100 to 550.

PUBLIC PRAISE

March for Jesus Gains Ground

The second national March for Jesus on June 12 is expected to draw 1 million Americans to the streets, praising and praying in up to 500 U.S. cities.

Music for this year’s march, “King of the Nations,” is composed by Briton Graham Kendrick. “It’s liturgy for the streets,” says national organizer Tom Pelton of Austin, Texas. Participants will become familiar with the easy-to-learn songs, responsive prayers, and creedal proclamations in a rehearsal just before the march.

“The goal is for churches to unite in prayer for their city and for Christians to break the sense of intimidation,” Pelton says. Only banners and signs exalting the name and qualities of Jesus will be allowed. No political statements or church self-promotion will be permitted.

Christians in 80 other nations will be marching on the same day. This year’s event is a prelude to a global march on June 25, 1994, in which Christians in most world capitals will gather in the streets.

The public praise concept began in 1987 in England, and 142 cities in the United States participated last year in the first American March for Jesus. The march has an ecumenical national advisory board that includes Bill Bright, Paul Cedar, Jack Hayford, Luis Palau, and C. Peter Wagner.

Pelton says the event, to be broadcast over Christian stations beginning at 10:05 A.M. Central Standard Time on the USA Radio Network, is designed to be an interdenominational effort.

“Often a younger, more spontaneous church carries much of the responsibility for organizing the event,” Pelton says, “but we don’t let one church use the event to promote [itself].”

UPDATE

Governor Guilty in Ethics Probe

Alabama Gov. Guy Hunt, a Primitive Baptist who serves two congregations as part-time pastor, has been convicted of using his office for personal gain. The two-term Republican was found guilty April 22 of violating a state ethics law by diverting $200,000 from his 1987 inaugural fund into private bank accounts for his personal use.

Alabama law requires that he be removed from office immediately. He also could be sentenced to up to ten years in prison. After the verdict, Hunt said he was “totally innocent,” and he vowed to vindicate himself. “I just hope and pray that the Lord gives me strength and blesses me long enough to clear my name.”

Throughout the trial, Hunt’s attorneys tried to show that he had not acted with “intent.” Defense attorneys called witnesses who testified the inaugural fund also was a political account and therefore available for Hunt’s personal use. Hunt maintained that he accepted the money based on the counsel of attorneys and accountants who advised him the transfers were legal. Prosecutors said Hunt misled donors by using $200,000 from the fund to make mortgage payments and buy personal property ranging from cattle to a shower stall.

Hunt’s finances first came under scrutiny when the Alabama Ethics Commission ruled he may have violated the law by accepting almost $10,000 in “love offerings” for preaching while on trips taken in his official airplane (CT, Feb. 8, 1993, p. 57).

During investigation of that case, Alabama Attorney General Jimmy Evans uncovered evidence that led to the ethics charge.

By David Reid in Montgomery.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

• The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has denounced the use of a fifth-grade social studies textbook by Bob Jones University Press as “deplorable.” The text, Heritage Studies for Christian Schools, contains passages that call Catholicism a “false religion” that does not “preach the gospel of truth.” The Catholic church, the book says, teaches that people must be church members and follow church teachings to receive salvation.

• Knox Theological Seminary is launching a second campus in September in Colorado Springs. “With the growing number of Christian ministries moving to the Rockies, Colorado Springs has become a center of Christian ministry that needs its own seminary,” says D. James Kennedy, who serves as chancellor for the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, seminary campus.

• By a 12-to-5 vote, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Division of Ministry board has rejected a plan to add a category of ordained deacons to be recognized officially by the denomination. The proposal to allow a “diaconal ministry” that would be ordained separately from word-and-sacrament clergy failed in a March 19 vote, despite a recommendation from an ELCA task force after five years of study.

• The Baylor University Board of Regents, in a unanimous vote, decided to cancel a figure-drawing class for advanced art and premed students that was to start in the fall. Regents previously had approved the class, which would have featured nude female models, but an avalanche of protest letters and phone calls prompted the switch.

• Financial troubles (CT, April 26, p. 54) have caused the Church of Christ, Scientist, to fold its news magazine World Monitor, effective with this month’s issue. Since its beginning four years ago, the magazine has lost $36.5 million.

• Kendallville, Indiana, pastor Joseph D. Hooker, Jr., is organizing a one-day work strike and day of prayer on July 14 in an effort to convince President Clinton not to lift the ban on homosexuals in the armed forces. “I feel this is not only a very severe threat to the security of our nation, but also a serious affront to the God who has so powerfully blessed and sustained this country.”

• Charismatic renewal pioneer W. Graham Pulkingham, 66, died April 16 in Burlington, North Carolina, after suffering a heart attack. The Episcopal priest, who brought fame to Houston’s Church of the Redeemer in the 1960s, collapsed while shopping in a supermarket when a disgruntled employee murdered two people. Although retired, he had been suspended from exercising his ministry the past eight months during an investigation of charges he had been involved sexually with several homosexuals.

• In a sort of Easter week blitzkrieg, Christian professors and students at more than 80 universities deluged their campuses with lectures, newspaper ads, films, and tens of thousands of pieces of literature on the resurrection of Christ. Organized by Christian Leadership Ministries (CLM), a division of Campus Crusade for Christ, the campaign was CLM’s first nationally orchestrated effort to present the gospel message during a Christian holiday. “The faculty really put their professions on the line,” said David Wiley, national director of the campaign. “I don’t know of a more hostile atmosphere in which to try to stand up for Christ than the college campus.”

WHITE HOUSE

Clinton Favors Mainliners

Leaders of moderate and liberal churches who found the White House inaccessible during 12 years of the Reagan and Bush administrations have been welcomed by President Clinton.

The 38 mainline church officials, representing 19 Protestant and Orthodox denominations that are members of the National Council of Churches (NCC), met with Clinton for an hour on March 24. The leaders had not been invited since Jimmy Carter was President.

“I’ve been so criticized by the Religious Right community, it’s good to have religious people who understand what I’m trying to do,” Clinton told the group.

He also said the church officials would have “appropriate contacts” in every agency of government. NCC General Secretary Joan Brown Campbell served as moderator in screening questioners for Clinton. “The ultimate pulpit in this country is the presidency,” she said. “The president sees us as a resource.”

The leaders raised concerns about urban renewal in America, restoration of democracy in Haiti, and alleviating hunger in Africa. Several topics were avoided, such as abortion, homosexuals in the military, and Clinton’s recent appointment of a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

COURTS

Divorced Dad Can’t Evangelize

In a two-to-one decision, the Wisconsin Fourth District Court of Appeals on March 18 upheld a 1990 circuit court ruling that prevents noncustodial parents from imposing religious views on their children.

Robert Lange became a Christian in 1987, and a year later his wife, Elizabeth, filed for divorce after eight years of marriage.

Since May 1990, Lange’s visits with his three daughters—now aged 6, 9, and 11—have been supervised by social workers. Due in part to an allegation that Lange harassed his wife by telling her she “would go to hell” if she did not make a commitment to Christ, the court ordered that Lange’s visits must occur without him “imposing his fundamentalist religious views on the children.”

In October 1990, Elizabeth Lange received sole legal custody of the children when the divorce became final. Robert Lange objected to the religious restriction, saying it violates his First Amendment rights. He plans to take the case to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

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