Religious Broadcasts

A young heckler accused the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart of hypocrisy and was ousted from church after the fallen evangelist warned worshipers against "gloom and doubt" during Easter services Sunday. "Brother Swaggart, your hypocrisy is scornful of the government of God!" the youth, apparently about 16, called out during a brief lull in the service at the Family Worship Center built by the evangelist. He also accused Swaggart of taking "money from congregants" and being "immoral."

Three years after the Jim Bakker-PTL scandal broke, some major television evangelists are devoting even more time to fund-raising and promotion and have turned to Eastern Europe as a focus of such efforts. These are among the findings reported by Stephen Winzenburg, a scholar who has monitored religious broadcasting for a decade.

Despite a 35-year run as a television preacher, George Vandeman is barely a household name even in Thousand Oaks, where he produces his Seventh-day Adventist show, "It Is Written." But Vandeman is about to score an international coup over such better-known American televangelists as Robert Schuller of Garden Grove's Crystal Cathedral and Pat Robertson, host of the "700 Club."

Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart returned to his television program Sunday and told his followers that he would tell them someday about the unspecified sin to which he confessed two weeks earlier. He said that he is eager to tell the whole story, not just what has been given in news reports, and that he will do so when the time is right. Swaggart replaced co-preacher Jim Rentz on Sunday's television broadcast, even though Swaggart stepped down from his pulpit after a tearful confession Feb. 21.

"Rumor travels faster, but it don't stay put as long as truth," humorist Will Rogers once said. But don't try telling that to the Federal Communications Commission. A false rumor that atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair is petitioning the FCC to ban all religious broadcasting is now 15 years old--and it still brings in as many as 83,000 letters a month to the federal agency. Since the FCC started counting in 1976, more than 23.

For the first time in its history, the Tustin-based Trinity Broadcasting Network is selling two of its commercial television stations, something founder Paul F. Crouch promised viewers he would never do. The two stations, in Albuquerque, N.M., and Greensboro, N.C., are advertised in the March 6 issue of Broadcasting Magazine for "$5 million for the pair, or best realistic offer" by a "Highly Motivated Seller." Those interested are asked to contact a Washington media broker.

Indicating that the three-month preaching ban handed evangelist Jimmy Swaggart for sexual immorality was unacceptably brief, national leaders of the Assemblies of God on Friday directed Louisiana church officials to recommend a new, and presumably stiffer, penalty.

Is a religious radio station likely to feature Scripture-quoting preachers belaboring an obscure point, the strains of a heavenly yet somnolent choir, and maybe some soft-rock Christian music with the word "Lord" laced throughout the lyrics? Not necessarily. KKLA-FM, with offices in North Hollywood, decided on a talk-radio format when it acquired its license in late 1985.

Onward electronic soldiers. A federal grand jury is now investigating charges that TV evangelist Jim Bakker fraudulently raised funds for his PTL ministry and lavished millions on himself. However, a taut and focused "Frontline" documentary on PBS charges tonight that federal agencies had significant evidence of fiscal misconduct against Bakker years ago, but inexplicably did nothing to halt his onward march. News of his 1980 sexual liaison with Jessica Hahn did that.

Newspapers by nature are the kind of thing people take personally. Just ask any editor about the irate phone calls that pour in after each decision to drop a comic strip. Now imagine if someone makes sweeping changes in a newspaper that is literally a religious mission, changes that provoke a debate about the very foundation of the religion.