The Daily Tar HeelThursday, November 1 , 1990
STATE
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iblical interpretations spark dissention betw
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ttEditor's note: This is the second in a
tee-part series examining the crisis in
Southern Baptist Convention.
By PETER THUESEN
Staff Writer
At the Southern Baptist Convention's
91 meeting June 4-6 in Atlanta, a
special room will be reserved for what
inight be called a Bible read-a-thon.
;-;For three solid days, the faithful will
take turns in a non-stop, out-loud reading
6f all 66 books of the Scriptures.
"Hopefully, this symbolic gesture
' will inspire us all the more to read the
Bible to which we pledge our alle
giance," said fundamentalist SBC
President Morris Chapman during a
; speech in September.
; . To many SBC moderates, Chapman's
symbolic gesture" may seem loaded
Ivith painful irony. For more than a
;decade, the Bible has been the primary
; battleground in their power struggle
' with the Convention's firmly entrenched
1 fundamentalist leadership.
Congressional race turns to debate
about campaign taetksf not issues
By KYLE YORK SPENCER
Cfff Ufritn
; North Carolina's 4th District con
gressional race between Democratic
incumbent David Price and Republi
can John Carrington has evolved into
a debate over campaign tactics rather
.than a clash of ideals.
Carrington contends that his tele
vision commercials, newsletters and
'Dublic appearances are telling impor
tant truths about his opponent. But
'Democrats are calling Carrington s
campaign tactics dishonest and mis
leading. ; Carrington 's campaign has focused
'on the savings and loans crisis, and
several of his advertisements accuse
. Price, a member of the House Bank
ing Committee, of contributing to the
problem.
"He has a record of voting with the
savings and loans lobby. Are the voters
not supposed to know that?" said John
Evans, his campaign director.
. Rachel Perry, press secretary for
the Price campaign, said the voters
were not supposed to know something
that is untrue. Price did not vote with
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But is the Bible really the main issue
separating the two sides?
"Absolutely," declared Chapman
during a recent phone interview. "It is
the single issue. The nature and authority
of God's word is the single issue.
"If you're willing to accept anything
less than the Bible being God's perfect
word, then you have given yourself the
freedom to choose any passage of
scripture that you want to believe or to
dismiss any portion of scripture."
In their 12 years at the helm of the
Southern Baptist Convention, funda
mentalists have succeeded in estab
lishing literal interpretation of the Bible
as the primary requirement for partici
pation in the SBC power structure.
But an often obscured fact has been
that fundamentalists and moderates
disagree over more than scripture.
"They differ on a whole range of
things the separation of church and
state, the role of the pastor, whether
women should be ordained," said Nancy
Ammerman, Emory University soci-
the sav ings and loans lobby, but has i
consistently voted to protect the tax
payer and ensure a tougher regulatory
structure, she said.
"Carrington' s entire campaign has
been to distort Price's record and to
smear his reputation," Perry said.
But Evans denies allegations of
negative campaigning.
"Does negative mean we are not
supposed to talk about it?" Evans asked.
Price campaigners have criticized
Carrington for failing to honor his
commitment to appear in public with
; Price. Carrington canceled two debates
and one public appearance scheduled
for the two candidates, Perry said.
"He has refused to debate the con
gressman and prefers hiding behind
thirty-second ads," Perry said.
In an interview Tuesday, Price said
his opponent refused to take a stand in
areas concerning Chapel Hill voters.
"I can 't get the man to talk about
issues," he said.
But Republicans argue that by ad
dressing the need for change in Con
gress, Carrington was dealing with the
most important issue.
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ninaict and author of "BaDtist Battles."
Nevertheless, fundamentalists have
oainted the conflict in black and white.
r . .
'They have framed it as a battle over
the Bible." Ammerman said. And
moderates have never been successful
in reframing it as being a battle over
anything else."
While some moderates, including
T A 1 1 I W k V V - 7 tS
defeated SBC presidential candidate
Daniel Vestal, identify themselves as
Biblical inerrantists, many are unwill
ing to make inerrancy a litmus test for
orthodoxy.
Fundamentalists, however, insist the
Bible is an inerrant record meant to be
understood literally. The Bible's writ
ers, they say, were guided by God.
"God in his inspiration in effect
protected these people, even though they
wrote in the thought forms oi tneir aay ,
caid rnntprvative Bantist author James
Hefley.
That is not to say the Bible's writers
avoided "literary forms," Hefley added.
"For example, Jesus said, 'I am the
Carrington 's television advertise
ments have accused Price of serving
his own interests in Congress and of
personal gain at the taxpayers' ex
pense. Evans said that during his past
two terms Price has wasted taxpayers '
money on unlimited junkmailing and
has funded his campaigns through
money from political action com
mittees (PACs).
Perry called these allegations false,
saying Price has voted to reduce
Congressional newsletters from six
to three a year and only sends out two
newsletters a year to residents of the
4th District.
At the outset of the campaign, Price
asked Carrington to sign an agreement
limiting the sources, attainment,
amount and use of campaign funds,
: she said. The agreement limited the
two candidates to spending no more
than $ 1 00,000 and banned any use of
independent funds. Carrington re
fused to sign the agreement.
"Carrington has spent half a mil
lion dollars of his own money on a
media blitz. Price just doesn't have
that kind of money," Perry said.
Payment Plans Available
door,'" Hefley said. "We know that is
not literal,
"I believe, though, that there were
. . , J I T? T
two primeval persons, rtuam anu dvc.
.1 C 1 11 A.
believe there was a flood and that there
was a miraculous crossing of the Red
Sea," he said.
In the eyes of fundamentalists, it is
blasphemous to interpret the Biblical
1
creation story as allegory or to attribute
the parting of the Red Sea to natural
phenomena.
Chapman explained this in no un
certain terms during a September
meeting of the SBC Executive Com
mittee. "I wish to restate the issue," Chapman
said. "The Bible is God's perfect word
which means that it is not errant in any
area of reality.
When the Bible speaks, it speaks
the truth and nothing but the truth, his-
torically, scientifically, philosophically
and spiritually," he said.
But the Rev. Mitchell Simpson,
newly-installed pastor of University
Art
By DOUG HATCH
Staff Writer
In the face of growing concern over
how to define obscenity, proponents of
the First Amendment right to free ex
pression are rejoicing over juries' de
cisions to acquit rap group 2 Live Crew
and a Cincinnati, Ohio, museum director
in trials concerning controversial works
of art.
The members of the rap group 2 Live
Crew were arrested after performing a
concert deemed obscene according to
state laws by a Broward County, Fla.,
sheriff, and a Cincinnati sheriff arrested
museum director Dennis Berry for
showing controversial works by the late
artist Robert Mapplethorpe that depicted
homoerotic and other sexual images.
"There's a grassroots movement
being organized by the religious right to
Christianize America," said Skipp
Porteus, an expert on the religious right
and executive director of the Freedom
Writer newsletter.
"It's leading to America's darkest
hour, to be frank with you," he said.
2 Live Crew's album As Nasty As
They Wanna Be is still banned from
Florida record stores, and the National
Endowment for the Arts, a federal
funding agency, has come under attack
for its prior monetary support of
Mapplethorpe.
Alan Caruba, author of Power Media
Selects, a directory of national media
personnel, agreed that groups attempt
ing to define obscenity were generally
of a religious nature.
"These types of things tend to pop up
in times when people are stressed out
about other things," he said. He attributes
some of the growing action as a back
lash from Americans' concerns about
the recession and mismanagement in
government.
Monty Lobb Jr., President of Citizens
for Community Values, a "pro-family
Prayer fanatics to exorcise
From Associated Press reports
SAN FRANCISCO Two ministers
and 7,500 "prayer warriors" hoped to
exorcise San Francisco of its "evil im
morality" on Halloween, but militant
gays and pagans in the city said they
were ready for spiritual warfare.
'They'll end up in the hell they de
serve with their narrow-minded vie ws,"
said S ister Missionary DeLight, founder
of the 1 1 -year-old Sisters of Perpetual
Indulgence in San Francisco.
"I think it's scary that they think
we're a real threat to society."
DeLight, who is a man, was dressed
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BaDtist Church in Chapel Hill, said the
idea of Biblical inerrancy was ludicrous.
"Interestingly, inerrancy is not a word
which the Bible ever uses about itself,"
Simpson said. "The people at the head
of the fundamentalist movement are
bibliolaters. They have made an icon
an idol of the Bible.
"There are no infallible books. There
is an infallible God. Unfortunately, the
infallible God has to deal with very
fallible people."
Far worse than fundamentalists' be
lief in Biblical inerrancy, however, is
their insistence that all Southern Baptists
must interpret the Bible literally,
Simpson said.
"Fundamentalists are people who are
so mean-spirited in their insistence that
their way is the only way to believe that
they would deny other people the right
of expression," he said.
"They're like pit bulldogs. When's
the last time you had an intelligent
conversation with a pit bulldog? Pit
bulldogs attack."
group" in Cincinnati, Ohio, said the
prosecution bungled the Mapplethorpe
trial so that jurors had no choice but to
acquit Berry.
Lobb added that he thought the jurors'
trial in the Mapplethorpe case was not
indicative of the general mood of
America regarding obscenity.
"If anything, afterwards we heard the
jurors wanted to vote to judge
(Mapplethorpe's art works) obscene,"
he said.
"I think Americans are almost in
variably angered when someone tries to
impose a point of view on them," Caruba
said.
He explained art as symbolic repre
sentations of everyday life as the artist
saw it. Religious groups find sexual
images in art "particularly disturbing,"
according to Caruba.
"Simply banning such things doesn't
change the reality of the fact that the
majority of the population is sexually
active," he said.
He cited the growing rate of sexually
transmitted diseases in the past 40 years
as evidence of this activity.
But Phylis Schlafly, a noted anti
feminist leader, concurred.
"There's no question that
Mapplethorpe's works ... are far beyond
whatever the definition (of obscenity)
is," she said.
She went on to say that she thought
taxpayers should not have to finance
artists through the NEA. One of
Schlafly 's areas of contention is the fact
that the NEA only funds certain artists,
not all those who apply for aid.
"The NEA is engaging in a kind of
censorship every day it exists," she said.
Schlafly said she thought jurors'
decisions in favor of defendants of some
art works were attributable to courtroom
finesse on their parts.
"I think the pornographists have the
highest paid lawyers in the country,"
in a nun's habit and curled fairy shoes
and held a wand during a pagan cer
emony Tuesday across from Brooks
Hall where the prayer warriors will meet.
Texas evangelist Larry Lea and San
Jose minister Dick Bernal planned to
lead a "Prayer Breakthrough" for the
city they say is plagued by immoral
homosexuals, crime, witchcraft and
general sin.
"We're praying to God for people,
all people, and against the powers of
darkness," Bernal said. "The ultimate
goal is to save the fallen angels of the
city from Satan, from evil immorality."
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roiros
The six Southern Baptist seminaries
were among the earliest objects of the
fundamentalist offensive. Insisting that
seminary professors had no right to
deny the inerrancy of the Bible, funda
mentalists gradually cleaned the SBC
of moderate instructors and administra
tors. Today, all six seminary boards of
trustees are in fundamentalist hands.
Hefley insisted the dismissal of mod
erates, while sad, was not unfair.
'There is a difference between reli
gious institutions and state institutions
as far as freedom is concerned," he said.
"A religious institution exists for more
than academic freedom."
But Simpson contended the funda
mentalists' takeover of the seminaries,
while premised on their demands for
Biblical literalism, was part of a larger
quest for power.
"It's not a Biblical issue," he said.
"What's at stake is the control of a
major corporate group. I think there's
some evil stuff going down in the name
of the Bible."
she said.
Lobb said the verdict in the recent
Mapplethorpe case was not a major
setback for his and other similar groups.
"The victory lies where you have
consistent prosecution," he said.
He added that his group had made
several advances in combating the
proliferation of some materials, such as
hard-core pornography.
Porteus said he thought some Chris
tian organizations were going too far in
their crusade against pornography and
what they considered decent behavior.
He said this crusade had led in part to
the formation of the Coalition on Revival
in California, which includes 112
churches nationally and believes in
basing American law completely on the
Bible.
Porteus also said the coalition be
lieved in the death penalty for abor
tionists and homosexuals and was at
tempting to gain control of local gov
ernments. At North Carolina State University, a
related controversy has arisen regarding
a photograph by Dutch artist Anthon
Beeke in an exhibit that was to be dis
played in an art gallery open to the
public.
The photograph depicts a woman's
backside festooned with leather straps
and a fake horse tail. The woman's
genitals are exposed.
The exhibit has been removed pend
ing a decision by the School of Design
on when and where to show it because
of its questionable acceptability for
public display.
Beeke refuses to let the exhibit run
without the controversial photograph.
Questions have arisen about whether
the dean of the school is holding his
decision until after the North Carolina
U.S. Senate election is over.
San Francisco
Lea, who distributes "prayer Army
dog tags" and has donned military fa
tigues in previous crusades, said Hal
loween night was selected to launch his
three-day assault on evil and sin because,
according to legend, demons are stron
gest at that time.
'This is not just kids having fun.
There is actual worship of the devil."
On Halloween, police close off the
primarily gay Castro District, where a
street party a New Year's Eve-like
celebration for the homosexual com
munity continues into the night.
This year, gay-rights groups plan to
protest outside Brooks Hall against the
praying masses inside and then march
several blocks to the Castro District. A
group called Grand Homosexual Out
rage at Sickening Televangelists
(GHOST) was formed to engage in the
spiritual warfare with Lea and Bernal.
"Lea's characterization of the city as
being ruled by spirits of perversity and
witchcraft is nothing but thinly veiled
homophobia and fear-mongering," said
GHOST member Mark Pritchard.
"We intend to show that San Fran
cisco is a diverse community of people
who love peace and freedom."
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