Theological Debate Takes Earthly Turn

San Fernando Mission and Laurel Canyon boulevards in Pacoima is a popular spot for “cruisers” in sleek, customized cars who hang out at fast-food outlets on weekends.

The cruisers draw “born-again” Christian missionaries, who have made a personal crusade of spreading the gospel among young people who congregate there.

The mix of cruise night and evangelism led to violence Sunday, when a spontaneous religious debate between missionaries and Roman Catholic youths escalated into a brawl, which left each side nursing bruises and blaming the other.

Alma Bolanos and her boyfriend, Albert Rabago, both 19, were out in Rabago’s 1966 Mustang with fellow members of the Styling Classics Mustang Club, celebrating the first big cruising weekend of the summer.

Also on hand were Henry and Patricia Chacon, 24 and 28, their 3-year-old daughter and about 25 other members of the Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship of Sun Valley. For the past several years, the “born-again” Christians have preached their beliefs to the cruisers without incident, Henry Chacon said.

“We pray for people who are hurting,” Henry Chacon said. “Every time we find a cruise scene, we’re out there. We’ll talk to anybody.”

Bolanos, a former contestant in the Miss San Fernando contest, wore sunglasses Monday to cover a black eye and scratched and swollen face. She said that in the confrontation in a parking lot outside the Pollo Gordo restaurant, the Chacons and other Christians insulted her religion and made insinuations about her personal morality.

Bolanos acknowledged that she struck first, using her sandal to swat Henry Chacon, but claimed that she reacted to extreme provocation.

“They told me I was Satan,” Bolanos said. “They said I was lost and they had been found.”

At least three of the “born-again” Christians then attacked her, she said.

Rabago said: “It doesn’t make any sense. If they’re really Christians, why are they hitting girls”?

Chacon said he and his wife were the victims and that he also has a black eye, inflicted by Rabago, to prove it. He said he was trying to pull Bolanos off his wife when Rabago punched him.

“The guy socked me in the eye with all he had,” Chacon said. “I said, ‘That was a cheap shot. But I still love you, man.’ ”

Rabago said he punched Henry Chacon to defend his girlfriend.

The Chacons said they were only trying to restrain Bolanos when she attacked Patricia Chacon after striking Henry Chacon. Patricia Chacon admitted scratching Bolanos after pleading with her to let go of her hair.

Police are investigating a complaint filed by Bolanos, but they have few details about the incident.

The Chacons said Bolanos and other teen-agers willingly took part in an extended and energetic street corner theological debate.

Bolanos, who wears a crucifix and attends Guardian Angel Catholic Church in Pacoima, said the conversation touched on a range of topics, including how God can allow starvation in Ethiopia and the relative merits of Catholicism versus “born-again” Protestantism.

But she said she talked with the street preachers only because they were irritatingly persistent. Her boyfriend is a Catholic but, she said, “told them he was an atheist so they would leave him alone, but they wouldn’t.”

Bolanos said she was offended when the Chacons criticized Catholic practices, such as confession, and made comments insinuating she was a “street kid.”

“If I go to church, why would they say I’m lost?” Bolanos said.

Patricia Chacon denied that her group said anything derogatory about Bolanos or Catholicism.

“We’re not out there to condemn people, we’re there to comfort them,” she said.

Bolanos said: “It’s false advertising. They’re not peaceful people. I was born Catholic, raised Catholic and I’m gonna die Catholic.”