Off-Air Tactics Reveal Much of Ministers

Covering religious broadcasters in Orange County over the last four years has been both a revelation and an education.

For a relatively small area, the county seems to be home to a disproportionate number of televangelists and Christian radio ministers, most of whom were drawn to this area from different parts of the country. Among those attracted by the hospitable religious climate in 1973 was an ambitious young man named Jim Bakker.

While Bakker, sentenced last month to 45 years and a $500,000 fine for mail fraud, did not last here, many others did remain and prosper. Thanks to satellite and microwave technology, county-based broadcasters not only blanket the nation, they now envelope the globe:

From Garden Grove, Robert H. Schuller’s “Hour of Power” beams down to television screens in Europe; from Tustin, Paul and Jan Crouch’s “Praise the Lord” is seen in Italy, South Africa and China; from Santa Ana, Chuck Smith’s “Word for Today,” on both television and radio, reaches Australia and the Philippines; from Fullerton, Charles Swindoll’s daily “Insight for Living” radio show reaches Canada; from Costa Mesa, Paul Finkenbinder’s “Hermano Pablo” covers Latin America, and until his death earlier this year, Walter Martin, Irvine’s “Bible Answer Man” was heard as far afield as Burma and Zaire.

Orange County’s considerable impact on the world of religion extends to the written word. At various times, books by Schuller, Swindoll, Smith and Martin, as well as those by Irvine’s pastor and occasional broadcaster Tim Timmons, have been prominent on the religious best-seller lists.

These men have about them an undeniable charisma and not inconsiderable charm, which has been useful in the wake of the televangelism scandals. None has personally been involved in the controversies surrounding the ministries of Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart or Oral Roberts, or Pat Robertson’s run for President. But the way most of Orange County’s broadcast ministries handled requests for information about their leaders and their organizations’ finances told as much about them, I think, as their ledgers and tax returns. It was a measure of their self-confidence in a time of crisis.

Representatives of one television minister were tough negotiators on the subject of ground rules. They were not bashful about having their board members write letters to The Times, extolling the minister’s virtues, well before any of the articles on their organization were published. Yet they answered hundreds of written questions fully, supplied documents on request and agreed to an interview with the minister, who later wrote a note of thanks.

The founder and officials of another religious broadcast organization were initially quite open. Soon, however, questions went unanswered and calls were no longer returned. Ultimately, the only channel of communication left was to tele-copy questions to the organization’s private investigator or to one of its attorneys. Negative mail from religious broadcasters who appear on the network--some of whom acknowledged not reading any of the articles--was heavy.

In the area of religious radio, the range was equally striking. The late Walter Martin was expansive in his cooperation and instructed his staff to do likewise.

By contrast, another radio minister wrote in a letter: “I neither seek nor desire publicity. There are many who do, but I am not one of them, even though I realize some notoriety simply comes with the territory.”

There are, of course, some other unique and equally revealing aspects to writing about Orange County religious broadcasters and their life styles.

While not in the same league as the Bakkers’, the perks reported by various broadcasters based in Orange County include a ministry-supplied $70,000 BMW, a $350,000 house, a $125,000 salary, a Hawaiian condo and a $2-million, 8,000-square-foot vacation getaway in Lake Arrowhead.

But knowing that some of these articles would travel beyond Orange County, it was often necessary to include the caveat--astounding, I imagine, to readers in other parts of the country--that such benefits “are not considered excessive by Orange County standards.”