Pat Robertson Steps Up NEA Broadsides : Congress: As the House nears a compromise on renewing the arts agency, the televangelist increases his accusations of NEA involvement in an adults-only puppet show.

As House leaders moved Thursday toward a resolution of the protracted National Endowment for the Arts controversy, TV minister Pat Robertson has tried this week to reinvigorate the conservative assault on the embattled federal agency.

On Wednesday Robertson blanketed members of Congress with letters urging an end to federal support of “obscenity, pornography and attacks on religion,” and, on Thursday, the Virginia minister took to his electronic pulpit to tell his TV viewers that Congress is out of step with the public on the NEA issue.

Robertson, who sought the 1988 Republican Presidential nomination, has been one of the NEA’s most consistent attackers, both on his “700 Club” television program and in newspaper advertisements.

His latest broadsides have centered on an Atlanta puppet show last month that, he charged, featured simulated oral sex and may have been supported by the NEA. The charges have come as the House of Representatives is preparing for a crucial floor vote next week to renew NEA funding for another three years.

Prospects for a Senate vote soon, however, are far less certain.

Key House leaders Pat Williams (D-Mont.) and Tom Coleman (R-Wis.) on Thursday unveiled an NEA compromise that contains no restrictions on the kinds of art the NEA can support and over time transfers 35% of NEA money to state arts councils--up from 20% now--but far less than the 60% that Coleman once urged.

The Williams-Coleman compromise allows the NEA to take back money it gives in grants for work later judged obscene by a court and bars endowment support of work that qualifies as obscene under existing U.S. Supreme Court decisions. It calls on the NEA to consider “general standards of decency and respect for the diverse beliefs and values of the American public” in making grants.

But Robertson would like to see Congress abolish the agency altogether. Ralph Reed, executive director of Robertson’s Christian Coalition, said Robertson’s letters and Thursday TV appearance were a coordinated effort to try to wipe out support for the arts endowment in the House and Senate. “The NEA is going to find its support on Capitol Hill is really crumbling, especially against the background of the budget crisis,” Reed said in a telephone interview.

“If Congress votes for this, they’re out of touch with America,” Robertson told his viewers Thursday. “There shouldn’t be one (tax) dollar spent on oral sex in a puppet show.”

NEA Chairman John E. Frohnmayer--apparently concerned that Robertson’s puppet show crusade has begun to gain political momentum--held an Atlanta press conference Thursday where he demanded that Robertson “apologize to Congress and the people of Atlanta” for distorting the NEA’s role in the puppet show.

“I believe the time has come for fairness,” Frohnmayer said. “I believe the time has come for honesty and for truth.”

Frohnmayer has publicly accused the evangelist of misrepresenting the NEA and its grants, and once demanded--and got--equal time on the Robertson show to rebut the charges.

The puppet show episode grew out of a Sept. 21 performance at the Arts Festival of Atlanta by puppeteer Jon Ludwig, who is associated with Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts. The center received more than $132,000 in NEA support last year. The NEA also gives money to the Georgia Council for the Arts, which gave the festival some state funds. But documents produced by the NEA and the festival this week appeared to show that there was no direct link between NEA support and the controversial show, titled “Zeitgeist.”

The controversy arose after a local Methodist minister, the Rev. John Norton, complained to festival officials that some children slipped past security officers and attended the performance, which was labeled adults-only. Norton distanced himself from Robertson’s use of the dispute to reignite the larger NEA controversy.

“I’m a strong fan of the arts and sorely regret that the arts in Atlanta got a black eye,” Norton told The Times. “Others have attempted to use this incident as a forum. These same persons and groups have attempted to bring all of this into a national issue that will soon be brought before Congress. It was never my intent that this become a forum for (Robertson’s) issue.”

Frohnmayer accused Robertson of practicing “guilt by association” and contended the NEA had faxed Robertson background materials on the extent of NEA involvement in the puppet show before Thursday morning’s broadcast, but that Robertson ignored them.

Even Robertson appeared in his television broadcast to back away from the direct charge that NEA money had been involved in the puppet show. “I wasn’t there. I didn’t see (the show),” Robertson said. “Now, the minister (Norton) is backing away from it (Robertson’s allegations of an NEA link.)” In a video report, a “700 Club” announcer also acknowledged denials that federal money was directly involved. “That may be so,” the soundtrack said.

Times Atlanta bureau researcher Edith Stanley assisted in the reporting of this article.