Religious Broadcasters to Meet Amid Disputes : Convention: Session opens today in Los Angeles as controversy rages over abortion film and a planned salute to Hollywood.

Amid controversies over the showing of an explicit film on abortion and a gala event to salute Hollywood, the National Religious Broadcasters open their 50th annual convention today at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The meeting--expected to attract several thousand religious broadcasters, including evangelist and 1988 presidential candidate Pat Robertson, Lloyd Ogilvie and others--will mark the first time the group has met since President Clinton’s election last November.

Many association members opposed Clinton during the campaign because he supported homosexuals in the military and the lifting of bans limiting a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.

Still smarting from the election, some of the most conservative members charged Friday that the group’s board had become complacent in opposing abortion.

They also objected to a gala “Hollywood Night” of song and worship, scheduled for Sunday, featuring actress Angela Lansbury, singer Carol Lawrence and others. Officials of the group said the event was designed to affirm the work of hundreds in the entertainment industry who offer “light in what often appears as darkness and a confusion of values.”

Besides Lansbury and Lawrence, other celebrities include Jimmy Stewart, Glen Campbell, Marilyn McCoo, Debby Boone, Clint Holmes and Pat Boone.

“Some broadcasters feel Hollywood is the problem,” said one broadcaster who asked to remain anonymous.

Sarah E. Smith, a spokeswoman for the broadcasters group, defended the program in a telephone interview from the group’s headquarters in Manassas, Va. “It’s a salute to the people of Hollywood who have supported the morals we support,” said Smith.

Lawrence was singled out for special criticism by association member Ingrid Guzman, who helped organize the separate Broadcasters United for Revival and Reformation, based in Milwaukee. Guzman complained that Lawrence appeared on the ABC soap opera “General Hospital.”

“ ‘General Hospital’ is one of the most debauched soap operas ever to hit American television,” Guzman said in an open letter to the board. “Adultery, mate-swapping, homosexuality and promiscuity not only fail to offend Christians anymore, the leadership at NRB apparently feels this sort of ‘artistry’ should be rewarded by providing its platform to Ms. Lawrence at the convention.”

The show’s spokesman, Scott Barton, said there would be no comment other than to say that Lawrence appeared only occasionally on the set in a “recurring” role as Angela Eckert.

There was also a controversy over the screening of the film, “Hard Truth,” which graphically depicts an abortion.

Association President David W. Clark informed board members in a Feb. 3 letter that the film could not be shown at the general session because of its explicit content.

“Children and perhaps even some adults would need to leave the auditorium” if it were screened, Clark said in the letter. As a compromise, Clark said arrangements would be made to show the film in a separate room for those who wished to view it.

The offer apparently satisfied Vic Eliason, vice president of Voice of Christian Youth, who pushed for the screening. A planned protest demonstration has been canceled, said Guzman, an associate of Eliason.

At the bottom of the controversy over whether to screen the film was just how far the broadcasters’ association should go in taking a stand against abortion. Clark said the group’s reason for existence was to safeguard religious broadcasting, not to take stands on public policy issues. The NRB directors meet today at 8:30 a.m. The first general session, at 7 p.m., will feature the Rev. Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship of Riverside as the keynote speaker. Hollywood Night on Sunday will be emceed by Ogilvie of Lloyd Ogilvie Ministries in Hollywood and Jack Hayford of Living Way Ministries in Van Nuys, with music by Lawrence and Pat Boone. Robertson is keynote speaker Tuesday night.