Sun Crusade Seeks Crowd Reflecting L.A. Diversity

For the first time since the Rev. Billy Graham preached to hundreds of thousands in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 31 years ago, a major Christian crusade will open in the newly renovated landmark next weekend with an appeal for reconciliation among racial and ethnic groups.

While the Gospel message of salvation remains unchanged from when it was preached in the Coliseum in 1963 by Graham, Los Angeles’ ethnic and cultural identity has undergone a dramatic transformation.

For that reason, the upcoming Christopher Sun Crusade is aimed at drawing crowds that reflect the ethnic diversity of Southern California.

If it is as successful as hoped, backers say the rally could become the largest multiethnic Christian crusade ever held in the United States.

Sun, who has held crusades in Taiwan, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, said he didn’t know how many would attend the Los Angeles event. Graham’s 1963 crusade drew 134,000 on its single biggest night, Sun said. Seating capacity at the remodeled Coliseum is 67,500.

Expected to cost $580,000, the Sun crusade has attracted widespread curiosity with its banners and billboards in ethnic neighborhoods throughout the city. The Christopher Sun Evangelistic Assn. is based in Arcadia.

“We preach the Gospel here because we really have a burden for our city,” Sun said, referring to the 1992 riots and a series of recent natural disasters.

“This time Christian brothers and sisters come together to be reconciled . . . to transform this city to a city of reconciliation, a city of God, a city of peace,” the evangelist told reporters this week.

The crusade, to be held Sept. 16-18 beginning at 7:30 p.m. each night, will be conducted in English and simultaneously translated into Mandarin, Korean and Spanish.

To ensure broad ethnic representation, Sun began meeting monthly with African American, Anglo, Chinese American, Latino and Korean American religious leaders. He was invited to preach at their churches.

“This is the first crusade of this magnitude planned by spiritual leaders of such diverse, ethnic backgrounds. Its purpose is really to heal,” said the Rev. Harold Helms, pastor of Angelus Temple in Los Angeles.

“Los Angeles is quite different today,” Helms added. “We may be the most cosmopolitan city in the world. Our racial and ethnic diversities can explode or serve as a model for the world.”

In response to a question, Minister Calvin Brown of the West Angelus Church of God in Christ said Sun’s crusade differs markedly from the Promise Keepers crusade in May that drew 50,000 predominantly white men to Anaheim Stadium.

“He has come to the community, ate in the community, driven the streets at night. He has felt the heartbeat of the city,” said Brown, who is minister for evangelism at the predominantly African American congregation.

While he said Promise Keepers was “an excellent crusade to . . . the middle class, the very wealthy, Caucasian Americans,” Sun was reaching out to all ethnic groups.

“This is the difference. This is what the Body of Christ is like. There is no race barrier,” said Brown. “Until large crusades stop becoming exclusive and begin to reach out the way Dr. Sun has,” Brown said, “then we will always be divided.”

Promise Keepers is a men’s ministry. Its founder, University of Colorado head football coach Bill McCartney, has repeatedly called for stepped-up efforts by Promise Keepers to break down racial barriers.

Sun and his wife, Shirley, said they were warmly greeted when they began calling on various ethnic groups in preparation for the Coliseum event. But he said they were surprised to learn how little dialogue exists between ethnic groups.

“It’s hard to imagine that it’s even harder to preach in L.A. than foreign countries,” said Sun.

Shirley Sun noted that the population of Los Angeles County exceeds that of some foreign countries. Within that figure are ethnic groups with large numbers, she said.

“Los Angeles today belongs to all ethnic groups,” she said. “It’s no longer a one-race community.”

Sun, 41, who grew up in the Lutheran church but now describes himself as interdenominational, began thinking about holding his first U.S. crusade in 1988. In 1992, after a smaller evangelistic meeting in Anaheim that drew 7,000 people on each of two nights, he began planning for next weekend’s Los Angeles event.

Sun, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Taiwan, said he made a commitment to become an evangelist after attending a Billy Graham crusade in Taipei in 1975.

Before entering the ministry, Sun was a licensed California architect. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from UC Berkeley, a master’s in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1984, and a doctorate from the California Graduate School of Theology in 1987.

The crusade has been endorsed by pastors of a variety of churches within the African American, Latino, Chinese American, Korean American and Anglo communities. Among them are Campus Crusade for Christ President Bill Bright, who is honorary chairman.

Others include the Rev. Lloyd Ogilvie of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, Pastor Jack Hayford of the Church on the Way in Van Nuys, the Rev. Cecil Murray of First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, Bishop Charles E. Blake of the Church of God in Christ, Dr. Emory C. Campbell, executive minister of the Los Angeles Baptist City Mission Society (American Baptist).

Pastor Hee M. Park of Young Nak Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, the Rev. Joel Torres, superintendent of the Pacific Latin American District of Assemblies of God; Dr. John E. Whan Kim of Los Angeles Christian Reformed Church and president of the International Theological Seminary; and the Rev. Andrew Kwok of the Chinese Life Lutheran Church.