Seeing Is Believing

In the evening, the gleaming pearl compound is ablaze with lights that twinkle across the freeway from South Coast Plaza. By day, it’s still a showstopper, a roadside beacon, in the words of its designer.

And since it opened to the public in late May, the beacon of Trinity Broadcast Network has drawn thousands of people, many of them multiple times.

With its classical columns, mirrors, faux gold and white marble everything, the Trinity compound’s look is “Gone With the Wind” meets Caesars Palace. Even its name--Trinity Christian City International--is grand.

A spokesman for televangelists Jan and Paul Crouch says the couple built the Costa Mesa landmark for the glory of God and the delight of believers, who can visit seven days a week.

This is the world’s largest Christian television network, the central nervous system for the Trinity network’s 784 broadcast, cable and satellite affiliates. This is TBN’s newly dedicated headquarters.

Previously located in a Tustin industrial park, Trinity now resides in a three-story development covering 65,650 square feet on six acres near the Fairview Road exit of the southbound San Diego Freeway.

Most of the visitors have been believers from throughout Southern California; Trinity expects that to be the pattern now that the headquarters and tapings of “Praise the Lord” are open to the public. But some visitors have made the new center a must-see on trips from farther away, at least one of them from Asia.

Sizable parts of the complex are off-limits, but the crowds of visitors are more than satisfied with what they are allowed to see.

*

When Benny Hinn pulled up to the Trinity building, the televangelist told TBN viewers recently, he felt he was parking outside the White House.

And like the White House, Trinity has its share of critics, among them a Federal Communications Commission judge who ruled in November 1995 that TBN had violated the government’s minority-ownership rules. Trinity has appealed his decision.

Also like the White House, the structure is big and white with pillars. But Trinity is distinguished by public baptisms in the huge outdoor fountain, among other things.

Inside the front doors, visitors gape at the sumptuous Grand Lobby. The floors are spotless white marble, even in the restrooms. White walls are adorned with gold-framed floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Visitors climb the sweeping white marble stairway and come upon a 15-foot-tall statue of Michael the Archangel, his wings spread, his left foot planted on Satan’s head, hovering over the gilded grandeur.

The gold-painted dome ceiling has a florid original mural of angels that Paul Crouch has called Orange County’s own Sistine Chapel. The faces are borrowed from photographs of employees’ relatives, perhaps explaining the hybrid effect of Old World and New, the bodies of ancient cherubs with the facial features of, say, a Brittany or Tyler.

Architectural purists or traditional-minded decorators might nit-pick, but the crowd waiting in line at a recent night’s “Praise the Lord” broadcast is thrilled with the place.

“I think it must be the closest thing to heaven,” said Joyce Ellis of Norwalk, who waited in line for two hours. She brought her granddaughter on this, her third trip.

“Oh, it’s gorgeous, simply gorgeous!” said Daun Williams of Palmdale. She and her husband planned to stay overnight at a nearby hotel so they could take in the full sweep of Trinity offerings.

Behind the statue, visitors walk along the Via Dolorosa, or Way of Sorrow, a miniature re-creation of the narrow streets of Old Jerusalem through which Jesus is said to have dragged his cross to Calvary. Taped voices speaking Hebrew emanate from dwellings along the way.

The conversations are of ordinary people, a TBN spokesman said: “In the first house, a mother and daughter are discussing the meaning of the Sabbath. In the shop, a merchant is describing his day to an assistant.”

The Via Dolorosa spills into the virtual reality theater, whose three movies play hourly and tell the stories of Jesus and Paul in surround-sound. Opening day saw overflow crowds, in which viewers plunked down on the carpeted stairs. “Could you scoot down a seat please?” an usher asked a row of people. “We have a family of five here, praise the Lord!”

Inside the church auditorium/studio at 5 p.m., Paul Crouch leads “Behind the Scenes,” a televised chatty update on goings-on around Trinity. Crouch explains to his TV parishioners during “Behind the Scenes” that “my sweetheart Jan” wanted everything gold. This extended to the rolling TV camera cables, which are covered in a gold wrap. The audience chuckles.

Congratulatory letters are read aloud, including one from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony. The closer is a testimonial letter from a donor giving thousands of dollars in what TBN calls a “love gift.” Afterward, Crouch appealed for gifts from the audience.

A departing guest from an L.A. church gazed at the decor and sighed happily. “They will definitely need money to maintain this place, to keep it this lovely,” she noted.

Before leaving, many visitors stop at the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh gift shop on the first floor. Merchandise ranges from Christian books to framed religious art ($175), TBN car mugs and plastic place mat sets featuring TBN’s Tennessee property and Paul and Jan Crouch with their horses ($2.49).

Before the compound opened, some residents in nearby condominiums envisioned it becoming a sort of tacky Christian amusement park attracting hourly stops by fume-belching tourist buses.

“I don’t want to live next to Dollywood,” one of them told the Costa Mesa City Council, referring to country singer Dolly Parton’s amusement park in Tennessee.

Trinity had requested permission to have a catering truck serve employees and visitors. There is an employee-only cafeteria, and Trinity told city officials it had no interest in running a full-scale restaurant there. Trying to appease any concern over appearance, Trinity even submitted to the city a sketch of a catering truck adorned with arched windows and Corinthian columns. A snack wagon was granted.

City officials say there have been no problems since Trinity’s opening.

Costa Mesa Councilman Joe Erickson says he has heard no complaints, and believes the wide reach of the TV ministry will only enhance the city’s profile. TBN’s shows extend beyond standard televangelism to include programs about marriage and fitness, featuring a veritable “Love Boat” cast: Dale Evans, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Carol Lawrence, even Dyan Cannon and captain “Love Boat” himself, Gavin MacLeod.

The city’s other big attraction is gleeful over the prospect of hungry visitors so close to its retail doors.

“That building, it’s rather . . . imposing, isn’t it? It’s, what do you say? Well, it’s . . . imposing,” said South Coast Plaza spokesman Werner Escher. “It could be interesting for people [at TBN] to look out from whatever they are doing--taping commercials?--and say, ‘Oh, my God, we’ve got to go over there to South Coast Plaza!’ Because as you know, the governor did call [the mall] a state icon.”