came along who was, let’s say, a homosexual, and wanted a job as a teacher in my school. Now maybe he’s as qualified as the next guy, probably even more so. But he’s goint to stand up there in front of those young kids and they’re going to think there’s nothing wrong with it. Now that’s bad, it just isn’t right. But if the State tells me I’ve got to hire this guy anyway, then they’re legislating immorality! It’s just not acceptable from a Judeo-Christian perspective. Then you’re going to get a reaction from the Church.” There is an interesting argument in favor of the pro-military stance taken by the New Christian Right: if the vast majority of Fundamentalist Christians agree with it, then it must be in the Scriptures. This leads to a topic the pastor obviously feels strongly about. He leans forward, forming his hand into a fist, pounding it into his palm: The reason the Communist states are so strong is because they take a strong moral stand and they come down hard on anybody who steps out of line!” “ Are you implying that the Communist countries have something we ought to emulate, that we should copy in this country?” I ask. “ No, I wouldn’t want to say that.” A Visit to Bible Temple I haven’t been to church in years. So there is something like culture shock or time-warp when I walk into the front doors of Bible Temple Church on North-East 76th and Glisan. The hallway is humming with clean, wholesome people of all ages, families, young couples, kids running around being shushed by their parents. It seems too bright. I go through a blizzard of introductions. Shake hands, good morning, Hallelujah Praise the Lord. It’s too early to be up on Sunday morning, much less dressed like a citizen and saying hello. So much sincerity and goodness. More introductions. The standard fra tern ity-stockbroker- single’s bar brand of fast friendship: firm handshake, thump on the shoulder, look ’em square in the eye. The stance is solid, like a wrestler about to make a throw. It’s hard to believe that these good people are a part of one of the most extreme religious-political movements to emerge in American politics since Billy Sunday or Father Caugh- lin, decades before I was born. Everywhere I look there’s this enthusiasm, this cheerfulness of the Pat Boon- Dick Clark-Donny & Marie variety. The main sanctuary downstairs is nearly full, so 1 follow the crowd up -the stairs to the balcony. The church’s overall capacity is somewhere around two thousand, one of the largest in the state. I’m sitting near the back, to one side of the balcony: left field from the preacher’s point of view. I scan the room. This state-of-the-art religious architecture. No pillars of posts or high-backed pews, no visual barriers between the pastor and his flock. No banks of organ pipes, no distracting windows, stained-glass or clear. The bright- purple carpet keeps you from looking down. The ceiling is blank, curved, rounded from the front like the prow of a ship or a giant whale’s stomach, lit from above by built-in flourescent lights behind plastic panels. All the electronic gadgets are unobtrusive. The video cameras and track lighting are built into the wall at the front of the balcony, as is the sound and light board which is big as a dinnertable and pincushioned with knobs and switches. A separate room holds the The Pastor’s Epistle The letter opens with a Biblical quote about salt of the earth, and supposes “ Perhaps the time has' come for the Church to come out from under the bushel and climb back up onto the candlestick. . . ” It continues with this stirring admonition: “ It is not consistent with Scripture to conclude that if we as believers could rise up and speak out, get actively involved and exercise our voting rights, and thereby greatly halt the encroachment of evil in our society, save millions of babies from being murdered in their mother’s womb, and drive the homosexuals back into shameful hiding where “ lovers of darkness” belong, for us not to do so -would be sin.” Ironically, non-voting Christians are responsible for the mess this country’s in: “ If we are indeed the salt of the earth, then we must expect decay in every part of society where we are not involved. Our American political process is in a state of decay for lack of our inrecording equipment, leading downstairs to the casette tape sales counter in the lobby, where, minutes after the sermon, the first eighteen tapes are labeled and ready for sale. Others will be copied later for sale and distribution to subscribers all over the country and in many foreign countries. A family, Cuban or South American, not Mexican, files into the pew in front of me and puts on the Spanish language translation earphones. Everybody’s singing. There aren’t any hymn-books in miniature balconies on the backs of the pews though. The words are shown by overhead projector on the screen that drops out of the curved wall behind the pulpit, between the choir and the orchestra. 1 can’t pretend 1 can’t find the page or got lost in the score, so I don’t have an excuse for not singing along. My neighbor leans over and keeps me informed: the man who leads the singing for the warm-up before the pastor’s entrance is an ex-Marine, jogs all the time. He looks exactly like an ex-Marine who jobs all the time ought to look: crew-cut, square face, waving his muscular arms around like banners. Behind him, to his right, stand a dozen or so elders, all pastors in their own right, all graduates of the church’s own Bible college. The chorus is behind, divided into men’s and women’s sides. It has to do with voice ranges. They stand on benches banked up gradually from the main stage, the purple carpet unbroken as it rises from the floor. The same is true for the orchestra, built up from the other side. There are a dozen or so musicians all sawing or blowing away fluence. We must expect increased economic woes and a decline in our national defense posture to accompnay our trends toward moral collapse, while we could also expect divine blessing and protection to be upon our nation if we stand up for righteousness. The 1980’s can indeed be the ‘decade of the church’ . . . ” There is a connection between economic woes and our national defense posture, but that’s probably not the way they meant it. Federal taxes will take ah average of six hundred and sixty some dollars from every man, woman, and child in the country for direct current military expenditures in the coming fiscal year. The raw materials, manpower, and nonrenewable energy consumed by the military might have something to do with our inflation and recession. The letter goes on to predict the Apocalypse, WWill in the Middle East and the rise of the Antichrist. But we might have more time, if only the Church would get out the vote. on their instruments, from a precocious violinist who can’t be more than eight-years-old to a man with greying hair and a trombone. A rock-and-roll-style drummer and electric bass are in the center of all this. Everyone does what they can. Praising the Lord . . . Everybody’s moving, everything’s in motion, nothing’s standing still. The song resonates, bounces back and all around and fills the room. People are standing, bowing their heads and neighing like horses, shaking their shoulders and raising their palms to the sky. The hymn on the big board was one I’d never heard before, but what it lacked in familiarity it made up for in simplicity. After a couple of lines it came to a stanza which was simply “ Our God Reigns,” repeated six times. When the end came, the leader started the refrain again. Six more times. Then six more after that, then six times just humming. The singing is drawing to a close, and from the side door I witness the ex-Marine exhorting the congregation to make whatever sacrifices they have to make in order to come to the church for evening services and stay for a film entitled Wake Up America. They’ve been hearing a lot lately about how, as Christians, they have a moral obligation to get involved in politics and rescue this great country from the clutches of the unrighteous, and maybe they’ve wanted to but didn’t know how to go about it. That’s what this film is for. When he’s finished, Pastor Iverson takes the pulpit and further endorses the film. He says of the film’s star, James Robison, “ This man is a real prophet of God. I met him personally at a service like this one in Texas.” The film has much to say, but it’s main thrust is the old 195O’s Cold War rhetoric that America needs a bigger military budget to combat the growing threat of International Communism. Robison’s style of delivering his speech on the coming kingdom of God is so enthusiastic and authoritative that the audience is easily swept away on a wave of admiration. When he reaches full pitch, the crowd in the darkened sanctuary responds with rejoicing sounds: “ Let detente wait! Let Salt 1and II wait! Let Sadat wait! Let Begin Wait! Let peace wait! It’s a false peace anyway!” It’s as though he’s put his finger on something these Christians have felt all along, and just needed somebody to spell out for them. He has more good news: “ Freedom is not the right to do what you want to do but the God-given right to do what you’re supposed to do!” More cries of praise. He has some fairly original insights into the Bible. He says it goes against Scripture to take from the rich and give to the poor, and that it is Scriptural to fight to defend the Faith and defend Right and his blood will run in his ankles before he’ll ever see another flag raised over this country. He probably has a different translation than the one I grew up with. The Fundam entalist political caucus is strong and growing stronger. Pastors and their congregations in Portland and across the country are joining the movement and raising their voices. Yet success might not be as complete as many of their leaders would hope for. It is likely that there are still large numbers of Christians who are holding back who would like to do as their leaders recommend but their conviction gives way to confusion as they leave their churches and try to remember what it was they were supposed to do. Something just doesn’t seem quite right to them. As the election draws near, they will be encouraged with greater and greater heights of oratory and eloquence from the pulpit. 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