Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 17

March 7, 1989-, B5 I I Second Coming disputed By JOHN DART The Los Angeles Times THE ORE Asbury Park Press BACK TO 7m Asbury Park Press Joey Vadala and Gene Boccia during a 1985 concert in Asbury Park. La Bamba drives on with new set of Hubcaps 'II tt a ii 1 4 OC I 18 fit -i iij 1 Hit JMI in! i il MTT IIHH 1 fll rut. SOT i i nl IC 11 I sot SONOM Calif. A group of 30 biblical scholars assessing the most likely teachings of the historical Jesus agreed overwhelmingly that he did not say that he would return to Earth and usher in a new age. Predictions of a Second Coming were put on Jesus' lips by later followers and gospel writers, according to the Jesus Seminar, a controversial but academically mainstream group that has involved more than 100 scholars at one time or another in twice-yearly voting sessions.

The seminar's stance, which contradicts the Apostles Creed and standard Christian doctrine, was called "heretical" by a fundamentalist pastor who attended the meeting here. "They're robbing the church of its blessed hope," said the Rev. Marion H. Reynolds of Los Osos, Calif. He said the impact of the group cannot be dismissed because "our society tends to place scholars on a very high level." However, the seminar findings on the Second Coming reflect what is quietly taught in most major universities and seminaries, said the Rev.

Edward F. Bcutner, campus minister at Santa Clara University and a seminar member. "These are not maverick scholars," Bcutner said. "They take a very careful approach to how sayings of Jesus were transmitted and to the evolution of the Bible texts." Nevertheless, it is unprecedented for biblical scholars to be so frank and public about their views. Seminar leaders admit that they want to be provocative in order to publicize what they feel are standard, modern interpretations, and thus offset what they see as unsophisticated Bible teachings by television preachers and others.

To the proposition, "Jesus expected to return as the Son of Man and usher in the new age," 26 seminar participants said they "strongly disagreed," two said they disagreed and two said they agreed. Seminar member Marcus Borg, who chairs the religious studies department at Oregon State University, said the Gospels depict Jesus uttering words linking the Last Judgment and worldwide calamity with the coming of the Son of Man. Many Christians believe that Jesus will return as the Son of Man. "The Jesus Seminar thinks he didn't speak of the coming of the Son of Man at all," Borg said. On the other hand, the seminar was virtually unanimous in giving credibility to sayings attributed to Jesus in which he said the kingdom of God was already present in his day.

Jesus would not have made mutually contradictory statements, scholars said. "You can't have Jesus saying both the kingdom is here and is off in the future," said Bernard Brandon Scott of Phillips Graduate Seminary. The physical return of Jesus is a constant expectation in evangelical and fundamentalist churches. Undeterred by mistaken predictions in the past, starting with the Apostle Paul in the mid-1st century, the only question among conservative Protestants today is "How soon?" Most evangelical leaders, evangelist Billy Graham included, assume that Jesus' return is close but they set Ho dates, citing a gospel verse saying that no one knows "The day or the hour." The continuing debate in these circles is over whether Jesus will come after or during Armageddon or before that conjectured worldwide destruction. The Second Coming is a rarely heard topic in Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant churches.

But a 1983 Gallup poll showed that 62 percent of the general populace had "no doubts" that Jesus will return. Among the 80 percent in the survey who said they were Christian, four out of five said they had no doubts about the Second Coming. The Jesus Seminar is a project of the Westar Institute headed here by Robert Funk. Many biblical scholars have distanced themselves from the Jesus Seminar's unorthodox procedure and from what they see as the potential for driving a deeper wedge between church and scholarship. Yet, a common premise among New Testament scholars, even non-seminar members, is that the historical Jesus spoke mainly about the kingdom of God, not about himself.

But after Jesus' lifetime, scholars say, the churches speculated about the divine nature of Jesus and thus invented sayings in which Jesus described his identity in terms that included a future role as the "Son of Man." The seminar, in its four years of voting, has decided that "way less than 25 percent" of the words attributed to Jesus were his. Funk said. At last fall's meeting in Atlanta, the seminar majority concluded that the Lord's Prayer did not originate with Jesus (except for some phrases) but was composed instead by the early churches. Richard "La Bamba" Rosenberg and Hubcaps By MATTY KARAS Kress statt writer embers of the Asbury Jukes!" screamed the advertisements when La Bamba and the Hubcaps started appearing five years ago. Members of the Disciples of Soul! The Street Band! It was the ultimate Jersey Shore band.

Guitarists, bass players and horn players; horn players who had honked behind South-side Johnny Lyon, Little Steven Van Zandt and Bruce Springsteen. A guaranteed stomp through New Jersey's rhythm and' blues swamp. But over time, instead of taking players in, La Bamba and the Hubcaps started giving players away. Glen Burtnick quit got a recording contract and made two albums of his own. His replacement, Joey Vadala, formed his own band, Joey and the Works.

Bobby Bandiera joined Southside Johnny's band, the Jukes. Leader Richard "La Bamba" Rosenberg, who came to the band with credentials that included background vocals on Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." album, was plucked along with the rest of the Hubcaps horn section to tour with the Boss on his "Tunnel of Love Express" tour, finally forcing the band to more or less break up a year ago. Now Rosenberg has put together a new version of the Hubcaps, but even he admits it is merely the beginning of the end. He is promising to give fans at Asbury Park's Stone Pony, where the band is scheduled to make its first Shore appearance in more than a year Friday night, "a little remembrance of what it was before." He is bringing along a 17-piece band, heavy in horns, and his charts for some of the Hubcaps' favorite nuggets, including Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up" and Jimmy Ruffin's "I've Passed this Way Before." Another gig is planned for next week at the Lone Star Roadhouse in New York, and other dates are possible. But La Bamba, whose heart has always been set on singing his own songs, said his long-term plans do not include the Hubcaps.

"I don't plan on keeping the Hubcap name for too long," the 35-year-old bandleader, who has moved from the Shore to North Jersey, said in an interview last week. "It might become just La Bamba, or La Bamba and something else, you know, but it will definitely not be the Hubcaps. "What people are going to see at this particular job at the Pony is not really going LA BAMBA AND THE HUBCAPS is set to appear around 1 1 p.m. Friday at the Stone Pony, Ocean Avenue, Asbury Park. Tickets, $10, are available through Ticketmaster and the Stone Pony.

Chevrolet and Sony. His wife Susan is expecting the couple's first child next month. Boccia, who booked a few shows for the Hubcaps sans La Bamba while Rosenberg was on the road with Springsteen, has been busy producing bands at Shorefire Recording Studios in Long Branch. He just finished an album for Memphis singer Art Seville that he describes as "a La Bamba album without La Bamba." Boccia is planning to tour Europe a second time later this year with former Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna violinist Papa John Creach. And he has been performing with Hubcaps keyboardist Rusty Cloud and various other present and former Hubcaps in Dr.

and the Ex-Jookes, who owe their name to the fact that "Jukes" is legally spoken for. "It's very hard to keep some people that we're working with, because they get very busy doing other things," Rosenberg said. "I do enjoy playing with studio players a lot, which Gene is, and you have to leave a little slack there. They can't make every job." Over the Hubcaps' five-year history, Boccia estimates 150 musicians have come and gone, including cameo appearances by Gary U.S. Bonds, Brian Setzer and New York weatherman Storm Field, who Boccia said "doesn't do anything.

He just stands there. But he's a real nice guy, so we gave him a T-shirt with his name on it. He's an honorary Hubcap." Most of the regular Hubcaps were friends before they joined, and Rosenberg is wary of holding auditions for a new band. "I only (held auditions) a few times," he said. "When Joe Vadala came into the band, we auditioned Joe, but Joe was really easy.

He knew all the songs that Glen (Burtnick) had sung, and he stepped right in and filled Glen's place real well." After staying home with his baby for awhile, Rosenberg said he will consider more seriously where he wants to go with a new band, which will probably include at least Boccia from the current Hubcaps. Meanwhile, he said, the Hubcaps will play sporadically with some new material and a good bit of what the fans are use to. "I think we have to do that to get things rolling," Rosenberg said. "That makes sense, doesn't it?" to be what the Hubcaps, as we're calling them now, are going to be later," he said. Rosenberg is not ready to be pressed on what "later" will bring, but said, "I just plan to go the original route that I had planned to go and didn't ever get there before.

It just always seemed to take a left turn." La Bamba and the Hubcaps debuted March 22, 1984, at the Stone Pony as an impromptu group of friends from the Shore music scene who wanted to jam. They hit it off with each other and with fans. Before long, they were playing every week at the Stone Pony and at Bar Anticipation in South Belmar, where they spent a few summers squeezed onto a small, skewed stage every Sunday afternoon and night. "You couldn't really see from one end of the stage to the other," Rosenberg said. Playing mostly obscure songs that, Rosenberg said "sound like they could be originals," the Hubcaps got big enough to open for national bands at the Meadow-lands, and remained enough of a bar band to play the dinkiest places they could find.

"We once played with the Kinks at the Meadowlands," said bass player Gene Boccia of Belmar, who joined the Hubcaps early on and believes he's the only remaining member who lives at the Shore. "We played the show, then hung around with the Kinks for a little bit, watched them play, then went and played a show at the Ground Round. You go from playing in front of 18,000 people to playing for 30. But all 30 love you. And some of them remember you from the Kinks." The Hubcaps were filmed by MTV at one of the gala Christmas charity concerts Rosenberg used to organize, and were re- corded live by New York radio station WNEW-FM.

But aside from a couple of Christmas singles, the only La Bamba recording ever committed officially to record was one song, "City Life," on a compact disc compilation of New jersey bands released by North Jersey's WDHA-FM. "Our goal was to be a hot, live band, and that's what we did," said Boccia. "That was our forte." Rosenberg said there's a bigger reason-La Bamba hasn't left much of a recorded legacy. "That goes in with the thing of not 'What people are going to see at this particular job at the Pony is not really going to be what the Hubcaps, as we're calling them now, are going to be later. Richard Rosenberg doing originals, not performing them live," he said.

That's one reason the Hubcaps have got to go. There are also considerations of adulthood and careers. Rosenberg and the Hubcap horn section recently were in the studio cutting tracks for Joe Cocker, and Rosenberg, who arranges all of the band's music, has been spending a lot of time orchestrating commercials and industrial films for the likes of Meet Wendy The Associated Press Report When a fan goes too far what they expected to happen did nofl happen," Dietz says. "When the celebrity does not say 'Yes, we can now join our hands mi marriage and live happily ever is such a surprise to the person whos life has been devoted to finding this perfect union that he or she won't tate" 'no' for an answer." 1 All too glaring examples are, of, course, Chapman, John obsession with actress Jodie Foster led him to try to kill former President Reagan. Arthur Jackson, who stabbed aicv tress Theresa Saldana, hired a private detective to get Ms.

Saldana's mother's1 unlisted phone number, then perj suaded her to hand over Ms. Saldana'sT L.A. address by posing as director Martin Scorsese. See FAN, page B6 Ms. Ray and Kieling are not alone in their celebrated delusions.

A Justice Department study looking for ways to protect victims from overzealous fans found 500 people who became obsessed sometimes violently with celebrities. In some twisted scenarios, the fans came to believe the star was a friend or lover. "Usually, the obsession begins with letter writing," says Dr. Park Dietz, a California forensic psychiatrist, who conducted the study. And although the majority confine their devotion to letters, some, like Ms.

Ray, and Mark Chapman, who shot John Lennon, go over the line and try to approach the star. "Most of the attempts are about efforts to fulfill some delusional belief and hope. Where violence occurs, it's not necessarily because the person intended to do any violence, but rather By KAREN CR0KE The New York Daily News Margaret Ray believes she's Mrs. David Letterman, which comes as a complete surprise to Mr. David Letterman, who is a bachelor.

But Ms. Ray is persistent. She moved into Letterman's house when he was away and drove his white Porsche. She introduced her child as David Letterman Jr. In late February, one day after being released from a Connecticut jail for her earlier offense, the 36-year-old "wannabe" wife broke into the TV talk-show host's New Canaan home for a fourth time.

In Canada, farmer Robert Kieling, 52, has been convicted 11 times of harassing singer Anne Murray. He's convinced she's in love with him. She doesn't know him. An 11-year-old New Jersey girl is the new Wendy who will represent Wendy's International chain of fast-food restaurants in its national advertising that began Saturday. Kellie Switzer of Sayreville, stands 4-foot-5, with green eyes and strawberry blond hair.

The new Wendy will have a softer look than the original Wendy, although a company spokesman emphasized the Wendy's logo will not change. Wendy Thomas, now 27, modeled for the logo used by the company her father, R. David Thomas, started in Columbus, Ohio in 1969. When her photo was taken for the logo, "We put pipe cleaners in her hair to make her pigtails stick out," company spokesman Denny Lynch said. Kellie Switzer of Sayreville.

Kellie's pigtails won't be as pronounced, but she will wear a similar blue-and-white striped costume and freckles, Lynch said. Wendy Thomas plans to marry next month..