Southern Illinoisan from Carbondale, Illinois • Page 6

Page A-6 Southern Illinoisan, Friday, June 27, 1986 Southern Illinoisan OpMoe Editorial Board W. Stephen Burgess, Publisher Peter W. Selkowe, Editor Michael K. Konrad, Regional Editor Evan M. Davis, Editorial Page Editor tanifcs Shepherds get respectability By Sara Diamond Pacific News Service SACRAMENTO, Calif.

TV evangelist Pat Robertson once called Death by dcrnag BASKETBALL STAR Len Bias wasn't alone. Cocaine has killed three people already this year just in the 37 Illinois counties served by the Memorial Medical Center Toxicology Lab in Springfield. And cocaine, which scrambled the signals from Bias' brain to his heart, is not the only killer among abused drug. Dibucaine numbs the spine and can kill when injected. Angel Dust can cause flashbacks, in which hallucinations come without warning long after the drug is taken.

Have a flashback when driving a car and death is waiting. Barbituates can cause the lungs to fail. Add to that list so-called Mexican heroin or other strong opiates, Darvon and other analgesics or just about any drug mixed with alcohol. Drugs are killers when they are taken in the wrong doses or, in Bias' case, when a person's body chemistry reacts wildly. "I don't think he ever drank a beer or smoked a cigarette," said Leftv DrieselL Bias' coach1 at1 the University of Maryland.

"He was in superb physical condition and in about two minutes his life was gone It scares me and it scares every person on this earth." "He's gone because.of one mistake," Driesell said of Bias, who annarpnflu HipH frnm his first ncp nf rnrnine "Leonard went ahead them heretics. Now they're welcome members of the fundamentalist family. The "shepherding movement" includes some of the most fervent, aggressively evangelistic and secretive of Christian fundamentalist groups. Once deemed too extreme even by powerful preachers like Robertson, shepherds are now gaining new legitimacy with the Christian Right, and the reasons may have to do with political muscle and a shared goal the establishment of a Biblically-based government and culture in the United States. As a recent "gathering here revealed, the nationwide movement has the discipline, organization and marketing knowhow to make any election campaign director covetous.

Some 400 evangelical entrepreneurs from all over the country came to the four-day "Equipping Evangelists" conference. Amid opening night music, prayers and charismatic "speaking in tongues," coordinator Francis Anfuso told the crowd, "Christians have canine qualities. Some roll over and play dead. Some beg. Some are setters.

They sit in pews, hear and see. But God has called us to be retrievers." With charts and an overhead projector, he explained how, by concentrating on converting more and more people through a geometric progression, the whole world could' be evangelized in 30 years. Evangelists-in-training were urged to seek out "unbelievers" on city streets, airplanes, in high schools and restaurants. But in spite of this focus on public outreach, only one reporter was present at the conference, and workshop leaders were un-avilable for interview. No one not even the event's organizers can say how many American churchgoers are represented by the 400 conference participants.

By conservative estimates, that number could be as high as 1 million. Shepherding, sometimes called the "covenant" or "disci-pleship" movement, may be the fastest growing form of fundamentalist Christianity. In the movement's own terminology, "sheep" are organized into home-based "cell groups" of 10 to 20 members, each under the spiritual and worldly authority of a "shepherd." The system is supposed to enhance the sheep's spiritual development. "Tell people: you follow me while I follow Jesus," explained one of the pastors visiting Sacramento. Shepherds in turn "submit to" their higher-ups, often in another part of the country, and at the top of the hierarchy are men considered to UJUt A VS AAAI w.

and took it and now he's gone. He paid the price. I don't want that tragedy to happen again to anybody." No one does. Already we are hearing of Len Bias' death being to cocaine what Rock Hudson's was to AIDS the shock that awakens the nation. Better if it awakens the nation to all drug abuse, but it won't happen automatically.

The word must get around, spread by families, teachers, coaches, ministers, and especially by friends to each other. Drugs don't only ruin health, blot minds, destroy families and turn kids into thieves and prostitutes. Sometimes they just reach right out and kilL CCeep coal tssx IF GOV. JAMES THOMPSON needs encouragement to veto the sales tax break for coal, he has it here. The General Assembly this month gave Southern Illinois its annual coal bone so Southern Illinois legislators can come home and bark about how much they've accomplished for the coal industry.

In this case, Rep. Jim Rea, D-Christopher, and Sen. William O'Da-niel, D-Mount Vernon, won a deal in which coal companies wouldn't have to pay sales tax on major equipment purchases. Helping the Illinois coal industry is good when there's a net gain for the people of Illinois. But this deal looks like a loser.

It will cost the state from $4 million to $10 million a year, depending on whether you believe the coal industry or the Illinois Department of Revenue. Either way, those are dollars the shrinking state coffers can't spare. And our guess is most of that money will wind up in the 'noplfpfs nf fnal pnmnanv stnrkhnlHprs nntsiHp TUinnis Thp notion lose their spiritual salvation if they left the movement or even questioned their shepherd's authority. "We need shepherds," said shepherding leader Charles Simpson. "We're made that way.

And if a person rejects shepherding, he's usually out of the flock, winds up on his own or over a cliff or buzzards get him." During the mid-1970s, some shep-. herds came under sharp criticism from other evangelicals. They had heard reports of heavy-handedness, and they were concerned that the movement's unique structure might invite abuse. In 1975 television evangelist Robertson labelled the shepherding teachings "charismatic heresy" and banned its leaders from appearing on his 700 Club program. Since then, however, there has been, little vocal opposition to the movement.

While some evangelicals still oppose shepherding doctrine and practice, there are indications that the movement has gained legitimacy and has been integrated into the larger born-again community. Following a series of "unity" meetings in 1985, dozens of previously disparate and even antagonistic evangelical ministers have pledged to support each other in new coalitions. One result is increased activism. Bob Weiner, head of the Marantha shepherding "stream" active on college campuses, explains the goal: "If you don't rule and I don't rule, the atheists and humanists are going to rule. We should be head of our school board.

We should be head of our nation. We should be the senators and the congressmen. We should be the editors of our newspapers. We should be taking over every area of life." thai cunh tnv hrpnU- will nntnnllv new coal mining jobs seems most dubious. We've heard the arguments about the coal market being so com petitive that every little advantage counts, but most industrial markets are competitive.

Illinois could abolish ail business taxes and tax the skin off individuals instead, we suppose, but that wouldn't get politicians re-elected. When politicians can give away Illinois' business tax base in dribbles, however, the public doesn't notice. Illinois state government has done a lot for the coal industry in recent years, pouring millions of dollars into coal research and development projects and trying to market Illinois coal. And it has -given our coal a big tax break compared to other coal states by not imposing a severance tax. Enough is enough.

Keep the sales tax. Heire's how a preacheir won be modern-day apostles. Sheep are instructed to be tight-lipped about their chains of command, and the links are difficult to trace. The movement's origins are equally unclear. Five American preachers Bob Mumford, Charles Simpson, Derek Prince, Ern Baxter and Don Basham are considered by many to be the founders of shepherding in the United States.

In the early 1970s they joined to form Christian Growth Ministries, now based in Mobile, Ala. Defectors from various shepherding "streams" such as Maran-tha, Gospel Outreach and Gathering of Believers report working long hours at household chores for their church elders and "submitting" to shepherds' scrutiny everything from check book records to detailed accounts of their sex lives. Ex-members recount fears that they would says he figured Democratic Rep. Philip Sharp was unbeatable this year. Wickliffe's plan was to hoard his money, run a strong campaign this fall and come back in 1988, with vote-popular Republicans at the top of the ticket, against Sharp, who won as a "Watergate baby" in 1974 and has kept his largely Republican constituents contented since.

Wickliffe got a late start because a previous GOP candidate did not decide against running until shortly before the primary. The party publicized its slate only in the slice of Indianapolis that is in the Second District. Wickliffe won there easily. Nearly 30 percent fewer voters turned out than in 1982, making it easier for a dedicated minority. Lynch's name came before Wickliffe's on the ballot an advantage Marion County chairman John Sweezy figures was worth five to 10 points.

So the whole thing was a political fluke, right? jj OTeucoinn), mntLHi amiiuLa ana vou re Cathy Monroe's story Thursday rrprfp cianifirJint numhpr nf a guesic ai uu uuom. explained why the Street Ma hJJ UUVT VlllsJ av.b 111 uui iivsiiiv. chine Nationals will be in Du Quoin this weekend. Rowdy crowds struck out in Indianapolis, Springfield and Collinsville. Now the QVinw is rnmincr tn Du Onnin tn nrnvp wp nrpsiimp Hint things arp Well, not exactly.

Along with the fine print, you have to look at the big picture. Lynch was a total unknown. His only previous publicity came when he led a protest (he calls it a religious service) at Indiana's largest abortion clinic. He was jailed 12 hours and others were strip-searched, he says. Yet he swept a candidate who may have been saving for the fall but still outspent him five-to-one.

The religious right proyed it could outscramble party regulars. Its network of fundamentalist churches now is forming a formal alliance. Fundamentalists won two other Indiana congressional primaries, though one was the party candidate and the other, who beat a party stalwart, was a well known state senator. The religious right obviously is for real, here and elsewhere. How will it impact the GOP? State Chairman Gordon Durnil better.

They'd better be better, or it will be strike four and you're out, to Kentucky Lake or some such place. But that's a risk Southern Illinois will take. The people here are ready to be good hosts. We have a beautiful fairgrounds, newly bought and cleaned by the state, and surrounded by lakes, hills and people happy to give service with a smile. Southern Illinoisans know how to party, too.

Our Halloween in Carbondale attracts thousands each The Du Quoin grounds have hosted big motorcycle, water skiing and auto racing events. If the street machine fans come here to have a good time without get- ting out of hand they'll learn they picked the right place. Southern Illinois welcomes the Street Machine Nationals. We I hope the event is a success, for this year and many more. But fVof i ir iYta trie? ro rcrrc Yr lnrwir tVmr ni in rvi ir Vnm a tUClt UJ IU lilts vioiiuio UWW1VAV, the writer ns nowyloorable a priirnaiiy takes the hopeful view that the fundies will become team players.

Marion Chairman Sweezy is more cautious. The religious right tried to pack a convention on him in 1980 and ran precinct candidates unsuccessfully against him this time. "If they attempt to move the whole party structure to the right, then the party's going to be hurting," he says. "If you lose the center, you're hurting." Ultimately, the near-term direction will be determined by the 1988 GOP presidential nominee. Fundamentalists are proving they can impact that choice, just as the left recently dominated the Democratic process.

If so, their hard-line agenda on such issues as abortion may drive away traditionalist Republicans, libertarian baby-boomers and independents. That's why what's happening in this Muncie microcosm of Middle. America intrigues those who try to read the nation's political palm. everywhere for any act of terrorism anywhere, and (b) I consider the Israeli government as fallible as any other collection of mortals. I shall ignore letters from feminists who see a calculated insult to their sex, rather than a writer's dilemma, in grammatical constructions that do not specifically include both sexes.

Ditto letters from piggish men complaining about competition from uppity women. The incinerator awaits letters declaring that opposition to nuclear war is surrender to communism, that "big government" is responsible for everything from George Steinbrenner to herpes, and that the only reason people are hungry in America is that they're too lazy to eat. All this will dispose of most of my mail, allowing me to proceed into the Great Decades without too many stomach upsets and nervous disorders. But I have reserved, finally, a special fate requiring plumbing for letters asserting that I am a dupe of the communists, the liberals, the Democrats, the Eastern Establishment, the radicals, the blacks or the secular humanists. The fact is, folks, these columns are my own fault: By Jim Fain Cox News Service INDIANAPOLIS Republicans rule this Hoosier heartland with a budget and discipline Bobby Knight's basketball empire probably envies.

Yet a 30year-old Nazarene preacher who had never run for office clobbered the party's Second District congressional candidate in the May primary. If that can happen in orthodox Indiana, the surging fundamentalist movement is about to swallow the GOP, right? Well, not exactly. You have to look at the fine print. The Rev. Don Lynch is the boy-next-door look-alike who mobilized 500 church people to ring doorbells and man phones.

He spent only $4,000, he says, and stressed his belief that AIDS victims should be quarantined. His opponent, Jay Wickliffe, 34, human resources planner for Ball Corp. in Muncie, held his fire. He By Tom Wicker New York Times NEW YORK When the novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder turned 60 years old in 1957, Justice Felix Frankfurter wired him: "Welcome to the Great Decades!" Wilder himself decided to take advantage of the "new privileges" he thought due anyone who had lasted that long. "I hereby serve notice on the schoolchildren of America," he announced in The Boston Herald.

"Now that I have reached 60 years old I'm going to dump all their letters in the incinerator without reading them." I have myself just entered the Great Decades, but have not been much tormented by schoolchildren's letters which may symbolize the difference in literature and journalism. I nevertheless intend, in the spirit of Thornton Wilder, to avail myself of certain perks of age I regard as only modest compensation for much of what arrives in The Times' mailbags emblazoned with my name. To those of more recent vintage, these resolutions may seem unduly harsh. But to a man bearing the trace galls of six decades and suddenly only five years away from At (SQL of pigs to install a Nicaraguan government of his own choosing. This will facilitate depositing both in the round file.

Right on top of them will go any and all letters that question my patriotism for criticizing the president any president, usually called "our president" for anything. I am devising a one-sentence form letter to send to all those who assert that I only write what the publisher of The Times and-or the advertisers in The Times tell me to write. The form will read approximately as follows: "Somebody is signing your name to idiotic letters." The same form will go to sneering' readers who know as a matter of fact that the only reason the press publishes alarming news, criticizes the government and reports on business scandals is that such stories "sell papers." Letters from professional Southerners who write haughtily that the Civil War was really the War Between the States or the War for Southern Independence will evoke only the stony silence they deserve. I have a match and a big ashtray ready for any letter alleging that I must be anti-Semitic because (a) I do not condemn all Palestinians Social Security, they seem reasonable and just. So I hereby serve notice: I will no longer answer any letter that demands that I go back to Russia where belong.

Nor will I the slightest attention to lectures, usually written in longhand on front and back of five or six pages, detailing every evil of communist Russia real and imagined back to 1918, a history of which the letter writer always declares the column writer obviously is ignorant. Any missive addressed to "Dear Tommy," which not even my mother dared call me after the first time, will be summarily torn in shreds. No effort will be made to decipher postcards whose every square inch is covered in infinitesimal scrawl. I shall promptly throw in the wastebasket all letters alleging that I must want some member of my family to be raped, since I am opposed to the death penalty. Letters from "liberals" deploring my criticism of the Jeffersonian democrats they think govern Nicaragua will be paper-clipped to letters from "conservatives" deploring my criticism of Ronald Reagan's efforts Itoainnie, shame, shame "One of our Democrats had a personal call from the president and changed his vote.

He had never talked to a president head-to-head and he told us, I was so thrilled, I thought I was talking to the pope." Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Congress of the United States of America a TO THIS LEVEL, then, does our democracy sink. Because an old actor who is now the most powerful man in the world flattered the right egos our nation will spend $100 million to wage proxy war on Nicaragua and terrorize its innocent people. So be it. Our representative system of government has spoken.

Now we must live with the consequences, and learn from them if we can..