What's next for the Promise Keepers?

During the Vietnam era, Chuck Colson and others on Richard Nixon's White House staff became experts at analyzing aerial photographs of antiwar rallies. So Colson knows how many bodies it takes -- give or take 100,000 -- to form a shoulder-to-shoulder mass from the Capitol to the Washington Monument and beyond. Thus, he believes there were 1.5 million praying, singing, weeping, hugging and Bible- waving men on the National Mall during last fall's Promise Keepers "Stand in the Gap" rally. This wasn't an event, he said. It was "a cultural icon."

Commenting on the rally for the MSNBC news network, I called it the capstone on an era in which Pentecostalism became an undeniable force in mainstream America -- the Woodstock of the charismatic movement. Colson picked up on this image in a recent essay written for his organization Prison Fellowship.

"Woodstock symbolized the counterculture -- thousands of young people rollicking in the mud, celebrating cheap drugs and free love," he said. "'Stand in the Gap' symbolized exactly the opposite: repentance and responsibility. And it proved that Christian men, on their knees, can potentially transform society."

Now, the question facing the Promise Keepers movement is not whether it can transform homes and communities, but whether it can pay its bills. Many supporters of the Denver-based group were shocked to hear that it is laying off all 345 members of its global staff. The group hopes to rebuild with funds raised through voluntary donations.

This news was painful, but not surprising, said Colson, a veteran Promise Keeper speaker. He also has built Prison Fellowship into a thriving ministry active in 50-plus nations.

"I have never seen Promise Keepers as an ongoing organization. I saw it as a wonderful movement, as a phenomenon, in the true sense of that word. I never thought they had a chance to sustain that," he said. "The refreshing thing about Promise Keepers was that it wasn't something that anybody planned."

The debate over Promise Keeper's future began at the beginning, in the early 1990s. I was teaching at Denver Seminary at that time and, on a number of occasions, spoke to audiences that included early Promise Keepers staff members. Some where already convinced they should pledge to ride the stadium-rally wave for five years and then make a planned retreat. Some believed that the long-range goal should be to create a small, efficient group that would help other groups reach men -- not a massive structure built on a statistical explosion.

So far, nearly 3 million men have attended these events. Thus, the group estimates that 72 percent of its operating funds -- the 1996 budget reached $87 million -- have come from ticket sales. Founder Bill McCartney has pledged that the group will no longer charge admission fees, in order to reach a wider spectrum of men.

It will be hard, but Promise Keepers must now focus on working with churches at all levels, said Colson.

"They must begin facilitating the work of others. They have to provide the materials and the expertise that help churches find ways to help men keep their promises," he said. "All of those giant events got everyone's attention and got their message out. But they have to get past that. It's time for sustaining what they have begun."

The movement's charismatic leaders also have to face a painful tension built into their cornerstone document, "The Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper." Its sixth promise commits them to reach "beyond any denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity." This will require new efforts to negotiate the deadly doctrinal minefields that separate many Christians -- especially charismatics, Calvinists and Catholics.

"Promise Keepers has to have a faith statement that all true Christians can affirm. That will not be easy, but it can be done," said Colson, a Baptist who is a leader in the controversial "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" movement. "They can't back down on this. They have to be able to work with traditional Catholics and Baptists and the Orthodox and all kinds of solid Christian groups. They need as broad a support base as possible."

Mount Sinai on the World Wide Web

There comes a time in most Jewish debates when matters hit a final snag and someone says, "We need to ask a rabbi about that."

These kinds of questions tend to be both practical and theoretical, nitpicky and cosmic. In that spirit, the organizers of next week's Jewish Web/Net Week (www.JWW.org) are asking this question: How many Jews have to be camped on the Internet to somehow equal the spiritual clout of the 600,000 who gathered 3,700 years ago at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah?

By the way, do all these people have to be online on at the same time? What if they gathered in different chat rooms? And what would happen if, when the 600,000th person signed on, everyone in this global assembly stopped and prayed this ancient prayer: "Blessed are You, our God, creator of the Universe, Knower of Secrets."

"There has always been this understanding that if you could get that many Jews together at one time and have them pray that prayer together, then three would be some mysterious meeting of the minds and spirits," said co-director Yosef Abramowitz, editor of the online magazine called Jewish Family & Life! "The idea is that we might learn something new about who we are, learn some truth with a capital 'T' or even some secret known only to God."

The event begins Saturday (Feb.21) with a "pre-game show" in Jerusalem. In addition to targeting the symbolic 600,000 figure, organizers have lined up 613 Web sites to take part -- the precise number of "mitzvot," or commandments, which shape Jewish life. The week will end with three 4 p.m. prayer services on Friday, Feb. 27 -- just before the beginning of the Sabbath in the time zones in Jerusalem, New York City and Los Angeles.

No one really knows what to expect, said Martin Kaminer, the event's other co-director. At the very least, the project will try to create a sense of community in an era in which the pursuit of any kind of spiritual unity has become one of the most divisive issues in Judaism.

"That number -- 600,000 -- has great power. It suggests the totality of the Jewish people or even the totality of human knowledge," he said. "I went over to Jewish Theological Seminary and asked the rabbis what kind of secrets we might hope to learn by taking part in all of this. Of course, as is the case with any Jewish theological question, there turned out to be more opinions than there were people. So who knows?"

The seeds of this event where planted last June at a technology conference sponsored by the Jewish Educational Service of North America. The goal has been to bring together groups of Jews that, under normal conditions, wouldn't even sit at the same table for discussions of issues such as intermarriage and conversion. Thus, the roster of sites linked to Jewish Web/Net Week ranges from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's home page to pages run by his fiercest critics on the Israeli left, from ultra-Orthodox education projects to hip sites plugging alternative forms of Jewish spirituality.

At least 70 sites will offer live programs -- from storytelling sessions to singles parties, from artistic fun and games for children to adult forums led by entertainers, politicians, journalists and scholars. Those with multimedia computers will be able to tune in six channels of music and commentary. Throughout the week, programmers will collect images, prayers, stories and opinions to include in a final online prayer service. Children can help build a digital mural to mark the 50th anniversary of the modern state of Israel.

And there will be a dizzying number of chances for people to ask all kinds of questions to all kinds of rabbis and to hear all kinds of different answers.

"Right now, so many groups in the Jewish community are, literally, not even on speaking terms," said Abramowitz. "Yet we've got all of them hooked up to this in one way or another -- from the ultra-orthodox all the way over to the most liberal Reform groups. That's a minor miracle in and of itself."

A Baptist's Baptist in the Oval Office

It was the right sermon to the right flock at the right time.

"My father was certain that Cain and Abel were the first Baptists because they introduced fratricide to the Bible," said Bill Moyers, a Baptist preacher turned media guru, hours before Bill Clinton's first inauguration. Moyers was speaking at the First Baptist Church of Washington, D.C., and the congregation included Clinton and Al Gore, who are both Southern Baptists.

"At the core of our faith is what we call soul competency," he said. "Created with the imprint of divinity, from the mixed clay of earth, we are endowed with the capacity to choose, to be ^E a grown-up before God, making my own case, accounting for my own sins, asking my own questions and expecting in good faith that when all is said and done I'll get a fair hearing and just verdict."

To which the born-again believer in the Oval Office says, "Amen." Clinton has always prided himself on being part of an unruly crowd that has few if any doctrines that cannot be submitted to a yea-or-nay vote in a local church or even a single pew. Baptists are their own priests. Each can read the Bible and make up his or her own mind. Clinton has a Bible, too.

It's hard to understand the morality plays in this White House without understanding that Clinton is a Baptist's Baptist. His Baptist critics say he makes up his rules of faith as he goes along. Yet they have no catechism or tradition that authoritatively says he is wrong. If they do, then they're not really Baptists.

Naturally, Baptists have been free to offer a variety of responses to the latest firestorm. Here's a sample.

* The Southern Baptist Convention's president noted that the Bible teaches Christians to pray for their leaders -- no matter what. "God is far more concerned than any of us about the character of our leaders," said the Rev. Tom Elliff, speaking at an evangelism conference in Alabama. After all, God "knows more truths than we will ever know." While Elliff avoided the current scandal, he said America is in "big trouble" and that "every citizen has a right to expect good character on the part of all our leaders."

* One progressive Baptist friend of Bill stressed that he won't abandon Clinton, in part because of the president's support for the poor and the oppressed. Tony Campolo of Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa., told the Associated Baptist Press that he would treat Clinton as Jesus would treat him. "I follow a man who really didn't give a hoot about his reputation. As a matter of fact, I think Jesus had the worst reputation in Jerusalem," said Campolo.

* In Little Rock, Ark., Clinton's pastor is hearing tough biblical questions, especially about the president's reported view that sexual acts short of intercourse do not violate the Sixth Commandment against adultery. "No, I wouldn't defend his interpretation of that," said the Rev. Rex Horne of Immanuel Baptist Church, quoted in the Washington Times. "I know it's too early to know or tell what's happening here, the truth from the allegations, but I feel pain and am praying for the president and his family and our country at this time."

* Another Baptist with a unique perspective is Donna Rice Hughes, who once was trapped in a media storm with presidential candidate Gary Hart. She told World magazine that she is offering special prayers for Monica Lewinsky. It's so easy, she said, for people to label a woman a "bimbo," "obsessed" or "attention- starved." It's even easy for Christians to say, "Oh, I'm better than that person. I didn't make that mistake," said Hughes, who is now a conservative Christian activist.

* The president, meanwhile, simply told those at the National Prayer Breakfast that he is thankful for the prayers and "scriptural instruction" he has received recently. "I ask also for your prayers as we work together to continue to take our country to higher ground and to remember the admonition of Micah, which I try to repeat to myself on a very regular basis. I ask your prayers that I and we might act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with our God."

'Seeker' churches for gays and lesbians

Since "worship service" sounded stuffy, ads for the new Saturday night gathering called it a "celebration."

Greeters handed out "celebration folders" instead of bulletins. Clergy wore jeans and polo shirts instead of vestments and the faithful sang along to slides projected on a wall, instead of using hymnals. The call to worship became a "warm up" and the service ended with a "see you next week" benediction, followed by pizza. The "action words" -- that's the sermon -- led into question and-answer sessions. Often, the clergy yielded the floor to "guest headliners" who sang, spoke on social issues or discussed their latest books.

In other words, this Southern California church created a "seeker" service to try to reach "unchurched" people who are more interested in spiritual issues than in conventional churches. This is happening nationwide, especially in the Protestant congregations that researchers call "megachurches."

What makes this case study interesting is that the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of San Diego isn't exactly what most people would call a "conventional church." It's part of a growing denomination composed almost entirely of gays and lesbians and their families.

These days, even niche churches need to be user-friendly.

"A whole lot of the evangelical church-growth literature has been quite helpful to us," said the Rev. Don Eastman, who leads his denomination's Strategic Growth Initiative. The former Assembly of God pastor serves on the MCC's seven-member board of elders and works in it's global headquarters in West Hollywood, Calif. "What we're learning is that it's crucial for a church to have a clear sense of how it views the world and to be able to communicate that vision to others. That's the challenge all churches face, today. It just isn't easy to reach new people."

In fact, the San Diego church's Saturday night "celebrations" weren't a big success. So now it plans to experiment with Sunday night gospel music services. The congregation has set a goal of being a megachurch -- with 1,000 to 2,000 members or more -- within a decade.

Others have caught this vision. The 30-year-old Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches sent a 50-member delegation to one of the spotlighted events on the church-growth scene -- the Robert H. Schuller Institute for Successful Church Leadership at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif. Last month's gathering drew more than 2,000, including a Moslem cleric, said Eastman. The program included leaders from giant mainline Protestant churches, as well superstars such as Schuller and the Rev. Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church outside of Chicago.

"I have always felt right at home at these meetings," said Eastman. "It's not that the people at the Schuller Institute have endorsed us. It's probably more of a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. But the whole point is to focus on what unites us, instead of what divides us. These meetings aren't about doctrine. They're about churches improving their music, their worship and how they communicate their message."

Eastman first attended the Schuller Institute in 1981, when he was the pastor of the MCC's new Dallas congregation. Today, the Cathedral of Hope has about 2,000 members and a mailing list of 30,000 names taken from its visitor's book. It's the flagship church in a 285-church network that is "determined to be taken seriously as a church, not just as another activist group in the gay and lesbian community," he said.

Reaching that goal may require gathering tips from leaders in a wide range of churches, including some that reject the MCC's stands on gender and sexual orientation. That's the reality of life in the American marketplace, said Eastman. Many people are using the same techniques, even if they are delivering different messages.

"Obviously, many churches interpret scripture in many different ways. Everybody knows that," he said. "What we have to do is present our view of the Bible with a sense of integrity. We have to offer a clear, coherent biblical viewpoint that makes sense to people. We're convinced we can find new ways to do that. We're getting better at it all the time."

The pope as Rorschach test

Papal tours are like Rorschach tests: observers tend to see what they want to see.

Pope John Paul II addresses many of the same subjects wherever he goes -- from eternal life to family life, from human economics to holy sacraments. But the full texts of his Cuba sermons show that he remains much more interested in the Good News than the evening news.

Nevertheless, John Paul is enough of a diplomat to know that calling the U.S. trade embargo a "monstrous crime" would make headlines. This policy, he said, "strikes the people indiscriminately, making it ever more difficult for the weakest to enjoy the bare essentials." He aimed more critical words at Cuba's aging Communist regime. But the pope had much more to say about Jesus of Nazareth than Fidel Castro of Havana.

The pope spent much of his time addressing the ties that bind parents and children and the forces that threaten to tear them apart. It's wrong, he said, for human materialism -- communist or capitalist -- to crush fragile homes.

"The family, the fundamental cell of society and guarantee of its stability, nonetheless experiences the crises which are affecting society itself," he said, in his first mass. "This happens when married couples live in economic or cultural systems which, under the guise of freedom and progress, promote or even defend an anti-birth mentality. Children are presented not as what they are - a great gift of God - but rather as something to be defended against."

Meanwhile, the "idols of a consumer society" tempt many people to flee Cuba and divide their families, he said. When poverty dims hopes, "anything from outside the country seems more attractive." Also, many Cuban educational policies yank adolescents out of the home and require them to attend distant schools. The goal seems to be to insert government into the role of parents. The result is a litany of woes, said John Paul.

"These experiences place young people in situations which sadly result in the spread of promiscuous behavior, loss of ethical values, coarseness, premarital sexual relations at an early age and easy recourse to abortion," he said. "All this has a profoundly negative impact on young people, who are called to embody authentic moral values for the building of a better society."

Teachers, artists, scientists, social workers and public officials may increase their efforts to meet this crisis, said the pontiff, speaking to an audience of young Cubans. This is good, but they cannot solve the root problems because questions of morality, beauty, identity and truth cannot be answered merely in terms of money, power and information. Young people must have spiritual guidance, he said.

"The church seeks to accompany young people along this path, helping them to choose, in freedom and maturity, the direction of their own lives and offering them whatever help they need to open their hearts and souls to the transcendent," he said. "Openness to the mystery of the supernatural will lead them to discover infinite goodness, incomparable beauty, supreme truth -- in a word, the image of God, which he has traced in the heart of every human being."

By the time he reached the Placio de la Revolucion, where the flock of 200,000 chanted "libertad, libertad," John Paul had returned to the central theme of his papacy -- that true freedom is rooted in eternal truths, not human power. It's impossible for a government to mandate atheism or to separate public policy and personal moral decisions. Nations are changed one person, one soul, at a time, he said.

"If the Master's call to justice, to service and to love is accepted as good news, then the heart is expanded and a culture of love and life is born," he said, in the final mass. "This is the great change which society needs and expects, and it can only come about if there is first a conversion of each individual heart, as a condition for the necessary changes in the structures of society. The attainment of freedom in responsibility is a duty which no one can shrink."

The truths are out there

It is the Most Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold III's custom to begin his day at 5 a.m. with prayer and yoga, a heels-over-head ritual that symbolizes what some call his Zen-Benedictine approach to faith.

The graceful, bookish cleric didn't stand on his head in the National Cathedral during the festive rites in which he was installed as the Episcopal Church's leader. But the new presiding bishop did challenge his church to wholeheartedly embrace the ambiguity of modern life.

Each person must discover "the truth which is embodied in each of us, in what might be called the scripture of our own lives," he said, in his sermon on Jan. 10. With their legacy of "graced pragmatism," Episcopalians are uniquely gifted at blending the "diverse and the disparate," the "contradictory and the paradoxical," the "mix and the muddle," he said. In a flock committed to finding the "via media," or middle way, "different dimensions of truth, different experiences of grace, can meet together, embrace one another, and share the Bread of Life."

Here is a postmodern credo for the next millennium: The truths are out there.

The problem is that there are so many people with so many truths and so many of them clash. Thus, Griswold faces a challenge: promoting unity in a deeply-divided church in which, if he has his way, the only Gospel truth will be that truth is essentially personal and experiential and discovered in compromise. Thus, the only heretics will be traditionalists who insist that scripture and church tradition contain transcendent, eternal truths that must be defended.

But some issues defy compromise. Consider this biblical commandment: "I am the Lord thy God. ... Thou shalt have no other gods before me." On the other side are those who teach that the God of Christianity is merely one image of an older god or gods and who, on occasion, use rites blending Christianity with other religions. The "via media"? Thou shalt only occasionally have other gods before me? Or there is the issue that haunts Episcopalians and other old-line Protestants -- sex. On one side is the biblical teaching that sex outside of marriage is sin. On the other side are those who insist this teaching must change. The "via media"?

Griswold has sought compromise on this and other related issues. But the former bishop of Chicago has made his own stance clear. He has ordained priests who are sexually active outside of marriage and was one of more than 100 bishops to sign a 1994 statement saying sexual orientation is "morally neutral" and that the church must recognize "faithful, monogamous, committed" same- sex relationships. He is active in efforts to modernize church liturgies.

The new presiding bishop has said that his love of ambiguity is rooted in his education, which took him from New Hampshire's high-brow St. Paul's Episcopal prep school to Harvard University and then on to Oxford. His critics note that these settings have consistently served as Anglicanism's laboratories for theological innovation.

Griswold says his goal is to find middle ground between different truths. Others are more blunt. In a new book called "Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity," gay Episcopalian Bruce Bawer describes a titanic struggle between "legalists" who preach a faith based on law and compassionate Christians who base their faith on love.

"Legalists," argues Bawer, view "'truth' as something established in the Bible and known for sure by true Christians." Others see "truth as something known wholly only by God toward which the belief statements of religions can only attempt to point the way."

Griswold states this another way. Those who are committed to compassion, conversation and true communion accept the reality that "absolute truth is beyond our accessibility," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Broadly speaking, the Episcopal Church is in conflict with scripture," he said. "The only way to justify it is to say, well, Jesus talks about the Spirit guiding the church and guiding believers and bringing to their awareness things they cannot deal with yet. So one would have to say that the mind of Christ operative in the church over time ... has led the church to in effect contradict the words of the Gospel."

Japan II -- We are the world

TOKYO -- The Rev. Wes Calvery came to Japan 44 years ago during a wave of missionary work that washed over a proud, broken land.

It was almost impossible to get wary Japanese -- steeped in centuries of Shinto and Buddhist traditions -- to go anywhere near foreign churches and foreign clergy.

Today, young people flock to his Sharon Gospel Church west of Tokyo for one reason: to get married. They want a wedding that looks and sounds like the ones in movies and on television. They want flowers, candles and white lace. They want to take vows that talk about love, more than duty, and their future, more than their ancestors' pasts.

"They tell me that they want to be able to understand what they're saying in their own wedding, instead of just repeating a lot of old language that they think is gloomy and intimidating and has nothing to do with their lives," he said. "In other words, they think traditional Japanese weddings are old- fashioned. ... They don't want to just go through the motions."

But there's the rub. While missionaries say Christian ministers conduct 40 percent or more of Japan's weddings, few of the brides and grooms are Christians. Only 1 percent of the Japanese population is Christian, a statistic that has changed little in recent years. Thus, many missionaries debate whether it truly helps their cause for so many brides and grooms to go through a new set of motions, speaking vows that they may only think that they understand.

The bottom line is that it's easy to get cynical about the role of religious rites and symbols in Japanese life, said reporter Junko Tanaka, who covers America and American trends for NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). A ceremony may only be a ceremony.

"I don't think the wedding trend has any profound meaning," she said. "It is a very superficial and commercialized trend. ... Young people think it is 'cooler' or 'more fashionable' to have a wedding in church, in a wedding dress, rather than having one in a shrine or a temple in a kimono."

Yet religious rites, centering on religious vows, have meaning even if they take place in chapels attached to luxury hotels. The ministers at the altars are real. The brides and grooms are real. The parents in the pews are real. These are real weddings, even if the participants think of them as mere fashion statements.

Then again, this may not be as big a change as it appears at first glance. It is perfectly normal in Japan for people to embrace different, even conflicting, religious practices at different times in their lives. As the saying goes, the Japanese are born Shinto and die Buddhist. They may practice one faith, neither or both. Today they may blend in elements of Christianity.

The big news is that this cafeteria approach is becoming more popular worldwide. In the United States, millions of nominal Christians now dabble in Buddhist meditation, read books by self- help gurus, devour entertainment created by Hindu wannabes and wonder, from time to time, about reincarnation. And note this irony: a growing number of American pastors are beginning to decline to do weddings for people they believe are not practicing Christians. We are the world.

Yet Calvery remains convinced that it makes sense for missionaries -- in the context of Japan -- to risk performing weddings for non-Christians. After 10 years in this line of work, his "wedding chapel" has evolved into a full-fledged church complete with worship services, education programs and other ministries. He also noted that he now requires a counseling session with parents before each wedding, as well as with the bride and groom.

"The whole area now accepts our chapel as a regular church - - one that just happens to do 400 weddings a year," he said. "I don't have to push my Christianity on people. Now they are coming to me. And in each and every one of those 30-minute weddings, I get 10 minutes to preach to people I would have never seen in my church, otherwise."

Japan's lady in white

TOKYO -- She smiles down from rows of advertisements that frame the ceilings of Japan's crowded commuter trains and from giant posters in shopping malls.

She is the woman in white and she is everywhere in Japanese media. In these glowing images, it is her wedding day and she is joyful, lovely, passionate and modern. She wants a Christian wedding.

"Everyone wants the white dress. It's America and Cinderella and all the movies we grew up with. It's what a Japanese girl yearns for," said Kumiko Ishii, a Tokyo native who spent her high school and college years in California. "That white dress makes her feel like a princess. ... So she wants a wedding in a Christian church and they say the Christian vows and there's a Christian minister. There's a cross on the wall, but for most Japanese girls that doesn't mean anything. It's just a design."

There is a saying here that people are born Shinto and buried Buddhist and, in between, their true religion is Japan. Now, another custom is being added to that timeline -- the Christian wedding. Only 1 percent of the Japanese population is Christian, but at least 40 percent of the weddings use Christian rites. Some say the figure is much higher.

Ishii is a rarity -- a young Japanese woman who was married in a white dress because she is a Christian. She grew up in a highly secular home and converted as a young teen-ager. Today, she is married to a Japanese rock musician who is the pastor of Committed Japan, a church that operates out of a coffeehouse and appeals to Tokyo's version of Generation X.

Getting married in an elaborate white dress, surrounded by candles and flowers, appeals to young Japanese women more than being bound into the up to 12 layers of a Japanese wedding kimono. The traditional ceremony also symbolizes centuries of arranged marriages, silent, subservient wives and husbands who do not even take vows to be faithful.

"For Japanese girls, the Christian wedding is so romantic. It's like a dream," said Ishii. "But it's like Christmas in Japan. It doesn't mean anything."

The trend began with Japanese movie stars and spread into chapels attached to hotels. At first, missionaries refused to marry non-Christians in real churches, so entrepreneurs stepped in. Today, one major wedding company goes so far as to buy the altars, pews, windows, pulpits, pipe organs and other furnishings in old Anglican churches and move them from England to Japan. The package of wedding, reception, photographs and the participation of a legitimate minister costs the Japanese equivalent of $10,000 to $20,000, or much more. The minister is paid between $100 and $200, for about an hour's work.

Japanese pastors often refuse to do these rites. That's fine, since most customers prefer a Caucasian minister in their wedding pictures. Some observers predict Western funerals will be the next growth industry.

Few missionaries are totally comfortable with all of this. Many will only marry two Christians. Others will also marry two non-Christians, since they are at least members of the same faith. Others will marry a Christian and a non-Christian, hoping the non-Christian will convert. Some will marry non-Christians if they consent to a full series of counseling sessions about the meaning of Christian marriage. Others will marry those who agree to a single 30-minute session. Some missionaries do these weddings -- period -- since this allows them chances to preach to a captive non-Christian audience.

"There is a thin line between doing these weddings to pay the bills and doing them as a means of outreach," said the Rev. Michael Hohn, a German Lutheran who leads the Christ of All Nations Church just north of Osaka. "It is a good business. This helps many missionaries stay in Japan. You can put away a lot of money for retirement or to put your children through college. ... I, myself, want to do everything I can to make sure that the people I marry understand the vows they are taking. Otherwise, I don't know what we are doing."

Part II: A journalistic blind spot

The U.S. State Department churns out many newsworthy reports, a few of which make news while the rest vanish into circular files.

In July, the state department finally released its first report on religious persecution in 78 nations. A spokesperson reminded reporters that it was Congress that mandated the 56- page document's emphasis on the persecution of Christians. The state department, stressed John Shattuck, doesn't view this "as more important than other topics involving religious freedom."

On Capitol Hill, critics noted that the report was six months overdue and came weeks after pivotal congressional votes on Most Favored Nation status for China. It created a few media ripples, then vanished. The Religion Newswriters Association did name the state department report as its eighth most important news story of 1997.

On Nov. 16, there was another newsworthy event -- a global day of prayer on behalf of the persecuted church. About 8 million Americans in 50,000 Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations took part, pledging themselves to keep praying and to seek changes that would help persecuted believers.

This event received even less news coverage than the state department report. The end-of-the-year ballot mailed to religion-news specialists didn't even mention it.

"That's astonishing. It's quite depressing, actually," said retired New York Times editor A.M. Rosenthal. "That state department report was nothing -- it was a non-story. It was patched together out of old information and then they delayed it as long as possible to minimize its impact. The only reason that report even existed was because of the movement against religious persecution and all of the pressure it has been putting on Congress. That's the story."

The day of prayer was even perfectly timed to justify major news coverage. It fell shortly after Chinese President Jiang Zemin's controversial U.S. visit and, that very weekend, the press gave major coverage to Beijing's release of Wei Jingsheng.

"The release of one famous political dissident should have heightened, not blacked out, the news value of a story that millions of Americans were paying devoted attention to other dissidents still imprisoned," wrote Rosenthal, in a recent New York Times column. "The stories might have mentioned Peter Xu, the Protestant leader recently sentenced to 10 years -- or the Roman Catholic Bishops Su Zhemin, An Shuxin and Zeng Jingmu, in their cells, somewhere."

There is more to this glitch than the usual journalistic bias of listening to beltway bureaucrats more than to people in pews.

Human-rights activist Stephen Rickard is convinced that many journalists are suffering "cognitive dissonance" when faced with Amnesty International and Christian Coalition leaders sitting side by side on Capitol Hill. Others seem to think it's wrong for Christians to rally on behalf of their own sisters and brothers.

"People laboring in the human rights vineyard know that this argument is both wrong and self-defeating," argued the director of Amnesty International's Washington, D.C., office, writing in the Washington Times. "It seems obvious to me that someone who has been touched by the suffering of one victim is forever more sensitive to the suffering of all victims. Do I hope that the communities now galvanized on religious persecution will stay engaged and fight for other victims with equal fervor? You bet. Do I think their current efforts deserve to be mocked or denigrated? No way."

Clearly, political prejudices have something to do with all of this, said Rosenthal. Yet, for journalists, this should not cancel out the fact that the movement against religious persecution is based on events and facts that are worthy of coverage.

"You don't need to be a rabbi or a minister to get this story. You just need to be a journalist. You just have to be able to look at the numbers of people involved and then look at all the other stories that were linked to it," he said. "So why are journalists missing this?... I am inclined to believe that they just can't grasp the concept of a movement that includes conservatives, middle-of-the-road people and even some liberals. Their distrust of religious people -- especially conservatives -- is simply too strong for them to see what is happening."