Eighty years of tradition was tossed aside with the flip of a coin Friday as a controversial Orange County television ministry won control of this year's Easter sunrise service at the Hollywood Bowl.
Trinity Broadcasting Network will produce and televise the March 31 pageant, replacing a venerable Los Angeles civic group that began staging the religious spectacle in 1919.
Executives at TBN, the world's largest Christian television network, dismissed fears that their network's evangelical style would corrupt the program's ecumenical tradition. "We'll have every Christian denomination," promised programming coordinator Jay Jones.
But critics of TBN--known for the glitzy sets, flamboyant on-air personalities and lavish lifestyles of its founders,
Paul and Jan Crouch--were unmoved.
"It's a real shame," said Sandy Gorog, who braved the cold last year to attend the Hollywood Bowl services, where her boss, the Rev. James H. Morrison of Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church, spoke. "A long tradition's been broken that gives people a chance to hear preachers in the neighborhood."
Los Angeles County, which owns the Hollywood Bowl, ordered the coin toss to settle a dispute over rights to the Easter program after TBN complained it was being unfairly excluded.
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The process outraged leaders of the losing group, Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service Inc.
"I'm sorry. This is not Las Vegas. This the Hollywood Bowl Easter sunrise service," fumed Norma Foster, president of the nonprofit group. "This is offensive."
Members of Foster's group say their predecessors created the Hollywood Bowl in 1921, two years after conducting the first sunrise service. And they claim the amphitheater was eventually deeded to the county in exchange for a 99-year renewable lease that guarantees them the use of the bowl each Easter for $1 a year.
Foster said her organization will challenge the county's decision to randomly select the group in charge of the annual Easter program. But lawyers for her group conceded that fighting off TBN may not be easy. "Finding the actual tract records is difficult," said attorney Gerald Manpearl.
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A multidenominational tone has been a hallmark of the pageant, America's best-known Easter sunrise service. Past services have included a mixture of clergy and celebrities, with Hollywood personalities such as Angie Dickinson, Mickey Rooney and Robert Stack sharing the bowl's stage with religious figures from houses of worship such as the First A.M.E. Church, the Leo Baeck Temple and the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
In promising to be just as inclusive, TBN executive Jones said, "We are under the assumption the Hollywood Bowl is for everyone."
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Critics of Paul and Jan Crouch are irked that the couple enjoys expensive houses, including a new
Newport Beach estate reported to cost $5 million. According to 2000 tax documents, Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana Inc., which oversees a network of regional TBN organizations as well as overseas ventures, had $444 million in net assets. The Crouches had a combined salary of more than $850,000.
Some also believe that many TBN evangelists teach flawed theology. "They are peddling spiritual cyanide by the megadose," said
Hank Hanegraaff, a best-selling Christian author whose books include "Christianity in Crisis" and "Counterfeit Revival."
Hanegraaff monitors the TBN broadcasts, looking for examples of outrageous claims and apostasy. In 1999, he says, TBN star
Benny Hinn told viewers: "You're going to have people raised from the dead watching TBN. . . . I see actually loved ones picking up the hands of the dead and letting them touch the screen. . . ."
The Crouches could not be reached for comment. But other TBN officials voiced surprise Friday at the Easter service complaints.
"I'm a little disappointed and baffled to hear there's some anger," said Colby May, a TBN spokesman in Washington, D.C. He said the network is "humbled and honored" to be awarded use of the Hollywood Bowl.
May promised the Easter pageant will be ecumenical and centered on Christ's resurrection, a theme that unites all Christian denominations. A toll-free number will appear at the bottom on the screen during the service for people needing prayer or wanting to make donations, he said.
The superimposed telephone number could prove to be a sticking point with the county. It harks back to a controversy in 1992, when TBN angered bowl veterans by allegedly seizing control of the Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service board of directors and taking over that year's program. Under new rules drafted as part of the coin-toss procedure, such fund-raising will not be allowed, according to Elizabeth Hinckley, spokeswoman for the Philharmonic Assn.
Jones said this year's sunrise telecast--which will be broadcast worldwide--will not be used for fund-raising. "We raise money twice a year through telethons," he said.
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For their part, county officials pronounced themselves satisfied with Friday's coin toss. A memo written by county lawyers and completed late Thursday said such a selection process "is the most reasonable and defensible approach" to avoid possible "unconstitutional discrimination."
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