APtx 07/24 0305 Holy Ghost Rally By A. DENITA GADSON Associated Press Writer NEW ORLEANS

APtx 07/24 0305 Holy Ghost Rally

   By A. DENITA GADSON Associated Press Writer

   NEW  ORLEANS  (AP)  --  Bible  thumping,  hand  clapping, feet
stomping  Pentecostals  and  charismatic  Christians  set   aside
doctrinal  differences  in  worshiping  together at the Louisiana
Superdome.

   More than 35,000  people  began  arriving  Wednesday  for  the
four-day  North  American  Congress  on the Holy Spirit and World
Evangelism.  It's the second meeting of the congress;  the  first
was held in Kansas City in 1977.

   Leaders  have  said they want to convert 3.1 billion people to
Christianity by the year 2000.  Statistics  show  there  are  1.6
billion Christians today.

   Two  South Carolina protesters, carrying posters with messages
like "Compromise is not love" and handing out  religious  tracts,
called the meeting a hypocrisy.

   "I'm  protesting  the ungodliness of America and the religious
hypocrisy,"  said  Robert  Eckhardt,  61,  who  professed  to  be
non-denominational.

   "We're just playing church in America," he said, pointing to a
chauffeur-driven  limousine  with a Virginia license plate parked
outside the Superdome.  He said it belonged to a minister.

   "They won't please God by compromising.  It's his  way  or  no
way," Eckhardt said.

   However,  the  congress'  chairman  said none of the religious
cults  here are compromising their beliefs.  Participants include
Catholics,  Protestants,  Pentecostals,  Orthodox  and  Messianic
Jews, and others.

   "Every group  is meeting separately.  We've learned to respect
one another's beliefs and  unite  and  agree  on  what  we  can,"
Chairman Vinson Synan of Oklahoma City said in an interview.

   He said the biggest thing they all agree on is evangelization.

   "Division  only  takes  us  away from God and makes evangelism
less effective," he said.

   About 15,000 Catholics are attending the congress, which Synan
says is historical in itself.

   It  nevertheless  drew  sharp   criticism   from   Pentecostal
evangelist Jimmy Swaggart of Baton Rouge.

   Swaggart  refused  to  attend,  saying Catholic doctrine is in
error and, because of that, there  could  be  no  unity  on  some
biblical issues between Protestants and Catholics.

   "There  is  absolutely no way that ministers of the Gospel can
stand on a  platform  with  Catholic  priests  in  some  type  of
professed  unity  without compromising the message of the Word of
God," Swaggart said.

   Synan    said    there    are    more    than    50    million
Pentacostal-charismatics  in  the United States, whose worship is
usually spontaneous and emotional, and often includes speaking in
tongues, prophesying and a belief in faith healing.

   The reliance on such supernatural "gifts" from the Holy Spirit
is what all Pentacostal and charismatics have in common.

   The North American congress was formed in the 1970s as a  show
of  unity  by charismatic Catholics and Protestants from about 40
denominations, he said.

   Synan said  the  recent  television  evangelist  scandal  that
centers around Jim and Tammy Bakker and the PTL Club has hurt the
world's  view  of  Christianity  in  general, and Pentecostals in
particular.

   "I think the unholy war has hurt, maybe  even  our  attendance
somewhat," Synan said.

   Initially,  55,000 people were expected to attend the meeting,
he said.

   Longtime evangelist Oral Roberts won't  attend  the  congress,
but his son, Richard, would broadcast his morning television show
from the meeting Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Synan said.

   Evangelists,  authors and leaders of the movement will conduct
more than 100 daily workshops and meetings each night.

   Workshop leaders include entertainer Pat Boone and  his  wife,
Shirley;  West  German  missionary  Reinhard  Boonke;  and sports
figures Roosevelt Grier and Meadowlark Lemon.

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