APva 06/20 1544 Fundamentalists Anonymous Fundamentalists Anonymous Says Bakkers

APva 06/20 1544 Fundamentalists Anonymous


   Fundamentalists    Anonymous    Says   Bakkers   Fall   Helped
Organization.

   FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- The fall of  PTL  leaders  Jim  and
Tammy  Bakker  has  helped  clear the path for Americans who were
having  trouble  rejecting  the   fundamentalist   mindset,   the
co-founder of Fundamentalists Anonymous says.

   "Our  attack is on the rigid, authoritarian mindset," said Jim
Luce. "A mindset that sees the world in a very  judgmental  train
of thought.  Black  and  white.    Good  and  evil.   The kind of
mindset that says, If you don't do things our way,  you're  going
to hell.' We're helping people overcome that."

   Luce  said  national  membership increased from 30,000 to more
than 36,000 since Bakker stepped down in the  wake  of  a  sexual
tryst with  a  church  secretary  seven years ago.  Officials are
expecting an even greater increase within the next few months.

   "What   we've   discovered   is   that   when   people   leave
fundamentalist  organizations,  they take about six months to get
up the courage to call us," Luce told the Fayetteville Times.  "I
would say the PTL fallout will hit us this fall."

   The New York-based organization, which has no membership fees,
does not  attack fundamentalist theology, Luce said.  Its goal is
to aid people who have experienced negative  effects  from  being
involved with fundamentalist ministries, he said.  Officials with
Fundamentalists  Anonymous  estimate  that  there are six million
dissatisfied or wavering fundamentalists in  the  United  States.
The group has members in 50 states and operates 44 support groups
in 38 states, Luce said.

   Luce said the national organization created a legal task force
in  April to handle numerous requests from ex-PTL members seeking
financial recourse.

   "We're getting about 25 legal complaints a  day,"  Luce  said.
"We're having a hard time reviewing them all."

   "I think that these charlatans that are posing as TV preachers
have  really  exposed a lot of the professional-fundamentalism as
what it is -- a multibillion dollar industry,"  Luce  said.  "The
top  10  TV  evangelists  brought  in over a billion dollars last
year."

   Charles Newton of St.  Pauls, coordinator  of  the  500-member
North  Carolina  chapter  of  Fundamentalist  Anonymous, also has
reported an increase in calls since the PTL scandal.

   "People feel devastated when they find that their  hero  --  a
religious  and  moral  hero -- has fallen off the wall and broken
into a million pieces like Humpty Dumpty," Newton said.

   Newton said the state chapter receives calls from  people  who
are  not  only  experiencing  emotional  difficulties  because of
fundamentalism, but financial and legal problems  as  well.    He
said  he received on telephone call from a North Carolina man who
wanted help in handling a marital crisis.  The man said his  wife
was   attempting   to   force  him  to  join  her  fundamentalist
organization, threatening to divorce him if he did not  become  a
member, Newton said.

   Newton  said  the organization was neither anti-fundamentalist
nor anti-Christian.

   "People who believe in the  fundamentalist  theology  and  its
interpretation  of  the  Bible  have no need to be intimidated by
us," Newton said. "This group doesn't address that."

   
Last page !