lew@ihuxr.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.) (02/13/84)
Well, I saw the SPORTSWORLD segment on JOHN 3:16. I was fearful that it would be cut due to the basketball overrun, but they cut a Sumo wrestling segment instead. It is indeed Rockin' Rollen(?) of the rainbow wig that is responsible. They had some discussion of the controversial nature of the signs, but I was left with some (to me) important questions unanswered. Ironically, they interviewed an ACLU rep. who defended his right to show the signs, and a minister who criticized him on the grounds that he gives Christianity a bad name. I should emphasize that my main interest was based on simple curiousity, which has been largely satisfied. I do think some significant and tricky issues are involved, even if Larry Bickford characterizes this concern as paranoia. For example, golfer Larry Nelson was interviewed because he gives Rollen free tickets to get into golf matches. Nelson is a born-again Christian and his motivation is to aid Rollen's proselytizing effort. It seems to me some sort of line has been crossed here. They showed Rollen putting up one of his banners IN AN EMPTY STADIUM. This certainly indicates to me that he has been granted special privleges by somebody. This was my original impression when I saw that his TWO matching signs seemd to be the only ones on the field wall at Texas Stadium. This issue was not addressed in the segment. Larry Bickford thought that seeing the sign at the Superbowl might have exacerbated my paranoia. Actually, quite the opposite was true. I was initially on the lookout for it, and I noticed right off that there were no signs of any sort in the stadium! I sort of forgot about it (there was the game to watch) and I finally saw it when they were showing the Oakland bench after a long Marcus Allen run in the second half. Even then, I only saw one corner of it. The thing was, it was a handheld sign. I then noticed that other signs were appearing. It seems to me that a likely scenario is a general crackdown on spectator displays, if for no other reason than for the NFL and the networks to avoid pain-in-the-ass lawsuits by trouble making atheists and other godless commie types. This might have the effect of drawing the ire of a lot of frustrated fans onto Rollen and evangelists in general, thus fulfilling the fears expressed by the minister on SPORTSWORLD, if for slightly different reasons. Lew Mammel, Jr. ihnp4!ihuxr!lew