“My advice is this: Go back to America and forget about your plans for France,” Henri Tincq, religion editor of the French newspaper Le Monde, told evangelist Billy Graham.
The evangelist, who arrived in Paris two weeks early to help with publicity efforts for Mission France, had his work cut out for him. The news media had agreed that the French would not turn out in great numbers to hear an evangelist “parachuted” from abroad to present “a made-in-USA religious extravaganza” which ignored “our special French mentality.” As the Paris correspondent of the Times of London put it, the media “spoke with horror of expecting to see a slick, Bible-thumping Southern Baptist preacher promising instant salvation, propped up by showbiz razzmatazz, screaming loudspeakers and massed choirs, all helping to hypnotize the crowds to a fervor which had little to do with religion.”
Graham himself had expressed initial doubts about holding a third crusade in Paris, saying, “I wonder if they will know who I am.” Many French journalists writing about Mission France were only children when Graham held his second Paris crusade 23 years ago.
Plans for Mission France called for filling Paris’s Bercy Sport Palace for eight nights. Meeting places in 31 other French cities and in Belgium and Switzerland were to be connected by satellite transmissions. Audiences in those cities would see the Paris mission on large screens. Organizers moved ahead with their plans, and Graham eventually earned the respect of the French news media. Yves Mourousi, a popular French television newsman, interviewed Graham on his program. And Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, a leading television entertainer, invited Graham to preach for two minutes on the air. Afterward, d’Arvor asked his viewers to call in and indicate whether Graham’s message had convinced them. Some 70,000 called within an hour, with 75 percent saying Graham had been convincing.
Terrorist Bombings
Early opposition from the news media was only one of the obstacles that confronted Mission France organizers. Middle Eastern political groups resumed a bombing campaign in Paris just ten days before Mission France was to begin.
For the first time at a Graham crusade, people entering the auditorium were carefully checked by police. Prayer was intensified, and the police drew such a tight ring around the Bercy Sport Palace that Graham told his audiences, “This is the safest place in Paris.”
The first night found the auditorium filled with a capacity crowd of 15,000. The Mission France audiences included U.S. Ambassador Joe Rodgers and his wife, who held a reception for Graham and his team as well as a series of prayer breakfasts and coffees at the embassy residence. The ambassador from Liberia, a Christian who attended the Paris mission, said she was enchanted by the meetings.
Converts included a Muslim family of 11; a woman who was recovering from two suicide attempts; and a Chinese Buddhist. The Buddhist convert’s wife later attended the crusade, and she too became a Christian. In Paris, 100,500 people attended the eight-day event. The Bercy Sport Palace was filled on three nights, setting an attendance record for the facility on the last night when approximately 20,000 people showed up. Several thousand had to stand outside.
In 31 other French cities, as well as in Belgium and Switzerland, audiences totaled 180,000 for the eight-day event. Nationwide in France, 13,544 people (4.8% of the total audiences) responded to Graham’s invitations to believe in Christ. Said Graham: “The attendance and response surpassed my hopes.”
With Roman Catholics representing 81 percent of the French population, it was significant that the Catholic newspaper La Croix encouraged its readers to attend Mission France. In contrast, mainline Protestant leaders expressed reservations about the crusade. Reformed and Lutheran leaders generally criticized Graham’s belief in instant conversion and the eternal condemnation of the unconverted, and his failure to address certain social and political issues.
Still, the evangelistic effort surpassed expectations and apparently led to a change of heart at Le Monde, with the newspaper finally admitting, “Billy’s gamble paid off.”
By Robert P. Evans in Paris.
WORLD SCENE
ITALY
The Age of the Shroud
Pope John Paul II has authorized scientific tests to determine the age of the Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be the cloth in which Christ was wrapped after his crucifixion.
Laboratories in England, France, Switzerland, and the United States will test small samples of the cloth using carbon-14 dating techniques. Backers of carbon-14 dating say the tests will make it possible to determine the shroud’s age within a margin of 250 years.
“The integrity of the cloth and of the shroud image will be guaranteed to a maximum degree,” said Anastasio Cardinal Ballestrero, archbishop of Turin, Italy, and custodian of the shroud. Experts say little more than a thread of the cloth will be needed to undergo carbon-14 testing.
The shroud, which measures more than 14 feet long and three feet wide, bears front and back negative images of a crucified man. The cloth contains stains left by wounds corresponding to biblical accounts of the crucifixion of Christ.
Previous studies have been unable to determine how the image was produced on the linen cloth. Tests conducted in 1978 established that some of the stains on the cloth were made by blood. And a microscopic examination in 1973 determined that the cloth’s fibers contain pollen grains from plants indigenous to the Middle East.
The shroud’s recorded history dates back only to 1357, and skeptics have suggested the cloth was produced as a counterfeit during the Middle Ages. Results of the carbon-14 tests are expected to be published in 1988.
VIETNAM
Pastors Released
Three Vietnamese pastors imprisoned since 1983 have been released, according to information received by Reg Reimer, executive director of World Relief, Canada. At least 14 additional pastors are still being held in Vietnamese prisons.
Reimer was part of an interchurch delegation that raised the issue of imprisoned pastors with Vietnamese government officials earlier this year (CT, Sept. 5, 1986, p. 50). There is no indication whether the delegation’s appeal influenced the government’s decision to release the three pastors.
Reimer received word of the release of Doan Trung Tin directly from Doan’s brother. Doan, whose father is vice-president of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam, was jailed for distributing evangelical literature, Reimer said. The two other pastors released are Chau Van Sang and Nguyen Van Minh. It is not known why the three were released at this time.
World Evangelical Fellowship, which last summer passed a resolution appealing for the release of pastors being held in Vietnamese prisons, has been working on their behalf through Vietnam’s embassy in India.
WORLDWIDE
AIDS Cases Increase
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported a sharp increase in the number of cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) recorded worldwide.
During the first nine months of 1986, WHO recorded 31,646 cases in 74 countries, up from 20,476 cases reported at the beginning of the year. The largest concentration of AIDS is in the United States, which reported some 25,500 cases by mid-September, up from 17,400 at the beginning of 1986. WHO also reported increases in 22 European countries. In West Germany, France, and Italy, officials are reporting 6 to 12 new cases every week. More than 1,000 cases have been reported in 10 African countries.
Jonathan M. Mann, director of WHO’s program to combat the disease, said few AIDS victims have survived longer than five years. He added that the number of people infected with the virus, but still not suffering from its effects, could be from 25 to 100 times higher than the number of currently diagnosed cases.
The disease, which is spread primarily through an exchange of blood, destroys the body’s ability to fight off infection. It is especially prevalent among homosexual and bisexual men and intravenous drug users.
SOVIET UNION
Christian Musician Freed
Christian rock musician Valeri Barinov has been released from a Soviet labor camp after completing his two-and-one-half year sentence.
Barinov and a fellow musician were arrested in 1984 and charged with trying to cross the Soviet border illegally. They denied the charges, but both were sentenced to labor camp.
While serving his sentence, Barinov suffered a heart attack. “My body is weak, but I feel good in myself,” he said after being released from prison. “I’m so thankful to God for this time at home.”
The musician was held in an isolation cell for six months of his prison term, apparently because of his witnessing efforts inside the labor camp. “Many people came to believe in Jesus,” he said. “It’s very strange and unbelievable. I became a missionary in the camp, and it was good for me to be there.” Now that he is free, Barinov is seeking permission from the Soviet government to emigrate to the West. “I want to work for Jesus’ glory, and it’s not possible for me here in the USSR,” he said.
Before he was sentenced to labor camp, Barinov composed a Christian rock opera about the second coming of Christ. A recording of the work, called “The Trumpet Call,” is available in the United States on the I Care record label.
