N E W S - January, 1998

Poor Antony Wheeler, 26, was playing the role of Judas in the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" when he accidently hanged himself. The scene required the actor to hang himself from a scaffold but Wheeler was unable to extricate himself after the curtain fell. The audience of more than 600 suspected something had gone wrong when Wheeler appeared, still hanging, in the following scene.

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Jack Hyles, long time pastor of a Baptist Megachurch, is being sued in civil court for alleged sexual assaults on a mentally disabled woman. The suit claims that the woman was raped and battered over a six-year period.

Hyles is the founder of Hyles-Anderson College in Crown Point, Indiana.

In his defense Hyles cited the church's ministry to the handicapped and underprivileged, claiming it was a financial liability. "We get nothing from them but the satisfaction of helping them." Hmmm.

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"Nala" the lion escaped from JungleLand, a zoo near Disney World in Florida yesterday. Local residents were warned to stay inside as officials fielded calls from nervous Christians. An unnamed zookeeper, a suspected secular humanist, was detained for questioning but later released. The lion was captured and returned to the zoo today.

Rumors that "Nala" translates to "sacrifice in the wilderness" were denied.

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Frank Jordan was the mayor of San Francisco in 1993. Jordan, a disaster in both style and saavy, appointed Eugene Lumpkin, a Baptist minister to The City's Human Rights Commission. Lumpkin immediately made known his distaste for homosexuals claiming, "a man who sleeps with a man should be put to death."

When Jordan fired him Lumpkin claimed that his civil rights were violated, including the right to freedom of speech and religion. Lumpkin filed suit in Oakland but his case was dismissed. A U.S. Court of Appeals uphead the Oakland Court's ruling. And just yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case.

Thank God.

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John Plummer, a Methodist minister, lived with a dark secret. He was the pilot that dropped napalm on naked, terrified, 9-year-old Kim Phuc in Viet Nam. The image, photographed by Nick Ut, encapsulated the horror of the Viet Nam War.

Last year at a Veteran's Day ceremony Kim Phuc offered forgiveness to the pilot who did this to her. Plummer stepped up and admitted it was he. A tearful scene ensued, devoured by religious publications such as Guideposts and Christianity Today.
[Read Phuc Forgiveness in Chuck Colson Watch]

The only problem is that the whole thing was a lie. Well, not a lie, says Plummer, a problem with "semantics." Plummer originally claimed to have ordered the raid on Phuc's village. But the actual pilot was South Vietnamese. At the time Plummer, a low-level staff officer, had no authority to order anyone into action.

Plummer continues to maintain that it was he that killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

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Michael Carneal, 14, shot and killed 3 students, wounding 5, at a prayer meeting. The student-led prayer group met in the main lobby of Heath High School regularly before classes. The group of thirty students would hold hands in a circle.

Friends of Carneal said he had been teased by some of the members of the prayer group. Ben Strong, leader of the prayer group, said that Carneal was an agnostic while a pastor from the First Baptist Church said he was an "avowed atheist."

If tried as an adult Carneal may face the death penalty.

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