Saturday, December 27, 1997

Serving neighbors, return of a graduate made good top local news

LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News

Service to one's neighbor and the return home of a man who has become a national figure were among the 1997 highlights in local religion news.

The Rev. Jim Zug, president of the Abilene Association of Congregations, said three things in particular came to mind in reviewing the year from a religion standpoint: The CROP Walk in October in which 126 people secured pledges for miles walked to help feed the poor, the assistance given by a number of churches and religious associations to the Habitat for Humanity project and the visit to Abilene Christian University by alum Max Lucado, a bestselling author.

"Those were the three things that seemed to stand out in our community," said Zug, who is pastor of First Christian Church.

Not mentioned by Zug, but certainly a major news story of 1997 was the attention cast on the House of Yahweh, a religious sect with headquarters in Abilene and a compound in Callahan County.

The eccentric group, headed by former Abilene policeman Bill Hawkins, who took the name Yisrayl Hawkins, has been under media and cult watch scrutiny for some time, but the surveillance heightened last spring following cult suicides in California.

In March, 39 members of Heaven's Gate, a quasi-religious group with a fascination for UFOs and the Hale-Bopp comet, committed suicide in California.

Following that event, major news outlets nationwide began taking a closer look at cluts, including the Abilene group, with <I>Newsweek<I> magazine naming the House of Yahweh as one of the top 10 cults to watch.

However, locally, members of the House of Yahweh go relatively unnoticed, for the most part remaining quiet and apart from the mainstream.

Zug's recollections are more typical of religious activity in Abilene, with hundreds of people turning out year-round to make life better for their neighbor.

In October, the walkers who collected money for the Christian Rural Overseas Program brought to $85,000 the amount of money that Abilenians have gathered for the project since 1987.

Habitat for Humanity got a big boost from local churches and religious organizations. With their help, Habitat either built or rehabilitated six houses.

"That's about one half of our program," said Randall Mahaffey, Habitat treasurer.

Assisting were First Central and Westminster Presbyterian, and St. Paul, Aldersgate and St. James Methodist. Also the project was boosted by the Northwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, McMurry University students and the Abilene Christian University Association.

In addition to their labor, the workers provided $15,000, about one-half the total cost, for each house.

A highlight of this year also had to be the presence of noted preacher and author Max Lucado, a 1977 graduate of ACU, who returned to speak in October at his alma mater.

Lucado was named one of the seven most admired Christian writers in 1993 and has written 23 books, including several Gold Medallion Award winners. He has served as minister of Oak Hills Church of Christ in San Antonio since 1988.

Lucado also was one of the guest speakers at the massive Promise Keepers "Stand in the Gap" rally held in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 4. More than 300 men from the Big Country joined hundreds of thousands of evangelical Christian men at the six-hour rally on the National Mall.