Traveling on for Jesus: Anita Bryant in Lima, Ohio

October 26 1977 was a windy cold and grey day in Lima Ohio Lima is perhaps best known as a subject of ridicule for the late comedian Lenny Bruce who based a long routine on the strenuous efforts it took to fight boredom while confined within the city limits. On this day however people were pouring into Lima from all over western Ohio and converging on Memorial Hall an intimate 2000 seat auditorium in the center of town for this humble edifice had been chosen as a whistle stop for Anita Bryant's crusade to the American hinterland. The Indianapolis Kokomo Lima South Bend the names ring out like destinations along a now defunct railroad line. It's in towns like these throughout America's breadbasket that the Revive America crusade has been seeking to light a fire under dormant souls. At Memorial Hall in Lima the crowd was kept pacified by the acapella

gospel harmonies of the singing NICHOLSON FAMILY. Meantime at the Holiday Inn a few miles away a clutch of reporters waited for their chance to toss queries at Anita her husband Bob Greene and the Reverend Cecil Todd majordomo of the revival fire's ministry and sponsor of this current tour. Anita Bryant of course was the driving force behind the campaign which resulted in the repeal of an equal rights for homosexuals ordinance in Dade County Florida last June 8th. Anita Bryant's current obsession aside from the continued salvation of individual homosexuals is the return of legally sanctioned prayer to the public schools. Her appearances along the Christian campaign trail haven't been marred however. At a press conference in Des Moines she was pelted in the left profile by a cream pie as she turned the other cheek. Husband Bob Chase the guilty party into a parking lot to exchange an eye

for an eye and the pie for a pie. Since then citing this traumatic incident and some reported death threats the Brian Todd entourage has taken some security precautions at the Holiday Inn in Lima. A nervous looking fellow claiming to be from the sheriff's office checked off press credentials this ruffled the feathers of some of the waiting pencil pushers when the Christian Crusaders finally arrived. Anita Bryant's husband and business manager Bob Greene displayed the distended truculence of one whose efforts at protecting his prime piece of property are questioned. We welcome you to this to this press conference. Bottom Anita's husband we apologize for having to have to check your press credentials but in view of the recent death threats on our lives and the lives of our children our family and my wife. The recent incident in Des Moines Iowa that you are all familiar with where people use

certain means to gain entrance to a press conference so we thought that we needed to check credentials to avoid any kind of situation like that. I called I called. The. President. What was that about what white people when he finds you. Well let me let's put it this way. OK let's put it this way there's going to be as a lesson our press conference we're not going to sell if you'd like to leave serve your highness. Really great if anybody if anybody here is unsettled and does not have does not like to move to being me I think just stand there. So even if it's announced in front I didn't know how to make sense. Do you see any reason why we should have a press conference right now. What is right here. Campaign what campaign. We are accommodating you revive.

Well then let Cecil type he's a leader that it would you like a need and I believe and then you can interview brother taught here all right so then you gotta live by rules right. All rules of my rules is to protect my wife from any kind of assault. We don't know anything we don't know any professional members of the press. We don't know any members we don't know any professional members of the press who do not carry press credentials at all times. So I don't think it's a problem to whip out your press card or whatever it is. But I realize it was going to be such a such a big deal. Anita Bryant was then formally presented to the waiting pack of pundits. She reflected a bit on her efforts to get little children praying before their classes again and then fielded some questions. I have no opening statement delightful to be here in Lima Ohio. I think perhaps the best thing is just to answer your questions if you have any. Incidentally to put this on a positive note the farmer save our children because of a

lawsuit and several problems we had to change the name to protect America's children just to try and avoid a lawsuit while we were on vacation in Idaho. Protect America's children. Our first project whereas it took one moment to take prayer out of the schools. I feel that God is calling one woman to put prayer back in the schools. I have the faith that for the first time in this nation it can be turned around that there should be the freedom saying a prayer in the public schools. I think the reason for so many. Things today sins and evil forces that would tear down the very foundation of America the family unit. The reason for all of this is because that we have gotten away from being a nation to uphold God's Laws and his moral standards and consequently. There are million runaways in America. Our

kids have gone into drugs alcohol and and just so many so many things too numerous to count and people are looking for guidelines today. We feel that there's a real a real hunger a real need for from morality. My mother taught me that to talk about money was rather rude and ill mannered. So I never discussed money. I think Mr. Todd answered it for you that we're on we're on salary but we're not taking a percentage or anything like that. But to say how much I make I don't think it's anybody's business as a matter how much you might think you know you know. Did you see just because you're depressed doesn't mean we have to answer everything because you're already Jack.

Well I'll tell you something if I were going to expose you as if you're going to exploit the issue and really have made money I think the time to have done that would have been on June the 8th when we were at the peak of our victory in Dade County. But that's that's not our motive but I don't have to expound on that. You couldn't pay me a million dollars to go through what I've been through this year right. We have the right problem. What. Are you speaking about. Prayer back in school to be done for protect American children are you trying to revive America. What is the best vehicle the best vehicle I know is is the one that some people might think is outdated but it's the Holy Scriptures. I have

counseled with and have talked with and have many examples of ex homosexuals. For an example that are no longer practicing flaunting homosexuals but that have repented of their sins in their lives have been totally changed and I had one just the other night in a Kokomo Indiana come up put his arm around me give me a kiss and a hug and say Praise the Lord and we had a good long talk and then we prayed and. In my new book also. I share a chapter on the hope for the homosexual and if I didn't really care for these kinds of people for all people then I wouldn't bother to put that in there. So I feel that the answer is getting is from my own life as having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and talking about life. Bless your prayers. Well there again the answers to all of life are in the Bible God tells us how to run a government how to have relationships between a husband and wife and how to rear our children

all the answers to life I believe are in the Bible. No reporter followed up unfortunately by asking whether the Bible came out in favor of Parliament's republics or dictators. The prevalent theme was persecution anyway. Anita Bryant after winning the Miss America contest more years ago than she cares to mention again singular renown by becoming the warbling embodiment of the Florida orange juice trade she denied reports that she is being pushed out from under the sunshine tree but was able to elaborate on the suffering she has undergone from the hordes of bitter homosexuals in the political commercial and show business worlds. Primarily I'm a variety artist in the bulk of our income has always come from personal appearances like top conventions in the nation. Since last January I have only had one convention booking which won't be until this next spring. And I did

two state fairs this summer one in Salt Lake City Utah and the Mississippi State Fair. And these people were intimidated there. They were harassed personally they were. There were bomb threats there were threats directly on my life and the security like the president of the United States. Well naturally this intimidates a lot of corp people and and they do not want to book you accordingly. So it has been difficult in that respect that's why I'm plugging my book and when it sells a million copies. And even from the very onset of the opposition one of the leaders of one of the homosexual communities in Dade County called before I even knew I had written some letters to the commissioners they made a phone call in and said that they would nationally boycott Florida orange juice if I went to the hearing. And there are television shows talk shows that I cannot appear on and for solely the reason that if I did that the actors and actresses in Hollywood would boycott their television shows. And so this is the kind of thing that we've had to deal with which is

which is and the pie and everything else so it's just not an enjoyable situation but I'll tell you something. If that's the price you have to pay to stand for right and decency then I'm willing to pay it. If I had the choice to do it all over again I would do it. I cannot tell you because I cannot tell you or I cannot tell you. She then you aberrated on the mentality she perceives as animating her opponents in words similar to what some of them have said about her. They have a fear tactic it seems to be the normal part of their life to threaten to harass and to intimidate. And that's not saying that certainly not everyone goes around threatening people's lives. You know there are homosexuals I'm sure that that wouldn't hurt a fly or care to and they don't want to be militant. But we are dealing with a very nationally organized and highly financed organization who are out for blood and it seems to me that it's interesting at the tactic that

they take if you don't agree with what they believe in human rights so long as you agree with them but when you don't they want to they have made statements that they will shut up Anita Bryant that they will haunt me wherever I go. And with all the direct threats on my life and so forth I believe that they intend to try to do it. I might add to that. It was very interesting during the day that you know the issue that they were very content was following the democratic process. And were very sure that there were going to win overwhelmingly. So up until the point of the Election Day or referendum day they were satisfied to hold to the rules of the democratic process. That you know the tool they lost. If you don't agree with them they will punish you. So they will follow the democratic process. They will go through the vote. But if you lose you better look out. And it's the same it's almost like a naughty children behaving really in a sense. I think what we've been experiencing is a form of religious persecution.

This reporter then asked Anita Bryant whether she had a particular message for anyone in the listening audience who may be homosexual. Well my one word would be that I love them and that God loves them and that if they're willing to repent of their sin and not to flaunt it that's the prerequisite for coming to God at any time for any center for they be homosexuals murderers idolaters fornicators a feminine abusers of themselves with mankind thieves or so forth it says in First Corinthians 6 9 10 11 that they shall not enter the Kingdom of God. But then the good news in verse 11 says that you are washed but you are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God and having met and dealt with and talked and having led several to the Lord and seeing the change in their lives. That they can be forgiven of that sin if they're willing to recognize it as such and that they have. Started a new

life to become actually new creatures and to me that's the exciting thing that what I've been through. It's worth it all to see these individuals who want a way out of their lifestyle if they're not happy. They don't get something else but if they truly want to come out they can. After a final question about the Equal Rights Amendment which Anita Bryant maintained was a tool of the militant homosexual power block. The press conference ended. Reporters and avenger alike ran from the room and a fleet of rented cars barreled into downtown Lima. They arrived to find a heavily policed Memorial Hall. True believers

still streaming in and a few demonstrators passing out leaflets. Inside the Nicholson family had been followed by a cornball MC who was putting the crowd through its paces with a varied repertoire of religious and patriotic standards. A quick scan of the scene revealed a standing room only crowd of fervent followers.

Broken here and there by scatterings of people from college gay centers the Ohio Gay Rights Coalition. The day a human rights committee and other groups. To revive America rallies have trotted out various notables at each stop. But where in other cities candidates for Congress or off decorated Vietnam veterans appear to add assertion to the anti-gay speeches. The best they could come up with in Lima was an administrative assistant to the mayor the mayor himself didn't show perhaps to maintain his standing with the non fundamentalist sectors of Lima society. He did issue the ritual proclamation though. Like a cheat.

We. Really Are. And there are part of America who say. Military service. You are

rooted and running and whereas the rest of you are Earth Air America. Thank. The patriotic preliminaries having been dispensed with the Reverend Cecil Todd was then presented to the fervid throng. Cecil Todd is the kingpin of the revival fire's ministry and has joined forces with Anita Bryant to

carry on a combined even Jellicoe political campaign. The good reverend who claims to appear on television in over 30 states impressed with his recitation of the details of his dirt poor Oklahoma boyhood. He told a few less than heavenly jokes and then launched into the main themes of his long harangue. His technique no different than that of any other tub thumping bible basher is to dwell on shared values of the audience reverence for God love for the family the living of an upright life and then paint a hideous picture of the Fang to say tannic forces advancing on the vulnerable multitudes. The Reverend Todd began his journey to the oratorical pit by renewing the theme of persecution. We were saying

we. Should force this. Many observers have taken the triumph of Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade in Florida. The repeated success of Phyllis Schlafly and her supporters in blocking state ratifications of the Equal Rights Amendment as well as numerous recent Supreme Court and federal judgments as indicators of a resurgent rightward drift in American politics. Cecil Todd in his prelude to a clarion call for Christians to rise up and smite the forces of perfidy and perversion which plague the land. Trace the inspiration for his current series of revival seminars back to a political mentor former California governor Ronald Reagan. Because.

Oh

come. On. God.

Cecil Todd then launched into a stinging denunciation of those religious orders which have a habit of holding non raucous get togethers. This was followed by his jump into the main rhetorical device for inflaming the gathering. A long tirade against the various manifestations of evil which are preparing to strangle American society. First the rising tide of atheism claiming to have recently attended a meeting of atheists and living to tell the tale. Todd spoke of the ritualistic tearing of Bibles denunciations of the In God We Trust motto on currency and perhaps most frightening of all attempts to get the tax exempt status of religious organizations lifted. He then invited all discontented American Atheists to take a powder to more hospitable climes.

Do you. See the K. K k. K k. Think. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. For coming in very. Early.

Yeah. Yeah he was. OK. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah OK. Where you. Going. Thanks. You may be. Right. Thank. You. Steve. You know. I think.

I would say thank you. Thank the vociferous malcontent was thereupon escorted outside by a local constable to that the light and satisfaction of the crowd at the press conference a short time earlier. Cecil Todd had gone to great pains to make the point that his revive America study sessions were not anti homosexual in orientation but merely non-denominational religious services. But as he got wound up in the proclamation of divine truth however he emphatically contradicted his earlier assertions and he led the crowd and the assorted dissidents over an intellectual and emotional obstacle course by linking pornographic movies and child molesting to the increasing calls by

gays for freedom from legal persecution. So they. Were crazy. T.

What. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank. YOU THANK YOU. Thank. You. Oh OK. Thank you. Oh OK. Are you going to take a very quick you did ok ok ok. Thank you thank you. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Thank you.

Thank. You. Thank you. Very much. Yeah. Thank.

You I am OK. Thank you. I am. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I am. Yeah.

Thank you. I'm anxious. Was. It was at this point with the forces of the Christian citrus lovers on the ascendancy that the Right Reverend made his eloquent plea for money money to finance a nationally syndicated television special featuring himself and Anita Bryant as if it was necessary. A ballot was passed out with the money envelopes to be filled in and enclosed with the financial renumeration. The results of the voting. It was promised would be passed along to the skeptical news media. The questions Number one do you favor voluntary prayer and Bible reading in our

public schools. Number two do you favor meaningful wholesome programmes on television. Number three do you approve of a campaign to stop child molesting smut and pornographic books and movies. 4 Do you agree that blasphemous movies portraying Christ as a homosexual should be banned in America. 5 Do you approve of Anita Bryant's campaign to protect America's children from being recruited by militant homosexuals to their lifestyle. Certainly more appealing than a referendum on a bond issue. After milking the crowd for its cash there remained nothing else to do but bring out the celebrity the group both pro and con had been waiting hours to see. It was fiction. It was a woman with a love of honesty.

She has to give a person of the body to sing share it with a real person. And you know one of the biggest. Lie that you. Poor. Poor. Poor. I am. Who

I Am. I am. I am. I am. At this point. Most of the demonstrators marched from the auditorium receiving in the process the first signs of approval. They gained all night. From the rest of the gathering. I am. I am. I am. You or. You or.

Most of Anita Bryant's. Appearance was anti-climactic. Great oratory having come from Cecil Todd previously. However she did take the opportunity to sing perhaps. Her favorite hymn. In. Your life. Here. You go. For. Are you. Following this tribute to her means of livelihood Anita Bryant ran through a standard

set of inspirational songs interspersed with turgid anecdotes documenting the personal intervention of the Supreme Being in her life. The rally concluded with the standard calling forth of those who are affected by the wisdom of the Almighty had decided to make decisions for Christ. About a dozen people came forward as the crowd streamed into the cool Ohio night reporter and Davis caught some typical reactions. The question you asked Did you like it all right. No I never am behinder a hundred percent all the way. Do you like her stand. I'm good. To me it's something it's not right.

That we live here has been our standard basically in. Certain things and. Certainly do I certainly do. Do you feel like you might be a problem. Well I think there's a proliferation of them everywhere I see signs and I see some now and then I think Ah but I don't think I don't know is a great problem. And my observation here tonight is that they're their own worst advertisement. They don't look to me like a group that's going to overthrow the world or take on the responsibilities of running a country or any institution as far as that's concerned because they're primarily concerned

with their own carnal pleasures. Without responsibility or without anyone saying to me as I see it against laws that would make it that would prevent us from not hiring them in schools and so forth and I think that's our right to hire. I think we have responsibilities to our children our community and their. Do you feel that homosexuals should be prohibited from having certain types of jobs. Well I think if the people that community or certain school board or the people feel that they don't want them I think has a right to just say what a person. Confirmed alcoholic kleptomaniac or anything else. We all have that rights not to hire them. And I don't think they can force themselves on us if we don't want to harm. I don't have any particular. I think all Christians

love them like God do not love their sins and we can't accept that God cannot accept people in their sins in a way. Because. The Bible is my standard in and standard so that you know it's a general thing that I don't. But I don't want to tell you that approach once you get it I could have killed it. Just the reaction from the immediate reaction. I like girls. Thank you. Tell me your impressions on the program again. We need time. Yeah Praise the Lord. Great program. I have the same yes I think it was and I took certain stands in the

thing. Either they believe they're right. Right on. Oh I thought the program was. Pretty well put forward you know. What was said needed to be said. And. Some of the people that were there that. Had different views seemed to you know they they had their demonstration and they presented their viewpoint but I thought it was a very. Restrained way like it should be and it was it was not a hand I thought it was you know decently done put it that way. Do you support Brian stand on homosexuality. Yes I do. I don't believe in sexuality at all. Do you believe that homosexuals should be restricted from holding certain types of jobs. As teaching.

I would say yes especially in Inform children's minds you know where their children you know they copy who they're around. You know if they're around a mile person they tend to be mild through that person they tend to be violent and. I think there are no homosexuals personally. Go that way. It is unfortunate perhaps but certainly not surprising that so

much of the opposition now encountered by homosexuals groups attempting to break down discriminatory legal barriers should come from the fundamentalist religious sector. The historian Ray Ginger has noted how urbanization the breaking of traditional ties with the land the disappointed hope in continual progress and the social creed of maintenance of the status quo. All of these when combined with the stronghold of fundamentalism over large areas of the South and Midwest have periodic Lee unleashed great tide of revivalist that fervor as in the great crusades against the theory of evolution. Earlier in the century. The demonstrators who came to taunt Anita Bryant and company seemed mostly shaken by the Lion's Den they had stumbled into. They were in no way able to establish a rapport with the other people at the gathering and in fact mostly played into the skillfully manipulative hands of

Cecil Todd. But the main arena is not in revival meeting it is in the legal area and also in those social and political channels that ultimately determine the shape and focus of our laws. Certainly even in seeming strongholds. Public opinion is not monolithic. One leaflet circulating on the night of the rally. By a group called the Concerned Citizens of Lima. Put it this way. In the past few weeks Anita Bryant has tried to send our country one giant step backwards. This is being done under the disguise of Christianity. As she goes about preaching oppression and discrimination with a warm smile and love in her heart. She would have us be under the impression that if we don't help cure a certain group of people our children and all children will be harmed beyond our wildest imagination. There are many of us who feel this kind of scare

tactic is wrong and a denial of our intelligence. This is also a dangerous threat to our society. For example remember the reign of one man against a group of people who never wronged him but truly felt his wrath. The man Hitler the people the Jews are we once again supposed to sit back and let history repeat itself. We as concerned citizens cannot watch such an injustice done to any person or group of people again. The great revival of the world should consist of a future where men and women can be freed from off false feelings and fear. And can seek each other not as opposites. But as brothers and sisters. Friends and lovers. And finally come together as human beings. I

am. I am I am. I am. The. Night that. I am. The Bridge. I am.