The News At 9
With Richard C. Brown
August 19, 2002
Oneness Pentecostal Church Is At Forefront of Christian Film Ministry
Through WYSIWYG Film Festival
The concept of a
film festival is not new. For decades, new filmmakers have been using these
gatherings to show their works in order to draw attention to their
productions—productions that might otherwise be ignored. What is new, however,
is the idea of a Oneness Pentecostal church being the force behind a such film
festival. In particular, ninetyandnine.com
has learned that such significant releases as The Omega Code and Left Behind
began their theater lives by first making a stop at the WYSIWYG
Film Festival, hosted by Voice of Pentecost Church in
San Francisco
. Voice of Pentecost is pastored by Richard and Marilyn Gazowsky.
According to
WYSIWYG’s website, “The Christian WYSIWYG
Film Festival was established to showcase Christian films and videos
that bring the Presence of God to the audiences of the world through
entertainment. The Lord has given us a clear direction that the festival is
first and foremost about Him gathering His servants in the industry. Showing the
films and selling videos is great, but that is secondary. The Lord has purposed
that we would gather every year for a week in October in order to keep our focus
on His Glory, not ours.” This year’s festival is scheduled for October
23-28.
Hairpiece Leads
to Apostolic Revival
It might be
exaggerating to credit the baptizing and conversion of hundreds of people to a
pastor’s toupee, but it at least played a part at
Austin
,
Texas
’
Promise
Land
Church
.
Specifically, at
the center of the
Austin
revival was an act of humility by the church's Apostolic pastor, Rev. Kenneth
Phillips.
Phillips, the
father of Randy Phillips of Phillips, Craig & Dean, had been preaching about
the need to get rid of pride from your life. As the message got intense,
Phillips suddenly removed the hairpiece that he'd been wearing for 20 years.
"People began
to fall on their faces on the floor," said Randy Phillips. "Ever since
then, it has been the deepest, most intense worship we have ever known."
The revival had
such an impact on the community that it even caught the attention of the Dallas
Morning News and the Associated Press, both of whom recently covered the
event. Pastor Phillips told the Dallas
Morning News, “It was impressed
on me that this [hairpiece] was not a necessary thing in my life. It was not a
pride thing, it was a preference, [but] it was not something I was born
with." So in June, as he preached about removing personal obstacles, he
took off the hairpiece and dropped it onto the altar.
“It was a
shocking thing [for people],” he said. “Most of them didn't know about it.
It was humbling for me, but it was [about] a man who was desperate [for more of
God].”
The church has
recently had to add another service on Sundays to cope with the increased
crowds.
Modeling Websites
May Exploit Children
According to
AgapePress, a former child model is encouraging parents to be more vigilant when
it comes to protecting their children from exploitation through the Internet.
Last fall, an NBC television station in
South Florida
broke the story about so-called “modeling websites” for young girls that
supposedly generate income for the models' college years -- all, apparently,
with the consent of their parents. But according to the report, the websites are
not quite so innocent; indeed, they exploit the children for a cottage industry
on the Internet known as “child erotica.”
The television
report quoted one law enforcement official whose team investigated complaints
that the websites cater to the prurient interests of pedophiles. Lt. Paul
O'Connell had some strong words for the parents of the models. “For the
parents that have their own children pose in these suggestive positions, it
tells me rather than parents, they're pimps, and they're exploiting their own
children for monetary gain,” he said.
Rachel McAllister
is a
Missouri
homemaker who was a model in her late teens and early twenties in
Los Angeles
. She says the Internet sites that offer photos for sale of pre-teen and teenage
girls are not legitimate modeling sites for children. “The ones on the web are
very shady, they're very sleazy,” McAllister says. “I just can't believe
when I looked at some of the pictures that the parents would let their
nine-year-old girl pose like she's 18 doing a Britney Spears video.”
She says with the
recent rash of child abductions, such websites should be dismantled. “The
children are just totally sexually exploited,” she says. “The sites . . .
are membership sites and the people pay money to join, and you see more pictures
and you can buy their videos.” McAllister says she is particularly concerned
about the younger girls on the websites. “The ones that I'm worried about are
the little pre-teen girls ... because they pose them like they're Playboy
models,” she says. “They have clothes on, but they're very provocative.”
The investigative
piece also discovered a
Fort Lauderdale
company that ran eight child modeling websites--and also operated at least 14
websites that market adult pornography.
Weekly Weirdness
A
Good Name is to Be Desired; A Bad Name Might Get You Fired
EL PASO
,
Texas
— According to a USA Today report,
Christine Lynn O'Kane's name nearly cost her her job with the
El Paso
police. “'When you put it together, it spells ‘cocaine,’ said police
spokesman Al Velarde, referring to the e-mail moniker C. O'KANE.
O'Kane resigned
from the force in 2000 to take care of her ailing mother, the El
Paso Times reported. But when she reapplied months later, police management
cited the “inappropriate” use of her name as the basis for denying her
return. O'Kane then won her appeal to the Civil Service Commission. Back on the
job for nearly a year, O'Kane now uses her maiden name, Whitaker.
NEWS
TIPS NEEDED: If you know of a news item that would be of concern or interest
to Apostolics, email it to: editor@ninetyandnine.com.
ninetyandnine.com
© 2002, Richard
C. Brown
--------
Richard
C. Brown is an assistant editor for ninetyandnine.com
who currently resides in
Indianapolis
. He is a 1991 graduate of Gateway
College of Evangelism in
St. Louis
, where he received his B.A. in Christian Education. | 
