Booksignings, booksignings

Well, it is nice to be busy selling my book. Yesterday, I spent several hours at a local conference of newly minted Anglicans (formerly Virginia Episcopalians) trying to hawk my wares. Fortunately, one of the bishops at the gathering - Martyn Minns - decided to make the lessons from "Fire and Glory" part of his sermon, which brought several people to my book table afterwards. Thanks, bishop. I owe you one.
And this coming Wednesday I will be heading north to Grove City College, an evangelical Christian place about an hour north of Pittsburgh to deliver some lectures and...yes, hawk more books! Veeka is coming because the organizers - bless them - have agreed to babysit her all day Thursday. A photo of Veeka with her little friends at daycare is included here.
Work has been busy, busy, busy - feels like I never get to rest as there is always something breaking plus two weekly columns to churn out. This (Oct. 3-4) is the first weekend I've been home in almost a month. Last weekend, I was with friends in Bethany Beach, Delaware renting out a place there super-close to the ocean; the weather, unfortunately was a tad chilly. And the weekend before, we were in New York for a journalists confab and booksigning there. I don't get to Manhattan often, so it was much fun seeing the uppper West side near Columbia University, which was much nicer looking than when I last saw it in 1993.

Where I win an award and Minnesota part 2

In the past month, I've been to Minnesota twice, once to cover the Lutherans and the other to attend a Religion Newswriters Association contest where I picked up two very nice awards on Sept. 12. The WTimes just ran a piece today announcing the awards (a week late but oh well) which looks fairly nice. It was not the first time I had placed second in the Religion Reporter of the Year award - I also came in second 20 years ago. NOW if I can only place first...
My brief four days in Minnesota ran into a spell of nice, warm weather and of course that is when I had my book launch party. I am just at the beginning of getting word out about "Days of Fire and Glory" but when I show up at various venues, people are quick to grab it. It sells out before "Quitting Church" does.
My final days in Minnesota, by the way, were quite pleasant. Veeka and I spent a week at the Trapper's Lodge on Leech Lake, which was quite lovely. We found lots of things to do, so I have posted photos of Veeka by the lake, Veeka actually catching a fish (she had no idea what to do with it) and of course Veeka standing by a large blue ox, which is the local symbol up there. So I have been reading her tales of Paul Bunyan and explaining to her what an "ox" is. Can't say we have those in Maryland, especially of the large blue variety. We spent one day in Itasca State Park, where the headwaters of the Mississippi are; that is one lovely area with tons of lakes and white birch trees. We even went biking (with her in a little cart behind my bike) but the mosquitos ate us up. I spent one evening near Bemidji at Ben Israel, a Christian community about which I wrote this column a few days later.
On our last day, we arrived back in the Twin Cities just in time for a Hinnenthal family barbecue hosted by Beth and Chris, so we got to see everyone once again.

My book is finally out!

I am here in Minneapolis, the day after my book launch party at the downtown Marriott. It was a lovely time - in a 31st-floor suite with a view of I-94. I'd say about 30 people, including some of my Minneapolis-area relatives showed up for a nice event showcasing work by Joe Rigert - a former AP reporter who wrote a book about abusive Irish Catholic priests - and myself. "Days of Fire and Glory: The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community" has been in process 20 years and it's such a triumph for me to have the hardback in hand - finally!! It has been such a long road with so many disappointments but I hung in there and hung in there and....well, here is the Amazon link to what I think will be the best book I will ever write.
I am also including the wonderful cover with a fabulous photo by Debbie Scott of Graham Pulkingham - the iconic priest whom the book portrays - in the middle celebrating the Eucharist. Everyone's hands are raised in praise; it's a high point of the liturgy. I cannot be happy enough about this; if there was any problem with the launch party, it was that I didn't buy enough wine for all those thirsty reporters. Instead of having it be an event where everyone stood around and had mini-conversations, I instead set Joe and I in the middle of things and we led a fascinating discussion on what makes some religious movements fail. It was invigorating and will hopefully lead to some nice reviews.
For those of you who wonder what this book is about, I am attaching material from a press release. Please enjoy and...order the thing!

"Days of Fire and Glory: The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community" is about one of the most gifted leaders of the charismatic movement and the newspaper reporter who unwittingly unearthed his secret.

Millions of evangelical Christians who lived through the Jesus movement and the charismatic renewal of the 1970s and 1980s wish to process what happened them in the early days of their faith. Some even moved into Christian community households to replicate the pattern of the early church in Acts 2. Many are seeking to regain the spiritual power and assurance they felt during those days. Still others have watched how this pentecostal subset of American life went mainstream beginning in the year 2000, penetrating even to the core of the White House and even becoming an issue during the 2008 election in the person of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
"Days of Fire and Glory: The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community" is the story of God, sex and power, how a huge 20th century religious experiment in the life of one cleric led to the rise and fall of many. The author, Julia Duin, is the award-winning religion editor of the Washington Times and the author of five books. She worked for the Houston Chronicle from 1986-1990.

Her book traces the journey of Graham Pulkingham, an Episcopal priest who led Church of the Redeemer, one of the nation's fastest growing and most vibrant churches in a Houston slum and left a legacy that lasts to this day. He held thousands spellbound with his Gospel preaching and influenced millions with his daring vision of a compelling, charismatic Christianity made visible by a system of worldwide communities. Yet, Pulkingham hid from his followers a dark double life that he at first resisted, then secretly pursued and finally allowed to twist his personal theology into a gordian knot of accommodation and self-deceit and finally death.

Twenty years ago, Miss Duin, then a Houston Chronicle reporter, set out to do a laudatory account of events at Redeemer, only to discover the hidden sins not only of one Houston church but of an entire movement.

At its heights, Church of the Redeemer was a place afire. It was a megachurch before megachurches came into vogue. It had everything: an international reputation, fabulous music and joyous worship. It was not only a vibrant center for the Jesus movement that was transfixing the country in the early '70s, but it was the energy center for the charismatic movement, a type of Christianity straight from the exciting miracles of the New Testament book of Acts. Christians who were being "baptized in the Holy Spirit" within this movement felt they were witnessing the waking of a 2,000-year-old giant and experiencing a renaissance of the glory days of Christianity's beginning.

But there was more. Lurking in the shadows of Church of the Redeemer were dark secrets that in time made the church a living symbol of the charismatic movement's rise and decline; of a time when people's desire for God's love and power was shot through with pride, obsession with control and twisted sexuality.

It all began in 1964 when Graham Pulkingham, a burned-out Houston clergyman, traveled to New York and found himself transformed by the experience of being "baptized in the Spirit" through the prayers of David Wilkerson, author of "The Cross and the Switchblade" and today one of the world's best-known pentecostal preachers. Returning to Houston, the on-fire priest helped lay the groundwork for the Jesus movement. Under his leadership, the church catapulted itself into the communal living movement, creating dozens of extended Christian households encompassing more than 400 people in low-income neighborhoods. Through the books and magazine articles describing this remarkable church, thousands of curious babyboomer Christians visited Houston. Artists and musicians from around the world drifted in, creating a new genre of Christian music.

Things began to unravel in the mid 1970s after CBS's laudatory hour-long special in 1972 drew overflow crowds, overwhelming the church and its households. Pulkingham traveled to England to extend his influence by planting communities there, but left a cadre of authoritarian elders ruling the church in his absence. These elders began implementing the principles of a ruinous "discipleship movement" that was also sweeping contemporary Christianity - and devastating lives. The top elder at Redeemer was caught in adultery and the unrelated Jim Jones Guyana tragedy cast a pall over the notion of communal living. The household communities rapidly split up and even though Pulkingham moved back into 1980 to fix up the place, it was too late.

Not that Pulkingham was the best one to go around cleaning up anyone's reputation. A husband with six children, he had struggled with a lifetime of homosexual urges. Believing himself rid of them forever after his spiritual transformation in New York, he let himself be enticed back into the lifestyle several years later and began to act on these urges in England. He and his wife moved into separate bedrooms and he began propositioning male followers for sexual favors. In Houston, other followers noticed his theology had taken a decidedly left-hand turn. As more sex scandals - again involving elders - rocked the church, he was forced out just two years after his return. The charismatic movement had reached every corner of the globe by this time, but many of its American originators had turned on each other.

By the mid-1980s, both Pulkingham and the charismatic movement had run out of steam as disappointed followers penned books such as "Power Religion," "Churches That Abuse" and "Disappointment With God." Insiders who tried to reform the movement – and Pulkingham’s church - were largely ignored.

Then the PTL and Jimmy Swaggart scandals became double black eyes for Christianity while the 1988 presidential run of the first openly charismatic Christian candidate Pat Robertson politicized the movement. The monastic trio of poverty, chastity and obedience in the lives of early charismatics that had propelled their movement to such heady successes became the three-way trap of sex, money and power. God's love and power, which had transformed Church of the Redeemer, had been perverted to become raw power and sexual desire. Rocketing way beyond its biblical basis, the charismatic Christian movement in the 1990s became fertile ground for bizarre spiritual manifestations, such as believers being overcome with "holy laughter," uncontrollable shaking, making animal noises during services and people claiming that God was supplying them with new gold fillings for their teeth.

The book climaxes with Pulkingham's betrayal at the hands of the wife of a former lover and the collapse of a new community he founded north of Pittsburgh. By the time he was stricken with a fatal heart attack while caught in the midst of a 1993 supermarket shootout, Pulkingham was disgraced by a decades-long string of homosexual flings, under investigation by his bishop for propositioning some of the troubled men he counseled and on the verge of being defrocked by the very denomination he helped energize for three decades.

The reporter who narrates the book becomes part of the tale when she acquires a job at the Houston Chronicle at the midpoint of the book. Her investigation of Graham Pulkingham is the final straw that leads to his downfall and ultimately his death.

"Days of Fire and Glory" required 182 face-to-face interviews. It reveals how sex and religion, unhappily tangled, are still the stuff of headlines. The amazing characters, who were gifted people with the best intentions, failed miserably when they allow their faith in God to succumb to the desires of their bodies. Theirs is a cautionary tale that would well be heeded by all for whom the Gospel has become the foundation of their earthly success. Intentional community movements are becoming popular among young Christians and some of the worst excesses of religious authoritarian movements of several decades ago are popping up under new names.

However, the book is an inspiration that shows what God once did among an unlikely group of people in Houston and what He can do again.

As for babyboomers who lived through the religious movements of the last decades of the millennium, "Days of Fire and Glory" is a long-awaited validation of their search for God.

Tornadoes and Minnesota part 1

Last night after Veeka fell asleep, I walked out to see a blanket of stars over the lake. I never get to see the Milky Way like this, near as we are to the Big City.
But this week we are away from the maddening crowd in the Minnesota north woods. How did we get here? Well, last week I was sent on a business trip to cover the biennial convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. As it turned out, it was a good call because they ended up making ecclesiastical history in that they are now the largest American Christian denomination to accept gay clergy. Which is what they voted to do plus a few other things this past week. You can read the walk-up to the event here, and and follow-up here and some of the react here and here and here. It was one highly interesting event to cover because of a tornado that bore down upon the gathering on Wednesday afternoon that some saw as a warning from the Almidghty to not proceed along the path the ELCA seemed to be going. My blog on this highly interesting event (nothing like having a tornado heading towards you) is at the end of this post.
Anyway, my cousins who live in town were super-helpful in arranging care for Veeka while I was covering all this. After dinner one night with the Weispfennings (related to my late cousin Anne) who live on a lovely bluff overlooking downtown St. Paul (or is it Minneapolis?), I got lots of help from Allison (actually my first cousin once removed as she's the eldest daughter of my cousin Faith) who has kids Veeka's age. So Veeka stayed at the daycare next door to Faith and Allison and husband Jon (shown with Veeka in one of the photos) picked up Veeka in the afternoon so she could play with her second cousins once removed: Charlie, Lucy and Cassie until Mommy got home from covering the ELCA. It sounds complicated but it all worked out quite well.
Finally on Saturday morning we were free to depart and head 200 miles northwest of Minneapolis to a lodge I'd found on the Internet on Leech Lake which has turned out to be a world Veeka's never encountered. Yesterday she touched her first fish and a little girl (who was equipped with a Barbie doll fishing rod) showed Veeka how to cast for fish. She's also seen cattails (none of those in Maryland) and experienced bonfires and tasted marshmallows. She's learned to say "Minnesota" and is reading a little paperback I bought her on Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox (might as well inculcate her in the local culture. After all, her grandfather is from these parts).
Stayed tuned for more Lessons in the Wilderness. Attached is another photo from our visit to the Mall of America and the interesting creature we met there. And below is my WTimes post on the tornado:


It was just before 2 p.m. when someone rushed into the press room and told us to vacate the place fast. A tornado had touched down close by, we were told, and it was heading our way. We were covering the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's churchwide assembly in Minneapolis. The police wanted us all in a safe place away from the glass windows that encase the huge Minneapolis Convention Center.
So everyone rushed into the main hall to join some 1,045 voting members who were listening to a Bible on the prodigal son being given by Luther Seminary Old Testament professor Diane Jacobson. As she continued speaking, a palpable blanket of fear descended on the entire group as the doors to the outside hallways were shut, enclosing us in the giant room which apparently was the safest place to be in the case of a tornado. Worse, we could hear the winds howling outside. I thought of my rental car parked nearby and hoped it'd stay in one piece. It also did not help the general atmosphere that the air conditioning was set on minus 2.
And a tornado *was* headed our way. Just after 2 p.m., the twister knocked the cross off the steeple of Central Lutheran Church just across the street from the convention center. I walked outside afterwards to look at it and the steel cross was dangling high up in the air.
During the storm, ELCA President Mark Hanson read outloud the 121st Psalm to us to calm everyone down.
"We trust the weather is not a commentar on our work," said the Rev. Steven Loy, chairman of an ad hoc committee on a controversial statement on human sexuality that was on the floor that afternoon. The statement, which seems to open the door to greater acceptance of homosexual practice, passed by an exact two-thirds vote a few hours later. One or two votes less would have killed it. There was quite a gasp when we saw the results.
Later some of us were discussing in the press room whether the Almighty had sent a tornado to send the Lutherans a message. After all, one of the reporters said, the ELCA endured an electrical storm during one of their previous conventions - where human sexuality was also on the table - in Orlando.
And if God was speaking, was anyone listening?
- Julia Duin, religion editor

A year in Hyattsville

Well, here is a photo of my home into which we moved one year ago this weekend. The Virginia-to-Maryland switch has gone reasonably well; I really miss all the great restaurants and retail over there in the Old Dominion as what's available here in Prince George's County is not much to write home about. Then again, one of my great discoveries was a Massage Envy outlet that was almost half the price of what I was shelling out for shoulder rubs to the south. And the community "feel" to this area is lightyears better than what I had, plus the availability of kids, family-friendly stuff for Veeka, lots of people with children and WAY more support than I had available in Virginia made it a very good move.
Fortunately nothing awful, other than a broken garage door, happened my first year and the biggest problem I have is keeping my tomatoes out of reach from the squirrels. MUCH nicer neighbors than what I had in Falls Church (although the people immediately next to me in my former condo were nice enough) but the 2 Hyattsville list serves I am on have been invaluable as to helping me out in so many ways. Living only 5 miles from work is one good idea. The biggest pain has been switching doctors, etc. The first dentist I found here did not work out so will try another. Last week I visited what I thought would be Veeka's new pediatrician but walked out after we were kept waiting 40 minutes. There were no toys to play with and Veeka was bouncing off the walls. And the waiting room was dirty and there was little privacy; you could walk 3 steps down the hall and watch what was going on in one of the exam rooms. When Veeka did just that - run down the hallway and gape at a little screaming kid getting some kind of shot - I bolted.
My next choice for pediatrician is over the county line into Silver Spring - a longer commute but I was getting so many mixed reviews of the local kiddie doctors. A shame one must go to a richer county for better service but that is the way of it here in PG County which deserves some of the bad rep it has for things just being a lot shabbier than elsewhere in the DC metro area. However, the park system is great but apparently the schools are not - a headache I will have to face a year from now.
Veeka is growing like a little stringbean - up and down - but not OUT, meaning some of her clothes from two years ago are still fitting her. Am dragging her to that newest pediatrician a month from now for a physical just to make sure everything is on schedule but she looks as healthy as can be and gives the pre-school people fits because of her high-energy antics and refusal to take naps. I have gotten very strict about the latter and told her she MUST sleep at naptime (she is a bear if she does not) because I have gotten some very unhappy notes from her teacher informing me what a terror she is at naptime (rocks back and forth and sings to herself, wakes up the other kids, sometimes runs around the room - aargh).
Her vocabulary is doing great so no more special ed this coming year like she's had since she came here.
As for me, am passing around galleys of my new book which is available here should you wish to pre-order! More on that for a later post. Am preparing to go to Minneapolis in a little more than a week to cover the Lutherans so am using this coming week to wrap up many loose ends.

In which my parents leave their home

Well, it finally happened; the lovely family home that's provided for us years of mountain and Lake Sammamish views just east of Seattle is in the past. My parents moved last week to a retirement place (altho they would not call it that) 8 miles away in Redmond WITH NO VIEW. They got to experience, like we did a year ago, the delights of moving lock, stock and barrel. They'd owned the place since that summer of 1971 when they and us kids rolled into western Washington state and wondered what we'd gotten ourselves into. We'd just spent two weeks crossing the country and camping out along the way. Back then, we were from sophisticated Maryland and Bellevue and especially Redmond seemed a bit behind the times, we thought. My entire family ended up settling in the Pacific Northwest except for me, the wandering Jew of the lot. I've included an older photo of the place which I will miss like anything. It's the closest thing I ever had as a family home, being that we moved every few years when I was younger.
My dad has promised that NOW he will finally get a kitty so we shall see if he keeps his promise. Soooo, no more lovely roses like the ones that always greeted me when I came home in the summers. I didn't fly back to Seattle this summer as it turned out; my parents' topsy-turvy home situation being one reason.
But Uncle Steve was in town this past weekend so Veeka and I wandered over to his in-laws where I caught a photo of them and Aunt Nancy at the dinner table. Veeka is now very taken with Uncle 'Teve and his brother, Uncle Gob. And Oma and Opa of course. As usual, Veeka charmed everyone.

The finish line approacheth

Yes, I know it's been awhile since I've posted but I am in the final weeks of PUTTING OUT A BOOK. You can tell the signs: piles of unread newspapers around the house; unread mail, unpaid bills, mountains of kitty fur that need to be vacuumed up. For those of you who know me, this is the "Redeemer book" that will be launched this September at the Religion Newswriters Association convention in Minneapolis and plans are afoot now for a reception somewhere in the host hotel (the downtown Marriott). I'd wanted a pricey setting with wine flowing and hors d'oeuvres but my publisher didn't want to lay out too much money, so I am shopping about for alternatives.
If I had my way, the launch would be in Houston, where most of the action takes place, but circumstances have not worked out yet for me to get down there.
But I cannot say how glad I am that this 20-year project is almost over. I am now working on proofing copy, scanning photos, re-reading the dust jacket copy, negotiating with the photographer and digging up obscure facts. I spent last Wednesday in Baltimore doing a last-minute read through the manuscript which is about 300 pages.
As for Veeka, well, she is fine. There is one photo of what looks like a blur bouncing a ball. That is our little honey bunch learning how to bounce a ball. I got her a red ball so she is trying to learn how to dribble. Where is Uncle Steve when I need him to show her how?
Potty training is almost down pat. There are a few bad days but she has made incredible progress since her birthday when she decided to get serious about learning how. She doesn't need a kiddie diaper in the pool any more which is a great relief.
The other photo is of Veeka at the beach where I took her and the daughter of a friend who helped me take care of her. Am learning that on a weekend at the beach, I need someone along to help, as she has to be constantly watched. Despite there being two of us, she escaped us at one point and dashed two blocks down the beach just because she felt like running. Fortunately some people spotted my frantic looking about and told me they'd seen her. I sprinted down the sand and finally saw her - on the lifeguard stand happily enjoying herself. Grrrrr.