Jots & Tittles
1,000 Ways to Celebrate Y2K
The millennium is coming, the millennium is coming! For many, the millennium means a chance to celebrate the 2,000th birthday of Jesus. And the towns of Israel—particularly Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem—are expecting at least twice as many visitors as usual.
The celebration will begin on New Year’s Eve, when Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians will join hands in a circle around the Dead Sea for a big “hug.” The Millennium Great Embrace, sponsored by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, is expected to draw 100,000 well-wishers, according to Israel’s Ministry of Tourism. The celebration will also feature hot-air balloon rides over the Dead Sea, campfires in the surrounding hills, concerts and a multimedia show. (To participate, contact Israel’s Ministry of Tourism at 1–888-77-ISRAEL; e-mail: info@goisrael.com.)
The Jubillenium March—a series of walking tours of Israel led by professional naturalists—is being planned by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). An eight-hour trek, geared toward more experienced hikers, starts at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, traverses the hills of the Judean Desert and ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City. A shorter, five-hour walk, suitable for families, will lead from the Arbel cliffs in southern Galilee to Magdala, the traditional home of Mary Magdalene, on the western shore of the sea. (To find out more about the walks, which begin at $20 per person, contact SPNI at tourism@spni.org.)
In one of the noisier manifestations of millennial madness, some 1,000 motorcyclists, completing an 11-day ride from Rome—via Greece, Turkey, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority—will roar into Jerusalem in the spring of 2000 to salute the peace process. (For more on the ride, visit the Web site www.jubillenium.com.)
The biggest undertaking by far is Nazareth 2000. Nazareth, Jesus’ childhood home, is the site of the Basilica of the Annunciation, which is built over the cave known for centuries as the Grotto of the Annunciation, where tradition says Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her that she would give birth to Jesus (Luke 1:31). To prepare for the expected influx, the city has revamped its downtown area, adding pedestrian walkways, parks and hotels.
Plans for the millennium haven’t all gone smoothly. Last spring, a dispute arose between Christian and Muslim leaders in Nazareth over Muslim plans to build a large mosque near the Basilica of the Annunciation. The area had been reserved by the Nazareth government to build a plaza for millennium pilgrims, but Muslims also revere the site, which holds the tomb of a 12th-century Muslim leader. The Israeli government has since recommended that a small mosque be erected beside the plaza. In Bethlehem, recent violence has caused concern among the business community, which fears that the outbreak will deter millennium visitors. But, in these cities and elsewhere, preparations continue.
What Is “Power for Living”?
Some curious advertisements have been appearing on television, in magazines and on billboards across the country. One television spot features a fastidiously dressed professional woman. We are told that her husband has just been promoted and her children are successful. Nonetheless, she says she’s “just not happy.” “I’m afraid for my children, I’m afraid of what tomorrow might bring,” she explains.
Is this a pitch for a pharmaceutical company? For a mental health group?
Actually, the ads are the handiwork of the Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation and Phil Dusenberry, architect of President Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” ad campaign. Until recently, the foundation was best known for its right-to-life television spots. This time, it is spending millions of dollars—and enlisting as spokespersons the likes of former Green Bay Packer Reggie White and New York Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte—to publicize a free gift: a book called Power for Living.
The evangelical Christian book was written in 1983 by the late Jamie Buckingham, coauthor of Pat Robertson’s autobiography, Shout It from the Housetops. It reads like an outreach devotional guide, with quotations from scripture, commentary by Buckingham and testimonials by celebrities such as Heather Whitestone McCallum, Miss America 1995, and track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee. People who call to receive the book incur no obligation, and the foundation does not accept donations. “The objective of the Power for Living project,” says the foundation, “is to acquaint as many people as possible with the biblical account of how people can know God in a personal way.” The group, which has about $300 million in assets, supports Christian programs that are, in its words, “evangelistic and disciplining in nature,” such as Campus Crusade for Christ. It does not aid “local churches, denominational agencies and/or schools.”
Critics have noted that politics loom large on the agenda of the foundation’s roster of supporters: Recipients of DeMoss funds include GOPAC, a conservative think tank and fund-raising organization, and the American Center for Law and Justice, Pat Robertson’s legal group. However, Jann Cather Weaver, associate dean and assistant professor at Yale Divinity School, told the Los Angeles Times that “they [the foundation] seem to want only to spread ‘the good news,’ which is what the word evangelical means in the original Greek. My sense of the group, from what I’ve heard, is that it seeks to have great integrity, to not be exploitative.”