Word: bethell
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...Bible is full of men falsely accused and persecuted, and the Rev. Henry Lyons, minister of St. Petersburg's Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church and head of the powerful National Baptist Convention, USA, says he is one of them. While he admits moral lapses, he says the 82-page arrest affidavit served on him on Ash Wednesday, full of charges of racketeering and grand theft, is the devil's work. In the only interview since then, Lyons, 56, told TIME he was a man at peace--"I can sleep comfortably again"--and ready to fight. "My daddy was a strong Baptist...
When the scandal first broke last summer, Lyons cried he was the victim of a racial smear. With each damaging disclosure, an electronic phone-announcement service would summon Bethel members to emergency church meetings. "We need to talk," Lyons would say before launching into his explanation. But soon other skeletons emerged in the St. Petersburg Times and in the state investigation. In 1991 Lyons spent a year in a federal pretrial-intervention program to avoid being prosecuted on bank-fraud charges. His marriage certificate to Deborah says it was a first union for both; in fact it was his third...
...himself and business associates were legitimate, that the truth will absolve him. "I am solidly resolved to put my mark on the convention," he promises. "A positive mark, not the mark that's there now." The convention's board is still packed with supporters. And most of his remaining Bethel members talk of forgiveness. "We don't condone what he did," says parishioner Dennard. "Regardless, we still love him." So much so that his lawyers plan a defense based on the separation of church and state, arguing that if the people of God will not rise against him over church...
...time and place. Looking back upon the America of the '60s, future historians may well search for the meaning of one such movement. It drew the public's notice on the days and nights of Aug. 15 through 17, 1969, on the 600-acre farm of Max Yasgur in Bethel...
What took place at Bethel, ostensibly, was the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, which was billed by its youthful Manhattan promoters as "An Aquarian Exposition" of music and peace. The festival turned out to be history's largest happening. As the moment when the special culture of U.S. youth of the '60s openly displayed its strength, appeal and power, it may well rank as one of the significant political and sociological events...