By ROBERT McCLORY

Rev. George Zarris: Moral Majority leader in Illinois

Throughout the nation, people are turning to an ultraconservative, Bible-thumping group to make their views known: the Moral Majority. The MM along with other right-wing groups, is backing candidates who share its views on such issues as abortion, pornography and ERA. This is is a portrait of the man who heads the Moral Majority in Illinois.

All photos by Brent Jones

IT IS 8:30 in the morning of what promises to be a steamy hot summer day, and here is George Zarris, attired in a shirt, tie and gray three-piece suit, striding across the parking lot and toward the church he pastors in the farm country north of Aurora. He walks past the five red-white-and-blue buses in the parking lot (there are more in the big garage in the back), dodges the section of pavement which has just been asphalted, and enters "the sprawling, one-story corrugated metal building with a red brick facade. It is an unpretentious complex out there amid the corn and soybean fields. But Zarris' crisp step and smart attire dispel any suspicion that this is a typical country pastor of a sleepy congregation.

This is Fox River Valley Baptist Church, founded by Zarris in 1972 (when he was 22 years old) and one of the fastest-growing churches in the Aurora area, 50 miles west of Chicago. On Sunday the parking lot is full, as 500 or more of his 1,000 parishioners crowd into the main auditorium to hear the hard-nosed evangelical message from their youthful pastor. And the fleet of buses (there are six separate routes) is busy coming and going with the 600 children who attend Sunday school. Even during the week the place is abuzz with activity: sports events in the gym; classes five days a week in the Christian elementary school (with an enrollment of 100); the taping of radio programs (Zarris is heard on six stations); and meetings, discussions and seminars.

Pretty good for a nine-year-old church, somewhat off the beaten path, in an age notable for religious indifference. Pastor Zarris, however, is not here this morning to recount his parochial accomplishments, but rather to discuss a matter occupying much of his attention during the past 20 months. For he is the chairman of the executive committee of the Moral Majority of Illinois — the official state branch of the highly publicized movement begun in 1979 by the Rev. Jerry Falwell to unite under one great banner that mass of citizens who are "pro-life, pro-family, pro-moral and pro-American." It is a position Zarris obviously enjoys, and as he settles down behind the desk in his modest office, he fairly radiates enthusiasm for the prospects of the Moral Majority in Illinois.

"I'm amazed how interest is growing," he says, "really amazed — because our support isn't just coming from the fundamentalist churches. We're also seeing interest from more liberal denominations, like the United Church of Christ, Lutherans, Methodists, even some Catholics." "Of course," he hastens to add, "we're a moral movement, not an ecclesiastical organization. We want to effect change in society by working through the two-party system, by getting people to take responsibility for their lives and their country."

A young Falwell?

Zarris, who is now 31, married and the father of three young children, has a round, friendly, well-scrubbed face, a conservative hair style and an outgoing manner reminiscent of those zealous clergymen who appear on religious television shows and talk so earnestly about "the wonderful things God is doing in the world." Zarris is, above all things, earnest. He looks and sounds a bit like a younger version of Falwell himself, though without the smooth Southern drawl and the tinge of self-righteousness.

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George Zarris grew up in the Greek Orthodox faith in the south suburbs of Chicago. But at the age of 11 he displayed a personal penchant for independence when he began attending, on his own, a local Baptist Sunday school. It was there that he "came to know Jesus," and was "saved." His family reacted initially with horror to such apostasy, but all the members, including his parents, especially came around and were also "saved."

Deciding that he was called to spread the uncluttered biblical word, he attended Temple Theological Seminary in Tennessee and was ordained a Baptist minister at the age of 22 by the man he considers "my own pastor," Dr. Jack Hyles. Hyles is the Bible-thumping head of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Ind., which claims a congregation of 56,000 and dispatches some 180 buses every Sunday, mostly to the Chicago ghettos, to herd black children into "the World's Largest Sunday School." Although his critics contend Hyles is more interested in the Guinness Book of Records than in the books of the Bible, Falwell has called him "the greatest preacher of our day."

Getting out the vote

In January 1980, as he was forming Moral Majority branches in all 50 states, Falwell met with 200 interested ministers in Chicago and outlined his program. Pastor Zarris was there and afterwards, in a rush of enthusiasm, told Falwell's chief lieutenant, Robert Billings, "If there's anything I can do, I'll do it." Later that day, Billings relayed the word that Falwell had selected the young minister to be ad hoc chairman of the Illinois Moral Majority. "I didn't know what that meant," he says, "but I agreed to take the job."

The job has taken Zarris all over the state and has made his name and face familiar to newspaper readers and television viewers. He has debated Moral Majority opponents like Jay Miller, director of the Illinois Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and has handled himself creditably. "I really liked the guy," Miller commented afterwards. "He's so sincere, he almost seems naive." Indeed, the characterization does not seem exaggerated. For despite Zarris' earnestness, there is a certain vagueness, a kind of naive disorganization about the workings of the Moral Majority in Illinois.

"Our main goal last year was to register for the election as many born-again Christians as possible," he explains, "to provide them with information on candidates and issues and then get them to participate — to vote. I can tell you we felt good about the results, especially on election day."

With help from Falwell's national office, Zarris acquired a mailing list of 50,000 Illinois residents, 5,000 of whom are active pastors. Since "MM" is not a membership organization, these constitute the backbone of the state movement and the immediate audience. Zarris began editing and publishing a bimonthly newsletter called The Moral Majority Report of Illinois. He sent questionnaires to all members of the Illinois General Assembly, asking how they stood on 32 issues ranging from legalized gambling, to abortion, to the military draft, to homosexual rights, to SALT II. Ninety-five representatives and 22 senators responded; their positions were reported without comment in the newsletter. "You don't have to tell people how to vote," says Zarris confidently. "They know how to pick candidates who stand right on the key moral issues, like those who oppose abortion and SALT II."

Meanwhile, he distributed through his ministerial contacts 5,000 copies of a booklet explaining how churches could get their unregistered members on the voting rolls. Before election day, Zarris publicly claimed that the campaign had registered 100,000 new voters in Illinois, and he predicted that their collective conservatism would make an impact. "I think the evidence proves we were right," he says. "Everyone had said Illinois was too close to call in the presidential elecition yet Reagan won by 10 percent or so. Republicans gained control of the State House, and the Senate is Democrat by only one vote. I'm not saying we're necessarily pro-Republican, but Republicans do tend to be more conservative on moral issues."

Next, Zarris and his state supporters cooperated in a national project to monitor prime-time television. Volunteers from hundreds of churches, organized as the Coalition for Better Television, were assigned to watch one network program at a set time and fill in a form listing objectionable material. One person, for example, would look for sexual provocation on a program, another profanity, another violence. "Now we weren't opposed to kissing, says Zarris. "We definitely were after homosexuality, adultery and other perversions."

A clean-cut agenda

All the ballots from all the states were fed into a computer in Tupelo, Miss., with the intention of determining which programs were most offensive and then coming down hard on their sponsors. "We had asked folks to vote their convictions in November," says Zarris. "Now we were going to buy our convictions by boycotting the products of those who sponsor the most garbage."

It never came to that, however. Possibly fearing a deluge of moral indignation, network officials met with coalition

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leaders and insisted they would initiate a cleanup on their own. The threat was lifted. But full-scale monitoring is again slated for this fall, says Zarris with a knowing look, and if the moral tone has not risen, the boycott ax will surely fall.

At the state legislative level, he acknowledges, MM visibility has not been very high. Part of the reason is that the movement prefers to merge with other conservative organizations which are pursuing similar aims. Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, for example, has been a handy roosting place for MM advocates opposed to the Equal Rights Amendment. And the National Federation of Decency is the rallying point for those battling pornography and homosexual rights in Illinois.

On only one statewide issue was MM conspicuous during the last legislative session. It fought and successfully emasculated a bill designed to bring church affiliated schools under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). "We saw it as a move by the state to get its foot in our door," declares Zarris. "Of course we should be subject to fire and safety inspections, but the kind of interference DCFS had in mind was intolerable. There may be a few private schools set up by phony reverends to rip off the public. However, we all shouldn't be penalized because of a few." At MM's behest, friendly legislators introduced bills exempting accredited Christian schools (like the one Zarris runs) from DCFS oversight, and they passed both houses with ease.

The "Number One" moral issue of our time, says Zarris, is abortion. "We'll be keeping the pro-life stance before the public constantly," he says, "and we intend to keep pushing pro-life legislation at the state and national level. What I would personally favor is a Constitutional Amendment protecting the life of the fetus from the moment of conception."

During the first six months of 1981, the Illinois MM had a full-time field representative lobbying in Springfield and helping form MM chapters in the counties. He has since moved on, leaving such crucial business largely in the hands of concerned pastors. But then, Zarris admits, the state legislature needs little prodding on the abortion issue, since it consistently passes stiff pro-life, anti-abortion bills (which are inevitably struck down by the courts).

In the next session, MM plans to widen its sights by promoting a Family Protection Act — an omnibus bill which would not only outlaw abortion but support "traditional American family values" in other areas. Specifics are still being worked out, says Zarris, as are the details of a forthcoming anti-pornography campaign under MM auspices. A national summit on that subject is scheduled for this fall, the major aim being to encourage city and village officials to clean up drugstore magazine racks and to persuade local school boards to ban most of the sex education material in use in their schools.

Influence in Illinois

Beyond these general thrusts the future, as outlined by Zarris, is a bit murky. It's possible, he says, that the state MM may form a political action committee to press for the election of friends and the defeat of enemies in the 1982 elections (although he declines to discuss names). It is also possible a new lobbyist will be found.

State MM chapters, he explains, have a lot of freedom and autonomy. The seven-member Illinois executive board, which Zarris heads, includes ministers like Don Lyon of Rockford (who once ran against John Anderson), Bruce Dunn of Peoria, Dave Ashby of Champaign and Bill Dougherty of Jacksonville. They all serve without pay, although some congregations donate funds for travel or meetings.

Any suggestion that the state MM receives a substantial input of funds from Falwell's national office (which reportedly takes in $1 million a week) is dismissed by Zarris with a smile. Last

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year's income, totally from Illinois donors, was about $20,000, he says. And he would offer no estimate of how much will be contributed this year.

The real strength of MM, as he sees it, is not in finances or a clean-cut agenda but in the great mass of "clear-thinking people" who embrace old-fashioned biblical morality, as interpreted by Falwell. It's a fair assumption, he says, that every one of those 5,000 Illinois ministers on his mailing list have at least 100 parishioners who also endorse MM thinking: that's a hard-core foundation of half a million in the state.

An ongoing task is the formation of individual MM chapters in all 102 Illinois counties. Zarris says about half already have chairmen who are hard at work on MM business. Two who are especially active, he notes, are Rev. Hiram Crawford, the Cook County chairman, and Rev. Eddie Hathcoat, who heads the De Kalb County operation.

Recent portrayals of the Moral Majority (by the ACLU and other critics) as an organization of neo-fascists are terribly unfair — and incomprehensible, says Zarris, since MM's only purpose is to tap the great "spiritual rejuvenation" occurring in the nation. Zarris concludes the interview with a firm handshake and a pat on the back. "You know," he says, "a Gallup poll showed that 84 per cent of the American people believe the Ten Commandments are still valid. . . are a solid standard for operating a civilization. I think that says where we're really at."

A more precise evaluation of how strong and influential MM is will probably have to await the next big election or the next statewide hassle on some complex moral issue. But a series of follow-up calls and interviews indicated the movement is, at best, in a somewhat latent state in Illinois. It is not that Pastor Zarris is holding back information so much as it is that there's not a great deal going on.

Rev. Crawford, who heads the Cook County MM, is a virtually unknown black minister who says he is setting up branches in each of Chicago's 50 wards. However, he could cite only a handful of wards which have gotten off the ground and then realized he was talking about state legislative districts, not wards. When asked if MM is organizing Chicago on the basis of wards or districts, he said, "Both." The primary goal, said Crawford, will be to vote out of office all those legislators who "consider themselves above God's word and are on the side of the sodomites."

In De Kalb, MM's Rev. Hathcoat heads the Family Life Action Coalition of Illinois, which is opposed to sex education in schools. Through its efforts, he said, school districts in Galena, Mendota, Genoa and other cities have dumped certain textbooks or outlawed classes altogether. However, Hathcoat's program has no organizational relationship with MM.

MM's future in Illinois

Illinois Rep. Carol Moseley Braun (D., Chicago), said she saw no evidence of MM activity in Springfield or in local communities. "As far as I can tell, they're not active at all," she said.

Lois Lipton, an attorney for the Illinois ACLU specializing in abortion issues, was also unaware of specific MM pressure on the legislature. There are so many other conservative groups like the Illinois Right to Life Committee at work, she said, that the Moral Majority would be superfluous. "Besides, the legislature keeps passing bills to make women seeking abortions jump through hoops of fire anyway; it's already in the MM camp."

"I think the Moral Majority peaked last year and is going downhill," said University of Illinois political science Professor Milton Rakove, a close observer of Illinois trends. "They put everything into that offensive and caught the liberals off guard. Now there's a counteroffensive developing. Even Reagan doesn't want to get caught in their camp."

This is not to say that conservatism is fading fast, Rakove added, since the brand of political and moral conservatism long espoused by Chicago politicians, for example, is as strong as ever. But it is far different from, and essentially hostile to, the Bible-based MM brand.

It may be then, as Rakove suggests, that MM is of transitory importance, a momentary fluke. On the other hand, MM may be only catching its breath in Illinois, content to let single-issue conservative organizations carry on its agenda piecemeal, while awaiting the next great occasion to rally all the troops. As far as Pastor Zarris is concerned, the real political-religious conservative coalition is still in the formative stages, sprouting up quietly in the rich Illinois soil, just like the corn and the beans in the fields outside Aurora.

Robert McClory is author of The Man Who Beat Clout City, contributor to Chicago magazine, Chicago Reader, The National Catholic Reporter and former city editor of the Chicago Daily Defender.

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