Christian Crusade Weekly [163 issues]

Tulsa, OK: Christian Crusade, 1979. Newspaper. One hundred and sixty-three issues of the anti-Communist religious newspaper, evenly toned with horizontal fold, address labels, otherwise generally very good. Issues present are Vol. 11 No. 20; Vol. 12 Nos. 27-50, 52; Vol. 13 Nos. 1-31, 33-35, 37-52; Vol. 14 Nos. 1-52; Vol. 15 Nos. 1-30; Vol. 20 Nos. 15, 16; Vol. 26 Nos. 5-7. By this point, Hargis had moved beyond classic Red Scare rhetoric to address issues such as abortion and other culture war topics (though still fixated to the Russian and Chinese threat; early issues from this group criticize Nixon's outreach to China). Hargis was one of the most popular right-wing preachers of his heyday, but his career withered after accusations of sexual impropriety with choir singers (many of them male, despite the Reverend's lamentations about the "abomination of homosexuality"). In 1976, Time published an article titled "The Sins of Billy James," bringing the scandal to national attention. An unforgettable passage from the Time article: "...On the honeymoon, the groom and his bride discovered that both of them had slept with Hargis.