Terry, 42, makes no apologies for divorcing his wife & Marrying 16 Years His Junior -- Christian Theology Discussion Group

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Date Posted: 21:09:43 01/27/03 Mon
Author: ekklesia
Subject: Terry, 42, makes no apologies for divorcing his wife & Marrying 16 Years His Junior

"When I, or people like me, are running the country, you'd better flee, because we will find you, we will try you, and we will execute you. I mean every word of it. I will make it part of my mission to see to it that they are tried and executed... If we're going to have true reformation in America, it is because men once again, if I may use a worn out expression, have righteous testoserone flowing through their veins. They are not afraid of contempt for their contemporaries. They are not even here to get along. They are here to take over... Somebody like Susan Smith should be dead. She should be dead now. Some people will go, "Well how do you know God doesn't have a wonderful plan for her life?" He does, it's listed in the Bible. His plan for her is that she should be dead."

[Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, at the Aug 8, 1995 U.S. Taxpayers Alliance Banquet in Washington DC, talking about doctors who perform abortions and volunteer escorts]

�He seemed to be living well. He and his former wife were raising their three children in a Victorian farmhouse on 119 lush acres here in rural Windsor, 15 miles east of Binghamton. The property included a fishing pond, a swimming pool, and a seven-room motel that he used for patrons of his Christian Leadership Institute.

�Mr. Terry, 42, makes no apologies for divorcing his wife of 19 years and marrying a former assistant who is 16 years his junior - although he expresses sadness over the marriage's failure. But he said that he did regret some of what he has said and done (although he would not say what), and he wondered aloud what yesterday's Randall Terry would say about the Randall Terry of today.

He still fancies himself a dragon slayer: he recently had T-shirts made in this motif, and the sculpture of a dragon slayer that he commissioned sits on his piano.
He also continues to rely on direct mail 'gifts' to finance his way. Donations to the 'Randall Terry Sabbatical Fund' paid for a yearlong break, he said, which included time spent in a Nashville studio, recording country-western and gospel music.

July 01 he sent out his first solicitation letter in nearly a year ('Every gift counts whether $5 or $50 or $500'). It made no mention of his new wife, but allowed that he was 'a different man.'
'My sabbatical is over,' he wrote. 'I have resumed ministry.'

He frequently used the church's affiliation to enhance his fund-raising efforts. Said Dan Little his former pastor of many years and who Terry often referenced publically as �his mentor�
'Our name was very often connected to his, and all that he was doing,' Mr. Little said. 'The elders of the church didn't want anyone thinking that we gave him a bye: to go ahead and get a divorce, go ahead and marry this lady, and by the way keep sending out your fund-raising letters.'

Mr. Terry moved out of his home in August 1999, and resigned the same month from the Landmark Church. Three months later, Mr. Little issued a letter of censure against his former congregant, charging that Mr. Terry had left his wife and had engaged in a 'pattern of repeated sinful relationships and conversations with both single and married women..' By this point Mr. Terry had joined a Long Island congregation belonging to the Charismatic Episcopal Church, and had won the support of several ministers from different denominations. They criticized Mr. Little for running a 'cultish' church that operated solely on its pastor's whims. They said that no Christian denomination cites divorce as grounds for censure, and added that the 'sinful relationships' charge was maliciously false. (Remember Terry was an elder and board member at the time.)

Three months later, Mr. Benham, the director of Operation Save America - the organization that Mr. Terry founded as Operation Rescue placed the letter of censure on his organization's Web site under the headline 'Please Pray for Randall Terry.'

In a long message fraught with scriptural reference, he rebuked and ridiculed Mr. Terry as a man who 'has dragons to slay and funds to raise.' (see link in another post)

Shortly after the posting on the Internet, Mr. Benham said, he received his last call from Mr. Terry. Both men agree that Mr. Terry made just one comment: 'Is that you, Judas?'

Mr. Terry now suggests that Mr. Benham had gotten involved for one reason: 'patricide.'
The Internet posting was devastating, Mr. Terry said, recalling that he was flooded with calls and letters from people demanding to be taken off his mailing list. So the radio show went off the air. One last appeal for more money went out ('Randall, we will stand with you and your family during this sabbatical'). And Mr. Terry took a time-out, financed by 'people who believed my life was worth redeeming.'

'I went on a sabbatical, bought Guinevere, and started writing music, man,' he said. Guinevere is the name of his new Gibson guitar; Elizabeth is the name of his piano.
Mr. Terry said that he also attended a Charismatic Episcopal gathering in California, where he became reacquainted with Andrea Kollmorgen, who had worked on his Congressional campaign. In October, he moved to Las Vegas for several weeks to establish residency, and then filed for divorce.

Once the divorce became final in early January, Mr. Terry said, he and Ms. Kollmorgen began dating; in fact, he said, she inspired some of the songs that he recorded in Nashville. He proposed to her in mid-March by strumming on Guinevere and singing lyrics laden with Arthurian references. And on June 9, Mr. Terry and Ms. Kollmorgen were wed in a ceremony on Long Island.

After a honeymoon in Rome, the Terrys and their puppy moved into a house just 200 yards from where his ex-wife and children live, although that house - and the 119 acres that go with it - are being sold. He acknowledged that the situation was awkward, but said that he had returned to the area to be near his children, with whom he remains close.

'There is irony' in the situation, he said. 'I acknowledge it, and it's not without pain and comedy.'
Still, Mr. Terry is returning to the job of trying to stay the dragons he sees. For the moment, he is working out of a white trailer in Windsor that serves as the offices for his ministry, his used-car business and the 100-watt radio station that once broadcast 'Randall Terry Live.' He shares space with the burly host of a Christian-rock program called 'Rippin' Richie's Radical Revolution.'

Books by Randall Terry are stacked on shelves; framed newspaper articles about Randall Terry hang on the wall; opened envelopes addressed to Randall Terry and his 'Back to the Battle' fund-raising campaign sit on a desk.
'Now I start building my comeback,' he said."

�
(Dan Barry, The New York Times, July 20, 2001)
I will stand the integrity of Dave Hunt�s ministry and character any day compared to Randall Terry.

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