ustxtxb_obs_1973_11_02_50_00009-00000_000.pdf

ST. LOUIS convenient to shopping, ball park, Gateway Arch, entertainment, Kiel Auditorium, airport limousine service at our door. Singles from $12 Doubles from $14 Family Rooms $16 for confirmed reservations call collect 314/231-7311 FREE 1100. PARKING HEATED POOL YEAR ROUND AIR CONDITION T-V S RADIO TEL-MESSAGE IN-ROOM EXTRA LONG BEDS DINING ROOM COCKTAIL LOUNGE CONFERENCE ROOMS !,111 411!.. Az -Le ,t2.4 1-LJUIL,, 11 1,13tt__JIA_,, ‘ILVINIAL_Au ts WARWICK 15TH AND LOCUST Brother Roloff is not kosher CREDIT FOR building up the pressure that finally made the DPW move toward closing the unlicensed homes probably should be equally shared by Mimi Crossley of The Houston Post and The Corpus Christi Caller. The two papers broke story after story of the peculiar doings dictated by a creed that demands literal interpretation of the Bible, accepting Jesus Christ as a personal savior and a Devil that can take possession of bodies and souls. The papers found former students of the Roloff schools who signed statements concerning efforts to beat the Devil out of them and Christ into them. Crossley, in an exclusive, came up with reports on Roloff’s “gray market” in babies a process of “giving out” the babies of unwed mothers in his homes to his religious followers in private adoptions. But the babies weren’t given away the adoptive parents in return gave “love gifts” to Roloff’s missions. As the Caller in particular has discovered, thou dost not attack Brother Roloff with impunity. A Roloff newsletter “Our local newspaper that I begged to come out and see the home before they published the lies and slander has gone to press on the front page and the back page accusing us of brutality, then saying that three of our male employees were slapping and beating a girl while they held her dangling by her ankles. This little girl \(they called her little girl saying she was 13 when her heart and life and I just got a sweet and wonderful letter from her. Others have picked up the story and are saying that we take our little girls to the doctor in handcuffs. Ten or 12 of our girls were picked up at the home by officers and carried to the county attorney’s office for some statements. These happened to be the meanest girls at our home, who hated Christ, the Word of God and all that we sought to do for them.” Roloff went on to appeal to his followers, “those whb have helped us to keep the door of hope and the gates of mercy open for those who have been left to die on the spoil banks of sin and the dunghills of inequity” to write the Caller-Times and any other paper that “reran this filth.” The result was a deluge of letters, more than the Caller has ever gotten on any subject, generally accusing the Caller of being an instrument of the Devil and praying for its corporate soul. THE STATE finally rolled into gear: the Lighthouse was closed and on Aug. 3 Dist: Judge Walter Dunham of Corpus issued an order that the other two homes must be licensed by Oct. 1 or be shut down. A 14-day extension on the order was granted, but the deadline passed without result. Dunham has now set a hearing for Oct. 26 to show cause why Roloff shouldn’t be held in contempt for disobeying the order. DPW inspectors have been barred from the homes since the DRIVE-IN order took effect. There are apparently still an unknown number of children in the homes. Welfare Commissioner Raymond Vowell believes that Roloff failed to show good faith in the last-minute negotiations to get licensing before the extension deadline. Roloff came to Austin and went through several rounds with DPW officials and representatives of the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office. Vowell said Roloff had objected to 28 DPW licensing requirements, all of which the homes could easily have met if Roloff so wished. Vowell points out that other religious homes, from Baptist to Catholic, have met the standards. The Roloff homes, according to DPW standards, are deficient in dietary matters, recreation, medical treatment and educational curriculum. Two particular sore spots are the requirement that the students have some access to psychiatric care and that sex education . be taught in the schools. Roloff has taken the offensive with a couple of lawsuits of his own. On Oct. 16 a suit was filed in Austin challenging two state laws regulating child care facilities. Roloff also plans to file a suit in Corpus to bar the state from enforcing its child care regulations on the grounds that such regulations infringe on religious freedom. In fairness to Roloff, it is difficult to believe that the documented abuses in the homes stem from conscious hypocrisy. Dave McNeely of The Dallas Morning News, as self-respecting a cynic as most November 2, 1973 9 “.;-%””_IIL gat Sp. ., Austin In a curiouser and curiouser scenario, the battle between two opponents who deserve each other the Department of Welfare and Brother Lester Roloff came pinging to a semi-irresolution in the fat lap of the courts last week. As Texas newspaper readers are by now well-aware, Brother R. is an . evangelical leader more than slightly reminiscent of Elmer Gantry in his better moments. In addition to all-purpose radio revivalizing, Roloff runs unlicensed homes for juvenile delinquents, which is what has gotten him cross-ways with the DPW. Brother Roloff’s methods for reforming j.d.’s do not conform to DPW regulations. The Roloff story, which has been on the front pages for a couple of months now, is actually a spin-off from the Artesia Hall scandal \(Obs., folks to look into the process by which the DPW licenses homes that care for juveniles. The Roloff homes Rebekah Christian Academy for Girls in Corpus Christi, the Anchor Home for Boys at Zapata and the Lighthouse for Boys on the Intracoastal Canal never even managed to make it through DPW’s now-notorious licensing procedures. Rep. Joe Salem of Corpus added to the fun, as might have been expected, by backing Brother R. to the hilt, as it were. Salem said that if it would help keep those homes open he’d resign his seat in the legislature. Something new in downtown COURTESY COMFORT SERVICE ts