Evangelist accused of bisexual affairs

NEW YORK (P) — Four of his male students and one coed have said that conservative evangelist Billy James Hargis had sexual relations with them, Time magazine reported this week.

The Rev. Mr. Hargis, 50, who has a wife and four children has crusaded against illicit heterosexual and homosexual relations.

Time said Hargis admitted his behavior, according to two persons who attended a meeting between Hargis and college officials. Several weeks later Hargis severed his ties with the Crusade for Christian Morality and its American Christian College in Tulsa, Okla., the magazine said.

Time said Hargis blamed his behavior on "genes and chromosomes."

Ford assails

Magazine lists

four men, coed

In Tulsa, Hargis was reported to be out of town and unavailable for comment. Leaders of the Billy James Hargis Evangelistic Association and the Christian Crusade declined comment. So did David Noebel, former vice president of the college.

Craig Blackstock, a lawyer who said he was authorized to speak for Hargis, said: "This attack is considered by him and us to be a legal matter. Dr. Hargis will not discuss the charges made at this time as improper publicity which could jeopardize possible future legal action to be taken by him.”

Time quoted Hargis as stating through a lawyer who was not named:

"I have made more than my share of mis-

takes. I'm not proud of them. Even the Apostle Paul said, 'Christ died to save sinners, of whom I am chief.' Long ago I made my peace with God, and my ministry continues.

The magazine account said Hargis's sexual troubles surfaced in October 1974, when the first of the five students confessed to David Noebel, then vice president of the college.

"Noebel's account: Not long before, Hargis had conducted a wedding for the student; on the honeymoon, the groom and his bride discovered that both of them had slept with Hargis.

"Later, Noebel says, three more male students told him of having had sexual relations said the trysts had taken place in Hargis' office, with Hargis over a period of three years. They at his farm in the Ozarks, even during his tours with the college choir, the 'All-American Kids.'

"Noebel was told that Hargis justified his homosexual acts by citing the Old Testament friendship between David and Jonathan and threatened to blacklist the youths for life if they talked."

Billy James Hargis

(1969 photo).