Monday, May 01, 2006
John Paul Stark I
In November 1979 Iranian militants stormed the US
Embassy in Tehran, Iran and held more than 50
American hostages for over a year. This
unprecedented action caused unusual reaction
in this country. Several staff at Arrowhead Springs
(the headquarters of Campus Crusade) took it on
themselves to inititate a daily prayer tme at
noon to pray for the release of the hostages.
Certainly no international event up until that
time affected the average US citizen (and
certainly Christians) as strongly since the
assasination of President Kennedy or possibly
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It seemed
as if our government was powerless to do
anything about such a gross breach of
international law.
Another CCC staff member, the former director
of the Personnel Department John Paul Stark
(also with his wife Donna and were members
of my church at that time) decided to enter
the political arena. John started running for
the Republican nomination for the US
Congressional seat in the San Bernardino
area held by liberal Democrat George Brown, Jr.
John felt very strongly about wanting to see
change in the direction out country was taking.
During the spring of 1980 along with many
other CCC staff members (and other interested
Christians) I volunteered to help in his primary
campaign. I did a lot of “precinct walking.”
Precinct walking is when the campaign volunteer
has a neighborhood list of residents who are
registered to his party. (At that time California
had a closed primary). That volunteer(s) actually
go from door to door and gives free campaign
literature for their candidate to the resident or
places it on their door knob as “door hangers”
packets. I trudged many sweaty blocks as a precinct
walker putting literal shoe leather to my beliefs.
(During this 1980 election I had the privilege of
personally attending a speech given by former
President Ford. My basic response what there
sure were a lot of secret service agents!)
Embassy in Tehran, Iran and held more than 50
American hostages for over a year. This
unprecedented action caused unusual reaction
in this country. Several staff at Arrowhead Springs
(the headquarters of Campus Crusade) took it on
themselves to inititate a daily prayer tme at
noon to pray for the release of the hostages.
Certainly no international event up until that
time affected the average US citizen (and
certainly Christians) as strongly since the
assasination of President Kennedy or possibly
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It seemed
as if our government was powerless to do
anything about such a gross breach of
international law.
Another CCC staff member, the former director
of the Personnel Department John Paul Stark
(also with his wife Donna and were members
of my church at that time) decided to enter
the political arena. John started running for
the Republican nomination for the US
Congressional seat in the San Bernardino
area held by liberal Democrat George Brown, Jr.
John felt very strongly about wanting to see
change in the direction out country was taking.
During the spring of 1980 along with many
other CCC staff members (and other interested
Christians) I volunteered to help in his primary
campaign. I did a lot of “precinct walking.”
Precinct walking is when the campaign volunteer
has a neighborhood list of residents who are
registered to his party. (At that time California
had a closed primary). That volunteer(s) actually
go from door to door and gives free campaign
literature for their candidate to the resident or
places it on their door knob as “door hangers”
packets. I trudged many sweaty blocks as a precinct
walker putting literal shoe leather to my beliefs.
(During this 1980 election I had the privilege of
personally attending a speech given by former
President Ford. My basic response what there
sure were a lot of secret service agents!)
# posted by Dino Don @ 9:41 AM 
