- Evangelist Greg Lauriewas forced to take down

a series of billboardsdepicting him holding a bible.

The billboards were used as ads

for his upcoming Harvest outreach.

Joining me now to discussthis is John Collins,

Executive Director of Harvest.

Welcome John.

- Thank you, good to be with you.

- First of all John, tellus about the billboards

and why Harvest wanted to put them up.

- Well every year, we'vebeen doing this crusade

for 29 years.

So, we meet in Anaheim Stadium,we have somewhere around

100,000 people that willcome out over the course

of the weekend and Pastor Greg Laury

will give a very simple gospel message

and we'll see eight or nineor sometimes 10,000 people

make a profession of faith in Christ.

So, leading into that, wetake out ads with billboards.

We put bumper stickerson thousands of cars

if people lend us their bumpers

and we have ads in busshelters and wherever we can.

This year, we decided to take out some ads

in one of the culturalcenters of Orange County,

Fashion Island, and takeout ads and put big banners

in the mall where a lotof people congregate.

- Wow and apparently peoplecomplained about the billboards?

Tell us about that.

- Well yeah, initially,the billboard had a picture

of Pastor Greg holding up a bible

and it didn't say bible on it.

It's just a black book actually

and I don't know if youcan actually see that,

but that's what the image was.

So, it wasn't overtlyreligious or anything.

It was just kind of athrowback, if you would,

to how Billy Graham used to advertise.

Ya know, our authoritycomes from the word of God.

So apparently, people sawthat and took offense to that,

assuming it was a bibleand so, they asked us if we

would change the ad andso, we wanted to comply.

So, we just submittedsomething that just simply said

Harvest and had someof the musical artists

that are gonna be with us onthe poster or on the banner

and submitted that but then,we were told that they decided

they didn't want to have anyof the banners up in the mall.

So, we were asked to take them down

and they refunded our money.

- It's amazing that evenafter you made the changes,

it wasn't enough and then they said,

we're just gonna remove them altogether.

Greg, I'm calling youGreg, but I mean John,

you say that this has lessto do with the company

and more to do withculture or culture today.

How so?

- Sure, we're not upsetwith the Irvine Company.

It's unfortunate thatthey're getting push back

from a few, I think there'sjust a few intolerant folks

that are really thwartingthe opportunity of thousands

of Christians that wanna comeand demonstrate their faith.

Ya know, over the course of the weekend,

a lot of things happenedand these 29 years,

we've seen marriages restored,we've seen families reunited,

we've seen people come off of drugs,

we've seen people come who were suicidal

and be able to receive help.

We've seen thousands uponthousands, about half a million

people have made professionsof faith in Christ

and found peace with God.

So, it's just mystifying to us that

we couldn't advertise that.

I mean, what's wrong with that?

Not only that but thisyear, we're partnering with

Compassion International andwe've made a commitment to

sponsor 3,000 children over in Ecuador

that need education, theyneed food and clothing,

and so, we're going to peoplewho come to the crusade

and we're gonna askthem to partner with us.

So, a lot of these goodthings that are happening,

are being prevented bythe intolerance of a few.

- Ya know, what is it?

I know that Jesus hastalked about this, John.

What is it about the message of the bible

that makes it so offensive?

What is it that people don't want to hear?

- Yes, well, the gospel is an offense.

I mean, it offends us ashumans because we are sinners

and when we address that with people,

Pastor Greg always likesto put it in the terms

of, "I've got good newsand I got bad news.

"The bad news is that you're a sinner.

"You're separated from God.

"It's how we were born, wewere all in that position

"and yet, the good newsis that God made a way

"for us to be restored and have fellowship

"with God once again."

That came through JesusChrist and through his

death and resurrection.

So, that message thatresonates with so many people,

for those that want tobasically discard it

or not listen to it ordon't wanna yield to that,

I think it's something thatkind of, they broach at it.

It's an offense to them.

- Absolutely.

Well, the beautiful HarvestCrusade is scheduled

for August 17th through the 19th

at Angel Stadium in Orange California.

John Collins, thank youso much for your time.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having us and bless you.

- Bless you too.