posted 02-23-2005 10:26 AM                       

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Gene Scott dies of stroke

By Gary Scott, Staff Writer

PASADENA -- Dr. Gene Scott, the white-haired, wily-eyed television preacher whose digressing sermons, bullying calls for cash and offbeat interludes charmed his followers and captivated channel surfers, died Monday of a stroke. He was 75.

Scott, who made his home in Pasadena, was the longtime pastor of Los Angeles University Cathedral, which boasts more than 15,000 members. But his Biblical teachings have reached millions around the world through his "University Network" talk shows started in 1975.

There the Stanford-educated scholar built his reputation as a gruff but magnetic preacher, who alternated between a dead-pan seriousness and playful charm.

One minute he was threatening hell on any in flock unwilling to be charitable -- "God's honor is at stake" he would warn -- and the next he would be ruminating on the finer points of Costa Rican cigars or playing his saxophone.

In this way, Scott became the maverick icon of a televangelism movement he denounced at every turn. He was the subject of the 1980 documentary, "God's Angry Man," and had several run-ins with the FCC.

Yet, today his Festival of Faith program is broadcast worldwide over the radio and Internet 24 hours a day in four languages.

"He was a gentleman, obviously extremely intelligent, and always had a good joke to tell," remembers Mark Travis, his chief of staff and close friend.

Scott's detractors have called him a theological fraud, a charlatan with a unique gift for bullying the meek into opening their wallets.

Friends and family, however, remember a brilliant Biblical scholar and a philanthropist who gave generously to community causes, including several in Pasadena, where he made his home.

"He loved this community and the people who are part of it," said former Pasadena mayor Bill Paparian. "He was willing to do anything when called up on help the city he called home."

Scott was a major benefactor to the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, giving over $430,000 in 1994 when budget shortfalls threatened to shut down the center.

When the city's efforts to commission the USS Pasadena submarine were faltering, he gave $30,000 to jump-start the fund-raising drive, and pledged $50,000 at the request of Mayor Bill Bogaard to back the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition in 2000.

"His support for Pasadena, his interest in the community, made him a friend of Pasadena and a friend of mine," Bogaard said Tuesday.

Paparian said Scott's generosity ran deep. When the city was seeking to expand athletic program to help calm a rash of youth violence, he gave a gift of $60,000 to pay for air conditioning at the Victory Park gymnasium so the city could continue a summer basketball league.

Scott's only demand, Paparian said, was that the donation remain anonymous.

Scott was, to say the least, unconventional in his approach. Switch on the Festival of Faith and one was as likely to see him prancing around on an Arabian horse at his Bradbury ranch, or sitting poolside with bikini clad girls, as hear him pitching his brand of evangelism.

Scott was born Aug. 14, 1929, in Buhl, Idaho, a son of a traveling minister. His family moved to Northern California when he was still a child.

According to Travis, his parents' heavy handed fundamentalism turned Scott off to religion but he had a "reawakening" while attending Stanford. His studies focused on Christ's resurrection.

"He was force fed as a child and into his early youth that if you didn't do it you would burn in hell. He resented it immensely," Travis said, adding that this shaped his later teachings. "He believed that we were all sinners. And the only day we were redeemed was through Christ."

-- The Associated Press contributed to this story. Gary Scott can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4458, or by e-mail at gary.scott@sgvn.com .

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