Show DeLorean says he feels akin to Job By WILLIAM Religious New Jersey summer home but recalled that he still hadn't allowed Jesus to truly run his life His spiritual hunger took him in unconventional directions and he spent lots of time and money on a spiritual adviser who he said split town when his luck ran out It was in prison that he met a young black guard who was working his way through seminary and started him back on the Christian path "He told me Jesus loved me he repeated this over and over again with many scriptural proofs" DeLorean writes in his book The former General Motors executive and founder of the Delorean Motor Company began he recounts to see that he had been a proud arrogant phony all along and finally accepted the love of God He spends much of his time these days with the San New Start in Life Center a ministry to the homeless and divides his time between California and New York When in Los Angeles he attends Bible study groups several times a week and in New York he attends Calvary Baptist Church He says he is now looking for a way to earn a living and plans to design a new car in Columbus Ohio DeLorean intends to use his celebrity status to make his Christian testimony to all willing to listen to him For this reason he noted he chose to have his book Zonpublished by the dervan company rather than by other major publishing houses which insisted that he downplay his experi- BOLE News Service WASHINGTON — "There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil His substance also was seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels and five hundred she asses and a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East' Thus begins the biblical Book of Job which goes on to tell how God allowed Satan to take away from Job all that he had as a test of Job's faith in him The story would seem to have little to do with John Z DeLorean the celebrity carmaker whose recently released autobiography almost immediately hit the New York Times list and who is currently negotiating a film deal But DeLorean who emerged from a big trial with zarre 1984 both a verdict of innocence and a deChristian commitment clared believes he and Job have much in common "Three years ago I was one of the leading and considered one of the most sucin America" cessful industrialists DeLorean 60 said in an interview here recently while promoting his book "DeLorean" (Zondervan Books Grand Rapids Mich) "My wife and I were invited to every event anywhere in the world be it the Indianapolis 500 the Super Bowl or parties at Versailles You name it we were there We were the celebrity couple And I was well to do I probably had 40 or 50 million bucks former "Today" the Wunderkind of the American auto industry continued "all that is gone My good name has been destroyed My company was destroyed My family is gone My wife is gone I don't even see my kids very much because of the divorce action In other words what happened to Job happened to me" Indeed DeLorean has garnered much sympathy and support in his accounts of how the FBI set him up in a sting operation that began his downfall A year and a half ago a Los Angeles jury not only found him innocent of conspiring to sell $24 million in Colombian cocaine as a desperate move to save his bankrupt car company but also dealt a severe blow to the US Justice Department's sting operations Christian matter on the The other hand has been a little trickier for DeLorean who has faced skepticism ever since the trial when he was seen leaving jail with a Bible given to him by his former model Cristina Ferrare When the jury announced its verdict he stood upright and proclaimed "Praise the Lord" Now DeLorean finds himself in another trial of sorts — to prov e the sincerity of his expressions of faith which critics in the press and elsewhere have looked upon as a play for sympathy He seems to many also to be just the latest in a long line of celebrities who have hit rock bot- April 5 198© r ' ill X s 1 sit J - X ' - ' - - I ence 'i" ? File pfioto John Z DeLorean: torn sus 'Praise the Lord!" and have climbed out by finding Je- The skepticism is reminiscent of that which surrounded Charles Colson the former Watergate conspirator who underwent a conversion under similar circumstances Colson has gone on to become a evangelical Christian leader who runs a blossoming international ministry among prisoners DeLorean says he doesn't expect to become another Charles Colson since his faith is a simple one and he knows little if anything about theological matters But he does in any event have strong words for those including Christians who would cast judgment on him "I think that's a typical reaction from Christian community" he the said "I find it (the skepticism) rather peculiar because Christ accepted evervbody where they were — the prostitute the tax collector" It was his former wife who got most of the good publicity in Christian magazines when during the trial she announced her Christianity But DeLorean is quick to note that while making such professions of faith Mrs Ferrare was actually seeing another man ABC Television executive Tony Thomopoulos whom she married soon after the triaL She later launched a new of a Los Angeles morncareer as ing television show Although DeLorean's own conversion occurred in jail he pointed out that he remained silent about it until the trial was over "It was too precious for me to trade on" he remarked He added that his outspoken religious faith will if anything wbrk against him "What I've been doing and saying will be devastating to my future economic ability to earn a living because you know 99 percent of the business leaders are not Christians and now I have in their minds put myself over in this camp of eccentrics you know the kooks that they think we Christians are" DeLorean said he has always been reliwas reared a Catholic and attended Catholic Mass "seven days a week every morning of my life" In 198 he was baptized into an evangelical church near his gious He declined to identify the publishers which he said had made better financial offers According to Zondervan the book should earn DeLorean about $1 million in addition to the several thousand dollars advanced to him "The tragedy of my life is that the relationship I have with Jesus Christ has only occurred in the last three years and that's what I hope young people will look at What a shame to finally in your twilight years reach this level of spiritual maturity" he said "The other message I hope to get across to businessmen like me is that the Lord is an important part of your life You know businessmen are among the loneliest people in the world and the most unhappy So I want to try to convey that message so that they don't have to go through the terrible brokenness that I've had to go through to get to this point" DeLorean's legal problems are not over he still faces charges of bankruptcy fraud in Detroit But this Job also sees his fortunes turning -day for the better a prediction that may have something to do with one other thing about Job In the end God gave Job who withstood the test of faith more than he had lost "And I think that will ultimately happen to me" said DeLorean "It has already happened to me spiritually and will happen in other parts of my life" Ogden r Church News 5 |