Seattle — About 80 churches hope to win converts to Christianity by mailing 42,000 unsolicited copies of the film "Jesus" to every household in four Seattle-area ZIP codes.
Local churches including Roman Catholic, Lutheran and other denominations spent more than two years raising $115,000 to fund the video project, which begins this month. The 1979 film depicts the life of Christ, according to the Gospel of St. Luke.
Groups throughout the country have distributed some 14 million "Jesus" videos.
Campus Crusade for Christ International, an interdenominational ministry based in Orlando, Fla., distributes the video and conducts training for grass-roots groups that want to distribute it. The goal of Campus Crusade's Jesus Video Project America is to get the video to every U.S. household.
"Are we looking for converts? Yes, we are," Gib Martin, a nondenominational pastor and chairman of the Southwest Seattle Jesus Video Project. "But it's also a gift we're offering to the community. It's a natural way to learn about what Christianity is."
The aggressive mailing effort has offended some recipients in some other areas. About 100 cassettes were returned to the post office in East Contra Costa, Calif. Hundreds of tapes were "returned to sender" in Palm Beach County, Fla., which has a large Jewish population.
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