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Although North has kept a low profile over the past few months, he has not been a hermit. He held a get-together last Christmas for neighbors and friends. In March he attended a farewell party for a Japanese journalist and his wife with whom the Norths had become friends after selling them a puppy. He seems to be relishing the time at home with his three children and Max, the family's Labrador retriever. Like any suburban dad on a weekend, he can be seen cutting the grass and barbecuing in the backyard. During the day his wife Betsy keeps the kitchen television tuned to the Iran-contra hearings.
Since he reportedly received several death threats this year, North has been protected around the clock by Navy guards. Two guards, sometimes three, escort him on his weekly visit to the barber. They were in tow when North went to his daughter's high school graduation last month. North sat in the back of the hall, causing something of a stir. Afterward, many of the parents offered him best wishes and asked him to pose for pictures.
At the moment North seems to be depending on prayer as much as legal advice. "His faith in the Lord is his backbone right now," says his sister Patricia, who lives in California. Though he still considers himself a Roman Catholic, North now attends the Church of the Apostles, an Episcopalian congregation in Fairfax, Va., known for such charismatic practices as faith healing and speaking in tongues. North has told his fellow churchgoers about how, at Camp Lejeune in 1978, he suffered a sudden bout of back pain. An officer knelt before him, laid on his hands and "healed" him.
North started visiting the Church of the Apostles after his eldest daughter Tait, 18, went there and then persuaded her family to join her. The congregation regularly offers prayers for North, and several members meet at North's home every Thursday night for a prayer session. "His faith is very evident," says Friend and Neighbor Betsy Smith. "It explains the peace that he has."
The rest of the family, however, is not always able to achieve such equanimity. North recently confided to a friend that Tait is bitter about how her father is being treated and at one point angrily criticized the U.S. for dealing with him so unfairly. Her father quickly rebuked her, saying that "if this was some other country and your father fell out of favor with the powers that be, he could go out for cigarettes one day and never come back." A touching story, but Tait's father does not do himself justice. Oliver North, as all know, did far more than merely fall out of favor with the powers that be.