Byang H. Kato
- View Issue
- Subscribe
- Give a Gift
- Archives
What’s ahead for the African church? Here is the concluding portion of the Editors’ interview with the general secretary of the Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar (see September 26 issue for Part I):
Question. Dr. Kato, a number of evangelical missionaries have complained about the use of American scholarship money to “buy the minds” of foreign Christian nationals. Is it true that in Africa young evangelical men and women are taken out of Bible schools and financed through schools with a theologically liberal bent, and that some lose their faith?
Answer. That is very much a problem. It is going to be so increasingly, until evangelicals wake up and see what’s to be done and get involved in doing it. I highly commend the administrators of the Theological Education Fund for their initiative and for emphasizing national training. They have helped many Africans get trained for positions of leadership. It is unfortunate that the training has been made mostly in liberal schools in Norh America and in Europe.
For some reason we evangelicals sometimes seem to see ignorance and naïveté as virtues. If a person is not very bright and does not ask questions, we say he is very spiritual. Maybe that’s why you find independent missions operating largely in the rural areas.
Q. What do you mean? What’s the connection?
A. Most of the work of independent missions over the years has been in rural areas. They have neglected the city centers and the intellectuals. Up to now it has only been the conciliar groups that have chosen these strategic areas, and therefore you find leaders of government and leaders of thought in the academic world coming from the liberal camp.
Thank God the picture is changing. We are moving to the intellectual circles now. We hope that evangelicals will wake up to the need for leadership training. While we still appreciate the coming of missionaries, let us not take that as an excuse to keep on exporting young people from America instead of training Africans.
Q. What is your organization doing to encourage the new trend?
A. Because we consider the coming of missionaries second to the need for developing leadership in Africa itself, we want to establish a graduate school of theology at Bangui in the Central African Republic (Bange) so that young people in Africa can be trained at this level.
Q. What is the evangelical strategy for witness at the Second World Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture [to be held in November in Lagos, Nigeria]?
A. The Nigerian Evangelical Fellowship has put in a request to have a booth there, and I have written a booklet for the occasion. The NEF will have displays and will show Christianity’s history on our continent. It will show that far from being a Western religion, Christianity has more connections with Africa than with Europe, let alone the young continent of America.
Q. You have said that Gatu is pushing the idea of a moratorium on missionaries. Do you feel that this view is broadly accepted among the African laity?
A. It is far from being the major thinking of the lay people in Africa. In my travels recently I came across a church group whose missionary was just transferred from one town to another, and the group was very angry with the mission. “Why do you take away our missionary?” they asked. This is typical of the thinking in Africa.
One Presbyterian couple from North America saw the need for working among the Masaai people in Kenya, and so they went there and built a hut and worked with them. The Masaai people have come to love them very much. They are developing better living conditions, building dams for better agriculture, and so on. A church leader in Africa then went to this particular couple and said their presence in Kenya is a hindrance. The couple said they would go home if that were the thinking of the people they were trying to work with. A government official was called in to talk to the Masaai people. They became quite indignant and warned that if the couple were forced out there would be strong reaction. The government gave the couple a ten-year permit instead of the usual two-year permit.
Q. So you are convinced that Africa still needs foreign missionaries.
A. Yes, I am. And even the advocates of moratorium are not consistent. After the conference in Lusaka, where there was such a cry raised for a moratorium on missionaries, many of the vocal ones headed for North America and Europe. Maybe they do not want the foreign people, but they surely want the money. About 97 per cent of the resources of the All African Conference of Churches comes from abroad. It would probably fold up without foreign support. Admittedly this is also the case with the Association of Evangelicals in Africa and Madagascar. But we recognize the need for support from overseas while we are working to raise some in Africa also. It is not a question of either/or but of both/and.
Q. How were you converted?
A. It was through the ministry of a missionary of the Sudan Interior Mission and a Nigerian school teacher. The missionary worked in my town and got me interested in Sunday school. Later, when I was twelve, I started going to school, and it was in the classroom through the ministry of a Nigerian school teacher that I came to know Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. My pagan parents later gave their hearts to Christ as well.
Q. Dr. Kato, you have suggested that Christians in Africa may be in for some hard times. In a number of countries there has been increasing political pressure of various sorts upon the churches. What is going on?
A. I think Bible-believing Christians in Africa should be prepared for some persecution perhaps before too long. Certainly there are things that would call the Bible-believing Christian to examine his position. We are deeply grateful that a number of high government officials in Africa are professing Christians. But as I have said before, the African is searching for an identity and asserting that identity. And in every country the authorities are rightfully anxious to bring about national unity. Some of our heads of state do not see any differences between liberals, evangelicals, Roman Catholics, and so on. They see only “Christianity,” and the emphasis is just to have unity. Any dissenting voice is suspected of being an enemy of unity.
Q. So this creates pressures.
A. It does. Another thing has to do with culture. There is a strong movement that Africans should be authentic and go back into the root of our existence and find our connections with our ancestors. This readily raises religious tensions. I am not condemning culture as such. I think I am thankful for being an African, and there are certain cultural elements that are compatible with a biblical outlook and can and should be retained. But some are not. Some of these so-called cultural things amount to denying the faith we hold so dear. Some leaders, for example, are calling for secret oaths similar to those of the Mau Mau, and other pagan practices. Thank God some influential Christians have taken a stand against such things as pouring libations to the ancestors.
Q. What is that all about?
A. Well, I heard an interesting story recently of a Christian leader in Zaire at a formal occasion where drinks were being poured on the ground out of respect for ancestors. But this Christian leader, instead of pouring his drink on the ground, lifted it up and thanked God in prayer. They told him he was not being an authentic Zairean. He told them he was a Zairean but not an ancestor worshiper. Rather, he said, he was a Christian whose practice was to give thanks. I thought that was beautiful. Unfortunately, many in Zaire are saying that they are Zairean first and Christian second. That’s why I said that Bible-believing Christians may be heading for persecution.
Q. How are the people in Zaire reacting to their political leadership, considering that they have long been under Christian missionary influence?
A. President Mobutu Sese Seko has done a lot for Zaire. Anarchy had been threatened, and he has brought order out of chaos. The people of Zaire are certainly happy with what he has done, and so they respect him. The Bible tells us to respect the powers that be. When it comes to the point where our religious convictions are involved, I think Christians should speak up to authority. This is not easy in Africa because the consequences can be far reaching. Some people who want to object may be afraid to do so.
Q. Zaire seems to be particularly interested in dealing with Christianity as a whole, a unified group as you mentioned earlier.
A. Yes, the Christians there have been forced into one big consortium of sorts. Of course, one has to understand the background situation in Zaire: the kind of dominance the Catholic Church had during the days under Belgium, and the multiplicity of splinter groups clamoring for recognition. The new arrangement could be a blessing in disguise. The Church of Christ in Zaire has an imposed unity and is headed by a clergyman who is a member of the WCC Central Committee. But the constitution of the CCZ allows a good deal of liberty for the individual denominations, now referred to as “communities.” It is up to Zairean Christians to make good use of the constitution.
Q. Are the Arabs having any success in spreading Islam in Africa? How strong are the Communists?
A. There is definitely a strong Islamic influence in Africa. But in countries other than Muslim states the Muslims are limited in policy-making positions. This issue of Communism is a touchy one. There is much emphasis today in Africa on African socialism. In all fairness we must appreciate the call for a kind of socialism because capitalism has become a real curse in Africa and the gap between the haves and have-nots continues to widen. In Africa today you will find many millionaires but also many people who go to bed hungry.
Many Africans are enthusiastic about Mao and admire some of the ideologies of Communist countries. Many young Africans go to Communist countries for an education. It is worth pointing out that when you study in a given situation it is difficult not to absorb the ideas, too. Some of the Communist ideas are not necessarily bad, but their atheism is what we totally reject as Christians. So Communist countries are having their influence in Africa just as Western countries had it for years.
Q. What do you think that Christians in Western capitalistic countries could be doing to help the material development of the people? Are things not getting done that Christian businessmen in the West could be doing?
A. Yes, I think that if Christian businessmen and other leaders in the Western world would take into serious consideration the voluntary agencies that are operating in Africa and would lend assistance in agriculture and preventive medicine, it would help a great deal. But sometimes the problem is not at that end. Sometimes the governments are not keen to see voluntary agencies operate. The governments want to give the impression that they are already doing what is needed. They feel that exposing their countries’ poverty abroad affects prestige.
Q. What do you think can be done in the southern part of Africa to give representation to non-Europeans?
A. We are now in the process of organizing a national evangelical fellowship for the whole Republic of South Africa that would be multi-racial and interdenominational. We may come up against a wall, but I have been working in correspondence with both blacks and whites. If Bible-believing Christians pray and keep talking, we probably will achieve more success than a radical approach would. We can have the radical approach to government and non-church organizations. We see the work of the Church as conciliatory.
- More fromByang H. Kato
- View Issue
- Subscribe
- Give a Gift
- Archives
A centenary look at ‘Science and Health’
Almost on an impulse, yet on the strength of a long-held curiosity, I went into a Christian Science Reading Room. It was in a neat looking brick building whose main door opened to a bookstore. Behind the counter was an attractive middle-aged woman with a warm smile and a friendly manner. A Christian Scientist for only a few years, she was beaming from the peace of mind she had found.
She offered to show me through the other rooms of the building. Next to the store was a comfortably furnished library. On one wall hung a large picture of Mary Baker Eddy, crowned with white hair that was set off by the dark coat and large fur collar she was wearing. The hostess paused at the picture and remarked on its beauty. A light came into her eyes, and it was apparent that she felt an intense gratitude to this leader of her faith.
In the one hundred years since Mrs. Eddy wrote her famous Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures, her teachings have permanently affected the lives of possibly millions of people. In thousands of homes the book lies next to the Bible as a spiritual aid that comforts and inspires. The dangerous doctrine that results makes a Scientist afraid to interpret the Bible without consulting the Eddy explanation. Science and Health is currently available in thirteen languages.
Mrs. Eddy insisted that her book was of divine origin, and it included the special “keys” that would unlock the inspired Scriptures. The volume includes a twenty-page glossary to explain what Bible words actually mean. For instance: angels are really God’s thoughts passing to man (p. 581). Death is an illusion, the lie of life (p. 584). The name Adam is two words, “a” and “dam,” and refers to obstruction or error. This type of logic results from her premise that we must substitute the spiritual for the material definition in order to elucidate the meaning of the inspired writers (p. 579).
The result of these mental gymnastics is a strange collection of highly unconventional doctrines. Man does not die and man was not born (p. 206). Man did not fall; it is only the Adam-dream (p. 282). Mind is God (p. 310). Christ died not to provide pardon for sinners but to demonstrate that the Master could overcome death (p. 24). The Comforter that John promised is Divine Science (p. 55).
Some of the tenets of Christian Science appear almost orthodox at first glance—e.g., man, made in God’s image, is “saved through Christ …”; but many of the words do not carry their usual meanings.
While it was not my guide’s experience, she confirmed the fact that most converts to Christian Science come for health reasons. They have tried conventional physicians and for one reason or another have not been helped. Then, turning to Christian Science, they believe they have been healed and consequently embrace it as a religion.
This is the way Mrs. Eddy herself came to her beliefs. After experiencing numerous disappointments and illnesses, she claimed to experiment with the power of God in her life. In 1866, when she was forty-five, she supposedly was healed from a serious accident after reading Matthew 9:2 and was given a special revelation. Her studies of the healings of Jesus helped lead her to this “spiritual influx” and are said to have raised her above the average Bible interpreter. Mrs. Eddy taught that the beginning of Christian Science was “unquestionably” the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
My guide admitted that her own struggle over pain was not always easy, but she was firmly convinced that mind over matter was a spiritual reality. It seemed logical to her that since God, the creator of everything, is good, he could not create anything evil, and consequently there is no evil in the world.
I asked her if there would be pain if she hit her finger with a hammer. Not if she thought about good and noble things, she replied; but if she thought there was pain the finger would hurt.
Christian Science “practitioners” help heal the sick. Their names and addresses are listed in the telephone directories and in the Christian Science Journal. They charge a fee comparable to a physician’s fee. Practitioners attempt to help patients without resorting to material aids or medicine. Their main tools are praying, counseling, and recommending good literature designed to free the mind. From this approach they report all types of healings including the arrest of bone decay and the cure of grippe, hernia, varicose veins, and valvular heart disorders, to mention a few. (Later in her life—she died in 1910—Mrs. Eddy’s own control over pain evidently lessened; according to Sydney Ahlstrom, “as her health declined and attacks of renal calculi grew more frequent, morphine had to be administered at regular intervals” [A Religious History of the American People, p. 1,024].)
Qualified practitioners have presented testimony to the Mother Church in Boston as to their abilities. “C.S.” after a practitioner’s name means he has been instructed by an authorized teacher; “C.S.B.” means he has been taught in a normal class of the Christian Science Board of Education. Their field of purported expertise is broad and takes in the settling of strife, including racial conflict. Omaha, Nebraska, has twelve practitioners; Chicago, 102.
The library plays a large part in the healing ministry; reading the Bible, Mrs. Eddy’s writings and other metaphysical literature is thought to contribute greatly to the development of a sound mind and body.
My guide led me from the library into a small but appealing church auditorium. It had comfortable looking theater seats and a small platform with a pulpit. The room appeared to hold 125 people, and my hostess said that the normal congregation was probably 50. I was impressed at the financial sacrifice this structure would mean for so few people.
Many people hold a dual membership, belonging also to the Mother Church in Boston, the hostess explained. After one has been part of a local group for one year, one can apply for membership in the Boston church as a means of showing love and gratitude for Christian Science.
The Sunday-morning service in the local branch is simple and usually lasts less than an hour. There are no paid clergy; lay leaders read to the congregation. The first reader explains passages from Science and Health while the second reads from the Bible. The congregation may listen to a paid soloist, sing hymns, and pray silently. At the close of the service the congregation recites the Lord’s Prayer, stopping after each phrase for a reader to inject an interpretation by Mrs. Eddy.
On Wednesday nights there is a testimony service. Here people recount some of the things that Science has done for them. This important service is not to be neglected even for Christmas. Testimonies are used a great deal in Christian Science because they both encourage believers and attract new converts. The Scientists’ weekly radio program, “The Truth That Heals,” uses this format and includes accounts of healed marriages and personal tranquillity. Weekly the Scientists publish the Christian Science Sentinel, packed with testimonies of miraculous healings.
As I stood in the auditorium, I noticed an impressive quotation by Jesus in large black letters hanging on the right wall. But then I saw that hanging opposite it on the left was a similar quotation by Mary Baker Eddy. It would be difficult to overstate the authority that Mrs. Eddy holds in the Church of Christ, Scientist. While adherents are sure to point out that she is not considered to be equal to Jesus Christ, she is believed to be “infallible” (Braden, Christian Science Today, p. 240) concerning both religion and organization. Her Manualinsists on complete obedience and forbids any amendments without her written consent. Since she has been dead for sixty-five years the church is practically immovable. A Board of Directors is selected from the Mother Church in Boston, and these five are the sole interpreters of Mrs. Eddy’s writings. Although this rigidity has caused some friction in the church, the practice remains fixed.
The last room in the small complex to which my guide took me was the Sunday-school department, consisting of a number of tables for children and youths. Education is a major part of the Scientists’ program.
Another part of their teaching program is the large series of lectures—some 4,000 lectures per year throughout the world, given by members of the Board of Lectureship. The lecturer due to come the following weekend to this local group was from Minneapolis. The lecture is free and gives an excellent opportunity to invite friends and interested persons. The lecture titles include “Prayer-Power,” “What It Takes to Heal,” and “Become What You Are.”
My guide and I returned to the bookstore section, and I was impressed again by the large number of attractive publications available at reasonable prices. Even Mrs. Eddy’s venerable volume Science and Health is printed in an appealing paperback for $2.50.
On the floor stood a newspaper rack containing the Christian Science Monitor. Inaugurated in 1908 by Mrs. Eddy, the newspaper has won great respect from many quarters and may be the Scientists’ best form of publicity. It is published Monday through Friday and attempts to give as positive a slant as possible to the news. It was Mrs. Eddy’s intention that the paper would injure no one but would bless all mankind. It has correspondents all over the country. Each edition contains one column reflecting Christian Science doctrine, but otherwise the paper is comparable to the national news and features sections of secular dailies.
Further conversation with my patient hostess pointed up the fact that Christian Science is more than a healing ministry. Its theology is basically universalistic. There is no hell because hell is evil; God is good and God would not create evil. There is no heaven in the traditional sense but only the spirit world, which one enters when he is separated from his body. Consequently there is no death, though some transference may be necessary. Sin is unreal. Spiritual understanding will cast out evil, but we are punished by sin as long as the belief in it lasts.
After paying for a few pamphlets, I expressed my appreciation to my courteous guide and went on my way. She seemed so friendly and so content. I wondered how many people would walk into that same reading room and accept the teachings of Christian Science as God’s truth.
- View Issue
- Subscribe
- Give a Gift
- Archives
Men and women in this Western world are intrigued, stimulated, enchanted, bemused, and certainly preoccupied by sex. They are also confused, perplexed, hurt, alienated, and depressed by it.
Daily in our consultation rooms we physicians see patients with sexual or sex-related problems. The frigid woman, the impotent man. The adolescent girl plagued with doubts about her feminity because “she doesn’t”; the adolescent boy unsure of his masculinity either because “he hasn’t” or because “he has” in a setting where sexual enjoyment was practically impossible. We see wives who feel unloved because of their husbands’ lack of tenderness and sexual expression, spending their nights in lonely agony huddled on their side of the bed. Even more often in this society where the strange tradition still flourishes that women don’t have sexual needs, we see husbands who feel they are unloved (and indeed are sexually unloved) by their wives.
In one study, Burnap and Golden report that the average physician sees 230 cases of sexual problems per year, and that a full 70 percent of these are husbands and wives needing help in their marital sexual adjustment.
In this culture seemingly gone mad with sex and also torn with sexual perplexities and problems, what does the Church have to say about sex? The only thing I hear from the Church at large is negative. “No contraception” from the Roman Catholic side. “No premarital or extramarital sex” from various church circles, including the evangelical.
Where do we hear the Church saying to modern men and women, “This is where your personal and sexual needs will be met and fulfilled”? “This is God’s answer to your sexual preoccupation”? Where do we see the Church giving a positive answer to modern man’s endless questioning in the arts, in the media, and in his own mind about the full realization of sexuality and sensuality?
The Church has failed to give God’s answers to this intense questioning, apparently in a misguided attempt to avoid appearing prurient. This is a serious charge to make, but from my personal experience as a church member, from my clinical experience as a psychiatrist, and from my study of God’s word, it seems to be valid.
God does not leave us alone to work through the conflicting attitudes toward our sensuality that we find within our society and within ourselves. He has very much indeed to say to us on this important subject.
Search the Scriptures through and through and you find in them no hint that sex within marriage is to be suppressed, repressed, or even sublimated. Nowhere are human sexuality and the full enjoyment of it denied or derided. Rather, in the Word of God we find sex openly discussed without a hint of shame or reproach, fully taken for granted as an important part of existence, and this for man and for woman equally. In fact, human sexuality and its outworkings are repeatedly used to illustrate God’s own dealings with man.
Scriptural attitudes toward sex are well summarized in Paul’s statement to Timothy that “God gave these things to well taught Christians to enjoy and be thankful for” (The Living Bible) and in the teaching in Hebrews that “marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled.”
Three passages from the New Testament confront us with the mind of God on this subject. First, in Matthew 19:4–6 Jesus says this:
And he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh? So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
In this key New Testament passage on sex and marriage, Jesus substantially repeats Genesis 2:23 and 24. There is no mention here of the notion of romantic love held so dear by Western man, though a lovely and helpful notion it is. Neither is there mention of that concept so prominent in churchly literature, of commitment to the spouse in the marriage contract prior to sexual intercourse, though a noble and helpful concept this is. Jesus simply states the essence of our motivation to marry—our maleness and our femaleness: “He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother.…”
But he doesn’t stop there: “For this cause shall a man … cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. So that they are no more two, but one flesh.”
Now, surely Christ is not saying that simply in the sexual act a man and a woman become one flesh? Yes, that is precisely what he is saying. And so that we will not miss the full force of this point, Paul restates it even more vividly in First Corinthians 6:16–18:
Know ye not that he that is joined [cleaves] to a harlot is one body? For, The twain, saith he, shall become one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
What could be more totally physical than sexual relations with a prostitute? Yet, says the apostle, these two also become “one flesh.”
Then, as if to seal this teaching on the centrality of the physical union in the man-woman relationship, Jesus adds in the Matthew passage, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” One can only believe, in the face of all this, that the physical sexual act creates a spiritual bond, recognized and sanctioned by God.
This is a high view of intercourse. But when we stop and think about it, it is right; it is true to our deepest natures. Sexual intercourse involves many aspects and attributes of man and woman other than the physical (the need for intimate companionship is a prominent example). But the sexual act is first of all a supremely and gloriously physical act, one filled with seemingly limitless sensuality, one that draws forth our most intense animal vitality. It is an act abounding in wonderful physical excitement and satiety for both partners. And it is in this physical act that a man and woman become “one flesh.”
Masters and Johnson, who do not write from a Christian orientation, catch the essence of this “one flesh” concept in their chapter on the treatment of female frigidity:
Frequently, it is of help to assure the wife that once the marital unit is sexually joined, the penis belongs to her just as the vagina belongs to her husband. When vaginal penetration occurs, both partners have literally given of themselves as physical beings, in order to derive pleasure from each other [Human Sexual Inadequacy, Little, Brown, 1970].
C. S. Lewis in his usual lucid way puts the matter like this in The Screwtape Letters:
Now comes the joke. The enemy described a married couple as “one flesh.” He did not say a “happily married couple” or a “couple who married because they were in love,” but you can make humans ignore that. You can also make them forget that the man they call Paul did not confine it to married couples. Mere copulation, for him, makes “one flesh.” You can thus get the humans to accept as rhetorical eulogies of “being in love” what were in fact plain descriptions of the real significance of sexual intercourse. The truth is that where ever a man lies with a woman, there, whether they like it or not, a transcendental relation is set up between them which must be eternally enjoyed or eternally endured [Macmillan, 1941, p. 93].
This reality of man and woman being “one flesh” is used by Paul as the basis for his comments on the conduct of the husband toward the wife in Ephesians 5. And it is clear from the context that this also underlies his thinking when in First Corinthians 7:3–5 he says this about the sexual relationship between the marital pair:
Let the husband render unto the wife her due: and likewise also the wife unto her husband. The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband hath not power over his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be by consent for a season, that ye may give yourselves unto prayer, and may be together again, that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency.
The idea explicit here of the woman demanding “her due” sounds strange to one brought up in our Western traditions, and especially in our Western church traditions. And it is interesting to note that the Apostle Paul, often portrayed as a woman-hating bachelor, places the right of the woman to make the sexual demand on her husband first in the order of things sexual. What the wife asks in sex, says Paul, the husband delivers, and the same for the wife to the husband. His body is hers to command in sex, and he has total power over her body.
What a thunderously radical idea: he is to be totally subject to her every sexual whim and fancy, and she to his!
“You mean, O God, that the sexual part of me is now to be placed totally at the command of another? You mean, O God, that I am to be fully responsive to her craving for the touch, the taste, and the feel of me? You mean this, even if I am unconsciously terrified of what she might do to me? You mean, O God, that if she asks I am to give, I am to respond without reservation? You mean, too, that if I ask she is to respond in like fashion to the urgent sensuality within me?”
To all these questions, and more such, God answers in Holy Writ with a clear voice: “Yes, my boy, you do not have power over your own body; your wife does. And likewise, your wife does not have power over her own body; you do.”
If we are honest, we must conclude, “Yes, He is right again. If I had lived that attitude in regard to my sexuality my wife would be a happier person today. If my wife had lived that attitude regarding her sexuality, I would be a more fulfilled person today.”
And I know that if the husbands and wives I see in my offices day by day would adopt this attitude toward their sexuality, they too would be happier people.
But it is not only in regard to the sexual side of our natures that we as Christians have come to understand that to subject ourselves to another is to find ourselves. We have come to recognize the profound truth set forth by Jesus when he said, “He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” We are not at all upset when Peter refers to us as “free” and as “bond-servants of God” in the very same breath.
What Paul has to say here, in First Corinthians 7, in regard to sex is fully consistent with that paradoxical teaching that it is only in subjection to Another that we humans find freedom. Only in complete subjection of our bodies—and hence of ourselves—to our wives can we as men find freedom for fully experiencing our sexuality and our masculinity. Only in the full and free subjection of our wives to us will they fully experience their sexuality and their femininity. Only in this bondage are we able to fully love and be loved. Only in this bondage will we find freedom to know ourselves as sexual sensate beings, free to depend on another for the satisfaction of this most intimate need of our natural being.
And only in this total submission of self to the other can the partners find relief from the sexual abuse that we doctors so frequently hear about in our offices: the bartering of sexual favors for some wished for behavior on the part of the spouse; rejection; sexual one-upmanship and gamesmanship; sexual withdrawal as punishment. Only in this acceptance of our total responsiveness to the other, even in the absence of a mutual sense of romantic love—in fact, even in the presence of mutual hostility—can we as husbands and wives bring into our marriages the therapeutic effectiveness of sexual intimacy, the healing balm for those rifts that so often arise and grow between us.
Indeed, it is only in each other that husbands and wives can fully know themselves as God created them: in the full sensate nature of their beings. In the sexual act the two become “one flesh”; each without the other is incomplete, forever unfulfilled and less than whole.
Leon Morris
- View Issue
- Subscribe
- Give a Gift
- Archives
If anyone wills to come after me,” said Jesus, “he must say ‘No’ to self. He must take up his cross day after day and follow me. For whoever wills to save his life will lose it; but he that wills to lose his life for my sake, this is the man who will save it” (Luke 9:23, 24).
Our generation just does not believe that. For us it is axiomatic that if we are to be successful in life we must press on with our own interests. If this cuts across the interests of other people, so much the worse for other people.
We defend ourselves by saying that there is nothing new in all this. Men and women have been living this way for centuries; probably they always have done so. Maybe there is a bit more of it in our day, but that means no more than that we are more open, less given to hypocrisy than were earlier generations. In fact, we find it quite possible to make a virtue out of our failings!
There is something in this. There is certainly no virtue in covering up and pretending to be better than we are. These days people have a certain impatience with sham, and for that we ought to be thankful. Furthermore, selfish conduct is not exactly new. “Realists” in every generation have been cynical about the virtues Christians advocate and have studiously avoided them when their own interests have been at stake. (They have, of course, advocated them when other people’s practice meant their own profit.)
But society at large has not condoned such practices. Society has held that people ought to be honest and reliable. Persons have been held to be responsible beings, expected to contribute in some way to the general welfare.
What is new is. that society at large seems to have abandoned the expectation that its members will behave with consideration for the rights and needs of others. People no longer trust one another to do what is right. The basic assumption is that everyone will be concerned in the first place with his own interests. No one is trusted to act with integrity. The expectation is that people will further their own ends and that the only sensible policy is to take steps to see that one’s own interests do not suffer.
This has far-reaching effects. People accept jobs and then don’t turn up for them. Employers promise conditions and then do not stand by their word. TV cameras are installed to watch for bank robbers but also to keep an eye on customers in stores. And on the staff. An article in a Melbourne newspaper (I live in Australia) recently pointed out that industry and commerce suffer far greater losses these days from staff than from all the shop-lifting customers plus burglars.
Where there is no written contract, or where the contract is loosely written, or where the contract can be broken without serious penalty, then it is common for the contract not to be honored. The fine print tends to get longer and fuller as people try to guard against this tendency, and, of course, more and more ingenuity is expended in getting round it. The assumption is widely accepted that it makes no sense, as W. C. Fields reportedly said, to give a sucker an even break.
This extends to national politics. It is rare these days to find leaders who can count on the loyalty of their colleagues and supporters through thick and thin. This means that a lot of time and energy must be spent in guarding against the stab in the back. And that in turn means that time and energy that ought to be spent in solving great national problems are spent instead on mere survival.
On the international level it is not much better. We have advanced here from “no trust” to total skepticism. Nobody seems to believe anybody anymore. Traditionally, people in Australia have been skeptical about statements made by totalitarian regimes, but they have felt that official statements made by responsible spokesmen in the democracies were different. While perhaps “open” government was too much to hope for, at least our elected governments would not lie. Not any longer. There have been too many instances in which lying has been elevated to the status of a policy.
Some have rebelled against the values commonly accepted throughout society. They have seen society as hopelessly materialistic and have rejected the whole set-up. But the hippie movement has been no more conspicuous for unselfishness than has society at large. It has had a different scale of values but an incurable determination to pursue its own way, no matter the cost to others.
There is a grim nemesis about all this. People have rejected the Christian way, denouncing it as hopelessly impractical. “It just won’t work.” In its place they have evolved a system that is its own condemnation. The ethic of selfishness, issuing in a “no trust” society as it has, can scarcely be said to have proved practical.
It is time for Christians to take a hard look at what they stand for. It is not easy to see what they are doing in a “no trust” society, for their whole system is built on trust. At the heart of their religion there is a cross, and the cross means that human beings are sinners and need a Saviour. The cross is God’s answer to the problem of man’s sin. It is God’s way of making it clear that sin is an evil thing (our modern selfishness as well as every other sin). And it is God’s way of saying that the final word is not with sin but with love.
Love is the greatest thing in the world, even in a stupid “no trust” world like ours. Love can take the sinner in all his sin and cleanse and free him. Love can produce the radical change that the Bible calls being born all over again. Love means a death to the whole way of selfishness. Love means a new start.
But unless a person is prepared to trust God, none of this happens. The Gospel is eloquent of God’s love. It opens up a new and power-filled way for a person to live. But the answer to the question “What must I do to be saved?” is still, “Believe.” Without trust in God we are back on our own efforts, and our own efforts have consistently let us down. But if we do trust in God, then his love takes over, and the miracle of rebirth takes place.
And when a person trusts God, one of the things that happens is that he becomes trustworthy. This is the thing that Christians must keep saying to a “no trust” society. Let us forget our petty defenses of our entrenched prejudices. That is not our task. Our task is rather so to trust that we can be trusted. Thus may we cast our vote for a “full trust” society.
- More fromLeon Morris
- View Issue
- Subscribe
- Give a Gift
- Archives
A number of subscribers have asked us how they can tell from the mailing label on the magazine when their subscription expires. We’ll gladly break the code. The data line across the top of the label ends with the letters ITG and a number. If that number is, for example, 30, the subscription has thirty issues (or roughly fifteen months) to go. ITG means Issues To Go. Simple, isn’t it?
I want to commend John Chancellor of NBC for his gracious and fair retraction of his earlier statement that Billy Graham approved of the ordination of practicing homosexuals (for a report on what Graham really said, see our August 29 issue, page 47). Mr. Chancellor got caught in an unintentional misstatement. He has now set the record straight. May we all—CT included—be willing to admit our goofs.
Robert D. Linder
- View Issue
- Subscribe
- Give a Gift
- Archives
Catholic Pentecostals in Ireland now outnumber Protestant Pentecostals, according to observers. Moreover, there has been significant cooperation between Catholics and Protestants involved in the so-called charismatic renewal movement—a development virtually unprecedented in Irish church history. The number of the movement’s conferences and centers, committees, charismatic prayer groups—and critics—has grown considerably in the last two years.
More than 1,200 people registered for the first National Conference on Charismatic Renewal in Ireland held in Dublin a year ago. Planners were expecting at least twice that number and possibly as many as 5,000 at this month’s annual conference. Major addresses were to be given by Cardinal Leon Joseph Suenens of Belgium and by Presbyterian minister Tom Smail, the newly appointed director of the Fountain Trust in Great Britain (see following story). A variety of workshops were to be led by teams of Catholics and Protestants.
Several Protestant and Catholic charismatic leaders combined forces and funds last year to establish a Christian Renewal Centre at Rostrevor in Northern Ireland. Rostrevor is a small village about halfway between Belfast and Dublin, the capitals of the “two Irelands,” north and south. The project is under the leadership of Anglican cleric Cecil Kerr of the Church of Ireland, a former chaplain at Queen’s University in Belfast.
Now, a year later, nine people from several different denominations live in community at the Rostrevor center. Each member of the group, including Kerr, receives about $8.80 a week for spending money; all else is communal. The center stresses faith living with no prescribed income or endowment. According to Kerr, the purpose of the center “is to provide a place of prayer, of renewal and reconciliation for people from all traditions in Ireland. We believe that Ireland’s problems can only be solved when we come together to receive the reconciliation which Christ has wrought for us on the cross.” He projects that the center eventually will house twelve residents with room for about twenty visitors.
To coordinate the national conferences, help to found other renewal centers in Ireland, and foster renewal in the country in general, a ten-person National Service Committee was set up earlier this year. Its seven Catholic and three Protestant members come from all parts of Ireland. The three Protestants are Kerr, Presbyterian deaconness Yvonne Cooke from Northern Ireland, and Joy Marston, an Anglican from the Republic. Among Catholics on the committee are Larry Kelly, a businessman from Newtownabbey in Northern Ireland and one of the first Catholics involved in the renewal in Ulster; Father Martin Tierney, chaplain at the Dublin airport and a leading figure in the charismatic movement in that city; and Dublin businessman Thomas Flynn, the author of a recent controversial volume entitled The Charismatic Renewal and the Irish Experience (Hodder and Stoughton, 1974). Overall, the committee lineup lists two clergymen, one nun, one monk, and six laypersons.
Extensive lay participation has been one of the marks of the renewal movement in both the Republic and Northern Ireland. In the south, leadership is about evenly divided between priests, nuns, monks, and the laity. Father Tierney says that more and more lay people are getting involved, many of them thinking and acting for themselves religiously for the first time. “That’s why many Irish Catholic bishops are skeptical of the movement,” he said in an interview.
In Northern Ireland, most of the leaders are either laypeople (from various churches) or Protestant clergymen. Few Catholic priests have participated, and the Catholic hierarchy in the north is generally suspicious if not hostile.
In both north and south, the number of charismatic prayer groups is increasing steadily. The largest of many such groups in Ireland is the Eustace Street prayer meeting in Dublin. Beginning in January, 1972, with twelve people at a different location, a large throng now gathers every Friday evening at the Friends Meeting House on Eustace Street for a service of prayer, praise, hymn-singing, Bible-reading, testimonies, speaking in tongues, interpretation, and prophecy. At one recent meeting more than 700 attended, and some 150 were turned away for lack of space. Most of those who attend are Catholics. There is a sprinkling of Anglicans, Presbyterians, mainline Pentecostals, and Plymouth Brethren.
Charismatic prayer meetings in Northern Ireland are not as large as those in the south. Significantly, however, they are one of the few forums in strife-torn Ulster where Protestants and Catholics gather for extended periods of open communication. The meetings follow much the same pattern as charismatic prayer groups anywhere. The largest of them reportedly is the Antrim Road group in Belfast which attracts from sixty to a hundred people weekly. According to one northern leader, scores of similar but smaller weekly prayer groups meet all over Ulster, most of them numbering from twenty to forty in attendance.
The prayer groups in the north differ from those in the south in that they are predominantly Protestant. As in the south, the majority of charismatics are from the majority faith. However, Catholic participation in the north has grown dramatically since Catholics first became involved in the renewal there in 1971.
Director Smail of the Fountain Trust, a Presbyterian pastor in Ulster at the time, was one of the early leaders of the movement among Protestants in the north. Initially, Presbyterians took the lead in the spread of the renewal. However, Smail reports that today the charismatic movement is growing faster among Catholics than among any other group in Northern Ireland. Further, he indicated that it is growing faster among Methodists and Anglicans than among Presbyterians, who tend to be the most resistant to the movement among the mainline Protestant denominations (except perhaps for the Baptists, a much smaller group than the Presbyterians).
Smail stressed that in the charismatic movement in Northern Ireland “the situation is fluid and growing, and currently exists under a certain amount of threat.” Other charismatic leaders in Ulster agreed with his assessment. The Catholic hierarchy and denominational leaders are wary of the movement, and militants on both sides dislike the fraternizing between Catholics and Protestants.
But even under the “threat,” a number of significant breakthroughs have been reported in Protestant-Catholic relationships in charismatic meetings. For example, at one gathering in Belfast a young Catholic girl whose close relative had been murdered by Protestant militants embraced a Protestant girl whose brother had been killed by the Irish Republican Army. In another instance, a rough, hard-drinking, nominally Protestant shipyard worker was converted at a recent charismatic gathering in Rostrevor. After receiving the baptism of the Spirit he confessed his former hatred of “Taigs” (Catholics) and announced: “I think I used to be the most bigoted man in the Belfast shipyards, but the Holy Spirit seemed to come into my life and push the hate right out.”
But not all is sweetness and light. Critics of the movement have increased in recent months. Father Tierney in Dublin frankly admits that most of the Irish bishops “would like for it to go away.” Firebrand Ian R. K. Paisley, Ulster’s best-known preacher-politician and minister of the large and influential Martyr’s Memorial Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast, has spoken against the charismatics.
Herbert M. Carson, a leading Irish Baptist minister, questions the movement’s doctrinal base and expresses concern that Protestant charismatics are unwilling to come to grips with Catholic charismatics’ adherence to Rome’s teachings on the papacy and the Virgin Mary. Other Baptists and many Presbyterians criticize the movement for emphasizing experience and the subjective without a counterbalancing stress on doctrinal and scriptural objectivity.
In response, Father Tierney asserts that the movement is interested not in doctrinal wrangling but in “a real mingling of heart with heart, united in the heart of Christ,” and “in learning to live together and love together in a deeper way through the power of the Spirit.”
Other charismatic leaders frankly admit there are unresolved problems of Protestant-Catholic relationships and doctrine. But they emphasize that the renewal is thoroughly evangelical in that it stresses repentance and commitment to Christ as essentials of the Christian life. “The last thing we want and the last thing Ireland needs is a new denomination,” Kerr declared in an interview. He insisted that after the Holy Spirit breaks down the walls “the doctrine will follow.”
For the moment, Tom Flynn’s observation about the spiritual and social dynamics of the movement in Ireland appears to be largely true: “The most important universal feature of the charismatic renewal is that it is bringing Christians of all denominations together in a new and exciting way.” Still to be demonstrated, however, is the renewal’s power to sweep away the memory of the Irish past, silence the guns of the terrorists, and create the kind of trust necessary to solve the present conflict in Ireland.
PREPARED
Retired Foursquare pastor Melville S. Taylor had often said that when it came time for him to die he wanted the Lord to take him while he was preaching. Last month he was guest preacher at Baseview Assembly of God church in Emerado, North Dakota. He said when he started to preach that he hadn’t realized until then what the Lord wanted him to talk about, commented Steven Robbins, Baseview’s pastor. “Then he talked about eternal life. He stated in his message that he loved his family, but that if the Lord chose to take him home he was prepared to go right now.”
A moment later, said Robbins, the 71-year-old Taylor collapsed and fell from the podium, apparently having suffered a heart attack. Attempts to revive him failed.
Taylor’s long-standing wish had been honored.
Charismatic Concerns
A number of important meetings of charismatics were held last month.
In London, the Fountain Trust—Britain’s leading charismatic organization—brought together 1,800 persons for a five-day conference that stressed among other things charismatic involvement in social action. Among the speakers were Archbishop Bill Burnett of Cape Town, South Africa; Jesuit theologian Paul Lebeau, an aide to Belgium’s Cardinal Leon Josef Suenens; Bishop Chiu Ban It of Singapore; Dominican priest Francis MacNutt of St. Louis, one of the first Catholic Pentecostals to be involved in a healing ministry; and Anglican cleric Michael Harper, 44, founder of Fountain Trust.
Burnett, reports correspondent Michael Garde, disclosed that he had received the “baptism in the Spirit” when he became an archbishop and that the experience had turned him around theologically and socially. It had been easy to support the oppressed and to attack the government, but it was something else to love the oppressor, he said. Vast structural changes need to occur in South Africa if Christian justice is to be achieved, he told a press conference. But, he asserted, it is primarily people who must be changed by the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, “you change the furniture but don’t change what happens in the room.”
Lebeau told how he had moved from pacifism into Marxism but how the charismatic experience led him to seek ways to be truly Christian apart from any ideological movement. (Most discussion groups, while endorsing justice and liberation from oppressors, condemned the use of violence in obtaining social goals.)
On another topic, Harper acknowledged that division exists between Protestant and Catholic charismatics (Catholic participants had their own daily mass and did not participate in the communion service that concluded the conference) and between charismatic and non-charismatic evangelicals. He stressed the need for continuing communication and for grappling with the theological issues.
It was Harper’s last speech as director of Fountain Trust. He announced his retirement, saying he wants to devote more time to study and writing and perhaps take on pastoral responsibilities. An aide, Presbyterian clergyman Tom Smail of Northern Ireland, was named as his successor.
Conferences of Catholic charismatics attracted 450 to Manchester, England, 3,500 to San Diego, 6,000 to Detroit, and others were scheduled this month and next. Joyous occasions, they nevertheless were held against an ominous backdrop of increasingly vocal criticism of the movement. Critics in some Catholic circles think the church’s bishops ought to investigate the movement to determine how Catholic and how responsible it is.
In Minneapolis, an estimated 20,000 attended the fourth International Lutheran Conference on the Holy Spirit—the largest crowd yet. Catholics were the most numerous among the one-third non-Lutheran registrants. The sponsoring committee, made up of clergy and laypersons from the three main Lutheran bodies, is chaired by Larry Christenson, an American Lutheran Church pastor of San Pedro, California. Richard Denny, a St. Paul, Minnesota, businessman, was named to a full-time post as executive secretary.
A recurring theme emphasized by a number of the speakers: Stay in your church and be an instrument for new life and love. Also stressed was the need for charismatics to get involved in social action. Said Christenson: “When a concern for the needs of the world is matched with a concern to discern the will of the Lord as to how, when, and where to minister to that need, we [will] see a charismatic explosion in the social arena.”
Lausanne: Continuing The Action
Meeting for the first time since the Lausanne Continuation Committee’s first executive secretary assumed his post, the LCC’s executive committee instructed him to put a high priority on regional and local action. Gottfried Osei-Mensah, a Ghanaian who left the pastorate of the Nairobi First Baptist Church for the international post, was assigned itineration duties around the globe during the coming year.
First on his agenda will be a November meeting of the South American participants in last year’s evangelism congress in Lausanne. The Rio de Janeiro meeting will be convened by Nilson Fanini, a Brazilian Baptist pastor.
At the sessions, which took place in London, the executive committee heard reports from a national congress on evangelism held in Nigeria in August as a direct outcome of the Lausanne congress. It was attended by 1,000 participants from twenty-seven denominations. A number of topics were discussed, including “Christianity as an African religion,” and these discussions became the basis for a declaration of evangelical faith and action in Nigeria.
In another action, the panel directed that the committee’s information function be expanded to include, among other things, the publication of a bulletin to report on evangelistic work. An initial bulletin was published in April after the LCC’s first gathering in Mexico City. It went only to registered Lausanne participants. In London, the executive committee directed that circulation and coverage be enlarged.
The next meeting of the full LCC was planned for January 1976 in Atlanta.
Incarceration In Korea
Four prominent South Korean clergymen, including the general secretary of the Korean National Council of Churches (KNCC), received jail sentences of six to ten months for improper use of foreign relief funds.
The four are: KNCC head Kim Kwan Suk, a Presbyterian; Pastor Park Hyung Kyu of Seoul’s First Presbyterian Church, who is a leader of the Seoul Metropolitan Community Organization (SMCO); Kwon Ho Kyung, assistant pastor of Park’s church; and Cho Seung Hyok, a Methodist associated with the SMCO.
They were accused by the government of embezzling a slum-work grant of $47,000 from a West German organization, Bread for the World. The trial established that most of the money was used for community-organization projects among slum-dwellers instead of for food or other aid. Some of the money went to families of imprisoned opponents of the government, part of it for living expenses, part of it to hire lawyers. The prosecution insisted that the money has been misappropriated—even though a Bread for the World representative testified that the use of the funds fell within their intended purpose. The judge dismissed the embezzlement charges but found them guilty of misuse of the money.
The four have been in trouble with the government in the past over issues of repression and freedom; Park was sentenced to prison on two earlier occasions.
Nearly two dozen missionaries and about 300 others, among them a number of Christians, were in court this month when the sentences were announced. Afterward, some of them gathered outside and began singing “We shall overcome,” but police scuffled with them and dispersed them after only a few minutes.
Mozambique: Missionaries Jailed
Three American missionaries were still in prison in Mozambique at mid-month. They are: Armond Doll, 59, and Hugh Fryberg, 32, both with the Church of the Nazarene, and Donald Milam, a youth associated with Teen Challenge. Details were sketchy because of a lack of diplomatic relations between the United States and Mozambique. Milam was apparently jailed in July for handing out tracts, and the other two were arrested in August, reportedly for making religious broadcasts.
Mozambique gained its independence from Portugal in June. Almost immediately, FRELIMO—a black liberation movement that is now the ruling political party—began building a socialist state. Religion was declared to be a divisive force in the life of the nation, and a number of restrictive measures were laid down. Infant baptism was banned, apparently in retaliation against the Catholic Church for its strong ties to the former Portuguese colonial government. Mission schools, hospitals, and other property were nationalized, and funds were frozen.
Most missionaries had slipped out of the African nation by the end of last month. Some narrowly escaped arrest after selling their vehicles and other property that the government declared it now owned.
East Africa: Revival Revisited
After sweeping across tribal, national, linguistic, and denominational lines for more than four decades, the East African Revival movement still appears to be alive and very well.
Two conventions of the movement were held this August, one at Butere, Kenya, and another at Kabale, Uganda. Peak attendance at each of them was estimated to be over 25,000.
One of the speakers at Kabale was Joseph Church of London, a retired Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) worker who was one of two men generally credited with leading the original revival. Starting in Uganda in the 1930s, the spiritual fires spread into neighboring Ruanda, then back into parts of Uganda that had not been touched originally. Then it moved into Kenya, Tanzania, and other East African areas.
The conventions are held at ten-year intervals and in various locations. This year’s was the fourth. They have been characterized by exuberant singing, sacrificial giving in preparation by host groups, and hundreds of conversions of the curious who were attracted by the joy and excitement. Many people have traveled long distances on foot to attend.
This year’s meeting at Kabale was a combined jubilee celebration of the fiftieth year of gospel preaching in that section of western Uganda and the fortieth year of the revival’s influence. The convenor was Festo Kivengere, Anglican bishop of Kabale. “Christ’s Love Reconciles Us” was the theme, and observers say that a number of participants long at odds with each other were reconciled during the meeting.
General Secretary William Butler of the CMS Ruanda Mission gave the opening Bible messages each morning. The rest of the program was determined on a day-to-day basis by a team of 100 who met twice daily to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance. While some overseas personnel were involved, most of the 100 were African. Clergymen, whose ranks included an archbishop and nine bishops, were outnumbered by laymen.
According to estimates, over half of those at the Kabale gathering were under twenty-five.
About 2,000 guests came from outside the immediate area. Part of their food came from crops planted by host churches many months ago specifically for the convention. Among the visitors were Christians from other areas of East Africa as well as people from seven nations on other continents.
Loose Ends
After six years of court battles, Kirby J. Hensley and his mail-order Universal Life Church were cleared of all charges in California. A San Jose municipal judge dismissed a $625 fine and a one-year suspended sentence against Hensley involving a 1969 conviction for selling courses from a non-accredited institution. The conviction was overturned by a federal appeals court in 1973, but the loose ends were not cleared up until last month.
Hensley, 63, a one-time Baptist preacher and self-designated “bishop” of the Universal Life Church, claims to have ordained more than two million people by mail and issued some 10,000 honorary doctor of divinity degrees at a charge of $20 each. Last year a court ruled that Hensley’s “church” is entitled to federal tax exemption.
Playing With Numbers
Father Joseph F. Lupo of the Most Holy Trinity Fathers in Garrison, Maryland, got a lot of press attention after he placed a $9,000 ad in the January, 1972, issue of Playboy. The ad was aimed at attracting recruits to the priesthood.
Playboy last month used the ad as the basis for full-page ads in several large dailies to promote the magazine. Downright irreverent, scolded Lupo. And also in error. The Playboy display boasted that Lupo’s ad had produced some 600 applicants within a few weeks time. While the ad generated a number of inquiries on a variety of topics, explained Lupo, the number of applicants within a year’s time was only thirty-five.
Religion In Transit
The National Courier, a 48-page biweekly Christian tabloid newspaper, will make its initial appearance with the October 7 edition. To be published in Plainfield, New Jersey, its first press run will be 500,000 copies, according to a Courier spokesman. The editor-in-chief is Robert Slosser, a former editor in the New York Times Washington bureau. Logos International, which publishes charismatic literature, is sponsoring the paper. But, says Logos head Dan Malachuk, the paper will be aimed at a broad audience.
Nearly 100 voluntary agencies, including eighteen religious ones, received a total of $688 million from private sources and $260 million from the U. S. government last year, according to a government report. The contributions were in the form of cash, food, supplies, and equipment. Catholic Relief Services, Church World Service, and CARE distributed the “overwhelming bulk of the amount of aid,” said a government source.
Thirty-three churches, all but three of them Baptist, reported average Sunday-school attendance of 2,000 or more in the annual Christian Life tabulation of the nation’s 100 largest Sunday schools. There were only twelve in the top bracket eight years ago, says Sunday-school editor Elmer Towns. In the first place is First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, which reported an average attendance of 13,561.
Most of Hartford Seminary Foundation’s library was sold to the Candler School of Theology of Emory University, a United Methodist School in Atlanta. The $1.7 million transaction involved 215,000 volumes. Hartford kept 45,000 volumes (its archives, an Islamic studies collection, and books on clergy training and parish life). Hartford dropped its traditional seminary curriculum in 1973 in favor of a continuing education program for clergy.
A motion to endorse the United Methodist Church’s stance against homosexuality was defeated at a recent national seminar of the Women’s Division of the denomination’s Board of Global Ministries, attended by more than 300 persons. The denomination rejects homosexual practice as “incompatible with Christian teachings.” The women’s unit also announced it will monitor primetime TV to determine how it affects the “socialization of women.”
The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, a gay-church denomination with nearly 100 congregations, is sponsoring a bicentennial program dubbed Affirmation ’76. The program will culminate in a Washington, D. C., meeting affirming the rights of homosexuals to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” say leaders. (More than 1,000 persons attended the group’s sixth annual conference last month in Dallas.)
As expected, Harvey Stegemoeller resigned as president of Concordia College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Teachers and students asked him to reconsider, but Stegemoeller—a critic of the conservative policies in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod—feels hemmed in by the mandates of his now conservative board.
Kimberly Ann Jensen, a high-school sophomore of Caldwell, Idaho, was crowned recently Miss National Teenager. A Mormon, she says hopes to use her extensive travel opportunities “to be a really good missionary [and] to talk about the gospel.”
In May, 1973, only 3 per cent of Soviet Jewish emigrants went to countries other than Israel, but that figure is now 45 per cent, and most of these are choosing the United States, say authorities. Reasons include the high cost of living in Israel, fear of war, and the good life in America.
Personalia
Denominational executive Norman D. Fintel, 50, of the American Lutheran Church was named to the presidency of 1,200-student Roanoke College, an ALC school in Salem, Virginia.
United Methodist evangelism executive Joe Hale, 40, was selected to succeed Lee F. Tuttle as general secretary of the World Methodist Council. Tuttle will retire next year. The council is composed of sixty-one Methodist/Wesleyan denominations in eighty-seven countries. Hale’s selection is subject to confirmation at a meeting of the council next summer in Dublin.
Dean Richard Gross of Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, will succeed Harold John Ockenga as president of the school next spring. Ockenga will become chancellor.
- More fromRobert D. Linder
Joseph M. Hopkins
- View Issue
- Subscribe
- Give a Gift
- Archives
“WOUSA [Word Over the U. S. A.] by 1976.” The Word is the Bible as interpreted by Victor Paul Wierwille, 58, a former United Church of Christ minister and founder of The Way International, based in New Knoxville, Ohio, and the slogan heralds the goal of his zealous followers. If enthusiasm and rate of expansion are indicative, a lot of Americans are going to get the word about The Way in the coming months.
In 1957 Wierwille, a Princeton Seminary graduate, resigned his Van Wert, Ohio, pulpit to launch an independent ministry. Two years later the work was moved to the family farm near New Knoxville, and during the intervening sixteen years the movement gained an estimated 20,000 adherents, distributed among all fifty states and thirty-three foreign countries, say its leaders. (The Way has no official membership, and officials consider the estimate conservative.) Circulation of The Way magazine has increased fourfold, from 2,500 to 10,000 over the past 3½ years. Last year 1,033 “WOW [Word Over the World] Ambassadors” were dispatched to the midwest, south, and southwest sectors of the nation for a year of missionary service. More than twice that number—2,077—were commissioned in August for duty in eastern United States, Canada, and Germany, and 104 “Minute Men” (seasoned troops) received western U. S. assignments. Outside observers say Wierwille’s group did not begin to grow appreciably until he began foraging for leaders among Jesus-movement converts in the late 1960s.
Students for Wierwille’s video-taped PFAL (Power For Abundant Living) course reportedly are being recruited at the rate of 1,000 per month—at the going rate of $85 for the twelve three-hour sessions. This fall, The Way College of Emporia (Kansas) opened with more than 400 students. Administered by Wierwille’s son Donald, a former elementary school principal, the institution is offering a curriculum in biblical studies, without accreditation and without the authority to confer degrees. The Way failed in its effort to transfer the accredited status of the school when it was purchased from United Presbyterians last year (see December 20, 1974, issue, page 28). Leaders are negotiating with nearby schools in hopes of achieving accreditation through some sort of tandem arrangement. When renovation projects are completed in another year or two, The Way will have invested $2.5 million in the Emporia facility, say spokesmen.
The first “Rock of Ages Christian Music Festival,” a sort of national convention of the movement, was held at the New Knoxville farm in 1971 with an attendance of 1,000. In 1974, at a county fairgrounds, there were 5,500 full-time registrants plus several thousand part-timers who attended evening sessions. At last month’s four-day edition of “Rock of Ages,” held at a fairgrounds in nearby Lima, more than 8,300 attended (admission: $25). The faithful came in chartered buses and planes and in all varieties of motor vehicles from most of the fifty states and a dozen foreign countries. Area motels were jammed, and hundreds of truck campers and brightly colored tents accommodated the overflow. Although 80 per cent were young people, adult attendance was up significantly over previous years, according to publicity director David Craley.
Critics have accused The Way of fostering a permissive life-style. But although cigarette smoking was prevalent, alcohol, drugs, sexual permissiveness, and profanity were not in evidence. A mood of love and joy characterized the gathering, and “God bless you” or simply “Bless you” were standard greetings. Informal one-to-one sharing sessions and prayer huddles were frequent. Non-uniformed security guards were posted at strategic locations; they were particularly in evidence at the area circumscribed by The Way’s “company cars”: four mobile homes, a shiny new black Cadillac limousine, and the renowned Harley-Davidson motorcycle on which “Doctor,” as Wierwille is affectionately known, tools around the country. Bumper stickers and slogans adorned many vehicles; one truck was inscribed with the title of Wierwille’s most recent book, “Jesus Christ is NOT God.”
The freewheeling daytime schedule provided options for every age group: supervised activities at the children’s center, a coffeehouse for teens and young adults, and an adult pavilion for over-thirties. Two dramas played to packed houses each morning and afternoon. Exhibits, films, and a well-stocked bookstore attracted hundreds of browsers, and several bus tours departed daily for the New Knoxville headquarters.
Evening meetings featured the 500-voice Way Chorale Internationale, gospel-rock musicians, special dramatic and musical events, and a number of speakers (including Lima mayor Harry Moyer, Maine state senator Hayes Gahagan, and Wierwille—whose expected Sunday-night crowd of 10,000 was greatly reduced by heavy rain showers).
According to a publicity folder, The Way “is not a church, nor is it a denomination or a religious sect of any sort.” Yet the organization’s fifty ordained clergy (five of whom are women) are authorized to perform marriages. Way doctrines combine forms of biblical literalism (“The Word of God means what it says and says what it means”), evangelicalism (salvation is entirely by grace—through faith in the Virgin-born, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Son of God), Calvinism (once a person is saved he cannot become unsaved), dispensationalism (the Gospels belong in the Old Testament; only those New Testament epistles addressed to the Church apply to believers today—although the remainder of the Bible is “for our learning”), and Pentecostalism (the nine spiritual gifts of First Corinthians are operable today; tongues and healing are stressed).
Wierwille agrees with Jehovah’s Witnesses that the Trinity doctrine is contrary to Scripture (Jesus is the Son of God but not God; the Holy Spirit is a designation for God—and “holy spirit” is the power conferred at Pentecost). He teaches that human beings do not have immortal souls; they remain dead upon physical death until the final resurrections: the first is the resurrection of life, when Christ comes for his saints (only believers during the church age—after Pentecost—will be saved); the second is the resurrection of damnation, when Christ comes with his saints (after the millennium).
With Herbert W. Armstrong (who also denies the Trinity, the personality of the Holy Spirit, and the immortality of the soul), Wierwille teaches that Christ was crucified on Wednesday and raised on Saturday. He adds Matthew’s two robbers to Luke’s two malefactors and gets four crucifixions in addition to that of Jesus. He concurs with the Witnesses and with Armstrong in the teaching that the victims died upon stakes rather than crosses. The “new heaven and new earth” of Revelation 21 will occur when Paradise is restored upon the earth.
The Way International observes no special day of worship, although Wierwille holds forth at the headquarters chapel each Sunday night. Meetings are held in homes and borrowed halls. Water baptism is not practiced (unless requested), and is replaced by Holy Spirit baptism. The Lord’s Supper, however, is observed. Christmas and Easter are relegated to secondary status, while Pentecost is celebrated as the most important of the Christian festivals.
Wierwille has defined an apostle as “one who brings new light to his generation.” Since he himself claims to have received audible communications from God, presumably he fulfills this role. He is apparently viewed as such by his followers. Paradoxically, at Lima he both encouraged and discouraged the apostolic image—the former, by riding to the opening session in a golf cart, which delivered him amid the tumultuous cheers of his disciples to the elevated box constructed for his family; the latter, by declaring to the audience (at an impromptu session in the grandstand when the open-air meeting was rained out on the second night), “I don’t want you to be ‘Wierwillites’—I want you to be God’s Lights!”
Elena Whiteside in The Way, a book published by the organization in 1972, quotes one convert as saying, “I see Dr. Wierwille as the next man of God to rise up after Paul’s death.” Another believer remarked, “Nowhere else can you get this knowledge of how to read and understand God’s Word.” Wierwille himself, she asserted, related the circumstances of his call in this fashion: “I was praying.… And that’s when he spoke to me audibly, just like I’m talking to you now. He said he would teach me the Word as it had not been known since the first century if I would teach it to others.”
Critics say they don’t know whose voice Wierwille heard, but they assert their certainty about something else: the word according to Wierwille was not known in the first century either.
RED LIGHT EXHIBIT
Evangelistic worker James Hayes didn’t stand on a box and preach hell-fire-and-damnation at the recent fair in Carroll County, Maryland, but he got the point across anyway—through modern technology. Hayes, who managed an evangelistic booth at the fair, administered an electronic test to the curious who visited the booth. The test consisted of five questions on the New Testament. If all were answered correctly, sky-blue lights came on spelling “Heaven.” If there was one wrong answer, fiery red lights flashed the word “Hell,” ending the test.
Only twenty out of 220 persons passed the test, Hayes told Washington Star reporter William F. Willoughby. That means a lot of people are going to hell, he commented.
Willoughby suggested that maybe God isn’t using the same computer.
PEDAL PUSHING
On October 13, 1974, four young men active in the American Lutheran Church departed Detroit on ten-speed bikes in a cross-country project aimed at supporting a special ALC mission offering. On August 5–297 days, 8,334 miles, and 120 flat tires later—they arrived in La Paz, Bolivia. They had to fly between Panama City and Cali, Colombia, because there are no roads, and they drove the last thirty miles by bus after a damaged wheel on one of the bikes collapsed. The youths, who handed out Spanish-language tracts as they traveled, said they better understood the church’s mission and themselves as a result of the trip. They also commented about the warmth and acceptance they received from people along the way.
The four are: John Cross, 24, and Jim Oines, 25, both seminarians at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota; Peter Crane, 21, of Ventura, California; and Jeff Stoopes, 22, a worker with Lutheran Youth Alive in Los Angeles.
(So far, about $36 million in gifts and pledges have been received in the special ALC offering, according to reports.)
Slandered
Evangelist Oliver B. (Jerry) Owen, 62, was awarded $35,000 in a $1.4 million slander suit against television station KCOP in Los Angeles. Owen, who has an Assemblies of God background, is known as “the Walking Bible” for his ability to quote verbatim the 31,173 verses of the King James version of the Bible.
KCOP executive John Hopkins was accused of making defamatory statements in 1969 as an explanation to viewers wanting to know why the evangelist’s program had been canceled. Hopkins claimed Owen was involved in the killing of Robert F. Kennedy and was a thief who burned down churches.
Owen had told police in 1968 that he’d picked up Sirhan B. Sirhan, Kennedy’s killer, as a hitchhiker two days before the slaying, but the police concluded that he had made up the story to seek publicity.
The trial judge said Hopkins was wrong in calling Owen a thief when Owen had been only “accused” of taking goods from a store. The judge also said the church-burning comment ignored the fact that Owen’s arson conviction in the early 1960s had been overturned on appeal.
Owen earlier won $55,000 in a 1972 suit against the northern California district of the Assemblies of God, which he said solicited false testimony to convict him of arson for burning down a Tucson, Arizona, church in 1963, the case he won on appeal. He has frequently been at odds with the Assemblies because of publicity over charges of adultery, shoplifting, and child abandonment.
Texas Roundup
About one hundred years after the first settlers moved into the area and took up cattle ranching, evangelist Billy Graham arrived in town to conduct a spiritual roundup.
In all, there were 7,000 decisions for Christ, half of them professions of faith, according to officials at the eight-day campaign in Lubbock, a city of 150,000 in the heart of west Texas. Crowds averaged better than 30,000 per meeting, and the 47,000-seat stadium on the campus of Texas Tech University was filled for the final Sunday-night rally.
“A great sense of ecumenicity,” observed one reporter in describing how churches of a variety of denominations pitched in to make the crusade an evangelistic success. Teams of speakers and musicians fanned out to jails, shopping malls, club meetings, and the like in a concentrated, cooperative outreach effort throughout the eight days. Pastors spoke of how the crusade had united them for the first time and how they planned to keep the fires of fellowship burning. Many of the 500-plus churches involved in the crusade reported there were new faces at worship services, requests for baptism and membership, and expressions of personal renewal because of the crusade. A large number of persons participated in the 3,000 pre-crusade prayer groups that met in some forty cities and towns across the west Texas plains.
A concurrent school of evangelism sponsored by the Graham organization brought together 1,100 pastors and seminarians and their wives from thirteen states and five foreign countries.
Even though Lubbock was not incorporated until the early 1900s, and despite the independent spirit for which Texans are noted, its citizens are engaged in a number of local projects to honor America’s bicentennial. At one of the Crusade rallies, John Warner, the head of the national bicentennial administration and a former secretary of the Navy, commented briefly on America’s spiritual heritage. Appropriately, said he, July 4, 1976, falls on a Sunday, and he implied that America’s Christians ought to make the most of it.
On August 29, two days before the Lubbock crusade began, assault charges against Graham’s wife were dismissed by a judge in Charlotte, North Carolina. The charges had been lodged by Daniel L. Pollock, 27, who alleged that Ruth Graham took from him a protest sign he was carrying during a May 20 speech by President Ford at a Charlotte park. Pollock, said the judge, failed to prove that Mrs. Graham had assaulted him. Graham said he was delighted by the verdict, and he told how his wife “day after day … earnestly prayed for the young man.”
As Pollock and Mrs. Graham left the courtroom she pulled a brown Bible from her pocketbook and offered it to him. Pollock smiled but declined to take it.
“I’ll be praying for you,” said Mrs. Graham.
Orphan Prevention
Snake-handling and the drinking of poison in connection with religious services were banned by the Tennessee Supreme Court. The five justices ruled unanimously that the state “has the right to guard against the unnecessary creation of widows and orphans.”
Liston Pack, a lay pastor of the Holiness Church of God in Jesus’ Name near Newport in eastern Tennessee, had been barred by a county court from handling or exhibiting poisonous snakes during services in his church. Several people had died as a result of such rites. The high court’s ruling upheld the injunction against Pack.
Satisfied
The stronger a woman’s religious convictions, the more likely she is to be highly satisfied with the sexual pleasures of marriage, a Redbook survey of 100,000 women shows. “The fundamental difference that distinguishes the non-religious from the strongly religious woman is that the non-religious woman is far more likely to be dissatisfied with every aspect of life,” conclude researchers.
- More fromJoseph M. Hopkins
Ideas
- View Issue
- Subscribe
- Give a Gift
- Archives
Most of the world heaved a sigh of relief when the recent Israeli-Egyptian pact brought a temporary respite from the threat of war in the Middle East. The basis was laid for further discussions of the major problems connected with the presence of the state of Israel in Palestine. Among these vexing problems are the plight of displaced Palestinians, the return of the rest of the Egyptian territories taken by Israel in the last war, the role of Jerusalem, control of the Golan Heights, and the development of a live-and-let-live policy, if not actual friendship, between Israel and her Arab neighbors.
Henry Kissinger performed a “miracle” in securing the agreement. But it was a miracle that could not have happened without important concessions by both sides. The Israelis made great concessions, perhaps more than Egypt. Their loss of military and oil installations could be a large disadvantage to them if Egypt were to start another war. Yet Egypt did sign an agreement that leaves roughly four-fifths of the Sinai peninsula in Israeli hands.
The United States has promised Israel financial and other kinds of help. Why has this nation involved itself so heavily in the Middle East? Why was it willing, in negotiating the recent pact, to pay a heavy price both in money and in promises that commit it to defending Israel if a war should jeopardize Israel’s existence? Walter Rostow, undersecretary of state in the Johnson administration and now a professor at Yale Law School, supplied an answer in a speech he gave months ago before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. Rostow made clear that the United States is not a disinterested party:
What are the interests of the United States in the Middle East? The first and most basic is the geopolitical importance of the Middle East to the defense of Europe. Our alliance with Western Europe is absolutely essential to the balance of world power on which the primordial safety of the United States depends. On this proposition there is nearly complete unanimity in the United States. But the larger part of public opinion is not fully conscious of the fact that Middle Eastern conflicts are not isolated regional problems, but are integral to the security of NATO.
If the Soviet Union were to achieve domination of the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, it would outflank the NATO defenses in Central Europe, and threaten Europe from its soft underbelly, as president Pompidou once remarked. It has been painfully obvious since October, 1973, that hegemonial control of the oil, the space, and the mass of the region by the Soviet Union would carry with it dominion over Western Europe as well. NATO would be dismantled. Europe would be reduced to the status of Finland—a major supplier of technology and consumer goods to the Soviet Union, on favorable credit terms of course.
For its own security the United States needs a peaceful and stable Middle East that leans to the West and shuns Soviet domination. The American people should be informed quickly and clearly what their national interest is in the Middle East and why what Kissinger did was so important to this goal. The promises that the United States has made to Egypt and Israel are a part of the price of self-defense. Anything less than peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Israelis would be inimical to the best interests of the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world.
For Christians there is another dimension to the Middle East situation. We want peace not only for the usual reasons but also because of what many believe to be God’s ongoing special relationship with the Jews, and to make possible the existence of Christian minorities and Christian evangelization among the Arabs.
Assassination: A Ghastly Record Grows
Some Americans may have trouble remembering how to spell “assassinate,” but few can forget the meaning of the word. The recent attempt to kill President Ford adds one more item to America’s record, the worst among developed nations. (Of course, Japan and France have both had experiences in this area. A number of attempts were made to kill General DeGaulle.) It was forty years ago that Senator Huey Long of Louisiana was cut down. Chicago’s Mayor Cermak died when a would-be assassin missed Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Harry Truman narrowly escaped death. Then came the very bad years: John Kennedy; Martin Luther King, who though not a political office-holder was vulnerable in the same way; Robert Kennedy; George Wallace, who survived but with crippling injuries.
President Ford kept a commendably cool head after the attempt on his life. He would not, he said, go into hiding behind the White House fence, losing access to the public. He realizes that he and other holders or seekers of high office must accept the possibility of injury or death as an occupational hazard.
We are so to live, says the Bible, that whether we live or die we magnify the Lord. Self-preservation is not to be the Christian’s strongest drive; he is to devote his time and energy to the service of God, whatever the consequences. Those who seek high political office must have a similar dedication.
Non-Divine Welcome
More than 2,500 years ago the first emperor of Japan was enthroned. He was considered the Son of Heaven, descendant of Amaterasu the Sun goddess, and therefore divine. Over the centuries his successors on the throne have been worshiped by their subjects.
This month the United States welcomes to its shores one of those descendants, Hirohito, the first reigning Japanese emperor to visit America. While biographers say he never thought of himself as divine, millions of Japanese have thought—and do think—otherwise.
Many Japanese were shocked when Hirohito took to the radio in August, 1945, to acknowledge defeat at the hands of the Allies. Their shock was as much at the revelation that “the Mikado” had a voice like theirs as at the news of surrender. On the first day of the following year, Hirohito told his people that the emporor’s relationship to them did not depend on the concept of divinity. But two and a half millennia of tradition do not vanish easily. When the first constitution was written in the last century, the deity of the ruler was written into it. Generations of school children had it drilled into them.
Various forces in Japan are still trying to take advantage of the religious vacuum created by the emperor’s official renunciation of divine authority. There are attempts to get the government to sanction religious practices that include Shinto ritual. Christian periodicals devote considerable space to alerting their readers to the “shrine issue.” Certain leading politicians have cast their lot with those who wish to give official preference to a religion that worships symbols of nationalism.
For over four centuries, there have been efforts to communicate the Christian faith to the Japanese. The response has been minimal. Barely 1 per cent of the population now claims to be Christian (of all stripes).
We hope the emperor gets a hearty welcome to the United States. Beyond this we hope that as his visit is reported to the people of Japan they will get a clear picture of America’s greatness. No small element in that greatness is the fact that the United States has learned that its leaders have feet of clay and are not to be treated as gods. Acknowledgment of this basic belief about man’s nature has enabled Americans to have unprecedented freedoms, with religious liberty at the top of the list. Instead of being prescribers of religion, leaders of the United States have been protectors of religious freedom.
Islam’S Bid To Recover Its Glory
Leaders of the Muslim world show signs of making a conscientious comeback in the religious scene. Some apparently hope to pull together the diverse elements of Islam enough to make new impact on Western culture.
The practical possibilities of Islam’s regaining at least part of its medieval prestige have arisen primarily out of the financial and political clout of oil. Therefore Saudi Arabia has been the country taking most of the initiative toward an Islamic renascence. In a recent dispatch from Mecca, Associated Press correspondent Aly Mahmoud reported that the oil-rich Saudis are planning to spend billions of dollars to bring unity to Islam. “The Saudis,” he said, “want to recapture some of the glory of a seventh-century Islamic Arab empire that stretched from the Himalayas to Southern France at its apex.” The succeeding Ottoman Turkish Empire brought Islam to the gates of Vienna and sustained it as a major world force. Since then, however, Muslim fortunes have slowly declined, though there are still approximately 529 million Muslims in the world.
The recent turnabout is bound to be felt world-wide. Only last month the “Islamic Conference,” representing forty Muslim countries and the Palestine Liberation Organization, asked for observer status with the United Nations. Religious News Service quoted the five-year-old organization as saying that it would like to be represented in General Assembly debates as well as in the various U. N. specialized agencies. In the past, the General Assembly has given observer status to the European Economic Community and its Eastern European counterpart as well as to the League of Arab States, the Organization of African Unity, and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Observer status entitles these organizations to address the assembly and its various bodies without the right to vote.
The Saudis apparently see themselves as the logical leaders of Muslim resurgence, and without doubt they are now in a position to buy a lot of influence. Mahmoud suggests that they plan to do just that. King Faisal was quoted as saying shortly before he was assassinated that up to 30 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s $27.7 billion budget would go for foreign aid projects. Mahmoud states that the aid is linked to promises to uphold Muslim traditions.
Muslim missionary activity is reportedly intense in some parts of the world. Happily, Muslim ambitions do not appear to entail any military conquests. But it is one of the strange twists of history, geography, and economics that every time a Christian pays for a tank of gasoline he is helping to finance the growth and spread of Islam.
On Not Consulting Your Horoscope
Politics, comics, sports, food, finance, entertainment: these are the stock in trade of our daily newspapers. For most papers—as for many churchgoers—religion is at best a once-a-week thing. There is one conspicuous exception: astrology. Of some 1,500 daily papers in the United States, more than 1,200 carry horoscopes.
Recently 186 leading scientists signed a statement condemning astrology in no uncertain terms. It said in part:
Those who wish to believe in astrology should realize that there is no scientific foundation for its tenets.… We are especially disturbed by the continued unethical dissemination of astrological charts, forecasts, and horoscopes by the media and by otherwise reputable newspapers, magazines, and book publishers.… The time has come to challenge directly, and forcefully, the pretentious claims of astrological charlatans.
The statement was drafted by Bart Bok, former president of the American Astronomical Society. It was published by two major associations of humanists, and many if not most of the signers would reject belief not only in astrology but in all of the supernatural, including the God revealed through Jesus Christ. Their rejection of Christianity, however, could not be on the grounds of a contradiction between Christian doctrine and scientific discovery. Many other recognized scientists do accept Christian revelation. But one would be hard pressed to find any productive scientists who believe astrology. Moreover, Christian doctrine, while it does not contradict science, makes no claim to be provable by it. Astrology, by contrast, does claim to be scientific: “Both astrology and astronomy use the same fundamental data …,” says the director of New York’s Academy of Mystic Arts.
For the Bible-believer who is evaluating astrology, two biblical passages are definitive: “You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons predict what shall befall you. Behold they are like stubble, the fire consumes them” (Isa. 47:13, 14). The second is especially significant because it comes from ancient Babylon, the source of Western astrology: “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery which the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries …” (Dan. 2:27, 28).
Portugal: Up For Grabs
Portugal’s political chaos reminds us of what sometimes happens when parents who have been too strict and too protective suddenly let go of an adventurous child.
For a long time the Portuguese lived under a right-wing dictatorship that was aided in no small measure by the most conservative kind of Roman Catholicism. When they finally broke free of it, the leftists were ready to exploit the situation. Moderates who favor a middle-of-the-road democracy with a reasonably free press and at least some religious liberty have had a hard time getting political power, even though they seem to have the popular vote behind them. The fall of Vasco Goncalves has weakened the far-leftist bent.
Portugal is still a long way from stability. The handful of evangelicals there need encouragement to speak up on matters of justice and order from the biblical perspective.
Joy In Times Of Trial
James in his customary forthright way tells us to “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2, 3). In case we are inclined to modify these words as the utopian command of one who had not really experienced sorrow, let us remember that James was one of the principal leaders of the Christians in Jerusalem who continually faced persecution from those outside the Church (culminating in his own martyrdom in the sixties), as well as internal dissension associated with a Judaizing element. James surely knew what it meant to “meet various trials!”
But James had also learned that difficulties can produce steadfastness or patience, though the natural reaction is annoyance or bitterness. He never tells us to pretend that a trial is non-existent. Instead he wants us to recognize and rejoice that any problem can be the occasion for God to work in and through us in a way that he otherwise could not.
This is indeed a “testing of our faith”; it calls upon us to believe in the goodness of God, and to trust that he is not only willing but able to accomplish his purposes no matter what befalls us. Any difficulty, whether great or small, is an occasion for joy, but only when we remind ourselves of the nature of the God who loves us and wills only the best for use.
- View Issue
- Subscribe
- Give a Gift
- Archives
That’s a sharp suit,” my hostess said as I entered her house.
“This suit?” I replied. “I got it a year ago, half-price at a discount store.”
I spoke the truth, but my unconscious motive had been to reject the compliment. I tend to ward off compliments, gifts, helping hands.
I am a minister of the Gospel, and I like to give. It may be inconvenient or exhausting, but I know how to give of myself. My difficulty comes at the other end. To receive graciously another’s help or love or friendship or kindness is hard for me to do.
Ever since a frightening incident a year ago, I’ve been struggling with this matter of giving and receiving. My wife and I had been out for the evening, and on our way home our car was hit from the rear by another car at a stop sign. Shirley had been resting her head on the headrest, and the impact jarred her forward and jerked her head back. She passed out.
Agonizing moments passed while someone called an ambulance. Shirley would come to, then pass out again. The ambulance came, and ten minutes later we were at the hospital. Several other emergency calls had come in just before us, including six victims of a violent car accident, all in critical condition, lying on stretchers. Shirley, seemingly not so seriously hurt, lay on the white-covered stretcher and waited.
Across the hall was a telephone. I hurried over and dialed a number. “Norval,” I blurted out, “Shirley’s been hurt. I don’t know how serious it is. I’m in the emergency room at DeKalb Hospital, waiting for them to examine her. Please pray!”
“Would you like me to come over?”
It was nearly 12:30. “No, it’s too late. Just pray.”
As soon as I hung up, I called Mary and Al Jepson. Mary was a member of our Christian writers’ group. “Mary, please pray with us. And would you call the other members of the group and ask them to pray, too?”
She too offered to come over, but I said, “It’s not necessary. The Lord can hear your prayers at home.”
Then the real waiting started. I found a chair, pulled it up next to the stretcher, and sat down. Another half hour passed. A nurse came by. “I’m sorry, Mr. Murphey, that you’ve had to wait so long. We’re almost through with the other emergencies. It shouldn’t be more than ten minutes more.”
I thanked her and tried to keep praying, to block the horrible thoughts that tried to intrude. Partial paralysis … some kind of permanent damage … unable to walk …
“Cec, there you are!”
I looked around.
“Norval! I told you not to—”
“I heard you. But I wanted to be here.”
“Norval, it’s so late. You’ve already spoiled your night’s sleep and—”
“And I’m here with two people I love,” he said simply. He took my hand and almost crushed my fingers.
Momentarily I turned away because I didn’t know how to respond. I was touched, but an appropriate expression of thanks refused to come out.
As I turned away, I saw someone else coming down the corridor. “Al Jepson!”
He smiled and said, “Got here as soon as I could. Mary’s called everybody in the group.”
“Al, you shouldn’t have—”
“I wanted to be with you, Cec. I know how lonely it can be in the hospital—especially when you don’t know how serious an injury is.”
I had been with many families in waiting rooms or standing in hallways outside intensive-care units. Many times a wife would grab me and hug me and the tears would flow. Or a husband would grip my hands and say over and over, “You don’t know what it means to have you here.” Now I knew. It had happened to me.
Shirley had twisted three vertebrae. She was allowed to go home but was not to leave her bed for thirty-six hours. As I helped her into our car, I tried to say thanks to my friends, but there were no adequate words. I finally mumbled something like, “I appreciate your coming.”
Al replied, “That’s what friends are for.”
That experience made me do a lot of thinking and heart-searching. My philosophy had been that there are basically two kinds of people in the world: the givers and the takers. I counted myself as a giver.
Then, a verse began troubling me. Jesus himself said, “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8). In that section Jesus also told his disciples to go from place to place and preach the Gospel and to heal the sick. They were to take no money or extra provisions. The people ministered to would minister to their needs.
I ran across another significant passage also. “How grateful I am and how I praise the Lord that you are helping me again,” the Apostle Paul writes. “I know you have always been anxious to send what you could, but for a while you didn’t have the chance” (Phil. 4:10, The Living Bible).
These two passages have continued to work on me. I can no longer say, “Well, I’m a giver” and forget it. I have a responsibility to receive as well. I’ve also been asking why people like me find it hard to take, and I’ve sorted out a few answers.
First, we Christians are continually admonished to give, give, give. Perhaps we are made to feel guilty for not giving more.
Second, being on the receiving end makes me feel obligated. I used to reciprocate quickly when I was given a Christmas card, a meal, a gift, and that freed me from obligation.
Third, receiving humbles me. Our American culture has stressed rugged individualism and self-sufficiency. Those of us who pride ourselves on being strong and self-reliant find it hard to admit our need of help.
But Jesus Christ didn’t call me to be an all-sufficient person who comforts everyone else and then sits alone with his own crises. Givers should also be takers.
Last night Bob offered me a gift. I had admired a sports jacket of his a few days earlier. He went out and bought one for me. It was a sacrifice for him, and I didn’t want to take it.
“Bob, I appreciate it, but you can’t afford it and …”
The words buzzed in my brain again: “Freely ye have received, freely give.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I realize the sacrifice you’ve made in buying this. That makes the gift all the more meaningful.”
He smiled. “I’ve been a Christian fifteen years. And you know what? This is the first time I’ve been able to afford a gift for my pastor.”
After he left I prayed. “Father, help me to accept graciously. I want to give of myself and to be your servant in every possible way. Help me also to be a receiving servant.”—CECIL B. MURPHEY, pastor, Riverdale Presbyterian Church, Riverdale, Georgia.
- View Issue
- Subscribe
- Give a Gift
- Archives
Mindszenty: Casualty Of Detente
Memoirs, by Józef Cardinal Mindszenty (Macmillan, 1974, 341 pp., $10), is reviewed by Blahoslav S. Hruby, editor, “Religion in Communist Dominated Areas.”
Cardinal Mindszenty’s Memoirs is a most timely reminder to the free world that Communism (of all types and shades), despite present propaganda about detente and peaceful coexistence, remains the most serious danger for a free society. It threatens religious and all other basic freedoms and human rights.
Mindszenty was a courageous man who always stood up for the freedom and rights of his church. Policies of accommodation and collaboration either with the Nazis or with the Communists were alien to him. The Communist authorities of Hungary finally arrested him early in 1949 on charges of treason, espionage, and black-marketeering. He was accused of trying to restore the Habsburg monarchy, of requesting the Western powers to interfere in international affairs of Hungary, of spying for the United States, of engaging in illegal currency transactions, and of other crimes against the state.
“Again and again I forcefully refused when they tried to persuade me to sign their prepared confession,” says Cardinal Mindszenty in describing the five weeks of his ordeal preceding the trial:
Again and again the major took over, dragged me back to the cell where I was stripped, thrown down, and beaten. Just as regularly the guard afterwards tried to intensify the effect of this torture by preventing me from sinking into a sleep of exhaustion.…
The tormentor … held the truncheon in one hand, a long sharp knife in the other. And then he drove me like a horse in training, forcing me to trot and gallop. The truncheon lashed down on my back repeatedly—for some time without a pause. Then we stood still and he brutally threatened: “I’ll kill you; by morning I’ll tear you to pieces and throw the remains of your corpse to the dogs or into canal. We are the masters here now.” Then he forced me to begin running again. Although I was gasping for breath and the splinters of the wooden floor stabbed painfully into my bare feet, I ran as fast as I could to escape his blows [pp. 110, 112].
When the trial of Cardinal Mindszenty and his codefendants began on February 3, 1949, a broken man faced the court. The Communist judges, practicing “social justice” and using the tortures learned from their Soviet and Nazi teachers, extracted a confession in the form they wanted. Mindszenty was condemned to life imprisonment, although the government asked for the death penalty.
During the short-lived Hungarian uprising in the fall of 1956, the cardinal returned from prison in a triumphant procession; but after Soviet tanks crushed the revolution (there was no help from the West!) he found a refuge in the U. S. Embassy in Budapest.
From the Memoirs we learn an interesting detail about the policy of detente as practiced by Nixon and Kissinger. It was not only the Vatican that pressed Cardinal Mindszenty to leave the American Embassy in Budapest for Rome so that the Vatican could arrive easier at some modus vivendi with the Communist government of Hungary. The White House too asked the cardinal to leave the embassy. Nixon and Kissinger apparently believed that the presence there of a refugee of high ecclesiastical status who was involved in the 1956 Hungarian uprising was a stumbling bloc in détente negotiations with the Hungarian and other Communist governments.
The chapter on the Vatican’s negotiations with the cardinal on his leaving the U. S. Embassy is of particular interest and poignancy. Pope Paul VI seemed to be very close to Cardinal Mindszenty and assured him on several occasions that he “will always remain Archbishop of Esztergom and primate of Hungary.” However, personal feelings and the Pope’s promises had to make room for the new Vatican’s Ostpolitik and its policy of détente with Communist governments. On February 5, 1974 (the twenty-fifth anniversary of the cardinal’s show trial!), the Vatican announced the cardinal’s removal from the see of Esztergom. The cardinal authorized his office to issue the following statement: “Cardinal Mindszenty has not abdicated his office as archbishop nor his dignity as primate of Hungary. The decision was taken by the Holy See alone.”
The concluding sentence of the Memoirs reveals the depth of Cardinal Mindszenty’s disillusionment after many years of struggle and suffering: “This is the path I traveled to the end, and this is how I arrived at complete and total exile.” It also underlines the extreme difficulty if not impossibility of finding a proper answer to the questions raised by those who went through the darkness of persecution and long experience of Communist attempts to infiltrate and manipulate the churches. They have, understandably, serious doubts about all attempts to accommodate the Communist regimes through détente and peaceful coexistence.
Cardinal Mindszenty’s Memoirs should be read by every person concerned about churches’ and peoples’ struggle for freedom in Communist countries. It is particularly imperative during the present political and moral climate in this country. President Ford and Secretary Kissinger are making important decisions that remind us of the Munich appeasement. President Ford’s initial refusal to invite Solzhenitsyn to visit him, done at the advice of Kissinger because it would irritate Brezhnev and weaken detente, is an outstanding example of this dangerous policy. Another is President Ford’s participation in the Helsinki Conference.
Pentecostalism, Satanism, Scientology, Etc.
Religious Movements in Contemporary America, edited by Irving I. Zaretsky and Mark P. Leone (Princeton, 1974, 837 pp., $25), is reviewed by Lewis Rambo, assistant professor of psychology, Trinity College, Deerfield, Illinois.
The recent explosion of popular piety in the United States has drawn varied responses. For religious people, the religious revival has pointed to deficiencies within traditional institutions. It has also confirmed their belief that even modern man is in need of spiritual guidance. For many social scientists, the resurgence of religiosity has generated some creative confusion, for it has required them to reexamine their rather rigidly held views on the evolution of society. Orthodox theory in the fields of anthropology, psychology, and sociology held that man was becoming more and more secular in his mode of life and thought; therefore the inevitable demise of religion was confidently predicted. Furthermore, the researcher generally viewed religion as the reflection or residue of the larger processes of culture, society, and personality.
Religious Movements in Contemporary America consists of twenty-seven essays that seek to sketch the contours of the current religious renaissance and to reformulate a theory of religion. The book is a major achievement on both counts. First, it gives extensive reports on field research conducted among such groups as the Hare Krishna movement, Scientology, Satanists, Pentecostals, Mormons, and many others. As participant observers, the authors offer us detailed, and empathetic accounts.
Theoretically, too, the book is important, for it levels major criticisms against the dominant views of religion: that it is (a) a reaction to some form of deprivation (whether social, psychological, or economic) or (b) a response to the general disorganization of the larger society in which it lives. In my opinion, the book’s only fault is that there are only tentative attempts to construct a new, more comprehensive theory of religion. Nevertheless, the criticism of the reigning theories and the explorations into new territory are extremely valuable.
Generally, one who reviews so large a book written by so many different people feels constrained to report that the contents vary greatly in quality. That statement is not necessary for this book. The reader’s own evaluation of each essay will be determined more by his interests—whether they lie in theory or data, the occult or the more traditional—than by the quality of writing (which is unusually high) or by the author’s theoretical bias. The only problem confronting the reviewer is selection. One cannot comment on all the articles. My choice of several reflects my psychological orientation, my concern for the integrative and innovative dimensions of religious experience, and my liking for theoretical questions.
“Ideological support for the Marginal Middle Class: Faith Healing and Glossolalia” by E. Mansell Pattison skillfully portrays the personality style of the ardent fundamentalist. Pattison says that fundamentalists tend to be riddled with conflicts—covertly hostile and overtly passive, acutely aware of their worthlessness and stubbornly arrogant—and oriented to the future. Pattison also clearly lays down a theory for the relation between personality characteristics and the cultural milieus that foster certain styles.
Virginia H. Hine in “The Deprivation and Disorganization Theories of Social Movements” astutely analyzes contemporary theories of religion. Her essay explicitly states what is implicit throughout the book, that current theories cannot provide a coherent understanding of religious phenomenon. E. Fuller Torrey’s “Spiritualists and Shamans as Psychotherapists” is a direct attack on the condescending attitude of many American social scientists toward the healers of different societies; they assume, by definition, that psychiatry and clinical psychology is superior because it is more “scientific.” Healing, according to Torrey, is a process that combines art and science, even for the successful therapist in the United States. Torrey’s colleagues who react only with dismay to what he says will probably miss some valuable insights.
One of the most surprising essays is Edward J. Moody’s “Magical Therapy: An Anthropological Investigation of Contemporary Satanism.” The article is rich in details of the inner workings of a California Satanist group. It is startling to discover that (at least in Moody’s perception of the situation) Satanism’s bizarre rituals and its violently anti-Christian stance do, in fact, “socialize” its adherents and make them more “normal.” Those drawn to Satanism are deficient in the skills necessary to lead successful lives in society. Their failure breeds anger toward society. However, through their association with Satanist groups, these people are taught to perceive social expectations more correctly. This helps them achieve personal success in business, family, and other areas. The carefully controlled (and secret) rituals of Satanism are useful to diffuse hostility and create an environment in which personal relations are structured and gradually transformed. Moody’s study is arresting and useful in that he disabuses us of stereotypes of Satanism; however, his analysis of the movement tends toward advocacy at times. Satanism is “therapeutic” for some; yet most people would probably feel that the cure is worse than the disease.
The editors of the book are to be praised for their excellent organization. Diverse subjects are given compelling coherence. The editor’s extensive introductions give invaluable orientation to the essays, and they point to salient issues and problems raised in various sections of the book. The fascinating details, the openness to the novel qualities of these groups, and the willingness to attempt new theoretical formulations make this book a refreshing harbinger of a new approach to religion among social scientists.
BRIEFLY NOTED
Keeping Your Cool in a World of Tension, by Richard LeTourneau (Zondervan, 142 pp., $4.95), Life Is So Great, I Really Don’t Want to Get Off, by Milo Arnold (Zondervan, 200 pp., $5.95), Living With Depression and Winning, by Sarah Fraser (Tyndale, 110 pp., $1.45 pb), Survival Kit For the Stranded, by William Self (Broadman, 142 pp., $4.95), and That Elusive Thing Called Joy, by Calvin Miller (Zondervan, 144 pp., $4.95). Five books by evangelicals that seek to help Christians deal with the tensions and problems of modern living. LeTourneau in outline format uses the concepts of dynamics and diligence to discuss the Christian life in general. Arnold’s theme is fulfillment. He uses a kind of Christian “positive thinking” approach. Fraser writes perceptively of her struggle with suicidal depression. Self’s book encompasses many mental-spiritual crises such as mental illness, grief, guilt, fear, despair, loneliness, and illness. Well written. Miller structures his book around a pattern he calls a “happiness construct.” This formula approach to life could be very dry, but Miller’s good ideas about human relationships add spice to the recipe.
God’s Party, by David Randolph (Abingdon, 144 pp., $3.50 pb), and A New Look For Sunday Morning, by William Abernathy (Abingdon, 176 pp., $4.50 pb). Two volumes that focus on changes from the more traditional forms of worship. Randolph explains why change is sometimes needed and offers some suggestions for innovative worship. Abernathy records the experiences of his Congregational church in Connecticut. Neither author is so extreme that evangelicals cannot benefit from what he relates.
A Father … A Son … And a Three-Mile Run, by Keith Leenhouts (Zondervan, 140 pp., $4.95). A poignant story of a special father-son relationship. The father/author brings his insights as a Christian and a judge to his observations of fatherhood.
Property and Riches in the Early Church, by Martin Hengel (Fortress, 96 pp., $2.95 pb). Examines the attitudes toward owning things expressed in the Old Testament, in the New Testament by Jesus and Paul, and in the early centuries of the Church. Not definitive, but a well researched, thoughtful exposition.
Jesus in Genesis, by Michael Esses (Logos, 270 pp., $2.95 pb), Judges and a Permissive Society, by John Hunter (Zondervan, 128 pp., n.p., pb), and Hosea and His Message, by Roy L. Honeycutt (Broadman, 96 pp., $1.50 pb). Somewhat unusual approaches to three Old Testament books. Esses attempts to relate Genesis directly to the teachings of Jesus; he writes in a light style that some will find hollow. Hunter studies Judges through the characters in the book. A help, especially for a beginning student of the Old Testament. Honeycutt expounds on a somewhat unfamiliar book chapter by chapter in a simple, readable style. He draws some good parallels with modern times.
The Transfiguration of Politics, by Paul Lehmann (Harper & Row, 366 pp., $12.95). A ponderous, self-assured tome by a leading ethicist. Advanced students of the relations between Christ and government and political change cannot ignore this book, though many will argue with it.
God and the Future, by Henry McKeating (Judson, 94 pp., $3.50), Jesus the King Is Coming, edited by Charles Feinberg (Moody, 200 pp., $4.95), The Approaching Advent of Christ, by Alexander Reese (Grand Rapids International [P.O. Box 2607, Grand Rapids, Mich. 49501], 328 pp., $5.95), What, Where, and When Is the Millennium?, by R. Bradley Jones (Baker, 144 pp., $2.95 pb), and The Dawn of the Apocalyptic, by Paul Hanson (Fortress, 428 pp., $14.95). Eschatology is the area of doctrine with the most books. McKeating writes on the whole biblical approach to the future, not just the end. Feinberg’s contributors include such notables as Hal Lindsey and John Walvoord. A good introduction to one widespread view. Price concentrates on prophetic fulfillment relating to restoration of Israel and Jewish expectations of the Messiah, especially as they affect the Christian. Reese’s volume, a reprint, is a polemical, often quoted defense of a post-tribulational view of the Second Coming. Jones contends that the millennium is now; his views will interest the prophecy buff. Hanson gives a scholarly treatment of the origins of apocalyptic writings, for the advanced student.
Believe!, by Richard DeVos (Revell, 128 pp., $4.95), and Success, Motivation and the Scriptures, by William Cook (Broadman, 172 pp., $3.95). What is the relation between “success” and the Christian faith? DeVos, president of Amway, seems to be saying that belief in God, America, and free enterprise is the key to a successful life. Some may question his thesis. Cook attempts to apply biblical principles to the subject and brings more depth to the understanding of motivation.
Scripture And Sciences: Concord, Not Conflict
The Clock Work Image, by Donald MacKay (InterVarsity, 1974, 112 pp., $2.25 pb), is reviewed by Michael Macdonald, associate professor of German and philosophy, Seattle Pacific College, Seattle, Washington.
Donald MacKay, a professor of communications and a specialist in brain physiology, is the author of Room For Freedom and Action in a Mechanistic Universe. He has debated B. F. Skinner on William Buckley’s TV show, “Firing Line.” As a scientist and a Christian, MacKay here examines the Christian view of the universe and its relation to scientific thought.
His theme is the essential, non-accidental harmony between biblical Christian faith and mechanistic science. MacKay emphasizes a philosophy of wholeness: the harmony and complementarity between Christian thought on the one hand and the spirit and practice of natural science on the other. God’s story is revealed in both Scripture and science, and MacKay thinks that the greatest educational need of our time is to restore wholeness to our view of life.
We tend to try to understand each situation by analogy with a machine. Much can be described and analyzed as a mechanism, but this does not mean that the only “real,” objective, worthwhile explanations are the explanations we get from machine analogies. We can know some aspects of reality only by becoming involved with them. MacKay argues that if you transfer scientific criteria, which are expressly developed for observing physical objects, into the sphere of religion, which deals with the personal knowledge of God, “you do not discover a conflict, you create one.” He maintains “that the religious and the scientific approaches are not rivals but are complementary, each appropriate to an aspect of experience largely ignored by the other.”
The scientist has no reason to deny that there is much knowledge of a different kind to be gained by personal involvement. In many situations one should become a participant and accept personal responsibility. The move is one from detachment to involvement. This extremely important distinction is reminiscent of Bergson, Buber, and more recently Tournier. Each in his own way stresses that there are two profoundly different ways of knowing—one by moving around the object, which depends on point of view, and another by entering into a personal relationship with it.
Provocative and sensitive, this book is written both for Christians who want to evaluate science in the light of their faith and for non-Christians who wish to discover what commitment to Christ would do to their intellectual integrity in this age of mechanistic science. The book is based largely on talks given over the past twenty years; some presupposed no religious commitment, while others were given at conferences of Christians. The slight unevenness in style is understandable and not bothersome.