By 8 a.m. on February 9 nearly all of the 950 guests had crowded about damask-covered tables in the ornate Grand Ballroom of Washington’s Mayflower Hotel. A side door opened, and guests stood to their feet as a line of distinguished men filed up to the head table. Army choristers sang softly, “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” and Chairman Boyd Leedom of the National Labor Relations Board stepped forward to lead the invocation. The bowed heads represented perhaps the highest concentration of U. S. governmental leadership ever to assemble for a hearing of the Gospel, in this case the ninth annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast of International Christian Leadership.
Sitting to the breakfast (eggs, ham, bacon, fried apples, grits, et al) were New Frontiersmen in such abundance that in sheer numbers they had outdone eight years of Eisenhower administration representation. The delegation to the first Democratically-dominated Presidential Prayer Breakfast was led by President John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, U. N. Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson, and six other Cabinet members.
The breakfast program included testimonies which would equally have fit a revival service. Jerome Hines, Metropolitan Opera soloist, and William C. Jones, Los Angeles publisher who has picked up the tab for the last four breakfasts, both told of their conversions. Evangelist Billy Graham arrested attention by quoting from the famous message on labor of Pope Leo XIII: “When a society is perishing, the true advice to give those who would restore it is to recall it to the principles from which it sprang.”
Graham stressed that the nation’s problems are primarily personal and spiritual, that they amount to “heart trouble,” and that the problems will never be solved apart from a spiritual transformation of the human heart. In the Bible, he explained, the heart refers to the total man. He quoted Jeremiah as saying that the heart is “desperately wicked … above all things.” The key to a change in the human heart, he said, is found in such verses as John 3:16.
Kennedy’s four-minute address underscored the thesis that every U. S. president has “placed a faith in God” and that religious freedom has no meaning without religious conviction.
“Every President,” he said, “has taken comfort and courage when told as we are told today, that the Lord ‘will be with thee. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Fear not—neither be thou dismayed.’ ”
Kennedy was the first to rise when Graham was introduced.
Following the benediction, which closed with joint recital of the Lord’s Prayer, Kennedy, Johnson, and Graham stepped across the Mayflower lobby to greet 600 women who had participated in a similar “First Lady Breakfast.” The Vice President’s wife headed the list of notables. Mrs. Kennedy did not attend.
In 20 state capitals across the nation simultaneous gubernatorial prayer breakfasts were being sponsored by International Christian Leadership chapters. Some had a strong “inter-faith” leaning, as in Minneapolis, where a Jewish rabbi spoke, a Roman Catholic priest gave the invocation, and a Lutheran minister pronounced the benediction.
The program at the main breakfast in Washington began with a recital of the ICL credo by Dr. Richard C. Halverson, the group’s associate executive director who is pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in suburban Washington. The credo identifies ICL as “an informal association of concerned laymen united to foster faith, freedom and Christian leadership through regenerated men who in daily life will affirm their faith and assert their position as Christians, believing that ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself … and has committed unto us the word of reconcilation.’ ”
The following Sunday The Washington Post carried a picture of books which Kennedy keeps on his White House desk. Among them was Halverson’s Perspective.
The breakfast prefaced ICL’s 17th annual four-day Christian Leadership Conference, high spot in the calendar year for the 26-year-old organization (see CHRISTIANITY TODAY, March 14, 1960).
Presiding at the breakfast was U. S. Senator Frank Carlson, Republican of Kansas, who with Leedom is an ICL president. Chief Judge Marvin Jones of the Court of Claims quoted Proverbs 3:1–10 and Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara read Romans 8:28–37. Representative Bruce Alger, Republican from Texas, and Senator Frank J. Lausche, Democrat from Ohio and a Roman Catholic, also spoke. Dr. Abraham Vereide, ICL founder, gave the closing prayer.
Sticks and Stones
“The day for using sticks and stones in dealing with Protestants has ended.”
So commented a Roman Catholic priest of Colombia last month in remarks to a Protestant missionary in Cali. They were together for a Bible study which embraced both Roman Catholics and Protestants, latest of a series of events ostensibly aimed at ushering in an era of rapprochement in a country where more than 100 evangelical Christians have been martyred since 1948.
The new approach was highlighted in a huge religious rally in Cali last December 6 when Protestant ministers and Roman Catholics appeared on the same program before 9,000 persons crowded into the city’s Gimnasio Cubierto.
First speaker was the Rev. Hugo Ruiz, a Baptist, who spoke on “The Message of the Bible.” Concluding his address, Ruiz held high his Bible and began to quote from the Spanish hymn, “Santa Biblia para mi eres un tesoro aqui.” A thunderous applause drowned him out.
Ruiz was followed to the rostrum by a Jesuit priest, the Rev. Florencio Alvarez, who delivered an address on “Literary Types in the Bible.” Others who spoke included the Rev. Jose Hajardo (Cumberland Presbyterian), “The Personality of Jesus Christ;” the Rev. Carlos Alvarez (Catholic), “Baptism by Sprinkling;” and the Rev. Harry Bartel (Assemblies of God), “Baptism by Immersion.”
An occasional “Viva la Virgen” punctuated the proceedings, but on the whole the crowd was orderly. Never before in Colombia had Roman Catholics been confronted with the Gospel on such a scale, and Protestant missionaries rubbed their eyes in disbelief.
Some observers are convinced that the new approach is genuine and that Roman Catholic strategy for Colombia is undergoing radical change. One of the first inklings was in 1959 in a book by a Bogota priest who called for an ecumenical approach to supersede eras of “repression” and “tolerance” which had proved unfruitful for Catholicism. He appealed for practicing love in an effort to win over Protestants.
The recent developments seem to indicate that the new approach is being implemented at a remarkable rate, at least in urban areas. Some incidents of persecution have been reported recently, however, indicating that the “violent repressive” era is not wholly history. But an ecumenical spirit predominates, and the recent elevation to cardinal of Colombia’s ranking Roman Catholic prelate indicates Vatican sanction of the reversal.
Protestantism in Colombia has thrived under persecution. Though still small in relation to the country’s population (14,000,000), the Protestant community has seen an average 16 per cent annual growth for the past eight years, according to statistics newly-released by CEDEC (Evangelical Federation of Colombia). Nearly 166,000 Colombians now call themselves Protestants, including 33,156 baptized church members.
Haiti and Rome
Ernest Bonhomme, Haitian ambassador to the United States, cited improved relations between the two countries in an address this month before a regional convention in Washington, D. C. of Full Gospel Business Men.
Bonhomme, a Methodist, said recent spiritual concern and material aid from the United States has reduced anti-American feeling in Haiti and has helped to check Communist influence. He specifically referred to a public rally sponsored by American Protestants which drew 35,000 persons and to foreign aid grants from the U. S. government.
He did not mention the deportation in past weeks of several of the highest-ranking Roman Catholic prelates from Haiti. He did imply gratification over the U. S. State Department’s decision last year to recall ambassador Gerald Drew, a Roman Catholic. Drew was succeeded by Robert Newbigin, a Protestant.
Some reports have linked tension between the Roman Catholic church and the Haitian government with the refusal by President Francois Duvalier to renew a 100-year-old concordat with the Vatican which expired last year.
Miami Crusade
Evangelist Billy Graham opens his Miami crusade this week with addresses to University of Miami students, to a combined civic club luncheon, and to a breakfast ministers’ meeting.
Next Sunday, March 5, the Graham team will begin a three-week campaign in Miami Beach Convention Hall.
Graham and his associate evangelists have been holding week-end meetings in key Florida centers, in conjuction with the height of the tourist season, since early January. Totals to date:
The Congo Question
U. S. missions boards are keeping a close eye on developments in the Congo, where the slaying this month of deposed Premier Patrice Lumumba spelled new trouble for the strife-torn, eight-month-old republic.
Last month’s mass missionary evacuations were limited to the eastern sections of Congo. As of the middle of February, a relatively stable situation still prevailed in western sections.
African Slaying
Edward Adkins, 64, an American Methodist missionary, was fatally injured this month when he and his wife were attacked by a group of thugs while walking home from a Sunday evening church service in Krugerdorf, South Africa.
Mrs. Adkins suffered a possible skull fracture.
A U. S. State Department spokesman speculated that robbery may have motivated the attack. Missing were a briefcase and purse which the couple were carrying.
Halted at the Gate
Seven bishops and about 30 laymen from West Germany were barred by East German police from entering East Berlin to attend a special service in St. Mary’s Church marking the opening of the week-long Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany. The churchmen were told by police at the Brandenburg Gate barrier between East and West Berlin that their presence was “indesirable.”
Mayor Willy Brandt of West Berlin called the police action “a breach of law and a violation of existing agreements.” The service was the only synod event scheduled for East Berlin, the main sessions having been arranged to take place at the St. John Foundation in West Berlin.
For some unexplained reason, however, Communist authorities made an exception in the case of Bishop Hermann Kunst of Bonn, Chaplain General of the West German armed forces. Others permitted to enter East Berlin included Bishop Otto Dibelius and Pastor Martin Niemoeller.
Some observers saw the East German restriction as a bad omen for the next Kirchentag, now scheduled to be held in Berlin in July.
The Rockefeller Plan
Students of the Church-State scene are attaching great significance to New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller’s proposal to give tuition-aid payments of up to $200 a year to college students in his state, even those in church-sponsored schools.
The Rockefeller plan has been widely criticized as a violation of the principle of Church-State separation.
Observers are pondering possible political repercussions of Rockefeller’s position, which carries the favor of most Roman Catholics. The Republican governor is often mentioned as a presidential contender in 1964, perhaps opposite President John F. Kennedy, who—despite the fact that he is a Roman Catholic—has taken a strong stand against government aid to parochial schools.
The New York State Catholic Welfare Committee has endorsed the Rockefeller tuition plan, which would help students defray tuition costs in excess of $500 a year (graduate students would receive up to $800 in assistance), as “reasonable” and constitutional. Walter J. Mahoney, Senate majority leader in the state legislature, has warned that he will not support any expanded financial aid for higher education in New York unless it includes both private and public colleges.
Sharp criticism came from many Protestant quarters. Rockefeller himself took his proposal before the State Council of Churches’ annual legislative seminar. He denied his program was designed to aid the colleges rather than students. Asked if it was not an effort to subsidize private colleges, he replied: “No, and I resent your saying that.”
The council had charged that the Rockefeller program attempted to “circumvent” the state constitution, which prohibits the use of public funds to aid sectarian institutions.
Expressing confidence that the council would agree to the legality of his proposal, he also chided the group for criticizing the plan before he had outlined it in a special message to the legislature.
“You judged me and condemned me before I got my message out,” he said.
Public Policy
The ramifications of a school’s acceptance of government funds were underscored in a statement issued by the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs last month.
The statement cites a report from the Civil Rights Commission urging the Federal government to use disbursement of Federal funds to public institutions as a weapon to force compliance with segregation decrees. The commission split 3–3 on recommending that such pressure also be exerted on private schools.
Commenting on the report, C. Emanuel Carlson, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, said that “we must expect” that in due time “public policy” must prevail in institutions that use “public funds.” The statement added that integration happens to be the focal point at the present time, but in due course other policies will develop and will be enforced in institutions using public funds.
“If funds are accepted in 1961,” Carlson warned, “public policy will certainly control the institutions before 1971. The churches cannot both eat their cake and still have it. The freedom of the churches has always had a price tag—pay the cost. While integration is in harmony with positions taken by our Baptist conventions, we cannot assume that public policy always will reflect church insights.”
POAU Parley
The 13th National Conference on Church and State heard a declaration that it is morally wrong for “any religious institution to accept a subsidy” from the government when “it declines supervision and regulation.”
The statement was made by the Rev. Charles R. Bell, Jr., pastor of First Baptist Church in Pasadena, California, in an address to the conference this month in Portland, Oregon. The conference is sponsored by Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Bell declared that state funds accepted by a church “inevitably breed indifference” and “no amount of money can give vitality to a church.”
Elder R. R. Bietz, president of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, described “clericalism” as a great danger to religious freedom in the United States. He defined it as “the pursuit of political power by a religious hierarchy carried on by secular methods and for the purpose of social domination.”
“We do not object if a church believes it is the only true church,” he said. “However, when a church wants to use the power of the state to silence others who might differ from it, we would reply, ‘Your liberty ends where my nose begins.’ ”
Dr. W. A. Criswell, pastor of Dallas’ First Baptist Church, at a conference public rally said that “the way to prevent clericalism is to make churches free, independent, self-supporting, redemptive in their mission and not agencies for political domination.”
Criswell labelled as the greatest danger to Church-State separation “the campaign to shift the cost of Roman Catholic schools to the American taxpayer.” He contended that Francis Cardinal Spellman’s bid for federal funds for parochial schools was “a declaration of war against separation of church and state.”
“It presents a dramatic challenge to Mr. Kennedy at the very threshold of his term in office,” Criswell continued. “Millions of voters will want to know immediately whether our new President will bow to the wishes of Cardinal Spellman or respect his magnificent pledges given in the last campaign.”
Spellman, Archbishop of New York, has condemned as “unfair” to the country’s parochial and private school pupils a proposed federal aid to education program restricted to public schools.
Dr. W. Kenneth Haddock of Church-land, Virginia, a Methodist district superintendent, told the conference that “the Church-State separation battle must continue to be done on the real issues of public tax support for Roman Catholic schools, tax favoritism for Roman Catholic nuns who teach in public schools and clergy who serve as chaplains in the armed forces, and Roman Catholic baking, brewing and broadcasting industries, as well as insistent demand by the Roman Catholic church that its views on birth control shall be forced upon the United Nations policy and the U. S. foreign policy.”
Pre-Marital Agreement
The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court is studying a child-custody appeal by a Baptist mother legally separated from her Roman Catholic husband. She contends that her premarital agreement to bring up any children as Catholics is unconstitutional.
Mrs. Ruth Begley of Brooklyn is seeking to reverse an earlier ruling by Supreme Court Justice Charles J. Beckinella placing her three sons in the custody of their father, Hugh Begley, Jr.
In his decision last July, when the separation was granted, the judge ruled as binding the pre-marital agreement made by Mrs. Begley as required by Catholic church law when a Catholic marries a baptized non-Catholic.
Under this agreement the non-Catholic promises that the Catholic party shall have complete freedom in the practice of his religion and that all children born of the marriage will be baptized and reared as Catholics.
Morris Shapiro, Mrs. Begley’s lawyer, told the Appellate Division that the premarital agreement had been signed by the wife under duress. Mrs. Begley, he said, had been pregnant when the agreement was made and Begley had warned that he would leave her if she did not agree to a Catholic wedding.
Shapiro also said that the mother was a “fit person on moral and other grounds” to have custody of the children, while the father was not.
Begley’s attorney, Vincent J. Malone, denied that his client was not morally fit to have the children and said the agreement had been “freely made and ratified by Mrs. Begley.”
A “friend-of-the-court” brief in support of Mrs. Begley was filed by the American Jewish Congress. In it the congress said that the lower court’s order awarding custody of the children to the father because of the pre-marital agreement is an “infringement on religious freedom and an impairment of the Church-State separation principle.” Such agreements were called unconstitutional.
Assuring Missionaries
Sixty-two Baptist missionaries paid a visit to President Kennedy in the White House this month.
Kennedy assured them that he is concerned for religious liberty both in the United States and around the world. He expressed appreciation for the contribution Baptists are making to the ideals of religious and political liberty upon which this country was founded.
The visit with the President was made during a school of missions in the churches of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention. The missionaries were from the American and Southern Baptist Conventions.
Kennedy greeted the missionaries with handshakes.
Capital Orientation
Some 95 students from 14 evangelical colleges assembled in Washington this month for a four-day seminar on the prospects of government employment and its special meaning for committed Christians.
It was the sixth annual Washington Seminar on Federal Service sponsored by the public affairs office of the National Association of Evangelicals. Through such seminars the NAE hopes to whet interests of Christian college students in taking up federal service careers and to outline the opportunities therein, both from a secular and spiritual standpoint.
This year’s seminar included a 40-minute tour of the White House and numerous other visits to places of interest in Washington. The program featured talks and discussions with government officials, including an economist with the Housing and Home Finance Agency who was introduced to government service as a college student in a similar seminar four years ago.
Losing a Bid
Christian Scientists lost a bid this month to have the Ontario legislature place their healing practitioners on equal legal standing with medical doctors.
The bid was made by Leslie Tufts of the Christian Science Committee on Publication while a legislative committee was considering amendments to the Coroner’s Act. One of the amendments specified that every person who believes someone has died from a disease or sickness for which he has not been treated by a duly qualified medical practitioner must so advise the coroner.
Tufts had urged the legislators to add after the words “medical practitioner” the phrase “or by a duly accredited religious practitioner of a well-known church or denomination, through prayer or spiritual means alone.”
The legislative committee turned down the request.
To the Convent
Yvonne Dionne, 26, one of the world-famous Dionne quintuplets, plans to become a nun.
She will enter Baie St. Paul, Quebec, convent of the Little Franciscan Sisters, a Roman Catholic order which operates schools and hospitals in Quebec and New England.
Miss Dionne will be a postulant until August when she advances to a two-year novitiate before taking final vows. She has been serving as a nurse in Montreal.
One of the Dionne sisters, Emilie, died in 1954. The other three sisters are married.
Eyeing Hollywood
Keeping an eye on the products of Hollywood film factories is an implicit responsibility of the Los Angeles office of the National Council of Churches’ Broadcasting and Film Commission. But what to do in cases where the West Coast office people don’t like what they see is yet to be determined.
The Los Angeles office headed by George A. Heimrich has been a source of controversy since 1959 when Heimrich spoke out sharply against the increasing portrayal of sex and violence in U. S. movies. He stressed that “something very definite must be done about this situation.” Some interpreted his remarks as suggestive of boycott or censorship, and criticism was heaped upon him even by members of the Commission. Dr. S. Franklin Mack, executive director of the NCC’s Broadcasting and Film Commission, dissociated himself from Heimrich’s position.
Last December the BFC Board of Managers’ executive committee recommended closing the Los Angeles office by transferring it to the jurisdiction of the NCC’s Department of Public Relations in New York. This month the full board met, however, and reversed the executive committee decision, urging instead that the Los Angeles office be strengthened, thereby assuring it of additional financing.
The board met in connection with the commission’s annual meeting. A proposal by the agency’s West Coast Committee that the NCC or one of its units set up a board to review and rate movies was referred to the executive committee for study.
