A capacity crowd in Filadelfia Hall in Oslo, Norway, witnessed the opening of the tenth World Methodist Conference on August 17. Surrounding the rostrum were 49 flags representing nations in which Methodists live. His Majesty King Olav V of Norway led a list of dignitaries who were on hand for the opening, in addition to more than 2,000 members, delegates, and representatives.
The theme of the conference, “New Life in the Spirit,” came into early prominence through the presidential address by Dr. Harold Roberts, principal of Richmond College, London, in terms of Methodism’s need for “the recovery of a positive theological emphasis.” The address set the mood for the entire nine-day conference, which was basically theological in emphasis. Speaker after speaker echoed Dr. Roberts’ insistence upon a solid doctrinal foundation as the only secure basis for the personal and subjective appropriation of grace. Christian experience, however understood, was certainly not regarded by the speakers at Oslo as something which floats nebulously upon the ether of mere human responses.
An early emphasis upon the basis of the biblical understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit, grounded in studies of both the Old and the New Testaments, undergirded the theological orientation of the conference sessions. Well-received was the clear assertion of the discontinuity between God’s Spirit and the spirit of man, made with emphasis by Dr. Percy Scott, principal of Hartley-Victoria College of Manchester, England. Such an assertion marks a radical departure from the theological mood of a generation ago. So does the note struck by Dr. Maldwyn L. Edwards, president of the Methodist Church in Great Britain, to the effect that the place of man’s willingness to accept grace is the sole point at which God and man can meet in effective relationship. Parallel to this was a statement by Dr. Hurst Anderson, president of American University, that even “the most Christlike humanism” can never be a substitute for the Christian Gospel.
Conference leaders explored with especial care the question of the work of God’s Spirit. Accepting the historic theological formulation of the doctrine of the Person of the Holy Spirit, they sought to explore the distinctive Wesleyan understanding of the Holy Spirit’s operation in the lives of men. Many of the conclusions drawn were extremely general: that the Holy Spirit is “the one mighty agent of regeneration and sanctification,” and that Reinhold Niebuhr makes too little of the power of grace to effect social transformation. There was an expressed rejection of mere “token righteousness,” in favor of a sanctification of the whole of life.
Conference speakers and leaders of discussion groups sought to apply this theme to several areas of church concern—to youth work and youth problems, to international relations, to education, and to the pressing question of man’s social and economic life. No major common denominator to these discussions was discernible beyond the broad generalization that there is a “mind of the Spirit” to be discerned, and the expressed hope that group discussions may serve to clarify this for the Church.
There were searchings of heart among “the people called Methodists” at Oslo, particularly at three points. The first two of these searchings were concerned with the denomination’s outreach to the world, the third related itself to its place in the ecumenical movement.
There was an expression of concern at the manner in which Methodism’s social outreach can and should be implemented. The Social Creed of the Church underwent searching criticism, particularly for the omission, in its classic formulation, of any direct reference to the Holy Spirit. The emphasis of the present conference stood in bold contrast to this, and by implication called into question the major thrust of the denomination’s social outreach for three decades following 1910. Dr. Mack B. Stokes, associate dean and professor of systematic theology at Candler School of Theology, in Atlanta, gave an address which was vitally significant to the conference’s exploration of the theme “New Life in the Spirit” as it relates to the society of our day. There was wide agreement in the gathering that the energizing of the Holy Spirit is the sine qua non of a vital social outreach.
The second area of heart searching was that suggested by the inability of the Church to deal with greater effectiveness with many of the specific sore areas in today’s life. This was voiced by representatives from all lands, particularly from Great Britain and the United States. Leaders expressed continuing concern at the rising tide of materialism, and at the inability of the Church to provide an effective spiritual counterthrust. This acknowledgment found expression especially in the discussions relating to the Church’s seeming lack of rapport with youth.
Youth work received much attention during the course of the sessions. The accent fell upon the need for making the Church’s witness relevant to young people, and upon the imperative need for a quality of spiritual life upon the part of adults which will render the Christian message attractive to youth.
A third area of self-analysis was that of the relation of the strengthening of the Methodist Church (and this was the explicit purpose of the conference) to the deepening of the ecumenical spirit. After all, ecumenicity does demand the surrender of some denominational prerogatives to the wider Church. This appears to be one of the questions which remains unsettled in Methodism. For the present, the conference let the issue rest, with the assumption that a strengthened Methodist Church would ultimately issue in good for the Oikumené.
As noted above, the major pattern of the tenth World Methodist Conference was theological. No doubt a great deal of ecclesiastical work was performed in committees. Attention was given to revision of the Constitution of the Conference, and to further denominational unions, particularly the proposed merger of the Evangelical United Brethren Church with The Methodist Church. The question of closer rapport with the several Negro Methodist bodies in the United States was also considered, and several new agencies within the conference were projected.
Missions received a great deal of attention, the churches of Latin America, Africa, and Eastern and Southeastern Asia being ably represented in the conference program. Ten delegates represented also the lands of Eastern Europe, five from East Germany, two each from Poland and Czechoslovakia, and one from Yugoslavia.
Among addresses delivered toward the end of the conference, three deserve special notice. Dean William R. Cannon of Candler School of Theology presented on the closing morning an address titled, “The Work of the Holy Spirit in Personal Life” which abounded in deep insights and careful distinctions.
The second message to which special attention should be drawn was that given by the executive secretary of U. S. Methodism’s Board of Evangelism, Dr. Harry Denman on the subject, “The Universal Gospel.” Dr. Denman expressed, in fine combination, the dual thrust of the Christian Gospel, as it is designed to touch the life of the individual, and through him the disturbed areas of man’s corporate life. In a manner characteristic of himself, he stressed the mandate of Christ to reach the people whom institutional religion has neglected in the past.
The incoming president of the World Methodist Conference, Bishop Fred Pierce Corson of Philadelphia, delivered the final message, “Greater Achievement through the Spirit.” Bishop Corson called Methodists to a six-pronged thrust into today’s world, beginning with “a more convincing theological impact,” and issuing in Methodism’s increased spiritual role as a positive force in today’s world. He emphasized that this can be achieved “only through and by the Holy Spirit working in us.”
H. B. K.
People: Words And Events
Deaths: Dr. H. Orton Wiley, 83, noted Arminian theologian and past president of the Pasadena (California) College of the Church of the Nazarene; in Pasadena … Bishop Georg Olof Rosenqvist, 68, for seven years the head of the Lutheran Church of Finland’s Porvoo Diocese, comprising all Swedish-speaking congregations in the country; in Helsinki … Dr. Ernest Milton Halliday, 83, retired Congregational home missions administrator; in New York City.
Appointments: As speaker for “The Bible Study Hour,” Dr. D. Reginald Thomas, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Germantown, Pa. Thomas succeeds the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse for the program which is broadcast weekly by the NBC radio network and 50 independent U. S. stations … as president of the San Francisco Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Arno Q. Weniger … as president of Spring Arbor (Mich.) College of The Free Methodist Church, Dr. David L. McKenna … as Bishop of Bradford in the Church of England, the Rt. Rev. Clements George St. Michael Parker … as Bishop of Edinburgh in the Episcopal Church in Scotland, Canon Kenneth Moir Carey … as staff consultant of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Rabbi Arthur Gilbert.
Elections: As moderator of the North American Baptist General Conference, Edwin H. Marklein … as president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, E. E. (Tad) Wieman … as president of the National Conference of the Methodist Youth Fellowship, Leslie Parish … as president of the National Mennonite Youth Fellowship, Marion Bontrager.
Seed Scattering
Hundreds of Protestant ministers in and around Philadelphia returned from vacation to a spiritual phenomenon. Evangelist Billy Graham’s call to repentance had become the rallying point for a degree of Christian co-operation never before achieved in the area. Religious indifference was being dispelled at a time of year when ordinarily it is at its peak.
As the crusade moved into its final week and a climactic rally in Philadelphia’s 100,000-seat Municipal Stadium September 17, even the most stiff-necked skeptic had to concede a grass-roots breakthrough in the fourth largest U. S. city, historic hub of the Eastern Seaboard population concentration.
Despite rain, heat, and the attraction of beach and mountain, an aggregate of some 210,000 turned out for the first 10 meetings of the crusade, with nearly 5,000 of these making public confessions of Christ.
The intensity of the crusade was mirrored in press coverage. The Bulletin and the Inquirer, Philadelphia’s two largest dailies, featured front-page crusade stories in virtually every edition for more than a week.
“It’s like putting a Gospel tract in the hands of every Philadelphian every day,” commented Graham.
The initial meetings were held in cavernous Convention Hall, which in 1948 played host to three political conventions (the candidates: Harry Truman, Thomas E. Dewey, and Henry A. Wallace). The crusade moved out-of-doors for the second week end and a trio of memorable meetings in Municipal Stadium. The first of the stadium meetings proceeded through a drenching rain while some 35,000 persons, most of them young people, huddled under raincoats and umbrellas.
The usual invitation was given and while it was still raining, approximately 1,300 stepped forward to record decisions.
A team member said it was “almost a festival spirit for the Lord.”
Two days later, some 50,000 sat under a boiling sun at the stadium. The temperature was in the nineties.
The crusade returned temporarily to Convention Hall the following Tuesday. By the starting hour the hall had been filled to legal capacity (about 15,000, including standees) and another 3,500 were obliged to stand in the street for the entire service to listen via the public address system. The following night saw another overflow crowd which was steered into a large room adjoining the hall.
The vacation season seemed to have no appreciable effect upon the crusade’s appeal to various walks of life. Tattooed truck drivers sat with prim stenographers while crew-cut adolescents shared sons books with buxom matrons. Among the first to respond to Graham’s invitation were a lawyer, a dentist, a nuclear physicist, a Main Line debutante, and a high school football star.
Some observers attributed the far-reaching effect of the crusade in part to a growing awareness of the acute international situation.
As usual, Graham took no credit to himself. He reiterated that his role was merely that of a seed scatterer, and he reminded his audiences that only divine action could cause the seeds to sprout:
“The Holy Spirit has prepared you for this hour. He’s calling for you. Don’t resist him!”
Television Crusade
An eight-night television crusade which will cost the Graham organization an estimated $500,000 or more is scheduled to begin Sunday, September 17, in many principal U. S. cities.
The crusade will consist of eight hour-long programs which are to be scheduled on consecutive nights, concluding September 24.
It represents the most intensive mass media evangelistic effort ever attempted.
The programs are being filmed while the evangelist’s Philadelphia crusade is in progress. One of them will show the August 25 meeting in Municipal Stadium where 35,000 persons sat in the rain for the entire service and 1,300 stepped forward onto the soggy turf to present their lives to Christ.
The television films will be preserved and will be offered in England to local churches for consecutive eight-night showings.
Here is a partial listing of U. S. cities and stations which have scheduled the TV crusade:
A Baptist’s Challenge
A Baptist minister in Orlando, Florida, is challenging Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev to join in a worldwide prayer crusade for peace.
The Rev. Auburn Hayes, pastor of the Colonial Baptist Church, cabled an invitation to the Russian leader last month to attend a prayer meeting in Moscow or East Berlin.
Hayes is founder of the Worldwide Prayer Fellowship which will launch a prayer crusade for world peace September 24 to help counteract the Communist Party Progress in Moscow in October.
In his message Hayes told the premier: “You are talking about peace. We are praying for peace. Why can’t we join in this crusade? Prayer is more powerful than all the atomic bombs in the world.”
No Recovery
The Christian Brothers winery in Sacramento, California, apparently will not be able to recover $489,000 paid in federal taxes in 1951, 1952, and 1955.
Federal Judge Sherrill Halbert’s midsummer ruling rejected the brothers’ plea, which claimed that the winery was part of their institution at Napa, California, developing produce used to support the order’s 14 schools.
Halbert ruled that the De La Salle Institute operated by the Christian Brothers was exempt from taxation as a church institution, but that the winery was a taxable adjunct of the institute.
Winery operations were reorganized in 1957 to avoid further tax difficulties, and were incorporated as the Monte La Salle Vineyards, a tax-paying corporation owned by the brothers.
The federal government in 1958 sued to collect taxes from the brothers, claiming that the winery operation was not tax-exempt under the law. The case was decided in favor of the government, and the Christian Brothers paid the taxes under protest, later appealing the decision.
Fallout Pews
North Carolina’s Roman Catholic churches, following a suggestion by Bishop Vincent S. Waters of Raleigh, are converting basements into fallout shelters, stocked with supplies, for use in the event of nuclear attack. The project has already been completed at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh. Another church in Charlotte which is laying similar plans will be able to accommodate 300 persons.
Orthodox Ecumenism
Archbishop Iakovos, Greek Orthodox primate of North and South America, says there may be some major progress toward union of all Orthodox churches in the Western Hemisphere within the next two years.
At a press conference preceding the opening of the tenth international conference of the Greek Orthodox Youth of America in New York last month, the archbishop said the Orthodox bodies are on the “right path” toward union and some announcement on this subject might be forthcoming within two years.
“We must organize ourselves into one Orthodox Church in the Americas and make our contribution to the culture and the civilization more essential,” he said.
Discussing the Pan-Orthodox meeting scheduled to be held this month on the island of Rhodes, the archbishop said the movement toward Christian unity will be one of the major topics there.
Called by Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Istanbul, supreme leader of Eastern Orthodoxy, the Pan-Orthodox meeting is a preliminary gathering to prepare for the larger Pan-Orthodox Council which will follow at a date which is yet to be announced.
Lutheran Dissolution?
The strife-ridden Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America should be dissolved, according to a resolution adopted last month at the annual convention of the 15,000-member Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Mankato, Minnesota.
The ELS, smallest of four members belonging to the 90-year-old conference, also voted to reaffirm the suspension of fellowship relations with the 2,400,000-member Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, which has been in effect since 1955. The Missouri Synod is the largest conference body.
The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, second largest conference body with some 350,000 members, voted a similar suspension last month.
Since two of the conference’s synods now refuse to have fellowship with the Missouri Synod, the conference is no longer functioning according to its intended purpose and its existence “is no longer truthful,” the resolution said.
Assemblies’ Advances
The Assemblies of God (international headquarters in Springfield, Missouri) met in their 29th biennial business convention in Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Oregon, August 23–29. Some 4,600 persons registered, representing 20,692 churches in the United States and 70 foreign countries with a total membership of 1,254,048. The U. S. statistics this year show 508,602 members in 8,233 churches. In 1916 the Assemblies had 118 churches with a total membership of 6,703.
Legislation enacted in Portland authorizes establishing 8,000 new churches in the next 10 years. The Assemblies’ outreach abroad is illustrated by its foreign missionary giving: nearly $5,000,000 in 1960.
At a foreign missions rally, the Calvary Temple of Denver was awarded a plaque for raising $115,000 in two years.
“Global Conquest” is the Assemblies program for gathering funds to undergird missions in three ways: 1. literature; 2. training of nationals; and 3. direct evangelism.
Some time ago the denomination’s Executive Presbytery authorized closing of the Assemblies’ office in the Interchurch Center, New York, and discontinuance of cooperation with Church World Service. Among actions taken by the General Presbytery were the first changes of its doctrinal statement since its original adoption in 1916. The changes, made after a two-year study of the denomination’s “Statement of Fundamental Truths,” strengthen the position on the doctrine of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ, the Church, baptism by the Holy Ghost, and salvation.
Said General Superintendent Thomas F. Zimmerman, who is also president of the National Association of Evangelicals:
“The Assemblies of God has been a bulwark for fundamentalism in these modern days and has, without compromise, stood for the great truths of the Bible for which men in the past have been willing to give their lives.”
A resolution adopted by the convention which authorized the 8,000 additional churches in the next decade also called for the first 500 within a year. The very first of these churches will be located in Norwalk, Connecticut, and the funds for it were raised on the spot.
A second resolution authorized establishment of a theological seminary. Still another called for the denomination to assume responsibility for a television program which might eventually be nationwide.
A resolution which would have made each organization of the denomination responsible to the Executive Presbytery was postponed until the next convention. Considerable discussion arose over the eligibility of laymen to hold office in the General Council.
“Revivaltime,” radio voice of the Assemblies of God, continues over an average of 340 stations at a biennial cost of about $988,000, of which some 50 per cent is given by churches.
Ground was broken in 1960 for a denominational administration building and publishing plant which will cost about $3,000,000. It is scheduled to be in use before the end of the year, housing about 550 headquarters employees. The 8,300 Assemblies’ Sunday Schools were challenged to raise $200,000 needed for furnishings.
Among those who addressed the convention which frequently had public attendances of more than 7,000 was Governor Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Mayor Terry Schrunk of Portland, Zimmerman, and the Rev. J. P. Hogan, assistant superintendent and executive director of foreign missions.
Ecumenical Indoctrination
The premium was on histrionics last month as the ecumenical movement paraded its ideological colors before 1,825 hand-picked delegates at the North American Ecumenical Youth Assembly in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sponsors called it the most widely representative gathering of young Christians ever held in North America.
It was a well-tailored indoctrination in the desirability of organizational unity among Christians, but it fell short of being comprehensive in that it skimmed over the theological hazards implicit in Christian inclusivism.
The week-long program relied heavily upon dramatics to put across its broad “message of reconciliation” as in one platform act when a veil picturing the head of Christ was cut apart as a symbol of the “scandal of division.”
Nearly 40 denominations were represented by the delegates, most of them high school juniors and seniors or college freshmen and sophomores. Each was selected by his denomination. Conveniently, the assembly was held in conjunction with the national youth meetings of 12 major denominations.
Some observers felt that most of the young delegates regarded the presentations somewhat passively. The program appeared to transpire in pre-packaged fashion devoid of spontaneity. These observers felt that this lack of enthusiasm must have disappointed the program’s sponsors, who spared little expense in their effort to communicate ecumenism effectively.
The program included two stage productions which had been especially commissioned by the assembly-planning committee and which were enacted by professional casts imported from New York for the occasion. One of the productions was subsequently referred to by a platform speaker as “that sordid play.” He quoted the playright as saying that there was no message and that the purpose was simply to show a “glimpse of life.”
The assembly was held under auspices of the National Council of Churches, the Canadian Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, and the World Council of Christian Education. It was the second in a WCC series. The first, for Europeans, was held at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1960, and the third is scheduled for December 1962, in Africa.
These assemblies include no legislative sessions, hence no resolutions or statements. Talk of a common communion service such as one which sidelighted the Lausanne assembly came from the Ann Arbor platform repeatedly, but a move to organize delegates for a similar service failed to gain much support.
Principal speakers at Ann Arbor were Dr. George Johnston, principal of United Theological College in Montreal, who led a daily Bible study on 2 Corinthians 5–6 and related passages; U. Kyaw Than, Burmese Baptist layman who is associate general secretary of the East Asia Christian Conference; and William String-fellow, Episcopal layman who practices law in the East Harlem section of New York.
Worship services each morning were led by representatives of various traditions, including Greek Archbishop Iakovos and Salvation Army Commissioner Norman S. Marshall.
In his closing address Stringfellow asserted that the trouble with the assembly was that it was not ecumenical. Absence of Roman Catholic and “some evangelical Protestant” delegations was mentioned several times. Stringfellow also derided what he called “the American idea of religion,” which he said is “openly hos tile to the biblical description of the Church as the Body of Christ living in the midst of the world on behalf of the world.”
A Minor Test
The so-called “Blake-Pike” proposal to merge United Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, and the United Church of Christ faces a minor test in Detroit this month at the triennial General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
It is virtually a foregone conclusion that the convention will vote to pursue merger conversations. The Episcopal Joint Commission on Approaches to Unity reportedly has already decided to recommend the move on the convention floor and to suggest also that invitations be extended to representatives of the Polish National Catholic Church to enter into the merger conversations as well.
Undoubtedly the “stone of stumbling and rock of offence” to merger lies in the area of the historic episcopate. Some Episcopal voices have already stated that the real choice in merger is between Pan-Protestantism (which is church union) on the one side, and Catholicity or the acceptance of the historic episcopate (which is re-union, not union) on the other.
Inasmuch as Blake has called for the establishment of a church that is “truly catholic, and truly evangelical,” some observers feel that he is willing to scrap the historic Reformed view of the church and to accept the episcopate. To do so would be to come to terms with Episcopalian requirements which claim that the episcopate is organic to the Church.
Such a concession might also entail views such as those which appeared in The American Church Quarterly declaring that “Christendom … can never conceivably be reunited on a Protestant basis” and asserting that present union churches are a “clubbing together of small minorities of non-Roman, non-Orthodox Christians for the sake of carrying on the work of schism more effectively.”
The editorial also states:
“The sixteenth century Reformation largely failed because it produced schism rather than integral reform. The raison d’être of the Ecumenical Movement is thus that it seeks to undo this unhappy consequence of the sixteenth century. Unfortunately this implied criticism of the sixteenth century Reformation is, in the strategy of the Ecumenical Movement, either suppressed or its explication avoided in devious ways.”
A Missionary’s Exit
A British missionary, arrested in Lisbon on July 19 and held for 36 days without charges being pressed against him, was deported last month by the Portuguese government.
Dr. Cecil Scott, British representative on the Evangelical League for Missionary and Educational Work in Portugal, was escorted from a Lisbon jail to the airport, where he was placed aboard a plane bound for Paris. His wife accompanied him.
No formal charges were ever made against the missionary, a resident of Lisbon for many years, who had performed mission service in Angola. The police report of July 19 merely stated that he had been picked up for questioning.
However, his arrest—and that of American Methodist missionary Raymond E. Noah in Angola—came at a time when official Portuguese agencies were charging that the departure of 41 foreign students from the country could be attributed to a “clandestine organization” which had been active in Portugal “spreading rumors that overseas students risk persecution.”
An Overseas Ministry statement also said that “certain persons connected with Protestant activities” in Angola “are more directly employed in campaigning against the Portuguese authorities than in achieving their evangelistic aims.”
The American missionary was released in Lisbon eight days before the deportation of Dr. Scott. After being placed in the custody of U. S. Embassy officials, Mr. Noah left the country via plane to Geneva, Switzerland.
Libel In Bible?
Lawyers are being libeled by The New English Bible, Ontario’s Attorney General Kelso Roberts charged in a public address in Sarnia last month.
Roberts spoke to an audience made up largely of lawyers—among them Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker—at the opening of a county courthouse.
The attorney general noted that the new version of the Bible substituted the word “lawyer” for “scribe” so that the profession is linked consistently to Pharisees.
He cited one passage: “Alas you lawyers and pharisees, hypocrites …”
“This,” said Roberts, “is the unkindest slur of all.”
He added that the scholars must have had “their tongues in cheeks” in making the translation. The word “lawyer” is not related in any way to “scribe,” he said. In ancient times “scribe” was used to designate a public servant who wrote, kept accounts, transcribed manuscripts, and interpreted ecclesiastical works, Roberts declared.
Native Sects
Many parts of South Africa are witnessing a mushroom growth of native sects in which attempts to “Africanize” Christianity are blended with superstitious beliefs and old tribal customs.
One of the most common sights in all cities of the lower half of Africa is a gathering of African men and women in a vacant plot on Sunday afternoons. They are dressed in white, with colored sashes, and they shuffle or stamp their feet around a man beating a tom-tom.
Sometimes these white-robed crowds gather round a tree, declared “holy” by the leader or “prophet” of the group. Others gather near cemeteries, and in some places one can see a dozen groups at the same time.
But all these sects have one thing in common—the tom-tom which pulses its way through every ceremony. It dates back from about 1930 when a preacher in Northern Transvaal is said to have had a vision that he should use a tom-tom to praise the Lord. He did—and started a vogue which has not yet burned itself out.
Buddhism for Burma
The establishment of Buddhism as the state religion of Burma was assured when the Chamber of Nationalities, the nation’s upper legislative house in Rangoon, endorsed the government hill by a vote of 100 to 15.
Action of the Chamber of Nationalities followed the earlier vote of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, which had approved the state religion measure by a vote of 220 to 15.
It was announced that the Parliament would be called in to a joint session to pass a State Religion Promotion Act, one that will send into motion the government organization and program involved in establishing the state religion.
Because Buddhism is the dominant religion in Burma and because of Premier U Nu’s pressure on legislators, passage of the state religion measure had been foreordained from the time it was proposed.
