Several new Christian schools open their doors for the first time this month. Plans are moving ahead for still others. A summary of developments follows:
Richmond College
The following interpretative report was written forCHRISTIANITY TODAYby Dr. William Fitch, minister of Knox Presbyterian Church, Toronto:
Evangelicals in Toronto are on the horns of a dilemma, and the cause is Richmond College, an evangelical liberal-arts college scheduled to open this month.
It is fair to say that the problem was not of Toronto’s choosing but was thrust upon it. A disciplined, single-minded team descended from the west with crusading zeal, affirming that “Canada’s foremost institutional need today is for the founding of a strictly Conservative-Evangelical liberal arts college.” In tones reminiscent of an aroused John Knox, the visitors warned that “our Canadian churches are going to suffer irreparable damage from the beleaguering and sinister forces of atheism and that our beloved land could well fall prey to a godless totalitarianism which at this moment is planning the overthrow of our freedoms” if we did not immediately take steps to establish a college in which all teaching would be in accordance with the tenets of orthodox Christianity.
Our friends from the prairies proved to be not only disciplined but also close-knit—and that in a special way. The central triumvirate consists of two brothers in the flesh and a brother-in-law. That their plans are well advanced became apparent when we learned that one was to be a chancellor, another president, and the third dean of faculty. What is more, since one of them is an honorable member of the Billy Graham evangelistic team, many assume that the mighty organization of our twentieth century’s greatest prophet will in some way be behind the dream.
At the time of their advent in Ontario, the team had no charter from the Ontario Provincial Government. Previously, however, the Manitoba government had granted them a charter authorizing establishment of an evangelical group for higher education with power to grant degrees; and through extra-provincial license registered under Ontario law, the group secured the right to continue in Ontario under the Manitoba charter. The stage was accordingly set for the establishing of a college where all subjects, whether biology or economics, philosophy or English literature, would be taught “from a strictly conservative-evangelical point of view.” At this statement, one of the less reverent of our news columnists splurted the headline: “Evangelical Physics!—God Forbid!”
It has been made very clear that the proposed college will not become a school for proselytization: “Students must be able to come to us without fear that they will be de-Calvinized or de-Arminianized, de-Episcopalianized or de-Pentecostalized, or say re-baptized.” Clear also is the edict that “the campus atmosphere and conduct will be that of the separated Christian life, in keeping with those standards subscribed to by most Canadian evangelicals.” This has subsequently been spelled out as meaning no smoking, no drinking, no dancing, and so on. Censorship of conduct will, it seems, be complete, investigative, uncompromising.
Inevitably, there has been much discussion, some of it restrained, some acrimonious. The Graduates Fellowship of the IVCF analyzed the foundations of the college in a thirty-two-page journal and gave it something like a C-minus rating. Peoples Church, on the other hand, responded with a special edition of the church newspaper, hailing the new center of learning as an answer to many prayers and an answer also to the evangelical brain-drain to the United States. All of this was very confusing, to say the least, to the humble evangelical worshiper occupying his usual pew in the sanctuary on Sunday.
An initial fund-raising campaign had a target of $100,000 Canadian. The first 1,000 persons to contribute $100 were to become charter members of the school. After several months of special pleading, about one-third of the goal had been attained.
Despite the lack of general evangelical support, Richmond College plans to open with night classes September 18 in this Canadian centennial year on property leased from the government. Some thirty full-time students, all freshmen, are expected, along with thirty or more part-timers. Five courses are to be taught initially by a part-time faculty said to include three Ph.D’s.
Whether Richmond represents the dauntlessness of faith or the blindness of folly remains to be seen.
Eisenhower College
Initially scheduled to admit its first students this month, Eisenhower College in Seneca Falls, New York, has postponed its opening until July of 1968. The school, tenuously related to the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., is being built on a 265-acre site in the resort-famous Finger Lakes region of central New York state. Construction delays forced a delay in the widely publicized opening, a spokesman said.
The school, named after former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, got its initial financial impetus through a pledge of $100,000 from the First Presbyterian Church of Seneca Falls. Since then the college has been “approved” by the United Presbyterian Synod of New York, and $500,000 is being earmarked for construction of a chapel. A prospectus states, however, that “no special set of convictions may be imposed” upon the college. It is designed to be “Christian in attitude.” The only clergyman among the charter trustees is Dr. W. Eugene Houston, minister of a Presbyterian church in Harlem.
Some $6,660,000 reportedly has been invested thus far in buildings alone. Three hundred students will be accepted at first, with an ultimate enrollment of 1,500 envisioned. The school is the outgrowth of an idea of a Seneca Falls physician, Dr. Scott W. Skinner, a Presbyterian layman.
Luther Rice College
Opening day for Luther Rice College, which was organized by a group of Baptist pastors and laymen, will be September 5. One hundred full-time day students will attend classes at Franconia Baptist Church, Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, D. C. A thirty-two-acre site adjacent to the church grounds is being purchased for the campus, with initial construction scheduled to begin in a year.
Dr. John S. Nichols, dean, says the plan is to make Luther Rice a fully accredited four-year liberal-arts college as soon as possible. Nichols, who holds a doctorate in education from the University of Virginia, says the idea of the college grew out of the idea of an “international Baptist university” spearheaded by a U. S. foreign-service officer several years ago.
So far, Luther Rice College has had no recognition from any Baptist convention. Southern and American Baptist publications also have been giving it the silent treatment. Nichols, undismayed, predicts they will eventually come around.
The school has a seventeen-member board of directors, five of whom are Southern Baptist pastors. Its philosophy is distinctly Christian, and a course in Bible will be required of all freshmen. Daily chapel attendance will be mandatory. Courses will be offered in art, biology, chemistry, French, Spanish, history, math, music, and physical education. There are no denominational or racial bars to enrollment; a number of non-Baptist and non-white students have already been accepted.
Personalia
The leading spokesman for the National Association for Pastoral Renewal, an organization of Roman Catholic priests that opposes the celibacy requirement, was married in June, the St. Louis Review reports. He is the Rev. Robert T. Francoeur, who teaches at Fairleigh Dickinson University. The Review said Francoeur plans to attend this month’s NAPR conference on celibacy at Notre Dame.
The Rev. Joseph W. Drew, one of the four priests in charge of Catholic student work at Southern Methodist University who were ordered to leave the Dallas diocese, received the top community award from the Southwest Region of B’nai B’rith. Drew was selected for the honor before the bishop ousted him.
The Rev. J. Paschall Davis, chairman of Nashville’s anti-poverty agency, changed his previous testimony for a U. S. Senate investigation and admitted some agency money had gone to a “liberation school” that allegedly stirred up racial hatred among Negroes. Later, the Episcopal diocese ordered the school to vacate church property.
Lois Fiedler, 30, a Dallas divorcee, has been approved as the first woman ministerial candidate among Texas Presbyterians. She says the divorce is a “left-handed asset” that will give her greater understanding in counseling. She will get some church aid for seminary study.
President Johnson nominated Brigadier General Francis L. Sampson, 55, a Roman Catholic with a distinguished combat record, to be chief of Army chaplains, replacing Methodist Major General Charles E. Brown, Jr.
Colonel Roy M. Terry, a Methodist and a law-school graduate, has been named Protestant chaplain at the Air Force Academy.
The Rev. Timothy Reeves of First Methodist Church, Evergreen Park, Illinois, was appointed imperial chaplain of the world’s 851,000 Shriners.
Former Army Chaplain and Job Corps religious coordinator Herman J. Kregel has been named the first religious coordinator of California’s state division of alcoholism. He is a clergyman of the Reformed Church in America.
The Rev. William H. Vastine, Methodist chief executive of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Council of Churches, is on leave to be rural coordinator for the Economic Opportunity Commission in three Pennsylvania counties.
The Rev. Joseph C. Grandlienard, formerly of the New York State Council of Churches, will direct the Church Plan Commission sponsored by ten denominations and state and local councils in the New York City area.
The Rev. David W. Preus, a Lutheran, was elected president of the Minneapolis School Board.
The Rev. Ben Haden. speaker on the network radio “Bible Study Hour,” moves from a Presbyterian pulpit in Key Biscayne, Florida, to the First Church of Chattanooga, which leads Southern Presbyterian churches in missions giving.
David R. Enlow, publications director of the Christian Business Men’s Committee for fifteen years, will become associate editor of the Alliance Witness, Christian and Missionary Alliance magazine.
The Rev. Peter Pascoe, United Presbyterian pastor from Kenmore, New York, was named pastor at Taylor University, Upland, Indiana.
The Rev. Elisa Mushendwa, 33, headmaster of a Lutheran secondary school, was named Tanzania’s secretary for political education.
The Rev. Walter Kloetzli, former urban-church planner for the Lutheran Council in the U. S. A., was named a social-services director with the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Oscar Cullmann, the renowned professor of New Testament and early church history, will be rector of the University of Basel, Switzerland, for 1968.
Miscellany
Voters in Bavaria, West Germany, may vote next spring on a plan to replace state-supported religious schools with non-sectarian schools that include segregated religion classes, the Washington Post reports. At present, nine out of ten children attend “confessional schools,” a hangover from the concordat between Hitler and the Vatican.
The U. S. Agency for International Development gave $450,000 for construction of a hospital wing at Ludhiana Christian Medical College in northern India, which is sponsored by twenty-three mission boards.
Ninety-nine physicians, dentists, and medical assistants spent two weeks at their own expense in Nuevo Leon state, Mexico, providing free health care for 5,279 patients. The project was organized by the Christian Medical Society.
The Pentecostalist “Teen Challenge” centers founded by David Wilkerson (The Cross and the Switchblade) are now operating in twelve cities. Latest to open are in Denver, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
Seventy-nine Southern Baptist churches in the Dayton, Ohio, area sponsored an evangelistic drive, with central services in Welcome Stadium. More than 2,000 decisions for Christ were reported.
Washington Watch
The U. S. House passed a bill similar to one from the Senate to organize a commission on law to control pornographic literature. The search for a new legal definition of obscenity is a reaction to recent Supreme Court rulings.
An advisory committee on alcoholism made its first report to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, with an estimate that alcoholism affects between 16 and 20 million family members. The committee asked stepped-up rehabilitation services, with federal aid.
Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon has introduced a bill that would ban radio-TV advertising for alcoholic beverages between 3 P.M. and 10 P.M.
Meanwhile, the National Highway Safety Agency reports that excessive drinking is a factor in nearly half the 53,000 highway deaths in the United States each year. And the Federal Aviation Agency, after post-mortem examinations of 900 of the 2,084 pilots killed in private airplane crashes between 1963 and 1966, said one-third of them had been drinking.
Hawaii’s Board of Education voted transportation subsidies for certain students whether they attend public or parochial schools. At a hearing opposite sides were taken by the American Civil Liberties Union and Honolulu Catholics.
Faced with dwindling student enrollment, Catholics in Oklahoma City opened the modern facilities of the former St. Francis de Sales Seminary as a “Center for Christian Renewal” for rent to any church group.
With the next issue, the National Council of Churches’ quarterly Christian Scholar ceases publication. The interdisciplinary intellectual journal has had financial problems, and circulation dipped to 2,000. A new quarterly with a less explicitly Christian orientation, Colloquy, will be started next year by the Society for Religion in Higher Education. The editor will be Mrs. Sallie M. TeSelle, who teaches Christianity in contemporary culture at Yale Divinity School.
Ministers’ median annual salary (excluding parsonage allowance) has risen from $5,029 to $5,914 since 1962, according to a survey of 1,800 clergymen by Ministers Life and Casualty Union.
The newly merged Lutheran Church in Australia has proposed pulpit and altar fellowship to the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, most conservative Lutheran group in the U.S. At last month’s convention, Wisconsin voted for a link with the small Evangelical Lutheran Synod and re-elected the Rev. Oscar J. Naumann of Milwaukee to his eighth two-year term as president.
Denominational leaders who belong to the troubled Swarthmore (Pennsylvania) Presbyterian Church arranged a compromise to win the resignation of the Rev. Dr. D. Evor Roberts: affluent members are giving him $20,000 for a sabbatical year. Roberts had claimed publicly that he was being forced out for civil rights activities; members said they were just dissatisfied with his work as a minister.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, “black power” civil rights group once aided by many Jews, sides with Arabs against Jews in its current newsletter. Besides statements akin to Arab and Soviet policy, the publication carries old photos of alleged Zionist atrocities similar to those in Ku KIux Klan literature.
The Food and Drug Administration ordered long-range animal tests of all contraceptive pills as a precautionary measure after tissue abnormalities developed in some monkeys being tested.
