For years evangelicals known for their emphasis on personal piety, including Bible study and prayer, have been accused of lacking a social conscience. This sweeping accusation has often been disproved (see editorial “Surprised by Piety,” page 27), but we can be sure it won’t soon die. Stereotypes are not easily overcome.
With this in view, I hope readers will enter with empathy into the experience of Virginia Mollenkott (“Up From Ignorance”), who has a deep heart concern about the racial situation. And Claude Thompson’s essay on “Social Reform: An Evangelical Imperative” sounds the biblical note of James that faith without works is dead. Although the Church must make evangelism its major mission, the redeemed saints as members of Caesar’s as well as God’s kingdom must, in addition to evangelizing, work to improve the social order, bringing it more in line with what God intended it to be.
Turning to that supreme act of love that supplies the motivation for all our loving acts, Robert Meye discusses “Mark’s Special Easter Emphasis.” His essay will prod preachers who have bypassed Mark in selecting material for a resurrection sermon.
I hope everyone interested in organic union and especially COCU will read and ponder the questions posed by one clergyman (see “How Will COCU Resolve the Church’s Real Problems?,” page 16), who concludes that it is “a plan born out of an obsolete hope.” I do not endorse the status quo, and the unity of the Church is important. But if what we get will be worse than what we’ve got, it’s better to stay as we are for the time being.
