NEWS
The year 1971 started out with a vigorous display of evangelical witness: Christianity was much in evidence at the nationally televised New Year’s parades and bowl games. Billy Graham, grand marshal of the Rose Parade in Pasadena, remarked that it was “like a revival meeting.”
That capsule description, magnified many times, could be considered an apt commentary on the entire year. For religious revival swept across North America and overseas during 1971. And religious headlines blared news of the colorful Jesus revolution, the exploding charismatic renewal among Roman Catholics, and an unprecedented interest among converted Jews for evangelizing their own with the Gospel.
Major denominations appeared to be stirring to the throb of renewed concern for personal evangelism, and mass crusades and organized cooperative thrusts crested in new highs of popularity.
Church and state interests intersected, and Supreme Court decisions interpreted the law of the land on government aid to private schools.
Missions and Christian higher education also made headlines in 1971 religious circles, as did denominational tensions in the Presbyterian and Lutheran households. Overall church attendance was up slightly, but membership was down. The financial pinch was felt keenly in most denominations, with more money contributed locally but less turned over to headquarters for national programs.
The ubiquitous Jesus movement picked up steam in the early months of the year in the Pacific Northwest; thousands of teens—most of them outside the institutional churches—made decisions for Christ and turned from drugs and revolution to a vast underground evangelistic movement called the “Jesus People’s Army,” founded in 1969.
Soon, impelled by gospel rock, Jesus rapping, and tabloid-type Jesus newspapers, revival was sweeping across the country. Communes and Bible-study groups were springing up in hamlets and metropolitan areas alike. Media attention swung to the religious awakening, and soon mass baptisms in the ocean and in lakes were viewed on millions of TV screens and seen in thousands of secular and religious publications.
But the seeds of division also sprouted, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, where the Jesus movement was torn asunder by the impact of the militantly fundamentalistic, separatist offshoot called the Children of God. That movement also spread rapidly during the summer and fall months, causing suspicion and heartbreak between generations—and eviction of COG colonies from half a dozen properties where they had settled. At year’s end, the Children were making a major sweep into Europe (especially Germany).
Revival fires of a more orthodox nature were blazing across Canada. Sparked by two brothers who held a series of evangelistic rallies in Saskatoon, revival soon made quantum leaps from Vancouver to Toronto.
Spiritual interest and what appeared to be genuine Spirit-inspired revival also pulsated in unlikely places: nightclubs, secular book markets, locker rooms, and high-school auditoriums. Some cynics, viewing the brisk sale of items from the sublime to the ridiculous bearing Jesus insignia, were heard to sniff: “Jesus sells.”
Firm foundations for ongoing evangelism were solidified in 1971. A detailed program was announced for Key 73, the first joint evangelistic effort ever undertaken by North America’s leading churches. At the European Congress on Evangelism in Amsterdam in early September, European evangelicals came together on a scale never before attained; good vibrations assured future gatherings of equal significance spanning denominational and geographical boundaries. Campus Crusade for Christ tooled up for Explo 72 next June in Dallas, and the all-Mennonite evangelism conference, Probe 72, was firmed up for April in Minneapolis.
Billy Graham, going stronger than ever at 52, held successful crusades in Lexington (Kentucky), Chicago, and Dallas, and was honored by a plaque unveiled by President Nixon in Charlotte. His northern California crusade, held in Oakland in late July, was perhaps the peak crusade of his career. More people swarmed onto the infield to receive Christ than at any previous Graham crusade in America over the past twenty-five years.
United Methodists plunged into the evangelism swim in a new way through an evangelism congress in New Orleans, and through a national convocation of evangelicals in Cincinnati where leaders vowed to make their voice heard at the highest levels of Methodism.
Presbyterians also dove into an evangelism celebration of love and foot-washing in Cincinnati, where 3,150 persons from five Presbyterian-Reformed denominations assembled.
Presbyterians made other news in 1971: the United Presbyterian Church rhubarb over a grant of $10,000 to the Angela Davis Defense Fund; and the Southern Presbyterian restructure issue that split the denomination along liberal and moderate-conservative lines. When four independent groups within the conservative wing took a path that seemed certain to lead to division, Dr. L. Nelson Bell resigned his editorial position with the Presbyterian Journal.
The Southern Baptists also had their problems, with suspected liberalism infecting the Broadman Commentary Sunday-school curriculum, and later, disagreement over the propriety of illustrating a youth curriculum piece with a photo showing two white coeds standing a yard or so from a black male student.
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod plodded through a cantankerous biennial convention. Friction developed around biblical inspiration and authority. Although a large number of delegates appeared unhappy with the Synod’s stand in Milwaukee, a splinter group called Federation for Authentic Lutheranism, formed in November, attracted only a handful of dissident congregations by year’s end.
On the church-state front, a majority of U. S. congressmen in the House felt voluntary prayer and meditation should be specifically allowed in a proposed amendment to the Constitution. But the vote lacked the necessary two-thirds, and—perhaps because of aggressive religious lobbying against the measure—the bill was scuttled. Proponents vowed to try again this year.
The U. S. Supreme Court laid down major new lines of church-state separation in June. By voiding parochaid legislation in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, the Court barred the spending of public funds in sectarian schools, even if the money is used only for instruction in “secular” subjects. But the court did give qualified approval to a federal law that subsidizes building construction at religious colleges. Several other pivotal church-state issues were pending in the Supreme Court at the beginning of 1972 (see page 42).
The budding youth revival that stirred so much of the religious world this past year lended impetus to a meeting of 12,000 Christian students held in the opening moments of 1971 in Champaign-Urbana. Undoubtedly the largest student missions convention ever, the Urbana Inter-Varsity meeting set the tone in evangelical circles for missions emphasis throughout the year.
In October, Dr. George Peters of Dallas Seminary told a joint retreat of the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association and the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association at Green Lake, Wisconsin: “I believe this is the greatest time of world evangelism in history.” But leaders there cautioned that the great diversity of missions situations necessitated better communication between mission boards and overseas churches.
Missionaries, like church executives, were feeling the financial pinch in the churches, especially because of the changing role of the United States in the world economy during 1971. Still, severe hardships seemed rare, although several denominations reported cutbacks in missionary appointments in the last quarter of the year.
Christian colleges and educational enterprises also reported they were in trouble: Gordon-Conwell was far behind in its budget expectations, and so was Trinity College in Illinois. But at least half a dozen new colleges were formed in 1971, and innovative institutions like Satellite Christian Institute in San Diego experienced rapid growth and tidy resources for initial capital funding. Dr. Carl F. H. Henry reported that the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies was under its goal of $75,000 for 1971 by $30,000, thus jeopardizing a Lilly Endowment matching grant. The IACS, acting as a catalyst, saw the first major cooperative venture among U. S. evangelical colleges last year: ten schools formed a consortium to share academic resources.
The church press faced troubles; liberal journals had a rougher go than most conservative periodicals. The evangelical book market flourished, however, with titles on the Jesus movement and prophecy meeting needs of the spiritually hungry masses.
Meanwhile, the World Council of Churches fended off attacks (two articles in the Readers Digest were prime examples) by those critical of the council’s repeated funding of racism-fighting groups, some associated with arms and violence; the National Council of Churches mulled over a major reorganization plan while resources dwindled; and Women’s Lib made inroads into church hierarchies. Women were elected as top officers in the United Presbyterian and American Baptist churches, and two women were ordained to the full priesthood in the Anglican diocese of Hong Kong. The worldwide Synod of Bishops in Rome debated priestly celibacy (but didn’t persuade the Pope to favor it), and world justice, a topic on almost every church’s agenda.
The theme of world revival, sparked by exuberant disciples in an assortment of dress, hair styles, and vocabulary, stands as the top story of the year. And since it is God’s story, it is likely to endure for eternity.
Dacca Departure: Most Missionaries Flee
As Indian artillery opened fire upon the besieged capital of war-torn East Pakistan, only a handful of North American missionaries remained behind in Dacca. One hundred sixty-five Americans were reported still in the city on December 15, the day after the initial shelling and the day before East Pakistan surrendered.
Those Americans who stayed did so voluntarily, according to reports from the U. S. State Department. It was not immediately known which missions agencies were still represented in Dacca, because communications between the missionaries and the sending agencies were almost nonexistent. What messages were transmitted went via embassies, said Dr. Clyde W. Taylor, general secretary of the National Association of Evangelicals.
Eight Southern Baptists (and their seven children) and some Roman Catholic missionaries elected to remain in Dacca, according to Southern Baptist officials in Richmond, Virginia. “Most are without re-entry visas, so they wouldn’t be allowed to return under West Pakistan control,” noted Dr. J. D. Hughey of the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board.
Donald Hunter, associate secretary of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, said two SDA couples were still in Dacca on December 15 (their children were no longer there, however). Hunter added that four other families had been evacuated by air. “They felt it was only a question of time until India takes over,” he said in an interview.
Both he and Taylor stressed that the missionaries remaining in East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani war were there by choice. Hunter said the two Adventist couples stayed on to secure the church’s property and give assistance to Seventh-day members there.
Early in December, a number of missionaries left West Pakistan. Twenty-six SDA workers and their families from the SDA hospital in Karachi were airlifted to Teheran, although the hospital was kept open, according to Hunter. United Methodist officials reported that one of their missionary wives and her four children were among 378 Americans evacuated from Karachi on December 5. Three other missionaries remained in the city.
While twenty-eight Christian agencies in the North American Protestant Ministries Overseas Directory are listed as having missions personnel in Pakistan, the bulk of that number is assigned to West Pakistan. There are about twenty missionaries in Pakistan—all in West Pakistan—belonging to the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society. They were reported “safe and well” December 7.
East Pakistan, divided from West Pakistan by India, is a land the size of Illinois, criss-crossed by rivers. Its population of 77 million is predominantly Muslim, with less than 1 per cent Christian and about 10 per cent Hindu.
RUSSELL CHANDLER
Taking It On The Chin
Dr. Paul B. Smith, minister of the evangelical Peoples Church in Toronto, found himself in hot water after he stated over the radio that, in an election, he would choose Adolf Hitler over Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau. The radio station, receiving complaints about the church broadcast, granted time to Senator Keith Davey to reply.
Describing the minister’s remarks as “in unbelievably bad taste,” Davey contended that they were part of a well-organized, well-financed U.S.-based campaign to discredit Trudeau. But, added the senator. “Dr. Smith’s attack was more vicious than most.” The Peoples Church then severed a five-year relationship with radio station CHIN, and a United Church of Canada congregation took over the air time.
