Following is the second in a series of roundup articles on developments at denominational meetings.
The quadrennial meeting of the Church of the Nazarene was the occasion for the largest gathering of Nazarenes in history. According to the church’s general secretary, B. Edgar Johnson, 60,000 attended at least part of the ten-day meeting in Indianapolis, with almost 50,000 present at a Sunday morning worship service in the Hoosier Dome.
Johnson, who has led the church for 25 years, said the 1989 meeting produced the “deepest expression of moral and social concern” the church has ever officially made. A resolution on responsibility to the poor affirms that throughout the Bible, “God identifies with and assists the poor, the oppressed and those in society who cannot speak for themselves.” It states also that Christian holiness is “inseparable from ministry to the poor.”
Delegates passed resolutions encouraging members to support organ donation, endorsing a ban on all advertising of tobacco and alcohol, and supporting the “desocialization” of alcohol consumption.
Church representatives also approved a position paper on abortion, opposing “induced abortion for personal convenience or population control, “and calling for “adequate medical and spiritual counseling” to accompany any decision to “terminate life … because the life of the mother is endangered.” According to the paper, responsible opposition to abortion “requires our commitment to the initiation and support of programs designed to provide a context of love, care, and counsel.”
Who Is Saved?
Two years ago, theological conservatives in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) offered a resolution to the church’s general assembly stating that salvation is possible only through Jesus Christ.
After study, the response to the resolution came this year, as delegates approved a report from the 1.1 million-member denomination’s Commission on Theology stating that only God can determine who is saved. The report was qualified somewhat in an addendum describing it as but “one resource … for study and response.”
Church representatives voted to recognize the African National Congress in South Africa and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Middle East as necessary participants in any negotiations aimed at peace and justice in their respective regions. Delegates also voted to oppose the Supreme Court’s recent ruling allowing states to restrict access to abortion. Supporters of this action characterized the right to choose an abortion as an issue of religious freedom.
In other developments at this summer’s denominational meetings:
• The 155,000-member Church of the Brethren adopted a missions philosophy statement opening the door for more active missions work in other countries. The action was apparently a partial retreat from the position of a 1988 missions paper calling for a low-key approach to foreign missions. The church also rejected a restructuring proposal that called for a 20 percent reduction in the denomination’s national staff.
• Meeting in Seattle, the general conference of the Free Methodist Church of North America approved a statement affirming the “inspiration and authority” of Scripture, turning back an effort to adopt the language of inerrancy. And following lively debate, delegates reaffirmed the denomination’s historic position against speaking in tongues. Delegates also approved the sale of their Winona Lake, Indiana, headquarters property as well as the purchase of a site in Indianapolis, which will become the denomination’s new home early next year.
• Representatives to the fifty-eighth annual conference of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches approved six resolutions, including one on child care, “encouraging mothers if possible to care for their children at home, especially in the early years.”
• The ninth general assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) recognized the addition of 21 new congregations in the last year, including the 3,600-member Second Presbyterian Church of Memphis, Tennessee, which withdrew from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The EPC, which began in 1981, now consists of 133 churches and some 39,000 members.
• The general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, whose more than 200,000 members are concentrated in the Southeast, created three presbyteries out of the existing one in the western U.S. as part of an effort to expand its constituency geographically. Delegates also reaffirmed the denomination’s commitment to the sufficiency of Scripture by restating its position that biblical revelation has ceased.
• At the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, delegates voted to oppose surrogate motherhood as a “dehumanizing practice.” According to a report approved by delegates, the human dignity of a child is violated when he or she is treated as an object of sale.
• In an effort to reassess its purpose, the 32,000-member Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church approved 59 “aspirations” of the church, including the goal to add 50 new congregations to its ranks by the year 2000. The denomination also aspired to dialogue with other Reformed bodies with an eye toward unity.
• The Open Bible Standard Churches, with a constituency of 40,000, mandated a prohibition on the use of alcohol among the denomination’s ministers. According to Ray E. Smith, the denomination’s general secretary, delegates made no claim that such a mandate is required by the Bible. He said the position was taken because of the current prominence of alcohol abuse in the U.S.
• The 135,000-member Baptist General Conference passed a resolution urging members to contribute to the legal defense fund of the antiabortion group Operation Rescue.
By Randy Frame, with Religious News Service reports.
New Statistics, Same Story
The 1989 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, released last month, contained no big surprises. The Roman Catholic Church, as well as several conservative Protestant denominations, experienced increases in membership in 1987, while membership in mainline denominations dropped off as it has yearly for more than two decades.
According to the 1989 yearbook, which includes reports from 219 U.S. religious bodies, nearly 144 million Americans (58.6 percent) belong to a church, synagogue, or some other kind of religious congregation.
In growth statistics, the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.) reported the greatest growth for 1987, 5.24 percent, bringing its total church membership to 198,552. Other churches reporting growth included the Christian and Missionary Alliance (up 2.33 percent to 244,296), the Church of the Nazarene (up 2.42 percent to 543,762), the Free Methodist Church of North America (up 2.15 percent to 73,225), and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (up 3.28 percent to 192,327).
Among the mainline denominations that reported losses were the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (down 1.81 percent to 1,086,668), the Episcopal Church (down 1.69 percent to 2,462,300), and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (down 1.31 percent to 2,967,781).
The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches is prepared by the Communication Unit of the National Council of Churches and published by Nashville, Tennessee-based Abingdon Press.
NORTH AMERICAN SCENE
ABORTION
Prochoice Vandals?
Calvary Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, recently paid a price for its prolife activities. Worshipers arriving at church on Sunday, July 30, were greeted with the spray-painted message ‘I-4-N-I’ (eye for an eye) on both the church bus and a nearby sidewalk.
“Hatemobile” also appeared on the bus, and “How does it feel to be under attack?” on the sidewalk. Vandals applied glue to more than a dozen church doors, and scrawled “anti-choice,” along with the female gender symbol, at the church’s main entrance.
Several prolife leaders are members of the church, which hosted a prolife rally in March following a demonstration at an abortion clinic in which over 1,000 participated.
ELDERLY
Legal Drug Problem
An article in a recent newsletter of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) describes what some are calling “America’s other drug problem.” The article quotes medical experts as saying that tens of thousands of older Americans are living in an “inhumane and needless” stupor caused by misuse, including overuse, of prescription drugs.
One reason, according to the article, is the use of drugs in nursing homes as a “chemical restraint” to help keep residents manageable. Another problem is ignorance among physicians, very few of whom specialize in geriatrics and thus may not realize, for example, that the elderly are generally more sensitive to medication.
The AARP article pointed out that many older people, especially those living alone, have little access to adequate medical supervision and as a result often take medication that causes more problems than it cures. It cited the case of one woman who was taking 75 different medications.
According to a Department of Health and Human Services report released this year, 51 percent of the deaths from drug reactions in the U.S. occur among those who are 60 or older, an age group that accounts for only 17 percent of the U.S. population.
ABORTION
World Vision Denies Credit
No one was more surprised than World Vision to learn that a credit line for the Christian relief agency appeared in the proabortion video “Abortion: For Survival.” The video was produced for the Fund for the Feminist Majority and aired nationally in July on the Turner Broadcasting System.
According to World Vision spokesperson Wendy Christian, On the Scenes Productions, Inc., requested World Vision footage from the 1984–85 Ethiopian famine for a “film on famine in the Third World.” In accordance with standard procedures, Christian said, World Vision asked to see the finished product before granting final permission.
Upon receiving the video in May, World Vision immediately demanded that the footage it supplied be cut and its credit line removed. On the Scenes removed the footage, but due to an apparent oversight, the credit line remained. World Vision attorneys filed an injunction against further airings until the credit was removed, and the production company immediately complied. “For World Vision to be identified in any way as supporting or encouraging abortion runs contrary to everything that we stand for,” said World Vision President Robert Seiple. “All of [our] efforts seek to save, extend, and enhance life.”
PHILANTHROPY
Religious Giving on the Rise
Figures compiled by the American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel indicate that religious giving rose to $48.2 billion last year, up 8.2 percent from the previous year. Total philanthropic giving increased 6.7 percent to $104.3 billion.
Much of the money classified under religious giving, however, ends up benefiting such social causes as schools, hospitals, food pantries, and facilities for the homeless. A 1988 study by the Independent Sector and the Gallup Organization found that 54 percent of what is given to religion is spent to maintain church activities, while 46 percent goes to social programs. Based on that percentage, some $22 billion worth of religious giving in 1988 went toward improving society at large.
PEOPLE AND EVENTS
Briefly Noted
Died: On June 16 at the age of 37, Lemuel S. Tucker, of lymphoma, a rare form of cancer. As president of Voice of Calvary Ministries in Jackson, Mississippi, Tucker was dedicated to evangelism and to the development of Christian leaders and Christian community. He was well known and highly respected, particularly within black evangelical circles.
Appointed: As president of Calgary, Alberta-based International Student Ministries, Canada, Paul T. Maxwell, formerly president of Prairie Bible Institute. He succeeds Hal W. Guffey, who will remain on the organization’s board of trustees.
Launched: Renovare, Inc., for the purpose of bringing “renewal to the Church of Jesus Christ in all her multifaceted expressions.” Renovare, which in Latin means “to make new,” was founded by Quaker author Richard Foster.
Convicted: James and David Taggart, former employees of Jim Bakker’s PTL television ministry. According to a federal district court, the Taggarts evaded $525,000 in income taxes on money they took from PTL to buy condominiums, furs, jewelry, and nearly $100,000 worth of shoes. On August 8, former PTL vice-president Richard Dortch pled guilty to mail and wire fraud and conspiracy, and said he would testify against Bakker.
