The evangelical Good News movement within United Methodism has called for a counter-offensive against the church’s “homosexual activists.” Charles Keysor, editor of Good News magazine, alerted his supporters in a newsletter to recent actions of “The United Methodists for Gay and Lesbian Concerns,” a group that plans to raise $20,000 to promote gay concerns at local and regional church levels and to “impact” the 1980 General Conference. Last month, another unofficial Methodist caucus, “The Methodist Federation for Social Action,” circulated an 8,000-word report that labeled Good News as representing “the new Far Right.”
Reader’s Digest is preparing a condensed version of the Bible, which will retain all sixty-six books in their biblical structure. Magazine editors are working from the Revised Standard Version, and their attorneys are seeking a contract with the National Council of Churches, which holds the copyright to the RSV.
The Henry Luce Foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to the United Presbyterian Church for a recruitment project to erase a shortage of black ministers in the Southeast. The project will help cover recruiting and tuition costs for thirty ministerial candidates for southern pastorates.
