As i lay down my Cornerstone pen after four years to depart soon for a sabbatical leave, I ask myself if any discernible theme has united my monthly contributions to CHRISTIANITY TODAY. I have not developed a single motif in any deliberate way, for I have written ad hoc articles as they have arisen out of my studies and travels. Yet I think the fundamental truth underlying each is that Jesus Christ is Lord. Of the widespread ramifications of the lordship of Jesus, I seem to have concentrated on three.

The first is theological, and concerns the deity of his person. Since the publication of The Myth of God Incarnate (1977), I have written three pieces about the Christological debate, and about the gravity of allowing flagrant Unitarian heresy to be unanswered, unchecked, and undisciplined in the church. The central issue is neither one of semantics (the meaning of words like “myth,” “incarnation,” “nature,” and “person”) nor of credal formulation (whether the Chalcedonian definition is adequate for our day), but rather of salvation (whether Jesus can in any sense mediate between God and mankind if he is not himself both God and man) and of discipleship (for we cannot worship him, believe in him, or obey him if he is not God).

Yet on these points, disputed as they are today with a great display of learning, the New Testament leaves us no room for doubt. The early Christians not only called Jesus “Lord,” in spite of their knowledge that kyrios was the Septuagint rendering of the sacred divine name “Yahweh,” but actually applied to Jesus a variety of texts and concepts which in the Old Testament related to Yahweh. So they worshiped him.

Indeed, “Christolatry” (the worship of Christ) may be said to have preceded “Christology” (the developed doctrine of Christ). Moreover, the New Testament letters contain no hint that the divine honors given to Jesus were the subject of controversy in the church, as was the case, for example, with the doctrine of justification. There can be only one explanation of this. Already by the middle of the first century, the deity of Jesus was part of the faith of the universal church. It cannot and must not be compromised today.

To confess that “Jesus is Lord” has ethical as well as theological implications. The counterpart of his lordship is our discipleship, and authentic discipleship involves bringing all our thinking and living under his authority. We evangelicals have always held this in theory, but tended to restrict Christ’s dominion to personal ethics.

In recent years, however, we have begun to take more seriously the great challenge of social ethics. We are latecomers in this field and have a lot of catching up to do. So I have struggled to write on euthanasia and abortion, work and unemployment, industrial and race relations, the nuclear horror and the new international economic order. I have been criticized: “Stott is abandoning evangelism for social action,” my detractors have said. This is not true. What I have been trying to do is to become a more integrated Christian, whose principle of integration is the lordship of Jesus.

What does it mean to “have the mind of Christ” and “be renewed in the spirit of our minds” (1 Cor. 2:16; Eph. 4:23), so that we think Christianly about even so-called secular topics? How can we “take his yoke upon us and learn from him” as our Teacher and Lord, and seek to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (Matt. 11:29; 2 Cor. 10:5)? I sometimes wonder if our minds are the last stronghold to capitulate to Jesus the Lord. Of course, major questions remain to be answered in the contemporary hermeneutical discussion. Yet we can safely say that no hermeneutical method or conclusion can be Christian which fails to honor Christ by enthroning him as Lord.

Further, world mission or worldwide evangelization is best understood under the rubric of Jesus Christ’s lordship. I have written about this on several occasions. The universal commission to go and make disciples of all the nations was the direct consequence of the universal authority which the risen Lord claimed to have been given (Matt. 28:18–19). As Bishop Lesslie Newbigin has aptly expressed it in his book The Finality of Christ (1969): “The universality of Christ’s lordship over all nations and over all creation is not, in the New Testament, a ground for leaving all the nations as they are. It is on the other hand exactly the ground for the Church’s mission to preach repentance to every man and to all nations.”

“We preach … Jesus Christ as Lord,” writes Paul (2 Cor. 4:5). If we are to follow his example, we shall have to reject all false positions that in one way or another contradict the New Testament’s witness to his supremacy. For example, the pluralism which seeks to preserve all religions, each in its own integrity, and the syncretism which prefers to blend them both deny the uniqueness and the finality of Jesus. Universalism is a more subtle enemy of evangelism. It claims to exalt Christ’s lordship by declaring that all people will acknowledge it in the end; but in principle it makes the proclamation of the gospel unnecessary, and fails to recognize that evangelism presents people with a choice, so that some confess “Jesus is Lord,” while others cry “Jesus be cursed” (1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 10:9–10).

There are evangelical as well as liberal hindrances to evangelism, however, of which we need to repent. There is the spiritual lethargy manifested in a narrow parochialism and inhibiting us from developing a global concern. Then there is arrogant imperialism that attempts to impose our culture on others, fails to respect theirs, and makes our message unacceptable,

Another grave obstacle is our chronic evangelical divisiveness, whereby we are competing with one another instead of cooperating, and so confuse our hearers who want to choose Christ but find themselves presented instead with a choice between his followers.

Finally, there is our tendency to overemphasize verbal proclamation at the expense of the visual. It is another case of “this ought you to have done, and not left the other undone.” Jesus plainly told us to let our light so shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our heavenly Father (Matt. 5:6). Thus words and works, hearing and seeing, truth and love belong inseparably to each other.

No incentive to evangelism is greater than a vision of the exalted Lord Jesus and a zeal, even a “jealousy,” for his glory. God has superexalted him and given him the preeminent name in order that every knee should bow to him and every tongue confess him Lord. Then we must share the Father’s desire for the universal acknowledgement of the Son. It was “for the sake of the Name” that the first Christian missionaries went out (Rom. 1:5; 3 John 7); the same concern for the honor of his name should motivate us today.

Jesus is Lord!

JOHN R. W. STOTT¹John Stott is on sabbatical leave for six months. Half of the time will be spent at The Hookses, his cottage in Wales, where, in his words, “I hope to unwind, to breathe some sea air and take some exercise, to read, think, and pray, and to seek a fresh vision of the Lord himself and a fresh mandate from him for the future.” Another three months will be spent in Australia, Lappland, and Alaska in various ministries, as well as in his favorite hobby, bird watching.

Theater in the United States has not always been honest with the public when portraying Christian themes. Audiences have often been drawn into the theater to see what promoters hawk as the real thing, only to find overly interpreted and elaborately costumed gospel “junk food” at best, misleadingly inaccurate pap at worst. One gets the feeling that Eric Booth, star of St. Mark’s Gospel, has little patience with that treatment.

During an interview in Chicago, Booth’s first city with the play, he said, “This is the real stuff. Nobody’s trying to shape a dramatic event [neither directors, nor actors, nor producers]. There’s no editing here …

“Theatrically, I know that telling the truth works … the audience may not go out saying ‘Wow, what an actor that Eric Booth is,’ but they go out with more in their hearts. I’m now devoted to that task of delivering this material to the heart as opposed to the mind.”

Nobody would charge this production with overdependence on theatrical trickery. The only props on the bare stage are a table, three chairs, a pitcher, and glasses.

You’ve seen the script often—the King James version of the Gospel of Mark. Some members of the audience follow in their own pocket-sized copies—perhaps not believing anyone can memorize that much! The first eight chapters are presented in the first act, the remaining eight after intermission.

Booth presents Mark’s gospel account in a straightforward manner. He becomes the story-telling author (without the aid of make-up or costume) throughout the play’s two hours. He believes there are many parallels between Eric the storyteller and Mark the storyteller. “While neither of us was there during the events, we both believe these things happened. We both care enough that we devoted a major portion of our lives to telling about these happenings.”

Booth is a veteran actor. His most recent Broadway credit was with Mary Tyler Moore in Whose Life Is This Anyway? He has done some of the more demanding Shakespearean roles: Henry V, Hamlet, the King of Navarone in Love’s Labours Lost, and Ariel in The Tempest. He has done television, is a published poet, has taught acting—and serves as an auxiliary policeman in New York City.

Calling the play “the biggest challenge, as an actor, I’ve ever accepted.” Booth devoted 10 months to the production before it ever went on stage. Six months alone were spent in memory work.

Throughout the preparation of the play, Eric Booth went through some rather dramatic changes of his own—spiritual changes that are even now taking place in his life. Before beginning work on the play, he was a self-described “nominal Christian.” His parents had him baptized as an infant in the Dutch Reformed Church. Following that, he attended a variety of churches: Methodist, Presbyterian, and so on. At the age of 12, he said, he began a serious examination of various denominations, after which he became a Quaker.

Booth said he was humbled by the whole experience during the early stages of memorization for the play. “Everything I’d done professionally as an actor was not working. Along about month seven, an enormous change came about. I began to get aware of the fact that I was cramming these words, which now seemed quite powerful and interesting, into my personal belief system and to feel in-adeauate in that … I was on the wrong track.

“I felt something different had to go on—something I’d never approached as an artist before. I felt my personality and ego were inappropriate to the role. I began a process of trying to eliminate my own ego. There came the moment … when this little voice inside me began to say, ‘This really happened, don’t treat it like a fiction.’ That little voice began to change everything.”

As a performer, this conscious effort to remove Eric Booth from the storyteller Mark has continued. He often writes himself notes after a performance or rehearsal, reminding himself to keep out the “hokeyness and actor trappings.”

As for the audience response, Booth says, “There’s this incredible politeness. I’ve never received this kind of response. The most amazing thing to me is, everyone seems to have something different to take away. Normally the actor shapes the response and controls the experience. In this, because there’s no ego, I’m just putting it out. People seem to be impressed by different parts than what you might predict. It seems to meet people’s needs where they are.

“Christians say it’s like they just got a new shot of energy—a new battery put into old machinery. The non-Christians who have seen it tend to say ‘So that’s what it’s all about!’ Some have said, ‘I didn’t realize how interesting and how moving it was.’ It gives them cause to stop and think.”

Eric Booth, the human being, seems to have been affected as well. Even his wife (an actress with her own very active career), who has been with him only through long-distance telephone conversations of late, can notice a difference. She finds him kinder and more understanding.

The actor himself seems to be waging a battle familiar to many Christians at some point in their lives. In reference to the contents of the “script,” he says, “Much as I would like to, I can’t escape what it says. There are hard facts and truths that are inescapably direct and confronting me. Repeating it eight times a week, it’s sifting down into my bones.”

While Booth’s involvement in the role of Mark will range over the better part two years, he seems not to find this limiting, “I’d hate to think of playing Hamlet for that long, but I’m still excited about this role.”

Many of Booth’s professional friends told him he would be a fool to leave his promising career to go on tour with such a questionable commodity. They may be having second thoughts now. The production, booked into most major cities in the United States, is under the direction of a secular company, Playhouse Enterprises. Directing the production is the famous British actor, Alec McCowen, who originated the role in England. There is no connection with any church or religious organization.

St. Mark’s Gospel seems to gather most of its support from word-of-mouth advertising. Attendance for the first few performances often is sparse. By the end of the play’s run, however, the theater is a sellout. “The producers are in seventh heaven” said Booth, in reference to the play’s financial success.

To some, the name, Eric Booth, may have a familiar ring. The fact is, his grandmother’s grandmother was the daughter of John Wilkes Booth!

By far the most unusual quality Booth displays as an actor, at least in this instance, is his willingness to sacrifice personal recognition in favor of the accurate transmittal of a message. One cannot help but wonder if this response to the play, as well as the response of the audience, must be due, in no small part, to the strength of the author and his source of inspiration.

The effect of this production, above all, seems to be the presentation of Mark’s work without alteration or deception. That level of honesty is refreshingly encouraging for future theatrical productions dealing with Christian themes. The fact the production appears to be a money maker must be an encouragement to the producers as well.

One can only hope this is the beginning of a trend for theater in America.

J. B. KUMP¹Currently serving with the U.S. Air Force Education with Industry Program at WGN Continental Broadcasting in Chicago, Major Kump will shortly be reassigned to Frankfurt, Germany.

CT’s editor at large, J. D. Douglas, is on assignment in Africa. In this report, he sets forth in detail his assessment of conditions in the Republic of South Africa, where church leaders as well as political leaders are sharply divided over racial issues.

Passengers in a South African plane approaching Johannesburg were said to have been advised, “We are about to land at Jan Smuts Airport. Please put your watches back one hundred years.” So reported a newspaper just after I arrived in the Republic. Even if the story is apocryphal, it reflects an element of press freedom at a time when two black newspapers had been banned.

It reflects also the sort of provocative utterance most disliked by Prof. Piet Cillie, who teaches journalism at Stellenbosch University (an Afrikaner stronghold). The English-language press, he complained, might make the government introduce more restrictive legislation. This evoked a robust rejoinder from Joyce Harris, national president of the Black Sash. “A press which is permitted to be free as long as it does not embarrass the government,” she declared, “simply becomes another propaganda arm for the government.”

Cillie had expressed the earlier opinion that South Africa was heading for the most dangerous 10 years of its history. This view I found held with chilling unanimity, irrespective of race or class, throughout this all-but-friendless nation. Many consider 10 years to be an optimistic estimate of the time frame for the white government’s survival. “Even if we got everything right from now on,” says Frederik Van Zyl Slabbert, leader of the antiapartheid Progressive Federal Party, “it might still be too late.”

An engagingly frank and personable 41-year-old, Slabbert gave us a half-hour interview despite a hectic pre-election schedule, and ducked none of our questions about reform, equal pay for all races, the dilemma of the ruling Nationalists, and the ambivalent role of the Dutch Reformed Church. He himself had studied for the DRC ministry, but after five years forsook theology when he sensed that to serve the clerical wing of the South African establishment would be “inhibiting.” A sociology professor with a Ph.D. from Stellenbosch, Slabbert was to increase the PFP’s parliamentary representation to 26 seats—and promptly had his home severely damaged by arsonists who came while the family slept.

His modest success may indicate a changing mood, but Pieter Botha’s Nationalists retain 131 of the legislature’s 165 seats. The mood, alas, is also changing on Botha’s right. Hard-liners are becoming harder. Alarmed even by Botha’s imprecise talk about reform, the white-supremacist Herstigte National Party put up its own candidates in the recent elections. They won no seats, but polled an ominous 13 percent of the total vote in a country where only whites have the franchise. “These people,” observed Botha, “do not belong in a decent community.” In this context there was something bizarre about what he was objecting to: not the HNP’s odious political policies, but its dirty campaign tactics.

This might imply that, despite the publicity given to his 1979 promises of reform, Botha is tolerably well satisfied with the status quo. He defies world criticism (a point reconfirmed in a postelection interview), including those perennial resolutions of the World Council of Churches. Another one will predictably emanate from East Germany when the Central Committee meets there in August. The WCC would not be so contemptuously dismissed in South Africa as Communist-inspired if just once a conciliar resolution were to show specific concern for the victims of Russian imperialism. Until the WCC shows a healthy impartiality, the Afrikaner nature is only encouraged in its stubbornness and intransigence. One recalls the biblical mandate for apartheid manufactured by the Dutch Reformed hierarchy, and how it was said of Botha’s predecessor, John Vorster, that he seldom missed the midweek prayer meeting in his home congregation.

Yet even the DRC is breaking ranks. A rare spirited protest was made in its councils when eight “liberal” theologians, with substantial support from younger DRC members, were called upon to repudiate a statement calling for more “cooperation” with black daughter churches. The professors had expressed concern at the “apparent inability” of the DRC to reconcile various race groups in South Africa. The establishment response was that the church had no duty of reconciliation toward race groups. “It has nothing to do with the church,” said an official spokesman, “if a bunch of blacks throw stones in Rustenburg—except to stand by the police who are protecting peace and freedom.”

Many white Christians in South Africa, on the other hand, do believe that reconciliation is the business of the church. They deplore the stone throwing, but they know what causes it. They know that many of their fellow whites, whether their language is Afrikaans or English (the ratio is about 60:40), live insulated lives, ignorant of the plight of other races. There is some acknowledgment of the need for change, but as veteran writer Alan Paton says, they are “psychologically incapable of it.” The same fatal failure of the imagination was evident when the government deprived Bishop Desmond Tutu of his passport on the eve of Easter.

Move about in African townships and colored (mixed race) communities, talk with Indian pastors and white businessmen, interview editors, and see in Afrikaner faces the love of Christ—and one sees the tragedy of this beautiful land, and beyond it to the conviction that the major problem of the world today is alienation. How is that seen in the section of this fallen world that is South Africa? Some quotes from my travel log:

• “Does this mean that I have to love the Special Branch [security police]?” (old black man’s response to a sermon on love).

• “I always tell my wife when I go out, if I don’t come back, remember who I am” (evangelist).

• “Surely the bond of Christ that is between us is strong enough to stand the stress of these days.” (Zulu professor).

• “We have built a fortress that may become a prison that may become a grave” (white commentator).

• “All young people must join us in the struggle for justice, but we must keep Jesus central. I believe now that Jesus can take away the white desire to oppress” (young black political activist).

• “Get out, Fascist. Where’s your pass?” (student hecklers at Witwatersrand University to cabinet minister Piet Koornhof just before the 1981 elections).

• “Many of the Dutch Reformed clergy have never had an English-speaking Christian greet them in love” (Michael Cassidy, founder of African Enterprise).

• “Write to me” (parting request from many white South African Christians, faithful witnesses, but with a feeling of isolation from the worldwide fellowship).

The above—nothing like a comprehensive view of the South African situation—are a few insights and reflections gained from a brief visit that took me to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, and Kimberley. I would have seen much less had not my friends of African Enterprise arranged an itinerary that was hectic and … enterprising. It enabled me to attend a political meeting, join a Zulu Bible study group, attend an Indian pastors’ planning committee, breakfast with the general manager of a large diamond company that has an enlightened staff policy, talk with black pastors who had been detained without reason and later released without explanation, interview a non-Christian white editor who was crusading for human rights, and participate in a colored church meeting whose members rise for 5 A.M. prayer sessions.

African Enterprise is a remarkable movement founded in 1962 by South African Michael Cassidy, a graduate of Cambridge University and Fuller Theological Seminary. With teams operating in Southern and East Africa (and offices planned elsewhere on the continent), AE is interdenominational, interracial, and international. Described as “a mobile mission auxiliary” with deep commitment to evangelical truth and biblical authority, AE emphatically disagrees that reconciliation is not the business of the church.

This brings misunderstanding, especially in the South African context. Says Cassidy: “I think our attempt to be true to the whole of the gospel and the whole of the church inevitably lands us in hot water with those who, probably in all integrity, don’t feel the whole wrap-up to be theologically or practically possible.”

But it is. Last month, AE held a one-week campaign in Elsie’s River, a Cape Province township with the country’s highest crime rate. Last year its 100,000 people experienced 131 murders, 1,500 cases of rape and violent assault, more than 2,700 burglaries and robberies. Before the meetings I asked the (black) Anglican rector who was chairman what he expected from the mission. “To bring a message of hope,” he replied, “to bring Christ—our hope for our country, our hope for Elsie’s River.” It was about that hope that Michael Cassidy spoke at the closing rally attended by 9,000 people, including Cardinal McCann and Anglican Archbishop Bill Burnett. AE plans a meticulous follow-up process for the many in Elsie’s River who responded to the gospel.

South Africa will need their Christian testimony in the dangerous years that lie ahead.

Wycliffe’s Golden Jubilee

Unwritten Tongues Agency Honors Its Pioneer “Uncle”

The “homegoing” of slain Wycliffe linguist Chester Bitterman III last March was not a setback to the work of translating the Scriptures into the world’s remaining 3,000 unwritten languages. It was, said William Cameron Townsend, 84, founder-patriarch of Wycliffe and its Summer Institute of Linguistics, “a tremendous advance. Young people have been awakened in a new way.”

That this is not pious sentiment or wishful thinking became evident at the Golden Jubilee celebration of Wycliffe in Anaheim, California, last month, when 7,500 Wycliffe supporters paid tribute to “Uncle Cam” and Wycliffe’s 4,255 members who work in 750 languages in 35 countries. Since the 28-year-old Bitterman was kidnapped, then murdered 48 days later in Bogotá, Colombia (CT, April 10, p. 70), about 100 students at Columbia Bible College in North Carolina, where Bitterman was graduated, have pledged themselves to missionary service. Chet’s widow, Brenda, has vowed to return to Bible literacy work, and his younger brother, Craig, 21, has applied to Wycliffe, hoping to be a Bible translator. And a new chair of linguistics and Bible translation has been established at Biola College in La Mirada, California, in Chet’s memory.

Said Chet’s father, Chester Bitterman, Jr., who, with his wife, Mary, and Chet’s five brothers and sisters were special guests at the Golden Jubilee: “On a human level, Chet may have lost his life. But we believe that God is not finished in this. We haven’t read the last chapter yet.”

“Uncle Cam,” who wrote the first Wycliffe chapter 50 years ago when he completed translating the New Testament into the Cakchiquel language for Guatemala Indians, is convinced the last chapter—Jesus’ return—will follow when “hundreds of volunteers fill the place left by Chet.”

The call to preach the gospel to all nations was clearly sounded by Billy Graham, who challenged the large audience to respond “in this ministry of translating those languages that remain.” The job could be done in this decade, if Wycliffe recruits about 500 new members each year, the evangelist said as persons making a mission commitment joined present Wycliffe workers at the front of the auditorium.

Praising Townsend’s accomplishments in Bible translation as “one of God’s … great events in the past 50 years,” Graham added: “If a man has ever had a one-track mind, it’s Uncle Cam.… If we ever make contact with other planets, I guarantee he will be there, pioneering and translating.”

Meantime, Townsend, predicting that television and mass evangelism “will raise up at least 8,000 young people to learn and translate these languages,” urged Christians to “get the Word to every tribe and nation.”

RUSSELL CHANDLER

Void has allowed liberation theologians to preempt field.

His eggs and toast were getting cold, but Marcelino Ortiz doesn’t seem to mind. He is getting warmed up on a subject about which he feels strongly, as, he says, do many other Latin American Christians.

“The vast majority of Latin evangelicals are conservative and biblical,” he explains during an interview. Despite this, he says, the much-publicized liberation theologians create a mistaken impression that they represent the church. What is needed now is an organized voice that more truly “reflects what the local churches are thinking.”

That voice and organization may be provided by CONELA, says Ortiz, who is a Mexico City Presbyterian pastor and staff member of the Luis Palau Evangelistic Team.

Ortiz is executive secretary of the CONELA ad hoc committee, formed out of a meeting of 40 or so Latin American evangelicals attending the world evangelization conference a year ago in Pattaya, Thailand. The group asked at that time for a continent-wide gathering of evangelical leaders, or “Consultation of Evangelicals in Latin America” (hence, the name CONELA). The ad hoc committee was given a mandate to plan the gathering.

CONELA leaders are aware of tremendous social and political turmoil in their part of the world. They believe Christians should be concerned, and working to rectify problems. However, they believe the primary focuses for a group such as CONELA should be evangelism and building up the local church. Ortiz says these emphases are neglected and sometimes forgotten, but are badly needed.

“Most Latin American pastors don’t read Time or CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Many haven’t gone to seminary or had evangelical training,” explained Ortiz. CONELA can provide these church leaders with ministry-strengthening ideas, resource persons, and workshops they would not otherwise receive. Organizers already are talking about forming local and national pastors’ associations, but a decision on whether CONELA will continue as an organization will be decided by the approximately 300 delegates invited to next year’s meeting.

Ad hoc committee president Asdrúbal Ríos, 68, of Venezuela, is pleased by statistics showing the growth of Latin American churches. But, he says, a corresponding growth in inner spiritual life is not there. For that reason, he believes CONELA’s thrust should be “deepening the spiritual life” of Latin American congregations.

Ríos, former president of the Venezuelan churches begun by TEAM (OVICE) and editor of The Morning Star magazine, believes most grassroots Latin evangelicals aren’t even aware of the meaning of liberation theology. “They think it refers only to liberation from sin,” he says. Yet, he asserted, when they find out otherwise, they reject it.

While they do not want to be regarded as an “against” group, CONELA leaders provide the conservatives’ alternative to the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) In Formation, which has World Council of Churches ties. Ríos, for instance, says he would not support CLAI for fear it might provide money to guerrilla groups in Latin America as the WCC did in Africa.

The CONELA ad hoc committee has issued a statement deploring violence by both the left and the right, and rejecting it as an option for the Christian church. Still, CONELA will not be a resolution-making group, Ortiz says, explaining that the violence statement was meant to answer the churches’ questions in light of the recent slayings of pastors in El Salvador and Guatemala and of Wycliffe missionary Chet Bitterman.

Rather than the theology of liberation (Ortiz says certain liberation theologians see basic evils as structural and economic, not man’s heart), CONELA will develop a “theology of salt and light,” with Christians effecting change quietly through their witness in the church and secular world.

CONELA’s evangelical credentials include adoption of the Lausanne Covenant as its basic doctrinal statement. The interdenominational board of advisers includes well-known leaders Bruno Frigoli, Assemblies of God leader formerly in Bolivia; Brazilian Baptist evangelist Nilson Fanini; Argentine church leaders Raúl Caballero and Samuel Libert; Guatemalan professor and writer Emilio Nuñez; Mexican leader Juan Isais; and evangelist Luis Palau. The cooperation of Protestants with evangelical Catholics is possible on an individual level, Ortiz says, but not on one of organization because of continuing distrust between the two groups.

CONELA will be apolitical, says Ortiz. He warned against Latin churches being made tontos utiles—“useful fools”—by governments using them for their own advantage. A danger is that churches identified too closely with one regime will be persecuted by a new and opposing one that suddenly takes power. “North Americans haven’t understood how powerful governments are here,” said Ortiz.

Possible functions of CONELA, should it become an established organization, include promoting theological education, serving as a vehicle for communication between evangelicals, and providing for cooperative evangelistic and social projects.

Participants at the continent-wide meeting scheduled for early next year in a centrally located Latin nation will do intensive Bible study with reference to the Latin American situation. There also will be workshops with case studies on church growth, and study of the church’s mission in Latin America. The invited delegates will be representatives of evangelical denominations and service agencies, along with local church representatives. The idea is to bring people who are “doing things and having an impact at the grassroots,” not big-name figureheads or unrepresentative theologians, said an organizer.

The ad hoc committee expects Latin American groups and individuals to pay for at least 31 percent of conference costs—a high percentage for similar Third World meetings. The rest of the funds will come from U.S. and other evangelical sources. Because of the costs and logistics involved in a continent-wide meeting, CONELA organizers admit their task is huge. In addition, the impact and lasting results they seek are not always accomplished in an ordinary week-long meeting.

In Austrian Ski Resort Town …

Youths Glide Out Ahead Of Elders’ Remnant Outlook

Sixteen hundred Austrian youth jammed the idyllic Alpine village of Schladming over the May Day holiday to learn how to share their faith with non-Christians. The theme of the Credo 81 youth congress was taken from Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel.…” The young people who attended the congress were urged repeatedly to adopt an evangelistic lifestyle, learning to live as missionaries in their own land.

Credo 81 was conceived and directed by a committee of Austrian Lutherans, Mennonites, Brethren, and Baptists, with some input from foreign missionaries. About half the young people came from Lutheran churches, one-fourth from the various “free-church” denominations and missions, and about one-fourth from parachurch organizations such as the YMCA, Inter-Varsity, and the Volksmission. There was a sprinkling among many groups, however, of young people who would still identify themselves as Roman Catholic. Registration fees covered about half the cost of the congress, with the Austrian and German Lutheran churches picking up the rest of the tab.

Principal speakers were Ulrich Parzany from Essen, and Konrad Eissler from Stuttgart, Germany. Both are “youth pastors,” a term that often signifies someone with a special ability to communicate to young people. He is a youth evangelist rather than a staff member in a local church. Parzany spoke each evening about growing in faith, and Eissler presented a series of studies in II Timothy. More than 400 people from the surrounding mountain communities attended the evening sessions.

In addition to the plenary sessions, there was a series of seminars that dealt with a wide range of subjects, and a Congress Course that all attended. Seminars dealt with such topics as marriage and family, street evangelism, ministering to the drug culture, Christian social responsibility, world missions, church growth, “future-oriented lifestyle,” and ideology and Zietgeist (the spirit of the time). In the Congress Course, the young people wrote out their personal testimonies and learned how to share them with others. They also learned how to initiate an evangelistic conversation, answer objections to faith, and explain a personal relationship to Christ. Also stressed throughout the congress was the need for a daily time of quiet, Bible reading, and prayer.

Schladming is situated between the towering Tauern range and the mighty Dachstein. Known principally as a world-class ski area (the 1982 World Championships will be held there next winter), it possesses an interesting history as well. Because it was a center of Austrian Protestantism, it was burned to the ground in 1525 by the troops of Emperor Ferdinand I. Even today, about half the people claim allegiance to the Lutheran church—in sharp contrast to the rest of Austria, where about 89 percent call themselves Roman Catholic, and only about 6 percent are Protestant.

The Protestant church was strong in Austria in the early years of the Reformation, but was virtually crushed out of existence by the stern measures of the Counter-Reformation. Isolated pockets of secret Protestant “heresy,” however, survived the 180 years of persecution in remote mountain pockets like Schladming. Relief from the torture, martyrdom, and deportation came only in 1781, when Emperor Josef II issued the “Edict of Toleration,” allowing open expression of Protestant faith. Even then, the Protestants were severely limited, able only to worship in “prayer houses,” which could not have spires, round windows, or bells. The result of this suppression has been a “remnant” mentality that has resulted in no significant church growth occuring among Austrian Protestants.

Credo 81, with its emphasis on an unashamed witness to the lordship of Christ, stands in sharp contrast to this “remnant” mentality. Coming as it did in the bicentennial year of the “Edict of Toleration,” it may signal a new beginning for vital faith in Austria, coupling regeneration with reformation, and replacing dead religious tradition with living, vibrant faith in Jesus Christ. The prospect of 1,600 Austrian young people prepared and equipped to share their faith is exciting. Only time will tell what lasting effect this first-ever evangelism congress will have on the religious climate in Austria.

DEVERE K. CURTISS

World Scene

Pope John Paul II met recently with a personal envoy of Mexico president José López Portillo, even though the Mexican government does not have official relations with the Vatican and emphasizes strict church-state separation. The Mexican daily, Novedadas, had no details of the content of the Vatican meeting, but it did say the presidential envoy Jorge Martińez Flores, holds no government post.

Acting Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas of El Salvador voiced satisfaction over the arrests of six military men in connection with the December 2 murders there of three American nuns and a lay Catholic social worker. Rivera, who took office a year ago after the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, said the arrests meant “justice is beginning” in El Salvador. The arrests came after a joint investigation by U.S. and Salvadorian authorities.

Thousands of pilgrims are flocking to the tiny Nicaraguan village of Cuapa, where a peasant named Bernardo Martinez claims to have seen and spoken with an apparition of the Virgin Mary. The Catholic hierarchy so far has reserved judgment. Nicaraguan Archbishop Miguel Obando y Bravo told a reporter the church must exercise “great prudence” in such things, but noted the Virgin Mary “has never appeared to great intellectuals and thinkers. She has always shown herself to humble people.”

Portuguese Baptists climaxed a two-year church growth and evangelism effort last month by bringing 20 Brazilian pastors into a two-week nationwide campaign. Nilson Fanini, pastor of the 3,000-seat First Baptist Church of Niteroi in Brazil, preached at mass rallies in Lisbon and Porto.

The Roman Catholic church is deeply divided over the hunger strike deaths in Northern Ireland. Are they morally justified or are they a form of suicide, which is barred by the church? Irish Catholic clergy have tolerated, if not outright approved, the hunger strike as a tool in the struggle for independence at least since the Easter Riots of 1916. But Cardinal Basil Hume of England, in an April 27 letter, condemned the strikes as “a form of violence [that] surely cannot be condoned by the church as being in accordance with God’s will for man.” Last year the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith affirmed that “intentionally causing one’s own death [is] … equally as wrong as murder.” But it also added that “one must clearly distinguish suicide from the sacrifice of one’s life … for a higher cause, such as God’s glory, the salvation of souls, or the service of one’s brethren.”

Two main Dutch Reformed denominations have denounced evangelistic efforts currently being launched in their country. Attraction to the Evangelical Alliance in the Netherlands’ evangelization year and Campus Crusade for Christ’s Project ’82 apparently led to a recent day-long meeting by the Heervormde and Gereformeerde Kerks. The Kerks considered evangelistic activities of member groups of the alliance, and recommended that their churches not participate. They deplored the manner in which, they said, the Bible would be reduced to a matter of personal salvation, further estranging non-Christians from the churches and the gospel. Members of the Evangelical Alliance include the Salvation Army, Youth for Christ, TEAR Fund (a relief agency), and the Navigators.

Spanish authorities have banned the showing of a film that portrays the annual religious festival in an Andalusian town. After a right-wing politician said the film Rocío “gravely insults and ridicules the Catholic religion,” a Seville judge ruled it could not be shown in the Anadalusian provinces. The documentary filmed the annual romería (procession) in Almonte. One scene depicts several thousand frenzied men trying to seize the chariot bearing the fragile, carved wooden image of the Virgin Mary that is the festival’s object of veneration. A film critic, Fernando Lara, said “one has to rub one’s eyes to believe” such scenes of fanaticism and drunken revelry were “really happening in a country that calls itself ‘civilized’ in the final stretch of the twentieth century.”

Greater Europe Mission plans to open another Bible institute this fall—catering to Eastern Europeans. Based in Vienna, Austria, conveniently close to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, the European Bible Institute will be headed by Michael Johnson, a GEM missionary among Yugoslavians since 1974. Several hundred thousand Eastern European refugees have settled in Vienna, creating a base for the new school, which will offer extension courses that may be taken in Eastern Europe for credit.

The May 13 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II failed to swing a significant sympathy vote behind the position of the Catholic church in Italy’s May 18 referendum. Voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to scrap Italy’s abortion law. The church last led a drive to repeal the law in 1974. It is clear that its influence over Italian life has slipped further since then.

The Russian Orthodox Church has named Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk as chairman of its Department of External Church Relations. He succeeds Metropolitan Juvenaly, who resigned for health reasons. Ukrainian Christians in the West have often criticized Filaret for what they perceive as collaboration with the antireligious policies of the Soviet government. In a 1976 interview, Filaret criticized dissenting Christians in the Soviet Union for promoting church-state confrontations.

A young leader of the True and Free Seventh-day Adventists, considered illegal by the authorities, has been sentenced to five years in a Soviet labor camp. Rostislav Galetsky, 33, was arrested at a Moscow railway station in July 1980, after eluding arrest for more than five years.

Nigerian Phillip Usman has taken over management of the second largest Christian bookstore chain in the world. The new director of ECWA Productions Limited, the continuation of the Sudan Interior Mission’s literature ministries in Nigeria, succeeded SIM missionary Gordon Stanley in supervising the 36-store chain, which grosses in the neighborhood of $10 million annually.

Anglicans in Tanzania have prepared 15 airstrips as part of an unprecedented attempt to take the Christian message to the country’s most remote communities this summer. Bishop Yohana Madinda of the Diocese of Central Tanganyika says the diocese’s 120 ordained clergy and 1,500 evangelists will be flown by Mission Aviation Fellowship pilots to designated locations for evangelistic meetings. An ambitious five-year program also establishes a lay training center, regional training seminars for the evangelists, and has produced an innovative Cassette Bible School, with courses recorded in the numerous tribal languages.

Seventy new churches have sprung up along Kenya’s coastal strip, according to an Africa Inland Mission report. The region, inhabited by Arabs and Somalis (mostly Muslim), Asians (mostly Hindu), and coastal Africans (mostly pagan or Muslimized), has traditionally been unresponsive. The Africa Inland Church has established a Coast Bible Institute to meet leadership needs in the new churches.

Refugee camps in normally arid Somalia were inundated last month after rare heavy rainfall. Flooding from the Juba and Shebelli Rivers has wreaked havoc with what agriculture there is; it necessitated moving the camps, and caused malaria outbreaks. Christian relief agencies are responding with assistance to this latest crisis.

The Church of South India has been convulsed by legal disputes over the past two years. The worst snarl—in Karnataka Central Diocese, between the executive committee and the superintendent of the CSI hospital—was resolved in April. A negotiating committee secured the withdrawal of all lawsuits, and submission of the disputes to the CSI synod, the church’s supreme controlling body, for hearing and settlement.

Church buildings are being assaulted in Northeast India. A correspondent reports that the church in Mopaghat was burned to the ground during the night of April 14, just 10 days after its construction. Four previous buildings of the same congregation have also been destroyed. The church in Lungho village was torn down at about the same time by local leaders, without opposition from the authorities.

A bid to ship 250 tons of wheat flour to Vietnam by the Mennonite Central Committee was disapproved last month by the U.S. government. It is the first time in the postwar period that the license for a shipment of humanitarian aid materials to the hard-pressed country has been denied. State Department officials said the shipment was blocked because Vietnam is occupying neighboring Cambodia.

A new antenna service to China at the Far Eastern Broadcasting Company’s facility in the Philippines appears to have increased reception and mail response. Engineer Paul Reynolds says that the new log periodic antenna, installed in March, “will effectively increase our broadcast output 7 to 10 times.” The FEBC currently beams 29¼ frequency hours of programming to the People’s Republic.

Researchers charge viewer figures are grossly inflated.

Is the electronic church as large as its preachers and secular and religion writers tell us? Or are the rolls a bit inflated—in an “evang-elastic” sense?

Rice University sociologist William Martin argues the latter case. Writing in the Atlantic (June 1981), Martin presents evidence showing that many popular estimates of the electronic church audience are far too high. From Ben Armstrong of the National Religious Broadcasters to the New York Times and United Press International, sources have placed at 115 to 130 million the number of Americans who sit down weekly to a radio or TV preaching broadcast, Martin says.

However, basing his writings on a decade of research and study of audience surveys, Martin says many of the audience estimates “have one feature in common: they are all absurd.” To illustrate, Martin cited recent figures of the A. C. Nielsen Company. Its audience data showed that fewer than 10 million TV-viewer households tuned to one of the top 10 programs produced by nondenominational ministries during November of 1980. Only 2 of those 10 ministries attracted as many as 2 percent of the households in the areas in which their programs are broadcast.

If anything, Martin writes, the electronic church audience is shrinking. The Nielsen data showed that 9 of the 10 most popular TV ministries suffered audience drops between February and November of last year.

Martin sees this as a continuing decline. Oral Roberts, the most-watched TV preacher with an estimated following of 2.3 million, has lost more than 40 percent of the audience he had in February of 1977, says Martin.

In their new book, Prime Time Preachers: The Rising Power of Televangelism, sociologist Jeffrey K. Hadden of the University of Virginia and broadcaster Charles E. Swann of Richmond (Va.) also fire salvos at inflated audience figures. Whereas Jerry Falwell and his followers on occasion have claimed audiences ranging from 25 to 50 million viewers, say the authors, data compiled by Arbitron puts Falwell’s audience at only about 1.5 million. They argue that TV preachers bloat audience figures because “the greater the success a ministry can claim, the more worthy it is of viewer support.”

Martin believes the money-raising potential of electronic preachers is reaching its limits. Audiences remain largely composed of active church members so that “the usefulness of the broadcasts as tools of evangelism—the primary justification used to raise money—must be seriously questioned.”

All this is not to say the electronic church is dying or that it brings no benefits to the evangelical community. The programs do strengthen faith, Martin writes. He adds that because today’s religious broadcasting is predominantly evangelical, the evangelicals get a confidence boost: “They realize that they are no longer a beleaguered, backwater minority but a significant and thriving part of mainstream American Christianity.

“And that may well assure the electronic church a congregation that is sufficient to keep the cards and letters coming.”

The International Year of Disabled Persons

Quadriplegic Joni Builds Bridges From The Disabled To Able-Bodied Church Members

Joni Eareckson does not really consider herself a disabled person. “I consider myself a bridge between ‘normal’ and really disabled people—people in wheelchairs with matted hair, slurred speech, and twisted arms.” To these people—and to the able-bodied—Eareckson directs her new and expanding ministries.

Joni and Friends, based in Woodland Hills, California, is a ministry to those who suffer. It grew out of Eareckson’s personal experiences of “not knowing where to turn for help” after her diving accident in 1967, which left her a quadriplegic at the age of 17. Grueling sojourns in various institutions and wranglings with bureaucracy equipped her to answer the anguished and manifold questions of the disabled.

The purpose of Joni and Friends is “to equip and train the local churches with the necessary information, curriculum, and guidelines to help the disabled.” Buttressing this is the belief that “a good theology reflects a good sociology”—that part of the church’s charter is helping the sick, the poor, and the disabled. Five programs have been launched to help achieve these goals.

A two-day seminar, called the Joy of Caring, will be held in various cities. Lecturers include Eareckson, Steve Estes (coauthor of her second book, A Step Further), and California State (Northridge) professor Sam Britten. The seminar, however, is more than a series of lectures. Negative attitudes toward the disabled are exposed in a series of dramatic skits. Heading the list of these poor attitudes is the fear of social stigma and ignorance that Eareckson says develops “pity in the able-bodied and inferiority in the disabled.”

Scripture-saturated teaching on the sovereignty of God is the bedrock of the seminar curriculum. Eareckson calls that doctrine the “most comforting thing of all.” In the months following her accident, she exhausted all biblical injunctions on healing, and now she affirms that “none of us has the right to demand that God heal us.” She deals in the seminar with the subjects of healing miracles, pain, and the goodness of God.

The test area for Joy of Caring is Seattle, and results have been encouraging. Eareckson said health care professionals there are generally sympathetic and “glad that someone is doing something.” Some, however, view the religious overtones as propaganda, and her methodology as a last resort.

Following up the Joy of Caring seminar is People Plus, a program to teach people in local churches how to care for the handicapped. It addresses the most basic need of the handicapped—good, reliable, daily care. Its focus is on the able-bodied and their training in such things as exercise, special architecture, and even wheelchair maintenance. In a People Plus pilot program at nearby Grace Community Church, members are “assigned” a specific disability to sensitize them to the rigors of handicapped life. A session of trying to eat spaghetti while blindfolded or paralyzed or with tongue depressors taped to one’s hands quickly points out the need for deep, biblical empathy. Joni Eareckson’s artistic creativity appears to have carried over into teaching methods.

The success of the books, Joni and A Step Further, as well as the feature film about her accident and rehabilitation, has unleashed a continuing barrage of questions and letters. To deal with this, Joni and Friends are establishing a National Information Center to compile data for the handicapped on financial help, government aid, education, and rehabilitation. The staff also counsels through books, tapes, and films.

With its slogan of “Full Participation,” the International Year of Disabled Persons gives Joni and Friends needed public exposure. She hopes that the year’s emphasis on expanded educational opportunity, rehabilitation, the use of technology, and better employment will correct what she views as past “bad press” for the handicapped. There are about 35 million disabled in the United States; 450 million world-wide.

On a smaller scale, Joni and Friends declared May 3 as Handicapped Awareness Sunday. They made available a package for interested local churches, composed of a poster, a taped message from Joni, and suggested hymns and Scripture readings.

With interest in all these programs at a high level, Eareckson is not complacent. One concern is the high cost of special equipment for the handicapped and the apparent monopoly on it possessed by a few companies. Budget cuts by the Reagan administration are a threat that also cautions against complacency. Asked if the disabled constitute what the administration has called the “truly needy,” she replies, “That remains to be seen, but I certainly hope so,” adding that many of her disabled friends live well and independently because of government funds and programs.

Living at the center of all this activity has created something of a new handicap for Joni Eareckson—constant demands on her time, appeals for new books (some of which she has no interest in writing), speaking engagements, and art work. She also cites a need to “keep knocking myself off a pedestal.” Although she feels that God has helped her overcome her paralysis as well as might be expected, her life is not free from other difficulties: “I worry that my teeth might fall out and I might not be able to paint any more.”

LLOYD BILLINGSLEY

Seventh-day Adventists

Another Adventist Professor Is Ejected For His Views

Another popular Seventh-day Adventist scholar has lost his job for holding views that are close to historic Protestantism and contrary to official Adventist positions. Smuts van Rooyen, assistant professor of religion at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, resigned after he reportedly was told by the university administration that he could no longer teach at an Adventist institution because of the views he holds.

Last fall, church officials defrocked Desmond Ford, an author, popular lecturer, and a visiting professor at the Adventists’ Pacific Union College in California, for his variant views on matters central to the Adventist faith (CT, Oct. 10, 1980, p. 76). Van Rooyen called his beliefs similar to those of Ford. He said if necessary most Adventist scholars believe what he and Ford do, but most are reluctant to speak about it because administrators hold the traditional church view.

Adventists believe that in 1844, in the words of church founder and prophetess Ellen White, Christ entered “the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.” At that time, Christ began evaluating the lives of believers and blotting out the sins of those who are worthy, and therefore, salvation cannot be assured in this life. Said van Rooyen: “I believe Christ made all the provision necessary for salvation in A.D. 31” at his death on the cross, and thus salvation for believers is certain.

Ford, van Rooyen, and other dissenters say the sanctuary doctrine cannot be found in the Bible (although the church disagrees with them), and only exists in the writings of Ellen White. Adventists teach that she was inspired by God in the same way the writers of Scripture were inspired. Van Rooyen and the other dissenters deny that, and they put her writings in a place distinctly second to the Bible. Ford says White never claimed inspiration for herself, and would be “horrified” at the ways Adventists have used her hooks.

Van Rooyen said that he has not publicized his variant view. “They have no evidence in terms of my ministry,” he said. “They wouldn’t have known what I believed if they hadn’t called me in and asked me. I presented an image problem for them, because I have high visibility, and I wouldn’t confirm the traditional views of the church. When people asked me what I believed, I would tell them.”

Van Rooyen did not have tenure at the university. He is a widely traveled speaker at Adventist church functions, and had returned to teaching just this spring following a two-year leave to work on a doctorate.

Joseph Grady Smoot, president of Andrews University, said there was no pressure on van Rooyen to resign. But he added he could not go so far as to say that van Rooyen’s teaching contract would have been renewed had he not resigned.

Smoot disagreed with the assessment that most Adventist theologians, including those at Andrews, held views similar to Ford and van Rooyen. “I think they would be willing to say that Des [Ford] had identified some things in Adventist theology that need study, but they wouldn’t necessarily concur with his conclusions.”

The National Council of Churches

Ecumenists Issue A Denunciation Of Reagan’S Policies

In a stinging rebuke, issued as a message to its members, the governing board of the National Council of Churches (NCC) last month claimed the Reagan administration is erasing “the vision of America as the model and embodiment of a just and humane society”—a concept that has “deep roots in religious faith and biblical images” and the work of “pilgrims and padres.”

The NCC statement is entitled “The Remaking of America?” It contends that Reagan administration budget cuts in social programs, increased military spending, aggressive foreign policies, and stands on energy and environment have reversed 50 years of progress toward that goal.

In its place now, according to the NCC, is “an alternative vision” of private gain and militarism that “competes tenaciously for the nation’s soul.”

The 12-page statement was approved by the board, which has 266 delegates representing 32 Protestant and Orthodox Christian denominations, during one of their twice-yearly sessions earlier this month in Philadelphia’s oldest Quaker meeting house.

The statement is unprecedented in the NCC’s 31-year history. This is the first time the nation’s largest ecumenical body has issued an overall critique of a new administration’s policies and philosophies. The NCC “would be remiss in its responsibilities” if it did not object when it sees “practically everything [it stands for] overrun,” explained NCC president M. William Howard at a press conference.

Reagan has the support of many Christians, some in NCC churches—a fact grudgingly noted by NCC officials—and the statement can be expected to raise the hackles of conservative adherents. But the message also provoked “more than nominal resistance,” as one delegate put it, among the board’s own members in the work sessions and debate prior to adoption.

Some church members objected to the statement’s style and content and tried unsuccessfully to send it back to committee for more work. Delegates opted instead to delete the list. There also were challenges to the historical and economic accuracy of the message.

Some delegates cited a strident anti-administration tone—softened in the adopted version—that created the impression that the Reagan people were responsible for trends that began before they came in, and which did not represent the views of many in NCC churches who voted for Reagan. Who are we talking to, the churches or Reagan?” asked one Pennsylvania Lutheran delegate.

Dissident delegates were put in “an untenable position”: “We want to express concern, but not in the format or style of this document,” said Elenie Huszagah of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America. But most delegates, including black church leaders concerned about the effect of Reagan policies on the poor, said the council must take a stand now.

“History must not say that in a time of crisis we did nothing,” said Rev. Cecil L. Murry, an African Methodist Episcopal minister.

“There must be a strong Christian prophetic statement to the President that the administration is creating havoc in this land and other lands,” declared Bishop Frank C. Cummings, also of the AME church.

“We represent all our constituents,” said Cummings. “That includes the poor, disenfranchised, uneducated, and those without medical insurance. We need to be strong enough to stand up to the new administration.”

Ironically, the NCC has no plans “at this time” to send a message formally to the White House, said Claire Randall, NCC general secretary. But member churches were urged to continue “public debate over national purposes and goals.”

WILLIAM SHUSTER

North American Scene

About 200 members of the United Methodist churches in Peterborough and West Rindge, New Hampshire, left their denomination to form Trinity Evangelical Church earlier this month. Ron Pinard, who had pastored these two congregations, is now leading the new one. He and other members opposed alleged liberal trends in the UMC, as well as UMC congregations’ payment of the denomination’s World Service Apportionment, from which funds were contributed to certain leftist causes.

The U.S. Supreme Court this month upheld lower court rulings forbidding Philadelphia to use taxpayer’s money to pay for the huge altar used during an outdoor mass led by Pope John Paul II on October 3, 1979. The city spent more than $200,000 for the altar and platform, arguing it was necessary for the Pope’s security and was a service to a visiting head of state. But several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, took the city to court, saying the expenditure violated constitutional prohibitions against government-supported religion. Ironically, the Philadelphia archdiocese had offered to pay for the altar from the beginning.

Government-sponsored lotteries in reality constitute a tax on the poor. So charged Anglican Bishop David Ragg during a recent conference of Anglican laymen in southwestern Ontario. A government study showed that 77 percent of the people regularly buying lottery tickets in Ontario have an annual income of under $10,000, he explained. As described in the Canadian Churchman, Ragg further charged that, among other things, lotteries are detached from the stewardship of resources, rely on blind chance instead of hard work, distort social priorities, and promote attitudes of getting something for nothing.

Increased Lutheran unity may still be a long way off. Three bodies, the Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (with a combined membership of about 5.4 million), continue studying four unity options ranging from full structural merger to retention of present structures. ALC president David Preus opposes structural merger, and LCA leader James Crumley has come out strongly in favor of it. Meanwhile, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which has not participated in these unity talks, is considering cutting back the limited relationships it already has: at its July national meeting, the LCMS will discuss whether to end its altar and pulpit fellowship with the ALC.

A Texas pastor was briefly jailed earlier this month when he refused to describe to a county judge his conversation with a parishioner. Dallas-area Presbyterian pastor Ron Salfen was sentenced for contempt of court by Collin County Judge John R. Roach when Salfen refused to answer six questions during a bond hearing for a church secretary charged with possession of cocaine. He was freed hours later when his lawyer obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (which was to hear the case later) on grounds the minister had been unjustly imprisoned. Salfen refused to violate minister-parishioner confidentiality, and said to do so would place him in violation of a discipline of his church. The Grace United Presbytery fully supported Salfen’s action.

LEADERSHIP magazine was named Periodical of the Year by judges in the annual awards contest of the Evangelical Press Association. The award to LEADERSHIP, published by Christianity Today, Inc., came in the first year of the quarterly’s publication. Magazines winning awards of excellence in their respective categories were HIS, Light and Life, World Vision, Christian Living, Decision, and Evangelizing Today’s Child.

Pharaoh’s pursuing Egyptian forces may have been wiped out by a tidal wave, triggered by a volcanic eruption on the island of Thera near Crete, according to noted Egyptologist Hans Goedicke. He came to this conclusion after placing the date of the Israelites’ exodus at 1477 B.C., 200 years earlier than most scholars have assumed. Goedicke, chairman of the Near Eastern studies department at Johns Hopkins University, said his examination of ancient documents and sources led to this first “solid historical evidence for fixing the date of the Exodus” and verified “the Biblical account to an unexpected degree, which is significant, as there is a tendency to consider the Exodus account as fiction.”

Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God reportedly plans to sell its slick, general circulation magazine, Quest. Editor Robert Shnayerson, who had previously edited Harper’s magazine, left along with five colleagues after a January tiff when they were ordered to run an article by Armstrong.

From TV Personality to Third-world Developer

Gourmet Kerr Now Gallops To A Different Finish Line

Graham Kerr, once television’s “Galloping Gourmet,” now promotes food in a different way: he feeds the world’s hungry under the auspices of Youth With A Mission.

Kerr, now a resident of the YWAM center in Salem, Oregon, who says he and his wife Trina have simplified their lifestyles to fit his $12,500 per year salary—down from the $1 million he received from “Galloping Gourmet”—is calling on other Christians to simplify their lifestyles and use the money saved to contribute to his Project L.O.R.D. (Long Range Development for the world).

Project L.O.R.D. was born in December 1978 when Kerr had a vision while working for YWAM in Hawaii. He had then been a Christian for about three years.

Kerr says the vision was a complicated scenario, describing a plan for feeding poor people in the Third World. Its elements were so clear, he says, that, “When I brought my head up from that, I knew God had spoken to me. This is no flash in the pan.”

Kerr says he does not get a salary from Project L.O.R.D., but is supported by people who “send us $5 here and $2 there.

The vision, which became Project L.O.R.D., involves quarter-acre “micro farms.” YWAM buys a parcel large enough for three microfarms and invests about $10,000 in it. A willing couple is paid $3 per day to farm the quarter-acre, which is planted with some 38 varieties of vegetables and fruits. In about a year’s time, the microfarm is expected to provide food for the couple and their children, as well as a surplus for market or bartering. During the second year, additional villagers volunteer to work on a second and third microfarm. Each farmer eventually buys the land from YWAM for $58, paid with interest over seven years.

The idea is expected to be reproduced in poor countries, especially in the Caribbean, where Kerr is concentrating his efforts. He says the idea does not just belong to YWAM, but is one that could be used by any local church whose members are willing to simplify their lives to support their own Project L.O.R.D.

Until then, YWAM is willing to train people who want to use Kerr’s plan. YWAM workers will found their first microfarm this spring in Belize, a small Central American country south of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and east of Guatemala. A Belize couple and their 10 children will work the land.

Kerr, who has lost none of the personality appeal that made his television show popular, travels around the world promoting Project L.O.R.D. He seems to have thrown himself into his new life work with the same abandon that characterized his unorthodox cooking on “Galloping Gourmet.” He visited the head of the Communist party in Dominica when that Caribbean island was devastated by Hurricane David, After he had explained Project L.O.R.D. to the Communist leader, the leader’s answer reportedly was, “If what you say is true, then I’ll go back and read my Bible again.”

Kerr’s conversion to Christianity has not caused him to stop cooking, but it has led him to give up drinking alcohol. Although he says he does not miss drinking the wines so evident on his TV show, other parts of Christianity have been difficult.

“Trina and I have not died easily,” he says. “It’s been blood and guts every step of the way we’ve had to die.”

JULIA DUIN

Personalia

For the first time, a regional section of the Evangelical Theological Society has elected a woman as chairman. Aida Besancon Spencer, a United Presbyterian minister and Ph.D. candidate at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, was elected unanimously by the ETS Southeastern section in its spring meeting in Knoxville. She plans to make future ETS regional meetings family gatherings, with programs for spouses and recreation for children. She is married to a minister, William David Spencer, and they have a 2-year-old son.

Dennis Kinlaw, president of Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, plans to resign August 31. President since 1968, Kinlaw said the demands of the position are taxing him physically. He has announced no specific plans for the future.

Murdale Leysath is the first woman elected head of the United Church of Christ’s Minnesota Conference, which has 158 churches with 46,000 members.

Deaths

Henry B. Dendy, 85, cofounder with the late Nelson Bell of the Presbyterian Journal and a well-known spokesman for conservative southern Presbyterianism, and pastor of a Presbyterian Church U.S. congregation in Weaverville, North Carolina, for 45 years; May 19 in Asheville after a brief illness.

Family as a means of God’s grace giving

“What is the effect of being with children? By the pity, by the tenderness, by the peculiar modes of admiration which connect themselves with the helplessness, the innocence, the simplicity of children, not only are the primal affections strengthened and continually renewed, but the qualities which are dearest in the sight of heaven—the frailty, for instance, which appeals to forbearance, the innocence which symbolizes the heavenly, and the simplicity which is so alien from the worldly—are kept in perpetual remembrance, and their ideals are continually refreshed” (John Milton).

You’ve seen them on Saturday morning at the Pancake House. Here, where you have gone for a quiet breakfast—coffee, eggs, and sausage—they have come, too, with their three children. The mother still looks surprisingly young and pretty considering, and the husband shows remarkably little gray hair for being in his late thirties.

The eldest child, a 10-year-old fan of the Dallas Cowboys, takes up his seat at the table’s end with no intention of sitting for more than three minutes in a row. The four-year-old in pigtails lifts the menu from the hands of her two-year-old sister, who continues to shout that she wants “hammerburg and frinch fries.” During the next hectic half hour, the father cuts the food on three plates, cleans up one spilt milk, and reminds his son to sit down twice, while the mother argues the merits of milk over Coca-Cola, takes the four-year-old to the bathroom twice, and arbitrates three disagreements over matters of ineffable triviality. You sit vicariously exhausted, amazed, and admiring. Why would somebody want all that work? How can they do it? These are the wrong questions.

When a man works late at the office, goes in on Saturdays, pours his profits back into the business for still more development, we admire his tenacity and ambition. Rarely do we seriously ask why he does it. Nothing could be more obvious than that this kind of effort, mental and physical, is absolutely necessary to succeed. Maturity informs us of the inevitable maxim and we sagely pass it on to youth: “Anything worth having requires hard work, risk, great expense.” And we feel that this is the way it should be. We know that what we have worked hardest for is what we value most.

Why then are we surprised when we learn how difficult it is to create a family? Why do we back away from taking on such a seemingly impossible task? Why are we amazed that two people in love would seek the fruit of that love, wish to develop it, and be willing to sacrifice tremendously for it? Most often we will find that they are simply doing what seems natural in God’s plan for his creation.

Almost immediately after he created Adam, God saw that it was not good for man to be alone. Basically a social being, man needed a companion; almost as quickly as woman came to him, they made a family.

The most obvious realities have a way of escaping us these days. We all have come from families, and our instruction and impulses tell us that families are basic building blocks of all social order, yet we seem increasingly reluctant to reach out for the life we see in the family. We say, “It’s too much work.” “It’s too expensive.” “The times are too depressing.” “We just aren’t sure if we’ll make good parents.” “What if our marriage doesn’t last?” and so on, interminably. Have the times ever really been different?

As children in large families begun and increased throughout the years of World War II, we have often wondered what parents must have thought about bringing children into the uncertain days of the late thirties and early forties. Yet we are here, and in our lives life has been reaffirmed and replenished. The command to replenish the earth continues to be spoken by the Almighty, and there are no signs that our current narcissism offers any more of an antidote to the world’s problems. Perhaps we need to explore the obvious.

Part of being a responsible adult is caring for others; no one disputes this. In the family or those structures that simulate it, we find our opportunities to be real adults. Whether one chooses to be Mother Teresa of the destitute of Calcutta, houseparents in an orphanage, or the provider for a family of five, he or she will discover vitality in living in a family. What better can provide the opportunity for creativity, education, and delight than this sanctified unit?

The environment for a family is the home, not only the physical surroundings that in themselves call for tremendous effort to develop, but in the culture that enlivens it. What books, what music, what rituals, what beliefs, what activities, what relationships, what arts are to be developed to suit this ever-changing group of lives? To suggest that the task is any less than demanding, yet richly rewarding, is to tell a lie; it requires all we’ve got. And to direct all of these efforts toward establishing an independent person able to give to still others—this is what all parents labor for. It is a labor beside which the efforts to teach a novel, coach a victory, write a book, build a business, or win a case may somehow seem less demanding, and maybe, to some, ultimately less satisfying.

What we can learn as parents is surely worth any effort we make to teach. Wordsworth wrote about birth: “Not in entire forgetfulness, / And not in utter nakedness, / But trailing clouds of glory do we come / From God, who is our home.”

How else can one explain the mystery unfolded by the three-year-old who prayed: “Dear God, help us to remember what we forgot when we were born.” Living with children, we learn the beauty and intricacy of language development as no book could relate it. We are reminded of the fundamental facets of human nature, shiny and dark, within all of us. We are taught humility when two children respond in exactly opposite ways to our learned efforts to raise them according to the latest foolproof theory. A dozen moments each day we are forced to reappraise the meaning of our own childhoods as we see them more clearly in the light of our children’s struggles, defeats, and victories.

Children have a grace that brings delight in a way unmatched. Many times a weary, even angry, shopper has been drawn out of his despondency after a few moments with a two-year-old who simply smiles at him. What father has not found that all-soothing balm in the words of his little boy’s welcome at the end of a long, exhausting, unappreciated day of work? What mother is not enchanted by the tiny girl playing peek-a-boo through her miniature fingers? In a day’s passage, there follow literally dozens of such moments when simply to watch a child at play is to be touched with the joy inherent in the simplest act or discovery. Things are no less wonderful for their being common; this is the text preached by the child adventuring through his days.

Why would any couple want all that work? Simply because he and she sense that this is one of God’s basic modes of supplying grace.

MARK AND ANNE HANCHETT

Reprinted from the Stony Brook School Bulletin, Winter 1981. Used by permission.

Stan and Jean are Christians who have been married for ten years. They have two children and sexual conflicts.

Jean: “You don’t hold me and tell me you love me—all you want is sex.”

Stan: “You have no sexual desire. It seems like if I didn’t ask for it, our sex life would be zero.” And off they go.

Stan and Jean love each other and want a close, fulfilled marriage, so they decide to get some help.

“We can’t talk to our minister; what would he think?”

“We can’t go to a Christian psychologist; we’re not crazy!”

Stan and Jean may represent the dilemma of many Christian couples.

Problems with sexual adjustment in marriage are so common that perhaps 50 percent of all patients a physician sees are experiencing them.

The “sexual revolution” has developed a “hyper,” openly stimulated society. Dress (braless), television (jiggle shows), movies (R- and X-rated), advertising, and music are overtly sexual. It is difficult to find a popular magazine with no article on sexual conflict. The teen-ager’s goodnight kiss has turned into full sexual involvement. Sex has become an end in itself, and relationship has been replaced by technical excellence in sexual performance.

Rape, divorce, open homosexuality, venereal disease, and extramarital affairs have increased markedly. The census bureau estimates that over one million unmarried couples live together, a 600 percent increase in the last ten years.

Out of this has come a cry from the Christian consumer for literature to deal with this societal pressure. Even if their sexual problems are not extremely complicated, married couples need the fullness that is available to them. The key word is pressure: pressure to make some sense out of sexuality and sexual needs; pressure to make some sense out of changing male and female roles and the subsequent problems with sexual identity.

Christians are now beginning to deal openly with their sexuality. But they are feeling the pressure for instant solutions that would lead to total sexual bliss. As Lewis Smedes says, “Some Christians feel that their sexuality is nature’s strongest competitor for their loyalty to Christ. ‘You cannot love God and sex.’ ” Many Christian writers have come forward to deal with such problems.

The Christian books they write may be the Christian public’s only source of information. On one hand, the church as a whole has refused to face this challenge, leaving it to the school. On the other hand, the public school is not allowed to teach sex education from a biblically based, moral perspective.

We will survey individually some popular Christian books, make a synthesis of their teaching, and see what additional emphases are needed. For simplicity, the books are divided into three categories: developing positive attitudes towards sexuality, value clarification, and explanation of anatomy and sexual techniques.

Positive Attitudes

Books in this category are usually written in an entertaining style. They aim at the couple with a basically well-adjusted marriage, but who could use a little help in their relationship. Marabel Morgan is the best-known author in this class (The Total Woman and Total Joy, Revell). She writes from an essentially biblical perspective, encouraging a woman to be creative in developing her relationship with her husband. Sample advice: “Thrill him at the door with a frilly nightie and high heels.” Morgan does not deal with severe sexual problems, but rather with marriage enrichment.

In a lighthearted and understanding tone, Charles and Martha Shedd handle a variety of situations before and after marriage, using letters from clients and friends (Celebration in the Bedroom, Word). The Shedds emphasize honest communication, and they give an overview of potential problems to help a couple take stock of their relationship.

Among the plethora of women’s books, Dean Merrill’s The Husband Book (Zondervan) is a unique offering. Merrill draws freely from the entire Christian community and even quotes Juan Ortiz. He is not afraid to cite sound secular sources when appropriate as he develops a better understanding of the husband’s role in the household. He treads the difficult path between the rigid authoritarian role and the abdication of responsibility. He stresses that the husband needs to relate to his wife from the strength of a conscious decision to serve. The marriage bed “may be one of the more difficult situations in which we are called upon to serve, given our Western macho traditions of sexual conquest.”

Value Clarification

This is the heart of the issue, the essential difference between Christian and non-Christian views of sexuality. The Christian has a well-defined value system based on biblical principles, while most non-Christians are tossed about in a sea of emotionally based situational ethics.

A few Christian authors deal primarily with this aspect of sexuality. Gary Collins has edited a collection of articles that touches briefly on a variety of sexual themes in our society today. The title, however, The Secrets of Our Sexuality, is misleading as the book is simply a discussion of how contemporary sexual values relate to Christianity. Sorry, no secrets.

Josh McDowell (with Paul Lewis) discusses the philosophical aspects of sex in singles’ lingo. Givers, Takers, and Other Kinds of Lovers (Tyndale) is in touch with the current moral conflicts young people (and older ones, too) face today. He offers such practical hints for dating as “attend an auction, help underprivileged children, haul out the family albums and get acquainted with each other’s roots.”

Despite the unfortunate title, Sex for Christians (Eerdmans), Lewis Smedes deals competently with the problems that result from our overcharged sexual conditioning, and the error that sexual intercourse is an end unto itself. Though he writes in a theoretical manner that may be too remote for some readers, he does attempt to deal with difficult subjects within a biblical framework. He considers masturbation, pre-ejaculation, sexual variations, and others. This book is best used as a reference in developing an integrated philosophy of sexuality as a Christian.

Herbert Miles ventures into a difficult area, single sexuality, and provides much-needed advice on preparation for marriage in Sexual Understanding Before Marriage (Zondervan). He deals from a biblical standpoint with such tough areas as masturbation, fantasizing, and sex before marriage. However, his detached attitude leads to a style that may not be as contemporary as that of other authors, and he may consequently lose some of his intended audience. This is unfortunate for he meets his goal of sexual education well. For example, he says, “Our youth should know the truth concerning the widely held false beliefs and superstitions about sex. Knowing the truth, modern young people can more effectively plan a program of sexual self-control until marriage.”

Anatomy And Sexual Technique

The discussion of anatomy and developing sexual technique is many times the non-Christian writer’s only goal for human sexuality. The almost total preoccupation by the secular community with this delicate and controversial subject frightens away many Christian authors. A few, however, have seen the need and accepted the challenge.

Ed and Gaye Wheat have written such a book on the physical aspects of sexual intercourse in Intended for Pleasure (Revell). They deal with the problems and give practical help for the newlywed, preorgasmic woman, and older couple. The Wheats also describe the advantages and disadvantages of various methods of birth control, but without the spiritual comment some readers may want.

Tim LaHaye and his wife, Beverly (who would dare to write a sex manual without his wife?), present information on technique from a variety of good secular and Christian sources. However, solutions in The Act of Marriage—The Beauty of Sexual Love (Zondervan) are somewhat simplistic, implying that simply by facing sin and asking forgiveness one will resolve most sexual problems. While this is an essential part of the process, it is only the first step. Our sensual nature and the pressures from society make simplistic solutions naive. We need to beware of quick solutions to complex problems (the area of sexuality is only one among many).

I have reserved The Joy of Being a Woman (Harper and Row) for last because it is a unique book with a European flavor that falls into all three categories. Ingrid Trobisch writes warmly, sensitively, and even in a sensual mood as she integrates biblical and sexual attitudes. The book develops the concept of one flesh, each person caring for and enjoying the other while fulfilling the proper role. It also contains specifics on birth control, breast feeding, pregnancy, and childbirth, to name a few; she is a bit heavy-handed in her opinion on some aspects of contraception. Trobisch can help us to celebrate all the natural creative functions of the bodies God gave us.

Themes

From this limited review of some of the current books, we can synthesize some insights that a Christian should consider in developing his sexuality.

• It is all right for the woman to be sexually aggressive. The woman should develop an attitude that allows her to express freely her sexuality to her husband, both verbally and nonverbally. Marabelle Morgan tries to help women become sexually aggressive and open in marriage; perhaps this will overcome a common complaint of husbands about a wife’s lack of sexual interest. A vicious circle usually develops when the husband feels sexually neglected and tries to rectify it by becoming sexually forceful. When the wife feels free to be sexually aggressive, her husband may become less driven to prove his sexuality through excessive demands.

• We can expect sexual fulfillment in marriage. Open, honest sex in marriage is okay. The Shedds admonish the reader: “Lord, give us the courage to be transparent and the grace to make it possible. We want to open up, to share the hidden places, to know and to be known.” Unless a couple overcome guilt and inappropriate conditioning, they will always find negative attitudes blocking their sexual fulfillment because of mistrust and fear of intimacy.

• Husbands must not demand sex. A husband can build healthy sexual attitudes in marriage and fulfill his role sexually through leadership built on serving. Dean Merrill emphasizes that the woman’s sexual needs are not satisfied or developed apart from the total daily relationship of intimacy with her husband. A man must understand the differences as well as the similarities between male and female sexuality in order to meet the needs of his wife, rather than selfishly demanding sex on his terms.

• We must be informed about our sexuality. The Wheats emphasize that in the case of specific sexual information, ignorance is not bliss. The husband and wife must overcome any lack of specific sexual knowledge and understand the anatomy of sexuality. They should feel free to explore various sexual positions, talk about physical needs for their sexual fulfillment, and understand fully how each other functions sexually.

• Sex education prior to marriage is essential. A single Christian needs premarital information on sexuality as well as on coping with sexual impulses. This helps him prepare for marriage. If he is misinformed, or fails to cope adequately with single sexuality, he will adjust to marriage less easily and develop guilt that later could keep him from freely expressing himself sexually in marriage.

• The Holy Spirit gives meaning to our sexuality. Though the Bible is not a sex manual, it is a record of God’s dealing with us and how people like us have responded to him. While it talks freely about sexuality, it primarily requires us to see human sexuality in a moral framework. The Bible is essential to successful sexuality, for without guidelines and the leading of the Holy Spirit, human sexuality can become a destructive and progressively less satisfying act. Yet, it can be a fulfilling one when experienced on God’s terms, and reserved for marriage as he intended. The indwelling of Christ through the Holy Spirit can give us the want to in order to continue through the process of how to. That is, we need God to deal with our desires supernaturally; only then will information on technique be truly useful.

• Communication is essential in adjusted sexual relations. Without open, healthy communication free of guilt, a person is unable to understand and give fully as he joins in developing a sexual relationship.

Omissions

Though our authors have sincerely attempted to integrate Christian attitudes toward sexuality, they have left out or glossed over some ideas. If the reader considers what these books present plus the following points, he may gain a more balanced view.

While the authors emphasized open communication, they did not seem to emphasize the need for husband and wife to discuss sexuality together. Each book reviewed seems to imply that if the husband or wife reads that book and practices what is contained in it, he or she will have a more fulfilled sexual life. This may be partially true, but unless the husband and wife discuss each aspect together and clarify each other’s understanding, they have little hope of ultimately changing. The sexual role of a husband or wife cannot change in isolation, but only in the context of the other person.

Along with general discussion, the couple should also emphasize intimate, open prayer. The books did not adequately emphasize the need of a husband and wife to take each other in their arms, pray specifically for their sexual understanding of one another, and praise God for their sexuality.

These authors also seemed hesitant to recommend marriage counseling or therapy to deal with sexual concerns. Most implied that their book was sufficient. While this may be true if the reader’s marriage has no complicated sexual problems, where they do exist he will need outside help. It is, however, difficult to select a Christian psychologist, minister, marriage counselor, or psychiatrist. Many a counselor is maladjusted, and is trying to work through his own problems at the expense of his client.

But this does not negate the need the person with complicated sexual problems has to seek help. I would advise the following:

First, ask about local therapists, finding out if a person is, in fact, treating patients as whole people with physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Also find out if he is really an evangelical Christian. Then check to see if the counselor is licensed, or a member of a recognized major denomination that has some type of screening prior to ordination. Once with the therapist, do not be afraid to ask questions about his personal life, and about whether he is comfortable or has had experience dealing with the types of problems you have. Be very suspicious of a therapist who has difficulty praying when it is appropriate, or who actively discounts the Bible as the Word of God.

The books I have reviewed did not adequately emphasize the process of sexual healing in the marriage. They did not make it clear that sexual adjustment in marriage may take years of open communication, study, and prayerful attention. Christian writers, like non-Christian writers, often fall into the trap of promoting instant cures. American society is prone to expect immediate results after minimal effort. Many of the authors who sell big are promising quick, easy answers, or overnight solutions to sexual fulfillment in marriage. Christ’s encouraging love may take time to carry out the healing process that builds sexual fulfillment. The Christian must utilize all needed resources—the Holy Spirit, biblical value systems, prayer, study of the literature, open communication, and professional Christian therapeutic intervention—to cope with sexuality.

Be A Wise Consumer

The reader must be wise if he is to benefit from the material on the market. Here are seven suggestions to evaluate Christian books on human sexuality:

1. Is the book sold in a well-established and respected Christian bookstore?

2. Is the publishing company a major evangelical organization?

3. Is the author a recognized, respected writer with education and counseling experience in the area of sexuality?

4. Does the author use Scripture as well as secular research and literature?

5. Is the author broad in his evangelical view of the Scriptures, or does he isolate himself into a particular denominational framework?

6. Does the author recognize the complexities of sexuality (spiritual, emotional, and physical), or is he prone to such guilt builders as step-by-step, sure-fire solutions?

7. Does the author meet the goals he sets forth in his book in such areas as developing positive attitudes toward sexuality, clarifying values, or teaching anatomy and technique? No one book or Bible verse, of course, answers all our sexual problems, so each must be taken on its own terms.

Over the last ten years, the mass media’s glut of sexual information and explicit or strongly implied sexual material has severely strained healthy, biblically based sexuality. It has put tremendous responsibility on each person and on married couples to be wise consumers as they seek appropriate material to meet their sexual needs. Our challenge is to accept growth as a process and realize that no author has a corner on the truth. Each author reviewed can help with some situational or minor sexual problems. But the sexual aspects of our lives are too complex and sensitive to be solved merely by reading any one book.

There are no five easy steps to Christian sexual fulfillment.

How are elderly parents to be cared for when they are no longer able to live independently? The possible answers to that question are influenced largely by money.

In today’s society, most elderly people—especially widows—have very limited funds. Even if they lived frugally and “saved for their old age,” our galloping inflation and the astronomical costs of medical care often wreak havoc on the careful and conscientious planning of older people. This is especially true of women, who outlive men by an average of more than seven years. Even at the age of 65, there are 146 women for every 100 men and the differences rise steeply at older ages.

The only income for many older women is social security. At present, social security retirement benefits range from the minimum of $122 a month to the maximum of nearly $600 a month, depending on earnings and number of working years of a woman or her husband. The average monthly payment is now $334.

Only about 10 percent of women over 65 are receiving any money from private pensions. If a husband dies before age 65, usually the widow gets no pension from the company for which he worked. If the husband dies after 65, she sometimes (not always) receives half his monthly pension.

Cost of housing is often a problem for older people. Many are able to live independently and economically for a long time in special housing for senior citizens. Some apartment buildings for the elderly have been developed by private investors or philanthropic groups and accommodate people of both low and moderate incomes. Large cities often have subsidized housing for low-income elderly persons, in which the rent is a certain percentage (one-fourth to one-third) of the renter’s income. Some of these complexes have active social and recreation programs, and some provide one meal a day.

Nursing homes range in price from $700 a month (in some small towns) to $4,000 per month, with the average in the $1,000 to $2,000 range.

Retirement centers often provide a variety of housing types, ranging from apartments for the self-sufficient to standard nursing home care for those who need it. Retirement centers sometimes require an original deposit ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 or more, plus a monthly fee. Usually the proceeds from the sale of the family home are used for such a deposit.

Since only a small proportion of elderly people have the funds to pay fees of $1,000 to $2,000 a month for extended nursing home care, where does the money come from?

Some are supported by their own funds or by their children, but at least part of the bills for the majority of those in nursing homes are paid for by Medicaid funds.

Almost all people over 65 are covered by Medicare. Its benefits are available to all who are getting social security benefits. Medicare usually covers most hospital bills, but the coverage has many “ifs” that are too complex to discuss here. Medicare covers about 40 percent of all health care costs of most people over 65.

However, Medicare does not cover nursing home care unless the patient has been in a hospital first for at least 3 days, and goes to the nursing home within 14 days after he leaves the hospital. Medicare covers only certain kinds of nursing homes, and pays full costs for only the first 20 days, then part of the costs for the next 80 days, and then nothing after that.

However, if a person needs prolonged nursing home care, Medicaid may pick up most of the cost if the patient’s income is low enough to qualify for this help. Exact requirements vary from state to state, but Medicaid is usually not available until most of the patient’s assets have been used up. (Sometimes older persons choose to prepay funeral costs, especially if they have no life insurance and know that their children’s resources are limited. Social security pays only $255 in “death benefits.”)

Most older people want very much to “pay their own way.” To be dependent on their children diminishes their sense of self-worth. Elderly parents who move into the home of an adult child usually feel less dependent if they contribute financially to the household from a social security check or other means.

Accepting any kind of government assistance such as Medicaid even for absolutely necessary nursing home care is often resisted by older people because they are humiliated at the idea of accepting “charity.” Sometimes they are helped by the reminder that they paid taxes all their lives so that needed services can be provided for people who at some point, through no fault of their own, need such services. In a sense, they “paid for this in advance” through their years of paying taxes.

Many agencies, private and public, are working on ways to make life better for older people. Adult children who are helping an aged parent plan for the future should know the services and options available. A family service agency, Salvation Army social services, or the local mental health association or department of welfare usually know where to get information about the services available in any community.

It took a year-long congressional probe to spotlight a problem that may be as old as mankind: brutality against the aged by their own families.

Each year, perhaps a million elderly Americans—or about 1 out of every 25—are abused by relatives, said a report issued on April 3 by the House Select Committee on Aging.

Few people are aware of such abuse, the panel noted, although it occurs with a frequency only slightly less than child abuse. Among examples cited:

• In Massachusetts, an old man suffered double leg fractures when he was pushed down a stairway by his grandson, whom he had denied a small loan.

• In Connecticut, a young man beat his parents for years, once striking his mother in the back with a frying pan and clubbing his father with a stick.

• In New York, a man kept a clean room for himself while his 73-year-old wife lived in filth and ate cat food.

• In Washington, D.C., an 80-year-old paraplegic woman was sexually abused for six years by her son-in-law, who beat her with a hammer when she refused his advances.

• In Illinois, a woman, 19, chained her father, 81, to a toilet for a week.

Only one in six cases ever comes to the attention of authorities. “The elderly who are abused are often ashamed or may not want to bring trouble to their children, or they may fear reprisals if they complain,” the committee said.

Victims are likely to be 75 or older, and women suffer more often than men. The most likely abuser is the son, followed by the daughter and spouse.

In thousands of families, violence occurs from generation to generation. Investigators found that many persons who mistreat their aging kin were themselves victims of child abuse.

What should be done? The committee suggested stronger state laws against elder abuse, with Washington providing advice and some money.

© 1981, U.S. News & World Report.

Our friend looked up with troubled eyes. “I’d always thought the age between 45 and 55 would be relatively carefree. After all, we’re past the baby-sitting and orthodontist periods. My husband’s job is secure, and we’re making fairly good money.

“Yet I don’t think I’ve ever faced such difficult days. Trying to help our children through late adolescence and finance them through college is tough. Now add menopause to that. But one thing is far more difficult—trying to figure out what is best for our parents, both my mother and my husband’s father. They are both widowed. They need all kinds of help. What do we do?” Then she added ruefully, “I sometimes think God’s planning for my age bracket is a bit questionable.”

Hers is a common problem. Most of us are not prepared for the changing roles advancing age thrusts upon us. Our parents often thoughtfully supported us during difficult years of young adulthood and marriage. And they were loving helpers of our children as they grew.

But now, perhaps because of the normal effects of aging, or because of some illness, they are no longer self-sufficient. Or perhaps Dad has died, and now Mom is desperately lonely; she may even seem unable to function without her husband. Perhaps she can no longer maintain the family home and must move.

What should be done? Who is responsible for deciding? Some say the aging parents; some say the adult child who lives nearest; some say all the adult children.

Should we make the decision on the basis of the aging parent’s preference? Or do we make it on that of the adult children and their families?

These questions are being asked every day by thousands of middle-aged adults and their elderly parents.

Honor And Service

The Bible says a lot about families, both by laying down principles and describing actual situations. And it also presents norms of a general sort, which we can use to measure our acts and attitudes. Let us consider what the Bible says, interlacing it with the present-day situation, and then focus on the question of living arrangements.

We start with two biblical teachings that lie beneath many others. The first is the fifth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gave you (Exod. 20:12). The same idea with a reverse twist appears among the proverbs that deal with this relationship: “Do not despise your mother when she is old” (Prov. 23:22).

The second teaching comes from the New Testament, where a great emphasis falls on serving as exemplified by Christ: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.… For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:44–45, NIV).

Keeping these fundamentals in mind, let us look at the Bible’s point of view specifically toward the elderly. It is stamped with realism, in contrast to some of the “Let’s pretend” ideas common today. For instance, it frankly faces the debilitating effects of old age, appropriately using the subtleties of metaphor. Ecclesiastes 12:1–7 candidly describes infirmities that sometimes come with old age. The writer pictures an aging person as a house that is decaying: “… the keepers of the house [arms and hands] tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders [the teeth] cease because they are few … one rises up at the voice of a bird [insomnia] … the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because man goes to his eternal home … and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

At the same time, the Bible sketches a parallel line that says old age can be marked by beauty: “The glory of young men is their strength, but the beauty of old men is their gray hair” (Prov. 20:29). “A hoary head is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life” (Prov. 16:31).

To this blend of infirmity and beauty the Bible adds other ingredients, also subtly held in tension, such as wisdom and foolishness. Adult children in our day often suffer a sense of guilt if they do not visualize their parents as wise, loving counselors who will enrich their homes if the aged parents come to live with them. But the Bible is more realistic and less sentimental about old age. True, some old people are revealed as good and wise, like the elderly counselors of King Rehoboam who advised him to lower taxes and relieve the burden of the people. (Rehoboam, of course, chose to obey younger counselors, who told him to get tough. His action resulted in the divided kingdom from which Israel never recovered.)

Other older people, however, are described as foolish. “Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king, who will no longer take advice” (Eccl. 4:13). And Eli, the priest at the time of Hannah, was a morally weak 98-year-old whom God chastised for his sins.

In our day, as in Bible times, most people in their old age have about the same qualities they had when younger. Old age does not by itself make people more patient, lovable, or easy to get along with. The gracious, loving 40-year-old usually becomes the gracious, loving 80-year-old. The cantankerous, selfish 40-year-old becomes the cantankerous, selfish 80-year-old. Some people, however, who were loving and kind when young may suffer brain damage from Altzheimer’s disease or other illnesses that tragically change their personalities.

Yet our elderly parents must be cared for regardless of whether they are pleasant, unpleasant, some of both, or suffering from personality changes. How we are to do this varies from situation to situation. In Bible times, older people nearly always lived close to their adult children. An extended family of children, parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles were usually within the same town or country because of the method of land inheritance. This is somewhat like the present-day situation where adult children bring their parents to live near or with them. The extended family in Scripture often formed a large, stable, social support group that could share the responsibility of caring for an elderly, sick family member.

However, that extended family system did not always work well. The prophet Micah decried the family conflict when “the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are those of his own house.”

Of course, in our society, adult children may live hundreds of miles from their elderly parents or from brothers and sisters. Although this poses special difficulties regarding care, the principle that God wants to help aging parents through their adult children still applies.

Widows

Other problems the Old Testament records concern inheritance, and focus especially on widows. In those days, the eldest son inherited double that of other sons. Wives did not inherit land; daughters inherited it only if there were no sons. The eldest son, with the double portion, was probably expected to provide for his mother and other family members who needed help. But sometimes the eldest son died in war, or of disease, or could not or did not take responsibility for his widowed mother.

And sometimes the father died when the widow still had young children. Then she was apparently left to her own limited resources and to the charity of other people. Widows were powerless and often exploited so that throughout the Bible, “widow” is almost a synonym for poverty.

Time has not changed that. In the United States today, 72 percent of the elderly poor are unmarried women. In 1977, the median income for women over 65 years of age was $3,088, while men over 65 had a median income of $5,526. Current statistics indicate that the average wife outlives her husband by at least seven years.

In biblical times, widows were dependent on charity. In our times, elderly women are also often dependent on charity, supplemental social security benefits, general welfare, Medicaid, and so on.

The Mosaic law said that part of the tithe given the Levites was to feed the widows and fatherless. When a field was harvested, owners were told not to go back and pick up the stalks of grain the reapers overlooked, but to leave them for the widows and fatherless. (It was in such gleaning that Ruth met Boaz.)

In the Gospels we see that Jesus was particularly aware of the poverty of widows. He raised from the dead the only son of the widow of Nain, thereby providing for her material as well as emotional needs. He commented on the widow in the temple who gave to the treasury “all that she had,” two pence.

The first century boasted no social security system, no Medicaid. Many widows in the early church had no one to care for them—partly because, as in our day, family members ignored their needs.

Perhaps because of this Paul wrote Timothy that widowed women of child-bearing age should remarry so that they would not become dependent on the church for material needs. However, old women who did not have relatives who would care for them were to be cared for by the young church.

In this context, Paul states that adult children are responsible to care for their elderly parents. “If a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn their religious duty to their own family and make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God.… If any one does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.… If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her assist them; let the church not be burdened, so that it may assist those who are real widows” (1 Tim. 5:4, 8, 16). Paul apparently speaks of “real widows” as those who have no family to care for them.

Some signs of family breakdowns today are battered wives, abused children, and abused elderly parents. Many of these same sins were present in Old Testament Judaism and in the time of the early church. Psalm 71:9 shows that being cast off in old age was a familiar experience. Part of the message of John the Baptist as a forerunner of Christ was that he “will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.”

Abuse of elderly parents is not limited to non-Christians. It takes many forms, in addition to the violent ones of actual beating or slow starvation.

We can see one abuse in the effort to gain control of the elderly parent’s assets. They do not belong to the children unless the parent chooses to assign them during his life, or through his will. The Bible speaks specifically to this point: “He who robs his father or his mother and says, ‘That is no transgression,’ is companion of a man who destroys” (Prov. 28:24).

Sometimes a parent is clearly unable to manage his or her financial affairs, and an adult child (or someone else) must take over this responsibility, either as a court-appointed conservator, or in an informal arrangement. Unfortunately, the adult child occasionally moves the parent’s assets into his own account and then places the parent on welfare. The way an adult child uses the assets of an incompetent parent is a true test of his integrity. By law, such assets are to be used only for the care and support of the parent.

Neglect is another kind of abuse. This may involve leaving the care of a needy parent to neighbors or friends or to the one adult child of the family who is willing and compassionate. This kind of neglect is surely what Paul was talking about when he wrote, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Adult children who live a long distance from their parents (a phenomenon almost unknown in Bible times) may not be able to be with their parents in times of failing health, but they can help in other ways. They can share expenses. They can frequently phone the parent or those who are caring for him. They can write often; they can visit as often as possible. Sometimes the only real interest adult children seem to show in a parent comes after the funeral, when they are eager to make sure they got equal treatment in the will with the family member who may have spent several years physically and financially caring for him!

Treating the elderly parent like a child is also abuse. “Honoring our father and mother” surely involves helping them maintain some control over their lives as long as possible. We do not honor our parents when we make all the decisions about care without letting them participate. We can openly discuss their feelings about where they are living, their fears for the future, their possible options for the future; these matters all contribute a great deal to our parents’ dignity. Sometimes an adult child must make a hard decision about care because the aged parent is not mentally able to participate, or because the parent refuses to accept the necessity for additional medical care. This is not so likely to occur if they have all openly discussed the options over a period of time.

We can also hurt the elderly by cutting them out of family and church activities. Peter at Pentecost indicated in quoting the prophet Joel that all age groups were to participate in a Spirit-filled church: “Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17). Often extra effort is necessary to keep older persons active in church life when they are no longer totally self-sufficient. Someone may need to drive them to church and home. Churches have not been quick to conform to laws regarding access for the handicapped. Wheelchairs are not difficult to transport in cars, and every church should have at least one easy access route. A loving, responsible, adult child will make extra effort to get his elderly parent to church as long as the parent wants to go.

Modern medicine is now saying that satisfying social contacts are essential for good health and mental alertness. Dr. James Lynch of the University of Maryland School of Medicine says that lack of contact with other people can lead to serious illness, especially heart disease.

Living Arrangements

The question many adult Christians are facing is, “How can I meet the needs of my elderly parents and still handle my other responsibilities? How do I honor my father and mother when a change in their living arrangement has to be made?” Is the loving and honoring course always to take the aging parent into the home of the adult child?

In some families, the presence of a grandmother or grandfather within the family circle is a blessing to all, but this is not always so.

I once asked a college friend about her home life. “What home life? We didn’t have any,” she replied. She explained that her grandmother had lived with the family all during her childhood and youth. “All our activities were determined by ‘How will Grandma feel about it?’ If it would have annoyed Grandma, it couldn’t be.” All the children in the family left home at the earliest possible time, largely to get away from Grandma.

No doubt my friend’s mother would have felt guilty if she had not taken in her mother when she was widowed. Yet both grandmother and the rest of the family would probably have been better off if they had made some other arrangement. Grandma may have been as miserable as the children, but thought living with her daughter was the only “respectable” thing to do. And perhaps for financial reasons she had no other choice.

Not every older person wants and or is emotionally equipped to live in the middle of a busy family of children and teen-agers. Many would be happier in the peace and quiet of their own apartment in a building reserved for senior citizens, or in a retirement center where they can build a circle of their own friends and maintain some independence. However, almost every older person needs and wants frequent contact with his children and grandchildren.

Some elderly parents hesitate to pay the fee to enter a retirement community because they want their children to inherit as much of their resources as possible. Or they may fear that their money “won’t last as long as we do.” The children should recognize and discuss such factors with them freely.

My husband’s father lived alone until he was 86—ten years after his wife died. We were living 400 miles away and my husband was an only child. We were uncomfortable with the situation. We called him every week, went to see him a few times a year, and had him visit us once or twice a year. After he had surgery at age 86, the doctor advised us that he should not go back to his home to live alone.

In considering what to do, we knew he would find it difficult to adjust to life in our household with active teen-agers. For example, he liked to go to bed at 8 and get up at 5 A.M. (He also thought all of us ought to go to bed at 8 and get up at 5!) He loved us and our children—in small doses. But we knew he needed a lot of solitude, as he always had.

We found a place for him in a lovely retirement center only three miles from our home. There he had his own room and private bath and TV set. He went to the dining room for three nourishing meals a day and could visit with people when he wanted to. There was a chapel service on Sunday. He could sleep when he desired. I visited him almost every day and the rest of the family visited often. We took him shopping when he was willing, brought him to our home as often as he would come. He did not want to come often because he was much more secure with a definite routine—where everything happened at an exact, specified time of day. He lived there for six years, until his death at 92.

We think he was much more content there than he would have been in our home, and those six years were among the best in his life. He needed to be in control of his space—however small.

How to honor our mother and our father is an intensely personal matter, to be worked out between the parents and adult children, taking into consideration the welfare and resources of all. Love and honor for our parents often demand sacrifices of time, money, and emotional energy to find the most Christian way to meet the needs of all concerned.

But following God’s commands has its own rewards. “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8, NIV).