Evangelist Billy Graham, who has been an honorary Indian chief for twenty-three years, won new recognition from the original Americans last month as thousands of them turned out for his eight-day crusade in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Graham preached to delegations from a wide assortment of Indian tribes who came from a four-state area. He also spoke to a historic conference of Indian evangelicals and to a private meeting of Indian chiefs from throughout the United States.

“It seems to me,” Graham told the Indian evangelicals, “it is time once again to emphasize evangelism among all ethnic groups in America, and especially do we have a debt to the American Indian.”

Indians and others filled the 15,300-seat indoor University of New Mexico Arena for each crusade service. The meetings, held during the week in which spring arrived on the calendar, reflected an evangelistic enthusiasm among Christians in Albuquerque that promised a season of spiritual growth. Graham team members said the percentage of inquirers was unusually high for an indoor meeting.

Crusade Chairman David Cauwels, a local developer who is a Houghton College graduate, said he believes that a great wave of intercession (more than 4,000 homes opened for prayer) was answered in a miraculous way.

“The desert is blossoming,” said Cauwels. “God has wrought a mighty work across denominational lines like we have never seen.” Roman Catholics numerically dominate the Albuquerque population of 335,000 and their response to the crusade was particularly heartwarming to sponsors. Cauwels, who says he carries as much a burden for follow-up as for the crusade itself, reported that seventy “nurture” groups are meeting for Roman Catholics alone.

During the week, an Albuquerque newspaper editor who had visited with Graham disclosed that the evangelist had had a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with former president Richard Nixon on March 9 at San Clemente. Graham was quoted as saying that he believes Nixon has been “deepened religiously” by the Watergate ordeal. Graham made no public comments about the Nixon meeting during the crusade.

In a sermon about physical as well as spiritual hunger, Graham announced that his association was setting up an ongoing emergency relief fund. “We have been reading about some religious agencies that are only able to get about 40 or 50 per cent of their income to the needs of the people,” he said. “However, we already have the personnel and the set-up to be a channel through which this aid can be administered. If people want to give to human suffering in various parts of the world, they can channel it through us and be guaranteed that 90 per cent of it will get to where it was intended.”

Graham made a special promise of aid while addressing a three-day Conference on Indian Evangelism and Christian Leadership. “I will pray harder for you,” he said. “I will keep in closer touch with your Christian leaders. As possible, we will help you financially.”

The conference, which drew together some sixty influential Indian evangelicals from throughout North America, was climaxed with a unanimous agreement to form a new organization. A nine-member organizing committee is charged with formulating the new group, tentatively being called Christian Hope: Indian and Eskimo Fellowship (CHIEF).

Graham also was a guest at a board meeting of the National Tribal Chairmen’s Association, which represents the elected leadership of tribal groups on some 200 of the 270 reservations in the United States. It was reported later that among the 8,657 persons who stepped forward in profession of faith at the crusade were two chiefs who serve on the board.

The evangelist said that “for many years I have carried both a burden and a guilt concerning the Indian population in the United States.” He was made an honorary chief while conducting a previous crusade in Albuquerque in 1952.

Indians attended the crusade as well as the concurrent School of Evangelism conducted by Dr. Kenneth Chafin. In the Navajo delegation one evening was Yonabah Pino of Ramah, New Mexico, who reportedly celebrated her 106th birthday last November.

At the other end of the age spectrum was William Franklin Graham IV, a grandson of the evangelist, who lives with his parents in Estes Park, Colorado. Franklin III, 22, is attending a Bible school there. In Albuquerque he participated in a crusade program for the first time, giving an opening prayer.

Another first-timer on the Graham crusade program was musician Andrae Crouch. His appearance was among those videotaped for later TV presentation.

Young people in the Albuquerque area spurred interest in the crusade when about 800 of them participated in a “Walk for Love” to the arena.

The Albuquerque Tribune summed up the impact in an editorial which noted that “this is a week of considerable significance in New Mexico.” The editorial said that Graham “has a simple, logical message that is basic Christianity according to the Bible.”

THE RUMOR ISN’T TRUE

That rumor floating around some evangelical circles to the effect that pianist Arthur Rubinstein, a Jew, has professed faith in Christ is false. The rumor arose from comments he’d made to Golda Meir. “My deep admiration and love for Christ are for a human being [like it is] for people like Ghandi, Dr. Schweitzer, and Tolstoi,” says Rubinstein in a letter. “Any idea that I have a ‘new-found faith in Christ’ is sheer nonsense.”

The Christian Embassy

A group of twenty Christian businessmen last month purchased for $550,000 an elegant Washington, D. C., mansion to serve as a “Christian embassy” for Campus Crusade for Christ. It was bought in the name of businessman Rolfe H. McCollister, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who said the center would be available for use by all evangelical groups.

Crusade has work in sixty-five countries, said McCollister. He hinted that the center could be used for coordinating such work and negotiating with officials of those countries through diplomatic channels in Washington.

DEATH

HENRY H. JANZEN, 73, Canadian Mennonite Brethren leader, former president of the Toronto Russian Bible Institute and the Mennonite Brethren College in Winnipeg; in Kitchener, Ontario.

The mansion was purchased from the Catholic archdiocese, which made $25, 000 on the transaction. It had been bought from a college last year with private funds as a proposed residence for Archbishop William W. Baum. Widely publicized protests over lifestyle implications persuaded Baum to dispose of it.

Iran: Ire And Image

This year’s Lent Project for children, announced the Church of England’s Church Missionary Society in January, would be the raising of $72,000 to help a Christian hospital in Isfahan, Iran.

When one woman’s children brought home their collection boxes, she hit the ceiling. Hadn’t Britain just borrowed a hefty amount from Iran to keep afloat, and weren’t Britons paying $1.80 per gallon for gasoline, thanks to the Arab cartel? She wrote a letter of indignation to the London Sunday Express that brought immediate and sympathetic reaction.

Somewhat embarrassed, Iranian embassy officials contacted the mission agency and offered to make up the $360,000 balance of the hospital project that would still be outstanding after the $72,000 was raised. In return they wanted fifteen free beds and treatment for ten years.

Everyone seemed happy, and the offering project caught on. Suddenly, the mission agency announced the money would be used for projects in Africa and Asia instead. The switch occurred after the 2,000-member Anglican Church in Iran sent a letter asking cancellation of the project. It explained that the Iranian government, disturbed by the image of children collecting money for Iran, would provide all the money needed.

Mission press officer Wallace Bolton said he does not know if this decision means Iran will close or take over the hospital—or if it will indeed fund it as indicated. The hospital is the means of contacting 500 new people each week he said, “a great opportunity to show Christian caring in a predominantly Muslim country.”

ROGER DAY

Religion In Transit

A California appeals judge ruled as unconstitutional the closing of state offices for three hours on Good Friday afternoon. The traditional closing enabled employees to attend worship services.

Religion in American Life, an interreligious agency that uses donated advertising of space and time to promote the value of religious faith, presented its top award at this year’s annual meeting to J. Peter Grace, a millionaire Catholic lay leader. The award is given annually to an individual who exemplifies “a religious dedication, a distinguished career, and a concern for humanity.”

The ministry board of the Southwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church denied the request of F. Eugene Leggett for reinstatement as a clergyman. He was suspended in 1971 after publicly announcing he was a homosexual. Meanwhile, faced with mounting grass-roots concern, several Methodist bishops have taken a stand against the ordination of homosexuals, an issue expected to be debated at the denomination’s 1976 quadrennial conference.

West Virginia’s abortion law, which forbids abortion at any stage of pregnancy, was declared unconstitutional by a state circuit judge.

McCormick Seminary in Chicago, a United Presbyterian school, will sell its twenty-acre Lincoln Park campus and move to the Hyde Park area next summer, where it will join the eight-member Chicago Cluster of Theological Schools. It has purchased an office building and will use library and classroom facilities at the adjoining Lutheran School of Theology.

Some 200 delegates to the annual convention of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils (representing 60 per cent of the nation’s 56,000 Catholic priests) called for a “recertification process” by which “resigned priests” (most of them married) could be restored fully to active ministry.

Toronto’s Catholic population has doubled since 1960 (from 500,000 to one million), but the total number of priests has remained static, warned Archbishop Philip Pocock in calling for recruits. Only three will graduate from the diocesan seminary this year. Emigrant priests, deacons, and trained laity are helping to fill the gap.

Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston has sued the John Hancock Insurance Company for $4 million as a result of damages allegedly caused by construction of the company’s sixty-story building nearby. Church officials say they’ve had to spend more than $1 million for repairs, forcing cutbacks in church programs.

The fifty-year old Cincinnati Bible Seminary, affiliated with the Christian Churches and Churches of Christ (instrumental), has had to borrow to meet payrolls and pay bills this year. To help get past the crisis, faculty members, administrators, trustees, and many of the 800 students in the school’s graduate and undergraduate divisions pledged $90,000 at a special rally.

First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, which boasts the world’s largest Sunday school, dedicated a new $2 million, 5,000-seat auditorium. Renowned Southern Baptist pulpiteer Robert G. Lee was the featured preacher, appearing with Pastor Jack Hyles.

Three-fourths of Americans favor legislation to regulate abortion, but only 7.1 per cent would outlaw it altogether, according to a survey conducted by a Duke University-based firm. The 4,000-plus respondents ranked abortion as tenth in a list of national problems.

Eight bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church have established a revolving loan fund for A.M.E. students who attend Union Seminary in New York.

Rabbi Meir Kahane, leader of the militant Jewish Defense League, was sentenced to one year in prison for violating his 1971 probation, which prohibited him from direct and indirect contact with weapons.

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America voted to resume participation with Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism in the Synagogue Council of America. The Orthodox split occurred last year in a controversy centered in Israel over who is a Jew. Israeli Orthodox leaders do not recognize Conservative-or Reform-administered conversions to Judaism as valid.

The National Women’s Division of the American Jewish Congress has come out for abortion on demand for all women, and it vows to oppose all anti-abortion legislative measures.

Homosexual acts are “intrinsically evil and gravely sinful,” and “no understanding of … civil rights can include … homosexual conduct [as] one of those rights.” So decreed the priests’ senate of the Catholic diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota, in voting to oppose legislation giving legal protection to homosexual conduct.

Some 200 Catholic men who have left the priesthood, the majority of them married, have offered their services as “reservists” in the ministry—if and when the bishops are willing to have them. They are part of a movement called CORPUS (Corps of Reserved Priests United for Service). CORPUS estimates there are 7,000 married priests in the United States.

In North Carolina, “faith healing, spiritual advising, and fortune telling” are illegal in sixty-three of the state’s 100 counties. Last year two couples described as “gypsies” were arrested under the statute, but a court dismissed the charges, declaring them unconstitutional. Lawyers now are asking for a formal constitutional test of the law.

World Scene

The former president of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, 87, was awarded the $100,000 Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion. He was cited for his contribution to Hinduism and his philosophical studies that have led to “a rediscovery of God.” The two previous recipients were Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Brother Roger of the Taize Community in France.

Far East Broadcasting Company opened a new mission radio station (DWRF) in the Philippines. Spokesmen say the FEBC network can now reach the entire Chinese-speaking world. The FEBC broadcasts 220 program hours daily in seventy-three languages from twenty-five transmitters.

Bangkok Radio said that two decomposed bodies found last month were believed to be the remains of two Overseas Missionary Fellowship women missionaries kidnapped a year ago in southern Thailand and held for ransom. They are Minka Hanskamp of New Zealand and Margaret Morgan of Britain.

A joint Protestant-Catholic translation of the New Testament in modern Italian is scheduled for publication in Italy next year. It is the product of cooperation between the Italian and Swiss Bible societies and a Catholic publishing house in Turin.

Portuguese courts may now grant divorce to couples married in the Catholic Church, thanks to a Vaticanamendment of its 1940 concordat with Portugal.

Of the 3,500 Catholic priests in Czechoslovakia, 500 have been banned by the government from engaging in any priestly functions, leaving about 1,600 parishes without priests. There is also harassment of religious teachers.

The Church Missionary Society, the Church of England’s oldest mission (it dates from 1799), has more than 700 workers in some thirty countries, with an annual budget of $3.3 million.

The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church of Pakistan reports a new presbytery of ten churches in Karachi; this brings the denomination’s total number of congregations to fifty, with more than 60,000 members. The church has ties to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America.

In all, 638 new priests were ordained in Poland last year, the largest number in six years. More than 19,500 priests serve Poland’s estimated Catholic population of about 30 million.

Mission radio station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, was granted a new twenty-five-year license by the government. HCJB is forty-three years old.

With a record pay rise of 25 per cent for its ministers, the Church of Scotland will hike its minimum stipend this year to more than $5,500, a 250 per cent increase over 1965.

The Church of England forecasts a 23 per cent increase this year in the number of its ordination candidates (at least 340) over last year’s figure (277).

A plan of union between the Church of Scotland and the Methodist Church in Scotland is expected to be put before both bodies next year. A Kirk spokesman sees “no insurmountable difficulties to union.”

Nova Myal, a publication of the Czechoslovakian Communist party, says it studied reform movements among churches and has concluded that Christian social teachings cannot solve man’s social problems. “The religious and communist worldview have nothing in common and their systems are entirely different; an ideological reconciliation is impossible,” declares the paper.

The Australian Council of Churches asked member denominations to reduce any investments they have in business concerns operating in South Africa.

Mexico’s City’s huge 400-year-old Metropolitan Catholic Cathedral is slowly sinking on its foundations, and government architects warn that if urgent measures are not taken it will topple over someday. The entire city is sinking as the result of the draining of underground water, but the cathedral is sinking faster. It is several feet below the surrounding streets.

As conditions in South Viet Nam deteriorated rapidly during Holy Week, most missionaries there were reported to be safe, and they and other church people were helping in the vast effort to feed and resettle hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Seven missionaries and a child, however, were presumed to be in the hands of the Viet Cong or North Vietnamese invaders. They are:

Mr. and Mrs. Norman Johnson, both 39, of Hamilton, Ontario (Christian and Missionary Alliance); Richard and Lillian Phillips, 45 and 43, of Bloomington, Minnesota (CMA); Mrs. Archie Mitchell, 54, of Bly, Oregon (CMA); and John and Carolyn Miller and their five-year-old daughter, of Allentown, Pennsylvania (Wycliffe Bible Translators).

All were at Ban Me Thuot in the central highlands, where the CMA operates a leprosarium and hospital. The Johnsons fled into the jungle at the outset of the attack on the town early last month and still had not been heard from as of March 26. The others, along with one or two other foreign civilians, had reportedly sought shelter in the compound of the International Commission for Control and Supervision as fierce fighting raged through the area. Radio contact with the group was lost on March 14.

North Vietnamese sources, in replying to inquiries about the missionaries, said no harm would come to civilians genuinely engaged in humanitarian work, according to a U. S. State Department source.

Mrs. Mitchell’s husband was kidnapped by the Viet Cong from Ban Me Thuot in the Tet Offensive of 1962. Two others taken with Mitchell at that time were Elinor Ardel Vietti, a doctor from Houston, and Mennonite worker Daniel Gerber of Dalton, Ohio. Gerber is presumed dead; Mitchell and Dr. Vietti are listed as missing. Mission leaders say privately they believe the pair are dead also, but there have been scattered—and disputed—reports suggesting the two have been seen alive in Viet Cong captivity.

Concern was also expressed for the well-being of national church workers at Ban Me Thuot and for the nationals there on the staff of Vietnam Christian Service, a joint project of the U. S. National Council of Churches and Lutheran World Relief.

Mennonite worker Earl Martin of New Holland, Pennsylvania, stayed behind in Quang Ngai. A friend said Martin didn’t believe political barriers should affect his relationship with the people. Martin is on good terms with the Viet Cong, added the friend.

Most CMA missionaries in inland locations left their posts in mid-February when rumors spread that an attack was imminent, then returned when nothing happened. Miraculously, only those in Ban Me Thuot were trapped in March.

In another miracle of sorts, Wycliffe’s sixty Viet Nam-based adult workers and their children were attending a translation conference on the coast at Nha Trang when the Communist offensive began. Normally, a number of them would have been working up in the hill country.

The Millers left the conference early for a two-week stay in Ban Me Thuot to check the final stages of a tribal New Testament translation. (Wycliffe has twenty language projects under way in South Viet Nam.) Mrs. Miller is the daughter of Stephen Paine, former president of Houghton College in New York. Three older Miller children were in Saigon at month’s end awaiting word about their parents.

As the fighting intensified, the Wycliffe and CMA personnel were clustered mainly in Nha Trang and Saigon, but just before Easter the government requested the missionaries to leave Nha Trang. Both Wycliffe and the CMA have important facilities there, among them a CMA Bible school with an enrollment of some 200. Skeleton forces were left in Nha Trang and Da Nang.

The majority of missionaries around Saigon pitched in to help with relief and medical work among the masses of refugees; others were redeployed elsewhere. Some missions laid contingency plans to evacuate their workers to the Philippines or Bangkok. The CMA has ninety-three missionaries assigned to South Viet Nam, including several on loan from other groups; eighty-five are Americans. Most were in Saigon late last month.

All thirty-six of the Southern Baptist Convention’s missionaries were reported safe. Three were evacuated from Hue and seven from Da Lat before those cities fell.

United World Mission of St. Petersburg, Florida, and Worldwide Evangelization Crusade of Ft. Washington, Pennsylvania, reported their eleven workers, five of them Americans, were transferred safely from Da Nang to Saigon. Other mission boards with small contingents said their people were likewise safe.

The situation with the nationals is something else. The refugee situation is “horrendous,” said a missionary in a telephone dispatch. Many hundreds of thousands of persons poured into coastal areas from the northern and interior provinces. Food was scarce, and prices were beyond the reach of most. Thousands died of malnutrition, disease, and wounds by the wayside; thousands who made it to the coast alive were not expected to live.

Most of the Protestants in the land belong to the CMA-affiliated Evangelical Church of South Viet Nam, which has 490 congregations served by more than 500 national workers. The denomination, riding a wave of revival since early 1972 despite the war and unrest, has more than 53,000 baptized members and perhaps four times that many constituents. Many of these people are now refugees, separated perhaps forever from the congregations to which they belonged only a month or so ago.

Catholics number over one million, and they are served by hundreds of foreign missionaries, teaching brothers, and nuns. Most of the one-million-plus persons the U. S. airlifted from Hanoi to the south in 1954 were Catholics. They in time assumed much of the political power in the south. This helped to fuel the Viet Cong cause.

Relief efforts are being spearheaded by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), World Vision, and other church agencies. Four Americans and a Canadian last month were helping World Vision’s staff of 200 nationals in Saigon. In addition to medical and other work, the agency was distributing “family survival kits”—sacks that contain clothing, food, cooking utensils, and a small stove. The Catholics were organizing a number of international medical teams.

CRS and World Vision personnel meanwhile were still at their posts in besieged Phnom Penh at month’s end. These included Pennsylvanian Carl Harris, who is World Vision’s director in Cambodia, and medical doctor Penelope Key of England. Dr. Key says that 1,000 of the 26,000 patients her team saw recently were children in urgent need of hospitalization. Only 125 could be placed, she adds.

PRAYER REQUEST

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen says he started praying three years ago to “drop dead before I am 80.” He will be 80 on May 8. His big fear is that “beyond 80 I will not be working at full capacity.”

The retired archbishop preached last month at a series of standing-room-only Lenten services in New York, then went to Ireland to do three Holy Week services daily, four hours of preaching on Good Friday, and two services on Easter Sunday.

Sheen says he’s added a condition or two to his prayer request: he wants to die “on a feast of the Blessed Mother and in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.”

“If I don’t,” he says, smiling, “God is going to be very embarrassed.”

Behind The Lines In North Viet Nam

Editor John Nakajima of Japan Christian Activity News visited North Viet Nam several months ago as part of a World Council of Churches team. While there he attended a Sunday worship service at the Hanoi Evangelical Church, once affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The following are excerpts of Pastor Bui Hoanh Thu’s remarks to Nakajima. As expected, they are tinted by political context, but they do reveal some interesting sidelights to church life in that Communist country.

Protestantism was first brought to Viet Nam in 1912 by missionaries of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in America. Later missionaries also came from France and England.… Prior to 1954 there were 30,000 members and sixty pastors and evangelists, including a number of French.

After the Dien Bien Phu victory, the leaders of the American churches told us various lies. At that time some 20,000 laymen and thirty pastors went south. Those of us who remained took part in the fight against imperialism.

Since May 8, 1954, our church activities have continued without interruption. It is often said that Communist government prohibits the practice of religion, but in our country it is just the opposite; the government actually has helped us rebuild our church. We have also established the Vietnamese Protestant Association. Today it has forty churches, twenty-six pastors, and 10,000 members in North Viet Nam. Catholics number one million members and 300 priests.

Worship service is at 7:00 Sunday morning, 7:30 in winter. The education of the children takes place Sunday afternoon at 3:00; they hear Bible stories, sing, and are led to be good students at school. Sunday evenings are services anyone can attend, when the Gospel is preached. On Wednesday night there is a prayer meeting: we pray for our country, the church, and the world. Thursday evening is Bible study. At a small Bible study group Saturday evening we pray for the Sunday service.

There was another church in Hanoi but on December 22, 1972, it was destroyed by a direct hit from a B–52 bomber. The laymen built a temporary sanctuary with their own hands, and Christmas services were held there on December 25.

A total of ten churches were destroyed by American bombings. The church in Hai Doung was hit and collapsed but, thank God, the pastor’s life was spared. Recently we have been able to purchase brick, cement, and wood, so we have begun the rebuilding.

Because evangelism and social service are the two legs on which mankind stands, without both of these the church can’t move. We send our young people to the front lines. Our second work is to provide produce for the country.… Pastors all work too. The church is completely independent, both materially and spiritually. Bananas provide income for the church.

We plan to have a retreat for laymen from all over the country. Recently there has been a revival among people of the mountain tribes, and fifteen of their representatives will attend.

During the war no news came to us from churches overseas, but the Holy Spirit told us the realities of churches overseas. As an example, we assumed that African and Latin American Christian churches were living under very difficult conditions, and we prayed for them in their struggle.

Church Women, Unite

Sexism was upstaged by racism during the recent annual meeting of the national United Methodist Women’s Caucus in Dallas, a group founded in 1971. A fracas flared up that threatened to destroy the caucus.

Among controversial resolutions the women managed to pass was one calling for lay delegate control of the denomination’s quadrennial conference (40 per cent laywomen, 40 per cent laymen, 20 per cent clergy instead of 50 per cent clergy, 50 per cent laity). Another upheld the right of clergy and laity to hold church office regardless of “sexual preference.” In effect, this measure endorses the ordination of homosexuals.

Seventy-nine registrants, three-fourths of them white, attended. Feelings ran high when whites, not wanting a “bad image,” tried to integrate a minority subgroup meeting while a television news team was filming it. “Why do these white faces have to be here?” said the offended women coldly.

A group of Hispanic women walked out during a dinner meeting because the local minority women used as cooks were not invited to take part in the meeting.

Discussions of lingering “white racism” ensued, further straining relationships. Some whites feared that their attack on sexism was being forgotten in concern over racism.

The women pulled themselves together in time to formulate the resolution for presentation at the church’s 1976 conference.

SUFFERING SAINTS

Chester Robson is a 19-year-old college student in Washington state who tried to find out how St. Francis of Assisi might fare in today’s world.

Not so well, it turned out. Robson adopted the ascetic’s eleventh-century life style—begging for food, washing with melted snow, sleeping on boards, dressing in a simple brown robe, talking to animals, and the like. People whispered about Robson behind his back, called the police, and stared at him as if he were some kind of nut—the same way their forebears had treated the saint.

The animals weren’t much better.

“I tried to talk to some birds,” said the student. “They flew away.”

Stopping The Operators

The federal government has been cracking down on travel agencies that cash in on the interest in “psychic surgery.” These agencies organize tours to the Philippines where “surgeons” supposedly remove diseased tissue with their bare hands and without piercing the body. Sometimes, the agencies even arrange appointments with the surgeons, who usually “operate” in hotel rooms.

Last year the Federal Trade Commission got an injunction forbidding travel agents from promoting such tours. They were also required to warn past or prospective clients of the serious dangers of taking such tours. The main danger, say authorities, is in giving up regular medical treatment.

In March, FTC judge Daniel H. Hanscom ruled that four agencies on the West Coast, two of them no longer in business, made false and misleading claims in promoting the trips. He called psychic surgery, which draws 40,000 people a year from all over the world, “pure and unmitigated fakery; more bluntly, simply phony.”

He based his decision in part on testimony by a couple who went to the Philippines to study the surgery’s possible connection with extra-sensory perception. The couple gained the confidence of the surgeons and was let in on the secret: the tumors removed from human bodies are in reality animal organs or intestines stuffed with cotton, produced from handy hiding places by sleight of hand.

The FTC estimates that in the past three years more than 2,000 Americans, at $1,000 a head, have traveled to the Philippines for the surgery.

“Well-meaning people, the sick and infirm have been gulled, exploited, and deceived, sometimes with tragic and heart-rending consequences,” said the judge.

Released Time

Utah high school pupils in one school term can get the equivalent of nearly five years of Sunday school plus up to two credits toward graduation through released-time programs. The Latter Day Saints (Mormons) have had such programs as part of the major educational arm of their church for many years. Only recently have evangelical churches undertaken to offer alternatives.

The Utah State Board of Education allows one credit per year, with an overall limit of two, in released-time classes in the history and literature of the Old and New Testaments. The courses are to be objective and nonsectarian in nature, but the board exercises no curriculum control, operating on the assumption that class content is limited by the texts. Teachers must be certified to teach on the secondary level.

The Mormons place great emphasis on their program. They have “seminaries” adjacent to every high school and most junior highs in Utah and southern Idaho and are expanding into northern Arizona. The seminary teachers are salaried. Their curriculum consists of a four-year- program, with courses in the Book of Mormon, church history, Old Testament, and New Testament, plus electives. Without the seminaries, say observers, the LDS church would suffer from a lack of leaders trained in the doctrines, scriptures, and apologetics of their faith.

There are at most half a dozen non-Mormon released-time schools in the state, two of them full-time: the five-year-old Bonneville Bible Academy, sponsored by the Conservative Baptist Association, and the two-year-old Royal Bible Academy, sponsored by the Baptist General Conference. Both are near high schools in suburban Ogden (Royal is housed in a pre-fab structure). Under the released-time arrangement, students schedule academy classes as part of their regular curriculum plan, take their classes in the academy building, and receive grades and credit through the high schools. Both academies serve student bodies numbering around 1,400. Their potential enrollment (the non-Mormons) is 400–500 students. Both have fewer than 100 enrolled.

The Bonneville Academy, headed by clergyman Henry Green, offers a three-course program consisting of Old Testament, New Testament, and history of Christianity. The Royal Academy has a four-course program of Old Testament, New Testament, history of Christendom, and Bible survey. Students at Royal can also take advanced courses in Old Testament and doctrine. Both academies have a six-or seven-period day. One side benefit from the academies has been the Christian identity that has devleoped across denominational lines, a kind of evangelical ecumenicity, observes one academy leader.

The major deterrent to non-LDS programs in the Mormon West is not opposition from the majority group, say academy leaders, but the lack of a financial base in the mostly small, struggling evangelical churches. One worker points out that although there is some regional denominational support, many churches apparently fail to realize the home-missions value of the school ministries.

DAVID HEIKKILA

Youth Belief And Practice

A recent national survey of high school student leaders showed that 88 per cent believe “there is a God or supreme being” and 82 per cent “feel religion is relevant in today’s society.” Protestants led in belief in God with 94 per cent, Catholics registered 92 per cent, Jews 48 per cent, and “others” 45 per cent. Racially, blacks led with 93 per cent.

The survey, conducted by Who’s Who Among American High School Students, also revealed:

• Less than half participate “regularly” in church or religious activities.

• Two-fifths approve of premarital sex (29 per cent have engaged in it).

• Less than 8 per cent have ever used hard drugs, and 72 per cent have never used marijuana.

• A fourth never drank beer, and 34 per cent never drank hard liquor.

The poll was based on 23,000 responses, half from Protestants.

Cookie Cutting

The Catholic archdiocese of Philadelphia has cut ties with the Girl Scouts in favor of the Camp Fire Girls, whose local groups the church can more easily direct. Church officials were worried about proposed workshops in which scouts would be instructed about contraception, abortion, rape, and their own anatomy. One-third of the city’s 24,000 Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, and Seniors are affected by the action; each must now decide whether to convert and become a Camp Fire Girl, or go on meeting with the scouts somewhere other than a Catholic church building.

Father Francis X. Schmidt, Catholic youth director, said the Scouts failed to consult the church in setting up the new program, which “reexamines restraints in areas of sin.”

Scout leaders, lamenting the action, say the program could have been adapted. They fear losses could run $8,000 a year in cookie profits.

Evangelical literature is moving through a remarkable day: the unending appearance of new Bible translations or paraphrases and of various compilations of these; the issuance of costly and competent reference works for permanent use; readiness by some theological professors in our time of deep doctrinal crisis to spend their efforts on lucrative potboilers; the notable success, and notable demise, of publishing ventures geared only to high-turnover religious fluff.

Now complete in English translation from the German is the monumental Kittel-Friedrich Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament (reviewed in CHRISTIANITY TODAY, September 27, 1974, page 24). Anglo-Saxon scholarship owes a high debt to Geoffrey W. Bromiley, the gifted translator of this nine-volume work (he earlier translated Barth’s massive Church Dogmatics), and to the Eerdmans Publishing Company. With impressive facility Bromiley translated essays of divergent styles, range, and vocabulary into uniformly idiomatic English. As a companion project, Eerdmans has already begun issuing John Willis’s translation of Botterweck and Ringgren’s Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament.

Once known simply as Kittel, and incorporating the research and reflection of numerous prestigious scholars, the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) was many times near disaster. In 1928, when Gerhard Kittel projected two volumes to be produced in three years by fifteen contributors, he never envisioned nine volumes involving more than a hundred contributors and forty-five years.

World War II interrupted the community of participating scholars, and when Kittel died in 1948 the project might have ended. But as he lay dying Kittel entrusted to a younger scholar, Gerhard Friedrich, the burden of completion—which proved to be a quarter-century task. Although bankers hesitated to provide financial backing for the vast effort, the publishers displayed singular vision and commitment; Kittel’s widow gave generous support, and thousands of subscribers paid ongoing installments to assure publication.

Kittel introduced a new era in philological lexicography, for he recognized that we can best grasp the meaning of the New Testament by analyzing the use of words in the broad vocabulary context of linguistic families, while at the same time stressing that words gain their meaning in logical relationships and not as atomistic units.

By the time his great project was completed, almost half of the participating contributors had died. Each successive volume reflected new discoveries, research, and trends, among them the post-War debate in theology, waning confidence in the unity of the New Testament, the disruptive impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on some of the earlier essays, and growing deference by some scholars to Gnosticism as a context for New Testament teaching.

Seen only as an incomparable source of New Testament word studies, TDNT is a greatly rewarding effort that can help bring new biblical power to preaching and strike new depths for theological study. The work reflects divergent assumptions and perspectives and must be used critically, as must every work about the Bible; but in a time of theological shallowness TDNT incorporates abundant and profound evangelical values.

Another gifted evangelical scholar, intrepid Scottish church historian J. D. Douglas, has edited as his latest venture the New International Dictionary of the Christian Church (Zondervan, 1,074 pages, $24.95). A million-word effort by 180 contributors of 4,800 articles, it spans the life of the Christian Church through the centuries. This volume doesn’t simply update or rework previous dictionaries; it reflects a fresh perspective that incorporates many valuable topics including artists, musicians, and poets heretofore overlooked or omitted. The overall range of subjects is impressive: the famous names, movements, and concerns of church history are all here, as are lesser yet enriching ones. A reliable work by qualified participating evangelical scholars, it is clear, precise and highly readable. It says something about the project (and about British radio) that BBC was aware of the book’s appearance and dispatched a staffer to interview Douglas at his St. Andrews home.

The fortunes and misfortunes of the Christian witness in many lands are discussed at helpful length, in some cases by continents (e.g., Latin America), in others by individual essays (e.g., China, India, Korea, Japan); some nations, however, are omitted. Some readers may wish that more space had been allocated to certain topics like “New Testament Canon” and “New Testament Criticism.” No major articles appear in “Culture” (or “Counter-Culture”), although personality or issue-oriented essays related to such subjects are included. There is an essay on “Philosophy of Religion” but none on “Philosophy,” on “Evolution” but not on “Science.” What to include and what to exclude are always baffling decisions in a work of this kind.

The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church is an excellent “college-course at home,” and considerably better fare and more profitable than most television and other reading alternatives.

A footnote to my Footnotes is a rare phenomenon. But the retirement of Miss Irma Peterson from the staff of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, where she was executive secretary to the editor from the magazine’s very beginnings in 1956, affords an opportunity not only to recognize a life of unusually efficient and dedicated service but also to underscore the importance of competent secretarial help. Some of evangelical Christianity’s ablest scholars in their most productive years have realized only half their possible contribution to the Christian cause because they have had to dissipate their energies and time in typing and in handling voluminous correspondence. J. D. Douglas, Frank Gaebelein, Elton Trueblood, and many others could easily verify experiences in this matter.

Some far-sighted evangelical foundation could by providing grants for just such secretarial aid, liberate productive scholars to give their full time to the cause of valid and respectable Christian literature.

These matters apart, I.E.P.—as she humbly abridged herself in interoffice memos—is one of that vanishing species of executive secretaries who when necessary work late or on Saturdays without grumbling and who take full pride in their work because they work “as unto the Lord.” In 1956 I.E.P. traveled 3,000 miles to Washington to join the founding and launching corps of a new magazine. She is the veteran and only remaining office member of that initial circle. I shall always cherish her as a person and as a superior coworker. For the Lord’s sake—and ours—one might wish that the geneticists could clone many another I.E.P.

When the logs are blazing in the fireplace, the chair is deep and comfortable, and one is sipping a cup of one’s favorite evening tea, chocolate, coffee, or herb-tea, a wild wind howling around the house or moaning through the eaves can be a very pleasant sound, emphasizing the comfort and security of the snug little spot. And later, in a warm bed, with the prospect of deep and peaceful sleep ahead, the shriek of the wind, the rattle of the shutters can be a lullaby. The slash of rain against the windows makes the blankets feel cozier. If the wind seems to be blowing in two directions at once, it doesn’t matter; the feeling of being protected is only more vivid.

Strong wind frequently changing direction and driving rain are a different thing if one is in a boat that pitches and rocks with sickening creaks of the wood as if it were about to split in two. If it is a small, open boat and the waves are washing in, fear and not pleasure is a natural response to such a storm. The little ship in which the disciples were riding was being driven to and fro by a “contrary wind.” Can’t you imagine the chill of wet skin and clothing as the wind whirled around the men, destroying any possibility of directing the ship and threatening to overturn it? Then suddenly the men caught sight of a form coming toward them. Can something be going wrong with their eyes? No, it is a man—but it can’t be! It must be a ghost! Perhaps their teeth chattered with something more than cold as sudden terror was added to their natural fear, and their screams arose above the sound of the wind and sea. There was no other boat in sight, no place from which help could come.

“But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.” I love the “straightway” because it indicates the gentleness and tenderness of Jesus, and of God the Father, for Jesus said he came to make known the Father. Jesus cared about quieting the fears immediately. Did he change the force of the waves and stop the wild wind right away? No, we know he didn’t at this time. What then was the meaning of “Be of good cheer … be not afraid” in that context?

It carries us back to the psalms (46:1–3): “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” The reality of the presence of God with us. His tender love for us, his trustworthiness as our guide, is to dispel our natural fear even in the midst of storm and earthquake while the waters are still roaring, while the wind is still buffeting our faces, whipping our clothing around us. God is our refuge during the time no visible change has come in the circumstances. Our complete trust is to be in him, not even in what we suddenly see him doing for us. We are given moments of opportunity to demonstrate a steady trust.

Peter was the one who answered Jesus with an impulsive and sudden feeling of faith in the power of the One who had made heaven and earth. “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” If this is really the Lord, thought Peter, he can do anything. He can make me walk on the water, too. With faith Peter stepped out of the ship into the midst of those wild waves in response to Jesus’ command, “Come.” Jesus was responding to Peter’s requests based on faith. Peter had asked, requested, made known his desire to Jesus, and Jesus had answered, “Come.” In the midst of answered prayer, when we ask for guidance (“Shall I do this, Lord? If you want me to do this thing, let me know and I will do it. Please lead me, Lord; I promise I will follow if only I know. Guide me. Anywhere, Lord”), does the answer “Come” assure us of a smooth walk ahead?

When Peter stepped into the water we are told that he walked on it! Peter is walking on that deep, wild, crashing sea! We are told so: “And when Peter was come down out of the ship [do we think the ship held still? No, it pitched and tossed as much as ever] he walked on the water.” Yes, for a distance it was real walking on top of shifting water, huge waves piling under his feet with the motion you have felt if you have ever been swimming out in the sea. He believed Jesus could make it possible for him to do it.

“When he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid.” It was the unchanging circumstance that caught his attention, and he shifted his weight, so to speak. He realized that nothing had changed about the wind and waves that he could see, and he shifted into thinking of the impossibility of it all. “It’s impossible. I can’t do it. I can’t, I can’t—I am going to drown! Help!” No, Peter, you can’t do it. Did you think you had been doing it for this distance you have already walked?

What is it that hits us when a scream arises within us and fear takes over, when we cry out in the silent cry no one hears but God, “I can’t. It is impossible. What am I doing? What have I gotten into?” If we have asked the Lord for his will, and he really has shown us, then what we have started to do is a double thing of looking at the waves, the unchanging circumstances and then taking a measure of credit for what we have already been doing, rather than dwelling on the wonder of the fact that he has been doing it for us or through us. There has to be a sustaining trust, a continuing trust, a moment-by-moment trust in the Lord in whom we have put our faith when we asked him to call us, to tell us to “come.” If the Lord has said, “Come, do this,” we have to remember that although we cannot do it, he can.

Peter began to sink when he concentrated on the fierceness of the unchanging storm of difficulties and realized he couldn’t continue by himself. But then he “cried saying, Lord, save me.” We are carried back to Psalm 34:6, “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” Yes, Jesus heard and “immediately stretched forth his hand and caught him.” The help came, but there was a rebuke! Peter need not have cried for help that time if he had not faltered in his trust of the One in whom he had put his faith in stepping out. We can take comfort that the help came tenderly and immediately, but we must also listen to the rebuke, and pray for a longer time of walking on the waves with a sustained trust in the One who has told us to “come.”

We are in danger of sinking? Ah, but that is not the worst danger; we are in danger of spoiling the marvelous demonstration that God is able to do it. What a beautiful sight it would have been to see Peter walk longer, in answer to Jesus’ “Come.” Let us pray for one another and for ourselves that our trust falter not, that our faith be not so “little” as to last only a few steps. “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”

A Theology Of Marriage

Christian, Celebrate Your Sexuality, by Dwight H. Small (Revell, 1974, 221 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Dennis McFadden, editor, “Horizon,” Barbara, California.

From the book’s title, one might expect a simple, high-school oriented list of sexual “dos and don’ts” and the inevitable raising of the question “How far can I go?” But this is definitely not that kind of book.

Dwight Small, assistant professor of sociology at Westmont College has written a book that fulfills its promise to be both scholarly and readable. It is probably the most sophisticated treatment of the subject by an evangelical author on the scene today.

The book is the product of more than twenty years of college conferences, marriage workshops, pastoral counseling, and college teaching. Small intends it “for those who are prepared to think more seriously, perhaps, than they have ever thought before on this fundamental biblical subject.” He attempts to combine the approaches of sociology, psychology, history, cultural anthropology, and biblical theology.

Small divides his work into two major sections. The first, “Sex, Yesterday and Today,” begins with varying opinions among psychologists and sociologists concerning present-day sex options. Surveyed are such diverse views as the safety-valve view, singles clubs, common-law marriage, Margaret Mead’s two forms of marriage, open marriage, and monogamous polygamy. The rest of the first part consists of a historical survey tracing the Church’s attitudes toward sex from the teachings of Jesus to J. A. T. Robinson.

In the second part, Small attempts to work out a theology of sexuality. He describes the image of God in relational rather than ontic categories; that is, he speaks of the real being of man as consisting not in a sum of attributes but in relationship. This position affirms much of modern existential psychology with its holistic view of man’s nature.

Small’s extended discussion of the image of God is for the purpose of affirming that in the Fall, man lost it—that no “vestige or relic” of the imago Dei remains.

Since the Fall, man has moved from his original state of “being-in-the-love-of-God” to a state of “being-in-the-love-of-self.” This, Small argues, leaves man in a state of cosmic and personal loneliness. Having lost the prototypical relationship, man has no adequate model for other earthly relationships. All that is left is a nagging desire for personal intimacy, often expected in marriage.

Small accepts the Barthian contention that there is correspondence between the persons of the Godhead and the community of man and wife:

Even as God the triune being experiences Himself as unity and completeness, so husband and wife the biune being can experience themselves as unity and completeness. Thus do they share, in this added sense, the image of God in their union.”

Small is willing to say that God created a “woman-sized void” in man. But the true fulfillment of one-flesh union is possible only when both man and wife are also in union with God.

For the justification of this contention, Bonhoeffer’s concept of “limit” is employed. Woman is given to man as a limit. Adam is free to love, cherish, and serve Eve; he is prevented from worshiping her. She represents a limit put into man’s life as the tree in the garden was a limit. So also Adam is the God-given limit for Eve. She may love and cherish him. Together they worship God, for his gift of one-flesh union.

But the Fall caused alienation. Now man can only hate the limit the other partner represents. Sin has brought disorder and a rupture of community. Now one wishes only to possess or use one’s partner. Small argues that only as Christians come together can they once again love the limit God has given them.

God calls us to enjoy and celebrate our sexuality, the author says. But to do this we must appreciate the many faceted nature of sexuality. Sex is symbolic, sacramental, communicative; it is a gift, an offering, and a cause for celebration.

In the end, Small’s book is a theology of marriage. For as he ably argues, marriage is intrinsic to God’s gift of sexuality.

It might be said in criticism that Small is too accepting of an anthropology based upon the functionalism of Bultmann and Robinson. His treatment of “body” as synonymous with person is accepted by many biblical scholars but not by all. At another point Small seems overly—and needlessly—dependent upon the Bultmann contention that man is the subject of the Bible. It might also be fruitful for Small to clarify his understanding of the analogy of being as opposed to the analogy of relation; at times the treatment seems a bit fuzzy.

Taken as a whole, however, this is an excellent book. It deserves a wide readership, especially among college students and church workers. Small has presented a carefully researched and attractive model for any Christian theology of sexuality.

Stubbornly Unclassifiable

C. S. Lewis: A Biography, by Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974, 320 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by J. D. Douglas, editor-at-large, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

There is a certain folly in reviewing a book about C. S. Lewis. It’s like trying to fathom Peanuts: all that really emerges is the extent of the reviewer’s ignorance.

Eleven years have passed since Lewis died. Has not every song been sung, every tale told? The two authors—respectively his chosen biographer and his secretary—don’t think so, and even add that the biography is in the future “when Lewis will have found his true level among writers and theologians” (which slyly draws a reviewing fang or two).

The present volume is based on family letters and papers until the end of 1930 (the selection and typing of which were done by Major Warren Lewis) and thereafter on letter, and on recollections of Lewis’s many friends. It aims neither to criticize Lewis’s works nor to assess his place in literature, but rather to offer a “humble tribute.” It provides the fullest account so far of Mrs. Moore—the widowed mother of a dead fellow officer—whom (with her daughter) he had taken into his home, and whose petty tyranny and insensitive demands on his time he incredibly endured until her death in 1951.

More congenially there is disclosed at last the real credit due to Warren Lewis, whose prodigious and unassuming contributions to his brother’s work and welfare cannot be overestimated. Lewis’s all too brief time with Joy Davidman is sensitively handled. That task could not have been easy, for Lewis told Hooper that he had “always been a bachelor at heart.”

There is an abundance of quotation from Lewis. Recounted is his long friendship with Arthur Greeves (who had remained steadfast to Christianity despite all Lewis’s pre-conversion attacks on the faith). “I learned character from him,” acknowledged Lewis, “but failed, for all my efforts, to teach him arrogance in return.” There is, perhaps inevitably, a preoccupation with minutiae: we are told that Lewis liked King Kong, that he looked like a prosperous butcher, and that once when his plane touched down at Naples “he made no attempt to talk Italian, beyond a few bare words needed to procure a bottle of Chianti.” But we do have confirmation of that extraordinary imprimatur from Bob Jones, Jr.: “That man smokes a pipe, and that man drinks liquor—but I do believe he is a Christian!”

Nothing in the book, however, quite equals the impact of the last page. Lewis’s biographers tell simply of his last days and of his death, but with an admirable sense of occasion they let him finish their book from one of his (The Last Battle, the seventh Chronicle of Narnia):

Then Aslan turned to them and said: “… you are—as you used to call it in the Shadowlands—dead. The term is over: the holidays are begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.…” All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

That is Lewis characteristically coming at things from unlikely angles. The book is full of just that. And this reviewer confesses to a sigh of irrational relief that all the domestic denouements and bons mots recorded have left C. S. Lewis as stubbornly unclassifiable as ever.

Adventist Innovation

God Is With Us, by Jack W. Provonsha (Review and Herald, 1974, 157 pp., $3.50 pb), is reviewed by Harold Lindsell, editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

This book by a Seventh-day Adventist breaks new ground, and in doing so may well create a furor in a denomination that has traditionally been theologically conservative apart from the distinctive tenets that mark it off from other Christian groups.

Provonsha attempts to get to God through man via natural theology. In doing so he shows an indebtedness to Paul Tillich, J. A. T. Robinson, and Harvey Cox. In his use of the Bible he says that “although written in the words of men, taken as a whole the Bible becomes the word of God—especially when read with eyes that see (and in this sense every man may be a seer).”

In a salvatory sense he says that “wherever men are men of integrity and compassion, they are men of God—regardless of their obvious labels.” Elsewhere he argues that “except for goodness revealed through man (especially in the Man Jesus), man might never really know that the Creator Himself is good. He fails to draw the equally possible conclusion that perhaps God is also bad because man is bad. Knowledge of the attributes of God come through special rather than natural revelation.

Philosophically Provonsha says that we cannot know anything absolutely. “Rational certainty is an impossibility” (except, of course, this proposition itself, which must be a certainty). Shortly after arriving at this dictum the author states absolutely that God “cannot make a square circle, a four angled triangle, 2+2=5, or make a rock so big He cannot move it.” Inconsistencies of this sort abound.

In his effort to lead men to God through men, Provonsha, who speaks constantly of the unity of God, does make mention of Jesus Christ, but he nowhere gives the reader any reason to suppose that the Holy Spirit has any real part in the salvatory process or even that he exists. But at least he is sure that “God is not fully in charge of the universe, although at some future date He will be.” That will be news to those who have always believed that God is sovereign and indeed is in control of things right now.

This is the first Review and Herald book I have seen that departs from normative Adventist theology. Whether this is an accident or represents a decided trend in the denominational stance remains to be seen.

New Clerical Types

In an early essay in this space, Eutychus I categorized four types of midcentury Protestant ecclesiastics. His work was a significant new departure in the budding field of ecclesiasticology (sometimes called cleriosophy). At the time that Eutychus I did his pioneering work, CHRISTIANITY TODAY was still in its infancy. The ecumenical movement was just beginning to move full steam ahead; the American religious “revival” embraced everything generally religious; and the “mainline” denominations and their fashionable clergy still cut a smart figure in the media.

But now, almost twenty years later, liberal and ecumenical Protestantism is on the retreat. The types of clerics that Eutychus I noted are hardly to be found today—or, if they show themselves, are apt to be hounded from the spot with cries of ridicule. A “new breed” has come on the scene. Below we list a few of the species now in evidence, not necessarily the most prominent by their frequency, but always impressive wherever they appear.

Rhetor bombasticocombativus. Previously confined to the so-called Bible belt of the South and Midwest and to a few scattered locations on both coasts, but now seen throughout the country. Noted for his ability to gather a crowd of supporters and opponents on any occasion and for the infrequency with which he mentions God’s forgiveness and Christian charity.

Criticus aestheticus discriminans. A rare bird (so to speak), but can usually be identified by the fact that, professing orthodoxy, he evinces an interest in worldly thought, entertainment, and power structures that is altogether comparable to that of P. ecumenicus, the well-known ecumenical prelate of the 1950s and 1960s.

Stereopticus futurividens. Sometimes called S. futurividens Lindsaeus; a self-assured, clairvoyant creature, usually well-off, capable of wresting the ball (crystal) from secular prognosticators and futurologists and casting it forcefully into the midst of post-and a-millennialists, often made up of members of the species.

Censor puritanicus redivivus (or legalisticus). A melancholy, hardworking, generally dour type convinced that it is possible and desirable to make every one do what’s good for him whether he likes it or not. C. puritanicus r. (or 1.) is often found in alliance with

Juvenipugnans basicus, an extremely well-disciplined expert in personal problems. Has a place for everyone and puts everyone in his place. Noted for the use of overhead projectors and for long lists (points, characteristics, techniques, problems, etc.). Both C. puritanicus l. and J. basicus are often found in conflict with the very numerous

Christianus pietisticus passivus, characterized by a very clear (and pessimistic) understanding of present conditions. Always takes comfort in the conviction that if only we sit by and do nothing, things will get even worse.

Merely identifying representatives of the above species will not, of course, solve the problem they pose, but it will doubtless give the reader a certain satisfaction in an otherwise ungratifying era.

For Unity

Your two articles on the charismatic phenomenon in the Feb. 28 issue are timely and balanced. Inherent in both is the need for sound pastoral care. The Holy Spirit is creating unity among believers on a vastly different level than any of us has ever experienced, and no one can ignore the fact that there is no place in Christ’s body for superiority complexes and sensation-seekers. When they are confronted they need to be dealt with, and pastors are responsible for such a ministry. On the other hand, we cannot judge the whole charismatic movement by the inconsistencies of some.

Christian Assembly

Amherst, Va.

For six years I have pastored a charismatic fellowship.… I say praise God for J. Grant Swank, Jr., and “A Plea to Some Who Speak in Tongues.” This … needs to be used by all pastors and leaders in charismatic circles to help the laity grow in grace.

Adrian, Mich.

The Rev. BOB ULRICH

I could not agree more with the editorial note that “tongues without love make the believer a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” However, don’t you believe your bias is showing? To print an article judging a group of people numbering in the thousands—even millions—by a writer who has based his conclusions on the basis of meeting “about a dozen” of the group seems to be very poor logic. This hasty generalization is the same old fallacy of logic that if one Texan is a wealthy oilman, then all Texans are wealthy oilmen. I am disappointed that Swank has allowed his prejudice to cloud his good thinking process, and I am disappointed as well that such an highly esteemed magazine as CHRISTIANITY TODAY would print it.

University Assembly of God Church

Waxahachie, Tex.

The most elementary application of behavioral research methodology would indicate that [Swank’s] sample is insufficient to infer findings to a larger group. Theologians too often write an excellent paper only to have it lessen in impact or rendered meaningless when they try to apply their position to observed behavior. As a behavioral scientist … I call for a joint effort that will bring theologians and behavioral scientists together to study doctrinal positions and subsequent life-styles.

Dean

North Central Bible College

Minneapolis, Minn.

Reading the sarcastic undertones of his article, I have doubts whether Swank is as open and generous as he would want the reader to believe. Although some of his remarks merit honest consideration, the article in general comes over as a big “put-down.” I hope he has read the article by J. Rodman Williams (Feb. 28) for a broader approach to the entire subject of the charismatic renewal. My experience with “those who speak in tongues” and who are involved in the movement of the Holy Spirit today is pleasing and encouraging.… For every abuse by tongue-speakers that Swank has experienced, we give testimony to the positive use and living of the Spirit-filled life.

Woodinville United Methodist Church

Woodinville, Wash.

It appears that the magazine in an attempt to not be partial is always presenting the same material, from both sides of the issue, repeatedly. The arguments from both sides are stereotyped; the pros say charismatics are very orthodox and those opposed say the charismatics are divisive. I would like to call upon CHRISTIANITY TODAY to publish new and creative material about the charismatic movement from both sides of the issue.

West County Assembly of God

Chesterfield, Mo.

What’S Ahead?

Carol McFadden missed the whole point of The Total Woman in her review (“Significant Books of 1974: Ethics and Discipline,” March 14). Being creative and making your marriage fun, exciting, and interesting is not “bowing before the great god sex.” She did not even mention the other subjects covered in the book: increased time efficiency, communication, accepting your husband, improving your relationship with your husband and your children. Putting others ahead of one’s self is definitely a biblical principle. Bringing sunshine into the lives of those around you gives great joy and contentment.

Savannah Christian School

Savannah, Ga.

Falling Prey

It is with much concern that I read in the pages of CHRISTIANITY TODAY the advocating of military intervention to protect the Church and thereby promote the Gospel! Such is the implicit (if not explicit!) message in “Candles in Cambodia: Will They Go Out?” (March 14).

However sad it is to consider that the Cambodian churches may be faced with persecution, it is infinitely more saddening to hear Christians thereby justifying the promotion of warfare in hopes of defending and perpetuating the Gospel.

The Rev. FREDERIC MILLER

Bluffton, Ohio

• Mr. Miller has misread us. The story was neither an explicit nor implicit call to arms, but rather a call to prayer.—ED.

Exorcising The Enemy

“When people talk to you about ‘The Exorcist’ talk to them about ‘The Enemy.’ ” So reads the descriptive blurb of Ken Anderson’s new seventy-minute, color film portraying demon possession and biblical exorcism.

The Enemy is based on the true story of what Tim and Betsy, a young couple, encounter as youth sponsors in an evangelical church. Among the teenagers they work with, Bob and Jack seem like quite ordinary brothers except that they come from a broken home where the mother has numerous boyfriends and the stepfather punctuates his orders with gun-threats. Bob and Jack talk about spirit “guardians” and always leave youth meetings when it comes time for Bible study.

At an interchurch couples’ retreat, Tim and Betsy participate in a discussion on the church’s attitude toward the occult. After Betsy mentions the brothers’ rumored experimentation with blood sacrifices, an older couple warn that the situation has the earmarks of occultism.

Tim remains skeptical until confronted with a startling demonstration of demon possession in one of the brothers. After haltingly exorcising the demons, Tim and Betsy spend long hours studying Scripture passages related to demonism. They are better prepared for a second battle with satanic forces in the other brother. Both brothers are released from the power of the occult and become Christians, although, as the epilogue states, they will still wrestle with the behavioral problems stemming from their background.

“We want Christians to realize that Satan is real,” says film-director Jim Grant, and “demons … are at work in the world today.” Grant and producer Heinz Fussle took special pains to avoid sensationalism, though to a degree any film on the supernatural will be sensational, if it is to be realistic.

The film has some rather obvious suspense-heightening techniques: much of the action is staged at night in dimly lit surroundings, eerie music is heard at appropriate points, and there is a timed countdown with life or death at the zero hour. The sound quality varies disconcertingly, sometimes fading to an inaudible whisper, at other times crackling with static.

The guide to the film warns that it is not recommended for children under thirteen, but in fact biblical teaching should precede the showing of this film to any age group. After the viewing, an experienced Christian should be prepared to answer questions that will inevitably arise.

The Enemy accomplishes a two-fold purpose: it educates the Christian public to the reality of Satan and demonstrates the victorious power of Jesus Christ. The film can be rented for $42 from Ken Anderson Films, P.O. Box 618, Winona Lake, Indiana 46590.

CAROL PRESTER MCFADDEN¹Carol Prester McFadden is a consultant to the Christian College Consortium, Washington, D. C.

Swimming And Sportsmanship

Big Splash combines action-packed swimming footage with an engaging plot in a thirty-minute color film (16mm) geared to ages eight through fifteen. Ted, a swimmer on the school team, works hard but somehow always loses to Scott, who teases him about being slow as a turtle. Ted’s Christian family and coach support him and encourage his swimming efforts. More importantly, they are concerned about his poor sportsmanship. Eventually, Ted gets his attitude straightened out and learns that being a Christian involves more than winning or losing. This film rents for $25 and is available from Ken Anderson Films, P.O. Box 618, Winona Lake, Indiana 46590.

C. P. McF.

In the October 25, 1974, issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY we published an interview with President J. A. O. Preus of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Some Lutherans asked for a presentation of the other side of the dispute, and in this issue we publish what is, in effect, a rejoinder by John Tietjen, the former president of Concordia Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. And, as a church historian and a long-time observer of the Missouri Synod scene, I here add my own evaluation.

Two major denominations in the United States that escaped the effects of the modernist-fundamentalist controversy earlier in the twentieth century were the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Southern Baptist Convention. Now both are embroiled in a struggle similar to that which took place in the other denominations decades ago. The Missouri Synod battle is reaching a climax sooner; the Southern Baptists are some years behind.

In all the denominations the outcome of the struggle between the modernists and the fundamentalists was the same: the fundamentalists lost; the “broadening church” concept prevailed. These denominations, including those now known as the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the American Baptist Churches, the Lutheran Church of America, the Episcopal Church, and the United Presbyterian Church, became inclusivist bodies with theologically mixed constituencies that hold and proclaim varying and even conflicting views. Today the mainstream denominations include people whose theological views range from fundamentalism on the right to sheer humanism on the left. The breadth of the theological spectrum and the distribution within it vary considerably from one denomination to another.

In the Missouri Synod today, the familiar battle is being restaged, although the theological diversity is not as pronounced as it was among the Methodists, Congregationalists, and Northern Baptists.

Dr. Tietjen says in his article in this issue that “the authority of the Bible is not at issue in the Missouri Synod” and that “the issue of biblical authority has been manufactured and manipulated in the interest of power politics.” It is true that whenever theological issues come to the fore, personalities clash, and there is a battle for control of the ecclesiastical machinery. This happened in Luther’s time also. Today the “conservatives” are in control of the Missouri Synod; the “moderates” are on the outside looking in, and they want to oust the “conservatives.” What basic issues divide the two camps?

I remember reading Missouri Lutheran theologian Theodore Engelder’s book Scripture Cannot Be Broken back in 1946. He presented the case for full biblical inerrancy. I also recollect the action of the Centennial Convention of the Missouri Synod in 1947. At that time it reaffirmed the Brief Statement adopted by the Synod in 1932, which said in part:

We teach also that the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures … is taught by direct statements of the Scriptures.… Since the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God, it goes without saying that they contain no errors or contradictions, but that they are in all their parts and words the infallible truth, also in those parts which treat of historical, geographical, and other secular matters, John 10:35.

From its beginnings the Missouri Synod had stood resolutely for an inerrant Scripture. Preus and those who stand with him think that this is the crucial issue. The faculty of Concordia Seminary in Springfield, Illinois, also consider this the crucial question, especially in regard to that seminary’s more prestigious sister seminary, Concordia in St. Louis. Moreover, some members of the St. Louis seminary faculty also thought that biblical inerrancy was the key question. But Tietjen and others maintain that “interpreting the Bible is an issue,” not biblical inerrancy. The relation between interpretation and inerrancy is such that certain interpretations can in effect deny inerrancy.

If the real problem is simply a matter of differences of interpretation, it would have been simple for the moderates to go on record in support of the 1932 platform and the belief that the Bible does not err in any of its parts, including “those … which treat of historical, geographical, and other secular matters.” This they have not done and are extremely unlikely to do. A number of their adherents are on record as espousing views that contradict the 1932 statement. Martin Marty, for instance, who is a Missouri Synod minister, forthrightly espouses a theological position that is miles apart from the 1932 statement. The Missouri Synod problem did not come into being when Preus became president in 1969. It existed long before that. Oliver Harms, the former president, was well aware of it, as was the former president of Concordia Seminary at St. Louis, who bent protocol by getting Tietjen elected as his successor before his own term of office expired and before Preus assumed his presidency.

Another question is, Does interpretation become theologically important so that one’s interpretation can be a denial of biblical inerrancy? The answer, obviously, is yes. In the November, 1972, issue of the Concordia Theological Monthly, an article by Paul G. Bretscher entitled “The Log in Your Own Eye” said in part:

Suppose, for example, that in the earnest search to understand what God is really saying to us in the account of the Creation and Fall, a student recaptures the mind of the original writer and in the process is persuaded that the creation accounts in their original intent belong to a category called “wisdom literature” and were never designed to be a flat “history of origins.” The log [the “formal principle” that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God] will suffer great pain, of course, and is bound to cry out in terror and anger. But the Bible has not been despised, or its authority compromised [p. 682].

However Bretscher defines “authority,” it is obvious that if this interpretation of Genesis is true, other parts of the Bible are false and contradict it and therefore inerrancy is not possible. Not only in Genesis does Scripture teach that Adam was a historical person, the first man, and progenitor of the human race. The genealogical tables in First Chronicles 1 and Luke 3 specifically identify Adam as a historical personage and the father of the human race. Luke and the author of First Chronicles obviously believed this. If Genesis is figurative, then these other inspired writers are wrong. Biblical inerrancy cannot then be sustained. But if Luke and the writer of First Chronicles are right, then the hypothetical interpretation of Bretscher is ruled out.

Moses gives us the names of Adam’s sons and his age at death. Similarly, in the New Testament Paul witnesses to the historicity of Adam. The statement in Romans 5:14 that “death reigned from Adam to Moses” makes no sense unless Paul believed in a literal Adam from whose transgression death comes. If there was no literal Adam and the Genesis account is “wisdom literature,” then Paul gives us a statement that is false.

I cannot but conclude that the interpretation of Scripture in many instances is dynamically related to the doctrine of biblical inerrancy so that they cannot be kept apart. And I disagree with Tietjen: I think that the Missouri controversy is a dispute between “Bible believers” and “Bible doubters.” It seems inescapable to me that the question of biblical inerrancy lies at its heart. Other denominations resolved the problem by deciding that inerrancy was untenable; people were free to accept or reject statements in Scripture as they saw fit. Up to now the result of this has been that sooner or later such denominations permit persons to remain in good standing while denying cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith.

We now have before us the case of the Missouri Synod. Which way will it go? Will it continue to uphold its traditional commitment to an inerrant Scripture, or will it become a “broadening church” like others before it? Only time will tell.