The summer season brings a slight variation in our issue dates. Publishing twenty-five issues a year leaves us two two extra weeks to use for staff vacations. The next issue will be dated three weeks from this one, August 10, and the following one three weeks later, August 31. After that we will resume the normal two-week cycle.

Our staff meets every morning to read the Bible, sing, and pray. Recently there have been a number of special requests for prayer for loved ones in our staff families and among our contributors and friends who have been seriously ill. We have seen God answer prayer in a special way, and we have rejoiced in his goodness.

The many friends and admirers of our beloved editor-at-large Addison H. Leitch will want to remember him in prayer; he is seriously ill with cancer.

Our co-founder and executive editor L. Nelson Bell just finished his term of service as moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. He too needs prayer, for he is suffering from several infirmities that give him considerable pain.

At a recent meeting of the CHRISTIANITY TODAY Board of Directors we were able to report that God is blessing and that great progress has been made in the last two years. Our Canon Press is getting geared up for production, and we have great expectations for it.

Of the changes that in our decade mark the world into which God sends his eternal Gospel, three appear particularly vital to me.

First, the most important development is that all nations and continents really are growing together into one world, what Marshall McLuhan has called the “global village.” This is the product of technological, economic, political, and ideological factors. The fast communication offered by jet planes and by television and the delicate economic and ideological interrelation among all continents have developed a global consciousness. This growing together has nourished two emphases: emancipation and reintegration.

a. On the one hand, the ideals of enlightenment, freedom, equality, and brotherhood have made our generation very sensitive to all attempts to control and exploit other people. Afro-Asian nationalism has swept away Western colonialism. Through the world wars and the Viet Nam war, Western prestige has suffered heavy blows. In some countries there is an unconcealed hatred against America, which also switches over to anti-Christian feelings. Afro-Asian nationalism also expresses itself in the resurgence of ancient non-Christian religions or their transformation into syncretistic new religions with strong ideological undercurrents.

Within Christianity this nationalistic reaction is shown in the younger churches’ quest for autonomy and self-realization. Often this makes the situation of Western missionaries delicate.

b. On the other hand, former independence more and more gives way to interdependence or even huge mergers into centralized systems. More and more tasks are tackled in world-wide dimensions and structures. This also applies to churches and missions, many of which not only have been joined to ecumenical bodies but also transfer more and more brain power to these organizations in order to receive central direction.

A second major development in our time is that a new dimension has reached our consciousness: the futurological. People have become tremendously alive to the great possibilities that the future holds. The old dreams about a paradise on earth seem to be achievable by our technological means. But equally obvious is the opposite possibility: that this very technology, might spoil our earth and hasten the end of mankind.

This ambiguous vision has inspired scientists, politicians, philosophers, and theologians to present comprehensive, future-oriented schemes. They propose how mankind through united efforts and a common vision will be able to cope with these enormous tasks and avert the menace of a collective, self-destruction.

Sometimes these proposals constitute new ideologically motivated claims of ruling the world. But sometimes leading men earnestly press for dialogue and cooperation. They hope to find a world formula acceptable to all that will open up the way to a new humanity, united in justice, peace, and constant development toward greater happiness. These contacts are based upon mutual respect for one another’s ways of thinking. Usually this also leads to the demand to refrain from attempting to convert others to one’s own views. The new ideal is dialogue and mutual spiritual participation. This view evidences itself in the formation of new worldwide inter-faith organizations like the Conference of Religion for Peace, which now has a bureau at the United Nations headquarters.

A third important development in our world is man-oriented tendency. Man’s welfare, liberation, dignity, and rights are the central concerns. There is a strong trend of emancipation in this: all laws and social conventions that seem to limit equality and self-realization by means of an external norm and alien will are swept away. Two worldwide waves, the anti-authoritarian and the sexualist ones, must be seen against this background.

Even the great religions, including Christianity, more and more present themselves as basically concerned with pleading the case of man. They promise him liberation and true identity. This new interest in man also serves as the motive for an integration of all religions and even ideologies.

If we try to interpret this anthropocentric trend biblically, we reach a dialectical answer that leaves us rather uneasy. We may rejoice over man’s growing sensibility toward the needs of his underprivileged fellow man, especially if this involves readiness to repent and to sacrifice. Many churches and missions do, indeed, witness a growing readiness especially within the young generation to work to foster development, communication, and liberation.

But on the other hand this humanitarian motivation often emerges in connection with a strange shutting out of the religious awareness, i.e., respect and love for God. It is true that we witness a strong resurgence of religiosity, a new interest in mysticism and rituals. (This could be added to my list here as a fourth feature of our time.) But this religiosity does not really break the spell of man’s self-centeredness; rather, it promises him a deeper self-realization. Zen meditation and group dynamic experiences are the two typical forms of expressions, but even some aspects of the so-called charismatic renewal could be mentioned in this connection. In all these cases man misses his transcendental counterpart. Therefore he misses his protecting limitations and his true destination. And so he becomes subject to his untamed instincts, desires, and fears. Humanity without divinity turns into bestiality.

There is also an eschatological notion of a final emergence of an uncontrolled human self-centeredness that loses its God-given norms. It finally aims at dethroning God and enthroning as deified world ruler that person whom St. Paul calls the lawless one (2 Thess. 2:8). This must be connected with Christ’s description of the last time, which will be marked by the great apostasy: “And because lawlessness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold” (Matt. 24:12).

But now it is most essential to note that Jesus, just after he has said this, goes on to refer to the task of world mission, which must and which will progress until his coming again: “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14).

As long as we are not forcibly prevented, our mission has to proceed until the last human being still unreached by the good news will have the chance to meet his true Lord and Saviour.

‘Black Preacher Day’

The black preacher received his due when several hundred persons, both black and white, gathered at Boston’s Music Hall on a recent weekend to celebrate the officially proclaimed “Black Preacher Day,” perhaps the first such commemoration of the black ministry.

Sponsored by the National Center of Afro-American Artists, the celebration featured dinner in the kitchens of numerous black churches across the city, tours of black churches, conversations with black pastors, and dramas depicting the history of famous black ministers. There were bands, gospel choirs, dances, stage productions, and even a fashion show. All events in some way depicted the theme or life-styles of the black clergy.

The whole affair was an amalgam of conservative and liberal clergy life-styles, and praise was given to both the black revivalists and social activists. Special attention was called to the lives of Black Muslim Elijah Muhammad, civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., self-help capitalist Leon Sullivan, politician Adam Clayton Powell, and even revolutionary Nat Turner—all ministers in their day.

Perhaps because historically the black church was, in the words of organizers, “the source of much laughter and gaiety, a training ground for actors, singers, orators and artists,” it was the new breed of black actors and artists who decided to sponsor the event, not a church organization. That made the event all the more significant. And no one seemed to complain about the prices, ranging from $12.50 to $50 as admission to one or all events.

JAMES S. TINNEY

Key 73: Going And Growing

Despite severe financial problems on the national level, Key 73 is alive and well and growing in hundreds of communities. In fact, said national director Ted Raedeke, the lack of money may have been a blessing in disguise, forcing local congregations to work out their own programs. “I think many of [the congregations] were sitting back waiting to see what we’d do for them,” said Raedeke. “They soon found we couldn’t do much.”

With responsibility for the success of the year-long effort resting with local churches—a goal Raedeke sought from the beginning—the program is as varied as the number of participants. Among events scheduled during the summer and fall months are: home Bible studies and prayer meetings, evangelistic blitzes, community-wide crusades, local television and film efforts, Scripture distribution campaigns, fairground booths, marches for Christ, concert programs, telephone surveys, and Christian art festivals. In addition, youth rallies are scheduled for thirty-two cities including Philadelphia (July 1–7); Morgantown, Pennsylvania, where Jesus 73 is expected to attract 10,000 or more (Aug. 9–11); Detroit (Aug. 5–11); Kansas City (July 27–29); Eugene, Oregon (July 28); and Houston, where planners of a joint Lutheran youth gathering expect 18,000 (Aug. 4–8). Typical of many rallies already held was a three-and-a-half hour one in the small town of Manassas, Virginia, featuring Washington Redskin’s football star Charlie Harraway and a returned POW, Sergeant David Harker. It drew more than 300 from six denominations.

Scripture distribution and religion surveys are proving the most popular local projects. In Danbury, Connecticut, more than 15,000 Scriptures were distributed by seven churches, including Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Assembly of God, Baptist, Christian, Nazarene, and AME Zion. Roman Catholic churches in Missouri (a third of the nation’s Catholic dioceses are participating in Key 73) conducted surveys. In Zelienople, Pennsylvania, a group of churches polled their community by telephone to find out why residents weren’t attending church. Nearly 100,000 Scripture portions were distributed in Nashville, Tennessee.

Most Scripture-distribution materials come from the American Bible Society. To date, the society reports that 27.9 million Scripture portions have been distributed under the Key 73 banner. The number includes more than ten million copies of a booklet containing Luke and Acts. (The ten-millionth copy was presented to New York governor Nelson Rockefeller.) More than 1.5 million New Testaments were distributed also.

Raedeke, while acknowledging disappointment that the national office couldn’t use mass media to give Key 73 “high visibility,” is nonetheless pleased at the variations on local themes. Many churches are setting up Key 73 booths at state and county fairs. At the Florida state fair, 200 teens hired for grounds-cleaning and tickettaking wore sweat shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Christ is the Key.” At a New England Key 73 strategy seminar, one pastor told of his church’s unique Key 73 ministry—a booth at the city dump. As the pastor told it, church members noticed that the dump was extremely busy on Saturday mornings. Believing they should be where the people are, they opened a booth from which church young people dispensed hot chocolate and Key 73 tracts.

In New Orleans, every Christian denomination was represented in a march for Christ through the downtown area. More than 5,000 marched, with 1,500 gathering at St. Louis Catholic Cathedral for a Key 73 service. As participants left the cathedral, they sang Jesus songs. Organizers say 172 city churches were represented. In the meantime, the Women’s Great Commission Prayer Crusade (headed by Campus Crusade’s first lady, Vonette Bright) held two dozen well attended prayer rallies in the first six months of 1973.

And, as local churches get more involved, the national financial picture has brightened somewhat, said Raedeke. A special mailing has started to bring in money from churches and individuals. In the meantime, Key 73 financing is being helped by sales of the organization’s Congregational Resource Book (150,000 of the $3 books have been sold; Raedeke hopes sales will reach 200,000.)

BARRIE DOYLE

Katie Hanley: Under God’S Spell

In the off-Broadway production of the hit musical Godspell, singer Katie Hanley prayed three things: “To see Christ more clearly, love him more dearly, follow him more nearly day by day.” In the film version—a much more serious production, according to Miss Hanley and this critic—her song-prayer has deepened from the simple “Day by Day” to the richer meaning of “By My Side.” As she told Associated Press religion writer George W. Cornell in a recent interview, the film “all at once is not just a silly, light show, but starts to sum up the basic message of Jesus and the sacrifices he made for us. Singing of him, we want to follow him.”

The change in songs reflects a deeper change within the singer’s spiritual life, she told CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Coming out of the San Francisco hippie scene, she became a Christian three years ago through the witness of her sister, Marsha Hoover, now a senior at the University of Utah and active in Campus Crusade for Christ. But, says Miss Hanley, “I had no real power of the Holy Spirit to take advantage of the witnessing opportunities that singing ‘Day by Day’ [probably the most popular song in the musical] gave me.”

Seven months ago, however, she received “the baptism of the Holy Spirit,” which she associates with speaking in tongues. “I received it in child-like innocence,” she recalls, “not really knowing exactly what it was.” Since then, she explains, Christ’s love and power are more evident in her life. “I now realize that Jesus really was God; that prayer, the Bible, and miracles are real. It’s a real thing to me. It’s a matter of growth in faith and knowing Jesus.”

Her professional life, too, has shifted emphasis. She signed a contract with Logos International Publishing Company of Plainfield, New Jersey, and plans to do an album for them. No projection date or final plans have been made, but she says it will probably be a mix of secular and sacred songs, an update of some old hymns, all “sweet, beautiful melodies.”

“God used Stephen Schwartz, a non-Christian, to write some simple, beautiful melodies for Godspell,” says Miss Hanley, and it’s there that she finds the show’s power. “God can use Godspell to bring people to him.” A great many Catholics came to see the musical, she says, and “those people got so excited about the joy of following Jesus.” “Some people have never considered that following him could lead to a joy-filled life,” she adds.

Her first major appearance for her Lord came last summer at Explo 72, which her sister had told her about a month earlier. She got in touch with Crusade, sent a tape of “Day by Day,” and about a week later was scheduled on the program and booked on a flight to Dallas. The enthusiasm of Explo “bowled me over a little, but I was so glad to know there were so many young Christians around.” Her lack of Christian friends in New York made it difficult at times to maintain her friendship with Jesus, she says. “Explo had a little bit of the football atmosphere about it, but when Bill Bright said ‘Let’s pray,’ the Cotton Bowl became filled with quiet, worshipful reverence,” she recalls, and that impressed her.

The singer gets some negative criticism from fundamentalists who consider Godspell blasphemous. “I try to explain to them what the show means with its symbolism and child-like innocence,” she says. But, she adds, a cast’s attitude can at times make Godspell blasphemous. The original casts didn’t do this, she thinks, but the various productions around the country often make the show a religious “Laugh-In.”

Now that she has become a charismatic and is attending the First Christian Assembly Church in Plainfield, she’s “waiting for God to strengthen and lead me. I’m just waiting. I’m out of the world now, and here in Plainfield God is taking the world out of me.”

CHERYL FORBES

Hot And Humorous

“Ridiculous!” That was the reply—amid laughter—by Hebrew-Christian evangelist Louis Kaplan, 57, of Phoenix, Arizona, to a Jewish Post report that JULY 6, 1973 he and his wife Chira have been sending $6,000 a month to Israel for the “Jews for Jesus” movement. Kaplan said their involvement has been through his Jewish Voice Broadcast (JVB), which is aired on fifty stations internationally and last year sent sixteen young people to Jerusalem to open up an evangelical youth center. The Post charge was contained in an article reflecting on the hot Jewish-Christian evangelism controversy in Israel (see March 30 issue, page 38).

The evangelist claimed that the activities of his group have been grossly exaggerated because of the desire of radical religious elements, led by Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League, to gain a voice in the next Israeli election.

The young missionaries, all but two now back in the States, were financed by JVB’s contributors at $50 per month each plus room and board. (Kaplan emphasizes that his group is not to be confused with what he calls the “false Children of God sect” in Israel.) Despite threats and beatings from radical Orthodox Jews, alleged Kaplan, the group distributed thousands of Bibles and tracts and persuaded forty persons in Jerusalem to become followers of Jesus.

A few months ago, the group received a note threatening that the JVB youth center would be burnt down if the evangelists refused to leave. “In sympathy with the frightened Jewish landlord, we left and moved to another location,” explained Kaplan, who has visited Israel six times (once to appear before the Ministry for Religious Affairs to clarify JVB’s intentions).

“I want to emphasize that our ministry has never been hindered by the Israeli government,” said Kaplan. What about rumors floating in Jewish circles that Egypt is supporting JVB? “Nonsense,” he chuckled, pointing to the incongruity of funding by Muslims.

CINDY SCHAIBLE

Religion In Transit

Reaction was mixed to a $10,000 campaign by the American Board of Missions to the Jews to place “smiling Jews for Jesus” ads in thirty campus papers. Some refused to run it, Stanford accompanied it with a written apology to any offended by it, and at one Southern California college 7,000 of the 8,000 copies of the school’s newspaper were stolen.

With the recent death of a ninety-six-year-old “eldress,” the ranks of the Shakers—America’s best-known communal religious group—were reduced to thirteen, all women, in two communes. Organized in 1787, the group at its peak had 2,400 members in fifty-eight communes. The sect considers its first leader, Ann Lee, to be the female counterpart of Jesus Christ.

An organization to promote world evangelism through missionary efforts of Third World churches was launched in a meeting attended by sixty-five at Fuller Seminary School of World Mission. Afericasia (for Africa, Latin America, and Asia) Mission Advance Fellowship, led by Third World evangelicals, will organize a communication network, set up training and research centers, and offer other support.

Jewish scholars will contribute to “Shalom Curriculum,” a joint Christian-education project of six major Protestant denominations (Disciples of Christ, Episcopal Church, Southern Presbyterians, Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, and United Presbyterians).

A woman, Mrs. J. J. Chesney, was elected vice-president of Canada’s most influential synagogue, Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. The post is regarded as the prelude to the congregation’s highest office, and the prospect of a female president in a key synagogue is creating a stir in Toronto Jewish circles. It would be the first time that a woman ever occupied that position in a Canadian synagogue.

CONTACT Teleministries, a coordinating and accrediting body, says it now has fifty affiliated crisis hot-line centers operating around the clock and responding to nearly 500,000 calls for help a year.

The Slavic Gospel Association and the David C. Cook Foundation have jointly produced a new youth program utilizing tape recordings that tell the story of Christian young people behind the Iron Curtain.

There is unprecedented openness and response to evangelical literature in Canada. That was the consensus at the second annual Canadian regional meeting of the Christian Booksellers Association, attended by 200 dealers and publishers’ representatives at Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The 30,000-member Evangelical Congregational Church in a special session elected H. D. Wittmaier as bishop to succeed Paul K. Cressman, who died last December.

The current principal of Spurgeon’s College, London, G. R. Beasley-Murray, an evangelical, will move to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, as professor of New Testament.

A Gallup Poll shows that 74 per cent of the British public believe in God and 18 per cent believe in the devil—a 3 per cent decline in each case from 1968 figures.

Legislation to end public display of pornography is coming soon for Britain. Prime Minister Edward Heath promised the tough stand in response to a million-plus signature petition presented as part of the evangelical Festival of Light campaign.

Official figures show that 126,777 legal abortions were performed in England and Wales last year—12 per cent of them on women from other countries, primarily West Germany.

More than 200 million Bibles and Scripture portions were distributed around the world last year, more than half of them in the United States, according to an American Bible Society report. Donations for getting out the literature (including 5.5 million Bibles and 14.2 million Testaments) came from 1.6 million individuals and seventy denominations and agencies.

Southern Baptists seem to have put their hand in the hand of the Man who stills the waters. At least there was barely a ripple at the 116th annual Southern Baptist Convention in Portland, Oregon, last month, the first time the largest Protestant denomination in North America migrated to the Pacific Northwest for its annual session.

The closest thing to turmoil was a brief clash over Women’s Lib, when Mrs. Richard Sappington, wife of a Houston pastor, disarmingly put down an attempt by the resolutions committee to water down her resolution defending scriptural precepts of the women’s place in society against the attacks of Liberationists. The attractive Texan affirmed that Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of the woman, and children are to be in subjection to their parents—in the Lord. Almost all the convention’s 8,800 “messengers”—90 per cent of whom were males—thundered a hearty “aye.”

The convention’s tranquility was noted by veterans who weathered storms of yesteryear when liberalism suspected of creeping into denominational Sunday-school material occupied major time and attention. This year there wasn’t a mumbling official word on the Broadman series. “It was one of the quietest conventions in the past ten years,” declared messenger Ed Pettis of Shreveport, Louisiana, who is also religion editor of the city’s evening paper. And Owen Cooper, 65, of Yazoo City, Mississippi, who was returned to a second year as SBC president by acclamation, concurred: “People want to get on with the main business,” he said. “Divisive issues don’t help this.”

Southern Baptists are getting it on. They took justifiable pride in layman Cooper’s glowing “State of the Convention” report. In the past year, membership increased 240,821 to break the 12 million barrier, a new high; 445,725 baptisms (conversions)—up 36,000 from 1971—set a new record, erasing the prior high of 429,063 in 1959; Sunday-school enrollment totaled 7,177,651, with an increase (36,198), first in seven years; and giving for all causes topped the billion-dollar mark for the first time, with mission work advancing $14 million to a total of $174,772,885. Messengers approved a record $35 million cooperative program budget for twenty-two SBC agencies, expressing confidence in the future growth and health of the denomination. Reports from the agencies and interviews with some of their executives tell the story behind the statistics.

Baker James Cauthen, head of the Foreign Mission Board with 2,507 missionaries in seventy-seven countries, pleaded for 800 new overseas workers immediately: “There is work to be done which cannot be done until reinforcements are available,” he said. “God has opened an unbelievable door in India and Bangladesh, land with more than 500 million people.” And he challenged the convention to be ready when “the door of China will open again … it will be one of the most colossal mission challenges before us.”

THE GREAT CAMP MEETINGS IN 1973

Parents and church leaders needn’t worry; it won’t be another Woodstock. True, there will be nationally known musicians and speakers, and a weekend camp-together of perhaps 10,000 or so, but Jesus is what it’s all about. The big happening is Jesus ’73 (mailing address: Paradise, Pennsylvania, 17562), a combination Explo-type celebration and teach-in to be held August 9–11 on a 250-acre farm at the intersection of routes 10 and 23 near Morgantown, Pennsylvania.

Among the musicians: Andrae Crouch and the Disciples, Danny Lee and the Children of Truth, Randy Matthews, Danny Taylor, Randy Stonehill, and Katie Hanley (see story, page 50). Speakers include ex-gang-leader-turned-evangelist Nicky Cruz, black evangelist Tom Skinner, Catholic lay evangelist Larry Tomczak, pastor-author Stuart Briscoe (Where Was the Church When the Youth Exploded?), innovative pastor John Gimenez, ex-Satanist Mike Warnke, Jew for Jesus Arthur Katz, disc jockey Scott Ross, and Hollywood Free Paper publisher Duane Pederson.

Pre-registrations are lagging a bit, but organizers (Lancaster County Jesus people and lay leaders) are confident they can meet their estimated expenses of $40,000. Any profits, they say, will go into drug rehabilitation and related ministries. The $15 registration fee (groups of ten or more get a 20 per cent discount) entitles one to stake out a camping spot (ample running water and sanitation facilities will be provided, plus food concessions at modest prices), take in all the sights and sounds, and be a part of what may be the biggest non-establishment Jesus event in East Coast history.

Meanwhile, on the Home Mission front, Executive Secretary Arthur B. Rutledge declared: “There is a new hunger, a new awareness.… The best days of evangelism are not in the past; they are in the future.” Rutledge announced the appointment of C. B. (Bill) Hogue, secretary of evangelism for the Oklahoma General Convention, as new National Evangelism head (replacing Ken Chafin) over a staff of nine. A career Home Missionary force of 2,200 is augmented this summer by 1,000 student summer missionaries. Joy, the first Home Missions musical, movingly performed in Portland’s Memorial Coliseum, is a snappy multi-media by-product of the church music revolution, and is sure to attract even more Southern Baptist youth to evangelism- and missions-oriented life work.

Indeed, the Education Commission already reported that for the first time in history all fifty-three Southern Baptist colleges and universities are fully accredited, with enrollments up more than 5,000 since 1971, and 16,438 students studying for various church-related vocations. The six SB seminaries registered almost 6,000 students last year—up 240.

Church officials interviewed during the three-day convention agreed that evangelism and missions—in that order—account for the SBC success story. Behind that, observed a veteran Latin American missionary who now views the Baptist boom from Stateside, “is emphasis on the Word of God as our base.” A lay program, Witness Involvement Now (WIN), with a counterpart abroad, has equipped laymen to communicate their faith winsomely, leaders point out. Because the program is church-oriented, the harvest is garnered into Southern Baptist barns. Almost everyone approached by this reporter appeared excited about future evangelism and mission thrusts; “this is only the beginning” was a comment heard often.

Some spokesmen gave credit to an enterprising bus ministry for swelling Southern Baptist church and Sunday-school attendance. According to bus evangelism director William Powell of the Home Mission Board, there has been a 2,000 per cent increase in SBC churches with a bus ministry since 1971. With 14,000 routes, 7,000 churches are able to drive home the Gospel to an estimated half million riders.

The stewardship scene generated one of the few debates of consequence in Portland. Duke McCall, Southern Baptist Seminary president at Louisville, attempted to abolish the denomination’s Stewardship Commission and turn its function over to the Convention’s Executive Committee. Messengers rejected the motion, as they did last year at Philadelphia, fearing too much power in the Executive Committee.

In defense of the Stewardship Commission, treasurer James V. Lackey pointed out that SBC total income jumped 22.6 per cent between 1968 and 1971, trailing behind only the Seventh-day Adventists and the Church of the Nazarene among larger church bodies, and far surpassing the comparatively dismal showing of the United Methodists (7.5 per cent), United Presbyterians (5.3 per cent), and American Baptists (4.6 per cent) during the same period.

Southern Baptists didn’t ignore social issues: a sweeping statement about the moral condition of the nation by the Christian Life Commission called on them to tackle racism, castigated “arrogant, immoral government,” and decried the “absurd stockpiling of weapons” and “tragic junkpiling” of welfare programs.

Portland was so placid June 12–14 that most secular press reporters found little to write about. But still waters sometimes run deep.

Can a big split be averted? That question turned out to be the key variable in the business of the 113th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S., held last month in Fort Worth, Texas. Conciliatory moves highlighted the six-day meeting.

“This is not a time for recrimination, but rather for repentance and restitution,” said the retiring moderator, Dr. L. Nelson Bell.

Some eighty congregations have already declared their independence from the denomination, which has had about 950,000 members in sixteen southern and border states. Their grievances stem from the inroads made by theological liberalism. Many other theological conservatives, while granting that the complaints are valid,¹Retiring moderator Bell said the most common complaint he has received in the mail in the past year is that presbytery commissions have prevented congregations from calling ministers of their own choosing. say they are determined to resist from within. They point to notable victories scored by theological conservatives at the Fort Worth assembly as evidence of what can be accomplished if loyalty to the denomination is maintained.

Several proposals that would have further alienated parting parties were defeated. One unsuccessful move urged trustees of the denomination’s picturesque conference grounds at Montreat, North Carolina, to cancel meetings of the Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship, a group helping to set up the rival denomination. The motion was voted down following an appeal from Bell, who said, “The only hope for reconciliation is to turn the other cheek.”

The 450 commissioners (as the assembly legislators are called) also turned back an effort by liberals to water down suggested priorities for 1975. The approved list sets out as the primary aim of the church “to commit ourselves more fully to the work of evangelism, believing that witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is basic to the life of His Church; thereby strengthening this commitment on all levels of the church’s life and ministry; and giving appropriate attention and support to those who serve Christ in international ministry in these critical and decisive times.”

Moreover, a new seven-member committee was established “to see where the major points of difference and resulting dissension are” and to bring to the church “a clear statement on the causes of this unhappiness and division, and make concrete recommendation aimed at their solution and the restoration of peace and harmony.” Bell had said in proposing the committee that “the most foolish thing the church can do is to ignore, without adequate study, the reasons given by those who are leaving the church.” He added that he felt “there has never been a real attempt to sit down and dispassionately discuss the differences which have now become magnified to the point of actual division.”

Bell’s successor as moderator, President Charles E. S. Kraemer of the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Virginia, said he disagreed. He paid public tribute to Bell, eliciting sustained applause from the assembly in praising his predecessor for loyalty to the church amid great pressures. But he said he felt the issues had been confronted, and he cast doubt on the potential of the new committee, for which he was assigned to name a chairman. He urged that problems related to dissidents be handled locally. Kraemer said he “cares deeply about losing people” but contended that the breakaway congregations tend to hold to the principle of local church autonomy more than Presbyterian churches do in general.

Bill Lamkin, the able journalistic technician who runs the denomination’s news service, has won considerable respect from reporters for his accurate and thorough coverage of developments among dissidents. He is also understood to have been subjected to some internal criticism for allegedly giving too much play to the separating groups. He regards the event as newsworthy, however, and during one briefing for reporters he gave the floor to Dr. G. Aiken Taylor, editor of the Presbyterian Journal and a leader of the Continuing Presbyterian Church now being formed. Interestingly, paid advertisements from the denomination Taylor now opposes are still running in the Journal.

Conservatives succeeded in defeating an effort to delete the escape clause from a plan of union now being drafted with United Presbyterians (the two denominations will hold concurrent General Assemblies in Louisville next year, but the merger negotiations are not likely to have early success).

Perhaps the most important conciliatory measure was the assembly’s adoption of a resolution acknowledging that “there is deep concern about the denomination’s purported departure from its own historic faith and evangelistic commitment” and calling for “special prayer and a time of self-examination and repentance for sin in the life of us all which has brought about this misunderstanding among brethren.” The resolution also calls the church “to a continuing affirmation, at all levels, of the Church’s historic position and principles, as to the authority of Scripture, the validity of our confessional standards, the urgent need for proclaiming the Gospel and calling men everywhere to saving faith in Jesus Christ, and enlisting them in vital discipleship in today’s world.”

Most other issues were dealt with hurriedly and without much passion, enabling the assembly to close a day ahead of schedule. The one social matter that provoked sharp debate was a statement urging Congress to cut off military funds for Southeast Asia. The statement was deleted by a vote of 221 to 164. The issue had more than passing interest for the Fort Worth area, inasmuch as local officials have been appealing a recent Pentagon decision to halt production of the F111 fighter-bomber next year. The plane is assembled at the General Dynamics plant in Fort Worth, and its demise reportedly affects some 8,000 workers directly and between 50,000 and 80,000 residents indirectly.

The most inspiring event of the assembly was a brief address by Billy Graham, who had just returned from a phenomenal evangelistic series in Korea. To hear about the amazing Christian growth in Korea from Graham and from a Presbyterian fraternal delegate meant much to the commissioners, for the country has primarily been a Presbyterian mission field. Graham said the vitality of the Korean Christian church can be attributed to its emphasis upon Bible study, prayer, evangelism, and missions, to its endurance of persecution in a cheerful way, and to its character as a praising church.

Some commissioners had demanded that Graham be subjected to questioning by commissioners following his address and that he be asked to urge President Nixon to give a fuller explanation of the Watergate affair. The assembly voted down both measures. A previously approved plan to employ a denominational lobbyist in Washington was reaffirmed. An ambivalent statement on abortion was unveiled by a special committee and approved for distribution without official endorsement.

The commissioners defeated an effort by conservatives to include the Ten Commandments in a proposed new confession of faith.

The New Stated Clerk

The Reverend James E. Andrews, 44, succeeds his old boss as stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. Since January of 1971 Andrews has been assistant to Dr. James A. Millard, Jr. When Millard decided to retire after fourteen years in the job, Andrews was nominated to replace him. The General Assembly in June confirmed his election to a three-year term.

Andrews, a native of Texas, graduated from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and Austin Seminary. He financed his education by driving a bread truck and an ambulance. For two years he worked as a reporter for a newspaper in Arkansas. From 1958 to 1960 he was director of information for the World Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in Geneva. He then took a similar post at Princeton Seminary. Andrews has also had some experience as an assistant pastor.

The most obvious tasks awaiting Andrews have to do with carrying out a massive denominational restructure now in process and dealing with the problems raised by breakaway dissidents.

Change In Cairo

The National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice plans to purchase the Saint Columba Catholic Church in Cairo, Illinois, and present it to the black United Front organization, which is led by black Protestant minister Charles Koen, a controversial civil-rights activist. Koen’s group has been using the Catholic-owned buildings for some time ever since his original church quarters in the racially battle-scarred city were bombed several years ago.

The NCCIJ says it will donate the properties to the group as a symbol of its support of black self-determination, or the idea that black people should own and control their own communities. Koen says the properties will be a worship and housing-education-employment center.

JAMES S. TINNEY

Like Father, Like Son

Jaroy Weber, pastor of Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama, was elected president last month, and his son Billy, pastor of Northway Baptist Church in Dallas, was named vice-president, in the first father-son combination to head the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference.

Ex-Aide To Ex-Christian

Three years ago Dr. Michael Ramsey, archbishop of Canterbury, fired his press officer, Michael de-la-Noy, ostensibly for speaking and writing sympathetically about the permissive society. A year later the 37-year-old journalist published A Day in the Life of God, a waspish attack on the Church of England. The ex-aide has now become an ex-Christian. “I do not pretend to have discovered the secret of the universe,” he declares. “I only know that for me it is no longer ‘God,’ for the Church has failed to make the concept of God intellectually credible.” He admits a continuing resentment at his dismissal, and says he will never set foot in a church again. Recently de-la-Noy has been associated with an organization in London concerned with mental health.

J. D. DOUGLAS

God Plus Decency

With red, white, and blue patriotism, between “Standing on the Promises” and “My Country ’Tis of Thee,” the teenage-oriented Word of Life Fellowship recently held two “God, Country, and Decency” rallies. Led by 60-year-old Jack Wyrtzen, Fellowship founder and international director, the Ocean Grove, New Jersey, and Washington, D. C., programs featured testimonies from returned POWs; Lieutenant General William K. Harrison, who signed the Korean peace treaty; and Brigadier General Paul Watson, retired fighter commander.

RAZED IN AFGHANISTAN

The only Protestant church in Afghanistan was torn down by Afghan authorities last month after a protracted dispute with the congregation that earlier had resulted in the ouster of the American pastor, J. Christy Wilson. The congregation was evicted in mid-June when the government completely took over the $320,000 three-year-old building in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital (see March 30 issue, page 51). Demolition started almost immediately.

A U. S. State Department official said the congregation is continuing to meet in a Catholic church and stressed that the Afghanistan government recognizes the right of the group to meet and worship. However, the government claimed the Kabul church was owned illegally. Under Afghan law, foreigners are not allowed to own property, said the State Department spokesman. Sources close to the scene, however, felt the “A”-shaped roof—considered offensive by the mostly Muslim Afghans—was the root cause of the dispute. The Afghan government originally approved the land purchase and construction of the church. Apparently officials objected to the fact that the structure looked like a church, however, and bowed to Muslim pressure to remove it.

The church board, in recognizing the government’s right to take over the church, asked for compensation. As yet there has been no reply.

The rallies followed evangelistic crusade style (averaging three hours) with Wyrtzen challenging audience Christians to ask surrounding people to go forward with them for the closing invitation. Despite rainy weather, the Ocean Grove rally drew 4,000 people with 150 decisions for Christ. That response and the Watergate scandal led the Fellowship staff to hold a Washington rally. The results were less lively with 800 people attending and eleven decisions, though one woman, feeling the urge to speak prophetic judgment during the invitation, was gently led out by four ushers while Wyrtzen and the audience sang “Just as I Am.”

Wyrtzen, who believes the “United States has risen on wooden shoes, but is sinking on silver slippers,” said the only hope for survival as a nation is a great spiritual awakening that could come through the young people. The Fellowship’s ministries (on a $9,000-a-day budget with no reserve, according to Wyrtzen) include radio broadcasts, Bible clubs, and camps on five continents. All returning POWs and their families received invitations to be guests for a week at any of the four camps operating from Schroon Lake, New York, headquarters of Word of Life. The camps are expected to draw 25,000 people this year for programs of recreation and biblical teaching.

Integrated Buildings

Perhaps reflecting the decline in church-related construction, only about 100 architects and religious leaders interested in architecture attended last month’s annual national Conference on Religion and Architecture in suburban Minneapolis. About 10,000 invitations had been issued by the Interfaith Research Center of Washington, D. C., which convened the conference under the sponsorship of seven organizations, including the Guild for Religious Architecture.

The Guild bestowed merit awards upon half a dozen architects for outstandingly designed religious structures. Its highest award went to Atlanta cleric James L. Doom, consultant on architecture and the arts for the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. Doom, who holds a degree in architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology, declared in the meeting’s keynote address that people want to be involved in the action of worship. Proclamation, devotion, learning, service, and fellowship are all a part of worship, he affirmed, and while each can stand on its own, none is complete without the other. Hence, he went on, buildings that have isolated devotion in one structure from learning in another, with hospitality in a third, and with service to the community ignored, have been “heretical buildings.” The implication is that buildings must be flexible, with multi-purpose capabilities, a noticeable trend of the past few years.

In the future, said Doom, the worship room “will not be called a sanctuary, implying its separation from contact with the world … but a meeting room where God is present with his people. The sacrality of such a place will be derived not from relics, nor nostalgia, nor extravagant expense, but from the helpfulness of the host people to their neighbors.” Such space, he suggested, should be tested by whether it is theologically sound, esthetically stimulating, and psychologically suitable for many kinds of people. It should be “more wholesome than precious, more expressive than impressive, more hospitable than imposing.… The structure enclosing such space may be as simply conceived and as directly expressed as possible. Materials will be chosen with the respect for the inherent values of common things, and with a care for the craftsmanship that remains to us.”

Doom stated that such buildings could easily be shared by two congregations, or by a synagogue and two Christian churches. “It is not difficult for Protestants and Catholics to collaborate today, but that collaboration will be best informed if it includes the Jewish witness to the world.”

The delegates took field trips to several nearby centers of architectural interest, including the “new town” or planned community of Jonathan, which so far has some 1,600 residents of various races and economic standing. Here the Lutheran Church in America has a future site and meanwhile holds Sunday services in the town’s community room. The delegates were told that 35 per cent of the residents are Lutheran, 33 per cent Roman Catholic, and the rest from other denominations. United Church of Christ clergyman John C. DeBoer of New York told a panel discussion that religious groups had been unable to plan in a coordinated fashion for the religious needs of Jonathan.

Another panelist, Southern Baptist James V. Hamblen, a consultant for the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, said that many religious groups prefer to buy property after new towns are occupied. Planned-town residents, he reported, do not “feel ownership” of church facilities that someone else has built for them. A big problem for religious groups seeking to share facilities, Hamblen said, is that many Protestant groups want to hold services at 11:00 A.M. One waggish architect, he reported, offered his solution to the problem by donating a clock for a common religious facility that designated the hours from 9 through 12 as 11, 11, 11, 11.

WILLMAR L. THORKELSON

Waterloo

The Lutheran Church of America relinquished to public control its 2,400-student Waterloo Lutheran University in Waterloo, Ontario—the last university in the province to hold out against government aid. The action, by a 212–56 vote of the Eastern Canada synod of the denomination, opens the way for financial aid from the province. The Lutherans will receive $3.1 million in cash for the university, which was founded in 1911 as the Evangelical Lutheran Seminary of Canada. They will retain control of the seminary. Delegates were told that without government aid the university would face a million-dollar deficit over the next five years. Dr. Frank C. Peters, prominent Canadian evangelical, is president of the university and is expected to retain that post. The school’s name has been changed to Sir Wilfrid Laurier University in honor of a former Canadian prime minister. Only 10 per cent of the students are Lutherans; 21 per cent are Catholics.

LESLIE K. TARR

All The Hired Are Fired

All 117 teachers at Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina, had their contracts terminated. Reasons given by the board of directors were lack of money and poor enrollment. The school, supported by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is reportedly $2 million in debt and has a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:3.

“Some of the teachers are getting $1,000 a month for teaching three students,” said Bishop D. Ward Nichols, chairman of the board. “Even the United States government can’t afford this sort of thing.”

The school, a 103-year-old institution of the 600 A. M. E. churches in South Carolina, once had an enrollment approaching 1,000. Nichols said some of the teachers will be rehired, and a campaign is under way to raise $1 million to put the school back on its feet. Each church in the state is also being asked to send at least one student to the school this fall.

JAMES S. TINNEY

The Greek Church: Unruly Or Unruled?

The Orthodox Church of Greece is going through a deep crisis. It is a crisis not of renewal or of doctrinal or social concern but of personalities, practices, organization, and direction. Its origins are very old, but the causes and reasons that have inflamed it are new.

In the center of the crisis is Archbishop Ieronymos Kotsonis. His personality and the influence he has exerted over the affairs of the Greek church since May, 1967, are at the heart of a long series of squabbles that have spilled outside church circles and touched the whole nation. Particularly affected have been his benefactors, the Papadopoulos junta (now “presidency”) that following the coup d’etat elevated him from his obscure post as chaplain of the royal court. (King Constantine later claimed he had been betrayed by his one-time spiritual counselor.)

At the outset, Ieronymos, who had not been a bishop and therefore didn’t really qualify to become archbishop, took the office seriously, claiming at his coronation that the Holy Spirit had chosen him. Now, six stormy years later, almost everyone, even the regime, is questioning his sincerity. The main opposition has issued from the bishops.

While he served at the royal court, the general opinion of him was favorable. Having studied theology in Germany, he was considered to be a progressive clergyman who longed to see reformation in the church. He was jokingly referred to as “Ieronymos the Protestant.” After elevating him, the junta said that Ieronymos was a learned man and would be left alone to manage the affairs of the church. Reportedly, there later was deep regret in the circle of the colonels over that pledge.

In his coronation speech Ieronymos vowed to improve the general spirit within the church. But the consensus is that conditions have only deteriorated, and that the public is more indifferent to the church than ever. Ieronymos promised a religion free of financial compulsions and political intrigue among the clergy. It would be a church of effective action in the pastoral and social realms and of reform in the monetary and monastic affairs. Sympathetic observers remark sadly that all these have remained empty promises. One radio commentator said, “Ieronymos not only failed to heal the age-old wounds but he opened many new ones.”

The political opponents of the regime, among whom are university students, the academic community, and older politicians, accuse him of hardness of heart for never speaking out about the fate of political prisoners, most of whom remain untried and some of whom are allegedly being tortured. Ieronymos is quoted as saying, “This is an extraordinary period in which nothing can be done.”

His opponents also charge that, parallel to Papadopoulos, Ieronymos ruled dictatorially both the synod and the church, having first formed his own synod. He established a church court, where he tried and passed the verdict on all ecclesiastical “offenses.” He accused his opponents without supporting his charges adequately. He selected men who bowed to his wishes. He looked favorably on some bishops who he said understood the situation and wrote off the others as determined enemies, promoting cleavage and demoralization within the hierarchy.

Ieronymos also offended the Ecumenical Patriarchate at Istanbul by transgressing long-recognized privileges. Patriarch Athenagoras opposes Ieronymos on many issues. One is the archbishop’s zealous attempts to bring under his jurisdiction the new Greek communities established throughout Western Europe in the last ten years as a result of the great influx of “guest workers.” Athenagoras also expressed deep dismay when Ieronymos restructured the church’s synod, limiting the Patriarchate’s sphere of influence in Greece.

The recent verdict of the Council of State (Greece’s supreme court) nullifying the acts of the Ieronymos-formed continuing synod and the synodical councils was the most severe setback he suffered (see May 11, 1973, issue, page 42). Prior to that verdict, Ieronymos had resigned, but his synod had declined to accept the resignation and had given him three months of sick leave instead. A new synod was elected, in accord with the views of Athenagoras, and Ieronymous suddenly announced his health had been restored. The new bishops seemed inclined to accept his resignation retroactively, but a government judicial body ruled that action on the resignation was outside the church’s jurisdiction, and the synod agreed to abide by the ruling at least temporarily. Other issues have arisen (the new synod has come out against government treatment of student protesters), and many are wondering whether the archbishop will be able to maneuver sufficiently to cling to his post.

Observers remark that whatever the outcome, the case of Ieronymos is an open demonstration of the confused state of affairs in Greece. Autocratic rule, be it in church or government, does not suffice to solve the problems of a community.

THOMAS COSMADES

Following Peace And Holiness

The text could well have been Hebrews 12:14 (“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord”) when nearly seventy “Holiness” churchmen and scholars from a dozen denominations gathered recently at Winona Lake, Indiana, to consider the relation of “peace” and “holiness.” The little Brethren in Christ Church, with support from the Mennonite Central Committee, had prompted the Christian Holiness Association into joint sponsorship through its Social Action Committee.

Nazarene theologian Richard Taylor argued in a major position paper for the positive role of the state in God’s redemptive scheme and the responsibility of Christians to serve in military and police forces. Brethren in Christ church historian Owen Alderfer of Ashland Seminary countered with a historical analysis showing the affinities between Holiness and Anabaptist traditions. Debate centered on hermeneutical issues, the relation between the Testaments, the role of the state, and the question whether all war is sin (a difficult one for Holiness people, who tend to argue that men can be relatively free of sin in this life). Messiah College’s Ronald Sider (a leader of last fall’s “Evangelicals for McGovern” group) explored the use of “non-violence” as a means of social change.

Nazarene pastor and Johns Hopkins historian Timothy Smith, who wrote the widely acclaimed Revivalism and Social Reform, called for a “gospel of Peace” and revealed his own struggles with pacifism over the last decade. Smith described the seminar as a “historic occasion” whose full significance—as a sign of reaffirmation of social and ethical concern among Holiness churches—might not be seen for years. The newly formed Social Action Commission of the Christian Holiness Association is working to contribute to that reaffirmation. On the agenda were projects to unfold the history of nineteenth-century Holiness social involvement and, if funds are found, a series of conferences devoted to related themes.

Most participants admitted that the “holiness” of Hebrews 12:14 has found greater emphasis in their own experience than the “peace.” But some of the nearly twenty addresses, papers, and responses attempted to show that in the nineteenth-century origins of the Holiness traditions there was a more balanced view. Abolitionist Wesleyan Methodists before the Civil War took an absolute stand against war and considered making non-participation in war a test of membership. Bowdoin College professor Thomas Upham, whose writings had great impact on Holiness people, was a vice-president of the American Peace Society and wrote a Manual of Peace that not only argued for pacifism but also advocated more radical measures—such as tax resistance—and opposed the military chaplaincy. The Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) was originally registered with the government as a “historic peace church.”

In their emphasis on perfectionism and distinctive patterns of dress and life-style, Holiness groups had much in common with such non-conformist groups as the Mennonites and Quakers. Several such groups (Brethren in Christ, Missionary Church, Evangelical Friends, and others) were swept into the Holiness orbit before the turn of the century and are still struggling to synthesize Wesleyan and Anabaptist tradition. At the same time, large numbers of Holiness advocates, prompted by their “radical” Christian stance and a literal reading of Scripture, embraced “conscientious objection.” But under the impact of the world wars and the increasing socialization of Holiness groups, such concerns have evaporated.

DONALD W. DAYTON

Free For All

Pastor W. J. Stafford of the Free-for-All Baptist Church in Atlanta has announced that he is getting out of the nightclub business—but not for religious reasons. He wants to run for mayor of Atlanta and doesn’t think he’d have time to do that and still keep the Top O’ Peachtree nightclub going. He purchased it less than a year ago.

Stafford, long classified as a “religious hipster,” will be competing against other black candidates for the office. His church features a live nightclub band at all services, and preaches no prohibitions in the Christian life—hence its name.

JAMES S. TINNEY

“The church spends much of its time trying to make non-Christians act like Christians.” This is an observation I have stated and written a number of times, and I think it is true. But once when I said it in a group of ministers, men honestly and earnestly preaching the Gospel, one godly pastor observed: “My problem is trying to get Christians to act like Christians.”

Sober thought reveals how true this is in our own lives, and in the lives of other Christians. How few of us act as Christians should act! How frequently our actions and reactions are unloving! How often we belie our Christian profession by word and deed!

People become Christians through faith in Jesus Christ and in no other way. It is impossible to do anything that will bring us into a right relationship with God. This has been done for us and must be received by faith.

Nevertheless, living as one of the redeemed is a matter of growing in grace and involves an act of the will, a will enlightened, motivated, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Living as a Christian means exhibiting many facets of God’s grace in our hearts, all of them the outgrowth of Christian love and all of them polished and brightened by practice. These graces are the outward expression of an inner Presence and attitude, the putting into practice of those things we know are good and right.

Sympathy. There is hardly a day that we do not come in contact with someone who has been buffeted by the winds of adversity. All around us there are those who sorrow, who are suffering from illness, poverty, despair, bereavement, or other troubles.

How utterly un-Christian to be indifferent toward this suffering. True sympathy is begotten by love and expressed at the personal level. The Christian, having experienced the comfort of the Holy Spirit, should know how to sympathize with others.

Speaking of this the Apostle Paul says: “[God] comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (2 Cor. 1:4).

Compassion. There is a distinction between sympathy and compassion, for compassion involves depth of understanding—one sinner’s being sorry for another sinner’s plight.

Compassion looks deep into the heart, suffers with and understands the need of the other person, and communicates that understanding. Compassion ignores the unlovely as it sees God’s image in most unlikely places.

Courtesy. Courtesy is the art and grace of treating others with respect and understanding—just as we would like to be treated. It is politeness in the face of provocation, the turning of the other cheek when we have been offended.

Courtesy involves the soft answer that can turn away wrath. It is observance of the niceties of social intercourse in the midst of trying circumstances.

Only too often unhappy situations develop because of the lack of common courtesy. That this should be true where Christians are concerned is a travesty, reflecting dishonor on the very name Christian.

Patience. Impatience has dimmed the witness of many a Christian. How often we must distress our Lord by our impatience with others. Some people seem slow, inarticulate, and inept—just the way we appear to our Lord, perhaps. And he is infinitely patient with us.

Tact. Frankness is not always for the glory of God. I have known some Christians who have prided themselves on being frank, and I have known some who have been hurt by this frankness. Telling the truth can be done in love, taking into consideration the feelings of others. There is a vast difference in the remarks of two shoe salesmen, one of whom said, “I’m sorry, madam, but your foot is too big for this shoe,” while the other said, “I am sorry, but this shoe is too small for you.”

Tact is that grace which enables us to sense the feelings of others and to act toward them or communicate with them in a way that preserves human dignity.

Forgiveness. Without a spirit of forgiveness, human relations cannot be maintained at the Christian level. We live in the light of God’s forgiveness, and it is an attitude that God requires of us. Forgiveness involves shedding the robe of self-righteousness and being clothed with the humility that is a part of true Christianity.

Practicality. We often are sound in theory but fail at the point of implementation. To many of us the Christian graces are nebulous attributes that we expect in others but fail to exhibit ourselves.

Practicality involves helping people in the place where they need help. It is not just a kind word but also a kind act where that act can do the most good. Where food is needed, give food. Where clothing is needed, give clothing, Where comfort, sympathy, courtesy, and patience are needed, show these. The Apostle James admonishes us: “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” Acting like a Christian means just that.

In these things the Christian must rigorously search his own heart, at the same time determining by God’s help to grow in those aspects of grace that so intimately affect others, while they reflect Christ in our own hearts.

C. S. Lewis has well said, “Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor or not; act as if you did. As soon as you do this you find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

The exhibiting of the grace of God in our dealings with others must be for the glory of God. Unbelievers see Christ through the lives of Christians—and what a sorry spectacle is often paraded before them!

The exhibiting of Christian graces is a matter of practice, of growing, and of outward witnessing. In this the effectiveness of our salvation is exhibited to others. When we fail to act like Christians, we dishonor the One whose name we bear.

The world needs the evidence of sanctification in the Christian’s life. This is evidence of the power of God to redeem and change, and also a balm to a sin-sick world.

Even well traveled americans are often unaware that Australia compares in size to the United States without Alaska and Hawaii. The population of this fast developing British commonwealth country is largely concentrated, however, in a few big, bustling cities; Sydney, capital of New South Wales, is larger than Rome or Vienna. The vast spaces outside the capital cities are for the most part sparsely settled.

Australian cities have yielded to the commercial spirit of the West and to its concentration on this-worldly interests. The younger generation is caught up in fast-changing personal and social attitudes. The swift-running tide of secularism perturbs not a few churchmen; they realize increasingly that to gain wide hearing for the biblical good news Christians must mount some kind of cooperative witness, rather than simply go it alone. The conviction is widespread, in fact, that these times are a historical turning-point in Australian history. Several thousand Jesus-followers marching on Canberra, the national capital, publicly flung aloft the banner KAIROS to proclaim that the moment of spiritual decision is here.

Australia has had evangelistic efforts with significant regional impact, notably the 1959 and 1968 Graham crusades. The former, of greater duration, won many converts (one church in Sydney had 646 referrals) and enlisted an impressive number of university men for Christian careers; ongoing effects still continue in a number of churches in Melbourne, Sydney, and elsewhere. The later crusade stimulated no fewer than 4,000 women’s prayer groups to dedicated intercession and rallied evangelical forces to cooperative engagement.

The Graham impact lifted commitment to Christ conspicuously into the news and made spiritual decision a matter of public conversation. Previously the Australian press had avoided such coverage; memories of past sectarian controversy seemed best kept out of mind by a simple dismissal of religion as a private matter.

Today Australian Christians see the need for a national effort that enlists believers in every city and community in a cooperative evangelical witness. Political leaders cater to the clamor for permissive legislation, and amid swift moral change the voice of churchmen is increasingly ignored. Unsure how much in the way of modern alternatives to accept, church members themselves are often confused. Even some broadly evangelical seminaries seem in the grip of a non-missionary theology. As nominal communicants find their true home in a secular society, many churches experience a declining membership. Clergymen are baffled increasingly by administrative burdens and find themselves unable to concentrate on the spiritual priorities they envisioned at ordination. This plight dulls the adventure of parish service, especially amid the current public lapse from church involvement.

While the figure is in some ways misleading, only some 4 per cent of the Australian populace regularly attends church. Australians have not in principle repudiated a church relationship, though there is notable lack of interest in institutional religion. In some places once-a-month church attendance runs as high as 40 to 50 per cent. The 1966 census indicated the national religious preferences to be about 34 per cent Anglican, 27 per cent Catholic, 10 per cent Presbyterian, 10 per cent Methodist, and less than 2 per cent Baptist. Yet denominational statistics and church attendance are another matter. Despite the indicated proportions, in some places as many Baptists will be present in their churches as Anglicans. One wit has saluted Baptist activism as follows:

Mary had a little lamb

It might have been a sheep

If it hadn’t joined the Baptist church

And died for want of sleep.

Catholicism shows steady constituency gains through immigrations from southern Europe and because of large families. Methodists in recent years have shown membership losses and budgetary cutbacks. An attempt at ecumenical salvage was unexpectedly complicated when Presbyterians favored national merger in a plebiscite but opposed it in their local churches.

A survey of the general public by the Lay Institute for Evangelism, of which the Reverend Geoffrey Fletcher, an Anglican, is director, disclosed remarkable unfamiliarity with basic Christian doctrines in both Australia and New Zealand. In Nelson 40 per cent, in Christchurch 50 per cent, and in Darwin 51 per cent indicated their ignorance of the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth.

There are, to be sure, some heartening developments, mostly of regional import but some of national significance. The chairman of the 1974 International Conference on World Evangelization in Lausanne is, notably, Bishop A. Jack Dain, one of several evangelical bishops in Sydney, the most evangelical diocese in the world. Among Anglicans in western Australia also there are signs of noteworthy evangelical renewal. Ridley College, Melbourne, where New Testament scholar Dr. Leon Morris is principal, has doubled its ministerial enrollment. The rejuvenation of the Australian Evangelical Alliance, with its projected publication of the Australian Evangelical, is noteworthy. Conceding that enthusiasm for church union is flagging, the Victorian Council of Churches is now favorable to evangelism. Lay Institute for Evangelism, a training program using Campus Crusade materials, is enlisting congregations in evangelistic activity; in New Zealand it has already trained 250 clergy and 2,000 laity, and its program in Australia is growing. Christian Women’s Conventions—more than 100 of them meeting annually in Australia and 14 in New Zealand—have gathered as many as 2,500 women on weekend retreats, winning decisions and channeling converts into home Bible studies and back into churches.

Early interest in a cooperative transdenominational evangelistic thrust that enlists both clergy and laity was responsible for the invitation I received to meet with church leaders concerning Key 75 possibilities. Since Methodists and Baptists had already declared for worldwide denominational evangelistic emphases in 1975, and the Salvation Army in Australia is now also committed, a Key 75 thrust seems quite possible. Such proposals could be merged into a continent-wide effort that emphasizes a saving relationship to Christ above denominational relatedness, and maintains continuity with the identifiable Key 73 priority for personal evangelism. At the invitation of ecclesiastical VIPs, I ventured 27,000 flight miles and gave thirty-five addresses in seventeen days to clergy and church leaders, university students, and local congregations in nine cities. Hundreds of churchmen and lay workers long for a Key 75 type of evangelistic thrust, and their denominational decision-makers seem very open to the possibilities.

A Survey Of Pentecostalism

Bright Wind of the Spirit, by Steve Durasoff (Prentice-Hall, 1972, 277 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Erling Jorstad, professor of history, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota.

The author makes clear in his first sentence that this book is “for the man on the street who knows little or nothing about Pentecostal persuasions, practices or people.” One must therefore evaluate it on that basis, rather than comparing it with the several recently published scholarly studies.

Durasoff, an Assemblies of God pastor, crusade coordinator for Oral Roberts, and now a member of the Oral Roberts University faculty, brings impressive credentials and great enthusiasm to bear on his task. He knows what questions the man on the street is asking about Pentecostalism and in thirteen fast-paced chapters seeks to give persuasive answers. His format is not that of question and answer but of the more traditional theological and historical survey of the movement. He emphasizes the unique Pentecostal teachings such as Holy Spirit baptism and gives the familiar exegetical interpretation of Acts 2 and First Corinthians 12 and 14 as the primary biblical authority. He brings the movement through the early twentieth century, shows its global dimensions, has two chapters on Roberts’s ministry, and has brief summaries of recent developments in the three major branches of the movement today: “classical Pentecostal,” “neo-Pentecostal,” and Catholic Pentecostal. He has a superb chapter on the movement within the Soviet Union; this is based on primary sources, his extensive knowledge of Russian, and knowledge of the global dimensions of the movement. It is easily the best chapter in the book.

Does Durasoff succeed in writing a persuasive book for the man on the street? In my opinion, the answer must be more negative than affirmative, largely because of his sources of information (except for the chapter on the U. S. S. R.) and his total attention to what is exciting and rewarding about Pentecostalism with no attempt to reply to its several responsible critics.

For instance, he suggests that Billy Graham endorses the Pentecostal understanding of Holy Spirit baptism; for evidence he cites one article by Graham in a Pentecostal journal. He quotes Graham as talking about “the filling of the Holy Spirit.” Rather than endorsing Holy Spirit baptism, Graham was using the word “filling” as other Southern Baptists do (for an explanation see chapter fifteen of W. A. Criswell’s The Holy Spirit in Today’s World).

Durasoff also presents considerable testimony from persons healed at Pentecostal services; his evidence, however, comes from articles in Reader’s Digest, Eternity, and Look. He could have convinced the man in the street better had he used published accounts by reputable doctors about the efficacy of healings. He accepts without doubt Aimee Semple McPherson’s own accounts of her exuberant ministry in Los Angeles; he would have done well to read Lately Thomas, Storming Heaven.

Newly Published

American Protestantism and a Jewish State, by Hertzel Fishman (Wayne State University, 250 pp., $11.95). Deals primarily with the historical lack of support for the Jewish state by liberal American Protestantism, a failure based on its theology of Israel and its concept of authentic Americanism. Depicts the failure of Christians to see Israel’s significance as a Jewish expression of a collective will to survive. Well documented; excellent for the historian or politico-theologian.

The Symbol, by R. C. Sproul (Presbyterian and Reformed, 160 pp., $2.95 pb). Basic exposition of the major doctrines of classical Christianity as found in the Apostles’ Creed. Aimed at collegians and intellectual laymen.

Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture, by Jean Daniélou (Westminster, 540 pp., $17.50). This second volume in the author’s A History of Early Christian Doctrine Before the Council of Nicaea is a highly technical analysis of the influence of Hellenism on early Christian thought. Useful for the scholar or student who desires detailed knowledge in this field. Sometimes has a Catholic bias.

The God of Great Surprises, by D. James Kennedy (Tyndale, 102 pp., $1.95 pb). Sermons by the pastor of fast-growing Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale.

A Book of Jesus, by William Goyen (Doubleday, 143 pp., $4.95). Essentially a very brief and simple retelling of the Gospels.

Welfare: A Handbook For Friend and Foe, by Timothy J. Sampson (Pilgrim, 203 pp., $3.95). Summarizes the law, history, and purposes of welfare; also, where the money goes, and how much money is involved. Clear, interesting writing on a myth-darkened topic. Recommended.

Quest For Reality: Christianity and the Counter Culture, by Carl F. H. Henry and others (Inter-Varsity, 164 pp., $2.95 pb). Seventeen papers, often excellent, by top Christian scholars in response to the counter culture. The book should have come earlier, for the culture to which it speaks is already altering.

Christian Counter Culture, by Chester A. Pennington (Abingdon, 143 pp., $3.75). A compelling alternative to the conflicting voices of our time. Creative, refreshing, if read with discernment.

The Fragile Presence, by John Killinger (Fortress, 166 pp., $3.95 pb). A captivating study of the quest for God in three literary modes of our time: anguish, absurdity, and sensuality. Concludes with an analysis of black literature.

Cross and Sword: The Political Role of Christian Missions in the Belgian Congo, 1908–1960, by Marvin D. Markowitz (Hoover Institution Press [Stanford, Calif. 94305], $12). Outlines Belgium’s use and misuse of missions to civilize and control what is now Zaire. Also considers the reverse: church influence (especially Roman Catholic) over state policy to consolidate its position. Still, the author chiefly faults the church for failing to provide a basis for national integration. Balanced presentation.

Progress: A Christian Doctrine?, by A. G. B. Woollard (Judson, 92 pp., $1.95 pb). Discusses modern theological trends in relation to the social gospel, and laments the failure to affirm faith in human progress. Unclear in spots.

American Society: Religion, Reward and Race, edited by Paul E. Mott et al. (Merrill, 255 pp., n.p., pb). Readings for an introductory sociology course. The three selections on religion, though statistical analyses, are interesting.

The Living Bible Concordance (Poolesville Presbyterian Church [Box 68, Poolesville, Md. 20837], $24.95). A small congregation, as a way of showing its gratitude to God for the survival of a very premature baby born to one of its families, has compiled, using computers, a complete concordance to Kenneth Taylor’s best-selling paraphrase of the whole Bible. Both theological and public libraries should consider acquiring this well-bound edition, which has more than 500,000 entries showing every word in context.

Cherishable: Love and Marriage, by David W. Augsburger (Herald [Scottdale, Pa. 15683], 158 pp., $4.95, $.95 pb). Suitable for counseling and private or shared reading. Major drawback is the confusing juxtaposition of hypothetical dialogues with a chatty prose.

Hunter and Hunted: Human History of the Holocaust, edited by Gerd Korman (Viking, 320 pp., $8.95). Very readable, first-person accounts describing different portions of Jewish persecution and annihilation in the 1930–45 era. A moving and horrifying series of memories. Depicts both the impact of World War II on the Jewish experience and the failure of Christians. Strongly recommended.

The World of the Crusader, by Joshua Prawer (Quadrangle, 232 pp., $8.95). A history of the Crusades and a summary of the politics, religion, and culture in the Crusader kingdoms. Well written, very enjoyable; more than seventy pages of beautiful pictures.

Pulpit Giants: What Made Them Great, by Donald E. Demaray (Moody, 174 pp., $3.95). Short sketches of Asbury, Bunyan, Augustine, Graham, Stott, Moody, and nineteen others, in an attempt to outline the foundations of each man’s powerful ministry. Inconsistent quality, but generally interesting.

Durasoff makes little effort to explain the rise of the popularity of the new charismatic renewal as a part, however small, of growing changes in American social, educational, and economic life. By default he divorces classical, neo- and Catholic Pentecostalism from their public setting, and thus leaves the impression that the origins and shape of the movement are to be understood only in supernatural terms. To this reviewer, it is neither embarrassing nor compromising to state that the Holy Spirit can indeed work through upper-middle-class, well-educated social strata, as the neo-Pentecostal movement today so clearly demonstrates.

This is a helpful, brief account of a vastly important and complex religious phenomenon in the world today. I hope that the reader will use the author’s footnote citations to direct him to more analytical studies of it.

On the Way to the Future: A Christian View of Eschatology in the Light of Current Trends in Religion, Philosophy, and Science, by Hans Schwarz (Augsburg, 254 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Harold O. J. Brown, associate editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

In a day when Christians are being bombarded with sober and not-so-sober visions of the imminent future by Bible scholars, secular futurologists, and self-appointed seers, this systematic study of future hope from a biblical and theological perspective is especially timely. Lutheran scholar Hans Schwarz shows how the modern idea of progress originated in Christianity’s eschatological hope, which offered a stark contrast with the timeless, cyclic views of much Greek thought and Eastern spirituality.

In the modern period, secular progress has become more and more estranged from Christian hope, with the result that while a yearning for future fulfillment remains, it leads to slavery instead of true liberation. Apart from the biblical foundation that reveals the plan of God, human dreams of the future miss God and manipulate man.

Following a moderately critical line in his analysis of the Old Testament, Schwarz considers it possible that post-exilic Judaism learned or borrowed from Persian influences as it progressed from what he sees as its early emphasis on the this-worldly aspects of life to a deeper concern with resurrection and the last judgment. He makes the interesting suggestion that the apocalyptic awareness of God’s coming judgment of all nations was an important step in freeing Jewish religion from preoccupation with the people of Israel and preparing the soil for the coming universal ministry of Jesus the Messiah.

It was Paul, in Schwarz’s view, whose eschatological theology saved the nascent Christian Church from the two blind alleys of unhistorical spiritualizing of the return of Christ and frustrated disappointment at its delay.

Schwarz considers and critically evaluates the various modern approaches to eschatology, beginning with Albert Schweitzer (who reemphasized the centrality of eschatology in the preaching of Jesus but felt he was mistaken in his view) and continuing through Bultmann, C. H. Dodd, J. A. T. Robinson, and the theologians of hope, revolution, and process; but Schwarz concludes that none of these reinterpretations does justice to the realistic hope in the “God-provided second coming of Christ.” He deals briefly with the evolutionary hope of Teilhard de Chardin and at greater length with conservative German theologian Karl Heim’s attempt to understand the resurrection as the introduction of a super-polar, extra-temporal dimension into the deteriorating mechanism of the world. Bonhoeffer’s illusion of a “world come of age” is rejected in favor of an “aging world,” which would lead to despair without the hope of the return of Christ.

Under the concept “blind alleys,” Schwarz considers the repeated attempts to date the return of Christ and to soften the prospect of final judgment with concepts such as purgatory (traditional Roman Catholic teaching) or universal salvation (ancient writers such as Origen, modern ones such as Tillich). For none of these, Schwarz shows, is there any substantial biblical support. He rejects “millennialism” (the premillennial return of Christ) as a “universalized this-worldly replica of purgatory” for which there is, in Schwarz’s view, minimal biblical justification. However, this does not ruin the book for Christians who do indeed see biblical evidence for a millennium.

He gives a useful discussion of death, concluding that since we leave the realm of earthly time, “the confrontation with God in death will result in the eternal judgment. This is not to be understood as an individualized act, because together with everyone else we will encounter God’s eternal presence.” Thus he avoids the old theological conflict between the view that the soul lives on while the body is in the grave and the alternative idea that both soul and body sleep until the last trumpet shall sound.

In his concluding chapter, Schwarz deals with both nihilistic pessimism and Marxist optimism, and comments, “The last judgment is a difficult subject to mention, because everybody wants to be saved but only a few are willing to accept the consequences” (i.e., damnation for some). He rejects the concept of universal salvation as “speculation about the final destiny of others” in the place of an obedient response to God’s call to us. There is some ambiguity about the criterion for God’s judgment of believers, which Schwarz does not really try to resolve, taking refuge in the element of mystery.

On the Way to the Future is a thorough, generally conservative, and very perceptive commentary on the centrality of biblical eschatology and a repudiation of various attempts to play down the direct intervention of God in the Second Coming and the Last Judgment. Despite occasional soft spots, and a certain evasiveness in the area of scriptural authority, this book is a highly useful antidote to a number of currently popular attempts to coopt biblical hope for a this-worldly, humanistic millennium.

‘Somewhat Inured’

Asked by Senator Howard Baker in the Watergate hearings why, since he knew that the proposed Watergate break-in was “illegal, inappropriate, and may not work,” he went along with it, Jeb Stuart Magruder cited his ethics course at Williams College under William Sloane Coffin, now university chaplain at Yale:

During this whole time we were in the White House and … were directly employed with trying to succeed with the President’s policies, we saw continuing violations of the law done by men like William Sloane Coffin. He tells me my ethics are bad. Yet he was indicted for criminal charges. He recommended on the Washington Monument grounds that students burn their draft cards and that we have mass demonstrations, shut down the city of Washington. Now here are ethical, legitimate people whom I respected. I respect Mr. Coffin tremendously. He was a very close friend of mine. I saw people I was very close to breaking the law without any regard for any other person’s pattern of behavior or belief. So consequently, when these subjects came up, although I was aware they were illegal we had become somewhat inured to using some activities that would help us in accomplishing what we thought was a cause, a legitimate cause [full text in the New York Times, June 15, 1973, p. C19].

Appraised of Magruder’s implication that Coffin’s approach to ethics helped him rationalize his Watergate misdeeds, Coffin responded, “Jesus and Jimmy Hoffa both broke the law, but there’s a world of difference between what they did. Whatever we did, we did in the open to oppose an illegal war in Vietnam. What he and the others did, they did behind closed doors” (Washington Post, June 15, 1973, p. A16). Apparently in his presentation of situation ethics Coffin did not succeed in communicating to Magruder his own ability to recognize that while all situations are ethical, some situations are more ethical than others.

Only The Beginning

Afghanistan’s expropriation and demolition of the only Protestant church in that country (see News, page 43) speaks eloquently of the perishability of religious freedom. We deplore this move, and the indifference of church and government leaders around the world that permitted it to happen. But the militant Muslims who were primarily responsible deserve our special sympathetic concern in their blindness, and they may live to realize their mistake. If they knew church history better, they probably would not have done what they did. Persecution, far from stamping out Christianity, only serves to encourage it. This evil act could usher in a new surge of Christian growth and influence for good in Afghanistan.

James Deforest Murch

North America lost one of its most influential evangelical leaders with the death last month of Dr. James DeForest Murch, who was managing editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY 1958–61. He helped found a number of enterprises that God used to strengthen the impact of evangelical Christianity. His zeal to get Bible-believing Christians to work together is epitomized in the title of one of his books, Cooperation Without Compromise, a study of the National Association of Evangelicals.

One of the big challenges to which he responded was to get the many orthodox believers in Christian Churches and Churches of Christ to recognize other theological conservatives in North America, and vice versa. More than anyone else, Mr. Murch, who came from this movement, worked to break down this massive barrier. His great work will continue to bear rich fruit for years to come.

Grim Economics

Mounting public protest over large increases in food prices led the President of the United States to impose a two-month price freeze before announcing the terms and conditions of Phase 4 of the nation’s battle against inflation. But instead of merely freezing prices, why did he not roll them back, say to the January 1 level? And is there no relation between wages and prices? If wages rise and prices are fixed, producers soon reach a point where bankruptcy is imminent.

Mr. Nixon’s commitment to free enterprise has been abridged by this decision. We look for further regimentation and the loss of more economic freedom as the material principle prevails and the maintenance of affluence becomes the ultimate goal. This is a sorry state of affairs.

Key 73: A New Note

When churchmen in Puerto Rico decided to translate “Key 73” into Spanish, they had to choose between the word meaning the implement used to open a lock and the word meaning a tonal system in music. In English the “key” in Key 73 is derived from Washington’s Key Bridge, near which the originating consultation was held, and the bridge was named after Francis Scott Key. Although the proper name does not dictate the choice of one “key” meaning over the other, Francis Scott Key’s fame was as a composer: he wrote the “Star Spangled Banner.” So a musical interpretation is certainly a possibility, and the Puerto Ricans chose this. For them Key 73 is Clave (i.e., Clef) 73.

On page fourteen there appears a hymn composed especially for this year of evangelism, one selected from some 1,000 entries in the Key 73 hymn contest. The Reverend Bryan J. Leech wrote the words, and Mr. Gordon Carlson composed the music. Leech serves at Montecito Covenant Church in Santa Barbara, California. Carlson is a sales consultant for Mutual Life Insurance in Kansas City, Missouri, and has done doctoral work in music.

We commend “Let God Be God” to Christians everywhere. Music has had a unifying influence throughout the history of the Church. May singing this hymn enhance our oneness, to the end that the purposes of Key-73 will be achieved.

The Child-Abuse Problem

Thousands of Americans have been beaten, slashed, scalded, burned with cigarette stubs, and tortured with electrical shocks. Prisoners of war? No, prisoners of problem parents. Experts say that child abuse is on the rise, with nearly 60,000 reported cases each year.

In New York City, partly because of a 1964 law requiring hospitals to report all child-neglect cases, the incidence of child abuse rose 549 per cent from 1966 to 1970; 7,000 cases were reported in 1971 alone. Sociologists and psychologists have found that many of these child-beating parents belong to the drug culture—another evidence that the much-praised flower children are weed-ridden. Experts also have determined that a great many of these parents are little more than children themselves and that their parents treated them with no more gentleness than they bestow on their offspring.

Senator Walter F. Mondale (D-Minn.) is sponsoring a bill (S.1191) calling for a National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect along with a fifteen-member presidential commission to study the problem. Congress would allocate $90 million to be spent over a five-year period for the bill’s implementation. Such legislation may have merit, but our support fulfills only half of our responsibility as Christians and citizens.

Research in child abuse done at Michigan State University suggests that “parent-aide” projects to troubled families could help ease the problem. The University of Colorado Medical Center for the past three years has used this approach. Stable parents from twenty-four to sixty work with disturbed couples as counselors and at times guardians, visiting couples in their homes, paying little attention to the children, and listening to the confusions the parents experience. Other lay-oriented groups are being developed along the lines of Alcoholics Anonymous, such as Mothers Anonymous, started in Los Angeles in 1970, and the more recent Parents Anonymous, based in New York. And here is where Christians can fill the second half of their responsibility. These troubled couples need the healing love and concern that our Lord brings; and he brings it through his children.

Volunteers are desperately needed, and no experience is necessary. Christian doctors, psychologists, and social workers can also be involved. Mothers with small children could find that such a ministry is the one God intends for them. Church buildings can serve as meeting places for problem-parent therapy sessions. Sympathy and education must be meshed.

Vacations Are For Resting

The Bible talks about two kinds of rest. One is the peace that comes with the knowledge that God is in control and that one has been made right with him. The other is that plain old physical rest possible when one takes a break from his work and everyday routines. God grants the former rest when we appropriate his love in repentance and faith. The latter is not that automatic. Sometimes it seems easier to keep on working than to take a break. The busy person, Christian or not, must conscientiously strive to rest.

Although God has ordained both kinds of rest, we seldom attribute to physical rest any spiritual significance. We are much more concerned about avoiding laziness or any appearance of it. Most of us are so occupied with one thing and another that we fit into the situation described in Mark 6, in which Jesus invited his apostles out to a place in the desert for a rest because, as the King James puts it, “there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”

We all know we need to get away from it all occasionally. But active, involved people are often tempted to put it off, or to take work along on vacations, or to choose a kind of vacation in which little or no real rest is possible. Women have the additional difficulty of not getting a thorough rest during a vacation in which they must continue to prepare meals for the family. Also, a vacation that requires a great deal of tension-producing driving may deprive drivers of needed rest. The really restful vacations are probably the most expensive.

Nevertheless, every person who recognizes that his body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and that he is to be a good steward of the health, strength, and talent God has provided should set aside time for relaxing vacations. Stimulating, active vacations have their merits, but they should be planned so as to guarantee also a period of rest.