As an -ism existentialism has reached the taken-for-granted stage. It is seldom defined or made explicit. It persists as an underlying mood and mind-direction, and is usually accepted uncritically as a basis for thought.

The usual existential themes—Angst, authenticity of existence, subjectivity of truth, the boundary situation, to name a few—are no longer usual subjects for discussion. Their impact upon today’s theological discourse is, however, much greater than is commonly recognized.

Certain terms signal the submerged influence of the existential mode of thinking upon theology. Among these are: “culture-conditioned,” “encounter,” “open-endedness,” “interpersonal,” “authentic,” and “meaningful.” These terms often cloak “new” approaches to theology, to ethics, and to Christian proclamation.

The motif of “culture-conditioned” underlies much of today’s biblical criticism. It provides a rationale, not only for the Bultmannian criticism, but also for the so-called critical-historical method, currently a sacred cow to the neo-liberal theologians. Let it be said at once that no literate evangelical rejects a proper attitude of analytical investigation, nor a careful regard for history in approaching the Scriptures. But the critical-historical method is something else.

As currently applied, this method is clearly anti-supernaturalistic, always giving preference to a possible naturalistic explanation for biblical phenomena. While pretending to be neutral in their handling of data, the advocates of this technique almost invariably bracket off events that do not lend themselves to a naturalistic interpretation as outside their province—and by implication, as something to be minimized.

When applied, for example, to the doctrine of the virgin birth, it leads to some such expression as this: “I may believe personally in the virgin birth of our Lord, but regard it as relatively unimportant.” Seldom is this form of expression put within the context of a meaningful Christology by the critical-historical thinker. It is high time for evangelicals to come to grips with the existential roots of this method, and to take seriously such a forthright assault on historic Christianity as Robert S. Alley makes in his Revolt Against the Faithful.

A generation ago Emil Brunner popularized the term “encounter” in The Divine-Human Encounter. His thesis is well known: Revelation consists, not of the communication of structured facts, but of a record of encounters between God and selected persons. From these occasions, the persons involved derived impressions that to them became convictions. The Bible is designed, not to convey facts, but to engender similar encounters in the experience of the readers.

A contemporary form of the encounter-theory insists that the Bible is not the Word of God, but a witness to the Word. In this connection, Carl F. H. Henry aptly points out that if the Bible is itself the product of witnesses, what rationale can be given for a “witness to witnesses”?

Closely related to this evasion is the existential theme of “open-endedness” or tentativity. This mood rejects all theological systems, all “plans of salvation,” and any systematic expressions of applied redemption.

To this mode of thought, historic orthodoxy represented a mere shoring up of Reformation theology against Renaissance and post-Renaissance thought. Ignored are the formulations of Christian belief from Pentecost to (say) A.D. 451. These grew out of the Church’s wrestling with questions of the day as they affected the articulation of Christian faith and the defense of it against paganism.

The term “interpersonal” expresses a further entrenchment of the existential mode of thought. Bernard R. Ramm foresees the emergence of an actual “theology” based upon interpersonal or transactional principles. This will, he believes, emphasize the emergent nature of religious knowledge. The “rap session” will be the source of “truth.”

The word “truth” is put in quotes because the interpersonalist form of “theology” seeks to use Scripture, not to disclose propositional fact, but to discover meanings as persons talk about it. It is hypothesized that “rapping” in small groups will lead participants to discover new and more authentic self-images—and thus to see truth.

Closely related to this is the emphasis upon “authentic existence.” This cliche operates best at an altitude of low visibility. Since the time of Sören Kierkegaard, it has been tossed about with varying degrees of ambiguity. It suggests, in our existential context, a kind of heroic individualism, achieved by gallant inner wrestling, and expressed by a rejection of much that is usual and normative in human living.

Underlying the motif is the assumption that man has within himself the resources essential to self-realization. One’s inner psychological frame takes precedence over the acceptance of convictions about God, man’s lostness, human accountability, and redemption through Christ.

The current existential use of the term “meaningful” provides a rationale for assaulting the usual norms for ethical conduct. Any form of interpersonal relationship, however deviant from biblical teaching and from the best deliverances of the enlightened conscience, can be hailed as right and good if it is “meaningful.” Fornication, homosexual life-styles—these are regarded as proper if they produce “meaningful” personal attachments—providing, of course, that no one gets hurt!

The existential frame of mind, when applied to Christian faith, is deadly. It drains of significance such great words as revelation, sin, redemption, and conversion. It makes the Cross of our Lord to be exemplary rather than propitiatory and expiatory.

As applied to the understanding of the Christian revelation it begins with unwarranted assumptions and ends with shoddy conclusions. It assumes a form of humanism that pretends to evaluate man highly but in the end leaves him at the mercy of the forces that demean and debase him.

Taken together, the catchwords mentioned above suggest a pattern of thought that mounts a massive assault upon biblical faith. They undermine the content of the biblical revelation, and they propose a substitute that is unrealistically and arrogantly humanistic.

The depth to which existential modes of thought have entrenched themselves, especially in Christian theology, is a major challenge to today’s evangelical. It suggests the need for a more hard-hitting form of theological discourse undertaken at several levels. Chief among these it seems to this writer is the analytical level, at which existential entrenchments are searched out, laid bare, and identified. These hidden and now gnarled roots need to be exposed to the clear and searching sunlight of biblical truth.

Religion In Transit

A San Bernardino, California, coroner’s jury ruled this month that Sergei Kourdakov, a Russian seaman who defected to the West and professed Christ, shot himself to death accidentally. He was associated with Underground Evangelism. U. E. head L. Joe Bass concurred in the verdict.

The American Baptist Seminary of the West will shut down its ailing Berkeley branch (formerly Berkeley Baptist Divinity School) and shift its Southern California operation from Covina to a new campus at Claremont.

Zondervan Publishing Company has 2.2-million copies of Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth in print. Last month Bantam Books flooded newsstands with 570,000 more copies.

The Georgetown University library in the nation’s capital annually loses more than $10,000 worth of books and periodicals, mostly through thefts. More books on the devil and witchcraft have disappeared than those on any other subject.

Six Methodist denominations plan to hold a joint North American congress on evangelism next January. They are the United Methodist, African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Free Methodist, Christian Methodist Episcopal, and Wesleyan churches.

The Southern Baptist foreign missionary force stands at more than 2,200.

Thousands in Bakersfield, California, have pitched in to prepare “The King of Glory,” an extravaganza of music, dance, and drama on the life of Christ, for performance next month as part of Key 73. It was conceived by Baptist pastor John A. Lavender, author of the American Baptist Key 73 lay program “Project Winsome.”

DEATHS

KENT S. KNUTSON, 48, president of the 2.5 million-member American Lutheran Church; in Minneapolis, of the rare Jakob’s disease.

ROBERT J. MCCRACKEN, 68, Scottish-born Baptist minister who was pastor of Riverside Church in New York City for twenty-one years until his retirement in 1967; on a cruise ship at sea near Bangkok, Thailand.

There are at least 339 published English versions of the Scriptures, forty-five of them complete Bibles, according to the American Bible Society.

Personalia

Larry Tomczak, 23, of Washington, D.C., former student-body president of 14,000-student Cleveland State University, may be the nation’s first full-time Roman Catholic lay evangelist. Hundreds have responded to his bedrock-gospel sermons and invitations.

Field coordinator Jay Kesler, 37, of Youth for Christ was elected YFC president this month, succeeding Sam Wolgemuth, 58, now YFC’s first full-time board chairman.

Press officer Kevin Logan, a Catholic, resigned his duties with the “Call to the North” joint evangelistic campaign in England, calling it “devil’s work.” He said the Call had become merely a compromising exercise in unity, accused the Catholic Church of aiming to convert England to its falseness, then said he wanted to become an Anglican priest.

Norway’s Arne Rudvin, a Lutheran, was installed as the Church of Pakistan’s second bishop of Karachi. The church is a union of Anglicans, Methodists, Scotch Presbyterians, and Danish Lutherans.

World Scene

Explo ’73 attracted 2,500 to a Campus Crusade evangelism training event in Guatemala City; 800 hit the streets to try out the training, and 1,100 decisions for Christ were recorded.

Japan Evangelical Mission has transferred several missionaries to Brazil, which has the largest population of Japanese outside Japan, and hopes nationals in Japan will soon join the missionary task force.

Less than three years ago, Algeria threatened to oust the missionaries working there, but now government leaders are asking for church workers to fill specialized job categories. Meanwhile, the small community of Protestants last year achieved a de facto union in a body known as the Protestant Church in Algeria, say sources.

Controversy is brewing among members of the Hungarian Reformed Church (there are reportedly 1,200 Reformed churches in Hungary with two million members). Bishop Bartha Tibor secretly sold the church in Debrecan (population 150,000) to the government, then dismissed the pastor when he objected. Fellow pastors, angry over the bishop’s act, may issue a public protest, risking jail if they do, according to a story in a Netherlands daily.

Ten students from the Southern Baptist-related Wake Forest University in North Carolina, on a study tour led by religion professor J. William Angell, visited the Pope, then took part in a nearby mass. They received the bread, a highly unusual event for non-Catholics (who are as a rule explicitly excluded in Catholic masses).

After the ceasefire in South Viet Nam, the Viet Cong took over a Southern Baptist-related chapel near Bien Hoa, says missionary James F. Humphries. The believers disobeyed orders and fled to territory held by the South Vietnamese.

The Cypriot cruise ship Sounion, carrying more than 250 Baptists and Methodists on a Holy Land tour operated by Wholesale Tours of New York, was blown up by terrorists in the Beirut, Lebanon, harbor. There were few injuries and no loss of life.

At least 10,000 university students in Kerala state, India, are actively involved in Campus Crusade for Christ, reports Crusade leader Bailey Marks.

Anglican bishop Chandu Ray of Singapore quotes Bishop K. H. Ting of Nanking, China, as saying that he knows of mainland Chinese churches “filled with people,” especially in Chekiang, his former diocese.

The ramp down which she had made her splashy entrances was gone, but evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson would have been pleased anyway had she been present. Overflow crowds were on hand to celebrate the golden anniversary last month of the 230,000-member International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (ICFG), which she founded. And Angelus Temple, the fifty-year-old 4,000-seat mother church she built (it’s just off the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles), was refurbished for the occasion at a price well in excess of the original construction costs. Outside, the city had grown from a population of 576,000 when she first preached there to 9.9 million.

The singing may have been more subdued and there may have been fewer shouted amens than in the good old days, but then it was “Sister Aimee” herself who advocated Pentecostalism “without fanaticism.” Dozens who had been at the 1923 opening of the temple traded memories at the anniversary gathering. Among them: William Hinderliter, 107, “the oldest Foursquare.”

She would have gotten excited over the reports. They show the ICFG is growing more rapidly overseas than in North America, where there are but 762 churches. The ICFG work is carried on in twenty-nine other countries by 142 missionaries and 2,700 national ministers working in 1,300 churches and 1,300 “meeting places.” Of 130,000 total conversions last year, 100,000 were recorded abroad. (Of these, only 20,000 went on to become members.) There are four Bible schools in North America, but forty-one overseas. Total income last year topped $1.2 million; $823,000 was put into the ICFG’s foreign work.

The Foursquare is reputedly the fastest-growing church in the Philippines. Four of the largest Protestant congregations in Colombia are Foursquare. An eighteen-month-old church in Taejon, Korea, draws more than a thousand young people to afternoon meetings. And the ICFG is in the forefront of the burgeoning Pentecostal movement in South America. (There are 80,000 Foursquare members in Brazil, with 326 churches and 300 other congregations. Growth is rapid. Thousands flocked to the first Foursquare evangelistic meetings in Porto Allegre in 1970, and 700 were baptized. Today fourteen churches trace their origin to those meetings. Leaders caution, however, that spiritualism and the occult is growing much more rapidly than Christianity.)

Inagori Baglana, 24, of Papua New Guinea was one of the many national workers who traveled thousands of miles to attend the ICFG anniversary convention. In an interview, he spoke of the difficulty of outreach in his land: there are 2.5 million people speaking 350 languages and 750 dialects. (The ICFG was the first missionary group to minister to the 200,000 Stone Age head-hunting people in the Dunatina Valley.) A revival began in 1963 and has continued ever since, said Baglana, accounting for more than 8,000 Foursquare converts in the last ten years. There are now sixty-three churches and 111 meeting places with about 9,000 members, served by 107 national pastors and two Bible schools, he said.

It all proves that the movement was built around Christ from the outset, “and not around mother,” commented Rolf K. McPherson, son of Aimee who succeeded her as ICFG president upon her death in 1944.

Sister Aimee was born in 1890 on a farm near Ingersoll, Ontario. At the age of seventeen she received Christ under the preaching of Irish Pentecostal evangelist Robert Semple, whom she married shortly afterward. They went to China in 1910 as missionaries, but Semple died of malaria three months after their arrival, and Sister Aimee returned to America with their infant daughter and took up missionary work. Later, she married businessman Harold Stewart McPherson, but they split up as she became involved in itinerant evangelism. She criss-crossed the U. S., finally settling on Los Angeles—and the temple—as headquarters.

Her meetings in large cities across the nation were usually interdenominationally sponsored and attracted vast crowds (curiously, photos show few young people in attendance). Outbreaks of tongues sometimes occurred in the various churches, sparking controversies and splits. Many of her staunchest backers were Baptists. She was ordained by the First Baptist Church of San Jose, California, which later split over the issue of Pentecostalism.

To perpetuate the work, she established L.I.F.E. (Lighthouse of International Foursquare Evangelism) Bible College in the temple in 1923 (today’s enrollment: 600).

The name “Foursquare” comes from a message she preached in Oakland, California, in 1922. It was about Ezekiel’s vision of the four cherubim. Sister Aimee said they suggested the four-fold ministry of Christ as saviour, baptizer, healer, and king.

The blue-eyed blonde evangelist’s life was often stormy. In 1931 she married a David Hutton; two years later he divorced her. In a newly published autobiography by Word Books, she says she later insisted that Foursquare bylaws prohibit remarriage while the former mate is still alive, “but in 1931 I felt differently.” There were power struggles and personality clashes among those managing Foursquare affairs; in one, Sister Aimee and her mother parted ways. The evangelist was even kidnapped once and held in Mexico but she managed to escape. The Los Angeles district attorney and the press, however, seemed bent on proving it was all a lie to cover up her involvement in a romantic scandal. She was later vindicated.

The ICFG is a liberated church, thanks to Sister Aimee, who wondered as a girl why women weren’t allowed to preach. She not only broke that tradition but went on to become the first woman to preach on radio. Today, about 40 per cent of the ICFG’s ministers are women (though they pastor only 8 per cent of the churches). Aimee had stamina; she personally baptized more than 100,000, often conducting twenty services a week.

As for belief, the ICFG declaration of faith generally follows traditional Pentecostal, fundamentalist, and Arminian lines. Foursquares also hold out fiercely for a pre-tribulation view of the rapture, a stand reaffirmed this year.

One of the liveliest segments of the celebration was Biblo ’73, an event that attracted 4,000 young people to the temple. For its finale, featuring evangelist David Wilkerson and entertainer Pat Boone (a member of the Foursquare church in nearby Van Nuys), Biblo shifted to a sports arena, where 10,000 assembled. About 1,000 responded to the invitation. Officials describe Biblo as the greatest youth event in ICFG history.

That would have pleased Sister Aimee, too. After all, she was a teenager when she committed herself to Christ, and look what happened.

CHURCHLESS KABUL?

The only Christian church in Afghanistan, a $320,000 structure built three years ago in the capital city of Kabul, was seized by the government this month and threatened with destruction. The American pastor, Dr. J. Christy Wilson, a United Presbyterian, was ordered out of the country. Authorities who had given permission for construction now contend that the church board did not have clear title to the property. But some close to the scene feel that the government is acting under pressure from militant Muslims.

Things are still simmering in Israel following arson attacks against mission agencies and explosions of Israeli outrage over attempts by Christians to evangelize Jews (see March 16 issue, page 38). Official denials notwithstanding, the Knesset (Parliament) may be forced to pass some sort of anti-missionary legislation as a sop to the noisy religious bloc in the government. Several proposals were to be debated this month. Observers believe that any measure adopted will be one main-line churches and agencies can live with, and that only the small aggressive groups will be affected.

The three religious parties (NRP) and the rightist Gahal party clearly want restrictive legislation, while the Alignment (government party) and the Israel Liberal Party (ILP) oppose it. To underline his concern, the NRP’s Yitzhak Raphael claimed that 130,000 Jews in America had joined the Jews for Jesus movement, the Jerusalem Post reported. But Yitzhak Golan of the ILP dismissed the figure as part of the “baseless and hysterical exaggeration” surrounding the issue. In a democracy like Israel, he insisted, ideology must be combated by ideology and education, not by legislation.

On March 4 a group of church leaders huddled with religious-affairs minister Zerah Warhaftig to discuss the situation. The clergymen voiced concern over “threats and violence directed against some Christian groups” and asked for clarification of the legislative push. Baptist leader Fuad Sakhnini of the Nazareth Baptist Church decried a campaign by the militant Jewish Defense League (JDL) to get the Arabs to emigrate from Israel. (Two facets: purchase of land from Arabs and establishment of an American committee to help Arabs emigrate to the United States.)

Warhaftig countered, said the Post, by citing the “bitterness of the Israeli public toward aggressive missionary activity, and particularly toward missionaries who use fraudulent means by pretending to be Jews.” He said that there would be no change in policy toward the “recognized” churches (technically, only the Anglican Church is officially recognized), and that the government will punish those guilty of violent acts against Christians. (Indeed, police minister Shlomo Hillel announced to law students at Hebrew University that evidence was being assembled against arson suspects, and church leaders reported stepped-up police protection.)

The JDL refuses to back off. Rabbi Meir Kahane of the JDL and three non-Jewish young Americans announced they are setting up a “Christians for Moses” movement to oppose the Jews for Jesus. (Co-founder John Cummings, 20, an American Mormon, says he has become convinced Moses should replace Jesus as Christianity’s leading figure. He and his colleagues will not convert to Judaism but will center their faith in the Old Testament, he explained. There are twenty-five Mosaic Christians in Israel, he added, and there are plans to start a branch in the United States.)

MINIMIZING FUTURE SHOCK

Pastor D. Leroy Sanders of the 2,000-member First Assembly of God in North Hollywood, California, believes in having everything in order in the event of an emergency. Like, the Second Coming. Sanders and his people believe that when that happens they will suddenly disappear (be raptured) from the earth. But what about afterward—what would happen to the $1.5 million church property, and how could the possibly remaining members keep the church operating?

Sanders took his questions to attorneys and denominational officials. Result: the church unanimously agreed to change its by-laws providing for a “temporary chairman” and election of new officers when the event occurs. To finance the work, members have been urged to rewrite their wills and insurance policies, naming the church as beneficiary. And to minimize initial confusion, the mortgage company has been alerted to the expected emergency, and consultations are under way with a major insurance company to determine how claims may be paid without waiting the usual seven-year period for missing persons.

Kahane says methods will match those of the Jews for Jesus. There will be meetings in private homes and information drives outside embassies and consulates. He stated:

We will give the Christian missionaries a dose of their own medicine and act precisely as they do on the Mount of Olives and Jaffa. Maybe then the authorities will reach the conclusion that missionary activity of any sort should not be permitted.

His sentiments were echoed a few days later by Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren in a speech to a labor club:

I say we must uproot this affliction called the mission. This can be done through legislation making it illegal to attempt [to persuade] any person to change his religion. The Knesset must display some courage and act, without fear of offending certain Gentile groups. There is nothing anti-democratic about such legislation, and decent people of all faiths would support it.

The infighting was forgotten momentarily as Jews, Christians, and Muslims gathered for an interfaith service for those killed in the Libyan jetliner shot down by Israeli jets.

Secret Document

Portugal is planning strict controls of missionary activities in its rebellious African colony, Angola, according to a purported secret document obtained by church missionary councils in Holland last month and examined by CHRISTIANITY TODAY correspondent Jan Van Capelleveen. The document, prepared by Portuguese colonial authorities, calls for closer supervision of missionaries and the “secret but always vigilant presence” of the government in mission affairs.

The report directs that Roman Catholic missionaries be politically attuned to Portuguese aims, in effect making the church an instrument of Portuguese colonial policy. (Angola has been wracked by rebellion among black Africans for several years, and economic pressure by American churches has been directed at firms doing business there.) Missionaries—Portuguese and foreign, Roman Catholic and Protestant—must also be forced to “join our work of Portugalizing the native masses,” says the report.

The Dutch councils passed the report—they did not say how they got it—along to their own government with demands that something be done to safeguard Dutch missionary work. In official protests, council leaders alleged that Portugal violates civil rights and religious liberty in Angola and misuses the church.

Experience Desired

About 300 priests and one bishop attended last month’s meeting of the Episcopal Charismatic Conference in Dallas. St. Matthew’s Cathedral rang with cries of “Praise the Lord” as the clergymen worshiped and—most for the first time—publicly shared their Pentecostal witness. Prayer and praise meetings in hotel rooms went on until the wee hours.

Bishop William C. Frey of Colorado emphasized a need to concentrate on the “fruits” of the Christian life rather than the charismatic “gifts” of prophecy, healing, exorcism, and glossolalia. But, said he, “Thank God we’re losing our stiffness and dignity.” The charismatic experience, he testified, “made experiential many things which I had known theoretically.”

The meeting was co-chaired by Seattle rector Dennis Bennett and Dallas clergyman Ted Nelson. A statement was approved, stating, “We do not wish to be a cause of division within the Body of Christ.” It asked for counsel from the bishops “so this new experience and awareness of God’s love and power may be better used … for the renewing and strengthening of the Church.”

HELEN PARMLEY

Humbard’S Cathedral: The Cracks Widen

With his empire tottering around him and two courts breathing down his neck, television evangelist Rex Humbard of suburban Akron, Ohio, reorganized his Cathedral of Tomorrow management and severely curtailed two of the Cathedral’s enterprises. The faculty and staff of Humbard’s winterbound Mackinac College in northern Michigan were “temporarily” laid off in early February. (CHRISTIANITY TODAY had earlier reported the Cathedral’s worsening financial situation. See February 2 issue, page 39.) The college’s spring reopening was delayed by a state court order while further financing was sought. (Some sources close to the scene predict it will close permanently.)

In Akron, Cathedral Teleproductions—a production facility that Humbard claimed was the finest between New York and Chicago—closed down its secular operations (mostly commercials). It will still produce and distribute the weekly Cathedral service.

However, Judge Paul Riley said the closure was in violation of the injunction and warned the Cathedral against making similar moves in future without court permission. In all, more than 100 employees were laid off.

Humbard also accepted a court’s appointment of a watchdog to oversee Cathedral finances and ensure that there are no violations of a court-imposed injunction that froze assets and limited spending (see March 2 issue, page 52). The overseer is Lawrence Manning, a retired Cleveland business executive who will be paid at an hourly rate by the Cathedral.

A college staff member said the Cathedral needs $300,000 to keep the college operating for the rest of this year. He predicted that if kept open the college would enroll 350 students next fall. Currently only 136 attend. However, the staffer admitted “we are in limbo, right now.”

A federal court hearing will reconvene in April to hear charges brought by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. The court, meanwhile, has given the Cathedral forty-five days to improve its financial condition and present a viable financial plan for backing millions of dollars’ worth of unregistered securities it sold. The court has also ordered the Cathedral to hand over all financial data to both the Ohio commerce department and the SEC before April 10.

BARRIE DOYLE

Selling Out

If the managers of the bankrupt Dick Ross and Associates corporation and the Ross Productions partnership have their way, the remaining assets will be sold to a Los Angeles combine known as “C.L.Ltd.” The assets: copies and distribution rights of two films, The Cross and the Switchblade and The Late Liz. C.L. has offered $400,000. This, combined with $200,000 income from the films since the financial failure in late 1971 (see January 7, 1972, issue, page 44), will pay off creditors and investors at the rate of about forty cents to a dollar, according to a plan submitted in court recently. Another $150,000 has already been paid. At the time of the collapse, debts totaled more than $1 million.

Several dozen contracts—mostly rental leases—and claims were rejected in the plan; disputes over several of these may cause hearings (the next are scheduled in April) to drag on without a quick decision. Among those rejected are claims by shipping magnates Daniel and Plato Skouras of New York, California film-maker Tom Harris, and Ross’s secretary, Mariann Free of Hollywood. The Internal Revenue Service seized much leased equipment from Ross’s offices in seven states; claims from these rental firms are also rejected in the plan.

An American Baptist-related agency has been handling affairs for the stricken enterprise.

President, Still Archbishop

When Archbishop Makarios, newly reacclaimed President of Cyprus, rejected fresh demands by Cypriot Orthodox Church bishops that he step down (see March 16 issue, page 41), the bishops—all of whom rank below Makarios in the church’s hierarchy—voted to defrock him. Unperturbed, Makarios declared that any decisions reached by them were “null and void from the beginning.” Support for Makarios’s stand came from unexpected quarters including the military government of Greece, the Greek Orthodox Church, political foes of the Athens regime, and almost all newspapers and media in Greece.

Tanenbaum: Response And Rejoinder

A statement by evangelist Billy Graham clarifying his position on evangelism and the Jews (see March 16 issue, page 29) met with the approval of Jewish leaders this month, defusing somewhat the tension that has been building up in Jewish circles over Key 73. Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, interreligious-affairs director for the American Jewish Committee and an outspoken opponent of evangelism of Jews, called the statement “a constructive contribution to interreligious understanding.” The statement was prepared after three days of intensive talks between Graham and Tanenbaum. It rejects coercion and intimidation in evangelism, and says Key 73 seeks “to call all men to Christ without singling out any specific religious or ethnic group.”

Tanenbaum’s comments were made at a press conference in which he described Graham as “one of the great and good friends of the Jewish people … destined by God to play a crucial role in clarifying the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.”

On the other hand, Tanenbaum charged, some Jews are still being subjected to “coercion and psychological harassment.” Groups such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and Campus Crusade for Christ are putting undue pressure on Jewish students, he claimed. He accused Crusade members of “breaking into” a University of Michigan dormitory and refusing to leave Jewish students’ rooms without decisions for Christ. (A Crusade staffer contacted at the university said the charge was false. He said a religious survey was conducted on campus through letters sent to dorms; interested students were invited to meet in a public area.

Also, Tanenbaum asserted, an FCA group in a Columbus, Ohio, high school won’t permit students to play on varsity squads unless they join FCA, though the student body is 30 per cent Jewish. (An FCA spokesman later denied the charge.)

Because of the furor, several Key 73 leaders at the local level have disclaimed attempts to evangelize Jews. United Methodist Ralph Johnson, chairman of the Church’s Key 73 task force in the Southern California-Arizona Conference, warned that the assumption that “those of other religious traditions are without meaningful faith is arrogant and presumptuous.”

At the National Council of Churches meeting in Pittsburgh this month, evangelism of Jews was debated (see story, page 44). Delegates accepted a resolution calling for increased Christian-Jewish dialogue but rejected one that called for an end to proselytism in the Jewish community. The American Jewish Congress, meanwhile turned down a Navy explanation that support for Key 73 doesn’t constitute an infringement of Jewish rights. The Navy Chief of Chaplains told the upset AJC that since many sailors were members of Key 73-supporting churches, it was proper for him to urge support from the chaplains (see February 16 issue, page 54). The AJC, however, holds to its original charge that the Navy is supporting proselytism efforts.

With Graham’s statement made public, Tanenbaum said he hopes Key 73 will follow suit, but he does not insist on it.

BARRIE DOYLE

Renewal In Latin America

Some 2,000 delegates gathered in Porto Alegre, Brazil’s southernmost metropolis, for the simultaneous eighth annual conference of the Brazilian charismatic renewal movement and the Second Latin American Renewal Congress. Smaller delegations were on hand from Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile, and from as far away as Costa Rica. Audiences of up to 5,000 heard messages and testimonies by renewal leaders from all over the continent.

The Brazilian renewal movement differs considerably from the much younger movement in neighboring Argentina. It began almost nine years ago when leaders in a number of mainline denominations began to experience the so-called baptism of the Holy Spirit, with a consequent outpouring of charismatic gifts and of evangelistic zeal. This eventually led to a number of divisions and restructuring along traditional denominational lines. Churches that at first grew rapidly are beginning to stagnate, say observers. Some are turning for help to outside movements such as the Morris Cerullo Evangelistic Association, Overseas Crusades, the Institute of In-Depth Evangelism, and the Argentine renewal movement.

The emphasis of the four-year-old Argentine movement is upon structural renewal rather than “charismatic” renewal. Charismata are considered merely a first step, with radical implications for the entire life-style of the Church, says In-Depth Evangelism’s A. William Cook, Jr. Christian unity is implemented primarily at the level of local-church leadership in each city. (The local church in the movement is comprised of every believer in a given city, although this church may meet in a number of localities throughout the city. Local pastors are looked upon as elders of the city church; they are a tightly knit fellowship. Each pastor or elder works with a small band of disciples or key men in his neighborhood fellowship, who in turn are responsible for disciples right on down to the level of each home.)

Whereas the Brazilian movement has tended to institutionalize along denominational and strong individual leadership lines, the Argentine movement seems flexible and open. It seeks to permeate traditional denominations with its concepts, and has thus made a decisive impact, not only in its own country but throughout Spanish America. Although it is too early to gauge the extent of the influence of the Argentine movement upon its Brazilian counterpart—each became aware of the other’s existence less than two years ago—there are signs that the renewal churches in Brazil may adopt the Argentine model. The new hymnology of the Argentine movement, for example, is now much in evidence in Brazil.

Meanwhile, the fires of renewal continue to spread throughout Spanish America, as is evidenced by renewal congresses recently held in Mexico and Costa Rica. This last event was attended by delegates and speakers from almost every Central American country and from Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and the United States.

Swedes Split

Stiftelsen Biblicum, Sweden’s evangelical institute for Bible study and research at Uppsala (see April 28, 1972, issue, page 38), has lost three members of its Board of Directors, including the figurehead president, well-known Old Testament scholar Dr. G. A. Danell.

The crisis began when board member Per Jonsson resigned from the (state) Church of Sweden and from its ministry. Jonsson said he wanted to be free to defend the biblical faith and Lutheran confessions without being compromised by his official position in the state church. Thereupon three directors of the Biblicum, Danell, Ingvar Kector, and Ingemar Franck, sought to have him excluded from Biblicum on the grounds that only Church of Sweden members should be allowed to belong. When the majority of the board refused to expel Jonsson, the three resigned.

Biblicum’s chief administrative officer, Dr. Seth Erlandsson, issued a statement last month expressing his appreciation to the three, especially to Danell, an outstanding defender of biblical infallibility in Sweden, and voicing regrets that Danell and the others feel so strongly that unless a person remains within the state church he cannot be trusted to fight for the biblical faith. Biblicum’s official position is non-denominational, but until now all its board members have belonged to the state church.

Church Of The New Song

A two-year-sect made up primarily of prison inmates is gaining considerable recognition throughout the United States, much to the consternation of corrections officials.

The Church of the New Song, founded by Maine-born Harry W. Theriault, who is serving sentences for theft and escape (currently in a La Tuna, Texas, prison), seems to focus its doctrines upon the rights of prisoners. Or at least that has been the source of its popularity. Wardens in several federal penitentiaries where the movement is strong have refused to accommodate these “rights,” and the prisoners have taken the resulting disputes to courts.

A federal judge in San Francisco dismissed a suit filed in behalf of inmates, calling the claims “patently frivolous.” A warden at San Quentin said the group’s communion services specify using Harvey’s Bristol Cream sherry and Porterhouse steak. A federal judge in Texas also ruled against the Church of the New Song, but that case is being appealed.

Theriault, 33, has made the most headway in litigation before Federal Judge Newell Edenfield of Atlanta. A year ago Edenfield ruled in effect that the Church of the New Song was a legitimate religious group as worthy of recognition by prison officials as a group of Protestants, Catholics, Jews, or Muslims would be. Theriault subsequently brought charges against Norman Carlson, director of the U. S. Bureau of Prisons, and the Reverend Frederick Silber, director of chaplaincy services for the bureau. Theriault argued that they were in contempt of court because they were not giving New Song adherents adequate freedom to practice their religion. Edenfield again ruled in his favor, but put off sentencing Carlson and Silber pending the outcome of appeals.

The New Song has a 600-page “bible” drawn from an assortment of sources and using exotic terminology. Theriault, who calls New Song “the highest fulfillment of the Christian prophecy,” has a ministerial license from the mail-order Universal Life Church in Modesto. California. (ULC also elevated a rapist at California’s Folsom prison to “cardinal,” causing a furor there.)

Zaire Zaps Its Religious Press

The religious press in Zaire (formerly Congo) is the most recent victim of the government’s continuing pressure on churches. On February 8, Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko signed a law suspending thirty-one publications. Every major church-sponsored periodical appeared on the list.

The Roman Caltholic monthly Afrique Chrétienne was closed down for the third time in three years by the government’s action. Banned Protestant publications ranged from the vernacular Minsamu Miayenge, the oldest periodical in the country (founded 1892), to Zaire Church News, official journal of the Church of Christ in Zaire and its predecessor body since 1912. Even the mimeographed news bulletins of the three major churches (Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Kimbanguist) were interdicted.

Religious youth organizations were suspended late last year when the regime decreed that the only youth group that could function was the youth wing of the nation’s single political party. About the same time all religious programs were barred from the government-owned national radio and television network.

“Authenticity” is the catch-all word used by the government to justify its various restrictive moves against the churches. The reason given for suspending religious youth groups illustrates the logic: Different religious groups disseminate differing doctrines that tend to confuse and divide the Zairian people; this division weakens President Mobutu Sese Seko’s campaign to build a strong united nation founded on authentic Bantu concepts.

The decree suspending all these publications put this logic in official form: “It is indispensable that the media of mass communication be engaged under the Department of National Orientation in the development of an authentic Zairian revolution, given that the harmonious development of the country necessitates unity of action.”

A government-controlled daily newspaper, Elima, intimated that the government’s restrictive measure on the religious press was directed primarily against the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The Catholic Church has been stubbornly resisting the regime’s moves toward a secular state for it would thereby lose its favored and politically powerful status.

But if the recent repressive moves of the regime are indeed directed primarily against the Catholics, Protestants find small consolation or compensation in this. Ever since Dr. Bokambanza Bokeleale assumed leadership in 1970 of what is now the Church of Christ in Zaire, he has closely allied the CCZ to the regime’s moves and aims. As late as December, 1972, he praised the government’s policies without reserve in his Christmas message. But despite this loyalty, the CCZ was hit as hard as the Catholic Church.

ROBERT L. NIKLAUS

The National Council of Churches found itself facing a major split during a showdown meeting in Pittsburgh this month. At issue was a proposal to relax the NCC’s twelve-year-old stand against abortion, outweighing in importance more vigorously debated matters of Jewish-Christian relations.

A policy statement under consideration by the NCC’s newly organized Governing Board elicited a warning from Orthodox spokesmen that their eight communions might withdraw from the ecumenical organization if the thirteen-page document were endorsed. So the statement was relabeled a paper and distributed “for study and serious consideration of its suggestions for action by churches.” Constituencies are asked to report back reactions within a year so that the board can have another go at the document as a policy statement. The action took place at a four-day Governing Board meeting in the Steel City, where the Orthodox community is considerable.

Although the document did not win board approval, it nonetheless represented a propaganda victory for proabortion forces, for anti-abortion arguments do not appear in the study paper.

The paper was drawn up by a twenty-two member task force headed by Ms. Claire Randall, an executive of Church Women United. It was intended to supplant a 1961 action in which the NCC official declared that “Protestant Christians are agreed in condemning abortion or any method which destroys human life except when the health or life of the mother is at stake. The destruction of life already begun cannot be condoned as a method of family limitation.”

The latest statement asserts that “where abortion is a possible decision, we believe a woman’s conscience must be given priority in the decision-making.” “There is true sanctity,” the statement asserts, “both in the unborn life of the womb and in the life of the living, breathing human being.… Each has a claim to value. We believe the claim of unborn life increases as it develops. When the claim to value of unborn life is seen to conflict with the claim of fully existent life, neither of these claims can be considered absolute. They must be weighed in the light of the total situation and of what would most conserve human and spiritual values.” The paper makes no attempt to determine when in the development process the fetus assumes full human rights. It says the Supreme Court’s abortion decision “increases the responsibility of the churches to understand the circumstances in which the need for abortions arises.”

A spokesman for the Orthodox, Robert Stephanopoulos, expressed disagreement with “the basic formulation of the paper.… Its presuppositions, assumptions, and conclusions are in some cases contrary to those of the Greek Orthodox Church. The theological formulation is weak and overgeneralized.”

Stephanopoulos was one of three members of the drafting task force who registered dissent. He said that “a policy statement of this sort … would seriously jeopardize our continued relationship with the NCC.”

Also outspoken was Peter Day, a noted Episcopal churchman. In an eleven-page critique of the NCC proposal distributed to board members, Day argued that the statement “would not only appear to give legal sanction to homicide on the vast scale now being practiced in New York—one abortion for every two live births—but also to excuse it morally.” He said it contained “many questionable points of which perhaps the most dangerous is the placing of ‘quality of life’ in the balance against life itself.”

The abortion task force was appointed a year ago. It held two two-day and two three-day meetings. Five members of the NCC staff, including a Roman Catholic nun, served as consultants.

Ms. Randall, an artist turned administrator, said she was not unhappy at the outcome because it became plain during discussion that “at this moment in history” a study paper was more appropriate. Ms. Randall, a Presbyterian, received her degree from Scarritt College. Her cool manner earned the respect of board members and went a long way toward keeping the debate from becoming overly emotional.

The abortion paper was the first major item handled under a new procedure brought about by the reorganization of the NCC in December. Before being considered in a plenary session, the proposal was aired separately in five sub-groups into which the board had been divided. Section One reviewed it in relation to “Renewal of the Church Evangelism and Mission,” Section Two in relation to “Amelioration of Human Need,” Section Three to “Systematic Changes in Society,” Section Four to “The Culture and Life Fulfillment,” and Section Five to “Christian Unity.” The study-paper disposition was urged by Sections One, Two, and Four. Section Five asked that the statement “be further developed as a study document” by an augmented task force. Only Section Three urged its adoption as a policy statement.

The NCC Governing Board replaces the old General Board, which met three times a year, and the General Assembly, which convened triennially. The Governing Board is authorized to have 347 members (compared to 250 on the old board), but only 140 were on hand in Pittsburgh. Of these, 121 voted on the question of “further development” of the task-force report, according to the NCC Office of Information (38 supported that alternative, but 83 were opposed). As the procedure worked out, no vote was taken that gave a true test of how many favored the study route as over against the policy statement.

The most intensive arguments at the board meeting took place not over abortion but on two aspects of Jewish-Christian relations. There were fairly hot discussions on whether to “condemn” Israel for the Libyan airliner incident and on evangelization of Jews. The proposal to use the word “condemn” was offered as an amendment to a resolution. The amendment was defeated and the resolution came out rather softly worded. A letter of regret was forwarded to Libya, and an NCC staff study was ordered.

An official report from Section Five urged the board to express “deep interest” in Key 73¹NCC general secretary R. H. Edwin Espy, who is serving his last year in office before retiring (a replacement committee meets May 30), said that no part of the council has joined Key 73, even though 60 percent of the delegates at it’s December assembly had indicated in a survey that they favored NCC involvement. and called attention to “the necessity it presents for a Christian dialogue with the Jewish community relative … to the relationship between our efforts to evangelize and their concern for religious liberty in a pluralistic society.” But after Section Five voted on that wording, several of its members reassembled in what others regarded as a rump session and drafted an amendment. The proposal said Christians have the responsibility of “rejecting any efforts to proselytize members of the Jewish community” and should instead be “encouraging the efforts of those who are developing on biblical grounds a Christian theology of Judaism which recognizes that the promises made by God to the Jewish people are irrevocable and which views Judaism as a valid, contributive, and eternal faith.”

Introduction of the amendment prompted several board members, to the utter disbelief of others, to cite recent incidents in which the rights of Jewish Americans were allegedly trampled upon in the name of Christianity. The amendment was defeated, however, to the apparent discouragement of two representatives of the American Jewish Committee who were present.

In a subsequent press conference, NCC president W. Sterling Cary referred to extreme methods to convert Jews as “demonic,” but before the board he said that such antics “should not be interpreted as a judgment on the integrity of the Key 73 executive committee.”

Cary, elected last December, waded through a wide assortment of issues without getting himself into any major parliamentary jams. Board actions included adoption of guidelines on U. S. domestic priorities, relief and reconstruction needs in Indochina, and capital fund investment practices. Further encouragement was given the United Farm Workers’ lettuce boycott. (The William Penn Hotel, site of the board meeting, agreed not to serve iceberg lettuce picked by non-UFW labor.)

Cary wound up the meeting with a touch of humor. Calling for a vote on the final action he said, “All in favor say Amen. All opposed say A-women!”

AS PASTOR OF a mainstream denominational church in the suburbs of a large city, I feel like the man in the television ad balancing himself with a long pole on a wire stretched atop a car going along a bumpy road.

Many other evangelical ministers and members in connectional churches will know just what I mean by this. We are trying hard to strike a balance between loyalty to denomination and loyalty to conscience. The current crisis in mission makes this a difficult feat.

Generally speaking, the members and officers of our congregation have respect for denominational processes and responsibilities. Our elders go faithfully to denominational meetings at all levels. Many have been unhappy in the last ten years with what they feel have been extreme pronouncements and actions by the higher judicatories. But no one is talking about breaking away; no one is advocating schism. Pressure comes at the point of supporting the general mission of the higher judicatories. The competition of worthy causes for benevolence dollars has become so great that the mission policy of our local church has undergone drastic revision.

For most of my years in the ministry I had a deep conviction about urging the congregations I served to support the denomination’s unified budget. Although I could not agree with all programs of all the boards, and although critics cited unfaithfulness or heresy in places, I felt it was a duty for people of confessional or evangelical convictions to give a witness of generous stewardship. I think most of the elders and members in my present congregation felt the same way about the matter.

We have changed. In the last decade, for example, we have felt the impact of student revolt at nearby colleges and universities, and we have reacted against what we felt was incredible compromise and weakness on the part of interdenominational ministries at those places. When one of the campus ministers at a neighboring university finally stated that he was a Marxist, a Leninist, and a Maoist, he was let go by the interdenominational board not because he was ideologically unacceptable but for “lack of funds.” Our governing board had discontinued program support two years before.

This weakness in student ministry is only a symptom of denominational and ecumenical disease. The real crisis in mission as it affects the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches, and many of the established denominations is theological.

The question is this: Is it the mission of the Church to humanize society by changing social and political structures even to the point of encouraging violent revolution, or to evangelize society by proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by planting churches, and by maintaining a soul-winning goal in the midst of social action?

Our board and congregation are committed to four principles:

1. We designate all our mission dollars in accordance with certain options for giving established two years ago at the annual meeting of the denomination. Under “Option Three” a congregation gives to a mission institution or objective of the denomination with the understanding that any excess received over the budgeted amount is redirected in consultation with the congregation. “Option Four” giving goes through the denominational treasury as an “over-and-above” gift, with nothing siphoned off into a general fund. About one-third of our budgeted giving is under Opinion Three.

2. We are studying the mission situation generally and specifically. My people recently survived a series of seven sermons I preached on the Frankfurt Declaration, written three years ago by Dr. Peter Beyerhaus and others in Germany (see June 19, 1970, issue, page 3). Our elders engage in much conversation and correspondence with workers on fields inside and outside the United States.

3. We are working with denominational executives and offices both to give designated support where possible and to register our conviction about misdirection in mission. The chairman and several members of our mission-of-the-church department recently sent a long letter to executives in New York making plain our disagreement with any policy that subordinates or neglects the proclamation of the Gospel. We believe that the authority for mission derives from the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and not from an anonymous working of Christ in history or from an agenda of radical revolution somewhere in the world. We believe that all non-Christians, including adherents of the great ethnic faiths, need Christ, and need to make a decision about him. We repudiate the idea that the mission of the church is furthered by cooperation with Marxists.

4. We are giving designated support to social action in our area, especially in a nearby black community, because we believe that action to heal human hurts is an essential expression of Christian faith and because we can lend a Christian presence and witness to that social action.

Our general mission giving last year was about $170,000. Almost $70,000 of this was designated giving by members apart from the budget, to both denominational and non-denominational causes. A few of our members have designated their gifts to causes of their own choosing because they do not agree with the position generally held by the congregation and the board.

We believe this is one way to go in times that we know are difficult for denominational executives as well as for us. We are trying to be faithful and constructive.—CARY N. WEISIGER III, pastor, Menlo Park (California) Presbyterian Church, and contributing editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY.