As i write this I have just put down the morning paper, which is full of the news of the first night of the Democratic Convention. I have read nine—count ’em, nine—editorialists’ comments on the political scene. My confusion of mind is utter, but then one has to “keep up,” doesn’t one?

But one can’t keep up, can one? As long ago as 1960 I jotted down some figures from a report of the Western Reserve University Center of Documentation and Communication: any normal reader will fall behind to the extent of 1,051,200,000 pages every year; chemists in particular must read 850,000 pages every year just to keep up; and every sixty seconds 2,000 pages are published. I don’t know what the latest figures on this problem are, but without doubt they’re even more staggering.

What is true in general is also true in any one field, such as theology. On almost any contemporary theologian one could build up a five-foot shelf of books. Since in the last fifty years we have had a great outpouring of theological writing, one gets a little leery about facts and opinions on all these matters delivered by the so-called experts. We are crying out for some new systematizer to put it all together. Meanwhile, one has to do what he can himself to see what has happened and what is still happening.

Professors differ from other people in their tendency to be what is called “professorial,” with attendant characteristics like thick glasses, stooped shoulders, pedantries, and absent-mindedness. But they are like their fellow men in being afflicted with things like total depravity and original sin. Toilers in the groves of academe are sometimes anxious about many things and especially about academic preferment. They are given at times to jealousy, political maneuver, non-intellectual stubbornness, selfishness, resentment, small-mindedness, and super-sensitivity in the fields of their own expertise. In and around it all there is the endless fear that they won’t be able to “keep up.” There are many strange fears behind the quiet ivy-covered walls, and not a little infighting when the situation gets really fearful.

Two very evident academic afflictions can be called “me first” and “me too.” There is great nervousness about this sort of thing in all academic circles. Be the first boy on your street to recognize that a “whole new direction” has been hinted at by an obscure Swedish authority on Luther who has appeared in some German footnotes, was explained by the British, and is now ready for the Americans. If you can make some modest reference to such a one in a paper before the local ministerium, it may be that this man will become the next Karl Barth. You were there first. But how can you be sure? Maybe the next big name will come out of Russia or Bulgaria. The reams of reviews, abstracts, criticisms, and other learned papers that keep appearing day after day make for amused or bemused reading. Who will the next man be and who will be the first to know?

If one can’t make it in the “me first” department, he might try the “me too” approach. Now you can get off some word about having been watching this movement all along: “everybody knows” if he has kept up on his reading that this is where it’s at these days. And once the new man and new movement have established themselves, then everyone must offer electives, and seminars and colloquia on them. Whether all this helps to bring in the kingdom is beside the point; the time has come for everyone to be “with it.”

Apart from basic scholarship in such matters, have you noticed the cutbacks in all institutions as they attempt to clear up their deficits? They are cutting off the “fat,” the luxury courses, the proliferation of courses built around the “me too” syndrome. (And just everybody has to use the word “syndrome” these days!)

My very own “me first” and “me too” of recent vintage has been Jacques Ellul, a French Protestant, a professor of political science in the University of Bordeaux. Tell your friends that you read it here first. But how could you? He has been around a long time, and I might have missed him early on if a student hadn’t come to ask to write a term paper on him. Where Ellul stands in the present theological pecking order I would hesitate to say, but I think you should read him just because he refuses to get caught in the “me too” business and may have something really worthwhile in the “me first” business.

With regard to “me too,” think about this:

The World Council precipitately adopted positions that seemed to me scarcely worth taking seriously: problems poorly analyzed, inadequate solutions, superficiality, lack of sound theological thinking, etc. I have a horror of the reign of false experts! [Theological Crossing, p. 45].

Or again.

In my opinion the radical fault of these theologies is their conformity to the world.… But [theirs] is a radicalism that characterizes the whole society, and what is so wonderful about falling in with it? [p. 50].

And as to “me first” Ellul writes,

It is beyond the crisis that we must find the true expression of the Revelation … an expression that is true because, on the one hand, it comes to grips with the problems of our society and its people, and on the other, firmly upholds the reality of the Revelation in its fullness. Today my thinking centers on the search for a Credo for the church of tomorrow [p. 50].

Years ago in Egypt I was impressed by all that missions have done—hospitals, leper clinics, baby clinics, college and prep schools, and so on. All these now have been matched by the state. Shall the mission remain competitive with the state, or try to imitate the state (a common failing in church colleges, for example), or are the credo of the future and the social action of the future to grow out of the obedience to the Spirit, who continues to lead, not to copy? The best is yet to be, but we shall never find it by forcing what is to be next, nor by imitating what we now see about us. The Spirit of God works when and where and how he pleases; we are called upon to listen and to obey, and that will mean his expertise, not ours.

For many years, propagandists in the Soviet Union reveled in the notion that only ignorant peasants were attracted to Christianity. They were convinced that thinking people had fully accepted the Communist principle limiting reality to scientific and material data. No fine mind, they claimed, would take seriously what Christian people regarded as things of the Spirit.

Now the picture is changing, and the popularizers of Kremlin ideology are being robbed of their argument that all the intellectual elite are anti-religious. A number of Soviet citizens whose names have been household words in cultural circles have been converted to Christianity in recent years and are defending the church. Leading artists and writers have been baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church and have publicly demanded an end to the severe controls on religious activity.

After a spiritual turnabout, artist Yuri Titov began doing paintings intended to show the conflict between good and evil, and between religion and atheism. A recent article in the Scotsman by Janice Broun quoted Titov as saying, “Our forgetfulness of the truth revealed to us by the Holy Scriptures has brought the modern world to the brink of catastrophe. With few exceptions, modern art produces a world of superficial sensation, forgetful of its spiritual first principles. This not only hinders man’s spiritual formation, but even leads to the necrosis and destruction of the soul of modern man.”

Soviet authorities are understandably anxious over the espousal of biblical standards by influential figures. They see some anti-Communist premises built into the new outlook; they also fear a link-up with long-simmering nationalistic feelings among Ukrainians and other non-Russian Soviet peoples. So some intellectuals have been jailed, while others have been sent off to mental institutions and their works destroyed. Some are still free but are watched closely.

The authorities continue to have problems among the rank-and-file, where dissent has been more common. A particular source of embarrassment this past spring was an incident at the American embassy in Moscow. Nineteen persons rushed the Soviet guards in an attempt to present a petition for religious liberty to U. S. officials. The guards seized four of the group, but the other fifteen managed to get in. They stayed overnight and reportedly received safe conduct back to Siberia.

According to one source the group, which included five children, left some documents at the embassy. A request sent to the embassy for a copy of the material was not immediately acknowledged. The incident happened only days before President Nixon visited Moscow.

Nixon’s visit and particularly his attendance at a Sunday service in the Moscow Baptist church indelibly impressed Christians in the Soviet Union. It also affected the Nixons. The President said afterwards: “Pat and I were both deeply moved by the service we attended during the Moscow visit. An occasion like that can’t help but remind you that whatever the language, whatever the country, messages of faith and peace make themselves heard.”

Repaying in a sense the Nixon visit, pastors Zhidkov and Bichkov visited Washington earlier this month and got a VIP tour of the White House. The two—with two other Soviet Baptists—were in the United States following the Baptist World Alliance meeting in Jamaica. The Russians were reportedly delighted to see pictures of Nixon at their church hanging on White House walls. Bichkov also spent time mixing with a Carl McIntire demonstration in Philadelphia. McIntire was protesting the Russian visit, and Bichkov was photographing McIntire.

To counteract developments favorable to Christian growth, the Soviet government has been trying to exploit the split between Protestants in registered churches and those who regard the recognized congregations as too subservient to the authorities. A recent article in a Soviet periodical described in great detail how representatives of North American religious groups purportedly paid off dissident informers.

Getting information to the West about churches in Communist lands is a continuing challenge. Soviet officials frown on contacts between newsmen and dissidents, and government-authorized releases are badly biased.

The monthly newsletter Religion in Communist Dominated Areas, published in New York, continues to be a reliable and accurate source. Published for ten years through the National Council of Churches, it is being continued through a newly incorporated agency, the Research Center for Religion and Human Rights in Closed Societies. Starr West Jones, senior editor of Guideposts magazine, is president of the Research Center, and Paul B. Anderson is honorary chairman. Blahoslav Hruby and Dr. Anderson founded the newsletter. Dr. Hruby is now executive director of the Research Center and edits the newsletter.

New Baptist Fire In Europe

Baptists in West Germany and Romania report a thriving Christian witness. But in Italy, mixing politics with the Gospel is proving deadly.

“Is Communism a valid expression of Christian faith in action?” “Yes!” seemed to be the answer of the majority of the 170 delegates to the meeting of the Italian Baptist Union of Evangelical Churches, reports an observer. With church interest dwindling and interest in the social gospel rising, tensions ran high as long-smoldering differences over Christian witness erupted into conflagration.

Southern Baptist missionaries serving in Italy have long been concerned over what field director John Merritt termed “a growing political flavor” characterizing the testimony of many Italian Baptist churches. Merritt minced no words explaining to the delegates why relations between the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (FMB) and the Italian churches were so strained. “In the last few years,” Merritt observed, “there has been a tendency to adopt the ‘political-social response’ as the one and only valid expression of the Christian faith and to involve the churches and the Union itself in ‘class struggle’ and in political involvement.”

American missionaries in Italy traditionally have remained neutral in political issues and instead have dedicated themselves to preaching the Word of God to Italian masses. They believe that the “proletarian, anti-imperialistic social gospel” proclaimed by many Italian Baptists is responsible for decreasing conversions and baptisms. Only fifty-eight of 126 Italian communities have pastors and property, and buildings financed by U. S. Christians to train Italian youth for gospel outreach are either unused or used for non-religious purposes.

After more than 100 years of missionary endeavor, the FMB has seen only a few of its fifty-eight churches become financially autonomous, though affluence in Italy is at an all time high. With this in mind, FMB missionaries decided that this year’s assembly was the place to raise the social-gospel issue.

Merritt and his vocal minority of Italian delegates debated the political question and pointed out that a proposed new constitution (another touchy issue) permitted property to be “directed by an executive committee of which the majority would not be elected by the Italian Baptists.” They also noted that “the proposed constitution does not even require that the members of the committee be Christians.”

Under threat of withdrawal of financial aid from the United States, the minority mustered an overwhelming majority and rejected the constitutional proposal. Protestant leftist weekly Nuovi Tempi, which is subsidized by the Baptist Union, accused the FMB of “blackmailing” Italian churches.

The Union’s northern brother, the 24,000-member Baptist Union of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), also reports a slight decline in membership. But at its recent triennial conference other bulletins were optimistic. Baptist publication businesses are flourishing and student interest in the church is rising.

And to the east of Italy, the Baptist Union of Romania, which last month held its first national conference in seven years, with 1,400 participants, issued glowing reports. The conference building, First Baptist Church, Bucharest, seated only 500, and the remainder of delegates stood in aisles, doorways, and windows from three-and-one-half to five hours at a stretch (at one session overflow delegates stood in a downpour for that long).

The conference reported over 4,000 registered baptisms in the past year, with perhaps twice that many unregistered. Since World War II the Romanian Baptist Church, now claiming 120,000 registered members, has grown more rapidly than any other East European church. As in East Germany, interest and participation among young people is high, even though in Romania youth programs are outlawed.

Further bulletins indicate renewed spiritual interest throughout Europe. An evangelism conference with fourteen participating Baptist unions met to study the “new awakening evident in many ears” and to devise strategy to keep the spiritual—not political—fires burning.

Moving Religion Market

Putting their best publications forward, backward, and sometimes sideways, more than 165 exhibitors competed bookend to bookend for the attention of nearly 1,200 dealers at the twenty-third annual convention of the Christian Booksellers Association, held in Cincinnati July 30–August 3.

With no end in sight to the making of many books, there’s one solid reason why Christian books are coming off the presses at record rates: they sell. CBA executive vice-president John Bass said Christian bookstores report a 19.2 per cent increase in sales, “almost higher than any other retail business.” “Even in Seattle, a depressed area, bookstores experienced a 30 per cent increase in business,” Bass said.

While there’s profit in prophecy (The Late Great Planet Earth still tops the Religious Best Sellers List), there’s also cash in charisma. Two books by a former Army chaplain, Merlin R. Carothers (Prison to Praise and Power in Praise) rank third and fourth on the coveted list of best-selling paperbacks.

Dan Malachuk, president of Logos International in Plainfield, New Jersey, Carothers’s publisher, said his firm had a 2,000 per cent sales increase in the past four years. Logos got its start with Nicky Cruz’s runaway best-seller, Run, Baby, Run. “The secret of our success is that Jesus is the chairman of the board,” Malachuk testifies.

But few publishers, including Malachuk, were content to leave everything to the Board Chairman. Authors of best-sellers were present to autograph copies of their books. Francis Schaeffer did double duty, putting in time at the booths of both Tyndale House and Inter-Varsity Publishers. Bernard Palmer, author of children’s books and numerous adult novels, plugged his books at the Moody Press booth. Merlin Carothers signed for Logos, International. Cathedral of Tomorrow TV minister Rex Humbard, one of the luncheon speakers, promoted his Revell-published books, Miracles in My Life and The Third Dimension. Ethel Waters, singer, author (To Me It’s Wonderful), and another luncheon speaker, talked as if selling books were a song, while Baroness Maria A. von Trapp, author of Maria, autographed the real story behind The Sound of Music.

The mammoth first-floor auditorium of the city’s Convention and Exposition Center was covered with creative displays designed to sell not only books and Bibles but also cassettes, records, badges, bumper stickers, and posters. One new bookstore-owner from the West Coast said he sells enough posters to pay the store rent. The Christian booksellers also reported many Roman Catholics are visiting their stores to buy books and teaching materials.

The Bell Library

A library for Montreat-Anderson College named in honor of L. Nelson Bell, executive editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, was dedicated last month. The ceremony was held on his seventy-eighth birthday, July 30.

The building can handle 60,000 volumes and 450 periodicals, and can seat 278 readers. A plaque reads: “In honor of L. Nelson Bell, missionary, surgeon, editor, author, churchman, ambassador for Christ, moderator of the General Assembly 1972, a man of integrity, a man of compassion, a man of prayer.”

Montreat-Anderson College is a Presbyterian school located in the picturesque mountains east of Asheville, North Carolina.

A CBA convention is more than a gigantic book fair, however. It is a combination of revival, reunion, and rap session, with morning devotions and numerous workshops.

CBA is a worldwide organization with membership from thirty-one countries, and a large contingent from Australia and New Zealand came to Cincinnati. “The religion market is moving ahead,” Bass concluded.

JAMES L. ADAMS

Mile-High Conference Draws 73 Writers

Seventy-three aspiring and seasoned writers gathered at Forest Home conference grounds “one mile nearer heaven” in the San Bernardino Mountains last month for the first California School of Christian Writing sponsored by Decision magazine. The affair is expected to become an annual one, patterned after the popular schools the Billy Graham organization has been holding for ten summers in Minneapolis.

Decision editor and school “principal” Sherwood Wirt told the students that three weeks before she died in 1963, Dr. Henrietta Mears of Forest Home and Hollywood First Presbyterian Church fame had written him of her dream that a school of Christian writing be held at the conference lodge on the shores of Lake Mears.

Closing banquet keynoter W. Stanley Mooneyham, president of World Vision International, challenged the writers to “stretch our minds with a world view so that we will have the capacity to respond to … the needs of a gutty world in the best of times and the worst of times.… Stimulate our courage so that we will dare to respond.”

Wirt revealed two vacancies in his Decision staff: Mavis Sanders, editorial associate for the past six years, and Assistant Editor Carey Moore are leaving.

RUSSELL CHANDLER

The Danger Of Diary-Keeping

A post-mortem excommunication of a deacon of the Sacred College of Cardinals, Eugenio Tisserant, may be evolving in the Vatican. It would be a clamorous and unprecedented move to list with Martin Luther and other priestly deviates an illustrious cardinal who faithfully served the church of Rome for sixty-three years and rose to one of the highest offices of the Curia. But according to the Milan weekly L’Europeo, such a move is afoot.

Portions of the Tisserant memoirs appeared last month in the prestigious Italian weekly Panorama, sustaining the Paris Match story on the alleged assassination of Pope Pius XI (see July 7 issue, page 37) and reproducing Tisserant’s diary entries about the conclave that elected John XXIII. In spite of John’s declaration, “We who have been elected unanimously …,” Tisserant’s diary reveals that he was elected with only thirty-six of fifty-two ballots.

Vatican correspondent Stefano De Andreis believes there is fear in the Curia that should Tisserant’s memoirs be fully published “they could reveal facts that the Holy See has enveloped in a wall of silence, more to save murky and discreditable situations, than to serve the interests of the Church.” The controversial cardinal was a man of character who hated diplomacy, half-truths, and compromise. As a cardinal for thirty-six years and librarian and archivist of the Roman church for ten, he had complete access to the facts. Therefore it’s not without reason that Vatican circles are worried about his memoirs.

Some canon-law experts state categorically that there is no need to excommunicate Tisserant, since from the moment in 1958 when he privately recorded the conclave results he had been excommunicated ipso iure. The 1945 church constitution demands total secrecy concerning the conclave and requires that all ballots, records, and private notes be burned. Cardinals take solemn oath to “keep as an inviolable and absolute secret all things, part and parcel, appertaining to the election of the new pope … under the penalty of excommunication … ‘latae sententiae’ ” (i.e., without further declaration of the fact that one has been excommunicated).

In light of the Tisserant affair, Pope Paul’s revelation on the ninth anniversary of his coronation that he is keeping a personal diary gives rise to a question: If a cardinal of the Curia can be posthumously excommunicated for keeping a diary, what about the successor to the keys of St. Peter?

ROYAL L. PECK

Pregnant Issue

The ordination of Mrs. Shirley Carter Lee, second woman ordained as a Southern Baptist minister, was rescinded for “conduct unbecoming a minister of the gospel” after public disclosure that she was three months pregnant when she married a former Roman Catholic priest last May (see July 7 issue, page 40). Mrs. Lee requested her removal under pressure from the pastor and deacons of her home church, Kathwood Baptist in Columbia, South Carolina. They had originally supported her ordination.

Disclosure of her pregnancy came in a newspaper feature in which her husband, W. Pringle Lee, was quoted as saying: “We don’t apologize for it. It’s something we did as two consenting adults.” P. Edward Rickenbacker, pastor of her church, said he didn’t know of the pregnancy when he married the couple.

Mrs. Lee, who also resigned her position as chaplain at two South Carolina prisons, charged that the church was forcing her out because it was not ready to accept ordained women rather than because of her actions.

‘Bangladesh Brigade’

Workers from various church agencies and organizations constructed or repaired more than 25,000 homes in war-torn Bangladesh before the monsoon season began this summer. Sixteen students from Wheaton College, working with Dr. Viggo Olsen of the Medical Assistance Program (MAP), formed a “Bangladesh brigade” and built 10,000 thatch-bamboo homes to replace those destroyed in last year’s civil war.

Other church organizations including the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation completed another 15,000 and have a goal of 40,000 homes.

Besides home-building, the churches are involved in agricultural assistance, medical supply, and industrial assistance. The World Council expects to spend $13 million in its Bangladesh Ecumenical Relief and Rehabilitation Services.

The now complete Wheaton-MAP project is expected to house 100,000, approximately ten persons per home, according to Dr. Olsen. MAP is toying with the idea of restarting the program because other colleges are asking if they can join.

Religion In Transit

An agency of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. (Southern), has proposed a study of interracial and intercultural dating and marriage. It also suggested that better world human relations might come from Christians’ marrying across such lines.

A federal court of appeals in New Orleans ruled that the firing of a Seventh-day Adventist employee for his refusal to work Friday nights constituted “unlawful discriminatory employment practice.” The Bendix Corporation says it may appeal to the Supreme Court, which in 1970 turned a deaf ear to an Adventist in a similar case.

A comprehensive survey of Detroit area residents shows, among other things, that fewer people regularly attend church than fifteen years ago. The number who never attend rose from 10 to 17 per cent, but the proportion who said they do not believe in God dropped from 4 to 2 per cent. Those believing they have the right to question what the church teaches rose from 68 to 81 per cent. And more people today believe society is cold and impersonal.

Contrary to initial reports, churches and church schools damaged by Hurricane Agnes are eligible for disaster loans from the U. S. Small Business Administration.

The forty-three-year-old Central California Register, publication of the diocese of Fresno, died last month—a victim, said its managing editor, of “agribusiness interests” that strangled the weekly’s advertising income in reaction to its stand with farm labor unionizer Cesar Chavez.

A proposed world headquarters of Maharishi International University may be located in western North Carolina, confirm spokesmen for the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the former physicist who turned monk and began teaching meditation to such famous students as the Beatles and Mia Farrow. If so, the Maharishi would become one of Billy Graham’s neighbors.

Southern Baptists will go on the air soon with one-minute “spot” announcements explaining the Jewish high holy days and showing Jesus as their fulfillment.

Plans are under way for changing Ontario’s Waterloo Lutheran University from a church-related to a provincially supported university. The Lutheran Church in America (Eastern Canada Synod) reluctantly approved the plans; the only remaining question is how much the government will pay for the church’s sixty-year investment.

The Mennonite Church has called a nation-wide “prayer for peace” for September 10–16. The pray-in will encompass international leaders and such hot spots as Ireland, Viet Nam, and the Middle East.

Conservative Jews will soon have a new prayer book in contemporary prose and poetry to give Jewish liturgy a modern dimension.

Personalia

A former Roman Catholic nun, Joanne E. Pierce, is one of two women recently allowed entry into the FBI’s agenttraining program. The two are the first women in the force.

Canon Albert J. du Bois, Jr., 66, will retire as executive director of the American Church Union, a conservative Anglo-Catholic organization within the Episcopal Church.

Martin J. Neeb, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, since its founding in 1954, has retired.

William D. Sisterson will become the first full-time executive secretary of the American Scientific Affiliation, a national organization of evangelicals working in the scientific disciplines.

Evangelical writer Edward H. Pitts was named to the new position of executive vice president of Laubach Literacy, an extension of the work of the late Frank C. Laubach which has, for over forty years, resulted in basic education of an estimated 60 million adults in 103 countries and 312 languages.

Professor James P. Martin of Union Seminary in Virginia, will take over as principal of the Vancouver School of Theology, formed recently by a merger of Anglican and United Church of Canada seminaries and located on the University of British Columbia campus. Regent College, an evangelical graduate center, is affiliated with the theological school. Martin is a former Inter-Varsity staffer.

Navy chaplain Richard G. Hutcheson, 50, of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (Southern), was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in charge of Atlantic fleet chaplains. Chief of Chaplains Francis L. Garrett is the only other chaplain holding that rank.

Baptist pastor John Bird of suburban London will head the evangelism department of the Evangelical Alliance, comprising more than 700 churches throughout Great Britain. A nationwide outreach is scheduled for 1974 or 1975.

National Association of Evangelicals world relief head Everett S. Graffam was given Korea’s Civil Merit Medal for his commission’s work in reclamation of land.

The Reverend Wayne Saffen has been installed as pastor of a unified Lutheran church in Manteca, California, believed to be the first congregation in the nation uniting Missouri Synod and LCA Lutherans. The two national bodies have not yet established pulpit and altar fellowship because of Missouri’s reluctance.

The new president of the National Fellowship of Indian Workers is Homer Noley, a United Methodist executive.

The venerable, stroke-stricken E. Stanley Jones is still holding forth. He recently keynoted the World Ashram Congress in Jerusalem (he founded the Ashram movement forty years ago). Jones lashed out at a social gospel lacking social concern. “I do not want either; I want a totally new person in Christ,” he declared.

World Scene

Czechoslovakia, now in the midst of a religion crackdown, is the site chosen for publication of Bible portions by the United Bible Societies. The Scriptures will be exported to Sierra Leone following publication in Prague.

The University Christian Movement, South Africa’s last interracial student group, disbanded because of lost church support and government pressure.

German evangelical scholar Helmut Saake is seeking government approval and partial funding of his proposed International Theological University at Wiesbaden; present state-supported faculties of theology fail to satisfy Germany’s evangelicals.

The proposed union between South-West Africa’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church and the non-white United Evangelical Lutheran Church is off for now. The congregations reportedly feel the step is premature.

The Orthodox Church of Greece is opposing government plans to permit automatic divorce after a seven-year separation. Bishops, who must approve court-granted decrees, are already chafing at existing legislation allowing divorce for cause and are bracing for a major church-state hassle. Meantime, the government wants to subject prospective priests to a political loyalty test, on grounds the state-paid priests are civil servants.

The World Council of Churches’ relief unit wants churches to raise $17.5 million for aid, including $2.5 million for the Sudan and $300,000 for medical supplies for North Viet Nam.

Chile’s socialist government has no intention of taking steps against the Church, Bishop Helmut Frenz of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile told West German news reporters.

NEWS

“If I had to chose one Christian religion to believe in—and thank God I don’t—I’d chose the Pentecostal faith,” announces Marjoe Gortner during an eighty-minute film documentary of his last few months as a Pentecostal evangelist on the revival circuit.

Marjoe, recently released and premiering in New York City, purports to be an exposé of revivalists, of present-day Elmer Gantrys who take prey on the hearts and wallets of innocent, sincere church people. And it is an exposé of sorts. The film exposes Marjoe, who plays himself, as a confused, egocentric young man—a self-developed, repressed schizophrenic. Marjoe’s a cynical unbeliever, yet at the same time a “religion addict.” “Can God deliver a religion addict?” He asks it lightly, but, as we realize at the end of the film, the question is serious.

Marjoe—he claims his name is a combination of Mary and Joseph, though his father denies this—began preaching at the age of four and made national newspapers by performing a marriage ceremony. His mother wrote his sermons and tutored him in delivery. Every body movement, every gesture and expression were drilled into him. When Marjoe proved dull or got tired of memorizing—his childhood sermons ran twenty-five to forty minutes—his solicitous mother smothered him in a pillow or doused him with water. Both parents traveled with him and both were preachers. Marjoe’s father, Vernon, claims his son is a fourth-generation preacher.

Mrs. Gortner developed a series of signals to use while Marjoe was preaching. A “glory, hallelujah” meant that he was speaking too fast, a “praise Jesus” that he was going too slow. And when he really got wound up and the congregation was ripe, his mother signaled him to take the offering. He preached in tents and towns from four to fourteen. Then his father—and the offering—disappeared during a service. About a year later, Marjoe quit preaching. He estimates that he made $3 million for his parents; he got none of it. “They [his parents] never even set up a trust fund or anything for my education. I virtually supported them,” he explains.

After leaving revivalism he lived for a time with an “older woman.” He never defines the relationship, but as he talks of her we hear for the first time of the pain and emptiness of his life. “She cared about me, me as a person, and I felt about her as I wish I could have felt about my mother.” He called his late teens “my bitter period.” But now—why hate? His parents, he reasons, were just doing their thing.

Then a few years ago he went back to preaching. He needed money, and he knew the ropes. “What else could I have done?” On the revival beat he was pious Marjoe, star evangelist, filled with the Spirit. Off-pulpit he was swinging Marjoe, who “only dates stewardesses.” His two lives never mixed, and no one on either side suspected him.

But the dichotomy started to bother him. “I realized that I’d have to go into this thing completely, belief and all, or give it up.” He decided to give it up, but he didn’t leave quietly.

New-Spirit Ministry

A “spirit”-filled church in Atlanta opened its second night club in less than a year, this time atop one of the city’s highest skyscrapers. The Free For All Baptist Church—which admits it’s not like most Baptist churches—plans to convert the present club into a twenty-four-hour soul-food restaurant while continuing the bar operations. Entertainment will include rock, blues, and spirituals. Last fall the church opened a similar night spot in Underground Atlanta, a turn-of-the-century tourist center.

Church leaders say they’re not promoting drinking and dancing, just black community development. The profits will support church nurseries, day-care centers, and a private academy. The church, one of the largest in Georgia, is actually three churches operating in three black communities in the city.

The film juxtaposes scenes of his childhood preaching days with services he held in the last six months. And intermittently we see him explaining the action to cameramen, friends, fellow party-goers, or, soliloquy-style, the audience.

He thoroughly instructs the camera crew about smoking, swearing, and girlchasing. He even makes one of the crew cut his long hair. “These people are zealous to save souls—that’s their whole thing.” he tells them. What should the crew members do if a church member asks if they’re saved? “Tell them you’re washed in the same blood they are,” retorts Marjoe, adding, “It’s all in the blood. It covers everything. It’s a very gory religion.” He also tells them what to watch for, what to zoom in on—people getting healed (“it’s all psychosomatic,” Marjoe explains) or others speaking in tongues. Marjoe knows the tongues act perfectly; he rattles off a few sentences in “angels speech” for the crew’s benefit.

The film’s narrative is not only for the crew but also for the audience, many of whom might not understand what happens during Pentecostal meetings. Narrative and action alternate; the film is well edited and seems shorter than it is. The service sequences give the film its power and its aura of authenticity.

Marjoe preaches like Tom Jones and Mick Jagger perform. He sings, whispers, shouts, prances, and storms the people with the Gospel. Behind the pulpit, in front of the altar, or down the aisles, mike in hand, Marjoe pleads with his people to praise Jesus. “If you can’t feel the Spirit here tonight you’re dead,” he repeats in meeting after meeting, alternating this with a few minutes of pseudo-tongues-speaking. Over and over again he croons such gospel favorites as “He Touched Me” and “Since I Laid My Burden Down” while he lays hands on the expectant, hyper-emotional members of the congregations. Women weep, men moan, and teen-agers faint and twitch as he touches them at the altar. He sells prayer handkerchiefs (cheap red bandanas) that will bring health and wealth and promotes an old album of his childhood sermons, pushing the “blessed” “Hell With the Lid Off” as the best of the bunch.

His performances—and that’s all they are (“I would have been a rock singer or actor with a different background”)—are contrasted with those of the evangelists sharing services with him. Most of the church and tent meetings take place in all-white, southern areas, but the central scene of the documentary is his pseudo-sermon (it’s really little more than a praise-Jesus-oh-can’t-you-feel-him-tonight-everybody-praise-Jesus chant) at a black church’s twenty-four-hour prayer service. He shares the platform and pulpit with evangelist Sister Taylor, a large white woman dressed in white, who claims that “we don’t use God’s money for foolishness,” as the camera subtly zeroes in on her large bejeweled brooch and oversized diamond rings.

Marjoe is more than “charismatic”; his animal magnetism nearly rivals that of Elvis, and he works his charm—for a fee, of course—in a wonderful way on that black congregation. He has them dancing in the aisles, so full of the spirit that they relinquish nearly every last dime at the altar (that altar had a crucifix on it, certainly unusual for a black Pentecostal church).

Music at his meetings is provided by guitar, drums, piano, organ, and choirs and ranges from pure soul gospel through pseudo-rock to unadulterated hillbilly. We never hear him pray or read the Bible, and service for God is never mentioned. His congregations are too busy being blessed.

After one lively service, we see Marjoe and the church’s minister counting the offering. “You count the big bills,” Marjoe says, “and I’ll count the smaller ones.” As they stack the take in neat piles, the minister remarks how “appreciative” he was of this sermon. “I liked that, boy, I really did. You sure got them going.” The congregation was still going when the two left to count the money.

We see Marjoe’s accomplished evangelist act during a homey dinner scene with that pastor and his family. The preacher’s wife complains about all the phony evangelists running around, and Marjoe agrees, adding that the congregation can tell after a night or two if the man is sincere. “Yes,” says Mrs. Preacher, “the people aren’t dumb; they know who’s honest and who isn’t.” The scene ends as the preacher tells about his 800 acres of property in Brazil and the big deal he has with a vegetable canning company to buy his produce. He mentions, incidentally, plans to build a Bible school on the land some day.

But Marjoe can’t take it any longer. “Movie or no movie. I have to get out.” Is he a con man?, a cameraman asks Marjoe’s black girlfriend, Agnes, who seemed horrified at the question. But that’s just what Marjoe is telling us. He’s a small-time con man in the religion game. (He admits he hadn’t hit the “big time.”)

He also, unknowingly, tells us something more. This film is Marjoe’s rap therapy, his expurgation for his phoniness: “I was beginning to feel guilty about taking the people. After all, they really got something out of it; they believed in what I was saying,” he explains. The pity of it is that he’s all alone with his guilt in this celluloid confessional booth. And there’s no one on the other side to hear and forgive.

The Right To Marry

It’s not just anyone who can get married in Israel, as resident Protestants and Jews whose proposed marriages fall outside rabbinical law (i.e., mixed marriages) know. Israel provides no civil-marriage service, and the crisis over this threatens balanced Orthodox-secular coalition. The civil-marriage question, however, is only a part of the larger issue—Israel’s synagogue-state separation.

To alleviate the problem for Israelis, the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) has proposed a civil-marriage bill, scheduled to be voted on in October.

Prime Minister Golda Meir, unhappy that ILP introduced the bill, maintains that the action “contravened the interparty agreement” that three years ago set up the present coalition. Religious critics argue that the bill would upset the “status quo.” But the ruling labor party supports the bill in principle as essential to freedom of conscience.

Earlier, in a mollifying statement, Mrs. Meir informed Labor leaders that she is encouraging the rabbis to find a solution. If they do not, she has threatened to propose “some form of civil marriage” in the party’s 1973 election platform.

A recent survey found that 57 per cent of the Israelis polled endorse civil marriage. Those most likely to favor it were professionals, people in upper-income brackets, and younger, native-born Israelis.

If the bill as it now stands should become law—it applies only to Jewish citizens—it would bring no relief for Israel’s unrecognized Protestants (excluding the Anglican church, which two years ago received recognition). While a few Protestant clergymen have been permitted by the Ministry for Religious Affairs to perform marriages for members of their denominations, there is strong doubt that such ceremonies would be legally binding in court, should a test be made.

Protestants haven’t ignored this slight. The United Christian Council, representing fourteen Protestant bodies, called on the prime minister to either support or create a marriage bill that would benefit Israel’s disenfranchised Protestants.

Rabbi Shlomo Goren, chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and candidate for chief rabbi of Israel, denounced the civil-marriage proposal. He also stated that he is against Christian-Jewish dialogue: “We have had more than enough of such discussions in the Middle Ages. We are not interested in influencing them and we certainly don’t want to be influenced by them.”

Most Protestants in Israel favor a showdown between the Orthodox and the secularists. The secular majority would almost certainly win, improving the Protestants’ lot. But with the weightier problems of security, immigration, and financial woes constantly before it, the government will probably continue for the sake of religious peace and unity to avoid the issue whenever the dreaded spectre of religious kulturkampf threatens to emerge.

DWIGHT L. BAKER

Nipping Hierarchial Heels

The activist National Association of Laity, an unofficial reform-minded Catholic group that claims to have an influence out of proportion to its size, wants more openness and democracy in church money matters. For five years the NAL has been nipping at the heels of the bishops, trying to get them to be a bit less secret about money and a bit more liberal about where and how they spend it.

In the latest heel-nipping episode, NAL executive director Joseph O’Donoghue was directed at last month’s annual convention in Detroit to turn over to the Internal Revenue Service financial reports issued by the bishops along with NAL analyses of the reports. The NAL will ask the IRS to “withdraw the tax exemption privilege from those dioceses … found to be in violation” of the IRS code through failure to report the amount of money spent on lobbying. The NAL claims that the hierarchy spent $6 million last year on lobbying, mostly for aid to parochial schools and on the abortion issue.

NAL attorney Leo Jordan said that the NAL does not oppose lobbying by bishops but that their lobbying should be for such “Christian causes” as aid to the poor. (The NAL opposes state funding of parochial schools.)

While voicing criticism of the bishops as a group, the 175 delegates commended eight bishops, most of them for anti-war stands. Two bishops were censured for endorsing President Nixon’s conduct of the war: Cardinal John Krol of Philadelphia and episcopal secretary Joseph Bernardin.

Members called on stockholders to influence corporations to act in more humane ways. The action was in line with the convention theme, “Capitalism and Christianity.”

“We think there is no human suffering today that is not related to economics,” said convention chairman Beverly Leopold, “and we as Christians must take a look at that.”

JEAN MCCANN

In envisioning an evangelism program, a pastor typically begins by preaching on the subject and then inviting everyone who is willing to take part to come on some specified night to begin. This is the way we tried at first to motivate and recruit people. It was not very successful. The basic motivation will no doubt begin from the pulpit with sermons on the responsibility, privilege, and necessity of witnessing for Christ. However, our experience showed us that the actual recruiting should be done on a person-to-person basis.

When Christ called his apostles, he first prayed all night and then called them specifically by name. An “apostle” was one sent forth with a commission. In its broader sense the word refers to every Christian who has been sent forth by Christ with a Great Commission. I recommend that after much prayer the minister select several people whom he would like to take with him to learn how to evangelize.

I did not want to begin a program in this small way with only one or two persons; I wanted to train a whole class of evangelists at one time. The result was that I ended up with none. If you begin with a few, it doesn’t take very long for them to grow into a large body of witnesses. Say you start with four. At the end of the training program each of these four trained persons would recruit two more workers, and the minister would recruit four more. Now there would be the original four plus their eight, making twelve, plus the minister’s new four, making sixteen, plus the minister, for a total of seventeen. After the next class the sixteen laymen would get thirty-two more, making forty-eight, plus the minister’s four, which makes fifty-two, plus the minister, making fifty-three. Soon it can grow to a hundred, two hundred, and so on.

New workers are recruited by personal visits. A trained worker explains the program and then invites the prospective worker to a dinner. Here there is a greater explanation of the goals and principles of the program, plus testimonies of what has been accomplished. Then the potential workers are asked to commit themselves to the entire four-and-a-half-month training program or else not to start.

We give three types of training:

1. Class instruction. On the day the people come to the church for visitation, they meet together for half an hour of instruction before going out into the field. There is a brief lecture on the topic of the week, and study assignments for the following week are given. Then class members divide into pairs to practice what they learned during the previous week.

2. Homework assignments. We prepared a detailed notebook with instructions on how to present the Gospel logically and interestingly. Assignments are given each week, consisting of portions of the Gospel to be learned. These are recited and checked each week at the class.

3. On-the-job training. Each trainee goes out with a trained worker and listens as this person endeavors to lead someone to Christ. This is the vital element of training.

Wednesday morning from nine to noon and Thursday evening from 7:15 to 10:30 are our visitation times. After each we have a report-back meeting. These help reduce drop-outs; discouraged workers can have their spirits lifted as they hear reports from others whom God has blessed that day.

Our witnessing approach is to give a simple, positive statement of the Good News of the Gospel. We have found that most Christians do not know how to present the Gospel in an intelligible, forceful, and interesting way. We include a presentation of the Gospel in the training materials and encourage the people to learn it and use it as a guide. Having something to start with is a big help to most people.

The essential things we are trying to teach people are: how to get into the Gospel and to find out where a person is spiritually, how to present the Gospel, and how to bring the person to commit himself to Jesus Christ at the conclusion.

In teaching trainees how to present the Gospel, we first have them learn the outline of the Gospel, which might be considered the skeleton. Second, we have them learn Scripture verses that give muscle, so to speak, to the outline. Third, we have them learn illustrations that flesh out and make clear and understandable the outline of the Gospel.

We do not have them memorize the entire presentation but rather learn the outline and then gradually build on it. First we have them add just enough so that the bones of the outline don’t rattle. Then we have them give a three-minute presentation of the Gospel. Next we enlarge it to five minutes and then to eight. We continue to have them enlarge their presentation until they are able to present the Gospel in any period from a minute to an hour.

The follow-up procedure includes several return visits in which the new convert is established in the Scripture and assured of his salvation. We use a variety of materials and recommend highly the Navigator follow-up materials. After several personal visits we then try to get the new believer into a small Bible-study group that will consist of several more mature Christians plus four or five newer Christians.

After the convert has been taught to study God’s Word, to pray, to live the Christian life, and to walk with Christ, he is encouraged to come into the evangelism program to learn how to win others to Christ. Yet at this point the follow-up is still not complete, for he must be taught not only how to reproduce but also how to disciple a new convert until the convert has matured to the place where he too is able to bring someone else to Christ. This emphasis on spiritual multiplication, looking past the first generation to the second, third, and fourth, is the secret of an expanding evangelistic ministry.

I do not believe that it must necessarily take hundreds of years for the Gospel to spread around the world. The process of spiritual multiplication can proceed with the rapidity of the population explosion.

We feel that our responsibility extends beyond Coral Ridge or Fort Lauderdale, or even Florida, or the United States. In addition to training an increasing number of people in our church (in our last class we had 298), we have also trained a good many in other churches in our area. Also, we have an annual clinic where almost a hundred ministers meet for five days of intensive training. Here they receive both classroom instruction and on-the-job training with our trained laymen.

This program has jumped the boundaries of the United States into a number of other countries. It is currently being introduced in Japan. Our goal is to see churches in every nation catch the vision of training their laymen and then bringing in other ministers and teaching them to train their people, until the world is confronted by a vast army of tens of millions of Christian lay evangelists.—D. JAMES KENNEDY, senior minister, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

2,000 YEARS BEHIND TIMES

Those of you who read this column every week will remember that I asked you to tell me in no more than 150 words what you would do if you were editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. (What you have apparently forgotten is that the magazine comes out every two weeks. See how much time I just saved you?)

It’s time now to share with you some of the results. Two things became almost immediately obvious. The first is that thousands of you were too busy with other things to respond. One reader commented that it might take a three-week vacation to read the letters, but actually two coffee breaks did it.

The second fact that became obvious is that some of you don’t know how many words make 150. A few letters ran to several pages.

One of the most surprising results was that over 40 per cent of the respondents were women. I guess I have more sex appeal than I realized.

Some frustrated writers suggested with an appropriate lack of humility that CHRISTIANITY TODAY would be improved by the inclusion of the products of their agile pens. Sorry, fellows, I can’t help you there. I have a hard enough time getting my own stuff by the editors.

One reader who apparently subscribed in response to the Living Bible offer suggested that we be consistent and have Ken Taylor paraphrase Carl F. H. Henry for the masses.

A number of you used the opportunity to push favored concerns such as anti-Communism, alcoholism, the charismatic movement, or fundamentalist abuse of grace.

A significant number suggested that we deal with more biblical topics. Several Would like the book section expanded and more non-theological works included. And there was a call for more controversy.

If there was any consensus, it was that CHRISTIANITY TODAY should say what it has to say more simply. One reader is still trying to find the meaning of monoglot. (Don’t let the editors know I told you but it means a person who speaks only one language. Who would be impressed with a writer’s deep erudition if he used straightforward phrases like that?)

One woman wrote that CHRISTIANITY TODAY is twenty years behind the times. That’s faint praise for a magazine that’s trying to be 2,000 years behind times.

MEASURES AND MEANS

The material you include in your report (News, “Company Policy,” June 23) is pertinent to one of the important mission issues of our time and very well written. However, I regret that in your roundup you have omitted reference to two or three of the most important exercises of this sort, with a positive outcome, in which this board has been directly involved.

We have just been through one round of a very constructive engagement with Mobil Oil Corporation.… We, of course, intend to carry the discussion forward and work with the corporation toward further improvement of its record with regard to racial justice in South Africa.

The current issue of the Gulf Oil Corporation magazine recounts the story of its annual meeting and carries a very useful article disclosing Gulfs activities in Angola, a matter on which our church has been much exercised. Here, again, we see a major corporation responding in a very positive spirit to approaches from the churches.

We believe that similar positive results can be hoped for from continuing conversations with General Motors, even though you indicate that the Episcopal-backed resolution brought into the stockholders’ meeting was overwhelmingly defeated. We are inclined to believe that stockholder resolutions may not always be the most positive means of inducing companies to examine their policies and to move toward socially constructive practices. Cordial and candid conversation with corporate leadership often seems more effective to this end. I must admit that in case of Honeywell this approach has so far been no more effective than that of the stockholder resolution. This board intends to continue an effort to enter into meaningful dialogue with Honeywell, but failing any positive result therefrom, we will then turn to other measures.

Executive Vice President

United Church Board For World Ministries

New York, N. Y.

DEMONSTRATION VS. JUSTIFICATION

Too bad the participants of the Strasbourg colloquy did not include Francis Schaeffer and Gordon Clark to set their reasoning straight (Current Religious Thought, “Technology and Eschatology,” June 23). When asked why one should choose the historic Christian theology, Ellul reportedly replied, “No justification of this choice is possible. You can’t find a point of reference which isn’t already in one system of commitment or the other.” He would have been on sounder ground if he had said demonstration instead of justification, for there is quite adequate justification for the Christian choice over all others. It lies in the excellent historical evidence of the New Testament and in the empirical evidence furnished by the intellectually and emotionally satisfying harmony of its Christian world and life view with basic realities. This harmony is particularly noticeable in accounting for the metaphysical nature of man, his social relationships, and his values.…

Although adequate justification of the Christian choice alone is possible, demonstration of it is not, but then this is true of all systems of thought, so Ellul’s second statement is correct. All arguments have first principles or a priori equipment which cannot be demonstrated; otherwise there would be infinite regress, demonstrations of demonstrations, and the argument could never get started. Therefore I disagree with John Warwick Montgomery, reporting on the conference, who seemed to favor a theology delivered from “a priorism.” Some a priorism is unavoidable. The reasonable thing to do is to choose the set of presuppositions which, as Professor Clark says, are consistent and provide plausible solutions to our most basic and important problems and give meaning to life. Choice of presuppositions is unavoidable and is an act of faith. But there is a vast difference between a credulous, ill-founded faith and one based on good evidence and sound reasoning.

Fairfax, Va.

FAITH PLUS HISTORY

I want to express my appreciation for Arlie J. Hoover’s defense, “Why History?” (July 28). It is a well conceived, well written, and noteworthy article, the point of which ought not to be missed by any serious Christian apologeticist. I call it to the attention especially of those who expend vain efforts trying to convert an unbeliever by arguing that history proves the existence of God, the Resurrection, etc. Without faith there is no proof (1 Cor. 1:18 ff.). And indeed with faith history is not so much a “proof” as a manifestation of what the believer believes already to be true.

Indiana University

Bloomington. Ind.

ADDING PROBLEMS?

I wish to thank you for the report by Dr. J. D. Douglas on the visit of Billy Graham to Belfast, “Billy Graham in Ireland: ‘He Put It Over With Love’ ” (July 7).

He quotes one statistic which requires some qualification. Presumably the biggest firm in Belfast reported to employ about 500 Roman Catholics out of a work force of 10,000 is the shipyard in East Belfast. This is a very predominantly Protestant area, whereas West Belfast has a very small proportion of Protestants. In certain trades and professions, Roman Catholics have a relatively high proportion of the personnel, as for example the hotel and catering business, wholesale and retail fish trade, shirt manufacture, and the nursing profession. It can hardly be suggested that in addition to the other problems Northern Ireland should be asked to adopt the practice of busing in its industry, as is being done for schools in the United States.

(REV.) W. J. MCILFATRICK

Newtownards

Northern Ireland

THROUGH THE GATE

As a Protestant, may I “protest” against Mary Anne Pekrone’s Humpty-Dumptyism in her news report in relationship to Leighton Ford’s Rochester crusade (June 9). The combination of the words “evangelical” and “Catholics” is self-negating, and is a form of doublethink. Christian Catholics, yes; evangelical Catholics, no.

If a historical-grammatical sense is to be retained, then I submit that to be evangelical is to know no higher authority than Scripture as illuminated by the Vicar of Christ (i.e., the Holy Spirit); whereas to be Catholic is to submit to the Roman pontiff as the Vicar of Christ.…

The greatest single weakness of the ecumenical movement is its failure to define words, thus giving the false impression that we are all climbing the same mountain to reach God, only traveling on different paths which all converge at the summit. I think John Bunyan explained this problem well in The Pilgrim’s Progress; some climbed the wall to get on the path, without passing through the Wicket Gate (John 14:6).

Greater Europe Mission

Sebastion, Spain

INVESTMENTS AND INTELLECT

Thank you so much for the excellent news story by Ed Plowman concerning Explo ’72 (“Explo ’72: ‘Godstock’ in Big D,” July 7). We are deeply grateful for it. However, there is one minor error which has been called to my attention by a number of staff members, which may cause embarrassment and misunderstanding to many delegates who were at Explo. All pledges made during Explo for the International Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ will be used exclusively for that purpose—not for the television series, as stated in the article.… One other statement, which is minor to many but is one about which we are very sensitive, was, “Bright and other speakers pointedly stressed that faith must prevail over reason.” On the contrary, we feel that there is a superabundance of intellectual basis for our faith and that reason plays an important part in the Christian life.

President

Campus Crusade for Christ International

San Bernardino, Calif.

SUICIDE FOOTNOTE

Permit me to add a footnote to your excellent editorial “Up From Suicide” (June 9). The response you suggest (“be there with loving acceptance to give attention and dispel loneliness”) is certainly better than the threats, commands to grow up, and even encouragement to go through with it which well-meaning people say to suicidal people. I feel your advice, however, is too passive and ineffectual in the crisis of suicidal intent.

When the willpower of the weary suicidal person begins to weaken and he feels himself slipping into a death which both repels and fascinates him, we should arouse ourselves and actively respond to this suffering person. He is floundering in the surf and there is something we can do to help him from drifting out into the dark, deep waters.

1. When it is plain that we deeply care and do understand his feelings, we should explain that he is attempting to deal with his problem by means of human strength and that this approach cannot succeed. There is no doubt that he has made a sustained, heroic effort but no amount of willpower and self-restraint can hold him back from the suicidal act. He may be just bone weary enough to realize that he is defeated, that he is at the bottom of his life and that he will need to abandon his faith in himself as his highest power. To help such a person, one might say, “I don’t know—maybe you have had enough of doing things your way.” …

2. The most helpful thing we can do is invite the suicidal person to surrender his life to the highest power—God. This is the time to place his life under new management so that the impossible problems of his life can be God’s burden. This is the time to come into the kingdom of God and live under his control.…

3. If the suicidal person surrenders to God, it is important to follow this with a few specific suggestions. Perhaps you can go with him to apologize to a friend. Maybe he needs to write a letter of reconciliation to a loved one. Or you may suggest something as simple as meeting again with him tomorrow. Suggest actions because no one feels or thinks his way back to God.

I realize my suggestions violate most of what the pastoral theologians have taught me, but never mind. Walking with a person into the kingdom of God is the ultimate therapy and I can testify to the phenomenal success of this approach.

Chaplain

New Jersey Neuro-Psychiatric Institute

Princeton, N. J.

WORKING IN UPPER VOLTA …

I was … much surprised to find a serious reporting error in the July 28 issue that seems to reflect an amazing lack of research.… I refer to the short item in “World Scene” that reports entry of the Seventh-day Adventists into Upper Volta. The statement is made that there is only one other Protestant group working in this nation of 5.5 million, the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Even the most cursory check of missions statistics would reveal that five other evangelical missions have work of long standing in that country: the Assemblies of God, the Sudan Interior Mission, the World-Wide Evangelization Crusade, the Upper Volta Mission, and the Southern Baptists. The work of the three autonomous, government-recognized church associations and the six evangelical missions in Upper Volta is coordinated by the Federation of Evangelical Churches and Missions of Upper Volta. The Upper Volta Federation was among the first of all the evangelical fellowships to be formed in Africa.

Sudan Interior Mission

Fada N’Gourma

Upper Volta

GOD’S COMPASSION

I couldn’t agree more wholeheartedly than I do with your editorial in the July 28 issue, “Not Because They Are Gay.”

I am a latent homosexual. My twist of mind and interest I can trace back to some circumstances in my very early childhood. In my more youthful years I used to pray earnestly for deliverance from my peculiar temptations. Deliverance never came, but the Lord did, in large measure, grant me victory over them. Now I am happily married to a wonderful wife and have several darling children, with none of whom I have deemed it wise to disclose my problem, but who have given me a very happy and near-normal married and home life. Many, many times I have thanked and praised God for this. Had I, in my youth, been the object of what some are now calling “compassion,” I could now have been of all men most miserable. But instead, the Lord granted me his compassion—the compassion that enables one to recognize sin for what it is in his sight, but then grants him forgiveness and victory over it through the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

I have often wished that social conditions permitted latent homosexuals such as myself to reveal themselves so they could make more direct contact and be of more direct help to those who are caught up in the practice of this thing. This, for obvious reasons, I do not feel free to do. But those who think they can be acceptable Christians and at the same time practice their bent of mind need to face anew the Word of God on this subject, and also face the fact that God is willing and able to grant them victory, if only they will let him.

BODILESS BATTLEFIELD

Dr. Elzinga’s loveless cynicism was truly appalling (“The Demise of Capitalism and the Christian’s Response,” July 7). Perhaps as a market-system-demising intellectual he feels free to keep his distance from the relatively insignificant economic battlefield, happy that he need not tarry too long at the funeral of the loser. But how he can feel free, in the name of our Lord, to suggest that the paramount battle for souls has nothing to do with the labor of a shoe-repair man or a book-binder is beyond me. To state with such misleading objectivity that the shoe-repair man actually repairs shoes out of a narrow economic self-interest wipes out with one stroke every Christian shoe-repair man who has labored out of love for his Lord with great interest in his customer and in the quality of his work. Moreover, Dr. Elzinga implies that the souls which concern the Lord have little to do with this present creation which, in fact, belongs entirely to our Lord, soles and all.

After the funeral Dr. Elzinga will selfishly miss “the market’s benefits and accouterments,” but evidently he will feel no pain about the lack of visibility of Christ’s Lordship in human economic life. Nor, evidently, will he lose any sleep over the agony of his nonintellectual fellow Christians who spend their working days with shoes, books, and gas tanks. I am distressed with the author’s loveless vision of mystical battles fought by bodiless souls.

Durham, N. C.

The article by Kenneth Elzinga was most interesting. In general. I would agree with him. I think a person can be a Christian regardless of what kind of government exists. However, in one of his conclusions I could not agree. It certainly seems to me that as Christians we should make every effort to avoid having a socialistic or communistic, planned, controlled, centralized government, because we can see what happens in other countries in the world. It is very difficult to get Bibles in the eastern European countries and I suppose impossible in Communist China. Even those people who want them cannot get them. Paper is not made available. There are all kinds of restrictions that occur. The ability to build churches and to evangelize is restricted in various countries. Certainly we do not want to see that happen in our country. The further we go toward a controlled, non-capitalistic economy, the greater will be our difficulty in distributing the Bible and in having the freedom of evangelization.

Chairman of the Executive and Finance Committee

Genesco Apparel

Nashville, Tenn.

NOT IN ’72

Just this week a friend handed me a copy of your June 9 issue. I read with considerable interest the article on the Amish and their concerns re higher education and religious education (“Amish Education and Religious Freedom,” by Glenn D. Everett). However, I was profoundly disappointed in several of the observations made by the author.

I refer to the portion of the article which deals with the Beachy Amish and their founder. As a grandson of the founder Moses Beachy (not Noah, as reported in the article), I protest. I am fully aware that when one speaks of the Amish, one must often make generalizations because of variations within the sect from one location to another; however, some of Mr. Everett’s generalizations are entirely unfounded.… According to the story I got from my parents as I grew up, and according to unpublished and published materials in the Mennonite Historical Library, in Goshen, Indiana, the primary reason for schism was a difference in practice of meidung (shunning), which Mr. Beachy felt should not be carried out nearly to the extent that the Amish were carrying it.

Concerning higher education and the Beachy Amish, Everett observes that they are as reluctant to see their children attend public high school as the Old Order Amish. Not so! I have numerous cousins and friends who are teachers, nurses, and medical-school students who continue to be Beachy Amish. Ten years ago the statement made by the author may have been valid, but I cannot accept it in 1972.

Inter-American Missionary Society

Bogotá, Colombia