Amid continued turbulence over the World Council of Churches’ decision to fund nineteen anti-racist organizations, a controversial, unpublished and unpresented 30,000-word report surfaced at the fall meeting of the British Council of Churches (BCC) last month in south Wales.

The general conclusion of the Mason Report, quoted to the BCC in an International Affairs Department report, is that because “oppression and injustice” are so rife in southern Africa, “the only means of protest left” to many Africans “are violent ones.”

The WCC grants have aroused unusual controversy worldwide because some recipient groups include guerrilla fighters attempting to overthrow white minority governments in Africa (see October 23 issue, page 37, and October 9 issue, page 39).

Spokesmen said the Mason Report would be published later and that because of division over the document the International Affairs Department wasn’t able to “agree formally to submit it to the council.”¹Also before the BCC meeting was the burning issue of arms sales to South Africa. A long resolution approved by the council urged the British government to “draw back from its intention of supplying certain arms to South Africa.” In early November the government had not yet announced a firm decision on the matter. The BCC expressed general support for the WCC grants.

It didn’t at first appear that the debate was heading that way. To the assurance that WCC money would not be used for military purposes, Congregationalism’s general secretary, John Huxtable, said the Church’s task was to reconcile, not to take sides. “Money given for cars releases money for bombs and rifles,” said A. R. Shillinglaw of the Church of Scotland, which not infrequently finds itself in the minority on controversial topics.

A series of speeches on the wider issues, however, carried the day. The fate of the ecumenical movement was at stake, warned Canon David Paton, whose voice has been heard in the councils of the Christian Peace Conference.

Meanwhile, these developments:

• In what appeared to be a challenge to the policies of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKID) and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (VEKLD), the Synod of the Evangelical Church of Hesse-Nassau voted $30,000 for the WCC anti-racism program. (In recent action the EKID Council voted to postpone its final decision on whether to support the WCC program, and a VELKD declaration warned against turning the Church “into a platform for political fights for power.”)

• The Methodist Church of South Africa, with multiracial membership, rejected Prime Minister John Vorster’s cadi for South African churches to break with the WCC because of the guerrilla grants. Earlier, the Congregational and Presbyterian churches of the country took the same course. The Evangelical Lutheran Church didn’t discuss the issue, and the Anglicans were to debate it in Capetown this month.

• The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in western Australia supported the WCC program. Two Australian native groups are to receive WCC money ($25,000).

The West German newspaper Die Welt deplored the decision of the Evangelical Church of Hesse-Nassau, saying German church-tax funds will now finance guerrilla warfare and that by this “the Church gets even more entangled in the jungle of power politics.”

And in Munich, at the Synod of the Lutheran Church in Bavaria, the chairman of the VELKD mission committee called the WCC program one of the “most deplorable decisions in modern church history.” According to Religious News Service he noted that the WCC “had not devoted a single word to the persecution of Christians, which has now reached global proportions.”

How deeply is the church involved in sin? This question has been climbing up the agenda of theological discussion the last few years. The old confession, Credo sanctam ecclesiam, has tempted many to underestimate the power of sin on the holy Church. The Church has, undoubtedly, been idealized. But in our time this temptation is increasingly being seen for the seduction that it is.

The insight that the mystery of the Church is its growth toward holiness has been seen more clearly. The Church, as the congregation of the Lord, called out of darkness into his wonderful light, exists under a profound responsibility for holiness. It was written of Israel, “I have known you alone, out of all the families of the earth; therefore shall I punish you” (Amos 3:1). It is something like this with the Church. We have, for instance, the picture of the church in Laodicea, which claimed to be rich and lacking in nothing but which in fact had nothing (Rev. 3:17). There is a warning here for the Church of every age.

So it is doubtless a good thing that theologians these days are thinking hard about the Church and its holiness. Are we expressing a remote ideal when we confess the “communion of the saints”? Does the Church hand over to the world, in this confession, a standard by which the world can too easily judge the Church? Christian people are often hard put to know how to respond to the sharp critique that the world lays on the Church. Has traditional Roman Catholic theology, with its high view of the Church as the Body of Christ, avoided embarrassment by distinguishing between the Church and the members of the Church? With this distinction, sin can be admitted in the lives of the members while the Church is still claimed to be God’s own holy masterpiece (cf. 1 Cor. 3:9). Is this perhaps the way out?

Greek Catholic theologians have said that the Church is a divine-human reality, and so elevated above criticism as the very work and, somehow, the reality of God. Here we surely have the Holy Catholic Church!

Pope Paul, at the opening of the second sitting of Vatican II, talked about the renewal of the Church. But he immediately added—“that is improvement in the weakness of its members.” When the council came to speak of the sin to which the people of God were exposed on their pilgrimage, the Pope intervened to make sure the council meant the people as members of and not as the Church.

This traditional distinction between Church and members of the Church is receiving less and less respect in recent years. Karl Rahner, back in 1947, wrote a remarkable article about the “church of Sinners.” In 1956, after a lot of criticism had been leveled against his earlier piece, he wrote another called “The Church of Saints.” But in it he kept sounding the same theme, that we must not create a mythical majesty out of the Church, a mythical thing that is free from sin and therefore above criticism. Is not the Church a church of living human beings? And must we not, on that account, admit that sin filters through the whole Church, including its high officials?

Not by happenstance, Paul’s word of First Corinthians 5:6 is being heard in Catholic circles these days: “Do you not know that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” In 1958, a book appeared in Germany about the image of the Church as the unspotted bride as it was stressed in medieval commentaries on the Song of Solomon. Was not the bride the unique, the perfect, the pure, with a beauty like the beauty of the pale moon and the shining sun? It was clear from the book that the time of medieval romanticism regarding the Church had gone. There is a more realistic, a more honest, and therefore less protective stance toward the sins of the Church, sins of commission as well as omission.

The confession made by the sixteenth-century pope Adrian VI is frequently recalled now. Adrian spoke about the tragedy of the split that had come to the Church, and said that perhaps God had, with this division, judged the sins of the people and, especially, the sins of the office-bearers of the Church. He talked about a misuse of religious authority that had led to a spiritual corruption carrying the sickness from the head to the members, from the popes to the lesser priests. This candid self-criticism is understood better in our day than it used to be. The distinction between the Church and its members is being openly criticized today as a flight from responsibility and an escape from judgment.

This greater modesty about the church signals not a rejection of the Church but rather a remembering of the fact that the Church is called out of the world, out of sin, by its own confession. Those Catholics—and Protestants too—who hold on to the old distinction do so because they fear a loss of respect for God’s work, the Church of Christ. But this is an odd anxiety, and very needless. The Church is, indeed, the Church of God, the Body of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit; but this does not keep Peter from saying that the time has come for judgment to begin with the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17; cf. Ezek. 9:6). Just as Israel had no basis for supposing that its election excused it from judgment, the Church has no basis for supposing it can avoid the divine measuring. If the Church assumes it exists outside the possibility of divine critique, it has lost sight of its divine calling. The Gentile Christians, after all, were told by Paul that if they should boast and refuse to live by the grace and mercy of God, they could be pruned away (Rom. 11:22).

The biblical insight into the riches of the Church is very different from any romantic ecclesiology. When the Bible speaks of the gifts the Church enjoys, it speaks at the same time of the calling and responsibility the Church has; it always sends the Church into the world with humility. A confession of sin does not cause the Church to lose face in the world. Rather, it keeps the Church aware of its calling and God’s promise.

When the Church gives the impression that it is already “without spot or wrinkle” (Eph. 5:27), it violates its own character and reality. For the Church as well as for its members, the Word of God says, “If we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). It is just because the Church is called the light of the world, a city on a hill, the salt of the earth, and the like, that it is measured by such high standards. And, for this reason, when the Church makes its way in humility of confession, then alone, will the word of Zechariah come into its own: “In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’ ” (Zech. 8:23).

Although it was one of the shortest of Billy Graham’s major crusades, television may take the five-day Baton Rouge campaign to more people than have ever before witnessed one of the evangelist’s meetings.

The 68,000 seats in Louisiana State University’s Tiger Stadium were never all filled during the week, but Graham told the 50,000 people on hand the last day that time cleared for December telecasting suggested a larger audience than for any of his previous efforts. Stations in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other English-speaking countries will air the series the week of December 6.

Television crews and equipment were much in evidence during the five services, but this didn’t deter the 9,076 who walked, ran, or were wheeled to the gridiron to indicate decisions for Christ.

Both the total attendance (an estimated 196,000) and the number answering the evangelist’s invitations were larger than at the five-day Shea Stadium crusade in New York City last June. And Baton Rouge had less time to prepare, since final decisions about holding the meetings there weren’t made until May.

The Louisiana capital had better weather in October than New York did in June, however, and only Friday night’s attendance was dented by showers. Graham later said he would “carry the memory of the Friday-night service in the rain with me as long as I live.”

About 28,000 stayed until the benediction that night and heard the evangelist preach on the God who remembers. The sermon was accompanied by bolts of lightning, claps of thunder, and a steady rain. Some of the 833 who came forward left the shelter of a neighbor’s umbrella to run onto the field even before the first sentence of the invitation was completed.

Early in the evening the throng heard a South Carolina beauty say that one of the great things about being a Christian is that you want to “praise him even in the rain.” Claudia Turner, this year’s Miss America runner-up, stood under an umbrella as she spoke and sang to the drenched crowd.

Her South Carolina neighbor and friend, Cliff Barrows of the Graham team, led the choir of more than 3,000 voices in “Showers of Blessing” as the first drops started to fall a few minutes before the service opened. Then it started to pour.

Both Barrows and Graham stood bareheaded at the microphone, and the next day a Baton Rouge paper headlined on page one:

“Graham Doesn’t Call His Game for Rain.” (The sermon was about ten minutes shorter than usual, though.)

The evangelist had repeatedly commented on the good weather at the first two services. The change gave him an opportunity to point to the God who remembers to send “even the rain” as well as to the God who remembers sin.

Lightning flashed and thunder rolled at the time the thief on the cross repented, Graham said in his sermon. Then he reminded his hearers that forgiveness is instant for those who repent and trust Christ (even when they do not have time to be baptized).

Similar themes were followed at other services. The evangelist stressed that salvation is available to those of Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish background as well as to those with no religious affiliation. He gave equal emphasis to the belief that no one will be saved by his own works.

Testimony by platform guests with Southern accents put a regional flavor into the meetings. The favorite of the Louisianians was Sunday afternoon’s Andy Hamilton, who had helped LSU’s Tigers upset the Auburn football team Saturday. Winning that game was thrilling, he told the crowd, but he encouraged youngsters to look beyond thrills that can vanish overnight or at the end of a season.

Also telling about their faith at the crusade were Mississippian Tom Lester, who plays “Eb” on the “Green Acres” television series, and the reigning Miss America, Phyllis George of Texas.

The local committee’s budget was met in the first four offerings, so the final one was earmarked for television costs. Executive-committee chairman Rolfe McCollister, a lawyer and Baptist layman, explained that the contribution would help disseminate “good news from Louisiana for a change.”

Evangelical Church Members: Up From Sunday School

More than 80 per cent of new members in evangelical churches come through the ranks of the Sunday school, according to an official of an independent Sunday-school curriculum publishing house.

Much of that vigor—despite widespread declines in many mainline denomination Sunday schools—was apparent last month in Philadelphia at the twenty-fifth anniversary convention of the National Sunday School Association. More than 5,000 Sunday-school workers from some forty denominations sought inspiration and know-how in 250 workshops, seven major addresses, and the exhibits of 102 sponsors. The assortment of displays colored the drab, tradition-bound convention hall. And the “now” sounds of contemporary music reverberated over the echoes of old-time evangelists who once staged mass rallies here.

While the trappings were new, the message wasn’t. “We alone have the answer,” boomed the outgoing NSSA president Sherman Williams in his keynote address. “Call it egotism or what you will,” continued the pastor of Redwood Chapel Community Church, Casto Valley, California, “that’s what the Bible says. When we realize we only have the answer, we will be motivated toward what is required of us.”

Though this year marked the association’s twenty-fifth under the aegis of the National Association of Evangelicals, it actually dates back to 1939 and the concern of a group of publishers for an evangelical curriculum to replace that of the Federal Council of Churches, predecessor of the present National Council of Churches. Today NSSA offers the service ministries of seven commissions.

William’s successor to the NSSA presidency is the Reverend Robert A. Crandall, Christian education executive for the Free Methodist Church of America and editor of its magazine, Current.

NORMAN ROHRER

Buddhists Unite

A new organization, the World Buddhist Union, was formed at a special conference of seventy-six Buddhist leaders from thirteen countries in Seoul, Korea, last month.

A statement issued at the close of the three-day meeting—said to be the first such gathering—said Buddhists were resolved to play “a more active and creative role in history” by involving themselves in world affairs “in accord with Buddhist principles.”

Priests and laymen from ten Asian countries, the United States, Britain, and Canada elected Thich Tam Chau of South Viet Nam head of the new organization. Its headquarters will be in Seoul.

The U. S. delegates were Dr. and Mrs. Winston L. King of Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. King, a scholar on Buddhism, teaches the history of religions at Vanderbilt University.

It was reported at the conference that there are 176,920,000 Buddhists in the world.

Quebec’S Hour Of Trial—And Decision

The song leader, Canon Lawrence Jackson, looked like a gray-robed Friar Tuck. St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Toronto was as big and imposing as a cathedral. The evangelist, the Right Reverend Cuthbert Killick Norman Bardsley, C.B.E., M.A., D.D., bishop of Coventry, was dressed in a purple cassock.

His message: Accept the Lord Jesus, obey him, read the Bible and pray. A twenty-minute after-meeting was announced for those who wished to commit themselves to the Lord. The great organ played “Just as I Am” to encourage them to stay; many did.

It was the third night of the Bardsley mission organized by the Diocese of Toronto. As the Gospel was being preached with such Anglican dignity, the murdered body of the Quebec minister of labor and immigration was awaiting the police in the trunk of the green Chevrolet in which he had been kidnapped a week before.

Political kidnappings, blackmail attempts, and assassination have been foreign to Canadian public life, heretofore regarded as a model of stability. The kidnappings last month of British diplomat James Cross and labor minister Pierre Laporte shattered that image—perhaps forever.

Dr. Mariano DiGangi, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, called upon evangelicals to exercise charity and understanding toward fellow Canadians in Quebec’s hour of turmoil. The Christian Reformed churches in Canada observed Ootober 25 as a day of prayer for the nation. And Canadian prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, often the butt of sharp criticism from conservative churchmen, displayed a determination during the crisis that brought grudging admiration.

The ruthless blackmail and assassination shook Quebec to the roots, and Canada can never feel innocent again.

ROBERT BROW AND LESLIE K. TARR

English Channel Narrows

For a long time Scottish Baptists have looked to America for spiritual help and influence. But now, according to the Baptist minister of Ayr, Scotland, “we are beginning to rediscover our Baptist friends in Europe.”

He writes in the Scottish Baptist: “It is the American strength, sapped by social and moral problems, which is on the wane. Our interest in the Baptists of Europe is, therefore, consistent with a growing European self-consciousness.… Our kinship with this is close.… We are becoming active members of the European Baptist community.”

They seem to be: Andrew D. Macrae of Glasgow, general secretary of the Baptist Union of Scotland, is now chairman of the European Baptist Federation.

JAN J. VAN CAPELLEVEEN

Church Union Road Signal: Forever Amber?

A Canadian poll involving 8,000 members of the United and Anglican churches is causing second thoughts among some church union enthusiasts.

The July issue of the United Church Observer and the Canadian Churchman (with a combined circulation of 550,000) carried the poll and invited reader response. Sixty per cent (4,838) of the replies came from United Church members, and 40 per cent (3,172) from Anglicans.

Ninety-one per cent of the United respondents and 61 per cent of the Anglicans indicated they would accept church union; 6 per cent of the United Church and 31 per cent of the Anglicans threatened to leave the church rather than unite. Nearly half of the Anglican young people who replied threatened to leave.

The poll asked respondents what church they would attend if there were no congregation of their denomination in the community. Surprisingly, one-third of the Anglicans said they would prefer a Roman Catholic Church; the United Church was the choice of one-fourth.

The poll is described as “unofficial” and “unauthorized,” and the antiunion sentiment is played down in official news releases. But some see the results as an amber light on the road to church union. Merger talks began twenty-six years ago.

LESLIE K. TARR

Canadian Labor Fight: No Claque For Unions

The Christian Labor Association of Canada (CLAC) attracted little attention when it was organized in 1952. But then, who could reasonably object to another religious organization—mostly on paper—that would bother no one outside a church?

Things are different now: the CLAC is in the thick of a labor fight that has reached the floor of the Ontario Legislature. And the leaders of the country’s major unions, with 1,250,000 members, blame the 3,500-member group for proposed legislative changes.

One is the so-called charity clause that would permit a worker to be exempt from joining a union or paying union dues if he objected on conscientious grounds. He could instead designate a like amount to charity. Union leaders contend that the provision strikes at the heart of the idea of a closed shop. They have not concealed their bitterness toward the CLAC, which has pressed for freedom of choice.

CLAC executive secretary Gerald Vandezande is far from satisfied with the proposed law change. He feels all workers should have the right to opt out or to be represented by another union (if enough workers in a plant request it), and he points out that the new provisions apply only to workers who have been employed at a plant prior to the introduction of a closed-shop agreement.

The powerful Ontario Federation of Labor and the Provincial Building Trades Council organized a march on the legislature building to protest this and other parts of the legislation. Ten to fifteen thousand workers walked off their jobs October 14 to take part.

The CLAC has also scored some significant court victories on behalf of workers claiming unjust dismissal from employment. Basic to the CLAC’s philosophy is a commitment to the Christian faith and its relevance. “We can’t speak of the Gospel in abstractions,” says Vandezande. “It must be applied to concrete life situations.” He is a member of the Christian Reformed Church and the general council of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.

LESLIE K. TARR

Nigeria: Prayers And Decrees

Nigeria went festive last month. Africa’s most populous state began its second decade of independence with special prayers by Christians and Muslims, and a decree extending military rule for another six years. The week-long ceremonies marked the first anniversary of Nigeria’s independence since the end of the thirty-one-month civil war.

“Vengeance belongeth unto me, saith the Lord.… The Lord shall judge his people,” read General Yakubu Gowon, head of state and the son of an evangelist, in keeping with his public stand during the civil war that God—not federal forces—should take vengeance on the rebels. The subsequent national reconciliation seems to prove the wisdom of his policy.

“This is not a celebration of victory over enemies,” Gowon told the nation, “but national thanksgiving and rejoicing. I urge Nigerians … to dedicate themselves to God and our country.”

Public response to extending military rule to 1976 was favorable. The government hopes the interval will allow development of truly national (rather than tribal) political parties, and strengthening of the economy.

W. HAROLD FULLER

Behind The Iron Curtain: Bibles

Distribution of Bibles, testaments, and portions grew all over the world—except in the United States—during the first six months of 1970 compared to the same period a year ago. The biggest gains were in Europe: Bible societies there reported an increase of 115 per cent. An increase of 9.2 per cent was recorded in Africa, and 33.5 per cent in Asia. Overall distribution through the world fund of the United Bible Societies was up 8.2 per cent.

The European increase was due mainly to the opening of the iron curtain for Bible distribution. During the second quarter of 1970 the European Production Fund printed 30,000 Czech, 5,000 Estonian, 5,000 Latvian, 15,000 Hungarian, and 23,500 Romanian Bibles, and 10,000 Bulgarian and 10,000 Romanian New Testaments.

Last year 100,000 Bibles were printed for the Romanian Orthodox Church, and this year the government gave permission for 40,000. Permission was also given to import 10,000 German Bibles from East Germany—where Bible societies have been able to continue their work—for German-speaking Lutherans of Romania. Last month the government agreed to import 10,000 Hungarian Bibles for the Hungarian-speaking Reformed Church.

JAN J. VAN CAPELLEVEEN

Russian Orthodox Conclave

The General Council of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet next May 30-June 2 to elect a new patriarch. The office has been vacant since the death last spring of Patriarch Alexis.

According to European observers, two priests are considered the leading candidates:

Metropolitan Pimen, of whom little is known in Western circles, and the comparatively famous Metropolitan Nikodim, who has attended many meetings of the World Council of Churches.

The signs seem to point to Pimen. Nikodim is said to have claimed that he is still too young. A Roman Catholic source has said that Soviet Communist leaders also favor Pimen.

JAN J. VAN CAPELLEVEEN

Religion In Transit

Court briefs opposing compulsory chapel attendance at U. S. military academies have been filed by the General Commission on Chaplains and Armed Forces Personnel, and the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. The briefs contend mandatory attendance “flouts the First Amendment.” (See August 21 issue, page 41.)

The Methodist Publishing House reported a net loss of $1,318,467 for its last fiscal year. Retiring president Lovick Pierce said it was the first such loss in his twenty-five year tenure. The drop was attributed partly to the decline in sales of curriculum materials and periodical subscriptions.

Eleven staff members of the First Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, resigned after the congregation denied membership to two Negro applicants. Pastor Herbert Gilmore, the first to quit, said dedicated church leaders were outnumbered by those on the rolls who attend only “when it comes time to vote against the Niggers” (see September 25 issue, page 26).

Members of the Puerto Rican YoungLords gang seized the First Spanish Methodist Church in New York for the second time in ten months October 18 in an armed takeover. Three policemen submitted to “mock frisking” by gang members when the trio entered the Harlem church to search for illegal weapons, the New York Times reported.

After warning on his plane radio that all Catholic and Methodist schools and churches in an area of Texas should be evacuated, the pilot deliberately crashed his craft into and destroyed a Catholic church in San Juan. About thirty priests, forty worshippers, and 200 children at a nearby school fled without injury.

United States taxpayers itemizing deductions on 1968 income returns deducted a total of $11.1 billion for religious and charitable contributions, 2.9 per cent of total gross income shown, the Internal Revenue Service reported.

A pioneer magazine for the Christian home, This Day—which had a circulation of more than 100,000 at one time—will cease publication with its January issue. Economy measures killed the twenty-five year-old Lutheran magazine, an announcement said.

A copy of the second Bible published in America—the 1743 German Bible by Christopher Saur in Germantown, Pennsylvania—is one of eleven rare Bibles purchased by the library of Dallas Seminary from the collection of Dr. Scott Francis Brenner.

Reversing its position of five years ago, the People’s Church, largest evangelical congregation in Canada, voted overwhelmingly last month favoring the reinstating of some form of capital punishment.

The University of Maryland and the District of Columbia Armory turned down a Black Panther request for a place to hold a “constitutional convention” this month. But St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church offered its premises in Northwest Washington “as part of its Christian mission … to protect freedom of expression.”

Deaths

HARRY M. CRAWFORD 35, Seventh-day Adventist veteran of seven expeditions to the Mount Ararat area in Turkey and a leader of the search for remains of Noah’s Ark there (see September 12, 1969, issue, page 48); in Denver, after an auto crash.

RICHARDC CARDINACL CUSHING, 75, until September 8 the archbishop of Boston, a post he held for twenty-six years, and colorful confidant of the Kennedy family; in Boston, of cancer.

JOHAN KOPP, 95, former head of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church both in Estonia and in exile; in Stockholm.

GLENN R. PHILLIPS, 76, retired Methodist bishop instrumental in the 1968 merger of the Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist churches; in San Diego.

JOHN T. SCOPES, 70, Tennessee schoolteacher and leading figure in the 1925 “monkey trial” testing a law barring the teaching of evolutionary theory; in Shreveport, Louisiana, of cancer.

Personalia

Jared F. Gerig was named chancellor of Fort Wayne Bible College. He resigned as president of the college in August.

James Baldwin is writing a play based on the Gospels. The famous American black writer is currently living in Paris. A brief article in the New York Times Book Review said the new play will be entitled Brother Joe. Baldwin, son of a clergyman, did some preaching as a youth but was later estranged from the Church.

Dr. Bruce M. Metzger, professor of New Testament language and literature at Princeton Seminary, has been named president-elect of the International Society of New Testament Studies, and president of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Pope Paul has appointed Agnelo Cardinal Rossi, 57, of São Paulo, Brazil, head of the church’s missions throughout the world.… The Pope named Monsignor Edward Cassidy of Argentina as the new apostolic pro-nuncio to Nationalist China, ending rumors that the Vatican was planning to break off relations with that country.

Texas pastor Gordon Clinard of San Angelo, immediate past president of the state’s Baptist General Convention, has been named to the Billy Graham chair of evangelism at Southern Seminary in Louisville. He succeeds Kenneth L. Chafin, who resigned to head the Southern Baptist Convention Home Mission Board evangelism program.

Sukenaga Murai, 60, a prominent layman of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, has been named president of 45,000-student Waseda University in Tokyo. Murai, a Waseda graduate, has been there for twelve years.

World Scene

Jerusalem’s Muslim Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque have been reopened to Christians and Jews. The action by the Supreme Muslim Council was seen by some as a sign of improved Arab-Jewish relations in the Holy Land (see February 27 issue, page 35).

Ground-breaking ceremonies were held in Jerusalem for a center to house the world’s largest biblical library and museum. The building is a project of the World Jewish Bible Society and the Israel Society for Bible Research.

Mass matrimony took place in Seoul as 791 couples filled a gym in the South Korean capital to exchange vows before Master Sun Myung Moon, founder in 1950 of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. Newlyweds were reminded of Moon’s prophecy that Christ will return in Seoul. They were charged not to engage in intercourse for forty days.

Organizers of the famous Oberammergau Passion Play say “record attendances” this year dispel public charges that the decennial play is anti-Semitic.

The East German Baptist Church has lost 10,547 members, almost a third of its membership, in the last seventeen years, according to Adolf Pohl, director of the Baptist seminary in Bucknow.

The Lutheran churches of Canada report 303,690 baptized and 196,201 confirmed members, up 8,323 or 2.8 per cent since last year.

The Board of World Missions of the Presbyterian Church U. S. approved maintaining a force of 400 missionaries overseas in 1971, even if this requires deficit spending.

Canadian Roman Catholics may now marry in non-Catholic churches with the blessing of the church.

The first Baptist evangelism conference in Eastern Europe took place recently in Prague, with some thirty participants from other Eastern European countries joining eighty-five Czechoslovakians.

A Netherlands society is dedicated exclusively to stamping out profanity. The 5,500-member Society Against Swearing posts signs in buses and public places admonishing travelers to “avoid and fight cursing and swearing.”

NEWS

The American Lutheran Church (ALC) leaned perceptibly toward its generally more liberal sister, the Lutheran Church in America (LCA), at the former’s convention in San Antonio October 21–27.

Following the LCA’s lead (see July 17 issue, page 33), the 1,000 delegates at the ALC’s fifth biennial convention approved the ordination of women, the administering of Communion before confirmation, and merger talks between the two denominational publication boards.

A resolution urging that those who object to particular wars for “reasons of conscience” be granted the same rights as those who oppose all war for religious reasons was approved also, though it drew the most thorough debate of all convention issues.

The ten-year-old denomination elected Dr. Kent S. Knutson, described by friends as a “mediating theologian,” as its new president (see story following). There was little doubt that just such mediating prowess will be required if the tenuous “altar and pulpit fellowship” established last year with the more conservative Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) is to survive ¹Before the convention was over, the super-conservative Christian News, an independent publication persistent in its criticism of creeping liberalism within Lutheranism, editorialized: “The election of Dr. Kent Knutson … clearly shows that [the ALC] is controlled by theological liberals.” The weekly called for “loyal” ALC and LCMS members to sever all ties with Knutson, insist that the 1969 altar and pulpit fellowship be rescinded, and unite. (see August 1, 1969, issue, page 34).

While the LCA approved the ordination of women at its own convention in June, Missouri Synod president Dr. Jacob A. O. Preus has specifically spoken against it on biblical and theological grounds. Preus, visiting the ALC convention to deliver a meditation, repeated in an interview what he had said about women’s ordination at the June LCA convention: “It will not be a move that will strengthen fellowship.”

Since many Missouri Synod conservatives had already promised to attack the ALC fellowship tie if women were ordained, Preus’s comment may prove to be the understatement of the convention. The LCMS president would not speculate on any forthcoming official reaction.

He was, however, mildly hopeful that Knutson’s presence at the helm might be a stabilizing influence. “Knutson is a trained theologian,” he said. “He will have a good understanding of the tensions.” Preus then bounded off to continue what he said was his main work these days: “To get the LCMS united after the division created last year by the question of fellowship.”

The ordination proposal passed by a vote of 560 to 414. Some opponents objected on scriptural grounds, others because they felt an inter-church study produced by all three of the largest Lutheran bodies left the concepts of ministry and ordination ill-defined and confusing. One pastor said his church had favored women ministers until studying the material, then was 75 per cent against it because of the study’s lack of guidance. “I don’t see how this convention can vote on something so poorly defined,” he said. Objected another clerical delegate: “The overwhelming weight of the Old and New Testaments places the direction of spiritual life in the hands of men.”

The inter-church study vaguely disagreed. It viewed such biblical passages as First Corinthians 11:2–6 and 14:33–36 as opposed to each other, pointed out several hermeneutical difficulties, and concluded inconclusively that a “variety of practices” might be acceptable at any given time. In general, however, the study seeks to question “to what extent doctrinal matters in the strict sense are here involved.”

While the convention was still in process, LCA headquarters in New York announced that Elizabeth Platz of Baltimore will become the first LCA woman minister. She will be ordained November 22, to become a chaplain at the University of Maryland.

The changes in confirmation and Communion practice approved by the ALC will allow a child to take communion from about age 10, instead of waiting till he is confirmed, formerly at about age 14. The new ruling redefines confirmation as a learning process more than a single rite. A committee report recommended the change because “confirmation day has been widely accepted as graduation from regular participation in the educational program of the church.” Proponents advocated the measure not only to curtail teen-age drop-outs but also as a means of communicating the Christian faith at camps for youngsters, and because “Communion should be treated as a sacrament and not some kind of a reward.”

Unsuccessful opponents feared confirmation was being blurred to the point of neglect and perhaps eventual dismissal. One delegate asked pointedly: “How long before we drop the other shoe?” As a compromise measure, an earlier age for confirmation was finally approved.

If merger negotiations are successful between the ALC’s Augsburg Publishing House and the LCA publishing arm, Fortress Press, it will mean the combining of the nation’s fourth- and fifth-largest religious publishing firms. The third-largest is the LCMS Concordia Publishing House. Augsburg general manager Albert E. Anderson said merger talks with Concordia “make no sense until … the LCMS is ready to enter into a full joint parish education development program and until they discontinue a censorial system.”

A statement approving liberalized abortion laws was referred back to the Commission on Research and Social Action. Most observers attached little importance to the convention’s refusal to act on the statement, since many state laws are being liberalized anyway, and a four-year-old ALC statement approves of therapeutic abortions.

A $23.7 million budget for 1971—only $36,000 above that of 1970—was approved in the convention’s final hours.

Bishop Kent Knutson At The Alc Helm

The president of Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, was precise, cool, and collected as he faced the press in San Antonio after being elected president of the American Lutheran Church last month.

Dr. Kent S. Knutson was named to the post on the fourth ballot of a tense race that had been marked by open and widespread political campaigning, a new departure in American Protestantism. Although Knutson himself did not campaign, he had earlier approved the way two other candidates brought their vote-gathering efforts “out in the open,” as he put it to the press. As it turned out, some efforts were not altogether in the open: retiring president Dr. Fredrik A. Schiotz, 69, rebuked unnamed campaigners for placing pastors’ names on endorsements without consulting them.

The smallish, slightly shy theologian, the father of six, was the youngest (46) of ten candidates for the top post in the 2.5-million-member denomination. On the last ballot, he defeated Dr. David W. Preus, cousin of Dr. Jacob A. O. Preus, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. David Preus was later reelected vice-president.

Knutson was described by a former student as “the best teacher I ever had—demanding, but the kind who always provided very much before demanding.” A specialist in Christology and ecclesiology, Knutson has been a leader in Lutheran talks with Roman Catholics. He was a featured speaker at the recent gathering of Protestant and Roman Catholic theologians at Evian, France.

While Knutson favors the ordination of women, he expressed hope that it would not cause “occasion for objection or withdrawal” by the Missouri Synod Lutherans who oppose it. He went on to predict unity among the nation’s three largest Lutheran bodies, with a combined membership of nearly nine million, within the decade.

Although the new president was not so optimistic about ecumenism in general (the convention voted not to apply for membership in the National Council of Churches), he said he approved of the title of bishop—a designation for the ALC’s district and national heads approved at San Antonio for experimental use. Dr. Schiotz was named “bishop emeritus,” thus becoming the first bishop in the history of Lutheranism in this country.

Knutson, a native of Goldfield, Iowa, earned a degree in chemical engineering before studying theology in this country and Germany and receiving his Ph.D. degree at Union Seminary in New York. His undergraduate work may be a valuable adjunct as he analyzes and catalyzes the changing chemistry in the ALC, and the uneasy colloid of inter-Lutheran relations.

Will The Real Accc Please Come To Order?

The man who led thousands of Americans in a march for victory in Viet Nam October 3 (see October 23 issue, page 36) suffered a personal defeat of his own making among his brethren in Pasadena, California, twenty-five days later. But he doubtless will claim it a victory.

With fifty-five pre-pledged delegates in tow, radio preacher Carl T. McIntire, president of the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC), invaded the twenty-ninth convention of the American Council of Churches (ACCC) determined to wrest control from the present administration. Ironically, it appeared later that he had enough delegates to pull it off but fired his majority gun too early. Judging from the American Council’s ensuing drastic action, he may also have lost the long-smoldering war with the separatist agency he helped organize in 1941.

The McIntire mutiny was expected, but not in the first hour of the convention held at Pasadena’s historic old Huntington Sheraton. A business session was scheduled for 2:15 P.M. As a devotional period ended at 10 A.M., however, chairman Donald McKnight recognized McIntire, who asked that the business meeting be convened immediately. McKnight decided to call for a scheduled recess.

After the unsuspecting delegates left for coffee, McIntire quickly took the podium and accepted the nomination for temporary chairman. By the time ACCC president J. Philip Clark and newsmen arrived, McIntire had a firm grip on the “business meeting” and had been elected “president.”

“I’m sorry, gentlemen,” McIntire kept repeating as astonished delegates swarmed around. “This meeting is still in session, and I have been duly elected president of the American Council of Christian Churches. We can’t help it if the others walked out.”

Confusion reigned a full hour. Neither faction would sit down or surrender the platform. Dr. Robert T. Ketcham, co-founder of the ACCC and grand old man of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, cried angrily above the bedlam: “This is piracy of the worst order!” A little lady held up two Bibles, her eyes pinched shut in an attitude of prayer. Someone lamented: “Shame! Shame!”

Embarrassed laughter could be heard among the 125 persons when a hand duel for the microphone began. Clark won the battle when the hotel management installed a second mike over which he announced that the scheduled 11 o’clock meeting would continue.

Law and decency were both against McIntire. No roll call, certification, or any other action had yet been taken to determine who was eligible to vote. The duly appointed nominating committee had not yet met or reported. McIntire in his takeover had disenfranchised those duly appointed voting representatives who did not plan to arrive before the hour legally set for the business session.

By mid-afternoon McIntire finally retreated, proclaiming himself ACCC president and replacing the entire Executive Council with men of his choosing. (ACCC legal counsel ordered the doors locked at the council’s Valley Forge headquarters.)

Because of the disruption and other ACCC-ICCC troubles, the ACCC dropped the ICCC from its constituent membership. It also dropped the Bible Presbyterians and four other affiliated denominations that had participated in McIntire’s rump convention: the Independent Protestant Church, the Methodist Protestant Church, the South Carolina Baptist Fellowship, and the United Christian Church.

“These groups have not participated in ACCC for years,” general secretary John E. Millheim said. “It seems strange that they should suddenly show up now with full delegate strength.”

The new Westminster Biblical Fellowship was added to accommodate Bible Presbyterians who had just lost their standing in the council.

At the close of its convention the ACCC had eleven member denominations with approximately the same half-million people represented as in the fifteen denominations it had when the convention began.

NORMAN ROHRER

Opposition To Presbyterian Union Mounts In South

Negotiators of a union between the United Presbyterian Church U. S. A. and the Presbyterian Church U. S. are going ahead with their work even though more than half the number of Southern (PCUS) presbyteries needed to block the merger have already opposed it.

At a late October meeting in Washington, D. C., the Joint Committee of Twenty-four approved a timetable for presenting the plan, decided on a name, and worked on the polity section of a draft plan.

In the month before the committee gathering, ten presbyteries passed resolutions opposing any denominational action (including merger) that would dilute or demean the church’s confessional position. Similar documents were being considered in other judicatories of the Southern church.

The resolutions differed in their emphasis from presbytery to presbytery. Most went beyond simply recording opposition to a united church not using the Westminster Confession of Faith as the principal doctrinal standard to which ministers and lay officers subscribe.

The language used in some said the courts “will not accept any dilution of the system of doctrine set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith; nor will we accept the demeaning of our confessional standards by including them in the Book of Confessions; nor will we accept such changes in ordination vows as will no longer require officers of the Church to adhere to our present Westminster standards.”

Confessions Of A Church

Wallace Memorial United Presbyterian Church in Hyattsville, Maryland, is asking the Presbytery of Washington City to join it in requesting General Assembly to include the Frankfurt Declaration in the denomination’s 1967 Book of Confessions. (For background on the declaration see June 19 issue, page 3, and October 9 issue, page 56.)

Pastor Robert Shires said Wallace Memorial also had bought 350 copies of the declaration for distribution to every church and pastor in the presbytery.

After hearing reports on the state of the churches, including a review of the presbytery resolutions, the joint committee decided to send a draft plan to the 1971 general assemblies of the denominations. A year of study and comment would be requested, and a final plan would be submitted for action in 1972. The proposed name for the united church is “Presbyterian Church (USA).”

If the Southern assembly has not reduced its number of presbyteries by 1972 (another committee is submitting a proposal to do so again next year), the ten presbyteries already opposing union without current doctrinal safeguards could go a long way toward defeating the plan. Currently, the PCUS constitution requires a three-fourths vote to approve union, and there are seventy-one presbyteries.

ARTHUR MATTHEWS

Episcopal Derring-Do Spreads To Youth Project

Episcopalians may have a new program that will rival the denomination’s controversial special project to fund poor and minority groups in its no-strings, avant-garde approach.

In closing hours of the sixty-third General Convention of the church in Houston last month (see also report in November 6 issue, page 43), delegates approved at least $250,000 annually for three years to fund a bold youth project giving sub-culture and minority young people almost complete control in determining and running their own programs. The project closely parallels the church’s General Convention Special Program (GCSP) that has roused a storm of protest because some grants have been made to groups whose leaders have been implicated in violence.

The heart of the new youth venture (another $250,000 a year is being sought for it from an Episcopal women’s offering) is to reach minority youth and those caught up in various youth movements on the margins of the church and society itself.

Other late action in Houston:

• Trial approval of a new rite that will allow baptized children to take Communion before they are confirmed, usually about age 12.

• Changes involving trial revision of one-half of the Prayer Book, including several new liturgies for the Lord’s Supper, new prayers, and rubrics.

• Recognition of deaconesses as deacons, thus putting women on the first step of holy orders. But female deacons, unlike men, may not advance to the Episcopal priesthood or bishopric.

• Refusal by the lay-clerical House of Deputies to back a bishops-approved statement on Viet Nam, a strong criticism of U. S. policy that called for Nixon and Congress to drop support of the “repressive” Thieu-Ky government and withdraw all U. S. troops from South Viet Nam by December, 1971.

• Adoption of a $12.7 million budget for 1971, plus another $11.1 if it can be raised. The GCSP will get $1.3 million from basic funds.

RUSSELL CHANDLER

Visiting The Early Churchmen

Evangelism in the Early Church, by Michael Green (Eerdmans, 1970, 349 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Donald McGavran, dean of the School of World Mission, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California.

This fascinating book will be read with profit all around the world. Principal Green of the London Divinity School has mined a broad vein of gold unaccountably neglected in the modern emphasis on evangelism and brought out rich treasures. The New Testament writers and the Fathers set forth in detail the vivid, ceaseless, and highly successful evangelism that created the fast-growing early Church, and Green spreads this out for all to see. He saves us from the naïve assumption that by the quality of its life, in the face of fierce persecution the Church of the first centuries conquered the Roman Empire without evangelism! In chapter after chapter, he sets forth the many ways in which the early Christians worked enthusiastically at propagating their religion. All this makes the Gospels and Epistles come alive.

Green is a first-rate scholar, conversant with but not overawed by the modern schools of New Testament thought. He is at home in the churches of the first four centuries. He has read what the best authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have written. Often he agrees with them, building on their insights and often he disagrees.

Green writes for modern readers. In discussing “conversion and the modern mind,” he says, “Conversion as practiced in the earliest Church raises certain problems for us today, of which the following three are, perhaps, the most common.…” Or again, “This is a salutory reminder in days like our own when Christians tend to be rather shy about the uniqueness of their religion.”

Excellent use is made of the writings of the Fathers. Illustration after illustration shows that these men were not merely theologians but rather flaming evangelists. For example, “It would be difficult to better the account of Gregory’s conversion through Origen. We are fortunate in being able to reconstruct a good deal of the story from their own writings.” A most interesting account, entirely germane to the twentieth century, follows. The volume is full of such nuggets. Green enriches his theme by extensive use of the experience of eminent leaders, converts, writers, and bishops of the first four centuries—Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement, Justin, Cyprian, Augustine, Tatian, and many others.

Evangelizing the Jews, evangelizing the Gentiles, conversion, evangelistic methods, evangelistic motives, and evangelistic strategy—to name six of the ten chapter topics—are brilliantly set forth. The minister, layman, or missionary who wants to feed his mind on the practice of the early Church cannot do better than to read this book and then read his New Testament in the light of its widespread and effective evangelism.

Understandably, Green sees things from the European and American point of view. He does not see the enormous importance of the web of family relationships in the spread of the faith. He believes, with Roland Allen, that Paul went to the cities because they were strategically important, rather than—as seems more likely—because the Jews were a commercial people and lived there. Paul was simply following his contacts. For instance, those who became Christians in Thessalonica probably told him of daughters married into Jewish families in Corinth, assured him that he would be welcome there, and sent letters and gifts with him. To the Corinthian Jews, he came as a friend of the family!

Though Green correctly emphasizes that in the early Church laymen were by far the most numerous preachers, he curiously does not conclude that Luke not only heard Paul but himself must have preached those basic sermons hundreds of times. He told forth the Good News in its main emphases long before he wrote it down. This is, humanly speaking, the reason why sermons in Acts give “us access to a very old stratum of tradition.” They do indeed!

They were what all Christians had—from the beginning—said about Christ and the Christian way.

Speaking exactly, they do not “reflect an early tradition”—they are the very stuff itself. They are the evangelistic preaching as it existed from the beginning. The variant forms are adequately explained as alterations needed to fit Gentile and Jewish audiences.

This book should be on every preacher’s desk and go abroad with every missionary. It will furnish abundant illustrations for sermons and give biblical and theoretical depth to the greatly needed and currently spreading stress on evangelism and church growth.

Mere Psychological Illusion

Revolt Against the Faithful: A Biblical Case for Inspiration as Encounter, by Robert S. Alley (Lippincott, 1970, 192 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Clark H. Pinnock, professor of systematic theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.

Here we have the declaration of war on the part of a Southern Baptist liberal, more honest and outspoken than most, upon the “faithful” who still believe in the biblical absolutes and persist in their conviction that the Christian faith has definable content worth preserving. It is a book born out of a polemical situation that has left the author bitter toward conservatives like Criswell, whose book is cited as frequently on the one side as the Bultmannian theologians are on the other. Though I myself was delighted to receive Alley’s invitation to join the Flat Earth Society (p. 167), it was more sobering to observe just how blind a writer can be—despite the trappings of scholarship—to the total vacuity and absurdity of his own position.

Christianity, it seems, is about a “free encounter” with divine reality that takes place within personal experience and is entirely contentless and self-authenticating. The major events of saving history are legendary, and the biblical teachings reflect only a first-century manner of looking at things. The Gospel according to Alley has to do with the realization of the full human potential, and all forms of orthodoxy in his opinion frustrate this goal. For Alley, this means the death of the entire factual and doctrinal structure of the Christian faith. His religion is an existential humanism in which man gives revelation to himself and salvation is from within.

Ironically, Alley, who wishes so fervently to argue a reasonable case against orthodoxy, has only succeeded in producing a meaningless book. There is no reason to regard his religious encounter as anything more than a psychological illusion, especially when his repudiation of the entire historical framework of Christianity is kept in mind. Feuerbach is waiting at the end of Alley’s present spiritual journey. And even if one is gentle toward his solipsistic fideism, it is only right to insist that “freedom” without “form” is impossible in art or theology. Alley’s absolute is that there are no absolutes. In this case he can criticize those who speak, but must remain totally speechless himself. (The full answer to Alley is the one given to Hebert in a similar debate: ‘Fundamentalism’ and the Word of God by J. I. Packer.)

In the preface, Alley darkly warns that unless his book is soon heeded, “there will be no future for our two boys within the Church.” We feel a deeper concern. The boys we can commend to a greater Father. Should this book be widely heeded, there will be no future for the Church. But in view of the powerful conservative sentiment remaining within the convention, it doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance.

Toward Effective Writing

Rhetoric: Discovery and Change, by R. E. Young, A. L. Becker, and K. L. Pike (Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1970, 383 pp., $6.50), is reviewed by Cheryl A. Forbes, a member of the staff ofCHRISTIANITY TODAY.

Dr. Kenneth L. Pike, professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan and a board member of Wycliffe Bible Translators, has collaborated with two professors of freshman rhetoric from the same university to write a textbook on rhetoric that they hope students will find both practical and imaginative. Dr. Pike provides the basic theory upon which the book is based, while the other two provide the praotical impetus and many interesting examples (often from their students’ work), bringing the discussion from the abstract to the concrete.

The authors define rhetoric in a way that is geared toward writing rather than public speaking. The traditional meaning is discarded in favor of what the authors feel is the classic meaning, that is, all processes involved in forceful expression. In their analysis, these processes include observation, thoughtful and evaluative choice, development, and editing. The goal is truth, and because of this, ethics enters the discussion, though the authors give no clear guidelines for ascertaining what is and what is not truth.

Each chapter deals with one aspect of the writing process. Emphasis is placed not so much on explanation as on example. There is stress also on the necessity that the student practice what each chapter pursues. Unlike many other writing textbooks, this one offers exercises that are imaginative and creative, designed to stimulate originality. The explanations are short and pointed, and are clearly strengthened by examples. The authors are not dogmatic; their analysis of the writing process is flexible and encourages the student to develop his own style.

Perhaps the most valuable part of the book is the final section, on editing. The authors are concerned with “focusing” (concentration on clarity and conciseness), continuity, and “loading” (expanding short, choppy sentences).

The purpose of the book is to help students form the habit of clear thinking, which is necessary not only for effective writing but also for apprehending truth. For these authors, that is the ultimate basis for any study of rhetoric: “Rhetoric enables you to enter the battle of the mind for it supplies the tools necessary for bringing about changes in the way men think—the way you think and the way others think.” The importance of this for Christians cannot be overestimated.

Newly Published

A Theology of the Holy Spirit, by Frederick Dale Bruner (Eerdmans, 1970, 390 pp., $8.95). Is the Pentecostal teaching on the experience of the Spirit in conformity with the New Testament teaching? Is Acts validly represented by Pentecostalism today? Should all Christians have the Pentecostal experience? This book, originally prepared for a doctorate from Hamburg by an evangelical seminary professor, is an attempt to answer such questions on the basis of a thorough investigation of both contemporary Pentecostalism (Paleo- and Neo-) and the New Testament.

Born to Lose, Bound to Win, by A. A. Allen with Walter Wagner (Doubleday, 1970, 202 pp., $4.95). Autobiography of a flamboyant, tongues-speaking evangelist. Allen’s claim that he “never sinned in any way” since his conversion is questionable, but the book is an interesting glimpse of unashamed Holy Rollerism.

How to Fight the Drug Menace, by William S. Garmon and Phil Strickland (Broadman, 1970, 127 pp., $1.50). Helpful essays of practical advice interspersed with short news reports, of various drug cases.

Sex, by Charles Murphy and Linda Day (Herder and Herder, 1970, 144 pp. and 63 pp., paperback, $2.45 and $1.75). A handbook for teen-agers and a teacher’s manual with such chapter titles as “What Is Sex?,” “Who Am I?,” “The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of the Parts,” and “God Is Love.”

Out of My Mind, by Joseph Bayly (Tyndale House, 1970, 192 pp., paperback, $1.95). These short essays taken from His and Eternity magazines are, the author says, “ ‘period pieces,’ the furniture of my mind over almost two decades.”

Of Love and Of Suffering, by Robert E. Fitch (Westminster, 1970, 176 pp., paperback, $2.75). Calling himself “a pious positivist … a devout agnostic,” the author thoroughly examines the ethics of love and suffering from a Christian standpoint; each chapter is based on several Bible passages. He concludes that an ethic of love requires belief in God as “the Lord of History, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Judge and Redeemer of mankind”; “an incarnate logos,” Christ as the embodiment of God’s love; and the immortality of the individual.

Religion, Language and Truth, by Leslie Dewart (Herder and Herder, 1970, 174 pp., $5.95). A valiant effort at a radical approach to theology via linguistics, but why choose Noam Chomsky’s theory of linguistics (one of the more traditional, currently) on which to build?

The Rich Christians and Poor Lazarus, by Helmut Gollwitzer (Macmillan, 1970, 108 pp., paperback, $1.45). An advocate of the kind of social action called for at Uppsala in 1968 by the World Council of Churches states his case, passionately. Sample chapter title: “Criticism of Society and Criticism of Capitalism as a Task of the Church.”

Pastoral Psychology, by Carlo A. Weber (Sheed and Ward, 1970, 160 pp., $6), and Where God Comes In, by William E. Crane (Word, 1970, 147 pp., $3.95). Here are two important books for all ministers concerned with counseling. In the first the author tries to show how an understanding of psychology is important in religious counseling, practical as well as theoretical; on the whole, he succeeds. The second is a reminder that without God’s Spirit no counseling will be effective. These two books, taken together, present a balanced outlook.

The Creation of Death and Life, by Rachel H. King (Philosophical Library, 1970, 444 pp., $8.95). Beginning with the second law of thermodynamics (“the belief that the over-all tendency of matter is toward … randomness, and action will cease”), the author presents a carefully reasoned attempt “to relate the over-all scientific view to the over-all biblical view of God and the world and men.”

English Church Music 1650–1750, by Christopher Dearnley (Oxford, 1970, 308 pp., $10). A lively, well-written discussion of the history of church music in the century following the Restoration; entertaining as well as informative.

Sect Ideologies and Social Status, by Gary Schwartz (Chicago, 1970, 260 pp., $9). A study, originally a Ph.D. dissertation, of Pentecostalism and Seventh-day Adventism that attempts to develop a general theory of the relation of belief to behavior.

Toward Creative Urban Strategy, compiled by George A. Torney (Word, 1970, 249 pp., $5.95). Practical essays by such men as Elton Trueblood, Walker Knight, and Stephen C. Rose telling what Christians can do about and to the inner city.

The Negro in America: A Bibliography originally compiled by Elizabeth W. Miller and enlarged by Mary L. Fisher (Harvard, 1970, 351 pp., $10). In this revised edition there are 6,500 entries, with valuable annotations and subject groupings—a tool with which all who want to know more about black Americans should be acquainted. Black religion, however, is under-represented.

Religion and Capitalism: Allies, Not Enemies, by Edmund A. Opitz (Arlington House, 1970, 318 pp., $7). At a time when so many writers argue that Christian belief demands the advocacy of socialism in some form, it is good to be reminded that there are alternatives.

Come, Fill the Cup, by Lee Bryant (Word, 1970, 207 pp., $4.95). Gripping account of the author’s fight against and ultimate conversion to Christianity.

Overcoming the Fear of Death, by David Cole Gordon (Macmillan, 1970, 115 pp., $3.95). A badly written attempt to simplify a complex problem, succeeding only in being prosaic.

Some of the above books will later be reviewed at greater length.

In The Journals

“How Does Revelation Occur?,” by Bernard Ramm, Spectrum, Winter, 1970, pp. 7–32 (Box 866, Loma Linda, Calif. 92354; single copy $3). Includes responses by three Adventist Theologians. “Christianity and Public Policy,” four articles by four Adventists, Spectrum, Summer, 1970, pp. 23–70. Thoughtful articles from a religious group known rather for its social service than for its social action.

“Recent Work on Old Testament Prophets,” by H. L. Ellison, The Churchman, Summer, 1970, pp. 115–25 (7 Wine Office Ct., Fleet St., London, E.C. 4; single copy $.80). “Trends in Pentateuchal Criticism Since 1950,” by G. J. Wenham, The Churchman, Autum, 1970, pp. 210–20. Good Surveys.

“Problems in Interpreting the Book of Mormon as History,” by Wayne Ham, Courage, September, 1970, pp. 15–22 (106 E. South, Lamoni, Iowa 50140; single copy $1.50). A man who until very recently was a religious-education leader in the second-largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement concludes that loyal members should be able to “read the book as a product of the American frontier and honor it as an interesting artifact.…” Courage is evidence of Mormon liberalism.

My sunday-night sermon had been a masterpiece of theology, oratory, and homiletics. As my Monday coffee-drinking companion and I sipped our coffee, I waited for him to comment on it. Finally he asked, “Pastor, what were you trying to say last night? I never could figure it out.”

Too often there is an interplanetary space between the pulpit and the pew. The response from the pew is, “Pastor, what was that you said?”

When you preach on Sunday you have a startling variety of persons before you. Some are highly educated, some functionally illiterate. Some are committed Christians; some are irreligious. Some came out of force of habit. Some are there because husbands or wives were determined that the family was going to church.

How do you get through to a crowd like that? Is it any wonder that some sleep through your sermon and others ask, “Pastor, what was that you said?” One of the problems of communicating our Christian message is that we preachers tend to live in our own private world. We are immersed in a semi-religious realm and scarcely realize that many of our laymen live in a quite different world.

Some of us seem to use a strange language spoken only in churches and by preachers. We are sometimes accused either of discussing abstruse ideas that are unrelated to the lives of the people or of becoming so engrossed in the concerns of society that people wonder why they came to church. They miss a clear message from the Bible addressed to their own spiritual needs.

Notice six characteristics of people today that have a bearing on our problem of communication:

1. Our people live in a pleasure-oriented world. Existence is directed toward satisfying personal needs and desires.

2. People are money-plagued, deeply in debt for their gadgets and luxuries. If they hear us preach once a year on stewardship, some immediately get the impression that we are just after their money.

3. They are scientifically minded. To many, at least subconsciously, science has become almighty and can answer all problems.

4. They are sales resistant. As they watch television and listen to radio commercials, they develop a built-in resistance to the salespitch. They are accustomed to a continual stream of attempts to get them to buy toothpaste and detergents, and they have developed a shell of resistance. When we try to challenge them, they can retreat behind that shell.

5. They are thoroughly pragmatic. To them, whatever works is right. The question of right and wrong is not as important as momentary expediency.

6. They are accustomed, through television, to polished performances. When they sit in our churches, seeing something less than perfection, we are immediately put at a disadvantage.

Each of these characteristics is a barrier to our communicating and a challenge to our ingenuity as we attempt to reach people with the Gospel.

Many people in the pews are unhappy. Outwardly, they may appear well adjusted and on top of the world. Inwardly, they know there must be something more to life than they have found.

Our task is to take the preacher in the pulpit, whose heart is in heaven, and the man in the pew, distinctly rooted in this world, and bring the two together. How can we do this?

First and foremost, there must be a dependence upon the Holy Spirit. None of us can by polished oratory, intellectual acumen, or any other abilities, accomplish the task of bridging heaven and earth in one worship service. Only the Holy Spirit can do this, working in the hearts of those in the pew and in the pulpit. Give him a chance within your heart so that when you stand in the pulpit you radiate the truth of your message; this, in part, will communicate what you are trying to say.

Speak with biblical authority—but avoid sounding like a dogmatic know-it-all. Speak with the authority of Scripture, in a message saturated with biblical truth, but not as though you were the Author himself.

Preach to your people, to the people sitting before you, not the politicians in Washington, the hippies in Berkeley, or the crowd home in bed asleep. As you prepare your message, jot down the names of some people who will be present on Sunday. List some of their spiritual needs. Then build your sermon in the light of this list.

Begin where your people are. Do not assume that they know more about spiritual matters than they actually do. Preach to their needs at their current level of development.

Use a simple style and polish it. Speak to the children—and then the adults will be able to understand also.

Deal with a few basic ideas. You cannot tell everything you know in one sermon, and you certainly ought not to try! Deal with a few basic ideas and show how they are relevant to the lives of the people sitting before you.

As you begin a sermon, make a clear point of identification with your audience, or you may never have them with you.

Use enough illustrations to raise the shades and let in a little light. An illustration can help a man see how your message applies in his life.

Make certain the truths you are trying to drive home stand out crystal clear. Every sermon ought to have a discernible skeleton—but put some good solid meat on the bones, too.

When you preach, either translate or hire an interpreter. Many of us would probably be shocked to find out how little of our theological jargon, how few of our religious cliches, our people really understand. Choose your words carefully and define your terms often enough for your hearers to be sure what you mean. If you use the King James Version, watch for archaic English words and antiquated expressions.

If we allow ourselves to soar to nebulous heights in the pulpit or to plumb the obscure depths with unintelligible jargon, then we deserve the rebuke of the question, “Pastor, what was that you said?”—J. TERRY YOUNG, editor, The California Southern Baptist, Fresno.

There is a humorous advertisement on the radio in which a husband and wife start out on their vacation and as they drive along tick off the various items each attended to just before leaving. Then there is an agonized wail from the wife: “Oh, Jack, we’ve forgotten the baby!”

Is the Church in danger of “forgetting the baby”? In our sophistication, are we bypassing our Lord’s words, “You must be born again” (John 3:7)?

This is the only imperative Jesus lays on all men. To the Christian he gives further commands, but to the unregenerate world he says, “You must be born again.”

Recently a religious activist spoke of those who continue to affirm the validity of the historic Christian faith as the “living dead.” This searing criticism was accompanied by a ringing call to be a new person, willing to face up to and participate in the new “religious revolution”—which, so far as I can determine, is dedicated to working for a new world without the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here we are once again confronted with our own failure to make plain the necessity for and meaning of the new birth. Despite the fact that Jesus says it is an imperative, we are inclined to think of it as an option to be acted on or rejected as the individual thinks best.

It is interesting that Jesus uses the word must with reference to himself on a number of occasions. He “must” be about his Father’s business. He “must” preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to other cities. He “must” go to Jerusalem and suffer and die, and the third day rise from the dead. The Scriptures about him “must” be fulfilled. He “must” rise again from the dead.

But when he speaks to unregenerate man, there is but one imperative: “You must be born again.”

For the Christian there are two commandments: We “must” love one another, and we “must” be his witnesses, going into all the world to preach the Gospel.

Why, oh why, do we pay so little heed to something so vitally important? The new birth is the very foundation of becoming a Christian. Just as physical birth is the beginning of physical life, so the new birth is the beginning of spiritual life, of life from the dead.

Perhaps, even in the Church, there are many who are of the great band of the living dead—living in this world but dead to the next, living for selfish ends but dead to the Spirit of the living God.

Perhaps there are those who think they are well and prosperous but who in our Lord’s eyes are “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked” (Rev. 3:17), living but one life, the physical.

We live in a day when population control is a major issue and when there are demands that there shall be no legal restrictions against abortion. Could there be a connection between these concerns and a lack of interest in spiritual rebirth?

Years ago I knew a deeply devout Christian woman from Australia who startled and often offended people by asking when first introduced to them: “Have you been born again?” Perhaps her method was overly abrupt, but it was surely an effective way of confronting people with the necessity of spiritual rebirth.

No doubt Nicodemus was deeply versed in the Old Testament Scriptures, but there lurked in his mind and heart a serious question about ultimate answers that led him to seek help secretly. So he came to Jesus, and Jesus told him of the necessity of being born again from above.

In the ensuing explanation Jesus made it crystal clear that there are two births, one physical, the other spiritual, both equally real: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).

The Apostle Paul says, “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:5).

Does it make much difference? “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.… If you live according to the flesh you will die” (Rom. 8:7, 13).

The problem of the world and much of the trouble in the Church is the emphasis on the world and—worst of all—the effort to cure the world’s ills without curing the hearts of men. The social order is desperately sick, and it will never be cured aside from treating the hearts of sin-sick individuals.

The revolt of youth is not in itself bad; many are revolting against the hypocrisy and selfishness of an older generation that has made and is making a mess of the world. The trouble with revolting youth as well as with the “establishment” is that both are blind to the nature of the sickness that has infected mankind and society. They think the troubles of the world can be cured at the material and secular level and do not recognize the vital significance of our Lord’s words, “You must be born again.”

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn [are converted] and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3, 4). For us to admit the necessity of the new birth—our own need of regeneration—requires humility, a virtue that is in scarce supply today. We see the ills of humanity and are determined to right them in our own way and by our own strength, and by doing so we add to the problem.

The doctrine of the new birth needs to be recaptured and preached from every pulpit. Men must come to see that either we are born once and then destined to die twice, or we are born twice and die only once. This must be stressed as the divine imperative.

Finally, it remains for those who have been born of the Spirit to demonstrate in their lives his presence and his power. Our chief responsibility is to glorify the God who has brought us into this new life, and we do not do this by walking about with our heads in the clouds, oblivious to the needs about us. We glorify God by witnessing to his saving and keeping power. We make our greatest contribution to our fellow men when we tell them how they too may become new creatures. This is not a matter of pious phrases but of tender love that meets physical needs even while telling of the new life to be had in Christ.

The fruits of the Spirit, so graphically outlined by the Apostle Paul, are not ethereal in their application but are completely geared to the needs of those about us. If we show in our lives “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5:22, 23), we are giving convincing evidence to others that being born of the Spirit is a very real and practical matter.

The requirement for man to become right in God’s sight is that he must be born again, born by the power of the Holy Spirit, and thereby made fit to live in God’s presence now and for eternity. It is the way of humility and faith, the way into a new life in Christ Jesus, God’s Son. Its simplicity is staggering—and its result is Life.