On November 5, Congress adopted a resolution declaring November 9 a National Day of Prayer for U. S. servicemen being held prisoner in North Viet Nam, and sent the resolution to the President for his signature. The measure, prompted by the appeal of several wives of imprisoned servicemen, drew scant advance attention from the media.

The action won support from a Southern Baptist, Admiral James W. Kelly, who is chief of Navy chaplains. His prayer for “courage and hope and a never-failing confidence” in God was written into the Congressional Record.

Government figures list 1,325 Americans missing in North Viet Nam and Laos. Fewer than 100 of those in prison have been able to write their families, despite a Geneva Convention rule requiring that privilege for prisoners.

Dr. Richard J. Jungkuntz is losing his job as executive secretary of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations. Jungkuntz’s dismissal, to be effective January 31, came in a 14–7 vote of the twenty-three-member commission during a reorganization meeting following appointment of five new members after the church’s 1969 convention.

Reasons for the dismissal were not immediately made public. Jungkuntz has held the appointment since 1965, when he was named to a four-year term. The period has been one of ferment for the Missouri Synod, climaxed by the convention this past summer in which a more conservative president was elected. Selection of a successor to Jungkuntz has been delayed.

The annual Family of Man awards dinner in New York City last month appeared to be more of a family quarrel than an expression of human solidarity.

While the city’s Council of Churches sponsored a $150-a-plate dinner attended by 2,000 inside the New York Hilton, a farrago of 500 gathered outside to protest the council’s honoring of President Nixon; former Ambassador Averell Harriman; Dr. S. I. Hayakawa, battle-scarred president of San Francisco State College; and civil-rights leader Bayard Rustin.

“It must be said … in plain truth,” said Secretary of State William P. Rogers as he accepted Nixon’s medallion, “that the leaders in Hanoi look upon disruption and dissent in the United States as their best ally.” Meanwhile, at the protest outside (engineered by Union Theological Seminary students), alternate awards were presented to James Forman (present) for “the Black Manifesto which symbolizes a great deal of hope”; Pete Seeger, “in this day of dead lakes and fouled-up rivers … for his interest in ecology”; Father James Groppi (unavoidably detained in a Wisconsin jail), for “uniting the people of Milwaukee who are poor and oppressed”; and others.

The protest group was a surprising assortment from moderate clergy to the Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society, Youth Against War and Facism, the “Crazies” militant youth group, and some supporters of the National Liberation Front. After the counter-awards, the clergy group marched across the street in defiance of a police order and fed one another bread and wine.

Several days before, a bevy of New York clergymen “liberated” the office of the Council of Churches’ head Dr. Dan Potter, and protested that the jaunty Hayakawa was unsuited for his award because he handled student radicals by the “violence of repression.” Among those supporting the office takeover was New York Seminary president Dr. George Webber.

The awards dinner a year ago led to a split between the Family of Man Corporation and the council, which filed a suit charging that individuals withheld the dinner receipts from the council. The funds were “frozen” by court order. Unless things thaw, next year’s dinner may be frozen, too.

Detroit’s new multi-million-dollar John Wesley College, first of a planned satellite system of twenty-five schools (see September 12 issue, page 49), struck a jagged snag last month when its founder, Nazarene pastor Dr. Kenneth Armstrong, was censured by his denomination for being involved in the project.

The school, based on a pioneering education concept for Christian colleges, was scheduled to open in two years with a $6 million plant. At issue is whether Armstrong, 42, who holds doctoral degrees from the University of Denver and Illiff School of Theology (Methodist), can stay within Nazarene church law and siphon funds from Nazarenes for an unapproved project.

Mount Olivet Nazarene College at Kankakee, Illinois, fears its own support might be curtailed by the Midwest appeal for funds for nondenominational John Wesley College. Also threatened is the traditional concept of the church college. Wesley colleges would serve as religious centers providing housing and counseling for students who want the advantages of small Christian colleges. But most course work would be taken at secular campuses, which ultimately would grant the degrees.

Armstrong is in hot water, too, because a proposed twenty-two-acre site for the Detroit Wesley College was bought with a $285,000 mortgage on the current First Nazarene Church property. Armstrong said he had hoped to use the college chapel for congregational purposes as well. Now he will seek another site, he added, because of denominational insistence that the denomination—not the local church—owns all Nazarene property.

In an unprecedented statement, the six-member Board of General Superintendents said it “does not approve or endorse (directly or indirectly) the organization of the John Wesley Educational and Development Foundation or its project(s).”

The statement, appearing in the October 15 national Herald of Holiness magazine, also made it clear that any solicitation of funds for the chain of Wesley colleges from within the church violates prohibitions on appeals beyond the local church. The general superintendents called on Nazarenes to “avoid further division of loyalties that would hinder the work of God among us.”

Declaring that the college is a separate entity, Armstrong demurred: “We are not making appeals to the churches, but to the public. And this is not a violation of the [Nazarene] Manual, although they [church officers] try to link the two.”

HILEY H. WARD

“Something phenomenal is happening” in Jakarta, editorialized one of that city’s newspapers last month. The event was the first interdenominational evangelistic crusade in the Indonesian capital and two other major cities on Java.

John Haggai, founder of Evangelism International, conducted the campaign, which drew more than 1,000 members of a dozen Protestant churches as Bible instructors, counselors, ushers, and choir members. Attendance during the ten days totaled 65,000; nearly 9,000 Indonesians made Christian commitments or enrolled in Bible courses.

The crusade grew out of one of evangelist Haggai’s previous visits to Java. Earlier this year 183 Indonesian ministers and evangelists attending a seminar Haggai conducted had invited him back to hold evangelistic meetings.

Fear of Muslim disturbances nearly canceled the meetings before they began; Indonesia’s population of 110 million includes 100 million Muslims. But thirteen Muslims were among those who made decisions for Christ. “To attract 400 Muslims to a meeting which is plainly a Christian soul-winning endeavor is an achievement,” commented an experienced missionary. “To convince thirteen of them that Christ is the Saviour of mankind is phenomenal.”

PAUL PURUKAN

Like funerals and weddings, inauguration ceremonies for college presidents can be formal, elaborate, and costly ($25,000 and up) or ascetic, simple, and inexpensive ($500 or less). The style, scope, and symbolism depend upon the size and budget of the group sponsoring the event, the intended thrust of the observance, and sometimes, the specific requests of the honoree.

This fall, installation costs at colleges and seminaries surveyed by CHRISTIANITY TODAY ranged from a low of $468 (Westmont College) to a high of approximately $25,000 (Catholic University). Two California schools, Westmont and Loyola University of Los Angeles, were among those attempting to break the long-standing academic tradition of elaborate inaugurations.

At Westmont (850 students), Dr. John William Snyder, installed as fourth president of the four-year liberal-arts college, insisted that his inauguration be a simple “family affair.” Crowed an advance press release: “Not only has the traditional title ‘inauguration’ been abandoned, but all of the conventional trappings will be gone as well—no lavish ceremony, lengthy speeches, academic regalia, emphasis on degrees, weighty invitation list—and most important, no staggering bill to plague the college comptroller.”

The ninety-minute program—a litany and four speeches—was held in the gym and cost a mere $468, including personnel time for setting up facilities. A Westmont official estimated the cost for a traditional inauguration at $3,200.Donald P. Merrifield, 40-year-old priest and physicist installed at Loyola (about 2,300 students), asked that his ceremonies be kept austere so funds normally set aside for such an event could be used for minority student scholarships. Some 300 guests (mostly local) sipped Kool-Aid (hopefully, without cyclamates) and ate a modest chicken dinner after the ceremony while a mariachi band entertained.

A spokesman called the response “overwhelmingly favorable” and said more than $7,000 had been set aside for scholarships (the inauguration cost about $2,500 instead of a “typical” $10,000).

At Free Methodist—related Seattle Pacific College, (2,000 students), meanwhile, it cost $3,120 to install Dr. David Loren McKenna as fifth president. The figure included postage and travel allowances. The greatest expense, according to a spokesman, was the rental of the opera house where the ceremony was witnessed by 2,800.

“It was some of the best money we’ve ever spent,” explained Norman Edwards, director of public affairs. Not only were the usual costs of an annual convocation saved (the installation replaced it), but the college got broad exposure from the media during the event. “It would have cost five or six times the money to buy TV time,” Edwards said. “The inauguration was not for the president, but to tell the story of Seattle Pacific as broadly as possible.”

Inauguration activities for Dr. Harold John Ockenga as president of Gordon College (750 students) and newly merged Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (350 students) were spread over four days.

Although expenses came close to $9,000, Vice-president Daniel Weiss was careful to point out that a number of the events would have been held anyway and so shouldn’t be counted as installation costs (which perhaps amounted to $4,000). Velour-covered programs cost $1,200, and the Boston Symphony Hall, where an audience of 2,000 heard Billy Graham give the convocation address, was rented for $1,850. A breakfast meeting with Graham and the school’s annual banquet were part of the package, as was an art exhibit.

Weiss observed that the total cost was “considerably less than we would have had to spend for all of the radio and television time that we received as well as … space in the public press.”

A week before the installation of Dr. Clarence C. Walton as president of Catholic University (6,161 students) in Washington, D. C., business managers were estimating the one-day affair might cost $25,000.

Walton, the first layman to head the papally chartered school, was to be installed after a mass at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and a luncheon for 2,000–3,000. Some 3,000 were invited to a champagne reception following, and four cardinals and fifty bishops were expected to be on hand for that and for the inaugural ball that night, the eve of the Catholic hierarchy’s semi-annual conference at the Statler-Hilton Hotel.

“The greatest expense,” declared a woman in charge of installation arrangements, “is food.”

RUSSELL CHANDLER

Pastoral guidance on transplants of bodily organs was given by Anglican bishops when Canterbury Convocation had its fall meeting at Westminster. Said spokesman Dr. R. R. Williams, Bishop of Leicester: “It would seem … suitable that bodies destined for research should be treated in the same way as bodies destined for cremation and should in fact, though not in words, be committed to the surgeon’s scalpel rather than to the consuming flames.”

Members had earlier entered Church House from streets bulging with garbage uncollected by striking workers. From the dusty present they moved into the musty past by a prolonged session of opening prayers in Latin. Thereafter the one-hundredth Archbishop of Canterbury, who is 65 this month, broke into English, denying that the proposed merger with the Methodists was dead.

Dr. Michael Ramsey pointed out that convocations had approved the scheme as theologically sound, but he added: “There is widespread recognition of the need for more cooperation and mutual knowledge and understanding between the members of the two churches locally.”

Not so full of ecumenical promise was a later note when the primate referred to the admission of non-Anglicans to communion. “Limitations are inevitable,” he said. “Neither local experiments nor proposals for limited occasions of intercommunion … can bypass or be a substitute for full communion on a basis of catholic and apostolic order and integrated ministries.” Even the moderately high Church Times was to groan at an opportunity lost to “make a positive act in welcoming separated brethren.”

Nor was Convocation very helpful in discussing the parallel question of whether Anglicans should take communion in other churches, a matter on which the rules are not explicit. (Bishops tend to give conflicting advice.) A long debate ensued that saw Anglo-Catholics, evangelicals, and theological professors speak against an official and ambiguous motion proposed by the Bishop of Bristol, Dr. Oliver Tomkins.

The hours were spent in vain, for the motion was eventually withdrawn, a decision that reflected members’ agreement that “a too great anxiety to impose tidiness is futile.” That they should have dispersed into litter-filled streets thereafter seemed oddly appropriate.

J. D. DOUGLAS

For its first twenty-six years, the American Council of Christian Churches regularly did the will of its founder, Carl McIntire. Speakers, resolutions, procedures, and policies of which he disapproved were not accepted by the ACCC.

But the twenty-eighth annual convention, held October 29–31 in Columbus, Ohio, confirmed decisions made the previous year in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania: The ACCC is now functioning truly as an association of fifteen denominations rather than as one of many branches of the ministry of a remarkable and controversial individual.

During the past year the council moved its headquarters from New York City to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, despite McIntire’s opposition. At this year’s convention, men spoke who had formerly been associated with McIntire but had broken with him over such matters as his administration of Shelton College.

Despite McIntire’s accusations, there was little evidence that the ACCC has changed its traditional beliefs and practices. One unanimously passed resolution stoutly reaffirmed “opposition to the position of the neo-evangelicals who advocate remaining in apostate churches.…” Throughout the convention, the audience of one hundred or so persons regularly expressed its disapproval not only of the activities of the ecumenical movement but also of the evangelicals involved in such activities as the recent U. S. Congress on Evangelism.

A resolution on the Viet Nam moratorium movement urged “liberty loving Americans to join in opposition to the pacifist-Communist coalition which inspires the treasonably led demonstrations.”

The ACCC operates on a small annual budget (under $100,000). Some of its approximately 3,000 congregations spend more each year than the council.

The independence of the ACCC from McIntire’s control was made clear by a resolution (passed 40 to 16) that expressed strong disapproval of the unilateral removal of the international relief commission, formerly linked with both the ACCC and the International Council of Christian Churches, to the jurisdiction of the ICCC alone. McIntire serves as ICCC president and is in firm control of it.

Later the ACCC expressed doubts over continuing its affiliation with the ICCC unless such matters are resolved. Almost all missionaries from ACCC denominations have already withdrawn from the ICCC to form the Fellowship of Missions.

The missionaries felt some of McIntire’s widely publicized social and political views, such as those regarding civil rights, jeopardized their welcome in their host countries.

Although McIntire occasionally expressed a desire for reconciliation, he came prepared to announce the formation of a new group, apparently of individuals rather than denominations, called the American Christian Action Council. It will hold its first meeting in Washington, D.C., next April.

However, McIntire and his denomination, the Bible Presbyterian Church, remain in the ACCC. Another minister in the BPC, J. Philip Clark, was reelected ACCC president. Even in the BPC itself there is some disenchantment with McIntire, but he gained enough support to be elected moderator in the denomination’s annual meeting held shortly before the ACCC convened.

Meanwhile, the ACCC leaders feel they can weather the storm of expected attacks against them in McIntire’s widely read publication, the Christian Beacon, and emerge stronger than ever as a genuine attempt at interdenominational cooperation in shared concerns.

DONALD TINDER

John Brown’s Student Body

New attitudes toward social change and the Viet Nam war may be stirring in conservative corners of the nation, if recent events at John Brown University—a prototype of Southern religious-political conservatism—are any example.

In the backwoods northwest Arkansas town of Siloam Springs, which still has a law that Negroes must leave town by 5 P.M. and has no blacks living within thirty miles, the JBU community heard Senator Mark Hatfield speak at the climax of its weeklong annual Christian American Heritage Seminar in October.

One JBU administrator expressed trepidation that Hatfield, noted Oregon Republican liberal, “might not go over too well,” being “a little too liberal for our campus.”

But Hatfield went over big. He received a standing ovation for his talk, in which he called for recovery of a positive attitude toward social change basic to the American heritage. Although “religious inspiration” produced “revolutionary fervor,” it also gave “stability and direction” to change in America’s early days, he said. But Americans began to seek answers more from the political and economic realm than from God. “Our concept of limited government faded as our religious sense faded,” and religion has come to be used as “a rationalization for the self-interests of those … comfortable under the existing system.”

Some student disagreement with Hatfield’s opposition to the Viet Nam war came out in the question-and-answer period; on the whole he scored high.

“A quiet revolution in thinking is going on here,” said economics professor John Terry. “Our students would never be unpeaceful, but they are thinking much more liberally than three or four years ago. There is much more openness on the Viet Nam question than a year ago.”

But it looks as if social change still has an uphill battle at JBU. A recent Student Senate request that male students be allowed to wear “neatly clipped” mustaches and beards was killed by a faculty-dominated committee.

The Arkansas school is marking its fiftieth anniversary this year. It was founded in 1919 by evangelist John E. Brown.

Legal Abortions: A Pregnant Question

Boosters of liberalized abortion laws got an assist from 280 psychiatrists last month who said abortion laws should be repealed. In a special report, the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry said “abortion when performed by a licensed physician should be entirely removed from the domain of criminal law.”

The report adds: “A woman should have the right to abort or not, just as she has a right to marry or not.” The authors of the report agreed that a new element of ambiguity has resulted from the use of modern birth-control devices, such as the intrauterine loop. This makes it “all the more difficult to delineate contraception from abortion,” they said, since the intrauterine device “probably interrupts the pregnancy after conception.”

Moral questions of when life begins and what constitutes the taking of a life should be answered through personal religious beliefs alone, not through state laws, the psychiatrists said.

Meanwhile, at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, the United Methodist Board of Christian Social Concerns was believed to be the first church agency to approve legal provisions for voluntary sterilization as a means of population control. A resolution unanimously approved by the board will be presented to the 1970 United Methodist General Convention.

It calls for, among other things, removal of the regulation of abortion from the criminal code.

Deaths

JAMES C. BAKER, 90, “Father of the Wesley Foundation,” United Methodist pastor, one-time professor; in Pomona, California.

JEAN BOSC, 59, noted French Protestant theologian and professor; in Paris.

CLARENCE L. JORDAN, 57, controversial Southern Baptist theologian, founder of the interracial cooperative Koinonia Farms; in Americus, Georgia.

FRANK L. PETERSON, 76, former vice-president of the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference; in Los Angeles.

JOHN W. SHACKFORD, 91, Christian-education leader, author, pastor, ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1897; in Newport News, Virginia.

Lebanon: Religious Buffer

His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

Song of Solomon 5:15

Little is left of the cedars of Lebanon, which the Old Testament uses as a symbol of majesty. But the tiny country forming the northern extremity of the Holy Land is more crucial than ever in world affairs. It is smaller than the state of Connecticut, but religion, geography, politics, and economy often put it on the world stage. This month, Lebanon was back on page one as government authorities sought to restrict the movements of Arab commandos within its boundaries.

Lebanon is the most Christian of all the Arab countries. It is also the most affluent and pro-Western. Those factors, along with its strategic location, make Lebanon a natural buffer between Israel and the predominantly Muslim Arab countries, and a soothing influence (see editorial, page 26).

Christian leaders representing Maronite, Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant communities issued a statement last month supporting measures by military authorities “to preserve the country’s security and stability.”

Then Muslim religious and political leaders issued their own statement calling for the Lebanese president to halt military measures against Palestinian commandos.

But the delicate balance of Christians and Muslims, normally a model of ecclesiastical co-existence, also can be a powder keg. Not infrequently anti-Lebanese elements try to light a fuse.

Back in 1958, Lebanon went through a crisis so serious that President Eisenhower sent 14,500 U. S. Marines and the Sixth Fleet to help straighten things out. Last December 28, Lebanon lost thirteen commercial planes during an attack by Israel. It is things like this that Lebanon wants to avoid, and the government realizes full well that if the fedayeen—“men of sacrifice”—are allowed to use Lebanon for raids on Israel, Lebanon will suffer from retaliation.

Lebanon has a population of something less than three million. No one has an exact figure. Indeed, a census is a very sensitive question. But about half the country is considered to be Christian and the other half Muslim. The Christian segment is the richer class and generally opposed to the presence of the commandos. The Muslims are poorer, and they support the fedayeen.

Remarkably, the Christians and the Muslims have gotten along together quite nicely. The basis for their understanding is a unique unwritten law that metes out power and responsibility along religious lines. This national agreement dates back to 1943, at the end of the French mandate. At that time the Muslims promised to refrain from summoning help from other Arab countries and the Christians promised not to invoke the help of European powers.

The pact gives Christians a 6–5 edge in the unicameral legislature. The membership, now ninety-nine, must always be a multiple of eleven.

The agreement also stipulates that the president of Lebanon must be a Maronite, the premier a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the legislature a Shia Muslim.Maronites are Eastern rite Catholics who submit to the pope but who use a Syriac liturgy and have married clergy. Religious quotas govern the selection of judges, ambassadors, and military officers. A special problem arises in the army because there are usually many more Muslims in the enlisted ranks; Christian young men seek better, non-military opportunities.

The religious apportionment was based upon a 1932 census, and none has been taken since. Muslims occasionally demand another count and amendments to the national agreement, feeling they now outnumber the Christians.

Protestant influence in Lebanon is minimal, though many thousands pass through each year as tourists. The 1968 World Christian Handbook reports fifty-three ordained foreign missionaries and 138 lay workers assigned to Lebanon. Among North American groups represented are Southern Baptist, United Presbyterian, Church of the Nazarene, and Christian and Missionary Alliance.

A Change Of Heart

A Tulsa, Oklahoma, man lived on borrowed time for four months—with a new heart and a new life.

Prior to receiving a heart transplant last June, Dwane Shannon Marlow, 52, had not been receptive to the Gospel, according to his pastor, the Rev. Bartley Rogers of Suncrest Baptist Church. But the first Sunday Marlow was home from Houston, where he received the heart transplant, he and his wife made professions of faith in Christ at the Tulsa church.

“After his conversion and baptism, Dwane was a new man, and was as active in our church as he could be under the circumstances,” Rogers said. “He attended morning services when he would get so weak that other men had to help him back to his car.”

Marlow, who reportedly wanted to tell others the full story of his conversion, was too emotional to do so before he was called from this life to the eternal one

Personalia

Dr. Robert G. Mayfield, former general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Lay Activities, has been named chairman of the Convocation of United Methodists for Evangelical Christianity to be held next August in Dallas, Texas. The United Methodist quarterly Good News is sponsoring the meeting.

Donald Quinn, managing editor of the award-winning 100,000-circulation Catholic weekly newspaper the St. Louis Review, resigned this month, charging that John Cardinal Carberry of St. Louis was interfering with the paper’s freedom … Dr. Curtis A. Chambers, Jr., former executive editor of Church and Home, an Evangelical United Brethren publication, will become editor of Together, United Methodist official family magazine with a circulation of 650,000, January 1.

Chaplain (Colonel) Victor H. Schroeder of the Alaskan Air Command and an American Lutheran, was cited as the outstanding base chaplain in the U. S. Air Force.

Boston’s Richard Cardinal Cushing defended his decision to sell a Roman Catholic high school to the city of Gloucester because of financial problems, saying he “cannot be Santa Claus with the assets” and estimating the annual operating deficit at $170,000. Holy Cross Fathers faculty members who teach at the school accused Cushing of “absolute” authority in negotiating the sale without consulting them.

Herbert Grey, a member of the Canadian Parliament for Windsor, Ontario, became the first Jew ever named to the country’s cabinet last month when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced Grey’s appointment as Minister without Portfolio.

The Rev. Gordon Freeland, 39, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Montreal, was named president of Canada’s Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches, a denomination with 350 churches in eight provinces.

Maryknoll priest Albert J. Nevins, an expert on Latin American affairs, has replaced Monsignor Vincent A. Yzermans as editor of the Catholic weekly, Our Sunday Visitor.

New York Mets star left-handed pitcher Jerry Koosman received the 17 millionth copy of the American Bible Society’s Good News for Modern Man and suggested that interdenominational services for the team be held before Sunday games next season.

Bernadette Devlin, 22, the flaming youth member of the Ulster Parliament, testified this month that she tried unsuccessfully to organize 100 Catholic men to throw Molotov cocktails at police to keep them out of Catholic Bogside. She said she only threw one stone during two days of rioting and asked followers to break bricks into smaller pieces since whole bricks were dangerous.

“Unaccustomed as I am of speaking these days, and as a member of the great society of the unemployed, I just want to say I’m very appreciative of the effort of this community and the recognition it has given to my great-grandfather,” said former President Lyndon B. Johnson at a prayer service in Minden, Louisiana, to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Baptist church.

United Church of Christ communications executive Dr. Everett C. Parker won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in Broadcast Journalism this month for his efforts to achieve public interest and equal employment in broadcasting and black programming on the air.

Denis Michael Rohan (see November 7 issue, page 54) testified at his trial in Jerusalem that he set fire to the Al Aqsa Mosque “to prove to the world that God wants me to build his temple and that he will set me up as the King of Jerusalem and Judea.”

Radio evangelist Curtis Springer pleaded guilty to eight charges of false advertising; fifty-seven other counts were dropped by the San Bernardino, California, Municipal Court. The minister agreed to moderate his claims for cures springing from his Zzyzx Mineral Springs resort.

Dr. Marcus Bach said Arthur Ford, medium for the late James A. Pike, established communication between the Protestant author and professor and his mother, who during her lifetime had warned son Marcus against mediums.

Religion In Transit

The Senate Finance Committee approved a House-passed measure to tax churches on their profits from unrelated business income. If, as expected, the Senate passes the measure, churches and synagogues will be subject to the regular 48 per cent corporation tax rate for non-religious enterprises.

The United Methodist Board of Missions refused a request for a $750,000 grant to the Black Economic Development Conference. A group of black Methodists were also turned down in a request that all overseas missionaries be brought home for five years’ training working with “the alienated poor.”

The Lutheran Church in America Commission on Evangelism will ask next year’s denominational convention to declare 1973 a year of evangelism and to cooperate with other denominations in a continent-wide emphasis that year.

An official of the United States Catholic Conference says the increase of conscientious objectors is higher among Catholics than in other religious groups. Father Patrick McDermott said dioceses will soon be offered a sample plan for initiating draft information centers.

Dr. James Leo Garrett, a theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has called for a rewriting of the history of Christian doctrine by a panel of leading scholars from varying denominational, cultural, and geographical backgrounds. Garrett, chairman of a study commission on cooperative Christianity for the Baptist World Alliance, wants an interdisciplinary approach that will be relevant to today’s ecumenical, secular, and pluralistic culture.

The United Presbyterian Synod of New Jersey voted 132 to 112 to commend the Netcong Board of Education’s public-school prayer program, which has been challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union. Meanwhile, in Bloomington, Minnesota, Jaycees collected 320,000 signatures supporting non-denominational prayer in public schools, to be delivered to Washington.

World Scene

Thousands of persons converged upon an obscure French monastery to hear the parting sermon of its deposed young abbot, Dom Bernard Besret. The handsome, 34-year-old monk was relieved as head of Boquen Abbey because he tried to liberalize its purpose and program. Many French Catholics have protested his dismissal.

More than fifteen Auca Indians have died of polio in recent weeks. About sixty more are suffering from the disease, according to a report from Ecuador from Wycliffe Bible Translators. The Aucas, evangelized after the slaying of five missionaries, are still somewhat primitive; some refuse treatment.

A slick new Christian periodical is making its debut on French newsstands under ecumenical sponsorship. Today’s Life and the Bible is being published monthly until February 1; after that, weekly. Its editorial team consists of Roman Catholic priests and Protestant pastors and laymen; evangelicals are cooperating in the effort.

Park Street Church in Boston marked the 150th anniversary of the commissioning of seventeen missionaries to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). The present pastor of Park Street, the Rev. Paul E. Toms, is a former pastor of the Mokuaikaua Church, the oldest in Hawaii and the first to be founded by the missionaries.

An elder of a Protestant church in Piraeus, Greece, was arrested on a bus in Athens for distributing gospel tracts to fellow passengers. The tracts were reprints of Bible verses published by the American Mission to Greeks without sectarian comment. A prosecutor said a printed address to which people could write for more information “could be of a proselytizing nature.”

Seventh-day Adventists have won approval to operate a radio station in the Philippines. It will be the first Adventist-owned radio station in regular operation outside North America.

A commission of the Dutch-German Reformed Church (Nederduitse Gereformeerde) declared in Capetown, South Africa, that racially mixed marriages “in themselves are not sinful.” The declaration was announced to 800 delegates attending a synod of the largest of South Africa’s Dutch Reformed churches.

How’d you like to have a product everybody needed, with a world market and no competition?

That is precisely true of the Church of Christ! She has had committed to her the Gospel. It is indispensable to the eternal welfare of all men. Its worldwide propagation is the mandate given to the Church by her Lord. No other institution has this message, this mandate, or this market.

Think what a businessman would do in equivalent circumstances. He’d make a killing!

But what of the Church?

Again and again she has been guilty of downgrading the Gospel—marketing the same product, promoting the same program as all the other organizations. Inevitably she loses her distinctiveness and becomes just one of many community organizations working for the “betterment of society.” No longer unique, she must compete with Community Chest, Red Cross, PTA, and so on for the energy, time, talent, and money of men. Inasmuch as churches seem to be offering the same service as other organizations, Mr. Citizen assumes he is doing his “Christian duty” without ever getting involved with the Church. And the churches have no one to blame but themselves. Neglecting their unique task, propagation of the Gospel, they have defected to social, political, and economic affairs, giving them priority.

Be absolutely sure of this: When churches default, service clubs, lodges, and community organizations are not going to proclaim the Gospel of Christ.

The Apostle Paul has a word for us: “I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.”—DR. RICHARD C. HALVERSON, pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C.