Demands for public services are increasing, and taxing agencies are wondering where next to turn for the needed revenue. One obvious temptation for them is the many billions of dollars worth of church-owned property, virtually all of which is tax-exempt. From time to time the suggestion is made that the churches ought to begin kicking in a share.

The United States Supreme Court could have a lot to say about the matter. The court has been asked to hear cases that seek to end, as unconstitutional, state and local tax exemptions for houses of worship on the basis that such exemptions amount to public aid to religious institutions. One of the complaintants is Madalyn E. Murray O’Hair, who figured prominently in the court’s Bible-reading and prayer decisions. The court recessed for the summer without saying whether it would rule on the litigation.

In the ten-county Episcopal Diocese of New York, meanwhile, a group of young lawyers organized as the Guild of St. Ives are undertaking a study of church tax exemption. An aide to Bishop Horace W. B. Donegan has told the group that taxes would be a “considerable drain” on the diocese. He added, however, that “a lot of clergy feel the churches should pay taxes regardless.”

A few church groups here and there are beginning to volunteer contributions to their local governments as a return gesture for services received. In one case, a Unitarian church in Montclair, New Jersey, donated $1,000 to the town treasury. In another, the American Jewish Congress gave the city of New York $1,200 as a token tax on its Manhattan headquarters, the Stephen Wise Congress House.

In Toronto, city officials moved ahead with a plan to levy taxes against property sold by churches and universities. Controller Margaret Campbell has suggested a tax equal to what the property tax would have been in the five years preceding the sale, based on the price obtained for the property.

Mrs. Campbell said high sale prices for some church, university, and slum properties result from the subways and other services built around them with public funds. When such tax-exempt lots are sold at greatly enhanced prices, she said, the city should be able to claim five years of retroactive property taxes.

She cited the sale of People’s Church in Toronto, a large, independent congregation founded by the noted evangelical Canadian Oswald Smith. An old church was purchased for $75,000 in 1934 and sold five years ago for $650,000. Using the proceeds of the sale, the church moved to a Toronto suburb and built a huge plant.

The Rev. Paul Smith, minister of the church and son of the founder, said that singling out his congregation was discriminatory. Alluding to the fact that some churches and denominations get tax-exempt income on money that is not in the use of religious causes, he said:

“I would like to point out the fact of what the $75,000 initial investment would have compounded to be, had it been invested thirty years ago in some investment syndicate.”

In the United States, the courts will probably rule soon on such situations. Americans United has lent its support to a suit challenging the constitutionality of unrelated business income to churches. Such income is derived by some churches through a variety of methods besides financial investment. Most common are car washes, second-hand stores, and Christmas tree sales. Perhaps the most obnoxious church business enterprise is the effort of a Catholic group in Chicago to operate a garbage dump.

Personalia

Franklin Clark Fry was elected to a second and last four-year term as president of the Lutheran Church in America. Fry got 489 votes on the first ballot—27 more than the three-fourths necessary for election. Dr. Robert J. Marshall of Chicago was second with 70 votes. Dr. Malvin Lundeen of New York was third with 19. Fry, now 65, will be ineligible for another term because cause of his age.

Dublin-born Geoffrey Deane Johnston, 59, pastor of Central Presbyterian Church, Brantford, Ontario, was chosen moderator of the 92nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

A retired Army chaplain, John W. Sparks of San Antonio, Texas, was elected president of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at its 136th General Assembly in Memphis.

The Rev. Raymond Beckering, pastor of the Second Reformed Church of Zee-land, Michigan, was elected president of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America.

The Rev. Theophilus J. Herter was consecrated a bishop in the Reformed Episcopal Church. Herter teaches at the Reformed Episcopal Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, and has been rector of St. Matthew’s Reformed Episcopal Church, Havertown, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Samuel J. Mikolaski will rejoin the faculty of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary this fall as professor of theology, following a year of teaching at the Baptist seminary in Zürich, Switzerland.

Reportedly acting on the advice of his physician, Dr. Joost de Blank turned down an appointment as Anglican Bishop of Hong Kong. The 57-year-old churchman, known for his opposition to apartheid during six years as Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa, has more recently served as a residentiary canon of Westminster Abbey. There was some feeling expressed that the Hong Kong bishopric should go to a Chinese.

The Rev. Alan Jackson, whose advocacy of God-is-dead theology caused a furor among fellow Anglicans, resigned his chaplaincy at the University of British Columbia.

The new Reformed Theological Seminary at Jackson, Mississippi, appointed Dr. James C. De Young, a Christian Reformed minister, as professor of New Testament theology.

Miscellany

A freight train struck a church bus loaded with children in Dwight, Illinois, and dragged it 870 feet. Thirty of the bus riders were injured. They were on their way to a summer camp.

The San Francisco Presbytery withdrew a formal invitation to Saul Alinsky to organize the Bay Area poor. The door was left open for the controversial neighborhood organizer, however, in a loosely worded resolution that calls for such projects “upon invitation of the people indigenous to the poverty community areas.”

Evangelicals are losing the use of a prime outlet for gospel radio programs in Europe. Radio Luxembourg will no longer transmit English-language religious broadcasts as it has been doing since the end of World War II. No official reason was given for the change of policy.

A court in Seattle turned down the demand of two Bible Presbyterian ministers for discontinuance of a University of Washington course, “The Bible as Literature.” The ministers contend the course enables advocates of higher criticism to attack the Scriptures at public expense.

Former President Dwight Eisenhower presented his stamp collection, amassed during his eight years in the White House, to fellow philatelist Francis Cardinal Spellman. The collection will be turned over to the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum at Regis College.

Suggestions for the convocation of a “Protestant Vatican Council,” offered by some non-Catholic churchmen in Germany, were rejected by Evangelical Bishop Hanns Lilje. In an address on the West German radio, Lilje said such proposals serve only to create the impression that a “vacuum” exists in Protestantism.

Deaths

WILLIAM ERNEST HOCKING, 92, religious philosopher and author regarded as the last of the influential idealists (see editorial, page 26); in Madison, New Hampshire.

MRS. CHARLES E. FULLER, 79, known to millions of “Old Fashioned Revival Hour” listeners for her weekly reading of letters, introduced by her preacher husband’s familiar “Go right ahead, honey”; in Pasadena, California.

Southern Baptists, more than other denominations, are caught on the horns of a higher-education dilemma. On the one hand are rising costs and the pressure of maintaining high standards in the face of rapid change. On the other is fear of government influence that would conflict with the strong Baptist emphasis on the separation of church and state.

In frank self-appraisal, 300 Southern Baptist leaders met in Nashville June 13–16 for the first Baptist Education Study Task (BEST). A broad spectrum of problems facing the fifty-four Southern Baptist colleges and universities were discussed by twenty-two study groups. While the participants have no power to bind either the SBC or any of the institutions represented, the findings of the study groups are an index to thought trends among Southern Baptist educational leaders.

Government aid, the most controversial subject discussed, has long been a point of contention. The full conference did not at any time vote on the question of government aid to Baptist schools. However, the two groups that discussed the matter of financing the institutions agreed that the federal-grant decision should be left to the trustees of the several schools. Most of the colleges and universities are controlled by separate boards and are owned by state Baptist conventions. The conventions set the basic policy, and school trustees abide by convention decisions.

One of the study sections adopted the following statement: “We suggest that the various state conventions of our denomination consider authorizing boards of trustees of the institutions to accept those government aids which in their judgment do not interfere with their program of Christian higher education.” This suggestion is particularly significant in view of the test case on government subsidies to church-related institutions currently being appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States (see June 24, 1966, issue, p. 40).

The same section suggested that the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in Washington, D. C., study the matter of church-state separation in regard to aid to education and report by January, 1967.

Although the suggestions of this group were not voted upon, they reflect a growing concern over inadequate financial support of those Christian institutions not accepting government aid. At the opening conference session, the educators heard Felix C. Robb, newly elected director of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, comment on the government aid quest: “You are going to miss providing a great educational service to the nation if you don’t ride with the tides on this issue.”

Reuben Alley, editor of the state Baptist paper of Virginia, vigorously opposed government aid, saying that it would be immoral to receive government money without accepting government control. Alley said that if Baptist schools were not distinctive from schools that get government funds, they didn’t deserve “one nickel of Baptist support.”

Many institution heads have for some time complained that if their schools are not to receive government grants, then the denomination should assume more financial responsibility.

Every one of the eight reports summarizing the study-group proposals cited the need for a clear statement of the philosophy of Baptist higher education.

Rabun Brantly, chairman of the conference and head of the Southern Baptists’ Education Commission, commented that all the reports agreed also on the need for “improved communications between the colleges and Baptist people.” These two needs, according to Brantly, outweighed consideration of the controversial question of government aid.

A total of 84 problems were enumerated by the study groups, and 120 solutions were suggested. Among the subjects considered were the following: denominational affiliation of faculty members, faculty recruitment, academic freedom, consolidation of schools, and public relations.

A second national study conference will be held in Nashville in June, 1967. A special eighteen-member findings committee is charged with summarizing the results of the study. This summary will be made available to college trustees, state conventions, and other interested groups.

Before the entire matter is settled, as many as 10,000 Southern Baptists may become involved. Discussions will be held in 200 selected churches, at least fifty pastors’ conferences, at many of the colleges and universities, and at twenty-four regional BEST seminars scheduled for the first quarter of 1967.

Perhaps the chief value of the conference was in stimulating thought on the future of higher education among Southern Baptists.

At the conclusion of this initial meeting of the study, Editor John J. Hurt of Georgia’s Christian Index summed up his reaction: “We came with the answers, and left with the questions.”

This Year’S Christmas Stamp

For the second consecutive year, the Post Office Department will issue a Christmas stamp depicting a religious subject.

This year’s stamp shows the central portion of Hans Memling’s oil painting, “Madonna and Child with Angels,” which is in the National Gallery of Art.

The vertical five-color stamp is from a picture painted on wood by the Flemish master about 1480. It shows the Madonna holding the infant Jesus.

In the past, controversy has arisen over whether the Post Office should issue stamps having religious themes. This intensified last year when the first stamp of that nature was issued. It showed the Angel Gabriel blowing his horn and was taken from a painting of a New England church weathervane.

Here is the National Gallery’s description of the portion of the painting to be reproduced: “The Virgin in a blue-green robe and red mantle seated on a red canopied throne. She holds in her lap the infant Christ who, with one hand touches the pages of the Missal.”

First day of distribution will be November 1 at Christmas, Michigan. The initial print order is for 1.2 billion stamps.

Dramatizing Injustice

When thousands rioted in Chicago’s Spanish-speaking community June 12 and 13, city officials were perplexed. It had been the Negro minority from which disturbances were expected.

One executive in the Chicago Conference on Religion and Race heard an official say: “We always thought the Puerto Rican and Mexican peoples were happy. If they get any happier they’ll tear the town apart.”

For weeks publicists had saturated the mass media with analyses of the strategy Negro leaders were planning for Chicago this summer. It was a surprise to find rioting where unemployment was low, where the level of education was higher than in the Negro ghetto, and where little effort had been made to organize a movement for civil disobedience.

Called to Chicago after last summer’s mass rally organized by leaders in the Church Federation of Greater Chicago, Martin Luther King arrived at the city’s west side early last January. Since then he has spent minimal time in the city, but a staff headed by brilliant Andrew Young and shrewd James Bivel have developed a semblance of organization while maintaining contact with the grass roots and the more violent element.

This summer’s demonstrations and marches, run by the Community Council of Commission Organizations—Southern Christian Leadership Conference (which is advised by Alvin Pitcher, professor of ethics at Chicago Divinity School), will begin with a mass rally in Soldiers’ Field, July 10.

Hans Mattick, professional criminologist and critic of the movement, explains away CCCO-SCLC as a nebulous structure that seems to vaporize when its member organizations are studied. He portrayed the racial problem as one of selective communication in which the top echelon of the power structure is not aware of the frustrations among the rank and file.

King is the symbol by which the movement is able to draw attention to Chicago. He intends to dramatize the injustice of this northern city by making the most of particular inequities.

One critic within the movement warned, “There will be violence; it cannot be avoided. King’s staff is organizing gangs for demonstrations, and its leaders know the consequences of such efforts.”

Critics outside the movement include leaders of the National Baptists U. S.A., Inc., and several other denominations, totaling more than six million Negroes. This bloc tends to support Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who is a target of frequent criticism from the King group.

No immediate direct connection was seen between the riots in the Spanish communities and the Negro freedom movement. The melee erupted when police attempted to break up a gang fight and a youth was wounded by gunfire. Some experts have charged irresponsible use of authority by leaders in city government and police brutality.

A handful of power centers have arisen, groping for an answer. Protestant ministers and Catholic priests, although not working actively together, have met to discuss problems. Spanish-speaking ministers have canvassed the community and have advised city leaders in an effort “to give Christian shape to thoughts and decisions made.”

José Torres, pastor of the First Congregational Church in the Spanish community, summarized the problem of both Negroes and Spanish when he said, “We are a very unhappy people. We need peace.”

WILL NORTON, JR.

Holding Off Famine

Christian groups around the world are credited with helping India avert a food crisis. A listing of church-related groups that have responded to pleas for relief was published in the May–June issue of the magazine of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

FAO Director-General B. R. Sen said, “This manifestation of good will on the part of people at all levels, young and old … is one of the most encouraging signs that we can see. It gives the hope that at last a world community is going to be built.”

Food aid is said to be holding off famine in India for the time being. Whether India will have enough to eat in coming months depends upon the extent of the summer harvest. If summer monsoons don’t produce enough rain, the world’s spare stocks of food may not be great enough to fill the gap. Nearly 500 million people, or about one-sixth of the world’s population, live in India.

Dr. Sen, after a survey trip to the populous Asian subcontinent, was asked about India’s hordes of cows, which consume scarce food but are never butchered for meat because Hindus regard them as sacred.

“It is true that religious tradition stands in the way of slaughtering cattle which have become useless,” he said. “This is something which is part of the traditional life of the country. Over the past decade continuous efforts have been made to educate public opinion.”

According to Dr. Sen, “the need for help from abroad is as urgent as ever, and the need increases daily. Nor is there any reason to think that the people and leaders of India are not deeply grateful for the spontaneous manifestation of good will and for the generous promise of help. The fact that actual famine has not occurred and so far starvation deaths are not evident should not be construed as suggesting that the Government raised a false alarm. On the contrary, there is a real shortage of food over a widely dispersed area, and the Government has acted with commendable foresight in taking preventive measures at an early stage.”

In addition to other church-related relief efforts (see April 1 issue, p. 52) there is now a joint effort in the Calcutta area by the National Association of Evangelicals and the Mennonite Central Committee. The NAE is accepting funds to purchase food for distribution through MCC representatives. The MCC also is engaged in a self-help program in the Calcutta area.

India’s last critical famine was in 1943, when an estimated total of more than three million persons died within six months, many of them in the streets of Calcutta.

Drought brought parts of India to the edge of famine in 1951–52, when Madras peasants barely survived on a cup of semi-liquid gruel a day and women of the Darbhange district of Northern Bihar reportedly fed children cakes of soft mud in a desperate attempt to keep them from starving.

India again had bad crops in 1962 and 1963, and in 1965 it suffered its worst drought in recent history. This led to the current emergency.

Coordinating Christian Compassion

Dozens of international service agencies motivated by Christian compassion have sprung up since World War II. Key people in these groups now say it would be to their mutual benefit to bring about a degree of coordination.

With such possible coordination in mind, representatives of eighteen of the organizations met for two days at Wing-spread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin, this past spring. The conference was sponsored by the Johnson Wax Foundation and Laubach Literacy, Inc. (one of the international agencies involved).

Separately, these agencies can perform an impressive range of services overseas, from advising a missionary how to make mud bricks that will not melt in the rain to conducting a nationwide cooperative community development program, including such services as literacy, agriculture, health, food, machinery, and literature. Their aggregate budget runs to about fifteen million dollars a year.

An executive committee, established to explore specific avenues of joint effort, met in Kansas City on June 6. Their findings and recommendations will be presented at a meeting of the full group in early October.

Reformed Church in America. No harm done. That was about the way delegates to the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America sized up a Southern Presbyterian decision to join Consultation on Church Union negotiations. The 230,000-member Reformed Church even voted to study the possibility of its own participation in the super-church-bound COCU. Talks toward a two-way merger with Southern Presbyterians will continue, although a fraternal letter is being dispatched requesting clarification of the surprise decision by the Presbyterian General Assembly to join COCU.

Christian Reformed Church. Delegates to the annual Christian Reformed Synod appointed a committee to define the church’s position toward the World Council of Churches. The church has never been affiliated with the WCC, the National Council of Churches, or the World Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches. A move to warn its “sister church,” the Gereformeerde Kerken in Holland, against consideration of WCC affiliation was turned into an opportunity to consider the CRC’s own ecumenical posture. Many delegates felt that the church’s long-held position of non-affiliation was clear enough. Others felt that worthwhile advice could not be issued without a reflective definition.

Another change was the decision to seek closer “fellowship” with the Reformed Church in America by sending fraternal delegates to its classical and synodical assemblies. This pursuit of closer fellowship was interpreted as including pulpit exchanges. The 272,000-member Christian Reformed Church broke fellowship with the older church more than a hundred years ago. This year’s CRC Synod, held on the campus of the Reformed Church’s Central College in Pella, Iowa, marked the first time the annual meeting of one was held on the territory of the other.

Rumblings in the church over “theistic evolution” were formally brought to the synod’s attention. The synod responded by taking the matter under study. Because of the complexity of the problem, the first step was to appoint a committee to determine the “specific mandate of this [study] committee and the selection of its membership.”

The synod, whose delegates come from both the United States and Canada, elected the Rev. William P. Brink of the Second Christian Reformed Church of Fremont, Michigan, as its president and the Rev. John Vriend of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, as its first clerk.

In another action, the synod appointed a committee to present recommendations for “improvements, corrections, changes, and modifications of the existing text of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.” This was done because of the “extensive use of the RSV” among the denomination’s membership. The synod also ended its cooperation with the Bible Translation Conference of Palos Heights, Illinois, organized to produce an “evangelical translation.”

After long holding a standoffish position against Hollywood movies, the synod adopted an extensive, positive document on “The Church and the Film Arts.” It asserts, “If our Christian witness is to have relevance and redemptive value in modern society, it is necessary for us to make the meaningful distinction between the film arts as art forms, which are to be judged as legitimate media of culture,” and as “products, which are in each instance to be subjected to the moral judgment of the Christian community.” The report also declares that “although the film arts as a cultural medium is largely under secular control, its products are no more secular than … the daily newspaper, the radio, or the literature of our western world, and can be used similarly for cultural edification.”

One delegate asserted that the adoption of this document was a clear sign that CRC has really changed. Another delegate was overheard calling home, “Ma, movies are legal now.”

Seventh-day Adventist Church. Beneath a banner proclaiming “Behold He Cometh,” the Fiftieth World Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church convened in Cobo Hall, Detroit, June 16–25. The ten-day meeting moved along uneventfully except for the competition on Sunday, June 19, of the last meeting of Martin Luther King in another part of the hall. King attracted approximately 12,000 anti-segregationists, who gave an estimated $30,000 to further marches in Mississippi.

The day before King’s meeting began, the Adventists assembled 20,000 of their unsegregated black, white, and yellow adherents, among whom were 1,415 official delegates from 189 countries around the world. In a special offering for new mission work, they gave $1,208,000.

From its small beginning in 1844, with emphasis on sabbath observance and the imminent return of Christ the Adventists have grown to a worldwide organization with a constituency of 1,578,504, of whom 354,762 are in the United States. They tithe and in 1965 gave over $143 million. Per-capita giving in the United States was $277.43.

Adventists have an unusual salary arrangement for their clergy. All leaders, elders, and teachers are paid approximately the same wage, whether they are university presidents or assistant professors, elders of small or large churches, low or high officers in the administrative echelons of the church.

Nine veteran administrators retired from service at this quadrennium and were replaced by much younger leaders. The key change came with the election of Robert H. Pierson as world president, succeeding the retiring Reuben R. Figuhr. Pierson, 55, an American-born Adventist, comes from Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia. He has served his church as a missionary for twenty-five years.

The meetings emphasized the imminence of Christ’s coming. This note was sounded by missionaries, educators, and denominational officials. While they wait for that coming, Adventists work. Thus the missionary task of the church was constantly in view at the conference. Adventists currently support 2,400 missionaries overseas.

In door-to-door proclamation of their message, church members contacted 57 million people in 1965. They distributed 205 million pieces of literature. The effectiveness of this ministry is seen by the 120,939 baptisms and a net membership increase of 70,448 in 1965.

Bulking large among the delegates and visitors were Negroes (57,202 members in the United States), who have a full place in the denomination. The Adventists added to their church manual a section entitled “No Wall of Partition,” in which the unity of the human race is clearly stated and discrimination because of nationality or race or color is declared unscriptural. Traditionally Adventists have stayed out of politics, although they object to compulsory union membership, as a violation of religious liberty and support nondiscrimination for sabbath-keepers.

The Wesleyan Church. A new Holiness denomination is being created through merger of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America, the Pilgrim Holiness Church, and the Reformed Baptist Church of Canada. The merged denomination, to be known simply as “The Wesleyan Church,” will have a constituency of nearly 100,000 members in North America. The Wesleyan Methodist and Reformed Baptists approved the union plan last month and the Pilgrim Holiness conference is to consider it this week.

The Wesleyan Methodists, meanwhile, are coping with a threat of schism in their denomination. Their General Conference put two regional conferences “under discipline” last month for alleged insubordination and irregularities.

After long and heated debate, ordination of women to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in Canada was approved by the denomination’s 92nd annual General Assembly, held last month in Toronto. The vote was 133 to 72.

Some observers felt that the many vacant pulpits in the home mission field tipped the scales in favor of the action. The assembly also voted to ordain women as elders.

The place of women in the church has nagged Canadian Presbyterian assemblies for at least two generations. Many ministers saw it as the most important issue to face the church since 1925, when the church split—part joining with Methodists and Congregationalists to form the United Church of Canada and part continuing the Presbyterian denomination.

A spokesman said that from the seventy-two negative votes came thirty-six recorded dissents, the largest number since the 1925 schism. There were an undetermined number of abstentions.

Two women emerged as immediate prospects for ordination: Helen Louise Goggin, 33, Christian education director of a church in the Toronto suburb of Oakville, and Marion Webster, 40, assistant librarian at Knox College, Toronto. Neither announced any immediate decision to apply, but both indicated they would consider it seriously.

Miss Goggin was one of three women divinity graduates from Knox College last year. She is also a liberal arts graduate from Victoria College. Her own presbytery voted against ordination of women.

Miss Webster, a tall brunette from Saskatchewan, also came out of Knox. For the Canadian edition of Time she recalled that she always gave the men in her class “a good whiff of perfume and a pretty skirt.” The magazine quoted her as lamenting that in her diploma “they didn’t even change the ‘he’ in the damn thing to ‘she.’ ”

Only the war in Viet Nam produced debate comparable to that over female ordination. A resolution that could be taken as critical of American policy was defeated. Relief efforts and prayer were urged, and the Canadian government was asked to press the International Control Commission in seeking an immediate ceasefire and a plan for negotiation.

Tongues In Transition

The appeal of the charismatic revival to sophisticated suburban congregations defies explanation. Speaking in tongues repeatedly crops up in staid, liturgically inclined churches on the opposite end of the social and economic spectrum from the Pentecostalism with which glossolalia has traditionally been associated.

The more this has happened the more insistent has became the question whether the contrasting ecclesiastical blocs would find fellowship in their common religious experience. It now appears that the first effort at getting together has failed.

“We tried it for a while,” says Episcopalian Jean Stone, the trim prima donna of today’s tongues-speakers. “It was just too corny.”

Mrs. Stone and her disciples’ try at rapprochement consisted of worshiping regularly for a time at a Pentecostal church. “We gave up smoking, beer, wine, and the movies—like they wanted us to,” she says. “But the church did not turn out to be satisfying enough. So we quit.”

Mrs. Stone is founder and head of the Blessed Trinity Society, main organizational offshoot of the tongues movement of the sixties (see September 13, 1963, issue), which utilizes a chapel of its own in the headquarters building at Van Nuys, California. She is also editor of the society’s slick-paper, lavishly illustrated quarterly with a circulation of several thousand. After her recent divorce from a Lockheed executive, Mrs. Stone married Rick Willans, who had quit Dartmouth to join the society staff and became associate editor.

A second organization that promotes the tongues movement and that predates the Blessed Trinity Society by a decade or so is the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, headed by cattleman Demos Shakarian. Although FGBMFI has its headquarters in adjacent Los Angeles, the two groups are somewhat cool toward each other. FGBMFI’s activity includes publication of a colorful, pocket-size monthly and the conducting of several fellowship conventions each year. Its annual international convention is being held this week at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis.

The FGBMFI is more outspoken and effervescent in its exaltation of the tongues phenomenon. The Blessed Trinity Society has been pitching itself on a progressively lower emotional key.

Mrs. Stone has broadened considerably her definition of a tongues experience. She now feels that if ought to be confined to private devotions, that it is not necessarily emotional, and that a person may speak in tongues without even knowing it.

Lament Of An Alumnus

“Wheaton College, for 100 years a stronghold of Conservatism and American ideals, now finds itself penetrated by the same insidious forces that are working throughout the world for the conquest of free men. The campus occurrences discussed in this report are interlocking evidences, to anyone who will use his eyes to see and his ears to hear, of the crumbling of Wheaton College’s resistance to the assault by the Left-wing-Socialist-Collectivist-One World Government camorra together with assorted sympathizers within the Communist Party and its allied organizations.”

This is the thesis of Wilhelm Ernst Schmitt, a 1954 graduate of Wheaton and professional anti-Communist. His unsparing indictment of the well-known evangelical school in suburban Chicago is unleashed in a 197-page paperback, Steps Toward Apostasy at Wheaton College. Schmidt is its author, publisher, and retailer.

Schmitt calls attention to the fact that publication of a campus literary magazine was suspended by Wheaton officials after its fall, 1962, issue came out “studded with profanity.” In the spring of 1963 the editor of the campus newspaper, which had pleaded in behalf of the suspended magazine, was removed. Schmitt also recalls a campus “riot” in 1961 when three students were arrested for setting off firecrackers and resisting policemen.

The bulk of Schmitt’s volume, however, is an attempt to document what he sees as a leftist political drift among Wheaton’s faculty members and administration. He upbraids college officials for allowing students to hear on campus such speakers as the British historian Arnold Toynbee, the noted Jewish author Harry Golden, literacy expert Frank Laubach, and Arthur Glasser, Overseas Missionary Fellowship official—who have been identified with questionable causes. He chides faculty members who have expressed liberal convictions in social and economic matters.

Wheaton officials regard the book as a type of journalism that speaks for itself, relying on guilt by association and innuendo. “It falls into the same category as calling Eisenhower a Communist,” said a spokesman.

Schmitt says his research took place while he worked for the Church League of America, an anti-Communist organization with headquarters near the Wheaton campus. During this time his application for admission to the Wheaton College Graduate School was rejected. Schmitt says that prior to this he worked with the Lockheed Missiles and Space Division, Sunnyvale, California, as a senior research engineer on the Polaris submarine-launched missile. He regards himself as an expert on Communism, though he misspells Khrushchev as “Khruschev” throughout the book.

Last summer, Schmitt was divorced from his wife. She was given custody of their two children.

Schmitt contends that one or more Wheaton officials intimidated a prospective publisher of his report and that “the blackmail worked.” An official spokesman for Wheaton flatly denies the charge, declaring that no member of the school administration made any attempt to discourage publication.

On The Links, A Mormon Victory

Golfer Billy Casper said it after the Masters tournament this year and repeated it after his astonishing victory in the U. S. Open at San Francisco: “Golf used to be the most important thing in my life. It isn’t now.”

Casper and his family now are devout Mormons. After overcoming a seven-stroke deficit to tie Arnold Palmer at the end of regulation play in the U. S. Open, Casper traveled with his wife some sixty miles up the California coast to attend a Sunday evening fireside service. He didn’t get to bed until the wee small hours of the day in which he was to meet Palmer in the championship playoff. He won it nevertheless, by an easy four-stroke margin, and immediately earmarked 10 per cent of the $25,000 prize for the Mormon church.

Casper’s conversion is attributable to the efforts of the Mormon sports editor of a Salt Lake City newspaper, Hack Miller, who became a close acquaintance over the years. Miller arranged for Mormon missionaries to visit the Caspers. The couple was baptized last New Year’s Day.

Casper is a native of San Diego. His parents were divorced when he was twelve. He spent a term at Notre Dame, then four years in the Navy before becoming a golf professional. He has been troubled with a weight problem and an assortment of allergies but now seems to have conquered both. He planned to pass up the British Open this week to play in Salt Lake City.

On The Diamond, A Diagnosis

Last year the Minneapolis Twins won the American League pennant. This year they are losing as many games as they win. The Rev. C. Philip Hinerman of Park Avenue Methodist Church in Minneapolis thinks the reason is that the team got rid of devout second-baseman Jerry Kindall.

“Last year,” Hinerman wrote to a Minneapolis newspaper, “Jerry led a daily Bible study group and prayer meeting while the team was on the road.… The whole team was influenced by this Christian spirit and atmosphere—and Somebody kept helping.”

Now, with Kindall gone, the prayer meetings and Bible studies have stopped, and “the Lord has withdrawn his blessing,” says the minister.

Hinerman’s thesis falls apart, however, when one considers that Kindall’s replacement at second, Bernie Allen, also is an outspoken Christian believer, as are at least two other Twins.

Carl Tiller ‘On Vacation’

Next week when the Executive Committee of the American Baptist Convention meets in Chicago, President Carl Tiller will be on vacation. That is, on vacation from his government post as chief of the U. S. Bureau of Budget Methods.

From his job in a political enterprise with an annual $110 billion budget, he will turn to the concerns of a religious enterprise with a budget of $13 million.

Tiller, 50-year-old newly elected president of the American Baptist Convention, in his seventeenth year with the Executive Committee, has long been using vacations to attend Baptist meetings “with no time to relax.”

Tiller has held places of responsibility in the convention since 1947. For his term as top convention official, he has initiated a four-fold program.

“We would like to get the local Baptist people to engage in a study as to the biblical basis of our faith not only with other Baptists of the community but with other Protestants and Catholics. We want to encourage dialogue on the local level,” Tiller explained.

His second proposal involves establishment of a 1967 pre-Easter evangelism project for the convention’s churches.

The third is an appeal to make the Church more relevant to present-day circumstances.

“Part four involves an undergirding stewardship program. American Baptists plan a special 20-million-dollar extra mission campaign which we would like to see well on its way,” he said.

Tiller is a native of Battle Lake, Minnesota. He has worked actively in his boyhood church home in Battle Lake and in Baptist churches in St. Paul and Chicago, and (for the past twenty-four years) in the Calvary Baptist Church, Washington, D. C.

He holds a B.A. degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and an M.A. in public administration from the University of Minnesota.

A soft-spoken man with graying hair, Tiller has a prodigious memory and has been described as “almost a human computer.”

“He is a genius in organization with a tremendous flair for details. He follows through. When he takes a job, he does it well,” observed Tiller’s pastor, Dr. Clarence Cranford.

Cranford described Tiller as “a man of great loyalty to Christ, his denomination, and his church” who comes up with creative ideas for the church.

The Tillers live in Cheverly, Maryland. Their daughter, Jean, was graduated with the B.A. degree in June from Kalamazoo College, and their son, Bob, received the B.D. from Yale Divinity School the same week.

Tiller and his wife, Olive, one of the vice-presidents of the American Baptist women, live a church-related schedule that requires a datebook of its own.

When Tiller is not “vacationing” at some Baptist meeting, his chief responsibility is his government job.

“We are not concerned with the content of the federal budget,” Tiller explained, “only with the method, systems, and procedures by which it is prepared.”

Tiller also finds time to teach as an adjunct professor of public administration at American University and to serve as the unofficial historian of his church.

Tiller sees the evangelism portion of his four-point program as exceeding the traditional definition of evangelism as “telling the Good News.” He stresses that Jesus Christ is “not just Saviour but Lord of all life.”

Tiller views the Church of today as probably stronger than the Church of a generation ago.

“The religiosity element that makes it now popular to belong to the Church is unfortunate and tends to cheapen the Church.

“As a balance to this weakness, I see the Church as more willing than ever before to grapple with the problems of the nation and the world.… Questions of race, poverty … are being dealt with better than by the earlier Church,” he said.

He considers the recent contention of some that God is dead as more philosophical than theological. But he feels that others have the right to question and to search for their own understanding of truth.

“I obviously don’t think God is dead.… We wish everyone would feel the way we do, but if everyone thought the same, the world would be pretty dull.”

“Just as God has allowed us freedom to choose him or reject, we must grant to those who say that ‘God is dead’ the chance to find their own insight.”

CAROLYN LEWIS

Billy Graham In Soho

A good-humored crowd greeted Billy Graham when he visited London’s Soho district last month. In this “square mile of sin” where Friday night is never exactly uneventful, Graham and his colleagues saw few of the alleged incidents reported the next morning by that section of the press whose success depends on “ugly scenes” and “brawling masses.”

The evangelist climbed on to the roof of a car and told several hundred listeners he had come to condemn no one. But he assured them of God’s love and invited them to Earls Court. He stressed the biblical question about the ultimate folly of a world gained and a soul lost. Although the sermon lasted only 200 seconds, it lacked nothing of the essential Gospel.

On police advice, the visit was cut short, and the evangelist, not without difficulty, was conveyed back to his car by an enthusiastic crowd. Some were too enthusiastic. A female performer from a local club, in working attire, was particularly persistent. The agility with which she passed through the dense crowd from one vantage point to another caught the imagination of the crowd and cameramen. Though she loudly announced she had a problem concerning the mini-skirt about which she wanted to consult the evangelist, she was adroitly warded off.

Other onlookers got courteous replies to questions such as when was he going back to Bonnie Scotland and what did he think about Viet Nam. A boy shouted exultantly to his girl, “Billy Graham shook hands with me.”

Graham said he hoped to shake a few more hands in Soho before leaving Great Britain.

Meanwhile, by the end of the third week of the month-long crusade 378,381 had come to Earls Court, of whom 15,119 had gone forward (comparable to 1954 London crusade figures of 190,000 and 4,602 respectively). In addition, services were being relayed to other cities. About 65 per cent of the nightly audience was under twenty-five.

Graham had tea at Lambeth Palace with Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, and dinner with the controversial John A. T. Robinson, Bishop of Woolwich, who came to Earls Court. The evangelist was warmly sponsored by the Archbishop of York, F. D. Coggan, who appeared on the platform.

Associates are each involved in two or three meetings a day. One held a service at Boys Detention Center, where boys have a code about not singing. The associate found himself singing a duet with the superintendent, but seventy boys stayed behind to indicate their interest and concern.

The most systematically organized followup ever is planned, for Graham is concerned that there should be none of the post-1954-crusade complaints that followup was a weak spot.

J. D. DOUGLAS

One Doesn’T Tell God

No Graven Image, by Elisabeth Elliot (Harper & Row, 1966, 244 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by Harold Lindsell, associate editor,CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

Betty Elliott passed through the fires of testing—her husband was martyred by the Auca Indians. He found deliverance in death, but she remained to seek her own deliverance in life. That it has not come easily is seen in this novel about missionary life. Some readers will assume that the main character, Margaret Sparhawk, reflects Betty Elliot’s own experience. Probably they will be only partly wrong.

Mrs. Elliot traces the spiritual pilgrimage of Margaret from conversion to mission field and service. Along the way she paints what is often an unpretty picture of evangelical life. The picture could only have come from personal experience, and with notable insight she has captured the idiosyncratic—the warts and bumps. “Are evangelicals really like that?” everyone will ask. We can only hope that the kind she singled out are a minority. Yet surely evangelicals are mature enough to face their own shortcomings and to see in what the author depicts something of themselves, not simply of others.

However tangled her motives may have been, and however inadequate her insight, Margaret Sparhawk went to her Indians in Latin America in purity of heart and singleness of devotion. Her missionary life was somewhat atypical through no fault of her own. She labored alone and therefore could not compensate for her lack of adequate advance preparation with the companionship of experienced missionaries. This difficulty, added to the normal lot of missionaries, she faced bravely and with dignity. The reader will not be shocked to hear her say “Damn it” under her breath when she breaks a fingernail; nor will he fail to understand her neurotic guilt when she reacts to her “sin.” Honest evangelicals will have to admit that they have been guilty of far worse lapses than an under-the-breath damn.

The climax of the book comes when Margaret, part missionary and part physician as so many missionaries are, is called upon to do something for a sick Indian. In her desire to help she injects penicillin into a man who will undoubtedly die without medical help. He had taken the drug before with no adverse reaction, but this time he goes into shock and dies horribly. With this Margaret’s world crashes at her feet. She is driven into despair and introspective analysis. How could God let this happen to her? How could he allow the death of this Indian to whom she had come to minister? And the answer emerges: Men cannot tell God how to act; he works sovereignly. We are to worship and serve. Results belong to him, not to us.

No Graven Image is one of the better modern Christian novels. It says some hard things and says them vigorously. There is no padding, no fluff, no wandering from the subject at hand. The characters are real. Even the visiting clergyman, camera in hand, making a one-day stand to snap pictures to activate his congregation at home, crackles with life. There is no Grace Livingston Hill aura about the book. It is a solid, well-written piece of fiction.

Margaret Sparhawk finally puts the pieces together and gets an answer, a believable and adequate answer, to her spiritual quest. This reader, at least, was left with the feeling that the author placed the right answer in Miss Sparhawk’s mouth, but he has a haunting doubt whether the author herself has settled for that answer.

HAROLD LINDSELL

Required Reading

The Register of the Company of Pastors of Geneva in the Time of Calvin, edited and translated by Philip Edgcumbe Hughes (Eerdmans, 1966, 380 pp., $12.50), is reviewed by C. Gregg Singer, chairman, Department of History, Catawba College, Salisbury, North Carolina.

Seldom has any volume of Calvinistic literature had a more timely appearance than this one, a monumental record of the meetings and decisions of the Geneva pastors from 1546 to 1564. It is timely because it speaks to Christendom in general, and particularly to churches claiming the Reformed system of doctrine, on many of the issues now disturbing the peace of the Church. In today’s controversy over the relations of church and state and over how and to what extent the Church should involve itself in secular matters, the various parties often evoke the name of Calvin in support of their particular positions. This volume makes it very clear that the demand for secularization of the Church, and for its entrance into the various political, social, and economic controversies of our day, can no longer be supported by an appeal to Calvin or to the example of the church in Geneva.

On the other hand, this volume offers valuable support for those who argue for the spirituality of the Church in the spirit of Thornwell and Dabney. The problems discussed by the pastors of Geneva are a far cry from those today occupying attention in the assemblies of churches that claim to be Reformed and in the National Council of Churches. One hunts in vain throughout this volume for pronouncements by the Geneva pastors on political, social, or economic matters. They were mainly concerned with preserving the independence of the church in Geneva and its spiritual duties from the encroachments of the Council of Two Hundred and the Council of Sixty.

Throughout the Register there is evident a great concern for the theological and spiritual purity of the Reformed church, not only in Geneva but in the other city-states as well. The Geneva pastors’ main concern was the advancement of the Kingdom of God on earth, and they spent little time on those trivial questions that consume so much time in modern church assemblies.

This record also makes it clear that Calvin and his fellow pastors were keenly aware that both church and state were divinely ordained for their respective tasks, and that their powers were therefore different. Each was to work within its divinely assigned sphere of power and responsibility. In Geneva this biblical ideal was at times subjected to a severe strain. Particularly troublesome was the question whether the right of excommunication was held by the spiritual or the secular power. When the Councils of Two Hundred and Sixty finally decided that this power belonged to the Church, a mighty victory was won for the biblical doctrine of the spirituality of the Church.

This volume reveals both a Calvin and a Geneva quite different from those presented in most recent histories of the Reformation by liberal writers. Geneva is seen fighting for its life against relentless political and ecclesiastical enemies while the church struggles to maintain its biblical purity. Yet the Register reveals a Christian charity and a sincere desire to see that even the most hard-hearted and rebellious opponents of the new order are brought to repentance. Of particular interest is the record of the disputation between Servetus and the pastors of Geneva, in which Servetus clearly proves he is guilty of the charge of heresy and even of apostasy. And it is Servetus who uses coarse and unchristian language, not Calvin and his fellow pastors.

Equally important is the picture of Calvin himself. Rather than the cold, hard-hearted person he is often thought to have been, he appears on these pages as a pastor and teacher dearly loved by those who knew him best and held in high esteem not only in Geneva but throughout Switzerland and in other parts of Europe as well. The tribute his fellow pastors paid him just after his death, when they were faced with the need to choose his successor, is a very moving testimony to him.

This reviewer would recommend that every delegate to church assemblies be asked and even required to read this volume. If this were done, pronouncements issued by the churches and by the National Council of Churches would change radically. As a matter of fact, if the National Council of Churches were to take this volume seriously, it would be led to conclude that it has no right to exist.

C. GREGG SINGER

Successful Text

An Introduction to Christianity, by Robert T. Anderson and Peter B. Fischer (Harper & Row, 1966, 234 pp., $4.95), is reviewed by Addison H. Leitch, professor of philosophy and religion, Tarkio College, Tarkio, Missouri.

Robert T. Anderson is associate professor of religion and Peter B. Fischer professor of humanities and religion at Michigan State University. Each writes some of the chapters of this book, and the introductory chapter is a joint enterprise. Yet the whole work has a unity of purpose and a singleness of style. Since the authors teach in a state university, the book is also characterized by a carefulness in polemics; indeed, if there is a weakness, it lies in the authors’ unwillingness to say very much “for sure” about the Christian faith.

Yet the book does stay within the position the authors express in their preface: “The purpose of this book is to present the doctrines of the major Christian faiths to an audience not necessarily familiar with any of them.… In selection of opinions it tries to avoid what the authors think Christianity ought to be.… Consequently, it is not persuasive in its approach. It avoids offensive comparisons between positions and seeks to be descriptive rather than normative” (pp. ix, x). Within these confines, the book is a success. It is comprehensive, clear, and fair, a product of first-rate scholarship. One gets the impression that both authors are highly committed to the Christian faith and quite unwilling to handle their material casually. Although their treatment will not bring Christian conviction, it does convey information, and the book will be very useful as a textbook.

Despite the authors’ refusal to support a position, a liberal position comes through. It is difficult in a brief review to cite evidence of this. Perhaps the clearest sign lies in the suggested readings at the close of each chapter and the footnotes throughout the text: so far as I know, not a single “conservative” author besides Dorothy Sayers is listed or quoted. This is surely a reflection of where the general teaching of Christianity rests in our public institutions.

ADDISON H. LEITCH

Exciting Orientation

Invitation to the New Testament, by W. D. Davies (Doubleday, 1966, 540 pp., $6.95), is reviewed by Glenn W. Barker, professor of New Testament, Gordon Divinity School, Wenham, Massachusetts.

W. D. Davies, well known in the theological world for his Paul and Rabbinic Judaism and The Setting for the Sermon on the Mount, in this latest work addresses himself to quite a different community and for quite a different purpose. His announced intention is to take the untutored “behind the dust of scholarship to the faith that pulsates in the New Testament” (VII). Although he decries any “attempt at persuasion,” there can be no question that the Edward Robinson Professor of Biblical Theology of Union Theological Seminary is sharing with the reader his own experience with the text. His concern “to present as clearly as possible the essence of the faith of the New Testament” (VII) is meant to challenge the reader to decide whether or not this faith is relevant for twentieth-century man. Such an attempt can only be viewed with respect and admiration.

The book is divided into four parts. Part I provides brief but valuable backgrounds. In addition there are separate chapters that treat the nature of the Gospel (the revelation of the glory of God in the particular events centering around Jesus of Nazareth), its dependence historically upon the early preaching of the Church, and the relationship it sustains to the Old Testament.

Part II introduces the subject matter proper. The witness of the Synoptic Gospels is examined collectively and individually. However, the critical problems, although covered admirably, are treated in such detail that Davies does not have opportunity to develop adequately the meaning of the major events in Jesus’ life.

Part III treats the witness of Paul and reflects Davies at his best. Those who know Paul and Rabbinic Judaism will immediately recognize the conclusions of the earlier work and even the order of presentation. It is of untold advantage, however, to have this material presented briefly and non-technically. Unfortunately, the coverage of Pauline ideas is so detailed that any individual treatment of the epistles is excluded. The result may be that the reader will conclude that Paul was primarily a theologian, and a fairly systematic one at that. The Paul who, as Davies tells us, is first and foremost a missionary wrestling with problems and ideas that daily confront him in the pagan world, does not really ever appear.

Part IV treats the Fourth Gospel. The author’s interpretation follows closely that of his mentor, C. H. Dodd. His contribution here as elsewhere in the book is his remarkable ability to encapsulate complicated and technical positions worked out by scholars and re-present them in terms that an informed student can readily understand.

Although this is an excellent work, several observations should be made. First, the book is scarcely an Invitation to the New Testament. It is rather a kind of exciting orientation in some very important areas of New Testament biblical theology observed over against critical backgrounds. Secondly, whatever the desire of the author, his book is not for novices. Thirdly, the very intent of the book inevitably raises some very important questions. What is the nature of Scripture? What precisely is its authority? Why does its faith deserve this attention? Davies never answers these questions. He does complete his section on the Synoptics by quoting from E. V. Rieu without comment: “Just as Jesus lived in the oral traditions that preceded the Gospels, so he inspired and unified the writings that eventually summed it up. One might almost say that Jesus wrote the Gospels.” It would have been so much more meaningful if Davies had himself made this statement and then proceeded to teach the reader what it means.

GLENN W. BARKER

Effervescent Bishop

The Bishop: A Portrait of the Right Reverend Clinton S. Quin, by Alan Lake Chidsey (Gulf Publishing, 1966, 230 pp., $5.95), is reviewed by Frank W. Blackwelder, rector, All Souls Episcopal Church, Washington, D. C.

The Bishop is the story of a most vigorous, effervescent, and forthright man. Clinton Simon “Mike” Quin, born in 1883, began to work at the age of thirteen, a practice not unusual in those days. When he was almost twenty, however, he began going to night school to study law, and in 1906 he passed the bar examination. Yet his interest in the Episcopal Church was so great that he did not practice law; instead, he entered the Virginia Theological Seminary, graduating in 1909. After serving several churches simultaneously in the vicinity of Louisville, the Rev. Clinton S. Quin became the rector of Grace Church in Paducah, Kentucky, where he continued to use his great energy and insight for the advancement of Christianity through the channel of the Episcopal Church.

Quin cooperated in innumerable community projects but was never carried along by the tide. When Prohibition became a possibility, he held special services for the bartenders of the city to let them know that although the liquor business was being maligned, the Church looked upon the people employed in that business as individuals with souls.

The book shows many examples of the bishop’s quick reaction to valuable innovations of the day. The Boy Scout troop he organized under the auspices of Grace Church now stands as the one with the longest continuous service in the United States. As bishop in Houston, Texas, he immediately saw the value of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Besides being the story of an interesting man, The Bishop is an impressive indicator of how much one person can do when he is completely dedicated to spreading Christ’s Kingdom in the world.

FRANK W. BLACKWELDER

The Idea Is Right

The Satanward View: A Study in Pauline Theology, by James Kallas (Westminster, 1966, 152 pp., $4.50), is reviewed by Andrew J. Bandstra, assistant professor of New Testament, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Can a worthy cause be harmed more by a poor argument for it than by a good argument against it? This author presents a worthy cause, but it is a question whether his argument will help or hinder.

Dr. Kallas, an ordained Lutheran minister who is associate professor at California Lutheran College, correctly sees the basic importance of demonology and eschatology in the theology of Paul. After an initial chapter on Jesus and Paul, he compares and contrasts “the Satanward view” and “the Godward view” of the work of Christ. The Satanward view develops the work of Christ in terms of conflict with the evil forces, particularly as culminated in Satan. This is contrasted with the Godward view (really an amalgam of Paul, Anselm, Denney, Dodd, Taylor, and Bultmann), which Kallas describes as a transaction within the Godhead between Father and Son in which Christ offers himself as a satisfaction for sinful humanity to God or seeks, by his obedience and example, to return rebellious man back to God.

These two views when carried through in other parts of theology result in divergent, if not contradictory, positions. In the Satanward view, the nature of Jesus is divine, sin is an enslaving power, man is helpless and open to external powers, salvation is objective and cosmic in scope and entered by predestination, and Satan is the ruler of this world and the source of suffering. In the Godward view, the nature of Jesus is human, sin is rebellion and guilt, man is free and self-determining, salvation is subjective and entered by personal decision, and God is the ruler of this world and the source of suffering.

Kallas acknowledges that both views are scriptural and that they must be held in tension. He wishes to show, however, that the Satanward view is primary and determinative (comprising 80 per cent of Paul) while the Godward view is secondary and derivative (comprising 20 per cent). Kallas then develops the Satanward view as it comes to expression in various facets of Paul’s experience and teaching. The final chapter is a sharp and, in many ways, valuable confrontation with Bultmann.

A deeper awareness of “the Satanward view” is a worthy cause, and Kallas has set this forth with vigor. But the argumentation as a whole is a curious mixture of truth, one-sided emphasis, improper dilemmas, and, sometimes, error. In this reviewer’s opinion, Kallas over-emphasizes the contrast between the two views. To be sure, he once states that the views at bottom are not contradictory but complementary (p. 32). But he does not indicate how they might be complementary except at one point (cf. pp. 106 ff.). It appears that Kallas has torn asunder what Paul joined together. For example, he contends that Philippians 2:7 teaches that Christ became the slave of Satan, not a servant of God (p. 78). Although debatable, this may be correct. In the next verse, however, Paul says that Christ became obedient unto death. No doubt Paul means “obedient to God,” but Kallas does not mention the conjoining of these two facets. Does the Satanward view champion the divinity of Christ more than his humanity? If so, it does not adequately reflect Paul. In Philippians 2:5 ff. and Colossians 2:9–15, precisely where Christ’s victory over the evil forces is clearly in focus, the twin motifs of Christ’s divinity and humanity are both prominent; and if either of the two is predominant, it is his humanity (cf. also Heb. 2:14, 15).

In addition, Kallas does not always do careful work; the following are only some of the instances of this. He once quotes Hebrews 2:14 in support of the Satanward view (p. 22) but later (n. 13, pp. 127 ff.) states that the theology of Hebrews dismisses demonology. He implies, no doubt unintentionally, that Paul uses the term “body” as a designation of the Church more than eighty times (p. 92). He uses Galatians 2:20a to support his interpretation that there was a physical tie between Paul and Jesus (p. 95), but he says nothing about Galatians 2:20b. First Corinthians 12:3 does not say that the Holy Spirit makes the confession for us, as Kallas contends (p. 104). It is an improper dilemma to posit that either there is a physical tie between the believer and Christ or faith, as our personal decision, is that which establishes our relationship with him (pp. 100 ff.). Again, Kallas argues that Paul insists that it is not at the moment of faith but at the moment of baptism that a man is joined to Christ (pp., 101 ff.). Later he admits (p. 112) that God also establishes the relationship through the preaching of the Word, although he nowhere indicates that he might have gotten this latter idea from Paul as well (cf. Rom. 10:14).

The cause is a worthy one, especially since, in our day, demonology and eschatology are often either muted or ignored or denied. One hopes that this book, despite its weaknesses, will contribute to a more comprehensive view of the amazing work of Christ. Its author is certainly not devoid of helpful insight into these matters.

ANDREW J. BANDSTRA

Washington Reporters

The Press in Washington, edited by Ray Eldon Hiebert (Dodd, Mead, 1966, 233 pp., $5), is reviewed by Richard Ostling, assistant news editor,CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

Let’s play the analogy game. Start by taking a typical quote from this book:

“The United States Government that runs with the maximum knowledge—in advance—of the people of the country is going to be the best government. I believe that the American people are vitally interested in, for example, the United States disarmament negotiations position and in all other foreign, military, and domestic positions taken by the United States government in their name. Every effort should be made to inform the people—in advance—of what those positions are going to be and to develop through the press a consensus which indicates the feeling of this country and of its people—who are ultimately sovereign in our country.

“Even the difficult-to-understand policies of this country in such technical fields as nuclear energy and disarmament are the business of the people, and it is the job of the reporter to get that information to the people, with or without the co-operation of the bureaucracy.”

This is standard dogma for a journalist (in this case Thomas Schroth, executive editor of Congressional Quarterly). Now read the same excerpt, making appropriate substitutions in order to apply it to the Church and religious issues instead of the government and its policy. A revolution!

In this book, sixteen reporters in the nation’s capital report on how they do their jobs and on what bothers them about the government and the way the press covers it. The strange sound of their comments when applied to religion is one indicator of the journalistic lag in the religious field. Another is that religion rates no mention in this anthology, even though Washington, D. C., is an increasingly important center for religious news.

Books like this, and the superb quarterly Columbia Journalism Review, provide the best available criticism of the press. When Barry Goldwater or Jack Paar tells us reporters are doing a lousy job, he speaks from viscera, not knowledge. But we should listen when Clark Mollenhoff says much of the capital press was “ignorant, gullible, or lop-sidedly partisan,” thus giving comfort to the administration on the TFX and Otto Otepka cases. The Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for Cowles Publications also believes the press has so overreacted to the abuses of Senator McCarthy that many veterans “are automatically against any investigations,” even though they provide one of the few ways to force disclosure of information from the Executive Branch. Perhaps the most depressing critique is by James E. Clayton of the Washington Post, who documents sloppy coverage of the U. S. Supreme Court.

Other interesting items: Marvin Kalb of CBS accepts “lying” as “a legitimate part of the defense mechanism of the administration.” He believes covering Washington is harder than covering Moscow because it is difficult for the newsmen not to “succumb to the easy role of being a spokesman for his country.”

Richard Fryklund, who covers the Pentagon for the Washington Evening Star, also expects “outright lying” as part of government “news management.” He has some horror stories about how people who talk to reporters being subjected to lie detector tests or transferred, and about Pentagon reporters who expect to be tailed or to have their phones bugged.

Strangely, the best-known chapter was turned out, not by a “print media” man, but by a broadcaster, Edward P. Morgan of ABC radio. Some of the weakest contributions have too much of the drawl of press-room anecdotes and breathless, blow-by-blow accounts of how a certain beat is covered.

The editor of this volume is chairman of the Department of Journalism at The American University. This fall he takes charge of the new Washington Journalism Center, a graduate-level program for select scholars in the field. CHRISTIANITY TODAY is joining in the venture through semester-long fellowships in religious news, which include internship work on the magazine. If the program succeeds, its products will turn their discerning eyes and steeled talents to religion as these experts have to public affairs.

RICHARD OSTLING

Book Briefs

A flame for God: Biography of Fredrik Franson, by David B. Woodward (Moody, 1966, 190 pp., $3.50). A biography of Fredrik Franson, founder of The Evangelical Alliance Mission and four other foreign mission societies. Like a flaming arrow he flew through the world, kindling the fires of God’s kingdom.

The Rule of Qumran and Its Meaning, by A. R. C. Leaney (Westminster, 1966, 310 pp., $7.50).

New Testament Apocrypha, Volume Two: Writings Relating to the Apostles, Apocalypses, and Related Subjects, edited by Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher, English edition edited by Robert McL. Wilson (Westminster, 1966, 852 pp., $10). A technical work of value for the serious student of the New Testament Apocrypha.

Landmarks in Greek Literature, by C. M. Bowra (World, 1966, 284 pp., $8.95). A learned survey of Greek literature. For the serious scholar only.

Still We Can Hope: Assurances That Give Meaning to Life, by Joseph R. Sizoo (Abingdon, 1966, 158 pp., $3). Well-written devotional material with a touch of the poetic.

Plain Talk on Acts, by Manford George Gutzke (Zondervan, 1966, 221 pp., $3.95). This “plain talk” is frequently so puffy that it argues the golden quality of silence. And the interpretations are so often wide of the mark that they suggest the author practices little exegesis, at best, and knows little theology.

The Ghetto of Indifference, by Thomas J. Mullen (Abingdon, 1966, 111 pp., $2.25). “The have-nots lie bleeding along the road, and the haves are passing them by on their way to church.” The ghetto: WASP-land, where dwell the white, Anglo-Saxon (well-fed) Protestants.

Martin Luther, Creative Translator of the Bible, by Heinz Bluhm (Concordia, 1965, 236 pp., $8). A technical study of Luther as Bible translator.

The Life and Times of Jesus: A Contemporary Approach, by Herschel H. Hobbs (Zondervan, 1966, 218 pp., $3.50). A popular, practical study.

What Happened at Rome?: The Council and Its Implications for the Modern World, by Gary MacEoin (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966, 192 pp., $4.95). By a Roman Catholic who combines theological and canon-law training with thirty years of journalistic experience.

The Major Victorian Poets: An Anthology, edited by William H. Marshall (Washington Square, 1966, 786 pp., $7.95). With an introductory essay on the Victorian era.

Fresh Every Morning, by Gerald Kennedy (Harper & Row, 1966, 194 pp., $3.95). Sermonic essays. A good writer provides good reading.

You Can Understand the Bible, by John R. Link (Judson, 1966, 224 pp., $4.75). Essays that turn around what the Bible is, how it was written, and how it should be approached, read, and understood.

Aspects of the Church, by Heinrich Fries (Newman Press, 1966, 174 pp., $4.50). Roman Catholic essays.

The Day God Died, by Lehman Strauss (Zondervan, 1965, 112 pp., $2.50). Essays on the Seven Last Words. The title is somewhat misleading (though it may promote sales), since the author insists that the Son of God died.

Mental First Aid: Toward Balance in a Dizzy World, by Joost A. M. Meerloo (Hawthorn, 1966, 327 pp., $5.95). A vast amount of interesting and valuable information for that time “before the doctor is needed or [and there is some delightful humor here] before he comes.”

Paperbacks

Church Growth in Central and Southern Nigeria, by John B. Grimley and Gordon E. Robinson (Eerdmans, 1966, 386 pp., $3.25). Comprehensive and well documented.

The Wrath of Heaven, by Calvin Robert Schoonhoven (Eerdmans, 1966, 187 pp., $2.45). An interesting study that probes the New Testament material suggesting that both earth and heaven are under the judgment of God until the end of this age, when heaven in the idyllic sense will obtain.

The Prophetic Voice in Modern Fiction, by William R. Mueller (Doubleday, 1966, 186 pp., $.95). First published in 1959.

A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, by William Law (Eerdmans, 1966, 313 pp., $1.95). A classic of Christian devotion.

The Theology of Romantic Love: A Study in the Writings of Charles Williams, by Mary McDermott Shideler (Eerdmans, 1966, 243 pp., $2.45). First paperback edition of a work published in 1962.

New Patterns of Church Growth in Brazil, by William R. Read (Eerdmans, 1965, 240 pp., $2.45). Good overview of why and how churches have grown in Brazil, with emphasis on the strong Pentecostal advance. Fresh lines are laid down to guide Protestant churches in their evangelistic efforts during the next decade.

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, by Richard Hofstadter (Vintage, 1966, 448 pp., $2.45). First published in 1962.

Planning and Furnishing the Church Library, by Marian S. Johnson, artwork by John Mosand (Augsburg, 1966, 48 pp., $3).

To Mend the Broken: The Christian Response to the Challenge of Human Relations Problems, by Karl E. Lutze (Concordia, 1966, 99 pp., $1.95).

A Christian’s Guide to Church Membership, by David Winter (Moody, 1966, 64 pp., $.95). An intelligent and readable discussion of the meaning, obligations, and glory of church membership.

The Free Church, by James DeForest Murch (Restoration Press, 1966, 140 pp., $1). A good piece of work.

Earliest Civilizations of the Near East, by James Mellaart (McGraw-Hill, 1965, 143 pp., $2.95). A revised edition of chapter 5 of The Dawn of Civilization.

The Road to Peace, by John C. Bennett, et al. (Fortress, 1966, 59 pp., $.85).

Guide to the Debate About God, by David E. Jenkins (Westminster, 1966, 111 pp., $1.45). A very thorough analysis of the possibilities of human knowledge of God in the thought of Bishop Butler, Schleiermacher, Barth, Brunner, Tillich, Bonhoeffer.

No matter how conscientious a pastor may be in making sick calls, pastoral calls, and mission calls, no matter how effective he may be in counseling, the payoff is in the pulpit. A minister may bring comfort and cheer to the sickbed; he may be concerned about the spiritual welfare of his parishioners, aggressive in missionary activity, zealous in sharing the Gospel; but if he does not “produce” in the pulpit, his other work will leave much to be desired. If he does not arrest attention with his sermon introduction; if he preaches over the heads of the people in the pew; if his sermons do not relate current events to his subject as much as possible, and conclude with a telling application; if he does not properly distinguish between the Law and the Gospel—then his pulpit preparation has been virtually “love’s labor lost.”

Preaching is a very difficult assignment. Seated before the pulpit are the child who must be fed on the “milk of the Word,” the inquiring teen-ager and college student, the person with several academic degrees, the widow or widower, the harried homemaker, the middle-ager in a busy, productive life. There are the aged, some of whom feel that death is imminent. There are the ailing, who need the strength from the Word to endure. There are the burdened, who want to find God’s solution to their problems. There are the defeated, the depressed, the disappointed, the bereaved, the lonely. All of these sit before the speaker and wait eagerly for the Word to apply to their particular situation.

And there are more: those who doubt that the Word could have meaning for them; those who feel that the teachings of Jesus Christ are not practical for a hurry-scurry world; those who are asking, “What must I do to be saved?” And there are the indifferent, the self-righteous, the complacent, all of whom must be aroused to their spiritual poverty. So the list goes on. And the preacher, by the Spirit’s guidance, must try to reach the hearts of all. He cannot, of course, in one sermon cover the topics most important to all the various listeners; but in his pulpit program for the season he should endeavor to do so.

This takes preparation. And, as I see it, the first step in preparation is prayer. No preacher dare attempt to be God’s mouthpiece without first recognizing the high and holy privilege that is his and then in humility asking for the Holy Spirit’s help in delivering God’s message.

He is now ready to begin. He needs a systematic preaching course in order to bring a coordinated, unified thought to his people. An excellent way to accomplish this is to follow one of the many series of suggested texts for the church year as an aid in declaring “all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). In my preaching I find myself partial to using free texts, because this enables me to give recognition to special occasions.

Having chosen the text, I proceed with the following steps:

1. Study the text in the original. Obviously, this is basic in sermon preparation. Sometimes the translations do not convey the exact meaning of a word in the original language, or the intent of a phrase as it refers to or hinges upon what comes before or after it. The Hebrew and Greek versions of Scripture bring the meaning into focus.

2. Find the central thought. What does the verse of Scripture say? Is the central thought one of comfort, of admonition, or of direction for life? The central thought or theme of the sermon ought to summarize the scriptural text.

3. Develop an outline. To present a coordinated, unified sermon that develops the text and reaches a goal, one needs an outline. Otherwise the sermon may degenerate into an off-the-cuff recital of platitudes that start nowhere and end in the same place. As I work on the outline, I keep in mind four questions: (a) What does the text say? (b) What does the text say to me? (c) How do I apply it to myself? (d) How do I apply it to the hearers?

4. Read. When the outline is completed, I usually lay it aside for several hours or a day. Then I begin a reading program—commentaries and other Bible helps, the context of the text and parallel Scripture passages, illustrative aids, sometimes a sermon or two on the text, and a concordance.

5. Write the sermon. I usually like to do this in one sitting, as the inspiration comes. If there are no interruptions, this is a pleasant task. When the hour seems right, the telephone does not ring, and psychological forces are in my favor, words come rapidly. Unfortunately, it does not always happen this way.

6. Lay the sermon aside. After the first draft is finished, I give it time to undergo what I call the “simmering process.” I know that new thoughts and improvements will suggest themselves as I go about my other pastoral duties.

7. Review, refine, revise, polish. This sometimes takes longer than the first writing. At this stage I try to keep a number of questions in mind: Have I developed the text? Have I kept in mind the needs of the people who will be listening? Is there something in the sermon that can be an aid to spiritual growth among all age groups? Have I kept in mind the delivery? Have I chosen words that clarify the central thought? Do I need an anecdote to clarify a point? Do I need to rewrite a paragraph to provide an emotional appeal to sustain the interest? Are any words unnecessary?

8. Commit the sermon to memory. If the background was well laid and the writing done carefully, memorizing is no great problem. But I do spend time at it, so that while preaching I will not stray away from the theme.

9. Deliver the sermon. Before I enter the pulpit, I turn again to God in prayer, asking that the Holy Spirit use me to present what he wants said clearly and effectively. I feel I must be personally involved while I preach. The worshiper may not always be aware of all the theological and homiletical niceties that have gone into a sermon, but he knows whether or not the preacher is getting through to him. I avoid using the pronoun “you” and use instead “we.” I, too, am a sinner “standing in the need of grace”; a holier-than-thou attitude has no place in the pulpit.

10. Pray with thanksgiving. When the sermon is concluded and I return to the clergy pew, I thank God for having used me and plead that the message will work effectively in the hearts of those who have heard it.

This, then, is my preaching practice. I am certain that I have brought few if any new thoughts to the readers of this column; but if I have helped a bit to strengthen any of my brethren in their approach to their sermonic duties, I shall be grateful.—

THE REV. PAUL G. STEPHAN,

Trinity Lutheran Church,

Des Moines, Iowa.

This is no time to slacken the evangelistic outreach of the Church

Imagination boggles at what the Apostle Paul would make of the modern Church if he were to appear among us. He would find much to amaze him and not a little to dismay. High on his list would surely be our attitude toward evangelism.

Evangelism is not a game that those who like that sort of thing may play. It is not an extra for the unusually devout. It is an obligation resting on every member of the body of Christ. It is a duty that arises out of the nature of the Christian Gospel and does not rest solely on the last command of Christ (important though that was). Once God sent his only Son to the world, and this Son died on a cross to put away the sins of men. Since none less than God is involved, the action cannot be regarded as of merely local significance. And since the salvation that Christ brought about is not meant for any restricted group, Jews or anyone else, since there is no salvation in any other, the news of that salvation must be taken throughout the world. How else is the world to know what God has done? The Christian Gospel carries a built-in demand that it be taken to all mankind.

This was better understood by a previous generation. We today are apt to look back pityingly on the men who adopted slogans like, “The evangelization of the world in this generation,” or “Evangelize to a finish to bring back the King.” But they had a consuming passion for souls that puts our tepid generation to shame. We no longer sing with deep emotion.

Far, far away, in heathen darkness dwelling

Millions of souls for ever may be lost.

But we might well ask whether we measure up to the men who did.

Their convictions gave them drive. They carried on a missionary endeavor seldom if ever paralleled in the history of mankind. The last century, called by Kenneth Scott Latourette “The Great Century,” witnessed a flowering of missionary and evangelistic zeal that any generation could be proud to claim.

True, the situation has altered radically. Missionaries can no longer go into certain countries. Ancient religions that earlier appeared moribund have been revived. Islam still presents a solid wall of opposition (though with one or two perhaps significant cracks). The overthrow of colonialism and the emergence of nationalism have often generated a heat against all foreigners, missionaries included. Much of the educational and medical service that used to be the special preserve of the Church now rests securely in government hands. In the more restricted sphere that is still allowed missionaries, they must often walk delicately. They are learning, sometimes painfully, to work under the direction of nationals who are not always wise.

But when full allowance has been made for all this, it is still true that today is no time to slacken the evangelistic outreach of the Church. Although some doors of opportunity have closed, more are open than the Church is using effectively. And control by nationals, though it sometimes brings frustration and difficulty, more often gives the preaching of redemption an indigenous and effective turn.

Modern developments in communication present today’s missionary with opportunities previously undreamed of. Radio waves know no frontiers and can carry the Gospel to places the missionary could never penetrate. Many a missionary can now through one broadcast reach more people than Jesus spoke to during his whole life.

This is the era of the printed page. Millions are streaming out of the darkness of illiteracy and demanding something to read. Where the Church responds adequately, what it produces is read avidly. And, like the radio wave, the printed page will penetrate where its author cannot. Moreover, it has an advantage over the spoken word in that it remains with the reader and can be read again and again.

An area that has so far been little explored is the usefulness to the missionary effort of scientific aids like the computer. Yet it is already obvious that they will be very valuable. Computers can store up the accumulated experiences of missionaries in widely separated areas and periods and relate them to one another. In time, computers may well be used to indicate lines of activity that are likely to prove fruitful.

New avenues of approach are open. Christians in the Peace Corps have the opportunity for indirect witness, while others who serve in their professional capacities in non-Christian countries are usually free to engage in direct evangelism. In areas where the Church is suspect, such approaches are often acceptable.

It cannot be denied that, while the difficulties are formidable, the opportunities before this generation are great. It is accordingly important that we realize our responsibility. Today’s heathen were not reached by previous generations of missionaries and will not be reached by any following ones. Only Christians now alive can evangelize this generation. It is we who must make the effort and do so now.

Some deepening of concern for evangelism is evident. The Wheaton Congress on the Church’s Worldwide Mission was a notable event whose repercussions will be felt for a long time. The World Congress on Evangelism to be held in Berlin later this year is further evidence of this concern. Leaders in evangelism from all over the world will gather to consider what can best be done to present the Gospel now. In the providence of God, this may well provide the charge needed to galvanize God’s people into the activity that the present situation demands. The very holding of such a congress will focus attention on the importance of this aspect of the Church’s responsibility. But only the efforts of Spirit-filled men will discharge it.

The Radiant Joy Of Faith

G. A. Studdert-Kennedy, a British chaplain in World War I, wrote a poem beginning, “Our Padre were a solemn bloke/We called ’im Dismal Jim.” But it is not only “Dismal Jim” who understands Christianity as a gloomy affair. To many church members, Sunday worship is a grim sort of thing. They don uncomfortable “Sunday clothes” and get themselves into a decently uncomfortable frame of mind. They take themselves off to a severe building, dim and gloomy inside, with decently uncomfortable pews.

Caricature? Yes. But caricature is the exaggeration of something real. For most of us there is something gloomy about things ecclesiastical.

The origin of this idea is a bit of a mystery. Certainly the New Testament is not the source. It is interesting to observe that little children were found near Jesus. When he wanted to illustrate a point in a sermon, he “took a little child.” He did not have to send for one; one was there. It is hard to think of children clustering round Mohammed or Buddha. But they came to Jesus. Now, children do not hide their real feelings, and they do not like gloomy, solemn people. The personality of Jesus as revealed in the Gospels was attractive. He enjoyed life. He was a popular dinner guest. Ordinary people gladly listened when he spoke.

And what he began his followers carried on. The word “joy” and its derivatives occur with startling frequency throughout the New Testament. The Greek word for “grace” is akin to joy and might even be defined as “that which causes joy.” One of the words for forgiveness comes from the same root. Forgiveness is a happy thing.

A Christian as the New Testament describes him is a man with a zest for living. So exhilarated were the disciples when the Spirit of God came upon them that some thought they were drunk. Their joy did not arise from having an easy and comfortable life. When Paul and Silas were beaten, thrown into jail, and their feet put in the stocks, they sang at midnight. “Under the circumstances …” we sometimes say in considering a situation. But the first Christians were not “under” the circumstances; they had learned to be on top of them. They lived lives of compelling joy, savoring day by day the sheer thrill of being Christ’s.

Men today have forgotten that the Christian life is a zestful life. One of the devil’s best propaganda jobs is convincing people that life, to be really enjoyable, must have a tinge of naughtiness. Goodness is insipid; a “do-gooder” is a kill-joy. Many are convinced that those of the last generation made life a misery for themselves and their neighbors by being too much caught up with religious regulations, mostly of a “don’t do that” variety. So they have thrown off restraints and persuaded themselves that license leads to happiness.

But the truth is, as C. S. Lewis said, that the devil never invented a single pleasure. Any “pleasure” in sin is a perversion of the true pleasure that comes from walking in the ways of God. Healthy eating and drinking, for example, result in simple and wholesome pleasure. The gluttony to which Satan tempts men does not bring new pleasures. It dilutes old ones and introduces new miseries of its own.

Many today identify the serious with the dull. Yet the really serious things of life are not dull. The scientist given over singlemindedly to his research is engaged in a very serious quest. But he is not bored. He is rather supremely satisfied, and cannot imagine himself in a whirl of activities pursuing only personal pleasures. That for him would lead straight to frustration and boredom.

And that is where many of us are going. We are made for God and delude ourselves if we think otherwise.

Christians live according to their Maker’s specifications. This is what gives them their drive and their joy of living. They do not waste energy in aimless performance of tasks they were not designed to do. In the service of God their instincts and abilities and energies find proper outlet. They have life and they have it more abundantly—and joyously.

Water Is No Luxury

Luxuries are often confused with necessities in our culture, and so we lose sight of what is really indispensable to life. Men can live without wall-to-wall carpeting, split-level houses, television sets, and automobiles. But no man can live without water.

An article in the Saturday Evening Post is captioned, “Our Dying Waters.” The title, while shocking, tells the truth. Few industrialized nations have been more generously endowed with water resources than the United States; yet no such nation of modern times has defiled these resources more extensively.

Because our editorial offices are in Washington, we are well aware of the pollution of the Potomac as it flows by the District of Columbia. And what has happened to this beautiful river is happening to hundreds of others in America, including the mighty Mississippi, which some now call “the colon of mid-America.” The contamination of our waters is more than an aesthetic matter. A dirty river does not simply defile the landscape; it also menaces life and health.

Why are rivers being turned into sewers and subsurface waters being ruined by pollutants? As with most human problems, the answer goes back to sin—in this case selfishness and irresponsibility. Disposing of wastes by dumping them into the waterways of the nation may be cheap, but it is also deadly.

God commanded Adam to subdue and cultivate the earth, not to despoil and ruin it. It becomes a matter of Christian as well as national concern when our physical environment is progressively spoiled through a callous disregard of the responsibility to preserve and pass on undefiled our God-given natural resources. Surely the time is long overdue for Americans, and especially Christians, who ought to exercise their stewardship of God’s creation, to wake up and do something about the pollution of our waters.

The World Congress And The Churches

The World Congress on Evangelism this fall will bring 1,200 delegates and observers to the Kongresshalle in Berlin, that frontier between two diverse worlds. If this congress is to be more than just another meeting, it must make its influence felt in the churches around the world. The congress itself, while of great importance, will chiefly be a summons to action. Out of it must come the clear sound of the trumpet calling and enlisting men and leading to the renewal of evangelism among the people of God.

Those who cannot go to Berlin can still do much to support the congress and to appropriate its benefits for themselves and their churches. The first thing is to pray not only for the congress but also for renewed spiritual life in all the churches.

Secondly, churches might well hold an “Operation Andrew” campaign during the period when the congress is in session, October 26 to November 4. Let every Christian determine to witness to at least one person a day. Let him hand out tracts or Bible portions. Let him tell others what Christ has done for him and means to him. Let these autumn days be a time of rejoicing in the Lord.

Thirdly, let ministers preach on personal witnessing and tell their members what they ought to do and how to do it. Then let them lead their flocks by doing it themselves.

Fourthly, ministers can acquaint their congregations with the prize-winning hymn on evangelism (printed in this issue of the magazine along with the hymns that received honorable mention).

The Berlin congress comes at a good time. Vacations will be over, and people will be preparing for the winter routine. They should have something to reach out for, an objective to attain, a height to climb. The fellowship of Christians transcends the barriers of space and time, and if all will work together this planet can be shaken for Christ in 1966. This is one way all Christians can demonstrate their unity, that the world may believe.

Practical Evangelism

The recent death of Professor F. Kiss of Hungary removed one of Eastern Europe’s most distinguished Christians. For fifty-two years he had lectured as an expert in anatomy. Converted at the age of thirty, he traveled widely, both as a representative of the Free Churches of Hungary and in connection with his profession. He was to have delivered an address at the forthcoming World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, and we herewith share some of his prepared comments.

“The first Christian evangelistic effort took place in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. The evangelist was the Apostle Peter, and his audience inhabitants of Jerusalem and other Jews who had made a pilgrimage there from all parts of the empire. Those same people who had so recently cried out, “Crucify him!,” now heard a message about the crucified Jesus and learned that they bore the main guilt for the crucifixion.

“There are ten important points. Peter referred to Jesus’ mission, to the guilt of those who rejected him, to the resurrection, to the gilt of the Holy Spirit, and to God’s exaltation of Jesus. Finally he called for repentance and baptism. The results were true conversions, the linking of new believers in a spiritual fellowship, and a sharing of material resources. The risen Jesus put his seal on this by adding new believers daily.

“I can suggest nothing better than that where possible we return to this first evangelistic effort as our pattern. I am well aware that many today consider the message of Peter, and present-day evangelism with it, to be drunkenness and folly. Among them the most dangerous are those liberal professors of theology and critics of the Bible who through their speaking and writing deny the divine authority of holy Scripture and of Jesus, God’s Son become man. Forty years ago Sadhu Sundar Singh referred to such men as those who ‘hang themselves with the rope of unbelief on the tree of knowledge.’ That is still tragically possible today.”

W. E. Hocking’S Death

The death of W. E. Hocking at 92 ends the long career of an influential philosopher of religion whose writings widened the sway of post-Hegelian idealism in American Protestantism. Hocking taught at California, Yale, and Harvard universities, all centers of philosophical idealism in the forepart of this century.

His work on The Meaning of God in Human Experience deplored the decline of reason in religious experience. But it broadly anticipated two facets of later existential thought: that the “I” and “Thou” are inseparable in experience, and that God is disclosed not only in the universal but also in the particular. While Hocking avoided existentialist irrationalism, his rationalistic and syncretistic approach obscured the full claim of special revelation and redemption.

Hocking’s visit to the Far East resulted in Re-thinking Missions, a Laymen’s Report later indicted for its weak sense of “apostolic consciousness” and its absence of a demand for universal conversion.

UNREGENERATE MAN HAS ALWAYS BEEN at odds with God. From the day that he heeded the cynical rejoinder, “Yea, hath God said?,” he has not ceased to question the Almighty.

Except for its tragic implications, such an attitude would appear ludicrous. Can the finite question the infinite? Can the creature of time comprehend the Eternal One? Can limited man judge the sovereign God? Can the created call to account the Creator?

An objective contemplation of the universe leads one to sense something of its Creator. The immensity and order of the creation stagger one’s imagination; they indicate the existence of Someone great, wise, and powerful, before whom man should bow in worship.

But often man does not make this response. He whose mind has never grasped the reality of God—his power and love, his justice and mercy, his infinite capabilities and marvelous condescension—complains about and rebels against this God who made him.

Many years ago I was examining with a fluoroscope a Chinese man who had received a chest wound in which it was thought there might be a piece of metal. The patient had loudly asserted his poverty, and the examination was being given without charge.

The fluoroscope did not reveal any foreign material in the chest or lungs. As I checked down toward the man’s waist, however, I saw, in his canvas belt, about fifty silver dollars.

The divine X ray never fails in its diagnosis and will even reveal the sins a man says he does not have. So men are exposed and judged by it. We read in the letter to the Hebrews that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Then we are confronted with this sobering statement: “Before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do” [Heb. 4:12, 13, RSV).

Mechanical contrivances and scientific techniques can tell us much about be physical condition of a person, but only God knows the “thoughts and intentions of the heart.” This should be a frightening idea to all who have rejected his redeeming grace.

David, by the Holy Spirit, speaks of the deep truths of God. In the 139th Psalm he tells us: “Even the darkness is not dark to thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with thee” (v. 12). The psalm ends with the prayer, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

How strange that man should call God in question. The Apostle Paul, paraphrasing the words of Isaiah, says: “Who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me thus?’ ” (Rom. 9:20).

Man’s questioning of God stems from his pride and unbelief. He forgets that God has declared himself in terms that preclude reasonable arguments. The eternal nature of God is stated in many ways, none more clear than, “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting thou art God!” (Ps. 90:1, 2).

How can man, whose life is but a breath, argue with the One who exists from everlasting to everlasting?

The consistency of God should also preclude foolish questions. He is always the same. The Apostle James speaks of “the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change [or inconsistency]” (Jas. 1:17).

God revealed himself to Amos as the “plumb-line God” whose righteousness, holiness, justice, love, and mercy are constant and consistent. How foolish it is to question such a God.

Man is saved by faith, and that faith is effective because of God’s faithfulness. Baalam, inspired by the Lord, said “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Num. 23:19). The Apostle Paul exclaims, “Let God be true though every man be false, as it is written, ‘That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and prevail when thou art judged’ ” (Rom. 3:4).

We are rightfully overwhelmed by the multitude of known facts today. It is said that 90 per cent of scientific knowledge must now be stored away for the future, because at present we have no way to use it.

But what about the One who created all things and the laws that govern them? Man has not discovered anything that God did not create, and he never will. God is the ultimate source of reference, the Creator of all truth and knowledge. Man can only discover what God has made. How can he hope to argue effectively with the Creator?

The infinity of God and the finitude of man are a fact from which man cannot escape. The difference between the Creator and the created is pointed up in Psalm 115:16: “The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the sons of men.”

The majesty and power of God, as well as his love, call us to worship him. Overwhelmed by a revelation of God, the Apostle Paul exclaims: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Rom. 11:33–36).

Job, catching a vision of God, asked, “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?” (Job 11:7).

Man must acknowledge that he is very limited and that God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and sovereign. For man either to question or to resist will not change the fact, which he must accept in humility and faith.

The steps to knowing and enjoying God are wonderfully simple. First one must believe that he exists; this is an act of faith based on the irrefutable facts of creation and life with which we are surrounded. The Apostle Paul tells us: “Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (Rom. 1:20). Out of this step of faith the Holy Spirit gives understanding, and things once an enigma fall into place in the overall realization of God himself.

The second step is obedience. God reveals himself not to satisfy our curiosity but to elicit our obedience. The “heroes of faith” listed in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews proved their faith by their obedience to the God in whom they believed.

Faith like theirs is available to all who will humble themselves and turn to God. When this is done, faith and obedience assume their rightful place in the new relationship with the Eternal God.

Pomp And Circumstance

Nothing strikes terror to my heart more than the sober strains of “Pomp and Circumstance”; for when I hear that, I know that very shortly I shall have to make a commencement address to a high school or college audience. I can’t remember ever having marched in to the beat of “Pomp and Circumstance,” since the speakers usually enter from the wings; but it must be the perfect number for marching—everybody is doing it.

If you haven’t done so recently, attend three or four high school graduations (I have just spoken at five) and ponder the American Way of Life. Better than that, ponder the American “Religion.”

The whole graduation affair, wherever it is held, has the characteristics of a true religion. In the first place, it catches the whole community. On this one occasion the speaker has an audience that extends almost from the cradle almost to the grave, and many of the listeners haven’t heard a speech since last commencement time. Everybody is conditioned to feel comforting and comforted. Here, at least, in the high school gymnasium, a man just knows that his basic belief that education solves everything is going to have its hour of reassurance. The basic belief that differences among religions do not make a whole lot of difference is supported by the other belief that our educational system, at least, believes in “values”; and everybody believes also that values can hang out in the air unrelated to other basic commitments.

The sobriety of the occasion is almost unnerving. The students march in with a broken step (one of the worst inventions I can think of) and refuse to smile from the time they come in until they walk out again. They seem to be almost paralyzed by the importance of the occasion and their part in it. Then it is enlightening to observe what constitute the “honors” of the class, and to listen carefully to what is said.

The superintendent of schools will be bound to say something that includes “each and every one.” And I’ll never forget that school superintendent who closed the evening by turning to the seniors and saying, “And now, God bless you and good luck.” Something for everybody!

EUTYCHUS II

Point And Counterpoint

I have just had occasion to read with some interest and edification your issue (June 10) on the inner city.…

I have been moved to write, however, on a matter of personal sensitivity.… I refer to the stereotype comment in the threshold essay which uses the sentence, “For every East Harlem Protestant Parish experiment conducted on the supposition that men must be socially and economically uplifted before they can recognize the relevance of and their need for the Gospel.…” I would be most interested in knowing how, in anything that the East Harlem Protestant Parish staff has done or written, one could come to the conclusion that they make this kind of unfortunate and unbiblical distinction about the task of Christian witness and service in the inner city, or any place else. It is my firm conviction that the function of the Church in the inner city is focused on its calling to witness and service in the name of Jesus Christ. I do not believe it is biblically sound or pragmatically possible to make some separation of men as material and spiritual, and then attempt to deal with them in these two segments.…

I have some feeling that in your essay you are precisely concerned to enter into parochialism and defensiveness, if not to say unveiling a limited amount of animosity.

G. W. WEBBER

Metropolitan Urban Service

Training Facility

New York, N. Y.

• The observations were based on a statement from My People Is the Enemy, by William Stringfellow, who wrote after his personal experience in the East Harlem Parish: “Before the Gospel could be preached and received by the people of the slums, the way for the Word had to be prepared by improving the education of the people, renovating their housing, finding jobs for them, clearing the streets of garbage.…” Upon accepting a post with Metropolitan Urban Service Training Facility, Mr. Webber is reported as saying that the project is moving “from saving people to serving the world.”—ED.

The Confession Of ’67

Re the revised “Confession of 1967”: Your news report (June 10 issue) indicates a bias, failing to report the conservative feeling held by a minority of commissioners. Although the voice vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal, many commissioners were disheartened by the change of procedure which prevented them from speaking against the revised confession as a whole.

The revised confession as presented by the “Committee of Fifteen” preserved the integrity of the original proposed confession and therefore is unacceptable to many evangelicals. The 178th General Assembly has rejected the infallibility of the Bible and has gone on record as believing that there is no system of doctrine taught in the Scriptures.… It rejected the truth that the Bible is the final authority in matters of faith and practice.

I believe that if the average member in the United Presbyterian Church is aware of the content of the revised confession, he will oppose it.

Great Valley Presbyterian

Malvern, Pa.

As a commissioner to the General Assembly in Boston, I was interested in your comments on the changes in our confession.

My views evidently are in a minority position, even among the conservatives, but I think they are worthy of consideration. We are not just adding a new confession, we are changing our whole position; and this should be opposed in presbyteries as a matter of principle.

United Presbyterian Church

Paterson, N. J.

I should like to express my deepest appreciation for the very accurate … report dealing with my statement on the floor of the UPUSA’s General Assembly at Boston concerning “The Confession of 1967.” Often my words have been quoted out of context so that they do not convey my thoughts. Your reporting did not do that.

However, I feel compelled to elaborate upon my statement because such a few words leave the door open for possible misunderstanding of my theological position. My particular position is not important. However, since I represent the campus ministry and this segment of our church is often thought of as the “Young Turks of a most liberal bend” by the rest of the church, let me make my point clear. The paradox of the situation is that my particular position regarding the words “are received and obeyed as the word of God written” as contained in the confession is conservative, I hold that it opens up our basis of faith for the widest possible range of liberal interpretations. I object to the wording for this reason. In short, my “liberal” position is far more conservative than the so-called conservative position. On the other hand, it can be construed to mean biblical literalism, which is a dead issue on campus. Such vague and general statements should no longer be tolerated in our day and age.…

C. WILLIAM HASSLER

UCCF University Pastor

University of Montana

Missoula, Mont.

Missouri Lutherans And The Ncc

In the April 25, 1966, issue of U. S. News and World Report, Billy Graham quotes CHRISTIANITY TODAY as saying … “Another great denomination that’s not in the NCC is the Missouri Synod (Lutheran).” …

We are members of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and know that this church body is affiliated with the NCC in home missions, foreign missions, social welfare, and the like.

In the Lutheran Witness (our publication) dated November 14, 1961, we read, “Voting membership no longer possible says Synod’s Board.” It was due to pressure that the Synod’s Board decided to “continue relationships with the NCC on informal levels.”

Missouri Synod has rejected all efforts by its membership to sever all connections with the NCC at the 1961 conference and again in the 1965 convention in Detroit.…

MR. AND MRS. PERCY WRIGHT

Santa Rosa, Calif.

Playing Fair

I was delighted [with] your editorial “Honesty and the Offering Plate” (May 27 issue). It is indeed very timely. I have had similar experiences, with the offering minus the expense, and then not a dime left for the guest speaker.

We are only a young and small church, but we give the speaker $25.00 with no special offering. At least then he does not go away empty-handed nor with a dishonest offering.

PETER F. WALL

Faith Community Church

Palmdale, Calif.

The ethics of the representative who “put twenty-five dollars in small bills in the offering plate as an experiment” may be compared to those of the congregation which kept back part of the price.

Your editorial must have been written without too much thought.

TERRY TINGLEY

Director

Baptist Youth Fellowship

Saint John, New Brunswick

Chilean Pentecostals

Your editorial (“Evangelicals in a Corner?,” May 27 issue) contains a question addressed to the World Council of Churches, referring to “the recent exodus” of “the Pentecostals of Chile from the conciliar movement.”

Pastor Enrique Chavez Campos, leader of the Pentecostal Church of Chile, who is the president of the Council of Evangelical Churches of Chile, told me in my home on the night of May 16, 1966, and has made the same statement repeatedly and publicly in the United States, that he has no intention of his church leaving the World Council of Churches. Neither has there been any indication that the Pentecostal Mission Church of Chile, under the leadership of the Rev. Victor Pavez Ortiz, is considering any change in its membership in the World Council of Churches.

EUGENE L. SMITH

Executive Secretary

World Council of Churches

New York, N. Y.

• Our information is that of some 1,200,000 Pentecostals in Chile, two groups—one numbering 10,000 and another numbering 60,000—are now identified with the World Council.… Our comment was based on reports that the latter group had decided to withdraw from the WCC. Further inquiry indicates that the matter of its withdrawal or non-withdrawal is scheduled for discussion in August. We are glad to publish Dr. Smith’s comment on our erroneous phrase, “recent exodus.”—ED.

Dialogue: Doves And Hawks

The moral cynicism of your editorial on what the clergy should say to Viet Nam-bound youth shocked me.… Your advice … sounded like that given to Austrian clergy in World War II. They were urged to say nothing that would raise doubts in parishioners’ minds about the rightness of Hitler’s war, no matter what their personal convictions were. They too were urged to tell their parishioners “what they want to hear,” namely, that government orders for them to kill in battle repealed the Scripture command, “Thou shalt not kill.” …

Your motto would seem to be “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God whatever Caesar allows you to render.”

MARCIUS E. TABER

Delton, Mich.

It bothers me to hear people quoting from the “Ten Commandments” when the commandment does not apply to the Viet Nam war.…

Command after command is found in Deuteronomy justifying conditions for war. See 13:15: “Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly …”; and 13:9: “But thou shall surely kill him.…” We must remember that these commands were official and not personal grudge.…

I see no reason to believe that the sixth commandment can apply to our condition in this war. It is evident from Matthew 5:18 that the moral law is still in effect and will be as long as man will be on this earth. The ceremonial and the judicial will change as Jesus taught.

Norfolk, Neb.

The editorial brought up the question of the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” I feel our servicemen could be taught they may also be in combat to help a defenseless neighbor, and to help save his life and the lives of his family. This neighbor may not even know he needs defending. This neighbor may also be 10,000 miles away.

VERNON STENBERG

LCDR, CHC,

USNR

Office of the Chaplain

Weapons Training Battalion

Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Never have I seen in my life such outright and seemingly willful ignorance in the quotation of the injunction “Thou shalt not kill.” If we take the commandment in its generalized sense as it appears in the English translations, then we would have no right to kill anyone or anything. We would not be able to kill animals for food.…

The Christian is subject to the edicts of his government if he is a citizen of that government. He is obligated to take up arms if his government calls upon him to do so, unless of course he be a conscientious objector and feels that the government’s edict is contrary to the will of God. The responsibility for the killing that the soldier or the policeman might do falls to the government who has issued him the authority and the gun. This is killing but not murder.

Yes, I think that we should take literally and seriously the Old Testament commandment “Thou shalt not murder.”

ERNEST T. HARPER

Captain

United States Army

Asbury Park, N. J.

The Winds Are Blowing

The excellence of your May 27 issue has caused me to overcome my distaste for letter-writing. Dr. Berkouwer (“What Conservative Evangelicals Can Learn from the Ecumenical Movement”) spoke, I think, to the deepest instincts of the Christian soul, and no pious evasion can suffice to cloud the true issue. The Holy Spirit will no longer tolerate our rationalizations for our lovelessness and pride. May the winds of the Spirit continue to blow over the Church, and may we turn our face toward that wind.

J. R. MITCHELL

Superintendent

Pennsylvania-New Jersey District

The Pilgrim Holiness Church

Allentown, Pa.

Good’S Not God’S

You noted, of course, the unfortunate error in my book review on page 40 (May 27 issue), right column. The mistake was not mine. Correct “God’s” with “Good’s” (E. M. Good, Stanford).…

CLARK H. PINNOCK

New Testament Department

New Orleans Baptist Theol. Seminary

New Orleans, La.

Just A Cover-Up

More and more I am convinced that all the publicity about ecumenism and about social action is just a cover-up for our failure to take Christ at his word and to preach the full Gospel [particularly healing] of his ministry. It takes guts to lay the chips on the line, to suffer the looks of scorn and the loneliness of silence, but I guess that is what Christ warned us of. The churches that do preach this Gospel are vital and growing while we mainliners are slipping each year. There is restlessness and discontent among most of our churches today. Perhaps that restlessness grows out of an unconscious realization that we are hearing only part of the story—that Christ to be relevant must be relevant to all our needs and not just a beautiful hope for the future.

ROBERT F. GALBREATH, JR.

New Wilmington, Pa.

Sex Appeal Or Heart Appeal?

In this day of the “new morality,” or, as so appropriately suggested by Billy Graham in World Aflame, the old immorality or paganism revived, we use all kinds of gimmicks supposedly to reach people for Christ. I wonder if our leaders are making a proper analysis of the types of appeals that are being made.…

My reason for this grave concern results from my first-hand knowledge of a recent revival effort in which a youth rally was planned.… I insisted that my teen-age daughter attend for the spiritual benefit I felt would result from such an effort. To my amazement the program began with a “rock ’n’ roll” number in which the rhythms of this sexy fad were displayed by those who presented it. The first three or four numbers consisted of this type of music. Later an effort was made to lead the same group in singing “Amazing Grace” and other spiritual hymns. As would be expected the transition could not be made. This particular meeting was a dead one. I was broken-hearted and somewhat angry.

I analyzed prayerfully the defenses of those responsible.… I settled with this answer: “Rock ’n’ roll” and music of this sort is purely sex appeal and that is its sole appeal.… This is not what we need to reach our youth. There is already a vast over-emphasis on this in almost every walk of life. If we reach our young people it must be with a heart appeal.… The appeal of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit with song, testimony, preaching, teaching, and good Christian humor presented by an enthusiastic and dedicated Christian offers the strongest appeal that one can use.… I do not believe that anyone has ever been won to Jesus Christ through sex stimulation (as holy and sacred as this can be in its proper place—marriage).

J. S. BROWN

Pepperton Baptist Church

Jackson, Ga.