Scholars Cite Obstacles to Christian Advance

The Christian task force around the world is agreed that in order to survive the twentieth century in portly strength the Christian church needs to accelerate its thrust on every frontier. What imposing obstacles hinder the Christian offensive? What are the main obstructions to Christian initiative?

Each year the News Department ofCHRISTIANITY TODAYsolicits the opinions of 25 leading religious scholars on a timely question of spiritual importance. These replies have become a traditional feature of our anniversary issue. Specifically, this year’s question is:

What, in your opinion, is the chief obstacle to Christian advance in our time?

Here are the replies:

ANDREW W. BLACKWOOD, professor emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary: “Apart from sin itself, lack of loyalty to God on the part of professing Christians. As faith’s response to divine grace, supremely at the Cross, increase of loyalty would bring advance in all that we churchmen do to seek first God’s Kingdom and the crown rights of our Redeemer.”

F. F. BRUCE, professor, University of Manchester: “The chief obstacle is Christian reluctance to advance, to leave the comfortable security of the familiar and traditional for the insecurity of the revolutionary and unknown. If Christians showed half the resolution and dedication in the interests of the Kingdom of God that Communists exhibit in the promotion of their cause, the scale of Christian advance would be transformed out of recognition.”

EMIL BRUNNER, professor emeritus, University of Zürich: “The main obstacle is obviously the guilt of the past centuries, namely the Christian mission having been a part of Western imperialism, or to put it more mildly, the Christian mission letting itself be protected by the Western powers. It will take a long time until the memory of this fact is extinguished. The missionary is still ‘the man of the West.’ This is also true in a deeper sense: he is the man with the higher culture. So he believes and for that naive arrogance the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the servant of God and man, is not understood and not believed. The gospel was and will be believed only where it is lived by men and women who share the life of the most humble ones.”

EMILE CAILLIET, professor emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary: “In our time as in all times, the chief obstacle to Christian advance is a loss of first love grounded in proud self-assertion.”

EDWARD JOHN CARNELL, professor, Fuller Theological Seminary: “A Christian seldom knows how to harmonize his Sunday faith with the scientific naturalism of which he is a part Monday through Saturday. This inability suggests that society can get on quite well without the Gospel. For example, contemporary science tends to obscure the distinction between man as agent and man as sinner. Psychologists arise in court and contend that the accused is really sick, and that he should be viewed with the same want of judgment as one would view a cripple. Hence, the gospel of forgiveness is not really attacked as false; it simply is dismissed as irrelevant.”

GORDON H. CLARK, professor, Butler University: “The chief obstacle to Christian advance in our time, in my opinion, is the apostacy of the large denominations as shown in their unwillingness to insist on the complete truth and inerrancy of the Word of God written, the Bible. When the truth of Scripture is tested by foreign criteria and is reduced to symbolism, myth, or saga, there is no Christian message left.”

NEWS / A fortnightly report of developments in religion

THE MOST CRITICAL SCIENTIFIC ISSUE

What is the most critical issue that modern science poses to the Christian church today?

President Henry Weaver, Jr., of the American Scientific Affiliation asked a number of leading Christian scholars and scientists for “an offhand, one-sentence answer.” He reported the findings in his presidential newsletter and granted permission toCHRISTIANITY TODAYto publish them in connection with its own annual scholars’ symposium.

“I think that among students and the more ‘intellectual’ portion of the country, the biggest challenge to religion today comes not from any questions of the content of either science or religion, but rather from questions about their methods—in particular, the assumption that the methods of science are the only road to knowledge.”—Dr. Ian Barbour, associate professor of religion and physics and chairman of the department of religion, Carleton College.

“It seems to me that the main problem has to do with the ultimate end or purpose of science. What are the scientists doing? We are living, as you know, in a scientific world, that is, the world which is dominated in almost all areas by scientific achievement. The question is really a religious question insofar as it raises the question of final purpose.”—Dr. J. Lawrence Burkholder, associate professor of pastoral theology, Harvard Divinity School.

“Inasmuch as Christianity is centered in the atonement of Christ, the most critical issue is the relation of the sin of Adam to the atonement of Christ, as set forth in Romans 5:12–21, as this relationship may be affirmed, doubted, or denied by the theories of the origin of the human race.”—Dr. J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., dean of graduate faculty, Covenant College and Theological Seminary.

“While scientists solely ruled by their intellect submit to the factualness of events which seem to defy common sense, theologians too readily reduce the factualness of New Testament Christianity to the mythical—ultimately because their apprehensions of God’s mysteries do not square with the anthropomorphic ways of imagination.”—Dr. Emile Cailliet, professor emeritus, Princeton Theological Seminary.

“In my judgment, the most critical issue is this: the origin of the human race. How does the scientific reconstruction harmonize with the account of man’s special creation in the early chapters of Genesis? How much evolution has taken place?”—Dr. Edward John Carnell, professor of ethics and philosophy of religion, Fuller Theological Seminary.

“I might say that the one overwhelming issue is the truth of the Bible. However, I might give a more technical reply by quoting a bit of Ernest Nagel’s presidential address to the American Philosophical Association: ‘The occurrence of events, qualities, and processes, and the characteristic behaviors of various individuals, are contingent on the organization of spatio-temporal located bodies, whose internal structures and external relations determine and limit the appearance and disappearance of everything that happens.… There is no place for the operation of disembodied forces, no place for an immaterial spirit directing the course of events, no place for the survival of personality after the corruption of the body which exhibits it.’ ”—Dr. Gordon H. Clark, professor of philosophy, Butler University.

“The most important issue is an understanding of the purpose for which human beings exist, without which they cannot possibly make use of the new power which science provides.”—Dr. C. A. Coulson, professor of mathematics, Oxford University.

“The most critical issue, as I see it, is this: Does the limited methodology on which modern science insists exclude knowledge of the ultimate Real?”—Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, Editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY.

“Modern science, having put into the hands of man unprecedented power for good or evil, while it is itself incapable of providing ethical direction or spiritual power for the use of its discoveries, has placed a new challenge to Christian ethics and Christian living.”—Dr. William Hordern, professor of systematic theology, Garrett Biblical Institute.

“In one sentence I would say that to my mind the most critical issue is whether belief in divine creation can be reconciled to the idea of the origin of life from amino acids or other primitive protein substances.”—Dr. David W. Kerr, associate dean, Gordon Divinity School.

“I would say that the most critical issue posed by modern science is the denial of the supernatural, placing upon the Christian church the burden of proof.”—Dr. Robert M. Page, director of research, U. S. Naval Research Laboratory.

“I feel that the most critical issue is the strong bias against the apprehension of any transcendent or supernatural reality beyond the limits of space, time, and matter which the study and pursuit of science engenders.”—Dr. William G. Pollard, executive director, Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies.

“If science shows us how sentences assert and how they are verified or falsified, how is it that theological sentences assert and how are they verified?”—Dr. Bernard L. Ramm, professor of systematic theology and Christian apologetics, California Baptist Theological Seminary.

“The most critical issue is that of the validation of religious assertions. (The age-old question: How do you know?)”—Dr. George K. Schweitzer, associate professor of chemistry, University of Tennessee.

“I would say that perhaps the most critical question is the age of man and its relationship to the biblical doctrine of creation.”—Dr. Merrill C. Tenney, dean of the Graduate School, Wheaton College.

“While the discoveries of the natural sciences, by widening the horizons of the human mind, must be reckoned among the blessings of Almighty God, it seems to me that the most critical issue is that of taking the new knowledge into its own thinking in such a manner as to do full justice to the supernatural character of its historical faith.”—Dr. G. D. Yarnold, warden, St. Deiniol’s Library, Hawarden, England.

FRANK E. GAEBELEIN, headmaster, The Stony Brook School: “It would seem to me to lie in the half-hearted commitment of so many church members. In our land of abundance we have had our Christian impact blunted by softness and selfishness. Only more disciplined Christian living and only surrender to Christ to the extent of personal sacrifice can bring us to the effective service indispensable to Christian advance. Doctrinal soundness is essential, but it must be matched by devoted living. ‘Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ’ is a text we urgently need to put into practice.”

JOHN H. GERSTNER, professor, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary: “Lack of honest preaching. Where there is no vision the people perish. Where there is little honest preaching the people have no vision. Honest preaching is declaring what God has said, all that he has said and nothing but what he has said—in his Word. Such preaching unfortunately would stir up vast controversy. However, this would not stop Christian advance, which has always been ‘through storm.”

CARL F. H. HENRY, Editor, CHRISTIANITY TODAY: “The big obstacle to Christian advance today is man’s distrust of the biblical requirements of spiritual regeneration and social justice. Those who try to cushion the current trend of history with only material and secular counterforces unwittingly retard and dishonor Christian enterprise.”

W. BOYD HUNT, professor, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary: “The chief obstacle to Christian advance in our time is our inability to take the offensive creatively in out-thinking and out-living the non-Christian world. This inability is reflected in the ease with which we bind the Word of God by eisegesis, betray Christ’s present lordship of history, convert the koinonia of the Spirit into institutionalism, elevate self-love and the desire for a cheap security above self-forgetful service and mission, see the work of the Holy Spirit in the familiar only, and assume that our perfection in Christ makes us more virtuous than we are.”

W. HARRY JELLEMA, professor, Calvin College: “The chief obstacle, inside as well as outside the Church, is the tendency to identify Christianity with the values of Occidental culture.”

HAROLD B. KUHN, professor, Asbury Theological Seminary: “A major obstacle to Christian advance in our time is the loss of the sense of identity-as-Christian upon the part of much of the Church’s membership. This loss issues in the absence of direction and purpose, and leaves the nominal Christian a poor second to the self-conscious Communist, with his conviction, however vicious and distorted, of the rightness and final triumph of his cause.”

ADDISON H. LEITCH, professor, Tarkio College: “The chief obstacle to Christian advance in our time is ignorance. ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.’ This ignorance has to do primarily with the Scriptures and, in a secondary way, with creeds, church history, and the meaning of worship. This means that when we attempt to reach people we must repeatedly lay the foundations all over again before we can begin to build.”

C. S. LEWIS, professor, Cambridge University: “Next to the prevalent materialism, for which we are not to blame, I think the great obstacle lies in the dissentiences not only between Christians but between splinter groups within denominations. While the name Christianity covers a hundred mutually contradictory beliefs, who can be converted to it?”

CHARLES MALIK, professor, American University of Beirut: “The chief obstacle to Christian advance in our time is preoccupation with the world on its own terms; therefore the answering by Christians of the economic, social, political, intellectual, technological, and international challenges of our time purely economically, socially, politically, intellectually, technologically, and internationally; the worldly self-sufficiency of Christian leadership; the inadequate return to the original, creative sources of the spirit and mind; the trust in things rather than in the Living God; forgetting that Jesus Christ is really and absolutely Lord and that the world has been radically transformed since and through his Resurrection.”

LEON MORRIS, principal, Tyndale House: “The enemy within. The Church triumphs always and only when it is a singing faith, when its members are enthusiastically committed to Christ with a reckless devotion which counts all well lost if only Christ be served. The prevalence within our churches of a type of Christianity which is respectable, socially-minded, conventional, and thoroughly insipid, is our major obstacle.”

J. THEODORE MUELLER, professor, Concordia Seminary: “The chief obstacle to Christian advance in our time is no doubt unbelief, which manifests itself in the extreme atheism of communistic and other countries; in the stupid liberalism of large areas of Christendom where neither ministers nor hearers take God’s Law and Gospel seriously; and in the tragic political and social corruption of all lands where people, not fearing God, do everything in their selfish interest with which they think they can get by.”

KENNETH L. PIKE, professor, University of Michigan: “As always, pride and rebellion in man—all else peripheral. Continued struggle with secularism (wisdom of the ‘Greeks’) in new forms of mechanism, behaviorism, communism, nationalism. Academic-devotional synthesis needed in personal Christian living, scholarly production, and international impact. Specific problem: 2,000 small languages needing the Scriptures.”

BERNARD L. RAMM, professor, California Baptist Theological Seminary: “The chief obstacle to Christian advance is the American pulpit which represents a hopeless mixture of messages of liberalism, existentialism, sophisticated neo-orthodoxy, and effete orthodoxy. From such a mixture there cannot be New Testament congregations alive with the power of the Gospel.”

W. STANFORD REID, professor, McGill University: “My view is that just as Christ could do no mighty work in Nazareth because of lack of faith, so God today for the same reason leaves us in the doldrums. The churches have become so preoccupied with ‘programs’ of Christian education, social action, money-raising, and so on, that they have come to trust in the programs rather than in God himself. After all, the Church’s hope rests solely in the action of the Spirit of God, but to look at even many evangelical churches one would think that it was the size of the prayer meeting or the length of the prayers that would accomplish things. It may be that we have forgotten that the triune God is personal, not just a hypothesis or an axiom, and we need to look to him as truly our Father in Jesus Christ. We need to have revived within us that faith which enables us in the face of an opposing world still to look to the sovereign God for victory.”

WILLIAM CHILDS ROBINSON, professor, Columbia Theological Seminary: “One of my colleagues answered this question with the one sin. There is the sin of pride in us Christian teachers and preachers that keeps us from being humble enough to listen to the Word of God, to receive and then to proclaim its Gospel. We fail to realize the depth of sin that provokes alienation and estrangement in those about us. We assume that we can reason them into the Kingdom by discoursing on popular subjects. There will be Christian advance when we more humbly testify to Jesus Christ in the way God has ordained, that is, by the faithful exposition of Holy Scripture.”

ANDREW K. RULE, professor emeritus, Louisville Presbyterian Seminary: “It is the lack of an understanding on the part of the majority of church members as to their need for full commitment to Christ and his program.”

HERMANN SASSE, professor, Immanuel Theological Seminary of Adelaide, Australia: “When speaking of ‘Christian advance we should never forget two truths without which the history of the Church cannot be understood. First: There are times when God triumphs by taking away his Word from whole nations (Amos 8:11f.) and by removing the ‘candlestick’ of unfaithful churches. Second: Christ triumphs always first of all in his martyrs who follow him through death into glory (John 12:24ff.). Having said this we can add that the chief obstacle of true Christian advance is the weakness of our faith, our neglect of biblical, Christian doctrine, and the shallowness of our theology and our preaching.”

MERRILL C. TENNEY, dean, Graduate School, Wheaton College: “In my estimation it is the materialism of the ‘Christian’ world. People at large are preoccupied with what the advertisements call ‘gracious living.’ The spirit of sacrifice has been dulled by our common luxuries that we regard as necessities.”

CORNELIUS VAN TIL, professor, Westminster Theological Seminary: “The greatest single obstacle to true progress in the Christian church and in society, except sin in all of us, is the World Council of Churches. It claims to bring the Gospel of God’s sovereign grace in Christ to man. And yet the Christ it worships as Lord is but a projection of the ideals of man. The result is intellectual, moral, and spiritual confusion.”

Church Restoration

The National Council of Churches and the Georgia Council of Churches are collecting gifts to help build new churches for Negro congregations in Georgia whose churches have recently been damaged or destroyed.

Obituaries

Traffic accidents abroad took the lives of two American missionaries last month. Mrs. Louise Bohlert Gaertner, 26, who with her husband and three-year-old daughter had just arrived in Peru to begin work under the Christian and Missionary Alliance, was killed when the family car rammed a stalled truck on a highway between Lima and Chimbote. Miss Dorothy Eileen Edwards, 53, Assemblies of God missionary to India, died after being struck by a car in Bombay.

Mrs. Gaertner was a member of Calvary Presbyterian Church of Queens, New York. Her husband, John, also 26, was critically injured but was expected to recover. The couple were expecting their second child this fall.

Other reported deaths:

The Most Rev. Arthur William Barton, retired Anglican Archbishop of Dublin; in Dublin.

Dr. Charles E. Maddry, former executive secretary of the Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board; in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Dr. S. A. Witmer, executive director of the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges; in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Dr. Walter Penner, executive director of the Southwest Region office of the National Association of Evangelicals; in Whittier, California.

The Prayer Issue

On the eve of a new U. S. Supreme Court session, the chief legal counsel for the New York Education Department virtually ruled out recitation of any prayers or the reading of the Bible for worship purposes in the state’s public schools.

Dr. Charles A. Brind said that if a teacher permitted pupils to recite a prayer aloud the prayer would then become an official one and would be in substantially the same category as the Regents’ Prayer which the Supreme Court outlawed on June 25.

Brind made the remarks only a few days before the Supreme Court reconvened for its 1962–63 session on October 1. The remarks were in a speech before the annual meeting of the State Council of City and Village School Superintendents in Kiamesha Lake, New York. Brind said he merely intended to clarify and not to go beyond a ruling by Dr. James E. Allen Jr., state education commissioner, in which he said that the Hicksville, Long Island, school board could not designate the fourth stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a prayer. The board subsequently decided to have school children merely recite a verse of the national anthem daily and set aside a period for prayer or meditation.

Meanwhile, an initial sampling of public schools in 15 states showed that they were continuing their former practices of prayer and Bible reading without change. The general trend of statements from state and local school officials revealed that they regard the Supreme Court decision as applying only to officially composed prayers.

The court is being asked to consider several related cases this fall from Pennsylvania and Maryland, and possibly from Florida. An appeal from Oregon may determine whether public funds can be employed for the purchase of certain text books for use in parochial schools.

A Gallup poll taken during the summer indicated that the large majority of parents approve of religious observances in public schools.

Asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of religious observances in public schools?” 80 per cent of the parents said they approved, 14 per cent said they disapproved, and six per cent said they had no opinion.

Rejecting Church Aid

By a margin of 28 votes, the House of Representatives rejected last month a $2,345,000,000 college aid measure which included assistance to church-related institutions.

Although the vote (214 to 186) was based on a recommendation to send the bill back to a joint conference committee, key observers on Capitol Hill said its effect was to kill the program. Some sources, however, sought to revive it.

STRANGERS IN SIN TAN ALLEY

As the ladies of the WCTU bid farewell to Miami Beach, housekeepers at the swanky Deauville Hotel took from hiding 450 room wine lists.

“A wonderful convention. A lovely time was had by all,” declared Mrs. Florence Riggle, mentioning not at all the barroom murder at the nearby Place Pigalle burlesque house during the 88th annual meeting of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

“Miami Beach spoiled and wooed us completely,” said the battle-tested organization’s Florida president of the swinging town with its sin tan alley and 203 duly licensed liquor merchants.

So how did the WCTU fare in the camp of the enemy?

“Well, Mac,” said national president Mrs. Fred J. Tooze in the bright vernacular of the day, “we gave them a taste of the other side.”

Vince McGaran couldn’t agree more. He is a Deauville barkeep who used up his vacation in June. For three days the ladies gave him their scowling attention from behind a plate glass window.

“It started to rain once, and I thought we’d get company. Any port in a storm, you know. But uhn, uhn.”

Mrs. Tooze, who drinks her iced tea with lemon (no sugar), was unawed by the Beach’s worldliness. “The tide is changing,” she said. She also recited the motto: “Tremble King Alcohol, we shall grow up.”

Delegates adopted a series of resolutions urging restraints on drinking and smoking and pleading for an end of exploitation of sex and violence in movies, television, and radio. One resolution called on Telstar programmers to keep the communications satellite free of alcoholic beverage advertising.

African Challenge: 100,000,000 Illiterates

October is Protestant Press Month, an occasion to emphasize the Christian role of the printed page. In 1962 this emphasis can easily be thought of in terms of the African continent, where a rising rate of literacy offers unparalleled evangelistic potential. The following report was prepared by missionary-journalist Marjorie Shelley:

Last week a white-headed African chief dug into the pocket of his flowing robe for the subscription price of a newspaper. He immediately turned over the first issue to his young son. The old man cannot read. His child can. Soon that youngster will join others who already rule over the elders who once traditionally swayed Africa. If evangelicals fail to face up to the challenge afforded by this transition, it could well be recorded as one of the most tragic oversights in all of church history.

UNESCO estimates that there are in the African states 100,000,000 people, more than half the population, who cannot read and write in any language. But a great surge toward literacy is now in full swing, and consequently a great craving for literature prevails. The average African is exhibiting an intense desire to learn.

What will the newly-literate read? Is not the intense craving for reading matter a unique vehicle to communicate the Christian message? Will enough Christian literature be forthcoming to satisfy the demand?

At this juncture, there are indications that many evangelical Christians—even some in leadership capacities—have not yet awakened to the broadening horizons of literature work.

Since a UNESCO conference in Addis Ababa last year, hundreds of new classrooms have sprouted up all over the African continent. Some are being built by voluntary labor. By 1970, primary schools will add 17,000,000 readers to the already-literate population. The goal of the African states is universal primary education by 1980.

Governments have already replaced the talking drum with the written word. As numbers of literates increase their agencies for the dissemination of news also mushroom. Groups of African states are establishing inter-African news agencies, information centers, and cooperative journalism training. Typical is the advance made in Conakry, Guinea, where the “Patrice Lumumba Press” has produced 30,000 pieces of literature an hour, much of it for the Communist cause.

Sixty Afro-Asian delegates took part in the second Congress of Afro-Asian Writers held in Cairo last February. In Dakar, UNESCO sponsored journalism classes to train writers for the French-speaking countries. A year ago Ghana sent 50 journalists to Moscow for grooming.

At the end of 1961 Africa was served by 231 dailies, 839 non-dailies, and 1,395 periodicals. By 1975 it is estimated that the demand will have tripled. Some governments are even considering the possibility of enrolling and training young people into a National Literacy Service, this being perhaps an alternative, in some cases, to military service.

Africa suffers more acutely from a dearth of trained personnel than any other major region of the world. Some countries cannot claim a single qualified journalist.

If you see a cluster of Africans around a large news bulletin, you may be sure the latest edition of the weekly Actualités Ivoiriennes has just been posted. These wall newspapers are issued by the government as a means of dispersing local, national, and international news. They recall the Acta Diurna of imperial Rome, where the forerunner of modern news media made its debut. Many who gather cannot read, but will wait until a literate reads aloud.

While government leaders unite to set up news agencies and training centers, while secular newspapers and magazines increase, while hundreds of literates complete their schooling this year, many evangelicals continue to work in isolated ineffectiveness, offering mimeographed materials to scattered tribal groups.

Some missionaries are asking, “Have we nothing to learn from this secular surge? Why can we not keep pace?”

Signs of awareness appear here and there, offering a measure of encouragement.

An evangelical, Mr. Earl Roe, is currently head of the journalism department at the University of Nigeria. He has unique opportunity to prove the validity of the evangelical position to African leaders.

This fall the Evangelical Literature Overseas organization is sponsoring a series of writing workshops in several African states. A worker will travel between these centers where groups of missions are cooperating in these training sessions. Classes will be geared to teaching missionaries how to write clearly and simply, guiding literature workers in how to teach writing to nationals who will write in the vernacular, and teaching nationals to write for their own people in their own languages.

Most promising are the Africans themselves who want to learn badly enough to go to America. Several African evangelicals are already studying journalism in United States universities.

Also needed are reading clubs and how-to-do-it booklets geared especially for the newly-literate. Experiences in India have established that people who learn to read by mass literacy campaigns will lapse into illiteracy again if they are not fed a constant stream of special materials.

The Untold Story

Africa looms large in today’s news and nowhere is this fact reflected more dramatically than in the spectacular growth of African studies. Many American universities have such programs, but until recently they were available in only two British universities. In all this spate of academic activity, study of the Christian church plays as yet but a small part quite out of proportion to the importance of Christian influences in African life over the last 150 years.

Moreover, although Christian influence is necessarily studied by anthropologists, secular historians and sociologists, there is a sad dearth of worthy study from within by theologians and church historians. By far the greater part of African church history, for instance, is still to be written.

In view of the vast mission literature extant, such a statement may occasion surprise, but much of that literature has been written primarily to inspire and provoke emulation: worthy objects, and often worthily achieved.

However, out of a yet unfilled need there has grown the Society for African Church History, which is not yet a year old. At a recent sectional meeting in London, a very representative group considered papers which explored source materials for African church history and problems of missionary land purchase.

The society’s president is the veteran scholar, Professor C. P. Graves, whose monumental Planting of Christianity in Africa has earned him the title of “the Eusebius of Africa.” Its chairman is the well-known Ghanaian Christian, Mr. F. L. Bartels. Membership is open to all who wish to further the study of past and present Christian trends on the African continent.

J. D.

Converted Ballrooms

The British are given to identifying events by the locale in which they occur. The annual convention held in the Lake Country town of Keswick is called simply “Keswick”; the Billy Graham London Crusade in 1954 at Harringay Arena has long since failed to be called anything but “Harringay.”

Since 1954, Filey—the name of a small village on the Yorkshire Coast—has come to signify the summer’s outstanding Christian assembly. Filey is the site of one of Britain’s holiday king Billy Butlin’s resort centers. There is a gigantic outdoor swimming pool, a heated indoor pool, a huge amusement park with rides of every description, roller skating rinks, dance halls, a complete shopping center, a post office, snack bars by the score, endless lines of chalets, and miles of golden sand beach reached by an aerial cable car.

Every September since 1954, when the Movement for World Evangelization chose Butlin’s Filey for their first annual Christian Holiday Crusade, the Christians have returned.

This year the enrollment topped 4,300, with several hundred additional visitors coming in for a day at a time. Speakers included Larry Love of the Billy Graham team; British evangelical leaders George Duncan, Victor McManus, David Shepherd, A. Skevington Wood; and the perennial Lindsay Glegg, founder and patron saint of the camp.

With more than 4,000 campers, who cannot leave the grounds except for most unusual circumstances, the Filey week is now the largest evangelical conference of its kind in the world.

The theme of this year’s speakers was “Assurance,” and the campers, young and old, quickly got down to business in the sessions, which had to be divided and run simultaneously in two “converted” ballrooms. There were occasional invitations for salvation decisions, as well as calls for commitment. An air of sincerity pervaded every activity—with occasional periods of unrestrained hilarity in the swimming pool, tennis court, or cricket field—and the speakers in their after-hour discussions agreed that there had been some remarkable achievements for the Lord.

J. B.

Theories On Peace

Churchmen from North America’s most ecumenical denomination came up with some dubious strategy for peace last month. Their boldest plea: gradual transfer of national sovereignty by all countries to internationally-recognized bodies like the United Nations and the World Court.

The proposal came in a resolution adopted by delegates to the 20th biennial General Council of the United Church of Canada, which was formed in 1925 as a union of Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and which is the largest Protestant denomination in the dominion. Also recommended as steps toward peace were (1) continued opposition to nuclear weapons, (2) self-determination for all peoples, and (3) extension of the freedom of religion, press, speech and assembly.

The world government proposal, however, did not stir nearly as much controversy as a speech by the retiring moderator, Dr. Hugh A. McLeod.

“Our church will doubtless concern itself,” said McLeod, “to determine whether immigration must continue to operate overwhelmingly as in the past 10 years to make Canada predominantly Roman Catholic.”

“Perhaps Roman Catholics have been the only eligible immigrants available in large numbers, and, as people, they are doubtless estimable and capable of greatly enriching our nation. But as members of a church which everywhere favors the establishment of a monolithic infallible authority under Rome, they may herald and achieve the end of liberty as we have known it.”

The day after McLeod made the statements, the mayor of London, Ontario, where the United Church met, raised an objection in his welcoming address to the 390 delegates.

“I deplore statements from one religion against another,” said Mayor H. Gordon Stronach, “And I deplore such statements originating in our city. We shouldn’t have one Christian church trying to destroy another.”

Census figures released recently show that in the last 10 years Roman Catholics in Canada have increased by more than 40 per cent. For the first time in history they outnumber Protestants—8,532,479 to 8,531,574. United Church membership stands at 3,664,008, about 20 per cent of the population.

Elected to succeed McLeod was Dr. James R. Mutchmor, 70, who for 25 years has served as secretary of the church’s board of evangelism and social service.

The General Council of the United Church was told by its Committee on Union that talks with Canada’s Anglicans are still bogged down over the problem of ordinations. The talks have been in progress off and on for 20 years. The Presbyterians who stayed out of the 1925 merger also have been talking with Anglicans, but there have been no three-way negotiations.

In other action, delegates asked the Canadian government to legalize the dissemination of birth control information and devices, but stressed that they were not in favor of indiscriminate or irresponsible distribution of anti-conception materials or methods.

Also adopted was a 60,000-word report urging liberalization of Canadian divorce laws to include grounds other than adultery. At the present time, adultery is, for all practical purposes, the only legally-recognized grounds for divorce in Canada. The report said this situation actually encouraged adultery or falsification of adultery evidence. The report called on the government to appoint a commission to consider three other grounds—desertion for three years, gross cruelty (physical and mental), and insanity that cannot be cured after five years of treatment.

One resolution warned young people against the “great dangers” often caused by “extravagant cigarette advertising.” Another statement condemned commercial interests or sports which destroy family unity on Sunday.

The General Council raised the minimum salary for the denomination’s ministers to $3,950 annually, an increase of $150, plus travel allowances and a furnished manse.

Ecumenical Series

Aware that the Second Vatican Council and baseball’s World Series are prime attention-getters, a clever promoter in Sarnia, Ontario, blended the two themes for optimum impact. Result was a ball game billed as Canada’s “Ecumenical World Series” which saw Roman Catholic clergy outlast Protestants, 21 to 20, despite a home run by a stray rabbi who cast his lot with the losers. Proceeds went to a Roman Catholic youth camp.

Pentecostal Gains

Membership in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada soared from 95,131 to 143,877 in the last 10 years, according to a report presented at the PAC’s 23rd biennial General Conference in Edmonton, Alberta, last month. Despite the increase in membership, a decrease in missionary staff has been so extensive that a number of fields are said to be short of competent staff. The report showed 115 active missionaries in 1961 and only 95 this year.

A Rousing Start

Billy Graham’s latest South American crusade got off to a rousing start on September 25 when the evangelist addressed a throng estimated at 25,000 at Pacaembu Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Some 500 persons recorded decisions for Christ at the first service.

The preceding day Graham spoke to some 1,400 pastors, missionaries, and religious educators. Some 350 churches in the Sao Paulo area cooperated in the crusade. The Rev. Walter Kaschel, a Sao Paulo Baptist minister, served as interpreter for Graham.

Prior to his leaving the United States, Graham paid a visit to the White House at the invitation of President Kennedy. Graham’s visit coincided with that of former President Eisenhower and the three spent 10 minutes together discussing world affairs.

A Stubborn Faith

American church leaders returning from a three-week visit to Russia declared that the “continued existence of vital churches in the Soviet Union, despite all party pressures and campaigns against them, is one of the forces that may in the long run modify Soviet ideology and policy.”

In a prepared statement the 13 churchmen paid special tribute to the “stubborn faith and faithfulness of millions of ordinary Soviet citizens.”

This was the second such delegation to visit Russia under auspices of the National Council of Churches. The first visit was in 1956 and was later returned by a group of Soviet church leaders. Another visit by Russian churchmen is scheduled for 1963. Archbishop Nicodim, head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department of External Church Relations, is expected to head the group.

Prayer For A City

Christian leaders in Denver faced up to the city’s current crime wave with a “Week of Prayer” proclaimed by Mayor Dick Batterton.

Two main events of the week were a town prayer meeting held in front of the City and County Building and a mayor’s prayer breakfast at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. More than 2,500 gathered for the town prayer meeting. The mayor spoke and police leaders presented a plaque with police force signatures indicating their rededication to civic responsibility.

“I am certain,” said Police Chief James Slavin, “that the Lord knows how much we in the police department need his help as we attempt to make Denver a safer and better city.… The degree of ultimate success all of us can produce by our efforts are minute as compared to what can be accomplished if he put his arm about us.”

Pioneering Protestants

The Protestant Council of the City of New York unveiled plans this month for a multi-million dollar Protestant Center at the New York World’s Fair to be held in 1964 and 1965.

Architectural highlight of the structure will be the “Court of Protestant Pioneers” surrounded by 34 memorial columns, each dedicated to a pioneer in the Protestant movement. An 80-foot cross-shaped tower will rise from the court.

The Protestant Council is now leasing space to church groups and soliciting financial support from Protestants throughout the country. The center will occupy a 76,416-foot site which has been donated by the World’s Fair Corporation.

Program director for the center is Professor J. Marshall Miller of Columbia University, a partner in Miller Associates—Planning Consultants.

Theme of the center will be, “Jesus Christ, the Light of the World.”

U. N. Church Center

A public cornerstone laying ceremony was held last month for the 12-story Church Center at the United Nations.

The $2,000,000 center is being financed by The Methodist Church, which has offered it for the use of denominational and interdenominational agencies. Dr. Ernest L. Inwood, director of U. N. programming of the National Council of Churches, said the center “will be a Christian symbol, a constant Christian witness, a home of Christian hospitality, a place of Christian service, and a center of Christian education in international relations radiating across the United States and overseas.”

Main speaker for the ceremony was Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, newly-elected president of the U. N. General Assembly. He is a Moslem.

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