Streamlining the Church’s Social Concerns

“No religion has expressed such high ideals,” says one chroniclerJohn B. Noss in Man’s Religions (New York: The Macmillan Company). of Christianity. “or been further from achieving them.”

Ever since the spring of 1607, when colonist chaplain Robert Hunt set up a makeshift pulpit along the James River, the preaching of the Christian ethic has been an endless echo across the American continent. Part of the fruit of that preaching is found in the 116 million Americans who are now members of churches. Yet in 1963 America has more crime, more addiction, more immorality, more mental distress, and more grass-roots indifference than ever.

Charged with a generous share of responsibility in combating today’s social evils in behalf of organized U. S. Protestantism is a genial 36-year-old layman and father of four. Roger Burgess. As the optimistic chief of a continuing temperance campaign among the nation’s ten million Methodists, baldish Burgess represents the biggest denominational effort to arrest moral deterioration through education and legislation. He was still exuding confidence despite a denominational furor which suddenly arose over his agency’s new rationale on alcohol problems.

Burgess, short and restless but equipped with a smile that rarely fades, is associate general secretary of the Methodists’ omnibus Board of Christian Social Concerns. His special task is overseeing the board’s Division of Temperance and General Welfare, a job which becomes increasingly difficult as more Methodists ignore the denominational plea for abstinence. As the ranks of Methodist social drinkers swell, particularly in booming suburban churches of the country-club set, anti-abstinence forces within Methodism become more vocal—and perhaps more representative.

Methodist officialdom, according to Burgess, has no intention of backing off its strong stand against alcohol. The church has always held the toughest temperance line of any major U. S. denomination. The Methodist Building in Washington, which houses the temperance agency’s offices, itself dates back to the heydey of the social gospel when prohibition was hailed a supreme Protestant achievement. Since repeal of prohibition thirty years ago, the old-line U. S. denominations have been quietly but steadily disentangling themselves from the temperance cause. Last spring, for instance, the United Presbyterian General Assembly gave tacit approval to social drinking. Even the Methodist effort has not risen very far above a holding operation.

But the pendulum may be about to swing the other way, with a greater awareness of the problems of alcoholism. At any rate, Burgess has given it a significant nudge with the release of a more realistic and less legalistic policy on alcohol which he hopes will be approved by next April’s Methodist General Conference in Pittsburgh.

The proposed policy statement (see opposite page) argues that Methodists have been debating the issue on the wrong grounds. It is indefensible, says Burgess, to argue that Christ never drank fermented wine or that Wesley was a teetotaler. The Methodist stand for abstinence is made to rest instead on “the Christian principle of love for God and neighbor.”

Perhaps the most marked departure from present policy is an admission that many Methodists drink and the adoption of a more accommodating attitude toward such drinkers.

The Methodist information office in Washington issued a news release on the proposed new policy which became the basis of a lengthy news story carried over wires of United Press International. Reaction was immediate and intense. Every time Burgess picked up the phone he expected another bishop’s protest. The common anxiety seemed to be that Methodists were departing from their traditionally strong stand toward alcohol.

Burgess charged that the news-service story distorted the facts. He insisted that the new statement “takes an even stronger stand.”

The biggest fireworks, however, may be yet to come. The Methodist agency on alcohol is seriously considering two more moves which it hopes will strengthen its hand: retirement of the word “temperance” from the vocabulary of Christian social concerns and deletion of a portion of the Methodist discipline which implies that local church board members should abstain.

“Temperance” is being given up because the word is regarded as connoting an adverse image. Future reference will probably be merely to “alcohol problems.” Anticipating the change in vocabulary, drafters of the new policy avoided use of the old term.

The abstinence requirement for local church officials is being eliminated on grounds that it represents an undesirable legalism. Another factor is undoubtedly the knowledge that many churches ignore that part of the discipline.

How many Methodists drink? Burgess says he knows of no comprehensive statistics. But it is a “safe guess,” he adds, that many do.

In an article in the Methodist house organ Concern, Burgess cites a survey dating back to 1955 in which 71 per cent of the cross-section of Methodists sampled said they agreed with the church’s abstinence commitment. They were not specifically asked, however, whether they drank.

Another sampling of Methodists completed in 1958 showed that at least 28.7 per cent of those responding believed the moderate use of alcoholic beverages to be compatible with their Christian faith.

Other more limited studies confirm a rather high rate of drinking among Methodists. Another survey in 1958 by an Iowa sociologist indicated that 49 per cent of the Methodists in that state use alcoholic beverages on occasion. In a 1962 poll in a suburban Philadelphia church, 67 per cent of those responding answered “yes” to the question, “Do you use alcoholic beverages under any circumstances?” A similar question was put last year to members of a large metropolitan area church in Kansas; out of 312 members between 23 and 49 years of age, 85 per cent of the men and 74 per cent of the women answered “yes.”

“But we don’t have to be too blue,” said Burgess. The beige walls of his spacious office are adorned with citations for creative filming. At one end of the room is a display of charts showing the strategy of his battle against alcohol. His hope for the future lies partly with a requested 15 per cent budgetary increase for his division during the next quadrennium.

Prior to the 1960 General Conference Methodists had a Board of Temperance charged with combating alcohol, narcotics, tobacco, and gambling. The board was allocated four full-time staff members. When it was integrated into a larger agency encompassing all Christian social concerns, the temperance division took on nine additional responsibilities ranging from traffic safety to mental health. But its budget provided for only three full-time and one part-time staff members. They spend a large proportion of their time on alcohol problems, and Burgess maintains that the present organization is more effective.

If the appropriations increase is approved next year, Burgess plans to add an additional full-time staff member. He also wants to invest in the production of two new films, one dealing with social drinking and another with drug abuse.

The agency stealing the thunder during the current Methodist quadrennium is the Board of Christian Social Concerns’ Division of Peace and World Order. The division fell heir to a substantial amount of investment funds from the Methodist women’s organization and promptly decided to erect a $3,000,000, twelve-story “Church Center for the United Nations” in Manhattan. It will probably stand as the showcase of denominational enterprise until the Methodist Building in Washington is replaced with a proposed $4,000,000 structure several miles away from its present Capitol Hill location.

As Burgess gazes out his office window at the Supreme Court and Capitol grounds, he holds little expectation of any substantial federal curtailment of liquor traffic. The battle must now be fought, he says, on the state and local fronts. Perhaps the most important arena of all is the local church, where Burgess endeavors to stimulate lay thinking on why The Methodist Church holds to its position of abstinence. Currently there are said to be nearly 30,000 local congregations with an organized “commission on Christian social concerns,” compared with three or four thousand committees on temperance under the old framework.

Like every other denomination, The Methodist Church has had to tangle with the problem of priorities in evangelism and social concerns (see “The Predicament of Methodism,” p. 8). The prevailing philosophy among Methodist leaders is still a remnant of the old social gospel, with its emphases shifting to issues as they happen to capture the attention of mass news media. Because the problem of alcohol holds little promise of being given penetrating analysis by a commercially oriented press, its prospect under such a philosophy remains questionable. The proposed 15 per cent budgetary increase for the Division of Temperance and General Welfare stands in sharp contrast to the 70 per cent increase asked by the Board of Christian Social Concerns for its two other divisions, with matters ranging from race relations and unemployment to space control and agriculture.

Toward Racial Justice

The major Negro civil rights organizations say they will not sponsor a nationwide boycott of Christmas gift purchases. Their coordinating agency, the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, nevertheless did not reject the idea of the boycott proposed by a group of Negro writers and artists.

Dr. Joseph H. Jackson, president of the National Baptist Convention, U. S. A., Inc., expressed his opposition to the plan. Several weeks earlier, at the annual meeting of his 5,500,000-member convention in Cleveland, Jackson said the Negroes’ salvation in the civil rights struggle may come through “pressure by production” and increased activity rather than by the more dramatic “pressure by protest.” He urged Negroes to build more restaurants and stores and other businesses.

“Here we labor to change the relationship from customer to owner to that of owner to owner,” Jackson told the convention’s 5,000 delegates.

In Dallas, the head of the National Baptist Convention of America, a 3,000,000-member Negro group, declared that while he was committed to achievement of racial justice, he did not believe civil rights was the first concern of the Church. Dr. C. D. Pettaway said that the “first task of the Church is the deepening of the spiritual quality not only of the Negro but everyone in America.”

“Christian brotherhood can’t be legislated,” he said. “It calls for a new birth.”

Methodists On Alcohol

PRESENT POLICY

The Methodist Church reasserts its long-established conviction that the legalization of intoxicants as beverages violate the Christian standards of morality and social concern which this nation claims to accept. Alcoholic indulgence inflicts serious loss to the community in damage to health and efficiency, death through traffic accidents, the creation and intensification of poverty and economic waste. It contributes to the public disorder, crime and moral deviation now threatening the welfare of the nation and the life of the Church. It keeps alive the alcohol industry, with its insidious influence on social life and public affairs.

The Methodist Church is in militant opposition to the liquor traffic also because its product assails the highest centers of personality and its procedures contribute greatly to the sickness and degradation of people, leading to deterioration of character, discord in family life, neglect and suffering of children. The use of alcoholic beverages adds serious and avoidable hindrance to our fellowship with God and creative helpfulness to men. Therefore, the church continues its unceasing battle against intoxicating liquors.

Because the church seeks to lead believing souls into fullness of life in Christ, our appeal is for total abstinence from all uses of intoxicants. Methodists, in refusing alcoholic beverages, should regard this as an essential part of their witness to the faith they profess and as evidence of loyalty to the highest. The practice of total abstinence should also be thought of by Methodists as a matter of stewardship concern for our brothers, for the inevitable influence of personal life imposes a solemn responsibility on each one.

Since successful personal and social reforms stem from convictions that must be based on broad and accurate knowledge, we give hearty endorsement to the program of our Board of Temperance, and its special emphasis on freedom from alcohol:

1) Positive Education for a life free from beverage alcohol. This is the heart of the board’s total effort. It is a broad and comprehensive educational program designed to reach all Methodists. Without it, there can be no consistent and effective action for abstinence.

2) Commitment to Abstinence is a natural and logical outgrowth of commitment to Christ. The Board of Temperance encourages sobriety as an essential manifestation of the Christian faith.

3) Rehabilitation of those who suffer because of beverage alcohol is clearly the obligation of all Christians. The board gives guidance to thousands of pastors and laymen who deal person-to-person with individuals and families seeking their help.

4) Legislation as an effective means to outlaw beverage alcohol is a natural outgrowth of the concern of informed citizens. The board stimulates local, state and national legislation to protect individuals, families and communities from the pressures of the organized traffic in beverage alcohol.

PROPOSED STAND

The Methodist Church reasserts its fundamental concern for the problems of alcohol and the conviction that its members should abstain from all use of alcoholic beverages.

The Christian principle of love for God and neighbor prompts these responses. Christ came that men might have life, and have it more abundantly. The use of beverage alcohol in our highly organized and mechanized society denies the abundant life, creating havoc and misery in the lives of millions. Alcoholism alone, with five million victims has become the nation’s third largest health problem. The use of alcohol causes men to harm their neighbors, both by deed and by example. Feeding a pattern of guilty involvement and callous rationalization, it separates man from God.

Thus Methodists are called by love not only to abstain, but also to seek healing and justice for the neighbor who is victimized. Concern for the alcoholic and for all those in trouble because of beverage alcohol is the clear mandate of the Christian faith.

We recognize that there are Methodists who use alcoholic beverages. We also recognize that sincere Christians may differ on this question. The Methodist Church has always upheld the right of individual conscience. We are all free moral agents, created so by God and responsible to God for our conduct.

The Methodist stand is clear. We urge all members to abstain. Those accepting nomination or appointment for any official leadership in the Church are expected to refrain from all uses of intoxicating beverages. This is not a legalistic requirement, but a matter of conscience and Christian responsibility. It is a challenge to more disciplined life in Christ, a witness based on Christian love and concern.

Abstinence is not enough. We also urge our people to join with those engaged in positive and constructive programs seeking solutions to alcohol problems. These include education in church and school, rehabilitation for alcoholics, strongest attainable legal controls and the stimulation of sound empirical research. Christians who love God and their fellow men can do no less.

Apostasy And Education

William F. Buckley, Jr., first gained national attention about a dozen years ago with his documentary volume, God and Man at Yale. A Roman Catholic, Buckley lay bare the anti-Christian attitudes he found among Yale professors during his student days there. This month Buckley’s right-wing National Review magazine included a 24-page buff-colored insert which pokes behind the ivy curtain with considerably more skill.

The insert is presented as the work of Educational Reviewer, Inc., a New York organization said to be devoted to analyzing educational standards. A survey on politics and religion was conducted among students of twelve U. S. colleges using a questionnaire developed by the Harvard Crimson. Conclusion: “the distinct impression of a firm and expansive student Catholicism, a weakening Protestantism, and a Judaism in decay.”

The survey’s most severe indictment is leveled at Davidson (North Carolina) College, the only Protestant-affiliated school polled (it is operated by the Presbyterian Church in the U. S.). The survey indicates that Davidson students list college religion courses as chief cause for their own reaction against matters of faith. Less than 21 per cent of the student body at Davidson was said to believe in Christ’s resurrection.

The effect of the poll was immediate. One Carolina couple who had taken their son, a high school senior, to Davidson for a visit returned home to find the National Review’s survey in the mailbox. The boy will go to another college.

Some observers who recognize the extent of apostasy on the Protestant campus are nonetheless more restrained. The independent, conservative Presbyterian Journal cautioned: “Don’t write Davidson off your list. We know some Southern Presbyterian schools along side of which Davidson would rank as ultra-conservative.”

In contrast to “weakening Protestantism,” the survey in National Review purports to show strength in Roman Catholic education. Sample conclusions: “American liberal arts colleges, with the sole exception of Roman Catholic colleges, tend to debilitate the religious convictions of their students.… Students raised as Roman Catholics are far more likely to retain their faith while at college than students raised as Protestants or as Jews.… The Roman Catholic Church is winning significant numbers of converts, particularly at schools with large Protestant majorities.”

Catholic educators, meanwhile, apparently were embarking on a major nationwide campaign to show that their schools are in serious financial straits. An article in the October 22 issue of Look points to an impending “crisis” for Catholic schools. On Capitol Hill, Catholic leaders testified before a House education subcommittee that their parochial schools will be forced to close if federal aid is given only to public schools.

Problems In Religious Journalism

Thirteen thousand copies of the official newspaper of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta were scrapped because of an interview in which publisher Ralph McGill of the Atlanta Constitution charged the local Episcopal leadership with “hypocrisy” in its relationships with a private school. A portion of the interview was deleted and a revised edition published.

The Rev. Milton L. Wood, editor of Diocese and assistant to Bishop Randolph Claiborne, Jr., said he did not believe McGill was correctly quoted and that the portion of the interview originally printed was “taken out of context.”

Lovett School, the institution in quesion, has been a source of controversy since its decision earlier this year to refuse admission to Negro applicants.

Inherent in the dispute is the question of whether the school operates under official Episcopal auspices or whether it is independent.

Four members of the paper’s advisory board issued a protest following Wood’s action. McGill was reported as having said that he felt the interview—as originally published—represented an accurate reflection of his views.

Meanwhile, another case of the old printer’s error of publishing the wrong picture had an ecumenical twist this time. Diocese and The Georgia Bulletin, published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta, are printed in the same plant. By mistake a picture of the Rev. J. M. Gessell used by the Episcopal paper also appeared in the Catholic paper, where he was identified as Msgr. E. H. Behrmann. And the Episcopal minister’s picture got a better play in the Catholic paper—page one.

A Dialogue On Equal Terms

Delegates of ten Eastern Orthodox churches meeting on the island of Rhodes last month agreed to allow the churches individually to decide whether they should send delegates to the second session of the Second Vatican Council. They also endorsed unanimously a proposal that the Orthodox churches seek “a dialogue on equal terms” with the Roman Catholic Church. Conspicuously absent from the conference was any representative of the Orthodox Church in Greece.

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