Tax experts threw a scare at religious organizations this month. Spokesmen for the Internal Revenue Service, in public testimony given before a House subcommittee, said that about two dozen foundations—some of them with a religious bent—are under “very active” investigation and face possible revocation of their tax exemptions. Internal Revenue Commissioner Bertram M. Harding and his assistant Mitchell Rogovin, said a conclusion in one or two cases “will be reached very shortly.”

Some observers in Washington insist that the threats are designed merely to discourage foundations from becoming specifically active in the current election campaign. Inasmuch as most of the foundations in question seem to espouse a right-wing political philosophy, the announcement was interpreted as a move to head off propaganda crusades for Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. Other sources say it is coincidental that hearings by the House Small Business Subcommittee on abuses by tax-exempt foundations were held at the start of the election campaign.

Law prohibits disclosure of the identity of organizations whose tax-exempt status is under scrutiny, but subcommittee chairman Wright Patman, Democrat of Texas, indicated that Texas oil tycoon H. L. Hunt’s Life Line Foundation is one which he feels is no longer entitled to the privilege. An IRS district director has recommended that the Life Line Foundation’s tax exemption be revoked on grounds that its activities are political rather than educational. His IRS superiors, however, have not yet issued a final judgment in the case, and the recommendation has aroused a storm of indignation.

It was brought out during the House hearings that the other foundations whose tax status is in jeopardy use the mass media and have been discussed previously on the floor of Congress.

A year ago Democratic Senator Maurine B. Neuberger of Oregon declared that the 75-year-old Hunt gets “more radical rightwing propaganda for his tax-exempt dollar” than anyone else. She has named a number of other “right-wing groups … masquerading as ‘educational or religious’ organizations … financed by tax-free contributions from businessmen.”

Her list, which she said was not exhaustive, has included: America’s Future, Inc.; American Council of Christian Laymen; American Economic Foundation; Christian Anti-Communism Crusade; Christian’s Echoes Ministry; Christian Freedom Foundation; Church League of America; Circuit Riders; Economists’ National Committee on Monetary Policy; Foundation for Economic Education; and the Inter-Collegiate Society of Individualists.

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Mrs. Neuberger said on the Senate floor that “to those who ask me why I concentrate my fire upon the extreme right, I answer that the flood of material which inundates my office daily, rarely, if ever, comes from the left.” She added that “undoubtedly” there will be abuses by groups of all political persuasionsThe exploitation of American foundations by political leftists ii carefully documented in a 412-page book, Foundations—Their Power and Influence, by Rene A. Wormier, general counsel to the Recce Committee of the Eighty-third Congress. and that any reforms “must be applied without regard to the ideological position of the offender.”

What are the boundary lines of political activities by tax-exempt organizations? IRS officials say they are difficult to locate. The Revenue Act of 1954 stipulated that tax-exempt organizations may not devote “a substantial part” of their activities to carrying on propaganda. But what is “substantial”?

The recent lobbying campaign by major American denominations in behalf of the civil rights bill was compared in intensity to the churches’ drive for prohibition earlier in the twentieth century. The National Council of Churches defended its civil rights bill activity on grounds that it did not entail a “substantial” part of the NCC budget.

Rogovin, in his testimony to the House subcommittee, said there is a flat prohibition against such organizations’ backing a candidate in a political campaign. President Johnson, then a Texas Senator, sponsored this ban as an amendment to a 1954 tax bill. A prominent Washington tax lawyer privately asserted, however, that such support is a technical matter and does not of itself disqualify organizations from tax exemptions.

The Christian Century, ecumenical weekly, has through the years made it a fairly regular practice to indicate editorially which presidential candidate it favors. This year the Century endorsed Johnson and promised to “do what we can” to contribute to Goldwater’s defeat.

It looks now as if a number of other liberal Protestant magazines will follow suit. Christianity and Crisis, editorial voice of theologians Reinhold Niebuhr and John C. Bennett, says in its October 5 issue: “We not only oppose Goldwater, we favor President Johnson.”

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The endorsement of Johnson marks the first time in its 24-year history that the magazine has come out for a specific political candidate.

Earlier, the United Church Herald, official United Church of Christ organ, and several independent Episcopal publications indicated their opposition to Goldwater.

Charles Templeton: Another Career

Will the social stigma of departure from the ministry, divorce, and remarriage bar a man from becoming Prime Minister of Ontario? Not so, say Toronto supporters of their hometown boy, Charles (Chuck) B. Templeton, 49.

Templeton’s debut in provincial politics, however, was unsuccessful. He lost a September 10 by-election in which he had tried, under the banner of Canada’s Liberal Party, to wrest a seat in the Ontario legislature that has been held by Conservatives for twenty-seven years. And he announced immediately thereafter he was withdrawing as a candidate for the Liberal Party leadership in Ontario (a leader was to be chosen this month).

Political aspirations represented a new career for Templeton, and some shouted “effrontery” at his immediate drive for the Prime Minister’s office.

Templeton, however, has mastered new careers before. He started as a syndicated sports cartoonist and became perhaps the greatest evangelist Canada ever produced (see CHRISTIANITY TODAY, March 31, 1958; Dec. 20, 1963); later he became a successful playwright, a national TV personality, and finally a §24,000-a-year newspaper executive with Canada’s largest daily, the Toronto Star.

What’s Templeton’s secret of worldly success? He’s a communicator—and a jolly good one! He also has an apparent honest concern for people that is appealing.

He feels Canada’s moral standards are below par and blames bad home environment and the failure of the Church to communicate a vital and relevant faith. He favors repeal of the national ban on contraceptives and feels the Church needs to get more immediately interested in politics, where its moral force can be brought to bear. “They can’t do this unless they’re out there where life is lived—in the political area.”

Since Templeton left his twenty-year ministry, due to doubts about the nature and purpose of God, he has been a searcher for “other media of communication where I may be able to play a useful role.” He seeks now in the political arena, and some speculate he even sees himself as Canada’s Prime Minister someday. Indeed, in the past few years, he has been asked a few times to run federally. He sees Canada’s role as a leader of the middle powers in world affairs, but in close relation to the U. N. The West’s influence in the world will increase, he says, where the Judaeo-Christian tradition is expressed in a concern for people, rather than in power politics. The big moral issue the West faces concerns integrity in our dealings with other nations, with each other, in business, in society, in the home. As for the cold war, he says it can be settled only when Russia decides to allow it to happen. The rift between Russia and China will make it possible.

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Successful second marriage to a pretty TV singer adds to the ambition and optimism of Chuck Templeton. Politically, his wife, Sylvia, will be good for him. She’s personable and speaks French—a product of her Montreal upbringing. They regularly attend the United Church with their four children.

Templeton’s optimistic pitch for political office, however, lacked a notable factor—official support from an influential portion of Canada’s Liberal top brass. So he rested his hope mainly in appeal to party grass roots, and failed.

Three years yet remain before Ontario Liberals have a chance to unseat the Conservatives, who have held provincial power for the past twenty-one years. Templeton may still figure in their future.

KENNETH G. WARES

The Call To Awake

Evangelist Billy Graham renewed his plea for moral awakening during a ten-day crusade in Omaha, Nebraska, this month. The crusade opened to nightly crowds of more than 16,000.

“The Communists want America intact,” said Graham. “They want our industries and our material wealth so they are waiting until we are soft enough for them to take over. The great need is for a spiritual awakening that will throw back the tide of evil.”

Graham and his team were welcomed to the Midlands by Nebraska Governor Frank B. Morrison, who issued a proclamation declaring September 4–13 as “Billy Graham Days” in the state.

Following the Omaha meetings Graham was scheduled to conduct a ten-day crusade in Boston, beginning September 18.

Books For The President

A delegation from the Christian Booksellers Association was scheduled to visit the White House this month to present fifty books to President Johnson. A White House spokesman said the books were intended for Johnson’s personal library.

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The books were chosen by means of a poll of bookstore owners and operators who are members of the evangelically oriented CBA. Several evangelical librarians have expressed disappointment that the organization introduced the commercial element into the selection process so conspicuously. They say that the resulting selections are not representative enough of the best in evangelical literature.

The CBA made a similar presentation of fifty other books to President Eisenhower in 1956.

Campus Mission

A new campus religious movement makes its debut this fall.

Known as “Campus Mission,” the nonsectarian work will stress person-to-person contacts, avoid elaborate organization, and have no official chapters as such. The founder, the Rev. Neil H. Swanson, says that focal points of training will be seminars, where selected students and student workers will gather, and an extensive program of reading materials to be published especially for Campus Mission.

Swanson, who for the last six years has been executive secretary of the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, plans to write much of the literature himself.

A novel feature planned by the minister is a series of tape-recorded “experimental conversations” between, “mature Christians” and students with questions about religion. He hopes that these talks, which may be set up in advance, will help to teach the person-to-person approach to Christian witness.

Swanson also hopes to develop contacts with existing campus religious organizations such as the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ. Regarding the orientation of Campus Mission as compared with these two organizations, Swanson said that the “kind of people” his work would attract might be “different” from those reached by Campus Crusade and IVCF. “But I’m not sure about that,” he added.

A few titles Swanson plans to issue are “How to Talk About Religion,” “Each One Reach One,” “On Thinking You Are What You Are Not,” and “Beyond Doctrine.”

The last title does not imply an “eclectic” position, according to Swanson. The object was rather to avoid making an “idol out of a particular theory.” He did indicate that his position might be more liberal than conservative, but at the same time he expressed doubts about the validity and meaning of such labels.

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A Life Spared

The nine-year-old daughter of a Christian Reformed Church minister miraculously escaped serious harm last month after being abducted by a sex pervert. An account of the incident appears in the Banner, the church’s weekly magazine.

The girl, Kristin Smith, daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Thomas L. Smith of South Bend, Indiana, was seized early one afternoon near her home and held prisoner for twelve hours. part of the time the abductor kept her in the trunk of his car. At two o’clock the following morning he threw her gagged and bound from a bridge into a river twenty-one feet below. She landed on a sandbar, narrowly missing the main river channel, which is fourteen feet deep at that point.

Kristin was able to work the gag out of her mouth and call for help. Her cries were heard, and she was rescued by rowboat. She suffered only a minor injury.

A suspect was in the hands of police within half an hour.

Campus Mission will also seek to avoid becoming too “professional.” The stress will be on students reaching students, “knowhow,” and “tools.”

Founded with the conviction that the college and university campus represents a “major area of mission,” the work will be financed by an annual grant for three years by Lilly Endowment, Inc., and matching private contributions.

The beginning of Campus Mission this fall coincides with the “real start of the college boom,” as it has been called. The year 1964 marks the first big campus influx of World War II babies. IVCF has announced that it has just accepted twenty-seven new staff workers to cope with the mushrooming student population.

Impact On History?

A prominent New York minister roundly criticized Governor and Mrs. Nelson Rockefeller last month, asserting that “this divorce and re-marriage, far from being a private affair, may easily have changed the course of American history.”

The Rev. Harald Bredesen, pastor of the First Reformed Church of Mount Vernon, New York, said Mrs. Rockefeller was “unjust” in seeking custody of her children from her former husband, Dr. James S. Murphy.

Bredesen, well-known for his role in the current charismatic revival, is chairman of the board of Blessed Trinity Society. In a Sunday morning sermon, he said that Mrs. Rockefeller, “having broken her first contract, of lifelong fidelity to her husband, now [seeks] to break her second, a separation agreement that preceded their legal divorce, leaving the four children with her husband.”

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“What was his offense?” Bredesen asked. “Simply that another man whose power and prestige were as great as his principle is small, coveted his wife and she coveted him. To have him she was willing to break up her marriage and sign away her children. She was willing to sacrifice the happiness of both their families to have him. And now that she has him, she wants her children too. Her desire is quite natural, and quite unjust.”

Bredesen, who did not mention in the sermon that Murphy also remarried, noted that for Rockefeller as a presidential candidate “the tide was running fairly strong … but it slacked. His lapse cost him his chance to become the leader of his nation at an incomparably significant juncture of history, and it left the way clear for his political opposite.”

Jerusalem And Christian Interests

Pope Paul VI reportedly plans to establish a permanent theological study center in Jerusalem that will improve the Roman Catholic Church’s relations with other sectors of Christendom as well as with non-Christian religions. According to Religious News Service, he has entrusted preparations for the center to Father Theodore M. Hesburg, president of the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, who also heads the International Federation of Catholic Universities.

It was not immediately ascertained whether the center would be established in the Jordanian or the Israeli sector of Jerusalem. However, there are no diplomatic relations between Israel and Vatican City, which might indicate that the Pope is thinking of the Jordanian side. Moreover, there is already a pontifical institute operated by the Vatican in the Israeli portion of the city.

Informed observers say the Vatican has never retracted its position that Jerusalem should be an international city. This viewpoint, if perpetuated, would probably deter establishment of a new study center anywhere in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, an American Christian Holy Land Library had been proposed by Dr. G. Douglas Young, director of the American Institute of Holy Land Studies (see CHRISTIANITY TODAY, August 28, 1964).

Disappointing Preview

Publication of portions of a purported draft declaration on Catholic-Jewish relations—consisting of paragraphs 32 to 34 of the schema on ecumenism to be submitted to the current session of the Second Vatican Council—stirred reactions in Jewish circles ranging from sharp disappointment to outright criticism.

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Religious News Service reported from New York that disappointment was felt because of what some commentators said was a failure to deal adequately with the ancient charge of deicide made against the Jews in regard to the crucifixion of Christ. Other commentators took exception to what they considered an unfortunate stress on the church’s “great desire” for the conversion of the Jews.

There was no explanation of how the presumably secret document came into the possession of newspapers that ran the complete text of the three sections of the schema, sections representing a revision of an original draft presented, but not voted upon, at the Vatican Council’s second session.

The earlier version of the Catholic-Jewish declaration emphasized that all mankind, and not the Jews alone, was responsible for the death of Christ, and this was hailed by Jewish leaders as a clear repudiation of the charge of deicide.

However, according to an unofficial translation, the new text merely states that Catholics should “refrain from accusing the Jews of our times of what was perpetrated during the Passion of Christ.”

Pressure On ‘Purity’

Bowing before increased pressure from both religious and secular fronts, the Israel Chief Rabbinate announced last month that it would delete specific reference to the Bene Israel community from India in its instructions on marriage. The directives singled out members of the Bene Israel by requiring investigation of their racial “purity” before allowing them to marry Jews outside their community.

Chief Rabbi Issar Yehuda Unterman capitulated after a session of the Knesset (parliament). During the Knesset debate Prime Minister Levi Eshkol urged the Rabbinate “to take public opinion into account, and to find a way of dispelling the causes of the sense of unfairness and removing every reason for a sense of discrimination” against the members of the Bene Israel community. He emphasized that they were “Jews in all respects … without any limitation or distinction, equal in rights to all other Jews in all matters, including the laws of personal status.”

Following a dramatic all-night session with the mayor of Jerusalem and other mediators, leaders of the Bene Israel agreed to accept the revised directives and to call off a five-week-old sitdown strike by thirty families in the government building.

The day before the Knesset convened, Unterman spoke to a rally of 500 rabbis and gave no indication that a solution was remotely possible. He declared that “the aboltion of the directives would mean the abolition of all the decisions ever made by the Chief Rabbinate.”

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The rabbinical wall of resistance began to crumble, however, following the Prime Minister’s Knesset speech in which he strongly upheld the Bene Israel position. His statement received the approval of the Knesset by a vote of 43 to 2 with 30 abstentions.

A second telling blow that undoubtedly influenced the Rabbinate to back down was the loss of much support it had previously enjoyed from the religious segment of the population. At the same Sunday rally an authoritative orthodox Israeli voice was raised in condemnation of the Chief Rabbinate’s directives aimed at the Bene Israel. Rabbi M. Hacohen of the Ministry for Religious Affairs said that the directives were “out of place.”

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