NCC Skirmish over Viet Nam

Eight thousand miles from the scene of battle, ranking American churchmen squabbled last month over the war in Viet Nam. Should U. S. troops get out? A considerable number of the ecumenical elite, members of the General Board of the National Council of Churches meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, obviously thought so. Resistance to U. S. policy grew so apparent at the meeting that one churchman gave fellow board members a scolding:

“The lone here seems to be that anything supporting the Administration is basically unchristian.”

The Administration eventually got a fair measure of support, but cloves outlasted hawks in live hours of debate spread over two sessions. The consensus of the General Board belittled the merits of U. S. military involvement in Viet Nam and suggested more economic aid and new efforts toward a negotiated settlement with the Communists.

The discussion started with a 1,056-word “policy statement” proposed by the NCC s Sixth World Order Study Conference in St. Louis in October. An objective, relatively mild analysis, it generated little heat. It suggested nothing more drastic than temporary suspension of bombing raids on North Viet Nam as a strategic maneuver to encourage negotiations. It called for a parallel effort to induce Hanoi to stop sending troops and arms into South Viet Nam.

What roused the board was the introduction from the floor by noted ecumenist Dr. Eugene Carson Blake of a hurriedly prepared four-page “message” originally intended for “the members of our churches.” The document asserts “we must do more” than study the St. Louis paper. Blake hit sharply at the “unilateral” aspect of U. S. action in Viet Nam, charging that such a policy alienates Asians. He voiced concern that “Christians in the United States are failing thus far to make their specific contribution to the maintenance of peace in the world.” Citing a series of New Testament proof texts, he contended that war in this nuclear age settles little or nothing “and may destroy everything.”

The “message” came under stiff cross lire. Protests crystallized into a concerted move to delete the key section criticizing “unilateral” policy. But Blake held firm. A turnabout of sentiment in his favor came with a change from flat, declarative judgments into “we believe” expressions somewhat less suggestive of the get-out-of-Viet-Nam alternative. With that amendment, J. Irwin Miller, the Indiana industrialist who served a three-year term as NCC president, withdrew his announced opposition to this most controversial section of the message.

But the sharpest clash was yet to come. The St. Louis policy statement and Blake’s “message” were lumped together and carried easily.By a vote of 93–10, with 6 abstentions. Out of 250 voting members, a record total of 123 were registered for the board meeting. A major question arose, however, over the relative relevance of the two declarations and how they should be distributed. Blake told the board he had been assured his “message” could be distributed separately from the policy statement and, hopefully, more widely. But Dr. Arthur S. Flemming, chief of the St. Louis conference, who sweated for days to get a carefully prepared consensus, insisted that they be kept together.

A related dispute had already developed over whether the documents should be addressed to member denominations of the NCC or directly to the rank and file. Many board members argued that the NCC can address itself only to the member denominations, who alone have the prerogative to determine distribution and use of the materials.

Flemming, president of the University of Oregon and a Cabinet member under Eisenhower, argued calmly but firmly as Blake fumed. At one point Blake whipped off his glasses and stalked toward the head table in the main ballroom of Madison’s Hotel Loraine. Cooler heads prevailed, however, and NCC officials said they would make an initial distribution of the two-part document to member denominations, which could then decide for themselves if and how they should present it to their constituencies. Later, one of the officials charged that Blake in his argument on the floor had misrepresented the advance agreement.

Immediately after its passage, the approved declaration was dispatched to Bangkok, Thailand, where an NCC delegation and a group of Asian churchmen also drafted a statement calling for negotiations in the Viet Nam war.

The hassle over Viet Nam took so long that the board put off until its February meeting a long string of other proposals emanating from the St. Louis conference, including those that deal with Communist China. Cuba, and Rhodesia, and a recommendation that future world order conferences be made joint efforts with Roman Catholic and Jewish groups.

The February meeting may also see some action on a proposal to create a special NCC Commission on Religion and Peace. This would be in line with a suggestion made by the newly formed “Clergy Concerned about Viet Nam” group. Former president Miller suggested publicly that NCC officialdom give serious thought to the matter, but no specific action was introduced.

The National Council initiated what was to be an extensive peace campaign in 1959, but the project faltered for lack of funds.

‘To Married Women Only …’

Contraceptives, mostly intrauterine devices, have been quietly distributed around the world during the last nine months by the National Council of Churches’ overseas relief agency.

Initial public announcement of the birth-control program was made unobtrusively last month at the NCC’s General Board meeting in Madison. Wisconsin. Birth-control information and materials have been supplied to doctors in thirty-one countries, including several predominantly Roman Catholic lands, according to the official report.

A spokesman said the contraceptives have been given “to married women only, as far as I know.” He said the program has relied primarily upon a $25,000 grant from the Pathfinder Foundation.

An Embarrassing Norm

New theologies apparently are making their impact upon policies of the National Council of Churches.

At last month’s meeting of the NCC’s General Board, a committee set forth its interpretation of the organization’s constitution and bylaws relating to membership. Communions confessing “Jesus Christ as Divine Lord and Savior” that seek NCC membership, the committee said, “should normally meet” ten specifications. A board member asked why the word “normally” was included.

Methodist Bishop John Wesley Lord, in presenting the report, said the committee felt that in view of emerging theologies there may well come a time when “even these guiding principles would be embarrassing to us.” Lord singled out Harvey Cox and Pierre Berton as examples of those who are calling for radical new theologies that might require the NCC to demonstrate more “flexibility.” The report, requiring no action, was one of several eyebrow-raisers at the board meeting (see also adjacent stories).

Former Congressman Brooks Hays was named to head a special committee to evaluate the NCC’s controversial Delta Ministry in Mississippi. Much of the criticism of the ministry has been shrugged off as racist-motivated. But an increasing number of progressives in the South, including Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Hodding Carter, have also been critical of the NCC’s approach. One of the Delta officials is an Episcopal priest who went to Communist China in 1957 against the advice of the U. S. State Department and was photographed with Premier Chou En-lai.

One official admitted that 1965 had been a rugged year for the National Council, and dwindling income from individuals, corporations, and foundations seemed to support his conclusion. One board member, in a morning devotional, attacked the implicit omniscience of NCC proceedings and asked whether church leaders as individuals were implementing the Christian principles they championed on the corporate plane. His plea was far removed from the long speeches of NCC officials who reveled in the organization’s achievements.

Five Deaths And Ten Years

A decade after her brother Nate and four fellow missionaries were slain by Auca Indians in Ecuador, Rachel Saint has written an epilogue with details she learned later from tribesmen involved. It will appear in Harper and Row’s new edition of The Dayuma Story, by Ethel Wallis, which has sold 100,000 copies.

The day the missionaries’ plane landed ten years ago this month, the Aucas were angry because a fellow tribesman wanted another wife they didn’t think he should have, and they vented their wrath on the strangers.

As the Aucas moved in, the five tried to tell why they had come by pointing to heaven and earth and repeating the word “father.” Nate Saint, the last to die, knelt and held up his hands to beg for mercy, but was speared by Gikita.

Many tribesmen later became Christians, and Dyuwi, one of the murderers, now plans to go downstream to an even more savage village to witness about his Saviour. Oncaye, a refugee from downstream, will accompany him. Rachel Saint is a delegate to the World Congress on Evangelism in Berlin next fall and plans to bring one or two converted Aucas with her, unless they are needed in the evangelism downstream.

Christmas Under Fire

Army chaplain Fred Hanley surveyed a bloody emergency ward, part of his parish since he came to Viet Nam in November. “Some deal! Christmas and the Prince of Peace and look at the mess we’re in!”

Despite this nightmarish paradox of war, the 200 chaplains in Viet Nam pitched in to plan celebrations. A Saigon service was canceled for fear a large gathering of GI’s would invite Viet Cong terror bombs. The Viet Cong buildup on the outskirts of Saigon has heightened the problem. Missionaries were active in treating victims of one of the worst bombings, a dawn attack on the Metropole barracks on December 4.

In rural areas there is a similar fear of bombs—from U. S. planes. Natives shudder each time an aircraft passes overhead, even though Americans try to avoid friendly areas. On December 3 a mission house, church, pastor’s home, and entire village were bombed out east of Da Nang, on the edge of Communist-held jungles.

Familiar Voice Stilled

Martin R. DeHaan’s raspy voice was a standby on the 600-station network of his “Radio Bible Class.” He taped his February 6 program in Grand Rapids on December 12; the next day, he was dead. The colorful, 74-year-old author, M.D., and gospel preacher had been in poor health since a July automobile accident.

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