News Briefs from November 21, 1969

John Brown’s Student Body

New attitudes toward social change and the Viet Nam war may be stirring in conservative corners of the nation, if recent events at John Brown University—a prototype of Southern religious-political conservatism—are any example.

In the backwoods northwest Arkansas town of Siloam Springs, which still has a law that Negroes must leave town by 5 P.M. and has no blacks living within thirty miles, the JBU community heard Senator Mark Hatfield speak at the climax of its weeklong annual Christian American Heritage Seminar in October.

One JBU administrator expressed trepidation that Hatfield, noted Oregon Republican liberal, “might not go over too well,” being “a little too liberal for our campus.”

But Hatfield went over big. He received a standing ovation for his talk, in which he called for recovery of a positive attitude toward social change basic to the American heritage. Although “religious inspiration” produced “revolutionary fervor,” it also gave “stability and direction” to change in America’s early days, he said. But Americans began to seek answers more from the political and economic realm than from God. “Our concept of limited government faded as our religious sense faded,” and religion has come to be used as “a rationalization for the self-interests of those … comfortable under the existing system.”

Some student disagreement with Hatfield’s opposition to the Viet Nam war came out in the question-and-answer period; on the whole he scored high.

“A quiet revolution in thinking is going on here,” said economics professor John Terry. “Our students would never be unpeaceful, but they are thinking much more liberally than three or four years ago. There is much more openness on the Viet Nam question than a year ago.”

But it looks as if social change still has an uphill battle at JBU. A recent Student Senate request that male students be allowed to wear “neatly clipped” mustaches and beards was killed by a faculty-dominated committee.

The Arkansas school is marking its fiftieth anniversary this year. It was founded in 1919 by evangelist John E. Brown.

Legal Abortions: A Pregnant Question

Boosters of liberalized abortion laws got an assist from 280 psychiatrists last month who said abortion laws should be repealed. In a special report, the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry said “abortion when performed by a licensed physician should be entirely removed from the domain of criminal law.”

The report adds: “A woman should have the right to abort or not, just as she has a right to marry or not.” The authors of the report agreed that a new element of ambiguity has resulted from the use of modern birth-control devices, such as the intrauterine loop. This makes it “all the more difficult to delineate contraception from abortion,” they said, since the intrauterine device “probably interrupts the pregnancy after conception.”

Moral questions of when life begins and what constitutes the taking of a life should be answered through personal religious beliefs alone, not through state laws, the psychiatrists said.

Meanwhile, at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, the United Methodist Board of Christian Social Concerns was believed to be the first church agency to approve legal provisions for voluntary sterilization as a means of population control. A resolution unanimously approved by the board will be presented to the 1970 United Methodist General Convention.

It calls for, among other things, removal of the regulation of abortion from the criminal code.

Deaths

JAMES C. BAKER, 90, “Father of the Wesley Foundation,” United Methodist pastor, one-time professor; in Pomona, California.

JEAN BOSC, 59, noted French Protestant theologian and professor; in Paris.

CLARENCE L. JORDAN, 57, controversial Southern Baptist theologian, founder of the interracial cooperative Koinonia Farms; in Americus, Georgia.

FRANK L. PETERSON, 76, former vice-president of the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference; in Los Angeles.

JOHN W. SHACKFORD, 91, Christian-education leader, author, pastor, ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1897; in Newport News, Virginia.

Lebanon: Religious Buffer

His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

Song of Solomon 5:15

Little is left of the cedars of Lebanon, which the Old Testament uses as a symbol of majesty. But the tiny country forming the northern extremity of the Holy Land is more crucial than ever in world affairs. It is smaller than the state of Connecticut, but religion, geography, politics, and economy often put it on the world stage. This month, Lebanon was back on page one as government authorities sought to restrict the movements of Arab commandos within its boundaries.

Lebanon is the most Christian of all the Arab countries. It is also the most affluent and pro-Western. Those factors, along with its strategic location, make Lebanon a natural buffer between Israel and the predominantly Muslim Arab countries, and a soothing influence (see editorial, page 26).

Christian leaders representing Maronite, Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant communities issued a statement last month supporting measures by military authorities “to preserve the country’s security and stability.”

Then Muslim religious and political leaders issued their own statement calling for the Lebanese president to halt military measures against Palestinian commandos.

But the delicate balance of Christians and Muslims, normally a model of ecclesiastical co-existence, also can be a powder keg. Not infrequently anti-Lebanese elements try to light a fuse.

Back in 1958, Lebanon went through a crisis so serious that President Eisenhower sent 14,500 U. S. Marines and the Sixth Fleet to help straighten things out. Last December 28, Lebanon lost thirteen commercial planes during an attack by Israel. It is things like this that Lebanon wants to avoid, and the government realizes full well that if the fedayeen—“men of sacrifice”—are allowed to use Lebanon for raids on Israel, Lebanon will suffer from retaliation.

Lebanon has a population of something less than three million. No one has an exact figure. Indeed, a census is a very sensitive question. But about half the country is considered to be Christian and the other half Muslim. The Christian segment is the richer class and generally opposed to the presence of the commandos. The Muslims are poorer, and they support the fedayeen.

Remarkably, the Christians and the Muslims have gotten along together quite nicely. The basis for their understanding is a unique unwritten law that metes out power and responsibility along religious lines. This national agreement dates back to 1943, at the end of the French mandate. At that time the Muslims promised to refrain from summoning help from other Arab countries and the Christians promised not to invoke the help of European powers.

The pact gives Christians a 6–5 edge in the unicameral legislature. The membership, now ninety-nine, must always be a multiple of eleven.

The agreement also stipulates that the president of Lebanon must be a Maronite, the premier a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the legislature a Shia Muslim.Maronites are Eastern rite Catholics who submit to the pope but who use a Syriac liturgy and have married clergy. Religious quotas govern the selection of judges, ambassadors, and military officers. A special problem arises in the army because there are usually many more Muslims in the enlisted ranks; Christian young men seek better, non-military opportunities.

The religious apportionment was based upon a 1932 census, and none has been taken since. Muslims occasionally demand another count and amendments to the national agreement, feeling they now outnumber the Christians.

Protestant influence in Lebanon is minimal, though many thousands pass through each year as tourists. The 1968 World Christian Handbook reports fifty-three ordained foreign missionaries and 138 lay workers assigned to Lebanon. Among North American groups represented are Southern Baptist, United Presbyterian, Church of the Nazarene, and Christian and Missionary Alliance.

A Change Of Heart

A Tulsa, Oklahoma, man lived on borrowed time for four months—with a new heart and a new life.

Prior to receiving a heart transplant last June, Dwane Shannon Marlow, 52, had not been receptive to the Gospel, according to his pastor, the Rev. Bartley Rogers of Suncrest Baptist Church. But the first Sunday Marlow was home from Houston, where he received the heart transplant, he and his wife made professions of faith in Christ at the Tulsa church.

“After his conversion and baptism, Dwane was a new man, and was as active in our church as he could be under the circumstances,” Rogers said. “He attended morning services when he would get so weak that other men had to help him back to his car.”

Marlow, who reportedly wanted to tell others the full story of his conversion, was too emotional to do so before he was called from this life to the eternal one

Personalia

Dr. Robert G. Mayfield, former general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Lay Activities, has been named chairman of the Convocation of United Methodists for Evangelical Christianity to be held next August in Dallas, Texas. The United Methodist quarterly Good News is sponsoring the meeting.

Donald Quinn, managing editor of the award-winning 100,000-circulation Catholic weekly newspaper the St. Louis Review, resigned this month, charging that John Cardinal Carberry of St. Louis was interfering with the paper’s freedom … Dr. Curtis A. Chambers, Jr., former executive editor of Church and Home, an Evangelical United Brethren publication, will become editor of Together, United Methodist official family magazine with a circulation of 650,000, January 1.

Chaplain (Colonel) Victor H. Schroeder of the Alaskan Air Command and an American Lutheran, was cited as the outstanding base chaplain in the U. S. Air Force.

Boston’s Richard Cardinal Cushing defended his decision to sell a Roman Catholic high school to the city of Gloucester because of financial problems, saying he “cannot be Santa Claus with the assets” and estimating the annual operating deficit at $170,000. Holy Cross Fathers faculty members who teach at the school accused Cushing of “absolute” authority in negotiating the sale without consulting them.

Herbert Grey, a member of the Canadian Parliament for Windsor, Ontario, became the first Jew ever named to the country’s cabinet last month when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced Grey’s appointment as Minister without Portfolio.

The Rev. Gordon Freeland, 39, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Montreal, was named president of Canada’s Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches, a denomination with 350 churches in eight provinces.

Maryknoll priest Albert J. Nevins, an expert on Latin American affairs, has replaced Monsignor Vincent A. Yzermans as editor of the Catholic weekly, Our Sunday Visitor.

New York Mets star left-handed pitcher Jerry Koosman received the 17 millionth copy of the American Bible Society’s Good News for Modern Man and suggested that interdenominational services for the team be held before Sunday games next season.

Bernadette Devlin, 22, the flaming youth member of the Ulster Parliament, testified this month that she tried unsuccessfully to organize 100 Catholic men to throw Molotov cocktails at police to keep them out of Catholic Bogside. She said she only threw one stone during two days of rioting and asked followers to break bricks into smaller pieces since whole bricks were dangerous.

“Unaccustomed as I am of speaking these days, and as a member of the great society of the unemployed, I just want to say I’m very appreciative of the effort of this community and the recognition it has given to my great-grandfather,” said former President Lyndon B. Johnson at a prayer service in Minden, Louisiana, to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Baptist church.

United Church of Christ communications executive Dr. Everett C. Parker won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in Broadcast Journalism this month for his efforts to achieve public interest and equal employment in broadcasting and black programming on the air.

Denis Michael Rohan (see November 7 issue, page 54) testified at his trial in Jerusalem that he set fire to the Al Aqsa Mosque “to prove to the world that God wants me to build his temple and that he will set me up as the King of Jerusalem and Judea.”

Radio evangelist Curtis Springer pleaded guilty to eight charges of false advertising; fifty-seven other counts were dropped by the San Bernardino, California, Municipal Court. The minister agreed to moderate his claims for cures springing from his Zzyzx Mineral Springs resort.

Dr. Marcus Bach said Arthur Ford, medium for the late James A. Pike, established communication between the Protestant author and professor and his mother, who during her lifetime had warned son Marcus against mediums.

Religion In Transit

The Senate Finance Committee approved a House-passed measure to tax churches on their profits from unrelated business income. If, as expected, the Senate passes the measure, churches and synagogues will be subject to the regular 48 per cent corporation tax rate for non-religious enterprises.

The United Methodist Board of Missions refused a request for a $750,000 grant to the Black Economic Development Conference. A group of black Methodists were also turned down in a request that all overseas missionaries be brought home for five years’ training working with “the alienated poor.”

The Lutheran Church in America Commission on Evangelism will ask next year’s denominational convention to declare 1973 a year of evangelism and to cooperate with other denominations in a continent-wide emphasis that year.

An official of the United States Catholic Conference says the increase of conscientious objectors is higher among Catholics than in other religious groups. Father Patrick McDermott said dioceses will soon be offered a sample plan for initiating draft information centers.

Dr. James Leo Garrett, a theology professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has called for a rewriting of the history of Christian doctrine by a panel of leading scholars from varying denominational, cultural, and geographical backgrounds. Garrett, chairman of a study commission on cooperative Christianity for the Baptist World Alliance, wants an interdisciplinary approach that will be relevant to today’s ecumenical, secular, and pluralistic culture.

The United Presbyterian Synod of New Jersey voted 132 to 112 to commend the Netcong Board of Education’s public-school prayer program, which has been challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union. Meanwhile, in Bloomington, Minnesota, Jaycees collected 320,000 signatures supporting non-denominational prayer in public schools, to be delivered to Washington.

World Scene

Thousands of persons converged upon an obscure French monastery to hear the parting sermon of its deposed young abbot, Dom Bernard Besret. The handsome, 34-year-old monk was relieved as head of Boquen Abbey because he tried to liberalize its purpose and program. Many French Catholics have protested his dismissal.

More than fifteen Auca Indians have died of polio in recent weeks. About sixty more are suffering from the disease, according to a report from Ecuador from Wycliffe Bible Translators. The Aucas, evangelized after the slaying of five missionaries, are still somewhat primitive; some refuse treatment.

A slick new Christian periodical is making its debut on French newsstands under ecumenical sponsorship. Today’s Life and the Bible is being published monthly until February 1; after that, weekly. Its editorial team consists of Roman Catholic priests and Protestant pastors and laymen; evangelicals are cooperating in the effort.

Park Street Church in Boston marked the 150th anniversary of the commissioning of seventeen missionaries to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). The present pastor of Park Street, the Rev. Paul E. Toms, is a former pastor of the Mokuaikaua Church, the oldest in Hawaii and the first to be founded by the missionaries.

An elder of a Protestant church in Piraeus, Greece, was arrested on a bus in Athens for distributing gospel tracts to fellow passengers. The tracts were reprints of Bible verses published by the American Mission to Greeks without sectarian comment. A prosecutor said a printed address to which people could write for more information “could be of a proselytizing nature.”

Seventh-day Adventists have won approval to operate a radio station in the Philippines. It will be the first Adventist-owned radio station in regular operation outside North America.

A commission of the Dutch-German Reformed Church (Nederduitse Gereformeerde) declared in Capetown, South Africa, that racially mixed marriages “in themselves are not sinful.” The declaration was announced to 800 delegates attending a synod of the largest of South Africa’s Dutch Reformed churches.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.