Billy Graham in ‘Big Orange Country’

East Tennesseans are proud to tell you that they live in “Big Orange Country,” so named in honor of the orange-and-white-clad athletic teams of the University of Tennessee. Folks in this part of the country take their football seriously, and on many an autumn Saturday afternoon they have packed out Knoxville’s Neyland Stadium to pay homage to the usually victorious “Big Orange” football team.

Recently on ten successive days (May 22–31) East Tennesseans poured into the stadium for a different kind of worship. The cries of “Go Big Orange” were replaced by the singing of hymns, and the action on the artificial turf of the football field came when Dr. Billy Graham invited “hundreds of you to get up out of your seats and come” to the platform to indicate a decision for Jesus Christ. Hundreds did—a total of 12,303 during the Billy Graham East Tennessee Crusade.

Although Knoxville is not a large city (about 180,000 in the greater metropolitan area), 552,000 turned out for the ten meetings. Some crusade planners were surprised and delighted at the response: people came from throughout Tennessee as well as several nearby states.

Knoxville warmly welcomed the crusade team and special guest Ethel Waters; there was the kind of cooperation and participation one might expect from people who live in the “Bible Belt” and the “Volunteer State.” Churches and pastors gave strong support; 5,000 prayer groups were formed; one of the largest choirs (5,500) ever assembled sang; area media gave thorough coverage; and city officials warmly endorsed the effort (each night Mayor Leonard Rogers took his place on the field with other counselors to talk to persons coming forward). Opposition was negligible. One independent Baptist church did manage to schedule services at the same hour as each crusade meeting.

The two largest crowds of the crusade turned out to greet two special visitors. On the first Sunday afternoon, 62,000 persons welcomed singing star Johnny Cash, who told reporters that appearing with Billy Graham was “the pinnacle of my career.” He said he became a Christian at age 12 but was singing more religious songs on his TV program lately because “I’ve come to appreciate the true values of life just recently.” Cash paused between songs (they included “The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago,” “What Is Truth?” and “Were You There?”) to warn young people against drugs. “Take it from a man who’s been there,” he said, “it ain’t worth it.”

The informal atmosphere surrounding the Cash appearance gave way to tension and tight security as the other special guest arrived a few days later. At the invitation of Graham. President Richard Nixon stopped off at Knoxville on his way to the California White House. Before Nixon and his entourage of White House press corps, Tennessee congressmen, and other government officials arrived at the stadium, a rather bizarre battle of slogans and songs broke out between three to four hundred anti-Nixon and anti-war demonstrators, most of them University of Tennessee students, and the rest of the record crowd of more than 70,000 (approximately 25,000 others had been turned away).

When protesters, carrying signs reading “Thou shalt not kill,” shouted anti-war slogans, others in the crowd drowned them out with patriotic songs. Most of the crowd broke into applause when a few of the demonstrators were removed by police. The conflict continued through Graham’s words of welcome and President Nixon’s speech.

Nixon, who later met with the president of the University of Tennessee Student Government Association aboard “Air Force One,” spoke about the problems of youth. “I believe in young America and I think that they have something to say,” the President affirmed. In his introduction of Nixon, Graham said that all the recent presidents had made unpopular decisions because they felt that they were doing so “in the best interest of the country.” He stated that Nixon was President of all the people and as such “deserves the sympathy, understanding and prayers of all the American people.”

Many of the protesters left when Graham began to preach. In later interviews some of them indicated they felt things had at times gone beyond what they had intended (especially when obscenities were shouted during a prayer for God’s blessing on the President). Others stated that plans for a further demonstration (including some sort of activity during the invitation) had been abandoned. Some students distributed mimeographed leaflets before the service expressing their resentment of what they believed to be a politically motivated invasion of their campus and the crusade. In a later press conference, Graham emphasized that Nixon’s visit wasn’t political. He said he had invited Nixon to speak to the young people during a special youth-night service.

Night after night Graham stressed the themes that have characterized his ministry. He clearly presented submission to Jesus Christ as the answer to the needs of both the individual and society and as the only way of approach to God. Showing a keen awareness of the strong religious orientation of his audience, the evangelist repeatedly pointed out the vast difference between church membership or religion in general and a personal commitment to Jesus Christ.

During the crusade the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association sponsored a School of Evangelism that brought together more than 900 pastors and seminarians to study methods of evangelism.

Graham said his only regret about the crusade was that he had been unable to accept many invitations to speak to various groups. He did find time to go to Oak Ridge to address a gathering of 200 to 300 scientists (he spoke of the problems that science has not solved) and to meet with officials of the Oak Ridge laboratories, who briefed him on current research in the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

Come fall, Tennessee football fans will again crowd into Neyland Stadium to cheer their “Volunteers” to victory. And no doubt many of them will remember the victories won in the lives of thousands of people during the East Tennessee Crusade.

RICHARD L. LOVE

Key ’73: New Resources For Evangelism

Some fifty church leaders christened a promising new effort in evangelism “Key ’73.” The biblically oriented, interdenominational thrust has its sights set on 1973 as a special year of evangelistic emphasis throughout the continent.

A corporation is being formed, a secretariat is being established, and a national coordinator is being sought to implement agreements reached in St. Louis last month at the latest in a series of meetings of top churchmen.

Key ’73 aims to let each participating group (church, denomination, or organization) work out its own evangelistic program, but will seek to develop resources, share information, and undergird the effort with national advertising. There are to be separate “task forces” for congregations, public proclamation, small groups, the media, literature and the arts, and creative evangelism.

So far, the loosely knit Central Committee of Key ’73 has officials from thirty-four Protestant denominations, seven independent evangelical organizations, and three evangelistic associations. Included are large denominations (United Methodists, the three largest Lutheran communions in America, American and Southern Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Christian Churches and Churches of Christ) as well as smaller groups ranging from Pentecostal and Holiness to Mennonite and Friends. This is the first time such a wide spectrum of American Protestantism has agreed to cooperate in an evangelistic effort on a national scale.

A fifteen-member executive committee headed by Dr. Theodore A. Raedeke of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is leading Key ’73 preparations. Office space being leased in St. Louis will be ready for occupancy by September 1.

Key ’73 grew out of a series of informal meetings among evangelical churchmen. The initial stimulus was an editorial in the June 9, 1967, issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY entitled, “Somehow, Let’s Get Together.” Evangelism was given priority at an early stage of the discussions and has dominated all the proceedings.

Raedeke has been primarily responsible for the organizational development of Key ’73 while the Reverend Joe Hale of Nashville has prepared an ideological platform. Hale is a convert of a Billy Graham crusade who serves on the United Methodist Board of Evangelism.

The first stated objective of Key ’73 is “to confront every person in North America more fully and more forcefully with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

DAVID KUCHARSKY

‘Cross And The Switchblade’ Suffers Schizophrenia

It’s an evangelical natural: a full-length feature film based on David Wilkerson’s best-seller, The Cross and the Switchblade. The story of his work among teen-age gangs in the fifties is well known in church circles. Now the film version, with the teen-age idol of the fifties, Pat Boone, in the leading role, will be released this summer to local theaters (see October 10, 1969, issue, page 52).

A lot of money and work went into its production, and The Cross and the Switchblade could have been a great film. Unfortunately it suffers from being two films, one good and one bad.

The good film incorporates the acting and dialogue of Puerto Rican and black youth in New York City’s ghettos. The actors portray believable characters. They have believable lines, and though young, show themselves masters of their craft. Their story captures the rhythmic accents of inner-city culture. Their violent life style is immediate, now, real in 1970.

The bad film depicts adult interaction with the seething reality of ghetto life. The police come across as buffoons, running around like Keystone Cops. Boone’s Wilkerson walks his way through slum neighborhoods like a white knight with a razor haircut. His lines are simplistic: magic words attracting throngs of eager teen-agers, his acting only sporadically believable.

The bad film is tragic, for the essence of Wilkerson’s story is that God is alive and working in the inner city. Transformations from violent unbelief to humble, open belief should have come through as real, credible, and attractive. Some viewers—those who believe that “magic words” communicate a message—may miss this note of un-believability. For the most part, the film will probably not communicate the reality of God’s love to today’s movie audiences who happen to be young, hip, and, at least, honest about their unbelief.

JOHN EVENSON

Chaos At The Kirk: Pills, But No Miracles?

Uproar in the public gallery, distinguished foreign guests insulted, proceedings disrupted, three arrests, the prime minister confronted by jeering pickets, and a national newspaper accused of “biased, unfair, lying comment.” Any enterprising humanist might thus have made capital out of scenes at last month’s Church of Scotland General Assembly in Edinburgh, and added that if the protagonists were as Christian as they claimed to be, they didn’t love one another very much after all.

Last year a band of militant Protestants, taking their cue from Ian Paisley, who had crossed the sea from Ulster, succeeded in getting the opening session suspended when they cried outrage at the kirk’s reception of a Roman Catholic priest-guest. This year the target was three churchmen from the Greek Orthodox communion: the patriarch of Alexandria, Nikolaos VI; Archbishop Methodios of Axum (Ethiopia); and Archbishop Athenagoras of Thyateira and Great Britain.

When the newly appointed moderator, Dr. Hugh O. Douglas, began to welcome them, eight protesters in the gallery held up cards spelling out “No POPERY.” Douglas suspended the session in the ensuing outcry and with his guests left the chamber to fifteen minutes of confusion. Led by Paisley’s Scottish colleague, bearded pastor Jack Glass, the Bible-brandishing protesters shouted texts, slogans, and abuse, and before they left showered leaflets on the heads of commissioners.

The Ethiopian Methodios graciously waved aside official apologies. “There are foolish people everywhere,” he said.

Criticism just as deeply felt was expressed in the scheduled program when the assembly discussed the Moral Welfare Committee’s report. This “reluctantly concluded” that in certain circumstances contraceptive pills ought not to be denied to unmarried women. Pre-assembly publicity had brought accusation from a newspaper (edited by a prominent evangelical) that “those permissive churchmen” would want next to abolish marriage. “Utter rubbish!” snorted the Reverend John Peat, committee convener, claiming that his report contained one of the most penetrating, positive, and powerful defenses of marriage ever penned.

Some were not convinced. “Feelings of deep distress, shock, and even outrage have been stirred by what the committee has said,” declared the Reverend James Philip of Holyrood Abbey church. A blistering attack came from the Free Kirk Assembly, which was meeting fifty yards away from the national church’s (with whom it has no fraternal exchanges). The pill decision, said the Reverend Hector Cameron, convener of the morals committee, would bring “considerable peace to many a licentious heart” and provide “a proliferating stimulus to the type of calloused womanhood which figured so prominently with the collapse of many great civilizations that went before us.” People would be thrilled to get the impression that the church nowadays was not too hard on a fellow’s or a girl’s little weaknesses, he added.

Another feature of the assembly this year was the first-ever appearance of a woman as Lord High Commissioner—the queen’s representative. In her address Miss Margaret Herbison, formerly minister of social security in the Wilson government, contrasted the “searing poverty” in developing countries with the vast expense of putting men on the moon.

The assembly also: turned down a proposal to replace the King James Version by the New English Bible, but commended the latter for use in public worship; approved a permanent invitation to the Roman Catholic Church to send a representative to the assembly; and received a report showing a decrease in membership over the year of 23,499. (Over the past ten years the kirk has lost 128,000 members.)

The latter point may have been in the mind of the Reverend Murdo Murray when he gave his moderatorial address at the closing of the Free Kirk Assembly. Many ministers in Scotland, said Murray, are total strangers to the Gospel. “It is sad to think of Scotland’s churchgoing people being fed with teaching of men who have openly declared that they do not believe in miracles.”

J. D. DOUGLAS

New Religious Landmarks

Have a yen for vacation travel and a bent for viewing historical landmarks? This summer, enterprising vacationers can tour twenty-two churches and religious buildings in the United States that have just been designated as National Historic Landmarks by Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel.

Each building designated, on recommendation of the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments, will be eligible for a bronze marker and inclusion in the National Park Service’s list of historic landmarks. Many of the structures are still in daily use; they will remain under private ownership. Caretakers are pledged to preserve the buildings’ original architecture and to make them available to visitors.

The new additions to the list of National Landmarks are:

FROM THE RUSSIAN COLONIAL PERIOD—Russian Orthodox Mission Church, Kanai, east shore of Cook Inlet, near Anchorage, Alaska. The Russian Orthodox Church within Fort Ross State Monument, California (erected in 1828). A rare example of a log church constructed on the “vessel” design.

FROM THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD—Church of the Holy Family, Cahokia, Illinois (1786). An unusual example of upright log construction.

FROM THE ENGLISH COLONIAL PERIOD—Christ Church (Episcopal), Alexandria, Virginia (1767). The parish church of George Washington, who was a regular communicant and whose pew, along with that occupied by Robert E. Lee, is preserved. Bruton Parish Church (Episcopal), Williamsburg, Virginia (1712). Restored and preserved by Colonial Williamsburg. Single Brothers’ House, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (1768). The earliest major building preserved in the Moravian community of Old Salem. Christ Church (Episcopal), Philadelphia (1727–44; steeple added in 1754). Attended by many of the republic’s early leaders; an outstanding example of Georgian architectural dress. Pompon Hill Chapel, St. James’ Church (Goose Creek), St. James’ Church (Santee River), St. Stephen’s Church, all in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina (eighteenth century). Well preserved Episcopal churches, described as “superb examples” of the design and architecture of the time. Yocomico Episcopal Church, Westmoreland County, Virginia (1706). “An early, rare, and excellent example of the small, traditional country church that includes elements of both medieval and Georgian architecture.”

FROM THE SPANISH COLONIAL PERIOD—Cathedral of St. Augustine, St. Augustine, Florida (1797; restored after a fire in 1887). Considered to be the finest parish church surviving from Spanish Florida. St. Catherine’s Island, ten miles off the Georgia coast in Liberty County. One of the most important Spanish mission centers in the southeastern United States from 1586 to 1684; later became the home of Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. El Santuaria de Chimeyo, San Estvavel del Ray Mission Church, San Francisco de Assisi Mission Church of Taos, and San Jose de Gracia Church of Taos County, all in New Mexico (late 1700s). Mission Concepcion, San Antonio, Texas (founded in 1716; restored in 1887). One of the oldest buildings in Texas; in regular use as a Catholic parish church since its restoration.

FROM THE MEXICAN PERIOD—Three California missions: La Purisima Mission (Santa Barbara County), San Diego Mission Church (San Diego), and San Luis Rey Mission Church (Oceanside, San Diego County).

GLENN EVERETT

Muzzling Atheists

“Universities today are teaching atheism,” said opera singer Jerome Hines. Because “by every standard atheism is a religion,” he continued, the teaching of atheism should be prohibited on the campuses of universities and colleges receiving federal funds.

Hines announced that he hopes to find a suitable case next fall to institute a legal suit. “Injunctions will be entered.… It could be an anthropology professor, perhaps a psychology professor.” His remarks came unexpectedly during a brief announcement time at the end of a New York meeting of the Fellowship of Christians in the Arts, Media, and Entertainment May 24. There was no discussion.

The singer amplified his comments to a reporter later, saying that he is now enlisting support for his plan. He said he expects to meet with the same group in September to discuss strategy for the suit.

When informed of Hines’s announced intention, Dr. C. Stanley Lowell, associate director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, agreed that Hines had a “point in theory.… If you can attack one [teaching religion], you can attack the other” [teaching atheism]. But in Lowell’s view, it would be hard to pinpoint “overt, open teaching” of atheism for a clear-cut case, and Hines’s chances of winning such a suit would be slim.

In the celebrated Madalyn Murray O’Hair case, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that a required devotional ritual in public grade schools was unconstitutional. Hines’s issue, on the other hand, strikes at the tradition of academic freedom for all points of view (including Christian), and the protection in the Bill of Rights articles on freedom of expression.

Expressing alarm over Hines’s announcement, several leading evangelicals contended that a legal precedent limiting freedom of expression in the classroom would harm Christian witness there, and that even filing such a suit would identify evangelicalism with repression and obscurantism. Some others, however, said that if the suit is filed and loses, the ensuing climate might allow greater freedom for evangelicals who now feel restricted in teaching from their religious commitment.

Summer Service

Scores of students have put down pens (and perhaps protests) for a summer of missionary service. Nearly 800 Southern Baptist young people will serve around the world, sixty-nine of them in twenty-three foreign countries, including South Viet Nam. Eleven Barrington (Rhode Island) College students will go to seven countries.

Their ministries will vary. Some skilled in foreign languages will do personal evangelism; others will work in hospitals and gospel broadcasting, take inventories, or apply their brawn to cleaning and building chores.

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