Living in a Valueless World

Centuries ago Aristotle said that the aim of education is to make pupils like or dislike what they should. There are some things men ought to like, and these constitute values that remain forever valid. In Western culture the Judeo-Christian heritage has always been the source of values. But today that value system seems to be losing its grip.

Professor Seymour Halleck of the psychiatry department at the University of Wisconsin has said:

In my opinion we are moving toward a crisis related to the manner in which values are generated and maintained in a changing world. As old values are attacked we are not creating new ones to replace them. There is a real danger that values of any kind may be losing their power, and that young people in particular may find themselves existing in a valueless world. There may be an inherent rightness in doing away with traditional values that seem irrational and cannot be justified. Yet if such values are indiscriminately destroyed before they are replaced by more rational values, our society will experience an unprecedented degree of chaos [Think magazine, Sept.–Oct. 1968, p. 6].

In days not very long ago certain values were accepted by most men. Such traits as self-reliance, honesty, truthfulness, sincerity, fairness, courtesy, altruism, honor, obedience, loyalty, and patriotism were highly regarded and widely practiced. Sneaks, bullies, cheats, bad losers, traitors, tattletales, busybodies, bad sports, and crybabies were looked down on. Bastardy, homosexuality, and fornication were regarded as outside the pale of decent society.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt fell in love with his wife’s secretary, Eleanor Roosevelt offered him a divorce so he could marry the woman. But in that day a divorce would have meant the end of his political career, and so the marriage was preserved. Not many years ago Nelson Rockefeller’s divorce caused him to lose his bid for nomination for the presidency of the United States. Today it would make little difference.

Senator Edward Kennedy, who was rusticated from Harvard for having someone else sit for one of his examinations, was later caught up in the Mary Jo Kopechne case at Chappaquiddick. Many people thought that politically he was through. Only a few years later, however, changing values leave him as one of the leading presidential candidates.

Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman wrote a best-seller (with the help of a ghost writer who recently sued to get some financial returns) entitled Steal This Book. In this instructive manual he describes in detail how people can get a free ride through crooked dealing. He tells how to get air travel without paying for it, for instance, and how to avoid paying a restaurant check. But the worst thing about the book is its wide sales. What it says about its author it implies about its audience. If Hoffman’s morally degenerate practices became universal, society would come to a standstill; every man would do only what was convenient and to his liking and immediate advantage.

Hoffman might shout “Right on!” to an article in a recent issue of Psychology Today in which Dr. Lawrence R. Zeitlin, an industrial psychologist, regards employee theft as “a motivational tool” and a “form of job enrichment.” “By permitting a controlled amount of theft,” he argues, “management can avoid reorganizing jobs and raising wages.” This is a purely pragmatic approach, uncomplicated by a sense of abiding right and wrong.

Bearing a child out of wedlock seems neither to have embarrassed Bernadette Devlin nor to have affected her political career. Daniel Ellsberg won acclaim for stealing and shamelessly reproducing the Pentagon papers. Young people have been cheered for burning draft cards, bombing draft-board offices, defying the police, and trashing the city of Washington. The disheartening list could go on and on.

In The Abolition of Man C. S. Lewis clearly shows that values cannot be created: they can only be discovered, for they are part of ultimate reality. He scores the decline of true values and claims that to negate these values threatens to bring about the abolition of man himself. “If nothing is obligatory for its own sake,” he says, “nothing is obligatory at all.”

When true values go, civilization collapses. Internal moral rot can do to a people what no external force could accomplish. What is urgently needed today is a recovery of true values. As we approach the Thanksgiving season, however blessed we may be materially, we will be devoid of what we really need unless we recapture the ethical undergirding of the Pilgrim fathers and once again embrace for ourselves and teach our children the real values that make up a good life. And the best way for this to come about is through a spiritual reawakening.

The Children Of God

The “Children of God” are a burgeoning sect of young Christian radicals who may be making more enemies than converts (see News, page 38). But they must be taken seriously.

The controversial Children deserve to be commended for their commitment to all-out discipleship, their love for one another, their feeding of the poor, their attempt to follow Scripture, their dedication to evangelistic outreach. The drug-cure rate among those who stay seems to be close to 100 per cent. Many Children are lovable young believers who seem to be sincerely pursuing what they believe are the ideals of New Testament faith.

There is little or no evidence to support some of the criticisms leveled at the Children: that they are Communists, that they practice mass hypnosis and use drugs, that they hold converts captive against their will.

But there are saddening, objectionable elements in the Children’s beliefs that can only damage the cause of Christ. Their teaching that theirs is the only valid life style if one is to be a disciple is to be rejected as unscriptural and divisively exclusivist. The prime basis of their claim is Acts 2:44, 45—“And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.” But this is merely a description, not a command. The Holy Spirit beckons believers to live as disciples within the context of many vocations and styles, to develop God-glorifying attitudes toward possessions and work. The Children’s narrow views, tinged with spiritual pride, are splitting the Jesus movement and confusing many young people whom God may be calling to another kind of life. If the Children claim a singular obedience they are simply revealing their lack of a sense of history.

Admittedly, many church members may not have shown the Children much about true discipleship; but this does not justify the Children’s insistence that local churches are not in God’s plan and must be dismantled.

The Children’s tendency to bend the Bible to fit their own whims smacks of cultism and leads to dangerously blind spots in crucial realms of life. They presumptuously accuse Paul of having been out of God’s will whenever he worked at tent-making. (No one has yet suggested this of Christ, who during his “silent years” presumably worked as a carpenter for pay.) The Children need to be more honest in their use of Scripture. A greater understanding and appreciation of hermeneutics would help.

A dual code of ethics seems to prevail among the Children’s leaders. Four-letter street vulgarities are common, and often used (sometimes on allegedly biblical grounds!) for shock value. Procurers frequently evade the truth in their approaches to businessmen. Some leaders justify lying, stealing, and cheating to rip off Satan’s “system.”

The Children’s regimented training program that stresses “security” and unquestioning submission to elders lends itself to brainwashing techniques and inhibits the dynamic spontaneity of the Spirit. One result is that some Children seem more devoted to their cause than to Christ.

The alienation cited by many parents and other outsiders who have had dealings with the Children stems in part from a pressured conditioning (chants, songs, lectures) that unduly stresses the “hate” of Luke 14:26 (“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple”) and the need to hate the “system.” Children tend to confront the world along the judgmental lines of Old Testament prophets rather than in the New Testament spirit of love.

We hope that the Children of God will come to a wider acceptance of the Body of Christ, and that they will adhere more closely to the “truth-in-packaging” mandates of the New Testament. It is not hard to understand the appeal that the Children of God movement has for many young people who have emerged from a drug culture or who are fed up with overemphasis on materialism and an establishment system that is top-heavy with bureaucracy. Many of the Children have come out of the dregs of evil with scars. Some Children of God leaders are more culpable. Many of them have been in—and out—of various Christian movements for years. When the charisma of and enthusiasm for the latest expression of experiential religion wane, they seem to cast about for a new “high” to rejuvenate the high-pitch zeal so necessary to keep their leadership role unchallenged.

Nevertheless, we also hope that those in the churches will not shut their doors or ears—or hearts—to the Children but will act out of compassion. Those who are sincerely misguided deserve an extra measure of patience and tolerance.

On Concentrating Energies

A one-year-old citizens’ lobbying group that is generally acknowledged to have had some success in influencing legislators’ votes recently offered a set of principles to account for its accomplishments when many similar organizations are mired in futility. Some of the principles could serve as guidelines for those who are “lobbying” to persuade men to vote for Christ as Saviour and Lord.

The first principle called for “full-time, continuing effort.” Enthusiasm that waxes and wanes is sufficient neither for winning votes in Congress nor for obeying properly our commission to proclaim the Gospel. The second principle is “to limit the number of targets and hit them hard.” In contrast to many Christian groups, this citizens’ lobby doesn’t take positions on some topic just to declare itself, nor does it carry on education just for the sake of education. It takes stands only on issues that it intends to fight through to a conclusion. Many Christians, both individually and in groups, take on far more tasks than they can properly handle. How much better to carry on a few ministries well than many inadequately! Elsewhere in this issue it is recommended that congregations feel free to specialize in those activities for which they are best fitted rather than try to maintain a token effort in every area (page 12). Good advice.

A final principle of the citizens’ lobby that is especially relevant for Christians is the need “to organize for action.” The explanation is worth quoting—let those who have ears to hear ponder its application to their Christian associations: “It sounds so obvious. But it so often doesn’t happen. Many groups talk of action but are essentially organized for study, discussion, or education. Still others keep members busy with organization housekeeping, ego-gratifying committee chores, internal politics, and passing of resolutions.”

Our Lord himself said that in certain matters “the sons of this world are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light” (Luke 16:8). Surely we have just been considering an example of secular wisdom from which the Church can learn.

Confronting Church Lobbyists

A commendably forthright letter signed by nineteen Presbyterian congressmen questions whether it is wise and proper for church bodies to make political pronouncements.

The letter declares: “As Presbyterians currently serving in the United States Congress, we wish to express our concern that the deliverances of the 183rd General Assembly (1971) of the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. and certain statements and actions of officials of that body are being interpreted as religious doctrine of the Christian faith or moral dogma of the Presbyterian denomination.”

They called such interpretations “inconsistent with the belief in the personal and direct relationship between the individual and his God” and “offensive in view of the traditional separation between Church and state in our land.”

The letter was sent to Dr. William P. Thompson, United Presbyterian stated clerk, and to the editor of the Presbyterian Layman, which published the full text in its October issue. In July, at the direction of the General Assembly, a luncheon was held in the Capitol for the purpose of presenting Presbyterian congressmen with copies of the General Assembly’s pronouncements. The congressmen’s letter expresses the view that such lobbying is highly dubious activity.

“As public servants who are also Presbyterians,” the letter states, “we belong to different political parties and hold divergent philosophies on questions of public policy relating to the political, economic, social, and international issues of the day which the temporary occupants of the hierarchy of our Church feel constrained to address. We acknowledge that our divergent views on temporal matters often spring from common spiritual and religious convictions and question that our political differences make us any less Christian or Presbyterian.”

We join the congressmen in petitioning church leaders “to concentrate more on the issues which unite us as men of good will seeking personal salvation, and less on those conceits which divide us as partisans on transitory issues.”

The Facts Of (New) Life

Hariette Surovell, a sixteen-year-old student in Queens who is a member of the High School Women’s Coalition, works for her beliefs and gets things done. In an article in the New York Times entitled “Most Girls Just Pray,” she describes the ways in which she is working to combat misinformation or lack of information about contraception. Her revealing report on the knowledge most high-school girls have about reproduction seems to give validity to some sex educationists’ cause. But she concludes with this:

It is obvious that the answer to this problem [of unwanted pregnancy] is not to tell the teenagers to stop having sex. The solution is that we be taught methods of birth control and where to obtain contraceptives. This does not mean that every teenager must use birth control. If a girl wants to get pregnant that should be her option [New York Times, October 1, 1971].

C. S. Lewis remarked, more than once, that in this age it is impossible to convince an unregenerate person that premarital sex is sinful until you convince him that Christ is who he says he is and therefore demands our allegiance and obedience to his laws. Rather than merely wagging our heads over and fingers at promiscuous young people, let’s try to forward God’s facts of life more effectively.

The ‘Local’ Vote

We are realizing that although we have local elections, there are, strictly speaking, no local issues. The problems that plague New York’s Manhattan ultimately effect Kansas’—and vice versa. Honesty and responsibility in government, the ecological and economic challenges, these are at the heart of all the political contests waged the past few weeks at city, county, and state levels across America.

It is unfortunate that local elections have taken such a back seat to balloting on a national scale. Many of our problems are such that if we tackled them more energetically and realistically within our communities, the overall picture might not be nearly so bleak. But we choose to pass the buck up higher—and then complain about the results.

Bringing Peace To Ulster

The informal war between Ulster and Ireland continues unabated. Thousands of British troops guard the embattled region as more people die needlessly.

The great contradiction in this conflict is that while both the Protestants and the Roman Catholics profess to be Christian, neither side seems to live up to that profession. If people who profess Christian principles cannot resolve their differences in the Spirit of Christ, motivated by the law of love, what hope is there for an end to strife between those who do not accept these principles?

One of the marks of Christianity is its ability to transform men so that they are reconciled not only to God but also to one another. As the Christmas season dawns and we celebrate the birthday of the Prince of peace, it will be an anachronism for Ulster and Ireland to remain at loggerheads. Certainly the time is ripe for those who really love Christ to get together, Protestant and Catholic, and work out a settlement. Nothing would do more to prove to a skeptical world that Christianity is a live option and a peace bearer in a strife-torn world.

On Parking Your Intellect

Don’t try to understand God. This is poor advice that comes all too regularly from some well-meaning and otherwise intelligent Christian believers. Some put it this way: “If God were small enough for our minds, then he wouldn’t be big enough for our needs.”

The statement is a non-sequitur that presumes mental satisfaction not to be among mankind’s legitimate needs. It is also a disappointing apologetic. It stems from an unwarranted concession to skepticism, and is a weak counterattack against the argument that biblical faith is rooted in irrationality.

Such a defense is unnecessary. Nobody asks to know all there is to know about God. The intellect merely seeks enough understanding to fulfill the desire that He himself created within us.

Except for lazy people and those who insist upon looking for him only on their own terms, God can be adequately understood. That’s why he has revealed himself in the written and the incarnate word.

The Compassion Pace

For nearly a decade the world has been bathed in a Niagara of talk about Southeast Asia. Yet in this same time relatively little private initiative has been expended to aid suffering Asians. Most people are content simply to press for the kind of solution that would disengage the rest of the world from the continuing problems there. Never mind, for example, that it may be many years before Southeast Asia has anything like a half-decent amount of medical care.

It is good to note that evangelicals are again in the forefront in looking out for the physical as well as the spiritual needs of that part of the world. Next year, World Vision plans to construct a $500,000 hospital in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. It will open with at least one hundred beds and will be the first Protestant institution in that land. The Christian and Missionary Alliance, which has served in most parts of Southeast Asia longer than any other group, will administer the hospital.

The venture obviously involves risks, but as an expression of Christian compassion it will pay eternal dividends. May it also prod concerned people everywhere to join in voluntary action to alleviate Cambodia’s needs.

Spiritual Copout

Passing acquaintance with the lives of Christian saints may give one the impression that these people somehow attained a quality of life that eludes the rest of us. But biographers tend to accent the victories of their heroes and underplay the defeats. While it is important to stress what life in Christ ought to be, we need to realize that few if any reach this ideal this side of the grave.

David the sweet psalmist of Israel was a man after God’s own heart. Yet his pilgrimage was uneven; his problems were many, his defeats (including adultery and murder) epochal. We tend to read David’s psalms looking only for expressions of faith, confidence, and victory. We miss the marching beat of anxiety, fear, vacillation, the desire to escape or run away.

In Psalm 55 David cries out: “I am overcome by my trouble. I am distraught by the noise of the enemy.… My heart is in anguish within me, the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me.…” This is no picture of a conquering hero. Here is a finite human being, perplexed, anxious, and fearful. He has not appropriated the resources available to him. He is hanging on grimly.

In a passage that could be taken to be a product of our own day, David expresses his desire to run away from his problems, to find release by what is currently called copping out. He exclaims: “Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; yea, I would wander afar, I would lodge in the wilderness, I would haste to find me a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.” But there was no place to go.

In this extremity David said: “I will call upon God.” He could not know whether God would remove his difficulties, but he did believe that God would hear him and would give him the endurance he needed. So his despair gives way to hope, his lament to a song of expectancy. He sings out: “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.”

We all have moments of darkness and fits of despondency. So have all the saints through all the ages. This is part of life and helps to prepare us for that glorious moment when the deliverance and the rest we crave will finally come.

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