England Awaits the Word

An English university survey suggests that the national decline in institutional religion seems to have been offset by the growth of “superstitions,” and by the rise of a large number of cults such as spiritualism, theosophy, scientology, and the flying saucer movement. Since these findings were publicized, further headlines are being made by Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are currently launching intensive campaigns to win the 616,000 population of industrial Manchester.

Earlier this year the British Broadcasting Corporation screened a devastating commentary on the present state of the Church of England. Reaction to it included outraged bellows from bishops who, according to evangelical sources, otherwise give no indication of feeling strongly about anything. Complained the bishop of London, “The program must have indicated to many viewers that the church was dead or dying.” “That,” responded one observer dryly, “is as near the prophetic as that particular prelate is ever likely to get.”

The church’s “unpaid bills” are seen perhaps in other ways besides the flourishing of cults. On any ordinary Sunday, according to one report, no more than 2 per cent of the English are to be found assembling themselves together in orthodox Christian churches. The decline is seen in other areas too. In 1965 the Church of England had twenty-five residential colleges, with places for 1,369 seminarians. This year the number of colleges will have been reduced by about one-third, with an even greater proportionate drop in the number of ordinands.

At present the Church of England is embroiled in a seemingly interminable wrangle regarding the scheme of merger with the Methodists. In 1969 the plan failed to obtain in the Anglican assembly the necessary 75 per cent majority, though top brass was solidly behind it. The rejection was taken by the archbishop of Canterbury, says his former press officer, “as a personal affront, and [he] retired for weeks into a practically paranoid depression, even considering the possibility of resigning.”

Despite earlier assurances, the hierarchy has not accepted the decision as definitive, and is still in divers ways trying to sell the scheme (see “Divisions in God’s Army,” News, August 6). Said the archbishop of York, Dr. F. D. Coggan, addressing the most recent general synod: “I think it is easier for God to forgive us any errors in the scheme … than it is for him to forgive a church which persists in disunity at the table of the Lord and which goes to the world weakened by that fact.” Since his progressive ascent from conservative evangelicalism (he was an early champion of the Inter-Varsity movement and wrote a book called Christ and the Colleges) the archbishop has not been foremost among those advocating Open Communion.

Coggan, now second-ranking churchman in England, then told the synod that continued disunity would confirm the skeptic’s taunt that Christians talk about reconciliation but do very little about it. But skeptical taunts are not after all so frequent these days; last year the British Humanist Association lost more than one-quarter of its members. The problem is not the atheist but the apathetic; not disunity but disobedience (the two latter terms are falsely assumed synonymous by professional ecumenists).

“England,” concluded the archbishop dramatically, “waits for an authoritative word from a united church.” No evidence is adduced in support of this preposterous claim. In any case, to merge ingredients of ailing Methodism with ailing Anglicanism will produce no potent antidote but merely a larger dose of the mixture as before.

It is sad that the energies of so many able men are being diverted into the writing of controversial tracts for the times. Perhaps it is pertinent to recall that the religious turmoil of seventeenth-century Scotland produced no book still remembered today but Rutherford’s Letters. When in those Covenanting days the saintly Archbishop Leighton was rebuked for not “preaching up the times” as everyone else did, he replied: “If all of you are busy preaching up the times, you may forgive one poor brother for preaching up Christ Jesus and his eternity.” This preaching of living truths for dying times, not any “authoritative word from a united church,” is what the world needs today.

Continual Reformation

What distinguished the Protestant Reformation from many previous attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church was the gradual recognition that it was not abuses alone that needed correcting: even at its best the Roman church was still in need of radical change. In response to the defection of the Protestants, the Catholics did in fact “reform.” Many of the most blatant abuses were corrected. This process has continued in spurts down to the present. But however welcome certain changes in Catholic practices may be from a humanitarian point of view, and despite major departures from traditional dogma on the part of numerous scholars, there is little evidence that the hierarchy and theologians of the Roman communion are moving toward the kind of radical change that the Protestant Reformers sought.

A basic charge against the Church in the sixteenth century was that it had become thoroughly worldly—in its government, its morals, and its way of conceiving the relation of men to God. That same charge, we believe, holds today. Instead of rushing to conform to the biblical pattern of life and proclamation, the “new” Catholicism is trying to make up for centuries of retreat from the ways of the world.

The Protestant Reformers were motivated by the desire—although they did not fully succeed—to bring the Church under the working authority of the Scriptures as the means to conform it to the will of God. Perhaps it is too much to hope for such a reformation to arise in the Roman church of our day. But then, who would have foreseen such sweeping secularization in that body as we have seen of late? Or for that matter, who predicted the rise of the sixteenth-century Reformers themselves?

Ivan Oversteps Himself

Twice during the past year the British government complained to Foreign Secretary Gromyko about Russian espionage activity in Britain. No reply was received to either letter. At a time, moreover, when commerce between the two countries was declining, there was a marked increase to more than 300 of delegates in the Soviet Trade Mission, housed in an imposing building near Karl Marx’s grave in north London. Commented an observer with typical English understatement: “Not all of them are dedicated to improving business between East and West.”

Last month the British decided that enough was enough. After the defection of a senior KGB man, ninety of his compatriots (embassy and trade officials) were ordered to leave the country within two weeks, fifteen more who were temporarily absent had their entry visas canceled, and the Russians were told that no replacements would be permitted. When Moscow threatened reprisals for acts “obviously provocative and hostile to the Soviet Union,” the British hinted that further measures might then be necessary.

For Britain to take such drastic steps (the 105 make up one-fifth of Russian representation) suggests that the spy network had assumed such extensive and grave proportions that it could not be ignored. This is a much needed slap in the face for the overbearing and all-powerful KGB intelligence service that in Western capitals overrides even Moscow’s official ambassador.

It is to be hoped that the British action will encourage other friendly powers to cease to tolerate the Soviet Union’s outrageous abuse of their hospitality for the sake of a few public smiles.

Would Red China Play Fair?

From the murky reports coming out of Communist China, it seems that an internal struggle for power may have occurred. If so, the consequences will not be fully known for some time to come. It is interesting and surely no accident that during this puzzling period Henry Kissinger announced he would make a second trip to Peking, to lay a firmer foundation for President Nixon’s forthcoming visit.

All this should be looked at in the light of the spy scandal in Britain. We can appreciate Mr. Nixon’s hope that a visit to Peking may help bring a measure of peace to the world. But the British experience should serve as a reminder that the Chinese Communists, like the Soviets, are all too likely to say one thing and do another. Their bloody record offers little hope that they will play fair. If admitting Red China to the United Nations and to the family of nations means that two great powers will be vying with each other in wickedness, then world tensions will certainly not lessen.

Perhaps we should pray that internal turmoil in Red China will force the cancellation of Mr. Nixon’s projected visit. He would then retain what values there may have been in offering to make the trip without tangling with the possible risks. But if the trip does come off, we will fervently trust that he will make no concessions on matters of principle.

… Good News Tonight

During the dark days of World War II, a radio newsman named Gabriel Heatter became a major morale booster for the American people with his nightly heart-to-heart commentary. He was best known for the words with which he often came on the air, “Ah, there’s good news tonight.”

Good news is still welcomed, including the good news that Christ offers salvation from sin. And evangelist Leighton Ford seems to have found an effective way to tell the eternal tidings in the context of what else is new. In his home city of Charlotte and in a growing number of other cities he has been appearing in one-minute television spots just prior to the network evening newscasts. The ratings are encouraging.

This is the kind of opportunity evangelicals must nourish. The more visibility that can be won for the Gospel through the secular media, the more Christians will be drawn out of the woodwork, so to speak, to share their faith at the personal level. The overall potential is greater than it has ever been.

Masking Life

Ghosts and ghouls, witches and warlocks conjure and careen once more in the masks that children wear at Halloween. Once called All Hallows Eve, Halloween celebrated and still celebrates, in Shakespeare’s words, “that time of year …/When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang/Upon those boughs which shake against the cold.”

Masks protect against the cold chill of life’s harsh days, and what children wear in fun to hide their true identity, the rest of us wear in earnest. Those ghosts and witches in our lives drive us to don masks, for honesty often hurts.

After Halloween is over and the candy collected, children remove their masks. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy for us to remove ours. But if we are to acquire the identities that God intends for us, we must become like little children and through Christ take off our deathly masks to see life.

No Succor To Suckers

We view with alarm the rush of state legislators to get into the gambling business. Massachusetts is the latest to cave in. This month its legislature overrode Governor Francis Sargent’s veto of a bill setting up a state lottery.

Sargent opposed the measure on administrative grounds. He could perhaps have rallied more support if he had also stated the moral case. If not, at least the lawmakers’ abandonment of moral guidelines would be “without excuse” in the face of the social decay that will almost certainly result from their action.

The voices being raised against more legalized gambling are pitifully weak. The masses seem dazzled by visions of a cheaply won fortune. Pressure is building up even at the national level. This month in Washington the House Judiciary Committee scheduled hearings on a bill to lift the ban against use of the mails, radio, and television to advertise lotteries.

Legalized gambling should be exposed for what it is: a form of regressive taxation that socks the poor—the most susceptible to pie-in-the-sky schemes. The rich do their gambling in securities, where the odds are vastly better.

The Green Lake Affirmation

How should evangelical missions relate to the churches they establish?

This is an acute question in a day when it is not uncommon for a missionary to see his converts promptly acquire more education than he has. By and large, the days of lording-it-over have ended.

Missions leaders meeting in Green Lake, Wisconsin, this fall gave the question a thorough airing, realizing that their answers may have an important bearing on the effectiveness of future ministries. A commendable statement called “A Green Lake ’71 Affirmation” came out of the meeting. And it was more than an affirmation, for it included a confession, an appeal, and an expression of thanksgiving and praise to God.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the statement is its admission that missionaries have tended “towards paternalism, authoritarianism and lack of trust in our relations with our Christian brethren.” The temptation may always be great to proclaim revealed truth in an arrogant spirit. It takes a mature, sensitive Christian to hold the ground on crucial doctrines without alienating those with contrasting insights. The complication of cultural differences may make it doubly difficult.

Sexual Fulfillment

Loose living is not what it is cracked up to be, even for those who escape the more overt undesirable consequences. Dr. Armand Nicholi, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, notes that young people are learning this lesson the hard way. “Sexual liberation and the easier opportunity for sexual gratification for today’s youth,” he says, “have not produced a lessening of aggression. For some reason it seems to have increased restlessness and discontent and conflict between the generations.”

Nicholi made this point at the two-day invitational scholars conference conducted in Chicago by the Institute for Advanced Christian Studies (see News, page 33). He quoted Freud, of all people, as having said back in 1912 that “it can easily be shown that the psychical value of erotic needs is reduced as soon as it becomes easy. An obstacle is required in order to heighten the libido.”

The Amish In Court

Among cases being heard by the U. S. Supreme Court in its current term are three involving the Amish. The court is being asked to decide whether Amish parents can be required to send their children to schools beyond the eighth grade and the age of fourteen. Representatives of the Old Order Amish in Wisconsin contend that to do so violates their religious convictions.

There is a great deal of sympathy for granting exemptions for the Amish. They are generally regarded as a quaint, harmless people who deserve to be left alone. It is difficult to see why modern sophistication should be imposed upon them.

But it is even harder to see what fundamental freedom of the parents is being violated. Religious convictions are not per se inviolable. Would parents have the right to keep their children illiterate? indeed, one wonders if the individual child’s right to secondary education is not being automatically denied by the parents. True, the opportunities for Amish teen-agers to leave their heritage will be greater if they begin attending public high schools. But the free choice will still be theirs.

No Christian parent approves all that is taught in public schools, but they are a necessary accommodation to our times. If compulsory education is constitutional, then there should be no exceptions on religious grounds. Those who do object to public education at this level on religious grounds still have the option of creating parochial schools and thus fulfill the constitutional requirements for their children.

Settling Educational Priorities

Which is more important to the Church, elementary and secondary or higher education?

Perhaps unfortunately, evangelical grass-roots support seems to be shifting toward parochial elementary education. At a time when Christian colleges are experiencing their worst financial crisis, many a man in the pew is ignoring their pleas and choosing instead to invest in the establishment of Christian day schools. Thousands of evangelical congregations all over North America have already started elementary education programs, and many more are considering the possibility.

The motives behind the establishment of day schools are not always the best. And it remains to be seen whether the evangelical community will be willing or able to maintain a great new volume of facilities in the years ahead. Yet it is true that public education is raising an increasing number of problems for Christian parents concerned about their children’s spiritual welfare.

The time may be at hand for thinking Christians to discuss these challenges face to face in an Evangelical Education Congress.

The Moral Of The Mindszenty Case

The arrival in Rome of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty, highest ranking Hungarian Roman Catholic, from his refuge in the American embassy in Budapest is a grim reminder of what life in Communist countries is like for prominent men who seek to follow Christ as well as Caesar. Here was a man who was forced to confess to crimes he didn’t commit back in 1949, who was released from prison by popular demand in 1956, but who because of Soviet armed intervention in the internal affairs of Hungary had to flee to the American embassy after only eleven days of freedom.

The ultimate defeat of Communism is in no way better revealed than in its refusal to allow Christians to have unfettered freedom to proclaim Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Were Communism really so sure of itself, it would have nothing to fear from unarmed believers in Christ. Perhaps the Hungarian government’s allowing the cardinal to leave suggests a willingness to come to better terms with the persistence of religious faith in an officially atheistic land. However, since the government did not repudiate his unjust conviction, we doubt that it is seriously interested in religious freedom.

Meanwhile those entrusted with the Gospel must use every moral means to communicate the message to peoples whose governments try to keep the truth from them. May the news of Cardinal Mindszenty forcefully remind us of our responsibility.

Dishonest Riches

Hardly a week passes without the exposure of some “well-to-do”—we say—man as a crook. Many persons whose money has led others to look up to them find they lose more or less of their popularity when it is revealed that they acquired their wealth through unsavory means. Yet they are often enabled to maintain a high standard of living; courts seem to have a way of being more lenient with men who steal millions of dollars than with those who steal only a few. One cannot help wondering how many other “respectable” pillars of the community could not bear an inquiry into how they or their ancestors acquired their wealth.

In the Epistle of James there is a strong word of warning to all who gain money dishonestly but, instead of being imprisoned, are rewarded with lives of luxury and pleasure (Jas. 5:5). James invites them to travel forward with him in time a few years and see themselves as they one day will be, unless they change. In that day their riches have become rotted, as revolting as spoiled food; their garments are no longer sumptuous and eye-catching but moth-eaten, repugnant (v. 2). It is not the possession of riches in itself that is wrong, but having obtained them through unethical means, such as denying fair compensation to employees (v. 4). But, unfortunately, in James’s time and in too many other times and places, so many of the rich had gotten that way dishonestly that James can speak as if all rich men were wicked (v. 1).

Besides being a warning to the dishonest rich, James’s words serve also as a rebuke to the rest of us when we let ourselves get overly troubled about the seeming triumph of injustice in this life. Evil-doers make the mistake of thinking they get away with it if they’re not caught by their fellow men. They forget that the ultimate judge is God, who has all the evidence. But those who don’t overtly steal can dissipate their energies in futile outrage and resentment. This reveals the same attitude as the crook’s, that what really counts is what takes place on earth in our lifetime.

This is not to say that Christians should be indifferent and take no action to uncover injustice. Indeed, Paul tells us not only that we are to “take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness” but also that we are to “expose them” (Eph. 5:11). Often sufficient evidence for exposure is not obtainable here on earth, however, or the offenses are so pervasive that society will not take action. At times like this, when the Christian is tempted to despair at the seeming triumph of evil, he needs to accept James’s invitation to look to a future time, when what men are will be truly and completely revealed. At that time those who are really “well-to-do” will be the ones in whom the Spirit of God has produced incorruptible treasures.

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