Policy Problems at the N.C.C.

The conflict between the Jews and Arabs in the Middle East was transported last month to the floor of the 252-member governing board of the National Council of Churches in Minneapolis. Amid the politely restrained verbal pushing and shoving between Arab sympathizers and Israeli backers, a large woman suddenly appeared at a microphone, clutching the small steel shell of a cluster bomb. Joan Bordman, a church social-action worker from California, said that she had just come from a visit in southern Lebanon, where she had seen the civilian devastation and suffering caused by American-made cluster bombs dropped from Israeli warplanes. She described what happens when a child picks up an unexploded shell and when a farmer accidently steps on one.

From then on, it was no contest. The fewer than 100 delegates who had remained for the final session of the three-day meeting at Westminster Presbyterian Church overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that was highly critical of Israel’s use of the bomb in its recent invasion of Lebanon. It was the first time the ecumenical body singled out Israel by name in a statement of censure, according to several NCC spokesmen.

The controversy began when United Presbyterian Eugene Crawford, identified as an American Indian leader from Chicago, introduced a resolution “on the illegal and inhuman use of U.S. arms by Israel in its recent massive invasion of Lebanon.” The proposal said that several thousand civilians “were wantonly killed, mutilated, and maimed” by the “indiscriminate” use of U.S.-made anti-personnel weapons, and it declared that America “shares in the moral responsibility for their illegal use.…” The measure called on Congress to stop furnishing the weapons to Israel and to insist that Israel abide by a U.S.-Israel arms agreement specifying that the cluster bomb must not be used except in “full-scale war and against well-entrenched emplacements.”

The paper was submitted to the governing board’s reference committee, which emerged with a substitute proposal that softened the references to Israel, called on the U.S. to stop furnishing anti-personnel weapons “to any country,” and asked for a halt in production of cluster bombs and similar weapons.

Orthodox delegates, especially those with Middle East roots, held out tenaciously for the original resolution. The final version that the board adopted incorporated the entire original motion and the operative section of the substitute. Some NCC leaders privately expressed fears that the resolution might disrupt the NCC’s relationship with the Jewish community. However, both NCC president William P. Thompson, the top executive of the United Presbyterian Church, and NCC general secretary Claire Randall said they did not believe Jewish-Christian relations would be impaired by the board’s action.

But even as the two NCC leaders shared their optimism with reporters at a closing press conference, Rabbi A. James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee in New York was polishing a hastily drafted statement lambasting the board’s “unfair, unbalanced, anti-Israel resolution” that would deny Israel “a vital means to protect her security.” Rudin, an official observer at the board meeting, conferred by telephone with his boss, Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, and secured his endorsement of the angry rejoinder. Rudin complained that the resolution omits any reference to Arab terrorist attacks against Israel citizens.

The delegates faced a full agenda. Proposed policy statements on Indian affairs, energy, and broadcasting were discussed during “first readings.” The papers will be refined and undergo a second reading and action at the November session of the board, which meets twice yearly. A long-awaited background paper on the ethical implications of genetic research was entered into the record and referred to member churches for study. In a major address, Congressman Donald Fraser, a Minnesota Democrat, called on the NCC for solid backing of the disarmament cause. There was group Bible study, a first for the board, and the manager of the Holiday Inn across the street from the church permitted unprepared delegates to borrow Gideon Bibles from their rooms.

Cuban ecumenical leader Raul Fernandez-Ceballos also addressed the assembly. Declaring that there is “no contradiction” between the goals of religion and socialism, he said that Christians must work to free the church from its historic antipathy toward social revolution.

Muhammad Abdul-Rauf, an Egyptian and director of the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C., was introduced at the assembly as an official observer representing the Muslim community in the U.S., another first for the NCC. (Jewish observers have attended board meetings since 1971.)

Two former employees of the Hispanic Commission of the Episcopal Church took the platform to thank the NCC for helping to get them out of jail. The pair, Raisa Nemikin and Maria Cueto, were released in March after spending nearly eleven months in a Manhattan correctional center. They had been confined there for refusing to answer questions before a grand jury investigating bombings by a terrorist group. In an interview, the women told CHRISTIANITY TODAY that they had no direct knowledge of any crime. The reason for their silence, they said, was because investigators were probing beyond that point into areas of church counselor-and-client confidentiality and personal privacy.

Their presence highlighted a report of an NCC commission that had filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking for their release. The commission, chaired by Arie Brouwer, president of the Reformed Church in America, recommended that the NCC encourage the U.S. Justice Department to develop guidelines that would restrict the right of grand juries to force information from employees of religious organizations. The board acted favorably on the recommendation. Brouwer’s commission also urged that back pay be given to the two women by Episcopal headquarters, where there are mixed feelings about the pair.

The delegates approved a number of other resolutions. The measures:

• denounced Nazi activities in America and repudiated all anti-semitic teachings and activities.

• warned about the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan.

• supported the upcoming special United Nations session on disarmament and called for U.S. initiatives there, including a moratorium on the production of fissionable material for nuclear weapons, the announcement of a “no first-strike policy,” and a halt in development of new weapons systems.

• opposed any lobby-disclosure legislation that would infringe on First Amendment rights of churches.

In other actions, the board agreed:

• to keep official meetings of NCC agencies open to the public with only rare exceptions.

• to accept federal funds for a program to aid imprisoned Viet Nam veterans if and when such funds (rumored to be $500,000) become available.

• to create a task force to encourage churches and families to “regain control” of funerals from high-pressured commercial operators.

The proposed policy statement on broadcasting backs the right of religious organizations to purchase broadcast time from stations and networks, a change from the NCC’s traditional sole position that free time ought to be provided to religious broadcasters as a community service. The statement endorses that view as well.

The proposal regarding Indians urges the U.S. government to recognize “any lands, jurisdiction, and government properly claimed” by Indian nations, and to turn over additional land and resources to assure full economic development of those nations.

The proposed policy statement on the ethical aspects of energy sparked controversy over its virtual condemnation of nuclear power development in favor of all-out commitment to solar energy.

Sears, Roebuck: Accounts Closed

It is becoming increasingly clear that one of the best ways to deal with the problems of excessive violence and explicit sex on television is to confront the sponsors. And the people in the network board rooms and front offices are beginning to take note.

From Chicago last month came a clear message. Faced with pickets outside stores in several cities and a growing stack of protest mail, the huge Sears, Roebuck company announced its withdrawal of sponsorship of “Charlie’s Angels” and “Three’s Company.” A Sears spokesman said that the decision was made because the top-rated shows “don’t conform to our guidelines.” Additionally, more than 100 ads have been pulled from other shows, he said.

The pressure project against Sears—which reportedly spent $80 million on network advertising last year—was organized by the National Federation for Decency (NFD), a TV-monitoring organization based in Tupelo, Mississippi. NFD leaders expressed appreciation for the action taken by Sears, but they said it did not go far enough. Donald E. Wildmon, a United Methodist minister who gave up his parish to lead the NFD campaign, declared that his group will keep the heat on Sears until the merchandise giant issues a policy statement committing itself to family-oriented television. The company has not conformed to policy announced by Sears board chairman Arthur Wood in January, 1977, he alleged. NFD hopes to get one million Sears customers to cancel their charge cards in order to make the firm practice what it preaches.

Wildmon told reporters that an NFD survey in January found Sears to be the advertiser with the third-largest number of ads on shows containing explicit sex. The two largest sponsors—American Home Products and the Ford Motor Company—“are next—just as soon as we get through with Sears,” he said. Meanwhile, he added, those two firms “are sitting there looking at this thing.” (The “violence” section of the NFD’s findings came from research by the National Citizen’s Committee on Broadcasting, said Wildmon.)

Sears spokesman Wiley Brooks disclosed that his company has accepted an invitation to sit on a Business Advisory Council of the national Parents and Teachers Association, another group that has expressed concern about television programming. The PTA and the council will work together on TV matters, he indicated.

The philosophies of Sears “are basically the same” as those of the NFD and the PTA, commented Brooks. He added: “We recognize both groups as being very typical Sears’ customers in many ways, and we’re hoping our efforts with them will result in some good alternatives to networks and show concern among leading advertisers that we won’t put up with some of the shows now being aired.”

Concern For the City

How real is the professed new concern of evangelicals for a more “incarnational” approach to inner-city church ministry? A partial answer may have emerged last month in downtown Chicago’s Methodist Temple, where nearly 500 church executives, pastors, lay leaders, and students gathered for what was billed as the first “Congress on the Urban Church.”

The participants came from various denominations and churches in twenty-nine states and provinces. Among them were about 100 blacks and a smaller number of Hispanics. There were also 108 women, some of whom expressed displeasure at the unintentional but conspicuous absence of women from the roster of speakers and worship leaders. Four of the six plenary addresses were by black men.

The two-day event was sponsored by the two-year-old Seminary Consortium on Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE), a joint venture of several Midwest seminaries. Subject matter ranged from evangelism to the political implications of class oppression. On most issues, vocal participants displayed an unexpected degree of agreement despite cultural and ecclesiastical diversity (Mennonites to Calvinists). In some instances their oneness of attitude surprised each other.

During a question period following a spirited address by white sociologist Anthony Campolo, a black near the rear of the sanctuary publicly thanked him for his unexpected courage to speak out about political and commercial oppression. “It took no courage to say these things here,” replied Campolo, a teacher at Eastern College and associate pastor of an inner-city Philadelphia church. “What takes courage is to say them at City Hall and to state legislators and to corporation executives.” Campolo in 1976 nearly won election to the U.S. Congress by speaking up.

Conviction about Christian responsibilities to the city and to each other ran so deeply that SCUPE director David Frenchak scrapped his address on “A Strategy for the Future of the Urban Church.” He opted instead for a period in which blacks and whites throughout the sanctuary prayed spontaneous prayers of repentance, dedication, and intercession. (Frenchak’s address was to be published and mailed to the registrants.)

In the conference’s opening session, SCUPE board chairman Ray Bakke, pastor of Chicago’s Fairfield Avenue Baptist Church and leader of numerous city ministries, urged participants “in the name of the incarnate Christ, who became flesh and dwelt among us,” to “stop thinking that cities will be reached with impersonal or event-centered happenings or media crusades.” The Gospel, he said, “should deliver us from all forms of urban paternalism, imperialism, and racism.” Calling for greater identity with the urban masses, he observed wryly: “For many of us WASPs it has not taken the rapture to remove our churches from urban ministry.”

How can white Christians win blacks? Mississippi self-help architect John Perkins replied: “When blacks move into your neighborhood, don’t move out. Then you might get to know them and love them, and you’ll win them.” He chided evangelicals who move to the suburbs and then later travel into the city on literature-laden witness expeditions. Blacks, he indicated, would question the validity of the witness.

James White, a black pastor in New York City who will join the SCUPE faculty this fall, dealt with the need for developing black leadership in predominantly white denominations and churches. He wondered whether whites when talking up black leadership really mean instead black participation.

In a lighter vein during a worship service open to the public, evangelist-educator Bill Pannell exhorted his hearers to celebrate their common sense of mission and to enjoy being a community of “strange speckled birds” joined together from a wide variety of contexts. Like most of the speakers, he criticized the widespread current preoccupation with homogeneity of church units.

Workshops dealt with a wide variety of urban church concerns, including the challenge of changing neighborhoods, special ethnic and multi-ethnic approaches, unemployment, right and wrong ways to relate to social agencies, legal-aid matters, Christian education hurdles, and arts in the church. Among workshop leaders were urban church workers, teachers, legal consultants, urban-affairs specialists, and the like.

Many participants expressed hope that a year-round urban resource and information center can be established. SCUPE’s leaders will probably give that proposal careful consideration.

DAVID OLSON

Graham In Memphis

Heavy rain and severe-weather warnings bedeviled portions of evangelist Billy Graham’s eight-day Mid-South Crusade in Memphis last month. On opening night, the service was shifted from the Liberty Bowl stadium to the enclosed 10,000-seat sports arena next door. An estimated 15,000 persons could not get in and chose to wait in the rain in the stadium. Graham and singer George Beverly Shea slipped into the stadium during a break in the weather and conducted a service there, then returned to the arena for the main preaching rally. The rest of the meetings were held in the stadium, but Graham had to cut short the Friday night service when the weather bureau announced a storm and tornado alert. He preached for only ten minutes, but hundreds responded nevertheless to his invitation to follow Christ.

Attendance ranged from nearly 30,000 on opening night to more than 50,000 for the final Sunday service, held on a bright spring afternoon. Altogether, some 4,500 persons signed decision cards.

The evangelist spent part of one day at the Model Federal Correctional Institution preaching to nearly 1,000 prisoners on makeshift bleachers in the prison yard. Some of the prisoners were from the federal facility; hundreds of others marched to the meeting under tight security from a nearby county penal farm and a state prison. Under the shade of an ancient oak, Graham preached on John 3:16 and God’s love. An estimated 120 persons stood during the invitation period.

Also taking part in the prison service, which had been postponed twice because of rain, were Tennessee governor Ray Blanton and ex-convict Charles Colson, the former White House aide now involved in prison ministry.

Memphis, the home of the late rock king Elvis Presley and the place where civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, is a racially troubled city, according to some observers. Many in town, they say, were hoping the crusade would bring a measure of social healing. Some believe it helped.

Commented James L. Netters, a black pastor and crusade vice-chairman: “Billy has done everything he could. He has taken a strong position on racial issues.… I’m not altogether pleased with the amount of participation by the black churches, but we have more [black Christians] than we have ever had working shoulder to shoulder with whites.”

William B. Walton, vice-chairman of the Holiday Inns board and chairman of the crusade executive committee, said: “I see a softening of the wall of separation that has been up for so many years. It is coming down a little bit on the part of both whites and blacks. I see the beginnings of a revival.”

Power Struggle In Pasadena

“Off again, on again, begin again.” This line from a popular limerick aptly describes the bewildering changes and reversals in the Worldwide Church of God in recent weeks.

The church’s ailing eighty-five-year-old founder and “pastor-general,” Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA, as he is often referred to in church publications), stunned his constituents last month when he announced that Ambassador College in Pasadena, California, will close its doors at the end of the upcoming summer term, bringing to an end its thirty-one-year history. The declaration coincided with the announced resignation of Herbert’s son Garner Ted (GTA) from his various executive positions for the officially stated purpose of devoting his full time to radio broadcasting and writing. An aide later explained that the college would not close altogether but would become a slimmed-down ministerial training facility.

In another bombshell development, the elder Armstrong stated that GTA’s popular television program, “The World Tomorrow,” has been canceled. Coincident with the apparent demotion of Garner Ted was the elevation of Stanley R. Rader, HWA’s personal aide and the church’s long-time legal chief, to the church and college boards—and to their executive committees. Curiously, Rader had resigned from the boards and from his post as financial vice-president just three weeks after HWA relinquished the reigns of authority to GTA last January.

Rader in an interview emphatically denied rumors of a rift between himself and GTA or between the younger Armstrong and his father. However, John Trechak, a publisher of Ambassador Report, a journal dedicated to exposing moral and financial irregularities in the Armstrong organization, views the recent upheaval as evidence of a “massive power struggle” between Rader and GTA.

Following GTA’s decision to transfer the college to Big Sandy, Texas, in April (see May 5 issue, page 45), a quartet of church officials led by Rader met secretly with HWA at his home in Tucson to protest the move, according to informed sources. Citing $5 million in estimated moving costs and flak from already contracted Pasadena faculty, they convinced the elder Armstrong that his son’s decision had been ill-advised. HWA then overruled GTA and declared that the college would remain in Pasadena—but would be phased down to 250 students “in two or three years.” This number he considered optimum for attainment of the college’s goals to “recapture true values.” A few days later, though, he decreed that the college would be shut down completely.

Rader stressed that the alterations in no way reflect a financial crisis in the church. GTA aide Robert Kuhn stated that income is up 8.2 per cent over last year. In March, though, GTA advised employees that “severe cash flow difficulties” might require “the sale of additional assets” and the imposition of “an emergency special offering.” Annual budget cutbacks of $5 million, he said, were required in light of projected income.

With 1,127 students, a faculty of 177 (many of them part-time), and posh physical facilities, the beleaguered college was denied accreditation a year ago and has been the target of severe criticism at the hands of present as well as former students. In a March 10 letter to administrative personnel, GTA—who at the time was the church’s executive vice-president and Ambassador’s president—complained about conditions at the college. “Deep-seated emotions boil up within various dissident elements, to receive constant aid and comfort from vicious enemies of the church and college,” he wrote. He added: “An anonymous ‘student coalition’ makes obnoxious demands; theft is prevalent; violence against students; an attempted rape; burglaries and the like sully each academic year.” He spoke critically of the “sloppy” dress and unkemptness of the male students, along with “the attitude that usually accompanies such slipshod appearance.” He announced the formation of a faculty committee to deal with the problems, and he said the school would continue to press for accreditation.

Contacted by telephone after wire services had carried the news of the college’s closure, Rader stated: “It hasn’t closed. We have changed our format. We are shifting to a two-year residency program plus a sabbatical program for ministers.” The liberal arts college has been replaced by a ministerial training institute, he said, but the Ambassador College core will be retained. The new religious studies program, he explained, is designed for “the students who desire to be prepared for a functional role of service to the church.” It will have a maximum of 250 full-time and 100 part-time students and a full-time faculty of twenty-five plus part-timers. A liberal arts program “no longer fits the needs of the church at the present time,” he asserted. The college, he said, was originally intended to provide the church with an educated clergy, but limited church growth in recent years has led to the need of only a fraction of Ambassador graduates for this purpose.

When HWA outlined the revisions before a packed house at Ambassador Auditorium on May 13, he was, according to Rader’s description, in “good form,” apparently fully recovered from the near-fatal heart attack that forced him to the sidelines last August.

Rader branded as “false rumors” newspaper reports about the possible sale of the Pasadena campus to the University of Southern California and the purchase of the Big Sandy facility by the Mormon Church. The information in the stories was attributed to Rader. He did confirm that an unofficial inquiry about Big Sandy had been made by Mormon businessmen.

Sources close to GTA relate that despite Rader’s disclaimers the younger Armstrong is “depressed” over recent developments. Rebuffed in his efforts to discuss the issues with his father, he reportedly withdrew into seclusion at Big Sandy—and was not present at the final commencement exercises in Pasadena on May 15.

JOSEPH M. HOPKINS

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