Evangelicals ‘Up Front, Suddenly,’ in Uruguay

Uruguay, like most Latin American countries, has been in a state of turmoil in recent years, but you would never know it by walking down Montevideo’s bustling main street, the Eighteenth of July Street. Pushing, elbowing your way along the crowded sidewalk any night of the week, you encounter handsome, well-dressed couples, young and old, holding hands, stopping to window-shop, and lining up for movies, apparently as carefree as anyone anywhere.

It’s difficult to imagine that during the last decade or so, this country was torn by terrorist attacks, retaliation by the government, and then a take-over by a military regime which rules with an iron hand … shooting and arresting first and asking questions later. There has been a great amount of criticism of the military government. U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance declared in February that Uruguay was one of the three worst violators of human rights. The Organization of American States decided not to hold its next General Assembly in Montevideo because of the government’s human rights record. The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a church-related agency, charged that between mid-1972 and the end of 1977, over 60,000 Uruguayans had passed through the jails. That is one out of every forty-five residents. At least half of them, WOLA declared, were submitted to psychological and physical torture.

But you would never suspect this background by observing what seems to be a tranquil people concerned only with making a living and getting some pleasure out of life. What does seem believable is that Uruguayans are materialistic. Uruguay is said to have the third highest standard of living in all of Latin America. There is no poverty when compared with many Latin American nations. With the materialism there is atheism. A Gallup poll showed that 30 per cent claim to be atheist. Even religious holidays are known by secular titles. Holy Week is called “Tourism Week” and “Beer Week.” The day of the “Immaculate Conception” is called “Beach Day.”

The Roman Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant churches have lost influence, and there are some observers of the scene who say the reason is that the leaders got involved with the left-wing terrorists influenced by Communists from the outside. They say that when a priest or a preacher puts down his Bible and takes up a gun, he loses his right to spiritual leadership. And when religious leaders work for the overthrow of the government, they can expect the government to impose restrictions on them. During the violence, three U.S. embassy officials were kidnapped by the terrorists. One American was killed. The first ransom demand was not for money for the release of prisoners, but for a field hospital, an indication of the long-range plans. An American who was there through the turmoil says you have to understand the climate of fear that existed, in order to understand fierce government crack-down.

Emilio Castro, who was president of the Methodist organization in Uruguay and a leader of the ecumenical movement, had to leave the country because of his association with the Tupameros—the terrorists. (He is now a World Council of Churches executive in Geneva.) An evangelical missionary said the Methodists had over forty churches in Uruguay a few years ago, but that there are no more than twenty-five functioning now. He said attendance at Methodist churches is probably only 15 or 20 per cent of what it was a decade ago. Catholics have lost their leadership, too, for similar reasons.

Uruguay has lost moral leadership that would normally come from political leaders, also. Nobody wants to get involved in politics, and couldn’t anyway, because the military government will tolerate no opposition … from political parties, the press, or anyone. The government is containing terrorism, but providing little leadership beyond that.

Surveying the Latin American picture, evangelist Luis Palau and his team decided Uruguay was the place and April, 1978, was the time to test a concept of reaching and influencing an entire nation for Christ. Palau said, “We feel that there is such a vacuum of spiritual leadership in Latin America that it is the perfect time for evangelicals to move in and in the name of the Lord take nations for Christ.”

The motto for the Uruguay crusade was “Let All of Uruguay Hear the Voice of God.” To accomplish this, crusades were set up in six cities: Colonia, Paysandu, Rivera, Minas, Melo, and Montevideo. Before and during the crusades, there were 108 television programs and 661 radio programs. Almost every night, following the big rally, the evangelist had a half-hour live television program called “Palau Responds,” in which he answered telephone calls from viewers. One of the meetings in Montevideo was broadcast live to the entire nation on a network of thirty-one radio stations. Palau called it “just an overwhelming saturation, like I don’t believe any country has been saturated, ever. We’ve done a lot in other times and other countries, but never like this.”

The availability of radio and television time is one of the reasons Palau believes this is the day of opportunity for evangelicals in Latin America. A few years ago, evangelicals could not even dream of getting radio and television time, but the mass media are wide open now.

Along with the big rallies and the radio and television programs, Palau incorporated two unique features in his crusade: establishment of new churches and operation of family counseling centers. The goal was to open 250 new house churches. Through pre-crusade efforts, over 140 new house churches had been started. This was before Palau arrived for the crusade push.

The counseling centers were open during the day in each crusade city and supervised by team member Jim Williams. Many persons with problems would not go to the stadium, but they did go to the counseling centers. By the end of the Uruguay crusade, Williams estimated 600 persons had come to the centers for help.

Palau believes all of this had an impact far beyond the persons who attended meetings, or even the 8,000 who responded to invitations to accept Christ. Estimated cumulative attendance was 101,000. He believes the results will be felt for years. Existing evangelical churches have been rejuvenated and encouraged. Some churches are expected to double in size because of the new crusade converts. The churches have learned to work together, whereas they have worked separately in the past, local leaders said. And the evangelical image has been changed.

The evangelist remembers his boyhood days in Argentina when evangelicals were considered third class citizens and suffered from an inferiority complex. He says they were a “despised minority, treated as though they were nothing and didn’t amount to anything.” Part of his mission has been to show the non-Christian world that evangelicals are respectable people, intelligent people, up-to-date, and willing to question things. He believes the Uruguay crusade helped to change the image, so that middle and upper classes listened. In some cities he had luncheons with leading businessmen, and teas with the wives of community leaders. Members of the press sought him out for interview, which was a turnaround from the days when he had to try to find a reporter to try to get some news coverage. In Montevideo, a newsman told one of the crusade leaders: “You know, you people have always been in a little corner. What are you doing up front, suddenly?”

Another evidence of the changed image was the visit of the Montevideo Catholic bishop’s representative. At the beginning of the last meeting, the bishop’s secretary came to the little office used as a prayer room at the Sports Arena. He brought greetings and apologized for the fact the bishop was not able to attend crusade meetings personally. He said he was in favor of Palau’s work and hoped to attend meetings sometime in the future.

Palau and his team believe the Uruguay crusade is a good model to follow in other countries. They believe that if an entire country can be reached, so can an entire continent. While in Montevideo they took a day to plan strategy. They divided Latin America into three zones and assigned team members to each zone with a mandate to analyze the situation and to use all media to make sure every single Spanish-speaking person in all of Latin America has heard the Gospel by the end of 1980. They also tentatively planned a Congress on Latin America for 1980 in Guatemala City. It would bring together evangelical leaders from twenty-four or twenty-five countries, the United States, Canada, and Spain to coordinate plans for seizing spiritual leadership for the evangelicals.

Already, the Palau team is encouraging Latin American evangelicals to get into politics, education, business, and the media. In Montevideo, Bill Conard conducted a week-long journalism school and handed out ninety-seven diplomas. As a result, approximately fifty believers were forming a Christian Communications Fellowship, with specific goals for influencing the media. They are a start toward the new evangelical leadership Palau believes can emerge to fill the vacuum left by the government, the Catholics, and the liberal Protestants. He is convinced this is not just a dream.

Whether or not he is right depends on a number of things: whether Latin American evangelicals take up the challenge, whether the evangelical world supports the idea with prayer and finance; and whether the political situation waits. It may be a race against time. One of the sayings about those bright young people walking the streets is that they look forward to graduating and then migrating. If the government doesn’t provide some kind of future to fulfill their aspirations, the country could see another upheaval. Evangelist Luis Palau admits there is no time to waste, and he says, “It’s an exciting period, but you feel a little bit desperate that we may not be moving fast enough, or we may not have enough motivated people.”

Little to Celebrate In Czechoslovakia

This is a big anniversary year for Czechoslovakia, but Christians in that East European nation may not do much celebrating. Czechs are observing the thirtieth year since Communists took over after World War II and the tenth year since the Alexander Dubcek “Prague spring” movement was crushed by a Warsaw Pact invasion.

The sixtieth anniversary of Czech statehood is also being observed in 1978, but citizens look back on the last half of that national life as a particularly hard time for the churches. Communists have often given the religious community as much trouble as the Nazis in World War II. Since 1948 the Marxist authorities have held ecclesiastical leaders on short leashes, and few have ventured to cause any problems for the government.

President Gustav Husak’s visit to West Germany last month—his first trip to Western Europe since he took over after the Soviet-led invasion—caused some observers to wonder if Czechoslovakia might be planning to end its isolation from much of the free world. Husak went to Bonn to promote trade, but he was met by some reminders that Western church people are aware of his repression of religion. His government has, however, opened a dialogue with Roman Catholic authorities that has resulted in some changes for that church. While 70 per cent of the population of over 14 million is considered to be nominally Catholic, the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia is more tightly controlled by the government than most churches elsewhere in Eastern Europe.

Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek, 78, was formally named archbishop of Prague early this year after serving for years as apostolic administrator. The appointment to the long-vacant post indicates that the Vatican’s diplomatic contacts with the Communist government have produced some of the points it has been seeking. At the same time that the filling of the post of archbishop was announced, the Vatican announced creation of a new diocese of Trnava. This makes the ecclesiastical map correspond more closely to the political map. The appointment of a prelate of Tomasek’s age—despite the Vatican’s current policy of seeking bishops’ retirement at age 75—pointed up the age factor in the country’s clerical leadership. Only fifty to sixty priests are being graduated from seminary each year, according to a recent report in The New York Times. Many pastors are required to serve five or six churches since there is such a severe clergy shortage. Some former pastors are unable to function in churches because the government has banned them.

Although the church does operate two small seminaries, it is not allowed to sponsor other educational institutions. Thus the traditional recruiting ground for Catholic religious workers—the parochial school—is denied to the Czech church. According to the Times report, some priests have been seized in recent crackdowns on unauthorized private Bible classes.

The salaries of priests (and other ministers) are paid by the state, and men with more than twenty-five years of experience get as little as $120 a month, less than unskilled laborers. The government also controls the Catholic press. The result of all this stranglehold on the official apparatus of the church, said the Times article, is the emergence of a “network of so-called subterranean churches—a nether world of religious worship that is increasingly becoming the target of police surveillance and suppression.”

No Stadium Rites

Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu wants a certain amount of trade between his country and the United States, but he is not particularly interested in importing any American preachers. He made that plain during a state visit to Washington last month as he fielded questions at the National Press Club.

“Would evangelist Billy Graham be welcome to preach in Romania?” he was asked. In response, the Marxist leader recited Romanian church statistics and asserted that “citizens are free to perform their rites.” He then said: “If we reach an agreement with your government for Romanian priests to preach in stadiums here in the United States, so shall we allow that in Romania.” His comments prompted some laughter and applause from the luncheon meeting of journalists.

Ceausescu’s reply was in line with his other comments on human rights. He insisted that Romanians have equality and need no “outside interference” in their internal affairs.

While the Catholics have been having their troubles, spiritual descendents of fifteenth century reformer John Hus have also had their share of difficulties. A declaration signed by thirty-one lay and clergy leaders of the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren has recently reached the West, outlining the restrictions on religious freedom under the Husak regime. The appeal to the Czech National Assembly was published in New York in Religion in Communist Dominated Areas, a journal edited by Czech refugee Blahoslav Hruby. The signers’ denomination is the largest Protestant one in the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia and one of the largest of the Protestant groups in Czechoslovakia. It has 272 congregations with 240,000 members. The appeal specified, however, that just 5 to 7 per cent of them are active in congregational life. The document spoke of the decline of religious freedom since 1969 and said that while the violations cited were in the denomination of the signers, they are “of general validity.”

Ten areas of concern were mentioned in the declaration, but religious education of children was the one that best demonstrated the state’s tight control. “In 1969–70 approximately 10,700 children were registered in our church for religious education,” the appeal said. “Within six years that number declined to 575 children in 1976 in the entire area of Bohemia and Moravia. Not one single child from the twenty-one Prague congregations is registered. Also, the number of children attending Sunday school has dropped sharply, although not quite as tragically as in [weekday] school.” The document charged that children who are not members of the Socialist Youth League are denied opportunity for higher education. It said parents are not registering their children for religious instruction for fear they will be barred from secondary school and college.

The paper details a variety of methods that state authorities use to try to discourage parents from enrolling their children in religious courses. Often parents are summoned to appear before local government committees and asked to explain their reasons for wanting the students to take the courses. The youngsters themselves are also targets of campaigns to cut down on the religion enrollment. In one area, said the document, eighth graders were required to fill out a questionnaire with the following questions: “Do you believe in God? Why do you believe? Do you go to church? Do you decide yourself or do your parents force you to go? Does your grandmother force you to go? What do you say about the Pope’s blessing Hitler and his arms?”

Ecumenical activity of Czech Christians is also severely limited, the thirty-one signers of the declaration alleged. “Only the activity of the highest ecumenical organization—the Ecumenical Council of Churches—is permitted, “they said, “but [it is] controlled by the officials of the [state] Ministry of Culture. Other ecumenical efforts on the congregational and parish level, such as joint meetings with other churches, joint prayers, practical cooperation, are restricted and purposefully suppressed, with the exception of annual weeks of prayer and of the joint work on the translation of the Bible.”

Drafters of the appeal noted that Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren contacts with churches abroad were tightly controlled and that few members were allowed to participate. Czech authorities have frequently denied entry visas to foreign churchmen trying to visit the country. Even World Council of Churches general secretary Philip Potter “failed to obtain entry visa” for a planned visit, the declaration reported.

“It is encouraging,” said the appeal, “that the voices of freely elected representatives are still heard” on some occasions at denominational general assemblies. However, the paper pointed out that efforts by state authorities to manipulate assembly decisions “seriously violates the church’s autonomy.” Two denominational journals which “had published contributions which were regarded as attacks against the state system” were affected by “harsh financial sanctions,” said the declaration. Another magazine, one for youth, was discontinued by “a decision by the Ministry of Culture.”

Both the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren and the (congregationalist) Church of the Brethren are members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The WARC’s Geneva-based news service last month devoted a page in its dispatch to construction of a new congregationalist building in Bratislava. Members of the Modlitebna church, from children to the elderly, gave 200,000 hours of volunteer labor to erect the sanctuary that will seat 350. There are only 180 persons on the membership rolls, but assistance came from members of three neighboring congregations, and some financial help came from abroad, said the report. The WARC listed membership in the denomination, formerly known as the Unity of Czech Brethren, at 10,000 in thirty-one congregations.

Big Shift To Big Sandy

Television evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong announced last month that the undergraduate program of 1,100-student Ambassador College in Pasadena, California, will be shifted to Big Sandy in East Texas. The school was established in 1947 as the main educational wing of Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God (WCG). Garner Ted, 48, also announced that he was stepping down as president of the school but would remain as vice chairman of its board.

At one time the WCG had three college campuses, all sharing the Ambassador name. Then came leadership and financial crises in the WCG. A campus in England, opened in 1960, was shut down four years ago. Many of its 250 students were absorbed by the U.S. campuses at Big Sandy and Pasadena. The thirteen-year-old Big Sandy operation, which had a peak enrollment of 650 students, was closed last year and merged with the 800-student Pasadena campus.

Garner Ted said the move was based in part on a need to separate the physical plant, funding, administration, and other operations of the church and college. A major block to accreditation would thus be removed, he said.

Garner Ted told reporters that the church has suffered “an identity problem” in some quarters, with the church taking “a back seat” to the college. The move will help overcome the problem, he suggested.

WCG spokesmen said the decision was also based partly on a need to expand WCG headquarters and to develop a graduate school of theology, a marriage and family counseling center, and an expanded theological publishing endeavor.

Donald Ward, former dean at the original Big Sandy school, was named to the presidency of Ambassador.

The need for building up the church’s image has been underscored by sagging membership gains. In 1973 the WCG reported 7,000 new converts, but during the two years following a major schism in 1974, nearly 5,000 members were “disfellowshipped.” Gains achieved by the baptism of new converts were minor. The 1977 net gain was less than 1,000. No statistical statement has been published since May, 1976, when the WCG reported 65,000 members. Income for 1975 was set at $66.8 million.

Headquarters staffers are optimistic, however. Robert Kuhn, special assistant to Garner Ted, says free distribution of the WCG’s slick-paper magazine, The Plain Truth, has reached 600,000 in high foot-traffic locations (out of a total circulation of two million). Garner Ted, he points out, is rebuilding the radio and television ministry, which has slumped badly since 1975, when “The World Tomorrow” broadcast was aired from 500 radio and television stations worldwide. Armstrong is concentrating on fewer but bigger stations now. (The younger Armstrong has emerged as the chief spokesman and prime mover of the WCG since his father Herbert, 85, was stricken last year with a heart ailment.)

One WCG instant-success story involves the one-year-old Quest magazine, described as a sophisticated “human potential” journal published by the WCG’s Ambassador International Cultural Foundation, which Kuhn administers. The publication has soared to a $2-per-copy circulation of more than 400,000, including an overseas distribution of 100,000 copies, says Kuhn.

JOSEPH M. HOPKINS

Scientology: Matters of Law

Arthur Maren is out of jail—at least for now. Maren, 36, director of public relations for the Church of Scientology, was released last month from the District of Columbia jail, where he had spent seven months on contempt charges. The publicist was jailed last July 29 for refusing to answer questions before a federal grand jury that was investigating allegations of criminal activity by church members. Prosecutors contended that church members had infiltrated government agencies and illegally obtained confidential files pertaining to the church.

By law Maren could not have been held any longer than the grand jury’s term, which expired in mid-April. It was still uncertain late last month whether Maren would be hailed before a new grand jury. If he is required to appear, and if he still declines to answer questions, he may be sent to jail again.

Maren’s plight is part of a web of events going back to June 11, 1976. Late that night two Scientology members—Michael J. Meisner and Gerald Bennett Wolfe—were discovered inside the U.S. courthouse in Washington, D.C., in possession of forged Internal Revenue Service credentials. Wolfe eventually pleaded guilty to using the fake credentials and was sentenced to two years probation. Meisner, however, became a fugitive, then surrendered to federal authorities a year later. He told the FBI that his superiors at Scientology headquarters in Los Angeles had wanted him to stay in hiding. To enforce their decision when he showed signs of wavering, he said, they placed him under “house arrest.” They gagged and handcuffed him, he said, but he managed to “escape.” The authorities placed him in protective custody and grilled him (see August 12, 1977, issue, page 32).

Meisner said that he had been one of Scientology’s top five officials and that beginning in March, 1975, he supervised covert Scientology agents and activities within government agencies. He alleged that church officials had infiltrated the Internal Revenue Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the tax division of the Department of Justice in an effort to obtain documents about the church possessed by these agencies. (The controversial church and various government agencies have clashed on numerous occasions since its founding by L. Ron Hubbard in 1954, and the church has filed many Freedom of Information suits to find out what the government files say about it. Much of the material in the files is inaccurate and has resulted in violations of members’ rights, claim the Scientologists.)

A number of files were removed from government offices by Scientologists, copied, and then returned, according to Meisner. He told how Scientologists had bugged an IRS conference room in Los Angeles to eavesdrop on a discussion of strategy regarding the church. Meisner said that he had seen a transcript of that discussion.

(Scientology leaders denied that Meisner was ever a national official of the church, and they said he had been removed from membership in June, 1976, “after having blown his legally assigned” post in the church.)

Armed with the information that Meisner had provided, more than 100 federal agents raided Scientology offices in Los Angeles and Washington early last July and confiscated thousands of documents. Federal judge William B. Bryant, acting on a Scientology motion, ruled that the search warrant used in the Washington raid was illegal because it was too broad, and he ordered the confiscated documents to be sealed pending appeals. A Los Angeles judge issued a similar order, basing his decision on the Washington ruling. This meant that prosecutors were greatly limited in what they could show the grand jury.

In December, however, an appeals court reversed Bryant, saying that his opinion “ignores completely” restrictions put on the search and seizure by an affidavit that accompanied the warrant. In its thirteen-page opinion, the appeals court also said that it had made a “cursory” examination of the documents taken in the Washington raid. They included “apparently original documents from the Internal Revenue Service” and “copies of Central Intelligence Agency documents marked ‘secret,’ ” noted the court.

Meanwhile, Maren had refused to answer three questions before the grand jury and had gone to jail. He was asked whether he had discussed plans for Gerald Wolfe to develop a cover story regarding the courthouse breakin, whether he had discussed plans for bugging an IRS conference room, and whether he had read or discussed a transcript of bugged conversations by IRS officials, all within certain time boundaries. Maren refused to answer on grounds of confidentiality of the ministry and on grounds that the nature of the crime being investigated had not been proven to be serious enough to override his constitutional rights. Judge Bryant rejected his arguments.

The National Council of Churches (NCC) filed a brief with the court in Maren’s behalf. The brief argued that religious workers should not be forced to testify before a grand jury unless the government can show that they have personal knowledge about a particular “probable” crime, that the information can be obtained only from the church workers, and that the testimony would serve a “compelling and overriding societal interest.” (An NCC spokesman noted that the issues raised in the case are similar to those in the case of two Episcopal Church workers jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury in New York in connection with some bombings, presumably by Puerto Rican terrorists.)

In a related incident, Linda Polameni, 34, a Church of Scientology member, was arrested on September 12 as she left the building in Los Angeles that houses the main southern California offices of the California attorney general. She was indicted three weeks later on charges of stealing government documents. A Scientology lawyer attempted to have the indictment dismissed on grounds that photocopying of documents does not constitute theft, according to a Los Angeles Times news story.

Miss Polameni apparently had been under suspicion as an “infiltrator” for some time. Her boss, Patti Kitching, who is a deputy attorney general, and another deputy, William Pounders, said that they had put together a package of “both accurate and false information” on the Church of Scientology as part of a plan to nab her. (Ms. Kitching was handling a matter related to the tax-exempt status of the church, and Pounders was handling a Church of Scientology suit against the attorney general’s office.)

A grand jury transcript shows that government agents placed Miss Polameni under surveillance from several vantage points. They testified that they observed her photocopying classified files from Ms. Kitching’s office and then placing the copies in her purse.

Confiscated along with the photocopies was a diary that was introduced to the grand jury as evidence. A January, 1977, entry said: “By June, 1977, be well into the cycle, creating a whole new game. By the end of 1977 be ready to move out of the AG’s office. Big money.” Then came a June entry: “Found materials needed so I can terminate project. Need to isolate and locate area so all cycles can be finished.”

Prior to joining the attorney general’s staff, Miss Polameni worked as a secretary in the major frauds section of the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, said the Times.

In March of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the appeals court ruling in the matter of the documents seized by the FBI from Scientology offices. Thus the ruling stands, meaning that prosecutors can study the documents and present them as evidence to a grand jury.

Scientology leaders insist that their church is a victim of harassment by government agencies, that misinformation about the church has been scattered throughout government files, and that government authorities and newspaper reporters have infiltrated the church to damage it. The church in recent years has maintained a steady counterattack through multi-million-dollar damage suits against government officials and certain publishers.

Where Women Are

A survey of 60,000 American women “of all faiths and incomes” indicates that 47 per cent of them do not consider premarital sex sinful but 73 per cent are against extramarital sex, according to McCall’s magazine, which sponsored the poll. Nine of ten women questioned expressed belief in God, reports the magazine, and 59 per cent said that they attend religious services at least once a week. However, only 17 per cent identified their church, temple, or synagogue “as the principle influence of their morality.” Observes McCall’s: “In times of stress, priests, ministers, and rabbis are virtually the last people they turn to for guidance or comfort.” The magazine suggests that it is a case of women being turned on to God but turned off to organized religion. It quotes one woman as saying, “Religion is for the birds. Jesus Christ is for people.”

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