The Pope’s Presence: Enough to Sell His Unpopular Stand?

By the time Pope John Paul II ended his historic American tour early last month, he had managed to win the admiration of millions of U.S. citizens, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.

Those who saw the pontiff in person seemed even more electrified by the papal presence than those who watched his movements on television.

American atheists, however, were not so enamored. Madalyn Murray O’Hair sought a federal court order, on grounds of church-state separation, to block the use of the Washington Mall for the Pope’s final celebration of mass in this country. She lost.

Mrs. O’Hair was furious to learn that Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed an amicus curiae brief in the case, defending the right of the Roman Catholic Church to hold the mass on public-owned property.

(Americans United had supported a suit—filed by the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., and the American Civil Liberties Union—that sought to prevent the city of Philadelphia from using public funds to pay for an altar and platform from which the Pope celebrated mass.)

In Chicago, Mrs. O’Hair led a march of atheists, feminists, and gay rights activists into Grant Park, where the Pope was holding a public mass. Their protest that the church is “oppressive” was swallowed up by the presence of more than one million of the committed and curious.

Yet, for the most part, the balances tipped far in favor of the Pope and the American Catholic Church during the papal visit. The sheer magnitude of this present-day symbol of Christ and modern successor of Peter, plus his influence over more than 700 million Catholics worldwide, is awe-inspiring to many people, despite personal thoughts or feelings about the papacy.

John Paul’s week-long visit to America was a fast-paced round of air travel, motorcades, outdoor celebrations, international diplomacy, meetings with Catholic bishops, clergy, and other religious, prayer sessions with women in the church and ecumenical leaders outside Catholicism, and a reception in the White House. In seven days he visited six American cities: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Des Moines, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

In Boston, the Pope called for a wholesale return by Americans to Christian love, warning that “hatred, neglect, and selfishness threaten to take over the world.”

In New York, he made an impassioned plea to the United Nations General Assembly for peace, citing the need to solve two of the world’s thorniest problems: the arms race and Mideast tensions. He said no Mideast peacemaking effort has value unless it recognizes “the first stone” of peace—“the consideration and just resettlement of the Palestinian question.”

In Philadelphia, city of “brotherly love,” his message switched to internal matters of debate in the Catholic church: women’s ordination and priestly celibacy. He came out squarely against both. He said the church’s decision not to call women to the priesthood is not, contrary to what some insiders advocate, a statement about human rights. For priests to marry would violate traditional Catholic teaching, he said.

In Des Moines, during a brief stop at the Living History Farms, the pontiff spoke of the church’s ability to help save the world from hunger. “You have the potential to provide food for the millions who have nothing to eat and thus help to rid the world of famine,” he said.

The Pope’s longest and, perhaps, most significant stay in any U.S. city occurred in Chicago, where he spent 37 hectic hours. The Chicago visit held particular significance for those inside and outside the Catholic church because of the insight provided into the convictions of the man leading the world’s Catholics.

At a meeting with the nation’s Catholic bishops, the Pope reaffirmed his stand on the reforms of the Second Vatican Council to date. He also joined the bishops in their stand against divorce, artificial means of birth control, extramarital sex, homosexual practice, abortion, mercy killing, and racism. His message to the bishops also touched on his view of ecumenism: “With God’s help we will continue to work humbly and resolutely to remove the real divisions that still exist, and thus to restore the full unity in the faith …”

At the same time, the Pope affirmed his faithfulness to the Catholic doctrine—something not to be compromised in a push for ecumenism. He quoted the Testament of Pope Paul VI, who said, “Let the work of drawing near to our separated brethren go on, with much understanding, with much patience, with great love; but without deviating from the true Catholic doctrine.”

Later, in Chicago’s Grant Park, overlooking a sea of more than one million persons, the Pope again addressed the subject of Christian unity: “There are certain conditions that are necessary if we are to share in the evangelizing mission of the church,” he said. “I wish to stress one of these conditions in particular. I am speaking about the unity of the church, our unity in Jesus Christ.

“Let me repeat what Paul VI said about this unity: ‘The Lord’s spiritual testament tells us that unity among his followers is not only the proof that we are his, but also the proof that he is sent by the Father. It is the test of credibility of Christians and of Christ himself … Yes, the destiny of evangelization is certainly bound up with the witness of unity given by the church.’ ”

Two days later, in the nation’s capital, Pope John Paul II led a prayer service at Trinity College to advance Christian unity. The meeting went virtually unnoticed by the news media, but the brief and simple service symbolized a healing of wounds in Christendom inflicted as long ago as the fifth century.

Joining the Pope in prayer were American clergy from the Eastern Orthodox churches, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Episcopalian churches, and from the Methodist, Southern Baptist, and Disciples of Christ denominations. Some 600 worshipers joined the pontiff and the leaders of the eight Orthodox and Protestant churches in prayer.

Even the private meeting between Pope John Paul and President Jimmy Carter, a born-again Southern Baptist, was interpreted as having significant religious meaning.

David Tracy, a Catholic theologian at the University of Chicago Divinity School, said of that historic meeting in the White House: “I think there is a symbolic significance for the acceptance and contribution of Catholics in this country as a whole, as well as a distinctively ecumenical flavor of American Christianity. It is an unusual and good gesture by the President, who himself is a deeply religious man.”

The President, clearly moved by the pontiff’s presence, called the Pope “an extraordinary man …” who had brought the nation a compelling moral vision. The Pope’s visit, he said, provided an opportunity for individual reflection and renewal of spiritual strength. Carter listed four areas of awareness dramatized by the Pope’s visit to the United States:

• Spiritual strength and the value of human life as the most vital resources of any nation.

• The importance of action, not just words, as a means of ending social inequality and deprivation.

• Peace.

• The enhancement of human rights as the compelling idea and goal of our time.

It was also in Washington that the Pope received the only public challenge to church tradition. While being introduced to a gathering of American nuns, he was urged to consider women for the priesthood. Sister Theresa Kane, president of the Leadership Conference on Women Religious, said the Roman Catholic Church must admit women to “all ministries of our church.”

The Pope, seated behind her, appeared pained by the statement. But after concluding her remarks, Sister Theresa walked to the Pope’s chair, knelt, and kissed the papal ring. The Pope reached out and touched her head.

Sister Theresa had said: “I urge you to be mindful of the intense suffering and pain which is part of the life of many women in the United States. The church must respond with the possibility of allowing women to be included as persons in all ministries of our church. I call upon you to listen with compassion and to hear the call of women. It is an honor, a privilege, and an awesome responsibility to express in a few moments the sentiment of women present.”

The Pope never responded to her plea directly, and while 53 nuns wearing blue armbands stood in silent protest of the church’s traditional view of women, the overwhelming majority of the 5,000 nuns in the audience applauded the pontiff’s message.

The Pope criticized modern trends in the sisterhood and admonished them to return to “a simple, religious garb.”

Sister Theresa was dressed in a brown suit and a beige blouse. She and about one-third of the audience of nuns at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception wore the type of ordinary clothing about which the pontiff spoke critically.

Pope John Paul II’s final message to the nation and its leaders was preached on the Washington Mall, halfway between the Washington Monument and the Capitol. There, he delivered an appeal for strong family life and an attack on divorce, abortion, contraception, and extramarital affairs.

He chose as his text the tenth chapter of Mark, and said he had to speak out “when the institution of marriage is abandoned to human selfishness or reduced to a temporary, conditional arrangement that can easily be terminated.”

Reaffirming the traditional Catholic view on having children, the pontiff made perhaps his most controversial statement:

“Decisions about the number of children and the sacrifices to be made for them must not be taken only with a view to adding to comfort and preserving a peaceful existence. It is certainly less serious [for parents] to deny their children certain comforts or material advantages than to deprive them of the presence of brothers and sisters, who could help them to grow in humanity and to realize the beauty of life at all its ages and in all its variety.”

Condemning abortion, he said: “I do not hesitate to proclaim before you and before the world that all human life from the moment of conception, and through all subsequent stages, is sacred.” His statement was applauded vigorously.

“Human life is not just an idea or an abstraction. Human life is the concrete reality of a being that is capable of love and of service to humanity.”

He said: “The church defends the right to life. When God gives life, it is forever.… No one has authority to destroy unborn life.… Every child is a … gift of God.”

The effect of the Pope’s visit to America is yet to be seen. Initially, there was a great outpouring of love and joy for the man of large human proportions.

Even before he reached Washington, the pontiff had learned of negative response to some of his statements in Philadelphia and Chicago, particularly with regard to women’s ordination, priestly celibacy, and birth control.

At the Los Angeles convention of the National Organization for Women, Ellie Smeal, a Catholic and president of the group, said the views the Pope was expressing on political and social issues are “absolutely out of touch with the people.”

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the Rev. Richard McCormick of the Kennedy Center for Ethics at Georgetown University said the Pope’s remarks, particularly on birth control, will provoke renewed controversy in the church.

Even before his arrival in the United States, NBC News and the Associated Press conducted a survey that found overwhelming support for the Pope’s leadership but disagreement with his positions on major social issues.

Regarding birth control, the survey found by a 66 to 27 percent margin that Catholics believe the church should approve of artificial means of birth control.

About divorce, the survey found by a 63 to 28 percent margin that Catholics approve of divorce, even when children are involved. On priestly celibacy, Catholics, by a 53 to 40 percent margin believe priests should be allowed to marry.

On the women’s ordination issue, Catholics were found to be nearly equally divided. Regarding abortion, by a margin of 50 to 45 percent, American Catholics said they approve of abortion.

It was interesting to note that at the beginning of his homily on the Mall, the Pope reminded listeners that when certain people wanted him to endorse current views, Jesus, in comparable situations, referred to the teaching of Scripture.

Interestingly, many of the moral doctrines expounded by Pope John Paul II during his U.S. tour fit closely to those held by the evangelical community. (Before retiring for the night at Cardinal John Cody’s residence in Chicago, the Pope asked well-wishers standing outside the house if they knew the gospel chorus, “Alleluia,” composed by Jerry Sinclair. The predominantly Catholic audience hesitated, so the Pope led out alone—much like a songleader among Protestant evangelicals.)

While the Pope gave strong support to Christian morality on a biblical basis, little was said about the kind of Catholic doctrine that separates Catholics from Protestants.

Such doctrines were not voiced by the pontiff, but they were implied by various unspoken gestures and symbols. These include the impartation of the life of Christ through the Eucharist and the shortening of sentence to Purgatory through the papal blessings directed at the crowds.

The State of the Pope’s Church in the United States

The Roman Catholic Church remains by far the largest single church body in the United States. Its 49.6 million members comprise roughly 22 percent of the U.S. population.

But like a restless ocean, the Catholic Church today is spilling in several directions and bubbling with change. Long-time Catholics find it increasingly difficult to define what constitutes a “good Catholic.” A number of members have leaked away.

The Second Vatican Council, from 1962–65, stirred the Catholic waters more than anything else. It broke down such traditions as the required Latin mass, and opened the way to a more personalized—less church-dictated—faith. Our Sunday Visitor claimed that during the five years following Vatican II, “the American Catholic community experienced more change and disruption than in the rest of its entire history.”

The same Catholic publication categorized U.S. Catholics by their relationship to Vatican II: (1) the “over 40” Catholics—those raised with the high mass, Friday abstinence, and Lenten fasts of pre-Vatican II, who see their church as an “institution” and feel frustrated by change and abandoned by a church turning to its young; (2) “bridge Catholics”—those between the ages of 25 and 39 who were raised in the traditional church, but who faced the full whirlwind of Vatican II, many of whom have left the church or entered various renewal movements; and (3) the “under 25” group—those to whom the council is history, and who cannot identify with a church in a state of constant change.

There is no such thing as the typical “white Anglo-Saxon Catholic.” Hispanics now comprise 27 percent of the U.S. Catholic membership, and an estimated two million Hispanic Catholics enter the U.S. annually, primarily from Mexico. An estimated 400,000 Cuban Catholics have moved into south Florida since 1960. The number of black Catholics is growing—with now about one million, or 2 percent of the U.S. membership.

The Catholic hierarchy worries most about the declining interest in religious vocations. While the number of priests remained stable from 1968 to 1978 (roughly 59,000), during the same period the number of seminarians dropped more than 60 percent, from 40,000 to 15,000. In 1978 alone, the number of seminarians dipped by 1,200, or 20 percent. If present trends continue, says one Catholic writer, the church can expect to have a 50 percent net loss of priests by 2015. The number of women in 360 religious orders dropped from 177,000 to 131,000, or 22 percent during the same 10-year period.

One solution to the shortage of priests is lay involvement. Indeed, in recent years the Catholic laity has received, and responded to, increased opportunities for ministry. Nonordained members have been filling specific church tasks, such as religious education, liturgical planning, and administration of the Eucharist. More than 1,600 persons attended the first National Catholic Lay Celebration of Evangelization in August.

Other dominant trends within the church include:

• Evangelism. Through its recently created office for evangelization (the term Catholics prefer for evangelism), the church has launched a program geared to reach the 12 million inactive Catholics and the 70 million unchurched Americans. Evangelization director Alvin Illig, who describes evangelization as a personal discovery of Jesus Christ, also hopes the outreach will strengthen existing Catholic commitment.

• Charismatic renewal. Thousands of members have entered the Catholic charismatic movement, which has roots in a student-faculty retreat at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in 1967, and which later spread to Notre Dame and other campuses, then throughout the church.

With its changing face, and a globetrotting, baby-kissing, human rights-advocate Pope, the Catholic Church has gained new visibility in the American church scene. Many religion writers see the Catholic Church as the religion-related story of the coming decade.

North American Scene

Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God was kept in state receivership last month. The U.S. Supreme Court let stand (by declining to review) a California Supreme Court ruling that refused to dissolve the state’s receivership of the WCG. The state in January had placed the WCG under its corporations code, in which a charitable or public trust is accountable to the state for the way it uses its donated funds. While not agreeing with its theology, several Protestant groups have sided with the WCG in its opposition to the state controls. The case is likely to return to the U.S. Supreme Court.

California cannot collect unemployment insurance and disability taxes from a number of church schools, according to a recent decision by a Los Angeles federal judge that could have nationwide ramifications. The ruling directly affected 85 schools run by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and about 15 other church-sponsored schools. The schools successfully contested a Labor Department interpretation of a 1978 amendment to the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, which extended unemployment compensation coverage to all employees in religious schools except those doing “strictly church duties” more than 50 percent of their working time. Another six states have been sued in separate state or federal actions in the dispute.

World Scene

The majority of the Irish Republic’s 3.2 million citizens turned out to cheer the Pope during his visit last month. More than 1.2 million participated in his Dublin mass. And Catholics from Northern Ireland streamed across the border in bumper-to-bumper traffic that stretched for 40 miles to his northernmost stop, Drogheda. Dublin government officials kept a low profile to minimize Protestant protests from the North, and John Paul II met with leaders of Protestant churches in Ireland to emphasize his ecumenical commitment. But he said the goal of his journey was the shrine of Our Lady of Knock, where 20 Irish peasants professed to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the gable of the parish church 100 years ago.

The Church of Sweden decided at a recent assembly to permit recognition of non-baptized persons as members. American Roman Catholic missioner to Sweden, Robert Olson, complains that the state Lutheran church is now “so open” it includes non-Christians. Ecumenical relations have been strained, said the member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, “because in order to have ecumenism you have to have at least two religions which have Christ at the center.”

A bishop of the Church of Norway has resigned in protest over Norway’s liberalized abortion law. Lutheran Bishop Per Lønning resigned from the episcopacy, and one Norwegian pastor has refused to accept his state-paid salary. The new law provides for state-paid abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The Hungarian Communist Party has published a best seller: an Encyclopedia of the Bible. The first edition of 50,000 copies was quickly sold out. “The Communist movement is part of a European-wide development,” explains the party, “and has its roots in our culture which is very much determined by this book.”

Iran has ruled that only three minority religions will be officially recognized in the Islamic republic, and these may exercise their rights only within the principles of Islam. The Council of Constitutional Experts in September approved a clause that named Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, but excluded the Baha’i community, Iran’s largest minority religion. (Approximate figures: Baha’i, 450,000; Christians, 300,000; Jews, 60,000; and Zoroastrians, 20,000.) Thirty-seven national Baha’i leaders have been put on the list of those who may not leave Iran, some 20 are in prison, and at least 50 have been dismissed from government service because of their religious beliefs. Baha’i centers have been raided and records removed, and Baha’i enterprises and properties have been taken over.

More churches are being reopened in China with government approval. The largest Methodist church building in Shanghai, known before the 1949 Communist revolution as the Moore Chapel, was reopened in September, with some 1,000 in attendance at the opening service. A Chinese-American leader has received correspondence indicating that open church services have resumed in Canton. The Christian Study Center on Chinese Religion and Culture in Hong Kong reports the reopening of a church in Ningpo, Chekian Province. Six former pastors have been called out of retirement to serve the congregation, with attendance averaging around 700 persons.

Mexico

Translators are Reduced to a Precarious Toehold

A pot that has been heating since 1975 finally boiled over for Wycliffe Bible Translators in Mexico. Occasional attacks on the translators in the local press gave way to an all-out onslaught during the months of August and September.

The result of these printed attacks is that Mexico’s Secretariat of Education in late September suspended the country’s contract with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Wycliffe’s academic overseas branch. In a tersely worded communique, the government office noted that both SIL and the government were released from their respective obligations. The Mexican government formerly had included SIL in its plan of national education, especially for Indian peoples, and had given special permission for SIL to carry on its activities in the country.

The sharpest attack against the translators came in early September when the National College of Ethnologists and Anthropologists published a study accusing SIL of attempting to hinder the political development of indigenous peoples, and of using a Protestant ethical base to promote nascent capitalism. SIL’s main activities have been linguistic analysis, the preparation of primers for new readers, and translation of the Bible.

Mexican intellectuals and indigenous leaders defended the work of SIL, but the Secretariat of Education decided to proceed with suspension of the contract. At present there are 250 linguists working in Mexico under SIL.

SIL representatives believe that criticisms of the organization originate with shadowy groups, including one called “North American Council on Latin America.” They report that similar attacks on translators have been used in Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador.

A leading Mexican news magazine, Proceso, which led the recent attack on SIL, stated that the material used in the denunciations came from the “Barbados Declaration of 1977.” The Barbados Conference of Anthropologists was sponsored by the World Council of Churches.

John Alsop, SIL’s director of operations in Mexico, told CHRISTIANITY TODAY, “The contract with the Mexican government is terminated but we have not been asked to leave Mexico. We will speed up our work and try to finish as soon as possible the translation projects we have already started.”

A recent radio report by the Secretary of Education noted the suspension of SIL’s contract “does not mean that they can’t continue their translation work.” However, leaders of the College of Ethnologists and Anthropologists have stated they want SIL and anyone who does like work to be put out of the country.

An SIL official in another Latin American country observed that the organization has enjoyed generally good relations with government officials in various countries. (The SIL Peruvian branch last month signed a 10-year contract with the Peruvian government.) But it has been less successful of developing contacts among the national press.

Tibetans

Recognition for Friends in Need

When the Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, visited in Los Angeles recently as part of a 49-day tour of the United States, among those given a private audience with the 44-year old Buddhist leader were Elcho and Millie Redding, former missionaries to India and champions of the Tibetan cause in this country for several years.

Although the Dalai Lama said on this trip that he is not a god, he is still worshipped by his people as a god, the Reddings said. “He is their protector, their sustainer, and he accepts their worship,” said Redding. “He says, ‘I am a very high incarnation.’ ”

The Redding’s contact with the Dalai Lama goes back to 1959 when, during the Chinese takeover of Tibet, the Dalai Lama and approximately 100,000 Tibetans moved into India. The Reddings were missionaries with TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission) in Mussoorie, Uttar Pradesh in northern India at the time and the Dalai Lama moved to their hill station.

Redding began teaching English to children of Tibetan nobility and in 1964 started the Tibetan Tutorial Class, a school for Tibetans who, under Indian regulations, were restricted from advanced academic study. That school today has an enrollment of 2,000 students.

During their time in India, the Reddings entertained hundreds of Tibetans in their home, holding weekend socials for their many students, and using these get-togethers as an avenue for sharing the gospel. Among their guests, both in India and in the United States, have been the Dalai Lama’s two sisters and his niece.

The Reddings also were instrumental in raising scholarships to send 5,000 Tibetans to mission schools in India. Upon returning to the United States in 1968, they brought along eight Tibetan young men whom they sponsored in colleges here.

“We were happy to tell the Dalai Lama that they did very well in school and financially,” said Redding. “The eight young men we brought with us arrived eleven years ago with only eight dollars each [the maximum amount the Indian government would allow them to take] and now have college degrees, own their own homes and cars, and have done well in business.”

This same group of eight men acted as bodyguards for the Dalai Lama during his stay in Los Angeles. The Dalai Lama’s interpreter on this trip was also a former student of Redding.

On previous visits with the Dalai Lama while they were in India, the Reddings had presented him with various translations of the Bible. This time, however, they gave him a copy of Redding’s Ph.D. dissertation, “The Effects of Western Education and Western Environment on Tibetans’ Religious Beliefs and Attitudes.”

Redding, who received his doctorate in education from Claremont Graduate School, California, told the Dalai Lama, “The results may surprise you!” In studying the effects of education upon Tibetans both in India and the United States, Redding found that the more education Tibetans received, the more their religious beliefs changed and the more likely they were to deny superstitious beliefs. Education, he discovered, was the key factor in significant religious change for Tibetans.

Nevertheless, Redding noted, Tibetans are strongly nationalistic people and rarely will totally deny their Buddhist upbringing. As a result of this link the number of Tibetans the Reddings have known to accept Christ has been very small.

Redding estimates that there are only between one and two hundred Tibetans living in the United States, with the biggest settlement in the Seattle area. He claims that Buddhism for Westerners and for Tibetans is very different, despite the fact that American Buddhists warmly received the Dalai Lama and acknowledged him as their spiritual leader. “Tibetan Buddhism is sheer animism with a Buddhist facade,” he said. “Buddhists here who think they’re one with Tibetan Buddhism aren’t really one at all.”

The Reddings noted that in his speeches here the Dalai Lama talked about the need for compassion and loving one’s enemies. “He’s picked up a lot of Christian ideas,” Mrs. Redding said.

Dr. Redding added, “All I can say is that I think the biggest test of his own faith came when he first came out of Tibet. It was the Christians—not fellow Buddhists—who demonstrated compassion. As a result, the Tibetans have great respect for the Christians.”

The Reddings are currently Orange County directors for International Students, Inc.

PHYLLIS ALSDURF

South Africa

Botha Tugs at the Pillars of Apartheid

A suggestion last month by South African Prime Minister Pieter W. Botha that the country’s Mixed Marriages and Immorality Acts could be changed has met with mixed reaction from churches in the country.

The Mixed Marriages Act, widely criticized by English-speaking churches, prohibits interracial marriages. The main provision of the Immorality Act under consideration is Section 16, which outlaws sexual intercourse between people of different races. It has been this aspect of the act that has been most stringently enforced over the years.

An estimated 15,000 persons have been prosecuted under the Immorality Act since it was first introduced in 1950. The effect of both acts has been to leave suicides, broken homes, disgrace, deportations, and lost jobs in their wake.

Now Botha has clearly indicated that changes to these Acts could be in the offing. And, as has been the case in his arguments to bring about other changes in South Africa, he cited Christian principles to support his case.

While maintaining that mixed marriages are undesirable in South Africa’s plural society, he has pointed out that there are biblical examples of such unions. He told delegates to the National Party’s Cape provincial congress, where he made his “suggestion,” that they should read in the Bible what happened to Miriam and Aaron when they cursed Moses because of his mixed marriage.

Together, the two acts are viewed by many hardline Nationalist ideologues as the cornerstone of the party’s apartheid (racial segregation) policy. Consequently, Botha’s implied suggestion that they could be scrapped caused consternation in some Dutch Reformed Church circles (often referred to in South Africa as “the National Party at prayer”).

This is not surprising, since it was these churches that put pressure on the Nationalist government of D. F. Malan in the late 1940s to introduce such legislation.

Frans O’Brien Geldenhuys, chief executive officer of the largest of the Dutch Reformed Churches, the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk, has pointed out that his church’s last general synod in 1974 opposed repeal of the laws. He cautioned that the government should handle these laws with care, adding that it should not simply give in to pressure and “throw these laws out the window.”

He acknowledged, however, that nowhere in the Scriptures were mixed marriages forbidden. Nevertheless, in view of South Africa’s “involved ethnic makeup,” these laws could not simply be repealed.

THEO COGGIN

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