A First-Term Congressman Looks at Faith and Politics

U.S. Rep. Paul Henry is cautious about siding with any Republican special-interest group.

Paul B. Henry, serving his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives, brings to Washington a thoughtful assessment of evangelical engagement in public affairs. He learned how faith relates to politics from his father, Carl F. H. Henry, one of evangelicalism’s foremost authorities.

The younger Henry, 42, is a Wheaton (Ill.) College graduate and former professor of political science at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A Republican, he represents Michigan’s fifth district, which includes Grand Rapids. He served in Michigan’s state house for two terms and was a state senator in 1983 and 1984. In an interview with CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Henry explained what he hopes to accomplish in Congress, and voiced a note of caution for evangelicals who delve into politics.

What are your priorities as a newly elected congressman?

Priorities are defined to a large extent by your district. Michigan has been ravaged by unemployment and economic dislocation, so obviously one of the priorities I have is the whole economic climate of my state. When we talk about economic growth, which has been phenomenal in this country in the last couple of years, my concern is for my congressional district to share in it. The Grand Rapids area is much more balanced economically than most of Michigan, so it has not suffered as seriously, and its long-range outlook is good. But its infrastructure is threatened. That is a transcending concern.

Also, I’ve been heavily involved in education issues, coming from a family of educators and having been a professor. I’m former chairman of the education committee in the Michigan State Senate, so I was involved in a number of bills trying to strengthen accountability in primary and secondary education, and in higher education as well. I did succeed in getting on the Education and Labor Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. My second committee is Science and Technology. That committee deals with natural-resource and environmental issues, which I’ve been leading at the state level too.

Have you been involved with the question of values in education?

Values are at the heart of everything, and to say you could have value-free education or “neutral” politics is mistaken. The whole difficulty rests in our culture, where, because of our diversity and our constitutional separation of church and state, we have become almost incapable as a public of engaging in rational, thoughtful discussion of the issues. So the rhetoric tends to escape meaningful dialogue.

Many times people use the separational language to mask an agnostic or relativistic view. A countervailing moralism from both Left and Right simplistically baptizes certain interests with a moral appeal. The question of values in education is really difficult, because as we become increasingly pluralistic as a society, and as we have moved away from Judeo-Christian foundations that were the assumed values of American public education, then it is hard to have any purpose or coherence in public education. But you can’t simply blame the educational enterprise. It’s a broader fact of our culture and our society.

What is your assessment of the Conservative Opportunity Society, in which many conservative Republican members of Congress are involved?

I tend not to get involved in ideological or special-interest groups within the party, particularly during the first few months when you want to take care not to get branded one way or the other. I’ll try to get the lay of the map and keep cordial relations with all at this point.

You’ve had some previous experience in Washington.

That’s right. I was administrative assistant to former Congressman John Anderson years back, and then director of the Republican House conference staff. So at least I knew my way around the building.

Do you have a position on the President’sprayer amendment, which he has mentioned in several recent speeches?

I have very serious concerns about the whole concept of spoken prayer in public schools, and I think there is tremendous public confusion out there on that issue. I think it’s a symbolic issue, and that symbolism tends to obfuscate the problems.

My son attends a junior high school in Grand Rapids. Some 250 kids—including Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists—attend that school. Spoken prayers may mean a state-written prayer that is religiously neutral. It will not be a prayer in Jesus’ name. People assume it will be a Judeo-Christian prayer, but it won’t. It will be a prayer offered in the name of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, and maybe throw in Martin Luther King. Or it’s going to be a Christian prayer on Monday, a Jewish prayer on Tuesday, a Hindu prayer on Wednesday. What would we really be teaching our children? I understand the President’s concern and the public’s frustration. Polling in my district shows overwhelming support for it. But I think we could also show overwhelming confusion as to what is at issue.

Would you explain how being the son of Carl Henry influenced your decision to go into politics?

My father was one of the evangelical leaders years ago who bewailed the attrition of evangelical influence in the public sector, so I was raised in an environment where this kind of thing was discussed. One of the first books he wrote was The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. I think he would define that book as a populist tract.

It is important to understand that our calling as Christians doesn’t stop at certain areas of life. On the other hand, I’d be the first one to caution against the suggestion that people of Christian conviction have some kind of inherent infallibility in matters political. If anything is needed now, particularly in the evangelical community, it’s a call for caution and also for humility—a recognition that one of the fundamental Christian virtues is humility.

As we seek justice and mercy, as we seek Christian accountability or Christian values in society, we need to be sure that we are not doing some of the same things others are doing—masking greed under the banner of the Cross. I think the real danger at this point in the evangelical community is not the mistaken notion that Christians ought not to be involved—we’re coming through that. Now the danger lies in how we’re being involved and whether we’re listening and following, as it were, the promptings of the Spirit, or simply manipulating religious symbols.

Was the Religious Right involved in your campaign in Michigan?

No. In my primary, the local Moral Majority chapter sent out a letter opposing me, in support of someone who was making overt appeals to their issues. Some of that is due to tremendous amounts of misunderstanding. There are people out there speaking for the broad evangelical Protestant community who in fact are pretty far removed from it. My district would be somewhat different as well because of the strong presence of confessional Protestantism, with the Christian Reformed Church, the Reformed Church in America, and Lutheran denominations. And, too, the Catholic church has a very strong relationship to evangelical Protestant churches in my part of the state, and for that reason it tempers much of what I would call the sectarian fringes of evangelical Protestantism.

What is your sense of President Reagan and his impact on the country?

It has been profound. It sounds almost corny to say, but there has been a rebirth of American spirit. You can’t deny it. It’s been good and helpful. We’re through the morose period of self-flagellation. Reagan has an ability to bring people together, and will try more forcefully to bring in the minorities who feel they’ve been passed by these last few years. It’s important that he do that, and I think he understands that and is genuinely concerned about it.

On his economic policies, by and large, I’ve been strongly supportive. I have also agreed with much of his program of military modernization, although not the full extent of it. And I think there’s going to be some drawing in of the reins this year. I tend to be somewhat more moderate than he is on issues such as environmental policy and on some of the social questions.

What about abortion?

I support the right to life, so there is no difference between us on that.

A Conservative Jewish Group Opposes A Baptist Congregation In West Jerusalem

The Narkis Street Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in west Jerusalem, has been the target of ongoing extremist opposition in Israel.

A grenade explosion damaged the church seven years ago. In 1982, a fire that authorities suspect was set intentionally destroyed the church’s meeting place. Since then, the congregation has been worshiping in a tentlike structure. Windows in the church office frequently are broken, and slogans have been spray painted on the property several times.

Earlier this year, a conservative Jewish organization called Yad Lachim organized a protest against the Narkis Street church. The demonstration was prompted by the church’s plans to rebuild its meeting place; a regional planning and development council is considering final approval of the plans. The rebuilding plans prompted one unnamed ultraconservative Orthodox Jewish leader to tell the Jerusalem Post that his political party will withdraw from the municipal coalition if approval is granted.

Extremist activity against Christians in Israel “seems to be increasing,” said Isam Ballenger, Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board director for Europe and the Middle East. “And their influence over others in Israel may be increasing, and this is alarming.”

Ballenger said the recent demonstration against the Narkis Street church was promoted throughout Jerusalem with posters that misrepresented the church’s pastor, Robert Lindsey, a Southern Baptist representative in Israel since 1944. Approximately 100 people, including women and children, participated in the protest.

One demonstrator was quoted as declaring over a loudspeaker, “This is just the beginning of making trouble in this area.” Among the slogans on the protesters’ signs were “Get Out, Get Out” and “There is no room in this neighborhood for a congregational church and center which is missionary.”

Lindsey said Yad Lachim is not representative of all Israelis. “We have had opposition expressed against us by ultraconservative religious people from time to time,” he said. “But we also have had many expressions of encouragement by neighbors and friends who consider our church to be a very positive part of the neighborhood.”

Ballenger said he believes Yad Lachim was involved in generating negative press accounts last fall against other congregations in Israel, including one in Ashkelon with which Southern Baptist representatives James and Elizabeth Smith work. The Smiths said they were accused of “poisoning innocent young people with our religious beliefs and baptizing them into Gentile Christianity.”

BAPTIST PRESS

U.S. Government Sets Guidelines For Gene Therapy On Humans

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently issued the first national guidelines for genetic therapy on human beings. The rules set forth ethical and scientific criteria for medical experimentation involving the transplanting of human genes for the purpose of curing conditions caused by genetic defects.

A 15-member team of scientists, lawyers, ethicists, and public policy specialists contributed to the guidelines. After public comment is incorporated and the rules are finalized, they will constitute the government’s most explicit policy statement on this controversial issue.

Several research teams are known to be considering gene therapy. The NIH guidelines are intended to ensure that the possible benefits of such therapy outweigh the potential dangers. In its document, NIH addresses only somatic (as opposed to reproductive) cell therapy. Somatic cell therapy, in theory, affects only the body cells.

It is generally conceded, however, that such therapy could inadvertently affect reproductive cells, or the human “germline.” That would result in the passing of altered genetic information to future generations.

Jeremy Rifkin, of the Foundation for Economic Trends, says there are too many unknowns to justify any type of genetic therapy. It was Rifkin who in 1983 organized a diverse coalition of religious leaders to oppose germline genetic therapy.

“My concern is that we haven’t taken a searching look at whether somatic therapy might have some impact on the germline of future generations,” Rifkin said. “There is the possibility of many tremendous benefits. That’s pretty well established. But I’ve seen very little talk about potential problems. That makes me nervous, because it suggests we’re going into this with rose-colored glasses.”

The NIH guidelines generally ask for documentation that proposed treatment will be efficient and safe for everyone involved. NIH encourages experimentation on primates, and asks for proof that the treatment is not likely to affect the germline of the patient.

NORTH AMERICAN SCENE

A dozen antiabortion protesters who kneeled in prayer on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court building have been sentenced to a day in jail and fined $ 10. The U.S. attorney who arranged the plea-bargained sentence has not prosecuted any of the nearly 500 demonstrators who have engaged in civil disobedience at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C. Both groups have protested the U.S. attorney’s “double standard.”

A Pennsylvania obstetrician who aborted a 32-week-old fetus is facing charges of infanticide and abortion after viability. Testimony given during a preliminary hearing failed to convince a Philadelphia municipal court judge that the fetus was live-born. As a result, murder and involuntary manslaughter charges against Dr. Joseph Melnick were dropped. Prosecutors say they believe Melnick is the first Pennsylvania physician to face a criminal trial in connection with an abortion.

Five men who invaded a Lutheran church in McCandless, Pennsylvania, over a labor dispute have been sentenced to six months in jail. The jailed men join nine others, including the church’s pastor and his wife, who are serving jail terms in a fight involving labor activists and rebel clergy against Pittsburgh’s major corporations and the district Lutheran synod. As part of a group called Denominational Ministry Strategy, the activists have used confrontational tactics to attract attention to the area’s unemployed.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has urged the states to pass stricter laws and regulations for day-care centers to help prevent child abuse.HHS offered guidelines and urged states to coordinate regulations with parents and local communities. The guidelines call for unannounced visits by parents to day-care centers, intensive screening of day-care center employees, and stricter rules on reporting cases of suspected abuse.

The J. Howard Pew Freedom Trust has given nearly $1 million to four organizations to help relieve hunger in Ethiopia. Grants totaling $935,000 have been awarded to Africare, Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran World Relief, and Oxfam America. The grants will provide food supplements, blankets, cooking utensils, emergency shelter, medicine, and grain storage facilities, among other famine relief aid. More than 25 percent of the grant monies will be used for follow-up development activities in Ethiopia.

The Virginia Supreme Court has ordered a homosexual man to surrender custody of his 10-year-old daughter. The court ruled that the man had continuously exposed the child to an “immoral and illicit relationship” with his partner. The court gave the girl’s mother sole custody of her daughter and directed the father not to visit the girl with his partner present. This decision reversed an earlier ruling. In 1983, a county circuit court judge decided to allow the 33-year-old man to retain custody of his daughter.

Personalia

The Southern Baptist Radio and Television Commission has given its Christian Service Award to U.S. Sen. Mark O. Hatfield (R-Oreg.). The award recognizes the senator’s “commitment to peace and humanitarian causes.” In 1982, Hatfield helped lead a campaign in Congress for a nuclear weapons freeze. He also has led congressional battles against world hunger, and repeatedly stresses the importance of human rights in American foreign policy.

John O. Humbert has been nominated to succeed Kenneth L. Teegarden as chief executive of the 1.1-million-member Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). If elected this August by the Disciples’ General Assembly, Humbert will become general minister and president of the denomination. He has 28 years of pastoral experience and served as Teegarden’s deputy for the past eight years. Teegarden will retire in August.

Senior Citizens Chide Oral Roberts Over His Fund Appeals

Oral Roberts is not the first, but he is the latest American evangelist to encounter friction for fund-raising tactics in Canada. Bernard Richard, executive director of the New Brunswick Senior Citizens Federation, has charged that Roberts’s appeals for money “take advantage of the sensitivity of seniors and prey on them at a time in their lives when they are most susceptible.”

On behalf of the federation, Richard filed a complaint with local and provincial police and with the Better Business Bureau in Moncton, where his organization is based. Richard cited a letter signed by the Tulsa-based evangelist Roberts and received in January by an elderly resident of St. Stephen, New Brunswick. A handwritten heading across the top of the letter read “33 predictions for you in 1985.”

In the three-page, mass-produced appeal, Roberts stated that through “the gift of prophecy,” he had been told that recipients could expect “creative miracles for things seemingly dead in your body, your spirit, your mind, and your finances to come alive again.”

Then came a warning: “If you neglect to pay attention to what He [God] is especially saying to you, then Satan will take advantage and hit you with bad things and you will wish that 1985 had never come.”

In the letter, Roberts urged recipients to write for a printed copy of the 33 predictions and to send along a “seed faith gift,” which, he said, would help them get a “hundred-fold return.” He said the predictions would reveal, among other things, “how to avoid terrible new diseases that are coming upon people because of stress over world conditions.”

Susan Edgett, general manager of the Moncton Better Business Bureau, said her office had received several complaints about letters from American evangelists, most of them involving Roberts or Rex Humbard. Edgett said the bureau’s role is limited to alerting people to pressure tactics and advising them not to feel intimidated.

One woman who received a letter from Roberts contacted the St. Croix Courier, a weekly newspaper in St. Stephen. According to Kay Fischer of the newspaper’s staff, the woman had hurt her back in a fall and was concerned that her accident was one of the “bad things” forecast by Roberts.

A spokesperson at the national office of the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association of Canada said she was aware of the New Brunswick complaint and of press reports about it. She said, however, that the Toronto office had received no direct complaints from those who had received the appeal letters.

Canadian media reports in recent months have also cited public complaints regarding the fund-raising tactics of TV evangelist Humbard (CT, Sept. 21, 1984, p.70) and International Christian Aid president Joe Bass.

LESLIE K. TARR

Federal Agencies Criticized For Producing And Distributing Sermons

Two federal agencies have come under fire after government employees distributed at public expense a speech and two sermons containing references to Christian beliefs and the United States as a “Christian nation.”

Civil liberties groups and various religious leaders condemned the actions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). Some of the government officials involved conceded that the mailings were inappropriate, but they defended the sermons as being merely informational.

A speech sent out by a DOE official in Denver contained a controversial paragraph asking, “How can these things be happening in America—this land of freedom, this Christian nation? What has happened to our Christian system of values? The change from ‘one nation under God’ to a nation without God didn’t happen overnight. But Christians are just now waking up to the fact that godlessness is controlling every aspect of our so-called ‘democratic and free’ society—it controls our entertainment, our news, and even the education of our children.”

In letters to the postmaster general and to an education department official in Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) questioned the intent of the speech, originally intended for Christian school administrators. “Is it official policy of DOE to promote or establish a Christian nation?…” Schroeder wrote. “[The speech] calls for the reestablishment of a ‘Christian nation’ and notes, with some nostalgia, that several states used to have ‘actual state religions.’ ”

The author of the speech, Robert Billings, a former Moral Majority official who works for DOE in Washington, defended the speech. “The problem is that the people who are complaining have never read the speech and are basing their judgments on inaccurate news stories,” he said. Billings said he wrote the speech before he joined the Reagan administration in 1981. He added that he has not delivered it since then, and has not encouraged other government officials to use it.

The 12-page speech was mailed out by Thomas G. Tancredo, DOE’s liaison for a six-state region headquartered in Denver. The speech was accompanied by a cover letter that began, “We see more and more signs of governmental intervention into the areas of parental responsibility which have, for centuries, been held inviolate.”

An aide to Schroeder called such language the “grossest form of hypocrisy.” He said the “essential point [of the speech] was that we ought to have a state religion,” which the aide said would mean complete usurpation of parental responsibility in education.

Thomas G. Moore, DOE’s public affairs director, said education department lawyers are investigating whether the mailing violated any laws. He conceded that the mailing showed a “lack of discretion.” However, he added, since Christian schools are DOE’s “fastest-growing educational constituency,” it was legitimate for the Denver official to want to provide them with information of interest.

“I’m afraid the intention of the militant secularists who have turned this minor event into a major story is to pit Christian against Jew to further their own agenda …,” Moore said. “[The speech] was appealing for a return to traditional Judeo-Christian values in public life and in the schools.” However, he conceded that use of the term ‘Christian nation’ “perhaps showed insensitivity to the Jewish community.”

In a separate incident, a division of HHS was criticized for producing and distributing two sermons, written for use by ministers to promote adoption. One of the sermons read: “Let us open our minds and hearts to our Christian and community responsibility and restore these children to their rightful place within the family.”

“We had the best of intentions, but it was an inappropriate vehicle to use,” said Enid Borden, public affairs director for the Office of Human Development Services, the division of HHS responsible for the unusual project. Borden said the agency was “overzealous” in its effort to place children with special needs for adoption.

Bill Acosta, a Human Development Services regional representative in Dallas, wrote the sermons. Some 500 copies were sent to child welfare agencies, accompanying a regular informational memorandum.

JARYL STRONG

Committee Says Two Churches Should Suspend Merger Talks

After six years of preliminary church-union talks, ecumenists in two mainline Protestant denominations say their members are not ready for “a binding commitment to become one church.”

A joint committee of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ (UCC) has dropped the idea of union negotiations for the foreseeable future. Instead, the committee called for a less rigorous “ecumenical partnership” that would provide opportunities for joint worship, mission, and theological study.

The 1.7 million-member UCC, headquartered in New York City, was formed in 1957 by a union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. The 1.1 million-member Disciples of Christ, based in Indianapolis, started on the American frontier in the early nineteenth century as a movement opposed to denominational sectarianism. Both the Disciples and the UCC have been strong advocates of Christian unity.

The 20-member joint committee’s final report and recommendations, issued earlier this year, will go to the top governing bodies of the two denominations for adoption this summer. Major elements of the recommendation for ecumenical partnership include:

• Asking all institutions and units of the two denominations to begin coordinated planning and, when possible, joint staffing in various areas of ministry.

• Encouraging all decision-making bodies in both churches to add representatives from the partner church.

• Making proposals for achieving “full communion” between the two churches, including “mutual recognition of baptism, full eucharistic fellowship, the mutual recognition of members and ordained ministers” and “common decision-making.”

Robert Welsh, deputy ecumenical officer for the Disciples of Christ, said the proposal “struck a good middle ground” between discontinuing conversations between the two churches and entering formal union negotiations. “The UCC wouldn’t buy more, but the Disciples wouldn’t buy less,” he said.

Though some in both denominations have opposed formal union talks, the most vigorous and organized opposition has been mounted in the UCC. James Gilliom, a UCC representative on the joint committee, said the panel discovered “that the majority of people were looking for some other form of unity than the merger model, which is perceived to be too costly.”

The committee report said some of the obstacles to union “related to structural, bureaucratic and personal issues as well as polity and power concerns internal to both denominations.”

RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE

New U.S. Education Secretary Favors Traditional Values In Public Schools

Debate about the scope and content of public education has intensified in recent years. Christian parents and educators are alarmed about lax discipline, “values-free” curriculum, and marginal—if any—emphasis on national and personal ideals that shape students’ notions of their identity and worth. The recent appointment of William J. Bennett as secretary of the U.S. Department of Education promises to invigorate national discussion and involve Christians more deeply in public education.

Bennett is a Catholic who attended a Jesuit high school in Washington, D.C. Since 1981 he has chaired the National Endowment for the Humanities, a grant-giving, independent federal agency. The favored choice of conservative leaders in Washington, Bennett was unanimously confirmed last month by the Senate. He supports parental involvement in local school matters and tuition tax credits for parents of private school students. In addition, he wants to see the classics of history and literature, including the Bible, restored to prominence in the classroom.

At a news conference outlining his goals for the department, Bennett cited Gallup poll findings that indicate what parents expect from schools. “We Americans in overwhelming numbers said, ‘teach our children math and English and history; teach them how to speak and write and count correctly; and help them develop a reliable standard of right and wrong.’ ” Bennett drew the ire of some prominent members of the education establishment by criticizing innovations in public schools. If his son were of school age, he said, “I would take a very close look at what my son was being asked to study, because there are a lot of things in schools that in my judgment don’t belong there.”

Spokesmen for the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Association of School Administrators responded, saying Bennett should not “impose his views” on parents or on local school boards. The NEA opposes merit pay and competency tests for teachers, while Bennett supports them. They are at odds as well over affirmative action, with Bennett refusing to grant special treatment to anyone based on race.

Bennett’s major statement of educational philosophy was published in November. “The time is right for constructive reform of American education,” he wrote. “Most of our college graduates remain shortchanged in the humanities—history, literature, philosophy, and the ideals and practices of the past that have shaped the society they enter.”

The big questions, in other words, are not being answered and may cease to be asked if education takes on an ideological cast or becomes thoroughly career oriented. “The humanities tell us how men and women of our own and other civilizations have grappled with life’s enduring, fundamental questions.…” Bennett wrote. “As a result of the ways in which these questions have been answered, civilizations have emerged, nations have developed, wars have been fought, and people have lived contentedly or miserably.”

How Bennett and the department he heads will translate those convictions into federal policy remains to be seen. Some initiatives already are in the works, according to deputy undersecretary Gary Bauer. “We want to have some influence on the decision-making process that goes on in the corporate headquarters of textbook publishers,” Bauer said. “Publishers have been very responsive in the last 10 years to a variety of special-interest groups, except those that embrace traditional values.”

In a speech to textbook publishers last fall, Bauer emphasized the importance of conveying “values that sustain a free democratic society.” He said curriculum based on “values clarification” teaches young people that “nothing is good or bad, nothing right or wrong, nothing better or worse, all only different and equally valid. That’s not what most parents mean when they say values. I believe there are few issues that play a bigger role in undermining public support for education than parents’ shocked realization that many textbooks used in our schools undermine the values parents are trying to teach at home.”

However, Bauer said he recognizes that the U.S. Department of Education must proceed with caution. “With the President’s philosophy being what it is, we don’t want to develop curriculum here in Washington. Someday the other guys are going to come back in, and we would all shudder at what they develop.”

Bennett’s leadership is likely to take shape in terms of emphasis and tone, rather than a specific agenda designed to reorder public schools. At his first news conference, he said reform and renewal in education “is principally the American people’s work, not the federal government’s. We in Washington can comment, provide intellectual resources, and, when appropriate, limited fiscal resources.… The moral environment of the school is more important than new buildings, equipment, class size, or expenditures.”

That approach is welcomed by Forrest Turpen, executive director of the Christian Educators Association International. “We want excellence in education, and obviously that starts with values,” Turpen said. “Bennett is on target with his concern for moral values. When they come first, academics will fall into place.”

Turpen’s organization includes 2,000 parents, public school teachers, and public school administrators who are Christians. He said Gallup polls show there are 500,000 Christian public school teachers in America.

The Christian Educators Association International is helping to organize a Christian Congress on Excellence in Public Education, scheduled for August in Kansas City, Missouri. The congress is designed to explore ways to influence public education. It will train Christian public school teachers to work with school administrators on issues involving values. In addition, it will urge pastors and other church leaders to support Christians who work in public education.

Of the approximately 55 million school-age children in America, Turpen said 90 percent attend public schools. The remaining 5 million attend private schools, including 2 million in evangelical Christian schools. Turpen said his chief goal is to provide alternatives to parents who do not opt for private education. Misdirected aspects of public education can be redeemed, he said, and the presence of sympathetic leadership in Washington will help.

BETH SPRING

WORLD SCENE

A 50-percent increase in the Christian population of the Nonkon district of Mali last year may be attributed to the Christian witness of famine relief workers. According to the Gospel Missionary Union (GMU), recipients of aid in the drought-plagued region were impressed by the distribution of food to both Christians and non-Christians by GMU, World Vision, and the Southern Baptist Convention.

An $18 million Scripture distribution campaign in Brazil has helped encourage a government official to approve a similar effort in Ecuador. The country’s vice-president has agreed to allow 2.5 million New Testaments to be distributed in public schools and universities across the nation during the next two years. The project will involve representatives of several Christian denominations in South America, and the World Home Bible League of South Holland, Illinois.

A Swedish government agency has recommended maximum two-year prison sentences for victims of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) who have sexual relations with nonsufferers. Sweden’s National Public Safety Board said prevention by law is the only effective way to stop the disease from spreading. Eight Swedish citizens have died of the disease, thought to be spread through sexual contact and blood transfusions.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.