Voodoo Sect Members Attack Missionaries

A short-term Free Methodist work team from Alpena, Michigan, was attacked by Haitian voodoo Rah-Rah revelers on Easter Sunday about 20 miles outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince. According to Free Methodist Director of World Missions Elmore Clyde, the team was attacked by a mob with clubs and machetes while traveling from an Easter church service to the work site where a new church was being built.

Clyde said the team leader received a serious machete wound to the head, another team member had an eye injury and broken arm, and the remaining ten Americans received less serious cuts and bruises. All were treated at a hospital and released the next day. Group members said they felt divine protection throughout the incident.

According to Clyde, the group had encountered several Rah-Rah groups, and for an unknown reason, some of the revelers began to get agitated and throw stones. Clyde said the truck continued to move slowly through the crowd when another vehicle came up and incited the mob to further violence, telling them the Americans had run over some Haitians back on the highway, a story Clyde said was “absolutely false.” The melee was eventually broken up by the police.

Rah-Rah revelers are tied to Haiti’s voodoo culture and spend the Easter season dancing in the streets, beating drums, and chanting—sometimes all night. Many of them drink Haitian rum heavily as part of the ritual.

The Americans were part of a Free Methodist Volunteers in Service Abroad (visa) two-week project that was to build a new church in the town of Carfou. Most of the 12 members of the group came from the First Free Methodist Church in Alpena. Another team led by Alpena pastor Ron White had just returned after completing another visa project in Haiti. White said his church has been active in these short term projects over the past ten years and involved in building some 12 churches in Haiti.

Clyde said the missionaries in Haiti were very concerned about false press stories that were circulated within the country immediately after the incident. The stories erroneously reported that two Haitians were run over and that the missionaries had weapons. (The stories were later corrected.)

“[Field chairman] Warren Land said the Haitian police and authorities and the American embassy were just beautiful in all of this,” Clyde said. “Warren said it is amazing the amount of good will from the Haitian people that has come from this as well.”

Clyde added this incident will not affect Free Methodist work in Haiti. “Were not going to slow up on our work-team schedule at all,” he said. “It was just an isolated case of violence with the Rah-Rah groups.”

NORTH AMERICAN SCENE

TELEVISION

Prime-time Irreligion

A recent episode of “The Cosby Show” portrays the fictional Huxtable family as heading off to church on Sunday morning as if church is a regular part of their lives. But according to journalist-author Dan Wakefield, such prime-time characterizations of the role of religion in the daily lives of Americans are unrealistically rare.

In the March 11 issue of TV Guide, Wakefield writes that “religion is rarely mentioned in current prime-time dramas or sitcoms that supposedly reflect the way we live now.” He continues, “Yet religion and spirituality are increasingly a prime (if not yet prime-time) factor in contemporary life.” He notes a few exceptions, in which characters grapple with issues of religious faith.

Wakefield suggests in his article that “God and church and prayer should be a natural part of the life of the Huxtable family of ‘The Cosby Show.’ ” He writes, “More than any segment of our society, African-Americans have carried on a deep religious faith even in the days when it was out of fashion.”

HOMOSEXUALITY

“Family” Redefined

A landmark ordinance under consideration by San Francisco city officials would redefine “family” to include homosexual couples and unmarried couples living together.

Under the “domestic partnership” proposal, homosexual couples, as well as unmarried heterosexual partners, would enjoy the legal status of married couples in such areas as real estate and rental contracts. Policies on sick leave and child care for city and county employees, as well as jail and hospital visitation rights, would all be adjusted according to the new concept of family.

Among opponents of the ordinance is the Catholic church’s San Francisco archdiocese. Among the ordinance’s supporters are San Francisco mayor Art Agnos and the city’s homosexual community. According to the San Jose Mercury News, homosexuals are believed to make up more than one-fourth of San Francisco’s population.

CHURCH POLICY

Time to Tithe

Television preacher Jerry Falwell announced last month that employees of his various ministries are required to join his Thomas Road Baptist Church and to give at least 10 percent of their salaries to it.

Ministry spokesman Mark DeMoss noted the announcement was actually a restatement of a pre-existing policy. But the ministry acknowledged it has not emphasized submission to the policy in the past.

DeMoss said the policy mandates involvement with Thomas Road Baptist Church. “We are by our very definition a local-church ministry,” he said, noting that Thomas Road was established first and that associated ministries came later.

In all, the church and its related ministries employ about 2,000 people. According to DeMoss, exceptions to the policy will be granted, including for women employees whose husbands attend other churches. He said the ministry expects only a handful to leave because of the policy.

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS

A Struggle Resumes

The battle being waged among Southern Baptists for control of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary continued last month as conservative trustees succeeded in electing a dean who was opposed unanimously by the school’s faculty.

The election of L. Russ Bush III as dean of the Wake Forest, North Carolina, seminary was a victory for fundamentalists in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) who are committed to the teaching of scriptural inerrancy at SBC seminaries. Bush maintains the Bible is without error in matters of religion, science, and history.

Southeastern trustees also approved a report blaming the school’s current problems on its former president, Randall Lolley, who resigned in 1987 after fundamentalists took control of the board. The school is currently under review by its accrediting agencies (CT, Feb. 3, 1989, p. 54). Enrollment is down nearly 25 percent since last spring.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Celebrated: The 1,000th consecutive weekly broadcast of television preacher Robert Schuller’s “Hour of Power.” The landmark program aired earlier this month. Among those to send videotaped congratulatory messages to Schuller were former Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon.

The one-hundredth anniversary of the Evangelistic Association of New England. Based in Boston, the association held its first training session for evangelists in 1888; since 1960 it has conducted annual conferences to teach believers how to live more effectively for Christ.

Ruled: By the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, that four churches have legal standing to file suit against the government based on injuries they claim to have incurred when government agents secretly recorded their worship services as part of an investigation of the sanctuary movement. The decision overturned a 1986 court ruling that the churches had no basis for an injury claim.

Declined: By Canada’s Supreme Court, the opportunity to decide whether a fetus has constitutional rights. This determination now rests with the Canadian Parliament.

Changed: As of July 1, the name Fort Wayne Bible College in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Summit Christian College. Officials said the new name better represents the school’s mission.

Voted: By the board of trustees of Miami Christian College in Miami, Florida, to affiliate with the Deerfield, Illinois-based Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

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