Missionaries to Nepal, Colombia Find Freedom

Two pairs of North American missionaries being held in captivity on opposite sides of the globe have been released. In the Hindu kingdom of Nepal, David McBride and Merv Budd, of Operation Mobilization, were acquitted of charges of “preaching Christianity and causing distress to Hinduism.” They were released in late February after nearly four months in jail.

And in Colombia, guerrillas freed Gospel Missionary Union (GMU) workers Roy Libby and Richard Grover on March 12 after 68 days in captivity (CT, Feb. 3, 1989, p. 50).

McBride, 32, of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Budd, 27, of London, Ontario, Canada, were arrested last October in Phidim, about 60 miles southeast of the Nepalese capital of Katmandu, for selling Christian literature.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution of Nepal, the world’s only Hindu kingdom, but proselytizing is a crime punishable by up to six years in prison. Missionary organizations are allowed to work in Nepal, but only to provide medical, educational, and relief services under close government supervision.

McBride and Budd had been backpacking in Nepal for about a month prior to their arrest. Operation Mobilization did not inform the U.S. Embassy in Nepal of the arrests for nearly seven weeks, said Michael Wakely, associate area director of OM’s work in South Asia. Such arrests are not uncommon in Nepal. In fact, both McBride and Budd had been arrested previously. Wakely said that usually those arrested are detained for a few days and released.

Mission leaders had hoped to secure the men’s release through low-profile talks with authorities. But when bail was denied and the two men were formally charged, OM contacted U.S. and Canadian officials. “In retrospect, we waited too long,” Wakely said. “We made a mistake.” He added that OM officials have apologized to the U.S. Embassy for OM’s handling of the matter.

Upon learning of the men’s imprisonment, the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus sent a letter signed by more than 50 members of Congress to the Nepali government. The letter urged prompt and just treatment of McBride and Budd, as well as of all the estimated 30 Christians being held in the country.

Mission officials were not optimistic prior to the February 28 trial. But the missionaries’ defense attorney, Hari Nirula, who has defended several Nepali Christians facing similar charges, argued successfully that the prosecution was unable to produce any witnesses to corroborate the government’s charges. Nirula argued also that selling Christian literature is not illegal under the country’s constitution.

In addition to Nirula’s work, Wakely credits the acquittal to the international attention the case received. It included several hundred letters sent to McBride and Budd while they were imprisoned. The two left Nepal immediately after their release. Though they were cleared in court, the government will not allow them to return to Nepal for at least two years.

Veteran GMU workers Libby and Grover were abducted January 3 from a church conference near Cali, Colombia, by a band of heavily armed men who asked for the two missionaries by name. They were released unharmed on March 12 near Cali, according to Clifford Reimer, GMU vice-president of field ministries for Latin America.

The captors, believed to be a small guerrilla group that operates in southwestern Colombia, made no demands, and they gave no explanation for the release, Reimer said. He credited the work of national church leaders and the cooperation of the Colombian government and the U.S. embassy for freeing the men.

According to Reimer, Libby and Grover reported that they were held in the hill country southeast of Cali during the entire time of their captivity, though they were moved 20 times in the 68 days. They said they were not mistreated; both were in good health upon their release. The two men were reunited with their families in Quito, Ecuador, and are planning to return to the United States for a period of rest and relaxation.

By Ken Sidey.

NORTH AMERICAN SCENE

MISUNDERSTANDING

Church Network Leaves NAE

Great Commission International (GCI), a Maryland-based network of 70 evangelical churches, last month withdrew from membership in the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). The NAE had postponed the renewal of GCI’s membership to investigate questions about the group’s structure and complaints about its practices.

A review of GCI’s initial application, which was accepted in 1987, revealed that it had joined as an organization when in fact it is a church, said NAE executive director Billy Melvin. Great Commission officials met in February with Melvin, NAE president John White, and Arthur Borden, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, to discuss the application, GCI subsequently decided to withdraw.

Melvin emphasized his belief that GCI leaders did not intend to deceive the NAE on its application. He blamed the discrepancy on a “misunderstanding of the definitions” of NAE membership on the part of GCI.

Several Christian cult-watching groups have described GCI as “aberrant” and “quasi-cultic,” citing, among other things, authoritarian leadership in some of its local churches. Melvin said the NAE was aware of such complaints and discussed them with GCI leaders.

BIBLE

Revision Revised

The Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible has been revised. The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) will most likely be available sometime next year. Bible scholar Bruce Metzger, professor emeritus of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, chaired a 30-member committee that considered thousands of changes in the original RSV, released in 1952.

The update was authorized by a policy committee related to the National Council of Churches, which holds the copyright on the RSV. A large part of the committee’s purpose was to eliminate sexist language. Thus, “Man does not live by bread alone” was changed to “One does not live …”;Metzger said, however, that the committee did not tamper with the gender of the deity. “God remains ‘our Father,’ and Jesus Christ is still ‘the Son of God,’ ” he said.

The group of scholars also sought to update the RSV’s accuracy in light of recent scholarship and to improve the clarity of the translation. In the NRSV, Psalm 50:9 reads, “I will not accept a bull from your house.” The same verse in the RSV reads, “I will accept no bull from your house.”

CULTS

Sacrifices to Satan

John Husar, outdoors writer for the Chicago Tribune, wrote recently that, according to law enforcement officers, the public woodlands of Illinois are used by satanic cults, including for animal—and perhaps human—sacrifices, “more than most of us can imagine.”

In his column, Husar extensively quoted Craig Tisdale, who specializes in investigating cult-based animal abuse cases for the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Welfare. Tisdale is quoted as saying cult groups meet “in very remote, hard-to-reach places.” He said the groups “have trail markers and lookouts, and some of them are armed.”

According to Husar, at a recent speaking engagement Tisdale produced investigative videos of satanists’ gathering places. One of them was a ceremonial gravesite near which investigators found animals that had been ritualistically killed. They also found an inverted cross and a child’s gym shoe near a shallow grave. Tisdale said he is convinced that babies and children have been sacrificed, though he cannot prove it.

Tisdale cites satanic books and heavy-metal rock records as contributing to the growth of the cults. He added that police suspect some teen suicides are due to satanic cult suicide contracts.

BOXING

In Search of a Knockout

The National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV) has organized a major effort to persuade the International Olympic Committee to ban boxing. According to the NCTV, 242 groups representing 40 U.S. states and 36 countries have joined the effort, citing boxing’s violent nature.

Psychiatrist Thomas Radecki, research director for NCTV, cited harmful effects of Olympic boxing on millions of television viewers. He said the impact on any one viewer may be small, but added that the “total psychological impact of this brutal sport is an even greater public health issue than the brain damage done to the boxers themselves.”

The World Medical Association, as well as the medical associations of four countries, including the U.S. and Canada, support the banning of boxing.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Named: As president of Prison Fellowship Ministries, Thomas C. Pratt, senior vice-president of Herman Miller Inc., a leading furniture company. This completes the organization’s search for a successor to Gordon Loux, who resigned in March of 1988. Pratt’s appointment is effective July 1.

Established: The American College of Biblical Theologians, for the purpose of fostering and developing biblical theology as a theological discipline. The organization was founded by Thomas Edward McComiskey of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Appealed: To the U.S. Supreme Court, a case that has been described as the country’s first “clergy malpractice” suit. Walter and Maria Nally sued Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, California, blaming their son’s 1979 suicide on counseling he received there. A state court ruled last November that people not licensed as counselors or therapists are not legally liable for failing to provide proper care.

Launched: By the Southern Baptist Alliance, plans to start a seminary in Richmond, Virginia. Officials said the purpose of the seminary will be to offer an alternative to the fundamentalism now dominating the Southern Baptist Convention.

WORLD SCENE

VIETNAM

An Offer of Freedom

Three Christian pastors who have spent years in prison in Vietnam have been offered freedom if they agree to resettle in the United States, according to word that has reached Reg Reimer, president of World Relief Canada and a former missionary to what was once South Vietnam. The offer came in apparent response to diplomatic initiatives and human-rights appeals on the pastors’ behalf.

Reimer said the three at first declined the offer, stating their intention to serve out their terms and return to Christian ministry in their native land. When they were informed they would not be permitted to return to ministry, the three accepted the offer. A former chaplain who was released from prison last year was included in the agreement; his family has already resettled in the U.S. At press time, Reimer said the release of the three imprisoned pastors would likely happen soon.

EASTERN EUROPE

Ripe for Harvest?

Christian workers in Eastern Europe believe 1989 will be a good year for church revival and the spreading of the gospel throughout the region, according to the information service of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. The optimistic prediction is based on the emergence of new ministries and an increase in political openness.

According to Peter Kuzmic of the Biblijsko Teolski Institute in Yugoslavia, one of Eastern Europe’s largest evangelical schools, Romania has become the “Korea of Europe” in terms of its spirituality. “Literally hundreds of thousands have come to know the Lord [in Romania] in recent years,” Kuzmic said, adding that the church’s growth has taken place against a social backdrop of poverty.

The World Association for Christian Communication says that efforts are now under way to reach Muslims in Yugoslavia and to establish a ministry in Albania, where hundreds of Christians are believed to have died for their faith in recent years, and where the government claims to have virtually wiped out religion within its boundaries.

SOUTH AFRICA

Mending the Past

Clergyman Johan Heyns, head of the Dutch Reformed Church, South Africa’s largest Afrikaner church body, has urged the South African government to end its refusal to meet with the African National Congress until that outlawed group renounces violence. The New York Times reported Heyns as saying that the abandonment of violence should be a result of, and not a condition for, negotiations.

Heyns’s position has been praised widely among the country’s antiapartheid leaders. Some 80 percent of government legislators are members of the Dutch Reformed Church. The 1.7 million-member body once helped provide a moral justification for the legal separation of races in South Africa. In 1986, it admitted that apartheid has no basis in Scripture.

CHINA

“Fever” Spreads

According to the China News and Church Report (CNCR), published by the Hong Kong-based Chinese Church Research Centre, a recent internal report circulated in China among Communist party cadres addresses in part the reasons for the growing popularity of Christianity there.

According to CNCR, the report was compiled by two writers from the New China News Agency and was based on visits to several cities. The writers described what they discovered as a “Christianity fever” that is spreading particularly among young people and intellectuals.

The report cites corruption in the government and the Communist party as part of the reason behind Christianity’s growth. It states that some have turned to Christianity to find happiness or because Christians have shown them kindness.

The report adds that most of the Christian activities are harmless to the development of the country’s socialist spiritual civilization, despite citing some problems with illicit meeting points and “self-styled evangelists.”

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Shipped: To Cuba, 10,000 Bibles, as part of a plan to send 50,000 Bibles to the country over a five-year period. The agreement was initiated by Denton Lotz of the Baptist World Alliance, who met with Cuban President Fidel Castro last year. The shipments are being coordinated by the United Bible Societies’ Americas Regional Center in Miami.

Resigned: As International Director of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, Thomas Wang, as of the end of this summer’s second Lausanne Congress.

Killed: Late last year, missionary pilots Mike Grenell of Relief Transport Service and Gary Taylor of Life Ministries, the African branch of Campus Crusade for Christ. Their plane was forced off course by bad weather and crashed in a remote area of the Sudan.

Urged: The cooperation of both industrialized and developing nations in the effort to address the ecological problem of global warming. Some 140 environmental specialists meeting in New Delhi, India, recommended that Western nations tax purchases of gasoline and other fossil fuels, the burning of which contributes significantly to global warming. Proceeds would be used to counteract the problem.

Launched: By the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, a campaign against the disease AIDS. The campaign’s theme is MM-1, an acronym for a Swahili phrase translated as “one husband, one wife.”

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