While most evangelical missionaries have been resisting the present dictatorship of President Mobutu Sese Seko, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson recently spent seven days in Zaire at Mobutu’s invitation. Robertson’s trip upset some missionaries and the U.S. State Department alike, who say his visit boosted Mobutu’s administration.
“I frankly do not understand a man of Robertson’s character continuing to be wined and dined by Mobutu,” Presbyterian Church (USA) missionary Nancy Warlick told Religious News Service. Warlick, like most foreign missionaries, was forced to leave Zaire in late September during an outbreak of violence.
A spokesperson for Robertson said the broadcaster was Mobutu’s guest, but also met with members of the opposition party. Spokesperson Susan Norman said Robertson’s visit was “not to support President Mobutu in any way, but to get the gospel out to the people.”
Robertson said he was providing just under $1 million in medicine in conjunction with his trip.
Robertson’s visit came less than a month after Mobutu’s troops fired on a peaceful demonstration of Protestants and Catholics, killing at least 17.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson, Makila James, said U.S. officials had discouraged Robertson from making the visit.
“We had concerns about the public-relations impression,” James said.
Robertson appeared on television with Mobutu, which further riled missionaries, according to Cal Williams, West Africa coordinator for MAP International.
Orthodox Church
Stop Proselytizing Us
In mid-March, Orthodox leaders from around the world condemned the efforts of Protestant and Roman Catholic groups to evangelize former communist countries. “In these countries, the gospel has already been preached for many centuries,” said a declaration penned at the Orthodox gathering in Istanbul attended by 12 of the 14 heads of the Orthodox church worldwide.
The statement said proselytism “poisons the relations among Christians and destroys the road towards their unity”; it also asserted that Eastern European countries and the former Soviet Union should not be viewed as missions territories. Missions, as opposed to proselytism, conducted “in non-Christian countries and among non-Christian peoples,” is good and appropriate, the statement said.
The Orthodox leaders chided “certain circles inside the Roman Catholic Church” for condoning “activities absolutely contrary to the spirit of the dialogue of love and truth.” Orthodox and Roman Catholic leaders have been competing for the allegiance of millions of Christians in the former Soviet Union.
Evangelicals in South Africa rejoiced over the historic vote in early March that by more than a 2-to-l margin turned back 44 years of apartheid. “It really took us by surprise,” said Malcolm Graham, international executive officer for Africa Enterprise and a native South African. “There are very few evangelicals who wouldn’t be ecstatic with the results.”
Evangelicals mostly watched from the sidelines as mainline churches for years actively opposed apartheid, said Graham, but “gradually over the last few years [they have] moved strongly toward a more just and democratic society.”
Graham praised President F. W. De Klerk, whom he calls a “sincere Christian—a man of God.” Some religious groups say De Klerk’s administration must be pressed until a new constitution drafted by a freely elected body is in place.
Abortion
Irish Favor Legalized Abortion
A recent poll indicates that a majority of Irish citizens thinks that country’s abortion laws are too strict and should be changed. The survey of residents of this heavily Roman Catholic community says that 66 percent of Irish citizens favor legalized abortion in cases of rape or incest.
The poll, in the Dublin Sunday Independent newspaper, comes on the heels of a controversy concerning a 14-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and wanted to travel to England to get an abortion. Initially, a lower-court ruling blocked her from making the trip, but the Irish Supreme Court reversed the decision. Before the controversy, Irish women regularly traveled to England to get abortions.
People And Events
Briefly Noted
Approved: Homes of Hope for Poland, the first Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Eastern Europe. The Polish group is backed by the Roman Catholic Church and the Polish ecumenical council and is being led by Adam Krol, a Polish civil engineer.
Released: Three female Protestant missionaries and two children, March 17, on a heavily Muslim island in the southern Philippines. The kidnapers originally demanded $80,000 ransom. Those held were: Lynette Cook and her 6-year-old daughter, Cheree; Carol Allen; and Tracy Rectanus. Cook and Allen work with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, and Rectanus with the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Both groups by policy do not negotiate with kidnapers. Philippine officials reportedly paid $17,000 ransom.
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