PERIODICAL PRIMER
To keep up with the diverse and complex religious scene today it’s necessary to know what information is molding the thinking of various religious groups. As I sit in my high ivory tower with an overview of the country, I feel duty-bound to share with you a list of publications having great theological influence.
Undoubtedly Playboy heads the list. Read it to see what Protestant ministers and half the Roman Catholic priests are thinking. In here you will meet such outstanding theological lights as Harvey Cox and Al Capp and at least one Mormon playmate. Notice I said “read.”
When he finishes Playboy, the typical Protestant minister will be found reading Changing Times—trying desperately and usually fruitlessly to find ways of making his meager income cover his magnifluent outgo.
If you want to know what the young theological student of today is thinking, tune in to Mad magazine. You’ll better understand the current lack of theological subtlety after your experience here. The editors never use a needle if a meat cleaver will do as well. The theological position can loosely be described as neo-Rabelaisian.
The National Catholic Reporter will initiate you into the thinking of liberal Catholics. You will learn more than you want to know about the sins of Catholic officialdom.
Our Sunday Visitor, also Catholic, will tell you why everything you just read in the NCR is a lie. To save time, don’t read either of them.
On the coffee table of every evangelical Christian making more than $15,000 a year you will find William F. Buckley’s National Review. Don’t bother with the articles. Just sample Buckley’s waspish answers to the letters. That’ll tell you all you need to know.
America’s most over-rated paper, The New York Times, will give you the Upper Manhattan Zionist view of things. (And besides, how can they expect to run a successful paper without a comic page?)
The young liberated churchwoman is represented by Cosmopolitan. Tolerance is the key word here. Let a thousand flowers bloom: adultery, homosexuality, Burt Reynolds, etc.
Last of all on this list is the venerable Christian Century. It’s a must if you want to know what unmarried librarians of indeterminate religious convictions are thinking—this week.
If you haven’t the time or money to read all these, the solution is simple. Just keeping reading CHRISTIANITY TODAY. It’s paper and ink to you but it’s bread to me.
STANDING PAT
Replies to my article on church and state in your February 4 issue make me say something I did not say. I do not call for the tearing down of the wall of separation between church and state, but do not like where late court decisions have put that wall. I do stand pat on my contention that it is impossible to block out all religion officially without actually negating religion in a positive way in school, public life, or wherever. All that opponents of Christianity have ever asked is that it be hushed up and never mentioned. Neutrality in religion is negation, due to the psychic nature of man. I should like to see the Supreme Court affirm again as it did in the Mormon cases and in the McIntosh case, “We are a Christian nation.”
Atlanta, Ga.
INVITATIONAL RESPONSE
As my copy of CHRISTIANITY TODAY dated December 17 last failed to reach me in the usual way, I have only recently seen the invitation of Dr. J. D. Douglas to identify an Ulster Unionist member of Parliament who won election against the wishes of the Orange Order (Current Religious Thought, “ ‘Wish You Could See …’ ”).
One such is Mr. R. D. McConnell, elected in 1969 for the Bangor Division to the Stormont Parliament. For good measure, the name of Major R. L. Hall-Thompson, elected for the Clifton Division, Belfast, at the same election, could also be mentioned.
Belfast, Northern Ireland
IN APPRECIATION
Paul Rees’s recent article “Of Colts and Men” (March 17) was very inspiring. Thank you for your continuing policy of delivering to the evangelical minister the best in quality of inspirational articles. I have always appreciated your editorial policy and your desire to communicate the truth in its entirety.
First Christian Church
Bremen, Ga.
NOT ONLY CATHOLICS
Your news story “Multiplying Millions” (Feb. 18) is misleading. Protestant mission work began in Kuwait in 1903 when Dr. Samuel Zwemer of the Reformed Church in America opened a Bible shop in the local bazaar. Since that time an active medical and evangelistic program has served the people of this century.
In 1931 the first Christian church was built in Kuwait. The National Evangelical Church is presently composed of three linguistic congregations: Arabic, Malayalam (Indian), and English. Our combined membership exceeds one thousand. There are two residing ministers that care for the spiritual needs of these people. There are also six other churches in Kuwait bringing the total non-Catholic membership to over twenty thousand people with ten resident ministers.
National Evangelical Church
Kuwait
POETIC STRENGTH
John Leax’s poem “After the Stroke” (March 17) was to me a very moving experience, especially since a dear friend of ours is now living through this very thing. Mr. Leax has put the experience into right focus for us, and I’m sure hundreds of readers will get strength and blessing from it. Please give him our thanks.
Portland, Oreg.
SOME PHILOSOPHICAL OBSERVATIONS
Harold O. J. Brown’s comments about evangelical writers who give little attention to people like Herman Dooyeweerd (“Theology, Ethics, and Apologetics,” March 17) miss the point of what at least one such writer is attempting to do.
1. Except for the final chapter, my Faith Seeks Understanding is not about “revelation and authority,” nor is it “an effort to show that Christian faith … is a reasonable alternative to other positions”; so there was little point then in discussing what others do along those lines. As the preface plainly states, the book explores the tangency of philosophical views of knowledge (scientific, historical, moral, and personal, as well as religious) to the concerns of the Christian working not in apologetics but in philosophy. Similar observations could doubtless be made about Gill’s book.
2. The epistemological problems with which students of philosophy are confronted are not those discussed by Dooyeweerd, Van Til, or Schaeffer, many of whose proposals, moreover, appear insufficiently worked out for philosophic (as distinct from apologetic) purposes. The fact is that evangelicals have yet to do the detailed philosophical work we desperately need.
Wheaton College
Wheaton, Ill.
PREGNANT RESPONSIBILITY
At last, a religious publication has spoken against abortion on demand for what it is—a convenience (“Abortion For Convenience,” March 17)!
A realistic study will show that in virtually all cases an unwanted pregnancy is merely a pregnancy that is not convenient at that time, usually because of alleged financial limitations. Yet close scrutiny will almost always reveal the money is not needed elsewhere—it is only planned elsewhere. Mental anguish results because people are unwilling to accept a new responsibility thrust upon them and are unwilling to change their plan of their lives.… To legalize abortion on demand will accomplish little except to reinforce the unwillingness to change and to accept new responsibilities.
Macon, Mo.
POLITICAL MIX-UP
Your March 17 editorial entitled “On Befriending Presidents” obscures the true source of apprehension regarding Billy Graham’s public association with President Nixon. The problem is not that this association links “the leading Bible preacher of our time with a particular political outlook.” The problem, rather, is that most evangelical literature, including CHRISTIANITY TODAY, is highly prone to attack clergy who voice politically liberal views while ignoring or implicitly condoning the presence of conservative views such as those frequently expressed by Billy Graham. We are often told that politics and preaching don’t mix, but what is really meant is that liberal politics are out of place. It hardly needs to be said that this double standard is offensive—and a source of alienation—to a younger generation of evangelicals who hold to a liberal political persuasion.
Cambridge, Mass.
MIXED PLEASURE
So pleased to read the article entitled “Bibles in the Barracks: God and the Military” (March 31). I was, however, sorry [that you] failed to mention the Air Force Spiritual Life Conferences, held yearly at numerous geographic locations. The programs are excellent and the speakers outstanding.
Major, USAFR
Abilene, Tex.
THE TUBE IN LATIN AMERICA
For a number of years I have enjoyed reading CHRISTIANITY TODAY—not only for its feature articles, but also for its excellent coverage of news of evangelical organizations and ministries.
I particularly appreciate your news article in the March 17 issue, “Evangelical TV—Decade of the Tube,” providing us with a comprehensive overview of how this effective instrument for the propagation of the Gospel is being used in the United States and overseas.
I am glad that you included our missionary, Luis Palau, because we feel he has perhaps the most widespread and effective television ministry in Latin America, and we plan to see this increased for the glory of God. We would therefore appreciate it if you would make a note of the fact that Mr. Palau is the director and evangelist of the Luis Palau Evangelistic Team, which is a division of Overseas Crusades.
Executive Director
Overseas Crusades, Inc.
Palo Alto, Calif.
SOME CLARIFICATIONS
Your editorial regarding the thirtieth anniversary of the National Association of Evangelicals is greatly appreciated (“The NAE at Thirty,” March 31). We too are concerned about some of the slow developments that you mention. There are two matters mentioned that need clarification.
With regard to NAE involvement in Key 73 I should say that we have a very specific policy that we will not duplicate in any way the functions of our member churches. Evangelism is the task of the Church. On the other hand, we have encouraged our members to participate, and much of the leadership in Key 73 is supplied by NAE members.
As for securing the cooperation of the Lutheran and Restoration churches, we do have close liaison with them, and we serve them through one or more of our commissions. They have policies of affiliation that make it difficult for them to join the NAE except one church at a time.
General Director
National Association of Evangelicals
Washington, D. C.
A CLOSED CASE?
John Lawing’s news report about the charges against Andrew Jensen (“Morals Charge Stirs Row,” March 31) is confusing at best and misleading in many ways. My first impression was that the man was guilty … but then I read a series of news items in [another newspaper] shedding a whole new light on it. It contained Mrs. Jensen’s testimony on her husband’s behalf and also Mr. Jensen’s answers to specific evidence contained in the charge. Your item hinted that it was a closed case, and the statement by Charles E. Willis is anything but compassionate.… You should have dug into the matter and stated clearly that these are only charges.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Commander Jensen has since been found not guilty.—ED.
