South Korea’s government is apparently weary of the “orphan image” the nation has developed over two decades of child-care appeals mainly by Christian groups in the West. A quiet but tough crackdown on agencies involved in child sponsorship is going on. Also affected are relief programs and funding of Korean institutions by foreign religious organizations.
National leaders, arguing that their republic is a “developed nation,” have bitterly criticized the content of some fund-raising appeals by child-care agencies, the quality of the child care itself, financial arrangements, and standards of institutional operation.
A few leaders wryly allege that the subsidies from abroad are in some cases “creating” orphans. They point out that children in many “orphanages” have one or both parents still living.
A number of Christian groups have made changes to conform to the new policies, but critics counter that these are merely cosmetic changes for the most part. It is widely rumored that the government plans a systematic closing of the 530 orphanages now functioning. Officials of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs want the orphanages replaced by foster-home programs that won’t destroy the traditional Korean family structure. At any rate, the ministry so far this year has ordered the closing of eighty orphanages for failure to meet the new standards.
Under the new codes, orphanages directed by pastors and others who are not “qualified” social workers must close. The “chain” system must end; each orphanage must have its own qualified administrator. There must be adequate facilities, funding, and educational opportunities. Institutions must be run in accord with their original charters. Some affected orphanages may be allowed to remain open as day-care centers.
A press aide at the Korean embassy in Washington disclaimed knowledge of aggressive government action in orphanage affairs. But he revealed that U. S. postal authorities were investigating fund-raising appeals of at least one church group.
A World Vision spokesman acknowledged that government moves were afoot but said his agency was unaffected. “Responsible” agencies are glad that substandard operations and shady-dealing organizations are being shut down, he said. (It is commonly known that in some instances very little remains after administrative and promotional costs have been skimmed from each dollar earmarked for orphans or relief.)
Executive director Varent J. Mills of the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) in Richmond, Virginia, confirms that government reforms are under way. “We stand 100 per cent with the government on this program; we think it will accomplish a great deal of good,” he declared. The CCF, which services about 18,000 Korean children, has a “Family Help Program,” giving direct subsidies for schooling, clothing, and food to children even if they are living with their own family, he explained. (The crying “orphans” in the familiar magazine ads of some agencies are likely to be slum children whose families are too poor to provide adequate support rather than actual orphans.)
Other factors cloud the picture. Now that many of the children orphaned by the Korean War are adults, and with more pressing needs arising in Bangladesh, Southeast Asia, and Africa, major relief organizations are diverting their attention—and funds—elsewhere. Since 1970, two dozen of the eighty-seven members of the Korean Association of Volunteer Agenices (all foreign) have phased out their programs in Korea.
Rising costs amid the cutbacks and reforms meanwhile are creating a financial bind for the Korean operations. One solution would be for the Korean churches themselves to raise more money—a solution quite revolutionary to most directors of child-care programs. Hundreds of churches operate orphanages; almost all of them are totally funded through child sponsorship programs in the United States. The crisis extends to schools and hospitals run by the churches with the backing of missions and relief money. Christian leaders insist that foreign help is still needed. The government seems willing to concede the point for now but wants the foreign benefactors to eschew a crisis mentality in favor of concepts of long-term development.
Missionaries and church leaders in Korea are pondering what kind of help is called for. There are obviously still great needs in the land, but they are not the dramatic ones brought on by war and refugees. And of late, evangelical groups seem unsure about how deeply they want to get involved.
Religion In Transit
William R. Johnson, 25, became the first openly self-avowed homosexual to be ordained by a major denomination: the United Church of Christ. He was ordained in a suburban San Francisco church by the UCC’s Golden Gate Association. Meanwhile, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Netherlands accepted a report which holds that homosexuality should not be a barrier to a person’s becoming a pastor.
Pleas of helpless old people for “the right to die with dignity” have given birth to the Good Death Fellowship, as reported in its quarterly journal, Euthanasia News.
Associate evangelist Grady Wilson of the Billy Graham team held a ten-day crusade backed by 300 churches on Barbados in the West Indies. Attendance totaled 64,000, with a one-night high of 14,000. Pre-crusade wrangling by islanders over alleged racism and money matters almost scuttled the campaign but may have led to deeper impact than was felt in previous meetings, says one insider.
Only days after Presiding Bishop John E. Hines of the Episcopal Church endorsed the ordination of women to full priesthood, the conservative American Church Union (Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians) called on all Anglicans to break communion with any bishop “attempting” to ordain women as priests. Earlier, a Hong Kong bishop had ordained two women.
In less than one year the attendance at Westside Assembly of God Church in Davenport, Iowa, has soared from an average of 78 to nearly 1,000, with a high of about 1,400. Pastor Tommy Barnett credits door-to-door visitation and a vigorous “bus ministry.”
About 400 men of the Old Order Amish sect lost their construction jobs in Indiana for refusing to don hard hats instead of their broad-brimmed black felt hats, considered by them to be an integral part of their faith. The U. S. Labor Department has finally granted an exemption in the name of religious freedom.
The Catholic bishops of Puerto Rico have issued the sternest official warning to date on the modern Pentecostal movement. They cautioned Catholic charismatics to guard against claims of miracles, a false sense of ecumenism, and a watering down of the meaning of baptism.
The greatest number of phone calls to church-related “hot-line” crisis centers are received during a full moon and at Christmas, according to a Contact Teleministry study.
Personalia
Astronaut James B. Irwin, asked to retire early from the space program because of budget cuts, will also retire from the Air Force to devote full time to evangelism and ministry. His organization, dubbed “High Flight,” will be based in Colorado Springs and headed by his pastor, William H. Rittenhouse, a Southern Baptist who will resign from his Houston church in September.
Christian and Missionary Alliance missionary Garth W. Hunt was awarded South Viet Nam’s highest medal of honor, primarily for his eight years of hospital and relief work. He is the first foreigner to receive the medal, usually reserved for top government officers.
Sally Priesand, 25, goes to work next month in a New York synagogue (Reform Judaism) as apparently the first woman rabbi in history. And Judith Hird, 26, is America’s first woman Lutheran parish pastor, serving at a Toms River, New Jersey, church.
The 16,795-member First Baptist Church of Dallas is expanding its Criswell Bible Institute; pastor W. A. Criswell announced the appointment of H. Leo Eddleman, 61, former president of the New Orleans Baptist Seminary and doctrinal analyst for the Southern Baptist publication unit, as president.
American street evangelist Arthur Blessitt has preached to more than 30,000 in Belfast, Londonderry, and other Northern Ireland towns. Catholics have generally given him a warm welcome. He has set up a number of prayer-and-witness groups, says correspondent S. W. Murray.
Southern Baptist evangelism director Kenneth L. Chafin, 45, has resigned after two and a half years to pastor the 5,700-member South Main Baptist Church of Houston.
World Council of Churches communications executive Albert van den Heuvel, 40, has been elected general secretary of the Netherlands Reformed Church.
Cited by Religious Heritage of America: Notre Dame University president Theodore M. Hesburgh as Clergyman of the Year; Metropolitan Opera star Jerome Hines as Churchman of the Year; Mrs. Lenore Lafount Romney, wife of political figure George Romney, as Churchwoman of the Year. A special award went to publisher Kenneth Taylor whose Living Bible has hit the 3 million mark in less than two years.
Deaths
WASSIL ANGELOFF, 56, American-educated leader of the evangelical community in Bulgaria and pastor of the Baptist church of Sofia; in Sofia, from complications following surgery.
VAN V. EDDINGS, 82, founder and general director emeritus of the Orinoco River Mission; in Whittier, California, of a heart attack.
PETER KINDRAT, 79, leader of Ukrainian evangelicals in Canada; in Winnepeg, Manitoba.
O. FREDERICK NOLDE, 72, Lutheran Church in America clergyman, leading Lutheran educator, and long-time director of international affairs for the World Council of Churches; in Philadelphia.
CAMERON ORR, 65, for thirty-three years chaplain to the ships plying Canada’s Welland Canal; in Toronto, of cancer.
PYONG-HO SO (Philip Suh), 86, prominent Presbyterian leader who in 1887 became the first Korean Protestant baptized as an infant; in Seoul.
World Scene
In their campaign to show that Jesus is alive and relevant Catholic bishops in Brazil raised a national furor with their posters showing Jesus in a contemporary shirt and necktie.
A serious financial crisis prompted the North Africa Mission to curtail services. The move includes temporary suspension of its periodical, The Cross and the Crescent.
Seventh-day Adventists are beginning a ministry in Upper Volta. The West African nation has a population of some 5.5 million, and there is only one other Protestant group working there, the Christian and Missionary Alliance. SDAs now operate in 188 countries.
Sunday-school manuals are available for the first time in the language of the 100,000-member Hmar tribe of northeast India (about 85 per cent of the Hmars are Christian); the manuals are adaptations of Scripture Press materials.
Two dozen top African leaders of the Presbyterian Church in Mozambique were jailed with no reasons given.
Missionaries report revival and church growth among the Quichua Indians of Ecuador, descendants of the Incas. A recent breakthrough has resulted in 1,600 baptized believers; a like number is on the waiting list. The Quichuas have spread the revival to Colombia; groups of believers are springing up there.
Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal leaders met with Catholic officials in Zurich in the first session of a five-year dialogue to discuss “the understanding both sides have of the fullness of life in the Holy Spirit.” Co-chairmen: Pentecostalist David Du Plessis and Catholic scholar Kilian McDonnell. Participants agreed it is the Spirit who makes one a Christian and that believers must submit to his guidance.
Egypt and Libya have sent officials to investigate clashes between Muslims and Christians on the island of Mindinao in the Philippines. More than 1,000 have been killed recently in the longstanding feud, said by most observers to be political rather than religious.
The Synod of the Diocese of London—the most populous of the Church of England’s forty-three dioceses—voted for disestablishment; if others follow, it will mean a complete break between church and state.
Britain’s Methodist Church suffered a net loss of 50,000 full members in the last three years (current membership: 601,000); leaders blame the decline on lagging recruitment rather than the exodus, which is at a fifteen-year low. The Methodists have 4,000 fewer churches than forty years ago.
Large numbers of people in Southern Sudan are turning to Christ, according to a Church of England newspaper report. One pastor in the strife-torn land has baptized 10,000 in the past three years, it says. A ceasefire agreement signed in March gives responsibility for foreign affairs to the Muslim-dominated North, dimming hopes of a soon return by missionaries (ousted from the South in 1964).
With the addition of twelve more couples, the missionary force of the Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS) now numbers more than 100 Nigerian couples serving in remote areas of Nigeria and in neighboring countries. The EMS is an arm of the Evangelical Churches of West Africa, an outgrowth of Sudan Interior Mission work in Nigeria.
Uganda evangelist Festo Kivengere says that on a visit to the Solomon Islands he found revival and packed churches. “Many pagans have been converted. The church is well established on Bible teaching [and] many young people are in it,” he reports. The stirrings have been going on for three years.
One hundred Jehovah’s Witnesses were arrested in Chalkis, Greece, for meeting in a house without a permit. And a 72-year-old Swedish evangelical tourist was jailed for twenty days for handing out tracts on the island of Rhodes. Greek law forbids proselytizing.
Anglican bishop Jack Dain of Sydney and other evangelical leaders are organizing a media consortium known as ECCE to produce and distribute materials for mass media evangelism throughout Asia.
