Researchers charge viewer figures are grossly inflated.
Is the electronic church as large as its preachers and secular and religion writers tell us? Or are the rolls a bit inflated—in an “evang-elastic” sense?
Rice University sociologist William Martin argues the latter case. Writing in the Atlantic (June 1981), Martin presents evidence showing that many popular estimates of the electronic church audience are far too high. From Ben Armstrong of the National Religious Broadcasters to the New York Times and United Press International, sources have placed at 115 to 130 million the number of Americans who sit down weekly to a radio or TV preaching broadcast, Martin says.
However, basing his writings on a decade of research and study of audience surveys, Martin says many of the audience estimates “have one feature in common: they are all absurd.” To illustrate, Martin cited recent figures of the A. C. Nielsen Company. Its audience data showed that fewer than 10 million TV-viewer households tuned to one of the top 10 programs produced by nondenominational ministries during November of 1980. Only 2 of those 10 ministries attracted as many as 2 percent of the households in the areas in which their programs are broadcast.
If anything, Martin writes, the electronic church audience is shrinking. The Nielsen data showed that 9 of the 10 most popular TV ministries suffered audience drops between February and November of last year.
Martin sees this as a continuing decline. Oral Roberts, the most-watched TV preacher with an estimated following of 2.3 million, has lost more than 40 percent of the audience he had in February of 1977, says Martin.
In their new book, Prime Time Preachers: The Rising Power of Televangelism, sociologist Jeffrey K. Hadden of the University of Virginia and broadcaster Charles E. Swann of Richmond (Va.) also fire salvos at inflated audience figures. Whereas Jerry Falwell and his followers on occasion have claimed audiences ranging from 25 to 50 million viewers, say the authors, data compiled by Arbitron puts Falwell’s audience at only about 1.5 million. They argue that TV preachers bloat audience figures because “the greater the success a ministry can claim, the more worthy it is of viewer support.”
Martin believes the money-raising potential of electronic preachers is reaching its limits. Audiences remain largely composed of active church members so that “the usefulness of the broadcasts as tools of evangelism—the primary justification used to raise money—must be seriously questioned.”
All this is not to say the electronic church is dying or that it brings no benefits to the evangelical community. The programs do strengthen faith, Martin writes. He adds that because today’s religious broadcasting is predominantly evangelical, the evangelicals get a confidence boost: “They realize that they are no longer a beleaguered, backwater minority but a significant and thriving part of mainstream American Christianity.
“And that may well assure the electronic church a congregation that is sufficient to keep the cards and letters coming.”
The International Year of Disabled Persons
Quadriplegic Joni Builds Bridges From The Disabled To Able-Bodied Church Members
Joni Eareckson does not really consider herself a disabled person. “I consider myself a bridge between ‘normal’ and really disabled people—people in wheelchairs with matted hair, slurred speech, and twisted arms.” To these people—and to the able-bodied—Eareckson directs her new and expanding ministries.
Joni and Friends, based in Woodland Hills, California, is a ministry to those who suffer. It grew out of Eareckson’s personal experiences of “not knowing where to turn for help” after her diving accident in 1967, which left her a quadriplegic at the age of 17. Grueling sojourns in various institutions and wranglings with bureaucracy equipped her to answer the anguished and manifold questions of the disabled.
The purpose of Joni and Friends is “to equip and train the local churches with the necessary information, curriculum, and guidelines to help the disabled.” Buttressing this is the belief that “a good theology reflects a good sociology”—that part of the church’s charter is helping the sick, the poor, and the disabled. Five programs have been launched to help achieve these goals.
A two-day seminar, called the Joy of Caring, will be held in various cities. Lecturers include Eareckson, Steve Estes (coauthor of her second book, A Step Further), and California State (Northridge) professor Sam Britten. The seminar, however, is more than a series of lectures. Negative attitudes toward the disabled are exposed in a series of dramatic skits. Heading the list of these poor attitudes is the fear of social stigma and ignorance that Eareckson says develops “pity in the able-bodied and inferiority in the disabled.”
Scripture-saturated teaching on the sovereignty of God is the bedrock of the seminar curriculum. Eareckson calls that doctrine the “most comforting thing of all.” In the months following her accident, she exhausted all biblical injunctions on healing, and now she affirms that “none of us has the right to demand that God heal us.” She deals in the seminar with the subjects of healing miracles, pain, and the goodness of God.
The test area for Joy of Caring is Seattle, and results have been encouraging. Eareckson said health care professionals there are generally sympathetic and “glad that someone is doing something.” Some, however, view the religious overtones as propaganda, and her methodology as a last resort.
Following up the Joy of Caring seminar is People Plus, a program to teach people in local churches how to care for the handicapped. It addresses the most basic need of the handicapped—good, reliable, daily care. Its focus is on the able-bodied and their training in such things as exercise, special architecture, and even wheelchair maintenance. In a People Plus pilot program at nearby Grace Community Church, members are “assigned” a specific disability to sensitize them to the rigors of handicapped life. A session of trying to eat spaghetti while blindfolded or paralyzed or with tongue depressors taped to one’s hands quickly points out the need for deep, biblical empathy. Joni Eareckson’s artistic creativity appears to have carried over into teaching methods.
The success of the books, Joni and A Step Further, as well as the feature film about her accident and rehabilitation, has unleashed a continuing barrage of questions and letters. To deal with this, Joni and Friends are establishing a National Information Center to compile data for the handicapped on financial help, government aid, education, and rehabilitation. The staff also counsels through books, tapes, and films.
With its slogan of “Full Participation,” the International Year of Disabled Persons gives Joni and Friends needed public exposure. She hopes that the year’s emphasis on expanded educational opportunity, rehabilitation, the use of technology, and better employment will correct what she views as past “bad press” for the handicapped. There are about 35 million disabled in the United States; 450 million world-wide.
On a smaller scale, Joni and Friends declared May 3 as Handicapped Awareness Sunday. They made available a package for interested local churches, composed of a poster, a taped message from Joni, and suggested hymns and Scripture readings.
With interest in all these programs at a high level, Eareckson is not complacent. One concern is the high cost of special equipment for the handicapped and the apparent monopoly on it possessed by a few companies. Budget cuts by the Reagan administration are a threat that also cautions against complacency. Asked if the disabled constitute what the administration has called the “truly needy,” she replies, “That remains to be seen, but I certainly hope so,” adding that many of her disabled friends live well and independently because of government funds and programs.
Living at the center of all this activity has created something of a new handicap for Joni Eareckson—constant demands on her time, appeals for new books (some of which she has no interest in writing), speaking engagements, and art work. She also cites a need to “keep knocking myself off a pedestal.” Although she feels that God has helped her overcome her paralysis as well as might be expected, her life is not free from other difficulties: “I worry that my teeth might fall out and I might not be able to paint any more.”
LLOYD BILLINGSLEY
Seventh-day Adventists
Another Adventist Professor Is Ejected For His Views
Another popular Seventh-day Adventist scholar has lost his job for holding views that are close to historic Protestantism and contrary to official Adventist positions. Smuts van Rooyen, assistant professor of religion at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, resigned after he reportedly was told by the university administration that he could no longer teach at an Adventist institution because of the views he holds.
Last fall, church officials defrocked Desmond Ford, an author, popular lecturer, and a visiting professor at the Adventists’ Pacific Union College in California, for his variant views on matters central to the Adventist faith (CT, Oct. 10, 1980, p. 76). Van Rooyen called his beliefs similar to those of Ford. He said if necessary most Adventist scholars believe what he and Ford do, but most are reluctant to speak about it because administrators hold the traditional church view.
Adventists believe that in 1844, in the words of church founder and prophetess Ellen White, Christ entered “the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary.” At that time, Christ began evaluating the lives of believers and blotting out the sins of those who are worthy, and therefore, salvation cannot be assured in this life. Said van Rooyen: “I believe Christ made all the provision necessary for salvation in A.D. 31” at his death on the cross, and thus salvation for believers is certain.
Ford, van Rooyen, and other dissenters say the sanctuary doctrine cannot be found in the Bible (although the church disagrees with them), and only exists in the writings of Ellen White. Adventists teach that she was inspired by God in the same way the writers of Scripture were inspired. Van Rooyen and the other dissenters deny that, and they put her writings in a place distinctly second to the Bible. Ford says White never claimed inspiration for herself, and would be “horrified” at the ways Adventists have used her hooks.
Van Rooyen said that he has not publicized his variant view. “They have no evidence in terms of my ministry,” he said. “They wouldn’t have known what I believed if they hadn’t called me in and asked me. I presented an image problem for them, because I have high visibility, and I wouldn’t confirm the traditional views of the church. When people asked me what I believed, I would tell them.”
Van Rooyen did not have tenure at the university. He is a widely traveled speaker at Adventist church functions, and had returned to teaching just this spring following a two-year leave to work on a doctorate.
Joseph Grady Smoot, president of Andrews University, said there was no pressure on van Rooyen to resign. But he added he could not go so far as to say that van Rooyen’s teaching contract would have been renewed had he not resigned.
Smoot disagreed with the assessment that most Adventist theologians, including those at Andrews, held views similar to Ford and van Rooyen. “I think they would be willing to say that Des [Ford] had identified some things in Adventist theology that need study, but they wouldn’t necessarily concur with his conclusions.”
The National Council of Churches
Ecumenists Issue A Denunciation Of Reagan’S Policies
In a stinging rebuke, issued as a message to its members, the governing board of the National Council of Churches (NCC) last month claimed the Reagan administration is erasing “the vision of America as the model and embodiment of a just and humane society”—a concept that has “deep roots in religious faith and biblical images” and the work of “pilgrims and padres.”
The NCC statement is entitled “The Remaking of America?” It contends that Reagan administration budget cuts in social programs, increased military spending, aggressive foreign policies, and stands on energy and environment have reversed 50 years of progress toward that goal.
In its place now, according to the NCC, is “an alternative vision” of private gain and militarism that “competes tenaciously for the nation’s soul.”
The 12-page statement was approved by the board, which has 266 delegates representing 32 Protestant and Orthodox Christian denominations, during one of their twice-yearly sessions earlier this month in Philadelphia’s oldest Quaker meeting house.
The statement is unprecedented in the NCC’s 31-year history. This is the first time the nation’s largest ecumenical body has issued an overall critique of a new administration’s policies and philosophies. The NCC “would be remiss in its responsibilities” if it did not object when it sees “practically everything [it stands for] overrun,” explained NCC president M. William Howard at a press conference.
Reagan has the support of many Christians, some in NCC churches—a fact grudgingly noted by NCC officials—and the statement can be expected to raise the hackles of conservative adherents. But the message also provoked “more than nominal resistance,” as one delegate put it, among the board’s own members in the work sessions and debate prior to adoption.
Some church members objected to the statement’s style and content and tried unsuccessfully to send it back to committee for more work. Delegates opted instead to delete the list. There also were challenges to the historical and economic accuracy of the message.
Some delegates cited a strident anti-administration tone—softened in the adopted version—that created the impression that the Reagan people were responsible for trends that began before they came in, and which did not represent the views of many in NCC churches who voted for Reagan. Who are we talking to, the churches or Reagan?” asked one Pennsylvania Lutheran delegate.
Dissident delegates were put in “an untenable position”: “We want to express concern, but not in the format or style of this document,” said Elenie Huszagah of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America. But most delegates, including black church leaders concerned about the effect of Reagan policies on the poor, said the council must take a stand now.
“History must not say that in a time of crisis we did nothing,” said Rev. Cecil L. Murry, an African Methodist Episcopal minister.
“There must be a strong Christian prophetic statement to the President that the administration is creating havoc in this land and other lands,” declared Bishop Frank C. Cummings, also of the AME church.
“We represent all our constituents,” said Cummings. “That includes the poor, disenfranchised, uneducated, and those without medical insurance. We need to be strong enough to stand up to the new administration.”
Ironically, the NCC has no plans “at this time” to send a message formally to the White House, said Claire Randall, NCC general secretary. But member churches were urged to continue “public debate over national purposes and goals.”
WILLIAM SHUSTER
North American Scene
About 200 members of the United Methodist churches in Peterborough and West Rindge, New Hampshire, left their denomination to form Trinity Evangelical Church earlier this month. Ron Pinard, who had pastored these two congregations, is now leading the new one. He and other members opposed alleged liberal trends in the UMC, as well as UMC congregations’ payment of the denomination’s World Service Apportionment, from which funds were contributed to certain leftist causes.
The U.S. Supreme Court this month upheld lower court rulings forbidding Philadelphia to use taxpayer’s money to pay for the huge altar used during an outdoor mass led by Pope John Paul II on October 3, 1979. The city spent more than $200,000 for the altar and platform, arguing it was necessary for the Pope’s security and was a service to a visiting head of state. But several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, took the city to court, saying the expenditure violated constitutional prohibitions against government-supported religion. Ironically, the Philadelphia archdiocese had offered to pay for the altar from the beginning.
Government-sponsored lotteries in reality constitute a tax on the poor. So charged Anglican Bishop David Ragg during a recent conference of Anglican laymen in southwestern Ontario. A government study showed that 77 percent of the people regularly buying lottery tickets in Ontario have an annual income of under $10,000, he explained. As described in the Canadian Churchman, Ragg further charged that, among other things, lotteries are detached from the stewardship of resources, rely on blind chance instead of hard work, distort social priorities, and promote attitudes of getting something for nothing.
Increased Lutheran unity may still be a long way off. Three bodies, the Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (with a combined membership of about 5.4 million), continue studying four unity options ranging from full structural merger to retention of present structures. ALC president David Preus opposes structural merger, and LCA leader James Crumley has come out strongly in favor of it. Meanwhile, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which has not participated in these unity talks, is considering cutting back the limited relationships it already has: at its July national meeting, the LCMS will discuss whether to end its altar and pulpit fellowship with the ALC.
A Texas pastor was briefly jailed earlier this month when he refused to describe to a county judge his conversation with a parishioner. Dallas-area Presbyterian pastor Ron Salfen was sentenced for contempt of court by Collin County Judge John R. Roach when Salfen refused to answer six questions during a bond hearing for a church secretary charged with possession of cocaine. He was freed hours later when his lawyer obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (which was to hear the case later) on grounds the minister had been unjustly imprisoned. Salfen refused to violate minister-parishioner confidentiality, and said to do so would place him in violation of a discipline of his church. The Grace United Presbytery fully supported Salfen’s action.
LEADERSHIP magazine was named Periodical of the Year by judges in the annual awards contest of the Evangelical Press Association. The award to LEADERSHIP, published by Christianity Today, Inc., came in the first year of the quarterly’s publication. Magazines winning awards of excellence in their respective categories were HIS, Light and Life, World Vision, Christian Living, Decision, and Evangelizing Today’s Child.
Pharaoh’s pursuing Egyptian forces may have been wiped out by a tidal wave, triggered by a volcanic eruption on the island of Thera near Crete, according to noted Egyptologist Hans Goedicke. He came to this conclusion after placing the date of the Israelites’ exodus at 1477 B.C., 200 years earlier than most scholars have assumed. Goedicke, chairman of the Near Eastern studies department at Johns Hopkins University, said his examination of ancient documents and sources led to this first “solid historical evidence for fixing the date of the Exodus” and verified “the Biblical account to an unexpected degree, which is significant, as there is a tendency to consider the Exodus account as fiction.”
Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God reportedly plans to sell its slick, general circulation magazine, Quest. Editor Robert Shnayerson, who had previously edited Harper’s magazine, left along with five colleagues after a January tiff when they were ordered to run an article by Armstrong.
From TV Personality to Third-world Developer
Gourmet Kerr Now Gallops To A Different Finish Line
Graham Kerr, once television’s “Galloping Gourmet,” now promotes food in a different way: he feeds the world’s hungry under the auspices of Youth With A Mission.
Kerr, now a resident of the YWAM center in Salem, Oregon, who says he and his wife Trina have simplified their lifestyles to fit his $12,500 per year salary—down from the $1 million he received from “Galloping Gourmet”—is calling on other Christians to simplify their lifestyles and use the money saved to contribute to his Project L.O.R.D. (Long Range Development for the world).
Project L.O.R.D. was born in December 1978 when Kerr had a vision while working for YWAM in Hawaii. He had then been a Christian for about three years.
Kerr says the vision was a complicated scenario, describing a plan for feeding poor people in the Third World. Its elements were so clear, he says, that, “When I brought my head up from that, I knew God had spoken to me. This is no flash in the pan.”
Kerr says he does not get a salary from Project L.O.R.D., but is supported by people who “send us $5 here and $2 there.
The vision, which became Project L.O.R.D., involves quarter-acre “micro farms.” YWAM buys a parcel large enough for three microfarms and invests about $10,000 in it. A willing couple is paid $3 per day to farm the quarter-acre, which is planted with some 38 varieties of vegetables and fruits. In about a year’s time, the microfarm is expected to provide food for the couple and their children, as well as a surplus for market or bartering. During the second year, additional villagers volunteer to work on a second and third microfarm. Each farmer eventually buys the land from YWAM for $58, paid with interest over seven years.
The idea is expected to be reproduced in poor countries, especially in the Caribbean, where Kerr is concentrating his efforts. He says the idea does not just belong to YWAM, but is one that could be used by any local church whose members are willing to simplify their lives to support their own Project L.O.R.D.
Until then, YWAM is willing to train people who want to use Kerr’s plan. YWAM workers will found their first microfarm this spring in Belize, a small Central American country south of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and east of Guatemala. A Belize couple and their 10 children will work the land.
Kerr, who has lost none of the personality appeal that made his television show popular, travels around the world promoting Project L.O.R.D. He seems to have thrown himself into his new life work with the same abandon that characterized his unorthodox cooking on “Galloping Gourmet.” He visited the head of the Communist party in Dominica when that Caribbean island was devastated by Hurricane David, After he had explained Project L.O.R.D. to the Communist leader, the leader’s answer reportedly was, “If what you say is true, then I’ll go back and read my Bible again.”
Kerr’s conversion to Christianity has not caused him to stop cooking, but it has led him to give up drinking alcohol. Although he says he does not miss drinking the wines so evident on his TV show, other parts of Christianity have been difficult.
“Trina and I have not died easily,” he says. “It’s been blood and guts every step of the way we’ve had to die.”
JULIA DUIN
Personalia
For the first time, a regional section of the Evangelical Theological Society has elected a woman as chairman. Aida Besancon Spencer, a United Presbyterian minister and Ph.D. candidate at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, was elected unanimously by the ETS Southeastern section in its spring meeting in Knoxville. She plans to make future ETS regional meetings family gatherings, with programs for spouses and recreation for children. She is married to a minister, William David Spencer, and they have a 2-year-old son.
Dennis Kinlaw, president of Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, plans to resign August 31. President since 1968, Kinlaw said the demands of the position are taxing him physically. He has announced no specific plans for the future.
Murdale Leysath is the first woman elected head of the United Church of Christ’s Minnesota Conference, which has 158 churches with 46,000 members.
Deaths
Henry B. Dendy, 85, cofounder with the late Nelson Bell of the Presbyterian Journal and a well-known spokesman for conservative southern Presbyterianism, and pastor of a Presbyterian Church U.S. congregation in Weaverville, North Carolina, for 45 years; May 19 in Asheville after a brief illness.
