Louisville Seminary Faces Probationary Period

Theological Education

The American Association of Theological Schools virtually put the Southern Baptist seminary at Louisville on a year’s probation this month and asked President Duke McCall to relinquish personal leadership ties with the accrediting agency.

The action grew out of the seminary’s dismissal last June of 13 professors, one of whom was subsequently reinstated.

Charging that McCall and the seminary’s trustees “are ultimately responsible for the conditions that have made possible the development of what they themselves have called an intolerable situation,” the AATS Commission on Accrediting (1) threatened removal of accreditation next December pending “a full inquiry as to whether they have taken adequate steps to repair the damage” and (2) recommended to the AATS executive committee (which promptly carried out the proposal) that McCall be asked to submit his resignation from the vice presidency of the AATS and from membership in the Commission on Accrediting.

A special committee headed by Dr. Luther A. Weigle, dean emeritus of Yale Divinity School, had investigated the dismissals. “Efforts were directed,” an AATS statement said, “to making a report on the character of the administrative procedures leading up to this particular incident.” Accrediting standards of the AATS specify that “regard will be had for … the character of (a theological school’s) administration.”

Last month the investigating committee spent three days gathering information in Louisville. It interviewed McCall and members of the present faculty, as well as trustees, three of whom reportedly are unsympathetic toward the dismissal action, and 10 of the dismissed professors. McCall welcomed the committee personally. Minutes of the trustees’ meetings were examined.

During the week end of December 6–7 the committee presented a report on its findings, which concerned “the character of the administration or administrative process and not the character of particular persons involved actively or passively in that process.” Excerpts from the report:

“The resignations of the thirteen professors were not tendered or asked for except orally in two instances … On June 12th when they were dismissed as a body, two of their number were overseas, and a third was out of the state … Between the time of the presidential recommendation of dismissal and final action, no opportunity of a full hearing, as promised, was given to these absent professors. The hearing given to the other ten professors was … too hastily conceived and executed to conform to reasonable standards of dignity and due process of law … The action of June 12 was in part intended as a device to secure the discharge of two members of the faculty and the re-instatement of as many as possible of the remaining eleven.”

While Louisville tensions appeared to be administrative more than theological, the seminary has experienced growing theological distresses. Southern Baptist institutions generally have sought “denominational purity” by guarding teaching posts rigidly for graduates of their own schools. But even these graduates have come under alien theological influences in graduate studies elsewhere. While Louisville has held the line theologically against the liberal theology (despite more concessive views toward evolution and higher critical theories of the Bible than many Southern schools), some alumni have criticized it for tolerating neo-orthodox inroads. Some censure has also followed the widening range of views represented in seminary lectureships. This year’s centennial lectureship series includes Dr. John Wick Bowman, Dr. Daniel Day Williams, and Dr. Emlyn Davies.

Protestant Idols?

The retiring president of the Canadian Council of Churches left office charging that his country’s churches had created “denominational gods” and some had made idols of the Bible and the church.

Dr. Emlyn Davies, Baptist pastor from Toronto, said each church had its “party slogan.” He cited as examples “the infallibility of the pope,” “historic episcopate,” “believers’ baptism by immersion,” “the priesthood of all believers,” and “the Bible says.”

He called church divisions “a scandal and a disgrace to the cause of Christ.”

Davies was scheduled to give a series of lectures this month at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, in that school’s centennial lectureship program.

Ministerial Trainees

Total enrollment of students in member institutions of the American Association of Theological Schools came close to setting a record this fall.

The 127 member schools of the AATS reported a combined enrollment of 20,853 for the 1958–59 academic year.

A record of 20,910 was set in 1956–57 when the AATS had 124 member schools.

Views In The News

After Cleveland

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was asked for comment on last month’s Fifth World Order Conference of the National Council of Churches, which came out for recognition of Communist China.

“Well,” said Dulles, “I attach great weight to judgments taken by church people which relate primarily to the realm of moral principles and the like.

When it comes down to practical details such as whom you recognize and whom you don’t, then I think the judgment does not carry the same weight.”

“As far as I know,” he added, “I don’t think that this matter was adequately presented at the meeting. Also, it seems unlikely indeed that a policy which reflects both the Republican and Democratic national platforms which were adopted two years ago would be unanimously rejected by a group if it represented fairly a cross section of the religious people of the country.”

Then, in an address in San Francisco this month, Dulles reaffirmed U. S. policy toward mainland China, noting:

“Developments make it ever more clear that if we were to grant political recognition to the Chinese Communist regime, it would be a well-nigh mortal blow to the survival of the non-Communist governments in the Far East.”

Alongside the remarks of Dulles, protests piled up to make the action of the conference held in Cleveland appear as one of the most unpopular ever made in the name of the NCC. (See editorial on Page 23—ED.) Among other comments:

—The statement on Red China is noted “with grave concern” by the Executive Committee of the National Association of Evangelicals. “We are convinced,” said NAE President Herbert S. Mekeel, “such a statement does not represent the true sentiment of masses of members of American churches … We are baffled to observe left-wing cliches, and the typical Communistic ‘soft approach’ urging pressure on our government, falsely in the name of Christian fellowship.” Mekeel called “sheer nonsense” a conference statement which said Americans “hesitate to admit any imperfections in our society.” He added that it is folly to talk of “restorations of relationships” between our churches of the East and West so long as Iron and Bamboo Curtains exist. “To waiver in our stand now,” Mekeel said, “is to bring hopeless despair to millions over the world.”

—“I believe that this action misrepresents my Protestant faith,” said Dr. Daniel A. Poling, editor of the Christian Herald. “With every influence that I have, I repudiate it.”

—Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said he was “completely opposed to recognition of Communist China and to the admission of that ruthlessly totalitarian government to the councils of nations.”

—Dr. Frederick Brown Harris, U. S. Senate chaplain, labelled the study conference a “Trojan Horse … the symbol of conquest from within by smuggled foes.” He said that “Red China, still unrepentant, is under condemnation for aggression by the very organization that is urged to accept it.”

NCC officials, for the most part, hailed the work of the Cleveland conference. Other Protestant leaders, however, refused to comment one way or another. Among these was Dr. C. Emanuel Carlson, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, who said he felt it was “outside my province” to issue judgment on the pronouncements.

Officially Unofficial

The General Board of the National Council of Churches, in a resolution passed at its fall meeting in Chicago, said the Fifth World Order Study Conference was within its rights in recommending steps toward U. S. recognition of Red China.

The board insisted that the conference action was not an official pronouncement of the NCC. But it endorsed the conference as having “performed a valuable function.”

Greek Orthodox bishops on the board voted against the resolution. The Romanian Orthodox bishop abstained.

The Rector And The Tavern Keepers

An Episcopal rector startled wets and drys alike last month with a 3½-minute talk before a tavern keepers’ convention in Atlantic City.

“Quit being ashamed and embarrassed by your business,” the Rev. John F. Mangrum told 1,000 representatives of the National Licensed Beverage Association. “Don’t hide behind the scorn of the professional drys. You have let them shrink you into a gigantic inferiority complex again and again.”

Mangrum urged the tavern keepers to join churches, “to be good citizens and to be good Christians.” He added: “If one denomination does not need you, except when it wants back-door contributions extracted through implied blackmail about community fusses in local option elections, you will find that the traditional Christian groups want you and need you.”

Many a newspaper editor, sensing an incongruity, picked up the remarks, even though Mangrum had given the same speech to a state-wide convention of liquor dealers in Florida last June. Some of the press accounts became distorted. “One paper even had me urging everyone to go out and get loaded,” the rector said later.

Mangrum, who says he does not drink, apologetically concedes that “I probably offended some.” He says his motive, however, was to witness to the liquor industry for the Christian cause. He favors “decent standards” in the control of alcoholic beverages, but opposes harsh criticism of liquor dealers. “Apparently people are going to drink,” he observes in advocating more kindly relations between wets and drys.

“Those fellows really listened to me,” Mangrum maintains. “The words they heard will have a greater influence than all the horrible pamphlets.”

Mangrum, 36, knows something of the evils of alcohol from five years in a parish on Detroit’s Skid Row. He is now rector of rapidly-growing St. Edward’s Episcopal Church in Mount Dora, Florida. He was introduced to the liquor groups by one of their officials who was turned away from three churches before St. Edward’s welcomed him. Mangrum’s witness thus far has fallen short of a clear call for regeneration.

Protestant Panorama

• American missionaries overseas now number 25,058, an increase of nearly 150 per cent since 1936, according to a study by a National Council of Churches’ agency. The study, compiled by Dr. Frank Price and Clare E. Orr of the Missionary Research Library, was presented to the ninth annual assembly of the NCC’s Division of Foreign Missions held in Pittsburgh this month. Japan is said to have the most North American Protestant missionary societies with 97. India has 95 and Formosa 52. The study added that the largest American Protestant missionary force is in Southeast Asia.

• Some 90 members of the Gospel Chapel Congregation in Milwaukee, when they learned that the Rev. Bennie Morris had accepted a new pastorate in Phoenix, Arizona, sold homes, gave up jobs, and went with him.

• The Methodist Church says it has 817 openings for missionaries in home and overseas fields … One hundred and ten missionaries were commissioned for service overseas under the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. by its Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations.

• Twentieth Century-Fox plans to film “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” beginning in 1960. The forthcoming picture, it is said, will be the first attempt to tell the story of Christ in a major movie since “King of Kings,” produced by Cecil B. DeMille in 1927.

• The Sunday School Times marks its 100th anniversary with the January 3 number … The Ecumenical Press Service observed its 25th year last month.

• The Internal Revenue Service says missionaries and other U. S. citizens abroad must file an income tax return for 1958 even though their earnings are exempt. IRS Publication 54 gives details.

• A heavy snowstorm failed to dampen spirits at ground breaking ceremonies November 28 for the new Methodist Theological School to be located three miles south of Delaware, Ohio.

• Nearly all of the 30,000 Indians and 16,000 Eskimos in Alaska have been converted to some form of Christianity, according to a Roman Catholic missionary. The Rev. Pasquale Spoletini says about one-third of the converts are Catholics.

• Grace Church (Episcopal) in New York celebrates its 150th anniversary this month … The First Mission Covenant Church of Chicago commemorates its 90th anniversary December 26–28.

• International Students, Inc. says more than 100,000 foreign nationals are now residing temporarily in the United States … Moody Bible Institute began the operation of a new FM radio station in Cleveland.

• A Japanese pastor, having completed a six-month study tour of parish and youth work in America, wants to know whether American pastors are too busy to study and “Why are there not more young people attending Lutheran services?’ ” Said the Rev. Hidetake Yano, whose trip was financed by the Lutheran World Federation, “I do not believe that America is a Christian nation, but at least all Americans have Christianity in their background.”

• World Vision President Dr. Bob Pierce was honored at a reception by 150 officials of the Korean government, which gave him a vote of appreciation for humanitarian statesmanship as “the father of Korean orphans” and for tireless efforts in achieving “better understanding” between the United States and Korea.

• A postage stamp issued in Greenland honors the Christian missionary from whom the country’s entire modern history is dated. Bishop Hans Egede of Norway led the settlement of Greenland starting in 1721.

• Hilfswerk, welfare arm of the Evangelical Church in Germany, is receiving up to 100 letters a day from German Lutherans in Siberia acknowledging shipments of Bibles and religious literature, an official of the agency said in Stuttgart.

• The Methodist Board of Temperance is distributing a booklet containing official statements of 18 major Protestant denominations which have condemned alcoholism and urged curbs on alcoholic beverage advertising.

• To accommodate expected increased attendance, the 18th General Council of the World Presbyterian Alliance, July 26-August 6, will be held in Sao Paulo instead of the Campinas Seminary in Brazil.

Baptist Trends

A Southern Baptist observer notes several trends which he says are apparent in a survey of Baptist state conventions held this fall. Theo Sommerkamp, Baptist Press staff writer, listed the trends as follows:

—Continued confidence in the leadership of Brooks Hays, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, despite defeat in his bid for a ninth term in the U. S. Congress.

[One pointed exception was a message from the Baptist Laymen of Mississippi, who urged the immediate resignation of Hays to “help to restore the solidarity to Southern Baptists who are firm believers in Southern traditions.”—ED.]

—A desire on the part of messengers to be about their business, evidenced by the fact that church fires or bomb threats failed to delay and interrupt conventions in two states.

—The fact that Baptists are aware of Christian responsibility in public affairs and said so plainly in several states.

—The growing stature of the layman in Baptist denominational life.

—A concern for important internal issues in Baptist circles.

Before this fall, there were 25 Baptist state conventions (or general associations as they are called in a few states). But Indiana Baptists organized themselves into an independent convention to increase it to 26.

Social Drinking

Baptist Editor C. R. Daley took a dim view of the approval of social drinking voted by the Protestant Episcopal Church’s convention in Miami Beach this fall. Daley said in the Western Recorder that a recent event in Knoxville, Tennessee, which he describes as follows, “should be placed side-by-side with this announcement of the Episcopalians”:

“A young graduate student was shot to death by his neighbor upon trying to enter the neighbor’s home in the middle of the night.… The neighbor who had killed his friend was horrified. The young man’s father and mother were deeply shocked. He was their only child. He was not reared to drink and he did not frequent taverns or cocktail rooms. The girl whom he was to marry after graduation was deeply grieved.

“Oh yes, one other person was distressed. This was the preacher with whom the young man had dinner on the very evening before he was killed. This clergyman had no prejudice against drinking and reported he and the young man had a shaker of cocktails before dinner and a brandy afterward. He was sure that they did not drink enough to affect the mental processes but just the same the student was dead. All he did was to take a few drinks on a social occasion—drinks offered him by a minister of Jesus Christ.”

Criticism From Within

German church leader Martin Niemoeller says modern ecumenism lacks grass-roots support. He calls Protestant unity on a theological basis “impossible.”

Though he says he delights in the “ecumenical fellowship,” Niemoeller adds that the ecumenical movement, “still in the talking stage,” is “not the answer” for a Germany absorbed in East-West tension and controversy.

The famed president of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau, active in the World Council of Churches, expressed views in an interview with a Seventh-day Adventist theologian, Dr. Daniel Walther, who met with Niemoeller at Darmstadt during a visit to Germany last summer. Walther, professor of church history at Potomac University, disclosed results of the interview upon return to the United States this fall.

Niemoeller criticized modern ecumenism as top-heavy—conducted on the “academic” and “upper-crust” level of theologians without grass-roots support.

He nevertheless maintained that there are “cardinal principles on which all are one.” “Faith and obedience are identical in all communions,” he said. “All accept and worship Christ Jesus as Saviour.”

On the other hand, he warned that denominations cannot be dissolved without weakening Protestantism.

Great Britain

Rejection From Glasgow

The influential Glasgow Presbytery of the Church of Scotland rejected last month a General Assembly report recommending mutual recognition of bishops by Presbyterian churches and of presbyteries by Anglican churches.

The report, under referral to presbyteries, was criticized largely on the basis of fears that only episcopally ordained ministers could be regarded by Anglican churches as truly valid.

A special subcommittee of the Glasgow Presbytery said the door should be kept open for future conversations between the two churches, but on a new basis that left room for “full and mutual recognition of the ministeries of the conferring churches.”

Continent Of Europe

Greek Orthodox Synod

The Orthodox Church of Greece held its 13th assembly in Athens last month. The following comprehensive report on the month-long conference was prepared by Dr. G. A. Hadjiantoniou, minister of the Second Greek Evangelical Church of Athens and correspondent forCHRISTIANITY TODAY.

Sixty of the sixty-two bishops of the church took part in the synod, which is to meet triennially. During the last 21 years, however, the synod found it possible to meet only three times. Thus the agenda of the synod groaned under the burden of accumulated problems. The orthodox religious press noticed with regret that the various committees which worked beforehand on various subjects did not do a thorough job. Consequently, discussion was not as satisfactory as it might have been.

Among the most pressing problems were education and remuneration of the lower clergy. The bishops expressed satisfaction for a series of measures recently taken which put the problem of the education of the clergy on a realistic basis. It should be noted that the educational level of the vast majority of the priests serving in villages and in some of the smaller towns is deplorably low. For many years the church tried unsuccessfully to solve the problem. From now on, candidates for ordination must have graduated from high school and taken a two-year course in ecclesiastical training. Moreover, an ecclesiastical school was founded in Thessalonica where students will receive, in addition to theological education, teacher training. All the students of that school will be given state scholarships for the whole of their three-year course and on graduation will be immediately appointed in the dual capacity of priest and teacher in villages, receiving the salaries of both offices.

The government, on the other hand, promised church authorities assistance in the problem of clergy remuneration. One of the principal sources of the income of the church budget now is the “parish contribution.” The amount of the contribution of every Greek Orthodox individual living within the geographical limits of each parish is fixed in a more or less arbitrary way by parish authorities and it is collected as are ordinary taxes. In case one refuses to pay his “contribution” he may be imprisoned. Needless to say, this method of collecting gifts for the work of the church is highly detrimental to the prestige of the church and it has cooled the hearts of many. The convocation decided that this system should be abandoned and that another way of meeting material needs of the church be sought.

It is noteworthy that the Minister of Cults suggested the need for changing the system of the election of the bishops, so that this may be done on a broader and more democratic basis, with a clear hint that laymen should also take part in the election of these higher servants of the church. There is no doubt that much good will come to the spiritual life of the church out of the adoption of the suggestion of the minister. There is much doubt, however, as to the willingness of the bishops to adopt these suggestions. It is, on the other hand, a matter of regret that no suggestion whatever was made from any quarter about the desirability of having the present system of the celibacy of the higher clergy, with all its palpably evil influences on the spiritual and moral life of the whole church, abolished. It is the view of many responsible Greek Orthodox religious leaders that unless this unscriptural system is done away with, no real reform can be effected to the body of the church.

The synod devoted much of its time and deliberations to discussion of the followers of the Julian Calendar and their schismatic “bishops.” The synod decided to offer to the followers of this movement the possibility of having their rites kept within the church building and through the services of the priests of the official church. If this offer is accepted, many churches will enjoy from now on the doubtful luxury of celebrating Christmas and the other feasts of the Christian year twice annually; once for the “new style” and once again, thirteen days later, for the “old style.”

Another matter which gave cause to much heated debate was the position of the Orthodox Church of Greece within the World Council of Churches. It must be borne in mind that the teaching of the Greek Orthodox church according to which she is the only true church, the “una sancta,” makes it really impossible for her to take part in a council together with other “churches” without intolerable compromise in basic principles. Yet it is a member of the council. Many feel that the Roman Catholic church with its rigid attitude towards the ecumenical movement is much more consistent with its own teaching and its rival claim on being the only church. Many of the bishops—indeed one should say, the majority—as well as other religious leaders do not feel very happy about this state of things, have repeatedly pointed out the discrepancy and have recommended the breaking of all official relations with the WCC. A compromise solution was agreed upon, to the effect that only laymen—no bishops or other clergymen—should be permitted to take part in ecumenical conferences. It is worth noticing, however, that this decision was based not on the real cause of trouble but on the assumption that most of the Protestant churches which take part in the ecumenical movement reject the doctrine of the holy trinity.

The synod examined also the measures which the church should take in the matter of Roman Catholic and Protestant “propaganda.” It speaks highly for the Greek Evangelical Church that, while it was decided to seek the support of the state authorities in order to suppress the propaganda of the Roman Catholic church (especially in the activities of its “Uniate” branch) and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it was agreed these activities can best be fought by spiritual weapons, such as the pulpit and religious literature.

Finally, the synod agreed to broaden the grounds on which divorce is given, by recognizing as a reason for divorce the separation of marriage partners for ten years or longer.

The synod put an end to its work by expressing the wish that in the future it should be convened at least once a year.