The apparent thaw in relations between the United States and Communist China raises hopes that the Peking government will ease restrictions against Christianity.
No one expects Mao Tse-tung to begin granting visas to foreign missionaries, but there is reason to think that overt suppression of Christian activity in the largest nation in the world may subside somewhat. With Communist leaders opening the borders to Western newsmen, Chinese Christians who have stood by their faith may be allowed to breathe a little easier.
Christian leaders nonetheless reacted cautiously to diplomatic moves made in Washington and Peking. The most enthusiastic response came from United Methodist bishops meeting in San Antonio. They expressed appreciation for the relaxation of tensions but voiced no interest in returning missionaries to China.
R. Arthur Matthews, U. S. director for Overseas Missionary Fellowship, formerly the China Inland Mission, contends that while Communist attitudes may be changing, their goals are not. “The Church is always the enemy of the Communists,” he says, “because it demands a loyalty beyond that accorded the state.” He sees the most immediate effect of the thaw as simply strengthening the hand of Christians there now. Matthews reports that his mission has been getting reports of conversions of young people in the underground church on mainland China, and that the movement shows steadily increasing growth.
Vatican press officer Federico Alessandrini said Red China’s new diplomacy is aimed only at an “economic” thaw, not a “political” one. In an article in the Vatican City daily L’Osservatore Romano, Alessandrini said Mao is merely opening the door to capitalist trade.
Experts on the church scene in Red China say that Red Guard attacks on churches, temples, mosques, and individual believers in 1966 closed down all open practice of religion. On paper, religious freedom is guaranteed (Mao has said, “All religions are permitted … in accordance with the principle of freedom of religious belief. All believers … enjoy the protection of the people’s government so long as they are abiding by its laws. Everyone is free to believe or not to believe; neither compulsion nor discrimination is permitted”), but in practice religious freedom does not exist in Communist China.
Christianity in China probably dates back to the era of the early Church and contacts made through travelers who traversed Asia. Nestorian Christianity made an impact through missionaries who entered the Middle Kingdom in the seventh century A.D. A Nestorian monument erected at Sian in A.D. 781 was excavated in 1623 and has attracted world renown. The so-called Luminous Religion faded, however, and Franciscan missionaries had to reintroduce Christianity several centuries later. The first Protestant missionary to the people of China was Robert Morrison, who landed in 1807. J. Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission in 1865; it became the largest Protestant missionary work in China.
From time to time Christianity has flowered in China, but it has never been able to claim more than 1 per cent of the population. Foreign missionary strength in China reached its peak in 1925 with 8,518 in active service.1The library of Yale Divinity School has launched a China Records Project to gather systematically the letters, diaries, journals, and other records of these missionaries. They or their families are urged to get in touch with the project. Until the Communists took power, the biggest blow against Protestantism had been the murder of nearly 200 missionaries and their children during the Boxer rebellion of 1900.
When the Communist government gained control of mainland China in 1949, there were 13 Protestant universities and colleges, 322 hospitals and medical centers, 15 theological seminaries, and more than 30 Bible schools. These were soon assumed by the state. The churches themselves were obliged to organize under the Three-Self movement (self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating). Eventually all missionaries were expelled. A theologian who had been one of ten Chinese Christian leaders at the World Council of Churches’ organizing assembly at Amsterdam and who had been elected one of the six council presidents resigned in 1951. The curtailment of Christian work was climaxed during the Cultural Revolution in 1966. How many Christians were killed or imprisoned for their faith will never be known.
Pentecost And Poison
German Catholics and leaders of the German Evangelical Church will convene Germany’s first “Ecumenical Pentecost Meeting” June 2–5 in Augsburg. Preparations were marred by police disclosure that someone had sent threatening letters to those scheduled to participate. Samples of poison were said to have been contained in the letters.
A Wcc Lament
The American wing of the World Council of Churches criticized the government of South Viet Nam for expelling from the country a 36-year-old American who helped to expose the “tiger cages” in which political prisoners were held. The complaint came in a resolution adopted by the WCC’s U. S. conference meeting in Albany, New York. It paid tribute to Don Luce, who has worked in Viet Nam as an agriculturalist and has written anti-war reports for the WCC, and expressed regret that he “will no longer be permitted to give voice to the hopes and needs of the silenced people of Indochina.”
At one point in the four-day meeting participants divided themselves into seven discussion groups. One of the groups focused on “Salvation Today,” which is to be the theme of the next meeting of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, to be held in Indonesia in December of 1972.
To Bind Or Not To Bind
If there is a “moral consensus” in favor of it in the Church of England, divorced persons should be allowed to remarry in church. Such a view, says the report of a commission appointed by the archbishop of Canterbury, “would be compatible with reason, the word of God in Scripture, and theological tradition.”
Published last month, the 166-page document entitled Marriage, Divorce and the Church suggests that marriage vows cease to be binding when, because of divorce, they can never again be honored. Before any remarriage, however, three questions would demand answer: Have all possible obligations from the first marriage been discharged? Are the couple capable of a permanent relationship and genuinely desirous of God’s blessing in a church service? Do they intend life-long fidelity in their new marriage?
Predictable criticism has followed the report. The Church Union (an Anglo-Catholic body) states that what is most needed is “a clear declaration of Christian doctrine and duty in this matter,” and that any change would weaken the witness of those trying to live by such principles. Other critics satirically suggest that after “till death us do part” the minister will add, “This agreement, of course, is not legally binding.”
The matter is likely to be discussed by the general synod; a spokesman estimates that it would be at least a year before any recommendations could be implemented.
J. D. DOUGLAS
At Issue …
Although persons have a right to read any obscene book, the United States Supreme Court ruled this month, there is no comparable right to distribute or sell obscene materials through the mail. The decision upheld federal law granting government the right to seize obscene material brought into the United States for commercial purposes and to prosecute those who send pornography through the mails.
Catholic Ups And Downs
The Roman Catholic Church in the United States is having its ups and downs; 1970 figures show an increase of 342,640 Catholics, bringing the total population of the faith to 48.2 million. This was a dramatic switch from the 1,149 decrease in 1969.
The directory lists several minus statistics. The number of priests decreased by 1,031, brothers by 1,467, and sisters by 7,286. The remaining 58,000 priests, however, serve in a record number of parishes.
‘Long Way Back’
Behind their long hair, tie-dyed clothes, and free life style, many street people, radical students, and young drug users are desperately searching for meaning. A gripping new film, The Long Way Back, shows how many of these young Americans are finding wholeness of life through faith in Jesus Christ.
Produced by Mal Couch of the Evangelical Communications Research Foundation in Dallas (he is also a newsman for a Dallas TV station), the thirty-five-minute documentary-style color film focuses on California scenes where bold, personal Christian witness and strong compassion are having a decisive impact on youth. There is a raucous confrontation involving street Christians, Hare Krishna chanters, and Buddhistic adherents on a Berkeley pavement.
The film includes shots of the spacious hillside residence of Lambert Dolphin that has become a Christian haven for wandering hippies; ministers of the Peninsula Bible Church of Palo Alto telling what God is doing among youth; and former drug-users now living in the fellowship of a Christian World Liberation Front commune. Young converts stirringly describe how Christ has delivered them from the futility of the drug culture and given them new life and power.
The authenticity of the scenes, together with director Tom Doades’s creative film work and Marshall Riggan’s tight script—skillfully narrated by Robert Hopkins—makes The Long Way Back appealing to both non-Christians and Christians. Non-Christians detect in the film’s soft-sell a sincere attempt to understand and communicate spiritually with them. Christian viewers are heartened by signs of new demonstrations of the Gospel’s power and are motivated to emulate the New Testament style of witnessing.
ROBERT L. CLEATH
Music(Al) To Tumble Walls By
“A big, empty nothin’ ” is inside Joey, the seeker-protagonist of Show Me. In this newest addition to Christian folk musicals, the story of Joey’s search is obvious and expected; after all, how can there be a Christian musical without a non-Christian looking for truth?
But this one is not like most of the others. The music and words are fresh, the approach honest. This musical tells of two searches. The Christians, Patti and Chris, are also on a search. They want to communicate Christ to their peer group but don’t quite know how. As Chris says, “I don’t know many non-Christians.”
After the first rousing chorus, “Jesus!” (the composers leave us in no doubt about where the answers lie), we learn of Patti’s and Chris’s frustrations, even before learning of Joey’s search. “Break Down the Walls” voices the standard cry: “We want to tell the world, but they aren’t listening.” But these are perceptive Christians—“maybe we just aren’t lettin’ it show.” The song changes to a hymn with organ background, words and music fused to accentuate the message. Those beautiful walls have got to come down. Keeping the same harmonic structure and melody line as the hymn, and even retaining organ accompaniment, the song changes to a rhythmic, pulsating determination. The Christians want to “come down out of our ivory tower” to reach non-Christians with the Gospel.
In “Long Distance Love,” Julie, another non-Christian, and Joey pick up the ideas of “Break Down the Walls,” only from the opposite viewpoint. She asks the Christians: “Are you afraid of me?” The melody is haunting, and her blues-like voice expresses completely the emotion of her questions. She capsules the message and emotion of the musical in one verse of this song:
This God you listen to …
The One with all the plans and new directions,
How does He talk to you?
How does He find a way to make connections?
Does He distribute tracts or does
He buy some time on local radio?
Or does He come to you and tell you like a friend the things you need to know?
If this is so … Why can’t you do the same for me?
Everybody learns something in this show. The Christians don’t know how to share Christ, how to break down walls. Neither do the non-Christians know how to break down sin’s walls. Each group needs the other.
Show Me will surely help to bring those walls tumblin’ down!
CHERYL A. FORBES
Drama In Panama City: Bringing Jonah Up Again
In biblical times the giant fish heaved on the beach that would-be runaway and recalcitrant preacher Jonah. On the shores of Panama City, Florida, a modern-day version of the Jonah-and-the-fish drama will for a second summer point the high-school dropout and religious castaway to the proper path.
The Reverend Bob Curlee, pastor of Ensley Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and originator of the musical comedy, will have Jonah and the Whale back on the beach (see September 25, 1970, issue, page 24). But because the drama was so successful (an estimated 1000 young people made decisions for Christ after watching Jonah turn full circle from fleeing God to run toward Jesus), Curlee will have two other plays going: Daniel and the Lion’s Den, which deals with drug abuse and alcohol problems, and Noah and the Ark, a play about pornography.
Noah is based on a nautical theme; Curlee says he hopes to have an ark-shaped pier built out into the surf at Fort Walton Beach, where the play will run. Daniel and the Lion’s Den will play five nights a week at Gatlinburg, Tennessee, because of a friendship between Curlee and the pastor of that city’s First Baptist Church. A wealthy woman reportedly donated an amphitheater to the ministerial association for drama-comedy entertainment with a message.
Every production of Curlee plays ends with an invitation—just as his church services do. But in the plays, a performer steps out of character and shares what Jesus has done in his life. Many young people come forward for initial conversions and rededications.
LEONARD CHAMBLEE
Communications Awards
Awards for excellence in journalism, television, radio—and a special award for a documentary phonograph record—will be presented to media specialists at the Faith and Freedom Awards breakfast of the Religious Heritage of America next month in Washington, D. C.
Washington Star religious news editor and CHRISTIANITY TODAY correspondent William Willoughby will receive the journalism award for interpreting and examining religious news and issues (see page 40). The television award will go to Douglas Adair, producer-newscaster for WKYC-TV in Cleveland, for his ninety-minute special “Crisis in Christianity.” George McManus, KCBS radio producer and newscaster of San Francisco, for his “Man and His Religion” daily two-minute features will receive the radio award.
The special award was merited by Robert M. Johnson of Broadcast Productions and Services for his eighty-minute phonograph documentary of the Honor America Day program of July 4, 1970, in Washington, D. C.
Religion In Transit
United Presbyterian proxy challenges to Gulf Oil operations in Portuguese Africa were beaten 100 to 1 by the corporation’s stockholders at the annual meeting last month. But UP leaders said their 1.5-million-share votes (against 172 million) were more than expected. The denomination charges that Gulf supports white-dominated, oppressive regimes, especially in Angola.
The religion discussion group at the White House Conference on Youth held at Estes Park, Colorado, last month, scored “the hypocrisy of organized religion” but added that social programs “will be more effective when people are spiritually alive and awake …” and called on the churches to “foster more vigorously the spiritual health of the people.…”
Seattle Jesus People have opened a new coffeehouse, the Highest High. Another, the Catacombs, averages 2,000 young people weekly, according to leader Linda Meissner. Her movement’s eight communes now house seventy-five full-time workers who average fifteen payless hours of work daily—including five hours of personal witnessing and another two to four of Bible training.
The “witness watch,” a special wristwatch for Christians, is selling for $14.95 through the Melodyland Drug Prevention Center in Anaheim, California. The four-color timepiece has the words “Jesus People” on its face.
There was “Hair” in the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City this month when selections from the hit rock-musical were performed as the offertory by combined cathedral choirs and the cast and musicians of Hair.
United Methodist and United Presbyterian children and young people will soon use some of the same church school publications, originally published as part of the UM curriculum series.
An unprecedented bill that will allow Vermont’s local school boards to lend teachers, texts, and other services to parochial schools became law last month after squeaking by the House. Annual cost of the parochaid is expected to be between $500,000 and $800,000. Americans United for Separation of Church and State immediately called the bill a “subterfuge.”
The American Council of Christian Churches dedicated its 47-acre national headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, May 1. The property cost $200,000.
Detroit’s John Cardinal Dearden says 40,000 students may be forced into area public schools within a year by the closing of fifty-six parochial ones.
Deaths
MERLE D. BROWN, 32, an American Lutheran Church chaplain (captain), the first clergyman of his denomination to lose his life in combat in Viet Nam; near Danang when his helicopter was hit by enemy fire shortly after he conducted Easter services there.
WILLIAM B. LIPPHARD, 84, editor for many years of Missions, an American Baptist international magazine, and a former executive of the Associated Church Press: in New York.
HAROLD C. DEWINDT, 60, pastor of the Kirk-in-the-Hills, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, for seventeen years and pastor of the West Park Presbyterian Church in New York from 1942 to 1953; in Detroit after a short illness.
TED A. STUDEBAKER, 25, a Church of the Brethren agriculturalist for Viet Nam Christian Service; at Di Linh, 140 miles northeast of Saigon, when North Vietnamese soldiers reportedly stormed the VCS headquarters there.
A newly formed Missouri Synod group known as the Federation for AuthenticLutheranism vows to leave the church unless it breaks ties with the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. and disciplines doctrinal deviates.
The Synagogue Council of America approved a new policy statement that endorses selective conscientious objection. The council is the central coordinating agency for American Jewry. An orthodox element in the council abstained from voting.
Personalia
Chaplain Gerhardt W. Hyatt of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod will become chief of Army Chaplains August 1 with the grade of major general. He will replace Chaplain Francis L. Sampson, who is retiring. Hyatt, a native of Saskatchewan, Canada, is the first chaplain of his denomination to be named to the post and also the first foreign-born.
Street evangelist Arthur Blessitt plans to open a street outreach in New York City’s Times Square this summer while other staffers man His Place on Sunset Strip in Hollywood. He will also lead a witness march in Chicago this month.
The granddaughter of a slave, Mrs. Clarie Collins Harvey of Jackson, Mississippi, was elected national president of Church Women United last month.
The Reverend James L. Merrell has been named editor of World Call, the Christian (Disciples) Church monthly magazine … The newly appointed editor of Messenger magazine, the national publication of the Church of the Brethren, Howard B. Royer, was named president of the Religious Public Relations Council last month.
Bolivian painter Benjamin Mendoza y Amor was found guilty of the attempted assassination of Pope Paul VI last month in the first case of its kind in modern history. The incident occurred last November when the pontiff arrived in Manila on a visit; the Pope was scratched by Mendoza’s dagger, reports said.
German Lutheran missionary Marcus Braun was convicted last month of illegally accommodating thirteen African churchmen at the mission he operates in Roodepoort, South Africa. Earlier Braun had been told by government authorities his non-citizen’s visa wouldn’t be extended.
Lord Laurence Olivier, the famed actor, has been signed to narrate the first Bible series to be specially developed for television and the video-cassette market. The series of familiar Old and New Testament episodes will be produced by Manual Video Productions of New York and the Genesis Company of Teletronics International.
Dr. Frank C. Peters, president of Waterloo (Ontario) Lutheran University, and Dr. Samuel J. Mikolaski, theology professor at Regent (Vancouver) College, lectured at Prairie Bible Institute’s first annual pastors’ conference in Alberta this month.
World Scene
The Latin American Biblical Seminary (Seminario Biblico Latinoamericano) in Costa Rica has enrolled eighty-two students—largest in its history and announced plans to open an extension center in New York City to train Spanish-speaking pastors.
World Vision International has opened new offices in southern Africa and Sydney, Australia, thus increasing the agency’s support bases to seven.
The Lutheran World Federation Commission on World Service last month approved an emergency grant of $155,000 to aid refugees from East Pakistan who are moving into northeast India.
