BROADCASTING

Last year’s downfall of PTL’S Jim and Tammy Bakker may have hurt the image of conservative Christianity. But according to John McEntee, an executive at the Bakkers’ former television network, it gave a lift to a new programming effort by mainline church organizations.

On September 19, if all goes as scheduled, the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network (VISN) will become accessible by cable to six million U.S. homes. Industry observers view the new network’s programming as an alternative to current religious fare, which they say caters primarily to Pentecostal/charismatic and fundamentalist audiences.

Its programming will consist mainly of worship, instruction, drama, music, documentaries, and talk shows. United Methodist communications executive and VISN trustee Nelson Price characterizes the programming as religious, but “without overt proselytizing or hard sell.”

Many cable TV operators, some of whom dropped PTL last year, have welcomed the possibility of broader-based religious programming. In fact, cable industry leaders approached mainline religious groups last year to encourage development of a new, more inclusive network. Funding from the industry for VISN’S first year is expected to be at least $3 million, according to Price.

Room For Another?

Despite this boost, McEntee, director of affiliate marketing at the Inspirational Network (formerly PTL) predicts VISN will not survive. He said a Gallup survey shows that 79 percent of Americans who watch religious television identify themselves as evangelicals. “You can get a nonevangelical to watch an evangelical program,” said McEntee, “but you can’t get an evangelical to watch a nonevangelical program.”

In response, VISN’S Price said, “I don’t believe evangelicals are as closed-minded as that statement would imply.” Price added that the new network would expand the number of religious television viewers rather than “steal the audience from other religious networks.” He said VISN would open the door to groups that up to now have found the cost of producing television programs prohibitive.

An official of the American Christian Television System (ACTS) said he regards VISN as duplication. ACTS, launched in 1984 by the Southern Baptist Convention and in the final stages of being sold to a coalition of private investors, carries several programs produced by mainline denominations.

Recent advertisements for ACTS appearing in religious publications emphasize the network’s support from mainline denominational leaders. In what some view as a jab at the fledgling VISN, the ads describe ACTS as being built “upon rock, not sand.”

Competition among religious networks is not just for viewers, but for a channel on cable systems, many of which will carry only one religious network. A concern of older religious networks is that cable operators, not viewers, will make the decision. Leaders of older networks generally feel this will work against them, given the tarnished image of television religion.

VISN is operated by the National Interfaith Cable Coalition, which includes representatives from the major mainline Protestant churches and several smaller ones, as well as from Catholic and Jewish groups. The network will start with three hours of programming per day, which will be repeated once. More programs will be added in October.

Like ACTS, VISN is committed to not appealing for funds over the air, except for disaster relief. It will try to make financial ends meet through donations from church groups, foundations, and corporations, in addition to fees from cable systems and advertising income.

By Robert E. Boczkiewicz.

OCCULT

Within the past five years, ritualistic child abuse has become an emotionally charged issue that has rocked communities and divided parents, social workers, therapists, and law enforcers—some who charge a growing conspiracy of satanic worship, others who cry witch-hunt.

In Roseburg, Oregon, for example, Edward J. Gallup, Sr., an elderly Nazarene minister, and his adult son, Edward Gallup, Jr., were convicted earlier this year of molesting children in the family’s three day-care centers. In that case, children have alleged chanting, wearing of black robes, and burning of candles, according to prosecutor Bill Lasswell.

No consensus has emerged on the reality of ritualistic abuse, nor its extent. Many professionals, however, are believing the seemingly unbelievable. They point to the detail and consistency of stories from children nationwide.

Satan’S Underground?

San Francisco police officer Sandi Gallant, considered an expert in occult crimes, is convinced ritualistic abuse occurs nationwide, although not on a widespread scale. She first became aware of such cases as early as 1979, four years before the McMartin case catapulted ritualistic abuse to national attention in 1983 with tales of drugs, bondage, and animal sacrifice at a prestigious Southern California preschool. Two of the seven original defendants remain on trial.

Others believe ritualistic abuse occurs on a large scale, and that a satanic conspiracy is not out of the question.

“It’s pandemic,” said Larry Jones, a Boise, Idaho, law enforcement professional who has studied cult crimes. He believes some high-ranking satanists may be directing an organized assault, but admits no hard evidence exists.

But a parallel phenomenon might support the existence of ritualistic abuse. Adults who claim to have been ritualistically abused as children have been seeking counseling in offices around the country. Their stories are remarkably similar to the ones told by children today.

Some of these “adult survivors” are going public with their stories and aiding law-enforcement and child-activist groups. Joan Christianson, a California woman who claims she was raised in a well-organized Satanic cult that abused children, has spoken to therapists and police officers under the sponsorship of the California Consortium of Child Abuse Councils. Christianson believes people need a “basic foundation in good versus evil” to understand why some occult or satanic groups might practice ritualistic abuse. She says one of their basic strategies is to corrupt what the Bible teaches, particularly with regard to children. “If they can destroy [children’s] innocence without destroying their lives, they can receive more power.”

Lauren Stratford, another adult survivor, has detailed a childhood of sexual abuse and pornographic exploitation in her new book, Satan’s Underground. As Stratford matured, the abuse acquired a satanic focus after the head pornographer became a Satanist.

Stratford, now a Christian, claims eyewitness knowledge that some, but not all, satanists do torture, sexually abuse, and even kill people, including infants obtained specifically for ritual sacrifice. The motive: worship to Satan.

Panic-Driven Hoax?

But naysayers are crying hoax. They fear a post-McMartin panic may have resulted in the accusation of innocent adults.

“It’s the adult interviewers who are bringing these ideas to the children,” said Berkeley, California, psychiatrist Lee Coleman, who has testified for the defense in child-molestation cases. Acknowledging that some children may have been sexually abused, he charges that suggestive questioning by overzealous interviewers has elicited false allegations of ritualistic abuse. Said Coleman: “In the name of protecting [children], these professionals are abusing them by putting fear into them.”

Critics also contend that too many interrogations can pressure children into making false allegations. One newspaper, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, has labeled the ritualistic allegations “urban legends,” oft-repeated stories with no basis in reality.

“Some kids may be making it up, some are confused, some may be manipulated into saying these things,” conceded John Rabun, a Baptist minister and deputy director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “But some of it is undoubtedly true. I can’t see how in this day and age someone can say this is not going on. We’ve taken down [arrested] priests and ministers for molesting kids. Why not practicing Satanists?”

Rabun is careful to avoid taking the satanic emphasis too far, however. He and other observers believe ritualistic abuse does occur, but only in a tiny percentage of child sexual-abuse cases, trailing far behind incest and conventional forms of day-care abuse. And not all perpetrators are necessarily Satanists—nor are all Satanists abusers.

“You don’t want it to get to the point where there’s an alarmist trend,” Gallant said. “We can truly look at it as sick and evil, but to say it’s coming out of an organized satanic movement is something else.”

Technically, one cannot be prosecuted for performing some satanic rites because of the right to religious freedom. “In this country, one has a constitutionally protected right to be a Satanist as long as you’re not violating the law,” said Rabun, a former law-enforcement investigator.

Rabun believes that focusing on satanic or occult trappings, rather than establishing the basic elements of a crime, can jeopardize child-molestation cases already burdened with special difficulties.

Spiritual Warfare

Secular law-enforcement agencies and courts may be obligated to downplay satanic or occult elements. But some Christians becoming familiar with ritualistic abuse feel a moral obligation to get involved.

“Victims can’t really be free or have peace until they find the Lord,” Stratford said. “The only way to counteract the power of darkness is through the power of Jesus Christ.” But she and other Christians aware of the issue agree that the church is woefully ill-equipped to deal with ritualistic abuse.

“You’d think the church would be the first to believe in Satan’s powers of darkness,” Stratford said. “But one of the major hurdles victims of satanism face is finding a church that will accept them,” said Stratford, who encountered the same problem when she began seeking help. After one rejection, she stayed away from churches for a year.

Many victims not only avoid church because they fear they will be judged, but also because they wrestle with anything Christian.

“There’s such a real battle going on inside their minds having to do with God,” added Paul Lackore, who leads a support group for survivors of ritualistic abuse. “They’ve been told and brainwashed that God is bad, Christians are bad, that Christians would judge them, that God would damn them.”

Lackore predicts pastors and churches will begin to see and hear more about ritualistic abuse, and that Christians should begin interceding for victims. “More and more survivors are going to come forward,” he said.

By Katherine Kam.

DENOMINATION REPORT

The sixty-ninth General Convention of the Episcopal Church that met July 2–11 in Detroit was at best an Anglican stand-off. Neither side really got what it wanted.

Yet the convention produced no splits, mainly because some 200 bishops and 950 clerical and lay deputies took no sharply defined positions that could have alienated its liberal, evangelical/charismatic, or anglo-Catholic wings. But an ever-growing polarization was evident, and it appears that an Episcopal battle for the Bible is shaping up for years to come. During debates in the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, the two governing branches of the Episcopal legislature, biblical conservatives were referred to as legalistic, moralistic, or homophobic, while conservatives hinted that their more liberal counterparts were redefining sin.

Sexuality Revisited

As the top policy-making body for the 2.5 million-member Episcopal Church, bishops and deputies passed about 470 resolutions during the ten-day convention. Issues of sexuality dominated, most notably an affirmation of “chastity and fidelity in personal relationships,” and pleas for holiness from Christian leaders and dialogue between homosexuals and heterosexuals. This vote was a watered-down replacement for another resolution passed last year by the Church of England that said sex should be kept within marriage and that fornication, adultery, and “homosexual genital acts” were sins. That resolution failed twice in the House of Bishops and once in the House of Deputies. Homosexuality was the stumbling block, as too many delegates made it clear they did not consider homosexual acts a sin.

Homosexuality cropped up again in a resolution to alter canon law so as not to forbid anyone access to the ordination process. Selection for the Episcopal priesthood can take as long as four years, and Episcopalians had already voted in 1979 to forbid ordination to practicing homosexuals.

While some wondered if such a canonical change would be redundant or unnecessary, others wanted a statement that no one would be denied access on the basis of “race, color, ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, physical disabilities or age, except as specified by church canon.” Episcopal canon law says nothing about sexual orientation.

Bishops passed the resolution, which was “better than we thought we could do,” said Newark Bishop John Spong, the church’s most prominent liberal, whose recent book, Living in Sin: A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality, proposes church blessings of gay unions.

The deputies were not so accommodating, however; they sent a shortened version back to the bishops. Everyone expected an easy concurrence from the bishops until headlines in both Detroit newspapers warned incorrectly that Episcopalians were on the brink of ordaining homosexuals. The bishops tossed the resolution back to the House of Deputies where it failed by one lay vote. The action essentially reaffirmed the church’s 1979 stance forbidding ordination of practicing homosexuals or heterosexuals engaged in extramarital sex.

“I think the bishops wish the whole subject would go away,” said John Throop, the Ohio priest who directs the conservative caucus Episcopalians United, which helped marshal forces against liberal influence on church doctrine. “They don’t want to be cornered into defining sinful behavior,” he said.

“Male Visitors”

Another thorny question on the Episcopal agenda was how to accommodate the election of a female bishop with church traditionalists who are opposed to female clergy.

The delegates came up with an appropriately Anglican compromise for traditionalist congregations in dioceses headed by a female bishop. These congregations would have a male “Episcopal visitor” bishop perform functions such as confirmations and ordinations instead of their own female diocesan bishop. The diocesan bishop, however, would maintain authority over that congregation in all other instances.

The resolution barely passed the House of Deputies. “I feel the vote was probably providential,” said Houston clergywoman Helen Havens, who ran unsuccessfully for bishop of Michigan in May. “That says something to world Christendom that we can handle such an explosive issue.”

North American Scene

UPDATE

More Good News For Linscott

New evidence in the case of Steven Linscott, who was convicted of murder in 1982, may expedite the end of the former Bible student’s legal nightmare. Linscott was convicted largely because of similarities between his account of a murder he says he dreamed about and the details of the actual killing of a 24-year-old nursing student (CT, Feb. 4, 1983, p. 42).

The new evidence consists of a preliminary report by two experts in forensic dentistry at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The two examined photos of bite marks on the body of the victim. After comparing them with Linscott’s dental impressions, they concluded the marks could not have been caused by Linscott’s teeth.

The report resulted from the initiative of a medical examiner who reopened his files on the case after reading the book Innocence (Zondervan Books, 1986) written by Linscott supporter Gordon Haresign. The examiner, Edmund R. Donoghue, had noted subtle abrasions on the body in his 1980 autopsy report but said at the time he did not know what caused them. Linscott’s conviction was overturned by the Illinois Appellate Court last year and is now on appeal to the state supreme court.

Harper Buys Zondervan

Plagued with tepid financial results and a weak stock price, the Zondervan Corporation has been a likely takeover target for larger companies. In July, Rupert Murdoch’s Harper & Row Publishers signed a merger agreement with Zondervan that paves the way for Harper & Row to make the evangelical publishing company its subsidiary.

According to Harper & Row executive Robert Biewen, his company has no plans to sell any Zondervan assets or change its operations, though he did not rule out such changes in the future. Brent Clark, corporate attorney for Zondervan agrees, saying that Harper & Row “respects Zondervan’s position in the religious publishing marketplace.” Clark says the merger will enable both companies to serve their markets better.

STEWARDSHIP

Earning More, Giving Less

American church members may be getting more selfish as their incomes rise, according to a recent survey of 31 denominations. Funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., empty tomb, inc., a nonprofit research and service organization in Champaign, Illinois (CT, Mar. 4, 1988), contrasted changes in per-member giving patterns with changes in U.S. per-capita disposable income.

The report points out that although income after taxes and inflation increased 31 percent from 1968 to 1985, per-member giving as a percentage of disposable income was 8.5 percent less during that same period.

“People are objectively richer, but the wealth is not expanding the ministry of the church,” said Sylvia Ronsvalle, who founded empty tomb with her husband, John, in 1970. Their study further reports that most of the money donated by members to their churches stays within the local congregation. “We may be seeing an accommodation to lifestyle expectations among evangelicals that will rob them of their commitment to the church,” said Ronsvalle.

According to the survey, 24 of the 31 denominations showed a decrease in giving as a percentage of disposable income. The Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Conference led the denominations surveyed with members giving an average of nearly 10 percent of their disposable incomes, an increase of 3.38 percent since 1968.

GATHERING

Unlikely Conference Hosts

The Hutterian Brethren pretty much keep to themselves in their “Bruderhofs,” or Christian communities. So it was a bit of a surprise when they hosted five conferences this summer. It was even more surprising that a total of 980 people from 15 countries showed up at these conferences to discuss “The New Testament Church in the 21st Century.”

Agendas at the five events were sketchy at best. Evening speakers were occasionally assigned at the last minute, and each guest put in a half-day’s work on such projects as making pies, hoeing corn, mulching blueberry bushes, or setting tables. Invited participants included Malcolm Muggeridge (at the Darvell Bruderhof in England), Tom Sine, David Hilfiker, and John Perkins.

The idea for the series of conferences came from two Hutterians who attended an evangelical conference in Washington, D.C., but who felt the opulent setting seemed inappropriate for the message.

EVANGELISM

Few Attend Congress 88

Organizers of the Congress 88 National Festival of Evangelism had planned on 15,000 people attending their event in Chicago last month. Instead, 3,000 showed up at what had been billed as a major ecumenical conference on evangelism.

Conference director Paul Benjamin cited an abundance of conferences as one reason for the low turnout. But he also said the inclusion of speakers from a broad theological spectrum “may have been asking people to stretch a bit more than they felt comfortable stretching.” Among the event’s major speakers were Prison Fellowship’s Charles Colson, Gen. Eva Burrows of the Salvation Army, and Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of the Roman Catholic Church.

Benjamin said he was encouraged that a high percentage of those who did turn out were leaders of various denominations. He said income fell short of the budget by an undetermined amount and that efforts are being made to meet the deficit.

Prolife Tilt

The convention also passed a resolution stating that abortion should be used only in “extreme situations” while not defining what those situations are. It also opposed abortion “as a means of birth control, family planning, sex selection or any reason of mere convenience.” Prolife Episcopalians were especially happy that language stating the church’s “unequivocal opposition” to legislative efforts to stop abortion was removed from the final resolution.

In other actions, the convention:

• Rejected a liberal sex-ed curriculum called “Sexuality: A Divine Gift”;

• Voted to boycott U.S. Shell Oil;

• Approved a $4 million program to benefit the poor.

The future direction of the Episcopal Church is up in the air, with many new bishops coming in to fill the shoes of their predecessors. Whether the newcomers will tilt to the Right or Left is yet undetermined. Most evidence leans toward a new, more polarized generation of Episcopalians taking over.

Word is out that Detroit was only a warm-up for the real showdown at the next general convention in 1991 in Phoenix. And both sides say they are already marshaling forces for the battle.

By Julia Duin in Detroit.

World Scene

VIETNAM

Rebuilding A Suffering Church

The Communist government of Vietnam still keeps the church there in a tight grip, but a measure of freedom has returned, says Reg Reimer, president of World Relief Canada and a former missionary to the Southeast Asian nation.

Reimer has made several trips to Vietnam since the Communists took over in 1975, but says that during his visit this summer he saw signs that “a measure of glasnost has also rubbed off on the Vietnamese.”

Reimer spoke with eight evangelical pastors during his visit, including two colleagues recently released from prison. He was able to confirm that 13 pastors had been released from prisons and re-education camps since an earlier visit two years ago. However, seven remain in prison, including two pastors who have been in Reimer and friends jail since 1983.

With an estimated per capita gross national product of $55, Vietnam is one of the poorest countries in the world. World Relief Canada has contributed to several postwar relief projects there.

PUBLIC HEALTH

Aids Surfaces In Ecuador

Ten cases of AIDS have been confirmed in Quito, Ecuador, with all but one traced to exposure in the United States. Roy Ringenberg, a physician serving with Christian radio station HCJB, said that eight of the ten have died.

Ringenberg is in charge of medical education of interns and residents at HCJB’s Hospital Vozandes-Quito. He says the symptoms associated with Ecuador’s AIDS patients resemble the “slim disease” symptoms of African patients. “The Ministry of Health is doing all sorts of education—reaching kids in the schools, making videos, publishing pamphlets, and informing doctors,” he said.

OLYMPICS

Seoul Aims For Souls

Many of the 30,000 athletes and coaches invading South Korea this month for the XXIV Olympic Games may become couriers of the gospel, according to John Cho, chairman of the Olympic Outreach Committee (OOC). Cho has assembled volunteers from 150 parachurch organizations and 25 denominations to minister to the Olympians.

“To us, it is the Soul Olympics,” said Cho, who is also president of Seoul Theological Seminary. “Many athletes will be here from nations closed to the gospel. We hope they can return to their countries as Christians, taking the gospel with them.”

Cho admits it is a bit unusual for a theologian and seminary president to become active in sports ministry. “But my passion has always been world evangelization, and when I saw how Christian athletes are revered, I realized this was an effective way to communicate Christ.”

The OOC will use a variety of methods to reach athletes, including chapel services in the Olympic Village, Bible and literature distribution, Christian movies, and a hospitality house. Using these methods at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, Cho says several Chinese athletes accepted Christ and took Bibles home with them after the competition.

ENTERTAINMENT

Films Violent Worldwide

A recent study of films from around the world shows that over the past 40 years, films have become progressively more violent and psychologically harmful to normal viewers of all ages. The study, covering 1,500 films from 61 countries, was completed by the International Coalition Against Violent Entertainment.

Of the one thousand 1987 films in the study, 52 percent were rated as either predominantly or extremely violent. And of the 20 countries with 12 or more films in the 1987 sample, Hong Kong, the United States, and Mexico produced the highest percentage of violent films. Film producers who tended toward lesser degrees of violence included Japan, West Germany, and the Soviet Union.

TRENDS

Kids March Off To War

Even war has its rules, but many fighting nations are breaking the minimum age requirement (15 years) for soldiers, set by the Protocols on International Humanitarian Law. A recent report prepared by the London-based Friends World Committee for Consultation contends that the world’s armies include about 200,000 youths, some as young as 12.

The report said parents in poorer nations sometimes urge children to enlist in armies to gain food, jobs, or payments to parents if the children die in battle Based on news reports and private research, the report gave specific examples of below-age soldiers:

• Street roundups in Afghanistan to recruit youths under 15.

• The lowering of Iran’s conscription age to 13, with parental consent for enlistment of even younger children.

• The use of boys as young as 12 by the contra rebels in Nicaragua, and the recruitment of 3,000 youths by the Nicaraguan government.

No international organization addresses the problem, the report said, and veterans’ or soldiers’ groups do not defend the interests of child soldiers. It also said the youngsters are often subjected to brutality and trained in terrorism.

WOMEN

Two years after the Evangelical Women’s Caucus International (EWCI) passed controversial resolutions that resulted in the formation of an alternative organization of biblical feminists (CT, Oct. 3, 1986, pp. 40–43), the original group met in Chicago to discuss its purpose and identity. The secession of those who protested the passage of what they deemed to be a prolesbian resolution at the 1986 Fresno meeting cut deeply into EWCI’s membership and morale.

“There is more than enough pain to go around,” said Joyce Erickson, coordinator of the organization during its first two years. In her plenary address, Erickson expressed “sadness about those who are not with us … because they are estranged.” She pled with EWCI members to discuss only the mission of the organization and not to “characterize others’ opinions with respect to biblical standards of truth and justice.”

The pain and confusion were palpable in the discussions that followed, but the members stuck close to Erickson’s advice as they addressed several issues:

• What is the future of EWCI? Since the controversial Fresno conference, membership in EWCI has dropped by 50 percent (although according to EWCI’S administrative manager, Florence Brown, it is climbing again), and attendance at chapter functions around the country has declined even more sharply.

In an open meeting on the future of EWCI, Kaye Cook, associate professor of psychology at Gordon College, asserted that both the church and the social context of feminism have changed in the 15-year history of EWCI. In many circles, she said, the church has adopted the organization’s former goals, including the ordination of women and equal pay for women.

“Old goals have been largely met,” agreed Nancy Hardesty, coauthor of the book All We’re Meant to Be, as she urged the group to seek new objectives.

While some fear that declining membership and changing goals threaten the existence of EWCI, others show little concern (large contributions from five donors this past year ensure the organization’s financial health) and point to responsiveness to current issues as the key to the organization’s relevance.

• What is the mission of EWCI? At the organization’s 1984 Wellesley conference, disagreement arose over whether EWCI should restrict itself to encouraging sexual equality in evangelical and fundamentalist churches or should take stands on issues with political overtones, such as civil rights for lesbians and reproductive freedom for women.

Now that an alternative organization for biblical feminists, Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE), has been active in evangelical and fundamentalist churches, some EWCI members suggested it is time to focus more on “minority and justice issues, as well as bringing Woman-Church [feminist-oriented worship] to Protestants.” Others argued that EWCI needs to continue its ministry to those who believe conservative Christianity and feminism are incompatible.

• How will EWCI relate to lesbianism? The 1986 resolution on civil rights for lesbians contained language that recognized “the presence of the Lesbian minority” in EWCI, thus sparking continued discussion of sexuality at the 1988 conference. A plenary forum on “Issues of Sexuality” was addressed by a bisexual female who has a monogamous, lesbian relationship in which she has experienced “eight years of faithfulness” and which she believes “has been blessed by God.” Also addressing the forum was Roberta Kenney, one of the founders of Exodus International, a coalition of ministries committed to helping Christian homosexuals toward healing.

Emotionally charged discussion followed in which lesbianism appeared to be affirmed. “People who did not support” the idea that there is no biblical ground on which to critique lesbianism “felt intimidated,” says Kaye Cook, the newly appointed co-coordinator of EWCI. Nevertheless, says Cook, the heterosexual women in the group are concerned.

Following the biennial conference, the executive committee met and made recommendations yet to be approved by the membership: That informal ways of addressing issues be introduced to the organization in order to avoid the potential divisiveness of formal resolutions; and that the organization’s name be changed from the Evangelical Women’s Caucus International to Ecumenical Women’s Coalition.

“There’s a strong sentiment that many people in the organization don’t participate in evangelical churches anymore,” says Kaye Cook, “and that ecumenical more accurately reflects our composition. EWCI formerly focused on service in the evangelical tradition, but is now moving out to address other issues. Nevertheless, we want to retain our biblical feminism.”

By David Neff.

HUMAN RIGHTS

A high-level Kremlin official says there will be “no prohibition” against importing Bibles.

A human rights delegation recently back from a fact-finding trip says the Soviets have promised there will no longer be restrictions on the flow of Bibles and religious literature into the country.

Steven Snyder, president of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), the group sponsoring the trip, said Chairman for Religious Affairs Konstantin Kharchev told the delegation there is “no prohibition against Bibles or literature” being imported. As evidence of the new open policy, Soviet officials recently announced that permission has been granted for Open Doors International to send one million New Testaments to Soviet Christians. This is the largest shipment of Bibles ever accepted by the Russian Orthodox Church. Snyder would like other groups to seek permission to ship large numbers of Bibles to the estimated 288 million Christians in the Soviet Union.

The eight-member delegation met with several government officials, religious leaders, and dissidents to assess the effects of the new Soviet reforms on believers. Included in the delegation were Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), a long-time advocate for Soviet Christians, and David Amess, a member of the British Parliament.

Back In The Ussr

Valeri Barinov, the freed Russian rock musician (CT, Jan. 15, 1988), wants to go back to his homeland. Since being released from a Soviet prison in November 1987, the expatriate has been working with a number of individuals and agencies to get permission to lead a group of Christians on an evangelistic tour through a number of Soviet cities.

That may be difficult, however. After imprisoning Barinov for illegally recording his rock opera Trumpet Call and preaching in public, the Soviets may take a dim view of his request to return for an evangelistic tour. But Barinov continues to plan. “I believe that God will send everything we need to do it.”

At the Cornerstone ‘88 festival near Chicago in July, Barinov spoke of his efforts to return. Helped by people such as Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Smith’s legislative assistant Dorothy Taft, Barinov has written an open appeal to Gorbachev that was delivered by President Reagan’s staff at the recent summit in the Soviet Union.

The letter reads in part, “I urge you to permit me and my band, the ‘Trumpet Call,’ along with individual missionaries, to tour the Soviet Union as part of the ‘International March for Jesus’ in May, 1989. Thus we will be able to help your policies, for every one who believes in Jesus will be delivered from sin and become a productive member of the society.”

During the march, Barinov hopes to do open-air street witnessing and free rock performances, giving away truckloads of Bibles. “We shall openly preach the gospel, not in a house, but in open areas.”

To coordinate march and recording plans in the U.S., Barinov has established Trumpet Call Ministries in Newport Beach, California.

By Ross Pavlac.

Religious Education

A key part of the delegation’s discussion with Soviet officials centered on the forthcoming revisions in the laws to permit more religious freedom—revisions the Soviets have been promising for several months. Michael Farris, an attorney and chairman of CSI-US, said the delegation met with drafters of the new codes who claimed the changes will include permission for the religious training of children.

Farris said, “According to the drafters, religious education of children will be allowed in one form or another: perhaps in the form of Sunday school or by having a pastor come into the home to conduct religious teachings.” However, Farris said the Soviets still refuse church schools or home schools as an alternative to state education. It remains unclear when the revisions will be released.

The delegation was able to talk, without interference, to various Christian dissidents, including one Latvian Lutheran renewal leader, who traveled 600 miles by train. Farris said their interpreter, an American embassy official, told the delegation it was among the first nongovernmental groups to be allowed to meet so freely with religious dissidents. CSI pressed the Soviets to declare a general amnesty for the more than 130 Christian believers still in prison and labor camp.

Disturbing Incidents

The Soviet dissidents told the delegation that while conditions for Christians have improved, disturbing incidents continue to take place. For example, Galina Barats, a Pentecostal believer who met with Ambassador Richard Shifter prior to the Moscow summit, has been placed on “unofficial house arrest.” Although the delegation was allowed to meet with Barats in her home, agents have surrounded the building and will arrest her if she leaves.

In another case, an Orthodox priest who was released from a labor camp at President Reagan’s request was rearrested after Reagan left Moscow. And, a Pentecostal Christian leader, Yuri Veeranna, who also met with Ambassador Shifter, has since disappeared.

Overall, Snyder said that while Gorbachev’s reforms have begun to provide Soviet Christians with hope, much skepticism remains. “Future progress depends much on the efforts made by the United States to continue to press the Soviets for further reforms,” he said.

By Kim A. Lawton.

YOUTH

News of First Lady Nancy Reagan’s dabbling with astrology dominated the headlines this spring after the publication of former White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan’s new book. Yet both the First Lady and President Reagan testified to a more traditional source of inspiration in separate appearances at this summer’s Youth for Christ’s [YFC] DC ‘88 Student Congress on Evangelism.

The Reagans have seldom spoken together at the same function, leading some observers to suggest their appearance was intended to deflect criticism from the Religious Right about the astrology issue. And some youth workers at the convention questioned YFC’s judgment in giving the Reagans such a pulpit. Nevertheless, few critics could be found among the 8,000 students who attended.

From The Heart

Mrs. Reagan, an intensely private person, chose the Washington gathering to speak for the first time publicly about her father’s spiritual experience near the time of his death. The First Lady told the young delegates how her father, as a boy, had unfairly lost a Sunday school contest to a minister’s child. “Feeling wronged and disillusioned, [he] allowed no place for faith in his life for the next 80 years,” she said.

However, at the end of his life, Mrs. Reagan said her father was “terribly frightened,” reluctant even to go to sleep “for fear he wouldn’t awake.”

“My husband wrote him two long letters explaining the encompassing comfort he’d receive if he’d just put himself in the Lord’s hands,” she said.

Mrs. Reagan said that two days before he died, her father asked to see the hospital chaplain. Moved to tears, the First Lady said, “I don’t know what the chaplain did or what he said, but whatever it was, it was the right thing, and it gave my father comfort.… When he died … he was at peace, finally.

“The reason I tell you this story is because you … are so fortunate that you’ve found a strong faith at an early age.”

Youth for Christ gave the First Lady an award for her battle against drug abuse. She enlisted the help of the group in her fight. “You are the role models for others,” she said.

Fatherly Advice

President Reagan made his appearance the following day and was greeted enthusiastically. Speaking about the importance of “moral and religious values,” Reagan said that while “in recent years America did seem to lose some of her religious and moral bearings,” he believes that is now changing for the better.

Proclaiming that his administration has “worked hard to reflect this return to basic values,” the President listed several executive efforts, including opposition to abortion, legislation against pornography, the as-yet unsuccessful push for school prayer, and the passage of the Equal Access Act of 1984, which allows voluntary religious groups to meet at schools on the same basis as other groups. This was especially well received because Youth for Christ’s Campus Life clubs meet at local high schools.

In a personal note, the President advised the young people to avoid premarital sex. “It’s so important for you not to pay any attention to all those who say that promiscuity is somehow stylish or rewarding,” Reagan said. “You can start being true to that special person [you will marry] right now.”

Organizers said the 8,000 delegates attending the conference came from all 50 states and nine foreign countries. Spokesman Jim Patterson said DC ‘88 was designed to encourage young people to mature in their own faith and share their beliefs with friends.

NEWS

NATIONAL ELECTIONS

Focusing on the family may give Michael Dukakis a shot at reclaiming the “Reagan Democrats.”

As the election season swings into the final stretch, many Democratic activists believe the Michael Dukakis/Lloyd Bentsen ticket is the strongest their party has produced in decades. Yet, while optimism is running high among Democrats, one challenge remains essential to recapturing the White House: winning back the votes of the “Reagan Democrats”—those traditional Democrats who voted for Ronald Reagan and George Bush in 1980 and 1984.

A key element of the Reagan Democrats is the evangelical community, which until recent years has generally registered as Democratic. Polls showed that in 1984, evangelicals—Republican and Democratic—voted overwhelmingly for the Republican ticket.

As the Democrats attempt to regain the Reagan Democrats, they have been reshaping their image in an apparent effort to show they still espouse the values that attracted the majority of Americans, including religious groups, to the party.

A New Look

In 1984, while Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro were emphasizing individual rights, the Republicans under Reagan were talking about the family and “traditional family values.” Assessing their crushing defeat, the Democrats took a new look at the family. A Democratic National Committee strategy paper called “Kids as Politics” recommended that children’s issues become “an umbrella that Democrats should embrace to recreate their majority.”

The Democrats seem to have taken the advice to heart. At their convention in Atlanta, children were given a prominent place in the spotlight, from Ann Richard’s granddaughter Lily, to Jesse Jackson’s five children, to Michael Dukakis’s unborn grandchild. The family theme was invoked by virtually every politician who addressed the delegates.

The Democratic platform this year also places much emphasis on the family. In presenting the platform planks on the family to the convention, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said the Democrats under Michael Dukakis promise “an America where families are strong and prosperous, an America where every family shares in the American dream.”

The platform urges a stepped-up war on drugs, a commitment to education, the creation of comprehensive health-care services for all Americans, a halt to the low-income housing crisis, and a stronger fight against hunger—all as a means of strengthening the family.

The Democrats have also made efforts to remove the “special interests” collar that weighed the party down in 1984. Outspoken feminists, gays, and lesbians highly visible throughout the 1984 campaign have been given much less attention this year. And Dukakis drew the ire of homosexual groups earlier this year with his refusal to endorse gay couples as potential foster parents.

In toned-down platform language, the Democrats avoid using the words gay rights and instead affirm “equal access … for every citizen regardless of race, sex, national origin, religion, age, handicapping condition or sexual orientation.” Likewise, the platform avoids the word abortion, choosing instead the phrase “reproductive choice.

Party Of The Unborn?

Although the abortion issue was not acknowledged within the convention proceedings, it may prove to be a key to the party’s efforts to attract evangelicals. And in spite of the Democrats’ avoidance of the issue, critics attacked what they say is a definite proabortion tilt of the party standard-bearers.

At a press conference, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) called the Dukakis/Bentsen ticket “without question the most dedicated proabortion national ticket that has ever existed in history.” Calling Dukakis an abortion “zealot,” NRLC President Jack Willke outlined the governor’s aggressive abortion policies during his tenure in Massachusetts.

The NRLC also charged Bentsen with “misrepresenting” his abortion policies. According to statements from Bentsen’s office, the senator is “against abortion and has voted against abortion funding.” Yet, Planned Parenthood, in assessing 50 abortion-related votes in Congress between 1974 and 1986, found that Bentsen voted prochoice 43 times, prolife twice, and was absent five times. The National Abortion Rights Action League has also declared Bentsen’s record on abortion as “very good.”

Many prolife Democrats feel continually alienated by their party. Jackie Schweitz, head of a new group called National Prolife Democrats, said the Democratic leadership and platform is “out of step with the average Democrat” on the abortion issue. Citing several polls that found the majority of Democrats oppose unrestricted abortion, Schweitz said the Democrats’ position will hurt them in November. “Once prolife voters find out that Dukakis and Bentsen are proabortion, millions of Democratic voters will not be able to support the ticket and the Democratic party will once again lose,” she said.

As a prolife protest, Schweitz and two other uncommitted delegates from Minnesota voted for prolife Congressman Richard Stallings during the presidential roll call.

Room For Religion

While the Democrats have been emphasizing family values attractive to the evangelical community, there has been no concerted effort within the party specifically to target conservative Christians. Conservative religious groups were not granted the opportunity to present oral testimony during the Democrats’ platform molding process (CT, July 15, 1988, pp. 41–12).

Aside from the daily invocations and benedictions, religion and religious themes were largely absent from this year’s convention. Jesse Jackson, known for his frequent use of biblical imagery in his speeches, praised God for allowing him to be at the convention, and reminded the delegates that “red, yellow, brown, black, and white, we’re all precious in God’s sight.”

Apart from Jackson, however, the only other biblical reference in a speech was made by Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), who praised the separation of church and state and criticized the influence of conservative religious leaders on the Reagan administration. “The last thing we need is the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John rewritten by Meese, Bakker, Swaggart, and Falwell,” he said.

Nonetheless, Democratic activists assert there is room in their party for Christians. “In fact,” said Iowa delegate Richard Hodgson, “If [Christians] don’t get in here and try to leaven the loaf, they’re making a big mistake.” Hodgson, an Orthodox Presbyterian minister and science professor at Dordt College in Sioux Center, said he has “always felt Democrats were glad to welcome me, even as an evangelical, even as one who disagrees with them on some issues.”

Hodgson admits one of those issues is abortion. Although he is prolife, Hodgson said he also believes “it would be a mistake to say everything stands or falls on this one issue.” For Hodgson, the Democrats take a more compassionate stand on behalf of those already born. “When I … look for candidates who are really caring about people, I find most of them in the Democratic party,” he said.

Phillip Malebranche, a delegate representing Americans Abroad, agrees that Christians belong in the Democratic party. “If some doors [in the party] have recently been closed to Christians, I believe Christians have to keep pounding on those doors,” he said.

No Kidding

Not all profamily advocates have been happy with the “family talk” coming from the Democratic party. A coalition of conservative profamily groups held a “Family Forum ‘88” in Atlanta prior to the convention to address competing views of the family.

In the assessment of Family Research Council President Jerry Regier, two distinct visions of the family are emerging within both parties: one that places parental responsibility far above government intervention in family matters, and one that would give the government more responsibility in solving family problems. Family Forum sponsors favor the first vision, but believe the second is more predominant among current Democratic leadership.

The primary issue of concern at the conference was child care—an issue that has risen to the top of the national agenda this election year. Family Forum organizers were particularly critical of the heavily Democratic-sponsored Act for Better Child Care (ABC) bill now in Congress. Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly called the act “the most antireligious bill ever introduced into Congress” and charged that it would set up a “Bureau of Babysitting” within the federal government. Schlafly and the other Family Forum members instead support child-care tax credits for all families with children, including those where one parent stays at home.

Membership of the Family Forum groups is largely made up of evangelicals and conservative Catholics, two key components of the “Reagan Democrats.” During the conference, Family Forum organizers released a “Family Manifesto,” promoting traditional values. Jerry Falwell noted in his address that these groups potentially have a great importance in the coming election. Saying they make up the “largest voting bloc in the nation,” Falwell declared that no president can be elected without their support.

A similar Family Forum meeting was also held at the Republican convention in New Orleans.

Religious Credentials

Thanks to the efforts of Jesse Jackson, the Democrats can probably count on the support of large segments of one Christian community: the black church. Throughout his campaign, Jackson used black churches as headquarters for stump speeches and fund raising. Although some political pundits had suggested Jackson supporters would walk away from the party because of the Dukakis campaign’s handling of the vice-presidential slot, Jackson seems to have forestalled such a walk.

South Carolina African Methodist Episcopal Bishop Frederick C. James said he and others in his denomination are taking their cue from Jackson. “He expressed a sense of satisfaction with how he related to Mr. Dukakis, … and I stand by his statement,” James said.

James, who led a benediction prayer at the convention, said AME members who supported Jackson “will work hard for the Democratic ticket because of the platform and the involvement of the Democratic party as it relates to black Americans.”

Another religious community, the Greek Orthodox Church, appears largely supportive of the Democratic party and of its favorite son. Michael Dukakis has been somewhat reticent to discuss his religious views publicly. “My own feelings about religion and my own church are very personal to me,” he said. Dukakis said he is a “good member of the Greek Orthodox Church,” and attends church “10, 12, 14 times a year.” His wife, Kitty, is Jewish, and Dukakis said they “respect each other’s religious tradition and belief” and have raised their children “in both cultures.”

Lloyd Bentsen, a Presbyterian, has a few more ties to the evangelical community. A supporter of congressional voluntary school prayer amendments, Bentsen has attended prayer breakfasts sponsored by the National Religious Broadcasters and has spoken at a National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) federal seminar meeting.

The extent to which the Democrats will be able to translate their efforts into evangelical votes remains to be seen. Yet, in a close election, this task may prove crucial. The NAE thinks an evangelical voting bloc could account for 2.5 percent of the total vote—enough to have reversed the outcome of four presidential elections since World War II.

By Kim A. Lawton in Atlanta.

Classic and contemporary excerpts.

Passion for fidelity

The instinct of fidelity is perhaps the deepest instinct in the great complex we call sex. Where there is real sex there is the underlying passion for fidelity.

—D. H. Lawrence, quoted in Sexual Intimacy: Love and Play

Religion and politics

The problem isn’t how to keep religion out of politics but how to subject political life to spiritual criticism without losing sight of the tension between the political and spiritual realms because politics unavoidably rests on some measure of coercion. It can never become a perfect realm of love and justice, but neither can it be dismissed as the work of the Devil.

—Christopher Lasch in TIKKUN

Inseparable companions

Faith binds man to Christ. Hope sets this faith open to the comprehensive future of Christ. Hope is therefore the “inseparable companion” of faith.… Without faith’s knowledge of Christ, hope becomes a utopia and remains hanging in the air. But without hope, faith falls to pieces, becomes a fainthearted and ultimately a dead faith. It is through faith that man finds the path of true life, but it is only hope that keeps him on that path.

—Jürgen Moltmann in Theology of Hope

Returning to “Go”

The oft-enjoyed game of Monopoly has one card that is discovered occasionally when someone lands on “Chance”: “Return to ‘Go’—Collect $200.” The irony of the directive is that in one respect it seems to penalize, but in another it rewards. And so it is with God. There may be no way to forget the foolishness of our blind pursuits that end in cul-de-sacs, but the God we began with … will seek us … and draw us back to the beginning.

—Jack Hay ford in Worship His Majesty

No “no” in TV land

Many of our adolescents and young adults cannot “just say no” to drugs because their whole approach to life has been shaped by television, the land where “no” does not exist.

—William V. Shannon in the Tampa Tribune-Times (May 8, 1988)

There’s nothing like a baby

A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on. A book that does nothing to you is dead. A baby, whether it does anything to you, represents life. If a bad fire should break out in this house and I had my choice of saving the library or the babies, I would save what is alive. Never will a time come when the most marvelous recent invention is as marvelous as a newborn baby. The finest of our precision watches, the most supercolossal of our supercargo planes, don’t compare with a newborn baby in the number and ingenuity of coils and springs, in the flow and change of chemical solutions, in timing devices and interrelated parts that are irreplaceable. The baby here is very modern. Strictly. Yet it is also the oldest of the ancients.

—Carl Sandburg in Remembrance Rock

Obstacles are a given

Opposition is a fact: the Christian who is not conscious of being opposed had better watch himself for he is in danger.

—J. 1. Packer in Knowing God

Whose tune?

Unless Christian scholars affirm the truth of Christianity in the context of public reason, rival religions will not respect its claim to universal truth or consider it worthy of a universal hearing. It is not enough that biblical theists mount a soapbox in a pluralistic society to declare that evangelicals offer their own unique perspective on life, that the Christian outlook has as much right to representation as do the multiple modern alternatives, and that we shall blow our trumpet as loudly as others, because no one any longer can be sure of the right tune.

—Carl F. H. Henry in a speech on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary

The worst crimes

The greatest crimes are caused by surfeit, not by want. Men do not become tyrants in order that they may not suffer cold.

—Aristotle in Poetics

Is evangelical renewal possible for mainline and liturgical churches? Is it happening? Is it genuine? For many evangelicals (with Baptist, Presbyterian, or Pentecostal roots), these churches are unfamiliar territory. But several new books shed light on twentieth-century renewal movements in these churches. Highlighted here are those of the Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Catholics.

Two books serve as general introductions to the renewal movements in these and other denominations. The Believable Futures of American Protestantism, edited by Richard John Neuhaus (Eerdmans, $7.95) presents essays and discussion from a diverse group of experts at the Center on Religion and Society in New York.

Evangelical Renewal in the Mainline Denominations, edited by Ronald H. Nash (Crossway, $7.95), surveys eight denominations (including American Baptist, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, and United Church of Christ, in addition to those mentioned above). Each essay is written by a church member who is sympathetic to renewal. Directories of renewal groups and publications are included for most denominations.

Methodism

Thomas C. Oden, professor of theology at Drew University, offers commentary on the Wesleyan tradition through two different writings. In his Believable Futures essay, “Toward a Theologically Informed Renewal of American Protestantism,” he argues that the renewal of the sacred ministry (bishops and elders) and careful preordination preparation in the apostolic tradition is the way to contemporary renewal. The early church rejoiced in cultural pluralism, but rejected doctrinal pluralism, Oden writes. And he warns that such apostolic tradition must not be abandoned. He presents 47 theses, attested by quotations from “centrist classical sources—patristic to Reformation.”

To confront theological pluralism, Oden released his book Doctrinal Standards in the Wesleyan Tradition (Zondervan, $15.95) at the United Methodist General Conference last April (see CT News, June 17, 1988, p. 60). In this book he contends that the basic teaching of the Methodist church family has been textually defined since 1763 and that it is enforceable.

Episcopalianism

John Throop’s essay on the Episcopal church in Evangelical Renewal not only describes the current three-stream renewal (evangelical, charismatic, and anglo-catholic) in that church, but also gives a “quick tour of English church history [to provide] a framework for understanding renewal in the Episcopal Church.”

According to Throop, evangelical renewal is distinguished by commitment to “the primacy and unremitting authority of Scripture,” which gives priority to exposition, study, and preaching of the Word; personal conversion and holy living; and a view of the church as God’s herald and as the fellowship of the saved. Throop points to the influence of Philip Edgecombe Hughes and Stuart Barton Babbage, when they taught at Columbia Theological Seminary during the mid-sixties, as “the key to the development of a viable evangelical movement among Episcopalians in this country.”

As supplements to Throop’s essay, The Episcopal Church in Crisis, by John Booty (Cowley, $8.95), and The Episcopal Church’s History: 1945–1985, by David E. Sumner (Morehouse-Barlow, $24.95), provide us with a detailed look at the past 40 years. Booty traces a series of Episcopal identity shifts related to issues (Vietnam and sexism, for example). Sumner has written a series of individual chronicles, telling the story of major areas of church life (such as education, ecumenicity, missions, Prayer Book revision, women’s ordination, and civil rights). The book is an evenhanded resource (well-documented, with a glossary and a bibliography) for either new member or curious outsider.

Lutheranism

Waldo J. Werning’s essay on the Lutheran churches (also in Evangelical Renewal) is more an assessment of the need for renewal and a description of what renewal would be than an account of ongoing renewal in this denomination. The Evangelical Movement: Growth, Impact, Controversy, Dialog, by Mark Ellingsen (Augsburg, $24.95), is a thorough study, undertaken to help world Lutheranism clarify its relationship to evangelicalism. The first three parts of the book survey evangelicalism.

Chapters entitled “The Essence of Conservative Evangelicalism” and “The Proclamation of the Gospel in Contemporary Society” compare evangelicalism with Lutheranism and move Ellingsens argument to a fourth section, “Dialogue with a Mainline Church Heritage: Biblically Based Theology for Born-Again Christians.” He observes that confessional Lutheranism’s emphasis on justification by grace through faith provides a basis for conversation and mutual reinforcement. The question evangelicals often ask, of course, concerns the twentieth-century Lutheran church’s degree of faithfulness to the Augsburg Confession.

Catholicism

Kevin Perotta’s essay on the U.S. Catholic church in Evangelical Renewal views the period between Vatican II (1962–65) and the 1985 synod of bishops as a watershed, during which the church moved out of its defensive stance toward the modern world, revised its structures, articulated the Christian faith for the twentieth century, and experienced renewal of its liturgy. However, Perotta states “the Council’s call for personal and corporate renewal, renewal in relationship with Christ and His Word, was actually followed by widespread confusion and loss of commitment.…”

Indeed, he sees the trend as decidedly secularistic. Vigorous leadership by Pope John Paul II and the 1985 synod to correct aberrations in teaching, coupled with the impact of charismatic renewal are signs of hope for Perotta.

The Emerging Parish: The Notre Dame Study of Catholic Life Since Vatican II, by Joseph Gremillion and Jim Castelli (Harper & Row, $16.95), seeks through survey and statistical analysis to assess the impact of Vatican II on parish life. Separate chapters detail findings in the areas of decision making, worship, education, evangelization, social action, and ecumenical action. The evaluation is more optimistic than Perotta’s.

By Larry Sibley, who teaches practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

Peace and Revolution: The Moral Crisis of American Pacifism, by Guenter Lewy (Eerdmans, 284 pp.; $18.95, cloth). Reviewed by Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a syndicated columnist for Copley News Service. Bandow is author of Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics (Crossway).

In early 1975, the American-backed government of South Vietnam disintegrated in the face of a massive Communist military offensive. Leading pacifist groups uniformly hailed the conquest of North Vietnamese arms: A writer in WIN magazine, published by the War Resisters League, acclaimed the “triumph for revolutionary politics.” The few activists who condemned a military offensive that violated the Paris peace accords, left thousands dead, and trapped millions under Communist rule were roundly criticized for their arrogance in attacking the forces that had brought “peace” to Vietnam.

There was a time when pacifists truly believed in nonviolence, but Guenter Lewy, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts, documents how the Vietnam War transformed antitotalitarian adherents of pacifism into left-wing advocates of revolutionary violence.

A National Conscience

Lewy reviews the tragic corruption of four major pacifist groups: the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), nominally a Quaker organization; the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), many of whose members were Quakers; the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), originally founded as a Christian association; and the War Resisters League (WRL), a secular group. His tone is one of sadness rather than anger, which makes the impact of his book all the more powerful.

“Until the 1960s,” writes Lewy, “American pacifism enjoyed a generally undisputed reputation of moral rectitude.” In 1933, for instance, the membership of the FOR voted overwhelmingly to oppose class warfare as well as international conflict; the group also rejected cooperation with Communist-front organizations. The three other pacifist bodies maintained similar policies. Over the ensuing years the pacifist movement, though small, acted as a national conscience, challenging the realpolitik guiding America’s foreign policy.

However, the groups’ orientations shifted as they began cooperating with leftist organizations to oppose the Vietnam War. Lewy may make too much of the AFSC’S switch from advocating a withdrawal of all outside forces to working for a unilateral American pullout—after all, the group could directly influence only U.S. policy. But he also documents the profound ideological move from opposing American intervention to supporting North Vietnamese aggression. All four of the major pacifist organizations suffered from wrenching internal conflict as principled pacifists resisted, unsuccessfully, the decision to back revolutionary violence.

This philosophical schizophrenia manifested itself not only in the macabre celebrations of North Vietnam’s military victory, but also in a profound reluctance to criticize Communist Vietnam for its massive human-rights violations. In 1977, for instance, FOR’S executive committee dissociated itself from an appeal circulated by two staff members, lamenting that the controversy “has tended to divide and disrupt the peace community.”

Leaning To The Left

This callous indifference to the victims of Marxist-Leninist revolutions persists. Pacifist groups lauded social progress in Cuba and the “experiment in new forms of social organization and development” in Grenada, and they now propagandize on behalf of Nicaragua’s Sandinistas.

But while opposition to U.S. intervention in Central America is eminently defensible, support for the Ortega regime is not. (Lewy sharply criticizes the pacifists’ noninterventionist stance, although it is certainly consistent with their principles.)

Indeed, the groups have been almost obsequious in dealing with the Sandinistas. According to Peace and Revolution, Joanne Sheehan of the WRL wrote Nicaragua’s ambassador to the U.S. to complain about the lack of conscientious-objector status for Nicaraguans; she prefaced her letter by assuring the ambassador that “the WRL is very much in support of the people’s revolution in Nicaragua.”

Also Reviewed In This Section:

The Excellent Empire, by Jaroslav Pelikan

Abortion: A Christian Understanding and Response, edited by James K. Hoffmeier

What Is Judaism?by Emil L. Fackenheim

The Believable Futures of American Protestantism, edited by Richard John Neuhaus

Evangelical Renewal in the Mainline Denominations, edited by Ronald H. Nash

Doctrinal Standards in the Wesleyan Tradition, by Thomas C. Oden

The Episcopal Church in Crisis, by John Booty

The Episcopal Church’s History: 1945–1985, by David E. Sumner

The Evangelical Movement, by Mark Ellingsen

The Emerging Parish, by Joseph Gremillion and Jim Castelli

Communing With Great Minds

The Excellent Empire: The Fall of Rome and the Triumph of the Church, by Jaroslav Pelikan (Harper & Row, 133 pp.; $18.95, hardcover). Reviewed by Mark Noll, professor of history at Wheaton College (Ill.), and author of One Nation Under God? (Harper & Row).

Jaroslav Pelikan, Sterling Professor of History at Yale, is the author of several large works on the history of Christianity, especially his multivolume study of The Christian Tradition. But Pelikan is also the master of the literary cameo—the slim, but no less learned treatment of a specific theme. Books like The Vindication of Tradition, Bach Among the Theologians, and now The Excellent Empire testify to Pelikan’s mastery of this short form.

This book can best be called a thematic meditation in response to Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. To Gibbon, who shared the skepticism about supernatural Christianity characteristic of the Enlightenment, the fall of Rome resulted from “the triumph of barbarism and religion.” Pelikan’s intent is to contrast Gibbon’s interpretation with that of early leaders in the church who actually lived through “the decline and fall of Rome.”

Thus, while Gibbon saw the conversion of Constantine to Christianity as a portent of weakness, the early church historian Eusebius hailed it as the very climax of Rome’s glory.

Gibbon regarded the sack of Rome by Alaric the Goth in 410 as melancholy proof of decline. To the Bible translator Jerome, the same event was rather an apocalyptic sign of the in-breaking rule of Christ.

Gibbon, somewhat reluctantly, saw at least a little virtue in the Christianity that otherwise seemed to him the advance of superstition. But to Augustine of Hippo, the early church’s greatest theologian, the fall of Rome was the source of yet deeper ambiguities, as set out in The City of God, an even more monumental book than Gibbon’s.

Pelikan’s meditation on these themes is subtle, his writing is filled with quotations, and the themes of this short book are complex. It is, nonetheless, a delightful opportunity to peer over the shoulder of one of our age’s great minds as it communes with the great minds of the past.

American pacifism truly faces what Lewy calls a “moral crisis.” For while principled pacifism can be criticized for utopianism in a world in which freedom and justice can, at times, be maintained only by resort to the sword, it nevertheless offers an important moral standard by which to periodically measure our actions.

The corrupt form of pacifism that now animates the AFSC and its soulmates is, in contrast, dangerous as well as fraudulent, for it provides a humanitarian gloss for totalitarian ideologies that have institutionalized violence and suffering on a global scale.

This disturbing book by Guenter Lewy should cause those pacifists who have sold their moral inheritance for a pottage of political activism to return to their roots.

Highlighted

Life After Moses

In Congregation: Contemporary Writers Read the Jewish Bible (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich; xiv + 526 pp.; $29.95, hardcover), 37 leading writers—all American, all Jewish—reflect on the Hebrew Scriptures. The authors range from Max Apple to Elie Wiesel (with Mordecai Richler and Isaac Bashevis Singer in between). The tone ranges from angry to reverent. Here is Houston novelist Max Apple on the Book of Joshua:

“No doubt in the history of another people Joshua might be the chief hero. After all, it is Joshua who leads his army into the land of his enemies and triumphs there, Joshua who leads his people to the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to Abraham, Joshua who is the powerful, unyielding, triumphant general.

Alas, poor Joshua: to him falls the role of warrior among shepherds, soldier among dreamers, servant of the Lord who serves after Moses.…

Joshua knows that to succeed Moses is more difficult than to overcome Canaanites, Moses talked to God. Moses ascended Mount Sinai and returned with the Ten Commandments. Moses shaped a nation out of slaves, a moral nation, and then ‘though his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated,’ Moses died. At that dramatic moment the Torah ends. After Moses, in spite of all his accomplishments, everything is still to be done.

… [Joshua] is a powerful general, but how he wishes for the certainty of Moses, his ‘father’; how he wishes that the times were not out of joint, that he was still free to roam in the desert, in the great afterglow of the escape from Egypt and the numbing pleasure of the Manna which glistens like the dew and satisfies all hunger; how Joshua still longs to be the young man following orders; how much easier it is to spy out the land than to send in spies; how much easier to be the son than the father.”

Not Quite A Consensus

Abortion: A Christian Understanding and Response, edited by James K. Hoffmeier (Baker, 260 pp.; $10.95, paper). Reviewed by Guy M. Condon, executive director of Americans United for Life Legal Defense Fund.

Fifteen Wheaton College faculty members have taken an interdisciplinary tug at one of the most pressing moral issues of our time.

The title, Abortion: A Christian Understanding and Response, as well as the foreword by Wheaton College President Richard Chase and introduction by editor James K. Hoffmeier, suggest this collection of essays will foster a uniquely and definitively Christian view of abortion. However, while for the most part the book does move in that direction, it fails to show a consensus. In fact, in a few cases, it expresses views about the unborn more typically held by people who consider themselves atheists and in favor of abortion on demand.

The book first reviews historical, biblical, and theological perspectives on abortion. Its second section analyzes current ethical and philosophical trends, and a third section gives practical information about pregnancy, politics, the judiciary, statistics, sociological trends, and abortion counseling.

Unthinkable

The first section, for the most part, exhibits a coherent analysis of biblical perspectives. According to Andrew E. Hill, “Abortion was apparently too unthinkable to the Hebrew mind—given ancient Near Eastern legal norms and divinely revealed covenant stipulations pertaining to life and godliness—that it did not even warrant treatment in the Old Testament legal corpora.” Hoffmeier, who teaches Old Testament at Wheaton College, tackles Exodus 21:22–25, which prescribes the punishment for one who harms a pregnant woman, causing her to deliver prematurely. The passage contains a vexing ambivalence over whether further retaliation, including death, relates to the injury brought to the child born prematurely or to the mother. Hoffmeier places the verses in context and effectively argues that “harm” appears to apply to the prematurely born child as well as the mother.

C. Hassell Bullock observes that “the prophetic and poetic books offer no prescriptive word on the subject of abortion.” But while these books do not give rules, “they say much about the supreme value of life.” And Victor R. Gordon writes that “the New Testament makes no mention of abortion,” but points out “abortion was not addressed, because it was not an issue for the Jewish community.…

“It was not until the second century that abortion became a serious temptation to Christians,” then influenced by Greco-Roman support of abortion practices.

A few hairline cracks in this first section begin to weaken the cohesion of the work as a whole, however. For example, Donald M. Lake tampers with the traditional idea that unborn life is sacred because it mysteriously embodies the image of God from the point of conception. He states that “image of God” is not something static, but dynamic, and regards the fetus as something less than a complete human being.

Ethical problems

Cracks give way to fissures in the section on ethics. Philosophy teacher Arthur F. Holmes writes: “A human life is a created thing, therefore not of absolute, unconditional value.” Along the same lines, “abortion becomes increasingly objectionable” only “as pregnancy proceeds.”

Holmes, in referring to current U.S. policy, claims that “the law does [emphasis mine] and must enforce at least a minimal morality that is essential to the harmoniously functioning society.”

He encourages Christians to work toward a consensus that objects to late-term abortions, then expresses the consensus by proposing legislation that regulates abortion after the first trimester. Unfortunately, this would still permit 90 percent of the abortions taking place today.

Such a compromise seems to ignore Holmes’s opening statement that “the value Scripture places on human fetal life as a trust from God stands against abortion on demand.” It certainly conflicts with Hoffmeier’s conclusion: “Looking at Old Testament law from a proper cultural context, it is evident that the life of the unborn is put on the same par as a person outside the womb.”

In the final section, Lyman A. Kellstedt gives a pithy summary of how abortion on demand became public policy. James L. Rogers, who is currently researching the effects of public policy on moral behavior, provides an authoritative critique of research that has been used erroneously to support the abortion logic. Other essays give a biological description of pregnancy, some sociological insights on teen pregnancy, and insights on how to counsel people about abortion.

Hoffmeier and his colleagues have properly identified an urgent need within the Christian community to develop consensus, not to mention conviction, regarding abortion. Much of Abortion: A Christian Understanding and Response serves that purpose. But the work overall stands in need of a second editing that either leaves out Holmes’s chapter or rewrites the title and introduction to inform readers that they should expect diverse and traditionally unorthodox perspectives within the collection.

Commuing With Great Minds

What Is Judaism? An Interpretation for the Present Age, by Emil L. Fackenheim (Summit Books, 292 pp.; $18.95, hardcover). Reviewed by Reed Jolley, pastor of Santa Barbara (Calif.) Community Church.

In an essay entitled “On the Reading of Old Books,” C. S. Lewis argued that if one wants to understand Plato, for example, he should read Plato instead of a book explaining Platonism. Likewise, Christians should turn to Emil Fackenheim’s What Is Judaism? An Interpretation for the Present Age to understand twentieth-century Judaism, for here the reader encounters a cogent, lucid, and readable description from one within that faith.

At 22 years of age, Fackenheim, a rabbinical student, found himself in a Nazi jail cell with 20 other Jews. In that lurid setting, one of his cell mates asked, “What does Judaism have to say to us now?” Fackenheim remained silent.

What Is Judaism? is his belated attempt at an answer. The author asks what it means to be Jewish in light of the Holocaust, the death of European Jewry, and the creation of the State of Israel. In so doing he grapples with secularism, pluralism, higher critical studies of the Old Testament, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and Christian particularism. The net result is a refreshingly honest and insightful glimpse into modern Judaism.

Love For The Torah

As the author interacts with the modern world, he exposes the reader to the Jewish way of thinking and being. Throughout his pondering, Rabbi Fackenheim expresses his love for the Torah. Grace came into the world through Abraham, Moses, and, in particular, through the gift of the Torah, he says. Therefore, the Law is a “yoke,” not a burden. The Law teaches the Jew how best to live his or her life in today’s world.

Fackenheim also exposes the reader to his lifelong love of Midrash (Jewish commentary on the Law). In the various citations of Midrash, the world view of rabbinic Judaism shines warmly: “On Judgement Day every person will have to give account of every good that he might have enjoyed and did not” (quoted from Rabbi Rav in the third century).

Attempts At Conversion

Christian readers, pastors, and laymen alike will gain valuable insight by reading Fackenheim’s work. The author explains why Christian attempts at proselytizing are offensive to the Jew.

“A post-Holocaust Jew can still view Christian attempts to convert Jews as sincere and well intended. But even as such they are no longer acceptable: They have become attempts to do in one way what Hitler did in another.” In other words, the attempt to convert a Jew is to ask him to cease being Jewish and thus to undermine Judaism.

The author also offers evangelical readers a Jewish understanding of the Jewish scriptures. His understanding of the first part of our Bible is priceless for those reared in dispensational and Reformed traditions.

Fackenheim asks the right questions. Does God exist after Auschwitz? Is prayer efficacious? Is the Jewish tradition viable in our time? Is Messiah coming? His answers will both intrigue and grieve those who have placed their faith in Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.