Until recently, many American university professors and administrators would have told you there was a glut in the academic market. A host of Ph.D.’s were finding it difficult to land jobs. Too many graduate students were preparing for too few teaching and research openings. And the rise and eventual elimination of mandatory retirement ages for professors was expected to exacerbate the situation.

Recent research, however, proves that perception wrong. It is now clear that, rather than a glut, there will be a severe shortage of professors—perhaps within a decade—unless steps are taken to increase dramatically the pool of qualified younger scholars.

A study of 24 major universities by two Pennsylvania State University researchers indicates that in spite of changes in retirement regulations, most college professors continue to retire at or before the age of 65. And between 15 and 25 percent of all professors will reach 65 within the current decade.

Another recent study concluded that nearly half a million new faculty members will be needed during the next 25 years. In other words, virtually the entire professorate of American colleges and universities will be replaced by A.D. 2010!

Open Door To Academia

What does this mean to evangelicals? Certainly the future of Christian colleges, Bible institutes, and seminaries depends upon the character and commitment of the new generation of faculty. Yet without denying the importance of evangelical institutions, it is essential to note that the vast majority of the young men and women in America, including committed Christians, are found in secular colleges. Here is one of the greatest and perhaps the most strategic mission fields in the world today.

Rather than decrying the negative influence of “secular humanism” in contemporary society, Christians must begin showing renewed interest in the universities, for in them the moral tone of our culture is set. Writers such as Allan Bloom (The Closing of the American Mind) and E. D. Hirsch (Cultural Literacy) have documented the failures of higher education and have called for intellectual and, indeed, moral repentance. What is needed, therefore, is a multitude of Christian men and women who combine a deep commitment to the life of the mind and to life in their Lord—Christians who will take the steps necessary to prepare themselves to enter the open door of academia and give the best years of their lives to shaping those who will become leaders in the twenty-first century.

Called To Scholarship

What a difference it would make if every pastor were to preach one sermon this year that stressed the importance of the university in evangelizing the modern world and presented the call of scholarship as a legitimate Christian vocation!

Bright students in high schools and colleges should be encouraged by their Christian teachers, counselors, youth group sponsors, and parents to give their lives to Christ’s service in university teaching and research. It will demand sacrifices—long hours of study, additional years of postgraduate work, the postponement and sacrifice of earnings—much like a commitment to foreign missionary service. But the goal is no less important.

Churches near major campuses should commit themselves to becoming more deeply involved in the life of the university: by appointing a campus minister who has the educational background appropriate to the job, by working more closely with parachurch groups that minister on secular campuses, by providing study leaves for their pastors so they can upgrade their own educations, and by encouraging educators in their own congregations.

Christian charitable foundations should place high on their agendas the development of a corps of committed scholars who will seek to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). In recent years we have realized the importance of Christian influence not only on individuals, but also on the structures of society, such as government and public education. So, too, we must learn the importance of thinking. If the world is to be brought under the lordship of Jesus, the intellectual climate of our time must be changed. Thinking itself must be redeemed.

The future of the church and society will be determined, in large part, by what happens in the next 25 years, as the older generation of university teachers is replaced by a new generation. What will happen is, of course, in God’s hands. But it is also in our hands, if we but respond to the opportunities of the hour.

W. Ward Gasque is the current J. Omar Good Visiting Distinguished Professor of Evangelical Christianity at Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.

As a child in elementary school, I used to think it would be a status symbol to break an arm or leg. Everyone (or so my reasoning went) would want to write clever messages on my cast. I would be excused from gym for weeks on end. And if I was lucky enough to break my right arm, I would probably escape doing homework, too. Of course, I never wanted such status badly enough to jump from a high tree branch or deliberately trip myself on a jump rope. Still, I couldn’t help vaguely hoping that someday (not during the summer holidays, mind you) I’d get the fracture that would be my ticket to instant upward mobility in the schoolyard.

Well, I had to wait a few decades, but it finally happened: I broke my right wrist. I was recently skating a few modest spins on the neighborhood rink when suddenly, losing my balance, I instinctively put out my right hand to break the fall—and broke a bone instead.

“Ah, yes,” said the emergency room doctor. “A Colley’s fracture; quite common among skaters and skiers.” That made me feel better: if it was such a common fracture, and so easily named, then surely it couldn’t be so serious. Six weeks in a cast and I would be as good as new. But it turned out otherwise, as I discovered two weeks later when the wrist had to be reset.

Colley’s fractures are common, but they are not clean: Since you take the impact on the palm of the hand, the fractured ends of the bone jam together like a folded accordion, often breaking off chips in the process. This makes it harder for the ends to keep from slipping, even inside a cast. “Ten weeks total cast time, at least,” announced the surgeon after resetting my radius. “Come back in two months for another x-ray.”

That was six weeks ago. In the meantime, I have discovered that the kind of helpless dependence we sometimes wish for as children can be a blow to adult pride. For example, we Protestant Christians all believe in salvation by grace—in theory. But in practice, most of us manage to smuggle works righteousness back into the equation. I suspect each of us subconsciously believes that, really, God is pleased with us because of (fill in the blank): our intelligence, our social graces, our spotlessly clean house, our money-making ability, or our physical stamina.

I once took a personality test from a fellow psychologist who remarked that one of the strongest themes in my profile was the high degree of confidence I had in my health and physical endurance. She was right: I have been blessed with very good health, and way down deep I have nourished a pocket of smugness about it—as if somehow it were a personal accomplishment I could present to God and not entirely his gift to me.

In receiving help from fellow Christians these past weeks, my pride has been fractured, and I have been made more aware of my ultimate fragility. Our family has been overwhelmed with casseroles, house-cleaning help, and offers of transportation. There were no strings attached—no expectation of payment, in money or in kind. It was just plain Christian love.

It has been harder to accept than I thought, but it has been a good reminder that, in the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, even at my healthiest, “I am not my own, but belong body and soul … to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” And it has made me appreciate as never before this biblical metaphor of the church as a body of interdependent parts. When one part must take time out, the other parts pick up the slack.

I’ve also learned a lot about the adaptability of the human body. It is amazing what you can do with your left hand when you have to: turn a can opener, put on earrings, shift car gears, and much more. I am grateful, too, for my home computer, which enabled me to compose this column almost as fast with six fingers as I could have with my usual ten. And believe it or not, I have garnered a bit of status through it all. A few weeks ago, I and my fresh cast flew to Chicago for a quarterly CT meeting, where I got all my fellow senior editors to sign it. Now, whenever I feel like name dropping, all I have to do is lower my right arm!

Nien Cheng: A Heroine!

What a gorgeous cover [May 13] of Nien Cheng. Because of your introduction to her, Nien Cheng has become one of my all-time heroines! Your magazine is always exciting and thought-provoking, but you really outdid yourself this time.

WILLIAM E. MORGAN, JR.

South Jordan, Utah

I take exception to the apparent lack of research in recent coverage of the church in China, particularly in the case of Ellen Santilli Vaughn’s “Life and Faith in Shanghai” [May 13]. While Nien Cheng may have a wealth of firsthand knowledge concerning life in Shanghai under the Red Guard, she does not appear to be well versed on the current (or historical) state of Christianity in China. The number of believers in China before the Communist revolution was around 800,000, not four million. Also misleading is her remark that Deng Ziaoping “immediately restored the churches and temples that the Red Guard destroyed.” Hundreds, however, are still in disrepair or being used as factories or government offices.

Eric Bridges’s article, “Freer but Fragile: The Church in China” [Apr. 22], paints a one-sided picture of the church in China as being run predominantly by elderly pastors. His view ignores the growing grassroots “house church” movement that involves hundreds of young evangelists, many in their late teens or early twenties. The incredible growth of the church since 1949 should be evidence that God does not need to consult the Communist party before doing his work in China.

BRENT FULTON

China Ministries International

Pasadena, Calif.

Go For The Gold

With the summer Olympics nearly upon us, we’ll soon be hearing about one of the most difficult tests in all of sport: the decathlon. This combination of ten track-and-field events demands speed, strength, and endurance. Only the fittest dare compete.

Well, I hate to fly in the face of international athletic wisdom, but there is another tenfold event even more difficult. A recent Sunday with the grandkids reacquainted me with it.

The churchathlon begins with waking up on time. That sounds easy enough, until you subtract the hours of sleep lost Saturday night preparing a Sunday school lesson. Speed and agility are essential in the next four events: feeding the kids, bathing the kids, dressing the kids, and loading the kids into the car. Degree of difficulty increases exponentially according to the number of children involved.

If you have the determination to deposit each child in the proper Sunday school classroom—on time—you’re still in the running for event number seven: teaching your own Sunday school class.

Your endurance is stretched after class when you collect the kids and seat them in the sanctuary with a minimum of talking or squabbling. Then comes the final—and ultimate—challenge: Quiet your heart to worship.

Anyone who completes that course deserves a gold medal.

EUTYCHUS

Death: Just around the corner

Philip Yancey, in “Death Whispers” [May 13], failed to convey the essence of the rabbit warren in Watership Down. Those rabbits knew death was just around the corner for everyone. But, even while knowing it, they denied the fact. Like their modern human counterparts, they accepted a comfortable existence in exchange for never questioning “where” another might be at any moment; the traps were everywhere, death hung like a “mist” over their heads as Fiver said, but it was violently pushed out of their thoughts—though always lurking in the corner of their saddened hearts. Those rabbits lived by a line from Yancey’s quote from Pascal: “… I ought to spend all the days of my life without caring to inquire into what must happen to me.”

WAYNE BOYD

Simi Valley, Calif.

Civil rights protection

Although I agree with Terry Muck’s editorial [“Too Much of a Good Thing?” May 13], I was disturbed that he consistently left women off his lists of groups who legitimately deserve civil rights protection. We as a church mustn’t forget that many of our number legitimized the second-class status of blacks under the guise of scriptural relationships between master and slave. This situation is often paralleled by the church’s lack of concern for the status of women. It is dishonorable to treat any human being as less than an image bearer of God. Let’s not continue to make this mistake.

LOIS LEADER

Phoenix, Ariz.

We, as believers, must be the champions of the definition of what civil rights should be—not only stateside, but in the body of Christ overseas, too! From the womb to the grave we must be consistent in protecting those rights. The evangelical church in America must look beyond its Anglo roots and get back to its biblical roots and practice honesty, morality, and conscience outside the four walls of its buildings.

ELI VIERA LUEVANO

Albuquerque, N.M.

I knew this bill would open the door to letting homosexuals into the mainstream of our society. Though those in power deny this, it’s true, because they consider homosexuals a minority group. Many churches are bending the weak knee to this abominable spirit and allowing themselves to be absorbed by this worldly and anti-Christian spirit.

ROBERT MOORE

Columbus, Miss.

Effecting social reform

I have just read Charles Colson’s column “So Much for Our Great Awakening” [May 13]. Two points bother me: First is the almost unrestrained praise, bordering on adulation, showered on Ronald Reagan. No human being, however upright, deserves that, and it troubles me that Christian people can come so near to worshiping a fellow human being. Second is the arrogance and illusions of the conservatives. If it were not so tragic, it would be amusing.

Some of us evangelicals are moderate in our thinking, and we are keenly aware that arrogance is no way to win friends and influence people, thus, these idealists may not have the support they claim. Also, have Christians actually believed we can effectively legislate social reform? Colson is correct: “Christian people belong in the political arena … but without illusions.”

REV. JACK TAYLOR

Berlin United Methodist Church

Berlin, Ga.

While I wholeheartedly agree with Colson that we need to be in “for the long haul,” he forgot to mention that we shouldn’t put our hopes in a Christian President who consults the stars more than his Bible.

REV. TED WEIDMAN

Ford Parkway Baptist Church

St. Paul, Minn.

Biased Israel reports?

It is disappointing to see your news “reports” on the recent rioting in Israel written by individuals who have a blatant bias in favor of the rioting Arabs [“No Peace in Sight,” by Beth Spring, May 13]. The current disturbances are simply the latest effort by militant Muslim terrorists to carry out their oft-repeated boast: to destroy the Zionist state.

It is unfortunate that some innocent Arab Christians have been victimized by this conflict; as a Jewish Christian my heart goes out to them. However, we must not lose sight that the Word of God gives the land of Israel to the Jewish people.

REV. MOTTEL BALESTON

Conservative Baptist Jewish Ministries

Montclair, N.J.

Bright stars, little lights

Thank you for Julia Duin’s clear and accurate news report on “Why the Assemblies Dismissed Swaggart” [May 13]. However, to refer to Bakker and Swaggart as our “two brightest stars” does not reflect well on the host of credentialed Assemblies of God ministers who faithfully serve God without gaudy histrionics or inappropriate, if not unscriptural, public criticism of fellow ministers.

While Bakker and Swaggart were loved and prayed for, they have long been held with serious reservation by many. If their styles won them the “brightest star” award in the Assemblies of God, then I’ll gladly settle for a “this little light of mine” badge.

REV. MELVIN JOHNSON

Glad Tidings Temple

San Francisco, Calif.

The Assemblies should be admired for maintenance of high standards of conduct for its ministers. While other denominations wink at clergy who are involved in homosexuality, the occult, deviant doctrines, and immoral political postures, the Assemblies of God deals firmly with its fallen brethren.

DAVID ARNETT

Marshfield, Wis.

Hayner and MacDonald

The interview with Steven Hayner [News, Apr. 22], the new president of InterVarsity, was excellent. I was concerned about the paragraph that prefaced it stating “after the June 1987 resignation of Gordon MacDonald, following public revelation of an extramarital affair.” What did that have to do with the interview? I know of no significant Christian leader who, having fallen into sin, has had more integrity in how he handled that matter, how he repented, sought counseling, and made himself accountable.

ARTHUR L. BEALS

University Presbyterian Church

Seattle, Wash.

Loving the Palestinians

I read with great interest David Neff’s Editorial [“Israel at Forty,” Apr. 22]. As a Palestinian Christian myself, I reiterate his question again about Israel and biblical prophecy. Do I interpret the Bible on not very clear revelations to blindly encourage a Zionist state in place of the Palestinian homeland, or do I follow a very clear statement of loving my Palestinian brother (1 Thess. 4:9)? As a Bible-believing Christian, I would definitely choose the latter.

THEODORE R. NASSAR, M.D.

Madera, Calif.

Christian support for Israel is founded on justice, not merely calculating prophecy. In the 29 years since Israel repelled the Arab agression of the Six Day War and conquered the West Bank, Israel opened universities where there were none before, reduced infant mortality, raised the standard of living, provided jobs, increased life expectancy—all the while guaranteeing freedom of access for all people to all holy places. By any measure, the Palestinians living under Israeli rule are far better off than when they lived under the Arabs, and far freer than any Arabs anywhere.

MICHAEL RYDELNIK

Olive Tree Congregation

Plainview, N.Y.

Ask the women

In Tim Stafford’s article about James Dobson [Apr. 22], a friend comments: “I see Jim as a prophet to women.” Perhaps he should survey some women. Dobson sees women as one-dimensional beings. Men can be many things, but women have but one role in life. Dobson fails to see that women are not all alike. Some find fulfillment in the home, but others have achievement needs that can only be filled in a career.

It is sad that a church spokesperson for the family cannot see women as being fully human. Those who do not accept traditional roles are made to feel deficient. And then Dobson wonders why Christian women have a major problem with depression!

KAREN HINER

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Letters are welcome; brevity is preferred. Only a selection can be published, and all are subject to condensation. Write to Eutychus, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, 465 Gundersen Drive, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.

The term senior connotes scholarship. Wisdom. Insight. But if you’re a regular CT reader, you also know that “senior editor” means sensitive, witty, and very human.

In the context of their regular column, the five senior editors who provide invaluable counsel to CT editors give readers a glimpse into their personal lives, showing God at work in spite of their foibles. Thus, over the past year we have read of J. I. Packer’s cravings for chocolate chocolate cake, George Brushaber’s admiration for “Old Blue” (a mouse-infested Chevy sedan), and in this issue, we hear from Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen—and about her broken wrist.

As of this writing, the wrist is almost back to normal. But as Mary notes on page 11, the fracture hardly broke her stride. Among other things, she was an early reader of this issue’s cover story, and offered suggestions for its final improvement. And, of course, she wrote her column—almost a month ahead of schedule! (Perhaps there’s an editorial principle here?)

The column and the prepublication editorial critiques constitute a large part of the senior editors’ job description. Also in that description are the quarterly two-day meetings near Chicago’s O’Hare airport, where ideas are discussed, questions raised and answered, and, in the case of Mary’s cast, wrists are signed.

For the record, our senior editors are: George Brushaber, Bethel College and Seminary; J. I. Packer, Regent College; Kenneth Kantzer, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, Calvin College; and John Akers, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

HAROLD B. SMITH, Managing Editor

Cover illustration by Chris A. Gall.