Ford’s First Month: Christ and Conflict

Shortly after slipping into the early service at St. John’s Episcopal Church across the park from the White House, President Ford joined others for communion. Then he returned to the White House and announced his presidential pardon of Richard Nixon, his resigned predecessor.

That was Sunday, September 8, the day the nation’s press announced that after one month the honeymoon was over (see editorial, page 37). Like the rest of the nation, religious leaders were divided over the controversial action.

Evangelist Billy Graham said Ford acted with “decisiveness, courage, and compassion” in saving Nixon from prosecution, which “would have torn the country apart more than Watergate itself.” Nixon, he added, has already paid “a terrible price for the mistake of his administration.”

Theologian Carl F. H. Henry, however, cautioned that Ford’s act “confuses even more the distinction between justice and mercy at a time when both need to be clarified in American affairs.” Pardon undisciplined by justice tends to be amoral, if not unethical, he said.

Dr. W. Sterling Cary, president of the National Council of Churches, commended Ford for his desire to effect healing. But, insisted Cary, “this must be balanced by insisting on accountability for one’s acts.”

Dr. Hudson Armerding, president of Wheaton College and of the World Evangelical Fellowship, said Ford’s act “calls into question the principle of equal justice under law for all.” Nixon, he said, is entitled to the full protection of the law, but he is “also obliged to take the consequences of proven wrongdoing.” The reasons offered by Ford, said Armerding, don’t seem compelling enough to justify a pardon.

Many questioned the timeliness of the pardon. Congressman John Anderson of Illinois, an evangelical, said that he didn’t feel Nixon ought to go to jail if convicted but that the legal process should have been allowed to run its course. With no confession and no conviction, Nixon can propagate the false notion that he was hounded out of office, said Anderson.

But in Dallas the impact of the decision upon many church members was cushioned somewhat by a front-page story in the Dallas Morning News less than a week earlier. The story, written by religion writer Helen Parmley and entitled, “A New Billy at the White House,” quoted from a letter Ford had sent to a friend, evangelist-film maker Billy Zeoli of Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the letter, Ford congratulated Zeoli on the upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary of Gospel Films, a firm Zeoli heads. The President noted the influence of Christian films on church and family life, remarked that church had always meant a lot to him and his family, and then stated:

Because I’ve trusted Christ to be my Saviour, my life is His. Often, as I walk into my office, I realize that man’s wisdom and strength are not sufficient, so I try to practice the truth of Proverbs 3:5, 6.“Trust the Lord completely; don’t ever trust yourself. In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with sucess” (Living Bible). And, Billy, I’ve experienced His leadership just as you have!

… I also want to thank you for taking the time to help me learn more about our Saviour.

Zeoli, in an interview, said his friendship with Ford began several years ago. “I just dropped by his field office in Grand Rapids and told him I wanted to meet my congressman,” he explained. They talked about sports, a mutual interest, the evangelist recalled (Zeoli is an unofficial chaplain for several professional football teams and often speaks at pre-game chapel sessions; Ford was a college football star). There were more visits, the conversations moved from sports to spiritual matters, and soon Zeoli was meeting with Ford regularly for prayer and Bible study.

“I’ve never been one to be ostentatious about my religious views,” Ford recently told a reporter. “But I don’t hesitate to say that Billy has had an impact on my perspective.” (Zeoli is a graduate of Philadelphia College of Bible and Wheaton College.)

They continued to meet monthly after Ford became Vice President, and Zeoli says there are no plans to scrap them now that his friend has become President. Zeoli and Ford met in the Oval Office hours before Ford’s first nationally televised press conference and discussed several passages in Proverbs that deal with wisdom and good judgment (they use the Living Bible in their studies). Meetings were also planned for this month and next. In between sessions, they occasionally call each other, and Zeoli mails a weekly prayer memo.

In recent months Ford has spoken more openly about his faith than ever before. Is this the result of a sudden new experience? Zeoli says change has been gradual. “I have seen growth in Christ and in Christian concern.” But, adds the evangelist, “his personality has not changed. He’s as loving, open, and straight as when I first met him.”

Ford’s parents were active Episcopalians in Grand Rapids. Grace Episcopal Church there still carries his name on its membership rolls, though he has been seldom able to attend since his election to congress in 1948. From 1955 until he assumed the presidency his “home parish” was Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill, a 500-member church on the grounds of Virginia (Episcopal) Seminary in Alexandria. He had served as church usher, once headed up a parish commission working to achieve fair housing and to provide aid to low-income families, helped establish a Capitol Hill issues-discussion luncheon group made up of parish members (an outgrowth was a prayer group for congressmen), and he had even preached several times.

It is believed Ford and his family will go on attending services at Immanuel, but not as often; St. John’s is closer now, and for security reasons Ford must vary his churchgoing habits. Meanwhile, he meets weekly for prayer with several friends (see August 30 issue, page 33), and he has dropped by the fortnightly prayer-breakfast meeting at the White House (on his first visit Iowa Senator Harold Hughes was speaker).

Ford’s first Sunday at Immanuel as President highlighted for some the struggle in the Episcopal Church over the rights of women. On the church steps after the service Ford thanked Immanuel’s rector, William L. Dols, Jr., for his sermon but noted that according to the printed program the Reverend Patricia M. Park had been scheduled to preach. Mrs. Park, 27, an ordained deacon who graduated from seminary in June (her husband is a clergyman at nearby Christ Church), is Dols’s assistant. She had intended to preach on the Beatitudes that day, she said in an interview.

Dols told reporters he’d been vacationing on Cape Cod and did not hear until Saturday afternoon that the new President would be in church on Sunday. He flew back to the Washington area Saturday night and applied the final touches to his hastily prepared sermon. “Mrs. Park probably could have done a better job of preaching,” he said. “But it was the President’s first public appearance, and I thought I owed him the respect to come back and deliver the sermon.”

Mrs. Park, an outspoken advocate for ordination of women to the priesthood, said she was angry at first for being bumped in favor of her male superior. Some seminarians and teachers also expressed concern at what they considered was a putdown of womanhood by Dols, a liberal by reputation.

Two weeks later Ford was again in the audience and this time Mrs. Park preached—on the women’s issue in the Episcopal Church (she had just attended an emergency meeting of the House of Bishops in Chicago, where the rebel ordination of eleven women to the priesthood was invalidated). On his way out, Ford thanked her for the sermon.

Whether as President or Episcopalian, Ford will have plenty to think about in the months ahead.

Arms And The Clergyman

Gun-running for Arab guerrilla groups might seem incongruous with blessing babies on Sunday mornings, but gun-running is what Greek Catholic archbishop Hilarion Capucci of Jerusalem has been charged with. Israeli authorities recently indicted the archbishop as an arms smuggler and an agent for Al Fatah and Black September, among other guerrilla groups, and so far have refused to release him on bail. Capucci’s lawyers are arguing that since the clergyman carries a Vatican passport and a service visa issue by the Israeli foreign ministry, he in effect has diplomatic immunity.

The Syrian-born archbishop is vicar of the Greek Catholic (Melchite) Church in East Jerusalem. (The church, while enjoying a measure of independence, does recognize the Pope as ranking patriarch.) The charges brought by Israel have stirred up a hornet’s nest: the National Catholic News Service in the United States reported reaction in Jerusalem that the charges may be “trumped up,” while Israel maintains that Capucci is a threat to state security.

Afghanistan: A Living Church

Although the Afghanistan government demolished the only Protestant church building in Kabul, the capital, last year (see July 6, 1973, issue, page 43), the church itself is alive and well and increasingly grateful that its building was razed.

J. Dudley Woodberry, pastor of the church since former pastor J. Christy Wilson, Jr. was expelled last year, said “a Monday-morning quarterback’s hindsight” shows that the building was “obviously more ostentatious than was wise for the times.” And, he said, the 100-member congregation has discovered that the church “is not a building. It is people. We are a living church.” Morale, which dropped when the government stepped in, is now good.

Since a military coup in July, 1973, the congregation has been seeking an understanding with the new government about the rights of non-Afghan Christians to worship and legal rights to a church site. (The old Afghan government’s objection to the church was twofold: it claimed that the congregation had no legal right to the site, and it insisted that the church’s spire offended Afghan Muslims by rising above other structures in the capital.) The new regime criticized the destruction of the church but refused to pay compensation to the congregation and instead declared the case closed.

At present, the congregation meets in a house that has been converted into an auditorium. Only the image of a fish on an outside wall suggests it is a Christian meeting place. The church serves the foreign community in Kabul. Under Afghan law, it is a capitol offense for a Muslim to convert to Christianity.

NO INTEREST

Miami electrical engineer Hugh McNatt, 43, has dropped the suit he filed against his church, 4,200-member Allapattah Baptist. In his suit he had charged that God, contrary to what Pastor Donald Manuel of Allapattah had promised, did not bestow blessings and rewards for his $800 tithe given three years ago (see September 13 issue, page 73).

He dropped the suit this month after getting his $800 back, though without interest. A San Antonio businessman, Alton S. Newell, read a news story about the case and decided to repay on behalf of the church. Newell is a member of San Antonio’s First Baptist Church.

According to Israeli security forces, Capucci transferred arms and sabotage materials from Beirut to Jerusalem in his Mercedes during church-oriented visits to the Lebanese capital. As a clergyman, he had the freedom to cross the border without security checks. Police said that on at least three occasions, in April, May, and July, Capucci picked up arms in Beirut and deposited them in several locations in Israel to be picked up later by terrorists. More arms were later found in the archbishop’s residence. Authorities charge that Capucci was caught “red-handed,” pointing to ten hand grenades, two revolvers, four Russian submachine guns, and several plastic bombs, found concealed under the car’s seats, in the trunk, and inside the door panels, as evidence.

Capucci was indicted on three charges: maintaining contact with foreign agents, possessing illegal arms, and performing services for unlawful groups. Conviction on the three could bring a maximum penalty of thirty-five years in prison.

El Salvador: Lausanne Fallout

Five nights after the two El Salvador participants in the International Congress on World Evangelization returned home from Lausanne, they got together with pastors and lay leaders to discuss the congress and hold a prayer vigil. The gathering took place in the nation’s capital city, San Salvador, at the First Baptist Church, and was led by host pastor Roger Velasquez Valle.

After a devotional service the pastors and laymen discussed the happenings at Lausanne, reviewed the Lausanne Covenant, and began to work out ways of implementing the various ideas for evangelization that had been suggested in the strategy group for Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic. Then they prayed, in a vigil that lasted from 1:30 A.M. till 5 A.M.

Twenty-seven pastors and nearly two hundred lay leaders attended, from the Assemblies of God, the Association of American Baptists, the Central American Mission, and the Prince of Peace churches. They made plans for another prayer vigil in the near future to set in motion evangelistic plans for the nation.

JUAN BUENO

Lutheran Charismatics: The Growing Spirit

Compared to the two previous conferences, this year’s Third International Lutheran Conference on the Holy Spirit, held last month in Minneapolis, Minnesota, had a distinctly greater Lutheran flavor. The conference listed no Roman Catholics among the headline speakers—a fact that may have lowered formerly high Catholic attendance. Conference chairman Morris Vagenes, a Roseville, Minnesota, pastor, said more than 80 per cent of those attending the four-day affair were Lutherans. A major value of the conference, he added, was that Lutheran charismatics gained strong positive feelings regarding their Lutheranism.

The biggest crowd of the entire conference—10,000—jammed the Minneapolis Municipal Auditorium to hear a classic Pentecostalist leader and author, Robert Mumford. Discussing the charismatic movement in general, Mumford predicted that a “full-blown New Testament church” will emerge from the charismatic renewal, which, he said, is being discussed in every seminary and every denomination.

In a switch from earlier meetings, conference conveners placed strict restrictions on speaking in tongues from the audience. A conference program warned that “prophecies” would be limited to persons seated on stage who had “a proven and recognized prophetic ministry” in their local communities. The result of the restriction, said Vagenes, was a “much higher caliber” of prophecies.

As at the Catholic charismatic gathering in Notre Dame (see July 5 issue, page 47), healing had a prominent place at the Lutheran conference. Independent evangelist Herbert Mjorud prayed following one evening service for those suffering a variety of ailments—from heart disease to hemorrhoids—and in each case there were those who stood up and claimed they were healed. In praying for curvature of the spine and other back problems, Mjorud said that “Jesus Christ is not only a great physician—he is a great chiropractor.”

Attendance at the conference was open, and no registration fee was levied. Nevertheless, offerings at the conference amounted to more than $42,000, more than enough to cover expenses. Vagenes said the surplus would be used to further Lutheran charismatic renewal.

WILLMAR THORKELSON

The Saints Go Marching In

Six fluted facets interfaced

With bastions strong and tall,

One for each day from Adam

Till He comes whose House it is.

Seven stories build upon each other,

One for each period of creation and rest.

LYLE R. DRAKE

Some 800,000 persons are filing through the big “House” this fall, the sixteenth temple of the 3.3-million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located in the Washington suburb of Kensington, Maryland.

First President Spencer W. KimballKimball, now 79, has occupied the highest Mormon office since last December. He appears to be in sound health, having overcome, among other ailments, cancer, smallpox, and typhoid. cemented a time capsule into the cornerstone of the $15 million structure to mark the end of construction this month. The temple was then opened to visitors, and tickets soon became as scarce as those for the home games of the Washington Redskins football team. No contributions are asked or accepted—the temple was paid for two years ago.

Following dedication ceremonies in November, the public will be forever barred from the temple. So will an estimated 40 per cent of Mormons not considered in good standing.

The temple sits on a fifty-seven-acre wooded tract that the Mormons purchased in 1962 for $850,000. It is the first to be built in North America east of the Mississippi and will serve some 300,000 Mormons scattered from Montreal to San Juan.

Mormon temples are used primarily for so-called eternal marriages and for proxy baptisms. No regular services are held there. In the Washington Temple a small chapel will be used for occasional inspirational meetings and a somewhat larger hall for special assemblies. Most of the space is taken up by relatively small rooms designed for the performance of various rites. All elegantly appointed, perhaps most of all a marble-decorated bride’s chamber. There is also a huge locker room where participants change from street clothes into white robes.

The Washington Temple is larger than the most famous of the Mormon edifices, the one located in Salt Lake City, but is not as big as the Los Angeles Temple.

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