A Different Gospel, by D. R. McConnell (Hendrickson, 190 pp.; $7.95, paper). Reviewed by William W. Menzies, professor of theology at Evangel College, Springfield, Missouri.

The fastest-growing segment of the modern Pentecostal/charismatic movement in America today is made up of independent, local “Faith” or “Word” churches. Distinct from the classic Pentecostal denominations and the charismatic fellowships within mainline denominations, these local churches, numbering in the thousands, have virtually all appeared within the past 20 years.

D. R. McConnell, of Oral Roberts University, believes that this vast, amorphous network of churches is at a crossroads, created by a crisis in theology. Within the next five years, the author contends, charismatic leadership must choose either to return to evangelical orthodoxy, repudiating the damaging errors of the “Faith Formula” movement, or be engulfed with a kind of teaching that can best be described as “cultic” (though McConnell makes clear he is not prepared to declare the Faith movement a cult in the classic sense of that term).

Faith Formula theology—attributed to a constellation of proponents such as Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, Charles Capps, and Robert Tilton—is marked by the belief that a believer’s verbal assertion of a desired objective, affirmed in faith, requires God to bring that objective into being. Extreme forms of this teaching have led followers to believe that wealth and health are the badges of faith. At the heart of the theology is the assumption that God is required to behave in a particular way on command. For these followers, God becomes akin to a “cosmic bellhop,” rather than the Sovereign of the Universe. Faith teaching has become so pervasive, McConnell writes, that many noncharismatics believe it is the authentic representation of what the entire charismatic movement espouses.

Roots Of “Faith”

McConnell’s approach in A Different Gospel is to explore with care the historical influences that have shaped Faith teaching, a task no one else has adequately accomplished. And although he engages in careful historiography, McConnell announces in his preface that he is not content to stand in neutral detachment as a historian normally would. Rather, out of concern for the charismatic movement, he aims to expose the underlying errors that threaten its theological integrity.

McConnell believes that to imply the roots of the Faith teaching stem from the Pentecostal movement is inaccurate, and is a distinct disservice to Pentecostals. Here he chides Bruce Barron, in his Health and Wealth Gospel (IVP), for making this error. McConnell’s central thesis is that the roots of the Faith message come from other sources.

The author argues convincingly that Kenneth Hagin did not originate the teachings that bear his name, though he was the formative influence in shaping the Faith churches. Rather, as McConnell carefully documents, Hagin plagiarized extensively from others, most notably E. W. Kenyon. The first five chapters of A Different Gospel trace the historical influences that shaped Kenyon’s thought.

Kenyon, in fact, was strongly influenced by metaphysical cults, including Unity (New Thought), Unitarianism, and Christian Science. A common thread in this influence on Kenyon appears to be “mind over matter.” He introduced the concept of “Revelation Knowledge” as a fresh way of knowing truth, superior to what he calls “Sense Knowledge.” Some extreme Faith teachers advocate that esoteric experiences may furnish additional truth to supplement scriptural revelation, thereby implying that such contemporary “revelations” have apparent equal validity to the Scriptures. McConnell employs an entire chapter to expose the cultic elements in this notion, which he refers to as a “new gnosticism.”

What Kenyon produced, the author avers, is in fact a syncretism of New Thought metaphysics (mind over matter) and radical fundamentalism—a “different gospel.” While this new teaching has engendered considerable controversy within the charismatic world, efforts to date to effect reconciliation have been superficial. McConnell expresses concern that unity has been sought at the expense of serious consideration of biblical truth.

Aberrations From Orthodoxy

The second part of the book is a biblical analysis of what the author perceives to be the significant aberrations from orthodox evangelical theology to be found in the teachings of Kenyon and Hagin. These aberrations include the notion of a direct way of knowing truth that on occasion appears to contradict the teachings of the Bible; confusion about “identification with Christ” that implies the potential of deity for mankind; formula faith for manipulating God for healing; and the idea that in the present age true faith is the key to material prosperity.

In his conclusion, McConnell warns classical Pentecostals and evangelicals of their vulnerability to the infiltration of Faith teaching. Indeed, he reports, it has already begun. “This contagion cannot be allowed to continue. The Faith theology must be identified and shunned for what it is: a different gospel.”

The chief contribution of A Different Gospel lies in the careful documentation of the sources of Hagin’s theology. McConnell makes a persuasive case for the cubic influences in the theology of Kenyon, and for the overwhelming influence of Kenyon’s ideas on the teaching of Kenneth Hagin. Although the theological analysis provided in the second part of the book is useful, others have engaged in a similar endeavor. But McConnell is to be commended for courageous pursuit of the truth and for his substantial documentation of facts. Pentecostals, charismatics, and other evangelicals should welcome such a timely and thoughtful challenge to a growing and questionable influence.

On the Tail of a Comet: The Life of Frank Buchman, by Garth Lean (Helmers & Howard, 569 pp.; $12.95, paper). Reviewed by Donald G. Bloesch, professor of theology, Dubuque (Iowa) Theological Seminary.

When people change, nations change—that was the claim of Lutheran pastor Frank Buchman. His vision became tangible reality in the early 1930s in the Oxford Group, which later became Moral Re-Armament. Buchman’s emphasis on applying personal religion to the political situation affected the moral and spiritual condition of people from Europe to China to America’s segregated South in the first half of this century. Through houseparties, plays, films, and personal contacts, MRA spread its message of political and social reform through personal spirituality; more particularly, through the practice of absolute purity, unselfishness, honesty, and love.

Quite simply, Buchman set out to remake the world (and if he fell short of his goal, his impact was nonetheless considerable). On the Tail of a Comet, Buchman’s biography by British journalist Garth Lean, provides a fascinating account of the life and thought of this innovative, controversial American evangelist.

From its inception prior to World War I, the renewal movement sparked by Buchman touched the lives of leading figures in religion, industry, the social sciences, education, and government, including such notables as Paul Tournier, the Swiss psychiatrist; Konrad Adenauer, chancellor of West Germany; Prime Minister U Nu of Burma; and theologian Carl F. H. Henry.

Buchman drew his philosophy from a number of spiritual writers, including Robert Speer, Henry Drummond, Henry Wright, and Thomas a Kempis. Like Speer and Wright, he upheld the ideals of absolute honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love as the apex of Christian living. He believed these ideals could become practical realities in daily life, though only through constant surrender to the power of the Spirit.

Although he was frequently criticized for teaching perfectionism and moralism, Buchman saw that the righteous life could be attained only through the experience of the glory of the Cross, and that one must continually confess need for the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

Reaching The Nazi Elite

The spiritual revolution launched by Buchman was surrounded by controversy from the very beginning. The movement was accused (Lean says unjustly) of encouraging people in group settings to give lurid confessions of sin in order to attract publicity. It was upbraided for what many considered to be its naive approach to complex social questions—the notion that group conflict in society can be fully resolved through personal change.

When the Oxford Group became Moral Re-Armament, it was suspected of downplaying the uniqueness of Christ in order to gain a hearing in other religious traditions. It should be noted, however, that personal conversion to the living Christ was never eclipsed in Moral Re-Armament, though it may have become somewhat muted.

In the thirties, Buchman was convinced that the renovation of Germany and the peace of Europe lay in the conversion of the Nazi elite, who would then revoke the war policy of their nation. To this end, Buchman sought to reach Nazi official Heinrich Himmler and the “German Christian” Bishop Hossenfelder; but his efforts proved fruitless. Buchman’s actions in this area were consistent with his conviction that people can never sink so low that they cannot be reclaimed by God’s grace.

For a time, Buchman saw National Socialism as a possible bulwark against communism, but he later confessed that he had been deceived. He finally recognized the movement as a demonic trend that prospered because of the deleterious spiritual vacuum in Germany. Even at its inception he was persuaded that National Socialism was alien to the truth of the gospel.

After the war, Moral Re-Armament helped bring about at least a partial reconciliation between France and Germany, as leaders of both nations have acknowledged. In the American South, the group was responsible for changing the hearts of some avowed segregationist leaders, who then threw their support behind the drive for racial integration and equality.

No Substitute For God

Buchman never claimed to be a systematic theologian. He is best understood as a twentieth-century saint whose life of simplicity and single-minded devotion to his Lord constitute an irrevocable sign of the coming kingdom of God. One of his companions remarked that “Buchman fought strongly, with a fierceness that seemed unreasonable, against the weakness in those who tried to put their trust in him as a man.” He was fully aware that “to love the idea of Moral Re-Armament is no substitute for the love of God who washes us, sets us free, and sets us to work.” He gave away nearly all the money he received from his supporters and was humble and self-effacing throughout his life.

Buchmanism can be criticized for downplaying doctrine and unduly emphasizing personal experience and the remolding of character—an imbalance that is conspicuous in Moral Re-Armament today. Yet Buchman, with his emphasis on personal transformation as the key to social reformation, stands in a long evangelical tradition. Henry Van Dusen of Union Theological Seminary has described Buchman’s work as “perhaps the most powerful, and certainly the most striking, spiritual phenomenon of our times.”

This eminently readable book, through its more than 500 pages, is in the end simply the remarkable story of how an unassuming but wholly consecrated American pastor helped renew the hope that at least some of the promises of the kingdom would be realized on Earth as well as in heaven.

In the current climate of glasnost, it appears that unprecedented numbers of Christians may be emigrating from the Soviet Union. According to World Relief, in January alone nearly 1,000 Christians arrived in Vienna from Moscow, and as many as 10,000 Pentecostals and other evangelicals could be permitted to leave this year. However, Christian human-rights groups wonder if the U.S. government is changing its tune about Soviet emigrés.

In December and January, U.S. immigration officials denied refugee status to 99 Soviet Pentecostals. After an eight-member World Relief task force went to Rome in January to investigate the situation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) overturned 47 of the denials. However, at press time, the fate of the other 52 Pentecostals remained undetermined. And a spokesman for the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) says his organization has received word of several additional rejections.

According to Kent Hill, executive director of the IRD, the situation could eventually be used by the Soviets to refuse exit visas to refugees. “For the U.S. to go back on its commitment to receive as refugees those who it has insisted be allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union is inconsistent and unconscionable,” said Hill, who also chairs the Coalition for Solidarity with Christians in the USSR.

Hill is urging Christians to communicate concern to administration and congressional officials in Washington. In addition, World Relief is seeking a meeting with Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to discuss the situation.

However, even if the U.S. grants refugee status to Soviet believers, their resettlement poses another problem: finding homes for them. World Relief has begun a “Soviet Refugee Project” to help in immediate and long-term resettlement needs both here and in Rome, where the refugees await processing. The group will be providing financial assistance, aid in assembling paperwork, legal advocacy, food, and clothing. In addition, a major part of the project will be encouraging evangelical churches to become better prepared to sponsor and support Soviet Christians, who often have a difficult time adjusting to American life.

An area on Chicago’s northwest side was once known as “Andersonville” because of the preponderance of Scandinavians living there. That same section is now called “Koreantown.” Says Young Woon Lee, youth pastor at a Korean church in the area, “You could live here and never need to speak English.”

This anecdote typifies the way the Korean community in the United States has mushroomed. The growth is relatively recent; at the end of World War II there were fewer than 10,000 Koreans in this country. But new U.S. immigration laws in the late 1960s, along with the difficult political and economic times in Korea that followed the Korean War, combined to produce a vibrant Korean community in America whose population now exceeds one million.

As the Korean population has multiplied, so have Korean churches. “In 1965 when I came to the States, there were 2 Korean churches in Chicago and about 30 throughout the United States,” recalls Il Sik Sam Choe, general secretary of the Korean World Mission Council and a former Korean church pastor. “Now there are more than 140 in Chicago and almost 2,000 in the United States.”

Southern California is home to over 600 Korean churches; there are more than 400 in New York City, and about 120 in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore area. Eighty percent of the Korean churches in the U.S. are under 15 years old; some 70 percent do not own their own facilities.

Gathering Place

The Korean church in America has retained much of the character of the church in Korea: an emphasis on home cell groups, early morning prayer (6 A. M.), and Friday late-night or all-night prayer meetings. As in Korea, the most popular church tradition among U.S. Korean churches is Presbyterianism. But the single denomination to which the greatest number of ethnic Koreans in the U.S. belong is the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).

In the U.S., the Korean church has functioned as the central social institution for the Korean community and as a bridge to American culture. According to Dan Moon, director of Korean Church Growth for the SBC, attending church is a respite after a long week’s work for many ethnic Koreans, whether or not they are Christians. In fact, only about one-fourth of Koreans in the U.S. are believers, according to most estimates, though 70 percent attend church regularly.

Pastors help newcomers find their way in American society, and churches provide an outlet through which Koreans can speak their mother tongue and keep their children in touch with their cultural heritage.

Part of the story of the Korean church in America is a story of personal rivalries and accompanying divisions. Moon said that in the past, disagreements have spawned many a new Korean church “right next door.”

But a recent emphasis on reaching other cultural groups has produced a spirit of cooperation among Korean churches. Said Choe, “Churches are working together in a new way in order to awaken their members to the challenge of cross-cultural missions.”

Fifteen regional committees and the participation of several key denominational leaders have helped lay the groundwork for unprecedented interdenominational cooperation on a national level. One of the results was the first missions conference for the entire Korean-American church, held last summer.

Generation Gap

Korean pastors, parents, and children generally agree that the Korean church’s biggest problem is reaching second-generation Koreans. Those reared on “Sesame Street” and Big Macs often do not speak fluent Korean or understand how the older generation thinks.

One need is for teaching and worship in a language second-generation Koreans fully understand (English). With 70 percent of Korean churches having fewer than 100 members, most lack the resources to minister effectively to the second generation. Many Korean pastors speak little or no English.

But according to Faith Kim, professor of Christian education at Golden Gate Baptist Seminary, the generation gap is more cultural than linguistic. “The second generation thinks more in autonomous, American ways than in the hierarchical, Korean manner,” she said.

The cultural tension has created a need for bicultural church leadership that can bridge the gap. “There are enough gifted young people in our churches,” said Kim, “but church structures often do not allow them to grow into leaders.”

American workers have, to some extent, filled the gap. But Kim said, “We cannot rely on Caucasians for our leadership needs. They cannot build community between the generations, because they only understand the American side.”

Sang-Bok David Kim, chairman of pastoral ministries at Washington Bible College, said there is an “almost dangerous shortage of bilingual, American-educated leadership in the church.” He estimates there are between 400 and 500 Korean-American students currently in Bible schools and seminaries. “That’s encouraging,” he said, “but that is not nearly enough for all the churches.”

Faith Kim, however, casts the church’s challenges in a positive light. “Tension makes us more creative people,” she said. “Abraham, Moses, and many of the prophets were immigrants. They were all used by God, and they were all people with a tension.”

By Dan Moul.

As the U.S. Supreme Court makes its way through a busy winter/spring docket, three cases heard earlier this year involve issues being watched by evangelicals: pornography and the involvement of the state in church-related activities.

In one of those cases, the Court heard oral arguments about the constitutionality of a Massachusetts law against child pornography. The state Supreme Judicial Court struck down the law last year after a man received a prison sentence for photographing his 14-year-old stepdaughter topless. The court ruled the law was so broad it could include parents taking pictures of nude infants and toddlers. Arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court reinstate the law, Massachusetts Attorney General Jim Shannon said it protects children.

The Massachusetts legislature has since passed a new law that makes photographing a nude minor illegal only when it is done with “lascivious intent.”

In another pornography case, the justices agreed to hear oral arguments about whether a new federal law prohibiting sexually explicit telephone services (so-called dial-a-porn) is constitutional. The law, which was passed by Congress in 1988, bans “any obscene or indecent communication for commercial purposes” over interstate telephone lines.

Opponents of that law claim the statute is too broad and does not define “obscene” or “indecent.” The Bush administration is defending the law, saying the danger of exposing children to the dial-a-porn material is so great that Congress had a “compelling interest in taking effective measures.”

In the church/state arena, the high court has let stand a Virginia law exempting religiously affiliated child-care centers from some health and safety regulations. Several day-care centers not affiliated with religious organizations had challenged the law; they claimed it unfairly favored religious centers. But many religious centers say submitting their ministries to the state for licensing violates their religious beliefs.

By refusing to hear arguments in the case, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that said the law did not violate the separation of church and state.

WORLD SCENE

GUATEMALA

On-Air Catholics

Catholics in Central America have traditionally been reluctant to use the electronic media to communicate their faith. But that reluctance may be a thing of the past.

One illustration of the trend is Catholic evangelist Salvador Gomez. A native of El Salvador, Gomez, whose ministry is based in Guatemala City, appears to be on his way to becoming the first Catholic to reach television audiences throughout Central America. His program can now be seen in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. And negotiations are in progress to add Honduras to the list.

Some in the Catholic hierarchy have been hesitant to accept Gomez, partly because he resembles his evangelical counterparts in preaching style. Other Catholic leaders, however, believe the church has eschewed for too long the use of television.

SOVIET UNION

Growing Taste of Freedom

Peter Deyneka, Jr., president of the Slavic Gospel Association, is among those who are greatly encouraged by the movement in the USSR toward greater openness. For the past decade, Deyneka and his wife, Anita, have been barred from the Soviet Union because of their writings describing the suffering of Christians there.

(Anita was able to enter the country once in that time.) But recently the Deynekas were invited to enter the country.

Peter Deyneka told World magazine that the Soviet government’s changed attitude is rooted in pragmatism. He said, “Suddenly, the government has realized that the approximately 80 million Christians they’ve been oppressing for the last 70 years are potentially their best workers. They don’t get drunk; they’re honest. They work hard. They’re loyal citizens.”

According to News Network International, the number of Christian prisoners in the Soviet Union at the end of last year was 70, down from 166 the year before. In spite of the Soviet government’s official claims to have relaxed customs regulations, however, some customs agents are continuing to confiscate religious literature, according to Keston (College) News Service. Keston reported the recent confiscation of some 35 Bibles or Bible portions from a Russian Orthodox Christian who was returning to Moscow after visiting friends in Paris.

CENTRAL AMERICA

A Peaceful Meeting

When it comes to military recruitment, opposing armies in the conflicts raging throughout Central America have often shown little respect for those whose religious beliefs prohibit taking up arms. Thus a small group of Mennonites, representing all the Central American nations, met recently to discuss the problem of forced recruitment of conscientious objectors.

The meeting was planned by Mennonite pastors in Honduras and sponsored by the Mennonite Central Committee. Out of it came recommendations that congregations and church leaders embark on programs of peace education, that a network of communication be established among churches in the region, and that various groups work more aggressively toward obtaining legal provisions for conscientious objectors.

ENGLAND

The Young and the Homeless

The United States is far from being alone in having to deal with the problem of homelessness, which, according to a recent report in the Christian Science Monitor, is rising rapidly in England, particularly among youth.

According to the report, the English charitable agency Shelter estimates there are 150,000 single young people in the country who are homeless. Typically, these people come to the city to find work but are unable to afford a place to live.

Some blame the problem of the homeless on Conservative government policies, such as decreased subsidization of housing. Others point to social causes, including a breakdown of the traditional family.

MEXICO

Two Christians Martyred

Two young Christian workers were stoned to death in Mexico by angry mobs in separate incidents that probably took place on the same day, January 15.

According to the Mexico City daily newspaper Excelsior, 35-year-old preacher Abelino Jerez Hernandez was killed by “more than 100 angry Catholics.” A police spokesman said Jerez was “first chased out of town and then attacked with stones” until he died. The newspaper report stated that none of the attackers has been arrested, despite the state government’s claim to have identified most of them.

Early the following day, the body of 21-year-old Julio Davalos Morales was discovered in an empty lot just outside Mexico City. Nearby were his briefcase, which was full of Christian tracts, and several bloodied rocks. No suspects are in custody.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Lamented: By prolife leaders in Italy, a lack of interest in the prolife cause. The tenth anniversary of legalized abortion in Italy recently passed with virtually no fanfare. There are approximately 200,000 abortions a year in Italy, a ratio of 350 per 1,000 live births.

Advocated: By Polish youth, a more active political role for the church in Poland. According to Prof. Nikolaj Kosakiewicz of the Polish Academy of Science, three-fourths of the young people in Poland favor such a role for the church.

Welcomed: Missionaries to Europe from Third World countries. According to the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, Third World believers can reveal to Europeans their own spiritual poverty and lack of development in interpersonal relationships.

In Malibu, California, a Mercedes-Benz hood ornament is easier to spot than its look-alike counterpart, the peace pendant. Oceanview homes here typically list for a million-plus. But the affluent surroundings did nothing to prevent the 300 people who attended the conference “Christian Perspectives: Issues Facing the New Administration” from discussing such issues as transnational corporate oppression and homelessness in America.

The conference, held January 26–28 at Pepperdine University in Malibu, was further proof that the old adage against mixing politics and religion has become a thing of the past among Christians.

Despite disagreement on specific political issues, an informal survey confirmed participants’ support of Charles Colson’s admonition in his book Kingdoms in Conflict: “Christians have an obligation to bring transcendent moral values into public debate.” Said U.S. Rep. Paul B. Henry (R-Mich.) in his opening address to the conference, “Moral reasoning underlies every decision rendered on public-policy issues. Ethics is an inescapable part of the political agenda.”

But Henry cautioned that better laws do not necessarily make better men. And in his keynote address, Sen. Mark 0. Hatfield (R-Oreg.) echoed this sentiment, as he unabashedly addressed the pitfalls of political involvement.

The Oregon senator said, “America is not a Christian nation. We are a pluralistic nation.” He added that the role of religion in politics must be played by individuals rather than through government or church structures. He warned that “one can create a god out of a cause,” and pointed to the local parish—not politics—as the way to instill new spiritual sinews into the nation’s fiber.

Among the issues discussed at the conference was poverty. Catholic scholar Michael Novak argued that the important question is not what causes poverty but “How do you create wealth?” According to Novak’s thesis, economic freedom precedes economic justice. Novak emphasized the dual importance of “education and an awakened creativity.”

Latin American missiologist Samuel Escobar, however, observed that “the imagination of the masses has not been able to grasp ‘democratic capitalism,’ ” as espoused by Novak. Asserting that “North-South” vectors have replaced traditional “East-West” disparities, Escobar averred that the “rules of the marketplace,” and not economic freedom, have primarily shaped “life and values for the nonwhite, nonrich, non-European world.”

One issue that was not discussed was the $155 billion national debt. However, Escobar, a native of Peru, did call for a reduction in debt tallies owed the United States by Third World nations.

Domestic issues discussed at the conference outnumbered foreign issues by a four-to-one margin, with family-related topics high on the list. Activist-theologian Ron Sider, speaking on behalf of the organization JustLife, applauded the Halloway-Bush proposal for child care, a proposal that would grant government voucher aid directly to parents.

Psychologist Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, the sole woman presenter, went a step further by proposing federally funded family allowances. She also championed a return to home-based employment—for both men and women—and egalitarian parenting. “Computer technology, job-sharing, and flextime employment … [make] family interaction more feasible now than at any time since the Industrial Revolution,” asserted Van Leeuwen. Though a Canadian citizen, she invoked the help of Uncle Sam: “It’s time to stop equating good government with the least government.”

The salient theme of the conference was “think small,” including doing so with regard to grassroots political action. Social-justice activist John Perkins identified his “life goal” as indigenous community development—block by block. Novak allowed that capitalism works “from the bottom up.” And Escobar noted that Americans could learn a lot about liberating the “global poor” by beginning with poverty pockets in U.S. inner cities.

By Marjorie Lee Chandler, in Malibu, California.

NORTH AMERICAN SCENE

ETHICS

A Bad Report on Meese

A recently released Justice Department study has concluded that if former Attorney General Edwin Meese were still in that office he would be subject to presidential discipline for violating government ethics codes. The study was done by the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

According to a New York Times report, three of the five ethical violations cited in the study involved Meese’s failure to avoid “the appearance of impropriety.”

Meese The other violations were related to his negligence in filing timely tax returns and to his holding personal investments in areas affected by the decisions he made as a public official.

Meese’s attorneys characterized the report as a “travesty of justice.” While in office, Meese was widely considered a friend of conservative Christians, many of whom have applauded his efforts at fighting pornography.

UNITED METHODISTS

Wanted: Black Missionaries

The United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Missions (GBGM) has begun an effort to increase the church’s recruitment of blacks as missionaries.

This new emphasis was one result of a recent consultation aimed at developing new models for the participation of blacks in the church’s mission work. The essential focus of the new plan is to encourage black youths to consider missionary careers. The denomination’s GBGM is planning similar consultations with Native Americans, Asians, and Hispanics.

EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Spong Sprung

An Episcopal Church committee has dismissed the latest set of charges brought against controversial Bishop John Spong. The committee ruled the allegations were not made in accordance with proper church procedure.

The charges, known as a “presentment,” contended that Spong violated church law in a column he wrote for his diocesan newspaper. The column reads in part: “I covet for all people the joy of being sustained in the fulness of a relationship that unites two persons in mind, body and spirit, even when that relationship has not been blessed with a service called holy matrimony.” Spong’s opponents maintain this statement violates consecration vows, which call for the denial of “all ungodliness and worldly lust.”

This was the second presentment against Spong to be dismissed in the last two years, and for the same reason. The committee that ruled on the latest presentment deemed it doctrinal in nature, thus requiring the signatures of at least ten bishops, which it did not have.

However, Jerome Politzer, president of the Prayer Book Society, a lay organization within the church, claims the complaint was not about doctrine. He charged the reviewing panel with “shielding Bishop Spong.”

Spong appears to be entering the fray again by appointing a committee charged with assessing the role and authority of Scripture in modern times. Spong has made no secret of his contention that the Bible contains errors and contradictions. In announcing the committee, he called for the Bible to be “rescued” from those who insist on a literal interpretation.

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS

A War over Washington

A seven-member committee of Southern Baptists appointed to study alternatives to the current relationship between the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs (BJCPA) has recommended the formation of a new SBC agency, the Religious Liberty Commission.

For nearly 50 years, the BJCPA, a coalition of nine Baptist denominations, has been the SBC’s Washington voice and its representative on First Amendment issues. The SBC provides 90 percent of the BJCPA’s funding, but does not have majority representation on the BJCPA board. Some factions within the SBC have for years been at odds with the BJCPA over positions the Washington organization has taken.

According to the committee’s recommendation, Southern Baptists would alter, not terminate, their relationship with the BJCPA. However, this most likely would entail a major decrease in SBC funding. James Dunn, executive director of the BJCPA, said the committee’s recommendation came as a “shocking disappointment.” Dunn said the BJCPA has been consistently affirmed at annual conventions of the SBC. He blamed the committee’s implied negative assessment of his organization’s work on “a small group of dedicated political activists” who are “using every tactic available” to destroy the BJCPA’s effectiveness.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Reached: An important milestone in talks between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church, U.S.A. The two churches appointed a team to draft a document that will outline the final steps necessary for full communion.

Decided: After extensive debate at the University of Dayton, the nation’s largest Catholic university, that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will continue to be allowed to recruit on campus. The school’s academic senate voiced concern about frequent ethical violations on the part of the CIA, but concluded the agency is not “systemically flawed.”

Affirmed: By New York’s John Cardinal O’Connor, the antiabortion tactics of Operation Rescue. O’Connor said the tactics do not differ radically from the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s.

As the world watches the Soviet military retreat from Afghanistan, Christian groups are considering how they might once more become involved in that war-torn country.

Of foremost concern is the struggle for power between the Soviet-backed Afghan regime in Kabul, and the Moslem rebels, or mujaheddin, who led the insurgency against the Soviets. While most Western missionaries left during the Soviet invasion more than a decade ago, a few stayed, working under the auspices of International Aid Mission (IAM). Richard Penner, director of that mission, told reporters that nearly all their people have left Afghanistan until conditions improve there.

It is not yet clear how hospitable either the current Communist government or a government that is led by the mujaheddin will be toward Christian missionaries. Many people are concerned that a resurgence of Muslim fundamentalism could be extremely hostile to the country’s Christians.

At the same time, there may be some openings. IAM has been in the country for many years and, among other things, runs a highly regarded eye hospital in Kabul. And for the past three years, the Oregon-based Christian group Mercy Corps has been working within Afghanistan providing emergency medical help. According to M. Y. Ayubi, an Afghan who heads Mercy Corps’s “Inside Operation,” the group has established 36 clinics in ten provinces.

Mercy Corps has also begun plans for an agricultural program and long-term development aid, including irrigation systems, crop production, and rebuilding devastated areas. “If we don’t move to help people help themselves, it will be too late,” Ayubi said.

In the meantime, the immediate crisis is the severe food shortage caused by years of war and a particularly difficult winter. United Nation officials say more than 30,000 children are at risk of major illness or death because of malnutrition and the deteriorating health conditions in Kabul.

Many Christian relief groups say they are willing to provide crisis help, but are waiting to see if that help will be welcomed by those struggling for power.

Gustavo Parajón is a pastor at First Baptist Church in Managua, Nicaragua, and an American Baptist missionary. He is also the founder of the Evangelical Committee for Aid and Development (CEPAD), which was formed as a result of a 1972 earthquake that virtually destroyed Managua. In 1987, Parajón was appointed as one of four members of a National Reconciliation Commission, in accordance with the Central American peace plan drafted by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

CEPAD and Parajón are frequently criticized by groups and individuals who are not optimistic about prospects for religious and political freedom under the country’s Sandinista government. These critics charge generally that CEPAD’s statements and activities tend toward legitimizing that government. CHRISTIANITY TODAY discussed these and other concerns with Parajón.

Previously the tremendous downslide in the Nicaraguan economy was widely blamed on the contra war. Now that the war has virtually ended, why has the economy not improved?

It is difficult to point to a single cause. Obviously the government has made many mistakes. Some of the policies aimed at centralization have hurt private investors. It is not feasible to invest when products are bought and sold at fixed prices.

There are other causes. The war destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure. The [1988] hurricane has hurt the economy. And there has been an exodus of qualified people, including technicians and professionals. The U.S. economic blockade has hurt, but ending the blockade is only part of the answer. We need the kind of aid that flowed into western Europe under the Marshall Plan to get back on our feet.

The war was also cited by some as justification for limitations on personal and political liberties. Critics charge that freedom has not increased with the lessening of conflict. Do you share these concerns?

There has been a definite change in the direction of greater political expression since the signing of the Arias peace accords. The Nicaraguan government has not fulfilled all the items of the peace plan. Neither have other Central American countries fulfilled the letter and the spirit of the accords. Everybody focuses on Nicaragua. But you have to look at this from a regional perspective.

Are you satisfied that Nicaragua is moving in a direction of allowing full personal and political freedom?

The Sandinista government can be open to dialogue and negotiations. But I am much more concerned about the tremendous social injustice throughout Central America.

U.S. policy has failed to improve democracy. After eight years of putting more than $2 million a day into El Salvador, enabling that government’s army to do what it wants, the situation is far from stable. The problems all over Latin America have to be understood in terms of the tremendous poverty and exploitation. That’s why there was a Nicaraguan revolution, and that’s why there are very difficult times in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Ideally, a goverment would strive both to end social injustice and to permit personal and political liberties. Do the Sandinistas hold those ideals?

I’m not certain. What I do know for sure is that the limbs of more than 2,500 Nicaraguans have been blown off by mines. And in the medical program I direct, eight of my co-workers have been murdered by the contras. I would say my co-workers’ human rights were grossly violated; their personal freedom was greatly encroached. I am interested that people be free to express their views. But I am more interested that the war come to a permanent end.

Perhaps freedom is not the ultimate objective for the church. But as a Christian, are you concerned that Nicaraguan believers will have to endure what the church endured in Cuba?

The premise of this question is that the Sandinista government is guilty. In my experience, Christians in Nicaragua are not concerned that we cannot preach, that we cannot carry on ministry. But even if it is true that the Sandinistas are repressive, why would Christians not apply the Scripture where the Lord says, “Love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you and persecute you”?

I find it very hard to understand how Christians in the U.S. who believe in the Almighty God and are endowed with the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out Christ’s mission would be so concerned about some supposed threat that they would allow their tax dollars to support violence that devastates so many people, many of them believers.

Opinions differ as to how successful the National Religious Broadcasters’ new ethics and financial integrity commission (EFICOM) will be in monitoring NRB members. But with the commission at least three months from being implemented (see previous article), questions continue to be raised about the ethics of current NRB members.

A recent fund-raising campaign by the Denver, Colorado-based Bob Larson Ministries, for example, raised the eyebrows of insiders at that organization who believe the campaign may have tested the boundaries of Christian ethics.

Since 1972, when Bob Larson founded the ministry that bears his name, he has been warning Americans about the dangers of rock and roll, cults, and the general deteriorating condition of modern culture. Along the road from disc jockey to author to radio talk show host, he has built a $2.8 million ministry. Among the several books he has written is Larson’s Book of Cults.

The fund-raising campaign at issue revolves around what Larson told his radio audience on December 26 and 27 of last year. Via a taped announcement, he said he had been “ordered” to get away from the microphone due to stress. Further, he said he was worried that during his absence donations would decrease. “I need you to keep the vision alive,” he told his audience. “Without you, the vision of this ministry will die.” Larson then substituted previously aired programs for his live show, leaving the microphone for two weeks.

However, sources within the organization who were troubled by their participation in the appeal informed CHRISTIANITY TODAY that Larson’s absence was planned at least six weeks in advance. The sources, who asked not to be identified, suggested the announced absence was part of a planned “crisis campaign” designed to bring in funds.

Bonnie Bell, a spokesperson for the ministry, denied this allegation. She acknowledged that the ministry knew “sometime in December” that Larson “would be leaving the air under doctor’s orders.” She explained that, to some extent, “these things have to be planned,” adding, “You simply cannot walk away from the microphone on a program such as ours.” Bell said Larson sees a counselor weekly, due to the stress caused by his ministry. She offered to produce a statement from Larson’s physician indicating the rest was prescribed.

However, one of the sources who spoke with CT produced ministry memos indicating the ministry knew of Larson’s planned absence well before December. One memo, dated November 7, 1988, came from ministry employees and proposed a “crisis for the last two weeks in December” in which an announcement would be made that would “plead to the conscious [sic] and sympathy aspects of the listeners/donors.” As proposed, the campaign would “instill in the listeners/donors that BL [presumably Bob Larson] is a human being too.…” A November 11 memo from “BL,” apparently in response to the plan, stated, “I like the idea,” and subsequent memos indicate staff members, with Larson’s input, implemented the campaign.

Larson initially told CT the allegations were coming from an employee who was “extremely mentally unstable,” whom he fired. (That employee was fired approximately three weeks after contacting CT.) He then said he vaguely remembered someone from his staff suggesting a fund-raising campaign built around his need for rest, but denied approving the idea. He specifically stated there was not “one internal document or memorandum” proposing such a campaign, but later acknowledged, “There may have been a memo, though I’m not sure.”

When CHRISTIANITY TODAY informed Larson’s ministry that CT was in possession of a memo indicating Larson knew of and approved the idea for what the memo called a “crisis campaign,” the ministry referred the matter to Bill Abbott, an attorney representing Larson. Abbott acknowledged at least one of the memos that outlined the crisis campaign, but said ministry personnel could not find the November 11 memo (containing Larson’s alleged approval of the campaign), and suggested it may have been forged. However, those who supplied information to CHRISTIANITY TODAY insisted the memos are authentic.

By Lyn Cryderman.

The past year has been difficult for the nation’s religious broadcasters. Just weeks after the 1988 convention of the NRB (National Religious Broadcasters)—with the organization still reeling from the PTL scandals—Jimmy Swaggart, then a prominent NRB member, drew headlines with his confession of “moral failure.” Later in 1988 came reports of an Internal Revenue Service investigation of some 30 religious broadcasting organizations.

To many observers, last month’s forty-sixth annual NRB convention, held in Washington, seemed to reflect the somber attitude of the past year. The emphasis was more on introspection than on politics and personalities. This introspection includes the organization’s effort, soon to be implemented, to police itself according to its new code of integrity.

Different Tone

The response of NRB officials to the second consecutive year of scandal and intense public scrutiny was to “get back to the basics.” With the theme “Jesus Christ is Lord,” planners injected a spiritual emphasis many participants feel may have been lacking in the recent past.

“I keep hearing words like ‘healing,’ ‘worship,’ and ‘blessed,’ ” said NRB president Jerry Rose. Television preacher Jerry Falwell echoed Rose’s observation: “I don’t believe there has been a convention on a higher spiritual level,” he said. “I sense a new commitment to preaching the gospel.”

At the same time, politics moved to the back burner, aided no doubt by the recent passing of the political season. Last year President Reagan, all the major Republican presidential candidates, and several members of Congress were among those to share the NRB limelight (CT, Mar. 4, 1988, p. 32). This year, Vice-president Dan Quayle was the only politician to address the convention.

President George Bush was scheduled to speak but had to cancel at the last minute because of a severe case of laryngitis. Evangelist Billy Graham brought regrets from the President, and then led the convention in an extended time of prayer for Bush and the nation.

Rose spoke in lieu of Bush, telling listeners that when they give “Jesus Christ the highest priority” in their personal lives, their ministries will be in order. “Often today, sin is only confessed after the awful glare of public exposure and the heavy weight of humiliation,” Rose said. “We should deal with sin in our lives quickly and seriously.”

Likewise, at the annual congressional breakfast, attended by new Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp and 20 members of Congress, keynote speaker Charles Colson kept to spiritual themes. “Faith and public order are inseparable,” Colson said. “When you separate [them], you have tyranny.”

The week’s most political speech was given at an auxiliary event not officially sponsored by the NRB. Oliver North was the featured guest at the “Eighth Annual Roundtable Prayer Breakfast” (formerly the National Prayer Breakfast in Honor of Israel). North spoke against communism and terrorism around the world, then left the hall immediately to attend the second day of his trial for his role in the Iran/contra affair.

Optimistic Portrait

Throughout the convention, NRB officials painted an optimistic picture of their industry’s future. “It is my opinion that we’re still in an explosive, expanding field,” NRB executive director Ben Armstrong told reporters.

Despite recent figures suggesting a decline in viewers and donations (CT, Feb. 3, p. 32), Armstrong pointed to a growing number of religious radio and television stations as well as program producers. “What began as phenomenal growth in the 1970s,” he said, “has continued unabated for more than a decade.” Armstrong downplayed any negative effect caused by the scandals, claiming that local broadcasters have not been hurt. He added that one positive impact has been that now “the man on the street knows about religious broadcasting.”

Nevertheless, the specter of scandal was present at the convention. One of the first acts of business was to enact the NRB executive committee’s March 1988 recommendation to rescind Swaggart’s membership. “As an association, we believe that a minister’s life should be above reproach, lived according to Biblical principles,” said a statement accompanying the action. “We grieve when a brother falls, and we grieve for the impact the action has on those who are in need of the hope of the Gospel.”

In addition, it was revealed the NRB ethics committee has received complaints against Paul Crouch, president and founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, one of the nation’s largest religious broadcasting operations. Crouch has been accused of, among other things, using “hostile takeovers” to acquire new stations. The ethics committee is “processing” the complaints.

Eficom’S Arrival

The NRB is pinning its hopes for credibility on the new Ethics and Financial Integrity Commission (EFICOM) code. Nonprofit NRB members had a February 15 deadline (with a 90-day extension option) to file disclosure forms, an independent audit, and other materials to demonstrate compliance with guidelines set by the organization.

The code applies only to nonprofit members and thus does not affect the more than half of NRB’s 1,400 organizations that are commercial broadcasters. According to NRB official Thomas Zimmerman, who is in charge of implementing the EFICOM effort, by convention time last month, only 34 members had applied for and received EFICOM accreditation, although he said many were expected to apply soon after the convention. Also, 84 members have been automatically approved because they belong to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

Although an NRB press release said nonprofit members were “responding positively” to EFICOM, some members have concerns about how the code will be administered and enforced. Several ministries do not like the requirement forbidding family-dominated boards.

NRB members that do not meet the guidelines will be expelled, though Rose said any expulsion would be preceded by dialogue with the NRB ethics committee. “If they don’t apply, we’ll go talk to them and see what the problem is,” said Rose. “And if they don’t comply, we’ll talk to them about that.” As far as the commercial broadcasters not affected by EFICOM are concerned, Rose said an NRB committee is in the process of determining “if there should be some kind of accountability there.”

Zimmerman said a new list of certified NRB members will be published in a coming issue of Religious Broadcasting; those certified would receive the EFICOM “seal of approval.” He said the NRB would not publish a “blacklist” of organizations not certified.

By Kim A. Lawton in Washington, D.C.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY/March 3, 1989

More skin means higher ratings for television networks.

Nearly three decades ago, Newton Minow, then chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), surveyed the landscape of television and radio broadcasting in America and pronounced it a “vast wasteland of formulas and boredom.”

If the industry in Minow’s era was an adolescent facing an identity crisis, traditional TV and radio in 1989 could be said to be undergoing a midlife crisis. Media observers generally believe that the industry—beset by rapid changes in technology and fierce competition from newcomers—is in a state of tremendous flux.

By most accounts, the industry’s future will be marked by a continuing increase in the number of choices for viewers and listeners, new technology in the way broadcast signals are delivered to homes, and less government regulation of program content. Amid all this are growing concerns about the decency of television fare.

Sexy Trend

Media watchdog agencies, such as Morality in Media and the American Family Association (AFA), have voiced concern about instances in which network television seems to be pushing the limits of good taste. Critics cite numerous incidents of vulgarity, partial nudity, excessive violence, and “raw adult language” on such shows as NBC’s “L.A. Law” and “Miami Vice,” and ABC’s “thirtysomething” as evidence of a decline in broadcast standards. Some have also protested the increased commercialism of children’s television, alleging that dozens of Saturday morning shows appear to be little more than 30-minute commercials for toys.

“We’re advising people to write the advertisers and tell them they won’t be buying any more of their products,” says Evelyn Dukovic, executive vice-president of New York-based Morality in Media, an agency that promotes the vigorous enforcement of antiobscenity laws. “The networks just don’t seem to understand any other language.”

Dying Monopoly

Many observers draw a link between the networks’ declining standards and the growing competition they are facing. With the increasing influence of public broadcasting, and the advent of cable and videocassette recorders, the major networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) have lost the virtual broadcast monopoly they once enjoyed. Competition, including some from new ad hoc networks of independent stations—such as upstart Fox Broadcasting—have eroded the major networks’ audience share and, consequently, their advertising revenue.

Plummeting revenues have spawned financial austerity measures, including the wholesale closing of foreign news bureaus. Among the major networks, sometimes called the “Big Three,” several thousand jobs have been eliminated in recent years. One area upon which this has made an impact is that of broadcast standards and practices.

Traditionally networks have attempted to censor themselves. But today, among the Big Three, only ABC still has an official broadcast-standards department, staffed by 40 censors. Both CBS and NBC have eliminated their standards departments, turning censorship responsibilities over to the executives in charge of each program. Observers estimate that throughout the industry, only about half of the more than 200 network censors that plied their trade in the mid-1970s remain.

Worst Offender?

One of the programs most roundly criticized because of its sex scenes was the dramatic NBC miniseries “Favorite Son,” which aired last fall. According to Morality in Media, the scenes “more than suggested explicit sado-masochism.”

Alan Gerson, NBC vice-president of program marketing and administration, maintains, however, that this criticism needs context. “This complaint focuses on four or five minutes out of a six-hour miniseries,” he said. “This was a drama with adult themes, advertised as such, and aired in what is generally considered adult time blocks. No one could have tuned in accidentally thinking it was going to be a children’s show.”

Gerson said his network’s objective “is to provide a program service that will offer the widest range of acceptable programming to the largest audience possible.” He dismissed the view that competition from cable TV—which is under no government regulations and can telecast uncut, sexually explicit programming—is pushing the networks to greater titillation of viewers. “We invented broadcast standards,” he said, “and we will always be much more conservative than cable.”

However, Janice Gretemeyer, director of press relations for ABC, concedes that increased competition has influenced broadcast standards. “The viewer expectancy has been modified by all the TV choices they have,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that we’ll ever see the networks pandering to the same tastes as cable, but we do have to recognize that people just expect to see more on TV nowadays.”

That assumption angers Alan Wildmon of the AFA, which encourages Christians to oppose obscenity through advertiser boycotts. “The more skin they show, the higher the ratings,” laments Wildmon, brother of AFA founder Donald Wildmon. “The higher the ratings, the higher the profit. The almighty dollar is the bottom line for the networks.”

Deregulation Debate

Meanwhile, in the nation’s capital, the conflict over broadcast standards is focused on the issue of deregulation. Specifically, the debate is over the constitutionality of a law passed by Congress last fall banning “indecency” from the public airwaves 24 hours a day. The law, named the “Helms Bill” for U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), requires the FCC to levy fines against—or even revoke the licenses of—offending broadcasters.

The law’s opponents, which include the major networks, succeeded early this year in convincing the courts to stay the scheduled January 27 execution date of the Helms Bill until the courts decide whether it abridges broadcasters’ First Amendment rights.

At the eye of the storm is a somewhat hazy ten-year-old Supreme Court definition of indecency that prohibits owners of America’s 1,342 TV stations and 10,244 radio stations from broadcasting “pictures or words of a sexual or excretory nature that are patently offensive.”

The recently departed Reagan administration moved in the direction of stricter enforcement of obscenity laws. But it also favored deregulating the airwaves. One result of this latter emphasis was a hesitancy on the part of the FCC to respond to complaints of indecent programming. In fact, it ruled on only three of the hundreds of complaints it received, including the case of a Kansas City TV station that aired (during prime time) an uncut version of the film Private Lessons, which included fleeting scenes of frontal nudity.

The complaint was filed by a regional director of the AFA. It resulted in the FCC’s maximum fine of $2,000, a mere “slap on the wrist,” according to the AFA’s Wildmon. “We had to force the FCC to act on that complaint,” he said. “We’ve sent them literally hundreds of videotaped incidents of indecency, and they’re sitting on some shelf somewhere collecting dust.”

If the Helms law is upheld, the FCC, though loathe to do it, will enforce the policy “to the fullest extent of the law,” according to chairman Dennis Patrick. “It will mean a retrenchment of the last eight years of deregulation,” said Patrick. “But Congress seems intent on regulating the content of programming, especially public service and children’s programming.”

In the end, technology might provide a solution to the dilemma among those who want both high broadcast standards and deregulation. According to Dennis McDougal, who covers the broadcast industry for the Los Angeles Times, low-cost consumer satellite dishes may be just around the corner. McDougal said the satellite dish could pose a threat to traditional broadcasters in the 1990s similar to the threat posed by the VCR in the 1980s. He foresees a day when “people will subscribe to TV and radio services like they do to magazines, making mass-audience broadcasting and the potential for accidentally offending public taste a moot question.”

By Brian Bird.