Several years ago in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I was one of thousands who sat attentively in the great stadium of that city, on a cool and pleasant evening, to witness, enjoy, and be moved by the dynamic and straightforward preaching of one of God’s greatest gifts to evangelism. But on Friday evening, June 18, 1965, in Cramton Bowl in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, I had a different outlook and feeling. Then I was a guest of Dr. Graham, and I sat on the platform with him and gave the invocation. In this place, I became an active participant on the team crusading for Christ. Then I knew what it meant to stand before thousands as part of a witnessing community for the Lord.

As I listened over and over again to that familiar expression which characterizes Billy Graham’s preaching, “The Bible says,” I thought of the prophet Micaiah, and the stand he took before Ahab, Jehoshaphat, and the 400 false prophets. Micaiah said, “As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak” (1 Kings 22:14). This familiar story has a great deal of relevance for the contemporary preacher, especially the evangelist.

After the ordeals of Selma—the publicity, propaganda, marches, and arrests—hundreds of us who live there and in the adjacent territory were ready for a change. We were eager to hear a message of peace, love, and reconciliation. Therefore, we welcomed the opportunity to go to Montgomery and have our spirits revived and lifted, to have our souls fed (as it were from on high), and to hear it said again, “Thus saith the Lord.”

There was a great deal of skepticism on the part of some people as to the wisdom of having a great crusade in Montgomery so soon after the civil rights marches and the reactions to this movement. But those who harbored any such thoughts had only to visit Cramton Bowl, listen to the melodious singing of the interracial choir, hear Ethel Waters sing and testify for God, see segregation displaced and barriers removed, and in their place experience friendly greetings and an atmosphere of harmony.

Perhaps the high point of this day was a meeting of Billy Graham and the members of his team after the services with a representative group of Negro pastors, educators, and laymen. The meeting was held on the first floor of the First Baptist Church (where the National Baptist Convention, Incorporated, had been organized). Here we had a heart-to-heart discussion of what we felt the crusade meant to Montgomery.

It was the consensus of this group that the crusade was a Godsend to Montgomery and had accomplished a tremendous amount of good. It proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is nothing to compare with the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, once it is allowed to have full sway in the lives of men. We have seen some real evidences of change; it is not the Montgomery of old any more, and it will never be the same again.

—President JAMES H. OWENS, SR., Selma University, Alabama.

No utopian scheme has ever come out of Asia or Africa, so far as I know; this aberration is limited to people of Western Europe and America. It is a secular version of the Kingdom of God, inspiring the belief in our time that a perfectly ordered social life will be possible as soon as political power is centralized and the wisest and best men are operating the government according to an ideal blueprint. The goal would have been achieved before now, were not a few old reactionaries barring the way!

The map of the universe these trends supply is guaranteed to lead us astray. Yet these trends are popular, and so people who are always attracted to the latest fashion in ideas climb aboard the bandwagon. The Church is in the world, presumably, to witness to a quality of life that is not wholly of the world; it judges the things that come and go from the vantage point of a set of enduring values. The Church is not dedicated to wealth, power, or fame. These things are not bad in themselves, but the Church has another set of purposes, every one of which is aimed at cherishing and nourishing that elusive thing called “the soul,” for whose proper ordering each person is accountable to his Maker. In terms of this main function, religion has taken on many other chores that have implications for even such seemingly remote provinces as politics and economics. These, however, are incidental to its main task, which is to remind man, in season and out, who he really is and what he may become; and this task, in every age, involves some resistance to “the world.” Christianity can never be coextensive with any society.

Most churches and most ministers are bending every effort in this direction; their effectiveness may be questioned, but not their intentions. The fantastic thing is that wealthy and powerful ecclesiastical organizations, seconded by articulate theologians, are doing their utmost—which is considerable—to promote and further the currently fashionable secular trends!

The Kingdom of God has been secularized into utopia-by-politics. The idea of the two cities—the City of God and the City of Man, Jerusalem and Babylon—has been central to Christian social thought from the earliest days. But no longer. If politicians and a few other people will only take the advice of these ecclesiastical evangels of an earthly paradise, the Kingdom of God on earth will be due any minute.

Christians have always felt an obligation to improve the natural and social orders, but they have never until now equated even a superlatively improved social order with the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom was regarded as another dimension of existence, another realm of being, not simply an extension of our present set-up. But the late Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam told the Fifth World Order Study Conference in 1958 that Christians should “so change the planet that when our first visitors from Mars arrive they will find a society fit to be called the Kingdom of God.”

There is a consistent pattern in the social changes taking place in this country and all over the world. We witness a trend toward the expansion of the political, coercive sector of the nation at the expense of the private, voluntary sector. The end result of this trend is a society run from the top by political direction and command, with no private sector immune from political interventions. This is authoritarianism, benign in some countries, tyrannical in others. The tyrannical version, Communism, has attracted some ecclesiastical support and still does; the benign version, domestic welfarism, attracts a great deal more. The aim of powerful churchmen is to mobilize the influence of religion and the churches behind every statist proposal—as if social reform and revolution were the end and religion a mere means!

The second preoccupation of contemporary churchmen, which goes hand in hand with the first, is with the machinery for worldwide ecclesiastical organization, or ecumenism. The ecumenical movement, like secular internationalism, is based on the idea that the sins of nationalism are forgivable when committed by an international body!

To speak of the individual soul in this age of the revolt of the masses makes us a little uncomfortable, even in church. Isn’t the individual insignificant in a period when “great social forces are on the march”? What can the mere individual do when confronted by the power available to society? Does the individual really count any more, or is he just a unit to be counted?

In the planning of the politically powerful the individual is discarded as negligible or cursed as an obstruction. But if we change our perspective we realize that the individual is the most potent force we know. Before writing him off as a mere by-product of social forces, reflect on the power in the infinitely small atom. Think also of the new development called the reaction motor, in which the element we tried vainly to get rid of has turned out to be the thing of highest value.

Part of the message of Jesus is that the Infinitely Great is concerned With the infinitesimally small. How this can be so, or why, is a mystery; but the Maker of heaven and earth cares for his creatures and solicits their fellowship. Every person counts because he is included in God’s plan. This is why we as Christians resist the inordinate powers that present-day government has over the lives of individuals. When government is properly limited, the society is free. Society deserves to be free because it is the seedbed of persons. Persons emerge out of society as its consummation; society is a means whose end is the individual. Nations rise and fall; civilizations come and go; but if the Christian hope is to be trusted, persons are forever!—The REV. EDMUND A. OPTIZ, Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.

Christianity was born in Asia Minor. The first missionaries were Asians. The early centuries of Christian history reveal churches in South India and as far east as China, where Nestorian missionaries had gone. But for the most part Asia has come into contact with the Gospel only since the eighteenth century and the rise of the modern missionary movement.

Today the lands of Asia from Pakistan to Japan contain more than half the world’s population. In this area are found most of the world’s living religions, all major races, and tremendous cultural and linguistic diversity. In the twenty years following World War II, a dozen countries of South and East Asia gained political independence. Throughout the area colonialism, apart from Communist neo-colonialism, has practically come to an end. In the next twenty years, according to demographers, at the present rate of growth the countries of South and East Asia alone will have more people than there are in the entire world today.

In this vast area where each country presents its own problems and opportunities for evangelism, generalities are extremely difficult to make. Analytical studies of church growth across Asia are needed but are notably lacking at the present time. Nevertheless, some things stand out in assessing the impact of the Gospel in Asia.

The Church: A Minority Community

Except for the Philippines, where Roman Catholics constitute 57 per cent of the population, the Christian community is a small minority in most Asian countries. Across Southeast Asia as a whole, Christians of all descriptions number only three in a hundred.

If the churches that are in Asia are to increase in number and influence beyond the present rate of population growth, certain aspects of missions merit attention. In most Asian countries, with the exception of the Philippines, the Protestant churches do not represent a fair cross section of the total populace. Japanese Christians largely come from the urban middle class and the well-educated. In predominantly Buddhist Burma, the response has been largely from non-Buddhist tribal peoples. In India and Pakistan 80–90 per cent of the Christians have come from socially and economically depressed classes. A church largely confined to one social or geographical segment of the population is not an effective bridge for reaching the entire nation. All Asian countries have frontiers—cultural and religious, as well as geographical—that need to be infiltrated by a witnessing community of believers.

As a minority deploying its limited personnel and resources to win men to Christ and to disciple the nations, the Church must move quickly and decisively among the responsive peoples of Asia while doors remain open and interest continues. Among presently responsive groups that can be shepherded are peoples in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, the Chinese of the Asian dispersion, and tribals in New Guinea, Borneo, and some other areas.

At the same time, if the Church in other areas is to avoid introversion and isolation, it must seek new means of confronting presently resistant peoples, especially where they compose the majority community in areas where Buddhism, higher Hinduism, or Islam is the dominant religion. Half or more of the world’s Muslims live in Asia east of Karachi where there is, for the most part, considerably more tolerance and religious freedom for witness than in the heartlands of Islam. Sikhs, Parsis, and Jains constitute smaller religious groups that the Church has tended to bypass. Christian study centers for research in non-Christian religions and culture have been set up amidst the religious pluralism of several Asian countries where their effectiveness in communication will depend upon their witness to the uniqueness and Lordship of Christ.

Another area of strategic importance is the restless student community of Asia. Standards of education are rising rapidly, producing graduates of high caliber. The minister or missionary working among them must be equally well trained if he is to confront them on a basis of equality and mutual respect. There are indications that English-speaking students respond more readily to the claims of Christ than their colleagues educated primarily in one of the national languages.

The Church, conscious of its minority status, has attempted to find shortcuts to mass evangelization through the use of such means as literature, radio, television, and audiovisual aids. These continue to play their part, though with considerable limitations in Asia.

Literature outreach is limited by the fact that two-thirds of the adult population of Asia cannot read a Gospel or tract in any language. Literacy programs undertaken by government and private bodies, including church and mission organizations, have produced varied results. In the decade from 1951 to 1961, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, and the Republic of Viet Nam effected substantial reductions in illiteracy. In India and Pakistan, on the other hand, while the proportion of illiterate adults declined slightly (to 76 per cent and 81 per cent, respectively), the total number of illiterates either remained stationary or rose because of the rapid population growth that characterizes most countries with high illiteracy. In such situations the Church will continue to find literacy work valuable—both directly and indirectly—as a means of evangelism. It has proven particularly successful in “re-evangelizing” second- and third-generation Christians whose faith was never very deeply rooted so long as they could not read the Bible for themselves.

Although radio appears to reach everywhere, in actuality its effectiveness is related to the number and location of receivers. A recent UNESCO report stated: “Although radio is called a means of mass communication, in most Southeast Asian countries there is as yet no established communication with the actual masses.” Outside of Japan and the more developed areas of Asia the radio is still a luxury. Some countries with government-controlled radio allow no regular Christian broadcasts. Elsewhere Christian radio stations are too often limited in number, programming, or outreach. Nevertheless, as long as freedom for operation remains, Christian broadcasting is likely to play an increasing role as an auxiliary means of evangelism.

Of supreme importance to the minority church in Asia is the thorough training of its members in Christian doctrine and practical Christianity, in effective witness under any political conditions, in an awareness of Communist objectives and methods, and in the possibility of successfully maintaining a Christian testimony should church and mission institutions be taken over by the state. In every place, nuclei of believers should be prepared who are willing to enter into a deep fellowship with Jesus Christ—men and women who are ready to suffer for Christ and remain true to him whatever changes may take place in the years to come. They may function now as prayer cells for the evangelization of Asia while setting an example by disciplining themselves in regular patterns of personal evangelism and acknowledging in all things the primacy and sovereignty of the Holy Spirit in the work of missions. Even a few with God can be a creative and redemptive minority!

The Church: Rooted In The Soil

Despite all that has been said about indigeneity, church life and institutions are too largely alien transplants from the West. In many places Christianity still “looks” Western. While the Church as a supra-national and supra-cultural fellowship must be free to share elements of organization, liturgy, music, art, and architecture across national lines, it is not desirable for such borrowing to move in only one direction. A fresh appraisal needs to be made of both message and methods in Asia, so that what is purely Western can be discarded and what is essentially and eternally from the mind of God retained. Basic Christianity can withstand any type of government pressure; a Westernized form of it may not.

Self-support for the Asian churches cannot be overemphasized. As long as they depend upon foreign funds for their basic life and ministry, they will be looked upon as foreign institutions. In view of the oneness and interdependence of the Body of Christ and the precedent of the New Testament, it cannot be wrong for churches in one geographic area to assist those in another; but it may be inexpedient. In Asia today it seems undesirable for any church to depend on foreign funds for the support of its ministry and regular congregational program. Outside aid limited to emergencies or to joint projects in evangelism, education, and service is not necessarily damaging to the self-respect of congregations that have first learned to assume their own local responsibilities.

The Church: A Lay Movement

The churches in Asia, with few exceptions, have been slower to rediscover the ministry of the laity than those in South America. Asian churches have tended to follow the West in professionalizing the evangelistic and missionary function and then wonder why it is so hard to get the “non-professional” member enthusiastic about evangelism. Japan has small Christian congregations, many averaging only twenty-five to forty members; yet the feeling predominates that to have a “church” there must be a paid ministry and a special building. Increasingly, however, Christians in many places are questioning whether a paid, full-time ministry is the biblical norm for all situations or just a pattern that has been uncritically transplanted from another environment. Wherever a paid ministry weakens the sense of evangelistic responsibility of all believers, it may actually retard the work of mission, however faithful the paid workers may be. In such situations the theological rediscovery of the laity as the projection of the entire congregation into the world for ministry may be as significant in the mission of both older and younger churches today as was the rediscovery of the Bible in another era.

The Church: The People Of God

The emphasis on indigenous churches must always be held in proper tension with the truth that the Church as the “People of God” is an elect race chosen out of all nations, tongues, and peoples, transcending all human relationships.

In this day of the internationalizing of missions, there are many encouraging signs of the Word at work in Asia. Asian churches are seeking to help one another. Interracial teams of Asian evangelists have begun campaigns in major cities. Churches in several countries have become “sending churches,” with their own missionaries now at work in other nations. In India, Pakistan, and the Philippines, national missionary societies have recently been organized on interdenominational lines to sponsor well-trained national Christians as missionaries to their own unevangelized areas.

All missionary work in Asia must increasingly be carried on with Asian leadership and participation. There must be an evolution from the concept of the foreign missionary society to that of missionary fellowships that know no distinction of race, color, or nationality. Future distinctions must be based solely on the ground of spiritual gifts bestowed by the one Spirit for ministry in and through the Body of Christ.

This does not mean that God’s servants from the West are any less needed, but it does mean a new partnership in obedience. It may mean that Western churches should appoint more members of Negro, American Indian, Mexican, or Oriental ancestry as missionaries, and that the Western missionary who cannot cooperate with present churches and their leaders should remain at home.

The Church: The Body Of Christ

Among both missionaries and national Christians there is a growing sense of shame and frustration over the divisions that separate even evangelical believers from one another. In India some 200 different Protestant groups are at work. While the proliferation of societies and denominations has made available a wealth of personnel and resources, the disadvantages stemming from overlapping, competition, duplication of effort, waste of funds, and lack of coordinated planning have long been apparent. All these factors contribute to an increasing recognition of the need for greater fellowship and cooperation in the work of missions throughout Asia.

Important differences, however, revolve around the nature of Christian unity and the basis of fellowship in the missionary enterprise. Where Christian unity has been interpreted organizationally, schemes of church union have already been implemented, notably in Japan, the Philippines, and South India. It is significant, however, that united churches have tended to become so preoccupied with the increased housekeeping of an enlarged family that there has been no noticeably great recovery of mission, as was hoped for and predicted. Ecumenical spokesmen themselves have begun to decry the lack of missionary vigor in the churches that make up the ecumenical movement. It is not within the united churches that one generally finds rapid church growth, great evangelistic concern, or the deepest sense of community and fellowship. This in itself raises the question whether the nature of Christian unity has been clearly and biblically understood by the organized ecumenical movement.

Evangelicals who speak of the dangers of compromise and complacency inherent in organizational union have been slow to see that the unity for which our Lord prayed in John 17, even when interpreted spiritually rather than institutionally, is a “oneness” in order that “the world might believe.” Biblical “oneness” and world evangelization are interdependent. While evangelicals have correctly pointed out that Christian unity is a given unity embracing all who are truly “in Christ,” they have not generally shown sufficient concern over the Christian’s responsibility “to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). This is due in part to a failure to recognize that the “oneness” of believers, even though spiritual, must also be visible if it is to be convincing to a lost world. There is no necessary contradiction in a unity that is spiritual and visible at the same time. Jesus taught his disciples, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). It was love that made the early Church visible to the surrounding pagans who were compelled to exclaim, “Behold, how these Christians love one another!” Wherever believers are united in faith and love the Body of Christ can be seen.

This is the essence of truly biblical ecumenicity. It lies at the heart of that which believers must again experience and demonstrate through the Holy Spirit if the Church of Jesus Christ is to continue to grow as a creative and redemptive minority in Asia and throughout the world. Its principles were summarized from Scripture long ago by the great fourth-century preacher Chrysostom, who bequeathed to all ages these memorable lines that may be commended as strategy for Asia today:

A whole Christ for my salvation.

A whole Bible for my staff.

A whole Church for my fellowship.

A whole World for my parish.

T. Leo Brannon is pastor of the First Methodist Church of Samson, Alabama. He received the B.S. degree from Troy State College and the B.D. from Emory University.

Responsible Christian leaders in South Korea assess the current situation facing the Church there as more favorable than at any other time in the last fifteen years. Two major reasons exist for this optimism. The first is the lack of any serious organized resistance, religious or political, to the spread of the Christian faith. The second is a climate of renewed hope for stability and growth both in the Church and in the nation.

Korea is probably the only country in Asia where Protestant Christianity is the strongest organized religion. In few other mission fields has the growth of the Church been so spectacular. What was a handful of Protestant believers in 1885 increased to a community of 200,000 in only twenty-five years (1909) and to 675,000 in fifty years (1935–36); and by 1964 Protestantism, with an inclusive community of about 2,600,000, had become the most significant and apparently the largest religious force in the nation.

Today there is little formal opposition to its continued growth. The old religions are dying. About 80 per cent of the Korean people profess no religious faith at all. Religious membership claims vary. Some tables still show the Buddhists in the lead, but this is probably no longer true. In a recent army survey, for example, 10 per cent of the men claimed to be Protestant, 2 per cent Roman Catholic, 2 per cent Buddhist, and a surprisingly small 3 percent Confucianist.

The churches themselves do not claim that high a proportion of the general population. A reasonable estimate would be seven or eight Christians out of every hundred Koreans. That includes both Protestants and Roman Catholics, and by Western standards may seem small, but it is an extremely high ratio for Asia. Protestants may be about 7 per cent of the population, Buddhists 5 per cent, Roman Catholics 1.1 per cent, and Confucianists perhaps 2 per cent.

The government favors no particular religious group and grants complete religious freedom. It has even encouraged and supported an active Christian chaplaincy in the Korean armed forces, and there are 268 Protestant and 34 Roman Catholic chaplains in uniform.

Christian influence and leadership is all out of proportion to the Church’s statistical share of the population. Christians are in all circles of Korean society: the composer of the Korean national anthem, the minister of defense, the head of the farmers’ union, college presidents, orphanage directors, novelists, housewives, factory owners, nurses, radio stars, and shoeshine boys. There are Christians everywhere.

There are also churches everywhere. (But in North Korea not one organized Christian congregation is reported to be left.) The capital city, Seoul, has 250 Presbyterian churches alone. The largest of these is a congregation of 8,000 that by itself supports forty evangelists and two Korean foreign missionaries. Presbyterians, Methodists, the Salvation Army, and Episcopalians cooperate through the Korean National Christian Council. Until the recent divisions, the Holiness Church was also an important member of the council.

These divisions have been the most serious setback to Christian advance in Korea since the liberation of the country from the Japanese in 1945. The decade of division that followed the Korean War is mercifully drawing to a close, but it has done almost irreversible damage. It splintered the Presbyterian Church in Korea, one of the largest younger churches in the world, into four General Assemblies and a scattering of smaller dissidents. It broke the Holiness Church in two and split the Baptists. The causes of division were complex, ranging from Japanese persecution to theological differences and personal rivalries. But now, at last, the tempest seems to be quieting. The biggest and most belligerent separatist divisions, those supported by Carl McIntire’s far-right attacks on evangelical conservatism, are now fighting among themselves and splitting into ever-smaller groupings.

In the sturdier churches the slow work of reconciliation has begun. Despite the divisions that remain, church growth continues, and Protestants are turning from their separation to resume together the work, begun in 1884, of evangelizing Korea.

A nationwide, interdenominational evangelistic campaign is currently under way. Its goal is to penetrate the country’s present religious vacuum and to make Korea a significantly Christian nation by 1984, the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of Protestant work in that land.

Five major target areas have been selected: (1) rural Korea, where the Church’s numerical growth is threatened by severe economic distress; (2) industrial Korea, where a fast-growing secularized society is losing contact with the Church; (3) the universities, where the specter of future unemployment can easily turn Korea’s best-trained minds not to Christ but to the radical left; (4) the military, where the world’s fourth-largest standing army is an open mission field; and (5) the underprivileged, the poor, the sick.

The Korean church has the vitality and in great measure the resources for the task.

Korean laymen and laywomen are witnessing Christians. They have always been the cutting edge of Christian growth. Korea has more Protestant theological students than any other country in Asia, Africa, or Latin America. It has a network of Christian universities and colleges that are among the best in the nation. The largest women’s university in the world is a Methodist school in Korea.

Korea has the first Christian radio network in Asia (HLKY), and through another Christian station (HLKX) it reaches with the Gospel even into Communist China. It is now pioneering in Christian television. Its Christian hospitals are famous the length and breadth of the land—“islands of mercy in a sea of suffering,” they have been called. Converted patients from one such hospital alone, Taegu Presbyterian Hospital, have gone back to their villages to start more than one hundred new churches.

But to reach their ambitious goal, Korea’s churches will need help—they are asking for more than two hundred new missionaries in the next ten years—and they will need to work together.

The 1964 Olympic Games marked the climax of Japan’s efforts to reinstate herself as an influential member of the family of nations. Her astounding recovery to a level of prosperity unrivaled in the Orient, in spite of a great paucity of natural resources, is largely attributable to her people’s dexterity and keen mental ability. At the Olympics, for the first time since the war, the Rising Sun flag was flown everywhere without qualms, and the national anthem was revived as a symbol of achievement in international competition. The victorious athlete who brought glory to his nation, rather than the feudal warrior, now represented the true ideal of patriotism. Japan with its 96 million people seemed to be standing at the threshold of a new epoch in which she would assume a more definite role of leadership among the nations.

It must be recognized, however, that the dominant motivation of Japan’s recovery has been largely materialistic and secular. Nature and reason take precedence over spiritual values, and scientific progress determines the solution of all problems. Some of the “new religions” that claim to be scientific promise prosperity, good health, and happiness to their adherents and capitalize on the new nationalistic mood, which represents a revival of Japanese values. Soka Gakkai (Value-Creating Study Society), which already claims a membership of five million households, has become a religio-political party and is having great success in elections; it aspires to leadership of the government by 1970. Soka Gakkai has inherited the teaching of the great Buddhist patriot, Nichiren, which aims at the realization on earth of the oneness of the Law of Buddha and the Law of the State. It is intolerant of other faiths, including Christianity, and fanatically seeks converts through methods of intimidation when necessary. If totalitarian principles should again prevail in Japan, they would more likely be inspired by Soka Gakkai nationalism than by a revival of Shinto statism.

Rapid industrialization has drawn million of workers to the main urban areas, where adequate housing, roads, sewage systems, traffic facilities, and even water supplies are not yet available. Even more serious, the disintegration of family life, the demoralization of the young, the resort to violence and crime, and the feelings of loneliness and frustration—all common to a dislocated society—have become increasingly prevalent. It is estimated that two million abortions are induced each year. Many seek to escape from the realities of life through the mass communications media, sporting events, cheap amusements, gambling, and get-rich-quick schemes, all of which serve to strengthen the Japanese trait of detachment or non-involvement with the problems of public welfare. Hierarchical familism pervades the organization of industry, business, labor unions, and other areas of society. Thus the individual is often so enmeshed in a complex of loyalties that personal decision and initiative are difficult.

The Japanese mind tends to be tolerant toward all religions, which are usually regarded from a functional point of view. A person can belong to several faiths at one time. If a test is applied to any religion, it is likely to be a very pragmatic one, in accordance with the Japanese empirical genius.

The Growth Of Protestantism

Except for the 1880s, when the number of churches trebled and believers increased tenfold, Protestant growth has been at a slow but steady rate, with church membership barely doubling in the postwar period. Protestants number about 675,000, Roman Catholics more than 260,000, with an additional 100,000 in quasi-Christian groups. However, a religious census revealed that more than three million Japanese prefer Christianity to other faiths. Protestant denominations have more than doubled in number in recent years, with most of the new groups the fruit of labors of evangelical missions that have undertaken work in Japan since the war. Of the ninety-two denominations, sixty-two report memberships of fewer than 1,000 each, with fifty-one of these having fewer than 500 members. Only thirty groups report a membership over 1,000; of these, seven exceed 10,000, including the United Church of Christ (Kyodan), with nearly 200,000 members. The 5,472 Protestant churches reporting in the census are served by 5,348 ministers, not to mention the thousands of missionaries, making the proportion of full-time workers to church members very great indeed. However, the proportion in the Roman Catholic Church is even greater: in its 760 parishes it has 1,772 Japanese and foreign priests, 5,172 sisters, and other workers.

The Protestant churches are usually classified as “ecumenical” or “evangelical.” The first term refers to the largest denominations, which belong to the National Christian Council (related to WCC and the East Asia Christian Council); these comprise 60 per cent of the Protestant constituency. Aside from the nine denominations of the Evangelical Fellowship (5 per cent of all Protestants), the vast majority of the second group have no church federation or council relationship. However, many of the churches of both groups have participated in the various evangelistic campaigns, such as those conducted by the Rev. Koji Honda and by Dr. E. Stanley Jones and World Vision’s Osaka and Tokyo crusades. The Japan Keswick Conventions have drawn attendants from about sixty denominations.

Missionaries working among the older Japanese denominations usually join the Fellowship of Christian Missionaries (FCM). The missionaries of societies that are likely to be affiliated with the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association or the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association find their fellowship in the Evangelical Missionary Association (EMAJ). In the interest of a broad ecumenicity, some missionaries belong to both missionary associations.

The Protestant movement in Japan is so complex that it is difficult to evaluate. However, certain trends should be mentioned because of their significance for the future. Though the Church is but a little flock, its influence is proportionately great as it steadily penetrates deeper into the life of the nation.

The spread of the Gospel must be largely accomplished by lay Christians. It is encouraging to hear of the many laymen’s prayer groups that are evangelistic and the increasing number of churches that have teams of visitation evangelists. Another notable development is the growth of on-the-job evangelism. The basic principle here is that the Christian is an evangelist at work, as well as in the residence community. The Japan Christian Medical Association (JCMA), with 800 members, renders a unique service in medical evangelism. It publishes the magazine Medicine and the Gospel and sends medical teams to remote areas where they provide free medical service.

The Overseas Medical Cooperative Service of JCMA has already sent ten medical missionaries to Southeast Asia. The indigenous Japan Leprosy Mission, now the Association for Relief of Leprosy in Asia, is erecting a hospital in North India and plans to extend similar aid to other Asian countries. The East Asia Christian Council has sent missionaries from Japan in response to requests from sister churches. Eleven Japanese churches have at least fifty-seven missionaries working overseas: twenty-three in Asia, two in Africa, two in Europe, twenty-one in South America, and nine in North America.

About 60 per cent of the 1.5 per cent of total radio time for religious broadcasts is being utilized by Protestants. Where effective follow-up is faithfully carried out, the response is very good. Since practically all Japanese homes have radios and 88 per cent have television sets, evangelism using these media works. However, time must be purchased at high rates, and present sponsorship is inadequate.

Literacy And Education

Japan boasts one of the highest rates of literacy in the world and produces more printed matter than any other nation. Christian literature competes with high-grade material published by secular, leftist, and other religious groups. Christian publishers seek to use more and more of the 10,000 secular bookstores as outlets. The distribution of Scriptures since the war exceeds 35 million Bibles and portions. The Japan Bible Society utilizes colporteurs, churches, schools, and bookstores as channels of circulation. Tract-distribution efforts have been extended to all homes.

Protestants support some 226 schools at the university, secondary, and elementary levels, with a total enrollment of 186,329 and 6,136 teachers. These schools are fully accredited and belong to the National Christian Council-related Education Association of Christian Schools. In addition, there are 1,100 Christian kindergartens, 450 of them affiliated with local churches. Most of these institutions are largely self-supporting and are under Christian control; they strive for a Christian faculty, require Bible study, and have regular worship services and occasional evangelistic meetings. However, secular influences have tended to dampen their Christian influence.

The National Christian Council denominations have a dozen fully accredited theological schools, half of which are affiliated with the United Church of Christ (Kyodan), with a total enrollment of about 500 students. There are also forty-four evangelical schools, most of them of the Bible institute type, with an average attendance of about 21.5 per school. Most of them are handicapped by poor enrollment, inadequate facilities, low academic standards, lack of accreditation.

As Japan stands at the threshold of a new epoch, it is with a sense that she has a special role to play among the nations. She has the capacity to be the mentor of undeveloped nations. It has been said that as goes Japan, so goes all of Asia. As the keystone to the solution of the Asian problem, she is in a mediatorial position between East and West. God has ordered a vast sowing of his Word in this land during the last two decades. When he thus sows, it is because he is preparing a great harvest in his own good time. The people of God ought to focus their prayers on behalf of Japan before it is too Late.

When China became Communist a certain Mr. Lu, a Christian, was postmaster in a Chinese town. Informed that he must either surrender his Christian faith or give up his postmastership, he replied that the choice was easy. He gave up his position and retained his faith. Today his son is engaged in Christian work in Hong Kong, the listening post just outside the Bamboo Curtain.

Hong Kong is a British Crown Colony located at the mouth of the Canton River. In 1841 Britain acquired its initial foothold. In 1898, 355 of Hong Kong’s 391 square miles were leased from China for ninety-nine years. Red China still honors the lease, which has thirty-three years to run. She does so because Hong Kong is her window to the West and the port through which she funnels goods to secure much-needed dollars and pounds to support her economy. The largest bank in Hong Kong is the Communist Bank of China; there are also a dozen smaller Communist banks.

Every day from 200 to 500 immigrants flow into Hong Kong’s crowded territory, which supported nearly 3,600,000 people in 1963. Slums, refugee huts, immense housing developments, dope districts, and sampans dot the scene. Extreme poverty and wealth walk side by side.

More than threescore recognized missionary agencies operate in Hong Kong. Many American and English denominational and faith agencies have colleges, high schools, grade schools, rooftop schools, hospitals, and theological seminaries in this bustling city. The American Baptists have gathered hundreds and thousands of refugee believers from churches of south China into their crowded Hong Kong buildings. There are strong Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Southern Baptist churches there.

Hong Kong has more members in the Christian community than most Asian countries—7.4 per cent. It has a bright future for several reasons: the people are more responsive, the opportunities are great, the conditions are favorable to missionary work. Strategically located, Hong Kong may someday be a launching spot for a new spiritual assault on the Chinese mainland. With hundreds of Protestant missionaries at work in Hong Kong, God in his providence may use this area to fulfill his purposes for the 650,000,000 Chinese.

Taiwan, with more than eight million Formosans (Taiwanese) and more than three million Chinese from the mainland, is “a shabby, noisy, ill-fated island.” Here the government of the Republic of China is presided over by the aged General Chiang Kai-shek, who is a professing Christian. His Chinese soldiers live and die with little hope of regaining the mainland, and they face a bleak future without wives and other loved ones they left behind.

The government claims to represent the whole of China, but there have been no general elections for years. The number of living delegates had been so reduced that it was impossible to secure a quorum in 1960, and the Constitution was stretched to permit the reappointment of the President.

The Formosans feel deep resentment against the Chinese under whose aegis they live. The Chinese in return regard Taiwan as only a temporary stopover on their way back to the mainland. But that hope has been dimmed and interest diminished by the realities of life, leaving the soldiers depressed, frustrated, and disillusioned. Yet Taiwan has a viable economy, and American aid is no longer needed.

More than fifty missionary agencies are at work on an island of less than 14,000 square miles. With a Protestant Christian community of 2.3 per cent, there is room for much missionary work. The Presbyterians inaugurated a plan in 1955 (Ten Year Plan) by which they hoped to double their more than 1,000 churches by 1965. Some of the Christians on Taiwan feel that there are too many denominations and too many missionaries on their island. They stress the success of indigenous movements, like the “Little Flock” and “True Jesus” churches. The ministry of Lillian Dickson has been so successful that it attracted the attention of Reader’s Digest, which published her missionary story.

The political struggle over the question of the two Chinas and their relationships to the United Nations continues. The turn of events in that struggle will help to determine the direction of the missionary thrust. So long as Red China does not control Taiwan, the Gospel will continue to be preached. Like Hong Kong, Taiwan is a vital mission field that may someday be the site for a new missionary assault on China’s mainland.

Part II

In the cities of mainland China, such as Peking, Shanghai, Nanking, and Tientsin, Christian congregations have been concentrated into four or five representative churches. In Peking, for example, there is the Congregational Church in the East City, the Chinese Christian Church in the West City, the Methodist Church in the South City, and the Christian Assembly in the North City. Teams of ministers totaling as many as fifteen share the duties of conduct of public worship, preaching, and oversight. But not all of the ministers are “full-time”; many of them do part-time “productive work” in offices, in factories, or on farms.

In Nanking the principal theological college reportedly has eighty-five students and twelve professors. A non-Christian journalist friend who recently dropped in unannounced on Bishop K. H. Ting found him evasive and obviously “unbriefed,” to his embarrassment. This matter of “briefing” plays a large part in Communist strategy for misleading delegations that come to visit the churches. Hsiao Feng, the non-religious former Communist official I interviewed, had had the job of conducting briefing sessions and escorting the visitors on their travels. He said that as soon as it was known that permission had been granted to persons or delegations to visit churches or church leaders, discussion meetings were begun. The ministers in charge were told to prepare a list of questions likely to be asked by the visitors. Then “suitable answers” were discussed and drafted with the political cadre in charge. By this method the ministers visited knew what they could answer “spontaneously” without having to refer to the political cadre in the presence of the delegation or to consult a written memo. This unprejudiced information throws a different light on the many favorable reports brought out of mainland China by respectable individuals or delegations.

In conclusion let me try to evaluate recent reports from mainland China against the background that has been outlined “from the inside.”

In Part I of this article I mentioned the apparent concern of the authorities in Peking at the role religion might play in the growing political disinterest. This concern stimulated a series of debates in leading Communist periodicals on the general theme of “religion, superstition, and theism.” On the ultra-Marxist side, the chief protagonists were Yu Hsiang and Liu Chun-wang, who argued that “a Marxist-Leninist is the most thorough atheist and is opposed to all religion,” lumping together “religion, theism, and feudal superstition”; on the other side, dissociating “religion from superstition,” were Ya Han-chang (New Construction, No. 2, February 20, 1964), Tseng Wen-ching (People’s Daily, April 2, 1964), and Chou Chien-jen (Kwang-ming Daily, April 2, 1964). The official definition had been given as follows (People’s Daily, April 8, 1963):

Religion and superstition have their similarities. They also have their differences. All religious activities are superstitious activities. This is their similarity. But not all superstitious activities are religious activities. This is their difference.

Thus “superstition” is, in the official view, divided into two distinct categories: “religious” superstition, and superstitious activities which are “neither the activities of any religion nor any religion in themselves.”

“Religious superstition” is divided into two further categories, originally used by Engels: one is “spontaneous religion,” which includes ancestor worship, the worship of the lords of natural objects (such as sun, earth, wind, moon, rain, water, and fire), and the worship of various other gods and ghosts; the other is “artificial religion,” which includes Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Taoism. Superstition that is outside religion includes exorcism to cure disease, fortune-telling, physiognomy, and geomancy.

The chief reason given for the official objection to the “artificial religions” was “their next life theory”:

The afflicted, if they want to free themselves from suffering, must build up happiness for their “next life” and must wait till after death for their souls to rise to the “Kingdom of Heaven” (paradise) [People’s Daily, August 8, 1963].

The third prominent intellectual to come under vitriolic attack by the Communist regime in 1964 was one Feng Ting, whose crime was stated to be “bourgeois thought” and “subjective idealism” in his writings—especially in his book Communist Way of Life, which had a reported circulation of 860,000. In it he wrote:

If happiness means living a normal life, that is, living in peace without war, eating well, dressing beautifully, living in spacious and clean quarters, and having love and harmony between husband and wife and between parents and children, this undoubtedly is correct, as it is what we all pray for.

He was wrong. This is not what the Chinese Communists “pray for.” In their view, happiness goes hand in hand with revolution, and revolutionary ardor fades in a harmonious and peaceful environment. In the words of China Youth: “Apart from class, apart from the collective, there is no revolution, no communism, nor, naturally, any happiness.”

There were those, apparently, who were saying:

Seeking comfort and ease is common human nature. I once dreamed of a summer house on the beach of a blue sea, surrounded by linden trees, with snow-white sets of sofas and the best radios and televisions within and a small silver grey car outside.… Is not such a life the happiest?

But the true attitudes, acclaimed as “dazzling and brilliant thinking,” were really displayed by those who said:

Happiness means loyalty to the cause of mankind and the sacrifice of all things personal for the collective.… The standard of our happiness and misery is not material comfort or easy work but spiritual joy when serving the people [China Youth, No. 2, January 16, 1965].

Another article in China Youth carried a letter to the editor from a young married woman, Wang Hung, complaining of parents-in-law who are “intellectuals and religious believers.” Of a family reunion she says:

Before dinner, my parents-in-law wanted to pray, and, although they knew we young people were not religious minded, they asked us to stand up with them. At that time, being unwilling to stand up, I left the table, and returned to it after the prayer was over. My husband felt that it was right for one not to believe in religion, but did it matter, he asked, if I stand up with them for a while? Why should I make the old man and old woman unhappy?

The husband’s view was condemned in the editorial reply. Not only must revolutionary youths be atheists themselves; they must also do their utmost to change believers’ views to “the thought of Mao Tse-tung.”

The most recent and enlightening article to come out of mainland China is yet another from the verbose duo, Yu Hsiang and Liu Chun-wang (Kuang-ming Daily, March 7, 1965), in continuation of their “great debate.” Summarizing Ya Han-chang’s theories in previous articles, they state:

Comrade Ya Han-chang denies that religion is an ideology. His opinion is that a religion must have tenets, church rules and professional religionists. It must be something having organized public bodies to carry out its activities.… In his opinion, the struggle to speed up the extinction of religion is aimed at the extinction not of religious ideas in the people’s minds but of religious “organizations, public bodies and activities.” In his opinion, when religions with “organizations, public bodies and activities” have died out, then—regardless of how many people still believe in the soul, in ghosts and spirits and in God—it will be time to proclaim the extinction of religion, will it not? Hence there will be no more task to fight against religion, will there …?

On the other hand, Comrades Yu and Liu argue:

To make a distinction between systematized religion and superstition is of practical significance. It facilitates our giving discriminating and correct treatment to our work in accordance with the Party and state policies.… Through our work in various fields, we should intensify atheistic propaganda so as to release the masses from the shackles of religious superstition step by step. In this regard, we should not specially tighten our grip on the masses because they believe in the kitchen god or the door god. Nor should we relax our grip because they believe in God, Buddha, or genii. We can only deal with their religious superstition by means of persuasion and education. We must not ban it by the issue of administrative orders. In so doing, we give no special or preferential treatment to the believers in God, Buddha and so on. Neither do we do anything to inflict feelings of discomfort on the believers in the kitchen and door gods.…

Either way, whatever school’s views are accepted, the future outlook is bleak for organized religion in Communist China. It would appear that the only hope for Christianity lies in developing “underground home congregations” that will be, ironically, self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing—the very goals of the government-sponsored Three-Self Movement for the churches. This is my own conclusion, but it receives unexpected support from the non-religious former Communist official Hsiao Feng, who says: “During the land reform movement all the Catholic and Protestant churches in the villages and towns were closed, but ‘underground home congregations’ still existed. I wonder if it is not possible that in the future the ‘home congregation’ will be the most developed style of religious life.”

T. Leo Brannon is pastor of the First Methodist Church of Samson, Alabama. He received the B.S. degree from Troy State College and the B.D. from Emory University.

They number 10,000, but politically the islands of Southeast Asia fall into just two major groups: Indonesia and the Philippines. In addition, Malaysia bites hard into northern Borneo and Australia lays claim to eastern New Guinea. Rich in minerals and natural resources, rising in international stature, Indonesia and the Philippines are destined to play strategic roles in the future of the Orient.

The two island empires have more in common than the volcanic origin of their land holdings. They were peopled by the same basic Malayan stock, discovered by the same breed of intrepid Portuguese explorers, and evangelized for Islam by the same assault of itinerant Muslims, and they have striking similarities in culture, language, resources, food, employment.

But there are sharp differences as well. Roman Catholic influence fostered by Spain localized Islam in the Philippines, and the nation is today approximately 57 per cent Catholic. In Indonesia the Dutch Protestants arrived too late to stem the Islamic tide. Although Protestants hold majorities on some of the islands, the highly populated islands of Java and Sumatra are almost totally Muslim. Both Indonesia and the Philippines have significant Protestant minorities. Indonesia claims to have a Protestant community of (6,400,000, the Philippines more than 3,000,000.

In the Philippines the benevolent rule of American administrators during the first half of the twentieth century built up for the West and for democracy a reservoir of good will. On its troubled road to independence Indonesia played into the hands of Communism, and it is doubtful today that President Sukarno has either the will or the power to chart a course independent from that world evil.

Straddling the equator on a long arc from Asia to Australia lie the 3,000 islands of Indonesia. Only five can be considered major, but these five include substantial holdings on the world’s largest islands after Greenland—New Guinea (West Irian, Papua, Territory of New Guinea) and Borneo (Kalimantan, Sarawak, and Sabah). The other major islands, in descending order of size, are Sumatra, Celebes (Sulawesi), and Java. Indonesia is the fifth most populous country in the world. Two-thirds of its 98 million people are concentrated on Java, making that island one of the most densely populated areas of the world. Especially since World War II, there has been a strong movement toward the urban centers. Djakarta, the capital, has a population of over 3.4 million; Surabaya and Bandung both have populations of over one million. Four other cities have about half a million people each.

Bahasa Indonesia, a composite dialect built on a Malay base, is the official language of Indonesia. English has supplanted Dutch as the second language and is a compulsory subject in secondary schools.

Ninety per cent of Indonesians are Muslims. Bali’s population of one million is almost entirely Hindu. In a few areas, notably central Kalimantan, the people are pagan. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution, and Indonesia’s Muslims are not as fanatical as most of Islam. The East Java Church, numbering 50,000, is reputed to have the largest number of converts from Islam of any church in the world.

The dominantly Christian areas are Sulawesi (Celebes), Sumatra, and Ambon. By comparison with other Asian countries, Indonesia has several large denominations. In northern Sulawesi the Church of Minahassa has a membership of over 350,000. Nine out of ten persons in Minahassa are Christians. The Church of the Moluccas has 275,000 adherents. The inhabitants of the island of Ambon are almost entirely Christian. The membership of the Church of Timor numbers 295,000, which is half of the island’s population. The Batak churches of northern Sumatra have close to one million members.

While these are impressive figures, they represent a Christian community strong on the fringes of the archipelago but very weak on the metropolitan island of java. Moreover, the Church exists in what is probably the largest Muslim state in the world, and a strong Masjumai party is decidedly anti-Christian. Since independence, the strong financial assistance once received from the Dutch government has been denied those belonging to the Protestant Church of Indonesia, once a state church, and some of the congregations are facing financial crises. More recently those same churches have experienced an embarrassing loss of young people to the Communist cause.

No adequate understanding of Indonesia is possible without an understanding of Sukarno, the man who personifies Indonesia. Active in the resistance movements against Dutch colonialism, Sukarno spent nine years in jail, stooped to become head of the Japanese puppet government during World War II, and emerged as head of the Indonesian revolutionaries by the time of the 1949 independence. With considerable skill he gained and held the loyalty of the Indonesian people, meanwhile effecting a series of constitutional changes that have made him dictator in fact if not in name. In world politics he has leaned ever farther to the left, and has now passed the point of no return. Aging (he is 62) and ailing (kidney disease), he has bankrupted his fabulously rich kingdom and brought the Far East perilously close to war in the pursuit of his personal aggrandizement and ambitions.

Missionaries are free to pursue their work in most of Indonesia, although deteriorating communications and runaway inflation are increasing irritants, and missionaries may no longer reside in eastern Kalimantan (Borneo). The flow of new visas has dried to a trickle, but as yet no efforts have been made to bar missionaries who return from furlough within the space of their return permits.

Can missions and missionaries weather the present and future tribulation in Indonesia? The calculated guess is affirmative, although considerable harassment is almost certain.

The Philippines are a triangular cluster of 7,000 volcanic islands that stretch 1,152 miles north and south between Formosa and Borneo. In area they exceed New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware combined. Luzon on the north and Mindanao on the south are the largest of the islands.

The population, estimated at 30 million, ranges from primitive to highly cultured. Manila is a thriving metropolis with a population of three million. It reportedly has more college and university students than any other city in the world.

Discovered by Magellan in 1521 and possessed by Spain and the Roman Catholic Church for three centuries, the Philippines were ceded to the United States as part of the treaty ending the Spanish-American War. They attained independence in 1946. During nearly two decades the Republic of the Philippines has been the showcase of democracy in the Far East, its windows not always transparent but certainly not completely shrouded either.

To the church of Rome Protestant missionaries owe both a debt of gratitude and a vote of censure. It was Catholicism that stopped Islam’s penetration of the islands, but it was Catholicism’s determined priesthood that ruled for three centuries and still holds the majority in fear of sacerdotal retribution.

One church group listed as Protestant is the hard-to-classify Philippine Independent Church, with a membership of a million and a half. Popularly known as Aglipayan, after Father Aglipay, its early leader, it broke away from Rome in 1902 and is moving steadily toward closer communion with Protestants. It is the largest non-Catholic denomination in Asia.

Nationalism in the Philippines has developed slowly but inexorably. Several recent incidents involving American military personnel in the Philippines have depleted the reservoir of good will toward America.

There are some conditions highly favorable to the spread of evangelical Christianity in the Philippines: a large existing church, the anticlerical attitude and the nominality of many Catholics, great opportunities among the responsive tribal populations, a high degree of literacy, and the aggressiveness of lay Christians. Philippine Protestant churches may be expected to play an ever growing role in the evangelization of the archipelago as well as in the evangelization of the Orient.

New Guinea, the second largest island in the world, was discovered by the Portuguese in 1511. Because of the trying climate, rough terrain, and ferocious inhabitants, great portions remained unexplored until the past decade. Many of the people still have a Stone Age culture, and large areas remain dangerously savage.

The western section of New Guinea is governed by Indonesia and is called West Irian. The coastal church of West Irian, established more than a century ago by Dutch Reformed missionaries, is very large. In the more recently opened interior areas, there are large groups entering the Christian faith.

Eastern New Guinea, now called the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, is administered by Australia. It has the largest and fastest-growing Protestant church body in the South Pacific. In some areas, 40 per cent of the people are Christian.

The islands of Southeast Asia represent a continuing challenge to the Church of Jesus Christ. It is only reasonable that Christendom should press its advantage in areas that have been responsive to the Gospel.

Several factors are important to a consideration of Christian missions in Southeast Asia. First, Theravada Buddhism is an almost impregnable bastion. Secondly, the Japanese occupation resulted not only in the destruction of church and mission property but also in the wanton slaying of many church leaders and the consequent falling off in church membership. Thirdly, Christian broadcasting is not permitted in any of these six countries, though the Gospel is beamed into all of them from Manila.

Of special significance is the presence of a small but immensely influential Chinese minority, resented by the host countries but receptive to the Christian message. The East Asia Christian Conference, affiliated with the World Council of Churches, has been functioning in this area since its inauguration at Kuala Lumpur in May, 1959. In Burma, Malaysia, and Thailand there are active Christian councils under national leadership of high caliber.

American missions predominate throughout the six countries. British missions have made a significant contribution in Burma and Malaysia. Continental missions have played a very minor role. Prior to World War II there were no interdenominational faith missions in this area.

A country plagued with insurrection, bloodshed, corruption, and inflation, Burma has alternated between civilian and military rule ever since independence in 1948. Committed to socialism at home and neutralism in foreign affairs, the government has resorted to ever increasing restrictions to maintain its equilibrium. Nationalism has been particularly strong. Travel restrictions have interfered with church and mission work. Visas for new missionaries are granted only when it can be proved that no qualified Burmans are available to fill the positions.

Though freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution, the government made Buddhism the state religion in 1961 and is committed to its defense and propagation. Two-thirds of Burma’s 22 million people are Buddhists. Animists number almost seven million. Of the 1,300,000 Christians, 14 per cent are Roman Catholics. The overwhelming majority of converts have come from the animistic tribes, 60 per cent of them from the Karens. Converts from Buddhism do not number more than 15,000. The Bible is now available in seven major languages.

The Baptist churches in the tribal areas are among the strongest churches in Asia. Self-supporting and self-governing, they are more than holding their own in the face of government restrictions, insurgent activities, and competition from the Buddhists. The American Baptist Mission, largest in Burma, is fully integrated with the all-inclusive Burma Baptist Convention.

Religion In Malaysia

The Federation of Malaysia, formed in 1963, comprises four former British colonies: Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, and North Borneo (Sabah). The population of 11 million is divided among Malays (42 per cent), Chinese (38 per cent), Indians (9.6 per cent), tribes (10.4 per cent). The Malays are Muslim. The Chinese are Buddhist. The Indians are Hindu. The tribes, located mostly in the eastern area, are animist. Islam is the state religion. Although the constitution guarantees religious freedom, missionary work among the Malays is prohibited by law. Only in recent years has any concerted effort been made to evangelize the 700,000 Tamils.

Some 600 new villages in Malaya, carved out of the jungle as a security measure during the civil war in 1918, presented a unique missionary opportunity. A Christian witness has been established in half of the 400 non-Muslim villages.

The Methodists, with 361 churches and 189 national ministers, are by far the largest denomination. Working in conjunction with this church are 231 missionaries from America, England, the Philippines, Switzerland, and India. Methodist schools enroll more than 70,000 students. Religious instruction is prohibited in mission schools. Moreover, only 60 per cent of the teachers are Christian. The Anglicans are the only other sizable church. Two Lutheran churches are now autonomous.

Singapore, with a population of 1,650,000, of which 76 per cent is Chinese, has scores of Christian churches. Trinity Theological College, an ecumenical institution, prepares ministers for the Methodist, Anglican, Lutheran, and other denominations. Singapore Theological Seminary does the same for the more conservative churches.

After the evacuation of China in 1950, several new missions entered Malaya. The largest of these is the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, which now has 170 missionaries in more than thirty centers.

In Sarawak mass movements have taken place in recent years among the Iban and Dayak tribes. In Sabah Christians number 65,000. Of these, 36,000 are Dusan, 5,000 Murut, and 24,000 Chinese. The Borneo Evangelical Church, comprising about 200 congregations, became autonomous in 1963. The Anglicans and Plymouth Brethren also have well-established work there.

An Unproductive Field

Thailand has proved to be one of the most unproductive mission fields in this part of the world. Today, after 130 years of effort, the Protestant community totals a little more than one-tenth of 1 per cent of the population of 28 million.

Thailand is a priest-ridden country. Buddhism dominates every aspect of its life. Every male citizen is encouraged to spend at least three months in a monastery, and government employees are paid during this time. As the state religion, Buddhism is identified with patriotism. To be 100 per cent Thai, one must be a Buddhist. The people are extremely friendly and polite, and in theory there is a form of religious tolerance; but in practice embracing Christianity is considered traitorous.

The American Presbyterians have been the dominant mission in Thailand. With headquarters in Chiengmai, where they have five institutions besides a church, they have built up the largest group of Christians in the country. Known as the Church of Christ in Thailand, this church was organized in 1934. Since 1957, when church and mission were merged, Presbyterian missionaries have been known as fraternal workers. Membership is about 20,000. In 1964 this church sent out its first missionary, to the Iban people of Sarawak.

The only other mission with a significant work dating back to prewar days is the Christian and Missionary Alliance, with resident missionaries in fifteen provinces in the eastern part of the country. After several decades of gospel preaching, there are 1,200 baptized believers in about 100 congregations, most of them in the rural districts. A systematic Bible training program, with both short- and long-term schools, is helping to build a strong indigenous church.

An extremely high incidence of leprosy—one out of twenty—has prompted the missions to specialize in leprosy work. At one time the Christian and Missionary Alliance had forty clinics, but in recent years the government, with help from the World Health Organization, has taken over many of these clinics. The splendid McKean Leprosy Colony in Chiengmai has pioneered in therapeutic and rehabilitation methods.

A score of missions have entered Thailand since the war. The largest of these is the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, which now has 230 missionaries in three main areas: the tribes in the north, the Thai people in the central plain, and the Muslims in the south. Two hospitals have been opened.

Scripture distribution in 1962 reached 767,240 copies, an increase of 70 per cent over previous years. In 1964 the American Bible Society, through its Bible-a-Month Club, placed Bibles in 20,000 Buddhist temples.

In Cambodia the Christian and Missionary Alliance for many years had the field to itself. Its program included the Alliance Press, a Bible school, and, of course, evangelism and church-planting. In thirty-five years only 400 people have been baptized. The Bible in Cambodian was published in 1956. Cambodia’s flirtation with Communist China has resulted in a strong anti-American sentiment that has adversely affected missionary work. Only two missionary families remain, and they will be out by 1966.

In the war-torn kingdom of Laos, missionary work is confined to the narrow strip in the west that is still free. Three missions share the field. The largest is the Christian and Missionary Alliance, working in the north. Thousands of Christians are now found among the Khamou and Meo tribes. The Gospel Church in Laos became autonomous in 1957. Missionary Aviation Fellowship planes carry missionaries to and from isolated stations surrounded by rebel territory.

The Swiss Brethren have a church of 1,000 members based on three main stations in the south. Their work includes a Bible school and a leprosarium. The Overseas Missionary Fellowship, which entered Laos in 1958, planned a major drive to evangelize the unreached tribes in the east; but the civil war has hampered operations. A revision of the Lao Bible is in progress. Most of the Christians in Laos are from the tribes.

Incredible as it may seem, missionary work in South Viet Nam continues with comparatively little disruption. Several missionaries are being held by the rebels, and others have been killed; but the work goes on. The Christian and Missionary Alliance, largest mission in the country, reported that 1963 was a record year for baptisms. The Central Bible School at Nhatrang has the highest enrollment in forty years. A second Bible school, for tribes, carries on at Dalat. The Evangelical Church of Viet Nam, autonomous since 1927, has a baptized membership of over 25,000 and is sending its own missionaries to the tribes.

In the past decade other missions have begun work in South Viet Nam, among them the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade and Wycliffe Bible Translators.

There has been no missionary activity in North Viet Nam since the partition of the country in 1954. The indigenous church (Alliance) continues to carry on a modified form of witness under the usual restrictions imposed by a Communist regime.

T. Leo Brannon is pastor of the First Methodist Church of Samson, Alabama. He received the B.S. degree from Troy State College and the B.D. from Emory University.

South Asia has little more than one-tenth the land mass of Africa, and yet it contains about double Africa’s population—a total of some 582 million people—making it one of the most densely populated areas of the world. The countries under review in this essay are: India, 450 million; Pakistan, 99 million; Afghanistan, 14 million; Ceylon, 10 million; Nepal, 9 million; and Bhutan, 700,000.

The two major nations of the area—India and Pakistan—became independent in 1947, to the accompaniment of widespread killings that led to the migration of several million from minority groups. Nearly twenty years later, deep enmity and tension between India and Pakistan continue to erupt in border incidents. And India faced further border problems in 1962 when China invaded her territory.

Constitutionally, India is a secular republic, and it is as diverse as Europe in its ethnic, cultural, and linguistic groupings. Its 450 million people are dispersed throughout twenty-five states and territories. Fourteen major languages and more than seventy other languages and dialects are spoken. Portions of the Bible have been translated into these languages, and the whole Bible is available in twenty-three languages. Attempts to implement the constitutional adoption of Hindi as the national language from 1965 on have been resisted by the southern states, and English continues to be used for interstate business and for higher education.

Asia’s two great religions had their birth in India: Hinduism, which now has 360 million adherents, and Buddhism, which spread throughout Southeast Asia as far as Japan. Other religious groupings make up the balance of the nation. In the Punjab, men of the Sikh community are recognized by their beards and the turbans covering their uncut hair. In Bombay, descendants from the ancient Zoroastrians, called Parsis, are noticeable for their fair complexions. In Kerala, South India, over 800,000 Christians of the ancient Syrian church communities look back to their ancestors of the second century who became Christians. The 47 million Muslims in India who did not emigrate to Pakistan after it became an Islamic state total nearly as many as all those in the Middle East.

India is a land heaving with flux and change. The contrasts between rich and poor, educated and illiterate, advanced industrial developments and primitive agriculture, present a bewildering picture to Western visitors. In the streets, villagers with bundles on their heads dodge taxis carrying American-trained students from the airport terminal.

Rapid industrial expansion has made India increasingly self-supporting in consumer goods. Cotton and silk, woolen and synthetic fabrics, are produced in sufficient quantities to clothe the entire nation. Members of the newly emerging middle class are seen clutching their transistor radios and riding their Lambretta scooters. At the other end of the scale are some 300 million poverty-stricken people whose main concern is food. Food grain shortages became serious in 1964, and the specter of famine ever looms. In spite of government-sponsored family planning, population growth surpasses potential food supplies, even when they are supplemented by imports.

Social and religious changes have taken place with unprecedented rapidity. The government of India in its massive “civil rights” program did its best to give equal opportunity to all, and legally banned untouchability. The secularizing process of education, scientific thought, and the streams of students and visitors traveling between India and the Western world have greatly altered the thinking of “moderns.” Socially they remain in their religious groupings, but in mind and heart they are very like the Greek and Roman intelligentsia of the early centuries A.D. who had ceased to believe in the gods of their pantheon. This disintegration of belief was a prelude to the great movements into the Christian faith several centuries later. Will this happen in India?

The Christian Gospel had been proclaimed in Kerala, South India, by the second century A.D. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Roman Catholic missionaries were successful in the Portuguese enclaves, and some intrepid pioneers traveled north to the court of Akbar the Great. In the nineteenth century Christianity made some of its greatest gains. In “mass movements” whole communities became Christian, particularly in the Punjab (now West Pakistan), in Bihar among the Adiavasis (now numbering some 500,000), in Assam, where whole tribes are now Christian, and in South India. According to present statistics, the Christian community numbers about 14 million; fewer than half are Roman Catholics.

Despite various gloomy forecasts, church growth continues with greater momentum than had been thought possible. One bishop of the Church of South India casually mentioned that 1,000 converts had been baptized in his diocese in 1964. Former high-caste peoples in Andhra join the Christian Church regularly. Indian Christians in all walks of life communicate the reality of Jesus Christ to their non-Christian neighbors; there is, for example, a Goan colonel who gave his Hindu major an “imitation of Christ” as they faced the Chinese in the Himalayas, or a Christian thoracic surgeon in a government hospital about whom colleagues say, “He is a dedicated man who believes in life beyond death.”

Christianity’s influence is greater than its numerical strength. Many present-day leaders have been educated in one of the several hundred Christian high schools or colleges. Christians hold responsible government and business positions. One is governor of an important state; another is chief personnel officer in the largest industrial undertaking in India. The Christian ethic has been accepted as a standard of behavior by many who would oppose the unique claims of Jesus Christ. Monogamy is now the norm, and many Hindus have come to monotheism from previous polytheistic beliefs.

The large majority of Protestants belong to the older churches. Evangelical missions, which expanded after World War II, have not yet developed a sizable church constituency. To strengthen true witnesses in existing churches is an urgent task for evangelicals.

Problems Of The Churches

The problems of most churches are spiritual and ethical rather than theological. Thus the theological conflicts of North America arc largely irrelevant in India. This also accounts for the growth of such groups as the Evangelical Fellowship of India, based on a burden for spiritual renewal and revival rather than an “anti-ecumenical” attitude.

Churches in India have their own problems. These include syncretism, which cuts the nerve of evangelism; lack of Bible teaching for the churches in rural areas as well as in new suburbs; compromise by conforming to the world for the sake of a job or economic betterment; and timidity, which avoids evangelism and witness for the sake of “peace and quiet.”

In answer to these problems, such programs as the following are receiving attention: Members of the Council of Evangelists of the Evangelical Fellowship of India are constantly engaged in evangelistic campaigns and Bible ministry throughout India; the demand is greater than the supply of personnel. The Union Biblical Seminary, Yeotmal, is training Christian leaders at the B.D. level in the foundational truths of the Christian faith. The Christian Educational Evangelical Fellowship (CEEFI) has embarked on an intensive program to provide a fully graded curriculum for Sunday schools and to train teachers in a Christian education program. In the area of mass communications, some forty Christian publishers and bookshops handle an increasing volume of evangelical literature, and radio programs are taped in all major languages and flown to the Far East Broadcasting Company in the Philippines for shortwave transmission to India.

Two neglected doors of opportunity are evangelism and pastoral work in the many new industrial cities, and the production of evangelical literature for the modern mind.

India’S Neighbors

Pakistan, with 99,000,000 people, is the world’s largest Muslim land. Many of the modernizing tendencies that are now current in South Asia are also at work in Islam, though at a slower rate, for Islam is more rigid than Hinduism or Buddhism. Pakistan’s flirtation with China may produce deeper anti-American feelings and have an effect on Christian work.

Pressures from Muslim leaders have resulted in the banning of several Christian apologetic works that had been freely circulated over the past forty years. Not long ago a shooting affair by Muslim fanatics in a Christian bookstore heightened the fear of Christians that violence may break out against them.

Numbers of Christians have recently emigrated from East Pakistan to India, not primarily because of religious persecution, however, but for agricultural reasons.

In Christian schools it is now compulsory to teach Islam as a subject to Muslims, although the Christian faith can likewise be taught to Christian students.

A general timidity characterizes the Christian community. This must be pushed aside by boldness if the Church is to avoid becoming an introverted community, more concerned for survival than expansion.

Afghanistan remains, with Saudi Arabia, one of the few Muslim countries in which no national church exists. As a result of long and patient witness by Christians in local employment, Christian institutions may soon receive official recognition.

In the last decade Nepal has seen the birth of its first churches at the price of jail sentences for some involved in their establishment. One pastor is still in jail.

Bhutan’s door is creaking open for the first time with an invitation to Christian teachers and medical personnel to enter in a professional capacity.

In Ceylon, where the religious situation resembles that in India, recent changes in government will give greater liberty to the Christian churches.

The work of Jesus Christ in the vast area of South Asia can be summarized in the words of Kenneth S. Latourette, “Vigor amidst storm.” The greatest opportunities for church expansion still lie before us.

T. Leo Brannon is pastor of the First Methodist Church of Samson, Alabama. He received the B.S. degree from Troy State College and the B.D. from Emory University.