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CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN JANUARY 



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CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN JANUARY 



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^^ From the General Board. At its November gathering the General 
Board of the denomination acted to join Project Equality, heard a 
study on equality for women, debated ownership of government bonds. 

Q In South Asia - "A World That Wants to Help." The immense 
proportions of Asia's new dilemma — the plight of Pakistan's refugees 
in India — are complicated because "a world that wants to help does 
not really know how." by Ronald E. Keener 



10 



The Paradoxes of the Moderator. The whole Christian experience 
raises in Dale W. Brown a concern for the suffering people of the 
uorld that leads to his parado.x: "Miking my job and being extremely 
happy with my family, yet passionately unhappy with the injustices 
of our world." by William H. Kuenning 

A Statement Regarding Abortion. In a working paper prepared 
by the .Annual Conference committee appointed to study the question 
how the church should regard abortion, biblical, theological, ethical, 
and medical considerations point to some answers. Reader response 
is encouraged through a Discussion/Survey Checklist. 



<^> Going on Faith in the Ghetto. Fiscal burdens beset a community 
hospital ministry supported by the Church of the Brethren, by Gregg 
W. Downey 



In Touch profiles Billy Lewis, Navajo pastor; Nathan Miller, legislator; 
and the Harry Brandts, lifelong communicators (2); "Celebration Is the 
Name, Joy the Motivation," a review of recent books, by Paul E. Alwine 
(23); "Events 72," observances to consider in congregational planning 
(24); and an editorial, "Brethren and the Burgeoning Arts" (28) 



EDITOR 

Howard E. Royer 

ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

Ronald E- Keener ' News 
Wilbur E. Brumbaugh / Design 
Kenneth I. Morse / Features 

ASSISTANT EDITOR 

Linda K. Beher 

EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Richard N. Miller 



VOL. 121, NO. 1 



JANUARY 1, 1972 



PHOTO CRF.niTS: Cover arlwork by Mike 
Norman: 2 flcfi) Merle Crou.sc: (right) Ron- 
.iWl E. Keener: 2. 4, 5. II. 12. 18. 21 Don 
flonick: 8 Heft) courtesy of UNICEF; (right) 
courtesy of Church World Scr\icc 



Messenger is the off]ci.Tl public.ition of the 
Church of tfie Brethren. Entered as second- 
class matter .^ug. 20, 1918, under -Act of 
Congress of Oct. 17. 1917. Filing dale. Oct. 1. 

1971. Messenger is a member of the Associ- 
ated Church Press and a subscriber to Reli- 
gious News Ser\ice and Eciuncnical Press 
Ser\ice. Biblical quotations, unless otherwise 
indicated, are from the Re\ ised .Standard 
Version. 

Subscription rates: $4.20 per year for indi 
\idual subscriptions: .$.1.60 per year for chiudi 
group plan: 5.1.00 per year for every hoitie 
plan: life subscription. .SfiO: husband and wife. 
S7'i- If \ou mo\e clip old address from Mes- 
senger and send with tu-w address. 
\llov\ at least fifteen days for ad- 
flrcss change. Messenger is owned 
.111(1 published twice monthly by the 
f;hurch of the Brethren General 
Board. 1451 Duniiec .Ave.. Elgin. III. 
nOi20. Second-class postage paid :u 
Elgin. 111.. Jan. I, 1972. Cop\right 

1972. Church of the Brethren General Board. 



i 



HEALTH CARE AND BROTHERHOOD 

The Church of the Brethren should be 
both humble and proud to be associated 
with Bethany Brethren and Garfield Park 
hospitals and the related health care facil- 
ities. . . . These facilities give the people of 
their community, who are poor and happen 
to be black, the opportunity to have the 
same kind of health services which have 
long been available to the white and more 
affluent people. 

I have felt a lack of interest on the part 
of the people of the Brotherhood since the 
transition from an all-white, middle-class 
community with an all-white hospital, to a 
poor, predominantly black community with 
a hospital having an integrated staff and 
mostly black patients. . . . 

As a graduate of Bethany Hospital School 
of Nursing, a long-time employee at the 
hospital, and, after being away for a number 
of years, becoming a short-term employee 
there each year for the past several years, 
I feel that the real meaning of service is 
being demonstrated in the Bethany Brethren 
and Garfield Park hospitals community. I 
find the experiences I have there, including 
my contacts with patients and personnel, 
very exciting; and I always have the desire 
to share this excitement with others. There 
is a continuous drama taking place with 
many people, both black and white, playing 
a part. 

One of these people ... is Vernon Show- 
alter, former administrator of Bethany 
Brethren Hospital and now executive direc- 
tor of both hospitals. . . . His dedication and 
untiring efforts have resulted in i;ood health 
care for many who perhaps otherwise would 
have had none, and there is continuously 
being added means of providing still better 
and more inclusive health care. 

What has resulted from the work of this 
man, many other dedicated and interested 
people, and the local church is what, I be- 
lieve, "real brotherhood" is all about, and 
those who have not been touched by it, at 
least in a small way, have really missed 
something that is very good. 

Martha G. Andlregg 
Kalamazoo, Mich. 

NOT DELIBERATELY PATERNALISTIC 

You have pulled together in a fine way 
various people's feelings on the possible re- 
turn of missionaries to Communist China 
(Dec. 1). One point leaves me with a bit 
of a guilty conscience. This point is our 
comments on former missionary work being 
paternalistic and imperialistic. This was cer- 
tainly true, and still is in many parts of the 
worldwide missionary enterprise. 

The early missionaries started with the 



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premise that everything Christian was good 
(inchiding our American cuUure); and ev- 
erything Confucian or pagan was bad (in- 
cluding most of the Chinese culture). The 
net result was to downgrade everything 
Confucian, and upgrade everything under- 
stood as Christian. The pattern was set, 
and the older missionaries did not realize 
at all how judgmental and paternalistic this 
made them appear to outsiders. Yet they 
were entirely sincere, dedicated, and sacri- 
ficial people. 

Perhaps it should be added that they were 
unaware of this side effect of their work, 
or unwittingly continued in a pattern long 
after world events had changed and cul- 
tural attitudes had developed an openness 
that many of them did not have. I am 
simply trying to make it clear that the 
missionary enterprise did not deliberately 
set out to be paternalistic or imperialistic; 
but wound up there more than most of us 
like to admit. 

Wendell Flory 
Waynesboro, Va. 

STRIKING A CHORD 

"The Laws of Men and the Law of God" 
(Oct. 15) is truly the most beautiful article 
I have ever read on father-son relationships. 
... It struck a deep chord within me that 
I have thought about during the past 22''2 
years, but never so seriously as tonight. 

As my eighteenth birthday approached in 
1949. I was struggling for ninety days with 
the question of registering for the draft. I 
somehow felt that those very few at that 
time who chose prison instead of alternative 
service were right. 

A day or two before my birthday I read 
an article on how much more could be con- 
tributed to my fellowmen if one chose to 
work in an area of need instead of spending 
those years in prison. It made some sense 
to me. and it seemed the easy way out. so I 
registered and four years later volunteered 
for I-W work in La Plata, P.R., where my 
wife and I served for two years. Yes, we 
had opportunities for service in those two 
years; yes, we did occasionally make some 
worthwhile contributions; yes, it was worth- 
while; yes, it did make us e.\tremely aware 
of human needs. 

But ... I wonder . . . even tonight, just 
22>/2 years after I made the decision to 
register. . . . What IF I had chosen the 
route Ted [Click] has chosen; what if my 
contemporaries had chosen not to be part 
of the draft. . . . Would there have been 
a Vietnam as we know the tragedy today? 

You see, I finally recognize tonight that 
I took the easy road and have passed on to 
Ted, and maybe to my own sons, a task I 



failed to do. It is tnily an example of 
forcing our children to deal with the prob- 
lems which we avoided by running, by run- 
ning backward, and in the years that have 
followed we have seen thousands suffer and 
die in Korea and Vietnam .... 

God, what have I done? Has my omis- 
sion caused death? 

Ted, we love you, we know you are right 
and truly a messenger of God. Christ will 
grant you the reckless courage needed in 
the days ahead. 

Ralph W. Lugbill 
Fairfax, Va. 

ON A HIGH LEVEL 

1 am always interested in what readers 
write regarding their approval or disap- 
proval of Messenger. I decided that I 
should say my piece. 

I read regularly quite a number of reli- 
gious, educational, business, and news peri- 
odicals. In my judgment. Messenger stacks 
up very high among them all, in terms of 
its journalistic quality, its format, and the 
content of the material. 

I am particularly impressed with three 
qualities which Messenger exhibits: (1) 
the broad coverage — from personal news 
to religious news to exegesis — which you 
are able to include; (2) the artistic and es- 
thetic quality of the magazine makeup; and 
(3) the objective and incisive forward-look- 
ing nature of the editorial content. 

Certainly, among the great varieties of 
articles, there will be those which appeal 
more to me, or which parallel my thinking, 
more than others. There will be those with 
which I disagree; but that is unimportant. 
The Gospel needs broad interpretation, ex- 
tensive "airing," and the kind of readership 
which elicits challenging discussion. I com- 
pliment you. 

Harold Fasnacht 
La Verne, Calif. 

HE MEANT WHAT HE WROTE 

When Murray Wagner says (Nov. 1 ) that 
I did not mean what I wrote (about the 
influence of communism in the denomina- 
tion), he is one hundred percent wrong. . . . 
I do not belong to that synthetic profession- 
al group which says one thing and means 
another, or which says something is a fact, 
well knowing it to be false. I meant literally 
and actually what I said, not only as to that 
portion of my letter you published, but also 
as to the portion not published. . . . My con- 
demnations are blunt . . . hoping to get our 
. . . leadership back on the Christian 
line. . . . 

Ernest A. See 
Keyser, W. Va. 



■ In this issue you have a special op- 
portunity to make your voice heard as 
a Messenger reader. A lift-out report 
deals with one of the more crucial ques- 
tions Brethren face: arriving at a policy 
on abortion that is enlightened by the 
highest values of the Christian faith. 
After reflecting upon the statement in 
process, you are invited to respond to 
the brief checklist on page 17 and to 
forward your reply with or without 
comments to the Study Committee on 
Abortion. 

The publishing of this advance draft, 
followed by a bibliography and a ques- 
tionnaire, represents a desire to apprise 
as wide a segment of the church as pos- 
sible of the issues at stake. The hope is 
that before some 1 ,000 delegates come 
to grips with the completed report at 

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Annual Conference in June, individuals 
and groups throughout the Brotherhood 
will have searched openly and thor- 
oughly for insight and direction. 

The approach points, too, to the in- 
terest of Messenger editors in estab- 
lishing a wider dialogue with readers. 
Toward this end, we invite the sharing 
of your responses not only with the 
Study Committee but with the Messen- 
ger as well. On this and other key 
topics the magazine earnestly seeks to 
enlarge its fonmT role. 

Writers of other articles in this issue 
include William H. Kuenning of Lom- 
bard, 111., whose view of Moderator 
Dale W. Brown comes as a neighbor 
and Quaker peace activist; Gregg W. 
Downey, whose article on Bethany 
Brethren and Garfield Park Community 
hospitals appeared originally in Modern 
Hospital magazine; Paul E. Alwine, 
pastor. First Church, Roanoke, Va.; 
James hi. Wall, editor. Christian Ad- 
vocate, a United Methodist publica- 
tion; and Edith Mae Afcrkey. on the 
staff of the Lybrook Navajo Mission, 
Cuba, New Mexico. 

The Editors 



1-1-72 messenger 1 




,\ 



Billy Lewis: Navajo pastor 



The new pastor of the Lybrook Chris- 
tian Fellowship in New Mexico is Billy 
Lewis. One of his goals is to help his 
Navajo people overcome the hesitation 
and fear of involvement they ha\e had 
both in the church and in the wider 
community. 

Reared in a family of thirteen in the 
Cuba, N.M.. area. Billy had his child- 
hood training in the Christian Re- 
formed Church. He became a member 
toward the close of his high school 
days. 

In 1964 he graduated from Inter- 
mountain Trade School in Utah as a 
draft engineer. He soon discovered, 
however, that this was not his top in- 
terest. He pursued other work, includ- 
ing a stint in the Air Force. From 
1967 until this past spring he attended 
various colleges, among them Arizona 
State University and Cook Christian 
Training School. 

While in college Billy participated in 
camp meetings, campus crusades, and 
gospel teams promoted by Cook 
School and missions. Three years ago 
he committed himself to Christian 
service in behalf of his people. Last 
spring he accepted the position of lay 
pastor at Lybrook for he saw in it an 
opportunity to render such service. 

"Lybrook is a great place to work." 



he commented after he, his wife 
Wanda, and son Shawn were several 
months on the scene. "It has fine goals 
if only the Navajo can see them and 
get his feet off the ground. It takes 
much explaining. But not until people 
understand can they move forward." 

He is pressing for the Indian com- 
munity to strive for self-determination, 
beginning within the church fellowship. 

"The potential is here," Billy de- 
clares, "but we have to get over wait- 
ing for someone else to tell us what to 
do or to be the first to try. Our people 
must realize the mission can't do 
everything — it needs to be fifty-fifty 
missionaries and natives." 

As he aspires for greater coopera- 
tion, Billy Lewis also advocates can- 
dor; that is. bringing out into the open 
old problems that too long have been 
camouflaged. 

On the empowerment of Indians in 
■American society in general, he is sup- 
portive if "self glory" does not get in 
the way. "The movement is great." 
the young pastor responded, "as long 
as it is for all the people and not for 
just one segment." — Edith Mae 
Merkey 



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1 i , 



Nathan Miller: Legislate 

Among delegates to be seated in the 
General Assembly of \'irginia in Jan- 
uary is a 28-year-old layman of the 
Church of the Brethren. Nathan H. 
Miller. 

A lawyer. Nathan became a candi- 
date for the office only five weeks 
before the November general elec- 
tion. He was invited to enter the race 
after another Republican party 
candidate withdrew. 

In the legislature he will be one of 
two representatives of the Sixteenth 
District, comprised of three counties, 
Rockingham. Shenandoah, and Page, 
including the city of Harrisonburg. 
The term is two years, invoking a 
60-day session this January and a 
30-day session a year later. 

Unmarried. Nathan is a member of 
the Bridgewater Church of the Breth- 
ren. He is vice-chairman of the 
church board and has taught post 
high youth. He also is president- 
elect of the Alumni Association of 
Bridgewater College, where he grad- 
uated w ith a degree in economics in 
\965. 

Beyond church and college, 
Nathan has sung with the Rocking- 
ham Male Chorus, worked with 
Jaycees of Harrisonburg and the 
Rotary Club of Bridgewater, and par- 
ticipated in the local Project Concern, 
which is organized to extend oppor- 
tunities to underprivileged children 



2 MESSENGER 1-1-72 



through such programs as day camp, 
recreation, and a Saturday Adoption 
project. 

For the past two years, since at- 
taining a law degree from the Univer- 
sity of Richmond, he has been an as- 
sociate in a Harrisonburg law firm. 
An appointive position which he is 
terminating with the new responsibil- 
ity is the judgeship of the municipal 
court in Timberville. 

The election campaign itself was 
virtually nonissue-oriented, Nathan 
explained, largely because none of the 
four candidates had records to 
defend. 

When confronted by voters with 
questions about his youthfulness, 
Nathan was quick to admit to inex- 
perience. But while making no prom- 
ises, he expressed his eagerness to 
serve the community and state by 
working hard and striving to assert a 
positive influence in the legislature. 




The Harry Brandts: Lifelong communicators 



When Harry A. Brandt "gets tickled" 
about something, his tanned face 
creases and his eyes snap mischie- 
vously underneath their generous lids. 

Mr. Brandt got tickled when, on 
his first visit to the denominational 
headquarters since 1947. someone 
inquired if he could "take stairs" one 
flight down to the historical library. 
A slow smile and those twinkling 
eyes accompanied a nudge of my arm. 
He whispered conspiratorially: "My 
problem is, Tm eighty-six!" 

And with that, the onetime man- 
aging editor of Gospel Messenger 
stepped quickly down the stairs to the 
library where he might inspect the 
copies of his books stored there, and 
books written by his wife of two 
years. Lucile Long Strayer Brandt. 

The Brandts had been longtime 
friends, from the summers twenty-five 
years ago when Lucile read manu- 
scripts in the Gospel Messenger of- 
fice. Their careers diverged, hers to 
a lifetime of teaching — "my first 
love" — at Mount Morris. Bridge- 
water, and La Verne colleges and at 
Hillcrest School in Nigeria; his to a 
lively retirement in which he has 
pursued interests in writing poetry 
and essays. A student of haiku, the 
seventeen-syllablc Japanese form, 
Mr. Brandt devised an entire book, 
parts in the traditional western mode, 
parts in haiku, to illustrate some dif- 
ferences between two ways of com- 
municating. 

The Brandts have strong feelings 
about communication. The former 



editor comments. "The dearth of 
knowledge about the Bible creates a 
communication gap between writers 
today and older persons. Modern 
writers' allusions are different." More 
adamantly than her husband, Mrs. 
Brandt expresses dismay at what she 
feels is a disregard for the classical 
writings and languages that were her 
staples in school and later in teaching. 

When the Brandts had left the 
Elgin headquarters for their home at 
La Verne. Calif.. I borrowed from 
the library Mrs. Brandt's Anna Eliza- 
heih. 17 and Mr. Brandt's The 
Japanese-American Haiku Tourna- 
ments. The language of each volume 
contains a vitality and a craftsman- 
ship, reflecting well the lively intel- 
lects of two whose art has long been 
communication. 



M-72 MESSENGER 3 



From the General Board 



VOTING TO JOIN PROJECT 

1 EQUALITY, the Church of the 
Brethren General Board in 
I November reversed the posi- 
tion it had taken in June. Board members 
asked a review in two years of participa- 
tion in the national organization. 

Possible denominational membership 
in Project Equality has occupied the 
board for two years and last summer 
came before the Annual Conference as a 
congregational query. At that time the 
delegate body sustained the board's rec- 
ommendation that the Brethren refrain 
from full membership but confront its 
suppliers with Project Equality guidelines 
for fair opportunity employment and 
buying practices. 

The matter came under a second re- 
view when the church's professional staff 
strongly voted its disappointment at the 
Conference action and asked the board's 
executive committee to reconsider the 
issue. In taking the action, the Brethren 
join some 400 area and national religious 
bodies in 23 states in Project Equality. 

The staff, in bringing its rational for 
reconsideration, stated: "The board's rec- 
ommendation was illogical. It is mathe- 
matically impossible to add all the posi- 
tive factors of the board's expressed feel- 
ing about Project Equality and arrive at 
the negative conclusion which it did" — 
the recommendation that was acted upon 
at the St. Petersburg Conference. The 
new action comes in light of the Annual 
Conference directive last year for contin- 
uing consideration of Project Equality by 
the board and by congregations, and will 
appear as part of the board's report to the 
1972 Conference. 

In stating some reasons for member- 
ship, the staff called it '"the strongest and 
most effective program of its type to ap- 
pear on the horizon." They noted too 
that "membership commits us to do in 
deed what we have said in words. It pro- 
vides a systematic way of making con- 
crete our good intentions." 

.Some concern was raised for belonging 
to Project Equality and paying the fees 
when the denominational offices are al- 
ready striving to meet the guidelines in 
its purchasing and employment practices. 
Brethren have always maintained that 



their word is as good as their bond, said 
one staff executive, but now they want to 
substitute their bond for their word. 

There was an uncertainty whether in 
joining Project Equality the denomina- 
tion was required, or merely encour- 
aged, to hire persons of minority races at 
all levels of its structure. The prevailing 
"white character" of the denomination 
might prevent this. The Illinois-Wiscon- 
sin executive, whose district is allied with 
Project Equality, assured the board its 
autonomy is not at stake. One board 
member. Dr. Jesse Ziegler of Dayton, 
Ohio, said he was prepared to vote for 
the employment of non-Brethren profes- 
sional staff when the need and opportu- 
nity arises. 

Dr. Dale W. Brown, the current church 
moderator, said that on this issue the 
church appears more anti-ecumenical 
than on many other issues in recent years. 

The World Ministries Commission ex- 
ecutive, Joel K. Thompson, saw Project 
Equality in the role of a consultant and 
said "we as Brethren need help in this 
area and Project Equality is one source of 
help." 

At least four of the 22 districts of the 
church are known to be participating in 
Project Equality. 



EQUALITY FOR WOMEN, 

2 under study for nearly two 
years, will be looked at by 

I General Board program units 

for recommendations on implementation 
of the ten requests and thrusts brought 
forth. Still, the board did affirm that the 
paper was a "basis of getting ahead with 
the correction of acknowledged discrimi- 
nation of women" and asked the commit- 
tee to refine sections — especially on 
biblical foundations — in light of the 
board's discussion. 

Aside from the ten implementing rec- 
ommendations, the paper held numerous 
suggestions for developing awareness of 
the issue and the leadership potential of 
women, for changing the portrayal of 
women in media, and for changing dis- 
criminatory practices under law. Of the 
recommendations referred by the board 
for examination, those not under its pur- 




Noncy Peters: Correcting discrimination 




David Rittcnhoiise: Concept of wholeness 




Rosa Page Welch: Sorry for white women 



4 MESSENGER 1-1-72 



view were sent to appropriate church 
agencies. 

The main focus of the recommenda- 
tions dealt with the creation of a full- 
time staff post, filled by a woman, for 
self-realization of women in the church; 
balanced representation by sex in com- 
mittees, delegations, and nomination 
processes; women awareness trainers; 
women's studies at church-related col- 
leges and the seminary; additions regard- 
ing women to the Keysort Card File; and 
church support of the Equal Rights 
Amendment bill. 

To have accepted the report's recom- 
mendations outright, some persons felt, 
would have bypassed consideration of 
feasibility of implementation within the 
church's budgeted resources. Some of 
the recommendations are already being 
implemented, noted General Secretary 
S. Loren Bowman, and others will now 
require recommendations for action from 
program units. 

A few of the board members spoke to 
the document from their own profession- 
al disciplines: Dale W. Brown, Lombard, 
lU., seminary professor, on the weakness 
of the section on women and the Bible; 
Wayne B. Zook, Wenatchee, Wash., 
physician, on the lack of biological and 
emotional considerations between the 
sexes; sociologist Leon C. Neher, Quinter, 
Kan., on what he saw as confusion of 
dignity of human worth with social roles; 
and attorney Robert M. Keim, Somerset, 
Pa., on questions concerning a portion 
critical of the protection of women under 
the law. 

One perspective came from the only 
black person and non-Brethren on the 
board, Mrs. Rosa Page Welch of Chi- 
cago. "For the first time I feel myself 
feeling sorry for white women," she said, 
noting the "extreme protection" given 
white women by men. Black families 
have been matriarchal, she said, because 
the manhood of the black man has been 
put down and the black woman has had 
to take the lead in work and family. 

Highpointing the different perspec- 
tives among the board, David B. Ritten- 
house, pastor of five rural churches in 
Appalachia, observed that "your prob- 
lems are really not problems of women 
Lve known the best." 

"I feel sad that there are people who 
have never captured the concept of 



wholeness in their life," he said, noting 
that he has not found the humanness 
among liberated women as he has found 
among the women in West Virginia. 
"Let's acknowledge that there are some 
very wholesome and healthy people in 
the traditional family," he urged. 

But Dr. Jesse H. Ziegler, Dayton, Ohio, 
called the report "winsome, brilliant, in- 
sistent, nonthreatening, but calling for 
change." Calling himself to penitence, 
he said, "I have consistently been a part 
of what the committee calls attention to." 



GOVERNMENT BOND owner- 

3 ship by the church, like the war 
that bonds are said to support, 

I may be winding down, but not 

wmdmg up — as some persons are urg- 
ing. Replying to the 1971 National 
Youth Conference resolution calling on 
the church to dispose of all government 
bonds, the General Board rejected a pro- 
posed reply from its investment commit- 
tee and asked the Administrative Council 
to bring further options in March for 
handling fiscal operations without the use 
of bonds. Board members also called for 
the investment committee to consider 
selling any stocks held with the dozen top 
corporations supplying war materials. 

The rejected proposal would have put 
the board on record as reconfirming its 
opposition to war, not purchasing addi- 
tional bonds as long as the national bud- 
get is so heavily military oriented, per- 
mitting the sale of bonds held as cash 
needs arise, and opposing immediate liq- 
uidation of the remaining bonds held. 

Board views ranged from those who 
sought to dispose of the $617,933 in 
bonds held by the church "as a witness to 
the nation" for peace, to those who saw 
the bonds supporting many good things 
of government. Other arguments against 
disposal included the cash liquidity on 
short notice of the bonds, the loss that 
would be suffered in the sale of the bonds, 
and the fact that $259,880 of the total is 
pledged for a Bethany Seminary loan. 

One staff member challenged the as- 
sumption that the bonds are a means of 
financing the war, but rather lend sta- 
bility to the government. Another indi- 
cated that the cash put into a savings ac- 
count could be invested by the bank in 
bonds anyway, and that the church owed 



a fiscal responsibility to donors of the 
money in not risking a financial loss in 
any premature sale of the bonds. 

"The government bonds in the invest- 
ment portfolio are not considered war 
bonds," noted the board's investment 
committee, "but are issues which were 
put out from time to time for general 
government operations, including pro- 
grams that we enthusiastically support." 

Many of the bonds held by the Breth- 
ren were purchased in the 1950s, and no 
further purchases have been made since 
1965. During the past fiscal year the 
church sold half a million dollars in gov- 
ernment bonds. 

Likely to come before the Cincinnati 
Conference next year is a query from 
Southern Ohio that the church investi- 
gate payment of the telephone tax and 
the holding of U.S. government securities 
which are believed to support war. 




'i^uilM'x 



Nigeria Committee. 1 to r: C. Bieber. D. 
Stent. M. Croiise. H. Rover. J. Grimlev 



FIFTY YEARS IN NIGERIA 

4 will be observed in 1973 by the 
Church of the Brethren, a cele- 
I bration which may take various 
torms. Suggestions placed with General 
Board program units for possible imple- 
mentation include special highlights in 
Messenger and Agenda, special Sunday 
bulletins during the year, a commemora- 
tive pictorial book on the culture and 
traditions of the peoples of the North- 
Eastern State, a tour of Nigeria, a film- 
strip, and receiving Nigerians in the U.S. 
for deputation. Annual Conference lead- 
ership, and fellowship. 

The primary' focus of the celebration 
should be on the development of the Ni- 
gerian church, decided a committee of 
Charles M. Bieber, Merle Crouse, John 



1-1-72 MESSENGER 5 



B. Grimley, Howard E. Royer, and 
Donald L. Stern. 

"This is an opportunity to become bet- 
ter acquainted with the Nigerian people 
and nation of today and to see the Church 
of Christ in the Sudan, Lardin Gabas, as 
a responsible church living and witnessing 
in that context." 

The committee saw the anniversary as 
an occasion for "expressing our joy for 
these relationships and for what God has 
wrought during 50 years of working 
together." 



THE NEED FOR NEW RELA- 
TIONSHIPS between the 

A ■ Church of the Brethren and 
the Lardin Gabas (Eastern 
District ) of the Church of Christ in the 
Sudan was illustrated in discussion by the 
General Board's World Ministries Com- 
mission in light of a constitution adopted 
in 1970 by the Lardin Gabas Church giv- 
ing it an independent, indigenous status. 

While the change in status little affects 
the work of the Brethren with Lardin 
Gabas, it is now clear that the latter's 
organizational relationship with the de- 
nomination is no longer that of a district. 
The stance of continuing relationships 
between the Brethren and the Nigerians 
are being worked out by field staff. 

"I do not sense any desire to break 
bonds of fellowship," said Joel K. 
Thompson, World Ministries executive. 
"I experienced only the joy and enthusi- 
asm of persons who felt that they have 
now come of age and who wish to work 
and serve the church in ministrv' togeth- 
er." Mr. Thompson recently made an 
administrative visit to Nigeria. 

He stressed the continuing goals and 
involvements which the U.S. church will 
have in Nigeria, the current new medical 
program — Lafiya — being one ex- 
ample. The Lardin Gabas action follows 
the 1955 Annual Conference action that 
Brethren missions become independent, 
national, and indigenous churches. 

"The challenge for us in the years 
ahead is to now accept the fulfillment of 
the mandate of Conference 1 6 years ago 
and to rejoice with our brethren around 
the world as we accept their desire for 
and realization of belonging to their own 
church which is a part of the total body 
of Christ," Mr. TTiompson said. 



THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 

6 will engage the General Board 
at its March meeting, when the 
I Brotherhood and Bethany The- 
ological Seminary staffs will bring recom- 
mendations for interim and long-range 
financing of theological education in the 
denomination. The suggestions will aim 
at dealing concretely with the financial 
responsibility assigned the board by the 

1971 Annual Conference for the semi- 
nary's fiscal solvency for the 1971-72 and 
1972-73 budget years. An interchange of 
discussion and models for financing the- 
ological education in the church has been 
occurring between the Bethany and Elgin 
staffs. 

The study committee appointed by An- 
nual Conference plans to make its pro- 
posals in February to the seminary board 
of directors to be recommended to the 

1972 Annual Conference. In March the 
General Board and the Study Committee 
will evaluate the proposals. 



SEVEN NEW PERSONS sat on 

7 General Board for the first time 
since their election in June at 

I the St. Petersburg conference: 

Ilia Ridlt Addiniitou ■ 58, manager for 
22 years and, since August, director of 
member relations of Mason-Dixon Em- 
ployees Credit Union operating at 49 lo- 
cations in 15 states, Kingsport, Tenn. 
Kingsport congregation. General Serv- 
ices Commission. 

Robert A. Bycrly ■ 56, executive direc- 
tor. University Center at Harrisburg, Pa. 
Former pastor at Big Creek, Okla., and 



Kokomo, Ind., and Bible professor at 
Elizabethtown College. Resident of 
Camp Hill, Pa.; member, Harrisburg 
First church. Trustee, Elizabethtown 
College and Camp Swatara. Parish Min- 
istries Commission. 

Samuel H. Flora, Jr. ■ 48, pastor, 
Waynesboro, Pa.; formerly at North Bal- 
timore, Md., Morgantown, W. Va., 
Pleasant Valley, Va.; was Second Vir- 
ginia district executive from 1958-63. 
1971 chairman of Waynesboro Ministe- 
rium. General Services Commission. 

Dean L. Frantz ■ 52, church relations 
director, Manchester College, North 
Manchester, Ind, since 1964. Former 
pastor at Pleasant Hill, Ohio, and Mount 
Morris, III. On Bethany Seminary faculty 
for seven years. North Manchester con- 
gregation. World Ministries Commission. 

David B. Ritteuhoiise ■ 40, pastor. 
Five Houses of Pocahontas congregation. 
Resides in Dunmore, W. Va. Served 
three years in Ecuador, and in Germany 
and Turkey with Brethren Volunteer 
Service. Shenandoah District board 
member. World Ministries Commission. 

Robert L. Strickler ■ 56, pastor, West- 
ernport, Md. Former pastorate at Gaith- 
ersburg, Md., 1959-68. Current West 
Marva district moderator. Parish Min- 
istries Commision. 

Wayne B. Zook ■ 44, general practice 
physician, Wenatchec, Wash. Former 
flight surgeon, U.S. Air Force. We- 
natchee Valley congregation. Former 
General Board member, 1963-68; district 
moderator, 1968-69. On United Min- 
istries district study committee. General 
Services Commission. 




New board members 
scanning; at^enda jor 
November gathering: 
back row, I to r, 
Robert Byerly. Dean 
Frantz, David Ritten- 
house, Robert Strickler. 
Front, I to r, Wayne 
Zook, Ina Ruth 
Addington, Samuel 
Flora 



6 MESSENGER 1-1-72 




IN A RESOLUTION ON PAK- 
ISTAN, the General Board ex- 
pressed "its deep conipassioQ 
and sympathy for those mil- 
lions ot Its fellow human beings who are 
the victims of this massive human 
tragedy." 

The resolution, affirming one earlier 
adopted by the General Board of the Na- 
tional Council of Churches, urged the 
"U.S. government to increase substantial- 
ly its support for the work of the U.N. 
High Commissioner for Refugees in East 
Pakistan, its contribution to relief etiorts 
among the growing millions of refugees 
in India, and its effort through diplomatic 
channels to end the conflict and achieve a 
peaceful and equitable political settle- 
ment." Suspension of economic and mil- 
itary aid to Pakistan was also asked. 

Emergency disaster funds of $39,500 
were voted for use in Pakistan Refugee 
Relief, of which $5,000 may be used 
domestically for diplomatic steps aimed 
at carrying out the intent of the resolu- 
tion. With previous disaster funds given 
for the East Pakistan cyclone disaster and 
for the Pakistan Refugee Relief in India, 
the Brotherhood's total commitment to 
date comes to $50,000. 

An additional $5,000 in disaster funds 
was voted for aiding through Church 
World Service India's Orissa State struck 
on Oct. 29-30 by a cyclone and tidal 
wave. 



I REJECTION OF THE FOREIGN 

mM AID authorization bill by the 
^^ U.S. Senate on Oct. 29 directly 

I affected agencies with which 

the Church of the Brethren works in ma- 
terial aid efforts, specifically Church 
World Service, Heifer Project, Inc., and 
International Voluntary Services, Inc. 

Kenneth I. McDowell told the World 
Ministries Commission that the four 
Brethren material aid centers are almost 
completely dependent on continuing 
ocean freight reimbursement to ship relief 
materials since the other agencies would 
not have budgeted funds. "Likewise, we 
would not have funds to ship the quan- 
tities of medical supplies which we re- 
ceive from Intcrchurch Medical As- 
sistance for medical program in India 
and Nigeria," said the community devel- 
opment consultant. 



[LQDIldlSD^DDDl]^ 



PEOPLE you KNOW 



Continuing education and business 



achievements were criteria for the naming of Louise Woods 
of Ankeny, Iowa, as American Businesswoman of the Year. 
Mrs. Woods is a member of the Ankeny congregation. 

F. Willard Powers , Mount Morris, 111., has been ap- 
pointed to the new U.S. Postal Service Advisory Council, 
generally regarded as among the most important appointive 
positions in government. 

Becky Swick Day at Pleasant Hill, Pa., honored adult 
volunteer Rebecca Swi ck , reported to be "riding on a cloud" 
after tJie presentation to her of a Jeep and other gifts by 
her home congregation. She has served five years in parish 
work at Midway, Tenn. 

Placed in Kentucky by the Mennonite Central Committee 
for a two-year assignment are Paul and Mary Esh , members 
of Trinity Church of lihe Brethren, Detroit, Mich. 

Cited by World Ministries Commission for fourteen years' 
service in Nigeria were Dr_. and Mrs . Beryl McCann , whose new 
address is 816 N. Ninth St., Durant, Okla. 74701. 

Former BVSer John Jehnsen , the son of Nappanee, Ind. , 
Service Center director Ernest Jehnsen, was killed in an 
automobile accident in mid-November. 



AFTER FIFTY YEARS 



anniversaries : 



Mr. 



. Celebrants of fiftieth wedding 
and Mrs. John Metz, Ambler, Pa.; the 



George W_. Geibs , Manheim, Pa. ; the Robert L_. Byrds , 
Bridgewater, Va.; and Mr_. and Mrs . Vernon Brubaker , Adel, 
Iowa. 

We salute other couples who are observing anniver- 
saries: the Ralph G. Ra ricks , Elkhart, Ind., fifty-four; 
the Ervin Weavers , North Manchester, Ind., sixty; Mr_. and 
Mrs . Edward Schwass , Ambler, Pa., sixty; the Clarence 
Weber s , Dallas Center, Iowa, sixty-two; and Mr_. and Mrs . 
Clarence B. Rhodes , Martinsburg , Pa., sixty-six. 

WE GOOFED '. And our faces are red. Apologies are 
due Maynard Shelly , whose article "The Superstar Who Was 
Jesus Christ" (Oct. 15) was incorrectly attributed to 
another author. Maynard, former editor of The Mennonite, 
is with the Mennonite Central Committee in Pakistan. 

And while we're at it, we discovered that the address 
of Barbara Bechtel , listed in the same October issue as 
one Manchester College student attending Brethren Colleges 
Abroad, is not Boise, Idaho, but is Linthicum Heights, Md. 

CONGREGATIONAL COLLAGE . . . Two congregations of Breth- 
ren recently celebrated anniversaries of founding: North- 
view church at Indianapolis, Ind., marked a seventieth 
year Nov. 21, and First Central church in Kansas City, 
Kans., inaugurated a year-long observance of its seventy- 
fifth birthday with a Thanksgiving celebration. 

Twelve persons at Trinity Church of the Brethren , De- 
troit, Mich., have made a commitment to fast as a religious 
discipline, challenged by young people who attended Nation- 
al Youth Conference. Funds from the fasting will be 
divided between community needs and national or interna- 
tional needs as determined by the youth. 

1-1-72 MESSENGER 7 



psoDaD [rsp(Q)[rt^ 






In South Asia— 
'A world that wants to help' 



bv RONALD E. KEENER 



Ihe horror that has swept East Pakistan 
and the human burden placed upon 
northern India can be communicated by 
imagining the total evacuation of New 
York City. 

Since last March, when a dispute en- 
sued beween East Pakistani leaders, the 
newly elected majority party Awami 
League, and the Pakistani government. 
10 million East Pakistanis have crossed 
the border to India in the wake of army 
policies that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy 
and others have called genocide. More 
than 200.000 social, civil, and political 
leaders of East Pakistan have been killed 
since March. 

American journalist Leon Howell has 
observed in East Pakistan that with the 
immense proportions of the conflict, "a 
world that wants to help does not really 
know how." 

His eyewitness report caused him to 



reflect too that "even humanitarian relief 
has political content. Concerned individ- 
uals and groups have been confronted 
once again with the futility of bringing 
sustenance to people in need when the 
political ramifications destroy the human 
charity." 

Not that past natural and man-made 
disasters haven't had their political impli- 
cations. The Nigerian civil conflict is a 
classic and most recent example. 

One supporter of the East Pakistan lib- 
eration forces observed: "There is no way 
foreign agencies can bring in food here 
that will not give the martial law author- 
ity greater control. By feeding us you 
undercut the revolution that is the only 
solution here." 

Revolution. Not a comfortable word 
or concept for many Brethren and other 
churchmen. But for the more perceptive 
readers of what is occurring in that part 
of the world, revolution in the form of an 
independent Bangladesh ("the country of 
Bengal") is becoming the goal of freedom 



fighters in East Pakistan. 

Had West Pakistan, having 40 percent 
of the population of the geographically 
split country but dominating the political 
and economic life of the nation since it 
was formed in 1947, allowed the Awami 
League to govern the country, something 
short of independence might have 
occurred. 

Church of the Brethren refugee relief 
efforts have been channeled largely 
through India, where the politics of the 
situation are less intense but nonethe- 
less present as India finds her economy 
pushed to its limit by the spiraling costs 
of aiding the refugees. Per capita each 
refugee in India is receiving in food, 
clothing, and medicines more than the 
"average" Indian citizen's daily income. 
On top of this lies the fact that the ref- 
ugees are concentrated in one of the most 
volatile areas of India with high unem- 
ployment and a low political flashpoint. 

Yet while the primary thrust of the 
Brethren is in direct relief — totaling 
$39,500 thus far in disaster funds — the 
diplomatic and political aspects of the 
situation are being approached, too, with 
the appropriation of $5,000 to be used 
in connection with efforts to end the 
conflict and achieve a peaceful and 
equitable settlement. 

The needs are apparent on both sides 
of the India-East Pakistan border, but 
more difficult when Pakistan won't 
officially recognize its own internal strife. 




As one person has observed, the gov- 
ernment of Pakistan has warned that any 
international organization that attempts 
to intervene in East Pakistan under the 
guise of humanitarian assistance will be 
in effect supporting "Indian aggressive 
designs and interference in Pakistan's 
internal affairs." The conclusion: Plainly, 
no agency will, or at least should, be 
willing to get into the position where 
their action can be used as an excuse for 
a worsening of relations between India 
and Pakistan. 

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of the Sen- 
ate Subcommittee on Refugees and Es- 
capees in early November told a group of 
officials from church, relief, and politi- 
cally concerned agencies that by the close 
of the year 200,000 children below 
eight years will have died. 

The gathering was an informal con- 
sultation on the American response to 
East Pakistani events, attended for the 
Church of the Brethren by H. Lamar 
Gibble, peace and international affairs 
consultant, and Ronald E. Keener, 
Messenger associate editor. Among the 
reports they heard: 

Dr. •Lincoln Chen, famine and nutri- 
tion specialist: Famine in East Pakistan 
has not developed, but pockets of starva- 
tion do exist now. 

Bruce Laingen, Department of State 
country director for Pakistan and 
Afghanistan: TTie U.S. has not been the 
major supplier in arms to Pakistan since 




1965 and since then has contributed only 
a small part to equipping Pakistan mili- 
tarily. 

Edward C. Dimock Jr.. University of 
Chicago: The Pakistan we've known since 
1947 is in fact dead. There is no way in 
which Bengal can return to the state of 
edgy coexistence with West Pakistan. 

Maharajakrislma Rasgotra, Indian Em- 
bassy political affairs minister: It is di- 
versionary to transform the situation into 
an Indian-Pakistan question and ask 
United Nations intervention. The prob- 
lem has arisen from the suppression by 
the military government of the expression 
of open elections. 

S.A.M.S. Kihria, Bangladesh Mission 
chief political officer: In eight months, a 
point of no return has been reached in 
now seeking anything short of inde- 
pendence. 

Peter Frelinghiiysen. New Jersey Con- 
gressman: The East Pakistan crisis is "the 
sleeper crisis of the 70s," drifting deeper 
into chaos. 

(A Pakistani Embassy representative 
refused to appear at the consultation on 
the same program as the Bangladesh 
Mission "conspirators.") 

From the consultation will come a con- 
tinuing group working at providing in- 
formation regarding the humanitarian 
needs of the crisis, promoting a debate 
concerning possible political solutions to 
the problems, and encouraging coopera- 
tion and information exchanges between 
those in humanitarian and political work. 

Despite the declaration of the Indian 
Embassy official that all of the refugees 
must one day return to East Pakistan, the 
facts of the situation make that develop- 
ment improbable. 

Many might return to an independent 
Bangladesh, but many more will never 
return — especially the 75 percent of 
them who as Hindus fear extermination 
by the Muslim troops of the Punjab. 

"As I hid in the paddy," one man is 
said to have observed, "they came to my 
village and tore off the loungis (sarongs) 
from the men. If they were uncircum- 
cized (meaning they were not Muslim or 
perhaps Christian, but Hindu) they were 
shot on the spot." 

Dr. J. Harry Haines of New York, 
executive secretary of the United Meth- 
odist Committee for Overseas Relief, 
likens the conflict to a civil war and 



discounts any interpretation of it as a 
religious war. Still, one speaker at the 
consultation finds it more akin to the 
American revolution than to War 
Between the Slates. 

Christians form a relatively small 
minority of the Pakistani population, and 
fully one third of them are now in Indian 
refugee camps. 

Dr. Haines believes that if the refugees 
keep coming into India, and if there is no 
way for them to return to Pakistan, war 
with Pakistan may become India's only 
way to solve its dilemma. This is indeed 
the ever growing concern. 

The refugees are not India's responsi- 
bility, but there is no escape. The vic- 
tims of West Pakistan's repression of the 
eastern wing of the country are now 
India's burden — perhaps for years. 

Life in the refugee camps remains in- 
tolerable. One report puts it graphically: 
"People sit like automatons. The chil- 
dren, even the youngest, are deprived of 
childishness, infants are skull faces on 
skeleton bodies, the adults paralyzed in 
resignation, bodies defeated by the physi- 
cal ordeal, minds and hearts by terror." 
And in the more settled, healthful camps, 
where the death rate is less of a worry, 
the concern grows for the birth rate. 

Should international relief agencies 
make the effort in East Pakistan as they 
have in India with the refugees? 

"Probably so," concludes journalist 
Leon Howell, "but only if this does not 
lull the world into thinking that the real 
solution is not political. 

"An experienced Catholic priest work- 
ing in the Khulna area most destroyed by 
the military barked in an emotion-filled 
voice: 

" "The ones who are clearly starving to 
death, the ones who will continue to 
starve, are those who are being hunted, 
who can not come out to claim their 
morsel even from the relief agencies. 
And the only way to save them is to stop 
the himting.' " 

One World Council of Churches writer 
reflected that "the situation in Pakistan 
raises many of the tensions between 
justice and service in a very dramatic 
way but perhaps most of all it points to a 
very humbling insight. Could it be that 
sometimes Christian obedience must in- 
volve suffering in not being able to do 
very much?" n 

1-1-72 MESSENGER 9 




M\(n)d(B\rm^(Q)\r 



A profile of Dale Brown 



^^alc BrowTi's jutting jaw. which he 
thrusts almost in your face, is aggres- 
sively friendly. He approaches you to 
let you in on the story of his latest en- 
counter: On a recent trip he had a 
chance to become acquainted with a 
young Brethren. 

"And then I discovered." Dale says, 
'"that his two heroes are .-^rt Gish and 
Ronald Reagan!" 

Dale chuckles as you exclaim over 
the obvious contradiction of a young 
nonconformist Brethren itinerant 
preacher and the highly conservative 
governor of California. Then he inter- 
rupts. 

"But when you listen to the man's 
philosophy, it makes perfect sense!" 
Dale is obviously delighted at discov- 
ering someone who'd put things to- 
gether in such an unexpected way, not 
a way that Dale would choose, but one 
that he could savor. 

"You see, he's a conservative Breth- 
ren," Dale says, "and he identifies con- 
servatism with practices like the anoint- 
ing service, the plain costume, and the 
love feast. He's also a political con- 
servative — I think he's in Young 
Americans for Freedom — so he likes 
Ronald Reagan. He likes Art Gish" — 
Dale's deep laughter interrupts him 
here — "because of his hat and beard." 

Dale W. Brown, 1971-72 moderator 
of the Church of the Brethren, is him- 
self a person who has things put to- 
gether in an unexpected way — a blend 
of the old and the new, the radical and 
the conservative. His strong concern 
for the personal, for the here and now, 
draw old, young, radicals, and con- 

10 MESSENGER 1-1-72 



servatives into easy identification with 
him. And when you get to know him, 
the way he puts things together makes 
perfect sense. 

Dale Brown's parents provided him 
with the kind of Christian home that 
made him feel secure in their love, and 
later in the love of God. The church 
community in Kansas where he grew 
up provided him with the strong sense 
of support that is needed by a sepa- 
rated and peculiar people maintaining 
their witness in wartime. A freewill 
Brethren preacher with whom he 
worked in Nebraska gave him a feeling 
for anti-institutionalism in the church. 
The church itself provided him the op- 
portunity to study theology and to 
preach; he still can't quite believe that 
he gets paid for doing what he likes to 
do best. 



finally, the whole Christian experi- 
ence raised in him the concern for the 
suffering people of the world that 
leads to what he calls his paradox: 
"Liking my job and extremely happy 
with my family, yet passionately un- 
happy with the militarism and in- 
justices of our world — meantime in 
both my happiness and unhappiness 
experiencing a strong identification 
with that company of people who 
through the centuries have been called 
Christians, especially the sectarians, 
and their chief Leader." 

When Dale found that he had been 
elected moderator, the highest non- 
staff position in the denomination, 
his first thought was, "The world has 



come into the church." I asked him 
what he meant. 

"Recognition in the church has be- 
come much like recognition in the 
world." he said. "Circumstances get 
people recognized. . . . But someone 
who's very faithful — like some of the 
real saints of the church whom I see in 
my travels — never has a chance to be 
elected to any office. Because it's just 
like the Bible says, 'The greatest shall 
be the servants," and the servants are 
not necessarily those who become 
recognized by the church bodies. If I 
had a list of saints — 1 don't — they 
would not be people the church would 
be seeking to ser\'e as moderator." 

He mentioned to me two or three of 
his classmates who have purposely 
stayed in churches of only fifty or 
sixty people, and a farmer-preacher 
who serves five or six congregations, 
living on an income below the taxable 
level. 

"In church life, and the Church of 
the Brethren is no exception to that, 
the scale of values and the ways that we 
evaluate each other are not identical to 
the kingdom and the way God evalu- 
ates people. That's just very obvious 
to me." 

"My slow realization of the basic 
sicknesses of A merican society has 
brought me to a mood of noncon- 
formity, and drawn me into radical 
protest. This has not come easily. 
Consequently, I have recently found 
myself in more basic conflict with more 
of my daily associates than in all my 
previous life." 

As a student and as a pastor he had 



I 



by William H. Kuenning 




Grandson of two free Brethren ministers. Dale W. 
Brown was the fourth child in a family of five boys. He 
was brought up in a lower middle-class neighborhood, 
in a family then considered wealthy by neighborhood 
standards, though this would not be true today. His 
father was a grocer and small businessman in Wichita, 
Kansas, whose principles prevented him from renting 
out some store property for two years lest it be used 
by a restaurant that would sell beer. His mother was 
tenderhearted , and she readily identified with all her 
neighbors. Dale thinks he has been fortunate to "gef 
these qualities from his parents. 

He attended a Brethren congregation across town, 
where sixty to eighty percent of the young men were 
conscientious objectors. On his side of town there were 
no Brethren in the high school which he attended dur- 
ing World War //, and he made common cause with 
three young Quakers and got to know their families. 
Church camps and the local pastor became unexpect- 
edly strong influences in his life. He decided to forego 
his strong interests and aptitudes in mathematics and 
chemistry because he "felt there might be many people 
pursuing these, but few to serve mankind," and he 
chose McPherson College instead of the University of 
Wichita. 

A summer pastorate in western Nebraska brought 
him into association with Elder D. G. Wine, an eighty- 
year-old free minister, physically and spiritually a giant 
of a man who had brought Brethren witness to a 
"pagan" west 45 years before, and who had a tremen- 
dous influence on Dale's life. 

He studied three years at Bethany Seminary. Dur- 
ing this time he was married to Lois Kauffman, whom 
he had known at McPherson, and he and Lois subse- 
quently served seven years in a relatively new pastorate 
in Des Moines, Iowa, which they found hard to leave 
when Dale was called to Bethany to teach while pur- 
suing a doctoral program at Northwestern University. 
He then returned to McPherson to serve as chaplain 
and professor. He has been a professor at Bethany 
Seminary since J 962. 

The Browns have three children, high school age 
Deanna and Dennis, and fifth-grader Kevin. 



1-1-72 MESSENGER 11 



'I was tired of always having to go outside the church to make my Christian witness' 



been easygoing, had usually kept his 
cool, and was known in college as a 
guy who just didn't have a temper. As 
a professor, his pacifism had led him 
to support students from McPherson 
College who had demonstrated against 
the Omaha missile base. This had led 
to some conflict, but it was the kind of 
conflict he expected. 

The war in Vietnam has emphasized 
to him even more his differences with 
America's penchant for war-making 
and his differences with those who are 
not alienated by this war-making. And 
those in the church who are trying to 
implement their concern for racial 
justice, an end to poverty, and aid to 
the oppressed and imprisoned, have 
made a deep impression on him. 

Several years ago one young man 
came to him for advice about resisting 
the draft. Dale tried to persuade him 
to accept alternative service, as Dale 
had done with dozens of others con- 
sidering whether to choose alternative 
service or the army. But this young 
man kept raising questions that led 
Dale to think through some of the limi- 
tations with which alternative service 
burdens their Christian witness. He be- 
gan to understand the real frustrations 
that young men were feeling about ac- 
cepting it. Before long he had become 
a conscientious supporter of con- 
scientious draft resisters. 



This new orientation leads to the 
sadness he often feels nowadays in 
finding himself "in more basic con- 
flict with more of my daily associates 
than in all my previous life," but a 
sadness he cannot avoid. 

This mood of sadness, of compas- 
sion for those people throughout the 
world whom we are preparing to in- 
jure, and of anger at our complacency, 
has led him to a number of actions 
that many might consider radical. He 
has, for example, participated in the 
1966 open housing marches in Oak 
Park, Illinois, been an observer for the 
American Friends Service Committee 
of the demonstrations at the 1968 
Democratic National Convention in 
Chicago, and participated in the march 
on the Pentagon in 1967. 

He refuses to pay his telephone tax 
because it was levied specifically for 
war. He participates in the Brethren 
Action Movement (BAM), which has 
sent aid to both North and South Viet- 
nam, and which has been of help to 
Brethren draft resisters. He became a 
founder of BAM because, he said, "I 
was tired of always having to go oiil- 
side the church to make my Christian 
witness." 

"/ had this experience with this 
eighty-year-old man, and I can't shake 
him off." 




Two moderators in conference: Dale W. Brown, left, and Harold Z. Bombcrger 

12 MESSENGER \-\-12 



His early encounter with Elder D. G. 
Wine firmed up something in his trust 
in the biblical teachings and his un- 
easiness with calling an authoritative 
institution the church. This elderly 
farmer-preacher-scholar, father of 
thirteen and foster parent to others, 
who had never finished the eighth 
grade, sat up nights one summer talk- 
ing with Dale as long as Dale could 
keep his eyes open. The free ministry 
came to have great meaning for Dale, 
and he began to question hierarchical 
authority. 

"I have always felt uncomfortable 
with professional fund-raising cam- 
paigns," Dale told me. His first sermon 
was against being called "Reverend," 
and he's always "had this thing against 
professionalism, especially where it 
connotes a priestly caste." 

"/ have been nncomjortahle at times 
that I have been accepted so well." 

At the St. Petersburg conference 
last summer he found himself in a vig- 
orous, emotional debate with some 
conservatives following a committee 
meeting they had attended together. 
The argument, on resistance, continued 
an hour and a half. At the end Dale 
told them, "You know I wouldn't be 
spending this long if I didn't like you 
and take you seriously — I wouldn't 
be caring this much." 

His adversaries answered, "We like 
you, because you don't just treat us 
nice. You take us seriously enough to 
argue with us." 

In relating the story Dale com- 
mented, "Now the t3rpe of treatment 
they've often received has been, 'We'll 
meet with you, and we'll listen to you. 
. . . Now we've heard you; you should 
be happy.' It is not enough to treat 
people as though all they need is ca- 
tharsis, fearing that if one argues with 
them it will turn them off. People 
don't only want to get things out of 
their system. They want you to ac- 
cept their proposals and act, or else 
More on 26 



AN ANNUAL CONFERENCE 
WORKING PAPER 



AStatement 
Regarding 

Abortion 



The following statement is presented to 

■ readers of Messenger by the Annual 
Conference committee appointed to an- 
swer two separate queries calling for 
"guidance on the question of abortion." 
This statement has been revised since 

■ its referral back to the committee by 
the 1971 Annual Confereitce. The Con- 
ference further suggested that materials 
on the question be made available for 
the church to study and discuss. 

What follows is a working document. 
Since it may be revised further prior to 
the 1972 Annual Conference, responses 
from individuals and groups are sought 
by the committee. Concerns may be 
conveyed by letter, or noted on the dis- 
cussion survey checklist on page 17. 



BiblicalTeaehing 

A Christian ethic regarding abortion 
begins with the biblical teaching about 
hfe and about love, two of the central 
themes of scripture. It is well to re- 
member that there are not many scrip- 
tural passages directly related to the 
question of abortion and that the direc- 
tion of scripture is not so clear that 



anyone can be dogmatic in his inter- 
pretation. No biblical passage con- 
demns or approves abortion as such. 
Nevertheless the Bible shows God to 
be very much concerned about both the 
presence and quality of human life. 
Therefore, we turn to passages about 
life and about love. ... 

The Bible teaches us that human life 
is a sacred gift of God. This does not 
mean that human beings have no part 
in the creation of new life, for God 
has clearly entrusted the cultivation and 
propogation of human life into the 
hands of persons (Genesis 1- — 2). 
Nevertheless, it remains a sacred gift 
of God and is at center a mystery be- 
yond definition. Science can describe 
the development of' the fetus, but it 
cannot penetrate the mystery and 
uniqueness of the person who is 
brought into being by the hand of God. 

It goes beyond scripture to insist that 
conception is clearly the beginning of 
personal human life. The birth an- 
nouncements of scripture suggest that 
a person may be chosen by God before 
conception (Isaac) or during fetal de- 
velopment (Jeremiah). God's promise 



and blessing is critical in the creation 
of persons, and that does not seem to 
be identical with conception. Reference 
to "conception" in scripture is nearly 
always accompanied by reference to 
"bringing forth," as in the phrase "con- 
ceive and bear." Conception in itself 
.is not indicative of personal life, since 
only as that life is "brought forth" does 
it become fully personal. 

On the other hand many scriptural 
passages seem to suggest that personal 
life is deeper than viability, the time 
at which a fetus may be born and live. 
Heart, blood, mind, and breath are 
signs of personal life. Biblically the 
"heart" refers to the center of personal 
being. "You shall love the Lord your 
God with all your heart, with all your 
soul, and with all your might" (Deut. 
6:5). Blood is the presence of life and 
the sign of the covenant between God 
and man (Deut. 12:23). The mind and 
the strength, thinking and moving are 
evidence of life. Soul and breathing are 
closely associated, suggesting that full 
personhood comes with breath. Thus 



1-1-72 MESSENGER 13 



ANNUAL CONFERENCE WORKING PAPER 



the Bible seems to suggest multiple 
signs of personal human life, not just 
one. The body and the person are in- 
separably joined in biblical teaching so 
that the latter does not exist without 
• the former. ■ - • ■ • ., ■ 

The Bible also places, much emphasis 
upon the promise of a loving God and 
the response of a caring community as 
decisive in calling forth personal hu- 
man life. The announcement of a child 
to be bom is normally a time of joy 
and thankfulness. Signs of quickening 

. and movement within the womb height- 
en expectancy for the coming child. 
Sensitive persons are moved with rever- 
ence in the' presence of a growing fetus 
(Psalm 139). The Bible teaches us that 
the earliest fetal life is precious, but 
that its value increases as it takes on 
more of the qualities of personal life 

■ that are present at birth. 

The Bible seems, then, to suggest 
that the termination of fetal life is seri- 
ously wrong, but not as wrong as the 
taking of fully personal life. Such a 
view- is implicit in E.xodus 21:22-25, 
w^Jere the causing of a miscarriage may 
be rectified by a payment to the injured 
party. Should the expectant mother 
■die, the guilty party may be required 
to make compensation by giving his 
own life'. It is therefore ordinarily 
wrong to terminate the life of a human 
fetus because the fetus is potentially a 
. person, and because personal human 
life is sacred. On the other hand, it is 
not murder or manslaughter because 
the fetus is not yet a person. Nothing 
we find in the New Testament would 
seem to alter this view. ■ > 

The compassion we learn from Jesus 
Christ leads us to give of ourselves for 
the well-being of others. This means 
that an expectant mother will consider 
the well-being of the potential life she 
carries as well as the well-being of oth- 
er children she may have to be more 
importiant than her own convenience. 



At the same time it means that every 
Christian is moved with compassion for 
those who undergo an unwanted preg- 
nancy. We are brought to confess those 
attitudes that condemn and control oth- 
er persons. We are motivated to work 
for those institutions arid services that 
fulfill life and that contribute to a com- 
munitv wherein all children are wanted. 



Social Considerations 

We began with the biblical affirmation 
that human life is sacred. This affirma- 
tion does not, however, resolve the eth- 
ical dilemma concerning the quality as 
well as the fact of human life. Such 
a dilemma is obvious when the life of 
a mother is threatened by a pregnancy. 
Most Brethren have been willing to al- 
low that a fetus may be aborted to save 
the life of the pregnant woman. This 
seems well within the direction of bibli- 
cal teaching, although we should mar- 
vel at the love of a mother who would 
voluntarily lay down her life in order 
that her child might be born. Surely 
no one should be required to do so. . ■ ■■ 

The dilemma is much more difficult 
when the threat of world overpopula- 
tion is considered.' Various population 
estimates indicate that the world will 
be intolerably overpopulated within two 
or three generations if present popula- 
tion trends continue. Is the threat of 
overpopulation with attendant starva- 
tion and death sufficient reason to re- 
sort to abortion? Reverence for human 
life should lead Christians to use con- 
traceptive methods that are effective 
prior to or during the earliest days of 
pregnancy. The church should encour- 
age everyone to become well ac- 
quainted with the safe medical use of 
such methods. Only with the failure 
of such contraceptive methods might 
one consider abortion, which in itself 
is never desirable, and only then when 
overpopulation poses a serious danger 
and personal threat to those already 



born as well as those about to be born. 
Surely such may be the case in many 
places in the world today. 

The moral- dilemma of abortion is 
complicated by the fact that abortion 
is not nearly so available to the poor 
as it is to those who are not poor. It 
is hardly just or compassionate to en- 
force strict abortion laws against those 
who cannot afford to do anything but 
comply. The dilemma is also compli- 
cated by the fact that many hundreds 
of women have lost their lives in recent 
years ■ because of attempts at self-in- 
duced abortion, or because of illegally 
obtained abortions. An indirect impli- 
cation of Exodus 21:22-25 is that legal 
and hygienic facilities ought to be avail- 
able so that such women do not lose 
their lives. 

There are many instances in which 
a woman may find the birth of a child 
wholly unbearable. The family may al- 
ready be so poor that they are starving 
or otherwise deprived. The child may 
be defective and require care and ex- 
pense that the pregnant woman with 
her husband is wholly unable to give. 
One cannot move from the sacredness 
of human life to the principle that a 
woman and her husband must undergo 
the extreme sacrifices required by an- 
other birth. On the other hand when 
fetal life is so reverenced and potential 
human life is so loved that a woman 
and her husband do voluntarily and 
wholeheartedly make such sacrifices, 
then the church can give thanks and 
celebrate God's compassionate Spirit 
among us. Fetal life may never lightly 
be sacrificed to our own convenience 
or whim. 

If young women and men are to 
have a real choice regarding pregnancy, 
then they must have instruction about 
the sacredness of human sexuality, ac- 
curate information about methods of 
contraception, and persons to whom 
they can turn for counsel. Further- 
more, a woman who carries an un- 
wanted pregnancy will have a real 
choice only if counsel about adoption 
and other options is available. If the 
church is really concerned about hu- 
man life, it must provide facilities for 
the care of such women and their chil- 
dren, counseling services, as well as 
a climate of support within the con- 
gregation. 



14 MESSENGER 1-1-72 



Medical and Counseling Considerations 



Medical science views human life in 
. various ways. Human life has been 
seen by some simply in the potential 
of ovum or sperm, by others as begin- 
ning with fertilization (conception), 
..; and by yet others as the capacity for 
' ,;• personal interaction. Prior to interac- 
tive functioning, human life is not eas- 
ily distinguished from animal life ^- 
yet, when can we say interaction be- 
gins? The distinction between mere ex- 
istence and a distinctly personal quality 
in life is universal. Neither in terms 
- of any one point in time of develop- 
ment nor in any other measurable qual- 
•, ity can science provide the definition 
of this discrimination. Scientifically as 
well as biblically, it seems most mean- 
ingful to view human life as a sacred 
gift that appears within a continuum 
or developmental process. 

Modern contraception has made 
pregnancy a relatively deliberate and 
free option for many persons in our 
society. The risk to life and physical 
■ health of the mother as a consequence • 
■v.- of pregnancy and delivery is now small; 
the physical risk accompanying medi- 
cally ethical abortion procedures in the 
first trimester of pregnancy is much 
smaller. This risk increases, however, 
as pregnancy progresses. In contrast, 
the risk to health and life due to clah- 
'■ destine, unhygienic, often desperate 
„:' abortion procedures at the present time 
;;.. is exceedingly high, and there are many 
:'■' hundreds of needless deaths yearly. 
Further technological advances in the 
■ utilization of intrauterin devices 
'.'" '(lUDs), the "morning-after" pill, and 
. : the seemingly imminent appearance of 
_. effective oral medication that will abort 
. . by chemical means in the earliest stages 

■ ■; of pregnancy, promise to make it in- 

• creasingly difficult to delineate contra- 
i.. ception from abortion. Existing public 

laws with respect to abortion, therefore, 
■• may well become increasingly irrelevant 

• and unenforceable. 

Technical discoveries about the ge- 

,,~. netic and congenital abnormalities of 

human development have increased the 

■ ^' possibility of detecting carrier states of 

• defective genes and chromosomal de- 
..; fects and of predicting such disease in 

/ potential offspring. Such conditions 



may sometimes be diagnosed in mid- 
pregnancy, but not before. Genetic 
counseling considers the degree of risk 
involved, the seriousness of the possible 
defect, the parents' willingness to risk 
having a defective child in the hope of 
having a healthy one, the possibility that 
a defective child might be helped by 
medical or surgical procedures to 
achieve a more nearly normal life, the 
possible result of the defect on the life 
of the child, on other members of 
the family, and on society. 

Recent psychological studies of 
women who undergo therapeutic (med- 
ically ethical) abortion have not sup- 
ported generally held beliefs regarding 
the emotional stress of such an experi- 
ence. In the majority of cases, general 
relief or a brief and mild guilt reaction 
is reported. More severe disturbances 
appear rarely. The psychiatrically dis- 
turbed woman who undergoes abortion 
seems to experience no loss of stability 
and, sometimes, even improves. Fre- 
quently expressed beliefs regarding the 
occurrence of - involuntary infertility, 
difficulty in sexual functioning, as well 
as depression, are not substantiated by 
the presently available evidence. There 
is, however, continued expression of 
concern by psychiatrists and psycholo- 
gists about adverse effects, short-term 
or long-term, individually or collective- 
ly, of repeated resort to abortion. 

Effective research has yet to be done 
to clarify the real psychological and 
social effects of changing social codes 
regarding abortion and the response 
that large numbers of persons are mak- 
ing to these changes. Clinical experi- 
ence with persons who have sought il- 
legal abortion, usually in a context 
fraught with tension, secrecy, fear, and 
real risk to life and health, reveals fre- 



quent important emotional trauma and 
suffering about the experience. It ap- 
pears that the condemnatory attitudes, 
compassionlessness, and profound in- 
sensitivity and lack of understanding 
in ourselves and those around us lie 
at the heart of this distress. Many of 
the existing criminal' codes give sanc- 
tion to these same attitudes and thereby 
contribute to the tragic human suffer- 
ing that often accompanies abortion. 

Psychological studies of children and 
of family life have brought a new and 
increasing concern by behavioral scien- 
tists about the problems of the "un- 
wanted child.'-' Nearly everyone agrees 
that being unwanted in early childhood 
is devastating to the development of 
personality and is the cause of many 
behavioral and emotional problems. 

Regarding these paradoxical, com- 
plex, and sometimes conflicting values, 
physicians and counselors are called 
upon to relate to the person first of all. 
They are asked to care, and to care 
enough that they "would not want to 
control, dominate, or manipulate per- 
sons, but rather to set them free to 
grow and to seek out their own highest 
purposes. This requires a highly per- 
sonalized view of every issue and every 
moral choice. It also requires that 
counselors and physicians must be able 
to function in a setting that can reflect 
and preserve their freedom of moral 
choice and that is consonant with their 
values and highest purposes. 

Many people, including those in the 
church, have tended to respond distant- 
ly, impersonally, and judgmentally to 
those who struggle personally with 
these issues. Even when no longer ex- 
pressed in legal prohibitions, these at- 
titudes tend to be preserved by requir- 
ing them of the medical profession. 



l-i-72 MESSENGER 15 



ANNUAL CONFERENCE WORKING PAPER 



Professional people, as well as their 
patients, have need for persons of great 
compassion and insight who will under- 
take to share the burden of moral de- 
cision and thereby bring a fuller hu- 
manity into the lives of all. 



A Position Statement 

Brethren strongly believe that all hu- 
man life is sacred and that personal 
life is the fullest expression of human 
life. The question of abortion should 
therefore be discussed within the con- 
text of renewed sensitivity to the won- 
der of personal human life and of hu- 
man sexuality. We believe that abor- 
tion should be considered an option 
only when all other possible alterna- 
tives lead to greater destruction of per- 
sonal human life and spirit. We rejoice 
with those who voluntarily give birth 
at great personal sacrifice. Yet we also 
support those who after prayer and 
consultation find abortion to be the 
least undesirable alternative available to 
them and those they love. We believe 
that such persons should be able to 
make their decisions openly, honestly, 
and without the burden and suffering 
imposed by an uncompromising com- 
munity. Furthermore we advocate that 
all who seek abortions should be 
granted sympathetic counsel about var- 
ious alternatives as well as the health 
and safety of publically available physi- 
cians and hospital care. 



Some Implications . 

It is vital to the church that it educate 
its members about the sacred spiritual 
quality of human life and human sexu- 
ality, so that the question of abortion 
may be considered in proper context. 
The church should provide study pack- 
ets, current reading, study groups, 
church school classes, workshops, and 
personal acquaintance with the experi- 



ence of those involved in abortion de- 
cisions. Much further education re- 
garding sexual relations, family plan- 
ning, the meaning and practice of re- 
sponsible parenthood, and the value of 
persons is crucial to' the spiritual and 
social well being of the Brotherhood. 
This effort should be both an individual 
and collective responsibility. The 
Brotherhood should support other or- 
ganizations such as Planned Parenthood 
and Clergy Consultation Service in 
their educational efforts. . . .. 

Responsible parents should seriously 
consider limiting family size, since over- 
population poses a very real threat to 
the whole of human life. However, 
contraception and voluntary preventa- 
tive measures such as vasectomy are 
always preferable to abortion as a form 
of birth control. , .\ ;._■ -, .:. 

The Brotherhood should do every- 
thing it can to make it possible for a 
mother to want and care for all her 
children. We can best show our con- 
cern and compassion by providing 
homes for women who do not want 
their unborn child and for children who 
are unwanted. We need to. foster a fel- 
lowship of families and counselors who 
would welcome and care for such wom- 
en and their children. 

In some situations abortion is per- 
haps the least undesirable alternative 
available. Decisions in such situations 
are most nearly genuine when made 
with consideration for all persons in-. 
volved. Such situations include serious 
threat to the lives and emotional well- 
being of the mother and her family. 
The precise definition of circumstances 
must be left to the mother, the father, 
the physician, the pastor, and other sig- 
nificant persons in whom the mother 
has confidence. (Situations such as 
rape, incest, and malformation of the 
fetus need not necessarily lead to abor- 
tion if they do not seriously threaten 
the emotional well-being of the mother 
and the family.) 

Any person who considers an abor- 
tion should receive the best counsel 
about options available, including adop- 
tion and foster care. Such counsel 



should encourage her and those close 
to her to work through the decision 
in view of the value of human life, the 
consequences of the various options 
available, and the well-being of those 
most directly affected. We strongly op- 
pose any action, direct or indirect, by 
parents, physicians, the state, or anyone 
else that would compel a woman to 
seek an abortion against her will. 
When abortion is performed, it should 
always be done under acceptable medi- 
cal care, and as early in the pregnancy 
as possible. 

Physicians are urged not only to con- 
sult with their medical colleagues, but 
also to seek other ways to share the 
burden of moral responsibility so fre- 
quently thrust upon them. They are 
encouraged to resist the inclination to 
shoulder the weight of decision in isola- 
tion from others who are involved and 
concerned. The meeting of minds, 
whenever possible, of caring persons 
most involved and most to be affected 
by decisions that are made, gives dig- 
nity, moral sensitivity, emotional sup- 
port, and personal security to all con- 
cerned. Any physician or attendant 
who, because of personal moral con- 
viction, chooses not to perform or par- 
ticipate in an abortion, however legal, 
should be free to do so jn good con- 
science, and should receive the full sup- 
port of the church. We urge a physi- 
cian with such convictions to refer pa- 
tients who may desire an abortion to 
another competent certified doctor. 

Brethren may in good faith work for 
changes in laws regulating abortion 
practice. Many existing laws add to 
the guilt and degradation of life. We 
support those who conscientiously act 
for the repeal or alteration of such laws. 



(Members o-f the Study Committee 
on Abortion are Laurcc Hersch Meyer, 
Taipei, Taiwan; Nancy Rosenberger 
Faus, Wichita, Kansas; Sonja Griffith, 
Clearwater. Fla.: Donald E. Miller, Oak 
Brook, III.; Terry Murray, Huntingdon, 
P<i.; Marianne Pittman, Champaign, 
III.; and Dr. Dennis F. Rupel, River- 
side, Calif.) 



16 MESSENGER 1-1-72 



FOR FURTHER STUDY 

Pamphlets 

Eternity. Evangelical Foundation, Inc., 
1716 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. 
19103. Feb. 1971. SOt"' per copy. 

Abortion: A Human Choice. Board of 
Christian Social Concerns, The United 
Methodist Church, 100 Maryland 
Ave. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002. 
Order ;P 11 50. May 1971. 1-9 copies 
5Q(- each. 10-24 copies AZi each. 25 
or more copies AOi each. 

Let's Look at Abortion. Council for 
Christian Social Action, 289 Park Ave. 
South, New York, N.Y. 10010. March 
1971. 50(;' single copy. 10-99 copies 
40c. 100 or more copies ?!5<^ each. 

The Right to Abortion: A Psychiatric 
View. Group for the Advancement of 
Psychiatry, 419 Park Ave. South, New 
York, N.Y. 10016. Vol. VII, No. 75, 
Oct. 1969. 

Books 

Who Shall Live? Man's Control Over 
Birth and Death. Prepared for the 
American Friends Service Committee. 
Hill and Wang, New York. 1970. 
$1.75 paper. 

Birth Control and the Christian. A Prot- 
estant Symposium on the Control of 
Human Reproduction. Edited by 
Walter O. Spitzer and Carlyle L. 
Saylor. Tyndale House Publishers, 
Wheaton, 111. 60187. 1969. 

The Terrible Choice: The Abortion 
Dilemma. Bantam Books, 1968. Pa- 
per. 

Articles 

Clare Boothe Luce, Two Books on Abor- 
tion and the Questions They Raise. 
National Review, Jan. 12, 1971, pp. 
27-33. 

E. Spencer Parsons, Abortion: A Private 
and Public Concern. "Criterion," a 
publication of the Divinity School of 
the University of Chicago, Winter 
1971, pp. 13-16. 

Paul Ramsey, Feticide/ Infanticide Upon 
Request. "Religion In Life," Summer 
1970, pp. 170-186. 

Study Packet 
A packet of study resources, including 
selected items from above, is available 
at moderate cost and in quantities from 
the Annual Conference Offlce, Church 
of the Brethren General Board, 1451 
Dundee Avenue, Elgin, Illinois 60120. 
Several of the individual items above 
also may be obtained from the Annual 
Conference office at the prices indicated. 



Record your personal response 

Discussion/Survey 
Checklist on Abortion 

The following checklist may serve either as a guide for 
personal study, a starter for group discussion, or a form for 
responding to the Study Committee on Abortion. In looking 
ahead to final revisions of the report appearing on pages 13-16, 
the committee earnestly welcomes the reactions and com- 
ments of Messenger readers. 

1 Abortion is a question appropriate for the church to 
consider: 

n Yes D No 

2 Human life should be considered fully personal at 
the time of (Check one): 

D conception n quickening' n viability' 
D birth n some other time 

3 The following is sufficient reason for abortion 
(Check any number): 

D threat to the mother's life 

□ threat to the physical health of the mother 
D rape 

D incest 

n fetal deformity 

□ possibility of fetal deformity, e.g. rubella 
D threat to the well-being of the family 

n threat to the mother's emotional health 

D threat of over-population 

n the desire not to have a child 

D other: 

4 Civil law should continue heavily to restrict the 
practice of abortion, as it now does in most states: 
D Yes D No 

5 A woman has the sole right to decide what happens 
to a growing fetus within her body: n Yes 'Z No 

6 Every woman who seeks an abortion has the right 
to full medical care: nYes n No 

7 The church should provide more teaching, counsel- 
ing, and other services regarding attitudes toward 
sex, family planning, and abortion than it now does: 
D Yes n No 

(Place in envelope and return to the Study Committee on 
Abortion, Annual Conference Office, 1451 Dundee Avenue, 
Elgin, Illinois 60120. Comments may be included on separate 
sheets.) 

1 W lien moiioii is first felt. -Capable of sin"vi\ing after birth. 

1-1-72 MESSENGER 17 



Going on Faith 

in in© (jnSttO Looking at Bethany Brethren 

and Garfield Park Connmunity 

hospitals with Gregg W Downey 



yi 





X 






-■-*si' 





[-.dU.^ 



,^/ 



M 



?ulrj: 






f*^f- 




^ 




^ 




"^^•■•'vf 



K?E^; 



i 



n many respects Bethany Brethren 
and Garfield Park Community hos- 
pitals are models of what health care 
providers in a ghetto should be. 
There is a good rapport between hos- 
pital management and the community; 
care for the indigent, particularly out- 
patient and emergency care, is provid- 
ed before questions are asked about 
money; the major administrators live 
in the area and thus arc intimately 
aware of their neighbors' problems. 

Unfortunately, these two Chicago 
institutions have one characteristic in 
common with many other poverty-area 
hospitals: a continuous state of near- 
bankruptcy. "Unless present re- 
imbursement methods are improved," 
said Vernon Showalter, executive di- 
rector of the two institutions, "it's 
possible that these hospitals won't be 
here five years from now." Eighty 
percent of their populations are pub- 
licly supported, he explained. 

In 1968, the two hospitals began to 
unite under the control of partially 
combined boards of directors. Mr. 
Showalter recently acknowledged that 
the move has not been financially ad- 
vantageous. However, he said, finan- 
cial health was not a primary reason 
for the decision. When the members 
of Bethany's board voted to take over 
Garfield Park, he said, they had recon- 
ciled themselves to taking over the 
mortgage and troubles of an institution 
that had failed in a long and debilitat- 
ing struggle to serve white patients 
with white doctors in an almost totally 
black neighborhood. 

The conditions which prevail there, 
he continued, compelled the board to 
flirt with ruin: "The board feels that 
for as long as we're here, we'll do what 
needs to be done." 

Doing what needs to be done means 



providing primary inpatient care, 
methadone maintenance for heroin 
addicts, jobs and training for unskilled 
community residents, day care for 
children of working mothers, and 
housing. Because such a wide range of 
services is necessary, and because 
Bethany Brethren is an institution with 
only 67 beds, it was obvious to the 
board members that they could not 
allow the 165 beds and the facilities of 
Garfield Park Hospital to be lost to 
the community. Thus when the possi- 
bility of consolidation arose, they 
agreed to do it. 

Although it is frequently used, 
merger is not precisely the word that 
describes what happened between the 
institutions. At a joint meeting, the 
members of Garfield Park's board re- 
signed one after another until a major- 
ity of positions had been vacated. 
Those slots were filled by the Bethany 
board members. The turnover took 
about ten minutes. 



I 



I he boards are now composed of 
members from both affluent areas and 
the immediate community. The white 
members are primarily business execu- 
tives, although some are professionals. 
Most of the black members are clergy- 
men and social activists, but some are 
executives and one is a circuit court 
judge. Among the total of thirty mem- 
bers are eleven persons who serve on 
both boards. Six of the eleven are 
black. In addition, two special com- 
mittees of the boards are made up al- 
most entirely of community residents 
from all walks of life. Although mem- 
bers of these committees are not on the 
boards, they have the power to set 
policy. 



Before the change. Garfield Park 
had served ten percent black patients 
and had accepted no public aid recip- 
ients. Presently, almost all the patients 
cared for at both hospitals are black. 

Mr. Showalter explained that Gar- 
field Park, prior to the turnover, had 
been mortgaged to finance the con- 
struction of new elevators and the re- 
modeling of the building's facade. 
These improvements, he said, were a 
last desperate effort to hold its white 
physicians and their patients. The ef- 
fort failed. At the June board of direc- 
tors meeting, there was still a $400,000 
long-term liability, the result of out- 
standing, first-mortgage serial bonds. 

This was the heaviest and most lin- 
gering burden that resulted from the 
turnover, but there were also personnel 
problems and grave breakdowns in 
community relations that had to be 
overcome after the new board assumed 
control. 

The medical staff, composed pri- 
marily of aging white physicians, fer- 
vently desired to transfer to other hos- 
pitals, Mr. Showalter said. Many were 
temporarily thwarted, however, be- 
cause their ages impeded their migra- 
tion to the staffs of suburban hospitals. 
Eventually they did leave, but the in- 
terim was long enough to allow Gar- 
field Park to restaff with black physi- 
cians and young white doctors. 

Along with doctors of the old guard, 
veteran paramedical and nonprofes- 
sional employees began an exodus. 
Their positions, too, had to be refilled. 
Sometimes vacancies were filled by 
able, energetic persons who lacked 
nothing but the experience that Mr. 
Showalter said is nonessential, but gen- 
erally required. 

Apart from the staff problems, black 
militant groups within the community 



1-1-72 MESSENGER 19 



had grown increasingly resentful of 
Garfield Park's patient policies. Nu- 
merous confrontations occurred before 
word spread through the neighbor- 
hoods that the hospital had a new mis- 
sion and was now directed by residents 
of the community. 

Not directly related to the joining of 
the two hospitals, but a problem none- 
theless, is the $1 16,000 net operating 
loss for the first half of 1971. Outpa- 
tient services accounted for much of 
that deficit, though perhaps more wor- 
risome than the loss itself is the alarm- 
ing increase of bad debts. 

"There are always opportunists," 
said Mr. Showalter. "The word got 
around that we gave care first and 
asked about money later. People were 
giving fictitious addresses." The dam- 
age being done by the nonpayment for 
outpatient services was apparent to the 
board members. Even though they 
wanted no one turned away for lack of 
funds, they were realistic enough to 
see that their entire operation was be- 
jeopardized by people who had the 
means to pay but weren't payine;." 

"Here's where the beauty of a com- 
munity-controlled board becomes ob- 
vious," Mr. Showalter went on. "If I 
had decided on my own that our out- 
patient policies needed revision, a 
great hue and cry would have arisen in 
the neighborhoods. As it is, the board 
members who live in the community 
can explain the reasons for the chang- 
es. There will still be grumbling, but 
the people will accept the necessity." 

The 5,850 patients who are able to 
pay would be required to do so, how- 
ever. "A great majority of these 
patients are not emergency cases," Mr. 
Showalter explained. All patients 
whose conditions do not involve 
trauma, hemorrhage, or shock are now 
referred to the credit and collection de- 
partment before they receive medical 
services: "A concerted effort is being 
made to explain to these patients that 
the hospital needs payment for its 
services," said Mr. Showalter. 

Another fiscal problem faced by the 



ghetto hospitals is a chronic one — 
slow reimbursement by government 
agencies. This has plagued Bethany 
Brethren since 1966 and now affects 
Garfield Park as well. The Illinois De- 
partment of Public Aid uses the same 
reimbursement formula, based on cost, 
that Medicare does. "You have to beg 
your vendors to hold off for four 
months until you can pay the bills," 
said Mr. Showalter. The penalties 
awarded the two hospitals come in the 
form of interest on unpaid balances 
and the loss of early-payment dis- 
counts. 

Neither these difficulties nor the re- 
lated problem of less than full pay- 
ment for services rendered under 
Medicare have dissuaded the board 
from accepting government-supported 
patients. "By the time the plaster has 
fallen off the walls," reflected Mr. 
Showalter, "somebody will come up 
with a program to replace Medicare 
and Medicaid. It's a question of 
whether we're going to sit here half 
full or whether we're going to do some- 
thing. Right now, we're going on 
faith." 



I 



his trust, universally exhibited at 
both institutions, that God, the govern- 
ment, or somebody eventually will 
provide has enabled Bethany Brethren 
and Garfield Park hospitals to render 
exemplary service to their commu- 
nities. One of the most notable of these 
services is the Bethany Community 
Health Center. 

The neighborhood health center was 
opened on a shoestring in December 
1968. With a grant from the Sears 
Roebuck Foundation and no govern- 
ment money at all, the Bethany Com- 
munity Health Council — a special 
committee of the board of directors — 
found and remodeled a grocery store 
about half a block from the hospital. 

Three primary physicians and a 
dentist from Bethany's medical staff 
see approximately 150 patients a day 



at the health center. Other staff mem- 
bers there include one registered nurse, 
one visiting community health aide, 
two nurses' aides, one dental assistant, 
and one receptionist. All the medical, 
paramedical, and nonprofessional per- 
sonnel receive salaries. 

Just as both hospitals benefit from 
the existence of the health center, the 
joining of the two hospitals has proved 
economical in other ways. Most sig- 
nificant are the savings realized by 
higher-volume, consolidated purchas- 
es. Although no precise figures are 
available which compare previous sep- 
arate costs with present joint costs, Mr. 
Showalter said the savings have been 
noticeable. One of the more obvious 
economy measures is the practice of 
using a single staff member to perform 
departmental duties at both hospitals. 

When a staff member who was in 
charge of one department takes on ad- 
ditional responsibilities at the other 
hospital, his salary is not doubled. In- 
stead of raising the salary of a $10,000 
a year department head to $20,000, 
the staff member's annual pay goes up 
to, say, $15,000, Mr. Showalter ex- 
plained. 

The caliber of the individual em- 
ployee has more to do with the suc- 
cessful execution of dual assignments 
than does the nature of the jobs, he 
added. The nine positions filled by the 
same persons at both hospitals are: 
executive director, director of in-serv- 
ice education, chief pharmacist, thera- 
peutic dietition, laundry manager, se- 
curity chief, public relations director, 
volunteer services director, and pur- 
chasing agent. 

Holding one job but serving patients 
from both hospitals and the commu- 
nity at large is Thomas Eversley, direc- 
tor of the Bethany Drug Awareness 
Clinic. Methadone maintenance is the 
central element of the program. "One 
of the requirements for acceptance in 
the program is that a person must have 
used heroin for at least one year," he 
said. This stipulation, it was ex- 
plained, is meant to dispel the oc- 



20 MESSENGER 1-1-72 




V. Sliowalter: Coinmimily control works 

casional criticism that people not tlior- 
oughly addicted to heroin will develop 
a methodone habit as a result of their 
therapy. "We want to reach hard-core 
addicts," said Mr. Eversley. "In the 
treatment, we take urine tests three 
times a week to see if they are adher- 
ing to the program or reverting to 
heroin." Decisions about what to do 
with backsliders are made on an indi- 
vidual basis. Sometimes they are 
talked to and warned, and sometimes 
they are expelled from the program. 
The participants themselves have a lot 
to say about which course of action is 
taken. 

Of all the services provided by the 
hospitals, the drug awareness clinic has 
garnered the most attention. Not long 
ago. President Nixon sent a note to 
"wholeheartedly commend the prompt 
and positive effort" the hospitals "have 
launched to turn the tide in an area 
that poses an unparalleled threat to our 
society." Secretary of Health, Educa- 
tion, and Welfare Elliot Richardson 
sent a letter in which he, too, saluted 
the "community-based efforts in this 
area." As of last month, those words 
of encouragement were all the support 
Bethany's drug program had received 
from the federal government. 

It costs approximately $50 per ad- 
dict per week to operate the sixty-par- 
ticipant drug program, according to 
Clarence Turner, director of public re- 
lations. So far, about $10,000 has 



been obtained from the Church of the 
Brethren, which nominally sponsors 
the Bethany-Garfield hospitals; from 
the Illinois Drug Abuse Program, and 
from private enterprise. The IDAP 
provides only $ 1 5 per addict per week, 
but Mr. Showalter said that because 
there are hundreds on the waiting list, 
the hospitals plan to double the num- 
ber of patients in the program. He 
pointed out that heroin addiction is 
one of his community's gravest con- 
cerns, because it has a direct effect on 
the area's crime rate. It was estimated 
that there are 3.000 addicts in the two 
square-mile area served by the hos- 
pitals. The problem is not safely 
tucked away in the ghetto, however, 
said Mr. Turner: "White businessmen, 
repairmen, and journalists have to 
come into these neighborhoods, and 
there's nothing to stop the addicts from 
going into the white community to get 
money for dope." 

Mr. Eversley explained that along 
with methodone treatment, addicts re- 
ceive emotional counseling and train- 
ing in marketable job skills. The job 
training of these and other unskilled 
patients is administered by Meteor, a 
private firm with headquarters in 
Washington, D.C. A grant from the 
Department of Labor is used to finance 
the Meteor office at Garfield Park 
Hospital. The hospitals themselves 
have been successful in providing jobs 
for former addicts and other "unem- 
ployable" patients. 

Accepting responsibility for educat- 
ing and employing patients is not a 
common practice among hospitals to- 
day, but George Bruno, Garfield 
Park's administrator, said that such 
functions increasingly must be as- 
sumed: "All of us are becoming aware, 
I think, that a patient's economic and 
social conditions markedly affect his 
health. It's not much different from 
how we learned that his psychological, 
not just his physical, condition is im- 
portant." 

The immediate future promises an 
even tighter mesh between the two in- 



stitutions. It is anticipated that by 
drawing the operations of the hospitals 
nearer and nearer, additional econ- 
omies will be accomplished, said Mr. 
Bruno. Eventually, the institutions wiU 
have a single board of directors and 
one medical staff. Today, there is a 
staff for each hospital with a combined 
membership of fifty physicians. 
Twenty of those doctors, however, 
serve on both staffs. Another impor- 
tant factor, for which details have yet 
to be resolved, is the affiliation with 
Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's. It is 
hoped that this larger medical complex 
can provide higher-echelon medical 
care and education to the smaller hos- 
pitals, said Mr. Showalter. 



I 



Ihere is also a plan to construct a 
3()0-bed community hospital. Federal 
officials have indicated that Hill- 
Burton funds could be made available, 
but definite plans depend on whether 
the hospitals can raise the percentage 
of the building cost that is required 
under the federal program. 

Although the hospital project prob- 
ably won't come to fruition for several 
years, said Mr. Showalter, the board is 
already at work on a long-range blue- 
print for a comprehensive health care 
delivery system for the community. A 
second neighborhood health center, to 
be located at the Garfield Park Hos- 
pital, is in the planning stage. The 
third and fourth floors of Bethany 
Brethren are to become a fifty-bed ex- 
tended care facility, and a sLxty-bed 
skilled nursing home unit is to be built 
on the fifth, sixth, and seventh floors of 
Garfield Park. A ten-bed detoxifica- 
tion unit for alcoholics and drug ad- 
dicts as well as a twenty-five-bed inpa- 
tient mental health unit, which will en- 
large and alter the unit now leased by 
the Illinois Department of Mental 
Health, are also being planned for 
Garfield Park. 

Mr. Showalter said that state and 
federal officials have acknowledged 



1-1-72 MESSENGER 21 



^ 




Seek and you will find the fifth gospel by Jesus: 
word pictures from his toiling years. His seminary 
was the carpenter shop, which gave him illustra- 
tions for teaching. 

See him split logs into beams for compassion- 
ately fitted yokes. In ox cart days carpenters often 
lived with farmers for whom they built. Follow 
Him, sometimes sloshing over hills in storm 
drenched darkness, as he helps seek stray sheep. 

Will you find illustrations from making spear 
shafts or parts for war chariots or catapults? He 
built for, not death, but life, munitions of peace. 

The book's introduction was written by the late 
Bethanv \'ice-president Warren W. Slabaugh, au- 
thor of THE ROLE OF THE SERVANT. " 750 



the urgent need for more diversified 
and better care facilities in Chicago's 
west side ghetto. Despite the hospitals' 
current bleak circumstances, there are 
indications that funds may be forth- 
coming for all or several of these proj- 
ects, he said. The unofficial attitude 
among the executives is: "Demon- 
strate that it can be done, and the mon- 
ey to pay for it will turn up." 

Officials at both hospitals agree that 
the single factor most responsible for 
the continuing survival of their institu- 
tions has been total community control 
and avid community support. Unlike 
many hospitals, Bethany Brethren and 
Garfield Park experience little em- 
ployee dissatisfaction, and there is no 
union. The picture is so much in con- 
trast to the rule, in fact, that recently 
an employee group collected $500 
among themselves and donated it to 
the hospitals. Neither are these institu- 
tions surrounded by a hostile, destruc- 
tive population. There is a working 
rapport with the same militant black 
groups that have put other health 
facilities, such as Chicago's Jewish 
Home for .Aged, out of business. 

Mr. Showalter revealed his secret 
for reaching accord during confronta- 
tions: "Get the most foul-mouthed one 
with the headband and the zip gun, 
and invite him to join the board of 
trustees. He won't come on, of course. 
He's too smart for that, because once 
he's on, you've got him. You'd start 
showing him budgets. He'd have to 
shut up and help, and he won't do 
that." 

The hospital executive said the day 
is gone when health experts could 
make all the decisions, establish all the 
programs, and confer them on the peo- 
ple: "No suburban community would 
put up with that kind of missionary 
activity, and 30U can be sure that the 
new awareness in the inner city ghettos 
is going to bring it to a screeching halt 
there, too." D 



rop\TiRht 1971 In' McOriiw-Hill. Inc. Rcpriulcfl 
bv pcrnii*;sinn from Mniirrn Hnsfntal. .^^gnst 
1971. All rights rcscl\C(I. 



Ib)©©k [fO'^DS^^g 



CREATE AND CELEBRATE, by Jay C. Rochelle. 
Fortress Press, 1971. 124 pages, $2.95 paper 

CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP SERVICES: A 
SOURCEBOOK, by James L. Christensen. 
Revell, 1971. 256 pages, $5.95 

VENTURES IN WORSHIP and VENTURES IN 

WORSHIP 2, edited by David James Randolph. 
Abingdon, 1969, 1970. $1.50 paper 

One of the new centers of attention 
and experimentation in the church is in 
the area of worship. Booi^s on the mean- 
ing and mode of worship, books on sug- 
gested patterns for worship, books of 
worship resources are springing up hke 
lovely crocuses through the brown earth 
of a long and barren winter. Life is 
beginning to enter a most unlikely arena, 
the sanctuary. Celebration is its name 
and joy is its motivation. 

Jay C. Rochelle's book. Create and 
Celebrate, states clearly some reasons for 
the needed change in worship patterns. 
He then presents some guidelines for 
making changes and offers some helpful 
resources. 

Chapter headings include "Why Both- 
er?", "Kicking and Screaming Our Way 
Into Now," and "Putting Your Thing 
Together." These three chapters deal 
with the need for change, the struggle 
with change, the way to change worship 
patterns. He does so with sensitivity to 
the need of some persons for the familiar 
as well as the need of others for creative 
celebration. He offers specific sugges- 
tions for the implementation of new wor- 
ship formats. 



Celebration is t/ie name, 

joy thie motivation 



Reading this book written by a Luther- 
an and remembering my wife's reaction 
to a course in "Worship and Liturgy" 
taught by a Lutheran makes me want to 
caution the Brethren that this book is 
written from a Lutheran worship tradi- 
tion. This does not necessarily limit its 
value to us. It might actually enhance 
its worth. 

Create and Celebrate is a useful book 
for those who ha\e the courage to chal- 
lenge familiar patterns of worship and 
put in their place more creative ways 
of celebrating our li''e in Christ. The 
author comes down hard on the need 
to understand what worship is before 
any change is made. He outlines and 
evaluates the five essentials of worship: 
awareness, confrontation, commitment, 
celebration, new awareness. 

"Worship," he says, "continually frees 
us from the past to live in the present 
in expectant hope for the future." 

I like that and am encouraged by this, 
"Probably the most we can expect from 
our worship life is that we will hit 'highs' 
sometimes." 

This book would be particularly help- 
ful to persons with worship responsi- 
bilities who are trying to understand how 
this new surge to celebrate fits into where 
they are or ought to be. 

Christensen's Contemporary Worship 



Services and Ventures in Worship and 
Ventures in Worsliip 2 both edited by 
Da\id James Randolph for the Commis- 
sion on Worship of the United Method- 
ist Church are excellent resources for 
worship leaders who want to experiment 
but are at a loss for "handles." All three 
of these compilations have suggestions 
for every segment of worship from the 
"Call to Worship" to the "Benediction." 
They also include worship services for 
all kinds of special occasions, such as 
communions, weddings, funerals, and 
numerous special days and emphases. 
And the beauty of it is that all these 
resources are so adaptable and yet fresh. 
They become the spark which ignites 
the fire of one's own creativity. 

While Contemporary Worsliip Services 
is in book form, the Ventures in Worship 
series are loose leaf on standard 8'/2 x 
1 1 paper to fit a three-ringed notebook. 
Pastors receiving "Agenda" material can 
put worship material found there under 
the proper headings in the Ventures 
series. 

All of these books and compilations 
of resource materials would be a valuable 
addition to any pastor's library as well 
as to the church library where other 
persons responsible for worship experi- 
ences could find ready assistance. — 
P.^UL E. Alwine 



We're Going Computer . . . 

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The staff appreciates your assistance 
and your patience as the new system 
goes into operation. 




HIS FINEST WEEK 



By James Roy Smith 

Revealing the abiding lessons of Holy 
Week, this new book projects a day-by- 
day look at Jesus' last week on earth, 
and shows by His life and death and 
resurrection that nothing — neither life 
nor death — can separate us from God. 
$1.25 each; 10 or more, $1.00 each. 

Order NOW for Pre-Easter reading. 

The Upper Room 

1908 Grand Ave. Nashville, Tenn. 37203 , 



1-1-72 MrSSENGER 23 






JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN 



Week of 
Prayer for 
Christian 
Unity 



Utl 




Fund 
for the 
Americas 
Offering 

m 

Ash 
Wednesday 



First 
Sunday 
of Lent 



Brotherhood 
Week 



World Day 
of Prayer 



One Great 
Hour of 
Sharing 



Easter 



Palm 
Sunday 



3© 

Maundy 

Thursday 



National 
Christian 
College 
Day 




May Fel- 


Children's 


lowship Day 


Day 


7 


m 


Rural Life 


Father's 


Sunday 


Day 


7°M 


27 


National 


Annual 


Family 


Conference 


Week 


begins 


M 




Mother's 




Day 







Good Friday 


Pentecost 

Annual Con- 
ference 
Offering 
Emphasis 1 

Memorial 
Day 


24 MESSENGER 1-1-72 







JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC 



Annual 

Conference 

ends 



Christian 

Citizenship 

Sunday 




Pastoral 
Year begins 



Labor 
Sunday 



Worldwide 
Communion 



Worldwide 
Mission 
Offering 
Emphasis 

Church 

Year 

begins 



Layman's 
Sunday 



Peace 

Emphasis 

Sunday 



World 

Community 

Day 



World 

Temperance 

Day 



m 

Universal 

Bible 

Sunday 



iK 



Thanks- 
giving Day 



First Sunday 
in Advent 



2^ 

Christmas/ 

Achievement 

Offering 

Emphasis 



Christmas 
Day 




&i 



Fiscal Year 
ends 




Reformation 
Sunday 



(Q)[b@®[rws][rii(g@@ 'S© ©©iniSDdloir 



1-1-72 MESSENGER 25 



'\ have a clannish feeling and real love for the Church of the Brethren' 



DALE BROWN, MODERATOR 
From 12 

tell them why you don't agree. 

"I think that part of my rapport with 
conservatives has been that I'm willing 
to take them seriously." 

Part of it has been also that on some 
church matters, such as his opposition 
to connecting changes in baptism and 
the love feast with home mission strat- 
egy and his serious questioning of the 
validity of union with other Prot- 
estant denominations, he has found 
himself in agreement with many con- 
servatives on what should be done — 
though perhaps his reasons have been 
different from theirs. He opposed open- 
ing up baptism and the love feast, not 
because he considered every last ele- 
ment of detail to be so sacred, but be- 
cause he thought it a poor principle 
to try to attract members simply by 
trying to become like everyone else. 

The result is that Dale thinks he has 
some friends he may not deserve, and 
deserves some other friends he doesn't 
have. "Many people who liked mc be- 
cause of the issue of church union 
would not like me so well if they really 
knew me," he said. "I feel that pretty 
strongly. Other people — some lib- 
erals — who really despise me. I think 
would like me better if they really knew 
me." he laughed. "So it works both 
ways." 

"One of the notes that needs to he 
sounded is a revival of tlie liililical 
command, 'Release the captives and 
visit those who are in prison.' " 

Dale told how he had tried to get 
permission to visit young Brethren who 
are in prison for opposing the war and 
the draft. Permission has not been 
easy to obtain, but he expects to get 
in to visit both Brethren and non- 
Brethren prisoners. 

"It is really strange." Dale said, 
"how even those who are fundamental- 
ists overlook some of the commands — 
and this is one that both the liberals 
and the fundamentalists really have all 
neglected. 



"We all ha\e a tendency to take lit- 
erally some things and not so literally 
others. I feel personally hurt some- 
times when Brethren fundamentalists 
will reject some of us because of our 
heresies in thought, but then turn 
around and embrace someone who 
doesn't believe in many of the things 
the Brethren believe in — like the 
anointing service and the love feast. 
Carl VIcIntyre, and some people like 
him, baptize infants. And though some 
of the conservative Brethren wouldn't 
think of doing that, they would still 
take his word over the word of some 
other Brethren." 



Having grown up in a large city, 
where his contacts as a boy were 
largely outside the church. Dale did not 
experience the narrow legalisms and 
provincialisms that he thinks oppress 
young people in some of the churches. 
Such young people often find their lives 
broadened as they begin to establish 
broader contacts beyond the church. 
The opposite was true for Dale; the 
best thing that happened was to come 
into the intimate life of "camps, insti- 
tutes, and other Brethren gatherings." 

"I've been at that long enough so 
that I have tremendous clannish rela- 
tionships. When I go to a place where 
I've never been before. I think, 'Now 
whom do I know here?' and I won't be 
able to think of anybody. But after I 
get there I will discover I know fifteen 
or twenty people, from some church or 
gathering where we've been together 
before. 

"I do have a real love for the Church 
of the Brethren. This feeling has been 
contagious. People have sensed this — 
that I do love the church — because 
when I get in a local gathering I really 
do have a genuine appreciation for the 
people. And I've had this from the 
very beginning." 

Among local groups Dale accepts 
the hospitality offered, and can make 
himself as comfortable in a bed on the 
floor as anywhere. He credits his par- 



ents for this; they could always go into 
anybody's home to eat or sleep, no 
matter what the conditions. As he 
talks, his voice conveys the affection in 
which he holds his many hosts. 

On the other hand he often assails 
the church, "not because I dislike it, 
but because I like it so much I want it 
to get back to its roots." 

Dale said that recently a young man 
had buttonholed him and said. "My 
father, a conservative and member of 
the Brethren Revival Fellowship, 
comes home from Conference, and he 
tells me how much he likes you — but 
I know some Bethany Seminary stu- 
dents, and they tell me how much they 
like you. I can't put these things to- 
gether." 

"And then he said." Dale chuckled, 
"then he said, 'Something's phoney!' 

"Because, you see. he got the radical 
side of me from the seminary stu- 
dents." Dale explained, "but his fath- 
er's enthusiasm seemed to him to be 
recognizing just the opposite. 

"I told him the only way you could 
fit them together is that I talk about 
the biblical faith, and his father likes 
that, but the college students like the 
implications of that faith." 

Thus is the paradox of Dale Brown 
as seen by others. The first paradox 
was Dale as he sees himself — a man 
blessed beyond his deserving, happy 
with his lot. yet feeling in confiict over 
world issues with many people whom 
he basically likes. The second para- 
dox, of Dale Brown as others see him. 
is a man whose strict interpretation of 
the Bible brings him into sympathy 
with conservatives and into action with 
radicals. Starting from a strict biblical 
base, and trying to be true to it, he 
often discovers both his support and 
opposition in strange quarters. 

If Dale savors the unexpected ways 
that others have got things put to- 
gether, I can admire the more unusual 
way that he has put his thing together. 
His warm-hearted allegiance to the old 
teachings is an inspiration to me — 
and others. D 



J6 MESSENGER 11 -72 



Deaths 



Abey. Hermbcrt, Ambler. Pa., on July 26. 

1971, aged 09 
Argabright, Virginia R.. Lccton. Mo., on Julv 

15. 1971. aged 90 
Benton. Laura. Eden. N.C.. on Sept. 13. 1971. 

aged 93 
Brandt. Martha O.. Mc.Misler\ iUe. Pa., on 

June 8. 1971, aged 71 
Brindle, Kathr\n. Leinastcrs, Pa., on June 6, 

1971. aged 87 
Brown. Mrs. Charles. Eden. N.C.. on Sept. 5. 

1971. aged 90 
Brown. >rarv. Martinsburg. Pa., on Jinie 6. 

1971. aged 82 
Burns. Paul. Flora. Ind.. on -^ug. 4. 1971. 

aged 72 
Casslcr. Ida M.. Goshen. Ind.. on .^ug. 16. 

1971. aged 104 
Clapper. John F.. Hollidavsbiirg, Pa., on .Aug. 

5. 1971. aged 87 
Connaughty. Irene Lewis. Lewiston. Minn., on 

July 12. 1971. aged 85 
Conway. Cora. Mount Morris. 111., on June 

30, 1971. aged 79 
Cottle. Charles A.. E\eretl. Pa., on Jidy 22. 

1971. aged 42 
Cripps. Jacob A., Salem. III., on June 15. 1971. 

aged 83 
Crouse. Larrv L.. M\crstown. Pa., on .Aug. 16. 

1971. aged 21 
Crull. Sarah. Huntington. Ind.. on June 27, 

1971, aged 75 
Da\is. AUie. Bellefontaine. Ohio, on June 7, 

1971, aged 82 
Da\is. Mar\. Mount Mortis. 111., on Jiuie 14. 

1971. aged 90 
De\ier. Lelia Click. Bridgewatcr. \'a.. on Jtd\ 

22. 1971, aged 86 
Diehl. Lillie. Penn Laird. \'a.. on ]uU 18. 

1971. 
Frev. Clarence C. York. Pa., on Jul\ 12. 1971. 

aged 83 
Garvick. Haltie. Spring (hoxc. Pa., on |une 

21. 1971, aged 72 
Gingrich. Lucy. Bethel. Pa., on Aug. 22. 1971. 

aged 70 
Gripe. Charles E.. Battle Creek. Mich., on 

Sept. 27, 1971. aged 63 
Hackbarth, Marzatta, Dixon, III., on Jidv Ifi. 

1971. aged 47 
Heaston. Mary. Dearborn, Mich., on June 5, 

1971. aged 79 
Henning. Ruth, .Anibler, Pa., on jiih 26. 1971. 

aged 69 
Idle. Clarence. Lafayette, Ind,. on Julv 22. 

1971. aged 77 
Jones. Robert E., Polo. 111., on Jidv 9, 1971. 

aged 55 
Kessler. Alfred C. Mount Morris. III., on Juh 

9. 1971. aged 104 

Lealhcrinan. Clarence \\'.. Gettvsburg. Pa., on 

June 3. 1971. aged 73 
Lintz. Earl. Reading. Pa., on June 18. 1971. 

aged 68 
Linsenmaier. Ernest. Roversford. Pa., on July 

7. 1971. aged 80 
Li\engood, Fannie. Goshen, Ind.. on June 18. 

1971. aged 84 
Miller. .Alice. Piciua. Ohio, on .Aug. 15. 1971. 

aged 81 
Miller. .Amos R.. Bridgewater. \'a., on June 

10. 1971, aged 79 

Mummert. Lewis. Hano\'er. Pa., on July 10. 

1971. aged 81 
Myers. Norma P.. Brooklyn. Iowa, on .Aug. 10. 

1971. aged 65 
Neighbors. .May. Cabool. Mo., on Jime 30. 

1971. aged 83 
Peters. Nellie, Rocky Mount. Va.. on Aug. 17. 

1971. aged 77 
Pctrc. Clara Horst. Hagcrstown. Md.. on |ul\ 

9. 1971. aged 90 
Raincr. Leason. Shelocta. Pa., on Aug. 30, 

1971 




I nGV ShSr© ^® begin to complain if we have to wait an hour 

. to see our well-trained doctor in his clean and 

^lIQIf efficient office. In northern Nigeria a woman may carry a sick 

, child for fifty miles and then wait in line outside the hos- 

QOCXOr pital a full day. As little children we learn about 

. , germs and sanitation. But in Nigerian villages some still 

WITM blame disease on evil spirits. Not that they want to be 

^r\f\ r\r\Q superstitious or ignorant. Far from it. But how can 

l«7«7,^^0 they learn about bacteria if they have no teacher? 
_^i Through Lafiya — a new medical program to train 

0X1161 S> medical personnel — the Church of the Brethren can 
assist in bringing education and health to millions of people in the 
North-Eastern State of Nigeria where we have had mission work for 
nearly fifty years. We need your response, your help, your caring. 
There is a deep need for this new medical program and it can be done 
only with your help. Consider what you can do and fill in the coupon 
below. Your check may be made payable to: Lafiya, Church of the 
Brethren General Board. 



1 

j 1 am interested in 


LAFIYA! 










1 U Here is my special gift to be applied toward the $300,000 needed beyond 
1 Fund budget for Lafiya/Nigeria Medical Program. 


the 


Brotherhood 1 


1 . ' I'm interested in the med 


cal program but 


desire further information. 
























1 Name 1 

1 1 


1 Street/RFD | 


1 City 




State, Zip Code 








1 Congregation 




District 








1 Please clip and mail to: Lafiyc 
1 1451 Dundee Avenue, Elgin, 


/Nigeria Medicc 
Illinois 60120 


1 Program, Church 


of the Brethren Ge 


neral Board, i 
9:1-72 



Brethren and the burgeoning arts 



With the proliferation of special causes in the 
Church of the Brethren, as in most religious 
bodies today, the last thing some observers may 
feel is needed is another interest group. I demur. 
For in my estimation one special cause now 
aborning is long overdue: a fellowship centered 
on the arts. 

Over the past decade there have been evi- 
dences that art is budding and maybe even blos- 
soming among the Brethren. Such evidence is 
noted in myriad ways: a communion chalice by 
Rufus Jacoby on the .-Xnnual Conference altar . . . 
woodcuts by I. J. Sanger . . . one-artist shows by 
Joyce Miller, Jon Strom, Gini Hoover ... an art 
school and art festivals conducted by Mar}' Ann 
Hylton . . . sculpture, banners, oratorios at Breth- 
ren gatherings . . . the architectural statements 
of a few church structures . . . the graphics of 
Wilbur Brumbaugh and Linda Beher . . . the vol- 
ume Watermarks by five young poets . . . the 
classroom and church school instruction of Iowa 
Kuehl and others. The list is only begun. 

The point of such activity is not that Brethren 
are becoming sophisticated or cultured. It is that 
instead they are becoming alive and articulate to 
that which is within them and which surrounds 
them. "The good life," social critic Marya 
Mannes has stated, "exists only when you stop 
wanting a better one. It is the condition of savor- 
ing what is, rather than longing for what might 
be." 

From that perspective, I do not view the 
creative spurt of Brethren as something altogether 
new or different. Consider the impressive detail 
in an authentic Dunker meetinghouse, or the 
craftmanship and maybe even deft touch of 
whimsey in a patchwork quilt, or the profound 
partnership with nature demonstrated in a family 
farmstead: Were these not ways of savoring what 
was, of orchestrating life, of wedding the utilitar- 
ian and the esthetic, of being sensitive to scale, 
timing, proportion, tone — some of the ingredi- 
ents of art? 



"God is in the details" was an admonition the 
late master architect Mies van der Rohe passed 
on to clients, students, and colleagues. It was his 
reminder of the moral obligation to shun medioc- 
rity, to pursue excellence, to enhance meaning. 
It is a dictum that applies far beyond the prov- 
inces of architecture; we in the church would do 
well not to forget it. 

A turn to art forms old and new, on a wide 
participatory basis and not merely for a talented 
elite, could release vital and explosive energies 
into the lifestream of the church. I have seen it 
happen with grown-ups who. through the use of 
varied forms of creative expression, came to 
supplant a restrictive, stifling notion about church 
school with a freeing, enabling view. I have seen 
it happen with children who, invited to share 
intimate feelings about life and growth and 
dreams, revealed some candid and profound in- 
sights into faith. I have seen it happen among 
worshipers who, engaging not only sight and 
sound but all their senses, their whole being in 
simple but tactile ways, glimpsed afresh the mean- 
ing of unity, joy, transcendence. 



Ihe crux is, the church — local, denomi- 
national, ecumenical, assembled, dispersed — is 
where creativity should come alive. It is where 
the Creator and the created, who are also partners 
in creation, should meet. For where, more than 
in the context of the community of faith, can 
those forms appropriately be used which convey 
feeling, foster imagination, connote style, renew 
kindship, and celebrate the life of the Spirit? 

To the burgeoning Association for the Arts 
in the Church of the Brethren, Messenger bids 
a hearty welcome. Whatever the movement or 
its individual members can do to make us all 
more sentitive, more sensible, more proportion- 
ate, more alive, more aware of beauty, more re- 
sponsive to life, and more open to truth — this 
will be contribution indeed. — h,e.r. 



28 MESSEKOER 1-1-72 




by Ervin Seale 



Thousands of New Yorkers converge on Philharmonic 
Hall each Sunday to listen to Dr. Ervin Seale. He is a 
specialist in wisdom, and his ministry is centered in teach- 
ing the religious insight which will strengthen one for 
the rigors of city life. In the stories and suggestions of 
these chapters the reader will find an unshakable con- 
viction that we can determine our lives by shaping our 
minds. We can be new masters of ourselves, mentally 
tougher, morally stronger. $3.95 



by H. Richard Neff 

Deals in a sane and constructive way with a number of 
subjects (survival after death, prayer, and healing) and 
with psychic phenomena (ESP, faith healing, prayer, 
clairvoyance, and the like) that are attracting the curiosity 
and interest of church people and the general public. Dr. 



Neff's insights — gained from careful experimentation, 
contacts with other authorities, much reading, and person- 
al psychic experiences — are doubly interesting because 
he is an ordained minister. $2.95 paper 



I'm OK -You're OK 



by Thomas A. Harris, M.D. 

Here is a fresh, sensible, increasingly fXJpular approach 
to the problems that every human being, including the 
person in need of psychiatric help, faces every day in his 
relations with himself and others. Transactional analysis 
is a new breakthrough, one that confronts the individual 
with the fact that he is responsible for what happens in 
the future, no matter what has happened in the past. 
It is both a teaching and a learning device. It distinguish- 
es three active elements in each person's make-up: the 
Parent, the Adult, and the Child. $5.95 

Postage: 20< first dollar; 5< per dollar thereafter 
The Brethren Press, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, III. 60120 




Meetingplace. 



In a seemingly simpler era, the high point of the week for many B 
was to come to the house of worship, to pray and to praise, to ren 
of kinship, and to discern what faithfulness to the gospel meant ■ 

workaday lives. 

For many the congregation still is the locus of the community < 
And for the few thousand who attend Annual Conference, the par 
comes Brotherhood-wide. 

There is, however, another place of meeting for Brethren, o 
spans even a wider circle. It is found in the pages of Messeng 
magazine devoted to lively interchange within and beyond the fa 
Brethren. 

Early in 1972, for example, you will meet Dennis Metzger, 
Johansen, Robert McFadden, Inez Long, Alan Jennings, Rosalita Li 
M. R. Zigler, Robert McAfee Brown, Shantilal Bhagat, Edgar Slater, 
F. Menninger, and Glenn R. Bucher, to list but a few. 

You will learn to know friends old and new and the ideas and 
that concern them. You will be invited to respond with your own qu 
and comments. 

Messenger is the meetingplace that brings you, your family ar 
congregation in touch with individuals, families and congregations W 
out the Church of the Brethren. 

It's your window, and your forum, on faith and the world. 



messenger/ 



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^^ Churches on Stage. The Vernard Eller family, travelers during the 
summer months, discovered that churches across the country are 
using drama to convey messages of heritage and theology, by Vernard 
Eller 



Love ... As I Have Loved You. The Week of Prayer for Chris- 
tian Unity, celebrated this year Jan. 18-25, picks up on Jesus' "new 
commandment." Bible readings and a meditation treat the theme. 



1^ "Why I've Been Putting on the Brakes." A teacher and church- 
woman who sees the Church of the Brethren pursuing a dizzying, un- 
balanced course proposes some different directions, by Inez Long 

f Q A Coed Answers: Involvement? Yes! Linda Keim, McPherson 
College senior, works for changes and improvements within the sys- 
tem — by her involvement in politics, world travel, and college 
studies, bv Susan Krehbiel Taylor 



Reviews. .-X current film, Billy Jack, comes under scrutiny of James 
M. Wall. On another theme, William Kidwell reviews a new book on 
"Those Whose Sexual Orientation Differs." 

Outlook focuses on the newly formed Association for the Arts in the 
Church of the Brethren: on a recently appointed staff member; on a peace 
witness in Washington, D.C.: on an unexpected court ruling in the case 
of conscientious objector .^lan Jennings; and on An Ecumenical Witness 
(beginning on 2); an editorial outlines what it means for Christians "To 
Take Jesus as the Challenge." 



EDITOR 

Howard E. Royer 

ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

Ronald E. Keener / News 
Wilbur E. Brumbaugh / Design 
Kenneth I. Morse / Features 

ASSISTANT EDITOR 

Linda K. Beher 

EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Richard N. Miller 



PHOTO r.RF.niTS: Co^cr World Council of 
Churches; 2. 4 Don Honick; .1 liob Biicher: 
6 (clockwhc from rop) I si. Jrtl. Hih (iood 
Enterprises, Ltd.: 2nd Del Cook: 4ih, 5ih 
Mojiesto. Calif.. Church of the Brethren: 6th, 
7th Ephratn Cloister ,Associ.Ttcs: 8 (center, 
right) Del Cook; 9 Ephrata Cloister .Associates: 
12 "Christ Washing the Feet of (he Disciples." 
oil from the school of Rettibranrll. courtesy of 
The .Art Institute of C;hicagri, Robert \ 
Waller Fund; 13 woodcut by Rol)crt F, Mc- 
Gosem: 19 U.S. Senate Republican Policv 
Commiitee 



VOL. 121, NO. 2 



JANUARY 15, 1972 



Mfssencer is the official publication of the 
Church of the Brethren. Entered as second- 
class matter .Aug. 20. 1918. under .Act of 
Congress of Oct, 17. 1917, Filing date. Oct. 1, 

1971, Messenger is a member of the Associ- 
ated Church Press and a subscriber to Reli- 
gious News Service and Ecumenical Press 
.Service, Biblical quotations, unless otherwise 
indicated, are from the Revised Standard 
\'crsinn. 

Subscription rates: S4,20 per year for indi- 
vidual subscriptions: S3, 60 per year for church 
grfnip plan: .S3. 00 per year for c\ery home 
plan; life subscription. SfiO: husband and wife, 
sT'*. If \ou move clip old address from Mes 
SENCER antl send with new address. 
Allow at least fifteen days for ad- 
dress change. Messenger is owned 
;tnd published twice monthly bv the 
f;hiirch of the Brethren Cicneral 
Board, 1451 Dundee Ave.. Elgin, 111. 
')0I20. Second-class postage paid a( 
Elgin, 111.. Jan. 15, 1972. Copyright 

1972. Church of the Brethren General Board. 



i 



LESSON HELPS 

I wish to express my gratitude to Craig 
Bailey and Sara Weaver for their wonderful 
lesson helps in the Guide for Biblical Studies 
on the doctrine of God. I've found each 
lesson a source of spiritual understanding 
and joy. 

However (and this is not a criticism of 
Sara Weaver), the lesson on the atonement 
left me unsatisfied. It seems to me that each 
of the three theories of the atonement given 
on page 55 contain elements of truth, but 
are too dogmatic in trying to express in 
human language that which is too transcen- 
dent to be thus fully expressed. 

I have looked ahead into the introduction 
and the lessons for Dec. 5 and Ian. 16 of 
our new guide, and I believe Larry Four- 
man, Craig Bailey, and Daniel Wade have 
done just as well in this book. 

I do not know any of these writers per- 
sonally, but to each one I say a heartfelt 
"Thank you." 

I have been associated with healing 
groups and am eager to see new groups 
started as suggested on page 49. 

Bertha Hedrick 
Heyuorth, 111. 

A WORTHY TRIBUTE 

The article by Anne Albright regarding 
Dr. John Young (Oct. 1 ) was most re- 
freshing and a very worthy tribute to a tre- 
mendous person. 

It has been my very good fortune to 
work as a subordinate to Dr. Young and 
have found him a real inspiration to all 
those that have had this privilege of know- 
ing him. 

Dr. Young's contributions to his profes- 
sion are unparalleled. He has always served 
it with great enthusiasm and vitality. If all 
educators were as outstanding as this one, 
we wouldn't find ourselves in the complex 
situation of the present day. 

Thanks for giving the many readers of 
Messenger the opportunity to learn to 
know such a great man of God. 

Darvl R. Yost 
New Haven. Ind. 

CONFRONTING THE CHURCH 

Linda Beher's good reporting of National 
■V'outh Conference (Oct. 1) has elicited sev- 
eral letters from those who were concerned 
or "appalled" as was Brother Ralph H. 
Landcs (Nov. 15) in reference to my advice 
to youth "to live in such a way that you 
might get kicked out of the church" and "to 
turn the church upside down." 

Without retracting what I said to the 
youth, I nevertheless would like to clarify 
what I meant. 



pt 



(Binid 



My advice in its larger context was as 
follows: "Do not go home and tell your 
parents that Dale Brown told you to leave 
the church. Rather, go home and tell your 
parents that you are going to live in such a 
way that you might get kicked out of the 
church." 

Many youth are disillusioned with the 
church today and are seriously attempting 
to deal with their relationship to it. Rather 
than leaving or getting out of the church, I 
wanted to strongly urge that youth stay in 
the church and confront it to make it 
better. . . . 

Though I love the Church of the Breth- 
ren and the Brethren very much, I do not 
apologize for calling for radical reformation 
and renewal in the church. In many ways 
in our congregations we have not been 
faithful to the style of discipleship we have 
espoused. The majority of our young men 
go off to train to kill. Many of our mem- 
bers are caught in the trap of earning their 
livings from the things which make for war. 
We have forgotten the doctrine of the sim- 
ple life, and the ideal of temperance is not 
with us in many of our habits. We vote 
with the rich, and our sympathies are often 
not on the side of the poor and the dis- 
possessed. In this we no longer can claim 
to be a New Testament people. We have 
striven for respectability and have forgotten 
our calling to be a "pilgrim people" for 
God. 

One could name much that has been right 
about our congregations and our brother- 
hood, but there are times when it is very 
much in place to name what is wrong and 
to call for repentance as John did in some 
of his strong utterances to the seven church- 
es of Asia (Rev. 2:4, 5, 14, 20, and 3:2. 
15). As we read that the early Christians 
turned that world upside down. I do hope 
that in many ways our own youth can turn 
our churches upside down — or right side 
up. 

Dale W. Brown 
Lombard, III. 

NOT WITHOUT FAULT 

Ralph Landes (Nov. 15) said he was 
"simply appalled" at Dale Brown's advice 
to the youth at National Youth Conference 
to "tell your parents that you are going to 
live in such a way that you might get kicked 
out of the church" and to "turn the church 
upside down." 

As a youth in attendance at the meeting 
in which this advice was given, I would like 
to explain what, in my opinion and inter- 
pretation, he meant by this. 

Certainly the church, founded on the 
gospels and Jesus Christ, is an effective and 



worthwhile organization — and much more. 
But surely none of us can say it is entirely 
without fault. And those seeking to make 
changes to correct these faults often find 
themselves up against a brick wall — no 
longer accepted by their own church. 

In many churches people who really fol- 
low the gospel of Christ are not accepted. 
By "really following the gospel," I mean 
living it every day of your life, even if it 
means loving your brother whether he is 
black, white, yellow, Democrat, Republican, 
Mexican or Communist; even if it means 
not conforming to society when you feel it 
conflicts with the teachings of Christ. 

I feel that what Dale Brown meant 
was that we could be "Christian radicals" 
— attempting to change what needs to be 
changed even if it might mean losing our 
church's acceptance of us, being "kicked 
out." 

If your church is perfect and does not 
need new ideas to change and improve it. 
then perhaps Mr. Brown's advice would 
seem appalling. 

But how many of our churches are like 
that? 

Marlene Wine 
Enders, Neb. 



MAGNIFICENT INTERPRETATION 

Occasionally, through the medium of 
Messenger, we members of the Church of 
the Brethren enjoy the rare privilege of 
being able to read something truly outstand- 
ing. 

Such was the case with those who availed 
themselves of the opportunity to read Dr. 
G. Wayne Click's magnificent interpretation 
of his son's actions regarding his stand on 
the war in Southeast Asia (Oct. 15). 

Many people who, through the news 
media, have followed Ted's witness of peace 
in recent years must certainly have misun- 
derstood his motives as well as his means, 
and Dr. Glick in his article has gone far in 
helping to clarify Ted's stand. 

I have known Dr. Glick and Ted for many 
years and am thoroughly convinced they are 
among the most sincere and dedicated 
Christians I have ever met. 

Dr. Glick writes out of a sense of urgency 
and his observations regarding the condi- 
tions in our prisons, at all levels, should 
cause each of us to do some serious think- 
ing. 

I pray, as I hope all Christians will, for 
a speedy end to the Vietnam conflict and 
for a definite reform in our American prison 
system. 

Edward H. Stauffer 
Landesville, Pa. 



■ A lot is said today about the signs 
of love, much less about the signs of 
unity. With the Week of Prayer for 
Christian Unity fast approaching, Jan- 
uary 18-25, now is an appropriate time 
to reflect on the evidences of Christian 
unity among the churches and individ- 
ual members in our own communities. 

Only a few short years ago many 
Church of the Brethren congregations 
were experiencing various ecumenical 
breakthroughs — in worship, fellowship, 
and action. During this observance and 
throughout the year, Messenger is much 
interested in knowing what the current 
climate is, what new and creative signs 
of unity are being discerned across the 
Brotherhood. 

In commemoration of the Annual 
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, 
Messenger shares a 
poster cover origi- 
nated by the Cana- 
dian Council of 
Churches and Bi- 
ble readings (page 
12) issued by the 
Faith and Order 
Commission of the 
World Council of 
Churches. 

Within the congregation, the Faith 
and Order Commission suggests the ob- 
servance might include renewal of bap- 
tismal vows, thanksgiving for ongoing 
expressions of unity, and commitment 
to one another in Christ. 

Authors of articles in this issue are: 

Vernard Eller, author and professor 
of philosophy and religion. La Verne 
College, La Verne, Calif. 

Inez Long, public school teacher and 
church worker, Lancaster, Pa. 

Susan Krehbiel Taylor, McPherson 
College graduate teaching at Canton, 
Kansas. 

James M. Wall, editor of Christian 
Advocate, a United Methodist maga- 
zine published at Park Ridge, III. 

William Kidwell, doing field work in 
hospital chaplaincy, Charlottesville, Va. 

In an entire issue, the February 1 
Messenger will treat the theme of non- 
violence in a violent world, offering as- 
sessments from differing standpoints 
including biblical and theological 
grounds. 




115-72 MESSENGER 1 



Arts association, new outlets 
express Brethren creativity 

The church is where creativity should 
come alive, the last issue of Messenger 
editorialized, and in se\eral ways recently 
the arts have indeed found new expres- 
sion in the Church of the Brethren. 

Forty charter members have organized 
the Association for the Arts in the Church 
of the Brethren, an outgrowth of informal 
interest of several persons at last year's 
St. Petersburg Annual Conference. 

Initial activities have been the first 
issue of a quarterh newsletter to members 
and all pastors and plans for an art ex- 
hibit at the Cincinnati .Annual Confer- 
ence. 

The association is attempting to bring 
together and give identitv' to the individu- 
als in the Brotherhood interested in the 
creative art forms that are not only ex- 
pressed in space, as painting, sculpture, 
banners, and graphics, but in time, as 
with music, film, dance, and drama. 

The first .\.\CB newsletter had articles 
by Messenger editor Howard E. Rover, 
welcoming the A.ACB (see Jan. 1, 
Messenger editorial) ; by Caroline 
Hufford, .'Mexandria, Va., describing her 



experience with sculpturing a cross in 
steel; by Sue Russell, music therapist in 
Grand Rapids. Mich., describing her work 
with mentall)' retarded children; by Joyce 
Miller, Franklin Grove, III., on what the 
association means to her as an artist 
struggling to find other artists in the 
church: and by LeRoy Kennel, Lombard, 
III., on art as a bridge in communication. 

Newsletters this year will deal with 
"The Arts for Lent and Easter" in Febru- 
ary. "The .\rts for Witness" in May, "The 
.Arts for the Brotherhood" in August, and 
"The Arts for Worship" in November. 

The Annual Conference exhibit will 
attempt to have many art media repre- 
sented, with special recognition given in 
several categories. 

Membership fees of $5 a year go 
toward the newsletter, exhibiting, and 
prizes. Contributors to the conference 
exhibit and persons interested in joining 
the association may contact AACB co- 
ordinator, Mary Ann Hylton, 201 Fair- 
view Ave.. Frederick, Md. 21701. 

1^ Grants of SSOO have been given to 
the districts of Atlantic Northeast, Shen- 
andoah. Illinois-Wisconsin, Southern 
Ohio, Western Plains, and Pacific South- 
west by the celebration team of Parish 
Ministries Commission for leadership 
training in the arts. 




Logo for Association of the Arts in tlic 
Church of the Brethren: Circle palette, 
signifying continuing creation, contains 
two overlapping As with a common cen- 
ter and the formation of the cross design 

Team member Wilfred E. Nolen noted 
that only a few districts in the Brother- 
hood are known to include budget money 
for worship or the arts in their concerns 
for nurture. The grants are intended to 
assist pastors and lay leaders in develop- 




Ralph G. McFadden 



Ralph G. McFadden accepts 
youth consultant post 

Ralph G. McFadden is consultant for 
youth ministries and coordinator of the 
Library of Resources for the Church of 
the Brethren, having assumed his new 
position in November. 

Former Lafayette, Ind., pastor, Con- 
gressional candidate, and Mid-Atlantic 
District executive secretary, Mr. Mc- 
Fadden, 38, during the past year was a 
corporate vice-president with Meteor, 
Inc., a Washington, D.C., consulting firm 
helping agencies secure federal grants in 
health, education, and welfare programs. 

As youth ministries consultant, Mr. 
McFadden will not serve in the past capa- 
city known as national youth director. 
Working at the enabling process, rather 
than in a program, he will deal with dis- 
trict and congregational youth cabinets 



at their invitation in assisting them in the 
organizational development of youth 
ministries. 

"Such assistance may take the form of 
experimental models within the context 
of the congregational structure or simply 
revitalization of the current youth min- 
istry programs," he says. 

Thus, the position as seen by Mr. Mc- 
Fadden and the Parish Ministries Com- 
mission is to assist youth groups in "pro- 
cedural handles" that will enable them to 
accomplish their own goals. Mr. Mc- 
Fadden will not be seeking speaking en- 
gagements nor organizing a centralized 
national youth program. 

He will, however, be developing 
youth ministries resources from sources 
both inside and outside the church to 
assist youth groups in programming. 

Beyond this, he will relate to campus 
ministries through United Ministries in 
Higher Education and campus ministers 



2 MESSENGER l-lj-72 



ing and becoming more sensitive to skills 
in the use of arts in corporate church 
worship, as well as education and fellow- 
ship. 

Planning for the specific event is the 
responsibility of the district, with cele- 
bration team members in consultative 
roles. One of the first events using the 
grants will be in the Western Plains Dis- 
trict next October at McPherson College. 

Sponsoring districts are encouraged to 
invite persons from neighboring districts 
to participate in the events. 

l^ Last September the Atlantic North- 
east District held a Creative Arts Festi- 
val at Elizabethtown College, attended 
by 1,000 persons, despite rainy weather. 

On the theme '"Celebrate," about 90 
exhibitions and a number of demonstra- 
tions in crafts were shown as examples of 
the more creative outreach of the church 
and its individual members. 

The day-long event also had sessions 
on filmmaking, musical presentations, 
drama, a puppet show, a banner contest, 
and an expressor center, where individuals 
could create something through the use 
of various media. 

In these and other ways, being used by 
individual congregations. Brethren are 
discovering ways of reaching out to others 
with their heritage and Christ's message. 



at Brethren colleges. 

As Library of Resources coordinator 
he will oversee the selection and place- 
ment of resources in the Keysort Card 
File. 

An Elgin resident during his teen-age 
years when his late father, W. Glenn 
McFadden, was pastor of the Highland 
Avenue church from 1950-1961, Mr. 
McFadden is a graduate of Manchester 
College and Bethany Seminary. 

During his Lafayette pastorate, he ran 
unsuccessfully for Congress in 1965 
against the late Charles A. Halleck of 
Indiana. For four years he was part- 
time campus minister at Purdue Uni- 
versity and has been active in scouting 
and camping in youth work. He also has 
been pastor at Akron, Ind. 

Formerly residing in Ellicott City, 
Md., Mr. McFadden is married to the 
former Barbara Peters. They have two 
children. 



Brethren witness to peace in 
White House feetwashing 

While 700 persons gathered in Washing- 
ton, D.C., for four days in October to 
"evict Nixon" and use nonviolent civil 
disobedience in an anti-war stance, 25 
Church of the Brethren members acted 
out their witness in front of the White 
House in a public service of feetwashing. 

The Brethren came from Indiana, 
Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. 
One of them, Ed Poling of Baltimore, 
said that as they washed each other's feet, 
a passage from John 13 was read, leaflets 
were passed out, and a banner declared 
"Church of the Brethren for Peace and 
Justice." Their photo appeared the next 
day in the W ashington Post. 

The service continued for 45 minutes, 
until police forced it to stop. The group 
had agreed, in a meeting the previous 
night at the Arlington Church of the 
Brethren, to comply rather than risk 
arrest. Water for the service came from a 
fountain in Lafayette Park across the 
street. 

The leaflet distributed noted that "in 
Jesus' washing of his disciples' feet, he 
challenges each of us and the corporate 
state to cleanse ourselves of our imperial- 
ism, murder, and oppression, to seek hu- 
mility, recognizing our racist, sexist, and 
manipulative actions, and to serve people 
rather than master them." 

The Brethren action was intended to 
make clear as well their protest to the 
Indochina war and to "all barriers that 
separate us from each other." 

Among five participants from Man- 
chester College were Lois Gish and Tim 
Kraus. Reflected Lois on the experience: 
"The footwashing service has always held 
a special meaning for me. Yet never be- 
fore did I feel such a sense of community. 
Never before did I feel I was truly saying 
that I wanted to serve instead of master." 

Tim later noted that "the public wash- 
ing of another's feet could be viewed as 
an action of either a lunatic or a publicity 
hound. I must admit that beforehand, 
regardless of my initial motivation to go 
to Washington, I did feel that way, but in 
the middle of my participation I began to 
realize again the meaning of the humility 
and the brotherhood in our action." 




^* 

Top: Brethren in position near the White 
HoKsc: below, Charlotte Kuenning. Lom- 
bard, III., watches toweling of her feet 

Philadelphian Art Gish reflected: 
"Some may question whether a public 
setting is a proper place for feetwashing 
and feel that this should be done privately 
among Christians. But historically for 
the Brethren, feetwashing has been a 
public service. 

"Baptism is a public demonstration of 
our commitment to Jesus Christ. Feet- 
washing may become a means of publicly 
witnessing to the new life in Jesus Christ. 
The Brethren may have found a new way 
to publicly witness to their faith." 



I-I5-72 MESSENGER 3 



Alan Jennings acquitted 

In trial on conscription stance 

It was "a decision that transcended all 
of our expectations" said Alan G. 
Jennings, acquitted Oct. 27 of a charge 
of willfully and knowingly violating the 
Selective Service law in leaving his al- 
ternative service project before comple- 
tion of his term. 

Mr. Jennings, 25, the son of ordained 
minister Dr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Jennings 
of Long Beach, Calif., served 17 months 
of a 24-month commitment at the 
Douglas Park Church of the Brethren in 
Chicago as a community worker in 
Brethren Volunteer Service. 

During this time, he told the court, "I 
eventually came to the conclusion that 
my cooperation with the Selective Service 
System was placing me in violation of a 
higher law to which I felt obligated. The 
law to which 1 am ultimately responsible 
is the gospel of Jesus Christ. . . ." 

Mr. Jennings believes that his case was 
the first time in Selective Service history 
that a principled noncoopcrator has been 
acquitted. 

After leaving his project and informing 
the Illinois Selective Service Board us to 
his reasons, Mr. Jennings spent a year at 
Bethany Theological Seminary, and since 
then has been working with emotionally 
disturbed boys at the Jewish Children's 
Bureau in Chicago. 

The not guilty verdict may have had 
as much to do with the presiding judge's 
concern for religious liberty as with Mr. 
Jennings' position. Later Mr. Jennings 
reflected on this: 

"It was truly the working of the Holy 
Spirit that enabled us to reach [Judge 
Lynch] on such a human and personal 
level. Granted, the mood of the country 
is different from even a year ago and by 
signing the stipulation and waiving the 
right to a jury it was easier for the judge 
to let me testify to the whole truth. And 
yet without his human understanding of 
my position, he would have ruled differ- 
ently." 

Another factor in the surprising ver- 
dict, he felt, was that the judge "per- 
ceived rather correctly that I took this 
action not so much to subvert the govern- 
ment as to witness to my faith. In obedi- 
ence to the higher law of Jesus Christ that 




A I Jennings at Douglas Park 



stands in judgment of all human laws I 
had to disobey the unjust and immoral 
conscription law." He believed that the 
strong religious nature of his defense 
influenced the judge's verdict. 

"We can only hope that in time we will 
be able to view his decision not so much 
as a privileged exception but as the 
spawning of a movement more favorable 
to 'crimes' of conscience," Mr. Jennings 
said. Although not legally binding on 
other courts, the decision is seen by him 
as "an important moral precedent." 

He finds his joy tempered in realizing 
that any one of several other judges in the 
district almost certainly would have ruled 
for some incarceration, and that future 
defendants may not be as fortunate as he. 

"This is not an occasion for renewed 
faith in the entire judicial system so much 
as revived hope in the potential for always 
reaching a person on a human level which 
transcends his stereotyped role," he said. 

Several statements of the Church of the 
Brethren on war, conscription, and civil 
disobedience were entered as evidence for 
Mr. Jennings and Dr. Dale W. Brown of 
Bethany Seminary and Douglas Park 
pastor Fabricio P. Guzman gave testi- 
mony as character witnesses. 

When the court adjourned, some 50 of 
Al Jennings' friends in the courtroom, 
many from the seminary, stood and sang 
the Doxology in their own joy. 



An Ecumenical Witness calls 
for look at Indochina War 

A nationwide interreligious movement, 
called "An Ecumenical Witness," con- 
vened a national conference Jan. 13-16 in 
Kansas City, Mo., to "stimulate thought 
and action in America's religious com- 
munities with regard to the moral issues 
of the Indochina conflict." 

Some 700 Protestant, Orthodox, and 
Roman Catholic church people and rep- 
resentatives of the Jewish community are 
exploring "the resources of our faith and 
how they may best be applied to the 
spiritual malaise that currently under- 
mines the condition of our people and 
our nation," the planners say. Leaders 
from the church outside the U.S. were 
asked to attend as well. 

Coordinator of the campaign, which 
began in November and will continue 
after the conference, is Dr. Robert S. 
Bilheimer, executive director of the Na- 
tional Council of Churches' department 
of international affairs. 

Among the 125 interfaith sponsors are 
Dale W. Brown, Bethany Seminary pro- 
fessor and 1972 moderator, and, from the 
Brotherhood staff, H. Lamar Gibble, 
peace and international affairs consultant. 
General Secretary S. Loren Bowman, and 
Joel K. Thompson, World Ministries 
executive. 

The movement was initiated on Nov. 
28 with prayers for peace and justice in 
front of the White House and in churches 
across the country. Among several reli- 
gious leaders officiating at the prayer 
service was Washington City pastor 
DLiane H. Ramsey, representing the 
denomination. 

Brethren delegates to the Kansas City 
convocation include Mrs. Joy Dull, 
Brookville, Ohio, W. Robert McFadden, 
Bridgcwater, Va., Thomas Wilson, con- 
gregational community involvement con- 
sultant, Elgin, III., Dr. Brown, and Mr. 
Gibble. 

The planners note that the "conference 
is meeting in a time when fewer and fewer 
favor continuing the war. The feeling is 
widespread that there is less and less that 
anyone can do about it. Our own condi- 
tion in church and synagogue mirrors 
that of the larger community." 

Much work of the conference focuses 



4 MESSENGER 1-15-72 



on such small-group discussions as "What 
obedience, witness, common strategy, 
community, life-style, network should we 
envisage? What can be done to create a 
new, constructive political mood, climate, 
and will? and how to maintain this and 
make it effective? What has prevented 
the communities of church and syna- 
gogue, in spite of prophetic voices, from 
rising to the moral and spiritual chal- 
lenge presented by the Vietnam War?" 
An Ecumenical Witness will be con- 
tinued with visits by overseas participants 
to various population centers. Specially 
organized national inquiry groups on 
major topics will continue work begun by 
the conference. 

Brethren, Mennonites confer 
on social and action programs 

Peace churches today have greater politi- 
cal and social responsibilities than our 
forefathers could have foreseen. Such 
was one consensus of the staffs of the 
Church of the Brethren World Ministries 
Commission and the Mennonite Central 
Committee. 

Administrators for both groups met 
last fall at the MCC headquarters in 
Akron, Pa., to continue discussions be- 
tween the two peace churches for fellow- 
ship and mutual sharing of experiences 
and concerns begun in 1970 at Elgin, 111. 

The staffs observed the need to properly 
balance three basic missions: ( 1 ) the 
prophetic stance in which the church 
identifies itself with a clearly known 
"right side" of a situation; (2) the posi- 
tion of mediator and reconciler, finding 
valid concerns on both sides of a conflict; 
and (3) their mission to feed the 
hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the 
sick and imprisoned. 

Both staffs saw that the third mission 
may have been overemphasized at the ex- 
pense of the first two. Looking ahead, the 
participants listed concerns deserving high 
priority in the 70s: penal reform, zoning 
which excludes the poor and minorities, 
peace education, welfare reform, and the 
effects of strip mining on the quality of 
life in Appalachia. 

The voluntary service programs of both 
churches were considered invaluable 
sources of experience from which to draw 
when addressing these problems. 



[La[n](dls[rDDDi]( 



THE PASTORAL SCENE . . . Five pastors were cited recently 
for t:heir years of service in the pastoral ministry: Vir- 
gil Weimer , Lena, 111. , forty; Edward K_. Ziegler , Bakers- 
field, Calif., fifty; I. L. Bennett , Ruckersville , Va. , 
fifty-four; George L. Detweiler , Greencastle, Pa., forty- 
four; and Kenneth Hollinger , Lanark, 111., forty. 

Beginning a teniire in September at the Greencastle, 
Pa. , Church of the Brethren was J. Richard Gottshall , for- 
merly pastor at the Peters Creek church, Roanoke, Va. 

Four Northern Ohio men were licensed to the ministry 
recently: Arlen Longenecker , Zion Hill; John Hand ley , Zion 
Hill; Robert Kurtz , Kent; and Brent Driver , Pleasant View. 
. . . Lock Haven College student David Stauffer , Elizabeth- 
town, Pa., was licensed to the ministry by the Atlantic- 
Northeast District. 

At Detroit, Mich., First Church of the Brethren the 
F. Robert Rutys participated in ordination services. He 
has been serving as student pastor there while completing 
college work at the University of Detroit. 

Anticipating retirement in Waterloo, Iowa, are Pastor 
and Mrs . Paul E_. Winger d , whose pastorate at the Cedar 
church, Clarence, Iowa, ended a twenty-nine year career. 

Entering private employment in the Los Angeles area 
is Leland Nelson , who resigned his pastorate of eleven 
years at the Ladera church. 



CONGREGATIONAL COLLAGE 



Nort±iern Coloradans are 



gathering at Windsor for worship and fellowship. The group 
of twenty invites others , and information may be obtained 
from Pastor Herbert D. Zeiler, 1901 Diana Dr., Loveland, 
Colo. 80537. 

At Dallas Center , Iowa , Brethren celebrated a har- 
vest homecoming in November. ... And in Seymour, Ind., 
the New Hope congregation combined homecoming festivities 
with rededication of their church building. 

Although the Pueblo , Colo . , congregation has voted to 
sell its property, a fellowship of Brethren will be main- 
tained in that city. 

Reporting on activities for Worldwide Communion Sunday 
are the Covington , Ohio , church whose members joined the 
United Church of Christ and the United Presbyterian con- 
gregations there for an agape meal. ... On the same Sunday, 
the Waka , Texas , congregation donated camp fees for Navajo 
children attending the district camp the past summer, not- 
ing that the offering fulfilled the idea of the Fund for 
the Americas in tihe United States. 



PEOPLE YOU KNOW 



One of twelve merabers of Indiana's 



new pesticide review board is William R_. Eberly , professor 
of biology at Manchester College. 

Inadvertently omitted from MESSENGER was mention of 
the dealih last May 3 of Walter E_. Peckover , who in a pas- 
toral career of fifty years served congregations from 
Florida to Washington. Included in his ministry were the 
starting of the church at Portland, Ore., and construction 
of the church at Salkum, Wash. , where death occurred. 

M5-72 MESSENGER S 




[Ul 








by Vernard Eller 

The Ellers were tourists last summer, 
driving from California to National 
Youth Conference at Valparaiso, 
Indiana, and then beyond to Pennsyl- 
vania. Partly by selection but largely 
by accident we repeatedly came across 
churches using the stage — drama, 
music, pageantry, special effects — as 
an attractive and effective way of mak- 
ing a witness and informing the public 
about themselves. Travel with us. 

^Jne of our early stops was Salt Lake 
City, Utah. Its main tourist attraction, 
of course, is Temple Square, the Zion 
of the Church of Jesus Christ of the 
Latter Day Saints, commonly known 
as the Mormons. While doing the 
regular tour of the beautiful buildings 
and grounds, we learned that in the 
evening would be presented a musical, 
Promised Valley. We decided to stay 
over. 

The brochure claimed that the pro- 
duction would be of Broadway caliber, 
and it was. Presumably most, if not 
all, the talent represented volunteer 
labor (five or six nights a week all 
summer), but it was plain that the 
church has access to top professional 
talent and has poured considerable 
money into the theater, staging, equip- 
ment, costumes, and sets. 

Promised Valley differs from a 
Broadway musical only in its shorter 
running time, approximately one hour 
without intermission. It uses a story 
line, songs, choreography, stage effects, 
comedy routines much as Oklahoma 
would. It had a full-sized orchestra, 
four or five soloists, and a chorus of 
fifty or more voices. 

The story recounts the trials, tribula- 



6 MESSENGER I 15-72 





tions, and victories of the heroic Mor- 
mon trek to Salt Lake in the 1 860s 
and the miracle of the sea gulls that 
saved a critically needed grain crop 
from the invading horde of crickets. 
The show does not go into the niceties 
of Mormon doctrine (ably communi- 
cated during the tour of the grounds) 
but it is distinctly religious in its por- 
trayal of the faith that motivated these 
pioneers and in ascribing their accom- 
plishments explicitly to God in Jesus 
Christ. The music includes traditional 
Mormon hymnody as well as Broad- 
way-type tunes. Promised Valley 
clearly is Mormon, but the enjoyment 
and inspiration it transmits is ecu- 
menical. 

The show is housed in an open-air 
amphitheater constructed expressly for 
the purpose. Located directly across 
the street from the architectural won- 
der of the Mormon Temple, the stage 
is buUt open at the back, so that the 
temple itself forms the backdrop. As 
the audience assembles, just before 
dark, the temple stands there in the 
light. By the time the program begins, 
the temple is a silhouette against a 
sunset sky. Before the show is over, 
the background is entirely dark, the 
temple obliterated. (In Salt Lake, the 
Mormons have enough clout that even 
the street lights are not lit on that 
block. ) Then, at the very end of the 
play, as the orchestra and chorus reach 
their final crescendo, all the incan- 
descence of its entire battery of night- 
time floodlights is suddenly thrown 
against the face of that towering, gold- 
topped temple. At that point, the 
Mormons not only meet but beat all 
hollow the best effect that Broadway 
ever has mustered. 



Ihe Tuesday evening program at 
the Valparaiso conference was Chris- 
tians Right On!, a two-hour worship 
service spectacular presented by the 
youth group of the Modesto, Cali- 
fornia, Church of the Brethren. 

If the strength of the Mormon show 
was its "professionalism," the strength 
of this Brethren show was its "ama- 
teurism" — using both of these terms 
in the best possible sense of each. 
From start to finish, the Modesto pro- 
duction represented the labor, the love, 
the creativity, the expression of faith 
of the young pieople who were doing it 
— and, by extension, that of the con- 
ferees as weU. The mark of Christians 



Right On! is "involvement." A col- 
lege girl was the major writer of the 
show, but the total effort was more a 
case of high school kids doing their 
thing — or, as the case proved, their 
things. 

The evening's experience was what 
might be called multimedia potpourri. 
The story-line continuity was so slim 
as to be virtually nonexistent. What 
we got, rather, was a variety including 
slide shows, both photos and cartoons 
(Schulz's Peanuts); lights; music col- 
lected from all over and with some ori- 
ginal lyrics (instrumental, vocal, and 
recorded); vaudeville skits and guerril- 
la theater; readings scriptural, bor- 




Proiniscd Valley cast performs against the background of the Salt Lake Temple 

1-15-72 MESSENGER 7 



rowed, and original; litanies; dance, 
an\nhing and ever>'thing. One element, 
strong here, that was entirely absent at 
Salt Lake, was audience participation. 
In Christians Right On! the attenders 
ver>' much get into the act by doing a 
great deal of singing, reading re- 
sponses, praying, and whooping it up 
along with the cast. 

The show also involves a potpourri 
of emotional moods (which today's 
youth are expert at handling and ex- 
pressing, with instantaneous transitions 
from one to another — while older 
folks are fighting to keep the pace and 
figure out what under the sun is going 
on). It must be said too that the show 
represents a theological potpourri. It 
included, for instance, a segment built 
around the many titles ascribed to 
Jesus in the New Testament and an- 
other segment which was a humanistic 
paean of praise for the nobility of man 
and the goodness of his natural life. 
No attention was given to the fact that 
if this second segment represents the 
truth about the nature of man and his 
life in this world, it makes the Jesus of 
the New Testament titles largely super- 
fluous. 

But perhaps this undigested mixture 
was precisely what the program should 
have been — a live and vibrant por- 
trayal of modem youth's struggle for 



faith, struggle with the faith, struggle 
to get a faith of their own rather than 
simply to receive an inheritance. In 
this regard, although some mention 
was made of being Brethren and al- 
though some Brethren ideals were 
lifted up, the Modesto show does not 
constitute as explicit a portrayal of a 
particular tradition and faith as do the 
other shows we are considering. In 
large part the difference is a matter of 
audience: The other shows are de- 
signed to present the faith to outsiders; 
the Modesto show is for internal 
consumption, an exercise in faith 
rather than a description of faith ac- 
complished. Thus, although Chris- 
tians Right On! is a beautiful thing of 
its own kind, it is not quite comparable 
to our other examples. 

wwe went to Ephrata, Pennsylvania 
deliberately to see Vorspiel, the musi- 
cal drama of the Ephrata Cloister. We 
had seen it a few summers earlier and 
were eager for a repeat. 

The Ephrata Cloister represents the 
material remains of the religious com- 
munity founded by Conrad Beissel. 
The community itself was alive and 
dynamic from the 1740s until well up 
into the nineteenth century. Because 
Beissel and a large percentage of his 
followers were converts out of Breth- 



renism and carried over many of their 
earlier beliefs and practices, an Eph- 
rata visit is particularly meaningful for 
members of the Church of the Breth- 
ren. 

The buildings and grounds are 
maintained by the State of Pennsyl- 
vania as an historical monument, pri- 
marily as an outstanding example of 
medieval German architecture and a 
colonial American way of life. How- 
ever, what really brings the monument 
to life is the effort of the Ephrata 
Cloister Associates. This is a non- 
profit community organization dedi- 
cated to the interests of the Cloister. 
The Beissel church is defunct, so the 
Associates include people of any and 
every faith except the Cloister's own. 
Their interest is primarily in preserving 
and sharing the culture of the original 
community; but because that culture 
was so entirely a religious one, there 
is no alternative but to witness to the 
faith of community in the process. The 
Associates are not shy or apologetic 
about the religious aspects of their 
work. 

On the Cloister grounds, they oper- 
ate a gift shop that sells not only the 
customary line of "Dutch" trinkets but 
also materials that celebrate and in- 
form about the faith community. The 
Vorspiel pageant is presented on week- 



I 



From left: A highlight of Promised Valley, from Christians Right On! — Abraham asking what love means; the vanquished lion 




end evenings during the summer. It is 
preceded by special tours, during whiich 
the buildings are occupied by people 
(mostly high school and college stu- 
dents) dressed in the authentic habits 
of the brothers and sisters, busy at the 
arts, crafts, and activities that were 
practiced there more than 200 years 
ago, and prepared to talk knowledge- 
ably about life in the cloisters. 

When it is dark, the crowd assem- 
bles in a meadow amphitheater on an- 
other part of the grounds. The back- 
drop in this case is a flat, painted 
mockup of the actual cloister build- 
ings. This may be the best that can be 
done, but it looks particularly fake 
when the real thing stands a scant 100 
yards away. It would add a great deal 
if the Associates could take a cue from 
the Mormons and incorporate the thing 
itself into their play. 

By necessity rather than choice, 
that did happen the night we saw 
Vorspiel. Gathered in the amphi- 
theater, the program opened with the 
announcer telling us what we would do 
in case of rain. This was asking for it, 
and we got it. Before he was done 
speaking, a brisk downpour headed 
the assembled company indoors in a 
state of rout. 

"Indoors" turned out to be the great 
meeting room located in the Saal, the 



oldest building of the group (con- 
structed 1741 ). This year that room 
was quite different from what we had 
seen on earlier visits. Then it had been 
simply a large, low-ceilinged room. 
But there existed accounts by eigh- 
teenth-century visitors to Ephrata de- 
scribing choirs in the hall singing from 
balconies. Recently a venturesome 
state architect who decided to solve 
the mystery of the missing balconies 
discovered that the ceiling above the 
center of the room definitely was of 
different construction than that along 
the two sides. Ripping out the center 
ceiling and opening the room a second 
story, clear to the roof, he found a 
beautiful, high room with galleries run- 
ning the length of either side — un- 
questionably the way the room stood in 
Beissel's day. 

Now that room — a great room in 
its time — is still large enough today 
for either the Vorspiel cast or the 
Vorspiel audience, but hardly both at 
once. What we got, then, was "inti- 
mate theater" in which the intimacy 
went so far that theatricals were simply 
crowded out. The pageant had to be 
so pruned and squeezed that it lost 
much of its effect. But, the story is 
just an excuse upon which to hang a 
portrayal of cloister life — worship, 
beliefs, discipline, love feasts, and 



above all, the a capella singing. And 
the consequence of the move into the 
Saal was that the pageant's loss became 
the music's gain. 

The music is one of the things that 
Ephrata is all about. Beissel was a 
self-taught musician who invented his 
own strange modes and his own 
strange notations for transcribing 
them. Early accounts are unanimous 
in praise of the unearthly (that is, 
heavenly) harmonics produced by 
Beissel's choirs. But although the writ- 
ten music was preserved, it was not 
until a few years ago that Dr. RusseU 
Getz, director of the Associates Chor- 
us, broke Beissel's code and opened 
the way for the music to be heard 
once more. (This music, by the way, 
shortly will be available to choirs from 
the G. Schirmer Company.) 

In the Saal, the men's chorus (seven 
or eight men) sang from one gallery 
and a like number of women sang 
from the other. For one number, a 
third chorus was stationed on the main 
floor. Without doubt, Beissel wrote 
the music for just such antiphonal ar- 
rangement and used it that way. And 
it has now been proved that the eigh- 
teenth-century visitors were right on 
the mark in their accolades of Ephrata 
singing. Everyone ought to make a 
point of attending Vorspiel at least 



At Ephrata: "We shall sing to prove that the angels themselves, when they sang at the birth of Christ, had to use our rules'' 




If, / 





twice — once in clear weather to see 
the pageant and once in the rain to 
hear the music. 

Even at its best, Vorspiel cannot 
touch the sHck professionalism and 
entertainment value of the Mormon 
Promised Valley. It does, however, 
have a hymnody and a sanctuary that 
antedates the Mormon counterparts by 
considerably more than a century. And 
to listen to that long lost music sung in 
a long lost meeting room creates an 
effect that lifts one beyond even flood- 
lit temples. Both are authentic pointers 
to the glory of God. 

^Jur final adventure started at 
Ephrata and in ways proved the most 
e.xciting and significant of the four. 
.At the Cloister gift shop I picked 
up an attractive, slick, professional- 
looking brochure (no, we're not going 
back to Salt Lake) advertising a Dutch 
Family Festival located near Lancaster. 
Normally, slick brochures tooting 
"Dutch stuff" around Lancaster are to 
be regarded with suspicion; that area 
is full of outfits that have commercial- 
ized and prostituted the Permsylvania 
Dutch culture beyond all recognition. 
(One of their big items is a postcard 
that gets a hee-haw from the fact that 
Dutch country includes the town of 
Intercourse, Pa.) 



That our brochure mentioned "a 
pageant of the Amish and Mennonite 
way of life" didn't necessarily prove 
anything. That area boasts scads of 
"learn about the Amish" places that 
no God-fearing Amishman would be 
caught dead in; the proprietors are 
interested solely in Amish "quaintness" 
and couldn't care less about the Amish 
faith. 

But our brochure did include some 
hints that intrigued me. A family 
festival it was called, and jamily was 
played up in the text — that's some- 
thing different. "A festival is people 
.... People learning from other peo- 
ple's way of living and giving. . . . 
It's our story to you with love. ..." 
There is something quite uncommercial 
(or else newly super-ingenious com- 
mercial ) about that pitch. We de- 
cided to investigate even though it 
meant upsetting our travel schedule 
and driving some distance out of our 
way. We are very glad we did, for 
we discovered that the Dutch Family 
Festival is a gang of young Mermonites 
who are out to beat the commercial- 
izers at their own game and, in the pro- 
cess, defend and share the faith instead 
of corrupting it. 

The brochure told us that the festi- 
val is produced by Good Enterprises, 
Ltd. That turns out to be Merle Good, 



a Mennonite seminarian who must still 
be well within his twenties, his wife 
Phyllis, and some better-fixed Men- 
nonite elders who are his angels (back- 
ers). As Merle told me. his company 
marks an effort to operate on three 
fronts simultaneously: ( 1 ) commer- 
cial, to provide a means by which some 
Mennonite artists and craftsmen can 
support themselves and thus — (2) 
artistic, to pursue their creative en- 
deavors to the end of — (3) the faith, 
making a public witness to Mennonite 
ways and values. 

The festival, which has evolved out 
of the four seasons of activity, operates 
during the summer months. During 
the school year. Merle is a student 
(communication and the arts) at 
Union Theological Seminary and 
Phyllis at New York University. The 
cast-staff (same people in dual, triple, 
and quadruple roles) are largely Men- 
nonite college students, many of them 
from Eastern Mennonite in Harrison- 
burg, Virginia, Merle's own alma 
mater. 

The festival proper operates on a 
continuous cycle during the day, six 
days a week. It is housed in a large, 
open, commercial-type building which, 
I believe, is an auction center during 
the off (on) season. 

The greater part of the front half 



At left, Christians Right On! cast members introducing a new song. Right, at Dutch Family Festival, exhibits feature Mennonite life 



/ 



i 



^\, 






/ 




^^,- 



of the building is tiie gift shop, at- 
tempting to specialize in original and 
authentic Mennonite artworks. Fea- 
tured are the three-dimensional carved 
paintings of Mennonite farm life done 
by Albert Zook, a truly unique and im- 
pressive art form. Featured even big- 
ger is a new novel by a first-time novel- 
ist. Merle Good (Mr. Entrepreneur 
himself) . Happy as the Crass Was 
Green is his story of contemporary 
Mennonite youth, published by Herald 
Press, the Mennonite press at Scott- 
dale, Pennsylvania. The shop also has 
a table of other works by Mennonite 
writers, most of them from Herald 
Press. And early in the season, the fes- 
tival sponsored an autographing party 
at which quite a number of Mennonite 
authors were present. 

From the gift shop, we walked 
through a series of exhibits: a mock-up 
kitchen where is explained the making 
of sauerkraut, apple butter, soap, and 
such like; a farm exhibit with a few 
live animals; a smokehouse. The 
guides and exhibitors turn out to be 
the actors and singers at the audi- 
torium, the back half of the building. 
One end of the room is devoted to an 
open, wrap-around stage decorated in 
a Mennonite farm motif. The other 
end is semicircled with seven projec- 
tion screens and a number of low 



platforms. The center of the room is 
filled with ingenious, bidirectional 
seats, namely, bales of hay. (During 
empty intervals, the children are en- 
couraged to play tag, jumping from 
bale to bale. ) 

First, at the screen end, comes "This 
Is Lancaster." a brief multimedia pre- 
sentation written by Merle Good, mu- 
sic by David Seitz, recordings of some 
of the music on sale in the gift shop. 
Its thrust is toward the family and the 
beauties of life in the country, com- 
municated through simultaneous 
slides, music — live and recorded, 
skits, jokes by a cast of four. 

During the intermission, while the 
cast is regrouping at the other end of 
the room, the audience enjoys a brief, 
informal lecture and question period 
regarding Mennonite-Amish history 
and beliefs. In our case the lecturer 
was a young man who joined the so- 
ciology faculty at Elizabethtown Col- 
lege this fall. 

Turning on our bales, from the stage 
came a very brief musical celebrating 
the Amish-Mennonite faith and Ufe. 
Book and music by you know who. 
Cast of four, same as before. All done 
with impressive verve, sincerity, and 
dedication by very open, friendly, hos- 
pitable young people. 

Come evening, the festival proper 



Gift shop at family festival specializes in Mennonite artwork 




closes shop in order to reopen as the 
company of a full-scale, two-hour 
musical. The hay has been stacked to 
one side to form a gallery for children, 
and folding chairs have been arranged 
facing the stage. The audience has 
jumped from twenty or thirty to ten 
times that; and the number of prayer 
coverings in evidence (beards don't 
tell you anything any more) indicate 
that the Mennonites do a good job of 
supporting their own. The cast has 
swelled from four to fourteen, pre- 
sumably as ten more Mennonite young 
people got off their workaday jobs. 

Merle has written, directed, and 
produced four of these full-length, 
what he calls "native" musicals. Two 
are presented each summer. David 
Seitz. a former music teacher from 
Eastern Mennonite who sang in the 
cast, has done the music for a couple 
of them. This night the play was Yes- 
terday, Today, and Forever, the story 
of a touring group of young Mennonite 
singers who are struggling to be true 
to their heritage and yet be open to the 
modern world. Costumes included a 
comfortable mix of prayer and mini- 
skirts. Not all of the long hair was on 
girls. Drums and an electric guitar 
made their contribution. As the bro- 
chure said. "It's ALIVE!" 

The music touched all bases: an 
ancient Mennonite hymn sung in Ger- 
man; "I Need Thee Every Hour" 
(which I never would have guessed 
could make it as a show tune) ; the 
Lord's Prayer very effectively sung to 
music reminiscent of the Beatles. 

Without apology, the show as a 
whole was religious. Christian, and 
Mennonite. Not every viewer would 
be converted, of course, but no one 
could come away without feeling good 
about the experience and having 
gained in knowledge and respect. 

In sum, many churches are effective- 
ly using the stage to help get their mes- 
sage to the public "out there." The 
Church of the Brethren may not have 
the resources to compete with the Mor- 
mons. But Brethren do have the per- 
sons and the creativity to become in- 
volved in this kind of ministry on a 
greater scale than has so far been tried. 
Ought we investigate the myriad pos- 
sibilities? D 



1-15-72 MESSENGER 11 



Love^ 
^ asl 
have 

loved 
you. 



Jesus requires a new style of life of 
his disciples. They are to love one 
another as he himself has loved 
them (John 13:34). This is to be 
their distinctive feature, making 
them recognizable as his disciples 
(John 13:35). 



What love is. 



In one form or another, the call to 
love is found in most religious tra- 
ditions. Yet it is universal human 
experience that love cannot arise 
by command. 

But the words of Jesus about love 
are a new commandment which he 
alone could issue since it is direct- 
ly bound up with his person and 
mission: The new commandment is 
Jesus' invitation to live as he him- 
self lived (1 John 2:6), to live in the 
light of his truth (2 John 4). Jesus 
requires us to love one another as 
he himself has loved us (John 
13:34). 

What was this love of Jesus him- 
self? The washing of the dis- 
ciples' feet indicates the answer: 
"Jesus had always loved his own, 
who were in the world and now he 
was to show the full extent of his 
love" (John 13:1). This symbolic act 
at the beginning of the last Supper 



points to two features of the love 
of Jesus: 

1. The washing of the feet an- 
nounces and prefigures the 
sacrifice of the cross. Before 
he died, Jesus could say: "It 
is accomplished" (John 19:30). 
He had given the supreme 
token of love, for there is no 
greater love than that a man 
should lay down his life for 
his friends (cf. John 15:12-15; 

1 John 5:16). Lifted up from 
the earth, Jesus will draw all 
men to himself (John 12:32), 
gathering together into unity 
the scattered children of God 
(John 11:52); 

2. The washing of the feet is also 
the pattern of brotherly serv- 
ice for each Christian. The 
servant is to follow the ex- VJ 
ample of his master (John 

13:15 H.). 

Christ's love for men demon- 
strates the love of the Father who 
gave his only son for the salvation 
of the world (John 3:16). God is 
love (1 John 4:8-16). To discover 
God, to know who he is, we must 
love (1 John 4-7 f.). 



What love 
demands. 



The servant truly follows his mas- 
ter only if he is ready to lay down 
his life for his brothers (1 John 
3:16). 

His daily life is to be a life of 
service. He must always be ready 
to come to the help of his brothers, 
especially of those who suffer (1 
John 3:17). Only then will the love 
of the Christian be "genuine and 
show itself in action" (I John 3:18). 

The true Christian loves his ene- 
mies (Matthew 5:44). Like God and 
like Christ who have loved all men 
(John 3:16), he tries to make his 
love universal in its range. 

The Christian who seeks to obey 
the new commandment (John 15:12- 
17) will not be surprised to meet 
with misunderstanding and hatred 
(John 15:18-25). His assurance of 
Christ's victory will enable him to 
conquer fear and cowardice (John 
13:38; 16:33). 



The fruits of love. 



Love makes the believer a true 
disciple of Jesus (John 13:35), one 
who has really assimilated his 
master's message and who knows 
the truth (8:31 f.); one who, like the 
beloved disciple, stands at the foot 
of the cross (19:15-26) and who 
looks up in faith to the crucified 
Christ (19:37). 

Love creates fellowship among 
men (1 John 1:7), strengthens and 
extends the Christian community, 
which is a truly fraternal commu- 



nity; love is the family likeness of 
the children of God (1 John 3:10), it 
demonstrates to the world the life 
of Christians as God's children and 
their fellowship with the Father 
and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 

Life in truth and love (Ephesians 
4:15) is the most effective way of 
achieving unity in the faith 
(Ephesians 4:13) and building the 
kingdom of God. Love builds the 
church, which grows and increases 
through the mutual love of its 
members (Ephesians 6:16). 



Sent by Christ into the world 
(John 17:18), the children of God 
bear witness to the world as they 
achieve their unity. In this way 
men will be led to faith and will 
realize that the Father has loved 
them as he loved his son (John 
17:21 ff.). Is this love the family 
likeness which the world sees in 
Christians? Is this love character- 
istic of relations between churches? 
Is this sign of love to be found 
within each Christian congregation 
and community? 



Suggested Readings 

John 13:1-17 and 33-35; 1 Corinthi- 
ans 13 

"I show you the best way of all" 
Deuteronomy 6:4-15; Luke 10:25-37 

The commandment of love is the 
sum of the law 

1 John 4:7-11; Hosea 11:1-9 
Only love makes God truly 
known 

Luke 6:27-35; Leviticus 19:17 f. and 

33 L 

Love of the neighbor cannot dis- 
criminate between friend and 
enemy 

John 15:12-17; Isaiah 58:6-12 
There is no service of the Lord 
without service of those in need 

Matthew 18:21-35; 1 John 2:3-11 
In the light of the commandment 
of love the truth about the inten- 
tions of our heart is revealed 

Matthew 10:34-42; 1 John 3:13-18 
Following Christ in the way of 
love does not lead out of the 
world of hatred, but leads to 
ultimate division, exemplified in 
his cross 

Jeremiah 31:1-6; Romans 8:31-39 
God's unceasing love for men 
does not rest until he has drown 
them all to himself 



Helpus tolove. 



Jesus says "Love one another" 
Think of those we love 
Think of those we ought to love 
Think of situations of hatred in the 

world. 
Lord, as you have loved us, help 

us to love. 




'^^^^. 



Jesus says "Love one another" 
Pray to God for our family and 

friends 
Pray to God for our enemies 
Pray to God for peace. 

Lord, as you have loved us, help 

us to love. 

Jesus says "Love one another" 

Commit ourselves to God 

Commit ourselves to work for peace 

and reconciliation 
Commit ourselves to each other. 
Lord, as you have loved us, help 

us to love. 



ible readings 
fora 
Week of Prayer 
for Christian Unity: 




Inez Long tells why 



UT5. 



IVe Been Putting on the 




Inez Long 



To be born 

on the prairie, 
riding in a 

car on capricious topography up and 
down, right and left, is a dizzy 
un-merry-go-round, so that I find 
myself dragging my feet and braking a 
hole in the floorboard. For the past 
five years I've been doing the same in 
the Church of the Brethren on our 
dizzy ride of tripping off, spiraling 
twist after turn, zooming us high and 
heading us low. 

How did we get on this ride? Well, 
from World War II to the mid-sixties, 
Brethren laid a speedway that caught 
the spirit of the times and the tempo of 
our people and we didn't need zigzag 
risks to provoke thrills. We were going 
fast toward goals and we didn't jerk 
into sudden kinks. We had our thrills 
from winning conscientious objector 
status in national law, a victory which 
will stand as an historic landmark in 
the rise of the inviolate conscience as 
supreme over national policy. We 
thrilled as millions of dollars went into 
alternative service which, however 
infirm in World War II. made a 
miraculous witness in crisis, a witness 
yet to be recorded in all its drama. We 
were recognized as leaders in relief, 
rehabilitation, work camps, volunteer 
service, and mobile emergency 
programs. 

During our excursions into a widen- 
ing world, we woke up to the fact that 



we. ourselves, had changed. We had 
transplanted ourselves from the coun- 
try to the city so that our locations 
were exactly reversed : we were now 
eighty-five percent urban and fifteen 
percent rural. Our new church build- 
ings, no longer meetinghouses, showed 
our confidence that, because of our 
record in the forties, we could win our 
way in the postwar secular world and 
gather a strong base in urban, main- 
stream Protestantism. Today our local 
churches — their conclusions after 
long discussions in the fifties openly 
evident in hardwood and concrete — 
dot the nation with divided chancels, 
steeples, parking lots and educational 
complexes that boast nurseries, multi- 
media installations, kitchens, and 
recreational facilities. And, as a 
parsonage woman. I give a loud cheer 
for efficient new parsonages. 

During this time, our witness to the 
wider church, as in the National Coun- 
cil of Churches and World Council of 
Churches mounted under the leader- 
ship of our best denominational states- 
men. Our fellowship with global 
Christians, as in the Russian exchange, 
was unique. Our church-related col- 
leges expanded in phenomenal propor- 
tions. Our involvement in Mission 
One and Mission Twelve pushed us 
into a new sense of relationships, in 
both church and world. 

Despite the grumblings of the youth 



14 MESSENGER 1-15-72 



Brakes" 



cult and the rumblings of the anti- 
church underground in the late 1960s, 
both of whom had brilliant reasons for 
exposing all these achievements as 
folly, the record of self-sacrifice, of 
hardheaded planning, and of actual 
good done for humanity shows a dedi- 
cation with which we need not be 
ashamed even when standing alongside 
our venerable forebears. However, the 
hardest work of my forty years in an 
uninterrupted career in church work 
has been dragging my feet in the past 
five years, in putting on the brakes. 



What caused 
the imbalance which 

gives us a dizzy ride in the late 1960s? 
It was riding in a passenger section 
ripped in two because the design of the 
craft catered to the youth cult, so that 
the generation gap, breaking the 
church apart, became an ironic joke to 
the young, a traumatic tragedy to the 
old, and a formidable task to the 
middle-aged who were nearly torn in 
pieces as they held the rip together by 
their own two bare hands. It was the 
falsity of pilots who, while looking 
straight ahead as if listening with both 
ears, heard only with the left ear tuned 
to raucous extremists who grabbed the 
microphone and announced to the 
passengers alternate demands for 
"Power," "Confrontation," and "Con- 
troversy" between sweet mimics for 
"Acceptance" "Love," and "Support." 
It was the presumption of professional, 
salaried churchmen who fueled the 
local church with sophisticated materi- 
als and methods while faithful volun- 



teer workers tried feverishly to get the 
local church aloft as it sputtered and 
choked on input too rich or ill-matched 
for its purposes. It was the false prom- 
ise of an Aimual Conference report of 
1 966 to merge "with groups more like 
our own" which, in the ensuing years, 
consumed millions of flight hours and 
confused local flight patterns so that 
we landed in Baptist, Church of God, 
and other terminals, only to find that 
we have been grounded with no "Go" 
from other ports. 

The flights have been more than 
many of my co-workers have been able 
to sustain. Many have become sick- 
ened; some have disembarked; all but 
a few have shut their eyes so as not to 
see from the window the dizzy flights 
we have taken. Of the few who 
looked, even fewer knew where we 
were "at" at any given time. I didn't 
get sick; I didn't shut my eyes; I've 
known where we were most of the 
time. I dragged my feet simply be- 
cause I thought the ride was imbal- 
anced; it was a waste of fuel; it was an 
unfair expenditure from conscientious 
tithers; its false exhilaration was illu- 
sionary. I disembarked this past year 
with both feet on the ground to dis- 
cover, along with many others, that we 
had, indeed, struck amazing low 
altitude. 

Someone has said that such a posi- 
tion — both feet on the ground — gets 
us nowhere. One has to have at least 
one foot off the ground to walk. But I 
propose for the Church of the Brethren 
a period of time in which to keep both 
feet on the ground and go nowhere: 
just stop, look and listen. Then, per- 
haps, we might be able to make a jump 
forward together, with both feet, right 
and left, in one strong forward action 
to one purposeful goal. 

Where are we now? I think we are 
not so much lost as we are in the posi- 



tion of having "lost out." In very self- 
less moves, on the assurance that "he 
who loses his life shall find it" — 
though in our generosity we seldom 
had the same recipient in mind as did 
the Teacher of this paradox — our 
programs became mobile. We moved 
our service projects into the wider 
church. Church World Service, Heifer 
Project, CROP, International Youth 
Exchange, and many others. We based 
alternative service and BVS in secular 
agencies. Hospitals went under com- 
munity control. Our best talent went 
into secular revolutions. Our peace 
testimony touched global proportions. 
Our church colleges moved toward 
self-perpetuating boards of trustees. 
Our seminary may soon be teaming in 
a cluster. 



How did we "lose out"? 
As we became 

prophets to the ecumenical world 
in matters of peace, other groups de- 
veloped prophets more quickly than 
we and rose with more sophistication. 
As we shared our relief programs with 
others, they promptly bolstered them 
with more money, more personnel, and 
won the balance of power. We scat- 
tered our best leaders in ministries to 
the world which invited them, often as 
naive and willing worldlings, into an 
even more inviting worldliness. I 
could name all these in specific pro- 
grams, policies and persons, by title, 
official action and name, but this reve- 
lation would be self-castigating. You 
see, I voted in official action for many 



1-15-72 MESSENGER IS 



of these shifts with the wild hope that 
some of our well-proven projects and 
ideals would get wider use. This has 
happened. Yet this selflessness has left 
us with little left of the self we have 
always known ourselves to be as 
Brethren. 

The Church of the Brethren now has 
an identity which it feels to be a non- 
identity because we are unfamiliar with 
it. Coming from our pietist tradition, 
as reformers of all reforms, we have 
little feel for the identity which remains 
as the revolutions and countermove- 
ments cool. What, then, is our iden- 
tity? We are just another neighborhood 
church on just another busy street 
corner. Our slogans as a denomination 
— unique, separatist, peculiar — are 
gone. 

Now this is a challenge in itself. 
Our local congregations, open toward 
Protestantism, even Catholicism, will 
be steadied if we incorporate the 
weight of these newcomers who will 
scrutinize the quick turnabouts which 
our small denomination has maneu- 
vered in the past. Yet Brethren don't 
see any thrill in being "just another 
church," especially at a time when the 
church is shown as tawdry; when it is 
ill-used and much abused, even by 
leaders in the church. We don't think 
of ourselves as "a traditional, institu- 
tional church." We have been taught 
that we were not created "just for 
that"; our origins were not sprung "just 
from that." 

Furthermore, we don't know how to 
be a church in a secular city, a secular 
village or a secular countryside, be- 
cause we aren't ready to confess that 
the omnipresent adjective secular de- 
scribes us all after two decades in front 
of the television screen. Yet here, too, 
is challenge, as the veneer of secular 
hardware and the disposable nature of 
plastic junk deepens the contrast be- 
tween the eternal set in the midst of the 
transitory. And we can be glad that, 
disencumbered of parochial programs, 



we can get on with our central task : 
the tendering and extending of the 
sacred in a profane world. This has 
always been the task of the church, 
though it is a difficult task for a people 
recently exposed to the secular world. 

Once we recognize a shift in our his- 
toric position, and once we accept our 
place in the secular world, we must 
first define ourselves as a church. 
When we moved into a hard-core, 
prophetic stance in the late 1960s, we 
became more individualistic, like the 
Quakers. This moved us from an 
evangelical base and from the kind of 
corporate unity we had shared with the 
Mennonites. Yet now we find our- 
selves neither like the Quakers nor the 
Mennonites: We are not Quaker, be- 
cause we have not relinquished a 
concept of the church; we are not 
Mennonite because we are no longer 
internally strong and separatist. 

Are we really a church? If so, are 
we "just another church"? Are we 
special? I suggest that we assume we 
are not special in the sense that God 
plays favorites by speaking through 
our own kind because of who we are. 
I suggest that in spite of the mass- 
media performances and headline per- 
sonalties we have been able to pro- 
mote, we confess that sustained per- 
sonality adulation or denominational 
prestige in the public eye are hard to 
sustain by people with little expertise 
in the camera's lens. Furthermore, I 
suggest that experiments in one-year 
ministries in hard-core social causes be 
exchanged for long-term professional 
career-personnel rather than hit-and- 
run, guilt-compensating orators and 
lamppost ministries. In councils of 
churches, I suggest that Brethren con- 
fess openly that is was easier to get our 
interdenominational friends on the 
peace bandwagon, when it became 
popular in both press and youth pro- 
tests, than to get them off the mari- 
juana trip, off the consumerism ride 
with in-group projects, off the political 
games of one-upmanship, and off ex- 
cursions to worldwide conferences for 
whoever has the tough elbows and 
verbiage to win a first-class ticket. 
Finally, we do not need more hard- 
bitten words in which self-appointed 
crusaders have halted all opposition 
with gutter language, frisked their 
opponents, and stripped them down. 



tearing out their hearts in cold blood. 
Certainly we do not need more dia- 
logue which is banal communication. 
Such communication is only a pooling 
of ignorances, or a marathon in which 
only volubility and accusations are the 
survivors. 

If we can rid ourselves of past use- 
less cargo, where do we start? We 
start where Christians have always 
started: Right where they are, right 
on, along the Christian pilgrimage, like 
Christian himself in Pilgrim's Progress. 
We are a people on pilgrimage. We 
are not on an ecstatic trip, not on an 
adventurous odyssey, not in a political 
race, not on a lost-lover's detour, not 
on a suicidal dead end. Like Christians 
before us, we are on a Way. That Way 
rises from disgrace to glory, from 
slavery to the self to freedom of the 
redeemed. The road rises with mir- 
acles and devils meeting us at every 
turn as we pursue the Way to a sacred 
destiny. 

What might be that Way for Breth- 
ren now? 



First,we can review 
the knowledge 
which the church 

has produced and preserved, knowing 
that it is an exclusive body of knowl- 
edge in the sense that in our secular 
age, only the devout in home and 
church can be trusted to teach it 
authentically and purposefully. As 
Christians we have learned that there 
is Good News which others do not 
know. That Good News carries values 
which we do not want lost because 
they are redemptive values for the hu- 
man race, which we love and which 
we hope will prevail. As religious peo- 
ple, we are consciously alive, because 
we are conscious every moment that 



16 MESSENGER 1- 15-72 



God is alive and, in our day. we keep 
this consciousness brilliantly alive in 
ourselves because the forthright recog- 
nition of God is rare, except in pro- 
fanity. As members of the living Body 
of Christ, we will gather to sing praise 
on Sunday morning, as our custom is. 
We will bring the fruits of our labors 
in a world that seldom knows or con- 
fesses Christ, and we will be confident 
before the throne of grace that God 
will take the paltriness of our labor and 
enlarge it from the disregard of the 
world to the measure of his children's 
need. As we seek atonement for our 
own disobedience, we will be bold to 
believe that life everlasting is a sure 
gift of God's grace. 

Second, we will pray for and be open 
to the Holy Spirit. We will infuse our 
experiences of the Spirit into the insti- 
tutional church. If the church is only a 
"corpus" — a body — it will be a 
corpse. If it is body and spirit — 
corpus and animus, the breath of God 
— it will have a soul. We will live 
with the Spirit that cannot be pro- 
grammed, computerized or mimeo- 
graphed but whose ways, often stub- 
born against administrative paper 
people and our own picayunish 
connivings. are endless joy within the 
household of faith. We will extend our 
church to people nearby who have 
fallen victim to mass media consumer- 
ism and secular cults. Pumped into 
bloated bodies, full of liquor, drugs, 
speed, skin, thrills, and risks, they have 
bartered life with a capital L for the 
touch-and-feel senses minus soul, 
which is infused only by the breath of 
God. 

Third, we will be perceptive to the 
ecumenicity that is growing at the 
grass roots. Many of us, saddened by 
the lack of evangelism among Breth- 
ren, and disheartened by the trend of 
Anabaptism that propagandizes sep- 
aratism to keep us outside ecumenical 
mergers, see a ray of hope in our local 
churches. For here, in our own con- 



gregations, people regardless of labels, 
dress, experiences, or language, come 
to pray, study, and worship because 
they know they must "lean on the 
Everlasting Arms" if they are to be 
enabled for the hard work of Chris- 
tians in the world. Here is the close 
communion — not closed communion, 
but quite the contrary — of believers 
in a neighborhood church. We need to 
keep aware of the differences in these 
two words because, as Brethren, as we 
move toward intensive fellowship, we 
will be tempted to turn inward to 
closed sectarianism which, however 
spectacular in broadbrimmed hats, 
high collars, and prayer veils when we 
are together at Annual Conference, is 
a dead end to youth and adults alike 
who, living with their peers in the secu- 
lar city, refuse to be encumbered by 
the flimflams of special gear which 
carry artificial barriers and are impedi- 
ments to the sharing of the Good News. 

Fourth, we will welcome many lan- 
guages in the church to infuse it with 
diversity and harmony, characteristics 
of God's whole human family. In 
time, we will feel out the full meanings 
of others' languages. Paul wrote, 
"There are doubtless many different 
languages in the world, and none is 
without meaning, but if I do not know 
the meaning of the language. I shall be 
a foreigner to the speaker and the 
speaker a foreigner to me." The new 
ecumenicity is bringing together words 
and meanings from Consciousness III, 
Communes. Jesus People, the Straights, 
the Intellectual Elite, the Hard Hats, 
the Eternal Family, the Violent- 
Nonviolents, the Glossolalia Cults, 
the Social Action Rabble, the Long 
Hairs, the Evangelicals. As each in- 
terprets the meaning of his language, 
each local church will be forced to 
raise up balanced, disciplined, com- 
passionate spokesmen who, able to 
speak the "language within all lan- 
guages" because of personal dedication 
and long years of study, will gather us 
all into one Body and one Spirit. In 
this new harmony of the family of 
God, Brethren will need pastors who 
know how to realize Christ's hope. 
"Other sheep I have which are not of 
this fold ..." and "That they all might 
be one." 

Any person with a sense of steward- 



ship, of which Jesus spoke in terms of 
profit and loss, work and reward, waste 
and penalty, disobedience and death, 
would put on the brakes if he knew we 
were moving to a dead end in our 
church. The dead end had been fore- 
shadowed if we had had ears to hear: 
voices from the pulpit no longer speak- 
ing as ambassadors for Christ; voices 
predicting a church school that will 
grow limp, then fade away; leaders not 
held accountable for lessening church 
influence but. instead, contributing to 
it; professional church leaders promot- 
ed when they have failed because of 
threat that they will leave the church; 
laymen creating designs for church 
programs that ignore a time for the 
altar of the spirit in the week's sched- 
ule; teachers in the church school 
without training or experience in a 
learned body of knowledge; productive 
volunteer workers in the church viewed 
with less merit than salaried, slipshod 
personnel. 

I Ve dragged my feet 
as we headed 

for this dead end. I pray God that we 
will arrest ourselves before going 
farther into this "no exit." Otherwise, 
we will have to shift into reverse later 
on. Such a reverse shift is a drastic 
counter action which often produces 
an overreaction which, in our history, 
has been fierce, self-deprecating, and 
split with personal politicizing and 
mass accusations and polarizations. 
The point of view of this article comes 
perilously close to a call for counter- 
action but, if viewed as an evaluation 
of my own mistakes and my awareness 
of God's judgment, perhaps it will 
bring a reconsideration of where we 
have been and where we are, helping 
to reedeem us before we are forced to 
see that "whatsoever we have sown, 
that, indeed, we have reaped." D 



1-15-72 MESSENGER 17 



A coed answers... 



Involvement? Yes! 



by SUSAN KREHBIEL 
TAYLOR 



w 



hat does a down-to-earth coed who's 
been around the world think about 
improving it? 

McPherson College student Linda 
Keim, who's no stranger to senate 
offices and many world ports, believes 
changes can occur through involve- 
ment within the existing structures. 

"I'm labeled a conservative by some 
because I believe in the system," she 
laughs. 

Posters in her dorm room reflect 
shared aspirations to today's college 
generation — love, peace, and freedom 
— yet Linda has chosen an avenue 
many young people are now rejecting: 
participation in the political system. 

"No system of government is in- 
fallible or without need for improve- 
ments, but especially in ours can 
changes occur, particularly if enough 
of the people want it. Basically I think 
the people receive what they merit 
from their involvement or lack of 
interest in government." 

Involvement for Linda during the 
college's January interterm, a short 
period allowing concentrated study in 
one course, meant working in Wash- 
ington as a legislative aid for the Re- 
publican National Party Chairman, 
Kansas Senator Bob Dole. And during 
the fall semester of 1969, it meant 
study and travel in thirty-six countries 
with World Campus Afloat. 

Linda, who's aiming for a career in 
diplomatic service, got an inside look 
at Capitol Hill while in Washington. 
Her work involved researching and 
writing a paper on the congressional 
senority system for Senator Dole's files. 
Allowed all the privileges of a regular 



staffer, Linda used the Congressional 
Legislative Research Service and inter- 
viewed legislative experts to gather 
information. 

Dole's staff was particularly busy 
since the junior senator from Kansas 
had just been named GOP chairman, 
but for Linda "being there anytime 
would be exciting." 

How Linda got to Washington is 
indicative of her philosophy, "Make 
your own opportunities." Linda pro- 
posed the project to both the senator 
and her college professor, and received 
credit for her work as independent 
study in American politics. 

Linda's own political views don't 
exactly coincide with Dole's although 
she has deep respect for him. "He is 
extremely conscientious, a rare indi- 
vidual as far as politics go," she notes, 
"but it's hard to find a young person 
today who completely agrees with his 
political stance." 

Linda's own political involvement 
presently includes serving as women's 
chairman of the Kansas College Young 
Republicans, a position, she's quick to 
point out, that distinguishes between 
the sexes. Licking envelopes and ad- 
dressing letters didn't discourage 
Linda's feelings on women's liberation 
— "I'm certainly not against it," she 
admits. "Women's interests naturally 
overlap men's." 

"Discrimination against women is 
especially true in politics — just look 
at the number in Congress. Women 
are the backbone of most political or- 
ganizations, yet a 'woman's job' is 
secretary or treasurer. While 'the 
weaker sex' does the legwork and 
hackwork, men serve as figureheads. If 
there's a place at the bottom, there 
should be a place at the top." 

Linda's CYR activities often include 



working with the press and attending 
and planning conventions where she 
comes into contact with Republicans 
of all ages. 

"It's so much easier to work with 
the Young Republican group, whose 
ages range from twenty-two to approx- 
imately thirty-five, than with the col- 
lege age group. There is just a 
minority of college Republicans who 
are really interested." 

"Although the older group is some- 
times biased," Linda says, "they are 
reachable. I've found that they'll 
listen to the college student's view- 
point." 

Youth's future in politics, Linda 
feels, depends upon how much they 
want to get involved. "Young people 
as a whole don't show much interest in 
politics, but opportunities are open to 
them." 

Linda recently served as treasurer 
("Notice which job I got") of a 
committee to promote the vote for 
eighteen-year-olds in Kansas, a 
measure which passed overwhelmingly 
in an April election. 

Although politics take up much of 
her time, Linda diligently pursues her 
bachelor's degree in history from 
McPherson College, the alma mater of 
her parents, Robert and Sybil Miller 
Keim. 

As a "PK" (preacher's kid) Linda 
lived in several states before her father 
became a professor of sociology at 
McPherson College seven years ago. 
Residing in different places appealed 
to Linda, for travel, like politics, has 
been another arena for Linda to make 
and take opportunities. 

After high school graduation in 
1968, she studied one summer at the 
University of Guadalajara, Mexico, a 
small taste of what was to come. The 



18 MESSENGER M5-72 




Linda Keim. Sen. Robert Dole: A deep respect, but politically not in agreement 



fall of 1969 saw her leaving the brick 
structures of the grassy plains' campus 
for a classroom at sea. World Campus 
Afloat opened the doors to thirty-six 
countries which became not just places 
but cultures and people. 

"My exposure and experiences 
tended to help me identify with the 
other man and his problems." 

Snapshots and souvenirs simply 
could not begin to relate the signifi- 
cance of the trip for Linda and her 
ship-classmates. "We saw thought 
stimulated to a more international 
level, and suddenly we found ourselves 
thinking less of the 'trivia' of life 
which had plagued us before." 

The experience was not just the 
study of others, for "we were also 
forced to examine our own beliefs as 
they came into contrast with others." 

Although it's hard to find words to 
sum up four fabulous months, Linda 



aptly puts it, "One can read and study, 
but if he hasn't experienced, he cannot 
hope to fully understand mankind. I 
left World Campus Afloat with deep 
appreciation and respect for other cul- 
tures, along with a new appreciation 
of my own." 

Returning to inland college, Linda 
was honored by fellow students who 
selected her 1970 Homecoming Queen. 
Linda's reaction was typical of many 
queens — "I was surprised" — yet 
those who see the pretty blonde express 
no disbelief, and those who know her 
admit that queens can be sincere and 
intelligent, too. 

Talking with Linda somehow makes 
a person believe the world has a 
chance after all, and it's up to him. 

Peace is not impossible, Linda says. 
"There can and will be a peaceful 
world when that is what man truly 
wants." Nor is pacifism unrealistic to 



her. "There is a definite need for the 
pacifist; there wUl always be a need for 
change and for someone to promote it, 
especially through peaceful means." 

For the chiu"ch, Linda feels there 
will always be a place if it can truly 
serve mankind and work for better 
understanding. It, too, must voice its 
concerns about the world. "The 
church, as individuals," Linda be- 
lieves, "should definitely be involved 
in all aspects of life, including social 
and political issues. How can we hope 
to survive if we limit our sphere of 
concern?" 

Linda's future plans are to study in- 
ternational relations and foreign lan- 
guages at a graduate school near 
Washington, D.C. She hopes to enter 
diplomatic service and would like to 
work in Latin America. 

But now on the McPherson campus, 
each day is its own challenge to her. 
Despite some out-of-the-ordinary ex- 
periences and plans, fellow students 
find Linda "one of us. the kind of 
person we enjoy being around." 

Over a cup of coffee in the dorm, 
Linda looked back, trying to answer 
the question, "How do all these things 
happen to you?" 

Modestly she replied, "I don't know; 
it's all pretty amazing to me," but to 
others it's not so obscure. 

"Don't you really make your own 
opportunities?" brought sparkles to 
her eyes. 

"Exactly," Linda replied. "It's not 
because I have any amazing abilities, 
just an awareness to opportunities and 
a belief in the old adage, 'Where 
there's a will, there's a way.' " 

"I've been accused of being an 
eternal optimist," she confesses. Not 
at all a bad quality for a Christian in 
today's world. D 



1-15-72 MESSENGER 19 



The 
Fund 

for the 
Americas 

in the 
United 
States 



IS... 



FILM REVIEWS 



Education. In a series of race sensi- 
tivity workshops, FAUS assists 
churches and districts to come to 
grips with institutional and individual 
racism — to help Brethren understand 
how we too are "an America" in 
need of reconciliation. 

Action. In its first two years FAUS 
has helped to fund 38 projects directed 
toward community organization and 
economic development for the benefit 
of disadvantaged minorities. Grants 
ranging between S200 and $7,500 
have provided services in housing, 
voter registration, medical aid, credit 
union, child care, job training, public 
safety, and others. 

Urgent. Many Brethren see FAUS 
as an extension of Brethren Service, 
bridging the gaps that separate our 
society. It is a way to respond to the 
Lord's observation that "Anything 
you did for one of my brothers here, 
however humble, you did for me." 
FAUS is not funded by the Brother- 
hood Fund. Tlierefore your gift 
designated for the Fund for the 
Americas is urgently needed. Please 
send your check today while there is 
yet a chance to pull together our 
fractured society. Mail it to: Fund for 
the Americas in the United States, 
Church of the Brethren General 
Board, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, 
Illinois 60120. 



...a chance 
to change 




Billy Jack: Good to See a Hero Again 



20 MESSENGER 1-15-72 



THE EMOTION arises somewhere out 
of childhood — that feeling of enormous 
relief when in a moment of deep fear a 
hero arrives on the scene and by his very 
presence guarantees rescue. Swift action 
is taken and life's balance is restored. 

In the dim mist of childhood, the 
original hero might have been a parent 
arriving to stop a fight, or an older broth- 
er finding us in the vastness of a strange 
city. Whatever the origin, the feeling 
was born that it is possible to be rescued 
when the world closes in. 

With maturity, belief in heroes sub- 
sides. Reality is cruel, removing the sim- 
plistic conviction that relief is but a hero 
away. But in the deep recesses of our 
imagination, there is always the faint 
hope that just maybe things can be set 
straight — if only, if only. 

Movies once provided surrogate he- 
roes, gallant men who appeared on the 
scene, dispatched the villains, and then 
rode away. But in an era of cynicism, 
movie heroes disappeared, replaced by 
antiheroes, men who won victories by 
cheating or by manipulating technologi- 
cal devices. Rarely in a contemporary 
film does there appear a hero as of old, 
the pure figure — without ambiguity — 
whose presence on the scene reassures. 
Such figures are rare in our time because 
a belief in heroes requires a conviction 
that people can act with pure motives 
and that, by so acting, they can put 
things in proper order again. 

To posit a heroic figure, a film maker 
must proceed with a simple point of view, 
assuring his audience that a single man 
can make a difference. The older film 
makers, who once gave us heroic figures 
like John Wayne and Tyrone Power, 
have grown pessimistic, and they now 
make films that make light of the hero- 
ism they once celebrated. Wayne, for 
example, continues to make films, but 
he makes fun of himself, keeping his 
problems so trivial that when he docs 
succeed in solving them, the feeling is 
left that it is no big deal. 

Into this antiheroic era of film making, 
a young company calling itself the Na- 
tional Student Film Corporation has 
brought a picture called Billy Jack, por- 
traying one of the first authentic heroes 



of this post-Pentagon Papers era. There 
is so much in Billy Jack that I found 
inadequate that I had trouble understand- 
ing why it captivated me so, until it 
dawned on me that here was a film that 
believes in itself even while lacking the 
ability to successfully make its point. 

The primitive charm of Billy Jack 
stems from the lack of sophistication of 
its makers. They want to make some 
points — Indians are mistreated, adults 
are bigoted, and kids are good, if given 
a chance. Unlike the big studio produc- 
tions which want to make these same 
points, the makers of Billy Jack are not 
troubled by sophistication. They are not 
interested in satisfying several facets of 
society: they only want to tell the younger 
generation that decency and peace are 
superior to hate and lust. 

They do this with a remarkable group 
of performers, most of whom are ama- 
teurs and show it. The female lead, for 
example, is an art student named Delores 
Taylor. She begins the film with the 
woodenness usually found in an ama- 
teur asked to say a few words before 
a television camera. But as the film 
progresses, this woodenness gives way — 
not to acting but to a certain presence ■ — 
so that when she weeps over the degrad- 
ing experience of having been raped, 
there is that chilling feeling that maybe 
this has really happened to her. 

This primitive charm in Billy Jack 
permits the appearance of a genuine hero 
on the screen. Tom Laughlin is in the 
title role, portraying an Indian who pro- 
tects wild horses, Indians, and kids who 
attend a school on the reservation. His 
first appearance on the screen told me 
that this was a hero. The bad guys are 
about to shoot some wild horses. Sud- 
denly they stop. Out of the woods a 
lone figure appears. The bad guys put 
down their rifles. One of them mutters: 
"I knew he'd find us." With barely con- 
trolled fury, Billy Jack dispatches the 
villains. A few scenes later he does the 
same thing to some town bullies roughing 
up kids. 

All this is done with such unsophisti- 
cated directness that when the bad guys 
go down, the teen-agers in the theater 
when I saw the picture actually cheered 



a hero. Billy Jack is a message film, 
pounding home its points that American 
Indians have been robbed and that the 
thing wrong with wayward kids is selfish 
parents. There is so much truth in both 
convictions that the film's cliches take 
on a distinct charm in their presentation. 
Billy Jack has just the right ingredi- 
ents to be the proper hero — he is mys- 
terious, emerges out of nowhere to do 
what must be done, and then slips back 
into^ the wings of life. He is gentle but 
strong, loving but firm. Arthur Penn, in 



describing how he came to make such 
films as Alice's Restaurant, Bonnie and 
Clyde, and Little Big Man, confessed 
that he might have been in a constant 
quest for a father figure, presenting char- 
acters struggling to find something they 
had lost. 

As a film, Billy Jack is not in the class 
of any of Penn's films, but it is a film 
that has found its father figure. It's good 
to see a hero again. — James M. Wall 

Reprinted Irtiiii Tns^fllier magazine. October 1971. 
Copyriglit @ 19;! The Methodist Publishing. 
House. 



BOOK REVIEWS 



Those Whose Sexual Orientation Differs 



IS GAY GOOD? ETHICS, THEOLOGY, AND 

HOMOSEXUALITY, edited by W. Dwight 

Oberholtzer. Westminster, 1971. 287 pages, 
$3.50 paper 



Is Gay Good? In response to this intrigu- 
ing question fifteen writers present a 
crossfire of varied views. To say the 
anthology of opinions presents a bal- 
anced debate would be incorrect. Only 
two of the contributors affirm that homo- 
sexual acts are always wrong. The other 
thirteen expound their acceptance with 
varying shades of enthusiasm. 

The traditional Christian position is 
represented by Baptist Carl F. H. Henry 
when he declares, "What the gay world 
needs is redemption, not reinforcement." 
Surprisingly, Moody Bible Institute grad- 
uate Troy Perry balances the scales with 
a caustic paraphrase: "Not once do I 
read Jesus saying, 'Come unto me, all 
you heterosexuals who, if you have sex 
. . . must have it in the missionary posi- 
tion, and I will accept you as the only 
true believers.' " 

The graphic, nontechnical language of 
the contributors makes Is Gay Good? a 
highly readable book. With the excep- 
tion of a brief endeavor by the editor to 
write obscurely in the introduction and 
an adventure into the murky waters of 
theology by a couple of seminary profes- 



sors, the writers use language that is un- 
derstandable. 

The contributors, mostly teachers and 
clergy, do not represent a good cross- 
section of public opinion on this sensi- 
tive issue. To the editor's credit, he does 
provide a healthy balance between 
heterosexual and homosexual writers. 
Chapter titles by leaders of the homo- 
phile community include "God Loves 
Me, Too" and "A Lesbian Approach to 
Theology." 

In prefacing the volume Joseph 
Fletcher of Situation Ethics offers the un- 
easy proposal that the causes of sexual 
orientations may be somagenic — formed 
bodily — rather than psychogenic — ac- 
quired mentally. Editor Oberholtzer fol- 
lows in the introduction with a plea for 
more careful research before ethical pro- 
nouncements are made. Professor John 
von Rohr then writes the first provocative 
chapter which provides fodder for "talk- 
back" by the other contributors. Von 
Rohr stimulates a healthy response on a 
variety of issues. 

What about the church's relationship 
to the homosexual? The responses come 
quickly and intensely. 

"The church has all but closed its 
doors to millions of people in America 
whose only dilTerence from the majority 
is their sexual orientation." "Many 



Take advantage of this 




Jke Li+i-le Man 




Regular 
Price 



Sale 

Price 



The Brethren Hymnal, 

black leather edition $7.50 $4.00 

(or 3 for $10.00) 

The Tall Man 1.25 .75 

The Middle Man 1.50 .75 

The Little Man 2.50 1.50 

Children's books by 5-year-olds, 
Sara and Carl, and their mother, 
Dorothy Davis. The Tall Man is an 
account of Elder John Naas' refusal 
to serve in the personal bodyguard 
of the king of Prussia. The Middle 
Man tells some of the important 
facts about Elder John Kline, Breth- 
ren martyr. The Little Man gives 
the adventures of I. N. H. Beahm as 
he traveled about the country on 
preaching missions. 



Please 


send the follow 

The Brethren Hymna 
The Tall Man 
The Middle Man 
The little Man 


ing: 

1 














Name 








Address 






City 
















State 






7in 



Postage: 20c first dollar; 
5c each additional dollar 

The Brethren Press 
1451 Dundee Ave. 
Elgin, III. 60120 



i-ij 



MrSSENCTiR 21 



homosexuals in our society are unhappy 
— seeking help from various types of 
agencies. The church is certainly one 
place where the troubled homosexual 
ought to feel that he can receive help. 
Unfortunately in the past the church 
has, by and large, been more detrimental 
than helpful to him." "The homosexual 
is granted a place in the church if he will 
sit in the back pew and acknowledge the 
superiority of his heterosexual betters, 
much like the Negro in a Mormon con- 
gregation." "Other minorities have 
asked the churches for billions in rep- 
arations. America's homophile com- 
munity is more modest. It asks for 
words and the courage to speak them." 
"Educating the public about homo- 



sexuals and creating a greater atmos- 
phere of acceptance and understanding 
of the homosexual is where the thrust 
of the church should be in dealing with 
the homosexual." 

The heterosexual reader, tutored in 
the Judeo-Christian ethic, may have dif- 
ficultv accepting the majority opinion in 
this anthology that homosexuality has 
something to do with love. The plea is 
not for the homosexual to change his 
sexual orientation, but to live responsibly 
in his unique life-style. Living respon- 
sibly, according to this school of thought, 
involves fidelity, love, perhaps even mar- 
riage. Professor Norman Pittenger sup- 
ports the concept that a homosexual re- 
lationship can be characterized by ten- 



Deaths 



.Mbright. Fr.inccs. Roaring .Spring. P.i., 

i>n April 22. 1971. .ngcd 82 
.Mbrighl. HarAC\. Duncans\ illc. Pa,, on 

.■\pril 8. 1971. aged 79 
Alspaugli. SlcUa. Cirecn\ille. Ohio, on Ma\ 

7. 1971. .aged 80 
.■\\rcs. C;lara F.. Flora. Ind.. on June 30. 

1971. aged 72 
Ba-shore. Emma. Bethel, Pa,, on Ma\ 19. 

1971. aged 87 
Batmigarlncr. \'iola. Monroe. Ind,, on 

June 20. 1971 
Beach. Edna Hinish, Martin^blirg, Pa,, on 

June 30, 1971, aged (14 
Boop. Mabel A.. HoUidavsburg, Pa., on 

May 7. 1971. aged 67 
C'arlcr, \\'illiam R.. Coulson cluir<li. 

Southern \'irginia, on .\lav .3(1, 1971, 

.aged 81 
Davwalt. Park. Mexico, Ind., on Mav 19. 

1971, aged 72 
Dichl. I.etla. Lanark, 111., on Ma\ 28, 

1971. aged 93 
F.,';hclman. .Abram N.. Elizabcthtown, I'a,, 

on Mav 15. 1971, aged 62 
F-shelinan, Walter \\'.. .Ambler. Pa., on 

May 13. 1971. aged 62 
C.ate^. Elmer H.. Mildcn. Sask., on .April 

■I. 1971. aged 88 
Ceorgc, .Alfred S,. Center \'al!ev. Pa., on 

May II. 1971. aged 71 
Cinag\, Rav. Hutchinson. Kans., on Ma\ 

21, 1971. aged 60 
Hale. Cjus<;ie. Mountain C-ro\e, Mo., on 

June 26. 1971. aged 76 
Haught. Lawrence. Lanark. Ill,, on Mav 

4. 1971 
Heiscw ,Anna Ci,, \effs\illc. Pa,, fm [une 

29. 1971. aged 79 
Hclmick. Worlev B.. Cumberland, Md., on 

April 21. 19<1 
Hess. .Anna Mac Wenger. Limerick. Pa,. 

on Mav 30. 1971. aged 69 
Himcs. Lcftnard. Wingatc. Ind.. in .April 

1971. aged (7 
Holsinger. Lester H.. Martinsburg. Pa.. 

on Mav 6. 1971. .aged 83 
Jami-son. Cephas B.. Modesto. Calif., on 

Mav 31. 1971. aged 80 
Kagcv. Winnie. Elliton. V'a,, on June 7, 

1971 
Keenev. Florence. York. Pa., on May 7. 

1971. aged 75 
Kerr. Shirlev. Dc Graff. Ohio, on Mav 2. 

1971. aged 40 
Kcves. Thclma. Mexico. Ind., on June II, 

1971, aged 67 



kime, Harrv R.. Hampton. Pa., on Mav 

21, 1971, aged 81 
kimmel. F.mma, Shelocta, Pa., on .April 

12, 1971 

Kline. Mattie, Neffsville, Pa., on Mav 28, 

1971, aged 80 
Knodlc. Mamie. Moimt Monis, 111., on 

Jime 21. 1971. aged 67 
I.ackev. L\dia, Hutchinson, kans., on 

April 4. 1971. aged 78 
l.apiad. |. 'Ibomas. Pvrmont. Ind , on 

May 17. 1971. aged 85 
l.cathcrman, Jesse M., Gettvsburg, Pa., on 

Mav 12, 1971, aged 78 
Lot/. Leo, Lanark, III., on April 3, 1971. 

aged 71 
McClain, I.illic, Dixon. Ill,, on Mav 10, 

1971. aged 91 
MacEwan, Elsa M., .Ambler, Pa., on May 

13, 1971, aged 67 

McLeod, Ella, Kansas Citv. Mo., on .\|'iil 

28, 1971, aged 93 

Martin, .Ainiic. Mcrccrsburg. Pa., ou M.i\ 

29, 1971, aged 92 

Miller, [ohn. .Mc.Alistcrv illc. Pa., on -April 

24, 1971, aged Ii2 

Miller, Joseph C, Manassas. Va.. on May 

23, 1971. aged 70 
Miller. Rav. Wellman. Iowa, on Mav 23, 

1971. aged 75 
Nicholas. SvKia .A.. Lampeter, Pa,, on 

Mav 5. 1971, aged 44 
Nve, Rov H,, Maidieiin. Pa., on .April II. 

1971. aged 67 
I'armlev. Charles. Hutchinson, Kans., on 

June 1. 1971. aged 83 
I'cpple. Daniel. Martinsburg. Pa,, on 

Apiil 22, 1971. aged 72 
Reid. John, Polo, III., on Aug. 22. 1971. 

aged' lil 
Replogle, CaUin -A.. Martinsburg, Pa., ou 

Mav 27. 1971, aged 60 
Rf)scnberger. Carrie. .Ambler, Pa., tin .Aug. 

20, 1971, aged 82 
Satisman. Mabel. Thompsontovvn. P.i.. on 

April 24. 1971. aged 81 
Scott. Jarrett F.. Raisin Citv. Calif., in 

July 1971. aged 67 
Shank. Chc-ster C. Winona. Milui.. on 

June 23. 1971. aged 87 
Shcnk, Fannie, Schuvler. Neb,, on May 

25. 1971, aged 78 

Smith. F.ldie L,, Martinsburg. Pa,, on June 

,30, 1971, aged 88 
Sirohm, John .A.. Port .Angeles, Wash., on 

Jidy 3. 1971. aged 81 



derncss, self-giving, and fidelity by relat- 
ing what may seem to some a shocking 
story: "I know two youngish men who 
have lived together, completely and de- 
votedly, for ten years and who have be- 
come so much one that it seems 
impossible, now, that they can ever sep- 
arate. Quite literally, they have every- 
thing in common. They are both devout 
Christians. And they told me that their 
greatest happiness was to make love pas- 
sionately on Saturday night, and then go 
together the next morning to receive 
Holy Communion kneeling side by side 
in the church not far from their home. 
What did I think of this bringing together 
of physical sexual communion and com- 
munion in the risen life of Jesus Christ 
in the sacraments? My answer was that 
to my mind it was both beautiful and 
right." 

For Catholic John F. Harvey, the con- 
clusions of Pittenger are the antithesis 
of Christian morality: "What the homo- 
sexual needs more than the achievement 
of satisfactory sexual relationships is an 
inner sense of personal dignity and worth 
and the feeling of fulfilling a purpose in 
life." Harvey challenges the homosexual 
to embrace a life of celibacy, to subli- 
mate, to consider the merits of organiz- 
ing chapters of Homosexuals Anony- 
mous. 

Is Gay Good? For the reader who is 
seeking a final, definitive answer the 
book will be a frustration. For the read- 
er seeking to understand a sexual orien- 
tation touching the lives of at least fifteen 
million Americans, this volume is a good 
introductory course. — William Kid- 
well 

We're Going Computer . . . 

Messenger is in process of shifting to 
the computer method of printing sub- 
scription labels. Over the coming weeks 
it would be helpful if you would check 
to see if the label on your issues is ad- 
dressed correctly. If it is not, we would 
appreciate your advising us by clipping 
the label and returning it with correc- 
tions noted. 

If you do not receive your copy of 
Messenger, please send the label from 
a recent issue. If multiple copies arrive, 
please clip and return the label from 
each copy. 

The staff appreciates your assistance 
and your patience as the new system 
goes into operation. 



22 MESSENGER 115-72 




pure ciAcP 
unmorlQQQed 




How to Sell the Body for the 
Daily Bread, While Keeping the 
Soul Pure and Unmortgaged, 
or UP THE ESTABLISHMENT- 
RAP #5 — another exciting action- 
packed release in one of the 
two popular cassette "enabling" 
series created by Dennis Benson. 
This particular six-session course 
challenges youth to keep their 
idealism while working within the 
system. Other lively new re- 
leases are: 

RAP #5 with the pro- 
vocative title RAW LOVE or 
The Hard, Cold Truth About a 
Little Understood Fact of Life 
deals with the art and science of 
Christian love and ail that it 
implies. 

SOS (Switched-on Scripture) 
#5— JAMES or Faith That Works 
questions the validity of faith 
without works. 

SOS #6— PSALM TWENTY- 
THREE or The Valley of the 
Shadow Trip untangles some basic 
questions about life, death, 
Cod, faith, and hope. 

All cassettes $7.95, each 
Previously released: 
RAP #1— HANG TIGHT or Ten- 
s/on 
RAP #2— FLIP-FLOP or Change 
RAP #3— POPULLUTION or The 



Environmental Chal- 
lenge 
RAP #4— LIVING HIGH or The 

Drug Problem 
SOS #1— DDT 

(Daring — Delightful 

— Threatening) 

or Acts: Part 7 
SOS #2— COD (Christians On 

Demand) or Acts: Part II 
SOS #3— WHALE TALE or Jonah 
SOS #4— YIN YANG or Ist John 

DISCO-TEACH 

The Mission Singers con- 
tinue to make available current hit 
songs to encourage young 
people and adults to find the 
moral and ethical truths in today's 
music. This is their fifth album 
in this popular series. The four 
previous albums are also available. 
$6.95, each 
Included in Album #5: 

1. Chicago 

2. You've Got a Friend 

3. That's the Way I've Always 
Heard It Should Be 

4. Too Many People 

5. Come Back Home 

I'LL TELL THE WORLD 

The eleven songs by Cliff 
McRae, a new gospel artist, 
combine the best of the old and 
new favorites on one 3V/i LP 
album, including Fill My Cup, Lord; 
Balm in Cilead; Amazing Grace; 
I'll Tell the World; and They'll 
Know We Are Christians by Our 
Love. Stereo. $4.98 

FILMSTRIPS 

Ten imaginative full-color 
filmstrips to make teaching easier 
and learning more enjoyable for 
children and adults. Each is 



available in three forms; with 
reading script and cassette. $12.50, 
each; with script and flex-record, 
$10, each; and with reading 
script only, $7, each. 

WHAT IS COD LIKE? Pari I 

56 Frames, Ages 8-T2 

WHAT IS COD LIKE? Part II 

56 Frames Ages 6 -12 

RANDY 

67 Frames Ages 8-12 

DOWN THE STREET PAST 
THE TELEPHONE POLE 

6-t Frames Ages 6-9 

JESUS OF NAZARETH 

63 Frames. Ages 8-12 

A GIFT FOR SAINT MICHAELS 

66 Frames. Ages 6-9 

WRITE IT IN A BOOK 

63 Frames, Ages 10-12 

COD IS NEAR TO HELP 

50 Frames. Ages 6-9 

DEALING WITH CONFLICT 

61 Frames. Ages 10-12 

FIRST THINGS FIRST 

80 Frames. Junior Fligh, 
Senior High, Adults 

GAMING 

The Fine Art of Creating 
Simulation/Learning Games 
for Religious Education. 
Dennis Benson, creator of the 
cassette tape series, has designed a 
new medium — an "album" which 
includes two 33'/3 LPs as an 
integral part of the text — shows 
how anyone can create his own 
simulation/learning games. 
Eleven games are included. $5.95 

Qt qour locol book or iupplij Aae 

SQbingdon 
Qudiogrophia 



M5-72 MESSENGER 23 



To Take Jesus as the Challenge 



The idea that you can't sene both God and 
mammon, observes a Chicago drama critic, is 
undergoing a certain rebuttal. Particularly, she 
notes, when Jesus Christ Superstar may gross 
$20 million in its first year on stage. Add to this 
the \olley of recordings and books and such pop- 
shop specialties as "Smile, God Loves You" but- 
tons, "J.C. and Me" T-shirts, Jesus jockey shorts, 
and ""Superstar: Let them hate me hit me hurt 
me nail me to their tree" posters in Day-Glo 
colors . . . add this and you have at hand a 
virtual coming of Christ commercially. 

As to the impact of such enterprise, one can 
cynicalh' predict that both religion and atheism 
will survive. Still, one does not knowingly want 
to berate serious and authentic efforts to make 
this the Jesus Generation. But the hope persists 
that out of the clamor, the multimedia, and the 
commercialization will come examined lives and 
responses of joy. reverence, comitment. and risk. 
Whether viewed from the counterculture or 
from mainline institutions, one point is clear, 
and that is the urgency of coming to terms with 
Jesus Christ. One can sense at every turn the 
need to recognize a source of transcendence over 
and above the desires of self, family, tribe, class, 
and nation. As Hans KUng, the Dutch Catholic 
theologian, declared in a lecture recently at a 
Midwest college, "We need to concentrate on 
Jesus again, whom we have forgotten so long. He 
is not so ordinary and honorable a member of 
the church as a lot of bishops and clergy have 
thought." 

To concentrate on Jesus, to open our lives 
to his challenge is an intensely personal act, but 
it is not only that. It is to seek to understand the 
Jesus of history and to bring the spirit of Chris- 
tian realism to bear upon the crises of the times. 

What this call means is a matter each would 
do well to ponder. As a point of reference, it 
may be helpful to note some of Hans Kiing's own 



specifics summed up in the list which follows. 
To take Jesus as the challenge is . . . 

• To deny the absolute claims of sanctified 
traditions and institutions, remembering that 
Jesus said the law is for the sake of man, not 
man for the law, 

• For the older generation to understand 
that the church must change in order to remain 
faithful to Jesus himself, and for the young gen- 
eration to understand that we cannot sell out the 
substance. 

• To commit the church neither to the left 
wing, the right wing or the middle, but only to 
the gospel itself. 

• To acknowledge that progress, evolution, 
development can enslave man; that progress as 
such is ambivalent and must be for man, not man 
for progress. 

• To exercise the freedom to use power, 
but also the freedom not to use it, as in the case 
of the U.S. Congress saying it is not always 
progress to build more big planes. 

• To overcome polarizations in society, old 
and young, black and white, north and south, 
management and labor, so that groups work not 
only for themselves but for one another. 

• To know that self-righteousness of a na- 
tion or a class or a race or a religion is, accord- 
ing to Jesus, nothing; that there is no country 
without guilt; that every people needs forgiveness 
from other people and from God. 

• To discern that the main sin is human self- 
ishness, living only for oneself and not for others, 
and that there is only one sin which cannot be 
forgiven, and that is the sin against the Holy 
Spirit, which means not wanting forgiveness. 

To each person, whether a newfound fan or 
a lifelong follower of Jesus, the question ever 
stands, for action as well as reflection: 

What does it mean to take Christ as the chal- 
lenge? H.E.R. 



24 MESSENGER 1-1372 





Commitment. lo new ex- 

periences. To self-evaluation. To the 
welfare of others. To an ideal. That's 
what Brethren Volunteer Service train- 
ing demands. It means sharing your 
feelings and beliefs in face-to-face en- 
counters with others. It asks you to be 
"in there" as a vital part of what's going 
on. To get ready to go on project alone. 
It means the commitment of yourself in 
service to others. Do you want to learn more 
about BVS? Or to support it with a financial 
gift? Write: Church of the Brethren General 
Board, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, Illinois 60120. 



Brethren Volunteer 
Service / YSdhq ceainQ Ddcb jprpcDundl dDf! niio 



«f 






[lydfi Bern 



^lempon"^ 



THE 



heal'ty 

TRJ^'II 




James Dillef Freeman 

Here is a book to accentuate the affirmative in a time when 
the doom prophets seem to have a monopoly on the market- 
place of free speech. The author says there is much in 
American life today that is in need of repair and responsible 
action, but there is even more which gives cause for opti- 
mism, especially when today's life-styles are compared with 
those of our parents and grandparents. AAr. Freeman has 
compiled an impressive array of statistics, information, and 
history which lead us to appreciate the state we are in and 
to further improve our society and environment. $4.95 




Clyde Reid 

Mr. Reid invites us to "come to our senses." Modern intel- 
lectualized man has lost touch with his feelings and the mes- 
sages of his body. Sharing his own experience with sensory 
awareness training, yoga, and encounter, the author sug- 
gests concrete, nonthreatening ways in which we can live 
more fully and joyously in the now. He shows how w« can 
come responsively alive to our environment by really tasting 
our food, by really allowing ourselves to feel our pain, by 
really seeing a single flower in depth. To be published in 
February. $3.95 



Peter S. Ford, M.D. 

For the individual, the psychologist, and the clergy, here is 
a balanced approach to the healing dynamics. Through his 
medical practice the author has come to realize that illnesses 
are often not just physical and psychological; they are also 
spiritual. Healing the whole person is vital to individual 
well-being. If the alienation of self from God can be closed, 
then we lessen the chance that organic and emotional illness 
will occur. Dr. Ford is a physician and surgeon on the med- 
ical staff of two Portland, Oregon, hospitals and has been a 
fellow in psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic. $5.95 



Arthur J. Landwehr II 

In this book Mr. Landwehr seeks to end the polarization be- 
tween the two predominating views held by churchmen to- 
day — embracing the status quo in the church and society or 
falling for a politically revolutionary Utopia. He encourages 
the adoption of a third position which does not rest upon 
neutrality or compromise, but takes seriously the under- 
standing of Christ's living presence. The third place pro- 
vides live options and new points of contact for the contem- 
porary Christian without being absorbed by the culture in 
which he must live. $1.95 paper 



Postage; 20c Trsf dollar; 5c per dollar thereafter 

Order from: 
The Brethren Press, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, III. 60120 



messenger 

OlURCH OF THE BRETHREN FEBRUARY >, 1972 

9 ^ ^ 



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\^^ 








SPECIAL ISSUE / NONVIOLENCE IN A VIOLENT V\/ORLD 



^ Thereisavisiom 




Non 




i very beautiftil vision , of a world at peace ; ; 

He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and. they 
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation 
► ' shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more (Is. 2:4). 

You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your 
enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:43-45). 

And here is also a vision, a very disturbing vision, of a world of injustice, of a 
world in which force often seems necessary to right wrongs: 

Because you trample upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat, 
you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have 
planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how 
many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins — you who afflict the 
righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate (Amos 5:11, 12). 

And Jesus entered the temple of God and drove out all who sold and bought 
in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats 
of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be 
called a house of prayer'; but you make it a den of robbers" (Matt. 21:12, 13). 

Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come 



liolenee in a 



-1-72 MESSENGER 3 



^J Nonviolence in a Violent World. In a society of change, where 
violence seethes hidden and openly. Christians may have been given 
a special role in the seventies — seeking to bring about change by 
nonviolent means, by Robert McAfee Brown ■ 

Know Your Enemy: Violence. "Violence as an expression of the 
fears of the child in us may be the clue to harmful destructiveness in 
our society." A conversation with Walter Menninger, M.D. by Richard 
A. Bollinger 

<^S No Time for Gradualism. The gap between the world's privileged 
minority and the underprivileged majority widens. Christians must 
sensitize themselves to suffering and injustice, by H. Lamar Gibble 

The Christian Revolutionary. Excerpts from the first two chapters 
of a new book affirm that "though there can be no 'Christian 
revolution," a Christian can become a revolutionary." by Dale W. 
Brown .- 

Consciousness III revisited. Without Marx or Jesus asks some 
long overdue questions for those who stand by the tradition of the 
Church of the Brethren, by Glenn R. Bucher 

Liberation: The Council, the Digest, and the Brethren. World 
Council of Churches grants to African groups fighting racism come 
under "scrutiny, by Ronald E. Keener 

Human Violence Can Be Abolished. "Man has survived not 
because he inherited violence but because he practiced cooperation." 
by Frederic Wertham .' ^ -': ' .;■' . • ;v '; ..-^ ■ ^ •■ ■ 

Look also for replies to Robert McAfee Brown from Robert McFadden, 
Shantilal Bhagat, Marty Zinn, and Robert C. Johansen (beginning on 
8); "When Peace Comes," children's drawings depicting war and peace 
(10): "Biblical Basis for a Peace Witness" (18); "Reflections on the 
Death of a Friend," by Estella Horning (23); Letters (28); and an 
editorial, "Who Will Help Turn Us Around?" (34) .; v :•" \' 



EDITOR 

Howard E. Royer .'.''' ■ 

ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

Ronald E. Keener / News 
Wilbur E. Brumbaugh / Design 
Kenneth I. Morse / Features 

ASSISTANT EDITOR 

Linda K. Beher 

EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Richard N. Miller 



VOL. 121, NO. 3 



FEBRUARY 1, 1972 



CREDITS: Cover. 2 'War No Nfore," art- 
work bv Wilbur E. Brumbaugh: 6 Edwarrl 
E. Wallowiich: 1011 World Council of 
Churches: 12 Gary- Baese: 14 Religious 
News Service: 16 Howard E. Royer; 18. 25 
Robert F. M<<iovem; 20 "Sojourners on 
Earth." woodcut bv Ma.sao Takenaka; 3ti 
"Fabric of Human Involvement." by Clark 
B. Fit/-gerald, reproduced courtesy of the 
sculptor 



Messenger is the ofificial publication of the 
Church of the Brethren. Entered as second- 
class matter .^ug. 20. 1918. under .Act of 
Congress of Oct. 17. 1917. Filing date. Oct. 1. 

1971. Messenger is a member of the .Associ- 
ated Church Press and a subscriber to Reli- 
gious News Service and Ecumenical Press 
.Servire. Biblical quotations, unless otherwise 
indicated, arc from the Revised Standard 
\'ersion. 

Subscription rates: S4.20 per year for indi- 
vidual subscriptions: S3. 60 per year for church 
group plan: $3.00 per ve.Tr for every home 
plan; life subscription. S60: husband and wife. 
S7'>. If you move clip old address from Mes- 
senger and send with new address. 
Allow at least fifteen days for ad- 
drc« change. Messenger is owned 
:md published twice monthly by the 
Church of the Brethren General 
Hoard. 1451 Dundee .Ave., Elgin, 111. 
60120. Second-class postage paid at 
Elgin. III.. Feb. 1. 1972. Copyright 

1972. Church of the Brethren General Board. 



e 



4 MESSENGER 2-1-72 



to bring peace, but a sword. . . . He 
who does not take his cross and follow 
me is not worthy of me. He who finds 
his life will lose it, and he who loses 
his life for my sake will find it (Matt. 
10:34,38-39). 



Three assumptions 
about our world 

With those warnings in mind, let me 
first suggest three assumptions that 
seem to me beyond question about the 
world in which we make our decisions 
regarding the use of violence. 

The first of these assumptions is that 
the problem of violence or nonviolence 
is subordinate to the problem of power, 
and deals with whether we will use 
power responsibly or irresponsibly, 
creatively or destructively. Violence 
has been linked to the problem of pow- 
er from the earliest times. It is partic- 
ularly important for Americans to re- 
member how central the issue of power 
really is, since we have the most pow- 
er and since we have proven to be 
particularly adept at abusing it — 
witness our increasing use of destruc- 
tive power in Indochina. That power 
can be exercised by the use of violence 
is, I believe, self-evident. That power 
might also be exercised by the use of 
nonviolence may deserve a new kind 
of attention. 

A second assumption is the recog- 
nition that we live in a revolutionary 
era, in a time of radical change, mean- 
ing, by radical, changes that go to the 
very radix, or root, of things. The 
most fundamental structures of our 
society and our world are being called 
into question in the name of justice and 
in the name of love, and increasing 
numbers of the peoples of the world, 
particularly from Asia, Africa, and 
Latin America, are insisting that those 
structures must be changed — not just 
tinkered with around the edges, but 
radically altered. And in this situation, 
the question we face is no longer, "Will 
fundamental change come or not?" 
But — more starkly — "Will the 
change come violently or nonviolent- 



ly?" John F. Kennedy's epigram ge^s 
truer each day: "Those who make 
peaceful revolution impossible will 
.make violent revolution inevitable." 
• ■ The third assumption is that we have 
heretofore defined violence in far too 
harrow terms. We have confined the 
term violence to overt physical destruc- 
tion against persons or institutions. 
What we have failed to realize is that 
there is also what recent World Coun- 
cil of Churches documents have called 
covert, or hidden, violence built into 
the very structure of our society. It 
can be described as the violence of the 
.status quo depicting a society whose 
structures are so rigged in favor of the 
middle class that minority groups don't 
really have a chance to make it; or it 
can be described as institutional vio- 
lence, represented by zoning laws that 
condemn certain groups to inferior 
housing or bad education. I think it is 
not an irresponsible but a responsible 
use of language to refer to the violence 
of the slum, or the violence of trade 
agreements so designed that they help 
the rich nations get richer while the 
poor nations get poorer — • systemati- 
cally, year after year. 

One of the most astute theologians 
of the Third World. Professor Jose 
Miguez-Bonino of Brazil, sums up 
these assumptions; 

An ethic of revolution cannot avoid 
discussing the question of the use and 
justification of violence. This question, 
nevertheless, needs to be placed in its 
proper perspective as a subordinate and 
relative question. It is subordinate 
because it has to do with the "cost" of 
the desired change — the question of 
the legitimacy of violence and vice 
versa. "Violence" is a cost that must 
. be estimated and pondered in relation 
to a particular revolutionary situation. 
It is relative because in most revolu- 
tionary situations — at least in those 
with which we are concerned [in South 
America] — violence is already a fact 
constitutive of the situation — injus- 
tice, slave labor, hunger, and exploita- 
tion are forms of violence that must be 
weighed against the cost of revolu-, 
tionary violence (Development 
Apocalypse). 

We live in a world where covert 
violence is rampant, so that funda- 



mental change is mandatory and 
change comes through the creative (or 
destructive) use of power. These 
realities force us to pose our own ques- 
tion in some such terms as these; In 
rooting out the structures of covert 
violence in the world today, are we 
justified in using over? violence? I v 
think the Christian must accept that 
the direction and nature of society 
needs changing. The question then 
becomes one of means or tactics: Is the 
change to come violently or nonvio- 
lently? 

In frustratingly brief fashion, let us 
look at the case for each answer. 

It is a curious fact that the case for 
the Christian use of violence today 
tends to be made by those who call 
themselves revolutionaries, whereas 
actually violence has been the most 
traditional and conservative answer of 
all. Most of Christian history is a sorry 
history of justifying the Christian use 
of all kinds of overt physical violence 
in the name of whatever the justifier 
was trying to defend at the moment. . 
However, I do believe that there is this 
difference in the current discussion; 
that whereas historically Christians 
have often tended to justify violence as 
an instrument of the oppressor, many 
of those who advocate its use today in- 
sist that it may be used only on behalf 
of the oppressed. Now that kind of dis- 
tinction can be overly simplistic, and 
it. lends itself very easily to bullhorn 
rhetoric, but I do not think it can be 
simply dismissed. As the German the- 
ologian Jiirgen Moltmann has percep- 
tively pointed out, "Those who advo- 
cate nonviolence today are usually 
those who control police power. Those 
who embrace violence are usually 
those who have no means of power" 
(Religion, Revolution and the Future). 

So the case today for the Christian 
approval of overt violence grows out of 
a recognition that the covert violence 
of our society is so deep-seated, and so 
powerfully entrenched, that there is no 
way short of overt violence to remove 
from power those who exercise their 
power so despotically. It is indeed in- 
tolerable that twenty percent of the 
world's people should have control of 
eighty percent of the world's wealth, or 



that in a given country a military dic- 
tatorship representing five percent of .. , 
the people should totally control the 
destinies of the other ninety-five per- '. 
cent. This covert violence is so bad 
that overt violence is not only per- 
missible to overthrow it, the argument 
runs, but is demanded in the name of 
social justice, equality, and love. To 
shrink from overt violence on a rela- 
tively small scale means supporting or 
at least condoning covert violence on a 
massive scale. As a Brazilian sociolo- 
gist put it: "I do not hope for violence. 
It is forced upon me. I have no other 
choice. If I opt for nonviolence I am 
the accomplice of oppression." 

Our failure to take this position seri- 
ously would betray that our mentality 
is closed to the contemporary world — 
indeed to the contemporary Christian 
world — as it really is. Helmut Goll- 
witzer, a German theologian, recently 
commented on this perplexing fact ; 

Owing to the nihilistic consequences 
of the brutal use of violence during the 
last world wars, in the theological wOrk 
of the great European churches the 
traditional sanctioning of the use of 
force has been replaced by an appeal to 
Christian pacifism and "nonviolence" 
as the most appropriate form of Chris- 
tian witness. And now, just at this 
moment when we . . . are inclined to 
regard as mistaken the traditional ap- 
proval of Christian participation in the 
use of military force and to hoist the 
flag of pacifism, ... we hear from our 
brethren in the underdeveloped coun- 
tries (where the situation is a revolu- 
tionary one) that they consider it 
incumbent upon them to participate in 
the national and social revolutionary 
struggles that involve the use of force 
(New Theology). 

What are the kinds of questions to ■ 
be raised about our own adoption of •• 
the latter position? 

One danger is in extrap)olating too 
quickly from a Third World situation 
of military or economic dictatorship to 
our own situation, and insisting that 
the two cases are parallel and that what 
is appropriate in one case is appropri- 
ate in the other. The degree of serious- 
ness with which one argues for violent 
revolution here will depend upon the ; : 
degree to which one does or does not '. ■ 



2.1. 



MESSENGER 5 



believe there are other options for 
change still available in the United 
States. And let us be sensitive at this 
point: If I say I believe there are other 
options short of violence, I have to be 
very careful that I am not merely be- 
traying a comfortable, white, middle- 
class set of reflexes. Blacks and mem- 
bers of other minority groups may long 
since have come to feel that the string 
of alternatives has indeed been ex- 
hausted. 

Another question to be raised about 
the Christian espousal of violence is 
that any attempt to achieve social 
change must count very carefully the 
cost of the particular methods its advo- 
cates employ. I can believe that in 
some parts of the world a violent coup 
might really strike a blow for justice, 
but I am staggered by what seems to 
me the romantic unrealism of those 
who feel that a similar movement in 
the United States could now succeed. I 
am very fearful of repression from the 



right. I am not happy living in a coun- 
try where a high political official can 
say of the students, "If they want a 
bloodbath, let's give them one right 
now." And I am impressed by the fact 
that at the famous New Haven week- 
end in May of 1970, it was the Black 
Panthers who kept things from getting 
violent. They knew who would pay if 
there were bloodshed; it would not be 
the idealistic college revolutionaries 
who would go back home on Sunday 
afternoon, but the blacks who would 
still be in New Haven on Monday 
morning. 

Another question to be pondered is 
what the use of violence does, not only 
to those who are its victims, but also to 
those who employ it. There is an ex- 
traordinary slippery slope from the 
violence-against-property-but-not- 
against-people theme to the violence- 
against-people-here-is-okay-because- 
there-is-more-violence-against-people- 
somewhere-else point of view. There 
is always greater violence somewhere 
else, and the ugly grip violence gets on 
people can increasingly undermine the 
most idealistic ends to which it is being 
dedicated. Before long, all restraints 
are gone. The theme of so many of 
Ignazio Silone's novels — that when 
the persecuted seize power they always 
become persecutors — is a theme we 
must never underplay. 




Two types 

of nonviolence 



Such considerations as these are al- 
ready part of the case that is made by 
those who opt for nonviolence as the 
proper Christian stance. 

There is first the position of absolute 
pacifism, which insists that there are no 
circumstances under which the use of 
overt violence is justified. This position 
has the advantage of being very clearly 
rooted in the New Testament and the 
early church — so that the initial bur- 
den of proof is always on the Christian 
who rejects it rather than on the one 
who affirms it — even though it very 
soon began to be diluted and compro- 
mised. As the vocational witness of a 
minority, it has exerted a creative re- 
straint on other, less single-minded in- 
dividuals and institutions far out of 
proportion to the nurnbers of its ad- 
herents. I have found myself increas- 
ingly attracted to it as an overwhelm- 
ingly necessary position for some to 
adopt in a world that increasingly and 
more and more unthinkingly opts for 
overt violence. My own inability to 
take the full step it represents is my 
fear that occasionally the pacifist 
stance may enhance the short-run tri- 
umph of injustice, however effective it 
may be in the long run. I feel that 
Christians must be concerned about 
the short-run consequences of their ac- 
tions, particularly when those actions 
determine the degree of justice or in- 
justice that may be possible for others 
than themselves. 

The other position on nonviolence 
argues that violence can never be more 
than the last resort, to be used only if 
it is crystal clear that all other options 
are absolutely futile, and that one must 
develop criteria that will help him de- 
termine when it might or might not be 
appropriate to resort to violence. This 
process resembles the approach of the 
traditional and, until recently, dis- 
credited Roman Catholic criteria for 



determining a "just war." These cri- 
teria have been discredited because 
they have historically been used to de- 
clare "just" all wars that theologians 
wanted to support. But employment 
of such criteria today makes clear 
that hardly any modern war could be 
declared "just." 

I find it useful to take those criteria 
and apply them not just to internation- 
al war but to the entire matter of vio- 
lence, and I find myself coming out a 
"selective conscientious objector" to 
most uses of violence. Let me give just 
two examples. The employment of 
violence must have a good chance of 
success, that is, that it will clearly lead 
to greater social justice and that it will 
not lead to indiscriminate slaughter 
(particularly of innocent bystanders) 
or to greater injustice and repression 
than we now have. I simply am not 
persuaded that domestic violence can 
be justified on such grounds. Another 
principle I come to is the apparently 
abstract notion of the "principle of 
proportionality," — the means used 
must be in harmony with the ends 
sought, and the good end hoped for 
must be assured of producing greater 
benefits than the evils that will be en- 
tailed along the way toward that good 
end by the use of violence. This prin- 
ciple is no longer abstract when I view 
it in relation to human lives and recog- 
nize that on the American scene a 
resort to widespread violence is likely 
to be grossly counterproductive, par- 
.ticularly against those who are the 
present victims of injustice. 

I do not believe that I am entitled to 
tell a minority American or an op- 
pressed Brazilian what his stance on 
violence must be — though I am great- 
ly impressed that Cesar Chavez has 
made nonviolence the key to the whole 
struggle of Mexican Americans for 
social justice; and that Archbishop 
Helder Camara, a revolutionary if 
there ever was one, has insisted that a 
new order in Brazil can come only by 
nonviolent means. They make clear 
that nonviolence need not be the moral 
cop-out of the middle class. I think 
we must respond to the pleas of Helder 
Camara, who calls for "fit instruments 
to perform the miracle of combining 



the violence of the prophets, the truth 
of Christ, the revolutionary spirit of the 
gospel — but without destroying love." 
But I do think I am entitled to try to 
push the vocation of nonviolent mili; 
tancy on white, middle-class, comfort- 
able Americans of which (God help 
me) I am certainly qne. In a world and 
in a nation getting more and more ac- 
customed to violence as the easy answer 
to all problems, it may be our special 
vocation to try to take on the role of 
nonviolent advocates of social change. 
I cannot yet pretend to spell out all 
that this might mean. I do not think 
it simply means imitating Gandhi or 
Martin Luther King, but it will mean 
looking for new ways and means to 
incarnate a love that is not devoid of 
the most passionate concern for justice. 
It will mean attacking all the structures 
of injustice and covert violence in our 
social system, but not in ways that 
transform us into precisely the kind of 
people and structures we are trying to 
replace. It will not mean an attempt to 
escape tension, but an attempt to deal 
with it creatively in new ways. And it 
will further mean certain risks. Martin 
Luther King told blacks in the sixties 
to be nonviolent against angry white 
mobs. We loved that. If he were alive 
in the seventies, I have, a feeling he 
might be telling whites to be nonviolent 
toward angry black mobs. We don't 
relish that quite so much. But, quite 
apart from going out to seek suffering 
(which, as Alan Paton has said about 
the Christian posture in South Africa, 
would simply be sick), we must em- 
brace a role that might entail suffering. 



Violence ^^^^^^ V 

and the churches 

. What might all this mean for the 
churches? It does not mean that all 
churchmen everywhere in the world 
will come to the same conclusion, but 
it does mean that American churchmen 
might decide that we have a special vo- 
cation in the years ahead. I suggest 
that vocation involves the risk of trying 
to bring about the necessary revolution, 
but doing so by nonviolent means. 



This IS a radical kind of risk, but one 
that I am increasingly persuaded the 
churches of Jesus Christ must now, .' 
2,0(X) years late, begin to take. We 
must avoid the trap of letting non- 
violence become simply a vehicle for 
avoiding the task of social change, and 
must embrace it as an instrument of 
social change. We are called upon, at 
this point, to be a little more heedless 
than we have previously been, a little 
more willing to put something on the 
line, a little more willing to say, "Here 
we stand, we can do no other," a little 
more willing to let our structures be 
challenged by the demands of the gos- 
pel in a new era. 

There is no reason to believe that 
such a vocation will necessarily "suc- 
ceed," but the time may have come 
when, for a while at least, we must re- 
move the notion of success from our 
ecclesiastical lexicons. James Cone, a 
black theologian, has rightly said that 
in this day and age blacks are not 
called upon to suflier but to be free, . 
and it may be that in this day andage 
whites are not called upon to talk so 
much about their own freedom, but to 
be willing to suffer — and perhaps 
thereby help to achieve a new libera- 
tion both for blacks and for them- 
selves. 

So along with all our politicking, all 
our pressure groups, all our attempts to 
deal with injustice (which we share 
with other like-minded citizens whether 
Christian or not), we Christians may 
have been given a special role in the 
1 970s, the role of seeking to bring 
abo.ut change by nonviolent means, by 
revolutionary love, ready if need be to 
absorb the suffering this might involve, 
empowered to do so because we know 
that there is One who is already stand- 
ing alongside us, who has always 
shared in our suffering, and who can 
help by his all-sufficient redeeming love 
to redeem the feeble and insuflicient 
efforts of those of us who so often lis- 
ten to what He says, but so often fail 
to practice what He does. D 

Robert McAfee Brown, who is a professor at 
Stanford University in California and a 
former Navv chaplain, has cniiaged in selec- 
tive, nonviolent civil disobedience. His 
article, copyrighted by Presbyterian Life, is 
reprinted by permission. 



■1-72 MESSENGER 7 



In Reply 



From the campus, from the Third World and Europe comes 




Power, in varying de- 
grees, is possessed by 
all groups and all na- 
tions. Power must be 
used responsibly, 
whether that power is 
expressed and exer- 
cised violently or non- 
violently. The same criteria are used 
to evaluate both means of social 
change. 

In man's history, revolution has 
come about both with and without the 
use of violence. It must be asked of 
iany revolution, whether by violent or 
nonviolent means, "Has a greater jus- 
tice been achieved?" and "Have the 
values of the old as well as the values 
of the new been recognized?" Social 
reform ought to bring about a greater 
realization of valiies, and not only an 
exchange of some values for others. 
In setting goals to reform society, 
neither Utopian schemes nor defense 
of the status quo is acceptable to those 
who accept the vision of the kingdom 
of God and yet acknowledge that its 
final consummation is beyond history. 
We need to recognize that covert vio- 
lence varies from structure to structure; 
within our institutions, there are some 
changes more urgent than others. Dif- 
ferent situations may call for different 
formulas. 

The use of nonviolence in the 
American civil rights revolution was 
brilliant and effective. How to ac- 
complish justice for ten million refu- 
gees from East Pakistan remains a 
question with no easy answers. The 
use of violence in Indochina has re- 
sulted in a dismal stalemate for both 
sides. 

Robert McAfee Brown in his stimu- 
lating arguments rightly insists that 
more attention be given to nonviolence 
as "an instrument of social change." 
At the same time, his article is im- 
portant in emphasizing that injustice 
exists in both overt and covert forms, 
and that it must be challenged by the 
gospel of love and justice. — Robert 
McFadden 




Perhaps the basically 
conservative stance 
advocated by Robert 
McAfee Brown for 
Christians in the 
United States — "to 
take on the role of 
nonviolent advocates 
of social change" — may bring about 
the desired results in the redress of in- 
justice and violence prevalent in this 
country. However, when I hear the cry 
of desperation from Attica Prison — 
"If we cannot live as people, we will at 
least try to die like men" — I wonder 
how much lead time can a Christian 
conscientiously allow himself to devel- 
op criteria which would help him to 
evaluate his basic stance of nonviolent 
actions and consider options which 
could conceivably involve some degree 
of physical force? 

I maintain that there is no such thing 
as nonviolence, pure and simple. In a 
seemingly nonviolent activity like a sit- 
in, or a "satyagraha," a boycott, or a 
march, a point is reached where the 
potential for a provocation is so inher- 
ent that it is questionable if it can truly 
be called nonviolent. Colin Morris has 
observed that Gandhi's "nonviolent re- 
sistance, far from being an alternative 
to the use of force, only becomes politi- 
cally significant against a background 
of widespread violence." While 
Gandhi adhered to passive resistance, 
the Indian National Congress aban- 
dond the policy in 1935 resorting to di- 
rect action and by 1942 civil war raged 
throughout India. 

Having spent a major part of my life 
in a society with social stratification 
based upon an outdated caste system 
which sanctifies human inequality and 
violates human dignity; having experi- 
enced the humiliation suffered by one 
of the world's proud and ancient civili- 
zations under British colonialsm; and , 
having witnessed the economic exploi- 
tation of the Third World under neo- 
colonialism of the affluent nations, it is 
not difficult for me to identify with the 
powerful urge of the subjugated, the 



oppressed, and the desperate to opt for 
violence to achieve power which could 
seemingly enable them to determine 
their own future. 

The scars of humiliation, exploita- 
tion, and treatment as second-rate hu- 
man beings do not heal easily, even 
with the scattered shots of antibiotics 
in the form of "foreign aid." The 
manipulation of the destinies of the 
powerless two thirds of the world 
through military pacts, economic aid, 
and political pressures testifies to vio- 
lence not easily recognized by well- 
meaning Christians who feel most com- 
fortable with offering cold cups of wa- 
ter to the needy. It is one thing to be a 
detached observer or one without a 
stake in such an experience and to 
philosophize on a nonviolent approach 
to solve problems. It is entirely anoth- 
er to be right in the middle of it all liv- 
ing at a subhuman level. It is easy for 
me to understand why a person might 
feel that nothing can make his situation 
worse than what it actually is. It is 
easy for me to understand why a per- 
son is willing to choose death rather 
than to continue the miserable exis- 
tence of living in bondage. 

Paul Tillich reminded us, "There are 
situations in which resistance without 
armed violence is possible; but even 
then, destructive consequences are 
hardly avoidable, be it through psycho- 
logical, through economic or through 
sociological forms of compulsion. And 
there are situations in which nothing 
short of war can defend or establish 
the dignity of the person. Nothing is 
more indicative of the tragic aspect of 
life than the unavoidable injustice in 
the struggle for justice." 

While Mr. Brown recognizes the 
ri<Tht of the minority Americans and 
Third World people to make their own 
choices with respect to the issue of vio- 
lence, I wonder what advice he would 
offer to an American mission board 
with respect to supportive relationships . 
with overseas churches which may opt 
for a violent revolution in their struggle 
for humanization. — Shantilal Bhagat 



8 MESSENGER 2- 1 -72 



esponses to Robert McAfee Brown 




I Brown's premises are 
basically sound. In 
particular, he is right 
not to dismiss the dis- 
tinction between vio- 
Jlence as an instrument 
of the oppressor and 
violence used on be- 
.' half of the oppressed. A Dutch ethics 
. professor has said that pacifists have 
traditionally deplored violence "on 
both sides" without taking into account 
that equality of sin in using violence 
does not entail equality of guilt for the 
violent situation. But he warns that to 
us such distinctions as the kind, de- 
gree, and situational circumstances of 
violence in order to justify its use 
greatly limits the possibilities of finding 
alternatives to violence. It also reflects 
the desire for a clear conscience, while 
in fact it is the first step toward dehu- 
-manizing the "enemy" in order that 
: violence may be committed against 
him. 

In his calling the churches of Amer- 
ica to a vocation of seeking to bring 
., about radical change of our institutions 
by nonviolent means. Brown unfortu- 
nately does not elaborate on the impli- 
. cations of this beyond warning that it 
could entail suffering. The pocketbook 
and status image are perhaps the first 
"victims." (Is this why Brethren find 
it so hard to be authentic? Policy 
seems to be made according to what 
■ will appeal to the Brotherhood or what 
. they can be sold on, rather than what 
expresses true solidarity with the op- 
pressed.) Nonviolent revolutionary 
activity not only could but surely will 
entail suffering if it is authentic. 

There are many well intentioned and 
deeply committed Christians who are 
prepared for the vocation Brown sug-.:. 
gests. Good intentions and commit- 
ment are not enough. In order to avoid 
piecemeal and bandage activity there 
must be thorough analysis leading to 
deep understanding of the true situa- 
tion of violence in our world. Most of 
V us do not know exactly how we uphold 
.' and participate in violence. This we 



must learn before we can engage cre- 
atively and usefully in activity for ; ., 
change. Then we must call on our 
deep commitment to sustain us through 
voluntary limiting of our wealth and re- 
channeling the surplus we have no right 
to claim for ourselves; or as we say 
No! and withdraw from participating 
in institutions, customs, and practices 
which are based on the exploitation of 
others. 

But first must come the study and 
analysis that can open our eyes to the 
reality of the status quo which exploits 
and kills, then comes the time for re- 
flecting upon the new truths so that al- 
ternatives can be found, and finally we 
must act upon the new understandings 
and in effect create a new reality. This 
process, which is being widely used in 
Latin America to prepare cadres of 
nonviolent workers for justice and lib- 
eration, is called "conscientization." 
We must become conscienticized also 
in America and Europe. 

I do not agree with Brown's rather 
paternalistic approach that by becom- 
ing willing sufferers we can achieve lib- 
eration for the oppressed. Rather we 
are imprisoned in our role as op- 
pressors as long as the oppressed con- 
tinue to accept their role. It is only 
as the oppressed can declare and live 
out their own liberation that we as op- 
pressors can also become liberated. 
However, we can find ways to express 
solidarity with the oppressed in their 
struggle, joining them in suffering vol- 
untarily and seeking to transform our- 
selves and our institutions. — Marty 
Zinn 



4 



Robert McFaddcn is head of the philosophy 
and religion department of Bridi^ewater 
College in Virginia. Shantilal P. Bhagat is 
consultant in community development for 
the Church of the Brethren General Board. 
Robert C. Johansen teaches political science 
at Manchester College in Indiana. Marty 
Zinn. a former BVSer. is working with the 
International Fellowship of Reconciliation in 
Dreibergcn, Netherlands. 



Brown performs a 
useful service in alert- 
ing us middle-class 
Americans to the ' - 
crimes of respectable 
people who defend 
unjust social struc- ' ...■ 
tures, which are man- 
ifestations of covert or structural vio- 
lence. But Brown is wrong if he means 
to suggest that a new awareness of the 
problem of covert violence adds a new 
dimension to the old problem of justi- 
fying overt violence. That is not true, 
because covert violence is simply an- 
other form of injustice and all injustice, 
whether overt or covert, violent or non- 
violent, should be militantly opposed 
by the Christian, but opposed by loving 
the "enemy" and overcoming evil with 
good. In short, the Christian formula 
for dealing with the newfound per- 
petrators of covert violence, whether 
unfair landlords or school boards, is 
the same as for dealing with the old ex- 
ponents of violence, whether foreign 
dictators or American militarists. 

Jesus doubtlessly struggled with the 
question of violence, but his final posi- 
tion seems clear: He rejected it. The 
scriptural texts which Brown offers as 
coming closest to endorsing violence 
are unconvincing in that respect, and 
there are several other unequivocal bib- 
lical injunctions to reject violence and 
to express love universally, even for 
enemies. Regardless of the vigor of 
Jesus' action in cleansing the temple, 
for example, there was no taking of 
any person's life, nor was there even a 
threat of taking life. 

The statement that Jesus came not 
to bring peace but a sword is inter- 
preted by most Bible scholars as a met- 
aphorical statement in which Jesus pro- 
claimed that truth is more important 
than temporary harmony in the family 
or community. He was saying that 
maintaining a social order without con- 
flict is not an end in itself. Likewise, 
we might add, a new social order, one 
sought by social reformers, can hardly 
be an end in itself; therefore, seeking 



2- 1 -72 MESSENGER 9 




it cannot justify treating persons as 
means to be manipulated or destroyed. 
This scripture is not justification for the 
method of war, but recognition of a 
conflict of worldviews (division instead 
of sword is the word used in Luke) . 
By confessing Christ, one may bring 
the sword of persecution on himself. 

In the context of Brown's analysis, 
the Christian will find himself being 
opposed by defenders of the status quo 
because he acts boldly in favor of the 
dispossessed who are victims of unjust 
social structures. As Matthew elab- 
orates, blood may be shed because of 
the strife resulting from the drive for 
justice, but it will be the blood of those 
who have taken up Jesus' cross; they, 
like Jesus, will give their lives, but they 
will not take the lives of others. In 
short, a difficult issue in today's world 
may be whether one can or should be 
Christian; it is not whether the Chris- 
tian can be violent. 

Perhaps the question of whether to 
use overt violence to remove covert . 
violence is further clarified if we view 
justice less as a static, eventual state to 
be attained and more as a continuous 
process in which claims and counter- 
claims for rights will forever be made 
by competing groups in conflict. If 
justice is viewed as a process instead 
of a state of being, then evil means, 
such as war, cannot be morally justified 
because of the uncertainty of achieving 
the desired end. At the same time, one 
should be less willing to sit and simply 
wait for racial and economic justice 
eventually to come to his community. 
Justice can be pursued only by making 
bold, persistent, and unending claims 
by and on behalf of the oppressed. 

The inert quality of Brown's notion 
of justice is revealed in his initial ques- 
tion: "In rooting out the structures of 
covert violence in the world today, are 
we justified in using overt violence?" 
It is inappropriate to think of covert 
violence or injustice as a bad weed 
with but one life that can be "rooted 
out," viewed as a task completed, and 
once accomplished, the violence used 



in the uprooting seems justified. Co- 
vert violence will probably never be 
eliminated. But more important, a 
revolutionary leader who possesses 
sufficient violent power to "root out" 
covert violence, has become powerful 
enough that he is doubtless already a 
practitioner of covert violence, ines- 
capably manipulatory within his own 
movement and in the use of overt vio- 
lence as a strategy for revolution. Al- 
though the Christian may prefer the 
imperfections of a revolution to those 
of the status quo, the Christian should 
never forget that even before the revo- • 
lutionary comes to power — especially 
if he is a violent revolutionary — he is 
probably a carrier of covert violence 
which will continue after overt violence 
may end. 

Brown also urges us to consider the 
statement of a "Brazilian sociologist": 
"If I opt for nonviolence I am the ac- 
complice of oppression." I find this 
statement unpersuasive because it be- 
trays the sociologist's confusion be- 
tween the oppressor and the latter's op- 
pressive policies. The Christian be- 
lieves that evil (oppression) is the en- 
emy, not the evildoer (oppressor). In 
fact, the situation is precisely the op- 
posite of what the sociologist asserts. 
Thus if one opts for violence, he is 
himself committing evil (overt vio- 
lence), and thereby is an accomplice 
with oppression (covert violence), 
even if he fights the oppressor. The 
only way one can avoid being an ac- 
complice of oppression (covert vio- 
lence) is to reject overt violence and be 
loving toward the oppressor, at the 
same time vigorously opposing op- 
pression. — Robert C. Johansen 



XWDncem 

.PcBaiCBCBc 



A sampling of 20,00< 
children's drawings de- 
picting war, peace, and) 
the new world, solicited by) 
the Dutch Christian radio/ 
television commission,| 
IKOR. Artists' comment 
accompany their worl 




"You won't have to put on a cl. 



10 MESSENGER 2-1-72 




"When it's peace everyone ". happy and tanks become things tp enjoy" 




jpl because you won't get dirty' 



"In the new world I'd like every day to be my birthday" 



'We have to face the fact, whatever our religious belief 

■ :> \:V -•■?;. \- When you are full of rage 




■ ■ ■ ■ -•■■': - ■■ ■ ■'■"' ■ I\ (EdDnnwcBiPsaittncDm 

DBncEDnairpd] AXoEBaDnnfimpgcErp 



Know Your 



r commitments, that violence can be exhilarating. 
) be able to let it out feels tremendous." 



Dr. Walter Menninger made this 
comment in his office at Topeka State 
Hospital as we talked informally about 
violence in human personality and 
social relationships. As a practicing 
psychiatrist who works not only with 
patients but also with the police de- 
partment in this middle-sized midwest- 
em city, he has direct experience with 
people whose inner rages and hatreds 
sometimes destroy themselves and oth- 
ers. In addition, he was appointed by 
President Johnson to the thirteen- 
member National Commission on the 
Causes and Prevention of Violence 
which for eighteen months delved . 
deeply into this complex subject fol- 
lowing the assassination of Senator 
Robert F. Kennedy. He is that new 
breed of psychiatrist who sees just as 
much significance in community appli- 
cations of psychiatry as he does in the 
thoroughgoing individual psychoana- 
lytic treatment^ 

The work of the violence commis- 
sion is something Dr. Menninger talks 
about enthusiastically. I had wondered 
if he could be enthusiastic for yet an- 
other discussion of the subject, since he 
has found himself in great demand all 
over the country as a lecturer on col- 
lege campuses, before bar associations, 
and in local and regional club meetings. 
I need not have worried. For an hour. 



he candidly expressed himself about 
the work of the violence commission, 
his own attitudes and feelings about vi- 
olence in individuals and society, and 
the work of others in this field. What 
follows is a free sampling of his re- 
marks, using journalistic license to 
make connections and give continuity. 
Occasionally I have borrowed from 
texts of speeches he has made. 

I wanted to know at the outset how 
the violence commission defined vio- 
lence. In the text of the commission 
report, the key statement reads: "... 
the threat or use of force that results, 
or is intended to result, in the injury or 
forcible restraint or intimidation of 
persons, or the destruction or forcible 
seizure of property" (To Establish Jus- 
tice, To Insure Domestic Tranquillity 
p. 286) . "I can live with that defini- 
tion," Dr. Menninger said. "Of course, 
what interests me as a psychiatrist is 
the role of violent words and violent 
thoughts. Psychotherapy aims at trans- 
lating action into the arena of words 
and thoughts, so that a person doesn't 
have to hurt people or destroy property." 

Vividly, he described a confronta- 
tion with a black militant which took 
place in an informal information- 
gathering session. The black man told 
the doctor, "If I didn't like you, or like 
what you're doing, I would just have to 



hit you." It was very evident to the ■ 
people in the room that this powerful 
black man was really capable of hit- 
ting. "But I wouldn't have to hit you 
again, and again, and again, and again 
— which is the way the police do it to 
my people in the ghetto." 

"His being able to stop just short of 
really socking it to me," explained Dr. 
Menninger, "demonstrates a useful 
sublimation." There is the problem in 
a nutshell: to be able to control and 
use the energies of aggression in the 
service of an appropriate management 
of conflict. 

In an address at Baldwin Wallace 
College in 1970 Dr. Menninger spoke 
directly about the inner situation which 
gives rise to violent behavior: 

You don't have to observe children 
very long to discover that they have 
within them a destructive power. Give 
a toy to a two-year-old and see how 
long it survives his pushing, pulling, 
smashing, and throwing. Notice the 
interplay between children — grasping, 
hitting, shrieking — which we may 
lightly call rough housing, but which so 
often ends with someone being hurt 
.... The child is self-centered, seek- 
ing imnicdiate and direct satisfaction of 
whatever impulse strikes him with no 
real conception or concern for what 
may result from his action .... Pain is 
not readily tolerated. When he suffers 




: Violence 



2-1-72 MESSENGER 13 



pain he wants to let others know about 
it: indeed he wants others to know ex- 
actly how he hurts. This is the basic 
source of the lex talionis — an eye for 
an eye. When I am hurt by you, I want 
you to hurt like 1 hurt, therefore if you 
hit me, I will hit back. .'\nd it makes 
no difference that the hitting back 
doesn't really resolve the conflict .... 
This is a significant root of violence 
: and of crime: the infant in all of us 
who is a creature of emotion, not 
reason. 

Violence as an expression of the 
insecurities and fears of the child in us 
". — that may be the clue not only to 
. hannful destructiveness in our society 
•,• but to the relatively harmless, socially 

useful, and necessary violence con- 
; tained in many familiar activities. Stu- 
dent yells at athletic events, pro foot- 
ball on television, a surgeon cutting 
with his scalpel, tearing down buildings 
■ in a slum area, law enforcement — 
. these disparate actions all contain some 
measure of violence. I asked Dr. 
Menninger how much of this he 
: thought was legitimate violence. 

"Well, that's hard to answer but we 
" should ask ourselves, what would you 
. put in place of these activities? It is a 

fallacy to think man can manipulate 
', the outside world to wipe out all need 
. for the expression of violence. As a 
psychiatrist I am aware how easy it is 
•for an individual to project his personal 
frustrations and fears on the environ- 
ment and to think that if he changes 
the environment, things will be all 
right." The potentiality for violence 
exists in everyone. Dr. Karl Mennin- 
ger, Dr. Walter Menninger's uncle, 
made this point forcefully in his book, 
Man A gainst Himself: 

One would expect that in the face of 
the overwhelming blows at the hands of 
fate or nature, man would oppose him- 
self steadfastly to death and destruction 
in a universal brotherhood of be- 
leaguered humanity. But this is not the 
case. Whoever studies the behavior of 
human beings cannot escape the con- 
clusion that we must reckon with an 
enemy within the lines. It becomes in- 
creasingly evident that some of the 
destruction which curses the earth is 
self-destruction; the extraordinary 
propensity of the human being to join 
hands with external forces in an attack 
upon his own existence (p. 4) . 



These psychological realities are not 
to be seen apart from social forces. 
The violence commission report words 
it very carefully: "... most persons 
who commit violence — criminal or 
noncriminal — are basically no differ- 
ent from others, and their behavior is 
the result of the complex interaction of 
their biology and life experience. 
Scholars observe that man has no in- 
stinct or trait born within that directs 
aggression in a specific way. He does 
have, from birth, the potential for 
violence. He also has the capacity for 
creative, constructive activity and for 
the rejection of violence. Insofar as 
life experience teaches individuals 
violence, the incidence of violence is 
subject to modification, control, and 
prevention through conscious changes 
in man's environment" (To Establish 
Justice, to Insure Domestic Tran- 
quillity, p. 290). 

Since our conversation had sounded 
the positive note of men's creative abil- 
ities to overcome the violence that is 
within and without. I wanted to know 
how the violence commission's work 
had been received both by government 
officials and by the citizenry. I did not 
expect as optimistic a view from Dr. 
Menninger as I got. He acknowledged 
his initial misgivings, a sort of "so 




what?" reaction to yet another national 
commission following hard on the heels 
of the crime commission and the 
Kerner Commission reports. "But 
you've got to realize a commission of 
this kind has no power base. Its func- 
tion is educational and its impact de- 
pends upon the way this education is 
carried out. Perhaps more important- 
ly, commission reports are 'bench- 
marks' which have a long-term im- 
pact." 

Immediate impacts of the work of 
the violence commission have not been 
absent by any means. Dr. Menninger's 
anecdotal account proved informative 
and fascinating. In the first place, he 
said, the commission worked for high 
visibility, undoubtedly influenced by its 
chairman. Dr. Milton Eisenhower, a 
former public relations man. Tele- 
vision was welcomed in the hearings. 
The report was released chapter by . 
chapter with a weather eye cocked for 
direct relevancy to current happenings. 
Even news releases were purposely 
condensed to the typical length of a 
page- in The New York Times or the 
Washington Post as an aid to the 
media. Only one report was never 
published by the government printing 
office, namely an account of the Chi- 
cago demonstrations in 1968 which the 
commissioners believed would have 
special credibility precisely because 
four-letter words and twelve-letter 
words appeared in the text. Apparent- 
ly the President thought otherwise. 

A second direct impact of the com- 
mission was that it prompted a collec- 
tion of data on violence that is without 
parallel. Through extensive hearings, 
task force reports, and the gathering 
together of expert opinion from all 
quarters, a library of findings on vio- 
lence now exists which is a gold mine 
for study and further research. College 
and university courses now are based 
on the commission's sixteen-volume 
output and supporting evidence. The 
generally excellent editing increases 
the value of the documents by making 
them readable. 

•A third impact had to do with spe- 
cific events and reactions. Television, 
for example; came under the appropri- 
ately critical eye of the commission. It 
was found, that the Saturday morning 



14 MESSENGER 2-1-72 



cartoons for the kiddies contained 
more violence than any comparable 
time period on television, up to twenty 
violent incidents per hour. At first the 
industry did not want to acknowledge 
its responsibility, denying the motivat- 
ing power of violence in the form of 
entertainment while selling commer- 
cials to its customers on the grounds 
that people can be motivated to buy 
products. It made no sense to say one 
minute of advertising could move 
people to action, while fifty-nine min- 
utes of other programming would in- 
cite no action whatever. The industry 
did in fact start to pay attention to this 
discrepancy. Interestingly, CBS . : > 
dropped its opening shoot-out se- 
quence on Gtinsmoke following these 
hearings. Dr. Menninger ruefully ad- 
mits that after two years, more violence 
than ever has come to the screen this 
fall. 

Student unrest on the campuses in 
1969 was another specific situation to 

' which the violence commission rever- 
berated by putting guidelines for cop- 
ing with disruption into the hands of 
college administrators. Several fac- 

' ulties followed these guidelines with 
some success. The November 1969 
Moratorium with its march on Wash- 
ington was yet another example of the 

. probable influence of the commission. 

■ The White House staff were given 
copies of the chapter called, "A Tale 
of Two Cities," contrasting the violent 
way Chicago handled the demonstra- 
tions at the Democratic National Con- 
vention with the comparatively effec- 
tive way the Washington police han- 
dled an equal number of counter dem- 
onstrators at the time of President 
Nixon's' inauguration. This may have 

'. been one of the forces prompting the 
Justice Department to take a less rigid 
line in handling the Washington dem- 

, onstrations in the days that followed. 
"There are other benchmarks too. 
Gun control is coming, influenced im- 
portantly by the commission's clear 
recommendations. The eighteen-year- 
old vote, which I had the privilege of 
testifying for before a Senate commit- 
tee, is a step in the direction of the 
Comrnission's strong position support- 
ing.youth's involvement in our society. 
Of course, all eighty of the commis- 



.sion's recommendations have not as 
yet been acted on." 

I had been waiting to put one last 
question to Dr. Menninger. What role 
did he see for groups like the Brethren 
who officially rule out violent means of 
social expression and problem solving? 
He said he wasn't sure but did have 
several ideas about it. 

One was that the individual or the 
small group can make a difference. 
Although the work of the violence 
commission was largely directed 
toward big groups and America's cor- 
porate problems, the principles under- 
lying the establishment of better means 
of achieving social change are equally 
applicable to other groups. "What can 
I as an individual do? We all struggle 
with that. We tend to think there is not 
much we can do. But the individual 
who is dedicated and educates himself 
to the facts can make a difference." 

"We must educate ourselves fuUy 
about violence in order to combat it," 
he said. "You've got to know what the 
enemy is before you can effectively act 
for constructive changes." It is im- 
portant to study the situation to de- 
termine where efforts can be most 
effective. 

Then, we need to look at our own 
communities and take a bite-sized 
chew. "We sometimes are so busy sav- 
ing the world and our own lives, that 
our communities go to hell." What we 
need to find out about our communities 
are the factors that predispose to vio- 
lence. The individual and the small 
group are perhaps best equiped to 
work on the problem of communica- 
tion at the grass roots level. The vio- 
lence commission didn't deal adequate- 
ly with these issues, but the right ques- 
tions were raised for local communities 
to face. 

You and me, our knowledge of our- 
selves and of our communities, our 
willingness to take bite-size chews, our 
courage to confront the violence in 
ourselves and others — that's where a 
large measure of the action is. D 



Richard A . BolUnfier is director of counsel- 
ing services. Division of Religion and Psy- 
chiatry, the Menninger Foundation. Topeka, 
Kans. W. Walter Menninger is a section 
director of the Topeka State Hospital and a 
staff psychiatrist with the Menninger 
Foundation. 



FACTS 

ABOUT THE 

VIOLENCE COMMISSION 

The assassination of Senator Robert F. 
Kennedy in June 1968 prompted Pres- 
ident Johnson to establish the National 
Commission on the Causes and Pre- 
vention of Violence. Chaired by Dr. 
Milton Eisenhower, this thirteen-mem- 
ber commission was charged with the 
task of investigating and making rec- 
ommendations with respect to "( 1 ) the 
causes and prevention of lawless acts 
of violence in our society, including 
assassination, murder, and assault; and 
(2 ) the causes and prevention of dis- 
respect for law and order, of disrespect 
for public officials, and of violent dis- 
ruptions of public order by individuals . . 
and groups." 

The investigations and deliberations 
of the commission were carried out 
over a jjeriod of eighteen months, and 
culminated in the publication of a final 
report. To Establish Justice, To Insure 
Domestic Tranquillity, along with six- 
teen volumes of reports of task forces, 
investigations, and hearings. 

The membership of the commission 
was predominantly from the legal pro- 
fession. There were nine lawyers: four 
legislators — Senators Philip Hart and 
Roman Hruska, Congressmen Hale 
Boggs and William McCulloch; two 
judges — U. S. District Judge Leon 
Higginbotham and Arizona Supreme 
Court Justice Ernest McFarland; a law 
professor — former Ambassador 
Patricia Harris; and two attorneys in 
private practice — Albert Jenner of 
Chicago and Leon Jaworski, currently 
the president of the American Bar 
Association. Dr. Eisenhower, Terrence 
Cardinal Cooke of New York, Eric 
Hoffer and Dr. Walter Menninger were 
the other members. 

As with all commissions a vital role 
was played by the staff and the con- 
sultants. The expertise and major 
work commitment was from the staff 
— largely lawyers, but with social sci- 
entists as task force co-directors and 
consultants. At its peak, central staff 
totaled 70, with more than 140 re- 
search projects and special analyses, 
and further involvement through hear- 
ing and special meetings of more than 
1 70 public officials, scholars, college 
presidents, experts, religious leaders, 
private citizens. 

2I-72 MESSENGER 15 



No Time 

for Gradualism 



Dd^ OHo EdaumffliD? GnfilbMcB 



"Our world today is dominated by 
complex and tragic division . . . [and] 
the gap between the rich and the poor 
has become inevitably the most tragic 
and urgent problem of our day" (Bar- 
bara Ward, The Rich Nations and the 
Poor Nations). Not only our national 
community but also our international 
community is tragically divided into 
"two societies, separate and unequal," 
to borrow words from the Kerner 
Commission's report. One society is 
largely industrial, rich, powerful, ur- 
ban, white, and North; and the other is 
largely agricultural, poor, powerless, 
-rural, colored, and South. Common 
to one society are adequate food, medi- 
cal care, educational opportunities, add 
affluence, and to the other malnutri- 
tion, disease, illiteracy, and dehuman- 
izing poverty. 

In microcosm a representative world 
community of 1,000 persons would 
look like this. One third (330) would 
be developed and affluent, holding over 
two thirds of the community's wealth. 
, Two thirds (670) would be develop- 
ing and poor, holding less than one 
third of the community's wealth. Six- 
ty-three would earn over $2,000 per 
year and 670 would earn less than 



$300 per year. TTie sixty-three who 
are the most affluent would have more 
than a 3,000 calorie intake per day 
with high protein content, while 300 
to 400 would have less than the recorii- 
mended 2,200 calories per day and 
with a small fraction of the recom- 
mended protein content. The affluent 
group would also command ten to 
fifteen times more of the health services 
than would be available to the larger 
but poorer group. 

A growing awareness of the gaps 
between these societies has brought the 
people of the developing nations or 
Third World to rebellion. This aware- 
ness and the revolution of rising expec- 
tations, spawned very often by Chris- 
tian missions and accelerated by our 
shrinking world, has resulted in the 
shock of underdevelopment. Ever in- 
creasing numbers of the "Two Thirds 
World" are demanding some improve- 
ment in their dehumanizing existence, 
often without understanding the at- 
tendant complexities. Development is 
seen as the panacea. There is a grow- 
ing awareness too that the plight of the 
poor is related to the voracious appe- 
tite of the developed and wealthy na- 
tions, specifically, as Dennis Goulet in 



i 




The Cruel Choice suggests, through 
their "privileged access to raw materi- 
als, freedom ... to impose their prod- 
ucts on fragile Third World markets, 
the power ... to control world market 
mechanisms to their advantage, their 
ability to disrupt internal efforts at in- 
dustrialization by poor countries 
through dumping and other means, and 
their capacity to attract trained person- 
nel away from the underdeveloped 
world." 

While violent civil and international 
conflict is a complex phenomenon that 
stems from many causes, the correla- 
tion of violence with underdevelop- 
ment and poverty cannot be over- 
looked. The Paddock study (William 
and Paul Paddock, Famine, 1975) re- 
veals that "since 1958, 87% of the 
very poor nations have suffered serious 
violence; 69% of the poor nations and 
48% of the middle income. However, 
only one of the twenty-seven rich na- 
tions has suffered a major internal 
upheaval." 

Such facts carry startling implica- 
tions. The impression sometimes is 
that two thirds of the world's people 
are content with their deprivation. 
This is not accurate. Like it or not, the 
powerful and affluent and largely 
Christian "One Third World" is faced 
with the critical question of how to re- 
spond to and deal with the plight of the 
"Two Thirds World" and the poten- 
tially explosive inequities. 

Ostensibly, the message of Christ 
and the Christian's responsibility are 
clear, especially when confronted with 
such biblical questions as, "For what 
will it profit a man, if he gains the 
whole world and forfeits his life?" or, 
"If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in 
lack of daily food, and one of you says 
to them, 'Go in peace, be wanned and 
filled,' without giving them the things 
needed for the body, what does it 
profit?" 

Further, God created man and na- 
ture and continues to work in history to 



bring his creation to fulfillment. Man 
was created to inhabit and subdue the 
earth and its riches were given to all 
men, irrespective of the barriers that 
men may construct. In the world 
which was and is the locus of God's 
redeeming, loving, and purposive ac- 
tion, we would be insensitive and un- 
responsive to God's love if we were to 
remain insensitive and unresponsive to 
the human and spiritual needs of our 
brothers in the world around us. 

Seemingly then Christians would be 
on the side of development and willing 
to sacrifice for the "Two Thirds 
World" caught in the cycle of poverty. 
This position, however, is not without 
its detractors and problems. There are 
y- those who believe that one's lot in life 
^ is providential and should be accepted. 
There are others who hold that time is 
moving rapidly toward the conclusion 
■ of history and that the foremost con- 
cern is man's salvation (salvation un- 
related to his physical well-being). Still 
others label the church's concern for 
development as unrealistic and Utopian 
in the light of man's nature and 
;. possibilities. 

■ Even if most Christians see a place 
for positive response to the physical 
needs of mankind, traditionally the 
church has given priority to charitable 

■ programs via ministries to the poor, 

' weak, maimed, and outcast of society. 

• Development efforts, when launched, 
have been focused upon the potentially 
strong and productive segments of a 
;. needy community. Each, however 
valid, has its pitfalls. Relief work is 

■ expensive and never ending. It often 
cultivates dependency and does not ad- 

'. equately ferret out causative factors 

■ or focus on preventive measures. De- 

■ velopment programs may succeed only 



marginally or fail outright. Complex 
social, economic, and political factors 
doom many efforts to marginal success 
or failure no matter how extensive the 
investments and planning have been. 

Whatever the problems and ambi- 
guities in ministries of compassion, the 
church should not turn from embark- 
ing on such programs. Sometimes un- 
suspected strengths and allies have 
emerged when commitments have been 
made and creative involvements have 
begun. The magnitude of the task to- 
day, however, requires not only tech- 
nicians but men of faith and compas- 
sion who will be challenged by ob- 
stacles and will be flexible in utilizing 
and developing the resources of the 
given situation. 

While the task is monumental, the 
church has significant and unique as- 
sets to contribute to development work. 
Granted, the institution carries some 
liabilities — ideological hangups, a . 
good measure of conservative status 
quoism, a Western orientation and 
bias, and fragmented and sometimes 
competitive rather than cooperative 
programs. But on the plus side, the 
churches have been pioneers in chari- 
table and social justice ministries. 
Christian concern for the value and 
dignity of the person must continue lo 
determine the goals and operational 
style of the relief and developmental 
programs of the church. The primary 
question must be what kind of develop- 
ment is human rather than what kind 
of development will be successful. 
Caloric consumption, gross national 
product, industrial growth, per capita 
income, and the like are not the most 
important criteria for evaluation. The 
important question is, in the light of 
Christian values, how are persons be- 



ing enhanced or diminished. 

The church can also play a significant 
role in influencing the centers of power 
that hold the key to development in the 
Third World. In addition to acting as 
a prophetic voice, calling attention to 
the plight of the poor and the need for 
justice and massive response to human 
needs, the church must learn how to 
influence the centers of power in order 
to move the affluent governments 
toward major participation in multi- 
lateral developmental assistance 
programs. 

But in the final analysis, one of the 
most crucial steps that the church can 
take is to help sensitize its own con- 
stituency to suffering and injustice. 
Faced with the social problem of un- 
employment in an industrialized soci- 
ety, G. K. Chesterton said that the 
church in his day "sang a lot of hymns 
to help the unemployed." Are Chris- 
tians doing anything more today for the 
plight of the "Two Thirds Worid"? 
Affluence and wastefulness character- 
ize the affluent one third. 

The gap between the world's privil- 
eged minority and the underprivileged 
majority widens. In such a world there 
is no time for gradualism. Theories of 
gradualism have been blitzed by the- 
ories of revolution. Words ("Go in 
peace, be warmed and filled") and rit- 
uals are not enough. What is required 
in our day is the zeal of the eighth- 
century prophets and the spirit exem- 
plified by the faithful in Jesus parable 
of the last judgment. Dag Ham- 
marskjold rightly discerned that "in 
our era, the road to holiness necessarily 
passes through the world of action." D 

H. Lamar Gihbic is consultant on peace and 
international affairs for the Church of the 
Brethren General Board. 



How concerned are we for our responsibility to our less privileged brother 
and to the violence of the system thathas broughtus this privilege? 



2- 1 -72 MESSENGER 17 



^ffllbnncEaifl n3aisns 



mi SI IP(BSl(B(B 




nitmcESS 



The search for a biblical basis of a 
peace witness leads directly into an 
examination of the meanings and con- 
notations of the Hebrew word shalom 
and the Greek word eirene. which are 
the words in the Bible usually trans- 
lated peace in the English versions. . 
•■ Both shalom and eirene connote a 
■ range of meanings much wider than 
^at usually found in the English word 
peace, which often conveys simply the 
■ absence of armed conflict or of condi- 
.. tions that disturb national or personal 
Hfe. 



Shalom 



Shalom is primarily a state of whole- 
ness and well-being which may be en- 
tered into and experienced by persons 
in their inner lives and interpersonal 
relationships, and also by groups, such 
as the family, the clan, or national and 
political entities. 

An examination of representative 
scripture passages (noted below) in 
which the word shalom or its variations 
occur reveals that the concept of 
shalom held by those who used the 
word included the idea of prosperity 
enjoyed either by the individual or by 
the group. 

' '. Exodus 4:18 = " .'■■.: ,; 

:.: -2 Chronicles 34:28 '■ ''■ ' • ■' 

; ■ Psalms 37:1 1: 72:1-7; 128:5-6 
, - Isaiah 38:17; 54:13; 66:12 

Haggai 2:9 

Zechariah 8:12 ,• ' ; ;. 

Shalom was often practically 
equated with physical security and 
freedom from anxiety. '■.;'■■ 

Judges 6:23; 18:6; 19:20 

1 Samuel 1:17 

2 Chronicles 19:1 
Psalms 4:8; 37:37; 55:18 
Isaiah 32:18 

Peace was associated with righteous- 
ness. 

Psalm 85:10 (compare with Psalm 
120:6; Isaiah 48:22; 59:8) 



Peace, with its wide connotations, 
was regarded as a goal to be sought. 
Psalm 34:14 
Zechariah 8:16, 19 . : .... ■.. 

In the thinking of religious leaders in 
Israel, a state of shalom for the nation 
involved faithfulness in a covenant re- 
lationship with God. 

Isaiah 54:10 ' '■■':''; 

Ezekiel 34:25; 37:26 , : -.: . ■;:":; 
Malachi 2:5-6 :-'■'■ ,,.■.,•/•.', 

This is in harmony with the belief ' ■ ;■ 
that the Lord was the source of peace. 
Numbers 6:26 

1 Kings 2:3 3 ■..■..•■ 

Psalms 29:11:122:6-9; 147:14 "" 
Isaiah 9:6-7; 45:7; 48:18; 57:19 
Jeremiah 33:6 

The concept of shalom, as applied 
to the nation, did, of course, imply a 
state of national security and the ab- 
sence or cessation of warfare. Peace 
between nations was a goal to be 
achieved. - . ■. ^ , • ■ • . ;; 

Leviticus 26:6 ' ■''■■'■.','"■'■; '"; 

Deuteronomy 2:26; 20:10-12 : .' :■■ 
Joshua 9:15; 11:19 ;.',<-' 

Judges 21 :1 3 '■ . '■ \'. '...■':[..'■'■ 

1 Samuel 7:14 ,•■'•::; -''''■■'■• ■ ? >, 

2 Samuel 10:19 ■ ^'V';''' '■''''^'.:^::-A\ 

1 Kings 4:24 ■'':•.;'"% ^:';\ v ;: '■■ ' '"' 

2 Kings20:19 '■ ■.;;->■ ■:■■■■■,:'.:'■ 
^ 1 Chronicles 22:9 ■■■.■'■. L;^ I." ••'•v.:' 

Psalm 120:7 '■' . ' -i^-'-'/O ' 'v 

Jeremiah 6:14; 14:13, 19 // ■.;'.■; 
Ezekiel 7:24-25; 13:10,16 ■: ■ ''': V.-v 




Eirene 



Eirene in the New Testament is the 
counterpart of the Old Testament word 
shalom. In classical Greek, e/rene 
meant the cessation or absence of hos- 
tilities between rival groups, much as 
we use the word peace today. But be- 
cause in the Greek version of the Old 
Testament the word eirene was used to 
translate the word shalom, the Greek 
word — while retaining its classical 
meaning — came to have a breadth of 
content comparable to that of the He- 



brew word. Accordingly, in the New 
Testament we find that eirene means 
something much deeper and more posi- 
tive than simply the absence of armed 
conflict. 

The concept of peace which is il- 
luminated by the New Testament us- 
age of the word eirene emphasizes the 
personal aspects of peace. Three main 
elements of peace are stressed. 

1 . Reconciliation of persons with 

•j V God, the restoration of right re- 
'■■■. lations with God. 

Romans 5:1, 10 

2 Corinthians 5:19 

Colossians 1:20-23 

2. Harmonious relationships estab- 
lished between persons and be- 
tween groups of persons. This 
includes the idea of international 
peace. 

Luke 14:32 
Acts 12:20 
Romans 12:18; 14:19 
2 Corinthians 13:1 1 



18 MESSENGER 2- 1-72 



Ephesians 2:14-1 7; 4:1-3 '■ ', 
Hebrews 12:14 ■'■_''. 

1 Peter 3:8-11 .■';:':■..■ - 

3. Peace of mind, dispelling worry 
and fear. 

John 14:27 '-' -• ■ '■■'■ ■ ' '':" -■:■ 
Romans 8:6: 14:17; 15:13 -V '.■' . 
Galatians 5:22 ■ •" 'I'.' 

Philippians 4:7 ' ' .' 

Colossians 3:15 ■ _ '.. 

God's intention 
for persons 

The whole tenor of the biblical message 
is that God desires all persons to enter 
into the enjoyment of peace, in the 
fullest sense of this term. The very 
purpose of the Bible may be described 
by saying that it is to make clear what 
God's intentions are for all human be- 
ings and what he has done to make 
possible their attainment of that state of 
wholeness and felicity implied in the 
word shalom. What God purposes is 
implicit, for example, in all the scrip- 
tural declarations of the goodness of 
God, in Abraham's intercession for 
Sodom (Genesis 18:22-32), in the 
commandments (including "Thou shalt 
not kill"), in the messages of the 
prophets, who called for righteous liv- 
ing as a prerequisite of shalom, in 
Jesus' healing of the sick, in many of 
the parables (for instance, the three 
parables of Luke 15), in the New 
Testament teaching on the kingdom of 
God, in the preaching of the apostles 
concerning salvation through faith in 
Christ, in the prayers for peace found 
at the beginning of many of the New 
Testament epistles. 

The purpose of God in respect to 
peace becomes explicit in such state- 
ments as God's promise to Abraham 
(Genesis 12:3, "... in you all the . 
families of the earth shall be blessed), 
in the emotionally charged exclamation 
in Deuteronomy 5:29, in the assertion 
in 1 Timothy 2:3-4 and in John 3: 16. 

A valid peace witness must take due 
account of this purpose of God. 



Peace witness 

and peacemaking 

A Christian's peace witness will be 
most effective if made not only by the 
spoken or written word but also 
through action for peace. The peace- 
makers whom Jesus commended 
(Matt. 5:9) were not merely those who 
. spoke for peace but who exemplified, 
peace in their manner of life. The two 
components of a peace witness, words 
and action, are complementary and in- 
separable. Our time calls for new and 
bold action in the effort to put an end 
to war, certainly, but also in working to 
bring about a condition of shalom for 
all people. 

The Christian's peace witness in 
both word and action must harmonize 
with the basic concepts of peace found 
in the Bible and with the revealed will 
of God for humanity.' The goal for 
such a witness must be much more pos- 
itive and far-reaching than simply the 
avoidance of participation in military 
action. If one's efforts to counteract an 
overt war situation are to be measur- 
ably effective in the long run, one must 
deal with the basic causes of conflict. 
Ultimately, these are to be found withr 
in persons themselves (James 4:1-2). 

Action for peace will focus on what- 
ever is opposed to humanity's experi- 
encing the personal and corporate 
wholeness which God intends. This 
means involvement with current so- 
cial, economic, political, racial, reli- 
gious, and international problems, with 
the awareness that such problems of 
mankind are symptomatic of broken 
relationships between the person and 
God. The problems have arisen in con- 
sequence of unjust acts and long stand- 
ing conditions of inequity, both in in- 
dividual and in group relationships. 
Because God is also a God of justice, 
without which there cannot be shalom 
in the fullest sense, it is clear that the 
restoration of right relationships with 
God involves also the establishment of 
justice. Much of the peace effort will 



therefore be directed toward bringing 
about reconciliation with God, the 
restoration of a relationship with God 
which is prerequisite to enduring right 
relationships among persons. The . 
Christian as peacemaker is under ob- 
ligation to set forth the conditions on 
which such relationships are possible. 

The Church of the Brethren has op- 
posed war — all war — since its be- 
ginnings in 1708. But the church dare 
not merely rest its stance on an historic 
position. It must ever examine afresh 
the concepts of peace rooted in the 
Bible and from this standpoint live out 
its witness. 

As the New Testament makes clear, 
the peace witness includes the giving of 
a message of reconciliation based on 
what God has done through Christ. 
Furthermore, the peacemaker will ex- 
amine participation in the life of soci- 
ety to discover whether his or her own 
relationships with others favor the 
cause of peace or add to social dishar- 
mony and perpetuate injustice. The 
peacemaker will then search for and 
engage in forms of action for peace in 
harmony with the biblical base of a 
peace witness. 



Other resources 

"Annual Conference Statement of the 
Church of the Brethren on War." The 
Brethren Press, Elgin, Illinois 

Brethren and Pacifism', by Da\e'W. 
Brown, The Brethren Press 

Christian Attitudes Toward War and 
Peace, by Roland H. Bainton, Abing- 
don Press, Nashville, Tennessee 

The Christian and War. published by the 
Historic Peace Churches and the Inter- 
national Fellowship of Reconciliation, 
available from The Brethren Press 

The New Testament Basis of Pacifism, by 
G. H. C. MacGregor, Fellowship Pub- 
lications, Nyack. New York 

Reprints of ■'Biblical Basis oT a Peace \Vitncss" 
can be obtained .fitmi the Brethren Press, 1451 
Dundee Ave.. Elgin. HI. U0120. Up to 50 copies 
are a\ailablc at no cost: above that the cost will 
be two cents apiece. ... 



2-1-72 MESSENGER 19 



Though there can be no 'Christian 




Secular theologians afRrm the world as 
the object of God's love and the locus 
of God's activity. But because of the 
obvious fallenness of the world, they 
are becoming increasingly aware that 
the world cannot be accepted as it is. 
One can celebrate certain aspects of 
the shape and style of the modem sec- 
ular city, but at the same time, he must 
acknowledge its blight and alienation. 
One can celebrate the possibilities of 
cybernetics, but he must also deplore 
the fact that automation is currently 
more the handmaiden of exploitation, 
totalitarianism, and death than a tool 
for man's liberation. Idealists sallied 
forth from suburban churches to par- 
ticipate in God's activity in the world 
only to discover that responsible dis- 
cipleship may mean opposing as well 
as working through the power struc- 
tures of our society. 

This great discrepancy between what 
might be and what is could have led to 
complete existential despair. Instead, 
we are experiencing a great revival of 
hope. Moving beyond the death of 
God theology and its rejection of the 
"God up there." the theologians of 
hope maintain a behef in the tran- 
scendent but point to a God who meets 
us in the historical possibilities we face. 
Far from soothing us with a futuristic 
eschatology of what will be in a 
Utopian by-and-by, they preach a mes- 
sianism that has the kingdom breaking 
into history now, in our own time, as 
an explosive force. It is this radical 
biblical expectation of the death of the 
old and the birth of the new which is 
speaking afresh in a revolutionary con- 
text. The context of a Christian 



The Christian 

Revolutionaryi 



20 MESSENGER 2-1-72 



evolution' a Christian can become a revolutionary. 



■ thought and life may be described as a 
Vworld coming of age, rather than the 
.*■ world coAne of age. The world coming 
of age implies adolescent characteris- 
tics — - awkward changes, an identity 
crisis challenging the old and appropri- 
ating the new, and stormy upheavals in 
the struggle of rival allegiances. The 
slogan of the secular theologians to let 

• the world write the agenda has been 
heeded, and increasingly this agenda is 
being written by the revolutionary 
struggles of people to be free from ex- 
ploitation, militarism, and elemental 

human wants. , , 

* * * . .' -. * 

We as true believers will love the 
world so much that we want it to be- 
:'. come what God intends it to be, the 

- new kingdom and new humanity prom- 
ised in Jesus Christ. This is the the- 

. ology of hope. Living out this hopeful 

- love means beginning now to partici- 
pate in the kingdom God wills for all 
mankind — and here we arrive at the 

\, radical and revolutionary position. 

..*■ * * * 

By "radical" I mean on the one hand 
that which is related to the root, that 

i which is original, fundamental, and in- 
herent. In this sense, instead of negat- 
ing his faith, the Christian radical 
wants to get at the heart of it. . . . 

. (But) the word not only relates to roots 
but can also mean a departure from the 

• usual, a considerable deviation from 
■ the traditional. Radical actions are 

thoroughgoing, extreme, drastic. Radi- 
calism implies a fundamental departure 
from or challenge to the status quo. It 
is revolutionary. These two definitions 
. may seem contradictory. How can a 



return to the roots of a tradition be 
consistent with a fundamental de- 
parture from that tradition? The an- 
swer, of course, is that a tradition can 
deviate from its roots. Thus returning 
to the source of the faith may entail 
challenging the church and society of 
the present. A recovery of revelation 
may be revolutionary. 

* * * -' . ■ 

A great many biblical and theologi- 
cal themes are revolutionary. The 
prophetic motif of promise and fulfill- 
ment has affinities with the original 
meaning of revolution in that what is 
often anticipated is a return to the 
promised land. Their motif of death 
and resurrection, however, connotes 
the coming of something completely 
new. Revolutionary change is implied 
in the doctrines of the new birth, the 
new creation, and a new heaven and 
earth. . . . When the biblical promises 
come alive for us to the extent that we 
really believe and act as if they will be 

fulfilled, then there will be a revolution. 
. .' * * * 

At its best the church through his- 
tory has fulfilled (two) roles. It has 
preserved basic values from the past, 
and at the same time its message and 
life have served as a catalyst to spawn 
revolutionary challenges to the status 
quo. When anarchy has threatened, 
there have been movements in the 
church to provide meaning and order 
to men's lives. On the other hand, 
when society has been set in its ways. 
Christian voices have arisen to chal- 
lenge the accepted presuppositions of 
the culture. . . . The church must fight 
rearguard action against the. destruc- 



tion of its roots .at the same time it con- 
tinues to send forth avant-garde troops 
engaged in innovative and revolution- 
ary enterprises. 

Because of this revelational-revolu- 
tionary dialectic, radical theology is not 
satisfied with either a conservative or a 
liberal tag. . . . The radical can identify 
with the conservative's desire to pre- 
serve the faith. But he cannot agree to 
some who so emphasize the personal 
Savior as to mitigate his being Lord 
over all of life. Neither can the radical 
agree with those who equate Chris- 
tianity with American foreign policy or 
the American way of life. 

:{: ^ :J; 

Vietnam and the urban ghettos have 
demonstrated that the fundamental ills 
of our society are not minor maladjust- 
ments to be remedied through a mild 
and quiet tinkering with the system. ■ 
Rather, the controlling institutional 
structures of society themselves repre- 
sent a threat to the well-being of all 
mankind, . . . The revolutionary con- 
sciousness which has emerged is a radi- 
cal apprehension of how minimally 
Christian the present social order is 
and how desperately it needs to be 
changed. 

For the Christian, human revolu- .' . 
tionary schemes and ideologies will not 
be absolutized but will always be sub- 
ject to the judgment of the coming of 
the kingdom. The Christian should 
not put on every faddish revolutionary 
style that comes along. At the same 
time he should not be merely a spec- 
tator watching from the street. Be- ', 
cause he believes in the reality of the 
comins kinedom of God, he is free to 



b^ DDaillcB \Wo EBrpciDwm 



2- 1-72 MESSENGER 21 



participate in, indeed abandon himself 
to, the signs of its arrival. And because 
he refuses to absolutize any human 
ideologies, he is ready to appropriate 
the judgment of God on himself as well 

as on the oppressors. . ; . ,■ 

* * * ... ■• : , '■ • '■ , -. 

There is growing consensus that 
Christendom today may be facing a 
crisis in some ways similar to the situa- 
tion at the time of the Reformation. 
The institutional crisis of Christendom 
in the sixteenth century is seen most 
vividly in the phenomenon known as 
the Left-Wing or Radical Reformation. 
Including such diverse groups as the 
Anabaptists, the Spiritualists, the Anti- 
Trinitarians, and the militant Revolu- 
tionaries, the Radical Reformers all re- 
.pudiated the millennium of cultural 
synthesis known as Corpus Chris- 
tianum, in which the church and hii- 
man society coincided numerically. 
The empire was regarded as holy; the 
church was the empire at prayer. . . . 
(The ) Establishment of the sixteenth 
centur\', including the main-line Re- 
formers, their princes, and the Roman 
Catholics, could not conceive of soci- 
ety's holding together apart from the 
cement of a unifying faith. The possi- 
bility of religious pluralism posed the 
threat of anarchy. The Anabaptists 
were regarded in the same light as 
many Americans view radicals today. 
. . . Believers' baptism in the sixteenth 
centur\', then, represented more than a 
difference in biblical interpretation; it 
indicated a radical rejection of the 
Corpus Christianum and an entirely 
new view of the church. Being bap- 
tized into one of the new brotherhoods 
was in reality more dangerous, sub- 
versive, and revolutionar}' than burning 
a draft card in the twentieth-century 
America. 

* * * ■■.■', . ■ . .':. ■ 

If one no longer accepts the equa- 
tion of Christianity with society, then 
one begins to think in terms of two 
entities, church and world, the pilgrim 
people and Babel. If the church is to 
be separate from the state, then the 
magistrate can no longer dictate what 
the conscience must accept. If one 
does not automatically become a mem- 
ber of the community of faith at birth, 



a missionary psychology is inevitable. 
In fact, one's own children must be 
wooed through persuasion and preach- 
ing. This repudiation of the Corpus 
Christianum and the corresponding 
affirmation of the Corpus Christi chan- 
neled into the stream of Christian his- 
tory disciplined new brotherhoods 
formed by the gathering of confessing 

believers. 

* * * 

Today, with the great interest in 
community life-styles, corporate cele- 
bration, group dynamics, and under- 
ground churches, there may emerge 
a growing interest in the New Testa- 
ment church. And as we find apos- 
tolicity in the faith and style of the 
early community, so we will sense that 
our historical continuity with the early 
church is through those known and un- 
known, visible, prophetic, sectarian, 
allegedly heretical, underground, and 
gathered communities of the faithful 
through the centuries. 

Today there is a new hunger for the 
style of discipline that accompanies 
genuine commitment or discipleship. 
Heeding the wave of criticisms of ac- 
culturated Christianity, many congre- 
gations are struggling with ways to 
make church membership more mean- 
ingful. . . . Honest confrontation, talk- 
ing through to a consensus, voluntary 
acceptance of such consensus, and an 
opportunity to participate in the con- 
tinuing consensus-making process may. 
increasingly become the style of witness 
and life together. 

Contrary to the frequent assumption 
that discipline and mission are anti- 
thetical, they belong together. Dis- 
cipline implies learning; it is training 
that corrects, molds, strengthens, or 
perfects. Mission points to a purpose 
and a goal. As discipline becomes 
legalistic when separated from its 
vision, so mission lacks dynamic when 
it lacks any concretion or shape in the 
life and witness of the community. 
Historically, from the Irish monks to 

Dale W. Brown i.': professor of Chrisiian - 
theology al Bethany Theological Seminary. 
Oak Brook. III., and current inodcralor of 
the Church of the Brethren. His article is a 
compilation of excerpts from "The Christian 
Revolutionary." published hy William B. 
Eerdmans and used by permission. 



the class meetings of Wesley, it has 
been the disciplined cadres that have 
had a powerful impact on culture. . . . 
The .first Anabaptists and Quakers, for 
example, were vigorous in their con- 
frontation of society. 

Because of the built-in tension in an 
eschatological view between the "now" 
and the "not yet," the Anabaptists 
identified with a particular cluster of 
New Testament terms used to describe 
the people of :God — namely, "pil- 
grims," "sojourners," "strangers," and 
"aliens." Since society is fallen or sick, 
the Christian cannot feel at home. 
Therefore he espouses a citizenship in 
the kingdom which is not yet of this 
world but which should begin to break 
into the world. The posture of the pil- 
grim is not so much of one who is run- 
ning away from the world as of one 
who has a transcendent vision of what 
the world might become. The meta- 
phprs of strangers and aliens point to 
the inevitable suffering of the pilgrim 
people. 

Another important image appropri- 
ated from the Bible to describe the 
eschatalogical community has been 
that of firstfruits or earnest. The mem- 
bers of the community are the first- 
fruits pointing to the coming harvest. 
The comitiunity is the down payment 
guaranteeing that the rest of creation 
will be purchased. The sharp church- 
world dualism objectionable in some 
Anabaptist forms becomes more pal- 
atable in an eschatological perspective 
viewing the church as part of the world 
where small beginnings are made to 
make visible what God intends for all 
humanity. ' 

All the biblical metaphors imply a 
gathered community in the world but 
not of it. Today, as then, there can be 
no genuine revolutionary consciousness 
or activity apart from a base in a 
prophetic community of hope. The 
biblical images also point to the non- 
conformist, unpopular, minority nature 
of radical Christian communities. Be- 
cause of the necessity of suffering, of 
nonconformity, of a lovine life-style, it 
may be that only a few will find their 
wav to revolutionary Christian 
communities. D . 



22 MESSENGER 2 1-72 



Reflections on the Death of a Friend 



Raul Taslguano was killed in Llano 
Grande, Ecuador, and I helped kill 
him. No. the law won't prosecute me. 
1 didn't hold the club that felled him, 
nor steer the bus that deliberately 
crushed him. Yet my convictions, the 
causes in which I have invested the last 
fifteen years of my life, my total being, 
killed him as surely as if I had wielded 
the club or driven the bus. 

Our anthropologist friends warned 
John and me years ago: "You mission- 
aries initiate cultural changes in abso- 
lute ignorance. Because of your lack 
of knowledge, you cannot anticipate ' 
the destructive consequences of what 
you do." We took note of their warn- 

. ing about confusing the gospel with 
distinctive ways of living. We were 
careful to respect courtship and family 
patterns. We encouraged the Quechua 
people of Llano Grande to maintain 
their language, to appreciate their own 
colorful native dress, and to preserve 
their reverent attachment to the soul. 
Still we did initiate changes. We 

• provided medical care and health edu- 
cation. An agricultural extension pro- 
gram evolved to improve the produc- 
tivity of the soil. We started a primary 




school and provided scholarships for 
primary school graduates. There are 
now local industries that the mission 
helped to develop. And we shared our 
faith: the faith that God creates and 
loves all men, that all persons have 
rights and dignity and worth, that God 
intends for his creatures to invest their 
lives in justice, in self-giving, and in 
service to one another. 

Raul was an outstanding example of 
all those residents of Llano Grande 
whom we loved. He was the living 
fruit of all that we lived and worked for 
and hoped to accomplish. And he was 
more, for he was young and attractive 
and joyous and strong of spirit. He 
was a member of the first Christian 
family in Llano Grande. I use the 
word Christian advisedly, for although 
the Roman Catholic church baptized 
every Ecuadorian and claimed him as a 
member, before the coming of Protes- 
tant missionaries, the community of 
Llano Grande was alternately ignored 
or exploited by the church. Much has 
changed since that time. 

Raul attended and graduated from 
the mission primary school. He re- 
ceived a scholarship for secondary 
studies and worked during his vaca- 
tions to help pay his own expenses. He 
graduated as an agronomist and sought 
out the opportunity to serve his people 
as an agricultural extension agent. 

After attending a seminar on non- 
violence in 1 969. he and his brother, 
along with other Christian young peo- 
ple of the Indian community became 
convinced that nonviolent protest was 
the means of effecting the changes nec- 
essary to unburden their community of 
oppression and exploitation. Their 
first project was to obtain adequate bus 
service for the community. 

In 1970, they undertook and effec- 
tively carried out a nonviolent revolu- 
tion to achieve this goal. They did it 
by struggling for legal permission, and 
by providing community resources to 
estab'ish and operate their own bus 
service. Raul was only one of a group 
of leaders who moved this project. But 
it was he who infused them with cour- 
age and optimism during two long 
months of discouragement and despair. 
He became the symbol of their hope 



and faith in a better future. He was 
only twenty-four years old. Now he is 
dead. 

Last March 28. as he was walking 
home at night from a community work 
project of repairing the roads, several 
men clubbed him unconscious, then 
deliberately drove a waiting bus twice 
over his body. He was killed because 
his vitality and spiritual strength were 
a threat to the power, the purse, and 
the self-image of persons who couldn't 
• bear the thought that an "Indio" con- 
sidered himself as good as they. Those 
who killed him are confident that they 
can intimidate the witnesses and pay 
off the judge to call his death a "traffic 
accident." It is a strong possibility 
that they will succeed in doing so. • . 

I am involved in his death in more 
ways than one. I share with Raul 
TasiguaiKJ the faith which led him to 
his death. I believe with him that jus- 
tice and opportunity should exist for all 
men, that life means self-giving service 
to others, that to be an Indian in Ecua- 
dor should be a source of pride and 
strength rather than shame and suffer- 
ing. 

On the other hand, I enjoy the priv- 
ileges that are mine by birth, by cultur- 
al accident and economic circum- 
stance. The fact that I have accepted 
these privileges suggests that I pursue 
the same values and privileges as 
Raul's killers. - 

So I am torn. I live with pain and 
sorrow, anger and guilt. I live comfort- 
ably and securely while others die be- 
cause they share my faith in justice and 
equality. Still I believe in all in which 
Raul invested his life hoping to create. 
I would again risk initiating cultural 
change that gives birth to hope in the 
heart of a people. For I believe that 
God did not intend the kind of a world 
in which peoples oppress one another. 
I accept the pain and anger, yes, even 
the guilt, until there is formed a better 
. world. 

Yet the hard question remains: 
What am I personally willing to risk for 
what I believe. D 



Eslella Horniiif; has worked with the Church 
of the Brethren mission in Ecuador since 
1956. She and her family, currently on 
furlough, reside in Lombard, 111. .,".,■ 

• . ■. . 2-1 72 MESSENGER 23 



Consciousness 111 

Revisited %(En(BmnanBoIBtD®I]n®D? 



WITHOUT MARX OR JESUS: THE NEW 

AMERICAN REVOLUTION HAS BEGUN, by 

Jean-Francois Revel, with afterword by Mary 
McCarthy. Doubleday, 1971. 269 pages, $6.95 

Revel begins Without Marx or Jesus 
with the bold assertion that "the revo- 
lution of the twentieth century will take 
place in the United States. It is only 
there that it can happen. And it has 
already begun. Whether or not that 
revolution spreads to the rest of the 
world depends on whether or not it 
succeeds first in America." His theses 
about American society — the plat- 
form from which is launched a zeal- 
ous denunciation of the author's native 
France — are at least as risky as this 
introduction, and equally blunt. The 
book is only for those willing to expose 
to the heat of external criticism their 
mythologies about the American ex- 
perience, for in the act of demolishing 
European stereotypes of American 
society, he also undermines many 
American self-perceptions. 

The author speaks to many different 
persons. If you are assured in your 
notion that America's social realities 
are already consistent with its ideals, 
then Revel is speaking to you. His con- 
tention is that though you are sadly 
mistaken about those realities. Amer- 
ica's ideals are not only alive and well, 
but they are also apparent in present, 
dramatic social changes, thanks to stu- 
dents, blacks, women. Indians, and 
alienated middle Americans. One 
could say that with regard to his views 
of minority consciousness. Revel has 
"out-Reiched" Charles Reich's dis- 
cussion of Consciousness III in The 
Greening of A merica. 

If, on the other hand, you have al- 
ready given up on America's possibil- 
ities for social justice, then Revel ad- 
dresses you, too. While explaining in 
terse and often amusing fashion why 
the "revolution" hasn't happened (and 
won't) in the communist nations. 
Western Europe, the Third World, and 
certainly not in sterile France ("with or 



without DeGaulle ) , he also reveals his 
dogmatically held conviction that 
America holds the key to the future of 
the world. (Actually, one wonders 
how he can bear to remain a French 
citizen! ) Perhaps a bit exaggerated, 
yes, but true it is that Revel is em- 
barrassingly optimistic about what 
America is becoming. In fact, he ob- 
serves events like public exposure of 
the My Lai massacre, concludes that 
"all of America's problems are on pub- 
lic view on the television screen," and 
finds revealed therein the potential for 
a just society, the criteria of which for 
Revel are economic democracy and 
socialism. Even American moderates, 
it seems, would find this logic some- 
what farfetched! 

Finally, if you find yourself the 
grand recipient of middle-class status 
(and love it), then don't read Revel 
unless you are prepared to face the un- 
settling and "radical" redirections 
through which the author sees America 
properly and legitimately moving. For 
he is delivering the death knell for that 
American process which has given 
birth to and mothered the class identi- 
ty, and its material symbols, which you 
hold so dear. 

Revel contends, in his major argu- 
ment, that critiques of social injustices, 
management, political power, culture, 
and civil ization-as-sanction are neces- 
sary preconditions for the revolution. 
(Actually, what he speaks of is nothing 
more than social evolution via the lib- 
eral democratic channels.) And by 
revolution he means a "total social 
fact," in other words, a situation in 
which in "every cultural area of a soci- 
ety, old values are in the process of 
being rejected, and new values have 
been prepared, or are being prepared, 
to replace them." Because all these 
factors are present in the American 
situation, and nowhere else, we there- 
fore are the harbingers of the "second 
world revolution." Since revolution is 
both total and permanent, that is, a 



process whereby concerted and perma- 
nent transformations which mark the 
passage from one civilization to anoth- 
er are established. Revel can assert 
that the first and only other "world 
revolution in modern history" (a pre- 
condition for the second) occiured in 
the political transformations that arose 
between 1750 and 1800 in England, 
France, and America. In essence, the 
prelude to Revel's second revolution 
was made visible in the .wrestUng of 
culture from the grip of ecclesiastical 
and political control. 

His views on violence, though inter- 
esting, are not particularly helpful. 
American society is, in fact, for him in 
an evolutionary, not revolutionary, sit- 
uation. According to the author, power 
is changing hands. But not to the cred- 
it of urban guerillas, moral and politi- 
cal purists who refuse to engage in 
compromise with the "system," or oth- 
ers whose use of violence is an end, 
in and of itself. Rather, Revel's posi- 
tion is that violence, in essence, is mor- 
ally neutral. Its validity can be judged 
only via effects. All this is at least in 
need of challenge. But then the 
Frenchman, whose views are clearly 
limited by his foreign perspective, ar- 
gues that only when violence is married 
to the legal resources offered by the 
American political system — only 
when violence is practiced via consti- 
tutional rights — does it produce legit- 
imate results. That is what the counter 
culturists — the Consciousness Ills — 
are about, according to him. It would 
seem that such a marriage is destined 
for the divorce courts of the estab- 
lished society! 

Without Marx or Jesus is a book 
that demands an attentive audience. It 
should be read by all. Despite his op- 
timism about what is taking place with 
us in America. Revel is a clear correc- 
tive for those down-in-the-mouth cyn- 
ics whose views of utter depravity, 
about the American and his society, 
have become the "gospel." Much 



24 MESSENGER 21 




If you are either assured that America's social 
realities are consistent with its ideals 
or have given up on America's possibilities 
for social justice, then Revel is speaking to you 



about our society is not revealed to him 
in France, and we ought to be cautious 
about instant interpretations of the 
present. But on the other hand, he 
captures well the potential inherent in 
American ideals as articulated in the 
historic liberal tradition. And he sets 
forth the process, from potentiality to 
actuality, which he sees occurring. 
That explication is exciting and worthy 
of consideration. 

That the "revolution" in this country 
is indebted to neither Marx nor Jesus 
is highly dubious. Revel discredits 
these prophets by exposing the errors 
of unthinking leftists and Jesus freaks. 
But that simple identification is not 
legitimate, obviously. Rather, it seems 
that impulses arising from the "ide- 
ologies" which both men represent are 
in many respects the reasons for the 
"revolution." For many who gain 
meaning from their identification with 
the counterculture, both the Marxian 
analysis of society and the Christian 
vision of the "new humanity" have 
come together and produced a total 
life-style and worldview which require 
participation in the social changes 
which Revel identifies as marks of the 
revolution. Indeed, the New American 
Revolution may well arise from the . 
ideas of both Marx and Jesus. 

For those who stand, by decision or 
default, within the tradition of the 
Church of the Brethren, this book is 
important. This book may help us 
raise some long-overdue questions. To 
what extent have we not yet earned the 
right to the tradition in which we claim 
we stand? And what does that Ana- 
baptist tradition mean for an American 
Christian today? Revel may, in fact, . 
give us some indication as to the 
agenda for present-day Anabaptists 
whose struggle is with taking seriously 
the impossibilities as well as the possi- 
bilities of American society. D 

Glenn R. Bucher is assistant professor in the 
department of religion at the College of 
Woosler in Ohio. 



2-1-72 MESSENGER 25 



J [ sat with Dr. Albert van den Heuvel 

on the terrace of a St. Petersburg, Fla., 
hotel during a break in a conference of 
broadcast communicators, which he 
had addressed. A clergyman of the 
Netherlands Reformed Church and a 
former youth director of the World 
Council of Churches, he was then and 
is now the director of communication 
■ of the World Council. 

Only four months earlier, in Sep- 
tember 1970, the WCC had announced 
grants of $200,000 to 19 organizations 
fighting racism, including some organi- 
zations that have used violence. The 
grants came from the special fund of 
the new Program to Combat Racism 
that the councU had inaugurated in re- 
sponse to sentiment at the 1968 WCC 
world assembly at Uppsala, Sweden. 

Despite affirmations that the grants 
were made to the organizations only 
for educational, medical, and relief 
work — not to buy guns — the grants 
promptly were the subject of much 
controversy. 

I asked my own questions of Dr. 
van den Heuvel over our refreshments 
and one of his remarks has lingered 
since. He expressed some amazement 
. over the attention the grants had re- 
ceived, and then noted, in this context, 
if not words: The grants and racism 
program are a logical outgrowth of the 
historical mission and concern of the 
World Council of Churches. Why the 
surprise over their thrust? 

It is. perhaps like saying to the Breth- 
ren: The Church of the Brethern has 
from its beginning ministered to all 
men. regardless of skin color, as part 
of its historical beliefs. The Fund for 
' the Americas in the U.S. is only a logi- 
cal instrument for extending and ex- 
pressing that historic position. 

Dr. M. M. Thomas, WCC Central 



Committee chairman, said it well: 
"The WCC policy on racism has been 
clarified from Evanston '54 to Canter- 
bury '69, and there is explicit in it the 
council's unanimous theological com- 
mitment to support a politics of trans- 
formation of existing power-structure 
and ideologies in situations of racial 
domination." 

In essence, the grants indicated that 
the WCC was moving beyond its tradi- 
tional support of white liberal groups 
in southern Africa and elsewhere, 
which had not been successful in bring- 
ing change, and had identified with the 
black victims of racism. A second 
series of grants were given last Septem- 
ber, including U.S. recipients. 

Yet despite some initial reactions, 
the world's conclusion was one of af- 
firmation and applause for the grants. 
The most controversy was raised in 
South Africa, where its own kind of 
racism, called apartheid, is practiced 
by the white minority government. 
. The issue of the grants was reopened 
last fall in The Reader's Digest in two 
articles by Clarence Hall on the racism 
program and the World Council itself. 
Both did severe violence to the craft of 
journalism, while the first inferred the 
churches were financing revolution. 

"What is regrettable is not the Di- 
gest's disagreement with the action," 
said Dr. Eugene L. Smith at the WCC 
New York office, "but that its disagree- 
ment is expressed with unsubstantiated 
charges, misstatements of fact, dis- 
torted reporting, quotation of state- 
ments out of context, and the degree of 
dependence for opinion upon unnamed 
persons, identified only as tourists, disr 
senters, insiders, spokesmen, observers. 
The total effect of these articles is to 
present a false picture of the World 
Council of Churches." . 



The articles have served to enlighten 
concerned . persons not about the 
plight of peoples in southern Africa, 
nor of the real work of the World 
Council, nor of the true nature of white 
racism, but rather to cloud these issues 
behind incomplete writing. 

Answering the initial story's head- 
line, "Must Our Churches Finance 
Revolution?," Dr. Smith pointed out: 
"No funding has ever been given to 
finance revolution." 

Instead, the funds have gone either 
for refugees or for people living in ter- 
ritory under control of liberationist 
groups, says Dr. Smith. One of them is 
the Institute of Frelimo, the education- 
al and social welfare arm of the 
Mozambique liberationist group, which 
used a $35,000 grant to develop agri- 
cultural cooperatives and cottage in- 
dustries, improve teaching and school 
facilities, establish medical centers, and 
give food, clothing, and housing to 
refugees, widows, and orphans. 

The same amount, for example, has 
gone to four groups in Rhodesia for 
family assistance where the breadwin- 
ner is imprisoned or dead, and for sup- 
port of information services and re- 
search on apartheid subsidized stu- 
dents, and legal aid for prisoners. 

Much of the special fund has come 
from outside the United States. The 
major American contribution was from 
the United Methodist Church. The 
Church of the Brethren General Board 
has not contributed to the special fund. 
General Secretary S. Loren Bowman 
said. But he asked too whether the 
racially proscribed, even those forced 
into violence through oppression, are 
not our concern. Indeed, he gave 
the historical precedent for Brethren to 
van den Heuvel's quandary: 

"The Brethren have understood the 



Ib^nRciMifflindl lEo DScBomcErp 



Liberation 



The World Council, 

the Reader's Digest, 
and the Brethren 



26 MESSENGER 2 1-72 



Gospel to require genuine concern for 
tiie oppressed, the disenfranchised, and 
the victims of injustice. They have 
shared without regard to race, creed, or 
politics. They have given out of love 
for Christ and others, rather than out 
of a desire to control the lives of the 
recipients." 

Damage, jjerhaps irreparable, has 
been done to the World Council and 
its programs by The Reader's Digest 
articles, which demonstrably are lack- 
ing in balance, perspective, and ac- 
curacy. Brethren wishing to analyze 
the stories, with paragraph by para- 
graph response by the World Council, 
can obtain the comparisons by writing 
Dr. S. Loren Bowman, Church of the 
Brethren General Board, Elgin, 111. 
60120. 

One ecumenist, L. Maynard Catch- 
ings of the National Council of Church- 
es, some months later saw the World 
Council grants as finally following 
words with actions, and as a result, he 
observed that black African churchmen 
have moved from a relationship of ten- 
sion and doubt about WCC intentions 
to one of trust. 

The anti-racist statements of the 
World Council for the past 15 years 
were a cause of black African appre- 
hension as long as they were unsup- 
ported by any action, he said. Black 
Africans see the grant action as con- 
firming the moral and legitimate cause 
of black people in the world who are 
discriminated against on race. More- 
over, said the associate general secre- 
tary for communications, a black man 
himself, the black anti-apartheid 
groups feel that the WCC action has 
raised their struggle to a dignity it was 
not given before. 

Most African observers do not think 
that the WCC has any direct ability to 
influence immediate policies in south- 
ern Africa by its racism grants, but its 
action declares that the "authority of 
morality" finds racism immoral, Mr. 
Catchings believes. Consequently, 
they feel that men who still have re- 
spect for the working of God in the 
affairs of men will be forced to think 
twice about supporting racism. 

"Most Africans I talked to believe 
that ultimately, the desired change in 
apartheid policies will be influenced 
both by the action of liberating forces 



and by the crystallizmg of world opin- 
ion against racism regimes," Mr. 
Catchings said. 

The initial public outcry came over 
what some feared was the financing of 
terrorists and guerrillas, despite assur- 
ances — from recipients as well — 
that the council's grants went only for 
the nonviolent parts of the organiza- 
tion's work, and only to those groups 
whose goals were consonant with the 
objectives of the World Council. 

Though grants went to organizations 
in Japan, Australia, and Colombia, dis- 
cussion has centered on the funds given 
to such groups as the Mozambique 
Liberation Front and the African Na- 
tional Congress that are working to 
overthrow the white minority govern- 
ments in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, 
Angola, Rhodesia, Southwest Africa, 
and South Africa. 

Still, the matter of the grants aside, 
the matter of racism aside, the debate 
sparked a dialogue on the issues of vio- 
lence and liberation. And it is a con- 
cern, a definition, to which Brethren are 
finding a need to address themselves. 

In setting up its Program to Combat 
Racism, the WCC's Central Commit- 
tee, meeting at Canterbury, England, 
in August 1969, refused to endorse a 
recommendation of the Consultation 
on Racism held the previous spring — 
"that all else failing, the church and 
churches support resistance move- 
ments, including revolutions, which 
are aimed at the elimination of political 
or economic tyranny which makes rac- 
ism possible." (Emphasis supplied.) 

Indeed the consultation was speak- 
ing to the World Council, not for it, 
an error of interpretation not avoided 
by Mr. Hall in other quotations in his 
article. The council has not been able 
to develop a common mind on "wheth- 
er war or violence can be justified as a 
last resort to resist oppressive tyranny 
and violence in evil situations where all 
nonviolent methods of change are 
illegal, unconstitutional or otherwise 
suppressed," Dr. M. M. Thomas has 
observed. 

The Central Committee declined to 
support either reparations or revolution 
endorsed by the consultation. So while 
the grants for legal, social, educational, 
and medical work may not go as far as 
the consultation recommended, neither 



do they go as far as some people think 
the churches should go. 

In the far-ranging debates over the 
need for social change, particularly in 
the Third World, a significant number 
of Christian leaders, many from the 
Third World, have advocated support 
of violent revolution as a means to 
"liberation." Such ideas are, of course, " 
rejected by many other Christians and 
are totally anathema to conservative 
forces, particularly in the white domi- 
nated countries of southern Africa. . " 

V/hile The Reader's Digest title im- 
plied a negative answer. Dr. van den 
Heuvel believes that the real question 
is, "When the poor and the powerless 
ask for revolutionary changes in soci- 
ety, what should churches do?" 

Attempting to work at this question, 
and to examine the different ways of 
working for social change and the 
transfer of power, the World Council 
has asked its department on church 
and society to study the ethical dilem- 
mas posed by violence and nonviolence 
in the struggles for justice and peace, 
and strategies of action which will min- 
imize the sum total of violence in con- 
flict situations. 

It is fair to say that Brethren are also 
feeling the need to examine the nature 
and meaning of violence and nonvio- 
lence in the denomination's historic ..■ 
stands and are asking how they relate 
to this day's needs. Consideration of 
joining Project Equality, Inc., raised 
the question of economic violence in 
boycotts — a more recent example. 
Some professional staff are suggesting 
a denominational consultation to ex- 
amine the church's posture on the issue 
of violence. .' 

In Elgin, III., in November, the 
World Ministries Commission spent a 
number of hours exploring the issue of 
liberation movements and the church, 
attempting to work through their own 
understandings. Commission executive 
Joel K. Thompson shared these obser- 
vations afterwards: 

i^ It was feh that WMC program ' 
should continue to identify with those 
persons who are a part of oppressed 
communities and who are seeking 
justice. 

1/^ WMC staff should develop a strat- 
egy of helping American churchmen ;.: 
understand the extent to which the 



2-1- 



MESSENGER 27 



The 
Fund 

for the 
Americas 

in the 
United 
States 



^ttm\r'. 



Education. In a series of race sensi- 
tivity workshops, FAUS assists 
churches and districts to come to 
grips with institutional and individual 
racism — ■ to help Brethren understand 
how we too are "an America" in 
need of reconciliation. 

Action. In its first two years FAUS 
has helped to fund 38 projects directed 
toward community organization and 
economic development for the benefit 
of disadvantaged minorities. Grants 
ranging between $200 and $7,500 
have provided services in housing, 
voter registration, medical aid, credit 
union, child care, job training, public 
safety, and others. 

Urgent. Many Brethren see FAUS 
as an extension of Brethren Service, 
bridging the gaps that separate our 
society. It is a way to respond to the 
Lord's observation that "Anything 
you did for one of my brothers here, 
however humble, you did for me." 
FAUS is not funded by the Brother- 
hood Fund. Therefore your gift 
designated for the Fund for the 
Americas is urgently needed. Please 
send your check today while there is 
yet a chance to pull together our 
fractured society. Mail it to: Fund for 
the Americas in the United States, 
Church of the Brethren General 
Board, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, 
Illinois 60120. 




...a chance 

to change. 



American community is involved in al- 
lowing continued oppression of many 
persons in our world. 

t^ WMC staflE should continue to 
promote, via seminars and institutes, a 
nonviolent strategy for change. 

t^ Continued high priority be given 
to the goal of a multiracial, worldwide 
ecumenical church fellowship and pro- 
gram of partnership among those who 
make up that fellowship. Inde- 
pendence and freedom need not sever 
the bonds that bind the worldwide 
church of Christ together. 

i^ Staff should evaluate cuirent style 
of mission operation and look for pos- 
sible new models for sharing commis- 
sion resources in significant ministries 
that will bring more freedom and jus- 
tice to all persons. 

Mr. Thompson observed that the 
term liberator, sometimes written as re- 
deemer, is one of the most frequent 
names used in the Bible to describe 
God or his activity. 

"The prophets are not reluctant to 
announce divine judgment on those 
who oppress the unprotected. The 
Psalms express confidence in the fact 
there is no other liberator but the 
Lord." Mr. Thompson said. 

Liberation. How does such a tenet 
fit into the mold of a pacifist church — 
even if an option of the last resort? 
How does it fit into a world that, if not 
pacifist, is not revolutionary? Churches 
study the issue while the disinherited 
wait. Only they know for how long. 



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"PROVE AU THINGS" 

D. L. Blickenstaff asked some questions 
in his letter to Messenger (Nov. 15) which 
should be answered. And his deacon should 
be given some facts which the October 
Reader's Digest article did not give, and 
some facts contradictory to what it did give. 

I have suggested to Digesr editors that in 
fairness to their readers and to the World 
Council of Churches they should publish a 
reply by a representative of the WCC. They 
replied to me personally that they had had 
serious protests from the WCC to the ar- 
ticle. But they did not promise to print a 
reply. . . . 

Bro. Blickenstaff may be assured that the 
WCC is not giving money to assist anyone 
to kill "the underprivileged" or the "under- 
dog." It is rather the opposite. They give 
money to help educate and assist the un- 
derprivileged, and help the "underdog" 
get justice. 

I have learned long ago that it is danger- 
ous to believe everything one reads in print. 
St. Paul gives us good advice in 1 Thess. 5; 
21 when he writes. "Prove all things. ..." 
This we need to do. And this we need to 
teach our congregations — even our dea- 
cons. . . . 

Floyd M. Irvin 
Eustice, Fla. 

READER'S DIGEST, ROUND 2 

I have read with deep sorrow the articles 
in The Readers Digest in regard to the 
World Council of Churches, with reference 
also to the National Council of Churches. 

During the last twenty-two years my work 
in rural development both in the USA and 
abroad required me to travel widely. In Af- 
rica T observed closely some of the situa- 
tions named in the article. I have often 
been invited to evaluate WCC projects 
which I did gladly and reported to them. 

Even though I was never a staff mem- 
ber of either council. I have tried to be a 
friendly and constructive critic. 

I find in the articles so much that is un- 
true and inaccurate that I feel compelled to 
speak on the matter. 

Reference is made to the grant of 
S200,0Q0 to certain minority groups striv- 
ing against oppression. It would have been 
helpful if the true purpose of the grant 
had been stated and how well nearly all is 
being used. 

It is regrettable that any good movement 
may have some extremists. Our Lord him- 
self had this trouble. But we err if we judge 
a movement by the extremists. It would . 
appear that those who researched the article , 
did so not much for the true evaluation as 
for making a case against the councils. 

One regrets deeply that this blow comes 
at a time when both of the councils are 



straining every resource and effort to al- 
leviate suffering in Bengal, the Middle East 
and among the Vietnamese refugees and 
the American-Vietnamese children as we 
have seen them roving the streets of Saigon 
and trying to survive from the scraps of 
garbage heaps. 

The Reader's Digest has great power. 
One only hopes that it will be used con- 
structively and accurately at this time when 
all agencies of compassion and faith need 
others' help so profoundly. 

I. W. MOOMAW ■ 

Sebring, Fla. ■'■.;.;.<■; ■ , • ' ■ 

NOT WE OURSELVES 

I am somewhat out of touch with Breth- 
ren Revival Fellowship (Nov. 15) but am in 
complete sympathy with anyone who de- 
sires a deep and meaningful "revival of the 
Spirit" within our church or any other. 
My biggest concern was not with their desire 
for a revival within our church, but rather 
on whom the emphasis was placed con- 
cerning where the change would come from. 

The article quoted Mr. Luke Bucher as 
stating, "We think of the missionary as the 
responsible soul winner in the church." I 
certainly hope that this so-called "revival 
movement" within our church does not for- 
get "Who" it is that brings about the "re- 
vival" or "reconciliation" between God and 
man. This is not man himself but rather 
the power of the Holy Spirit working 
through man. We are most definitely on the 
verge of an "awakening" in this world of 
ours, but it is not of man but of the Spirit. 
H we rely upon man to bring about this 
change, then we will continue to be lost. 

Let's admit for once that the Holy Spirit 
is at work in the world today and that "so- 
cial gospel" will become effective only after 
Than is willing to quit trying to take the 
world on singlehandedly and let the Spirit 
work miracles through him. It is God, not 
we ourselves, who works the miracles. 

Richard L. Deemy . 
BrooHyn, Iowa 

BOUNDLESS APPRECIATION 

These ancient words have come down to 

us through the ages: "Then I saw another 

angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal 

gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on 

' earth ..." (Rev. 14:6). 

May I say I think they describe a mod- 
ern man with unusually beautiful sensitivity 
— Kenneth I. Morse. I sincerely hope many 
readers will express the boundless apprecia- 
.tion all must feel for an editor who has 
brought to his work so many glowing dimen- 
sionis. 

Marie Brunton 
Portland, Ore. 



WHAT CAN YOU DO 




WITH 5 MINUTES A DAY? 

You can sleep. '' ■ ' ' ;, ^ : '• ■' 

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purpose for life. You can set the tone for the whole day by 
pausing long enough to establish your spiritual bearings. 

In the privacy of your home" — early in the morning, late at 
night, or at meal time with your family — you can use just 
five minutes to make sure that your spiritual being is 
nourished. 

For more than 35 years a simple plan has been helping 
people to establish their relationship with God. You can do 
it too. 

The Upper Room daily devotional guide suggests a helpful 
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2-1-72 MESSENGER 29 



Human Violence Can 
Be Abolished 



Dd^ EFiPcEdlcBiPncE WferpttDnaiiim 



"Violence is nature's plan." 

"The human being is essentially an 
animal and needs an outlet for vio- 
lence. ' 

How often have we heard — - and do 
we hear — such assertions? And how 
often can we read, in academically re- 
spectable books and journals, endless 
references to a "primordial instinct for 
violence," to man's "murderous tribal 
instincts," and to an "irreducible fund 
of aggressive impulse?" 

All of these statements and refer- 
ences reflect what has come to be the 
prevailing idea that human violence is 
fixed and indelible and ineradicable 
from human nature and society; that it 
can be partially and temporarily con- 
trolled but never eliminated. In a re- 



cent opinion survey, fifty-eight percent 
of those questioned agreed that "hu- 
man nature being what it is, there must 
always be war." The preponderance 
and absoluteness of these statements 
and this notion are in contrast to the 
absence of concrete evidence for them. 
The dogma of the inevitability of the 
impulse to violence has been repeated 
so constantly, often under the guise of 
scientific objectivity, that it is regarded 
as an established fact. 

After many years as a student of hu- 
man behavior, I am convinced that 
such a notion is unsound. I have ex- 
amined and sometimes testified for a 
number of murderers, and have fol- 
lowed them through jails, mental insti- 
tutions, and sometimes on to freedom. 



More and more I became impressed 
with the interweaving of psychological 
and social factors underlying violent 
actions, and with the critical role of vi- 
olence in human affairs. Human vio- 
lence is not an absolute necessity but a 
historically transient, surmountable 
phenomenon. Human violence is a 
matter of history, not of natural his- 
tory. If we can walk peacefully on the 
moon, we ought to be able to arrange 
that our great-great-grandchildren can 
walk peacefully on the earth. 

Violence is a perversion of human 
relations. Its conquest is a precondi- 
tion for the building of a fully devel- 
oped, humane, and truly civilized so- 
ciety. The idea that in the long-range 
view violence could be relinquished 



Man has survived 

not because he 

inherited violence 

but because 

he practiced 

cooperation. 



30 MESSENGER 2- 1-72 




does not mean visualizing Utopias and 
imagining ideal worlds, but means 
prognosticating an attainable condition 
of normal human relations. True, in the 
present state of the world the odds are 
heavily against that. But since when 
should mankind take up a struggle only 
when ultimate victory is guaranteed 
beforehand? 

The human-instinct-of-aggression 
theories give us not an explanation of 
violence but a rationalization for it. 
Such theories are part of a larger 
trend, a kind of biologism which helps 
to avoid social responsibility. War is 
explained in biological terms as merely 
the emergence of a fundamental in- 
stinct of destructive aggression, which 
neatly evades historical, social, and ec- 
onomic causes. Race prejudice is bi- 
ologically justified on the grounds that 
some groups, like blacks, are instinc- 
tively more violent: a kind of biologi- 
cal bigotry. 

The idea of violence as man's nat- 
ural inheritance has been greatly bol- . 
stered by zoologist and psychologist 
Konrad Lorenz and his followers 
who have studied the instinctive behav- 
ior of wild geese and other animals 
(ethology). Lorenz and his followers 
have gone farthest in claiming that 
there is scientific proof of man having 
a basic inherited, biological, animal, 
killer instinct. " They use introspective 
terms of human psychology and apply 
them to animals; then they reverse the 
process and explain human aggression 
(violence) as "an animal aggression." 
For any activity, including violence, 
the capacity and the physiological ap- 
paratus must be present. But that is 
different from a biologically fixed in- 
stinctive drive. 

Compassion and cooperation are re- 
garded by Lorenz et al. as being mere- 
ly secondary compensatory phenom- 
ena. One of Lorenz's chief popularizers 
writes: "Civilization is a compensatory 
consequence of our killing imperative; 
the one could not exist without the oth- 



er." And further: "The rate of civiliza- 
tion's rise has corresponded closely 
with man's ascendant capacity to kill." 

Man has survived not because he in- 
herited violence but because he prac- 
ticed cooperation. Among the most 
primitive men, in whom an innate in- 
stinct of belligerency as part of their 
"true" biological nature, if it existed, 
should be most dominant and close to 
the surface, warfare is virtually absent. 
Paul Schilder, a pioneer in the com- 
bination of psychiatry, neurology, and 
psychoanalysis, showed in painstaking 
psychological analyses that there exists 
in the personality a primitive non- 
violence. This is a primary natural 
tendency to care for the existence and 
well-being of the other person, a wish 
that the integrity of the body of others 
be respected and preserved, a primitive 
kindness and readiness to help. Ac- 
cording to Schilder. these cannot be re- 
garded as secondary reactions, as 
Lorenz and his followers maintain. ' 

Have we really tried to eliminate 
violence? Have we tried with any con- 
sistency and fervor to stamp out some 
of the potent and concrete conditions 
behind it, such as race prejudice, na- 
tional rivalries (really obsolete and 
provincial after the breakthrough in 
space), hunger, hate, clinging to power 
and privilege, cold war vilification of 
people, needlessly frustrated lives, jus- 
tified remonstrance of the oppressed, 
brutalizing prison conditions, and 
teaching of sadistic thrills in the mass 
media? Taking up any of these factors 
fully, we meet specious disquisitions to 
show that any specific factor is not a 
real, primary, honest-to-goodness 
cause. The answer to that is not dif- 
ficult. In human behavior, everything 
that makes a difference is a cause. It 
depends on the whole context what the 
effects will be. 

The combination of half-hearted 
measures taken, of false ideas about 
violence, of failure to learn from the 
best endeavors of the past, of organ- 



ized crime, of disorganized law en- 
forcement — all contribute to the ris- . 
ing curve of violence. The permeation 
of our culture with violence manifests 
itself on different, seemingly uncon- 
nected levels. Examples are plentiful. 
The threat and fear of violence in the 
streets- is so widespread that the whole 
life of many people gives the impres- 
sion that they live under war condi- 
tions, waiting for signals that the dan- 
ger is over. 

. In 1693 William Penn, to promote 
"the tranquility of the world" (by 
which he meant the absence of vio- 
lence), proposed a United Nations of 
Europe. The main point was that there 
should be no picking and choosing of 
members, but that every nation should 
be represented. Our United Nations 
has not caught up with that idea yet. 
We seem almost to have forgotten the 
science of peacemaking, regard post- 
war as synonymous with peace, and 
operate with fancy terms like deescala- 
tion, pacification, and Vietnamization. 

For years the traffic in arms has 
been criticized. At present it flourishes 
and nations are being swamped with 
weapons they neither want nor need. 
The idea that there will never be an 
atomic war because the nations are so 
afraid of it is a false hope. Fear is not 
a preventative of war but often its 
cause. War is the teacher of violence. 
That is true certainly of Vietnam. The 
spirit of My Lai, for which only the ; 
lowest echelons are being held re- 
sponsible, will manifest itself later in 
the streets of Yonkers and Kalamazoo. 

As for domestic violence, it is taken 
far too lightly on almost every level, 
despite editorials about priorities and 
programs. That holds even for the 
handling of detection. According to the 
chief medical examiner of New York 
City, violence is often ignored and the 
authorities "have to see a knife sticking 
out of the ribs to label a death sus- 
picious." One of the most cruel mani- 
festations, the battered child syndrome. 



2-1-72 MESSENGER 31 




"WAR NO MORE" POSTER 

A 22 X 34-inch two-color en- 
largement of this Messenger 
cover for your room, office, 
classroom, or family room. 
Order several. $1 each plus 
25c for handling and postage. 
Send to; Church of the Breth- 
ren General Board, 1451 Dun- 
dee Ave., Elgin, III. 60120 



CHOICEm 




CHOICE III is a weekday radio pro- 
gram designed to help husbands and 
wives create fulfilling relationships 
with each other. The 65 programs, 
sponsored jointly by the Mennonites, 
the Mennonite Brethren, and the 
Church of the Brethren, come in five 
3-minute spots per week for 13 weeks 
and are free for public service use. 
You can make them available to your 
community. Send for promotional 
packet and audition tape to: CHOICE 
III. Church of the Brethren General 
Board, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, III. 
60120. 



Name 



Congregation 



Street 



City State 

32 MESSENGER 2- 1-72 



Zip 



j which often leads to permanent injuries 
and death, is most unsuccessfully han- 
dled. In the face of glaring facts, news- 
papers have called it "relatively rare." 

Violent crimes, even magnicides 
(the killing of someone prominent), 
are not adequately investigated and 
therefore not resolved. A veritable 
credibility gap has developed between 
the authorities and the public. Espe- 
cially the young people have difficulty 
swallowing the official snake oil. For 
many the very word investigation has 
become synonymous with hitshing up. 
That can only add to social violence- 
proneness. 

Not only are younger and younger 
people committing violent acts, but vio- 
lent crimes are becoming more and 
more brutal and cntel. Witnesses to a 
crime are perfunctorily and summarily 
disposed of. A bar is held up and the 
owner, bartender, and two patrons are 
shot. Purse-snatching, which used to 
be nonviolent, is now combined with 
mugging, stomping, and armbreaking. 
All this represents an insufficiently rec- 
ognized new pattern of disregard for 

: human life and suflfering. But it is not 
explainable biologically, It is part of 

I our environmental mental pollution. 

f To realize that we live in conditions 
that favor violence makes us recognize 
more our own responsibility. It sharp- 
ens our perception of what the fact and 
prospect of violence do to people. 
Most important, such recognition helps 
us not to overlook the positive factors 
that can help us to combat it. When 
oppressed people resort to violence, it 
is not because that is part of their hu- 
man nature, but because they are 
placed in a situation where they have 
no other choice except to use violence 
or give in to the oppressor. 

It is ironic that on the one hand we 
say that the impulse to violence will be 
eternally in us and with us while on the 

' other hand we continue to create a so- 

I cial climate which tends to make vio- 

■ lence permanent. 

' Not only have we not tried suf- 



Fredeiic Wcrlhain, a New York psychiatrist, 
is author of many hooks, the most recent 
heint; "A Sign for Coin: An Exploration of 
Human Violence." He has long been a 
critic of television and comic hook violence. 
His article is reprinted by permission of 
Johns Hopkins Maf;azine. 



ficiently to stem violence and eliminate 
violence-breeding factors, we often 
provoke violence. In this regard the 
claim of some young people has to be 
taken seriously. They say that the es- 
tablishment wants violence to be used. 
They want it used because that is 
something they understand and feel 
they can deal with on its own level. 
What they can't understand is serious 
dissent which expresses itself in deter- 
mined but peaceful activity. 



The idea that violence 

is our natural 
inheritance implies an 

ultimately destructive 
image of man. a whole gen- 

eration has gone through a school of 
violence. The American child is given 
a plastic pistol when he is hardly able 
to walk, and learns how men are killed 
long before he learns to read. We 
teach children the grammar of violence 
and are astonished when they discover 
its lure. We fill people's minds with 
violent images. The high violence con- 
tent of the mass media not only reflects 
our life but also influences it. Our 
complacency is so great that it amounts 
to instilling a violence readiness. In 
both life and literature a lessened re- 
gard for the value of human life is 
gaining influence. 

In recent years pornography has be- 
come more and more cruel and sadis- 
tic. The producers of some sado-por- 
nographic publications present the 
public with illustrated primers telling 
how to commit thrilling, violent sex 
crimes. In the name of freedom, the 
Commission on Obscenity and Por- 
nography has proposed giving these 
violence pushers legal free reign (ex- 
cept with regard to distribution to chil- 
dren). For this commission the silent 
majority spent two million dollars. Ex- 
perts continue to tell us that violence 
content of mass media does not go 
beyond "acceptable levels" — but of 
course they have been telling us that 
about other pollutants too. 



[U][n]dls[rDD[n}^ 



The idea that the propensity for vio- 
lence is inborn for all time is lieavily 
entrenched, widely taught, and ve- 
hemently defended. In the last analy- 
sis, this whole attitude is essentially the 
expression of a feeling of helplessness 
in the face of the pressures and uncer- 
tainties of our complex society. In the 
last few decades millions of people 
have died in foreign wars, massacres, 
and domestic murders. Shall all of 
these victims have died in vain, while 
we hold to the belief that the drive to 
destruction will be with us for all time? 

•, : The question is often raised: But 
what can we do? Usually those who 
ask it don't really mean that. What 
they do mean is what can the other 
people do, or what can we do without 
any sacrifice while we continue to live 
in exactly the way we live now. 

For years there has been practically 
no progress in violence prevention. A 
lot of what has been called progress is 
what the conservatives don't want to do 
and what the liberals have not done. 
There is no blueprint. Obviously more 
research is needed — but that is true of 
everything. It should not be used as an 
alibi, as it so often is at the end of re- 
ports by committees and commissions. 
At the same time we cannot ride to 
nonviolence astride a winged horse. It 
will be a long and arduous road. It is a 
struggle not against our inner instincts 
but against all the circumstances that 
lead to violence and against the false 
generalizations and ideas that misrep- 

, resent and sustain it. We shall find a 
solution only if we believe that solution 
exists. Indifference is perhaps that 
greatest obstacle. The majority /j ■;, 
silent. That is their guilt. 

To expect that in a short time hu- 
man violence will be greatly reduced is 

. an idle hope. To deny that in the dis- 
tant future it can be abolished is at 
present the greatest prop that violence 
can have. The atom bomb in the hands 
of those who believe that human vio- 
lence is inborn and preordained is like 
a knife in the hands of a child. We 
need the larger view of a future when 
violence is no longer tolerated, no 
longer necessary and no longer wanted. 
The flight of Picasso's dove is a safer 
guide than the cackle of Konrad Lor- 
enz's wild geese. D 



ABOUT PEOPLE 



Three members of the Church of the Breth- 



ren have been named to posts in the United Ministries in 
Higher Education: Donald Lcwdermilk , formerly of the de- 
nominational staff, to the chairmanship of the National 
Commission; A. G. Breidenstine , retired Pennsylvania ed- 
ucator, to the presidency of his state's UMHE; and Walter 
D_. Bowman , to the presidency of the Ohio state UMHE. 

A business venture in Lakeland, Fla. , occupies John ■ 
T_. Fike , who resigned as vice-president and treasurer of 
Juniata College last month. He had been treasurer since 
1952. 

Placed by the Mennonite Central Committee in Appa- 
lachia as a mechanic for unit vehicles is Noah Lucabaugh , . 
Hanover, Pa. , a member of the Pleasant Hill church. 

New associate director of broadcasting for the Broad- 
casting and Film Commission of the National Council of 
Churches is David W_. Pome ray , whose film reviews have ap- ■, 
peared in Messenger . 

Pinecrest Manor chaplain Foster B_. Statler died at 
Rockford, 111., Nov. 8, after a stroke. He was 86. He 
held pastorates in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Indiana, 
and in his ten years at Pinecrest coordinated activities 
and special programs. .■■■..-..;■ ...,..•;.■ ; .- ... 



YOU'LL WANT TO KNOW THIS 



Dedication festivities 



engaged the Baugo Church of the Brethren near Wakarusa, 
Ind., last month, during the celebration of a- new addition 
and remodeling of facilities. 

In the Shenandoah District, the Cedar Grove congre- 
gation of Brethren are joining the Valley Central United . ..• . 
Church of Christ at New Market, Va. , in a yoked parish. ■ ■■_ 

Two Bible land tours depart next month. Hosting one ' 
tour which includes a stop in Athens are the J. Perry 
Prathers. Persons wishing more information may write 
them at 513 Sandusky St., Ashland, Ohio 44805; but hurryl • :' 
Departure date is March 13. ... Leaving even earlier in 
the montJi—March 2 — is a group hosted by Wendell Bohrer, .. ' 
with an itinerary including Rome. More information may 
be had from Mr. Bohrer at 96 Penrod St., Johnstown, Pa. 
15902. Both tours are ten days. 

Church Women United are meeting in Washington, D.C., • 
currently, participating in workshops aimed at understand- 
ing interaction between government and citizen at local, 
state, and national levels. •.^'' ..■■■ -.: ■■"■'.'' •■ 

AFTER FIFTY YEARS ... Wedding anniversary celebrants 
include six marking fifty years: Mr . and Mrs . Noah Stalder , 
Cerro Gordo, 111.; the Robert Byrds , Bridgewater, Va. ; the 
£. J. Clovers , Nampa, Idaho; the Lester Steeles and the 
Herbert Bridenbaughs , Martinsburg, Pa.; and the D^. J_. 
Floras , Boones Mill, Va. 

Other couples observing anniversaries include the ,;, ' 
Edward Zumbrums , Hanover, Pa., fifty-two; the Albert C. 
Schues , Washington, Ind., and the T_. M_. Settles , Martins-- ■• 
burg. Pa., fifty-four; the Guy Keltners , Pearl City, 111., 
fifty-five; the J. S_. Ay res , Empire, Calif., and the Galen 
Walkers , La Verne, Calif., sixty. 



21-72 MESSENGER 33 



XWDqcd xwnDIl DqcbIIip itunrpm nns anpaDunrndl'? 



When tame animals were tortured to death by 
youngsters last fall in an eastern city, the public 
was horrified. Editorialized the Sun-Times of 
Chicago: "Perhaps the reason we have to pay so 
much attention to grown-ups killing each other is 
that we haven't taught children how they should 
feel about killing a rabbit." 

Probing as that sentiment was, a counterview 
was offered by one Sun-Times reader. "Perhaps 
the reason we have to pay so much attention to 
children killing rabbits," the respondent noted, 
"is that we haven't taught grown-ups how they 
should feel about killing grown-ups." 

Whether one dwells in the world of the young 
or in the world of the adult, the climate is satu- 
rated with violence. Its appearance sometimes is 
subtle, sometimes pronounced, but its frequency 
and magnitude are more and more alarming. 
,• Consider one facet, the snap-together torture 
cages and kits manufactured as toys by Aurora 
Plastics. A doll in hotpants is strapped to a 
table, her face stricken with terror, while a flash- 
ing blade cuts a swath closer and closer until. . . . 

Consider the gougings, whippings, shootings, 
and other mayhem that streak endlessly across 
the tv screen, leaving the viewer drained, deplet- 
ed, virtually immune to the shock of human 
suffering. 

Witness the everyday world where brutality 
goes beyond make-believe. More Americans were 
gunned down in New York City in a week not 
long ago than in Vietnam, columnist Flora Lewis 
reported, prompting her to call for nothing short 
of the disarmament of American citizens. 

What does it mean to be part of a society so 
violence-oriented that, at the extreme, we set out 
to quell youthful protestors by maiming them, to 
free hostages by killing them, so save villages by 
destroying them? 

It is not enough to point to the toy counter, 
the tv screen, the nearest big city nor even to 
Vietnam as the place where violence wreaks 



havoc on human sensibilities. The roots of vio- 
lence touch much closer home than that. 

We are beginning to understand that in each 
of us there is a capacity to induce violence or to 
control it, in at least limited circumstances. We 
are coming to discern that on a social scale, keep- 
ing things just as they are iii our institutions and 
corporate structures may perpetuate oppression 
for the powerless no less stifling and ruthless than 
outright conflict. We are beginning to sense that 
how we deal with aggression, how we use power 
and position are concerns not only of government 
but of individuals as well. 

lif as Christians we have one loyalty that rises 
above all other loyalties, and that supreme loyalty 
is not to a class or a race or a government or a 
system but to God through Jesus Christ, then we 
have distinctive responsibilities. We will support 
the status quo wherein justice and liberty are 
pursued; we will dissent when laws or systems 
deny human rights. We will affirm the solidarity 
of mankind implied in the gospel by working for 
reconciliation not only with the oppressed but 
with the oppressor, not only with the ally but with 
the enemy. We will encounter other Christians, 
across national and confessional lines, to examine 
our respective positions in light of the gospel. In 
casting our lot markedly on the side of social 
justice, we will, in the words of David Gill of the 
World Council of Churches, be "as wary of those 
who seek social change as we are critical of those 
who oppose it," remembering that sin knows no 
barriers of class, race, or ideology. The bold ones 
among us may demonstrate that there is an al- 
ternative to violence: active, nonretaliatory, suf- 
fering love. 

To choose life, in the words of Deuteronomy, 
to choose life instead of death, to seek self-eleva- 
tion instead of self-destruction, is an inversion 
our society desperately needs. Who will help turn 
us around? — h.e.r. 



34 MESSENGER 2- 1-72 




THE 

DRAMATIC SILENCES 

OF HIS 

LAST WEEK 

From the silence of the city 
after the triumphal entry to the 
silence of the Street of Splen- 
did Strangers, these seven 
Lenten meditations portray the 
depth of feeling that must 
have captured the hearts and 
minds of those who were . 
there during Jesus' last week. 
Seven special moments filled 
with intense meaning for 
those who knew him then and 
those who know him now. 
Wheaton Phillips Webb. $2.50 



I 



AND IN 
CONFIDENCI 
SHALL EE >-^^- 



^ 



TRENGTH 



THE SEVEN WORDS 

Through timely illustrations, 
these seven messages draw out 
the deep spiritual meaning 
of the last words from the 
cross to reach the hearts of 
hearers and transform their 
lives, revealing God and his 
love to men. Clovis G. 
Choppell. $2 

THEY MET 
AT CALVARY 

Dealing with the people who 
were actually involved in 
Christ's crucifixion, W. E. 
Songster draws memorable and 
provocative insights for the 
Lenten season. A timely spirit- 
ual experience for all 
Christians. $2 

THE CRUCIBLE 
OF REDEMPTION 

These eight stringent and 
sometimes shocking Easter mes- 
sages take Easter out of 
its traditional garb and help 
restore its vitality as the 
essential affirmation of a valid 
Christian faith. Corlyle 
Marney. $2.25 



WORLDLY HOLINESS 

Based on the famous prayer 
of St. Francis of Assisi: 
"LORD, make us instruments of 
thy peace," these brief 
meditations will enable today's 
Christian to understand those 
virtues and graces presented so 
movingly in this beautiful 
prayer. R. Benjamin Garrison. 
$1.95, paper 

THE SANCTUARY, 
1972 

This popular Lenten devotional 
booklet by Wallace Fridy 
contains daily meditations, 
Scripture readings, and brief 
prayers. The theme for 1972 is 
the life and teachings of 
Jesus. Begins with Ash 
Wednesday. 15< each; $7.95 
per 1 00 

THE EASTER STORY 
FOR CHILDREN 

In his first book for children, 
Ralph W. Sockmari explains 
the life of Jesus, beginning with 
his birth and concluding 
with the Crucifixion and Resur- 
rection. Ages 7-10. Illustrated 
by Gordon Laite. $2.25 



EASTER: A PICTORIAL PILGRIAAAGE 

Pierre Benoit, Elhonon Hagoloni, and Konrod Leube. The 
fascinating commentary and photographs — 1 7 full-color pages and 
over 60 black-and-white illustrations — take the reader on a 
personal tour of the Holy Laiid to relive the last week in the life 
of Christ. Truly a book for the family and the church library, $7.95 



Q|- your local bookytoe 

Qbingdon 



ISAIAH 30:5 



reace • rerspeciives on reace • r^rspeciives on rease • rerapecnvcs on red«,t: • rcia|jcfciivc» wn rcawe, w rcis;! 

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erspectives on Peaces* .Perspectives on Peace • Perspectives on Peacfe 
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•Spectives apt reace 



Brethren and Pacifism 

Dale W. Brown 

Brings a new persfjective to the issues of war and peace 
for the Church of the Brethren at a time when many are 
reexamining what it means to be faithful to Christ in a time 
of revolution and rapid change. $2.00 paper 



Six Papers on Peace 

A symposium dealing with six issues on peace: the Chris- 
tian, the church and war, international relations, violence 
and nonviolence, the Christian's relationship to the state, 
the Selective Service law, and payment of taxes for war 
purposes. Seven Brethren writers. $1.45 paper 



The Christian Revolutionary 

Dale W. Brown 

Dale Brown offers a theology with profound roots in the 
Gospel, and at the same time he is sensitive to the current 
movements of the Spirit in radical social movements. This 
book should be read by anyone who continues to hope that 
the Christian faith today can respond to revolutionary needs, 
because the author provides a firm basis for that hope. $2.45 



Peace Books, a series of Brethren-authored teacher's 

guides for groups of children and youth. 

Lefs Be Friends by Gwendolyn Miller 

For use with grades one and two. $1.35- 

So What Is Peace? by Angilee Beery 

For use with grades three and four. $1.35 

Now, About Peace by James McKinnell 

For use with grades five and six. $1.35 . 

The Cruel Choice 

Denis Gouiet 

The subordinati'on of goods to the good is one of the themes 
running through this rich and suggestive discussion of the 
ethics of development. Others concern power, participation,' 
the exposure of societies to forces they cannot control, and 
the inherent tendency of the rich to "domesticate" the devel- 
opment of the poor. Readers may disagree with much that 
Mr. Gouiet says but they will have to think about it. $12.50 

The Quiet BatHe 

Mulford Q. Sibley 

An anthology of essays discussing instances when non- 
violent means have been used to achieve desired ends. $2.95 



Postage: 20c first dollar; 5c per dollar thereafter 
The Brethren Press, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, III. 60120 




r -G.Curt 



—G. Curtis Jones 



©©[ml 



Dsl^l^sir^ 



2000: As Seen Through a Glass Darkly. Contributions to the 
winter issue of Brethren Life and Thought reveal how some "seers" in 
the Church of the Brethren are envisioning the church in the year 
2000. Ronald E. Keener reports 



JQ A Caring Place With a Common Cup. The Community of Christ 
tiie Servant began when families banded together in a new con- 
gregational model. Their experiment includes being open to fresh 
kinds of ministry — notably Bethany Seminary graduate Gary Rowe's 
ministry in the arts and media, by Linda Beher 

1^ Finding the Lost We Have Lost. "As human beings we not only 
lose the vital balance in our relationships, we frequently lose ourselves 
or become lost in the avalanche of responsibilities." by G. Curtis Jones 



^^y Homecoming. Vietnam returnees face staggering problems. Their 
ctTorts to become human again are portrayed by Chaim Shatan. 
"Can We Share the Vietnam Veteran's Burden?" is a question asked 
by Wilbur E. Mullen in response 



Objectors Conquered by Aliens. "William Stafford's Down in 
My Heart is one of those rare books where the story the author is 
telling is more important than the way he told it." Terry Pettit 
reviews the recent Brethren Press reprint 



hi Touch profiles Mary Ann Saylor. Rosalita Leonard, and Edgar 
Slater (beginning on 2 ) . . . . Oiiiloolc focuses on a Brethren evangelism 
congress, the resignation of a college president, and congregational 
news (beginning on 4). . . . Take It From Here, by Glee Yoder, has a 
new format (20). . . . An editorial opens with "If You Think You 
Can Help Our World a Little" (24) 



EDITOR 

Howard E. Royer 

ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

Ronald E. Keener / News 
Wilbur E. Brumbaugh / Design 

Kenneth I. Morse / Features 

ASSISTANT EDITOR 

Linda K. Beher 

EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Richard N. Miller 



VOL. 121, NO. 4 



FEBRUARY 15, 1972 



CRF.ril IS: Ciovcr. 15 artwork by Wilbur P. 
Bnimb.iii^h: 2 (right) Don Honick: 4. 21 
artwork b\ Ken Stanley; 5 rourtesv of Mc 
Phcrson Clolicge; 11. 12 ficf I) Rolx-rt Srhill/; 
12 fright) C.arv Rowe; 13 "1 rnman Wiles; 
17. 19 Edwarti Wallowilch; 18 Religious 
News Service; 21 phf>to by Irene Stack for 
Tom Stack and A.s.sociates: "E\en the Trees 
.Are Glad to Be Alive." banner by Linda 
Beher 



MES.SENGFR is the ofTici.nl public.Ttion of the 
Church of ihc Ilrcthrcn, F.ntercd as sccojui- 
class matter ,\ug. 20. 1918, under .Act of 
Congress of Oct. 17, 1917. Filing date. Oct. I. 

1971. Messenger is a member of the Associ- 
ated Church Prefw and a subscriber to Rcli- 
gioiis News Service .Tnd Ecumenical Press 
Service. Biblical quotations, unless otherwise 
indicated, arc from the Revised St.nndard 
Version. 

Subscription rates: S'1.20 per year for indi- 
vidual subscriptions: ,S3.fiO per year for church 
group plan; S.3.00 per year for every home 
plan: life subscription. SfiO: husband and wife, 
S75. If you move clip old address from Mes- 
senger and send with new address. 
.\Ilow at least fifteen days for ad- 
dress change. Messenger is owned 
.ind published twice monthly by the 
Church of Ihc ilrethren (.cneral 
I'.oiird, 1451 Dundee .Ave., Elgin. 111. 
''0120. Second-class postage paid at 
Elgin. 111.. Feb. I. 1972. Copyright 

1972, Church of the Brethren General Board. 



i 



NOT THE SAME LANGUAGE 

Referring to Ralph Landes" letter (Nov. 
15) regarding our moderator's language at 
the National Youth Conference: Let us not 
make a snap judgment. We of the "estab- 
lishment" do not always speak the same 
language as the "now" generation. Some- 
times I myself think that the church should 
he "turned upside down." And some con- 
gregations will try to shut up the youth 
who protest. The church, including the 
Brethren, seems to care little for the peo- 
ple in Squattertown — they are not our 
kind. And we have taught the young peo- 
ple to "Love thy (white) neighbor as thy- 
■self." We have quoted, "Love your ene- 
mies," and then we are happy that Chris- 
tians kill Christians or, worse yet, kill 
pagans, depriving them of the opportunity 
to know Christ. I am sure our moderator is 
truly Brethren; and if we misunderstand, it 
may be he will explain this. 

Alfred Alling 
Cahool, Mo. 

A SIGN OF HOPE 

Thank you for printing the "Statement 
Regarding Abortion" (Jan. 1), a sign of 
hope that the servants of God are finaJly 
willing to face up to a very fundamental, 
basic issue in human life. 

Could it be the situation has been brought 
about by the unloving attitude of the Chris- 
tian community? Some Christians have 
been heard to rejoice that cigarette smokers 
were to be punished by lung cancer. Some 
have rejoiced that "immoral" people "got 
caught" with no compassion for the innocent 
baby that was supposed to be the means of 
punishinent. 

Has research been done on the possible 
permanent damage to the unborn child by 
the tnother's mental and emotional attitude 
during pregnancy? Could this account for 
many who are unable to feel accepted by 
their fellowman and God? 

What have we done to make abortions 
unnecessary? 

I pray that all will be willing to push 
human desires aside and allow God to lead 
us in our decisions. 

Dorothy Naracon 
North Liberty, Ind. 

FOR FURTHER READING 

In "More Than Just a Man" (December) 
Evelyn Frantz writes, "[Jc.sii.s- Christ Siipcr- 
sltir] ends with the burial in the garden; 
there's no hint of the resurrection, the 
atonement, or Jesu.s' foreknowledge of com- 
ing events." In answering Simon Zealotes, 
Jesus says: "While you live your troubles 
are inany, poor Jerusalem / To conquer 
death you only have to die / you only have 



I 



Pc 



(Q)[n]( 



to die." This statement tells what his death 
was all about. 

As far as Mrs. Frantz' claim that Webber 
and Rice are trying to show that Jesus was 
just a man, Tim Rice says, "We just tried to 
tell a story. It's a fantastic story." 

One part of her article asks, "Why do 
Herod . . . and Pilate . . . become hyster- 
ical when confronted with Jesus' more-than- 
human dignity, with that terrible silence that 
forces them to face the truth they cannot 
stand?" Herod was convinced that Jesus 
was not the lord, and Pilate gave in to the 
crowd's demand that he crucify Jesus. 

I suggest that Evelyn Frantz read the 
article by Maynard Shelly, "The Superstar 
Who Was Jesus Christ" (Oct. 15). 

Thomas A. Daugherty 
Fostoria, Ohio 

ON VIETNAM 

To Brother Robert S. Zigler ("In Touch," 
December) I would like to put one ques- 
tion: What evidence has he that the Viet- 
namese people wish the U.S. government to 
have a hand, strong or weak, in their coun- 
try? I would disallow all invitations ex- 
tended by the government in Saigon, for 
that government does not represent the peo- 
ple (the recent elections notwithstanding). 
I would also disregard personal assurances 
offered in English, because English-speak- 
ing Vietnamese have become "decultured." 

From almost three years' experience in 
Vietnam I can say that most of the Viet- 
namese are quite cynical about the U.S. 
government presence, military and civilian, 
in their country. They understand its task 
to be the nurture of its own child, the gov- 
ernment in Saigon, They see the resources 
of the U.S. government as a major boon 
to those who are in a position to gain per- 
sonally through graft and corruption. 

This situation is not to be remedied by 
placing more qualified persons in AID. since 
it derives directly from the U.S. policy of 
supporting an opportunist government in 
Saigon. Therefore, witnessing, expression 
of views, and affecting decisions must be 
done in Washington to the point of securing 
a U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, thus en- 
abling the Vietnamese to establish their 
own government. 

I heartily agree with Brother Zigler that 
there continues to be a place for able, com- 
mitted foreigners throughout Vietnam. But 
until such time as the Vietnamese are able 
to determine their own destiny, these people 
dare not be associated with the U.S. govern- 
ment if they hope to participate in the mas- 
sive attack over the long haul. 

Dennis E. Metzger 
Tarn Ky, Vietnam 



COVERED EVERY PAGE 

The Christmas issue of Messenger is 
terrific. I could not lay it down until I had 
covered every page. ... It is a pleasure to 
thank people for a work such as you have 
done. 

R. E. Mohler 
McPherson, Kans. 

AN INVITATION 

Going to Annual Conference at Cincin- 
nati? You are invited to worship at Strait 
Creek church, one mile north of Camp 
Woodland Altars on Ohio 41, one and a 
half hours east of Cincinnati. The church 
is about twenty miles west of US23, or six- 
teen miles south of US50. It is thirty miles 
north of US52. This is a small rural church 
at the foot of the Appalachian Highlands. 

If people of Strait Creek may be of serv- 
ice to you, please contact Mrs. Kenneth 
Blackburn, Route 4, Box 112, Peebles, Ohio 
45660. 

Glenna Blackburn 
Peebles, Ohio 

"WHY IM RETURNING MY DRAFT CARDS" 

My main objection to the conscientious 
objector status is that it is a part of con- 
scription . . . for war and all about war. 
Civilian and nonwar-related work it may 
well mean for the CO himself, but some- 
one else is channeled to go to war in 
his place. The quota is still filled. All the 
I-O classification does is to allow the ob- 
jector himself to stay out of military ex- 
cursions he doesn't care to involve himself 
in; it still allows military campaigns to con- 
tinue unchallenged, campaigns which cost 
countless lives, campaigns which I in good 
conscience cannot assist ... by remaining a 
registered member of any such war machine. 
I must make a commitment aiiciinst war, not 
just against my own involvement in it. . . . 

I have no objection to civilian CO work 
in and of itself. Friends of mine are doing 
some very worthy things for humanity while 
fulfilling their alternative service. But that 
word alternative — in lieu of military serv- 
ice — is the clincher. Any service that I 
do during my life should not be service 
done as an "alternative" to "service" done 
by others which I wholeheartedly see as un- 
just and immoral. I would hope that my 
whole life might be lived in servitude of 
sorts. . . . 

I admit without question that Christ 
taught nonresistance to evil, but, in the 
words of the late A. J. Muste, "Nonresist- 
ance to an evil should not mean cooperation 
with it." . . . 

Daniel K. Stern 
Tonasket, Wash. 



An important service is provided by a 
sister periodical. Brethren Life and 
Thought, in focusing its Winter issue on 
the Church of the Brethren in A.D. 
2000. That is only one generation 
away, as M. R. Zigler notes in an up- 
coming Messenger interview. 

I A partial look at what the BLT 

writers see ahead for the church ap- 
pears on page 8. Readers may want to 
obtain the entire special issue to view 
the prognosis as others see it. 

The business of future-casting is he- 
coming increasingly significant, espe- 
cially as new approaches are utilized in 
drawing input from many sources to- 
gether. The awesome fact is that hu- 
man intervention in such areas as mo- 
lecular biology and genetics engineering 
is raising unprecedented moral ques- 
tions. What is at stake ultimately for 
the church, for the family, for work, 
for the nation-state, for all social insti- 
tutions is a matter that earnestly needs 
study. 

Several weeks ago two Messenger 
staffers heard futurist Warren L. Ziegler 
appeal to the church "to invent its own 
future," as opposed to following a pre- 
ventive or adaptive stance, beginning by 
formulating goals on what is intended 
to happen. "Intentionality has some- 
thing to do with religion," Dr. Ziegler 
said; "it is very different from mere 
expectation." 

To the extent that the church can 
shape that which it is to become, and 
be shaped by the living spirit and the 
tradition which guide it. Messenger 
seeks to be a part of. Against such a 
background it is appropriate that we 
begin now to assess what we ought to 
be 30 years hence. 

Nonstaff writers in this issue are; 

— G. Curtis Jones, author of several 
books and minister of the Woodland 
Christian Church, Macon. Georgia. 

— Chaim Shatan, M.D., director of 
the post-doctoral psychoanalytic clinic 
of New 'York University. | 

— Glee Yoder, curriculum writer, 
McPherson, Kansas. 

— Terry Pettit, Brethren N'olunteer 
Service worker, Elgin, III. 

The Editors 



215-72 messenger 1 




Mary Ann Saylor: Nursing in India 



Mary Ann Saylor, a registered nurse 
in India's Dahanu Road Hospital, 
found one of her biggest adjustments 
to be the nonexistence of disposable 
items in health care. 

"Even in Kentucky [where she had 
midwifery training] everything from 
enema cans to syringes and delivery 
sheets were disposable, but here there 
is nothing disposable, not even a 
paper towel to wipe off a messy table. 
Not only that, but the hospital per- 
sonnel even make the cotton balls 
and bandages." 

Despite such adjustments to her 
work and to rural Indian life, IVIiss 
Saylor, 24, has been experiencing 
her assignment with sharp enthusiasm 
and interest. The daughter of Mr. 
and Mrs. Eli W. Saylor of Elizabeth- 
town. Pa., she is a member of the 
Chiques Church of the Brethren. 

She worked at the Rural Service 
Center at Anklesvar as well and dis- 
covered that persuading people to 
change eating habits, sanitary con- 
ditions, and crops which will improve 
the diet, is not a very easy job. 

In her village work she found that 
cow dung is scattered by hand for 
field fertilizer, mixed with mud to 
coat the walls and floors of the 
houses, used for cooking fuel, applied 
on the head for certain illnesses, on 



wounds, and on the cord of newborn 
babies. 

"Since the causative organism of 
tetanus is found in horse and cow 
dung, there is a constant exposure to 
it, and this increases the necessity for 
the immunization against tetanus," 
she relates. 

Work among the villages has been 
especially meaningful to her and has 
helped her in learning the Gujarati 
language. "It must be absolutely 
terrible to become ill in some of 
these villages. If money is available 
to go to the doctor, it means a long 
walk or a bumpy ride in the ox cart 
and then riding on the overcrowded 
bus. This is not very much fun when 
one is healthy; what must it be like 
when one is ill?" With language pro- 
ficiency, she will soon begin the 
training of Indian nurses at the hos- 
pital. 

Still, despite having to sleep under 
a net to ward off mosquitos, rats, and 
snakes, the shock of seeing small 
children die of malnutrition for lack 
of education about proper diets, and 
observing Bombay's beggars and 
disfigured on the streets, cultural 
readjustment has been minimal 
for Miss Saylor. It seems obvious 
in her remark that she feels she is 
"where God wants me to be." 




IIT« 




Rosalita Leonard: Anev, 

i 

"People have a stereotype of work- 
ers in the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union: the 'little-old-ladies- 
with-hatchets' stereotype. But we 
weren't the ones with the hatchets!" 

Rosalita Leonard is determined 
to combat stereotypes in her job 
with the WCTU as national general 
secretary of the Youth Temperance 
Council. The twenty-seven-year-old 
Juniata College graduate and former 
missionary points to the negative 
image of the WCTU as another kind 
of stereotype. "We do have a positive 
program — as shown by our materi- 
als." She recounts as an example the 
organization's historic concern for 
drug abuse, and its emphasis on 
"living without crutches." 

"We work for the prevention of 
the use of alcohol — admittedly that 
sounds negative. But we believe that 
nothing ought to hinder the natural 
abilities we are given." 

Rosalita resists, too, the image of 
humorlessness sometimes associated 
with groups with a cause. "You have 
to have a sense of humor to live in a 
museum," she laughs. And she 
means, literally, a museum — Willard 
House, home of the world WCTU's 
founder. "My room was opened for 
tours during the world convention. 
About 900 people inspected it!" 

Rosalita's responsibilities in her 
post at the Evanston. 111., headquar- 
ters of the WCTU include designing 
youth program, preparing a bi- 
monthly bulletin for youth, and par- 
ticipating in camp-style leadership 
training for young persons. She acts 
also as superintendent of the youth 



2 MESSENGER 2 15-72 



I 







nage maker 



Edgar Slater: From wigwams to high rise 



branch of the world WCTU. Each 
facet of the work focuses on a three- 
fold task — education, legislation 
and public service, and public rela- 
tions. 

She came to Evanston in 1969 
! after a three-year math teaching 
I adventure with the British branch of 
the Sudan United Mission. "As a 
1 short-term worker I was loaned by 
'the Church of the Brethren mission," 
she explains, her eyes beginning to 
I sparkle mischievously. "I spoke 
'American English with a Pennsyl- 
vania Dutch accent, and my students 
I spoke British English with a Nigerian 
accent!" 

Since beginning her assignment 
I with the WCTU, Rosalita has been 
named an Outstanding Young Wom- 
an in America ( 1971 ) — one of five 
in the Chicago area — and pursues 
'a master of divinity degree at Beth- 
jany Theological Seminary. A mem- 
I ber of the Douglas Park Church of 
the Brethren, she is president of the 
; local WCTU and treasurer of the 
I county chapter. 

' Misinformation, she believes, con- 
; tributes to some persons' image of the 
Woman's Christian Temperance 
'Union. But its roots in basic Chris- 
tian living and its emphasis on the 
need for an "unhooked generation" 
keep Rosalita Leonard challenging 
the stereotypes. 



Remember Edgar Slater, who in 1967 
was the nation's oldest VISTA vol- 
unteer? And one of the most vigor- 
ous? In 1971 he was at it again, 
racking up another year with VISTA, 
this time with a senior citizens action 
center in St. Louis. 

Now 91, the former college teacher 
and part-time minister in his first 
VISTA assignment taught blue- 
print reading and home construction 
techniques to the Crow Indians in 
Montana. In short, as he put it, he 
helped tribal members "to make bet- 
ter wigwams." His work in St. Louis 
was to supervise the remodeling of 
ten floors of an old hotel into rooms 
and apartments for the elderly. Utiliz- 
ing his engineering knowledge, he 
drew new blueprints for the floors, 
studied the electrical, air condition- 
ing, plumbing and water systems for 
future renovation, and served as ad- 
viser to the Small Business Adminis- 
tration and as inspector for the Fed- 
eral Housing Administration. 

The Kansas native first studied 
mechanical engineering by mail or- 
der. Years later he submitted a 
master's thesis on a shortcut method 
of shaping steel, but it was rejected 
by a professor who thought his meth- 
od too simple. The method is now 
standard practice for some difficult 
parts. In a varied career he was the 
supervisor of industrial education for 
the public school system in Spring- 
field, Mo., instructor in aircraft en- 
gine maintenance in World War II, 
assistant designer of the first fully 
electrically equipped tractor ever put 
into regular production, a construc- 



tion worker in Puerto Rico, president 

of the Missouri Industrial Education 
Association, engineering teacher in 
colleges for ten years, father of three 
sons, and part-time pastor of Church 
of the Brethren congregations in Mis- 
souri, Illinois, and Montana. 

E.xcept for his hearing, which be- 
gan to fail him while working on 
large bomber engines in World War 
II, Edgar Slater still is in good physi- 
cal condition. "I've never known 
sickness, except for my stomach." he 
said. "It bothers me three times a 
day and the only cure is beef and 
potatoes." 

From St. Louis, where he cur- 
rently resides at a YMCA, Edgar 
Slater offered this reflection: "Time is 
life, and I do not believe in wasting it 
as long as I am in good health and 
have experiences to share with others. 
I hope there will be another move 
soon. While I am not rich, I am not 
so much interested in salary as in 
service." 

Resourceful and indefatigable as 
he is, Edgar Slater seems certain to 
have service still in his future. 



2-13 



MESSENGER 3 



Brethren evangelism congress 
is projected for April 1974 

Embracing the e\ angelism thrust being 
made by a number of denominations in 
the next few years, the Church of the 
Brethren will hold a Congress on Evan- 
gelism April 18-21, 1974. 

Locating and planning the gathering 
will be the tasks of a steering committee 
holding its first meeting this April. 

Planners are Albert L. Sauls. Wenat- 
chee. Wash., pastor, and Jay S. Filer, 
Frederick, Md., insurance executive, for 
the E\angelism Counselors Team; Nelda 
Rhoades, a preministerial junior at Man- 
chester College and a licensed minister in 
the Eel River Church of the Brethren, 
North Manchester, Ind.: and for the 
Brotherhood evangelism team, Matthew 

•I* 

M. Meyer, Thomas Wilson, and Clyde E. 
Weaver. 

"Such a congress could do a great deal 
in sharing the present enthusiasm which 
is growing throughout the churches and 
across denominational lines," Mr. Meyer 
said of the plans being shaped. 

"In such a setting, we would celebrate 
the faith together, share the latest materi- 
al, literature, methods, and concepts of 
evangelism, and help local churches de- 
velop an evangelistic style and spirit." 

The steering committee will attend the 
Mennonite Church evangelistic thrust. 
Probe '72, in Minneapolis April 13-16. 
Not only is the committee responsible for 
the Brethren congress, but also for in- 
volving the Church of the Brethren in the 
interdenominational, North American 
effort called Key '73, a yearlong effort in 
evangelism training and awareness on the 
theme, "Calling Our Continent to Christ." 
The Brethren have budgeted S2,500 this 
year for Key '73 support and will prob- 



ably participate to the same degree next 
year. 

A symbol adopted by the Evangelism 
Counselors Team and Brotherhood con- 
sultants suggests the Great Command- 
ment and the fact that God's love cradles 
the whole world. In its design, a blue 
world is enveloped by four red direction- 
al arrows coming from behind and 
merging in front. 

Replacing Kent E. Naylor, now on the 
national staff, as an Evangelism Counselor 
is Mrs. Marilyn J. Koehler of Udel, Iowa, 
a laywoman and student and member of 
the Fairview Church of the Brethren. 
Thomas Wilson replaces Stanley Keller, 
who took the Portland, Ore., pastorate, 
on the staff-level evangelism team. 

The 15 evangelism counselors, repre- 
senting all parts of the Brotherhood, are 
giving leadership to evangelism training, 
witnessing, and re'jources for congrega- 
tions and district. 

Ecumenically, the National Council of 
Churches is developing a new unit called 
Evangelism/Celebration as part of its re- 
sponse to growing interest in evangelism. 

"There is a growing consensus that the 
absence of celebration or worship as the 
heart of the evangelical experience has 
perhaps been its greatest weakness," said 
Dr. Jon Regier, NCC associate general 
secretary for Christian Life and Mission. 

The new unit, emphasizing communi- 
cation, will conduct study projects, train- 
ing and demonstration programs, and 
provide resources for worship and evan- 
gelism. 

Mid-Atlantic district opposes 
junior ROTC in high schools 

Churches in the Mid-Atlantic District 
went on record as opposing junior Re- 
serve Officers Training Corps programs 
for high schools. 

The district conference said that "since 
we are stewards of God's gifts of money 
and human resources, we cannot support 
junior ROTC which is financed by local 
school money and is controlled by the 
military service. 

"We cannot participate in a program 
which encourages a young man to learn 
the art of war, support war, or participate 
in war." 

Precipitating the resolution was the 



proposal last spring at Smithsburg, Md., 
for a junior ROTC program in the high 
school. Opposing the program and instru- 
mental in its defeat were a number of 
area Brethren, particularly members of 
the Welty Church of the Brethren and its 
pastor Norman R. Cain (Messenger, 
July 1, 1971). 

Heifers used as a 'sermon' 
for Thanksgiving service 

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, H. Fred 
Bernhard brought his "sermon" to 
church at the end of a rope — 1 1 sweet- 
faced Holstein heifers. 

Surprising his parishioners at the Oak- 
land Church of the Brethren, Gettysburg, 
Ohio, the pastor had three heifers brought 
into the sanctuary. Eight more remained 
outside. 

In the weeks prior, the church's witness 
commission had been searching for posi- 
tive ways to show the congregation's wit- 
ness. 

With only the faith and belief that the 
church would come through with a spirit 
of thanks-sharing at the Thanksgiving 
service, Mr. Bernhard had bought the 
1 1 heifers, aged 2 to 6 months, in the 
name of the Oakland church. 

Donors and feeders were asked for. 
Slowly at first and then with growing 
enthusiasm, voices spoke out: "This 
family will donate one." "I'll donate one 
and buy the feed if someone will raise 
it." "I'll go in with another family (or 
two or three) and raise one." Soon a line 
formed at the front of the church as the 
church clerk attempted to record all of 
the offers. 

When they were done more than 50 
families in the congregation had com- 
mitted themselves to raising 33 heifers 
and two nanny goats. After 18 months to 
feed-out the registered Holsteins, they 
will be given to Heifer Project, Inc., for 
distribution abroad. The church will be 
able to send three or four "cowboys" with 
the load when they'll be delivered. 

The family receiving a heifer must do- 
nate the first female offspring to another 
family, thus insuring the continuance of 
the original project. 

As one parishioner said, it may have 
been the best "sermon" Mr. Bernhard 
had ever preached. 



4 MESSENGER 2- 1 5-72 



what is political activity 

by churches? IRS drops hints 

Last spring moderator Dale W. Brown 
testified on behalf of the Church of the 
Brethren before the U.S. Senate Armed 
Services Committee in opposition to ex- 
tension of the draft. 

In November the General Board ap- 
proved the expenditure of $5,000 from 
the Emergency Disaster Fund to work 
toward ending the Pakistani-Indian con- 
flict and achieving a peaceful and 
equitable political settlement. 

Do these two illustrations of political 
activity by the denomination place its 
federal tax exemption in jeopardy? By 
some examples in recent years, it might. 

Most recently, the Guild of St. Ives, a 
group of Episcopal lawyers, has high- 
lighted the issue in a study, coming to the 
conclusion that current tax laws give most 
churches sufficient latitude for activities 
considered necessary to "social and 
prophetic witness." 

But the St. Ives Guild feels that the 
Internal Revenue Service has over the 
past two years narrowly interpreted regu- 
lations and gone to excesses in "threaten- 
ing" religious organizations with loss of 
exemption. 

The exemption involved is from the 
paying of income tax on contributions 



and other revenue used for basic religious 
functions. The taxation of property or 
income not related to religion is accepted 
by most U.S. churches. [Still, what con- 
stitutes "relatedness" is becoming an issue 
in many places. The United Methodist 
Church is now in litigation over taxation 
of its Nashville, Tenn., publishing house 
by local authorities.] 

The Episcopal Church in 1970 re- 
ceived an IRS advisement that an ofi^ering 
to benefit student political education 
would jeopardize exemption. The offer- 
ing was part of a 12-point statement on a 
U.S. crisis in which "public confidence in 
our foreign policy is faltering." The 
collection was canceled. 

In 1969 the National Council of 
Churches and the United Church of 
Christ were warned that testimony before 
a congressional committee on broadcast 
license renewals might lead to revocation 
of tax exempt status. 

A bill now up for Senate consideration 
— sponsored by Senator Edwin Muskie of 
Maine — would assure nontaxed organi- 
zations, including churches, the right to 
present congressional testimony without 
the danger of forfeiting exemption. 

On one side, some feel that the IRS in- 
volvement represents legitimate efforts to 
police nonprofit, nontaxable groups under 
Congressional mandate. In 1969, at 
Congress' prodding, the IRS issued new 



administrative procedures to check on 
the validity of tax exemption claims. 

Religion writer Edward B. Fiske in The 
New York Times notes, for the other 
side, "a simmering feeling in liberal 
church circles that the Nixon Administra- 
tion has adopted a policy of 'intimidation' 
of groups, including churches, that dis- 
agree with its policies on such issues as 
the Vietnam war and civil rights." 

A key paragraph in the St. Ives Guild 
document helps explain the dim view 
taken by Congress toward political activ- 
ity by any exempt group. 

"Since contributions to a church are 
deductible by the donor, the expenditure 
of such contributions by the church for 
political purposes effectively sidesteps the 
denial of tax benefit to political activities 
and would give the church an unfair ad- 
vantage over other nonexempt groups 
whose views may differ from the 
churches' and who must fund their 
activities with after-tax dollars." 

Under present provisions, exempt or- 
ganizations are barred from engaging in 
"substantial" attempts to influence legis- 
lation or from supporting political 
candidates. 

Yet, as the St. Ives Guild said, "in- 
creased awareness of social responsibility 
had led churches to public positions on 
issues of considerable political signifi- 
cance." 




Dr. J. Jack Melhorn resigns from McPherson presidency 



Noting the changing priorities of Mc- 
Pherson College and the need for new 
leadership that reflects them, J. Jack 
Melhorn resigned from the college presi- 
dency Dec. 4. He has held the post since 
August 1965. 

The college trustees have appointed a 
search committee for Dr. Melhorn's suc- 
cessor, asking him to assist in the search. 
The resignation takes effect Aug. 31. 

Falling enrollments and increasingly 
tight financial resources over the past few 
years have made fund raising an ever im- 
portant consideration for the Kansas 
college. Dr. Melhorn has indicated pub- 
licly that his first concerns and interests 
are with administration and education. 

"In addition to being an able adminis- 



trator and an innovative educator, a pres- 
ident with exceptional fund-raising abili- 
ties is needed at this time to obtain addi- 
tional gift support," he said in resigning. 

A number of steps had been taken by 
Dr. Melhorn to improve the college's 
financial standing, including holding 
faculty and staff salaries and tuition at 
the same level as last year, increased re- 
cruiting efforts, and institution of a mas- 
ter educational plan. 

Before arriving at McPherson, Dr. Mel- 
horn served as chairman of the sociology 
department and action chairman of the 
division of social sciences at La Verne 
College in California. He also served 
three terms as La Verne city's mayor. His 
future plans are as yet undetermined. 



MESSENGER 5 



Who then determines whether a church 
statement, a program or fund drive repre- 
sents "substantiar' political activity? 

Then, too, is the church lobbying when 
it makes statements on Vietnam, civil 
rights, or China? Though the Church of 
the Brethren maintains a Washington rep- 
resentative, it is not registered as a lobby- 
ist. Or do such concerns fall within the 
guarantee of freedom of religion? 

St. Ives Guild views the established 
principle of limiting the political activities 
of exempt groups as sound. The problem, 
it claims, is in the manner of administra- 
tion by the IRS of the statute and regu- 
lations. 

Churches that wish to e.xpand present 
legislative activities are best advised to 
establish separate organizations, the re- 
port says. One plea being made is that tax 
exemption not be predicated on the ab- 
sence or presence of political activity. 

Korean government expresses 
appreciation to Brethren man 

Darvin E. Boyd, 4-H program director 
and agricultural consultant for the Ameri- 
can-Korean Foundation in the Republic 
of Korea, received the National Medal — 
Order of Civil Merit. Moknyon Jang, one 
of the highest honors awarded by the 
Korean government. Mr. Boyd and his 
wife, the former Linda Stehman, are 
members of the Lititz, Pa., Church of 
the Brethren and associated members of 
the Seoul Union Church in Korea. He is 



serving his second year as chairman of 
the congregation. 

At 30, Mr. Boyd is the youngest person 
to receive the honor. As director of the 
foundation's agricultural program, he 
has. since 1966, trained Korean youth in 
leadership, citizenship, service, earth- 
block housing, bench terracing, and the 
care and management of fruit trees, 
field crops, and livestock. 

An eleven-year 4-H"er in the U.S., he 
received the Pennsylvania 4-H Achieve- 
ment Award in 1961. While attending 
Delaware Valley College of Science and 
■Agriculture, where he obtained his degree 
in animal husbandry, he supported his 
college career with profits from 4-H 
projects. 

He obtained his master's degree in pub- 
lic administration from Pennsylvania 
State University. Mrs. Boyd is a 
graduate of Elizabethtown College. She 
teaches fourth grade in the Seoul-.'\meri- 
can Elementary School for the Depart- 
ment of Defense Dependents Schools. 

It was his experience in Korea as a 
grass-roots ambassador of friendship 
and goodwill in the International Farm 
Youth Exchange Program in 1964 that 
took him back to that country to live and 
work. Today, with a strong interest in 
youth, he sees the 4-H program fulfilling 
a "key role in the development of the 
rural areas in Korea." The Boyds" own 
commitment to their work is illustrated 
in their personal contributions of $ 1 ,600 
for se\en projects related to Mr. Boyd's 
activities. 




Darvin E. Boyd, right, and agriculturc-jorestry minister Kim in Korean ceremonies 
6 MESSENGER 2I3-72 



Cooperative 'Christ's Parish' 
begun in Middle Pennsylvania 

A new cooperative parish has been estab- 
lished in Southern Huntingdon County, 
Middle Pennsylvania, involving the Rock- 
hill and Blacklog Church of the Brethren 
congregations and two .American Bap- 
tist congregations. 

The four-church unit is known as 
Christ's Parish. Pastoral services are be- 
ing given by Ronald A. Beverlin, formerly 
Rockhill church pastor, and Jonathan 
Hunter, a Juniata College senior, serving 
as pastor and associate pastor, respec- 
tively. 

The plan for ministry includes Sunday 
morning worship at each of the churches, 
Mr. Hunter in preaching ministries at two 
of the churches each Sunday, Mr. Bever- 
lin in administration and pastoral rela- 
tions. A part-time secretary completes 
the staff. 

Elsewhere in congregational organiza- 
tion. Northern Indiana district conference 
received into the denomination the South- 
side Fellowship, Elkhart, in a three-way 
relationship with two Mcnnonite bodies 
and the Church of the Brethren. 

The group meets in the chapel of the 
Associated Mcnnonite Biblical Semin- 
aries. 

In California, the Raisin City Church 
of the Brethren has joined the Mcnnonite 
Brethren, an option given to them in an 
agreement after five years of pastoral 
care by Mennonite Brethren Seminary 
students. 



Few reasons for optimism 
seen for Northern Ireland 

"There are no illusions that the churches 
will have a great effect on the situation," 
reported Dale W. Ott, reflecting on his 
visit in early December to Northern Ire- 
land. "A political settlement is impera- 
tive. But the churches can help provide 
a ministry and service of reconciliation." 
Mr. Ott, Brethren Service representa- 
tive in Europe and North Africa, was the 
only American among 42 leaders of vari- 
ous communions in Britain and the con- 
tinent at an information seminar on the 
violence occurring in Northern Ireland. 



I 



I 



(LO[nidl®[r[]Dra 



Bringing the group together were the 
Conference of European Churches and 
the Irish Council of Churches. 

The representatives heard speakers 
from all major viewpoints on the conflict, 
both ecclesiastical and political, leaving 
Mr. Ott with the view: "None who ad- 
dressed us saw reasons for optimism. . . ." 

One Methodist minister, R. D. E. Gal- 
lagher, saw some hope in the hopelessness 
of the situation, believing that both sides 
are beginning to realize that if things go 
on as before, both sides will lose. 

And although the conflict continues to 
polarize the Catholic and Protestant 
communities, some clergy feel it is forc- 
ing cooperation within the churches 
which were not thought possible before. 

On the subject of the churches" recon- 
ciling power, one speaker said, "We 
Irish are basically a churchgoing people. 
Therefore, clergy and lay leaders alike 
still have considerable opportunity to 
touch the lives of people at the grass 
roots." 

"It is most unfortunate that the strug- 
gle is still so couched in the terminology 
of the old historical religious divisions. 
The decisive factors of today are far 
more sociopolitical and economic than 
religious," Mr. Ott recounts. 

"The underdeveloped and poor of both 
communities — Protestant and Catholic 
— are the main victims of economic and 
social injustice. Nevertheless, sharp re- 
ligious prejudices persist and cannot be 
dismissed nor isolated from the other 
causes in the struggle. 

"Clearly, the churches of both confes- 
sions have failed in the past to proclaim 
and exemplify fully enough the message 
of justice and reconciliation," he said. 

Mr. Ott visited churches and talked to 
pastors whose parishes are in the heart 
of the worst areas of violence. He was 
impressed by the relief and friendship 
ministries he saw operated by churches. 

How can churches outside Ireland 
help? Mr. Ott is investigating the place- 
ment of Brethren Service volunteers in 
Belfast as youth and social workers. But 
in more general terms, when that ques- 
tion was asked in Ireland, the response 
was, "Pray for our churches, our people, 
and our country that we may find the 
strength and the faith to endure these 
troubled times and that we might find 
reconciliation one with another." 



THE PASTORAL SCENE 



Schoolteacher William Rodeffer be- 



gan part-time pastoral work with the Grottoes church in 
the Shenandoah District recently. His acceptance of the 
call is one of several in that district: R_. Thomas Fralin 
Jr . goes to the Middle River church in New Hope this 
mon1:h . . . and Robert Rowe became associate pastor at Waynes- 
boro while continuing studies at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. 

In South/Central District of Indiana William Ri tchey 
is resigning his pastorate at Sweetser. 

The Mountain Grove congregation at Cabool, Mo., wel- 
comed new pastor Ken Bumgarner in January. . . . James Sim- 
mons has resigned as executive director of the Elkhart, 
Ind., County Council of Churches to become volunteer serv- 
ices coordinator for the Elkhart county and city courts. 

Newly named associate director for CROP in Iowa is 
Max Gumm , who will continue in his pastorate at Prairie 
City on a temporary, weekend basis. 

Middle Pennsylvania's Cherry Lane church has secured 
the services of a part-time pastor, Galen Hoover , a licensed 
minister from the Carson Valley church. 

Five persons were licensed recently to the ministry: 
Thurman Andrews , New Hope, Ark. ; James Beard and Ron 
Arnett , Eel River, South/Central Indiana; Charles Wilson , 
Pleasant Valley, Shenandoah; and Ron Nolley , Staunton, 
Shenandoah. 

Installed as pastor at the Lewiston Church of the 
Brethren in the Iowa-Minnesota District was Herbert Root , 
formerly of Waca, Texas. 



A RESOURCE AVAILABLE FOR YOU 



Messenger staff 



offers the Feb. 1 special issue on nonviolence for pur- 
chase in quantity. With articles by Robert McAfee Brown, 
Richard Bollinger, H. Lamar Gibble , Dale W. Brown, and 
Glenn R. Bucher, leaders and teachers may imagine a number 
of settings for its use as a resource — for example, 
church school study, discussion groups, and draft counsel- 
ing. The cost, 50<? per magazine, will offset postage and 
handling. Order from Messenger , 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, 
111. 60120. 

AFTER FIFTY YEARS . . . Our congratulations go to 
couples marking wedding anniversaries: Mr_. and Mrs . Med- 
ford Neher , Pompano, Fla. , fifty- two; Mr. and Mrs . Clarence 
Dambman , Lanark, 111., fifty-five; the David Wilsons , Mo- 
desto, Calif. , fifty-eight; the Jessie S_. Wines , Bridge- 
water, Va., fifty-eight; the Galen Clairs , Pearl City, 111., 
fifty-eight; the Peter Heiseys , Neffsville, Pa., sixty-five; 
and the Harry D. Millers , East Freedom, Pa., sixty-seven. 

ON CAMPUS . . . La_ Verne College joins other institu- 
tions in the World Campus Afloat program as the second 
California college to participate. The first La Verne 
students will join the moving campus this year. 

At Manchester College William R. Eberly will be 
director of a new program and major in environmental 
studies , an integration of the natural sciences approach 
to problems like pollution and use of resources. 

2-15-71.' MESSEKGER 7 



p®(Boail [r^poFt 



2000: As seen through a glass darkly 



by RONALD E. KEENER 

With competent sociologists, historians, 
scholars, and others in the Church of the 
Brethren with a worldview, the denomina- 
tion appears to have scarce few "futur- 
ists" among its number. 

At least judging from the contributions 
to the winter issue of Brethren Life and 
Thought, save two or three more notable 
selections, the church has few persons 
daring and prophetic enough to hazard 
what the church will look like in the year 
2000, the assignment undertaken by 
eleven writers in the BLT. 

Perhaps the problem is not all theirs. 
Indeed, who can predict accurately the 
complexion of anything in this world 
given the rapidity of change. A difficult 
job. Nay, impossible. 

If any single Brethren grasped the fu- 
ture firmly in his vision, it was Dan West. 
His life, exemplified in part by Heifer 
Project, Inc., is one example. Yet in 
1938, as Brotherhood youth director, he 
published a small book. The Coming 
Brotherhood, in which he suggests that 
825 youth, more or less, with the help of 
selected leaders could provide the dy- 
namic for building a true social, ec- 
onomic, and spiritual brotherhood. Still 
his vision of far-reaching mutual aid, 
brotherhood life insurance and credit 
unions, one third of our youth in volun- 
teer service (ten years before Brethren 
Volunteer Service) have not come to 
pass. One writer suggests that we are 
today even more fragmented and polar- 
ized than we were in 1938. 

Yet the future is worth pondering, 
much in the fashion of an Alvin Toffler in 
Future Shock. A couple writers in BLT 
are helpful in projecting our thinking 20 
and 30 years ahead. Others are more 
myopic beyond a few years and prefer to 
relate what the church must do to enter 
the 21st century or how they would like 

8 MESSENGER 2! 3-72 



to see the church in 2000, rather than 
what it will be like — however difficult 
that chore may be. 

For Pittsburgh, Pa., pastor R. Russell 
Bixler, church life in the year 2000 is a 
moot question. "The year 2000? I hon- 
estly believe that my Lord Jesus Christ 
will have returned before that date," he 
says. 

"Thus I have a tingling expectancy 
about the year 2000. Jesus refused to 
provide dates but he did picture ample 
signs of his imminent return. And the 
imminence of those signs can be easily 
discerned by any honest inquirer." 

The task for Brethren in the remaining 
years, as Mr. Bixler sees it, is to remain 
obedient to the New Testament scrip- 
tures. He suggests that Brethren are not 
always making Jesus "excitingly central" 
in their lives. "We must discover him 
soon, or the Church of the Brethren will 
literally disintegrate," he says. 

Indeed, the very existence of the 
Church of the Brethren in the year 2000 
was seldom questioned by the contribu- 
tors. The possibility of a more narrowed 
geographic concentration and fewer num- 
bers in the church was suggested, though, 
by one writer. 

But assuming a continuation of the 
church in some form, what shall be its 
focus and mission in 30 years? Annual 
Conference moderator-elect Dean M. 
Miller suggests some interesting 
prospects: 

U^ Congregational experiences in New 
Testament "gifts of the Spirit," with 
anointing services becoming frequent. 
"In some areas surgery is performed by 
Spirit-filled healers, using only their hands 
as instruments." 

I/' Messenger as an audio-visual kit 
that monthly brings cassettes, films, and 
the printed word. 

ly* Half of Brethren congregations in 
dual alliances with other denominations, 
caused by dwindling finances, pastoral 
supply, and rural population. 



!>* An increased freedom in form of 
congregational organization, with more 
house churches or task groups. 

i/^ Some congregations almost e itirely 
made up of youth and young adults. 

l^ A denomination of 300,000, g-owth 
engendered by a new felt identity and the 
dual thrusts for spiritual power and 
human power. 

V* Mortgaging of church buildings and 
land in order to begin new service projects 
and mass media evangelism. 

i^ Emphasis on prophetic and servant 
ministries in the community. 

Mr. Miller also sees tightening govern- 
mental restrictions on the church, as it 
attempts to counter the church's prophetic 
stance. He sees government requiring 
quarterly reports on congregational activ- 
ities, scrutinizing national staff itineraries, 
infiltration of Annual Conference by 
informers. 

Annual Conference has been moved to 
Cincinnati, Ohio, in the year 2000 from 
Atlantic City, N.J., with a government 
prohibition on conventions on the eastern 
seaboard. Population growth has over- 
taxed air and water purifiers and further 
migrations to the east are being 
discouraged. 

Mr. Miller sees the 1971 National 
Youth Conference as setting the tone and 
articulately addressing the denomination 
that was to lead to a deepened unity in the 
church 30 years hence. 

He sees the Holy Spirit more clearly 
involved in "a new freedom to have and 
to express deep emotional experiences in 
the gatherings of Brethren. There is a 
new sense of joy and hope among these 
Christians who seem to be convinced that 
God's kingdom will be more visible in this 
new millennium, and that with new recep- 
tivity to spiritual phenomena, the world 
may yet experience the peace that was so 
elusive in the twentieth century." Gifts 
of tongues and of healing are no longer 
ridiculed and a new interest is found in 
"psychic phenomenon and the reality of 



I 



communication not restricted to the five 
senses." 

In the 21st century, forecasts Mr. 
Miller, "the role of biblical interpretation 
shifted from trying to demythologize the 
miracle stories to the endeavor to see the 
biblical records as evidence of God's pow- 
er at work in ways that we are only be- 
ginning to understand." 

With a new openness within the church, 
a revitalized theology of the Holy Spirit, 
a radical Christian discipleship, and "the 
exploration of inner space with the same 
curiosity and commitment that led to 
ventures beyond planet earth," the 
Church of the Brethren prospered. 

Still Mr. Miller sees 30 years making 
little difference in some issues as the 
church continues to consider the future of 
Bethany Seminary, the involvement of 
Christians in genetics and abortion, the 
role of youth in the church, and relations 
of overseas churches to U.S. 
congregations. 

Less gentle and optimistic about the 
future of the Church of the Brethren is 
William G. Willoughby, philosophy and 
religion department chairman at La Verne 
College in California. 

He believes for example that "except 
for scattered churches with great tenacity 
or with unusual pastoral or lay leadership, 
there will not be much membership of the 
church west of the Mississippi and south 
of the Ohio. . . . Barring defections, 
mergers, or reversal of trends, the church 
will drop in membership by the year 2000 
to approximately 150,000." 

Citing six demographic and other fac- 
tors in his presentation, which reflect 
careful reflection and research, he notes 
too that "the future of the church is 
bound to the reproduction rate, which will 
drop rather than rise." He opines that the 
trends will continue and perhaps 
accelerate. 

Dr. Willoughby ties the future of the 
church to the social and political condi- 
tions within the nation and believes that 
an era of comparative peace is required 
for Brethren survival. 

In such a setting, "the government will 
strongly encourage a culture church and 
will use strong pressures against prophetic 
denominations .... Church membership, 
except in the culture church, is likely to 
decline as it already has in Europe." 
Church membership may drop from a 



high of 63 percent of the population, re- 
corded in 1968, to 15 or 20 percent in 
2000, he says. 

Of six options open to the Brethren, 
from retreating into the past (character- 
ized, he feels, by the Brethren Revival 
Fellowship), to merger (which to him is 
not a live option in this century), to 
fragmentation, he chooses "a kind of 
adaptation to change." 

Decisions will be made in the years 
prior to entering the third millennium 
that will cause a much smaller denomina- 
tion to "seek to conserve her heritage at 
the same time she is attempting to fulfill 
her mission in a technetronic world." 

In this church of the future, he sees: 

\^ A smaller national headquarters 

i^ A more regional church, with few 
churches in the west and south 

v^ Increased giving per congregation 
and an increased percentage to outreach, 
with emphasis on community and area 
needs, less to national and international 
programs 

\^ Use of mass media technology in 
worship and church administration 

I/"* Use of lay persons in worship and 
preaching and pastoral duties 

\^ Taxation of church property, en- 
couraging more yoked churches 

\^ A fuzzying of denominational lines 
as ecumenism at the grass roots takes 
hold. 

"The 'main-line' denominations will be 
'one in the spirit,' at least so far as 
refractory human nature will permit, and 
will be functionally unified in operations. 
Baptism or confirmation will be a rite of 
entrance into 'universal membership" 
recorded in a central computer. The 
Church of the Brethren will maintain a 
superficial identity, but for no imperative 
reason," Dr. Willoughby surmises. 

He sees Bethany Seminary as becoming 
"even more indispensable to the life of the 
church as it devotes much of its resources 
to training lay people in specialized voca- 
tions. . . . Whatever its future shape, the 
seminary will provide a dynamic leader- 
ship to the church for the next thirty 
years — at least." 

With greater educational effectiveness 
in the year 2000, he sees children and 
adults better educated in their Christian 
faith than in previous generations. 

And in the area of personal faith. Dr. 
Willoughby forecasts that "'there will be 



much more intensity in worship experi- 
ences, and considerable exploration of 
mystic possibilities. A new confidence 
and self-esteem will be the mark of the 
Christian, for all around him the frantic, 
technological society will bear the scars 
of alienation and secular despair. There 
will be a shift in theology from Barthian 
transcendence to Process immanence, and 
harmony with rather than dominion over 
nature will be the emphasis." 

But beyond what may be — an adap- 
tation to change by the church — Bill 
Willoughby would choose another option, 
that the church with God's help create 
its own future. 

"This she could do by constructing 
vehicles for carrying her heritage, ve- 
hicles that would be self-renewing, truly 
anabaptist, truly New Testament, and 
truly open to the vision of the Kingdom, 
but not sectarian, not creedal, and not 
authoritarian. Called to 'wash the feet' 
of the world, the new church would foster 
fellowship cells or teams committed to 
faithful witness, service, or to other kinds 
of ministry," he says. 

In such a new church he sees greater 
personal commitment and an annual re- 
newal of membership, new fellowship 
groups along the model of the house 
church and in other forms. 

Bill Willoughby 's dream of true broth- 
erhood, as with Dan West's, may not 
come about. "But I dream, nevertheless, 
of a self-disciplined order within Christen- 
dom, one that is not withdrawn in sec- 
tarian, self-righteous aloofness, but one 
that in love and freedom will carry the 
gift that God has given the Brethren into 
the heart of Christendom and out into the 
world." 

Other contributors to the BLT issue are 
Doris C. Egge, Roanoke, Va., Ida Stude- 
baker Howell, Pomona, Calif., Anna B. 
Mow, Roanoke, Va., Raymond R. Peters, 
Sebring, Fla.. Graydon F. Snyder, Lom- 
bard, III., Larry K. Ulrich, Gaithersburg, 
Md., M. R. Zigler, Sebring, Fla., and 
C. Wayne Zunkel, Eiizabethtown, Pa. 

In a rationale for extrapolating the 
future. Bill Willoughby suggests that one's 
attempt to deal with the future is better 
than to ignore it, for those who do not 
look into the future may lose a portion of 
their humanity. So it is with the Brethren 
if they are to find direction by the year 
2000. D 



2-I5-' 



MESSENGER 



The Community of Christ the Servant: 



A Caring Place 
With a Cominonl 



by Linda Beher 



Mt's an unimposing building. St. Luke's 
Lutheran Church, its buff brick and case- 
ment-window architecture the marks of 
dozens of suburban churches near 
Chicago. It's the other sign on the winter- 
ragged lawn that arrests, boldly lettered 
in blue on white: Tempor.\ry Qu.^rters, 
The Community of Christ the Serv- 
ant, LcTHER.\N Church in America, 
Experi.ment.\l Education Center, 
J.\CK VV. Lundin, Pastor. 

You do not need to know much about 
the Community to sense right away its 
vitality and warmth. In space owned by 
and shared temporarily with St. Luke's, 
office and activity center spill delightedly 
into each other. Telephones ring. Desks, 
acquired used from a Chicago office 
building, groan with the weight of corre- 
spondence and thick copies of The 
Villaife Voice. Free-standing closets 
bulge with liturgical robes, reels of film, a 
coffeemaker, cardboard boxes with sink- 
ing tops, and several large red and blue 
"gutbuckets": a ladder leans against the 
wall. People drinking coffee shout greet- 
ings and conversation to each other over 
the rhythmic clack/ thud/clack of the 
Multilith ■ — nicknamed The Monster by 
the woman running it — spewing en- 
velopes imprinted with the Community's 
address. Posters — "Jesus taught adults 
and played with children" — signs, and 



photographs of a Sunday morning gather- 
ing paper the cement block walls. 

On a workday the larger space glows in 
soft colors and shadows. Used variously 
for the gathering of the Community at the 
Eucharist, film and theatre workshops 
and performances, children's activities, 
group meetings, even at rest it suggests an 
absence of pretense, of piety about 
"sacred spaces"; reminds the visitor that 
"this room is for people purposes." Light 
from pushout windows breaks through 
colored glass to diffuse to purples and 
reds, greens and oranges, on the metal 
chairs that form a rough horseshoe 
around the platform on which the altar 
stands. Balloons hang in clusters from the 
altar, the music stand, the piano and 
drums lurking in the colored shadows. 
Banners affirm that the family is good, 
that hope is part of the Community, that 
God and love and people are alive here. 

You do not need to be long in the 
company of the Community's staff to 
sense their intense e,\citement about what 
they are doing. There are warm, easy 
relationships between pastor Jack Lundin 
and Gary Rowe, minister of arts and 
media whose work is partially funded as a 
special ministry by the District of Illinois 
and Wisconsin and the Parish Ministries 
Commission. 

At twenty-six Gary comes well 



equipped for such a ministry. Writer of 
plays and poetry, maker of films, he was 
graduated from Bethany Theological 
Seminary in 1970 after several years' con- 
centrated study in media. "If there wasn't 
a class for something I wanted to learn, I 
devised an independent study," he 
laughed. "I knew I wanted to work with 
people. And I knew I wanted to do some- 
thing in communications media and the- 
atre. The two began coming together and 
I began realizing that maybe I could 
accomplish both in a ministry." 

Gary can talk excitedly about the use 
of media like film and video tapes to 
transform persons. "Persons can better 
understand the effects of media if they 
are involved in it themselves. And so 
efforts like film making can be an educa- 
tional experience." His involvement in 
early stages of the video tape project 
prompted a discussion of the kinds of 
technology already available for the 
church to use — "if it will just use them!" 
He sketched a church school setting in 
which children could watch a program 
created specifically for them and recorded 
on video tape. Cassettes and equipment to 
play them are already on the market. 
"Imagine the uses for video tape; an en- 
tire congregation could see the highlights 
of Annual Conference without ever hav- 
ing to leave home," Gary said. "Or an 



10 MESSENGER 213-72 



Cnp 



adult church school class could be in- 
volved in problems of biblical interpreta- 
tion with professors at Bethany like 
Graydon Snyder or Robert NefT." 

He can talk persuasively, too, about the 
expanding use of the arts in local parish 
setting. "Theatre and film making are 
ways of breaking down barriers to com- 
munication and of overcoming the aliena- 
tion persons feel from one another." And 
so, in addition to standard pastoral func- 
tions like counseling and assisting in the 
liturgy, he acts as a resource person for 
film making workshops; as artistic direc- 
tor of the CCS Repertory Theatre Com- 
pany; as enabler for film seminars. 

The Community began in 1968, when 
the Lutheran Church in America allowed 
for a new experiment to take place. Sev- 
eral families banded together that year, 
with Jack Lundin as pastor, tired of 
tyrannical structures that divided the 
family, shunting the children off to junior 
church or a competitive, rigid Sunday 
school; boxing the adults into pews that 
prevent face-to-face contact, and joyless 
repetition of meaningless liturgy. 

In their covenant the families resolved 
to celebrate the Eucharist each week as 
their central act of faith, with the chil- 
dren joining the family circle as recipi- 
ents of a baptismal blessing. 

They determined to experiment with 




. an 
udi uongregation 



215-72 MESSENGER 11 



new liturgies and songs that would help 
them make a festive, contemporary state- 
ment about themselves as persons in 
community. 

They vowed to reenfranchise persons 
who have generally found no place in the 
church: the artists and musicians whose 
talents with modern graphics or whose 
expertise at sweet hot jazz never seemed 
quite as acceptable as the fourteenth- 
century fresco or the music of organists 
(with an occasional flautist or violinist 
thrown in, and possibly a guitarist for 
Youth Sunday). 

They eschewed traditional membership 
rolls, designing a short-term, year-at-a- 
time covenant on the part of all who care 
to partake. "In the corporate sense, is it 
not healthy to allow the congregation to 
die even symbolically, if not in actual 
fact?" wrote Jack Lundin in a paper 
describing the one-year covenant. "Do 
we not hold tenaciously to a number of 
practices which tend as often as not to 
separate us from others rather than bind 
us together?" 

"We really do go out of business, liter- 
ally, once a year," Gary said. "If no one 
showed up the next Sunday to make a 
new covenant, we'd be out of work." And 
when one thinks of Jesus" reference to 
new wine in old wineskins, it all comes 



together in a sensible pattern. 

The families proposed that the group 
be characterized by little formal structure, 
permitting the covenantal membership to 
confirm all the business of the Commu- 
nity — from purchasing a typewriter to 
hiring a new staff person. 

They decided against getting into debt 
for a building which might not meet their 
requirements for flexibility. And so in the 
beginning they met in a barn, converted 
into usable space by the Board of Ameri- 
can Missions of the LCA, owner of the 
land. In a short time they will be moving 
to an office/ hotel complex now being 
built on the barn site. 

They agreed that the kind of witness 
that could come from members of the 
Community might best be expressed in 
"secular" groups. And so CCS has no 
social action commission, no nurture 
board. Members display their concerns 
in those areas by joining suburban groups. 
Gary: "This idea gets members to witness 
beyond the Community to the commu- 
nity-at-large in a way that makes worship 
not a hollow experience but a real expres- 
sion of hopes and fears." 

They aimed to open whatever space 
they could to groups in need of a meeting 
place or a telephone number and mailing 
address, believing that what a congrega- 



tion does with its space ought to be com- 
mensuate with its tasks as a community. 
Disparate groups like the American Civil 
Liberties Union, a local chapter of 
Homes of Private Enterprise, and the 
Du Page Ballet — altogether about twen- 
ty organizations — find a friendly home 
at CCS. 

Mroviding a place for such organiza- 
tions sparked the birth of Suburban 
Training Center, housed at the Commu- 
nity but sponsored by Evangelical, Beth- 
any and Northern Baptist theological 
seminaries. Students at the Center — 
recruited from sponsoring seminaries — 
participate in field work in such nonparish 
ministries as legal programs and civil 
liberties efforts, fair housing groups, 
youth culture agencies, mass media proj- 
ects, street ministries for youth, and 
political action groups. They engage in 
study of topic areas like Definitions of the 
Suburban Matrix, The Dynamics of 
Social Change, and The Suburban Mys- 
tique. They process new concepts in 
conversations with community leaders 
and seminary faculty members. 

Gary's investment in the Suburban 
Training Center is heavy. As coordinator 
he develops curriculum. Secures leader- 



Pasinr Jack Lundin in moments on Sunday mornin/; when Community eni^ages in decision making: Wednesday Program, singing with pastor 




ship. Writes promotional brochures. It's 
the only program of its kind in the Chi- 
cago area — astonishing when Gary tells 
you that the suburbs where the Center 
and its sponsors are located will he the 
geographical center of Chicago in not too 
many years distant. 

The Center provides a learning adven- 
ture for seminary students not unlike that 
in which the Community itself partici- 
pates. With faith that "learning is sheer 
delight," members of the Community 
resolved to turn the rigidity of the tradi- 
tional Sunday school into a time for 
children to explore and to celebrate their 
own gifts. Christian education at the 
Community of Christ the Servant, Gary 
explained, is experiential and noncom- 
f)etitive, with the leader a resource per- 
son, not a curriculum. "Wednesday Pro- 
gram for children (preschool to fifth 
grade) is not just Sunday school on a 
different day," he was quick to point out. 
And I was quick to concur; who expects 
theatre games, creating buttons, and 
planting indoor gardens at Sunday school 
— even if it is on a diflferent day? 

Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders with 
their pastor plunge into all sorts of ex- 
periences "as a church." They are ex- 
periences I would enjoy: visiting a 
synagogue and a Bar-Mitzva; attending a 



pop concert by the Chicago Symphony; 
flying over Chicago to sense how the city 
lives and organizes; eating their way 
through five or six ethnic neighborhoods 
in the city; meeting and talking with 
ex-drug addicts at Grace Lutheran 
Church in Chicago — visceral experi- 
ences that enable youngsters to respond 
to their world as Christians. 

The Plunge Program acts as a prelude 
to the more academic years of confirma- 
tion, for ninth and tenth graders. "It's 
like a book-of-the-month club; the kids 
read everything from Salinger to Luther," 
Gary said. 

And of a Sunday evening adults can 
tune into biblical study as it relates to the 
family; films as they relate to Christian 
ethics; literature as it has meaning theo- 
logically; freewheeling discussions of 
family life. Gary organizes the film and 
literature discussions, with books like The 
Great Gatsby and films like Nobody 
Waved Goodbye to enrich the dialogue. 



o 



'utside the buff brick building which 
temporarily houses the Community, you 
can watch the city press its way west. The 
Illinois landscape out there, gentle hills 
and tree-filled low places, is all but lost 
under the gnashings, scrapings, and 



fillings of bulldozers clearing the land for 
industrial parks, high rises, and more 
houses, wider roads to hang out like 
latchstrings from Chicago. Friends of 
mine who know the callous ways of the 
suburbs, the prisons that can trap you 
there, find it hard to believe that a caring 
place like the Community of Christ the 
Servant might be able to exist where 
people regard other people with detach- 
ment, and a friendly glance is not easily 
come by. 

"It's great that you can be yourself 
there, and feel accepted and acceptable," 
one told me. "But I don't see what that 
has to do with a relationship between you 
and your God. How does going there 
make you a better person?" 

I remembered the warm "Peace of 
Christ be with you" a woman named 
Nancy had spoken as she hugged me; the 
way Gary and Jack had looked at the 
children they blessed during the Eucha- 
rist; how the sweet bread had felt on my 
tongue, and the hard chill of the common 
cup; the concern we had shared for a 
member whose mother was ill and dying. 

And I remembered what Jack had said 
during the act of absolution: "You are 
free in Christ; live without excuses!" 

No other explanations seemed 
necessary. □ 



Gary: Helping district dream of media uses 







^ 



"It is not unusual for the Parish Min- 
istries Commission to enter into con- 
tract with districts in the Brotherhood 
to support a specialized ministry" like 
the one which Gary Rowe is develop- 
ing, according to PMC executive Earle 
W. Fike Jr. Specifically, he said, 
"We're there because the Community 
of Christ the Servant is a creative form 
of congregational life, a new model 
which no one has tried before." 

Illinois-Wisconsin District executive 
secretary Carl E. Myers is glad to talk 
about Gary's tie-in with the Church of 
the Brethren. "Gary's experiments with 
community outreach and new educa- 
tional ministries interested the district. 
We felt that here was a creative guy 
needing to experiment further with his 
ideas. And we were willing to say we'd 
stand with him." 

In his work with the district Gary has 



developed an Experimental Program in 
Arts and Media, an umbrella designa- 
tion which covers such eflforts as design- 
ing a May 1972 workshop on the 
church and the arts and proposing uses 
for video cassettes — in sum helping 
district personnel dream of ways in 
which the church can use media in its 
witness to the community-at-large. 

Carl: "Maybe the old patterns and 
techniques are not doing the job. Even 
so, when the district involved itself with 
Gary it was not with the proviso that we 
wanted a specific product to show for 
our investment." 

But there is a product — a person's 
creativity. And if it is possible to 
purchase that for the purpose of devel- 
oping a significant ministry, both Carl 
Myers and Earle Fike would affirm that 
is what the district and Parish Min- 
istries Commission have done. 



2-15-' 



MESSENGER 13 



Finding the Lost 



We Have Lost 



by G. Curtis Jones 



\V 



hilc on an east coast trip I lost my 
plane ticket. I am not an inexperienced 
traveler, having circumnavigated the 
globe twice without losing anything ex- 
cept weight, time, and sleep. But when I 
prepared to leave New York for home, 
I could not find my ticket. I returned to 
the motel; searched every inch of the 
room; went through luggage and clothes 
... no ticket. I felt stupid. 

To this day I have no idea what hap- 
pened; whether it was dropped, or left on 
someone's desk following a conference, or 
taken by a pickpocket. ,^11 I know is 
that it disappeared. 

Sooner or later we all lose something of 
value: a key, wedding ring, money, prop- 
erty, friends. It is a tantalizing and 
enervating experience. It spoils our day. 
It disturbs our chemistry. It colors our 
responses. We return to the scene, at- 
tempt to recapitulate the event, rehearse 
our movements, and follow every glim- 
mer of hope that might shed light on the 
mystery . . . often spending more time in 
the search than the value of that which is 
lost warrants. 

>^ot only do we lose objects and things; 
we lose our tempers. 

There are two kinds of anger: that 
which blazes, and that which broods. 
Some people have short fuses and, like 
gunpowder, go off quickly. The least 
irregularity or irritation, from breaking a 
shoelace to missing a traffic light, ignites 
them. Then there are those who remain 
silent through conflict, imaginary and 
real. They do not blaze — they smolder, 
sulk, and frequently isolate themselves. 
They are most difficult to reason with be- 
cause there is little communication. 

That which causes one to explode in 



anger may be physical, psychological, in- 
ternal, or external. It may emanate from 
a bad tooth, a fitful night's rest, a poor 
liver, a misunderstanding, a miscarriage 
of justice, or insensitivity to need. What- 
ever triggers the reaction, one usually fires 
back, seeking to destroy the source in 
some type of combat, or to escape to 
some convenient emotional hideout. 

Individuals, especially professing 
Christians, are challenged to discover and 
maintain equilibrium. Dr. Karl Mennin- 
ger calls it "'the vital balance." What does 
this delicate term "equilibrium" mean? 
It is the concept of entropy. Related to 
human behavior, when energy exchanges 
between two systems at different tempera- 
tures, according to this law of balance it 
always flows from the hotter to the colder 
body. A measure of this law is entropy. 
As entropy increases, chaotic conditions 
increase. There are points at which the 
exchange becomes irreversible. 

The secret of human behavior, more 
often than not, is determined by this vital 
balance. The Christian is not expected to 
be foam rubber, but to possess, like steel, 
that quality of temper that makes him 
strong, useful, and dependable. 

The size of a man can be measured by 
the size of that which makes him mad. 
Our Lord was not a placid personality. 
He earned the title of "meek and mild" 
— yet as we know, when such people do 
explode, they are most difficult to handle. 
When Jesus saw the money game going 
on in the temple he blazed with indigna- 
tion and literally drove the racketeers out. 

Observing the hypocrisy of the Phari- 
sees, Jesus referred to them as "white- 
washed sepulchers," "brood of vipers" — 
hissing snakes! Seeing Herod's cunning- 
ness, he told companions, "Go and say to 



that fox . . . ." 

Our Lord's anger was aroused not be- 
cause of wrongs done to him but always 
because of wrongs done to God. 

However we try to control ourselves, 
now and again we explode. We overreact, 
we make statements for which we are 
sorry, we behave unbecomingly. When 
we lose the delicate, vital balance in ex- 
changes with others, we lose effectiveness 
and contagion. 

There is an ancient proverb which says: 
"He whom the gods would destroy, they 
first make mad." 

The late and beloved Harry Emerson 
Fosdick was proud of his heritage and 
parents. He once spoke of a technique 
employed by his mother when, as a lad, 
he would lose his temper. Looking at him 
she would say: "Where is Harry? Has 
anyone seen Harry? Go find Harry." 

Not only children but aspiring adults 
must daily seek to find that which they 
have lost in their personalities. 

^s human beings we not only lose things 
of value, we not only lose the vital bal- 
ance in our relationships, we frequently 
lose ourselves or become lost in the 
avalanche of alternatives and responsibil- 
ities. 

We move from irritation to indiffer- 
ence, to uncertainty, to isolation. Prob- 
lems emanating from economics, politics, 
ecology, together with personal choices, 
are so overwhelming that we lose our 
sense of direction and dedication. 

When is a man lost? The eminent 
William Ernest Hocking described a lost 
soul as one who had lost confidence in 
himself, the power of belief in his fellows 
and in the universe. Professor Arthur 
Holt expressed it this way: "A man is lost 



14 MESSENGER 2 lj-72 




(/ f -G Cur 



3 Curts Jones 




when he cannot define his present or plan 
his future." 

This is a day of lostness. General con- 
ditions seem to deplete us of spark, pur- 
pose, and power. The average person is a 
profile of dejection and fear. American 
youth refer to themselves as "the lost gen- 
eration" — meaning they have inherited 
ambiguity, confusion, inconsistency, and 
are denied the opportunity to determine 
their destiny. 

We become lost in the fogs of fear, 
anxiety, worry. 

We become lost in the jungles of pas- 
sion, hatred, addiction. 

We become lost in the arena of polit- 
ical affairs. 

Because we lose confidence in ourselves 
and others, because courage and integrity 
are so easily misplaced, we frequently be- 
come lost in human relationships . . . 
and such institutions as marriage, business 
partnerships, church connections deteri- 
orate and disintegrate. 

Often in our search for independence, 
prominence, success, we lose ourselves in 
schedule, the organization, and daily 
commitments. 

Parents are always in danger of losing 
their children, not only babies, but teen- 
agers. Communications break down, 
barriers emerge. On a college campus not 
long ago I asked a young man of my ac- 
quaintance how his people were. He re- 
plied: "I don't know. They never write." 
On another campus a girl declared she 
could not talk with her parents. Referring 
to them as "plastic people" she said: 
"They never have time to listen." 

.Awareness of lostness has accompanied 
the human race. Man, at best, has been 
sensitive to his lostness and that around 
him. Realizing this frustrating reality 



2-15-72 MESSENGER 15 



Jesus spoke to it in the parable of The 
Lost Sheep. The stop,- appears in both 
Luke and Matthew. 

Luke's rendering of the account was 
occasioned by the Pharisees who persisted 
in asking "why" he fraternized with the 
wrong people: "why" he received sinners. 
The story of The Lost Sheep in Luke's 
gospel appears along with stories of The 
Lost Boy. It is an attempt to justify the 
gospel against critics. 

Matthew's single account of prevailing 
lostness is addressed not to Jesus' oppo- 
nents but to his disciples, challenging, in- 
spiring them to go after the missing 
brother with a persistence and dedication 
comparable to that of a shepherd who 
goes in search of a stray sheep. 

Nowhere in the world are shepherds so 
obvious and unique as in the Judean hills. 
These picturesque, weather-beaten, 
courageous, faithful men moved Jesus to 
associate their familiar role with that of 
God. Jesus considered himself a shep- 
herd. "For the Son of man came to seek 
and to save the lost" ( Luke 19:10). 

Clearly the shepherd in the parable did 
not consider prudence a primary virtue. 
Ninety-nine percent is well nigh perfect 
but he did not play percentages! Impru- 
dent or not, the shepherd was impelled by 
an unshakable duty to take care of all 
his flock. So having accounted for all ex- 
cept one, he went and searched for the 
lost until it was found. And what happi- 
ness was his. . . ! 

This parable, you see, is actually ad- 
dressed to the church. The Christian com- 
munity not only has enormous responsi- 
bility for unreached, uncorralled sheep — 
peoplel — but also for the tedious task 
of keeping an eye on the entire flock, 
making certain that all members of the 
church are in the presence and spirit of 
the Master. By and large, no institution 
has a worse record of looking after its 
own than the average church. No won- 
der there are dropouts. We do not con- 
sider very seriously one another's needs. 
We are challenged, not to look after our- 
selves for the sake of looking after our- 
selves, but to build oneness, fellowship, 
and love that in turn will inspire us to 



bring others into communion with God. 
When the church loses its heart, it loses 
its way! 

Church members are involved in a vari- 
ety of marvelous undertakings in the com- 
munity. These are worthy. They are a 
part of our task, but they are not the 
whole task. We give money, time, talent 
to the church, but we are reluctant to 
engage in the hard day-by-day task of 
keeping in touch with all the flock. To 
do so is difficult, enervating and dis- 
couraging . . . yet the parable challenges 
the Christian to become undershepherd 
to the Good Shepherd, seeking the strayed 
and the lost. 

Jesus seldom used the word "sinner." 
He preferred the word "lost." 



im few months ago I met an interesting 
man who is active in one of the Metho- 
dist churches of Washington, D.C. It 
developed that his particular responsi- 
bility, as a member of the congregation, 
was to coordinate the calling eff^orts of 
officers of the church on inactive and 
homebound members. Each officer of this 
strong metropolitan church is expected 
to make three such calls a week, or twelve 
a month. What a specific implementation 
of the parable! 

Like sheep, people become lost not 
by design, not because they are bad, but 
because they become involved in their 
own patch of grass and nibble themselves 
out of sight. The lost sheep was not bad. 
He was simply lost. 

The prevailing point of the ancient 
parable of The Lost Sheep is that God is 
Lord of the Lost! It speaks of a God 
who will not give up on a single soul. It 
reveals the truth that man is of absolute 
worth to God and He continues to seek 
him in redeeming love. 

The uncomfortable teaching, therefore, 
for the church to which the parable was 
originally directed, is that the Christian 
community is expected to assume the 
role of good shepherd in a sophisticated 
society. It is just that incongruous and 
that imperative. 



Back in 1961 an unforgetable experi- 
ence was that of being guest for a week in 
the home of the former Prime Minister 
of Rhodesia, Garfield Todd. This man of 
marvelous bearing, mental superiority, 
and spiritual sensitivity, served as a 
Christian missionary for more than twen- 
ty years before entering politics in the 
belief he could do more for the black 
man in this role. He was so successful 
that his fellow whites did not send him 
back to office. When I was there, Gar- 
field and Grace Todd operated a huge 
ranch. 

Among the episodes he shared was his 
account of the most frightening experi- 
ence of his life — that of being lost all 
night in the jungle. It happened just after 
World War II. Fencing wire was scarce, 
and he had heard of used wire for sale at 
a distant ranch and had gone to examine 
it. Arriving late in the afternoon he 
found the fence and started to follow it, 
examining its condition, and estimating 
the cost of removing it, prior to preparing 
his bid. 

Time was later than he realized and 
suddenly he was enveloped in darkness. 
In following the circuitous path of the 
fence he had lost his sense of direction. 
Now he was alone in the jungle in the 
night. To survive he realized he must 
follow the fence and keep walking, for he 
could hear animals pursuing him. He 
reasoned that at some point the fence 
might reach a clearing where perhaps he 
could gain his bearings . . . better yet, it 
might reach the road and he could be 
rescued by his wife, whom he knew would 
be circling the jungle in the car. 

After a most horrendous night he 
stumbled into a clearing and the road near 
dawn. Shortly thereafter came the lights 
of a car. It was Grace. Exhausted, 
clothes in tatters, body bleeding, Garfield 
Todd dropped at her feet, rejoicing. Love 
had persisted. 

As love sought to find its way out of 
darkness, love searched diligently for the 
one in the darkness. The lost had 
been found. 

This is the spirit of the Good Shep- 
herd. This is the way of God. n 



16 MESSENGER 2\il2 



The efforts of Vietnam veterans 
to beconne hunnan again 



Hmneeoiiung 




by Chainn Shatan 

w^teve stiffened, looked around fearfully, 
and thought, "These people all look alike. 
How do I know who's friend and who's 
enemy?" Then he shook himself, remem- 
bering: "They are all your friends. This 
is Times Square, USA." Eighteen months 
after a nonpsychiatric discharge, follow- 
ing four-year Marine combat duty in "the 
Nam," Steve still suffers unpredictable 
episodes of terror and disorientation. 

Coming around a bend in a Washington 
park path, Mike kept to the inside of the 
curve so that "hostiles" would not see 
him. He has observed this precaution 
automatically for five years since his 
service as a medic in Vietnam. 

Vietnam veterans have recounted these 
and other sobering experiences to me and 
my colleagues in "group rap" sessions. 
These meetings were initiated in 1970 by 
veterans themselves, either because of 
their distrust of "establishment" psychi- 
atric services, or because their dis- 
turbances manifested themselves too late 
to prove the "service connection" re- 
quired for VA treatment. 

Delay in the appearance of symptoms 
has enabled the administration to claim 
that the Vietnam war has produced fewer 
psychiatric casualties than any other U.S. 
war. Yet, in Congressional testimony. 
Army consultant Professor Gerald Caplan 
has corroborated our impressions that sig- 
nificant numbers of Vietnam veterans, 
especially those with extensive combat 
experience, are deeply troubled emo- 
tionally. 

In the "group raps," certain commonly 
shared concerns have emerged. Since 



2-15 



MESSENGER 17 



Many vets feel deceived, used, and betrayed. 

They carry the burden of the war's unpopularity 




they do not fit any standard diagnostic 
label, we refer to them loosely as the 
'■post-Vietnam syndrome." 

What are its basic themes? 

Easiest to talk about are guili feelings 
for those killed and maimed on both 
sides, and preoccupation with the fate of 
friends still overseas. Often veterans ask, 
"How do we turn off the guilt? Can we 
atone?" And they provide their own an- 
swer: they speak of "paying their dues" 
for surviving intact when others did not. 
TTiey invite self-punishment through pick- 
ing self-defeating fights, through provok- 
ing near ones to reject them, even through 
a high proportion of one-car accidents. 

Another common complaint is that 
they have been scapegoats. Many vets 
feel victimized, initially by inadequate 
VA treatment and paltr>' GI benefits. 
But soon their gripes encompass society 
at large: they feel deceived, used, and be- 
trayed. When they see senior officers 



exonerated for war atrocities without 
trial, they speak bitterly about the High 
Command's impunity. Meanwhile, the 
GIs — like the bearers of bad news since 
history began — carry the burden of the 
war's unpopularity. 

Rage, the third widely shared feeling, 
follows naturally from the awareness of 
being duped and manipulated. In addi- 
tion, counter-insurgency training un- 
leashes violent impulses against indis- 
criminate targets. Once home, veterans 
have great difficulty mastering these im- 
pulses in the face of the ambivalent 
civilian reception. 



\^omhal hrutalization. "You get 
chewed up in the Vietnam war machine, 
and get spit out unfeeling. Then you are 
just the finger that pulls the trigger." 
Basic combat training — "harassing the 
troops" in Marine jargon — promotes 



obedience through humiliation and mal- 
treatment. Only one permissible outlet is 
presented for the soldier's impotent fury: 
the dehumanized image of the "enemy." 
Under guerrilla conditions of universal 
terror, this dehumanization has no clear- 
cut boundaries. Hatred is then general- 
ized to any Oriental, and eventually to 
any civilian, the more so when the GIs 
learn how expendable they are them- 
selves. Only after discharge do many 
veterans begin to doubt the validity of 
their hate. 

Alienaiion from their feelings and from 
other human beings: after systematically 
numbing their human responses, veterans 
find it ditficult and painful to experience 
compassion for others. Painful because 
they must first thaw out their numbed 
reactions to the death and evil which sur- 
rounded them in combat. Unable to for- 
get, they live through some things "for- 
ever," and often find inner peace through 



18 MESSENGER 2-15 72 



CanlJIfe Share 

the Vietnam VBteran^s 

Burden? 



creating a "dead place" in their souls — a 
file where memories live on divorced from 
their unending emotional impact. The 
price of this peace is alienation from 
feelings in general, and relative inability 
to form close relationships. 

The most poignant feature is an ago- 
nizing doubt about their continued ability 
to love others, and to accept affection. 
One veteran said: "You paid a high price 
for trusting other people in the Nam. 
Every time you acted human, you got 
screwed." And another: "I hope I can 
learn to love as much as I learned to hate 
— and I sure hated, man. But love's a 
pretty heavy word." 

Are the self-castigation, torment, and 
rage which I have described an accidental 
grab bag of symptoms? Emphatically not. 
Clinicians will recognize them as the 
hallmarks of frustrated mourning, of 
submerged grief. 

In extreme situations — death camps, 
active warfare — grief threatens the 
morale necessary for survival and combat 
effectiveness. Both intimacy and grief are 
actively discouraged in the modern mili- 
tary. Trainees are cautioned against 
close friendships lest a buddy should die. 
However, since combatants are human, 
too, brutalization can only suppress, but 
not eradicate, the normal mammalian 
response to bereavement. 

During World War I, Freud elucidated 
the role grief plays in helping the mourn- 
er let go of a missing part of life, and 
acknowledging that it exists only in the 
memory. The so-called "post-Vietnam 
syndrome" confronts us with the uncon- 
summated grief of soldiers — "impacted 
grief" in which an encapsulated, never- 
ending past deprives the present of mean- 
ing. 

Unlike the World War II veteran, the 
Vietnam returnee is unheralded, unwant- 
ed, and all but unemployable. Lack of 
moral acceptance and defensive denial of 
his needs exacerbate the consequences of 
his failure to mourn. Must he be shunted 
into an emotional dead end of frustration, 
alienation, and solitude? Or can we share 
in his effort to become human once again, 
to reintegrate a new identity? Q 



Mhe grief of soldiers returned from 
Vietnam is not theirs alone to bear; we 
are involved in it. We share in the re- 
sponsibility for creating those agonizing 
circumstances which have led, in the 
terms of psychiatrist Chaim Shatan, to 
impacted grief. And once again we see 
that the toll of warfare reaches far 
beyond the theater in which it was 
conducted. 

Consider what it means for veterans 
to return "unheralded, unwanted, and 
all but unemployable." Is this the 
situation of young men in your congre- 
gation and your community? 

Within the Church of the Brethren 
seventy-three percent of the men facing 
the draft during the Vietnam era have 
entered the armed services, according to 
a recent survey. As these men and 
others like them in our respective com- 
munities return, are we aware of their 
plight, their anxieties, their struggles "to 
become human once again"? 

Numerous groups, some adequate, 
others inadequate, are being established 
to help veterans surmount the problems. 
Responses at the local level are strategic 
in fostering the renewal of trust, in 
developing understanding, in providing 
employment, in expressing love and 
acceptance. 

There are other tasks, however, to be 
pursued at a national and international 
level as well. One such group to which 
the Church of the Brethren and nine 
other denominations are represented is 
Emergency Ministries Concerning the 
War. Involved in a series of pilot pro- 
grams, the Emergency Ministry sees as 
a beginning step the need to rap with 



veterans and respond at the points they 
regard as central. 

High on the list of concerns in many 
communities is widespread unemploy- 
ment. The rate of unemployment 
among veterans age 20-29 is 33 percent 
higher than for nonveterans of the same 
ages, The New York Times reported 
last June. For veterans under 24, the 
rate of unemployment is forty percent 
greater than for nonveterans of the 
same ages. Among blacks, unemploy- 
ment of veterans age 20-29 is 100 per- 
cent higher than for nonveterans of the 
same ages. 

Of the nearly five million veterans 
since August 1964, one out of five has 
less than a high school education. They 
are competing for jobs in a nation where 
the formal education picture has 
changed drastically. From 1940 to 
1970, the percentage of high school 
graduates rose from 38 to 75 percent 
of the population, college graduates 
from 6 to 16 percent. 

What can we do? Beyond learning to 
know the men personally and engaging 
in local efforts, we can find out what is 
being done in other communities and 
nationally. We can act upon the condi- 
tions of the forgotten wounded, Viet- 
nam and other war veterans, in VA 
hospitals (see Life magazine. May 
1970). We can work with veterans 
to experiment with new forms of prob- 
lem solving. And. most basically, we 
can participate in efforts aimed at elimi- 
nating the root causes of war. — 

Wilbur E. Mullen. Church of the Breth- 
ren Ministry to Men Facing the Draft 




2-15- 



MESSENGER 19 



ttaiDacB ntt ffrpaDnm Dqceifcb? 




"Future shock," explains Alvin 
Toffler in iiis book by that title, "is the 
shattering stress and disorientation 
that we induce in individuals by sub- 
jecting them to too much change in 
too short a time." 

"Take It From Here" does not in- 
tend to jolt its readers into shock, but 
changed it isl In format, in design, in 
content, in reader "beam." It may 
appear in two successive issues, then 
get lost for four. You may have to 
search it out on one page or be flab- 
bergasted at a striking, bold, two-page 
spread which you couldn't miss. 

It may be directed specifically to 
you — a pastor, a child, a church 
treasurer, a custodian, or a senior citi- 
zen. It may be something to do. Or, 
something to think about. You see — 
the new plan opens up a whole jack- 
in-the-box of surprises. So look for 
them! 



byfjileeYoder 



On the tv program Directions, a 
teen-ager struggled to express her idea 
of the Jesus way of life. "It's . . . it's 
. . . it's loving someone you'd just 
love to hate." A ripple of laughter, 
then a hush fell over the group. The 
silence was broken by an explosive 
"Wow! Loving someone you would 
just love to hate? But . . . that's it. 
Yes sir, that's it!" 

I was reminded of Clarence Jor- 
dan's remarks in Sermon on the 
Mount: "Jesus didn't tell his followers 
to love their enemies because love 
would or would not work. The idea 
probably never occurred to him to 
raise the question of whether or not it 
was practical. . . . Being what he is, 
God can't help loving all men, regard- 
less of what they are. Even so with 
God's sons. Their nature is not de- 
termined by the reaction of their 
enemies, since by virtue of their com- 
plete surrender to the divine will they 
no longer have the freedom to cease 
being what they are. Bound by this 
higher loyalty, the argument of prac- 
ticality is irrelevant to them. They do 
not for the sake of convenience set 
aside their nature, any more than a 
minnow transforms into a bird when 
in danger of being swallowed by a 
bass." 



letyonr 
imagination fly! 

Clarence Jordan used his imagination. 
Why don't you? Away you go! Free 
and on your own! How about a ban- 
ner or poster to brighten up some 
room on a dreary, wintry day? Once 
you decide on such a project, idea 
after idea will begin to pop into your 
mind. Some slogans? Look all 
around you. Listen carefully. In 
Sound of Music I heard, "Love is not 
love 'til you give it away." On a 
church bulletin board I saw, "All my 



20 MESSENGER 2-15-72 



tomorrows depend on your love." In 
the Bible I read, "Make love your 
aim" and "Love never ends" and 
"Love one another" and "God is 
love." 

If making letters is not your cup of 
tea, unique color combinations, un- 
usual letter shapes, and an unconven- 
tional arrangement of just the simple 
word — love, peace, hope, pax, or 
shalom — make eye-catching banners 
or posters. Or, use symbols, such as 
the dove, which suggest words or 
meanings. 




Kids, surprise your family; make 
and share with them your very own 
creation. Mom. perk up a "blah" wall 
with a brightly colored burlap banner 
— fringe and all. Or, wouldn't it 
make an exciting family project, ac- 
companied by bowls of crunchy pop- 
corn and some sweet, juicy apples? 

Burlap or felt provide the best 
background for banners. Designs or 
letters made from yarn, bits of felt, 
rick-rack, or buttons may be pasted or 
sewed on the material. A dowel pin 
across the top makes for an easy and 
attractive hanging. Fringe, tassels, 
braids, yarns, or various other trim- 
mings added to the bottom make a 
festive banner. 

Construction paper, using crayons, 
poster paint, chalk, or pastels, yarn, 
string, and bright odds and ends of 
paper may be used for a poster. 

Keep the design simple but full of 
action and color. Letters need not all 
be the same size or shapie, you know. 
Maybe a good photograph has caught 
your eye or a picture of your family 
is something special to center the 
poster around. 

Do your thing! It's the thing! Ban- 
ners and posters are the in thing! 



% 





■^LJ' W-^ ^ -<^ 



or, c^' 
brig! 

«:uiored elc 

.for a lest 
banner 



2-I5-72 MESSENGER 21 



WHAT 

DOES 
, IT ALL 
MEAN? 



The Interpreter's Bible and The Inter- 
preter's Dictionary of the Bible have 
all the answers. 

The Interpreter's Bible is the most 
valuable key to the Scriptures ever 
published — a complete clarification of 
the Bible in clear and easy-to-under- 
stand form. Called Christendom's most 
comprehensive commentary, it includes 
text in King James and Revised 
Standard Versions, General Articles, 
142 pages of indexes, outline and full- 
color maps. Each volume, $8.75; 
Complete set, $89.50 

The Interpreter's Dictionary of the 
Bible Is a convenient, practical, and 
authoritative reference for the teacher, 
student, and minister. The four-volume 
set is profusely illustrated with photos, 
drawings and maps. Set, $45.00 




of upu bed boct/tae 

Qbingdon 



22 MESSENGER 2- 1 5-72 



BOOK REVIEWS 



'I 



Objectors conquered by aliens 



DOWN IN MY HEART, by William E. Stafford. 
Brethren Press, 1947. Reprinted, 1971. 94 
pages, $2.50 paper 

WiLLi.\M St.afford's Down In My Heart 
is one of those rare books where the 
story the author is telling is more im- 
portant than the way he told it, or whether 
or not he could have told it better. A col- 
lection of short stories based on Stafford's 
experiences in Civilian Public Service 
( CPS) during World War II, the title 
springs from a song the conscientious ob- 
jectors sang, "I got that opposition to 
conscription down in my heart." 

12,000 men were conscripted into CPS 
and sent to one of 150 "camps," where 
they worked under the joint care of a 
church agency (Brethren, Mennonite, or 
Friends), and a government service, like 
the Forest Service or the Soil Conserva- 
tion Service. To the "campers," their 
new communities were as removed from 
the America they had once known as were 
Guadalcanal, New Caledonia, and all 
the places "where the war was being 
won." 

It was not unusual for a camper to be 
transferred four or five times during the 
war, and unlike the present "two years of 
alternative service in lieu of military 
service," they were in for the duration 
of the war, and many of them even 
longer. 

Perhaps the most predominant theme 
in Down In My Heart is the alienation 
the CPSers felt, an alienation that in some 
cases grew even stronger when the war 
was over. In the introduction Stafford 
writes: "Those of us who objected open- 
ly found our country conquered over- 
night — conquered by aliens who could 
shout on any corner or in any building 
and bring down on us wrath and hate 
more intense than on any foreigner." 

In the first story, appropriately called 
"The Mob Scene at McNeill," Stafford 
brings the alienation into focus. It's about 
three CPSers sitting near the depot in a 
small Arkansas town on Sunday after- 
noon. One of them is painting a picture, 
another writing a poem, and Stafford is 
reading off and on in Walt Whitman's 



Leaves of Grass. Before the afternoon is 
over they are surrounded by sixty towns- 
men, accused of gathering information 
for a foreign power, and eventually res- 
cued from violence by a local policeman 
and a passage from Leaves of Grass. 
{ There had been accusations that the 
poem couldn't be a poem because it didn't 
rhyme and, therefore, was subversive in- 
formation. Stafford had one of the towns- 
men read a passage from Leaves of Grass 
aloud to prove that poetry didn't have to 
rhyme.) 

The story ends back at camp with the 
camp director, "a slow talking preacher 
of the way of life taught by Jesus Christ," 
giving the final word: "I know you men 
think the scene was funny, in spite of its 
danger; and I suppose there's no harm in 
having fun out of it; but don't think our 
neighbors here in Arkansas are hicks just 
because they see you as spies and danger- 
ous men. Just remember that our govern- 
ment is sfjending millions of dollars and 
hiring the smartest men in the country to 
devote themselves full time just to make 
everyone act that way." 

Mo most of us who have 0[>enly ob- 
jected to the present war in Southeast 
Asia, such a confrontation as the "Mob 
Scene at McNeil" seems almost impos- 
sible. And yet all of us are capable of 
understanding the hate that Stafford is 
talking about. In a recent surprise visit 
to the National League of Families of 
American Prisoners and Missing in 
Southeast Asia, President Nixon said, 
"We are dealing with a savage enemy, 
one with no concern for humanitarian 
ideals." The implications in the Presi- 
dent's remarks are as obvious as the 
irony. Anyone who would criticize "our 
dealings" with the "savage enemy" (ani- 
mals less than humans) must not only be 
unpatriotic but immoral. 

The wives of American prisoners were 
not listening to "hicks from Arkansas" 
but the political and "moral" leader of 
our country. 

There are no heroes or villains in Staf- 
ford's stories. Most of the characters 



are like many of us in BVS who are con- 
fused by the effectiveness of our actions 
if not by our philosophy. As the war 
continued they began to question whether 
planting trees or fasting for a government 
health study was a constructive peace 
witness. An editorial in the November 
1942 Compass, a publication written by 
and for CPSers, states, "It does not neces- 
sarily follow that, since these conscien- 
tious objectors have refused to bear arms 
against their fellowmen and have instead 
undertaken government assignment to do 
'work of national importance," they have 
found, and are finding, the ways of 
peace." 

One of the most memorable characters 
in Down In My Heart, a man named 
George, struggles to find the ways of 
peace until it finally leads him to a prison 
and eventually fasting for prison reform. 
"A little man, about five and a half feet 
tall, with dark eyes and a dark wing of 
hair that liked to hang over one eye," 
George was "a searcher sometimes whim- 
sical but with a streak of serious dedica- 
tion to finding something . . . something." 
On the day the war ended George, Staf- 
ford, and another CPSer are walking 
down the street of a small city when the 
news came and the wastepaper began 
drifting down from every building and 
people were embracing in the street. It is 
while all this celebrating is going on that 
George asks the hard question: "How 
long will it be before all the soldiers 
still alive can come back. . . . Before 
there is no more fighting anywhere, no 
more intimidation of people in their own 
homes by strange uncomprehending men 
in foreign uniforms with foreign speech 
and foreign money. . . . No more forcing 
of unwilling boys far from home to re- 
main in their barracks among the glares 
of the citizens, to defend institutions they 
hate against people they love, to stand 
guard over men who are where they be- 
long, doing the jobs they need to do, try- 
ing to build a way of life for themselves? 
. . . How can we join in the celebration of 
the atom bomb?" 

Perhaps the lines were sharper in 1944 



■ — the men who disagreed with war were 
either in prison or prisonlike work- 
camps, and as Stafford noted, "They 
could be shouted down on any comer." 
But as the war in Southeast Asia is draw- 
ing to a close (for American personnel) 
it becomes increasingly clear that we 
have not answered George's question nor 
the concern raised by Stafford in the 
epilogue; 

"I hope that some day everyone — the 
soldiers and the enemy and the displaced 
persons, and all people, everywhere — 
can have that peace. The real war doesn't 
end for us till they do." — Terry Pettit 

Deaths 

Beach. William O.. Leonard, Mo., on Oct. 

19, 1971, aged 73 
Bohn. Mrs. David. Linwood, Md., on Sept. 

22. 1971 
Boone, Sadie Price, Empire, Calif., on 

Jnnc 30, 1971 
Bouch, Frederick, Shclocia. Pa., on .^ug. 

19, 1971, aged 53 
Brougher, Marv K. \\'olford. Hano\er, Pa.. 

on' Oct. 2, 1971. aged 82 
Bmgcr, Laura, Nortli Manchester, Ind., 

oil Sept. 23. 1971. aged S9 
Cripe. Frank. La Place. 111., on Sept. 27, 

1971, aged 80 
Dalbv, .\lma Frederick, Glasgo\\ . Mont.. 

on .\pril 2. 1971, aged 58 
Ebersole, Elmer E., \\oodstock, \'a.. on 
aged ti7 

\iodesto, Calif., on }iil\ 
91 

^Vorthington, Minn., on 
1 , aged 59 



Oct. 10, 1971, 
Fonts, Elmer S., 

14, 1971. aged 
Strom, Helen L, 

March 29. 19 



Teeter, Calvin .\.. Hollidaysbing. Pa., on 

Juh 7, 1971, aged 65 
Thomas, Ralph E. , .\shland, Ohio, on 

.\pril 8, 1971, aged 78 
Throne. Sarah D.. La \'erne, Calif., on 

March 3. 1971. aged 85 
Tressler, Mvrtle, HoUidavsburg, Pa., on 

.April 27, 1971. aged 54 
Trimmer. Chaimcev F., York, Pa., on .Aug. 

3, 1971. aged 86 

\an Pelt, Jacob L., Richmond. Mo., on 

.\ug. 13, 1971, aged 73 
Wall, Carl F., Indianapolis, Ind.. on Ma\ 

22, 1971, aged 69 
Wambold, C;ro\er C. Ambler, Pa., on 

March 28. 1971. aged 78 
Wickcrt, Samncl M., Dixon, III, on .Ang 

8, 1971, aged 77 
W'idegren, .\nton W'.. Grand Junction, 

Colo., on Sept. 5, 1971, aged 87 
Windmill. Mabel L., Lamed, Kans., aged 

87 
Wingert, Emma, Co\ington. X.O., on June 

4. 1971. aged 91 

Wisler, Minnie Zicgler. Roversford. Pa., 

on July 1, 1971. aged 81 
Yates. .\nna Belle. Kinross. Iowa, on \pvi\ 

19, 1971, aged 89 
^'oder, \\'ilbnr L,, Sidney, Ohio, on June 

15, 1971, aged 56 
Zartman, Sallie, NefTs\iUc, Pa., in March 

1971, aged 73 



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803 Race St., Cambridge, Md. 21613. 

BRETHREN TRAVEL — Reservations are still avail- 
able for vacation holiday in the South Pacific. 
Thirty -five day tour leaves July 19, 1972, visit- 
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1000 N.MARKET ST. B01 N. Wistltn An. IBS W. Wickll Dl. 

lONGBUNOCIT*. N.r. .«AN NUVS. ML. 
41.25 3(111 St. 15S2S Clbrita M. 



15-72 MESSENGER 23 



*^If you think you ean help our ivorld a liltle...^^ 



With the above opener, a prominent corporation 
has announced a program that strikes us as bold 
and imaginative. So much so, in fact, that we 
encourage the church and its institutions, and 
churchmen in business and industry, to take a 
studied look. 

The plan is to grant leave up to a year at 
full pay to employees who engage in social serv- 
ice. Such service, according to Xerox, the spon- 
sor, may be a program to help drug addicts, a 
government school project to improve mine safe- 
ty, a school for retarded children, a co-op to 
market mountain handicrafts, a civil rights cause, 
a parole program, a literacy project in India or 
Ecuador or New Mexico, landmark preservation, 
electoral reform, housing. "Call your shot, here 
or anwhere in the world," the corporation sug- 
gests. "There is almost no limit to the kind of 
social service you can propose." 

In weighing the applications of employees, 
Xerox seeks to assess the social worth of the 
proposed project, its relevance to "the dominant 
problems of this decade." What is it you as an 
individual want to do and why? the evaluation 
committee asks. How realistic are your objectives 
and expectations? Will the work you do make 
some difference in the situation you take on? 
Will you set a pattern others can follow? Will 
it encourage or affect participation by others? 

Once on a social service leave the employee 
is not expected to submit periodic reports. Neither 
will the worker be formally monitored or meas- 
ured. In the course of the year, however, the 
individual will be visited by at least one member 
of the evaluation committee. 

What the social service leave does, in effect, 
is to take volunteerism as a personal commitment 
and extend it into the domain of business. The 
program speaks, to a degree at least, to young 
people who see today's corporations interested 
only in profits and devoid of a social conscience. 
It opens the door for teammanship between es- 
tablishment and reform groups, releasing to often 



fledgling causes the resource needed most: people 
of talent, dedication, imagination, determination, 
and competence. 

What is the corporation's stake in such a 
venture? Xerox admits to self-interest. "The 
man or woman who goes on social service leave 
is still delivering something of value to Xerox. 
To all of us. Whatever he does in the world 
to make it better does Xerox good." 

Each of us, like Xerox, has a stake in the 
development of people, in efforts dealing with 
hunger, discrimination, drugs, education, health, 
poverty, ecology, the preservation of heritage. 
Certainly now for some decades the church has 
demonstrated its concern at many of these points. 
But the fact remains that all too long we have 
looked upon involvement with the needy as the 
role of young or retired volunteers, of short- 
term workers, of career missionaries. The pro- 
gram inaugurated by Xerox says a year of full- 
time service is something a person can give in the 
prime of life. 

M^ocal pastoral boards, the General Board, 
educational institutions, and business managed by 
churchmen: Each and all will do well to examine 
policies regarding professional growth and to ex- 
plore social service leaves as a viable option. 
Especially in the Church of the Brethren, where 
volunteerism on a personal basis has come to 
mean so much, does a concerted response at a 
corporate level seem appropriate. 

Admittedly, such a program may be a for- 
midable undertaking for nonprofit agencies to 
launch. On the other hand, social service leaves 
may offer one of the most promising thrusts in 
continuing education. It indeed appears within 
the charter of the church to reach out to and 
interact with "the least of these" in new and 
significant ways. 

If professional leaves are valid, necessary, sal- 
utary, the church would do well to take this 
further stride toward creative service. — h.e.r. 



24 MESSENGER 215-72 



Brethren 
Cookbooks 



Inglenook Cook Book 

191 1 edition 

This reprint edition of the 191 1 edition 
has over 1400 cherished recipes of 
Dunker sisters whose Pennsylvania 
Dutch tradition placed high value on 
culinary excellence. Also included are 
menus for Sunday and v\/eekdays, 
Thanksgiving, and Christmas; sug- 
gested food for the sick; home rem- 
edies; and an interesting table of 
measures. 

$3.95 

Granddaughter's Inglenook 
Cookbook 

First published in 1941 this book con- 
tains over 1 500 favorite recipes con- 
tributed by Church of the Brethren 
cooks. Includes sections on invalid 
cookery, outdoor meals, school lunch- 
es, group cookery, international cook- 
ery, as well as food charts and useful 
household information. 
$3.50 





i/imddauqhtm 
IHGLEMOOK 





Please send: 



_ copies of the 1911 INGLENOOK COOKBOOK at $3.95 
each 

copies of the GRANDDAUGHTER'S INGLENOOK COOK- 
BOOK at $3.50 each 

Postage: 20C first dollar; 5c per dollar thereafter 



Name 



Address 
City 



State 



Zip 



The Brethren Press, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, 



60120 



Concern. For the child who shouldn't be left 
alone all day. Or for the helpless and lonely in 

a geriatrics ward. Caring for victinns of disaster 
and disease, injustice and war. In short, concern for 
people in many places and situations. 
Plus dedication of your time and skills. That's 
what it takes to be a Brethren Service 
volunteer on project. Interested? For more informa- 
tion or to send financial support, write to: 
Brethren Volunteer Service, Church of the Brethren 
General Board, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, III. 60120. 



Brethren Volunteer 
Service / YSdoq csaim lb® [prPODandl odI! nitc 
YfoDUQ (Eaim Ddcb ipanptt ODfl ntt< 




messenger 



CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN 



MARCH 1, 1972 




^^t(B\r^. 



Q Project Equality: "Not a Closed Issue." Sentiment at the St. 
Petersburg Annual Conference appeared to reject denominational 
membership in Project Equality. But the final action did not 
preclude the General Board's reopening of the question, by Ronald 
E. Keener 

"IQ The Sometimes Praying Hands of Aibrecht Durer. During 

the past year art galleries around the world have held a series of special 
exhibitions to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Diirer's birth. 
Messenger offers a selection of his prints, with comment by 
Kenneth I. Morse 

^^L M. R. Zigler at Eighty. One whose devotion is to the church as 
it ought to be reflects on years of churchmanship that began in the 
family home in \irginia and spread to Europe and the far reaches of 
the United States. Hazel Peters is the interviewer 

^C^ Reconciliation. .A recreation camp in a Palestinian village and a 
volunteer's work in a Marburg, Germany, ghetto characterize the 
diverse nature of reconciliation. Ronald E. Keener and Kenneth I. 
Morse report 



Sharing the Sights and Sounds of Love. Films from TcIcketics, 
produced by the Franciscan Communication Center, communicate 
forcefully and creatively, according to reviewer John G. Fike 

In Touch introduces Syed Ally, Gana Dibal, and Mary Meyer (beginning 
on 2). . . . Outlook previews Cincinnati, Conference city, cites queries 
that will spark Conference discussion, features a Virginia group 
helping to meet low-income housing needs, and reviews actions at a White 
House Conference on the Aging (beginning on 4). . . . Letters and an 
editorial comment on "The Church and Investment Ethics." 



EDITOR 

Howard E. Royer 

ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

Ronald B. Keener / News 
Wilbur E. Brumbaugh / Design 
Kenneth I. Morse / Features 

ASSISTANT EDITOR 

Linda K. Beher 

EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Richard N. Miller 



VOL. 121, NO. 5 



MARCH 1, 1972 



CREDITS: Co\er. 15. 16 artwork by Mike 
Nonnan; 2 Heft) Howard E. Ro\cr; 
^rifjhl) conrtcsv of Bridgcw-aicr College: 
3 Ronald E. Keener; 4 Mayhcw Photog- 
raphers: 5 Lawrence Burslcv: 6 Edward 
Wallowitch: 11 (top. right). 12. I.l (left) 
courtcsv of The .Art Institute of Chicago: 
11 Heft) courtesv of 7he Smithsonian In- 
stitution: 13 fright) Religious News Serv- 
ice: 20 Kenneth I. Morse; 21 TeleKETics 
Resource Guide 



Mf_ssencer is the official publication of the 
Church of the Brethren. Entered a.s second- 
class matter Aug. 20, 1918. under .■\ct of 
Congress of Oct. 17. 1917. Filing date, Oct. 1. 
1971. Messenger is a member of the .Associ- 
ated Church Press and a subscriber to Reli- 
gious News Service and Ecumenical Press 
Senice. Biblical cjuotations. unless otherwise 
indicated, are from the Rc\iscd Standard 
Version. 

Subscription rates: S4.20 per year for indi- 
vidual subscriptions; S3. 60 per year for church 
group plan: S3. 00 per year for every h<»mc 
plan; life subscription. S60; husband and wife. 
S7'>. If \oii mo\c clip r>ld address from Mes- 
SFNCER and seiul with new address. 
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and published twice monlhlv bv the 
Church of the Brethren C.ener;il 
Board. M51 Dtmdee \\c.. Elgin. III. 
60120. Second-class postage paid at 
Elgin. III.. Mar. 1, 1972. Ciopvright 
Church of the Brethren General Board. 



i 



SHARING CONCERN 

I lio not want to stir up controversy 
among the Brethren, but I have a definite 
concern to share, one that stems from the 
decision of the General Board to reverse its 
position on joining Project Equality. My 
views are not racist, as all those who know 
me might verify. In fact, I have the deepest 
respect for my black brothers and am espe- 
cially appreciative of Brother Tom Wilson, 
who has abilities that far supersede my own. 

But this action by the board disregards 
the sentiment the delegate body expressed 
rather clearly in the vote on the matter at 
the St. Petersburg Conference. In my years 
of experience with Annual Conference the 
\oice of the delegate body has always been 
the final authority in making decisions af- 
fecting our denomination. What I consider 
to be a possible instrument of pressure in 
this matter is the strong expression of a 
vocal minority (some of whom are likely 
involved on the board and the Elgin staff) 
against the larger "silent majority" who feel 
(as I do) that we do not need to spend sev- 
eral thousand dollars to have someone tell 
us how to be brothers to our brethren. I 
feel that we can and will do this without 
such pressure. 

As long as the delegate body, meeting in 
Cincinnati, has the opportunity to accept or 
reject this decision, we will be operating ac- 
cording to democratic procedures, as we 
have done in the past. I am also aware of 
the possibility that manipulation of issues 
and bureaucratic tactics in the handling of 
our common affairs can result in far deeper 
trouble than we want to encounter. I hope 
that we can avoid it! 

In expressing my concern at this point, I 
would express also my appreciation to the 
board, the staff, our general secretary, and 
all others who labor so faithfully to conduct 
the business of the church, 

N. W. Crumpacker 
Roanoke, Va, 

A POSITION OF COMPLICITY? 

In the Jan, 6 Des Moines Rei-isler ap- 
peared a news item of almost one full col- 
umn entitled "Big Church Profits From War- 
Related Investments," This article revealed 
information from a study made by the "Cor- 
porate Information Center, a newly set up 
research agency of the National Council of 
Churches, to gather data to help churches 
in their growing effort to apply moral cri- 
teria in choosing investments, , , , 

"The study found the biggest of the 
ten denominations, the United Methodist 
Church, has nearly S600 million invested 
in . . . military contractive firms. . . . Other 
churches and their investments in companies 



m 



(n)\n\(: 



producing military hardware" were listed, 
including the Church of the Brethren. 

This article gave rise to some discussion 
at our adult Sunday school class. Can you 
explain . . . how churches put themselves 
in "the position of complicity"? 

Ada Ruth Cox 
Ashton, Iowa 

A BELrEF IN PACIFISM? 

The Des Moines Register's article con- 
cerning profits made hy churches from the 
Vietnam war interested me immensely. I 
read it thinking that the Church of the 
Brethren was not involved. Little did I 
know. . . . 

I have a very definite pride in belonging 
to the Church of the Brethren. In fact, 
when I explain a little of what "my" church 
is about, I mention that we believe in pac- 
ifism. That is what I thought, anyway. Now 
what do I tell my friends? 

I feel that I need an explanation as well 
as deserve it. . . . 

Ann M. Evans 
Cedar Falls, Iowa 



C«»PORATE 
IS»>ONSIBUJTY 
ANDRELKSOUS 
WSTITUTIONS 



o 



CHURCH 
INVESTMENTS 

TECHNOLOGICAL 
WARFARE 
and the 
M1L1TAR\-- 
INDUSTRIAL 
COMPLEX 



REGARDING 'BRETHREN BOMBS' 

Time magazine's top billing in its Ian. 
17 religion section has given a good expose 
of the Brethren as bomb-builders, and the 
sad picture of our church leaders wringing 
their hands after being caught holding major 
investments in the nation's military com- 
plex, as well as sizable government bond 
holdings (see Jan. 1 Messenger. From the 
General Board"). As I reflect on history, I 
feel kin to my German brothers in World 
War II when they realized how they got 
suckered into building the Nazi murder 
machine. From the Pentagon I, too, expect 
to be made a sucker; but from the invest- 
ments of my tithe, no way! 

Crimes of nations are really just ac- 
cumulations of many little crimes of its 
people, including its "good church people." 
The insensitivity to the gut issues given by 
Treasurer Robert Greiner (who. Time re- 
ports, passed off the Brethren's bomb-and- 
missile-profit-taking with a pale "You can't 
get out of everything. ... To be a purist, 
you could hardly stay in the U.S.") is 
strikingly contrasted by the Time writer's 



prophetic suggestion on how such purism 
could be accomplished. Quoting "that 
radical young Jewish rabbi in first-century 
Judea," the nation's leading news magazine 
reminds the Brethren — and other Protes- 
tant war-investors — of Jesus' suggestions: 
"Go, sell everything you have, give to the 
poor and come, follow me." . . . 

True, we all live in this world, but our 
Lord challenged us not to use and be used 
by this world's easy cop-outs — like "mak- 
ing the most money possible, regardless of 
how you do it." We are free to make 
choices. If we choose to take the easy way, 
instead of the Way. then our organization's 
witness has damned itself. For what does 
it profit a church if it gains the whole blue- 
chip portfolio, but fails to witness to life, 
liberty, and love? 

Come on. General Board members, help 
us get off our fat portfolios and follow Him. 
not the investment consultant. Don't you 
know we can't serve two masters? 

Marvin Sherman 
Fort Wayne, Ind. 

IMPROVE WHAT WE HAVE 

As an adult participant of National Youth 
Conference '71,1 was glad for the wide rep- 
resentation of our denomination, from the 
conservative to the liberal, even when some 
encounters were uncomfortable or even 
painful. 

I think most of the conference partici- 
pants "heard" the advice Dale Brown gave 
to us. . . . His words were a challenge to 
improve what we have. Unfortunately many 
of our churches have taken on a religious 
nature. We religiously attend services and 
business meetings and religiously carry out 
the duties; and we forget about the Christian 
part. We are too busy being religious to act 
like Christians. 

I believe that Dr. Brown was challenging 
us "to live in such a Christian way that we 
might get kicked out of the church." If 
this is what must be done to wake up our 
members and get Christianity back into 
the church, then I. too, say, "Go . . . and 
live. . . ." 

Lois A. Draper 
Des Moines, Iowa 

PEACE IN THE MEDIA 

My husband and I were very pleased to 
see a telecast recently about peace, spon- 
sored by the Mennonite Church, the Church 
of the Brethren, and the United Methodist 
Church. This to us was a high way of pub- 
licizing our stand. We wish to praise those 
who were responsible. 

Mr. and Mrs. Dawson Black 
Dallas Center, Iowa 



A high resolve of the Messenger team 
is to move out from the central offices 
into relationship with churches and 
churchmen across the Brotherhood. 
The desire is to lose some of our cor- 
porate anonymity, and for you as read- 
ers to lose some of yours, that together 
we may communicate more openly. 

Hence in a recent fortnight one 
Messenger staffer covered the Ecu- 
menical Witness of several hundred 
Christians and Jews in Kansas City, 
then shifted a week later to Miami for 
a Consultation on Hispanic-American 
Ministries and its Brethren caucus. 

A second stafT person was covering 
the nation's creative ministries in non- 
metropolis, in Virginia's Shenandoah 
Valley, and prospecting in Kentucky 
for material for an upcoming Messen- 
ger special on Appalachia. 

A third team member was presiding 
at a meeting of religious communica- 
tors in Fort Worth, and a fourth was 
scouting through art museums in Wash- 
ington, D.C., and Chicago. 

Another was working with a commit- 
tee of the General Board on drafting 
a new statement on evangelism, and 
clearing schedules in order that he and 
his wife could join in a month-long 
caravan to smaller churches in July. 

The upshot of such mobility, en- 
counter, mutuality will contribute, we 
trust, to a magazine that is sensitive to 
the needs and concerns of readers, a 
magazine aware of the diversity and the 
unity within the church, a magazine 
uncloistered in its view of the world and 
of the faith. 

That's the Messenger the staff is 
reaching out to produce. 

And in the production of this partic- 
ular issue, contributors include one staff 
colleague from outside the communica- 
tions/editorial cluster. She is Hazel 
Peters, now coordinator of personnel 
at the General Offices. A veteran of 
Brethren Service both in the United 
States and Europe, Hazel knows the 
program and workers of the past twenty 
years as few others do. Building on 
this but looking ahead, she probed the 
mind of one of the Brethren Service 
stalwarts, M. R. Zigler. We are glad 
to present the resulting interview as the 
cover story. — The Editors 



3-1-72 MESSENGER I 




Syed Ally: Bangladesh advocate 



An ardent spokesman for Bangladesh, 
the new nation of BengaHs being born 
in East Pakistan, is a member of the 
Church of the Brethren. He is Syed 
Ally, a state highway engineer re- 
siding in Elgin, 111., and one of 150 
Bengalis settled in the United States. 

Since last March 25 when the as- 
sault of the Pakistan military govern- 
ment against East Pakistan began. 
Syed has invested virtually all his 
nonoffice hours in studying and in- 
terpreting the conflict. He has met 
with public school classes and church 
and civic groups, appeared on radio 
talk shows, and visited legislators in 
Washington. DC. 

Syed looks upon the U.S. adminis- 
tration's favoring of West Pakistan in 
the civil conflict as a gross error, an 
error he hopes will be rectified by the 
recognition of a separate and 
sovereign Bangladesh. In the context 
of democracy and human rights, he 
feels American support can go no 
other way. 

When a churchgoer said to Syed, 
"What about this matter of secession 
— would we allow a handful of 
Texans to secede?" Syed responded: 
"Seventy-five million Bengalis is no 
handful. If 24 years of colonialism 
had preceded the secession, as 
happened with my people, 24 years 



of exploitation and oppression, you 
would say yes — very strongly yes." 

He is convinced that 25 years ago 
at the time of the partitioning of 
British India, when he was a college 
student in what was then East Bengal, 
the Bengalis were supportive of a 
united Pakistan and contributed 
much to it. But support was reversed 
when the central government in 1971 
withdrew its promise of granting East 
Pakistan a measure of autonomy, 
when it imprisoned the Bengalis' 
elected leader. Sheikh Mujibar 
Rahman of the Awami League, and 
when it launched a massacre last 
March 25 of intellectuals and top 
government officials. 

Syed, his wife, the former Bettie 
Craddock of Bassett, Va., and their 
children Ronald and Phyllis made 
their first family visit to East Pakistan 
in 1969, eighteen years after Syed's 
coming to the U.S.A. for a master's 
study. 

One of Syed's desires is to visit 
Bangladesh this spring again, perhaps 
for two months, to check out relatives 
and to contribute what he can to 
the development of a new nation. 
In the meantime, he seeks earnestly 
to help fellow Americans understand 
both the stance and the hope of his 
homeland people. 




n\m 







GanaDibal: Determined 

The educational odyssey of Gana B. 
Dibal began at age seven when two 
missionaries visited his Nigerian vil- 
lage and asked his father to allow him 
to attend a new school nearby. 

He graduated at the top of his 
class and, teaching as a probationary 
teacher, he went on to Waka Teach- 
ers College, doing well scholastically 
and participating in athletics. Today, 
with the help of several friends in 
Nigeria and the U.S., he is a fresh- 
man at Bridgewater College in 
Virginia. 

His father was reluctant to send 
him to school. "In those days anyone 
in our community who would send 
any of his sons to school was con- 
sidered to be the most foolish man in 
the society," he recalls. "Also, a 
child who was sent to school was 
considered as an outcast of the fam- 
ily. He had no more value to the 
community again. He would not help 
farm or look after the animals." 

Indeed, as Gana became more in- 
terested in school he had less time to 
help herd sheep and accompany his 
father on hunting trips. His father 
forbade him any more food until he 
stopped going to school, but his 
mother secretly fed him. His father 
refused to pay his school fees, but 
Gana raised chickens and paid his 
own fees. 

Twenty-eight year-old Gana — - he 
was bom about 1942, but no accurate 
records were kept — was headmaster 
at a primary school for six months. 



I 



2 MESSENGER J-1-72 



I 



learn 



He then attended an advanced teach- 
ers college in Kano, Nigeria. In June 
1970 he graduated and returned to 
Waka as "housemaster" in a dormi- 
tory and "sportsmaster," head of the 
I physical education department. 
1 At Bridgewater College, he plays 
intramural soccer on his dormitory 
team and may compete in track this 
I spring. He ran the 220 and 440 com- 
petitively in Nigeria. 

In order to come to Bridgewater, 
where he is studying business admin- 
istration, he turned down an appoint- 
ment by Nigeria's North-Eastern 
State as state athletic coach. 

Gana is at Bridgewater on one of 
five foreign student scholarships and 
is holding down a work-study job. 
The Bridgewater congregation's com- 
mission on mission and service spon- 
sored his transportation to the U.S. 
and arranges for dinners and weekend 
contacts with church families. 

But most responsible for Gana's 
presence in the U.S. is Bridgewater 
graduate Kermon Thomason, who 
has been teaching in the Waka 
Schools since 1960. 

Kermon has helped Gana and his 
wife in many ways, and in apprecia- 
tion, the couple named their first 
child, now six, after Kermon. The 
Dibals have also a four-year-old son. 
Gana's family remained in Nigeria 
when he came to the U.S. 

However difficult were his soci- 
ology, psychology, and western 
civilization courses in the winter 
term, Gana found Virginia's cold 
winter weather even more formidable. 





1 .. pr» 
i 







Mary Meyer: Art as therapy 



Even before Mary Meyer contracted 
multiple sclerosis, her creative side 
was quite evident. But since the 
disabling illness confined her to a 
wheelchair 16 years ago, she observes 
that her painting and handicap are 
more a therapy than a hobby. 

The Palmyra, Pa., woman not only 
pursues her painting at home — in 
her favorite medium of watercolor — 
but conducts a class in painting at the 
Palmyra Church of the Brethren. 

"I don't know if I'm an artist," 
Mrs. Meyer says. "I just enjoy ex- 
pressing myself." And she continues 
to do so for her friends and family, 
for the congregation, and through 
such public events as the arts festival 
of the Atlantic Northeast District. 

She served on the planning com- 
mittee for that event and was 
responsible for at least a number of 
entries by others that might not have 
been made without her appeal. 

Enthusiasm, cheerfulness, and 
optimism have been Mary Meyer's 
marks on any situation in which she 
finds herself. Despite much in her life 
that would contribute to a less happy 
outlook, she neither magnifies nor 
dwells on her illness. Her pastor, 
Donald W. Rummel, observes that 
she works at being cheerful, and 
"because she works at it, it comes out 
very genuine." 

Her art class at the church has 
more nonchurch members in it than 
members: "We invite everybody to 
come in. I think religion is open to 



everybody and we inject religion into 
our class — through opening 
devotions and discussions about 
nature and God through nature." 

Much of her own work relates to 
landscapes and nature scenes and her 
next project will be a painting of 
Camp Pine Woods, the cabin and 
grounds of the church outside town 
that forms the backdrop to the 
Meyers' own home. 

Mrs. Meyer, 56, has for many 
years been the crafts director at 
church day camps, especially among 
junior highs. She helped organize a 
community playground, where she 
has taught crafts. 

For some 23 years she has attended 
an evening art class at Hershey, but 
has not had artistic training beyond 
that. She is an active member in the 
town's Women's Club and 
participates in an MS (multiple 
sclerosis) group in the Harrisburg 
area. She and her husband Ed 
toured Alaska last summer, making 
North Dakota the only state she has 
not seen. They have two married 
children. 

Mary has given more of her paint- 
ings away than she can remember. 
And she won't sell them. "That 
bothers me." she says, concerned for 
the relational aspect with a recipient. 
"If I don't know the people, I'd 
sooner give them to friends." 
Genuinely cheerful, genuinely in- 
terested in persons, Mary Meyer 
remains the kind of person more 
mindful of others than herself. 



S-l-72 MESSENGER 3 



Brethren gather by the Ohio 
for 1972 Annual Conference 

For u people professing to being "in the 
world" but not "of the world," Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, may be an appropriate place 
for this year's Annual Conference. One 
Conference planner said she received the 
feeling of being "in the city" but not "of 
the city," so well had the city planners 
provided an openness in design. 

Central Committee members, who met 
in Cincinnati in December, are genuinely 
excited about the Conference city and its 
facilities. 

The Cincinnati Convention-Exposition 
Center, a $10-million complex built in 
1967, has a spacious setting in the down- 
town area and expansive lobbies and hall- 
ways where fellowship can occur. Mod- 
erator Dale W. Brown noted that "for 
the first time all insight sessions, offices, 
exhibits, banquets, youth meetings can 
be held under the same roof as the gen- 
eral sessions." Such functions will occur 
in the 27 meeting rooms on the second 
floor. 

Second level walkways allow one to go 
from the convention center to several 
major hotels and department stores with- 
out battling city traffic. Fountains and 
open spaces envelop the center. 

Two huge walled areas above the ex- 
hibit hall entrances display the ceramic 
work, entitled "Space Walk," of local 
artist Charles Harper, highlighting a dra- 
matic foyer of terrazzo tile flooring from 
Mexico and Italian marble walls. 

Downtown Cincinnati is engaged in an 
inner city renewal program that has 
blended the old and new architecture, 
retaining the historic past but pointing 
to the future. 

While there is no Church of the Breth- 
ren in Cincinnati, Southern Ohio is a 
stronghold of the faith. The Stonclick 
church, some 25 miles distant, is the clos- 
est Ohio church to Cincinnati. It is also 
the oldest Brethren church in Southern 
Ohio. Nearby on the Kentucky side of 
the river is the Constance congregation. 

Brethren last conferred in Southern 
Ohio in 1886, in a clover field on the 
farm of Elder Jesse Stutsman in Darke 
County, east of the then new and thriving 
village of Pitsburg. 

District executive Chester I. Harley 




The Cincinnati. Ohio, skyline, dominated in this photo by the new riverfront stadium 



notes: "Eighty-six years is a long time to 
go without a conference in Southern 
Ohio. The 1972 version will not be in a 
clover field, but the freeway cloverleaf 
will be used to get to the convention cen- 
ter on downtown Fifth Street." The 
Southern Ohio district has 12,000 mem- 
bers and 59 congregations. 

Past conferences in Southern Ohio 
have been in 1834 in Darke County, 1850 
at Bear Creek, 1862 near Brookville, 
1875 at Covington, 1874 at DeGraflf, 
1884 near Dayton, and 1886. The 1862 
conference was attended by a phenom- 
enal 30,000 persons and was moderated 
by Elder John Kline of Virginia. 

"The Queen City of the West," Cincin- 
nati was founded in 1788 and today has 
1.4 million metropolitan area population. 
Even Winston Churchill called Cincin- 
nati "the most beautiful of the inland 
cities of the Union." It is Ohio's second 
largest city. 

For the Conferencegoer weary of a 
day's events or with a free afternoon, the 
city will offer such attractions as the art 
museum and free admission to galleries 
of world famous paintings, sculptures, 
textiles, glass, china, silver and pottery 
. . . the historical society, adjacent to the 
art museum . . . zoological gardens, with 
a collection of animals and birds living 
in their natural surroundings . . . river- 
boat tours on the Ohio . . . natural history 
museum and planetarium . . . the birth- 
place of President William Howard Taft, 
now a museum. 

Then there is Mt. Adams, a restored 
section of town with its offbeat establish- 
ments . . . the University of Cincinnati, 
and other higher education facilities . . . 
the university's Showboat Majestic, where 



the summer season of hit musical pro- 
ductions will be in progress . . . the Carew 
Tower, where visitors may view the city 
from 48 stories high. 

For the campers among the Brethren, 
facilities will be available in an easy drive 
from convention center. Within a block 
of the center are 5,000 off-street parking 
spaces. 

Greater Cincinnati Airport, on the 
Kentucky side of the Ohio River, serves 
the city. Six major hotels and motels are 
within five blocks of convention center. 
Conference headquarters will be the 
Sheraton-Gibson Hotel, with Conference 
offices in the convention center. And 
restaurants abound in the downtown 
area. 

With the charm of the old and the 
challenge of the new. Brethren will 
gather for their 186th recorded confer- 
ence in the shadow of Fountain Square. 
If a Conference can be shaped by its host 
city, it is most likely to happen in 
Cincinnati. 

Board's investment policies 
among Conference business 

Even as a concern over the denomina- 
tion's investment policies grows as a po- 
tential issue at Annual Conference, the 
General Board this month will take up 
its own consideration of the matter, with 
a probable recommendation to the 
delegates. 

Southern Ohio district is bringing a 
query to the Conference asking for a 
study of the payment of the telephone 
tax and the holding of U.S. government 
securities by the church's national offices. 



4 MESSENGER 3-1-72 



Likewise, the Pacific Southwest Con- 
ference, at the initiation of some youth 
and the Lynnhaven, Phoenix, and Glen- 
dale, Ariz., congregations, has requested 
Annual Conference to "consider the 
moral question of holding United States 
Savings Bonds when we as a church 
are trying to divorce ourselves as far as 
possible from the military-industrial 
complex." 

In another related item, the Manches- 
ter church and Middle Indiana district 
are asking that the Conference be pro- 
vided an annual itemized report of Gen- 
eral Board and Pension Board invest- 
ments. 

Another query e.xpresses concern for 
the selling of beer, wine, and liquor in the 
public media and asks for leadership in 
giving suggestions to local congregations 
on working to end the advertising. Initi- 
ating the query are the Bassett congrega- 
tion and Southern Virginia district. 

Though there are few new items of 
business, last year's Conference left 
enough unfinished ones to keep the Cin- 
cinnati delegates busy ... on an abortion 
stance, theological education, lower in- 
come housing, a social-economic basis 
for Fund for the Americas, among them. 

Brethren helping to fill 
lower income housing needs 

In its first two years the Christian Hous- 
ing Assistance Corporation in Waynes- 
boro, Va., has aided seven lower income 
families in finding and purchasing homes. 

Originally begun in 1969 by the 
Waynesboro Church of the Brethren and 
now involving 14 congregations and five 
denominations, the corporation makes 
loans to families for down payments on 
terms by which they can handle the re- 
payments. 

Waynesboro pastor Wendell Flory is 
chairman of the corporation, and a num- 
ber of directors, including the officers, 
are Brethren. Four realtors also serve on 
the board. 

Three black and four white families 
have been assisted thus far. One family 
of eight moved from a chicken shed to a 
four-room house when the corporation 
endorsed the father's $1,500 note and 
lent him the required $1,000 balance. 

Another loan was made to a family of 



six for $2,000 to enable them to take over 
a mortgage on a home worth $14,000. 

In each of the seven loans made, Mr. 
Flory says, "the family needed assistance 
in legal advice and procedures in ob- 
taining homes. Some did not have 
the credit necessary for them to have 
secured loans in their own names." 
Follow-up contacts are made with the 
families. Mr. Flory points out that the 
program is not a giveaway, but that re- 
payment is made. 

The corporation has operated on 
$18,000 in assets. While five congrega- 
tions have budgeted the corporation in 
their planning, most support comes from 
direct gifts, memorials, and mortgage 
payment income. 

Relief aid to Nigeria closed 
after $20 million in assistance 

A little more than two years after the end 
of the bitter Nigerian civil war, the larg- 
est relief and rehabilitation program ever 
supported through the World Council of 
Churches is drawing to a close. In the 
two-year period, churches and their 
agencies around the world have chan- 
neled more than $20 million in cash and 
material aid as well as personnel to the 
program of the Christian Council of Ni- 
geria (CCN) Rehabilitation Commis- 
sion. 

(The Church of the Brethren contrib- 
uted $20,483 in Emergency Disaster 
Funds toward relief elTorts in Nigeria, 

In Nigeria: Two years of medical aid 




and Brethren field secretary in Nigeria, 
Roger L. Ingold, was seconded as as- 
sistant to Emmanuel Urhobo, the Ni- 
gerian director.) 

A staff' team of 573 Nigerians and 22 
expatriates — including Japanese. In- 
dian, Jamaican, European, and North 
American personnel — have carried out 
extensive relief work and 41 field rehabil- 
itation projects and programs. The aim, 
said a CCN report, was "to give a shot- 
in-the-arm to the medical, agricultural, 
industrial, and social sectors, enabling 
them to progress by themselves." 

Rural health centers have been recon- 
structed in five divisions in the East Cen- 
tral State and five hospitals enabled to 
function again. Medical teams have sup- 
plemented governmental health care. 
One of the CCN medical personnel from 
Japan h^s been carrying out visits to no 
less than 44 health centers, dispensaries, 
and maternities each month. 

In the agricultural field, three rural 
training centers have been reopened after 
the devastation of the war. A rural re- 
construction plan is also in operation 
which aims at the creation of ten or 
eleven cooperative farms in the East 
Central State, encouraging 150 young 
farmers. 

Home industries have been another 
part of CCN's work. Seven weaving cen- 
ters have been established and a regular 
and increasing demand is reported. Pot- 
tery is being produced at Isheagu under 
the direction of a Nigerian potter, and 
children separated from their parents by 
the war have been reunited after much 
patient tracing work. 

At 100, International Lessons 
still leading study materials 

One hundred years ago next month in 
Indianapolis the International Sunday 
School Lessons were launched. 

In April the present Committee on the 
Uniform Series, related to the Division of 
Christian Education of the National 
Council of Churches, will observe the an- 
niversary in the same Second Presby- 
terian Church ( but not the same build- 
ing) where the lessons began. 

Hazel M. Kennedy, Brethren con- 
sultant for curriculum materials, has 
worked with the uniform lessons since 

3-1-72 MESSENGER S 



last November. Thirty U.S. and 
Canadian denominations cooperate in the 
preparation of the Bible lesson outlines 
for Sunday use. 

Church of the Brethren utilization of 
the uniform lessons began 87 years ago 
and presentl\ appear in A Guide for 
Biblical Sludies. 

The committee plans several years in 



advance in order that within any six-year 
period, for example, they can provide for 
"study of all portions of the Bible deemed 
most fruitful for group learning in the 
Sunday church school." 

Brethren use of the uniform lessons 
started with materials intended for chil- 
dren with quarterly publication for adults 
beginning in 1885. Today up to 25,000 



Brethren adults follow the interpretation 
in A Guide for Biblical Studies. 

Miss Kennedy and other Brethren edi- 
tors have helped plan lesson cycles, select 
scripture texts, phrase topics, and offer 
suggestions for writers. Freedom to in- 
terpret the texts is given to the denomina- 
tional and independent publishers. 

The series was conceived by a Meth- 



Agenda for the aging: Have churches 'sinned by omission'? 



The White House Conference on Aging 
left an agenda of promises to older Amer- 
icans. The ability of the Administration 
and the Congress to redeem them will de- 
termine the success of the gathering in 
Washington, D.C., in November. 

Churches were vigorously involved in 
the planning of the 3,500-member con- 
ference, as well they should be. For even 
before the conference opened, its chair- 
man. Dr. .Arthur S. Flemming, observed 
that churches are a part of the problem. 

"We have many older persons in our 
nation today who are isolated and ostra- 
cized from life and there isn't any doubt 
in my mind that wherever you find an 
older person in his own home, in a home 
for the aged, or in a nursing home who is 
isolated from life, there is within a block 
or two a local congregation, parish, or 
synagogue, " he observed. 

He called this lack of contact by the 
church with the older person a "very 
serious sin of omission." Where church- 
es find isolated or ostracized older per- 
sons, he said, "I would hope they would 
establish contact, begin to determine what 
their needs are, and then be as helpful as 
possible in meeting those needs." 

"But the most important thing for them 
to do," he emphasized, "is to demonstrate 
to that older person that someone is 
concerned for his or her interests." 

One Lutheran participant, following 
the conference, observed that "in the pri- 
orities of the church the older person 
does not rise very high," still being too 
concerned with the "youth mystique." 
The church has shown little leadership 
in developing roles for the retired indi- 
vidual as a person who can contribute to 
a society. 

Attending the conference for the 
Church of the Brethren were Olin J. 



Mason, administrator of Brethren Homes 
in Sebring, Fla., and Gaithcrsburg, Md., 
pastor Larry K. Ulrich. 

The work of the conference centered 
around 14 sections representing the full 
range of needs and problems of the elder- 
ly. Each section broke into subsections; 
Mr. Mason was recorder of his subsection 
on housing. 

Mr. Mason's involvement, if not typi- 
cal, was indicative of the prcconference 
planning that occurred. Over the past 
two years he was chairman of the High- 
lands County Forum on the Aging, on the 
advisory panel as a resource person at the 
regional level of the White House Con- 
ference, on the state and national Task 
Forces on Housing, and a delegate to the 
.State White House Conference. 

One of the sections Mr. Ulrich attended 
concerned the "Religious Community and 
the Aged." It brought six recommenda- 
tions to the President and Congress: 

u^ a national conference on spiritual 
well-being within two to five years to re- 
view the 1971 achievements, 

U^ a broad-based community approach 
to the aged through multipurpose com- 
munity centers, 

I/* denial of tax exemption to those 
private institutions for the aged which 
abrogate civil rights laws, 

]/^ church-related retirement facilities 
adding to their staffs a retiree in the role 
of ombudsman-advocate working with 
older adults within the institution and the 
larger community, 

jX tax deductions for money given for 
the care of the aging, and education for 
couples in their middle years for bridging 
to later problems, including accepting 
death and preparation for widowhood, 

1^ religiously-related educational insti- 
tutions and laymen in teaching roles pro- 




'Sr 






6 MESSENGER 3-1-72 



odist preacher, J. H. Vincent, and a Bap- 
tist layman, B. F. Jacobs, brought about 
its adoption. The first committee was 
created by the National Sunday School 
Convention. 

Today the lessons are the foremost 
plan used by Protestant denominations 
for the development of Bible study ma- 
terials in the church school. 



viding understandings of the processes of 
aging and the needs of older persons. 

The section affirmed "the principle that 
responsibility for the care and affectional 
support of persons of all ages rest with 
one's immediate family and kinsmen." 

Working during the week "Toward a 
National Policy on Aging," the confer- 
ence sought a policy of financial support 
by the government that would enable 
stronger involvement of the nation's vol- 
untary sector in programming for serv- 
ices to the elderly, Olin Mason said. 

As one participant remarked: "The 
problem of the aging is still poverty" and 
many of the problems related to aging 
would be solved with an adequate guar- 
anteed minimum income. Conference 
delegates adopted a resolution recom- 
mending that the elderly be guaranteed 
at least the minimum income cited by 
the Labor Department as adequate. 

Curiously however, while churches 
tend to concentrate on institutional serv- 
ices to the aging — financial support of a 
retirement home and ministries to nursing 
home patients — the majority of the 
elderly reside outside such institutions. 
Indeed, the study being made for the 
1972 Annual Conference of the Brethren 
homes for the aging appears to focus on 
the institutional rather than individual 
role. 

A conference study book suggested that 
churches may overlook spiritual needs as 
they become aware of other problems of 
the aging, and may even accentuate prob- 
lems among those they help. 

The church by its own heavy institu- 
tional involvement, if not its spiritual as- 
signment, has an agenda for the aging. 
The seriousness with which it takes its 
mandate may help determine national 
goals for the elderly. 



[LapdsirDDDi]^ 



PEOPLE YOU KNOW 



Alvin P_. Klotz has accepted the exec- 



utive directorship of Hoosiers for Peace, an arm of Clergy 
and Laymen Concerned, with offices in Indianapolis, Ind. 
His contributions to Messenger include guest editorials. 

District executive Joseph Mason of Middle Pennsylvania 
is serving the Centre Association American Baptists while 
continuing his present responsibilities. The joint pro- 
gram with the Centre Association will continue for a two- 
year trial period. 

S. C. Miller , 92, veteran school administrator who 
two years ago was proclaimed "Man of the Half Century" by 
fellow Kiwanians , died Jan. 2 in Evanston, 111. An active 
church leader, he first came to Elgin in 1911 to edit the 
Inglenook magazine. 

Another longtime churchman, E_. M_. Hersch , died at La 
Verne, Calif., Jan. 16. He was 77. He was a former mana- 
ger-treasurer of the Brethren Publishing House. 

Hillcrest Homes administrator M. R. Smelt zer has be- 
come president of the California Association of Homes for 
the Aging. 

Pastor of Akron, Ohio's, First church, Raymon Eller , 
is on the Akron Ministerial Association's campus ministry 
at Akron University, representing the Northern Ohio Dis- 
trict. He served similarly at Wichita State University in 
his former pastorate. 

At Springfield, Mo., Donna Carson , member of the Good 
Shepherd church, received the city's Outstanding Layman 
Award . . . and in Bakersfield, Calif. , Layman of the Year 
is Church of the Brethren member Tom Dunham. 



A POTPOURRI 



In the Southeastern District of the 



Church of the Brethren, Camp Carmel becomes the first Amer- 
ican Youth Hostel in the state of North Carolina. The 
hostel program, overseen by American Youth Hostels, Inc., 
aims to provide young persons with opportunities for simple 
modes of travel and recreation, along with experiences in 
developing self-reliance and goodwill among persons of 
different backgrounds. 

Brethren in Fort Wayne, Ind., observed their 75th 
anniversary Feb. 13. Separate and combined services were 
held by the Lincolnshire congregation , organized in 1897, 
the Beacon Heights congregation , organized in 1952, and the 
Kairos House fellowship , begun in 1970. 

You'll want to watch Some Kind of Presence March 12, 
one program in a series of specials offered on Sunday after- 
noons by NBC television. Allen Sloan' s dociMientary details 
the changing concept of the ministry today. 

Best Sunday School Lessons is the tentative title of 
a book being edited by Claude A. Frazier, M.D. , whose ap- 
peal for materials goes to Messenger readers. Persons who 
have prepared and presented unique, original, or outstand- 
ing church school lessons for children, youth, or" adults 
may submit them to Dr. Frazier at 4-C Doctors' Park, Ashe- 
ville, N.C. 28801. 

The La_ Verne , Calif . , church board voted to support 
the Southern California Telephone War Tax Suit, involving 
the withholding of the ten-percent federal excise tax. 

3-1-72 MESSENGER 7 



P®(BDSD CSpKOrft 



Project Equality: 'Not a Closed Issue' 



bv RONALD E. KEENER 



Nc 



led Crumpacker's letter, printed in the 
front part of this magazine, is an example 
of several concerns expressed about the 
General Board's decision last November 
that the denominational offices affiliate 
with Project Equality. 

The issue that has evolved from that 
action since then also indicates how con- 
fusing and confounding can be the parlia- 
mentar>' processes of Annual Conference. 

It seems clear that what delegates 
thought they voted on last June regarding 
Project Equality, and what they did vote 
on were two different matters. 

Project Equality, Inc., is an interreli- 
gious agency, begun in 1965, that seeks 
equal opportunity in employment by reli- 
gious bodies and avoidance of purchasing 
practices that subsidize discrimination. 
It is active in about 23 states. 

-At the St. Petersburg Annual Confer- 
ence last year, the General Board re- 
sponded to a query assigiied to it the 
previous year. The reply, which was 
adopted by the delegates in a 560-295 
vote, proposed study and witness to the 
evils of discrimination and the need for 
jobs for minority persons. The reply sug- 
gested membership for "congregations 
and agencies of the Brotherhood" in 
Project Equality "when volume of busi- 
ness and number of jobs would justify 
participation." 

Thus the final delegate action skirted 
the question of immediate membership 
in Project Equality in favor of a "wait- 
and-see" policy. In November, however, 
at the urging of the church's professional 
staff, the newly constituted General 
Board reconsidered Project Equality and 
voted to join. 

The questions that arose from this 
series of events came in the mail of Gen- 



eral Secretary S. Loren Bowman. One 
wanted to know whether "the Board's 
decision was an override of the Confer- 
ence action." Another questioned wheth- 
er "the Board appears to be going in an 
opposite direction from the decision of 
Conference," a concern echoed many 
times, including Mr. Crumpacker's letter, 
since Annual Conference is the final au- 
thority in matters of policy for the 
denomination. 

"The precedent of the Board changing 
something Conference acted upon so soon 
will certainly create many problems for 
us pastors," another wrote. 

A careful relistening of the debate on 
the issue from the official tapings of the 
delegate body, and an examination of the 
motions before the delegates, indicate 
that one's interpretation of the sentiment 
of the delegate body was different from 
the action which they finally took. 

Sentiment appeared to reject denomi- 
national membership in Project Equality. 
'Vet the final action left that door open to 
the General Board on its "serious con- 
sideration of the possibilities/ values of 
membership in Project Equality," the 
wording of the implementing part of the 
query's reply. 

Indeed the original query received at 
the 1970 Conference was not put in the 
terminology of membership in the group. 
Rather, it spoke to the study of endors- 
ing and cooperating witli Project Equality 
by Brotherhood organizations and 
church-related institutions in the areas of 
investing and expending funds and in fair 
employment practices. 

Of the General Board's study of Proj- 
ect Equality and its report to the dele- 
gates, the minutes simply say "The report 
was adopted." 

Did the action prohibit the General 
Board and other Brotherhood agencies 
from joining Project Equality? 



As impartial a view as possible must 
observe that the action itself did not. 
Nor did it deal decisively with the matter 
of membership at all. 

Concluded S. Loren Bowman: "Mem- 
bership in Project Equality was left open 
and the General Board — along with oth- 
er agencies of the church — was com- 
mended to continue its study of the pos- 
sibilities/values of becoming a participat- 
ing member. This was viewed as an op- 
tion for the reorganized board as it met 
in November." 

It can be asked whether the General 
Board should have dealt with an issue so 
recently before Annual Conference. 

Furthermore, and even more to the 
point, it is hazardous to suggest that the 
Conference did not speak at all on the 






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8 MESSENGER J- 1-72 



matter of membership in Project Equal- 
ity. In essence, one could say that the 
sentiment of the Conference was well 
known to the November Board meeting. 

During the debate on the Board's posi- 
tion, a substitute motion was offered that 
the church, through its General Board, 
become a full participant in Project 
Equality. By a division vote of 506 nays 
and 295 yeas, the delegates defeated the 
call for full membership. 

Moderator Harold Z. Bomberger, in 
announcing the vote, said "that means 
you [the delegates] have decided not to 
authorize the Board to become part of 
Project Equality." 

Yet subsequent action on the query did 
not make this vote an official part of the 
response to the query. Indeed, General 
Secretary Bowman assured the delegates 
that the "issue is not a closed issue," but 
remained open to reexamination and 
participation. 

Then too, while the Conference de- 
feated a proposal to instruct the Board to 
join Project Equality, it can also be ar- 
gued that it did not tell the Board not to 
join if new evidence or argument caused 
it to reconsider membership. 

Obviously the Board could feel that it 
was under the mandate of continued 
study being commended to the entire 
church through Annual Conference. 
From last June's delegate action it ap- 
parently felt that it was free to act as it 
did last November. 

"If you were at St. Petersburg," Mr. 
Bowman said recently, "you may feel 
with considerable justification that mem- 
bership in Project Equality was the item 
being decided. Most of the speeches on 
the floor were by persons pressing for the 
church to become active in Project Equal- 
ity at every level of its life. 

"Little attention was given to the con- 
tent of the Board's report and almost no 
discussion was given to the specific rec- 
ommendations. Even though a careful 
analysis of these recommendations would 
seem to indicate quite clearly that Con- 
ference did not act decisively on Project 
Equality membership, it is likely that 
many delegates felt it had done so." 

Somewhat incongruous, the content of 
the Board's report was very supportive of 
Project Equality, while at the same time 
the Board declined membership in the 
organization, preferring to work toward 



the same goals within its own structure. 

It was this contradiction that led the 
Board's General Staff, following Confer- 
ence, to ask for a reconsideration of 
membership, operating under the guide- 
lines set forth by Annual Conference in 
its adoption of the Board report. 

In a critique of the report, a staff paper 
noted: 

" I . In the face of the great and urgent 
need outlined in the query, the Board's 
recommendation to the Annual Confer- 
ence was anemic considering the problem 
with which it purported to deal. 

"2. The Board's recommendation was 
illogical. It is mathematically impossible 
to add all the positive factors of the 
Board's expressed feelings about Project 
Equality and arrive at the negative con- 
clusion which it did. The sum total of a 
number of positive factors can never re- 
sult in a negative. 

"3. The Board has not stated explicit- 
ly (even in its recommendation to Annual 
Conference) a list of reasons for not 
joining Project Equality." 

Among arguments expounded by the 
staff paper for joining Project Equality 
were feelings that "it is the strongest and 
most effective program of its type to ap- 
pear on the horizon." Furthermore, 
"membership commits us to do in deed 
what we have said in words. It provides a 
systematic way of making concrete our 
good intentions." 

Out of these concerns the General 
Board turned again to consideration of 
membership and voted decisively to join. 

It is pertinent too, though somewhat a 
moot question now, to ask who should 
have decided on membership. In a nor- 
mal course of events, such a matter would 
likely not have come before Annual Con- 
ference. It came before the 1971 Con- 
ference only because of a query. If there 
had been no query, the route of decision- 
making quite normally would have gone 
to the General Board. Seldom are mat- 
ters of such limited concern dealt with by 
the Conference. 

Districts already members of Project 
Equality are Illinois- Wisconsin, Northern 
Indiana and South/Central Indiana, 
through the Indiana Cooperative Board, 
and Western Plains, from where the origi- 
nal Annual Conference query came. 

Membership of the General Board in 
Project Equality began in January and 



will be held in both the state and national 
organizations, but without additional ex- 
pense for the dual alignment. 

"The costs will not be a fixed member- 
ship appropriation but a service fee based 
upon the time which will be required to 
assist the Board in developing detailed 
plans for working with our suppliers and 
for planning to achieve our employment 
goals," Loren Bowman said. 

The cost of participation in the first 
year will approximate $2,000, somewhat 
lower than originally projected, and pos- 
sibly higher than succeeding years. The 
first year's costs will come from Part II 
of Fund for the Americas in the U.S. 
After the first two years, the board will 
evaluate its participation in the program. 

Even before the Board's action, the 
General Secretary and the General Serv- 
ices Commission executive were de- 
termining compliance with Project Equal- 
ity guidelines of major suppliers and firms 
with which the Board deals. 

The General Secretary provided to staff 
a list of airlines which comply with Proj- 
ect Equality guidelines for hiring of mi- 
nority persons. And Galen B. Ogden has 
received positive statements of compli- 
ance with suppliers' guidelines from five 
of the six major suppliers to the General 
Board. They are book publishers Abing- 
don and Harper and Row. R. A. New- 
house Co., a church supplies firm, and 
two paper products companies, Whitaker 
Paper Co., and Image Supply Co. 

It is believed that the Brethren in- 
quiries to the paper companies were the 
first acquaintance they have had with 
Project Equality. They expressed im- 
mediate willingness to comply, inasmuch 
as they were already equal opportunity 
employers. 

Negotiations are still in process with a 
sixth major supplier. 

So where to from here? 

Delegates to this year's Cincinnati 
Conference will have the opportunity to 
review the decision of the Board when 
the delegates take up the report of the 
Board, wherein membership in Project 
Equality will be contained. If the dele- 
gates are so inclined, contrary instruc- 
tions on Project Equality membership 
could be given. 

Whatever the outcome, it will have 
been more than a lesson in deliberative 
law. n 



3-1-72 MESSENGER 9 




The Sometimes Praying Hands 

°^Albrecht Diirer 



by Kenneth 1. Morse 



JVlention the name Albrecht Diirer, 
and most persons will think at once of 
a drawing of two hands, pointed and 
arched in an attitude of prayer. These 
"praying hands" originated as one of 
the preliminary sketches the German 
artist had developed for an altarpiece 
he had been asked to provide for a 
Frankfort merchant. What he drew in 
his study of The Hands of an Apostle 
may have represented only a minor 
element in the execution of a master- 
work. But apparently Diirer deemed 
his drawing worthy of saving, and 
therefore he dated it f 1508) and 
marked it with his monogram. 

Around his Praying Hands, a legend 
has developed which finds little support 
in Durer's biographies but which is 
appealing just the same. It suggests 
that Durer's early success was facili- 
tated by an agreement he made with an 
older artist. The friend's menial labor 
would support Diirer until such time 
as the young man could work and in 
turn enable his friend to develop his 
talent. According to the legend, Diirer 
suddenly came to the realization that 
his friend's hands, having toiled on his 

10 MESSENGER 3- 1 -72 



behalf, would likely never acquire such 
skill as he had attained. Observing his 
friend praying, Albrecht Diirer felt 
impelled to show his gratitude and also 
to honor the sacrifice of his friend by 
drawing these toil-worn but devoted 
hands in a gesture associated with 
prayer. 

During the past year art galleries 
around the world have held a series of 
special exhibitions to honor the 500th 
anniversary of Durer's birth. It is an 
appropriate time to take a closer look 
at the artist and the scope of his work. 
This may cause us to discard some 
legends, but at the same time it will 
surely confirm our feeling that Albrecht 
Diirer was a profoundly religious per- 
son, acquainted with prayer. And 
merely to glance at a sampling of his 
woodcuts, paintings, and engravings is 
to discover his fascination with hands 
— his own, the hands of other artists, 
the hands of those he pictured as 
apostles, and also the hands of Christ. 

The son of a goldsmith, Albrecht 
apparently decided quite early in life 
that instead of following his father's 
craft, he wanted to be an artist. At the 



age of thirteen he drew his own por- 
trait, exhibiting even then a lively 
curiosity about himself. As an ap- 
prentice to a local painter he remained 
in Nuremberg for several years before 
deciding, at the age of nineteen, to 
travel elsewhere in Germany and to 
work with other artists. 

Five hundred years ago the Middle 
Ages were ending. A Renaissance was 
beginning. Diirer's paintings and 
drawings often reflect the landscape 
and the architecture of the Middle 
Ages, and some of his preoccupation 
with death and damnation, with super- 
stition and fear, with the realities of 
war and pestilence, may be due to the 
times in which he lived. But he was 
also a Renaissance man. He traveled 
in Italy and learned from artists who 
were celebrating a new kind of 
humanism. In Central Europe he be- 
came acquainted with the new means 
of communication that accompanied 
the development of printing and pub- 
lishing. 

If it is correct to see both medieval 
and Renaissance values in Diirer, it is 
equally appropriate to view him as a 




M 



Angel Playing a Lute 



The Lamentation 



11, i^ , 





detail from Virgin Seated on a Grassy Bank 




Virgin Seated on a Grassy Bank 



3-1-72 MESSENGER 11 




detail from Christ on the Cross 




Christ on the Cross 




Christ on the Mount of Olives 



The Prodigal So7i 



12 MESSENGER 31 -72 




m 



devout Roman Catholic who was open 
to the new spirit and the new dynamics 
of the Protestant Reformation. The 
subject matter of many of his paintings, 
commissioned for churches, reflected 
the faith of the Middle Ages. Early in 
his career he created a series of wood- 
cuts illustrating the apocalypse. He 
published also engravings and drawings 
depicting the life of the Virgin Mary 
and two series devoted to Christ's 
passion. 

But Nuremberg, where Durer was 
the leading artist and where he re- 
mained for most of his life, was soon 
touched by the Reformation. At one 
time he wanted to paint Luther's 
portrait because the reformer "has 
helped me out of great anxiety." A 
few years before his death Diirer 
painted "The Four Apostles" in two 
panels (John and Peter on one, Paul 
and Mark on the other), and he gave 



the work, which many critics regard 
as his best, to the town of Nuremberg 
after it officially became Protestant. 



Ihe hands of Albrecht Diirer main- 
tained mastery over many techniques 
and were equally skilled with brush or 
pen. chalk or charcoal. That same 
mastery he applied to the remarkably 
sensitive ways in which he could 
portray the hands he wanted to picture. 
You can observe many different hands 
in his painting of Christ Among the 
Doctors. Here several of the doctors 
with whom Jesus argued in the temple 
use their hands to grasp or utilize the 
books of the law they are quoting. At 
the very center of the picture are the 
slightly chubby pink hands of the 
young boy Jesus. His fingers are con- 
trasted with the sallow aging hands of 



the oldest of the doctors. The hands 
here do far more than express symbolic 
gestures. They reflect age and 
experience coming together with 
youthful vitality. 

Some of Diirer's pen and ink draw- 
ings portray hands that are fleshy and 
stubby, but far more frequently he 
elongates the fingers so that they seem 
flexible and free, as one would expect 
an artist's hands to be. But these are 
the same fingers that, when tipped 
together in a gesture that Diirer 
associated with prayer and discipleship, 
form a kind of Gothic arch. Yes, as a 
master draftsman. Diirer could 
fashion muscular arms and aggressive 
fists, but most of his hands, whether 
those of laborers or angels, of sinners 
or apostles, were capable of turning 
to prayer. Which is only to be ex- 
pected of a man who wrote. "An artist 
is but the mouthpiece of God." D 





The Arm of Eve 



■~ The Schoolmaster 



3-1-72 MESSENGER 13 



M.R.ZIGLER 

AT 

EIGHTY 



by Hazel Peters 



Reflections by one whose devotion is to the church not as it is, but as it ought to be 



On Nov. 9, 1891, there came into the 
world a premature baby so small the odds 
were against life. But life remained, and 
M. R. Zigler grew up in the John Kline 
country around the Linville Creek 
Church of the Brethren in Broadway, 
Virginia. The house in which he was 
born was recently established as a state 
and national landmark. The man con- 
tinues to leave his mark wherever he 
goes — at home or abroad. 

M. R. Zigler went to Elgin in 1919 as 
the first Home Mission secretary; later he 
became also the secretary of the General 
Ministerial Board and of the Board of 
Christian Education. In 1941, with the 
beginning of the Brethren Service Com- 
mission, he was appointed its first execu- 
tive. In 1948 he was named the church's 
representative in Europe and to the 
World Council of Churches, with offices 
in Geneva, Switzerland. Though he has 
been heavily involved with and supportive 
of cooperation in the ecumenical move- 
ment, these relationships have increased 
his desire that the Church of the Brethren 
remain a strong, independent denomina- 
tion with a witness of peace and brother- 
hood in the world. 

Following some years of physical de- 
cline, M. R. gained in strength and vital- 
ity after surgery in 1970. It was on the 
occasion of his eightieth birthday celebra- 
tion in Virginia that we talked together. 

IVhat priority do you feel the Church of 
the Brethren and the church generally 
might he giving to peace, reconciliation, 
nonviolence? 

The church is on trial because of the 
two world wars, fought among Christian 



people primarily. War has been con- 
ducted largely in those areas where the 
churches exist. Therefore, if the church- 
es will declare peace and ask each indi- 
vidual to participate in peacemaking in 
the world and work toward reconcilia- 
tion, I'm convinced certain things can be 
done without violence. There are very 
few people on this earth who really want 
a war. There is enough strength in the 
Christian world to bring peace. Nonvio- 
lence is essential to Christian living. My 
hope is that we may now unite for peace 
by reconciliation between churches and 
the churches with governments. 

For you, are evangelism and reconcilia- 
tion distinct tasks or aspects of essential- 
ly one task? 

The supreme task of the Christian 
church is to build a community of Chris- 
tians that expresses brotherhood at the 
deepest levels. Therefore, the main ob- 
jective of the church, independent of all 
other things, is evangelism. By that I 
mean the direct act of going out and se- 
curing an increased number of members 
of the church to build a brotherhood that 
will not break. This brotherhood must 
have the characteristics of a society that 
you would like to build. The church then 
becomes a kind of a pilot project in 
brotherhood and declares this message to 
the community. If the community ac- 
cepts, there will be peace in that commu- 
nity and it will be awake to the needs of 
the world and will serve. 

Service is not evangelism. This comes 
after people have accepted Christ; it 
comes after a church has dedicated itself 
to evangelism, to a proper evangelism. 



At the beginning of World War I you 
were of draft age, but as a theological 
student, you had military exemption. If 
you were now 18 would you go in the 
military? 

If I were 1 8, I would not go into the 
military. My experience of the two 
world wars reveals that there is hardly a 
position I could take in the military in 
terms of my Christian attitude toward 
war. 

As you indicated, at the time of World 
War I, I was a theological student at 
Vanderbilt University. An invitation 
came for volunteers to go into YMCA 
work. The YMCA had responsibility for 
the recreational and religious activities 
for military men both in America and 
abroad. I volunteered for this and went 
to Parris Island, South Carolina, to work 
with the men in the U.S. Marines. The 
YMCA program was civilian but was 
tied in with the military. 

I don't know what I would say about 
following the same pattern again. At the 
time I thought I was doing right. After I 
got out of the YMCA work, I wondered 
whether I could say I did not participate 
in war. I doubt if I would again go in the 
YMCA program. 

Do you feel the church is giving sufficient 
support to men regarding the draft — 
whether they choose the military, 1-W 
service, or the resistance movement? 
Because the church believes in reli- 
gious liberty and the right of conscience, 
it carries a responsibility to all. I think 
it has heavy obligation to those who go 
into the military. We have never taken 
the position that those who enter the 



14 MESSENGER 3-1-72 



service cannot be members of the church. 
But some who did felt they had left the 
church. At the congregational level has 
there been encouragement to keep close 
contact with members regardless of the 
position they take in wartime. 

The General Brotherhood Board and 
Annual Conference took an active part in 
relating to men in the military, though 
this program was not as strong as the one 
involving alternative service workers. 
The support given conscientious objectors 
was wonderful. There was of course the 
position of some that churchmen should 
go to jail rather than participate in either 
military or alternative service. 

Administratively the church was faced 
with all these points of view. Its response 
was a type of conservation and a hope for 
reconciliation that someday we would 
understand each other in the body of 



it ought to be, not as it is. And that will 
give a clue to my feeling about a commu- 
nity also. I must live in a community 
and I must live in my church, but 1 doubt 
if I will ever find the place where every- 
one will agree with my point of view. It's 
along this line that I think that both 
adults and youth must work together in 
creating the common objective. 

I would like to see a goal set for the 
\ear 2000. which is only one generation 
from now. Many of us are too old to get 
anything done in the next 25 years, but 
we must support the youth. Youth some- 
how should get hold of objectives at this 
moment that they would put into opera- 
tion in their lifetime and be willing to die 
for. Any other objective will not match 
the war cry of giving a life, and I feel 
that our youth are ready to do this. 

I would like to see adults give their 



ver\' important year for the Church of 
the Brethren to set goals. If the young 
people will set their goals and dedicate 
their lives and say, "Here am I; send me," 
we should be ready to send them. And I 
would like to see at least 1.000 young 
people go out every year during the next 
25 years. There ought to be ten people 
out over the world finding spots where 
they can work. 

This is so important that I would put 
as my first objective for the Christian 
church, beyond evangelism, setting aside 
the church program to inspire youth to 
create objectives with the adults promis- 
ing support. I feel personally that the 
greatest job is the prevention of war or, 
to put it positively, creating brotherhood, 
creating peace for the world in the name 
of Christ. This is our job. The youth are 
ready. I think the world will listen. 



Christ and in brotherhood build the king- 
dom of God on earth when the war was 
over. 

Do you favor youth having a more influ- 
ential voice in shaping the direcion of 
the church? How would you answer the 
cries of those wlio might object? 

The U.S. government says youth can 
vote at 18. If you can vote, you should 
be able to speak for yourself and to set 
objectives for community living. The 
church needs to set the objectives that 
ought to be rather than just condone what 
is going on at the present time. I have 
often said that I belong to the church as 



'The greatest job 
is creating peace 

for our world 

in the name 

of Christ* 



entire attention to developing with the 
youth a program for the Church of the 
Brethren that will take this generation the 
next 25 years to accomplish. To do this, 
let's invite the youth in our local churches 
who have been in the army, in alternative 
service, in prison, and adults who have 
directed youth ministries to consider what 
they would give their lives for on this 
earth. The day is ripe for that to be done, 
to give youth an opportunity to speak 
under guidance. 

The Valparaiso youth conference used 
the term "Courage to Be Brethren." This 
should be followed up quickly before the 
spirit of that occasion dies out. This is a 



What do you mean when you say the 
young people should meet with adults and 
should speak under guidance? What is 
your definition of guidance? And could 
you be more specific about how young 
people should set objectives and the kind 
of service they tnight render? 

I would like to see youth and adults 
together use the New Testament as the 
guideline as the Brethren did in 1708 at 
Schwarzenau. Together we would com- 
mit ourselves to support a program for 
the creation of brotherhood. Brother- 
hood: this is the word I would use more 
than peace in future planning. This 
brotherhood must begin in the local 
church and in the local community. 
Then can we point to the kind of broth- 
erhood in which a world can exist without 
war. Our literature should be filled with 
this idea of loving one another and prac- 
ticing and learning how to do this love 
thing that we're talking about these days. 

Adults should participate in the devel- 
opment of the goals so we will not be 
in disagreement at any point. Yet we 
need recognize that we will be taking 
chances, but even so, we will say to 
youth, "We are willing to pay the price: 
we'll finance you; we're too old to go, 
but we'd like to help you." 

Christian people are still looking for 
pilot projects in brotherhood. 

You implied that, when adults and young 
people meet together and study the New 



3-1-72 MESSENGER IS 



Testament and plan objectives, there 
should be no disagreement. How would 
you handle the situation if there were 
disagreement? 

That is like a war that you can't stop. 
We must have faith that by due process 
we will come to an agreement on both 
parts — adults and youth. Now if there 
isn't an agreement, the only thing I know 
to do is wait. 

The National Service Board for Reli- 
gious Objectors was about as delicate a 
thing as you could ever put together in 
this world, but we agreed when we first 
started that we would not do anything 
that we didn't concur on. In my lifetime 
I have discovered that the best way to test 
every proposal is to try it. We generally 
have enough time to see whether it works. 
Also there's a possibility of having two 
types of programs going at the same time, 
going different ways, under one adminis- 
tration. Paul and Barnabas had their 
problems. They had to separate to do 
their work. But they didn't quit. Good 
leadership can almost guarantee the win- 
ning of the game. 

Do you feel the leadership being given 
presently by the Church of the Brethren 
General Board to peace concerns is ade- 
quate? And what of the local churches? 
How much can be done? I know that 
we're not doing enough. Primarily, we 
must find our objective and define what 
our schedule will be. The General Board 
should set great goals for the future, and 
it should draw on the unity that exists 



already among youth groups in local 
churches. The church papers, the church 
school literature, youth discussions should 
become aflame with the vision and goals. 
I do not feel the leadership has come 
from anywhere in the Church of the 
Brethren to inspire youth or adults to do 
what I have been advocating in this con- 
versation. 

What will the local churches do about 
it? They can do only what the General 
Board plans unless somebody disagrees 
and goes independent. I would like to 
see the Brotherhood take the leadership 
that would demand all the energy any 
group or any person has, so that we'll not 
be divided in our strength. So often the 
best leaders are off on a binge by them- 
selves instead of representing the church. 
The board must send out ambassadors to 
every local church so that each one will 
participate in this effort of creating a 
brotherhood around the world. 

When we talk about local churches in 
the Brotherhood, after all, there isn't any- 
thing but the local churches. The over- 
head is only something that works for the 
local churches. Anything that is done 
that isn't for the local churches is prob- 
ably irrelevant. Unless you maintain the 
strength of the local congregation you do 
not have strength in the overhead. 

Dialogue must go on. Following up the 
Annual Conference with the Valparaiso 
youth conference is perhaps a way to 
describe what I'm trying to say. How 
can these two lines of thinking be knit 
together in something that is better than 



'Anything that 

isn't done for 

the local church 

is probably irrelevant* 



either one of them? Here's where the 
General Board must see beyond the de- 
bates at either one of these types of con- 
ferences. 

What degree of ecumenical activity or 
level of relationships do you see as ap- 
propriate for the Church of the Brethren 
today? 

That's a question that should be im- 
plemented just as vigorously as our de- 
nominational program. The historic 
peace churches have a great opportunity 
to represent the peace movement, or the 
brotherhood movement, to our fellow 
Christians, denominationally speaking. 
Now is the time to act. 

The World Council of Churches and 
the National Council have been weak- 
ened and local councils are practically 
nonexistent. To me it's a pathetic scene, 
and I regret it very much. One of our 
urgent objectives is to mobilize the re- 
sources within Christianity, among de- 
nominations, as quickly as we can so that 
we will feel strength and not weakness. 

The time has come for the Brethren to 
say we're going to pull ourselves together 
now because we have been broken also. 
We can come back again to take our 
place. Adults and youth need to think 
through this problem very seriously and 
quickly. 

If I had a personal say on what to do, 
I would keep a strong man at Geneva 
and put a youth there with him to work 
with the World Council of Churches and 
with the United Nations auxiliaries in 
Rome and Paris as well. I would put 
another strong person and a youth in 
New York to work with the United Na- 
tions and the National Council of 
Churches. I would continue a strong 
personality in Washington and a young 
person working with him. These jobs 
would center on both Christian organiza- 
tions and governments. There these three 
groups could join together in a creative 
research study of how to meet the world 
and to find the places of service for those 
we'll send out and support. 

I would revive the movement to go to 
the general conferences of other denomi- 
nations. We have invited many to our 
conferences, but we should seek invita- 
tions to go to other conferences to give 
our message of peace. 

Wherever we can work with other 



16 MESSENGER 3-1-72 



bodies, we should work with them — but 
not lose our own identity. 

Of the ministries performed by the Breth- 
ren Service Commission, what do you 
regard as the most significant break- 
throughs? 

However much we would want to 
change our relationship to the U.S. gov- 
ernment during wartime, I would say our 
biggest breakthrough came when the 
government forced the historic peace 
churches to work together. We didn't do 
it because we loved one another so well, 
or because we wanted to get together; but 
we had to, and that was good. 

The National Service Board for Reli- 
gious Objectors has been a tremendous 
and valuable institution. But I hav; a 
hunch that we're letting down on that. 
We ought to double our efforts in NSBRO 
[now the National Interreligious Service 
Board for Conscientious Objectors] to 
work with the government and develop a 
program so that if another war occurs, 
we'd be ready. And don't let anybody 
think we're not heading toward another 
war. 

Of course, we've made many mistakes. 
Let's list them; then let's throw our lives 
into creating what ought to be. We ought 
to keep a program going, doing some- 
thing better everyday, trying to find new 
light, and daily getting something done 
for conscientious objectors during peace- 
time. Then if war comes, we can say to 
the government, this is what we want to 
do and if you don't let us do it, put us in 
jail, I would not mind going to jail if we 
were doing a really heroic job. I believe 
the government would let us go on work- 
ing during wartime doing what we ought 
to do if we have a good program. That 
would be a part of my ongoing objectives 
immediately. 

You commented that the government had 
forced the Friends, Brethren, and Men- 
nonites to work together in relation to 
conscientious objection. Dr. Visser 't 
Hooft of the World Council of Churches 
did a similar thing when we were trying 
to get the World Council to give attention 
to peace. Is that not true? 

It is true. He suggested that we ought 
to do something for the conscientious 
objectors of Europe, and cooperatively 
we set up EIRENE in Germany, Moroc- 



co, and other countries. He said we were 
the only ones to do it, because we were 
the only ones that had the charter for it. 
We've got the charter for peace now. 

What vision of the church do you feel 
would be most challenging to the Breth- 
ren today? 

My vision would be that by the year 
2000 we double our membership. We 
must lift our message up and let what we 
believe be known. Of course we've got a 
lot of homework to do before this can be 
done. I'd like to see the seminary and the 
headquarters at Elgin unite in one staff 
and face, as a research group would, a 
problem like ours and find out how it is 
possible to get people to create a brother- 
hood that won't break and be so good 
people will want to join it, want to be in 
it, and wouldn't be satisfied to be out of 
it. 

What do you regard as the most gratify- 
ing experiences in your own career of 
churchmanship? 

This sudden answer today might be 
different from what I would reply ne.\t 
week, but I will say this. I've had such a 
good experience with the Church of the 
Brethren ever since my childhood, even 
though the members then were very con- 
servative, that I can't help but feel that 
belonging to the Church of the Brethren 
has been a Godsend to me. But I don't 
think that's what the question implies. 

In terms of my own work for the 
Church of the Brethren, in every job I 
had it took me ten years to be trusted by 
the constituency. That's a hard statement 
to say, but I think it's true even of pas- 
tors. To be trusted, you have to be with 
a group at least ten years. To be strong 
you must have your constituency with 
you. To fail to do this means disaster. 

The biggest thrill of my lifetime with 
the Brethren is that I was in a job where 
I was given a lot of liberty. I accepted 
the liberty and moved out on it and was 
more or less supported. I don't know how 
I could express my appreciation for the 
constant support of the Church of the 
Brethren from December 1919, when I 
went to Elgin, to 1958, when I retired in 
Geneva, Switzerland. And since then I 
have never felt any break in my relation- 
ship with the church. 

Going back to the question of break- 



throughs, a major breakthrough came 
when wc began to work in the council of 
churches and other agencies to get certain 
things done in the world. My lifetime 
covers the period of the Brethren rela- 
tionship to other religious bodies. There 
was some before 1919 but not much. I 
have found that we were welcomed all 
the way as long as we took our position, 
knowing full well that we could not ex- 
pect everything we would like to have 
done. The councils of churches were 
more patient with us than many groups 
would have been and we ought to appre- 
ciate it. 

Also, our relations with the govern- 
ment have been tremendous. There are 
some of our people who think we ought 
not to have anything to do with govern- 
ment, but personally I want to be a citi- 
zen, a good citizen, and I would like for 
my citizen brothers to allow me to have 
freedom of conscience. In some respects 
it is easier to get respect for freedom of 
conscience from government than from 
some Christian bodies. 

Among the churches and among gov- 
ernments, the thing that put us through 
was our program. We had a program to 
offer, we had something in our hands to 
give, and we had youth to back us up. 
The program that is developing in the 
world for conscientious objectors was 
started primarily in Europe by represen- 
tation of our youth being in Europe as 
conscientious objectors. Now when we 
have COs from Germany in our program 
here, the circle has been made. 

What we need now is a breakthrough 
in local congregations to the communities 
in which we live. 

What suggestions do you have for a local 
breakthrough? 

I would reiterate that we must let the 
people of the community know our pro- 
gram, our objectives. We should ask the 
community to join with us in many of our 
objectives in ways that would not require 
them to join our church to be with us. 
We don't have to have people join our 
church to follow our message. We need 
to work with government at all levels, to 
hear its counsel, and to offer our counsel. 
Government is very good to us in my 
judgment. We ought to express apprecia- 
tion for the good things that have been 
done and then ask for better things! Q 



3-1-72 MESSENGER 17 





in a Palestinian village . . . 




T 







he village of Deir Ammar five years 
ago was an area of tension and conflict in 
the Arab-Israeli war. Last summer 
Christian and Moslem children came to 
the small village, 35 miles northwest of 
Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West 
Bank of Jordan, to participate in a 
recreation camp and, to some extent, to 
work at reconciliation. Many of the 
children had lived their entire lives in 
refugee camps. 

Brethren Service in Europe, cooperat- 
ing with the United Nations Relief and 
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees 
and the Quaker Service Middle East 
Youth Program, for the past two years 
has sent Brethren volunteers as counsel- 
ors to this summer camp. 

Last summer Quaker volunteers and 



Brethren Service workers Kenneth 
Smeltzer and Frederick A. Schmidt Jr. 
worked with the co-directors of the 
Deir Ammar summer camp, Robert and 
Eva Minnich. 

Mr. Minnich has been employed part 
time since last October as Brethren Serv- 
ice Representative for the Middle East. 

Working from Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, 
Mr. Minnich is investigating opportu- 
nities for Brethren program through 
the World Ministries Commission. 

Seeking to make their visit to the West 
Bank and Israel the medium for a 
balanced firsthand impression of the 
Middle East conflict, the foreign volun- 
teers from Deir Ammar participated in a 
weeklong seminar in Jerusalem sponsored 
by Quaker Service. 








J 



18 MESSENGER 3-1-72 



During the seminar they talked with 
IsraeH spokesmen and students, visited 
their homes, and journeyed to a kibbutz. 
Through these discussions they were able 
to analyze their West Bank experiences 
and learn about Israeli attitudes, es- 
pecially regarding the Palestinians and 
the refugee issue, Mr. Minnich said. 

Through voluntary contributions, la- 
bor, and cash donations, including one 
by the World Ministries Commission, the 
UN agency has been able to provide 200 
boys aged 11 to 14 and 65 girls aged 10 
to 12 with an opportunity to leave their 
refugee camps for two or three weeks. 

Jammed into the limited time are in- 
I struction in personal hygiene, training in 
I athletic and scientific skills, folk art, 
'leadership training, wholesome meals, 



and hiking and excursions to historical 
and religious sights. 

Each day is closed with the children, 
who about evenly represent both faiths, 
reciting readings from the Bible ;;nd 
Koran in Arabic. 

Four Palestinians, never before outside 
the Middle East, were also sent by 
Brethren Service to international work 
camps. Two of the counselors who went 
to England, where they worked with 
mentally retarded children, had been on 
the Deir Ammar staff for three years. 
The other two, going to Denmark and 
Northern Ireland, were building a youth 
center north of Jerusalem. 

One of them, a tax collector by pro- 
fession, observed on his return that for 
the first time he believed that men of 



difTerent nations can work together con- 
structively, beginning as volunteers. 

Another, a medical student, discovered 
how a small volunteer group can awaken 
the beneficence of a community and 
provide services that cannot be bought 
with salaries. 

Of the Brethren involvement in the 
Middle East in the last two years. Bob 
Minnich said: "It has shown that out- 
siders are welcomed by both parties to 
the conflict when they come seeking 
reconciliation through open-minded 
study of the isssues. 

"Should not Brethren seek in that part 
of the world, which is the home of their 
faith, to pursue the spirit of Jesus who 
once walked some of the same roads that 
BVSers tread the past two summers?" □ 




in a Marburg ghetto . . . 






T 



he best view of Marburg, a university 
town in West Germany, is from the 
grounds of an ancient castle crowning a 
hill over the city. From this vantage 
point you can locate university buildings 
(among the 10,000 students last year at 
least twenty came from Brethren and 
Mennonite colleges through the Brethren 
Colleges Abroad program) and you can 
look down on the twin towers of St. 
Elizabeth's church, an imposing example 
of early Gothic architecture, dating back 
to the 13th century. Best of all, you can 
see in the castle itself the setting of a 
famous conference, important in the his- 
tory of the Protestant Reformation. For 
here Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, 
and Ulrich Zwingli came to agreement on 
most matters of doctrine, but failed to 
harmonize their views on the Lord's 
Supper. 



These are the features a guide will 
point out in one picturesque German city 
of 50,000 population. What he probably 
won't show the tourist, however, is a 
small ghetto area (yes, European cities 
have their slums too) close to the town 
but cut otT from it on different sides by 
the Lahn river, by railroad tracks and a 
junk yard, and by an expressway under 
construction. 

My guide to the Marburg ghetto, one 
sunny day last April, was Fred Schroeder, 
a graduate of Yale University, then in his 
second year in alternative service as a 
BVSer. Listen to his description of the 
area where he had chosen to work as a 
volunteer. Here is no picture of "ro- 
mantic Germany" but rather "five brick 
barrack buildings one story in height, two 
wooden barracks, one small building used 
as a kindergarten, and two primitive 



3-1- 



MESSENGER 19 




German children, like their American 

counterpart.';, can make a playground out of 

a jungle gym and a sliding board, especially 

with the help of a friendly BVSer. Right, 

preschoolers, whose drawings decorate the 

walls, make new discoveries with a scale 




toilet buildings (unhealed, no plumbing). 
For the 1 77 people, about 1 00 rooms are 
available — rooms that are wet, causing 
rugs and furniture to rot, and with walls 
so thin that neighbors are easily disturbed 
by one another. TTie rooms have no run- 
ning water and no drainage system. Wa- 
ter is fetched from three pumps in the 
courtyard." 



At that time Fred was working with a 
community group including some of the 
residents of "Am Krekel," as the slum 
area is known. A few years ago, as an 
American student living in Berlin, Fred 
had some questions about military serv- 
ice, and he turned to a BVSer he met in 
that city for draft counseling. When the 
draft caught up with Fred, he asked for 



alternative service and was permitted to 
stay on in Germany, beginning what was 
then a new BVS project under the spon- 
sorship of the World Ministries Com- 
mission. 

The day of my visit was a typical work- 
ing day for Fred, his time mostly taken 
with guiding the activities of slum chil- 
dren. Many of his young friends were 



20 MESSENGER 3-1-72 



playing hopscotch and marbles in the 
open spaces near one pump where some 
of their mothers and sisters were doing 
the family washing. Nearby was their 
kindergarten room (not in use that day 
because of the Easter holidays), perhaps 
the most pleasant room in the whole area. 
The room doubles as a meetingplace 
available for social activities of the 
residents. 

At that time a kindergarten teacher 
came each day to give instruction to chil- 
dren between four and seven. But for a 
time after his arrival on the scene Fred 
shared that responsibility with other 
untrained persons. On that April morn- 
ing several preschool children gathered 
in a room that could have been quite 
dismal but which was made colorful by 
their creative finger painting, by the grass 
gardens they had planted, and by the 
flowers they had grown. Fred explained 
that he and a local social worker, who 
I was available part time, tried hard to put 
these children in touch with growing 
things. 



Dt 



'uring the afternoon Fred worked 
mostly with children who were in the 
early school grades, helping them with 
their homework and directing periods of 
play. Field trips under his direction fre- 
quently provided a way for them to ex- 
perience a different environment as well 
as to learn new skills. He was eager also 
to spend more time with the twenty teen- 
agers in the community who have few 
social activities and for whom no recrea- 
tional activity is provided. At least once 
a week in the evening he met with a small 
group of residents, including the parents 
of some of the children he saw every day. 
In many respects Am Krekel is no dif- 
ferent from the ghetto areas you find in 
the United States. The problems are al- 
most identical. Many families are on 
welfare, but the checks come only every 
two months, and the adults do not always 
spend them wisely. There is a housing 
shortage in most German cities, and 
young persons seeking to escape from a 
slum area find it difficult to locate else- 
where. There is little money available to 
provide the materials and equipment that 
Fred and other volunteers could have 
used to advantage. Children coming 
from the ghetto encounter difficulty in 
school, not through lack of native intelli- 



gence, but because they need more verbal 
skills. 

As Fred looked back over the months 
he had spent in Marburg, he could see 
some positive results from his efl:orts. The 
preschoolers with whom he worked all 
passed the maturity test required for ad- 
mittance to school. And he added, "The 
children showed marked progress in ver- 
bal and motor skills." 

On the occasion of my visit I shared a 
midmorning snack with two young girls, 
Uta and Barbara, and with two active 
boys, Bernd and Thomas, whose last 
name is Sauer. As I examined Thomas' 
freely executed painting on a portion of 
one wall, I wondered if he might even 
remotely claim any relationship to Chris- 
topher Sauer, the talented printer who 
once lived near Marburg but who came to 
America to become a colonial publisher 
and to participate in the early history of 
the Church of the Brethren. 

One of the current ministries of the 
Church of the Brethren is to sponsor the 
volunteer activities of conscientious ob- 
jectors like Fred, both as a testimony to 
the alternative ways of peace and as a 
means of helping persons in need wherev- 
er they live. In recent years the exchange 
of volunteers between countries has been 
extended so that young volunteers from 
Germany, for example, have made a sig- 
nificant contribution to programs de- 
signed to assist Americans living in their 
own urban ghettos. Most of these young 
volunteers, like Fred Schroeder, are keen- 
ly aware of their limitations as profes- 
sional social workers or educators. But 
amateurs though they may be, they offer 
something vitally needed, a personal 
identification and a presence that can 
extend meaning and hope where living 
situations appear to be hopeless. 

Just before Fred completed his service 
in Marburg a few months ago he re- 
ported that "a German conscientious ob- 
jector is beginning in the kindergarten. 
... He has brought a fresh outlook . . . 
and this is healthy for the project pro- 
gram." Having spent part of a busy day 
with Fred, I know that what he and other 
volunteers, German or American, bring 
to many of our tired old communities 
with their seemingly insoluble problems, 
is indeed a "fresh outlook" and a reason 
to thank God for persons who choose 
peaceful ways of change. □ 



INTRODUCING 

THE FIRST IN A MONOGRAPH SERIES 

OF SEMINARY-RELATED 

ADDRESSES, LECTURES, STUDENT 

WRITING AND FACULTY RESEARCH. 

IN PAPER $1,95, PLUS 25c FOR 

POSTAGE AND HANDLING 



COLLOQUIUM 
NO, 1 





RADICAL SOCIAL 
MO\'EMENT and the 
RADICAL CHURCH 
TRADITION 

Roscinani B. Riictlicr 



POWER AND VIOLENCE: 
A BIBLICAL STUDY 

Ciuijdon F. Snijdcr 



SEND CHECK WITH ORDER TO; 

BETHANY SEMINARY BOOK STORE 

BOX 408, OAK BROOK 

ILLINOIS 60521 



CHOICEm 




CHOICE III is a weekday radio pro- 
gram designed to help husbands and 
wives create fulfilling relationships 
with each other. The 65 programs, 
sponsored jointly by the Mennonites, 
the Mennonite Brethren, and the 
Church of the Brethren, come in five 
3-minute spots per week for 13 weeks 
and are free for public service use. 
You can make them available to your 
community. Send for promotional 
packet and audition tape to; CHOICE 
111, Church of the Brethren General 
Board, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, III. 
60120. 



Name 



Congregation 



Street 



City 



State Zip 

3-1-72 MESSENGER 21 



FILM REVIEWS 



Sharing the Sights 

and Sounds of Love 



Iinding just the right film for the class- 
room, worship, or discussion can be a 
frustrating piece of guessworlc. Many re- 
ligious films are wordy, dogmatic, or sim- 
plistic, and it is often hard to tell from a 
brief description whether a film will 
meet our needs. The number of film pro- 
ducers and rental outlets has expanded so 
that lists of audio-visuals have become 
longer and more numerous, making the 
task of accurate selection increasingly 
complex. 

One source of imaginative, open-ended 




films for use in the church is the Fran- 
ciscan Communication Center, the pro- 
ducer of TeleKETics films. The pastor, 
teacher, or program planner can depend 
on TeleKETics to communicate forcefully 
and creatively, stimulating persons to 
search, encounter, celebrate, witness. In 
the words of the TeleKETics Resource 
Guide: "Because the Good News cries 
out to be communicated . . . TeleKETics 
in film and song and loud bright colors, 
crying out the news . . . that Christ is 
here amidst morning coffee and bleak 
headlines — that life holds hope — that 
we can reach out to each other, our 
world, our God . . . Here! Today! Cry- 
ing out the Good News — to make a joy- 
ful noise against the sounds of silence, to 
speak the Word to the world, to share the 
sights and sounds of love." 

TeleKETics' "Modern Prophets'" series 
traces the simplicity of lives lived in 

22 MESSENGER 31-72 



Christ, in the belief that all persons are 
prophets who share the Word in every 
action. For example, the "Dancing 
Prophet" Doug Crutchfield, dancer and 
teacher of dance, shares his vision with 
the crippled and the elderly. His faith 
and love are translated into his encour- 
agements, his support, his commands to 
these unlikely students. 

Christ taught his message through 
drachmas and sheep and wedding ban- 
quets and mustard seeds. The "Parables" 
series uses the scenes and objects around 
us to make Christ's message come alive 
for our own time. In The Stray, twelve 
first-graders spend a day at the zoo, 
where one boy strays and becomes lost. 
His terror in being lost is balanced by the 
gruff concern of the bus driver who 
searches for the boy and brings him back 
to the group. This modern parallel to the 
parable of the lost sheep brings new 
insight and meaning to the truth that 
God cares for us. "Once upon today. . . ." 

Sacraments are found everywhere. 
They are more than ritual, and can be 
seen in every human action, made holy 
by an awareness of the Spirit. In Bap- 
lism. Alfredo, a Mexican orphan trag- 
ically scarred by fire, is drawn by the 
warmth and love he sees among the chil- 
dren of a home. He pleads to be ac- 
cepted into this family and the children 
themselves answer with the simple dec- 
laration, "You are my brother." In Holy 
Comniiinioii the free-flowing images in- 
vite the viewer to recreate the meaning of 
the Eucharistic mystery. It explores 
everyday human encounters as the cele- 
bration of Christ's death and resur- 
rection. 

Revelation is continuous action, the 
constant rediscovery of the face of Christ 
on the face of the earth. In Let the Rain 
Settle It. two young boys, one black, the 
other white, arc thrown together by cir- 
cumstances. The cautious beginnings of 



their friendship celebrate Christ revealed 
to us as we reveal ourselves to each other. 
In Turned Round to See an adolescent 
boy finds himself in a discotheque, torn 
between the demands of the music and 
the images of a slide show which epi- 
tomize his memories and his fears. 
Stilled by his agonizing loneliness in the 
midst of a dancing crowd, and the ter- 
rible burden of his perceptions, his con- 
fusion becomes his revelation, and his 
gesture of hope for the world. 

Christian encounter is, by its very 
nature, a human encounter. Time after 
time we see Christ looking back at us in 
the faces of our friends, our families, the 
man on the street, the hungry migrant 
worker, the children of the world. To be 
a Christian is to encounter Christ in the 
fullest sense, to take him into our homes 
and our lives. As in Workout, where the 
physical competition in a workout ses- 
sion between father and son becomes a 
symbol of the emotional and ideological 
contest between them. As in Encounter, 
a scries of one-minute TelespoTS that 
deal with family communication and in- 
terpersonal relationships. Infusing com- 
munication with understanding concern, 
finding the search for God in the ave- 
nues of human experience, transforming 
irritating situations into moments of 
witness: these are the concerns of the 
"Christian Encounter Series." 

This style of lifting up life's moments 
of concern, searching, and witness is 
what gives TeleKETics its special useful- 
ness in a wide variety of situations. It is 
a style typified by the many TelespoTS, 
in which the Franciscan Communication 
Center had its beginnings, and which still 
make up the core of their offerings. Telc- 
SPOTS are thirty- and sixty-second mes- 
sages of faith, hope, love, but never 
preaching. They were originally created 
as public service spots for television and 
range in subject from psalms to safe 



I 

I 

I 



driving, from family relationships to the 
horrors of war. 

The genius of the TelespoTS is the 
ease with which they can be inserted 
into worship, a learning experience, a 
group discussion, or a presentation. They 
are concise, keenly sensitive vignettes 
that lift up a slice of real life and chal- 
lenge the viewer to explore the meaning 
of faith in that moment. The husband 
sharing good news from the office, finds 
his wife has fallen asleep in the middle of 
his story, as his letdown at her disinterest 
is reflected in the dismayed "Darling, 
are you listening?" A montage of space 
photos and stills of people of all nations 
takes on broader meaning in the context 
of Frank Borman's words upon landing 
on the moon: "We saw the earth the size 
of a quarter, and we realized then that 
there really is one world." A small boy's 
attempt to awaken his parents with a kiss 



is rebuffed, but he persists, bewildered: 
"I didn't come to bother — I only came 
to give you a kiss." 

In these and other spots, we find our- 
selves quickly, sometimes poignantly, 
reflected, magnified, refracted. Our en- 
counters, our searching, our witnessing 
are opened up for examination, and we 
are challenged to measure them by faith, 
love, and hope. 

Frequently the task of choosing film 
resources is confusing and frustrating. 
But with a resource like the Franciscan 
Communications Center, that job is trans- 
formed into an experience of excitement 
and discovery. Even the catalog is a 
surprise! It speaks to our needs and 
tastes in many more ways than simply 
listing products, numbers, and prices. 
The TeleKETics Resource Guide is in fact 
a program planning guide with celebra- 
tion and education ideas backed by a full 



offering of films, spots, records, and 
banners. 

The multimedia library of The Breth- 
ren Press now carries a stock of Tele- 
KETics films for rental, as well as copies 
of the Resource Guide (price: 50c). In 
addition, a consultation service in pro- 
gram planning and workshops in commu- 
nications education is also available to 
districts, local churches, and small groups. 
For more information write to Media- 
scope, The Brethren Press, 1451 Dun- 
dee Ave., Elgin, 111. 60120. — John G. 

FiKE 

CLASSIFIED ADS 

BRETHREN TRAVEL - Reservations are still avail- 
able for vacation holiday in the South Pacific. 
Thirty-five day tour leaves July 19, 1972, visit- 
ing Tahiti, Fiji, Bora Bora, Samoa, New Guinea, 
New Zealand, and Australia. Write J. Kenneth 
Kreider, Route 3, Elizabethtown, Pa. 17022. 




GIVING HUNGRY PEOPLE OVERSEAS 

A CHANCE FOR A CHANGE! 



Here's what -; iinUr has been doing since 1947; 

shipping 195 million pounds of food (much of it high protein, none of it 
government-donated), seeds, and tools to tens of thousands of hungry 
people in fifty countries . . . 

distributing an additional 817 million pounds of government-donated com- 
modi ti es . . . 

helping to dig wells, build roads, and construct schools through CROP 
food-for-work projects . . . 

supporting cooperatives, family planning clinics, and agricultural scholar- 
ship students. 

-: JCnUP is the Community Hunger Appeal of Church World Service. Your primary 
way of supporting Church World Service in the Church of the Brethren is through 
your ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING offering. 

Another important way you help Church World Service is by serving as a CROP 
volunteer leader, helping your county or city to organize a CROP Community Can- 
vass, a CROP Community Walk, or a CROP Hunger Club. 



DliOP 



is the way to say "Church World Service" in and to your community. 



Please write for information on how you can help. National CROP Office - Box 968, Dept. C - Elkhart, Indiana 46514 



The church and investment ethics 



What is a peace-loving body like the Church 
of the Brethren General Board doing with stock- 
holdings in corporations having military contracts? 

The question is a crucial one, and one that 
quite properly should evoke soul-searching, as 
letters in this Messenger suggest. 

But the question is also a tricky one, maybe 
even a little devious. For it readily can prompt 
more rhetoric than reason. It can spawn not only 
indignation but arrogance. It can sweepingly indict 
the corporate church but ignore altogether the 
responsibility of the individual churchman. 

For the record, a few facts and observations 
are in order. First, to imply that ten denomina- 
tions were exposed and chastised by the report of 
the National Council of Churches Corporate In- 
formation Center is to miscomprehend what has 
taken place. The study of the churches' stock- 
holdings in companies manufacturing war hard- 
ware was in effect instigated by the denominations 
through a division of the National Council, by staff 
spokesmen who believed the study would spark a 
timely review of the use of investment resources 
and possibly open ways of witnessing to industry. 
The element of surprise came when the findings 
were released to public media before reaching de- 
nominational officials. 

Second, to suggest that ten churches are 
guilty of thoughtless complicity with the war ma- 
chine is to overlook the fact that a number of 
agencies like the Church of the Brethren General 
Board have been examining the problem of in- 
vestments for some time, attempting to reduce if 
not eliminate their ties to the military-industrial 
complex. 

Third, to assume that the question is summar- 
ily resolved by withdrawing all investments in 
companies engaged in defense production is a 
simplistic response. In this era of diversified 
conglomerates, ascertaining which companies are 
involved in defense and to what extent is a com- 
plex undertaking. Disentanglement comes hard. 
The task will be aided now by the Corporate In- 
formation Center listing of the top sixty firms in 
military sales. 

But were the Center to pursue the study in 
greater detail, and were the regard for complicity 



taken seriously at the personal level, it could well 
suggest the individual's foregoing of a vast array 
of everyday products. Moreover, the individual 
would inquire of his bank, his savings association, 
his insurance company where their investment 
funds are placed. He eventually may question 
citizenship under a government which is the big- 
gest party of all in the defense business. 

Still, whatever attention has been given to 
the examination of investment holdings by the 
churches in years past, the time is ripe for a more 
intense look. After all, war profiteering is an un- 
comfortable charge, especially among those who 
have denounced so vehemently United States' ac- 
tion in Vietnam, and even if, as in the case of 
the General Board, it represents only ten percent 
or less of total investments. 



In reporting on investments, General Secre- 
tary Loren Bowman confirmed the data from the 
CIC report and added that for the year follow- 
ing. 1971, the General Board had common stock 
of $957,199 in ten companies listed as having 
defense contracts. In addition, in the Pension 
Fund $761,883 of common stocks were with thir- 
teen corporations having defense ties. The level of 
military sales to total sales for these companies 
ranged from 1.3 to 11.5 percent. 

Whether to divest of all such holdings, or to 
move as Clergy and Laymen Concerned is doing 
and deliberately select stocks in companies ma- 
jorily involved in the aerial war in Southeast Asia 
and as stockholders challenge the social responsi- 
bility of the corporations, are alternatives the 
churches need weigh. The matter is to be before 
the General Board at its March meeting. 

Whatever course is taken by other churches, 
it seems highly desirable that in the Church of 
the Brethren the General Board either drop its 
military-related portfolios altogether or move 
openly but decisively into an advocacy role on 
corporate social responsibility. 

With the facts at hand, policies must be re- 
viewed and perhaps revised, practices watch- 
dogged if necessary, and above all, principle and 
performance kept in tow. — h.e.r. 



24 MESSENGER 3- 1 -72 




by Brethren author — Patricia Kennedy Helman 

Free to Be a Woman 

If the roles of home and/or career have failed to integrate a woman's 
life into a satisfying whole, it is because, though the letter of the law 
may have been satisfied, the spirit has not. It is this spirit, that as-yet- 
unfound "self," that this book seeks to discover. With realism and can- 
dor, tempered by Christian insights, Mrs. Helman explores a woman's 
aspirations, duties, and rewards in a book that thoughtful women every- 
where will find inspiring and challenging. Marjorie Holmes says, "This 
gentle and perceptive book will make you proud to be a woman." Mrs. 
Helman is a graduate of McPherson College and the mother of two 
daughters as well as a provocative public speaker. Her husband is 
president of Manchester College. 

$4.95 

Love Is More Than a Ring on My Finger 

Jeanette Struchen 

The very private quality of love, its hidden meanings, its creative warmth, its joy 
and humor, its wistful eiusiyeness and sometimes terrifying solitude — all are told 
here with great clarity in contemporary phrasing, very much today in word and 
attitude. And yet, the universal quality behind each poem reveals a timeless 
message readers will recognize and relate to. The crisp illustrations are by the 
author herself, mirroring her own clarity of thought, and her paj-ticular ability to 
express a big feeling in just a few short strokes — exactly as she does with the 
written word. 

$2.95 

To a Sister on Laurel Drive 

John Pairman Brown 

To his countless sisters on all the Laurel Drives across America — dissatisfied and 
bored in their meaningless, disintegrating suburban world — the author's eight 
sensitive letters bring sympathetic understanding, encouragement, and hope. This 
book identifies the causes of women's despair today, and touches on real con- 
cerns — family unity, individual peace, and peace among nations, the oreservation 
of human and physical resources, racial justice, a workable faith — and gives 
women helpful guidance toward bringing these ideals closer to reality, and toward 
recovering the lost center of their lives. 

$3.95 




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Postage: 20^ first dollar; 5< each additional dollar 
The Brethren Press, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, Illinois 60120 



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Our church through the One Great Hour of Sharing 
has helped to support projects all over the world with 
personnel and funds: child care, maternal care, edu- 
cational assistance, response to disasters, fannily 
planning clinics, well digging, refugee resettlement, 
healing ministries, and assistance to farmers. Your 
gifts today can build hope for others tomorrow! 



MY GIFT FOR ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING 

Church of the firelhreii General liuarri. /■/5/ Diiniiee Ave.. Elgin. III. 60120 



Name _ 
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18 



A National Turnabout on War? An Ecumenical Witness called 
600 Christians and Jews to Kansas City to question the morality of 
the Indochina War. Ronald E. Keener details events 

When Churches Discover One Another. In the Shenandoah 

\alley of \'irginia 1 15 churches are finding out that they have gifts 
and resources to share with each other and with their neighborhoods. 
Norman L. Harsh is coordinating the outreach that is unfolding 
there. Linda Beher reports 

A Messenger Guide to Parish Ministries. Encounter Series. 
Lab training experiences. Fund for the Americas. Mission and peace 
education. Congregations all over the Brotherhood can feel "cared 
about" by the General Board and its Parish Ministries Commission, 
whose staff work on multiple concerns. You'll find details and persons 
to contact in this special section assembled by Kenneth L Morse 

But Why Did You Do It? The Christian faith means we are all 
related, and that we need each other. Doris E. Caldwell narrates 
a personal experience that answered the question "why?" for her 

From the Ashes: Petals Again. To dream the impossible dream 
is not naive but realistic, if one accepts the Christian view of our 
creation and redemption, by Glenn R. Bucher 

Outlook features the Church of the Brethren Capitol Hill offices, cites 
Heifer Project work in India and the Dominican Republic, focuses on 
Metro-Parish, a shared ministry for Plains Brethren, notes the death 
of churchman E. M. Hersch, brings up to date LAFIYA's reach 
toward a $300,000 goal, and introduces a BVS exchangee in Poland 
(beginning on 2). . . . David S. Strickler, Lena Willoughby, and 
Michael Hemmis offer poetry (21). . . . Reporting that a Study of 
Giving Reveals Gratitude and Goodwill is Donald L. Stern (22). . . . 
"Film-.Art: How Responsive, How Responsible?" asks LeRoy E. 
Kennel in a review article (25). . . . Ronald E. Keener editorializes 
on Governtnent vs. a Denomination (24) 



EDITOR 

Howard E. Royer 

ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

Ronald E, Keener / News 
Wilbur E. Brumbaugh / Design 
Kenneth I. Morse / Features 

ASSISTANT EDITOR 

hnda K. Beher 

EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Richard N. Miller 



VOL. 121, NO. 6 



MARCH 15, 1972 



CREDITS: Cover. 8. 9. 10. 11 Frank .•\. 
Kostvii for United Church Herald; 2 Roy 
Hnrlman: 7 Ron.Tltl E. Keener; 14 Don 
Honick: 15 Houarrl Rover; Ifi C^brk and 
Clark; 19 "The Hand of (iod." marble 
-Statuctle bv Aiigustc Ro<lin. courtesv of 
The Metropoliian Museum of .^rt. gift of 
Edward D. .\dams, 1908 



Messenger is the official publication of the 
Church of the Brethren. Entered as seconil 
class matter .\ug. 20, 1918, under Act o; 
Congress of Oct. 17. 1917. Filing date. Oct. 1 

1971. Messenger is a member of the Associ 
ated Church Press and a subscriber to Rcli 
gious News Service and Ecinnenical Press 
Ser\*ice. Biblical quotations, unless otherwise 
indicated, are from the Rc\iscd Standard 
Version. 

Subscription rates: $4.20 per year for indi- 
vidual subscriptions; S3. GO per year for church 
group plan: S3. 00 per \ear for e\ery home 
plan; life subscription. 560; husband and wife. 
$75. If vou mo\e clip old address from Mes- 
senger and send with new address. 
.-\llow at least fifteen days for ad- 
dress change. Messenger is owned 
and published twice rnonthlv by the 
f^hurch of the Brethren General 
Hoard. 1451 Dundee .Ave., Elgin, 111. 
60120. Second-class postage paid at 
Elgin, 111., Mar. 15. 1972. Copvrighl 

1972. Church of the Brethren General Board. 




WHITE HOUSE FEET WASHING 

The White House feet washing (Jan. 15) 
strikes me as quite out of place. When Jesus 
sent several disciples to prepare for the 
Passover, he did not say, "Pick out a nice 
place where two roads meet so we can make 
a suitable display of our Passover." Instead 
it was an intimate family sort of occasion 
where Jesus wanted to teach humility and 
service. 

To me the love feast and communion is 
perhaps the most sacred of all the ordi- 
nances we observe. Its place is in the Lord's 
house, not out in the street. And observing 
it out in public does not add to the reverence 
and sanctity that should characterize it, no 
inatlcr wlial was the aim that prompted 
it. . . . 

Charles L. Rowland 
New Oxford, Pa. 

SWALLOWED UP 

After reading the Jan. 15 issue of Mes- 
SENGLR we offer this short statement: 

Help! We are being swallowed up by 
Baptists, Mennonites, Church of God, 
Unitarians, Auslanders . . . 

Our leaders have died or left us . . . 

We are being jazzed up for the burial . . . 

Are there any Brethren left, anywhere? 

Help! 

L. Clark 
Modesto, Calif. 

LET'S NOT DRAG FEET 

Forty years of uninlerrupted church work 
is taking its toll on Inez Long (Jan. 15). 
. . . She is not singing. "Stop the church, I 
want to get off." She's going to stay on 
with one foot on the brake and the other 
dragging. 

She is in motley company. First of all 
there is our paradoxical moderator who, if 
memory serves me right, discarded his 
necktie, grew a beard, and goes hatless or 
wears a hat with a broad brim. 

Then there are those who really want to 
go back to the Brethren rather than forward 
to where the Brethren can go. They not 
only put on the brake and drag feet but 
slam the motor in reverse. 

She also joins those who, in season and 
out, try to outdo themselves criticizing "that 
Elgin bunch." In her case, however, she 
heroically confesses her past in being one of 
the "bunch." It might be well for those 
who were "partners in crime" to come for- 
ward in similar confession. 

But only those who have never carried 
responsibility for policy and decision mak- 
ing would contend that "the Elgin bunch" 
should have been able to have had the wis- 
dom to guide the church in all the ways we 



m 



©DDC 



should have gone. Let him who never made 
a wrong decision cast the first stone. 

If Mrs. Long will look far enough, she 
will see herself in company with those who 
believe in the religious commune. They 
really have what it takes to slow things 
down. 

We don"t need more brakes and dragging 
feet. We need better steering. We need to 
go forward under power. We are strangers 
in a new world. We must have a part in it. 
We are farmers gone to the city. We are 
awkward and make wrong decisions. But 
don't underrate the influence of the farmer 
on our American life. We need to better 
analyze our strengths and capacities and go 
forward with courage rather than with 
dragging feet. 

Chauncey Shamberger 
Weiser. Idaho 

REPEATED READINGS 

I have given criticisms to Messenger in 
the past. Now I want to express apprecia- 
tion — for Vernard Eller's and Inez Long"s 
articles (Jan. 15) and for the articles in the 
Feb. 1 issue. 

Of course, I do not agree with all that is 
written in these issues. But they are articles 
which have drawn me back for repeated 
readings. I am thankful for these two issues. 
They alone are worth the subscription rate. 
D. Luke Bowser Jr. 

Distant, Pa. 

1 

BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF WRITING 

I am writing to congratulate Messenger 
for the excellent article on W. Harold Row 
(December). I liked it for several reasons. 

It was a beautiful piece of writing, from 
every standpoint. 

Many people knew something about Har- 
old. Many hundreds more will now under- 
stand and know him much better. 

It showed the breadth, and scope of his 
interests, and his influence beyond his own 
church. 

There seemed to be a time when more of 
this type of work was done for church lead- 
ers. Most Brethren will remember Harold 
because of your article. 

I served under Harold on the Brethren 
Service Commission and was also chairman 
of the Foreign Missions Commission when 
he was with Brethren Service. 

The first three articles of that issue alone 
are worth a year's subscription to the 
Messenger. 

■v. F. SCHWALM 

North Manchester, Ind. 

NOT ANOTHER CATALOG 

I'm sorry some Messenger readers didn't 
realize that the gift brochure (Oct. 15) was 



no! just another Christmas catalog. 

I'd like to quote from a new SERRV 
brochure, "Toward a Flowering of Human 
Dignity," In spite of many efforts by gov- 
ernment and private agencies to solve the 
poverty problem, hunger and disease caused 
by poverty still plague most of the world's 
people. 

"Today's way of helping a person in pov- 
erty is to help him discover how to solve 
his own problem, if possible: to draw out 
from within him the will and the resources 
with which to break the degrading cycle. 

"Handicrafts are one way for disadvan- 
taged persons to improve their own welfare. 
Over the years a unique self-help marketing 
program called SERRV (Sales Exchange 
for Refugee Rehabilitation Vocations) has 
been developed for such craftsmen, in co- 
operation with overseas denominational and 
ecumenical personnel in more than forty 
countries. Most of these craftsmen would 
otherwise not have an adequate market for 
(he work they produce." 

Did not Christ say, "As you did it to one 
of the least of these my brethren, you did 
it to me"? 

Delma Witkovsky 
Westminster, Md. 

BRETHREN BUY BULLETS? 

I have just read the article published by 
the Times of the Hammond, East Chicago, 
and Calumet City area near Chicago, head- 
lined "Protestants Buy Bullets," reporting 
on the findings of the research agency of the 
National Council of Churches. . . . Our son 
who resides in Hammond, Ind., punctuated 
his revolt by calling our attention to the 
article involving the Church of the Brethren. 
We don't blame him! And that he has 
turned sour on the church is understandable. 
More people ought to know what is going 
on within our Brotherhood that for years 
has been double talk. . . . 

Robert Winkler 
Astoria, 111. 

A WORTHY CAUSE 

Is there any new interest or concern of 
church people about the mentally retarded 
people of our country and within our own 
church fellowship? 

It seems the church should take an active 
and helpful place in caring for those who 
deeply need aid. The state does a very poor 
job in caring for these people. Adults and 
children both need better homes. The 
church budget goes for many causes. Surely 
this is a cause worthy of some real concern 
and help. . . . 

Esther G. Royer 
Westminster, Md. 



[nnflnfetoas® 



t:=.T£=r=n.- Who 



Srcpn^egation? 



High on the list of priorities for Mes- 
senger is informing you readers of 
issues and developments in the life and 
program of the denomination. Hence 
in recent months there have appeared 
the Lafiya treatment of the Nigeria 
medical program (November 1), a 
draft of the statement being processed 
by the Annual Conference Study Com- 
mittee on Abortion (January 1), peri- 
odic ads on Brethren Volunteer Service, 
and, in this issue, a four-page guide to 
the program of the Parish Ministries 
staff. 

Credit for the new interpretive sup- 
plements goes especially to associates 
Morse, Keener, and Brumbaugh, work- 
ing in concern with related staff at the 
General Offices and 
in the field. Behind 
the approach is a 
desire to enable 
you better to know 
and assess the work 
of Annual Confer- 
ence and the Gen- 

eral Board. Your =^^^1^1^^ 

direct participation 

is being sought 
through various re- 
sponses: study, opinion, offerings, joint 
planning. 

And while organically Messenger 
is close to Annual Conference and the 
General Board, in no way does the 
magazine choose to report or represent 
only those interests. Messenger is a 
servant of the church that is local and 
district as well as of that which is cen- 
tralized. Thus even while zeroing in on 
specific thrusts of the Brotherhood, 
Messenger aspires to champion the 
whole church and to interact in terms 
meaningful to readers. 

In this issue, guest contributors in- 
clude Glenn R. Bitcher of the religion 
department of the College of Wooster 
in Ohio, Donald L. Stern of the stew- 
ardship enlistment team of the General 
Board, LeRoy E. Kennel of the Bethany 
Seminary faculty, poets David Strickler 
of Manchester, N.H., Michael Hemmis 
of Frostburg, Md., and Lena Willough- 
by of La Verne, Calif., and Doris E. 
Caldwell, a worker at the Christian 
Family Service Centre in Hong Kong. 
— The Editors 



3-15-72 MESSENGER 1 



Heifer Project work in India, 
Dominican Republic is cited 

Heifer Project, Inc., earlier this year re- 
ceived two accolades for work in India 
and in the Dominican Republic. 

The United Nations cited Heifer 
Project for its major contribution to the 
sheep and wool industry' in India. It was 
among the ten major achievements of the 
UN Development Program report of its 
first decade. 

Heifer Project's contribution of more 
than 400 Rambouillet rams and ewes to a 
project in Rajasthan, India, helped de- 
velop new and upgraded bloodlines in the 
sheep. Rajasthan produces more than 42 
percent of the country's wool. The pro- 
gram also provided training for local 
shepherds in modern fodder and pastur- 
ing techniques. 



The improvements have sharply raised 
wool e.xports, doubled income for shep- 
herds, and added new jobs for wool 
shearers and graders. 

The Dominican Republic government 
awarded Heifer Project a first place in 
milk production on the island-nation. 

The award went to the Dominican De- 
velopment Foundation which runs the 
dairy center established more than nine 
years ago by Heifer Project. The award 
mentions the Holstein breed which has 
produced the highest milk yields of any 
dairy breed in the country. 

HPI began its program in the Domin- 
ican Republic in 1963, at a time when 
there was no Grade A milk production on 
the island, and the ne.xt year established 
a model dairy center. In 1969 HPI 
handed the management of the center to 
the foundation and in 1970 was named 
the country's number one dairy farm. 



HPI, founded 28 years ago by the late 
Dan West of the Church of the Brethren, 
today is an ecumenical self-help program 
in some 90 countries and 17 US states. 

Metro-Parish provides unity, 
fellowship for Plains Brethren 

Brethren in the Kansas City-St. Joseph 
area are working together as a Metropol- 
itan Parish Council to provide a unified 
witness and draw the scattered Brethren 
closer together in fellowship and unity. 

The "Metro-Parish" was begun in late 
1968 originally to provide a shared min- 
istrv' for the Messiah church in Kansas 
City, Mo., First Central church in Kansas 
City, Kan., and the Missouri churches at 
St. Joseph and Plattsburg. 

But when each of the churches found 
its own pastor, two of them part time. 



I 



Washington Office: Making 
an IMPACT on government 

Churches are becoming increasingly 
sophisticated on national issues — in in- 
terpreting them and in influencing legis- 
lation and administrative decisions 
involving them. 

The Washington Office of the Church 
of the Brethren has become a participant 
in one such approach called IMPACT. 
The interfaith legislative information and 
action network is designed for the de- 
nominational and ecumenical groups to 
speak quickly to selected issues raised in 
the U.S. Congress and Administration. 

The Brethren helped create IMPACT 
three years ago but had not participated 
in it. The network consists of selected 
committed persons in Congressional 
districts. Given action materials on spe- 
cific issues, they are asked to contact key 
legislators or administrators by letter, 
telephone, telegraph, or p>ersonal visits 
on critical public policy issues. 

Ralph E. Smeltzer, Washington repre- 
sentative since last October, and district 
executives are nominating for the nation- 
al IMPACT network pastors and key 
laymen from those Brethren congrega- 
tions most sensitive and active to the 
ministry of social witness. 




In the Washington Office, 
Nancy Long, staff assist- 
ant, and Ralph Smeltzer, 
Church of the Brethren 
representative; right, Mr. 
Smeltzer at office entrance 



WASHINGTON OFFICE 

CHOBOIOflllEMnilW 




2 MESSENGER S-I5-72 



the Metro-Parish turned its attention to 
developing lay leadership, coordinated 
youth programming, and increased fel- 
lowship among the widely separated 
churches. 

Last November Bob and Nancy Faus 
of Wichita led a worship leadership ex- 
perience for the Metro's Lay Academy 
program, that brought together some 25 
laymen for training and growth sessions. 

The academy was planned by both lay- 
men and clergy and participants were 
recruited by personal invitation. 

The four congregations have also had 
joint programs for youth and young 
adults. And a year ago the congregations 
shared in a love feast and communion 
service at the Messiah church. Their wit- 
ness was extended on that occasion by a 
lengthy story in the Kansas City Star. 

The Metro-Parish is still in its initial 
phase and the council, chaired by Wilbur 



Bastin of the Messiah Church, a salesman 
with an envelope company, is now look- 
ing at future directions. Among them 
may be another six weeks' evening course 
on various topics of basic understandings 
of the church, of witness, of leadership. 
An initial course in the Lay Academy 
centered on "openness." 

E. M. Hersch, formerly on 
national staff, dies at 77 

"Crisp, with a swift pace, impatient, 
impetuous, E. M. was forever charging 
ahead, confronting the world. And in 
death, also, he did not dally." 

So was E. M. Hersch spoken of by 
his pastor and fellow Rotarian, Leland 
Wilson, on Mr. Hersch's death Jan. 16 
at age 77. 

A charter member of the La Verne, 



Calif., Rotary Club, he had been a 
Rotarian for more than 30 years. 

Elmer Hersch was in the insurance 
business in Elgin, 111., when, at a per- 
sonal financial sacrifice, he became 
manager of the Brethren Publishing 
House, guiding the business successfully 
from 1940-49. When he returned to his 
business a Brotherhood citation called 
him "a living example of a devoted 
Christian layman, loving and serving 
his church." 

A leader in the group insurance con- 
cept, he organized the insurance plan 
that today covers Church of the Breth- 
ren pastors and employees of the Gen- 
eral Board and its agencies, as well as 
others at the colleges, homes for the 
aging, and seminary. Mainly through 
his early efforts many in church life now 
have adequate insurance protection. 

Mr. Wilson recalls the visit of Con- 



Similar Brethren networks are being 
organized on church district and Congres- 
sional district bases as well. A standard 
of participation for Congressional dis- 
tricts is where there are at least 300 
Brethren members or three congregations. 

The persons in the Brethren Congres- 
sional network will relate to the Congres- 
sional district contacts of national 
IMPACT. Together they will plan the 
most effective ecumenical information/ 
action strategy for their district. 

The national IMPACT board will in- 
form and act only on those domestic and 
foreign pohcy issues where there is a 
large measure of ecumenical consensus. 
On other issues where the Church of the 
Brethren has a special concern and wants 
to act quickly, the IMPACT network will 
be used alone or in collaboration with 
those religious groups who agree with the 
Church of the Brethren position. 

Working with Mr. Smeltzer in the 
Washington Office is staff assistant Nancy 
Long. She is the daughter of the J. Henry 
Longs of Elizabethtown, Pa., and a po- 
litical science graduate of Knox College 
in Illinois. A second assistant, Jerry 
Shenk, served in the office until late Jan- 
uary when he became director of the Na- 
tional Council to Repeal the Draft. The 
second staff assistant slot will be filled 
soon. 



Mr. Smeltzer gives one third of his 
time to Washington representation and 
the remainder to his second portfolio for 
social justice. 

Each of the three has taken responsi- 
bility for different concerns based on 
their priority as issues in the government/ 
public decision-making process, as being 
under consideration by Annual Confer- 
ence or the General Board, and as pro- 
gram priorities by the General Staff. 

Most of the concerns fall within three 
task forces of the 50-member Washington 
Interreligious Staff Council (WISC). It 
is WISC which operates the IMPACT 
program. 

WISC includes the National Council of 
Churches staff in Washington and the 
Washington-based staff members of NCC 
member denominations, plus Friends 
Committee on National Legislation, 
Unitarian-Universalists, Roman Cath- 
olics, and Jewish religious groups. 

Most of their offices are in the United 
Methodist Building on Capitol Hill at 100 
Maryland Ave., N.E., where the Brethren 
office is located. 

Of the groups only the Friends Com- 
mittee is required to be a registered 
lobbyist. Mr. Smeltzer believes that in 
most cases three quarters of the effort of 
the church office in Washington goes 
toward the constituencies — in educa- 



tion and interpretation to help members 
understand the issues. The remainder 
goes toward lobbying actions on the Hill. 

Mr. Smeltzer doesn't mind the use of 
the term lobbying applied to his work, 
but asks that it be understood. "We're 
not lobbying for our own special interests 
— for money, contracts, special priv- 
ileges — but on behalf of concerns which 
are for the good of the country or our 
whole population or for those groups 
who can't represent themselves — such 
as the poor. 

"Also, we work mainly on those con- 
cerns on which the Church of the Breth- 
ren, through Annual Conference or the 
General Board, has spoken and wants us 
to represent them," he explains. 

The church's Washington Office was 
established in 1961 at the request of 
Annual Conference. 

In the months ahead Mr. Smeltzer will 
be establishing meaningful relationships 
with Brethren persons in significant or 
policy-making government and private 
agency posts in the capital. 

He will work at involving Brethren 
delegates at White House and other gov- 
ernment or private agency conferences as 
they relate to the church's priorities. He 
will also work at engaging Brethren in 
strategic consultations, conferences, 
seminars, and Congressional hearings. 



3-15-72 MESSENGER 3 



gressman John Rousselot to the La 
Verne Rotan' Club: 

"Mr. Rousselot had made some com- 
ments about welfare mothers and 
'illegitimate children.' When he finished, 
E. M. with a blistering anger said, "I want 
you to know there are no illegitimate 
children. There may be illegitimate par- 
ents, but the children have no say in 
what happens." Mr. Rousselot stood 
silent a moment, and then quietly 
replied, "rU never use that term again." 

■'Despite his blunt directness, E. M. 
was never one to walk away in a huff. 
Nor did he permit differences to grow 
into grudges or bitterness so far as he 
was concerned."" 

Bom on a farm near Waterloo, Iowa, 
he was one of 13 children and was edu- 
cated at Mt. Morris and McPherson 
colleges. Since 1967 he had been resid- 
ing at Hillcrest Homes in La Verne, 
moving from Elgin. 

He is survived by his widow, Sudie 
Swartz Hersch, two children, seven 
grandchildren, and three great grand- 
children. Memorial gifts will benefit 
the Woods Memorial Convalescent 
Hospital in La Verne, an institution he 
helped to establish. 

LAFIYA program begins 
reach toward $300,000 goal 

"The medical work carried on by the 
Church of the Brethren through the years 
has been an extraordinary demonstration 
of compassion and love to the people of 
our mission area in Nigeria — many of 
whom have become our brethren in 
Christ."" 

Dr. Homer L. Burke was endorsing the 
LAFIYA/ Nigeria Medical Program that 
has been undertaken by the General 
Board"s World Ministries Commission. 
Dr. Burke and his wife, now living in 
Milford, Ind., were the first Brethren 
medical team to Nigeria when they ar- 
rived at Garkida on May 1 1, 1924. 

"In cooperation with the Nigerian gov- 
ernment and other organizations we need 
to continue both curative and preventa- 
tive medical services" he said. 

Dr. Burke was host to the first area 
gathering last September in a long-term 
schedule of meetings being held by the 
Stewardship Enlistment Team. 

Special gifts are being sought to obtain 



the $300,000 needed by December 1973, 
beyond Brotherhood Fund budgeting, for 
the medical program. 

A quarterly newsletter being sent to 
contributors and other interested persons 
reported si.x weeks ago that more than 
$44,000 in cash has been contributed, 
with $14,000 in pledges, and nearly 
$ 1 8,000 in additional intentions to give. 

Beyond this, one couple placed $10,000 
with the General Board in a gift annuity 
agreement with the residue designated 
for the medical program. 

In developments for the medical pro- 
gram in Nigeria, business manager Roger 
Schrock has been named medical co- 
ordinator in that country. Mr. Schrock 
and his wife Carolyn taught for three 
years at Waka Teacher Training College. 

Dr. Daryl Parker of New Madison, 
Ohio, left in late January for Nigeria to 
serve three months at Lassa Hospital. 
He and his wife previously served short 
terms there, and formerly were mis- 
sionaries to China and workers at 
Castaner, P.R. 

Also taking a short-term assignment in 
Nigeria were Dr. and Mrs. David S. 
Stayer, Irving, Texas, whose departure 
was postponed while he had heart 
surgery. Dr. Raymond Strayer, a dentist 
from Denver, Pa., is also on a short-term 
visit to Nigeria, one of several he has 
made since 1964. Each of these doctors 
has gone to Nigeria at personal expense. 

One important aspect of the LAFIYA 
program is the training of Nigerian per- 
sonnel for medical work. This month 
M. Mbursa Mshelbwala, a nurse at 
Garkida, will attend the Institute of 
Child Health at the University of Lagos 
on a scholarship from the Church of the 
Brethren. 

Nigeria field administrator Roger 
Ingold said that the three-and-a-half- 
month course will qualify Mbursa for 
new responsibilities in child health work, 
a part of the thrust of the medical pro- 
gram. Mbursa is an ordained minister 
and a longtime member of the Garkida 
nursing staff. 

Funds needed beyond regular budget- 
ing for the medical program, explained in 
a Nov. 1, 1971, Messenger insert, are 
being sought from individuals, rather 
than congregations. Stewart B. Kauffman 
and Donald Stern of the Stewardship En- 
listment Team will respond to persons 
interested in how they can participate. 



Exchangee in Poland finds 
Catholic youth inquisitive 

Thomas R. Bross has learned in his near- 
ly two years in Poland that exchange 
programs can indeed have an impact for 
world peace and understanding. 

A BVSer in the agricultural exchange 
program of the Church of the Brethren, 
the 24-year-old Lebanon, Pa., man says 
that his "everyday actions, reactions, 
habits, and discussion serve to represent 
his American background in the eyes of 
the Poles. This is the most direct function 
of an exchange program.'" 

Tom has been working as a lab assis- 
tant at the Institute of Plant Breeding in 
Krakow. Poland. His work includes 
English language editing on reports at 
the institute and letter writing in his na- 
tive language. He holds a physics degree 
from Lebanon Valley College in Ann- 
ville. Pa. 

Recently Tom stepped from the world 
of laboratory work into the church in 
Poland when he accepted an invitation 
from a country priest friend to speak with 
a group of youth of the Catholic parish. 

He expected only a few youth, but 50 
about his own age came with the church 
organist, crowding into a small room for 
the two-hour exchange, some standing 
the whole time. 

The opjjortunity to speak freely with 

Thomas R. Bross, center, exchangee at Krakoy 




4 MESSENGER 315-72 



[yimdlsirDDDDc 



an American Protestant interested the 
Catholic youth. Tom found their ques- 
tions exacting and sophisticated, and 
often difficult to answer. "What are your 
church's sacraments, its view on abortion, 
celibacy, baptism, birth control, and 
original sin," they asked. 

Said Tom: "I think my opinion on any- 
thing theological was asked, from perga- 
tory to predestination." Then too there 
were questions on America's race prob- 
lems, narcotics and youth, and crime. As 
well as how the unmarried Bross liked 
Poland and also Polish girls. 

Tom found it an invaluable experience 
and his audience enthusiastic. '"Who 
would have ever expected that I would 
talk two hours on religion, but then who- 
ever expected that I would be in Poland?" 

He is in Poland as an American ex- 
changee in the Brethren Service-Polish 
Agricultural Exchange Program. It pro- 
vides a year of study for Polish agricul- 
turalists in US universities and oppor- 
tunities for Brethren Volunteer Service 
workers to fulfill the exchange. 

With Tom in Poland are five American 
exchangees and three more are being 
placed this spring and summer. 

Tom Bross comes on strong for the 
opportunity Brethren Service has in 
Eastern Europe for mutual understanding 
through the exchange program. It can 
mean a broader understanding not only 
between countries but between churches. 



)land, conversing with Catholic students 




ALL ABOUT PEOPLE . . . Named director of development for 
Florida Brethren Homes is Galen B. Sargent , Sebring. . . . 
Retiring at year's end as administrator of The Cedars 
home in McPherson, Kan. , is Orval Wagoner . 

Mr . and Mrs . Henry B. Gibbel , Lititz, Pa., last fall 
were elected to offices of the National Association of 
Mutual Insurance Companies, he to the board of directors 
and she as president-elect of the ladies' auxiliary. 

Brethren worker in Nigeria Roger Ingold is the hero 
of the cover story in the January issue of Outdoor Life. 
He saved the life of the story's author, a Christian Re- 
formed missionary, attacked by a wild buffalo in the 
Cameroon. 

In Southern Pennsylvania Elmer Gleim was approved as 
writer for the district history, being produced by a five- 
member publication committee. 



THE PASTORAL SCENE 



This must set a record: Levi 



A^. Bowman , Martinsville, Va. , preached his 3,336th sermon 
on his 97th birthday Feb. 13. Ordained in 1905, he has 
served in the pastoral ministry since 1903. He "retired" 
in 1956. 

One Californian and three Southern Pennsylvanians were 
licensed recently to the ministry: David W. Hunter , La 
Verne, Calif., by Modesto congregation; Marl in Bricker and 
Duane Hawbaker , Back Creek, Mercersburg, Pa.; and Timothy 
Mann , Waynesboro, Pa. 

Four pastors and spouses participated in a seminar, 
"Pastor and Wife in the Context of the Congregation," hosted 
by Bethany Seminary in January: The Paul Alwines , Roanoke, 
Va. ; the James C. Boitnotts , Middlebury, Ind. ; the Carl B_. 
Cawoods , Ashland, Ohio; and the Jra W_. Gibbels , New Enter- 
prise, Pa. 

An opportunity for you: The Bible and Ministry will 
keynote a two-week summer institute at Bethany Seminary 
Aug. 21 — Sept. 1. Pastors and persons who have not had 
seminary training are invited to the intensive prosessional 
growth experience. More details may be had from the 
seminary, P.O. Box 408, Oak Brook, 111. 60521. 

FOR HIGH SCHOOLERS . . . Five hundred youth will gather 
on the campus of Bridgewater College April 22-23 for the 
eighty-first southeastern regional Youth Roundtable . Regis- 
tration deadline is April 10 for the event, featuring 
small-group discussions on such topics as pollution and 
dating practices. 



CONGREGATIONAL COLLAGE 



The Bella Vista Church of 



the Brethren in East Los Angeles, Calif., will celebrate its 
fiftieth anniversary of founding May 6-7. 

At La Verne, Calif., Brethren voted to support the 
Southern California telephone war tax suit , which involves 
the withholding of the ten-percent federal excise tax. 

Brethren congregations in the Roanoke, Va. , area are 
among six denominations and the Roman Catholic Diocese to 
develop and coordinate an ecumenical ministry in the valley. 
One project has been the distribution of food to the elderly. 

3-15-72 MESSENGER 5 



ps©Dg)D \r(Bp(n)\rt 



! 



AN ECUMENICAL WITNESS 



A National Turnabout on War? 



bv RONALD E. KEENER 



Six hundred Christians and Jews had 
come to Kansas City, Mo., to question 
the morality of the Indochina War and to 
look beyond to new national policy. 

Their "Message" declared: "Seeking to 
be faithful to God and his self-revelation 
in histor>', inspired by the values and 
authority of the biblical revelation and 
united in our belief in the sacredness of 
all human life, we insist that United 
States involvement in the war in South- 
east Asia is unjust and immoral." 

The present hostilities had brought An 
Ecumenical Witness together in mid- 
Januar>'. Dr. Robert Bilheimer, coordi- 
nator of the interfaith conference, sug- 
gested that it was time to get beyond a 
pro- or anti-war argument to the deeper 
level of basic moral assumptions of 
foreign policy. 

"On the basis of the announced inten- 
tions of the United States the war has 
been lost." said the 2000-word "Mes- 
sage," adopted with another lengthy 
"Action Strategies" paper. 

"We have not defeated communism in 
Indochina nor have we defended free- 
dom. Imposing our will on distant lands 
and poor and nonwhite peoples, we have 
participated in their destruction while 
thwarting their self-determination. 

"The guilt is not ours alone, but guilt 
is ours." 

The concerns for guilt, contrition, 
penitence, repentance weighed heavily on 
the conference with the conviction that 
the war is unjust and immoral. 

The "Message" witnessed to that im- 
morality, spurred during the four days by 



a presentation on the stepped-up air war 
in Vietnam, that had replaced a 
dwindling ground war. 

"Chemical herbicides have been ap- 
plied to nearly one seventh of South 
Vietnam, destroying essential crops and 
mangrove forests. One out of three per- 
sons in Vietnam is a refugee," the paper 
said, also acknowledging that North 
Vietnam and the National Liberation 
Front have terrorized villages and com- 
mitted atrocities. 

But, the paper continued, "the massive 
terror and atrocities of the B-52s and 
fleets of helicopters are ours. The napalm 
and CS gas are ours. . . . Our anti-person- 
nel weaponr>', refusing to distinguish be- 
tween military and civilian targets, has 
inflicted hundreds of thousands of 
casualities on Asian people. All of this is 
immoral." 

The conference resolved that the "only 
morally acceptable course" is military 
withdrawal and refusal to supply further 
aid. "which has simply postponed the po- 
litical solution the Vietnamese people 
must ultimately, in any event, find for 
themselves." 

Was the conference, in taking on the 
mantle of guilt for the war, reflecting a 
feeling of many Americans? One par- 
ticipant, Thomas Wilson of the Church of 
the Brethren staff', thinks not: "I don't 
sense that there is any real guilt feelings 
on the part of American society about 
what we are doing in Vietnam." Indeed, 
Robert Pickus of the World Without War 
Committee declared during debate that 
"I don't feel guilty. I came here to see 
why we failed." For some Americans, 
the guilt lies in our not having won the 
war. 

Guilt in the context of the war is more 



than an emotion, a feeling of self-rejec- 
tion, said W. Robert McFadden, chair- 
man of the philosophy and religion de- 
partment at Bridgewater College, after 
the conference. Guilt implies some call 
to action, a responsibility. 

A German, one of 40 foreign nationals 
participating, agrees, in discussing an 
earlier statement to the conference. For 
him the recognition of guilt implies a 
motivation for action, for analysis of the 
war's origin — "otherwise it doesn't 
make sense to talk about guilt." 

"Can you call this war an episode, a 
lapse, and can you pick up the ends of 
normality, a normal American way of 
life where they have been left in the 60s 
before the war started? I don't think 
that's possible," he responded. 

The war for him is a "reflection on 
what kind of society you want and not 
just an issue by and of itself. I'm hearing 
here that if you get a sufficient number of 
[jeople voting the right way, then ever>'- 
thing will be okay." 

Rejecting this, he feels that the "system 
of coordinates" in the political and do- 
mestic life of the country* which jjermit- 
ted the war must be examined. Other- 
wise, a new war is all too possible. 

Embracing the war as both a moral and 
political happening, he predicted a moral 
vacuum — "a disorientation as to where 
the society is moving" — at its conclu- 
sion. 

Fearful that the war will be considered 
just another episode, "as a mistake that 
can be corrected," he urged Americans to 
make a "kind of analysis of the society 
which encourages and maybe provides a 
new vision of what the society can be all 
about — what values you want, how 
More on 23 



6 MESSENGER 3-15-72 








|f^^.^^.r^_^-^|^ 



V 




All Ecuinemcal Witness participants, clockwise from top: 

Andrew Young: Dom H elder Camara; protesting the thrust 

of the conference, a lone dissenter confronting Vietnamese 

woman: Al Hubbard. Vietnam Veterans Against the War, left, 

and Thomas Wilson, Brotherhood staff 




yJcTORy 

fN \jj£TN/\^ 
^O if 



3-15-72 MESSENGER 7 



Ne^f\f opportunities for outreacti unfold 



When Churches 

Discover One Another 



From the lookout tower above Wood- 
stock. Virginia, the seven bends of the 
Shenandoah's North Fork curve in and 
out of farmland, rich with fence rows 
and ordered fields. To the west neat rows 
of apple trees, winesap, golden delicious, 
Jonathan, fill the low hills. 

Brethren and other German folk 
trekking down from the north during 
Revolutionar\' War years stopped near 
the river and stayed. They built their 
homes and churches on or near the lime- 
stone outcroppings that fertilize the red 
soil. 

The little towns of Shenandoah Coun- 
ty cluster in the bends of the river that, 
long before the Indians named the land 
"beautiful daughter of the stars," drained 
the wide valley between the Blue Ridge 
Mountains and the Alleghenies. From the 
lookout point it is easy to spot their water 
towers and the steeples of their churches. 

In fact, the countryside of Shenandoah 
County is filled with churches — 1 14 
Protestant ones and a lone Roman Cath- 
olic parish. The people who attend them 
are like the quiet land that surrounds 
them, has shaped them for generations: 
yielding only a little to the pressures for 
change that an urban society is bringing 
to bear on a long-rural culture. Con- 
glomerates, councils (notably councils of 
churches), mergers — all are regarded 
with suspicion where fierce individualism 
and the comforts of tradition are highly 
valued. 

But the churches in the county strug- 
gle to stay vital. Many of their pastors 
experience a sense of isolation from one 
another, in spite of a fairly active minis- 
terial association. And denominational 
executives wonder what to do with the 



by LINDA BEHER 



churches that cannot afford full-time 
pastors. 

Closing is not the answer. So rich are 
they in family lore that some stand empty 
far out in the country until Sunday morn- 
ings when families drive twenty-five or 
fifty miles to get to the meetinghouses of 
their childhood. Grandfathers and sec- 
ond cousins are buried in the crowded lit- 
tle cemeteries. Those churches mean 
home. 

The story of Shenandoah County Inter- 
church Planning Service — SCIPS to 
most countians — is the story of one way 
in which those churches have begun to 
fulfill their ministries more effectively, 
both individually and together. With 
task groups working at a resort ministry, 
overseeing a project with prisoners at the 




Norman Harsh interpreting SCIPS symbol 



county jail, establishing neighborhood 
church clusters, and extending a fellow- 
ship to migrants, lay persons and pastors 
from a dozen denominations participate 
in new ways in the ongoing life of the 
county. 

Shenandoah District Executive Stanley 
R. Wampler had a hand in SCIPS' begin- 
nings in 1967. "Bernie Zerkel (executive 
for the Shenandoah Association of the 
United Church of Christ) and I kept 
bumping into each other as we worked 
with our churches in the county. It 
began to seem to us that we could do 
some of our ministry together. We 
suggested to the Virginia Council of 
Churches that it call a consultation of 
the county's denominational executives 
to study our situation." 

Local pastors and laymen became in- 
volved. And together they worked 
intensively to produce "A Study of the 
Churches of Shenandoah County." Its 
profile of church membership, size, loca- 
tion, and pastoral supply confirmed 
what Stanley and Bernie had guessed in 
the beginning: an overlapping of energies 
and efforts by nearly everyone. 

"We visited various neighborhoods in 
the county to get clusters of churches to- 
gether," Stanley recalled. "In almost 
every meeting people would say, 'We 
know we have too many church build- 
ings. But we don't know what to do 
about it.' " 

The study period continued for about 
three years, while pastors, laymen, and 
executives pondered "what to do about 
it." They dreamed of an agency which 
would have funding from each judicatory 
at $ 1 00 a church, and from individual 
churches, as each could, according to 



8 MESSENGER 3-15-72 




1^' 



«,* 



I 



N 



^1 



J*'' ^r. 



.» . •sr 






^*^«3s;d 



size. For its twelve churches, the Shenan- 
doah District of the Church of the Breth- 
ren contributes SI, 200 a year. 

And finally, in July 1970, SCIPS offi- 
cially debuted as a two-year experimental 
program, with Norman L. Harsh as co- 
ordinator. 

People in Shenandoah County quickly 
labeled him "Mr. Church Closer." 

"The idea was never to close 
churches," Stanley emphasized. "The 
idea was to look at a mutual ministry: 
what we could do together rather than 
separately." 

And closing churches would simply not 
fit the nature of Norman Harsh. A soft- 
spoken West Virginia native, Norman 
pastored the Barren Ridge Church of the 
Brethren for ten years before moving 
down the valley to Woodstock. 

He came to his new post well prepared 
to take on administrative tasks, having 
served as district executive secretary for 
churches in West Virginia and western 
Maryland. He participated in an experi- 
mental program in church renewal spon- 
sored by the General Board among con- 
gregations in Virginia and California. He 
served as a member of the board for five 
years. A sense of modesty, typical of the 
people in the valley, characterizes Nor- 




Kathy Coffman: "A tradition of helping" 
10 MESSENGER 3-15-72 



man. He worries about communicating 
creatively and eft'ectively. But he doesn't 
have to fake a love and respect for the 
rural valley and for the people and their 
fears and hopes for their churches. 

He knew, though, that his task would 
not be an easy one. Roger Combs, pastor 
of Valley Pike Church of the Brethren, 
describes the situation Norman faced: 
"There is a fear of being tied into some- 
thing larger; there is a fear of the size of 
things." 

Lutheran pastor Leonard J. Larsen's 
reaction typifies early response to SCIPS. 
"When SCIPS first came here I had some 
reservations about it. I asked, just what 
was it going to do? I later realized that 
the same question being asked about 
SCIPS could be asked about the churches 
in this county: 'What are they doing?' 
The only reason that the question isn't 
asked about the churches is that the 
churches have been here for as long as 
people can remember. And so they sim- 
ply accept them and don't question the 
reason for their existence." 

"Combining capabilities rather than or- 
ganizations" is how Norman would ex- 
plain the function of SCIPS to skeptics 
who feared it had come to their valley to 
create superchurches. "People's fear that 
their small church is not all it should be, 
struggling as it does, grows out of their 
devotion to the church. One of the possi- 
bilities of SCIPS is to help smaller 
churches examine new ideas and co- 
operative approaches toward faithful 
witness and service." 

An early SCIPS effort at new ap- 
proaches focused on the seven tiny 
churches in Powell's Fort Valley. About 
1,000 persons live in the spoon-shaped 
depression in the north end of Massanut- 
ten Mountain. Roads to the other side of 
the mountain, and the towns, are few. 
But the Fort Valley Interchurch Council 
is working to combat the sense of separa- 
tion that people there could feel. Two 
laymen from each congregation comprise 
the council; there is no resident pastor 
there. 

Hilda Tamkin runs the Seven Foun- 
tains post office from an alcove in her 
home in the Fort Valley. She is a strong 
woman with a shy but ready smile. On 



the council she represented her United 
Methodist congregation last year. "The 
Interchurch Council began doing some 
things that we had already done," she re- 
flected, "like the sunrise service every 
Easter. But vacation Bible school — 
without the council, Bible school could 
not have happened, at least for our 
church. There weren't enough kids, and 
no one to teach. 

"When the council began, some people 
didn't accept it; but we couldn't have had 
the Bible school without it." 

Lawrence Helsley was elected to the 
ministry in 1919 at the Columbia Furnace 
Church of the Brethren. He still drives 
over the Massanutten to the Fort Valley 
once a month to preach a service at the 
Church of the Brethren there, and sup- 
plies other pulpits on the other Sundays. 
During the week he operates Wayside 
Grocery, where you can buy anything 
from rubbing alcohol to homemade coco- 
nut candy. He doesn't mind reminiscing 
about the valley where he has lived all his 
life and where he reared his twelve chil- 
dren. "At my age I'm content to let the 
young folks take over," he declared, 
though he counts himself among staunch 
supporters of SCIPS. "People need to 
work together." 

"SCIPS attempts to provide ways to 
bring people together across all kinds of 
'barriers,' like denominational lines, in 
order to foster communication and con- 
tact," Norman pointed out. "It's develop- 
ing a sense of responsibility for caring 
about what goes on in our neighbor- 
hoods. The Fort Valley Interchurch 
Council is an example of these ideas being 
put into practice." 

Bringing people together works in an- 
other way when Shenandoah County resi- 
dents attempt a ministry at Bryce Moun- 
tain Resort. 

Skiing and summer recreation at Bryce 
draw a monied crowd from Washington, 
D.C., and Richmond, persons wealthy 
enough to build handsome second homes 
on the steep and wooded mountainsides, 
or to buy one of the condominium apart- 
ments the Bryce Corporation is putting 
up. 

The gaps between longtime residents of 
the area and the newcomers are painful. 




SCIPS' ministry to county jail has support of law cnforcciucnt officials: reactions to ministry at Bryce Resort have been mixed 



Local people who missed out on the profit 
that resulted from buying the land cheap 
and selling it high in small lots tend to 
regard their new neighbors as intruders, 
different and alien. 

When some SCIPS advocates saw a 
place for a ministry at the resort, a task 
group went to work. Roman Catholic 
mass celebrated at a Lutheran church, a 
coffeehouse setting at the ski lodge with 
folk singing and conversation, and, this 
year, Saturday evening Protestant services 
at nearby Trinity United Church of 
Christ are ongoing wintertime activities. 

Trinity pastor John Ware, co-chairman 
of the resort ministries task group, com- 
mented, "People in the county are begin- 
ning to realize that the affluent skiers are 
really just people, with the same very hu- 
man kinds of problems and frustrations." 
Until the resort ministry, Roman Catholic 
participation in efforts at cooperation had 
been nonexistent. It is significant now 
that Father Salvator Ciullo is a full- 



fledged member of the SCIPS team. 

More than the other ministries SCIPS 
is enabling, though, the Bryce Resort 
ministry has its detractors. One is David 
C. Derby, pastor of the Strasburg Chris- 
tian (Disciples of Christ) Church. "Let's 
face it; The people who go to Bryce for 
weekends are trying to escape the 
church." Pastor Derby, who last fall 
was named a pastoral delegate for his de- 
nomination to SCIPS' administrative 
council, sees more value in such efforts as 
the Interchurch Council in the Fort 
Valley. But he pushes for a new focus on 
activities like family counseling. His 
frustration runs deep at not being able to 
pique similar excitement in other Stras- 
burg pastors in such a venture for their 
own community. But he is not sure that 
SCIPS is the agency to work at it. 

Grade school teacher Harold Ebersole, 
church board chairman of Valley Pike 
church, admits that SCIPS has risked 
general approval by engaging in a minis- 



try like the one at Bryce. "People don't 
identify with the skiers. The ministry is 
not one from which they feel a direct re- 
turn. You know, people ask, "What do 
we get out of it?' And maybe there's not 
much that an individual person or an in- 
dividual church does get out of it. This is 
a wrong attitude that we have about much 
of our giving. But this is the attitude we 
have, and we have to accept it, and work 
with it, even if we think it's wrong." 

Twenty-five churches and 120 of their 
Sunday school teachers and superinten- 
dents did "get something out of it" last 
fall in a leadership training workshop. 
Harold chaired the task group doing the 
planning, and a new group is being 
formed now to undertake similar efforts. 

Another kind of willingness to reach 
out developed when a SCIPS task group 
found direction in the biblical injunction, 
"When I was in prison, you visited me." 
Its members began planning ways to 
minister to prisoners at the county jail. 



3-15-72 MESSENGER 11 



Placing copies of Today's English Version 
of the Psalms and the New Testament in 
the jail and chaplaincy counseling were 
early efforts. And at Christmastime gifts 
like after-shave lotion and toothbrushes 
went to prisoners from drugstores in 
the county. Task group attempts to tie 
into Offender Aid and Rehabilitation of 
Virginia (OAR) were successful, and 
SCIPS volunteers trained with OAR per- 
sonnel experienced in counseling prison- 
ers in supervised settings. So far Norman 
has received no negative feedback from 
persons who might feel the SCIPS minis- 
try' is "making it too easy" for the 
prisoners. Jimmy R. Robinson, pastor of 
the Pleasant View and Wakeman's Grove 
congregations of Brethren, noted that 
"SCIPS enables churches to have a part 
in ministPi to the county — like the jail 
ministry- — which, individually, they 
would not have begun." 

Jimmy has participated in SCIPS 
since its beginning in Shenandoah 
County. He can communicate enthusi- 
asm for its "missionary" quality to neigh- 
bors of the county like the prisoners and 
the skiers at Br>'C€. But he is enthusiastic, 
too, about his current involvement with 
other Edinburg-area churches in an ex- 
perimental cluster, initiated by a task 
group on strengthening town and country 
churches. When Edinburg pastors met 
last fall to discuss the possibilities of a 
cluster experiment and the hope it might 
hold for church renewal, it was their first 
meeting in two years. 

■'The SCIPS task group prepared ma- 
terials on clustering only as an excuse for 
these pastors to get together and begin 
their own process," Norman indicated. 
The pastors have met again to define their 
common problems and to determine how 
to proceed. Lay involvement is occurring 
in three Thursday night meetings during 
Lent. Denominational executives are 
eager for more interchurch clusters to 
happen, particularly because of the sig- 
nificant relationships they encourage. 
Even talking about cluster experiences 
seems to enhance relationships: "This 
task group has made no headlines," Nor- 
man laughed. "But its members have 
related well." 

Maxine Rosen, whose family-owned 
tire sales company has been near Mount 
Jackson for years, is one of the eight lay 
persons on the town and country churches 
task group. But her involvement with 



SCIPS extends beyond that. Her congre- 
gation, the Cedar Grove Church of the 
Brethren, collaborated with the Valley 
Central United Church of Christ a hun- 
dred yards away in a self-study period. 
The results are joint Bible school classes, 
supper meetings, and Easter services. A 
summer weekend camp experience with 
the young people of both congregations 
proved so successful that entire families 
plan a similar outing next summer. The 
two churches have agreed to support a 
joint pastoral program. While they seek a 
minister. Dr. Warren Bowman, president 
emeritus of Bridgewater College, is serv- 
ing as pastor on an interim basis. 

Both congregations participated, too, 
in the fellowship extended to the migrant 
workers in the New Market and Wood- 
stock areas who harvest the rich crops of 
apples in the county. "Through SCIPS 
we invited the migrant workers to three 
evening picnics. Our people have been 
very appreciative of the work with the 
migrants," Maxine affirmed. 

Response from some of the ninety 
workers who attended the picnics point to 
their delight at being accepted for a 
change in one of the communities where 
they work. One woman paying her tire 
bill at Rosen's said that the picnics were 
the first community events anywhere to 
which the workers had been invited. 



ne member of the migrant ministry 
task group — now disbanded until next 
harvesttime — was Kathy Coffman, a 
young city-dweller-turned-rural when she 
came with her husband to the valley 
where he was born. "Here you can't 
escape your neighbors who are in need. 
They are too visible. Every morning that 
I come to work during the harvest season, 
I pass the migrants in the orchards. 

"There's a tradition about helping here. 
Migrants contribute a lot to the economy 
of this county. Part of the year they are 
our neighbors, and we have a lot to do to 
make them feel at home." 

What of the future? Begun as a two- 
year pilot program, SCIPS has received 
the go-ahead from its administrative 
council to continue a third year. Jimmy 
Robinson reflected, "Even though SCIPS 
is going into its second year, it's still a 
'babe.' Each time we meet we try to see 
what direction we're going." 

New directions are not difficult to see. 



Cletus Lindamood owns and operates a 
mill in Edinburg. He has been a member 
of the Pleasant View Church of the 
Brethren since 1916, and as chairman of 
Shenandoah County's board of super- 
visors has watched the county's deepen- 
ing recognition that persons must work 
together for the good life. "This is 
healthy for the county," he maintains. 
Miller Lindamood sees SCIPS finding 
ways to enrich home and family life — 
"the one institution that needs the most 
consideration in any community." He 
hopes that SCIPS can become an agent 
for good at the county farm, where some 
residents have lived since they were 
children. 

Youth ministries, a day care center, 
and work with retarded youngsters are 
among other tasks that SCIPS may be 
able to undertake in the next fifteen 
months. 

"When you start something new, peo- 
ple are slow to get the vision, not because 
they are against it, but because they resist 
change," Stanley Wampler said. "But 
where there is an opportunity for ministry 
that people can see, they are glad to share 
in it." 

Getting the vision may mean coming 
to a new understanding of what the 
church is in Shenandoah County. Listen- 
ing to Norman Harsh comparing the 
church to a tree — "The roots and 
branches spread out from the trunk, 
where they have unity. They go in all 
directions, but the fruit is the same" — 
recalls Jesus' words, "I am the vine," 
and Paul's description of the church as 
the body of Christ. 

Harold Ebersole noted, "At the first 
SCIPS meeting I attended I realized that 
the fourteen or eighteen persons there 
were from at least ten denominations. 
The fellowship before the meeting — the 
chairman usually had to call for order 
more than once; as we worked through a 
series of problems; and later, after we 
had come up with answers — this fellow- 
ship was amazing. 

"It seems as if we can cooperate in 
work, in play, in education. But we can't 
in church!" 

In Shenandoah County cooperation 
has become a sign of life for 1 1 5 
churches whose members are working 
and dreaming — "not in lockstep," ac- 
cording to Norman Harsh, but "respon- 
sibly, whether separately or together." □ 



12 MESSENGER 315-72 



parish 



A MESSENGER GUIDE TO THE 





OF THE CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN GENERAL BOARD 




|ou do. Your district office cares. And so does the 
General Board. Its Parish Ministries Commission 
believes that your congregation is a 
community of faith with unique re- 
sources and its own style of living and 
witnessing. The Parish Ministries staff believes 
the help it can offer should begin where your 
congregation is and use resources already 
within each group. This means following procedures that 
allow congregations to struggle with who they are and 
what they really want to do. The staff itself is a signifi 
cant part of 
the commis- 



Who 



about 
the 



„.. ^ congregation? 

gram, operating with congre- 
gations in a consultation style. To see the Parish Ministries Commission at work, 
take a look at the vignettes which follow. They are a sampling of programs, serv- 
ices, and ministries all related in some way to the local congregation. Obviously, 
PMC staff members carry multiple responsibilities. Please note that your district ex- 
ecutive has firsthand information about these services and how you can utilize them. 
Keep in contact with him. But note also that staff members will welcome direct in- 
quiries at any time. The box on page 16 is keyed to the programs described and will 
tell you whom to contact. 



3-15-72 MESSENGER 13 




ENCOUNTER SERIES. "We like the En- 
counter Series." It was a matter-of- 
fact statement offered to the visiting 
speaker by the pastor's wife in a small 
church in Kansas. Later in the day 
he sat down to a basket dinner in a 
basement room that doubled for a 
classroom. Over his head waved a 
mobile created from the Teaching Kit that provided 
resources for fifth and sixth graders. In other class- 
rooms he noted that curriculum materials were help- 
ing elementary school children discover how God 
is at work in the church and in the world. 

The Encounter Series, offering graded church 
school materials for all ages from nursery to adult, 
has been developed by several cooperating denomi- 
nations, including the Church of the Brethren. It as- 
sumes that teaching and learning are a shared ad- 
venture, that "the teacher serves the learner by un- 
covering the crossing points, the places where con- 
cerns of the gospel and the concerns of the learner 
intersect." 

FAMILY LIFE. Too many happy wed- 
dings wind up in sorry marriages — 
mostly because the couples fail to de- 
velop the basic skills for getting along 
together. That is one reason why 
Mennonites and Brethren have co- 
operated to produce a radio series 
you can make available to your com- 
munity. Choice III (five 3-minute spots per week for 
13 weeks) provides the encouragement many mar- 
riages need and breaks through with a Christian per- 
spective but without a denominational slant. 

Inquiries prompted by the broadcasts are fol- 
lowed up with a free book {Cherishable Love and 
Marriage, by David W. Augsburger), the offer of a 
Bible study course, and counseling as requested. 
Church school classes and fellowship groups inter- 
ested in sponsoring these broadcasts should write 
for a listing of themes and additional information. 

TEACHER TRAINING EVENT. The three 
district leaders were on hand when 
the plane arrived. At the airport they 
greeted the leaders from outside their 
district: a seminary student, a semi- 
nary teacher, and an Elgin staff per- 
son. As they drove toward the camp 
where the "teacher training event" 
was scheduled for the weekend, they shared their 
hopes and dreams for the time together. 

Soon all the participants were involved in activ- 
ities calling for positive interaction: listening and 
paraphrasing, studying and discussing the Bible, 
sharing creative ways of learning, teaching, and wor- 






shiping. Not all questions were answered, but most 
would agree with the one who said, "I came to the 
realization the church should not die." Nor need it, 
when church school teachers find what another 
called "enthusiasm for a fuller life" and get real sat- 
isfaction out of sharing that joy. 

SPECIAL MINISTRIES. A two-hour meet- 
ing every week to study the Bible and 
discuss community concerns. A year- 
round youth program, directed by a 
youth staff, working with a teen 
center, day camp, and after-school 
enrichment programs. Direct involve- 
ment in community and congregation- 
al efforts to improve housing, control crime, upgrade 
health services, and aid economic development. 

These are just a few of the activities of the Cap- 
itol Hill Group Ministry, involving the Washington City 
Church of the Brethren and six other churches near 
the US Capitol. Donald Leiter, a Brethren minister, 
serves as coordinator and full-time staff member. 

The Group Ministry depends on the financial sup- 
port not only of participating congregations but also 
of the Mid-Atlantic District and of the Parish Min- 
istries Commission, which this year provides $4,000 
as a special ministry support. The Commission is 
committed to encouraging and undergirding several 
such special ministries as well as helping to support 
ongoing pastoral programs. 




1 



THE ART OF CELEBRATION. You can 

see it in a tie-dyed worship center at 
Annual Conference, in banners and 
posters in many a church sanctuary, 
in woodcuts and drawing in church 
publications, in art festivals devoted 
to religious painting and sculpture, in 
the design of new church buildings. 
You can hear it in choral concerts, in new ora- 
torios, in verse-speaking choirs, in congregational 




14 MESSENGER S-15-72 



songfests, in contemporary folk services, and in the 
use of old and new instruments dedicated to praising 
the Lord. 

What you see and hear gives evidence that the 
creative arts can assist worshipers in expressing 
freely and openly their joy and their faith. The cele- 
bration team of the Parish Ministries Commission 
stands ready to help in such ways as providing finan- 
cial support for specialized art ministries, consulting 
with district and local leaders, planning workshops 
in the arts in the church, reviewing choral music, 
making new songs available on worship bulletins, 
and studying the church's needs in music. 



1 LAB TRAINING EXPERIENCE. "What a 

6 discovery! That other persons in a 
group, even the most secure and self- 
assured, have feelings just like mine. 
And that with their confidence and 
trust I can work through my fears and 
anxieties to find a stronger faith." 
' So writes a participant in a lab- 
oratory training experience, where Christians, in the 
words of the New Testament, discover what it means 
"to be in training" in order to respond faithfully and 
creatively to the demands of the gospel. In life labs, 
groups of from 25 to 40 persons spend a short time 
(a weekend to five days) learning, working, living 
together. Programs are developed to focus on such 
areas as marriage enrichment, constructive use of 
conflict, personal growth, and in consciousness- 
raising experiences for women and senior citizens. 



1 EVANGELISM ENCOUNTERS. Choose 

7 whatever term you want — call them 
workshops, clinics, encounters, re- 
treats, or consultations — in any case 
what they have in common is a basic 
concern about evangelism and an op- 
portunity for training in evangelism. 

' The calls come from districts all 

across the Brotherhood. In response the members 
of the Evangelism Team of the Parish Ministries staff 
have logged thousands of miles in travel and spent 
hundreds of hours in planning and assisting local 
and district leaders. Local participants come for one 
session, for several sessions, or a series of week- 
ends. They worship together, celebrate their faith, 
discover and share talents, study and discuss meth- 
ods of evangelism, go home with enthusiasm and 
commitment. 

What does an evangelism encounter offer? For 
some a broadening understanding of new and old 
ways of sharing the good news. For others a deep- 
ening experience of the work of the Holy Spirit. For 
many a new anticipation and excitement regarding 
possibilities for the church. 




.11 



/. i 




\ 



FUND FOR THE AMERICAS. "In the last 
few weeks we completed eight 
homes." The director of the Chris- 
tiansburg (Virginia) Housing Corpora- 
tion, an all-black effort to aid minority 
persons to build attractive low-cost 
homes, went on to say that prelimi- 
nary plans were ready for 56 more. 

The Christiansburg project, which provides jobs 
as well as homes for the black community, was the 
first housing project funded by FADS (Fund for the 
Americas in the United States). It receives support 
also from the Virlina District. But it is only one of 
38 projects that received financial aid in the two 
years FAUS has been in operation. 

In making funding decisions the FAUS staff team 
strives to keep faith with the priorities of community 
organization and economic development while at the 
same time responding to the total needs of minor- 
ities. To insure that spiritual needs are not neg- 
lected, projects involving evangelism and religious 
development of and by minorities are also consid- 
ered. 



PASTOR-CHURCH RELATIONS. You can 

9 imagine what tensions can develop 
when pastors spend their time in one 
way, when they would like to use it 
differently, and when their congrega- 
tions think they should be doing still 
something else. 
' As a means of narrowing the "un- 
derstanding gap" between pastors and congrega- 
tions, the Southern Ohio district last November spon- 
sored two districtwide workshops involving pastoral 
couples, ministerial commissions, and church board 
chairmen. Leadership came from Brotherhood of- 
fices in the person of the Parish Ministries consultant 
for the professional minister and congregational life. 
At the same time pastors' spouses explored the role 
which is unique to them. 

Chester Harley, district executive, summarized 
one conclusion of the workshop in these words, 
"When pastor and congregation clearly negotiate 
working responsibilities, not only will more be ac- 
complished, but overall pastor-church relationships 
will be strengthened." 

Caring about the congregation means caring 
about pastors, too. 



3-l.'i-72 MESSENGER IS 



1 LAY TRAINING. Think of several 

.^^ ^-^ churches you know — ^ small, some- 
H^ ^ times remote from other Brethren 
Hfl ^A congregations, composed of loyal 
HH ^B members but not served by a full-time 
H^ W or a professionally trained minister. 
■^^ ^^-^ Think also of committed laymen 

' you know — interested and willing to 

serve, but lacking in experiences and unfamiliar with 
ways of caring for needed ministerial functions. 

Can these dedicated laymen help In their own or 
neighboring churches? Yes, if they receive specific 
training for ministry. As a means of helping train 
lay men and women for ministerial functions the 
Parish Ministries Commission is working with three 
districts currently (and with others as requested) to 
set up workshops. The model proposed will empha- 
size experiences in Liturgy (leading in worship). Edi- 
fication (learning from and using the Scriptures), 
/Administration (developing skill and sensitivity in 
working with others), and Discipleship (gaining ma- 
turity as a Christian). The capital letters underline 
leadership — and that is what it's all about. 

YOUTH MINISTRIES. Patterns of youth 
are constantly changing. Once there 
were highly programmed youth de- 
partments (BYPD), action-oriented 
youth fellowships (CBYF), a national 
youth director and cabinet, with con- 
ferences, conventions, rallies, and re- 
treats at all levels, designed to involve 

youth in all aspects of the work of the church. Now 

many of the old patterns are obviously inadequate. 

Yet the need for youth ministries continues. 

Last November the General Board called Ralph 

McFadden to the Parish Ministries staff to serve as a 





consultant for youth ministries. Ralph has no ready- 
made answers for youth problems, but he has some 
goals — to work with district and congregational 
youth cabinets to enable them to realize their ob- 
jectives, to develop resources they can use, to work 
with parents as well as youth in understanding the 
generation gap, and, perhaps most importantly, to 
enlist, encourage, and challenge leaders of youth. 
Ralph says, "The leader-adviser must not only be an 
understanding adult. He or she must genuinely de- 
sire to work with and for youth. The key to youth 
work is leadership." 

MISSION AND PEACE EDUCATION. 

"Where can I find out what's happen- 
ing on the mission field? . . . Please 
suggest resources for a series of Sun- 
day evening meetings . . . How can 
the young people in our church learn 
more about the peace stand of our 
church? . . . The older folks, too, want 
to take a new look at what the Bible says about 
peace. Any suggestions?" 

The Parish Ministries Commission responds to 
queries like these. Resources can be recommended 
to local leaders. And many of the suggestions that 
come give guidance to writers and educators in pre- 
paring new materials. 




FOR MORE INFORMATION 

Circle number and mail to person named. Address; 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, III. 60120 

1. Encounter Series, Hazel AA. Kennedy 8. Fund for the Americas, Wilfred E. Nolen 

2. Family life, Clyde E. Weaver 9. Pastor-Church Relations, J. Bentley Peters 

3. Teacher Training Events, Shirley J. Heckman 10. lay Training, Kent E. Naylor 

4. Special Ministries, Thomas Wilson 11. Youth Ministries, Ralph G. McFadden 

5. Art of Celebration, Wilfred E. Nolen 12. Mission and Peace Education, Ruby H. Linkous 

6. Lab Growth Experiences, Carl W. Zeigler Jr. 13. Programming, Goals, Budget, Interpretation, and Administration, 
T. Evangelism Encounters, Matthew M. Meyer Earle W. Fike Jr. 



Name 



Address 



Congregation 



State 



Zip 



16 MESSENGEK 3-15-72 



When I looked up 

Ching Sz asked me 
in a deternnined voice: 



But Why Did You Do It?' 



by Doris E.Caldwell 

It was a simple kind of encounter, but it 
set my mind to recalling an incident to 
share with friends in America. At the 
annual General Meeting of the Hong 
Kong Council of the Church of Christ in 
China, a tall man originally from North 
China came over to where I was sitting 
and asked if he could get me a cold drink. 
My cold drink already was on the cement 
floor beside my chair. But his asking was 
as though he wanted me to know he was 
there, wearing a name tag with a bright 
red ribbon indicating that Mr. Ching Sz 
was an official delegate. As he walked 
away I began remembering many things. 

But primarily, I was recalling Ching 
Sz's story, which I want to relate to you. 
And he has since granted me permission 
to do this, to tell it like it is, even using 
his real name, for both Ching Sz and I 
are proud to tell it. 

Before our Christian Family Service 
Center moved to the Kwun Tong sector 
of Hong Kong, we worked in small apart- 
ments in the Mong Kok area. One day I 
was asked to come quickly to visit an old 
man who was ill and who lived in a bed 
space. When I arrived I found a large 
room where double-decker beds were 
lined up, perhaps fifty bed spaces in one 
room. Most of the occupants were out to 
work, so I soon found the elderly man 
who was ill. He needed to go to a doctor; 
I would need to find a taxi. 

As I was helping him get ready, I no- 
ticed a young man in the upper bed across 
the aisle. He appeared very uncomforta- 
ble and a little frightened. When I asked 
how he was he said he had been ill for 
some days and his friends, who visited 
him often when he was working and had 
some money, did not come to see him 
now. Also, he was sure he had lost his 
job in the factory for he had been absent 
for nearly a week. I asked if he would 
like to go with the older man to the 



doctor. "Oh, yes," he said, with no 
hesitation. 

When we got to the doctor's office we 
had to walk up a long flight of stairs. 
With every step the younger man moaned 
softly. It was a busy day for me and I 
wondered if he was being overly dra- 
matic. After all, I had never seen the 
man before and his story could be 
phoney, but he did look ill, I told myself. 

The doctor suggested I go back to work 
and he would call me after he had ex- 
amined both men. In two hours he called 
with his report. The older man could be 
treated but the younger man, registered 
as Mr. Ching Sz, gave him some concern. 
"Every breath he takes is agony," the 
doctor said. "Could I hospitalize him at 
your expense?" 

"Yes," I replied, knowing that our cen- 
ter had One Great Hour of Sharing funds 
available for just such emergencies. 

After a week in a general hospital 
Ching Sz was transferred to a tuberculo- 
sis sanatorium, operated by a group of 
Protestant churches. The Christian Fam- 
ily Service Center was asked to pay the 
medical fees for Ching Sz who was alone 
in Hong Kong and who had no resources 
to help himself. 

One busy morning, four months later, 
a very different looking man came into 
my office and sat across the desk from 
me. When I looked up Ching Sz asked 
in a clear, determined voice: "Why did 
you do it? You are not even related 
to me." 

I remember tr>'ing to explain how all 
of you, the supporters of One Great Hour 
in America, care for people in need. But 
Ching Sz looked blank. Continuing, I 
said it was part of our Christian faith. 
Christians believe we are related, that we 
are one family and that Christ meant us 
to help each other in whatever way we 
need help. He wanted to know more 
about this faith, so we arranged for him 
to join a class at the Mandarin Church 



where he could study with the minister 
and discuss his questions with others who 
also wanted to understand why. 

We also discussed part-time work. The 
doctors had said he could not go back to 
the factory but he could do some light 
work. When I asked what he would real- 
ly like to do, he replied, "I would like to 
find a job singing Chinese opera, as I 
used to do in China." I am sure neither 
of us was surprised that no such opening 
could be found. 

As a start, however, we applied some of 
the One Great Hour of Sharing funds to 
paying Ching Sz a small wage to do 
clerical work for the Hong Kong Chris- 
tian Welfare and Relief Council. After 
some months we invited him to take 
charge of the Council's filing department, 
where he has been ever since. 

There have been ups and downs, of 
course. He suffered a relapse and had to 
be hospitalized a second time; also he had 
a number of personal problems to work 
out. Through it all he was faithful in his 
study of Christianity. He became an ac- 
tive member of the Mandarin speaking 
congregation of the Church of Christ in 
China. Soon he became our choir direc- 
tor and, more recently, a member of our 
church session. 

Just over a year ago Ching Sz invited 
me to his wedding. He described the 
bride-to-be as "quiet, reliable, and a 
strong Christian woman who teaches in a 
Christian school." 

His love of music continues. At the 
mid-autumn festival for 120 elderly per- 
sons who met in our courtyard, Ching Sz 
sang some of the familiar tunes from 
Chinese opera. At Christmas he led a 
group of young boys in rehearsing carols. 

Ching Sz now understands that among 
other things, the Christian faith means 
we are all related, and that we need each 
other. And this is the story I have to 
share with you who are part of this 
faith, n 



3-15-72 MESSENGER 17 



To dream the impossible dream 

is not naive but realistic 
if one accepts the Christian view 
of man's creation and redemption 



From the Ashes: Petals Again 



by Glenn R.Bucher 



What can we say about man from the 
perspective of the Christian faith? 
Who is essential man? The idealist 
who tries to live peace and goodness 
and thereby to look for such qualities 
and elicit them from others? Or the 
realist who is convinced that practical 
men get things done, that the lesser 
evil is usually the only choice? 

And what shall we say about man's 
condition? Is he saint, sinner, or a 
complicated mixture of both? In a 
way. the answer is obvious — saint 
and sinner. But there remains with us 
in this society a pervasive hangup on 
the normativeness of man's fallen na- 
ture, and we come to expect morality 
consistent with it. What needs to be 
said is that, in light of the Christian 
message, the burden of proof still rests 
with the moral realists, who in the final 
analysis, may be neither moral — in 
terms of the biblical emphasis on good- 
ness — nor realistic. 

To be sure, the moral realists have 
on their side one thrust in the Judeo- 
Christian tradition. Man is corrupted 
by pride and self-centeredness. His 
efforts at doing good are often distort- 
ed by self-interest, by will to power, by 
desire to be God. But this view of man 



does not constitute the first or last 
word, not the most important, not the 
Christian word about man, and that it 
is not the "good news" for this time. 

Why should we reject the view that 
man's fallen nature depicts his true 
condition? In setting forth responses 
to the moral realists, I hope to provide 
an answer — one, incidentally, that is 
more "realistic." 

Consider the generation to whom 
this so-called realistic note is sent forth. 
Born at the beginning of the fifties, 
those who are being cautioned about 
optimism — • students, basically — 
have already lived through the Mc- 
Carthy era, Korea, Vietnam, the 
Middle East, the assassinations of three 
American symbols of hope, race riots 
and burning cities, the snuffing out of 
peoples' rebellions in Poland, Hungary, 
and Czechoslovakia, to mention only 
a few events. Couple with this their 
twelve years of public school experi- 
ence in an institution whose very 
structures are based upon, anticipate, 
and reinforce man's inhuman possibil- 
ities. And then we, those who are 
allegedly realistic, have the unmiti- 
gated gall to inform students — as 
though they didn't know it — that man 



has capacity for evil. As a matter of 
fact, this is all they know. And I think 
it explains their optimism and hope. 

Students are refreshing because 
many of them still believe that what 
they have lived through must not be. 
To believe in man. to aspire to new 
moral heights, to build a Utopia make 
an affirmation of faith — faith in the 
goodness of creation — and strike out 
in search of a new childlike innocence. 
Such affirmations refuse to believe that 
the realists have the first or last word 
about man. 

If one accepts the Christian view of 
creation and redemption, then "to 
dream the impossible dream, to see 
shaving basins as golden helmets," via 
The Man of LaMancha, is not naive 
but realistic. 

To argue that life is that "can of 
worms" wherein man is already a mix- 
ture of the moral and the immoral, that 
in life associations immorality is com- 
pounded, and that therefore the good 
life consists of making the best of a 
bad scene, fails, I think, to take ac- 
count of the implications of what 
Reinhold Niebuhr referred to as "im- 
moral society." He warned us that 
institutions and structures often bring 



18 MESSENGER 3-15-72 




out the worst in us. But what he didn't 
say is that these very structures often 
presuppose a negative view of man, 
that man acts in accord with the as- 
sumed expectations of his behavior; 
therefore, he becomes a certain type 
of man. 

Look at your own role fulfillment. 
When one becomes a "student," a 
"professor," an "administrator," a 
"businessman," a "missionary," he 
soon begins to act in accord with the 
implied expectations of such roles. 
One discovers himself doing and, more 
importantly, saying things that he 
might otherwise never have considered, 
things that seem somehow not to be 
authentic. For all practical purposes, 
we take upon ourselves assumed 
natures. 

I am suggesting two ideas. First, 
structures do alter conditions of human 
nature. They often anticipate man's 
capacity to do only morally ambiguous 
acts. Hence, one cannot base a doc- 
trine of man only upon empirical 
evidence, for that evidence may not 
truly reflect essential man. Secondly, 
before we transform structures so that 
they facilitate man's desire and ability 
to live in accord with his essence, we 

3-15-72 MESSENGER 19 



first need to determine who man really 
is. 

The central thrust of the biblical 
ston,' is that man participates in the 
goodness of God's creation, that true 
personhood has to do with realizable 
love, that though love is crucified, it is 
also raised from death, and that struc- 
tures — a city, believe it or not. by the 
name of the New Jerusalem — are not 
absent from God's new earth. 

As an ethical model, moral realism 
assumed shape via the political realists 
of the 1930s who rightly saw a need to 
purge social gospel Christianity of the 
worldview which so much determined 
its theolog}'. Secular liberalism had its 
theological counterpart in a super- 
idealistic doctrine of man, which 
World War I obviously undermined. 
For theologians like Niebuhr, ethics 
had to do with determining how best to 
make "Christian" decisions when all 
the choices were thought to be bad: for 
example, the choice between World 
War II, national socialism, and paci- 
fism. Because options were limited to 
the givens, the "Christian" choice be- 
came the one of lesser evil. Ethics 
tended to be a justification of whatever 
seemed most practical. 

If ethics is brought back under 
Christian guidance, what will it look 
like? Let me offer only some reflec- 
tions. Perhaps ethics, in the Christian 
sense, is best thought of as a critique 
of the present from the perspective of 
the future, as Ruben Alves says. The 
present must be seen from outside 
itself, for if ethics is not transcendent, 
it becomes only a function of the status 
quo. Ethics takes shape not from ac- 
tion dominated by the present but from 
love toward the future. It must be 
creative. Its purpose must be to 
historicize hope. And the reason ethics 
can be spoken about as "Christian" is 
because it is that tradition which points 
to hope already historicized — in crea- 
tion, in deliverance from slavery, in 
promises to God's community, in 
Jesus of Nazareth, in the resurrection, 
and in the New Jerusalem. And these 
are all contemporary realities, too. 



This brings us, then, to a final re- 
sponse. It is a theological one. On a 
Christmas card last year appeared the 
following statement: "God became 
man. not so that man could become 
God. but so that man could become 
man." I think that says it. It affirms 
the fact that in Jesus of history we 
have already encountered what it 
means to be fully a person. His hu- 
manity is normative for at least two 
reasons. First, I have not yet seen a 
more profound expression of what it 
means to be human. And secondly, at 
moments in my own life when I think I 
may have approached humanness, 
I see the complete expression of that 
in the Jesus of Nazareth. 



The consistent theme 
of the biblical story is the 

triumph of good, creation 
begins that way. God delivers a com- 
munity out of slavery and into prom- 
ise. In bad times, Isaiah proclaims that 
the historicization of hope is still a 
coming reality. God's son is that 
historicization. In him the human gets 
full expression in his blessing of the 
meek, the praying for enemies, the 
loving of those who hate, and so on. 
Because the world cannot stand ex- 
posure to such humanness, it disposes 
of the man. But it has not rid itself of 
embarrassing goodness, for that lives 
on. "He has been raised from death, 
and now he is going to Galilee ahead 
of you; there you will see him." What 
this means is that the goodness of 
creation, of true humanity, of man, is 
not finished, but is always with us, 
ahead of us, and visible to us. Our 
model for humanness, against which a 
life-style can be created, is ever 
present. 

What we can say about man, from 
the perspective of Christian faith, is 
that his humanity participates in the 



full humanity expressed in God's son. 
Goodness is crucified, time and again, 
but it is also raised from death. In 
terms of man's possibilities, every day 
is Easter morning. 

In a recent interview. Father Dan 
Berrigan said: "I search out in any 
given situation whatever elements of 
hope I can find there .... We have to 
keep looking for signs of a future: 
those signs that we try to discern and 
even to follow, perhaps to enlarge, to 
give breathing space to. One must 
keep those signs at the eye's center, 
because I think they are the object of 
one's true search. What is best in 
man? What is most hopeful in man? 
What can be built upon any particular 
situation? The other side of the picture 
is obviously there, but it belongs in the 
eye's peripheral vision. I just don't 
think that the truth of things is re- 
vealed to us by our cynical, hoarding, 
businesslike, materialist political 
philosophers who see evil ever>'where 
— as a means of justifying their own 
evil. Truth was revealed to us by 
Jesus Christ and those who in lesser 
ways follow his tradition. 

That is what I have been trying to 
convey. Berrigan says it well, and in- 
cidentally, he doesn't do badly living it, 
either. In the play /. B.. a. contempo- 
rary on Job. the Old Testament char- 
acter, Archibald MacLeish says it 
poetically. If you recall, it is the end 
of J. B.'s life. Meaninglessness 
abounds, nuclear destruction has be- 
come a reality, and little remains. 
Walking through the rubble, J. B.'s 
wife Sarah looks at a twig in her hand 
and says: 

Among the ashes! 

I found it growing in the ashes. 

Gold as though it did not know . . . 

I broke the branch to strip the 
leaves off — 

Petals again! . . . 

From the ashes, petals again, and 
again, and again, and again, the sym- 
bol of God's good creations being 
ever-renewed. The petals are for real; 
the ashes are not. That's the Easter 
story. D 



20 MESSENGER 3-15-72 



Wings Above a Day 

Dark wings that hover overhead 

From unknown shores, at certain times, 

Cast huge, racing shadows on the day, 

Fanning cold fears in the heart. 

To tighten flesh around the human bone. 

Finally to chill the activating spirit. 

Fear is the somber bird of prey. 

Swift light enveloping 

Some mortal hours meant for immortality 

Reflects beneficence in every world, 

Shining in the heart by invitation. 

To beckon holy signals from afar. 

To guide, to heighten consciousness. 

Love is the winged peace within. 

David S. Strickler 



YouTookMyHand 

You took my hand 

With love — and on it 

Placed a ring. 

This was a covenant — 

Not just a fleeting dream. 

And though 

You're now aware 

Of all the many faults 

Which fracture my best self 

And make me less 

Than what you'd hoped I'd be. 

You love me still. 

How can I let you know 

The sane and safe retreat, 

The healing radiant glow 

Your love has been for me. 

Surrounding me with strength? 

I take my pen 

With love — and with it 

Write these words: 

Love is a covenant; 

More than a passing dream. 

Lena Willoughby 



Of Love 

Love's pain is the unfilled hours, 

The moments when time stands eternal. 

And we stand alone, isolated, 

By distances of land — unreached and unreachable. 

Love's power is in people, 
Angered as well as elated; 
Disgusted or dissatisfied, 
its strength is forever there. 

Maybe our own agony is so great 
That we are numb to the happiness 
Of a love to which ours is but 
The smallest part of: love of man. 

Michael Hemmis 



3-15-72 MESSENGER 21 



Study of Giving Reveals 

and Goodwill 



3,470 church members tell \A/hy 
they support the church 

by DONALD L. STERN 



Ihe 1 ' 2 -hour interview with a midwest 
pastor was completed. He had responded 
to 120 probing questions on matters of 
faith, reasons for giving support to the 
church, amounts given for church and 
other causes, and a broad range of other 
questions. .As I prepared to leave he 
said, "I've told you things I've never told 
anyone before. Now that I have laid 
myself bare to you. would you mind tell- 
ing me who you are? " 

No doubt others of the 3,470 church 
members and pastors who were inter- 
viewed in connection with the North 
American Interchurch Study had similar 
feelings. They were approached by 150 
inters'iewers, among them Stanley Davis 
Sr.. Roger Schrock, Glennis Walker, and 
I of the Church of the Brethren, each 
volunteering two weeks for training and 
the field contacts. 

The data will be used by the Church of 
the Brethren and 14 other denominations 
in the planning of denominational and 
local stewardship programs for the 70s. 

Reasons for givint;. Both laymen and 
pastors agree that '"gratitude to God" is 
the most important reason for their giv- 
ing to the church. Second in importance 
is the practice of giving as a part of wor- 
ship. Laymen rank the church's "need 
for money," "'obligation to God," and 
"the duty of membership" as being more 
important reasons for giving than do the 
pastors. Pastors, on the other hand, feel 
more strongly that "giving money to the 
church is an expression of a person's 
faith." 

Withholding support. Contrary to 
what some church leaders have assumed, 
most members disapprove of withholding 



support simply because a person does not 
agree with some programs. The 2 1 % 
who approve of this tactic feel that the 
church's "support of minority groups" 
and "social involvement" justify with- 
holding. The study reveals that persons 
who tend to be most negative contribute 
the least amount of money to the church. 

Deciding how nntcli. The median 
weekly gift of lay members to their 
church is $5.52 while the pastor's is near- 
ly three times greater. How do people 
decide the amount they will give? The 
study suggests that laymen respond 
pragmatically; they put "income" and 
"the needs of the church" as pivotal in 
influencing the amount. "Biblical teach- 
ings" also ranked as being important. 
Pastors feel that "the needs of the 
church" and "frequency of participation 
in church activities" are the most impor- 
tant influences on the amount. Correla- 
tions tend to support the view that more 
participation in church activities and in- 
creased giving go together. 

Annual visit. Half of the members in- 
dicated they "strongly agree" with having 
an annual every-member visit to collect 
financial commitments for next year's 
budget while only 40^!- reported that 
their church has an annual every-member 
visit. Of those whose churches organize 
an every-member visit only 31 % of the 
laymen were visited for commitments. 
26% of those visited indicated that they 
gave because of the visit while 70% said 
they would have given anyway. 

Ranked as the most important work of 
the local church are, "win others to 
Christ," "provide worship for members," 
and "provide religious instrLiction." 



Services of denomination. About two 
thirds of the respondents felt support of 
denominational ministries is important 
while 2.8% felt it is unimportant. The 
most important service ofl'ered by the de- 
nomination according to both laymen 
and pastors is the providing and training 
of ministers. Second in importance is to 
provide mission support and outreach at 
home and abroad. Laymen see the de- 
nomination as important in providing 
"counsel for local churches and pastors." 
Pastors want the denomination to pro- 
vide program resources for the local 
church. They are more interested in de- 
nominational support for social witness 
than are laymen. 

Designations. Fifty percent of the lay- 
men and 38%' of the ministers feel their 
local church should earmark for specific 
expenditures the money it sends through 
the denomination. At the same time 
there was a strong feeling that people 
would be more willing to give to their 
local church if they had a voice in the 
way the money is spent. The study re- 
veals that only about I6%i of the mem- 
bers participate in the decision-making 
process. 

Goodwill. These are only a few of the 
findings of the North American Inter- 
church Study. Another worth noting is 
that there remains a very large amount of 
goodwill among church members toward 
the denomination. But it does not seem 
to be a narrow kind of loyalty as a great 
majority (88% ) favor or at least are not 
opposed to their church's participation in 
ecumenical programs. They feel the 
church is where they want to put their 
trust and contributions. □ 



22 MESSENGER 3I5-72 



ECUMENICAL WITNESS 
From 6 



people live." 

Episcopal Bishop Paul Moore Jr. of 
New York is one American who would 
agree on the concern for what conies 
after the war. 

To blame the war on Vietnam is to 
blame it on the symptom, he argued, and 
if it doesn't find expression in still another 
war, the sickness will find expression in 
other ways, "as it already has in our 
internal life." 

"When the war is over it will be a very 
crucial moment in the life of this country, 
whether we can convert the energies that 
went into that war into rebuilding our so- 
ciety." Bishop Moore told a press 
meeting. 

He believes that the American public 
must repent of whatever part of the sick- 
ness which underlies the sin, to use his 
word, of American involvement in the 
war. 

Annual Conference moderator Dale W. 
Brown saw Brethren Service following 
World War II as partly an atonement by 
Brethren for their complicity, and limited 
protest, in that war. In the same way he 
sees Brethren ready with relief and re- 
habilitation efforts, in ministries to chil- 
dren and orphans, at the end of the Indo- 
china War as one response of atonement 
and acceptance of responsibility. 

Yet unlike Europe, Vietnam may be 
less willing to accept American aid and 
reconstruction — which could become 
only another Vietnamese dependency on 
the US. Sister To Thi Anh, a Roman 
Catholic nun from Saigon, said Catholics 
in Vietnam who once strongly supported 
the presence of the US in Vietnam have 
reversed their attitudes. 

"What we ask of you is to leave us 
alone. Let us live," she said. "Let us 
know freedom you pretend you bring but 
which we haven't had since you came 25 
years ago," speaking of both French and 
American involvements in her country. 

For the conference the feeling was cer- 
tain that the war was not winding down 
— with the stepped-up air strikes, sup- 
port of the Saigon regime, and some 
35,000 troops that may be left in South 
Vietnam. 

Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, president of 
the World Council of Churches, said that 
one of America's problems is its feeling 
that it has to be successful. "I think it's 
much more important to be just and 



right" he countered. 

"The churches are going to be in a 
worse situation, year by year, decade by 
decade, if they don't stand for what they 
say they stand for — and peace and jus- 
tice in the world are the things we say 
we are for." 

The conference clearly sought to keep 
the responsibility for the war on the 
United States as it defeated motions that 
would have more broadly shared the re- 
sponsibility for the conflict. Still the con- 
ference message recognized "the need for 
the People's Republic of China, the Soviet 
Union, and other nations to cease supply- 
ing the Hanoi government and the 
Provisional Revolutionary' Government 
with the materiels of war." 

Another attempt to insert a statement 
that all wars are unjust and immoral was 
defeated. Dale Brown, who also voted 
against the motion, explained the motiva- 
tion of many in the conference: "When 
you're talking about Vietnam, I feel very 
strongly that before you can try to wit- 
ness against the splinter that is in your 
brother's eyes that you have to remove 
the beam in your own eye." Still Ray- 
mond Wilson, a Quaker, slipped a section 
by the conference that makes the state- 
ment that Brethren have historically felt: 

"We call upon our denominations, 
churches, and synagogues to renounce all 
war and make the total abolition of war 
and peace with justice as their major 
concern until achieved." 

One Brethren delegate struggled with 
applying the conference actions at home, 
finding herself "pretty far removed here 
from the kind of people that I live with 
all the time." 

Mrs. Joy Dull, Brookville, Ohio, home- 
maker who visited the Paris peace talks 
last year said "we've heard a lot of 'why' 
and a lot of 'what,' but I'm still struggling 
with the 'how.' " 

For Tom Wilson, responsible for con- 
gregational and community interpreta- 
tion, the power of the assembly lay in 
"the potential of raising the level of con- 
sciousness of those involved here to a 
point where some creative actions can be 
initiated back at the local level." 

Another Brethren, Alvin F. Klotz, 
Kokomo, Ind., came to the conviction 
that "the peace movement is coming back 
to the churches, though admitting at the 
same time that "the Church of the 




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3-15-71; MESSENGER 23 



Brethren may not be aware that it ever 
left." Mr. Klotz is executive director of 
Hoosiers for Peace, an arm of Clergy and 
Laymen Concerned in Indiana. The 
peace movement continues to look to the 
church for moral leadership, he believes. 

The element of racism in the Indochina 
War was an evident concern for the 
churchmen, with two major addresses 
given by black speakers — Andrew 
Young, formerly with the Southern 
Christian Leadership Conference and 
now chairman of Atlanta, Ga.'s, human 
relations commission, and Marion W. 
Edelman, a lawyer with the Center for 
Law and Education at Harvard Univer- 
sity. 

Connecting racism and militarism, Mr. 
Young told the assembly that the same 
legislators which are kept in power 
through the denial of voting black rights 
in Southern states are those which control 
Congressional committees that have sup- 
ported the war. 

The conference "Message" called the 
Vietnamization a "racist jwlicy," forcing 
Asians to serve as a proxy army for 
Americans and to die in the place of 
Americans for the supposed interest 



of Americans. 

It was to military chaplaincy that the 
conference addressed itself rather boldly, 
asking denominations to study civilian 
ministries and replacements for military 
chaplaincies, and to withdraw their pres- 
ent chaplains from Indochina, and pro- 
vide civilian ministries insofar as possible. 

The "Action Strategies" paper spoke to 
several areas: ending American participa- 
tion in the war; combatting the tyranny 
of racism; focusing the power of the reli- 
gious community on the political process; 
morally responsible use of economic 
power; acts of repentance and reconcilia- 
tion; enhancing religious and other 
freedoms. 

H. Lamar Gibble, peace and interna- 
tional affairs consultant and coordinator 
of the Brethren delegation, observed that 
the conference was the first broad-based 
interreligious gathering of its kind on the 
peace issue. Strong Catholic and Jewish 
support was significant, giving the final 
statements more weight. 

It brought together worldwide church 
leaders, such as Rabbi Morris B. 
Margolies of Kansas City; Archbishop 
Hclder Camara of Recife, Brazil; Don 



Luce, former World Council of Churches 
representative in Vietnam; Bishop John 
J. Dougherty, chairman of the Depart- 
ment of International Affairs of the 
United States Catholic Conference; 
Andre Dumas of France, a visiting pro- 
fessor at Union Theological Seminary in 
New York; Krister Stendahl, formerly of 
Sweden, dean of Harvard University di- 
vinity school; Albert van den Heuvel, 
World Council director of information, 
as well as prominent peace movement 
and denominational leaders not on the 
platform. 

What indeed will An Ecumenical Wit- 
ness accomplish, if not more pious state- 
ments on the war issue? The Brethren 
delegates felt that the Conference did 
serve to start a national turnabout on the 
moral interpretation of the war. Local 
follow-through will still be required. 

The work of the Witness continues in 
National Inquiry Groups, comprised of 
recognized church leaders. The task 
forces will study areas of concern, hold 
hearings and take expert testimony. At- 
tention is being given to ending the war 
and the US response to a postwar Indo- 
china, American racism exported abroad, 



Deaths 



Adams, William, Dixon, 111., on Dec. 1, 

1971, aged 76 
Ayres, Basil, Flora, Ind., on Oct. 11, 1971. 

aged 76 
Burritt, Orca Miller, Mechanicsburg, Pa., 

on Nov. 16, 1971. aged 87 
Butson, Mrs. E. E., Roanoke, La., on Sept. 

I. 1971 
Coricofe, Anna, Bridgewater, Va., on Sept. 

25. 1971 
Corv'. Mrs. Lee, Milford, Ind.. on Dec. 15. 

1971. aged 86 
Cripe, Emma Wagoner, Lake City, 111., on 

Oct. 28. 1971, aged 88 
Dining, Florence Loose, Martinsbiirg, Pa., 

on Nov. 14. 1971, aged 55 
Dilling. Rov N.. Martinsburg. Pa., on Nov. 

18. 1971. aged 57 
Early, John J.. Harrisonburg, Va., on Aug. 

28, 1971, aged 51 
Eisenbise, Enc, Lanark, 111., on Dec. 24. 

1971. aged 28 
Eisenbise. Flora Redwood, Hiawatha, 

Kans.. on July 28. 1971, aged 67 
Englar, S. Elizabeth. York, Pa., on Oct. 8, 

1971. aged 68 
Frost. Cora. Indianapolis, Ind., on Oct. 13, 

1971. aged 89 
Frv. .Albert J.. La Verne, Calif., on Sept. 

8. 1971. aged 88 
Geiman, Lottie Lee. Westminster, Md., on 

Oct. 14. 1971. aged 73 
George. Lizzie Martzall. Royersford, Pa., 

on Nov. 15. 1971. aged 86 
Gilbert, Dorothv. Dixon, III., on Nov. 28, 

1971. aged 45' 



Gomel, John, Mound City, Mo., on Sept. 

25, 1971, aged 62 
Gorden, Laura, Bridgewater, Va., on Nov. 

4, 1971, aged 86 
Grapes. Ada, Chambersburg, Pa., on Oct. 

9. 1971 
Grove, Peter H., Dallas Center, Iowa, on 

Nov. 10, 1971. aged 66 
Gunder.son, Howard C, York, N.D., on 

Oct. 31, 1971, aged 73 
Harnly, Anna, Lititz, Pa., on April 30, 

1971, aged 64 
Harper, Byrl D., La Verne, Calif., on 

Aug. 2. 1971. aged 69 
Haworth. Betty Hutcheson, Union, Ohio, 

on Sept. 17. 1971, aged 46 
Hays, Ethel A., Lawrenceville, 111., on 

Sept. 19, 1971, aged 90 
Hodgden, Rav D., Kansas City, Mo., on 

Nov. 5. 1971. aged 77 
Holderread. Hallev E., Elkhart, Ind., on 

Sept. 19. 1971. aged 73 
Hollis, Vada. Modesto. Calif., on Nov. 13, 

1971, aged 76 
Hornish. Nellie, Defiance, Ohio, on April 

16. 1971, aged 83 
Hover. Mrs. Leslie, Mexico, Ind., on Oct, 

3, 1971. aged 87 
Irvin, Glade, Eustis, Fla., on Oct. 7, 1971, 

aged 67 
Kerr. Terry, DeGraff. Ohio, on Oct. 5, 

1971, aged 17 
Kiracofe. Anna, Bridgewater, Va., on Sept. 

25. 1971. aged 86 
KoUar, Frank, South Bend, Ind., on Dec. 

24. 1971. aged 81 
Krider, .Anna Mav, Boonsboro, Md.. on 

Dec. 7. 1971. aged 88 
Landis, Edgar, Lemasters, Pa., on Nov. 21, 

1971, aged 81 



Landis, Otis, Dayton, Ohio, on Oct. 12, 

1971 
Lcidv, Glenn S., Martinsburg, Pa., on Nov. 

21,' 1971, aged 60 
Lovekin. Mary, Altoona, Pa., on Nov. 26, 

1971, aged 82 
McDowell, Bert, Leonard, Mo., on Aug. 

13, 1971, aged 61 
McWhorter, Lloyd, Prairie Grove, Ark., on 

Oct. 30, 1971, aged 72 
Macy, Arnold, Union, Ohio, on March 7, 

1971, aged 67 
Masers, Cora B., Winter Park. Fla., on 

Sept. 6, 1971, aged 87 
Mason, Lena A., HoUidaysburg, Pa., on 

Dec. 31, 1971, aged 70 
Masters, George, Johnson City, Tenn., on 

Aug. 21. 1971, aged 84 
Meade, George, Wirtz, Va., on Nov. 16, 

1971, aged 90 
Mellard, David, La Verne, Calif., on Aug. 

1, 1971, aged 27 

Meyers, Arlene C, Greencastle, Pa., on 

Nov. 23, 1971, aged 38 
Miller, Hallie Wine, Bridgewater, Va., on 

April 26, 1971, aged 73 
Miller, Jacob L., York, Pa., on Nov. 31, 

1971, aged 70 
Miller, Martin L.. Bridgewater, Va., on 

June 14, 1971. aged 85 
Moore, Ernest, Mount Sidney, Va., on Sept. 

2. 1971. aged 68 

Mowery, Alice. Everett, Pa., on Aug. 14, 

1971. aged 82 
Myers, Roy G. Sr., York, Pa., on May 17, 

1971 
Neely, Reuben E., HoUidaysburg. Pa., on 

Sept. 14. 1971, aged 78 
Quarry, Vesta Wineland, Martinsburg, Pa,, 

on Nov. 28, 1971, aged 69 



nd the impact of national priorities and 
lilitary force on war crimes. 

Harvard's Dr. Stendahl, without direct 
jference to the war, remarked that 
lercy for some people is judgment on 
thers, that God's mercy for the op- 
ressed people of the world takes the 
)rm of judgment on the rich and power- 
il. Judgment and mercy cannot be 
alanced "as though they were two hands 
f God," he said. 

"When judgment falls, it is mercy for 
lose who have been wronged and doom 
Dr those who have done the wrong. The 
lercy of the gospel is that there is time 
)r repentance," Dr. Stendahl said. 
j He was, of course, speaking to the 
[idgment befalling America and the 
lercy deserved, as he saw it, by the 
j'ietnamese. It is a concept that might 
|e hard to swallow for many Americans, 
ho like to be successful and right. 

Perhaps it is not too early or hopeful 
b believe that An Ecumenical Witness 
'as influenced, if not set, the moral 
genda of both the church and the nation. 

is an agenda that the churches should 
ave taken up long ago, and one even 
lore overdue for the Republic. □ 



eighard, Roger L., Martinsburg, Pa., on 

Sept. 25. 1971, aged 18 

rpliigle. Walter, Fruitdale, Ala., on Oct. 

Ill, 1971, aged 77 

iduvine, George A., Froid. Mont., on 

|ulv H, 1971, aged 86 
:hrock. Homer, Elkhart, Ind., on Dec. 17, 

1971, aged 76 
hafFer. Marv. Hoo\ersviUc, Pa., on No\'. 

3, I97I. aged 86 
hafFer, Wilbert C. Hooversville, Pa., on 

Oct. 20. 1971. aged 74 
idesinger. Marv Brenner, Bellefontaine, 

Ohio, on Sept.' 1, 1971. aged 63 
jimnions. .\rlie, Bridgewater. \'a.. on No\'. 
I 10, 1971, aged 83 
tayer. C. Urbana, Martinsburg, Pa., on 

Nov. 20, 1971, aged 76 
tayrook, Mabel G.. DeGraft. Ohio, on 

Oct. 14, 1971. aged 76 
touse. Charles, Flora, Ind.. on Sept. 6, 

1971, aged 77 
tudabaker, Hattie, Bluffton, Ind., on Oct, 

9. 1971, aged 82 
tump, Merlin B., Indianapolis, Ind., on 

Nov. 3, 1971, aged 82 
ullivan. William G.. Virden, III, on Oct. 

25, 1971, aged 81 
.wihart. Grace .^nn, Goshen, Ind., on Dec. 
I 12, 1971, aged 91 
i'agoner. Man Hildebrand. Red Cloud. 

Minn., on Sept. 14. 1971. aged 76 
V'alton. Lewis A.. Mexico. Ind.. on Dec. 9, 

1971. aged 23 
^^eyant. Mabel. Claysburg, Pa., on Now 

15. 1971, aged 50 
i^hitson. Agnes Ross. Sevmour, Ind., on 

Nov. 10, 1971. aged 59 ' 
iegler, Cora, Neffsville, Pa., on Nov. 4. 

1971, aged 87 



iFoDoTfi] [r©\v7D@m7g 



Film-Art: How Responsive, 
How Responsible? 



The church college president gave a qual- 
ified answer to our request to see the lilm 
The Egyptian. We had good reasons for 
asking: This particular pharaoh believed 
in monotheism and the lady who played 
the queen was a first cousin. That was 
twenty years ago when the church was 
against cinema. It is yet to the extent 
that it has a laissez-faire tolerance of 
films, regarding them largely as harmless 
leisure or as commercial recreation about 
which we are helpless. 

There is an alternative: church and 
cinema. James Wall's Church and Cine- 
ma (Eerdmans, 1971, $2.45) is one new 
resource providing the Christian and the 
church with a way of viewing film. 
Wall's approach takes seriously the pow- 
er and influence of cinema. Serious film 
education is confrontive and cooperative. 
Film is seen as an important index of cul- 
ture, as a reflector of society, as an af- 
fector of society, and as an art form that 
is contemporary though immature. 

As a communicating medium film is a 
modern-day parable (see Messenger, 
Sept. 1, 1971). Parables challenge us to 
come up with our own answers, to arrive 
at our own conclusions, to see the truth 
for ourselves, to make the insight our 
own. Film invites the viewer to share in 
interpreting the reality of human experi- 
ence upon the screen. Feature films, as 
representatives for our age, assist in mak- 
ing better sense out of contemporary ex- 
perience, providing opportunity to listen 
to ourselves, to our society, and to those 
with whom we wish to communicate. 
Some films give helpful insight in coming 
to decisive confrontation with our own 
himian experience; all provide oppor- 
tunity to listen to our ovm generation. 
Discerning viewing of the secular film- 
oracles adds to our knowledge of the 
images fashioned of man, in man, and for 
our time. 

Will film-art become more responsive 



and responsible? Much depends upon 
what the average North American (who 
spends more time seeing films in theaters 
and on television than he does at any 
other activity except for sleeping and 
working) will demand. Better viewing 
habits can develop, and better films that 
lead to reflection and that strengthen good 
judgments can be produced. Films and 
film viewing do not need to dissipate 
psychic health, seek fantasy, focus upon 
false images of romantic love, give pri- 
ority to beauty, youth, wealth, and vio- 
lence. Responsive and responsible view- 
ing are at stake: We are the valuers. 

What parables are popular this season? 
Those interested in big profits have in 
part determined that answer by outdoing 
all predecessors in graphic depiction of 
property destruction and death. The 
Local 44 Affiliated Property Craftsmen's 



f^t^>^. 




^wwioftii^iiiqnim 



315-72 MESSENGER 25 



r— %^/— ^ 



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26 MESSENGER 3-15-72 



Union (the special effects men) is not 
about to go out of business. "Squibs" 
(battery-activated explosives in steel 
cases taped to the actors) and "blood 
bags" are imaging feet mangled by gun- 
fire, blasted stomachs, and various beat- 
ings. One contemporary director, Philip 
DWntoni, says this screen violence is 
more realistic (he did not say realism). 
Thus he reasons: "People are used to 
seeing the war on television. They know 
what the real thing looks like. So how 
can you fake it? Audiences won't buy 
that anymore." 

That violent victor rides the stage is 
illustrated in D'Antoni's The French 
Connection (as well as his earlier work 
Bullitt), which some regard as "the most 
e.xciting movie thriller for several years." 
Gene Hackman, who plays Detective 
Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, is out to get 
French crooks who are unloading 120 
pounds of heroin with the syndicate. In 
the action he kills another cop; destroys a 
citizen's car in a suicidal race involving a 
beat-up sedan, an elevated train, and five 
miles of Brooklyn traffic; causes an inno- 
cent woman to be shot by a sniper; and 
throws himself around with bigoted 
words and gestures. Does Detective 
Doyle provide the viewers with a hero 
image? Yes, he is hero; we are thrilled 
with his ability to drive a car, by his 
desire to win, by his daring aims to im- 
prove New York City. What a story: 
drugs mixed with violence and suspense. 

Guess what comes home to digest in 
Sidney Portier's portrayal of the bold 
policeman in The Organization? Drugs 
mixed with violence and suspense: The 
story line includes again a narcotics syn- 
dicate, a bold policeman, and fast, 
breathtaking car racing — but this time in 
San Francisco. (Portier has now dis- 
closed himself as a detective three times, 
previously in Heat of the Night and They 
Call Me Mr. Tibbs. ) The Organization 
differs in its ending from The French 
Connection which, like Z, ends with jus- 
tice made a mockery in that Doyle and 
his partner are transferred from the nar- 
cotics squad and most of the hoods get off 
with light or suspended sentences. How- 
ever, in The Organization drugs are taken 
seriously by an underground community 
which includes some rehabilitated youth 
and also a minister; together with some 
cooperation with the bold policeman they 



fight with daring commitment. 

Sliaft also has the respective themes of 
drugs, detectives, and syndicate all 
served with violence and suspense. It 
does have a tender moment when the 
black drug traffic king goes to the black 
private detective and says through his 
tears, "Shaft, get back my baby, that's 
all I want; I got the money, you spend it, 
but find my baby (a teen-age daughter 
held by the Mafia) ." Later, however, 
when Shaft discovers he's been shafted, 
the father admits that "we are all 
hustlers, and money always matters!" 

Can one still affirm the importance of 
such cinema for churchgoers? Yes: The 
director-producers' visions are to be dis- 
covered and pondered. In these three 
films we see visions like justice is in 
jeopardy; drugs and violence are as 
American as apple pie; youth are dedi- 
cated and working with the sociological 
time bombs; money doesn't always 
matter. 



Another importance in this season of 
film violence is the awareness that vio- 
lence is relevant to our society. We con- 
sumers apparently are preconditioned to 
consume a lot of killings. That squibs 
and blood bags are used is not what is 
important since "movie blood" is but an- 
other Max Factor creation. But what is 
pertinent is the mentality that asks for the 
"blood" — and not just "motivated vio- 
lence" in the film but violence for its own 
sake, for pure shock value. We satisfy 
our desire for action that is rougher and 
more exciting. Prophetically a national 
network reminds that in Ireland we are 
raising a new generation of bigoted chil- 
dren. A national magazine features 
"fragging and other withdrawal symp- 
toms" and concludes that the killing of 
American oflicers by American soldiers 
in Vietnam is a policy that has "come 
home" and gone full circle. 

A third affirmation in these three films 
— and others like them this season and 
probably also in the next — is to point to 
an alternate way. An alternate found in 
the Sermon on the Mount. And an alter- 
nate in which the church can be in dia- 
logue (through both confrontation and 
cooperation) with cinema to produce 
other and better parables. — LeRoy E. 
Kennel 








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'^^ 



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GETTING READY 
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CON GOD 



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HAIRCUTS AND HOLINESS 

Why was I born? Must the innocent 
suffer? Do life's basic questions 
hove answers? Louis Cassels* ex- 
tra-ordinary book will challenge the 
reader to find them. Paper, $1.75 

WOMEN IN CHURCH 
AND SOCIETY 

At last! A common-sense look at the 
women's movement from a Chris- 
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examines the status of women today 
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her role in the church. $4.75 

LIVING IN A ZIGZAG AGE 

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RELIGION 

AND THE SOLID SOUTH 

Samuel S. Hill, Jr. and four co- 
contributors probe the extent to which 
religion has been a confirming 
factor for the white southern way of 
life. IIIus, Paper, $2.95 

YEARBOOK OF AMERICAN 
CHURCHES, 1972 

Now m its 57th year of publication, 
this popular reference book still 
provides up-to-date information on 
what the Church is doing. Ed, 
Constant H. Jacguet, Jr. $8.95 

POLITICS, 

POKER, AND PIETY 

Wallace E. Fisher helps churchmen 
face and understand contemporary 
political confusion and find ways to 
put faith to work in modern po- 
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TIME FOR ALL THINGS 

"Too little time . . .' a common 
complaint today. With humor ond in- 
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we actually have an abundance of 
time at our disposal! Paper, $1.25 



SELECTIONS FROM 
E. STANLEY JONES 

Choosing over 500 passages, the 
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THE CHRISTIAN AGNOSTIC 

Could an agnostic actually be 
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Paper, $2 25 

PERSONALITY AND 
CHRISTIAN FAITH 

The answer to contemporary man's 
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IN THE THIRD PLACE 

Political revolution or maintenance 
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Arthur Landwehr II offers churchmen 
a third alternative, seeking an end 
to the present polarization. 
Paper, SI .95 

VENTURES IN SONG 

From traditional spirituals to con- 
temporary hymns, this exciting col- 
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toward updating the music of the 
Church. Ed, David Randolph. Paper, 
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3-15-72 MESSENGER 27 



Government vs. a denomination 



Brethren have lone held government suspect. In 
their nature or their mission, by the yardstick of 
historical or current events. Brethren have found 
government more often than not the adversary, 
rather than the evangel, for good reasons or ill- 
defined ones. 

,A people born in the dissent of religious free- 
dom of the eighteenth century are not unlike their 
contemporaries who today dissent on political 
grounds from government positions. From John 
Naas to John (Ted) Glick, conscience-driven 
dissent has caused Brethren to resist particular 
government policy when belief is tested. 

Unfortunately government has not always 
earned its trust nor has it been sympathetic to the 
person with conviction. Very often it has de- 
ser\ed its detractors and dissenters. 

.And it has not always dealt gently, nor wise- 
ly, with them. A recent example that must con- 
cern all churchmen and religious institutions is 
the government's moves against the Unitarian 
Universalist Association and its publishing arm, 
Beacon Press. 

Last October 22 Beacon Press brought out 
"The Senator Gravel Edition of the Pentagon 
Papers." A week later, and four months after 
public disclosure of the papers elsewhere, the 
FBI secretly subpoenaed the denomination's 
financial records, including all checks written and 
received in a four and a half month period. Fore- 
stalled for the moment by injunction, the gov- 
ernment has said it will seek criminal convictions 
of Beacon Press officials for the papers' publica- 
tion. 

"This is the first time in the history of our 
country that the federal government has ever 
moved in on a national religious denomination 
in this way," said Dr. Robert N. West, the Uni- 
tarians' executive, "compelling the disclosure of 
names of contributors and members." 

In publishing material already in the public 
domain. Dr. West denies any wrongdoing on the 
part of his denomination. He contends that the 
government's actions have been made "in order 



to instill fear, not only in us but in other groups 
and individuals, who would attempt to engage 
in activity involving strong dissent from govern- 
ment policies." 

The government's motives may be suspect in 
that it did not limit its investigation to only the 
records of Beacon Press or to the files of the one 
publication, but rather thrust itself into the total 
records of the church. 

"If the government can examine every check 
a denomination writes over an extended period 
of time, it can in effect (and does) evaluate the 
program of that denomination," Dr. West said. 

The government's action comes close to sug- 
gesting that a person's joining a particular denom- 
ination may in itself be cause for investigation. 

Involved are the issues of press and religious 
freedom, freedom of association, government 
harrassment by prosecution, intimidation, and 
repression of legitimate dissent. 

What are the implications for the Church of 
the Brethren in the Beacon Press matter? For a 
denomination which asserts its support for the 
young man who resists military service, which 
places God before country, which selectively af- 
firms civil disobedience, which offers a channel 
for funds to aid one of its own in the Harrisburg 
conspiracy trial? 

For the Brethren and other religious groups 
it can mean a chilling effect which, in the govern- 
ment's interests, may deter churchmen from dis- 
agreeing with the goverrmient and from speaking 
truth to power. 

The Unitarian denomination is similar in size 
to the Church of the Brethren. It is an unhappy 
circumstance that forces one to ask himself, as 
did the Unitarian president, that if this kind of 
harrassment can happen to one small denomina- 
tion, then what denomination is next and for what 
reason? For Brethren, and for others, govern- 
ment again is suspect from the responsible exer- 
cise of the voice of conscience. — r.e.k. 



28 MESSENGER 3-15-72 



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Haircuts and Holiness 

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Eighth Day of Creation 

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Postage: 20c first dollar; 5c each additional dollar 

The Brethren Press, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, Illinois 60120 



/^ messenger ' 



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CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN APRIL 1, 1972 




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Q New Songs for New Times. Victorian piety, crinoline, and 

sentiment are out. Realism, social purpose, and sound theology are 
in. Ronald E. Keener reports on contemporary hymns 

O Evangelism and Youth: The Gospel Blitz. Young people, 

inside and outside the church, may have become the evangelists of 
the early seventies, by Matthew M. Meyer 

^^ Listen to the Sunrise. Kenneth Morse's text and the graphics of 
Janie and Lindsay Russell combine in Messenger's Easter gift to 
readers: a poetic statement that "God's moment has come" 

^^^ Global Awareness: A Humbling Experience. "Killing is 

madness." . . . "Stop arming every nation of the world!" . . . 
"Modern weapons are blind weapons." Joy Dull reflects on a 
women's workshop on peace building 



Uniform Series: 100th Year. Oft criticized and much revamped, 
the International Lessons have a unique staying power, especially 
among adults, by Glen E. Norris 

In Touch profiles Cindy Forbes, Olin J. Mason, and L. W. Shultz (2) .... 
Outlook reports the formation of an Hispanic-American council among 
Brethren, updates activities in the Harrisburg, Pa., trial of Ted Giick and 
co-defendants, features the ongoing ministrv' of a youth center in North 
Manchester, Ind., notes the intercession of Protestant and Catholic 
churches in the Ireland conflict, and offers a report from Mary Ann Hylton 
on a worship fair (beginning on 4) ... . National Council of Churches 
president Cynthia C. Wedel extends an Easter message (22) .... Wilfred 
E. Nolen reviews "'Godspell" (23); J. H. Mathis tallies successes of the 
church (26) .... An editorial reflects "On Going Public With One's 
Witness" (28) 



EDITOR 

Howard E. Royer 

ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

Ronald E. Keener / News 
Wilbur E. Brumbaugh / Design 
Kenneth i. Morse / Features 

ASSISTANT EDITOR 

Linda K. Beher 

EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Richard N. Miller 



VOL. 121, NO. 7 



APRIL 1, 1972 



11-18 Janie and Lindsay 
coiirlcsv of Sf^'rnlrrn; 
Keener; 3 Hoivard E. 
Rover: 4 Drm Honirk; 5. f) Religious News 
Service; 22 Robcri F. Mc(;ovem 



CREDITS: Cover. 
Rnssell: 2 Heft) 
Mghl) Ronald T.. 



NfEssENcER is the official publication of the 
Church of the Brethren. F",ntcrcd as second- 
class matter Aug. 20, 1918, under .Act of 
Congress of Oct. 17. 1917. Filing dale, Oct. 1. 

1971. Messenger is a inenibcr of the Associ- 
ated Church Press and a subscriber to Reli- 
gious News Service and Eciunenical Press 
Service. Biblic;il ([notations, unless otherwise 
indicated, arc from the Revised Standard 
Version. 

Subscription rales: SI. 20 per year for indi- 
vidual subscriptions: S3. 60 per year for church 
group plan: S.I, 00 per year for every home 
plan; life stibscription, S60; husband and 
wife. S75. If you move clip old address 
frotn MF.ssf:NC.ER and send with new address. 
.Mlow at least fifteen days for ad- 
dress change. Messenger is owned 
and pidjlishcd twice monthly by 
the (.cncral Services Commission, 
Church of the Brethren fieneral 
Board, 14,M Dundee .\\c.. Elgin, 
III. riOI20. .Second-class postage 
paid at Elgin. III., Apr. I, 1972. Copyright 

1972, Church of the Brethren General Board. 




JOINING IN PEACEMAKING LIFE-STYLES 

Thank you for a challenging special issue 
on nonviolence in a violent world (Feb. 1). 
My question is how many of us as Brethren 
members of "a pacifist church" (the words 
used in an article, found on the front pages 
of many of our major newspapers, relating 
how some of the major denominations, in- 
cluding the Church of the Brethren, are 
making profits on war) are really involved 
in a nonviolent life? 

Recently I watched a friend being sen- 
tenced to three years in a federal prison for 
refusing to be involved in the selective 
service system which promotes violence. If 
this special issue of Messenger is more 
than just a jumble of words, can we as 
Brethren see ourselves supporting Bob Gross 
in his prison experience or, perhaps, even 
joining him in similar peacemaking life- 
styles? 

Cliff Kindy 
Goshen, Ind. 

BOB GROSS: IMPRISONED FOR RESISTANCE 

Two years ago, when my son Larry be- 
came a resister to the draft, I approved and 
supported him in his action, but at the same 
time the thought that he might spend years 
in prison caused me pain. If I began to ex- 
press this pain, I often received a rather 
flippant comment, such as, "Well, you raised 
him that way," or, "He knew he was risk- 
ing prison when he resisted — so what's 
the problem?" 

Another mother can approve and support 
a son going into the army. Yet if that son 
is wounded or killed or becomes a prisoner- 
of-war, does he feel no pain of heart? Like- 
wise, we who know Bob Gross and stand 
with him in his resistance to the war ma- 
chine also feel pain and weep when he is 
physically taken from us. 

As the poet says, "Never .send to know for 
whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." And 
do not send to learn on whom the cell door 
clangs shut, but, rather, like the apostle, 
"remember those in prison as though in 
prison with them." 

Then perhaps as we allow ourselves to 
feel the pain of having our brother in pris- 
on, we will begin to see more clearly the 
vast pool of pain that exists within all the 
prisons in our land. And we will be given 
the courage to continue the struggle for 
community where none of us is any longer 
turned into a number. 

Charlotte Kuhnning 
Lombard, III. 

A DIFFERENT VIEWPOINT 

Your Feb. I Messenger (as have so 
many others) speaks of violence. Our news- 
papers are filled with this accelerating evil 



m 



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— and the end is not in sight. 

The roots for this in no small part have 
been planted and nurtured by the church. 
When you encouraged marches, sit downs, 
protests, draft card burning, tax evasion, 
comfort to the enemy, you provided the en- 
couragement. Manl^ind cannot be selective 
in its defiance of society and law and order. 

I share with you the sorrow of the hour, 
but from a different viewpoint. 

WiLLI.'iM E. SWIGART JR. 

Huntingdon, Pa. 

SUPERB CONTENT 

The twentieth century has often been 
referred to as the age of violence. This char- 
acterization is and should be of great con- 
cern to the advocates of nonviolence as the 
way to resolve human conflict. 

I wish to congratulate the editorial staff 
of Messenger for having prepared a spe- 
cial issue (Feb. 1) dealing with the sub- 
ject of nonviolence in a violent world. The 
content is superb. I am also grateful to the 
contributors who are willing to share their 
thoughts on such a vital subject. 

Wilbur J. Stump 
Nappanee, Ind. 

APPRECIATION 

The nonviolence issue of Messenger 
(Feb. 1 ) is one of the finest. Thanks so 
much. 

Herbert Thomas 
Reading, Minn. 

HELPFUL 

Please let me congratulate you especially 
for the Messenger (Feb. 1) concerning 
nonviolence in a violent world. That was 
an outstanding contribution, and I believe 
will be helpful to many people. Keep up the 
good work! 

David L. Rogers 
North Manchester, Ind. 

BELIEVE IN THE DIRECTION 

Although I appreciate Inez Long's insight 
on where the Church of the Brethren has 
traveled since the 40s (see Jan. 15), I do not 
share her view that we may be headed for 
a dead end. In every congregation there are 
people who are trying to find the "mind of 
Christ" for their lives and who never were 
"on board" in the zigzag adventures which 
cause Mrs. Long her concern, and who still 
believe in the direction our church is head- 
ing in a broad sense. 

The fact that other groups now partici- 
pate in actions begun by the Brethren ought 
to be cause for rejoicing rather than pessi- 
mism. 

Our next "biggie" may be a rediscovery of 
the simple life doctrine, what with rising 



concern on waste of natural resources and 
a casting off of material nonessentials by 
many young people, and a yearning by many 
middle-aged persons to slow the pace of 
daily life. 

Dean Kagarise 
South Bend, Ind. 

STRAYING FROM BASIC FUNCTION 

I would like to add my "Amen" to Inez 
Long's article (Jan. 15). She has put it 
much better than I could hope to do. I am 
concerned . . . about some of the trends, 
attitudes, and actions or lack of them, in our 
Brotherhood in recent years. We have or- 
ganized and reorganized, modernized, re- 
vamped staff, increased budget, and really, 
what have we gotten in the way of deepen- 
ing our spirituality, increasing our mem- 
bership, as members and as churches? 

I don't know the answer or how to im- 
prove the situation. I do feel that some- 
where along the line we have strayed from 
our basic function and purpose as a church. 
Maybe it would be well to learn from God, 
Moses, and the children of Israel (Ex. 14: 
13-15). Stand still and give God a chance, 
and then go forward in the will of God. 
A. Jay Replogle 
Windber, Pa. 

AN OPEN LETTER TO INEZ LONG 

I read with much interest your article 
(Jan. 15), "I've Been Putting on the 
Brakes." It was an exciting letter and stim- 
ulated a great deal of thought for me. You 
have verbalized what many silent but frus- 
trated people have wanted to say about the 
church. 

You rightly point out that "we are a 
people on pilgrimage. We are not on an 
ecstatic trip, not on an adventurous odyssey, 
not in a political race, not on a lost-lover's 
detour, not on a suicidal dead end. Like 
Christians before us, we are on a Way." I 
am also impressed by the frankness and 
sincerity of your own confession of failure. 
As a fellow member of the Church of the 
Brethren, I can accept that and say I too 
have failed many times to follow the way. 

But I am puzzled by several of your 
points. First, you seem to be about five 
years behind when you refer to the "dizzy 
ride in the late 1960s." My observation is 
that it was the early '60s which saw the wide 
swing toward the youth cult. It was the 
Kennedy era when the young people had a 
youthful idol in a President who was born in 
this century. It was the Beatles and rapid 
surge of popularity of many folk music 
groups. The early 'eOs saw us still planning 
new church buildings, and what is this but 
Continued on 24 



The Easter story retold is the central 
feature of this Messenger. The ac- 
count begins with the ominous ninth 
hour of Jesus on the cross; it concludes 
on resurrection morning, when "you 
can hear the sunrise break into alle- 
luias." 

For the cover article, Kenneth I. 
Morse, writer, and Janie and Lindsay 
Russell, an artist-photographer team of 
Rhinelander, Wisconsin, combined to 
bring a treatment of the crucifixion in 
contemporary language and contempo- 
rary symbols in order to point to its 
contemporary meaning: God's moment 
has come. 

In composing the statement Kenneth 
Morse envisioned its use as a choral 
reading, perhaps 
even with the 
scriptural passages 
being read by voic- 
es under the con- 
temporary poems. 
Or he encourages 
congregations and 
individuals to con- 
sider other adapta- 
tions, perhaps lift- 
ing out lines or 
sections around 
. ^^^^ which to build 
J I ^^^^1 their own expres- 
V ^^^H sion in song or 

^^^^ Even as Mes- 

senger presses the 
hard questions of 
the day, and relates 
to them biblical and theological insights, 
the magazine attempts also to keep 
foremost other accents of the gospel; 
the glory, the joy, the unity given by 
God in Jesus Christ. "Listen to the 
Sunrise" is such an affirmation. 

Elsewhere in this issue are articles 
by J. H. Mathis. former regional execu- 
tive on the staff of La Verne College in 
California; Glen E. Norris, former pas- 
tor and retired editor of adult publica- 
tions, residing in Elgin, III.; Cynthia C. 
Wedcl. Washington, D.C., president. 
National Council of Churches; Joy 
Dull. Brookville, Ohio, homemaker and 
lay worker active in peace concerns; 
and Matthew M. Meyer and Wilfred E. 
Nolen. consultants of the Parish Min- 
istries Commission. — The Editors 




4-1-72 messenger 1 




Cindy Forbes: Seventeen 

Turn to page 56 in the January issue 
of Seventeen magazine and you'll 
come face to face with Cindy Forbes, 
an engaging high school senior who 
is a member of the Summerdean 
Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, 
\a. 

The 17 (naturally') -year-old coed, 
with a south of the Mason-Dixon 
accent that does credit to her state, 
was chosen by the magazine last 
.August from 30 other girls, who in 
turn were selected from 100 others at 
Girls Nation in Washington. D.C., 
one of two chosen from 600 girls at 
Girls State, in turn one of three 
named from her high school. 

"T never thought that much of it." 
she confides when at Girls Nation she 
was asked to pose for some photos 
and fill in a questionnaire about her 
interests and activities. Two weeks 
later the New York-based magazine 
editors phoned to tell her she had 
been selected to model an outfit for 
the Januarv' issue. 

Five members of the magazine staff 
spent a full day taking hundreds of 
photos of her at Carvins Cove, a 
recreation site and reservoir in 
Roanoke. She models a pants outfit 
and denim coat in the issue. 

Cindy, whose bright personality 
comes through even in a telephone 



interview, is vice-president of her 
church youth group and co-editor of 
the district youth newsletter. 

She comes from a musical family: 
Her parents, the Roy L. Forbeses, 
and two brothers are all involved 
in vocal and instrumental music. 

.At Summerdean. she directs the 
children's chapel choir. In the sum- 
mer she is a junior counselor with 
the ten- and eleven-year-olds at Camp 
Bethel. "I just love working with 
children." she says, and understand- 
ably she plans elementary education 
as her major ne.xt fall at Bridge- 
water College. 

At Northside High. Cindy is a 
member of the Keyettes, a commu- 
nity service club, the National Honor 
Society, secretary of the senior class, 
homecoming maid of honor, and 
drum major of the marching band. 
Last November she was named Snow 
Queen of Roanoke Valley. 

Though she has done modeling as 
a member of the teen board of a 
Roanoke store, she found the model- 
ing world new and the experience 
with Seventeen fascinating. 

Interesting experiences aside, 
modeling isn't Cindy's objective. 
But it likely won't be the last 
opportunity for the attractive and 
appealing Virginian. 




iri^ 




Olin J. Mason: Clergy mi 

The church is in the business of 
working with the elderly because it 
has the concepts from which spring 
concern for people. Olin J. Mason 
reflects. "To me it's that simple. 
When the church does it. it does it 
because we care. When govenmient 
does it — nine times out of ten — it 
does it because nobody cares." 

The administrator of Florida 
Brethren Homes at Sebring himself 
conveys a feeling of caring about the 
aged — a concern which carries 
beyond his immediate job into institu- 
tional issues for the entire state. 

Last December Mr. Mason, 46, 
became president of the Florida 
Association of Homes for the Aging, 
the nonproprietary group represent- 
ing some 40 institutions and 5,000 
residents. Furthermore he's on the 
advisory council of the Protestant 
Health Assembly and is director of a 
membership unit of the national 
American Protestant Hospital 
Association. 

As Florida association president he 
is his group's chief representative at 
state levels when legislation may 
affect homes for the aging and nurs- 
ing care facilities. As a visitor talked 
with him one afternoon, he had three 
calls in to state legislators and was 
considering a trip to Tallahassee — 
not his first — to confer with elected 
and executive officials on new 
legislation. 

In his fifth )'ear as the Sebring 
administrator, he was six and a half 
years at the Windber, Pa., home and 
has worked for Brethren Service at 



2 MESSENGER 4-1-72 



/ithout a collar 



Fresno. Calif., and Falfurrias, Texas. 
He spent two years at Bethany 
Hospital in development related to 
nursing education and scholarships. 
While obtaining his background in 
social welfare services, he graduated 
from Manchester College. 

In the future he sees the need for 
additional emphases on serving 
people over age 80 as a special needs 
group — who can be expected to live 
for 30 more years. 

Today there are 15.000 persons in 
the country over 100, he says, up one 
third in the last ten years. He sees 
a similar increase by 1980. 

In a society that tends to glamor- 
ize the productive era — ages 20 
to 65 — Olin Mason affirmatively 
finds himself a "clergyman without 
collar" in the church's ministry to 
the aging. 




L.W. Shultz: One man's pursuits 



Come late spring, a well-loaded 
Dodge likely will have rounded out 
another 1,400-mile trek from North 
Manchester, Ind., to Lancaster, Pa., 
and back. The driver: eighty-one 
year-old L. W. Shultz; the cargo: 
books to be sold at the Mennonite 
Archives Book Auction. 

In a real sense, the Hoosier minis- 
ter has been in the transport business 
most of his life, in work he has loved 
to pursue. He began moving 
produce when he was fourteen, 
driving a huckster wagon one summer 
for a Lancaster, Ind., grocer. He 
twice helped to deliver shipments of 
heifers and relief goods to Poland. 
He has picked up Bibles, genealogies, 
rare books, and memorabilia on the 
church and Indians wherever he has 
traveled. But his chief delight has 
been in the movement of people, 
twenty-five tour parties from 1949 to 
1970. involving 369 persons and 
thirty-one countries. 

Shultz Tours began when L. W. 
and his bride, Cora Winger, whom 
he describes as his first and only leap 
year date, planned to attend the 1915 
Hershey Annual Conference on their 
honeymoon. They were joined by 
fifteen other persons, among them 
both sets of parents. 

Vocationally L. W. was associated 
with Manchester College for twenty- 
five years, as teacher and librarian 
and earlier as principal of the 
academy. But he is known too for his 
work in Christian education and for 
his publishing activity. 

In the mid-20s he and others pros- 



pected for a camp site for the 
Indiana districts, settling on what 
was "two cornfields with a fence in 
between" along Lake Wabee. There 
he and Mrs. Shultz established Camp 
Alexander Mack and directed it for 
thirty-two years. 

In publishing he regards "A Mural 
History of the Church of the Breth- 
ren," illustrated by the Medford 
Neher paintings at Camp Mack, as 
his best seller. He has authored six 
other books, assisted with six more, 
reprinted a dozen others, and un- 
covered scores of rare volumes for 
denominational and institutional 
archives. Last year he issued the 
autobiography, "People and Places 
1890-1970." 

Engaged as he has been in varied 
tasks of the church, L. W. recalls 
with particular joy the opportunity 
he had in 1939 to draft the proposal 
which led to the denomination's 
Brethren Service Committee. He 
later served as its first chairman. 

In June L. W. will head for Cin- 
cinnati, his car heaped with books for 
display and sale. The occasion: 
Annual Conference, his 58th since 
1910. 



4-1-72 MESSENGER 3 



Brethren Hispanic-Americans 
form council, seek members 

In the week that the Council on Hispanic 
American Ministries sought to maintain 
the establishment posture it has held for 
its 60 years, a small group of Spanish- 
speaking members of the Church of the 
Brethren formed an organization to 
actively witness their concerns for the 
Hispanos within their own fellowship. 

Eleven Brethren from Puerto Rico, 
Ecuador, California, and elsewhere — 
some Anglos among them — formed the 
Brethren Hispanic American Ministries 
Council. 

.A membership will be sought among 
Brethren of Hispanic-American descent, 
giving them voice and vote, and other 
concerned Brethren, with voice in the 
organization. Membership at $2 a year 
may be sent to treasurer Pablo Cuevas, 
Route 1, Broadway, Va. 22815. 

For the Council on Hispanic American 
Ministries — COHAM — the future 
appears less dynamic, less sure. It has 
identified its own objective as a "forum 
for discussion of concerns of Hispanic 
Americans" — an "agency of initiation, 
encouragement, information, and as- 
sistance" working through denomination- 
al executives. 

Action is left to the 70 participating 
denominations and to individuals. 

"After 60 years of existence, COHAM 
has a chance to come of age," said 
Fabricio P. Guzman, chairman of the 
Brethren consultation that met after the 
four-day COHAM meeting in Miami, 
Fla., in January. He is also coordinator 
of the new Brethren council. 

He calls COHAM a "fellowship of 
believers" with little accomplishment to 
its credit. Mr. Guzman, pastor of the 
Douglas Park congregation in Chicago 
which has a number of Hispano mem- 
bers, will give the organization two years 
to show a change of heart. If it doesn't, 
he says he'll leave it. 

A group of militants, meeting separate- 
ly in a Miami church, on the second 
evening disrupted a dinner meeting and 
.sought to read a statement of concern for 
the council's direction. 

COHAM president Alberto Filomeno 
and the delegates turned them aside in 
an emotional upheaval, asking that they 
work through the channels of the busi- 




I 

i 



Fabricio Guzman: Chance to come of age 

ness sessions. Police finally escorted the 
radicals from the hall. The scene evi- 
denced the overwhelming conservative 
Cuban majority in COHAM that shuns 
any tactic that appears to them 
revolutionary. 

The council delegates, many of whom 



Holy Week 'pilgrimage' 
supports Harrisburg Eight 

In local expressions culminating during 
Holy Week "Pilgrimage for Freedom" 
will demonstrate support for the eight 
persons under federal indictment in 
Harrisburg, Pa., for a kidnap-bomb 
conspiracy. 

The National Association of Laity, a 
Roman Catholic organization with 
chapters in 25 cities, and the Harrisburg 
Defense Committee hope to localize the 
issues of the trial through demonstra- 
tions, rallies, and street theater that will 
precede a pilgrimage to Harrisburg 
during Holy Week. 

National peace leaders will be among 
upwards to 20,000 persons expected in 
Harrisburg to demonstrate their solidar- 
ity with the Eight. A "New Gettysburg 
Address" may be issued from that city 
where the pilgrimage will form before 
entering Harrisburg. 

Twcnty-two-year-old John Ted Glick 
of the Church of the Brethren is one of 
the defendants. At his request, however, 



are Cuban refugees now living in Miami, 
had the opportunity to identify with the 
people they purport to serve when they 
were asked to participate in a picket line 
that Cuban workers had organized just 
two weeks earlier against a sugar com- 
pany near Miami. It is the first strike in 
Florida by the United Farm Workers 
Union of Cesar Chavez. 

Instead, the council referred a resolu- 
tion of support to a local committee. 
Still, some 20 persons, Brethren delegates 
among them, spent a couple hours on the 
picket site one afternoon. 

Some of the militants were the same 
persons instrumental last September in 
voting to dissolve SOHAM, the Hispanic 
American section of the National Coun- 
cil of Churches. While the same fate did 
not await COHAM, an independent 
organization, it became clear that what 
many younger persons wanted is a grass 
roots organization which sets its own 
agenda, tells the church what is needed, 
and invites the church to respond, if it 
will. 



!l 



Ted will be tried separately, choosing 
to present his own defense. 

In the meantime, while the trial goes , 
on, Ted is accepting speaking engage- 
ments on the trial's issues, nonviolent 
revolution, and the pilgrimage. He can 
be reached through the Harrisburg 
Defense Committee, 240 N. Third St., 
Harrisburg, Pa. 17101. 

Church of the Brethren moderator- 
elect Dean M. Miller of Lombard, 111., 
participated in an ecumenical penitentiali 
service in February in Harrisburg. 
Reflecting later, he said: "More of us 
need to stand with these persons in theii 
struggles of conscience against the war 
so that they will not lose heart." 

He acknowledges that the eight resist- 
ers have not, as others in history have, 
faced a choice of denying their faith 
or facing death. 

"But these men and women convey the 
impression that they know why they are 
living," he said. "They are at ease witli 
the decision they have made and they 
are articulate and attractive persons. 
After meeting them and hearing their 
testimony it surely seems that once againi 



4 MESSENGER 41-72 



In a restructured COHAM Mr. Guz- 
man serves on the executive board as a 
member at large from the Midwest, one 
of four regions. 

But John Forbes, vice-president of the 
Evangelical Council of Puerto Rico, 
spoke for most of the other Brethren in 
suggesting that the new Brethren His- 
panic American Ministries Council "is 
much more hopeful than COHAM." 

In the two-day Brethren caucus were 
Victor Benalcazar, an Ecuadorian in 
BVS in McAllen, Texas: Stanley Bitting- 
er, sociology professor at Texas A and I 
University: Carmen Torrez Boaz, San 
Diego, Calif., working with OEO and a 
counselor with a crisis clinic: Jesse 
Castellano, elementary teacher from 
Pomona, Calif.: Donald L. Fike, pastor 
and General Board member, and Jose J. 
Francisco, moderator, from Castafier, 
P.R.; Maria Garza Huber, Goshen, Ind.; 
Ralph E. Smeltzer, Brotherhood social 
justice consultant, and Messrs. Guzman, 
Cuevas, and Forbes. 

Also participating was Presbyterian 



David Hernandez, working in the mi- 
grant ministry in Ohio. 

The group believes that there are more 
Hispanic Americans in the Church of 
the Brethren than is generally known. 
The church has carried out a Latin 
ministry, though small in total program, 
at Castaner, P.R., and Falfurrias, Texas. 
The church participates in related social 
justice concerns in Ohio, south Texas, 
and California, and supports program 
through the Parish Ministries and World 
Ministries commissions, and Fund for the 
Americans in the US. 

The new Hispanic American group in 
the church's life will attempt to make 
members aware of the culture and values 
of the Spanish-speaking, to raise a 
concientiacion within the denomination. 
In so doing they hope to lessen the prej- 
udice of some for the Hispanic Amer- 
icans in the nation and help the church 
advance Hispanic American self- 
determination both within and outside 
the church. 

Some 25 Brethren workers are known 




Third from left, Ted Click stands with co-defendants on trial in Harrisbiirg 



the powers that be have chosen the 
wrong enemy and the wrong battlefield." 
1 More than 300 Brethren pastors, lay- 
I men, and youth have signed a statement 
I of concern for Ted Glick and the seven 
other defendants. 

"We commend Ted for his spirit of 
j humility, goodwill, and loving concern 

for the dignity of humanity in his 
' struggle to remain obedient," the state- 
j ment said. 

The signers, mostly from Pennsylvania 
churches, noted that they do not all agree 
with all the methods the defendants 
have chosen for their witness nor do 



they pass judgment on the charges being 
made. 

Voicing their opposition to the con- 
tinuing war, the signers said: "... we 
express our concern for the efforts of the 
government to quiet voices of dissent 
through the invasion of privacy, use of 
public charges by government officials, 
and probing by grand juries. 

"We are concerned when a goverrmient 
which was fathered by voices and acts 
of dissent and sustained by the Bill of 
Rights begins to act as an absolute 
power and attempts to silence similar 
voices today." 



to be involved in Hispanic American 
ministries. About 545,000 in Brethren 
funds through Brotherhood and district 
programs go toward Hispanic American 
ministries. A better understanding and 
a closer partnership with the Hispanic 
American is clearly an emerging thrust 
for Brethren. 

Manchester youth center 
'mission to the community' 

A community youth center operated by 
the North Manchester, Ind., Church of 
the Brethren, has succeeded so well in 
the past year and a half that the youth 
ignore the church nametag and embrace 
the center as their own. 

To James E. Talcott. minister of 
education, this is great: "The center 
should be a mission to the community 
where Christian ideals can be displayed, 
though not necessarily verbally expressed, 
and where meaningful relationships can 
be developed." 

Since October 1970 the center has 
aimed at providing a balanced ministry 
that involves both church and nonchurch. 
Brethren and non-Brethren, junior and 
senior high school students. 

Since last fall two Manchester College 
students have helped enrich the program. 
Sophomore Steve Reid of Dayton, Ohio, 
was employed by the church board to 
work with the junior highs. 

Steve appears well accepted as a friend 
who offers leadership, guidance, and 
seemingly appreciated authority. Junior 
highs are noisy and enthusiastic to the 
point of rowdiness. Reid admits, but he 
finds that the age group allows more 
spontaneous activity than others. 

Relating to the senior high youth is 
David Miller, an Arlington, Va., senior, 
who likes the coffeehouse concept. He 
calls it "a vehicle through which young 
people are able to express themselves in 
various ways from arts and crafts to 
formal programs to discussion. It is one 
way we can emphasize self-expression 
and the use of imagination." 

Dave tries to listen and respond as 
needed, as he raps with youth at the 
swimming pool at noon hours, the bowl- 
ing alley, and the school cafeteria. 

The church has benefited too, enabling 
it to broaden its outreach and social 
perspective in the ecumenical endeavor. 

4-1-72 MESSENGER S 



Church agencies gear up 
for reh'ef to Bangladesh 

The World Council of Churches, in co- 
operation with other interchurch 
agencies, has outlined an extensive pro- 
gram of relief and rehabilitation for 
Bangladesh. 

A first phase is expected to last a 
year and cost S5 million. Priorities are 
given to the supply of protein and other 
foodstuffs, blankets, and clothing, as- 
sistance with transportation, provision of 
medical supplies, and aid in "elementary" 
rebuilding of destroyed homes. 

An agency called the Bangladesh Ecu- 
menical Relief and Rehabilitation Service 
(BERRS) was approved at a Geneva 
meeting attended by representatives of 
several European and North American 
Protestant relief units, as well as the 
WCC staff, the Lutheran World Feder- 
ation, and the East Asia Christian 
Conference. 

Days earlier, the Lutheran World Fed- 
eration said that plans were nearly com- 
pleted for a "Bangladesh Rehabilitation 
Service" which will stress work in 
resettling refugees in the Rangpur and 
Dinajpur areas. The initial goal is for $2 
million from member churches. 

Harris Amit, a 43-year-old Ceylonese 
expert in rural development, was invited 
to direct BERRS, which will employ staff 
recruited in Bangladesh, explore long- 
term rehabilitation needs, encourage 
self-help, and propose plans for church 
involvement in the development of the 
newly independent nation. 

The WCC-related program will work 
closely with the Bangladesh government 
and with Roman Catholic and other 
voluntary' organizations in what was 
formerly East Pakistan. 

Resettling the millions of refugees who 
fled to India during months of civil strife 
is a major task in Bangladesh. In ad- 
dition to refugee problems, thousands 
inside the nation are, reportedly, home- 
less as a result of the war between India 
and Pakistan. 

The German agency Das Diakonischc 
Werk is coordinating the supply of 
material aid for the ecumenical program. 

Elsewhere involving the country, the 
North American Council of the World 
Alliance of Reformed Churches has 
asked for US recognition of Bangladesh. 



It is believed to be the first request 
of its kind from an American church 
organization. In the message to President 
Nixon, the Council noted its displeasure 
with the Administration's handling of 
US policy on the Pakistan-India war. 

Furthermore, two members of the 
American Baptist Foreign Mission Soci- 
ety and an independent American ob- 
server protested from their posts in India 
the policies of the US government on 
India. 

One of them observed that it may take 
years for American missionaries to re- 
store the goodwill that had been built up 
over more than a century of service to 
the people of India. 

One Bangladesh official has said that 
the new nation — the world's 139th 
independent nation — intends to be a 
secular country, though it has the second 
largest Muslim population in the world. 
He said the nation will pursue "democ- 
racy, socialism, and equal opportunity for 
all, irrespective of religion or caste." 

Protestant, Catholic churches 
intercede in Ireland conflict 

Protestant and Roman Catholic churches 
in Northern Ireland, and groups outside 
the country as well, have played a greater 
role than is generally conceded in 
preventing total civil war. 

Andrew Weir, general secretary of the 
Presbyterian Church in Ireland, reported 
that Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian 
and Methodist leaders have maintained 
regular contacts during the months of 
turmoil and periodically issued joint 
appeals for peace, including rejection of 
violence and concern for justice. 

At the official level the Irish Council 
of Churches and the Irish Catholic 
hierarchy have named a joint group on 
reconciliation. 

A joint organization composed of 
top-ranking personnel from the World 
Council of churches and the Vatican is 
making a strong effort to bring Catholic 
and Protestant leaders together in 
Ireland for peace talks. 

Informal, behind the scenes peace 
negotiation promotion has been carried 
out by the Committee on Society, Devel- 
opment and Peace, a joint venture of the 
WCC and the Pontifical Commission for 
Justice and Peace in Geneva. 



Interreligious committees in the US 
have been proposed to develop greater 
communication and correspondence with 
clergy and laymen in Northern Ireland. 

"Seminaries, congregations, and uni- 
versity religious groups can and should 
exert what influence they can for a 
reconciliation among the stricken reli- 
gious groups of the unhappy communities 
of Northern Ireland," said Dr. Dennis 
Clark, of Chestnut Hill College, a Roman 
Catholic institution in Philadelphia. 

In Ireland, Presbyterian Mr. Weir said, 
"the main contribution of the church, 
however, has been in the continuing 
witness of so many clergy and laity in 
their own parishes." 

Leaders of youth ministries, he notes, 
have been particularly active in building 
respect between Protestant and Catholic 
communities, a work also carried out 
by university chaplains. Camping 
programs have been set up for teen-agers 
from troubled Protestant and Catholic 
areas. 

"It is not always easy seeing where 
church action ends and joint community 
action begins," Mr. Weir concludes. 

While the war's origins are more than 
religious, much of it begins there, and — 
possibly and prayerfully — may be an 
opening for concluding the conflict. 




6 MESSENGER 4-1-72 



Creative worship brings 
religion to the marketplace 

Mary Ann Hylton of Frederick, Md., 
filed this report of a recent experience: 
I edged through the crowded mall of 
afternoon shoppers to the sound of a 
familiar gospel song, accompanied by 
spirited singing and clapping. Ahead I 
spotted a happy-faced clown with a sad- 
faced friend, passing out buttons and 
balloons to everyone around. I had 
found the Worship Fair. 

Bringing the message of the church to 
the marketplace were 13 denominations 
of the Columbia, Md., Cooperative 
Ministry, among them the Church of the 
Brethren-United Church of Christ 
sponsored Oakland Mills Uniting 
Church. 

Displays and demonstrations empha- 
sized what can be done to involve church 
members in creative worship experiences. 
Handcrafted crosses and communion 
sets, handmade vestments and colorful 
banners were displayed. One music-lov- 
ing family demonstrated the making of 
simple tonal instruments. Elsewhere were 
banner-making and a potter working at 
his wheel. 

Members of one church group circu- 
lated among the people, giving away 
copies of the New Testament to those 
who would take them. 

The most grateful recipients of the 
books seemed to be a group of inner-city 
children, "adopted" for the weekend 
from their school in downtown Baltimore 
by the Oakland Mills Uniting Church. 
Jean Rodes, the pastor's wife, is a music 
teacher in the all-black school. 

Instrumental and vocal groups offered 
a variety of religious music from gospel 
singing around the piano, to guitar-led 
folk songs and anthem-singing, black- 
robed choir members. 

The Worship Fair brought home the 
feeling that a religious gathering can be 
a happy celebration, a creative, colorful 
blending of natural talents and spon- 
taneous feelings. It affirmed that religion 
in the marketplace is acceptable and 
enjoyable, as evidenced by the happy, 
foot-tapping shoppers who jammed the 
mall. 

For one day, Christ was a clown, say- 
ing "I Care" in a new way to a market- 
place of shoppers and sales clerks. 



[La[ri]d]a[rDDDi](i 



BACK TO THE BIBLE 



Church school students who lamented 



the loss of the printed scripture in A Guide for Biblical 
Studies can anticipate the return of print texts of Bible 
passages for each lesson in the June — August 1972 issue. 
The practice of including the Bible passages will continue 
indefinitely. A slight increase in subscription rates 
will become effective in September 1972. The return to a 
former practice is in response to subscribers' requests. 
In a related development, during preparation of the 
article in this issue that marks the 100th anniversary of 
the Uniform Series (page 20) workers in the historical 
library of the denomination indicated the archives contain 
no quarterlies older than 1890 . Persons willing to relin- 
quich older copies may write to the historical library, 
1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, 111. 60120. 



YOU'LL WANT TO KNOW THIS 



The Association for the 



Arts in the Church of the Brethren invites persons to sub- 
mit entries for its art exhibit at Annual Conference. The 
Conference keynote, "Flamed by the Spirit," provides the 
theme for the exhibit as well. Entry blanks may be ob- 
tained from MaryAnn Hylton, 201 Fairview Ave., Frederick, 
Md. 21701. But hurry I Intention to enter must be filed 
by April 15, 1972. 

Southern Pennsylvania district executive J. Stanley 
Earhart has issued a call for a couple to live and work 
at a_ small church camp in the mountains of south central 
Pennsylvania. In addition to salary, housing and utilities 
will be provided. More details may be obtained from Mr. 
Earhart, Church of the Brethren District Office, Box D, 
New Oxford, Pa. 17350. 



AFTER FIFTY YEARS 



Our congratulations go to 



couples who are celebrating fifty years of marriage: the 
Kenneth Kroms , Cando, N.D. ; the Alvin Cartwrights , Cando , 
N.D.; the Joseph Kauffmans , Freeport, Mich.; and the 
Ernest Rowes , North Lima, Ohio. 

Other couples observing wedding anniversaries include 
Mr . and Mrs . William Pilling , Everett, Pa., 51; Mr_. and Mrs . 
Medford Neher , Pompano, Fla. , 52; the Galen Whi tmers , Mount 
Sidney, Ohio, 53; the Loren Gages , Pomona, Calif., 54; the 
Earl Jarboes , Norcatur, Kans., 54; the William Youngs , Po- 
mona, Calif., 55; Mr. and Mrs . Don Davies , Panora , Iowa, 
57; and the Jra Smi ths , Pomona, Calif., 58. One couple, 
the Thomas I. Bowmans , Port Republic, Va. , marked their 
67th anniversary recently. 



CONGREGATIONAL COLLAGE 



In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last 



month, the First Baptist Church and 1:he Church of the Breth- 
ren merged after three years of cooperative programs. The 
terms of the affiliation include each congregation's keep- 
ing its autonomy and its denominational identity. 

The Oakland, Calif. , congregation of Brethren has 
opened its facilities to a Spanish-speaking church. El 
Calvaria Iglesia meets there Sunday evenings. ... Califor- 
nia's Bella Vista church has opened a child care center in 
its Spanish-speaking neighborhood in East Los Angeles. 

4-1-72 MESSENGER 7 



ps©Da]D \r(B\pm)\r'^ 



New songs for new times 



by RONALD E. KEENER 



larin> Crosby and William H. Doane 
have had their day. At least one church 
musician suggests this tongue-in-cheek in 
his concern that as Crosby and Doane 
wrote hymns for the moods of their day, 
so we need new songs for new times by 
contemporary composers. 

Dr. Paul E. Elbin writes in The Hymn 
of the Hymn Society of America; "I 
propose that the raptured souls of Fanny 
Crosby, William H. Doane, and their 
nineteenth century associates be per- 
mitted to 'find rest beyond the river" and 
that we discover authentic music of 
aspiration for our generation." 

Drastic change has beset religious in- 
stitutions, yet one would not know it 
from our church music. While we sing 
■■ Tis the Blessed Hour of Prayer" and 
"Rescue the Perishing" of Crosby-Doane, 
we face an age more representative in 
"We Shall Overcome" and They Will 
Know We Are Christians by Our Love." 

Before his death last year, Paul 
Halladay. a well-known church musician 
and teacher at Manchester College, wrote 
of the three Brethren hymnals of this 
century, the 1901, 1925, 1951 editions, 
"One is pleased to note a decrease in the 
number of stanzas given to safe arrival 
in heaven, desirable as that may be, and 
an increase in hymns dealing with our 
responsible living on earth." 

Still today's hymnal offers little of the 
contemporary feeling that is engendered 
with "Go Tell It on the Mountain," "He's 
Got the Whole World in His Hands," 
and "Lord of the Dance." 

The study committee on music ap- 
pointed by last year's Annual Confer- 
ence, in its initial meeting, encouraged 
the use of the present Brethren Hymnal 
and the new, often untried hymns in it. 
It is thinking of offering the hymnal in 
the future in an expandable binding that 
would permit the inclusion of yearly 
supplements of more contemporary 
songs. 

That churchmen are taking a new look 



at the songs they sing is apparent. Last 
year the Anglican Church of Canada and 
the United Church of Canada released a 
new joint hymn book. 

One commentary on the new book 
noted that ""Victorian piety, crinoline, 
sentiment, sweetness, the glories of war, 
flying angels, death beds, vales of tears, 
and leaning on the breast of Jesus are 
out, out, out. Realism, social purpose, 
community and sound theology are in." 

So it is that many hymns conjure up 
visions that arc clearly impossible, 
destructive, and unreal in today's world. 

Most of us were brought up on the 
deceptively simple tune of "Jesus Loves 
Me." without ever fully understanding 
the morbid emphasis it places on death 
and dying ("If I love him, when I die, 
he will take me home on high") for a 
small child. 

Not only does it speak of a theology 
and imagery that children don't under- 
stand and suggest a sense of sin that is 
unknown to a five-year-old, it is gram- 
matically inadequate. A new version has 
been written. 

In his article Paul Elbin lists some of 
the things wrong with too many of 
today's hymns, and suggests how one can 
evaluate the hymns we sing. Today's 
hymns contain: 

Avoidance of God's call to "dirty" 
duty — in poverty areas, ghettos, slums, 
nursing homes, faraway places. 

Concentration on the "1" — not the 
"We" or "Us." Salvation may begin with 
"sinners such as I," but it quickly moves 
into the arena of our common humanity. 

Undue emphasis on the end of life. 
Is this a subtle invitation to commit 
suicide: "Soon the delightful day will 
come, when my dear Lord will bring me 
home"? 

Royal terms for God more appropriate 
for the age of kings than for this 
democratic era. Jesus did not choose 
"King" as his favorite term for God. 

Misplaced emphasis on the trinity not 
in keeping either with the New Testament 
or with modern religious thought. 

Acceptance of angel in a manner con- 
fusing to modern people. 



Offensive imagery. Is this gruesome 
image necessary: "There is a fountain 
filled with blood, drawn from Emanuel's 
veins"? 

Cheap musical idiom and doggerel 
verse. 

Everything that is old is not wrong, 
of course, nor is everything that is new or 
contemporary right. While one cannot — 
or should not — deny the validity of 
the folk idiom as one form of contempo- 
rary religious expression, not everything 
that is done with guitar and drums should 
make the religious scene. 

"Much that is today called folk music 
is misnamed," Paul Halladay has said. 
"There are those who, wishing to cash 
in on the good name of the genuine 
article contribute verses and tunes of an 
earthy character, perform them in an 
unskilled and everyday manner and then 
call it folk music. This is inaccurate and 
is unjustifiable for use in public worship. 
I hold that folk music deserves to live 
only when it retains its unstudied, artless 
character and is performed with artful 
skill." 

Jazz, the dance, new instruments 
require careful introduction to the 
Brethren worshiper, Sylvia Weaver, 
senior choir director of the York Center 
Church of the Brethren, Lombard, 111., 
says. 

"Perhaps the main challenge is tasteful 
incorporation of the new forms so that 
ihcy may be meaningful aids to the actual 
worship," she concludes. 

Today's fast moving world calls for 
new forms of worship and celebration. 
The church needs to keep pace, if only 
to prevent the lament of such a church 
member who wrote the following: 

In unison we rise and stand and wish 
that we were sitting; 

And listen to the music start and wish 
that it were quitting. 

We pass our hymnal to a guest or fake 
a smoker's cough; 

We drop our pencils, lose our gloves, 
take our gla.^ses off. 

We move our lips to keep in style 
emitting awkward bleats; 

And when the last Amen is sung sink 
gladly in our seats. 

Oh, Lord who hearest every prayer 
and savest us from foes, 

Deliver now thy little flock from all 
these hymns nobody knows. □ 



8 MESSENGER 4-1-72 



Jesus Loves You." 

"Jesus Is Coming Soon." 

"Do You Know Jesus?" 

Many church youth have become 
weary with dull, boring worship services. 
At the same time many youth outside 
the church have given up on the false 
Utopian promises of drugs and free love. 
Young people were ready for the Jesus 
Movement which has burgeoned in the 
last two years. 

Not long ago youth inside and outside 
the church were caught in confusion and 
turmoil, fear and guilt, anger and vio- 
lence, hopelessness and despair. Today 
the same youth have found something to 
hang onto, something to stabilize their 
lives and give them direction. Many of 
them now have answers; some of them 
have "the only answers," so certain are 
they about their beliefs. 

Young people, inside and outside the 
church, may have become the evangelists 
of the early 70s. Of course, they enjoyed 
enormous influence in recent years upon 
all of society. Their language, their 
music, their clothing styles, and even 
their psychedelic way of living have 
created patterns for much of the adult 
world. For television commercials to 
pick up on the hard rock sounds of the 
youth culture is understandable. But 
for parents to follow their long-haired 
sons and daughters to their Jesus festivals 
and find themselves committing their 
lives to Christ as Savior and Lord is 
indeed startling. 

Within the Church of the Brethren, 



from Lititz, Pennsylvania, to Lindsay, 
California, youth are singing their 
praises to Jesus, and clapping their hands 
in joyful religious ecstacy in a way that 
hasn't been seen in our church before. 
When the youth of Northern Indiana get 
together to sing and witness, you get the 
feeling that "the ole ark's a-movering." 
The spirit is moving. There's life, vital- 
ity, and excitement. Perhaps there's also 
danger, something to be cautious about, 
something to fear! Some people think so. 

Returning from the Jesus rallies, and 
inspired by their new religious experi- 
ences, the youth seem to say, "We've 
been to the mountain top. We have made 
our commitment. We will follow our 
spiritual quest, with or without the 
church." 



Ma 



any parents and pastors are a little 
bewildered by what is happening. The 
impatient youth have diflRculty under- 
standing or accepting the reluctant atti- 
tudes of the adults. The young, happy, 
expressive Christians at National Youth 
Conference, for instance, were almost 
afraid to return to their home churches. 
"They won't understand. They'll turn us 
off or put us down. How can we let the 
adults know this is for real with us?" 

Not all the youth within the Church of 
the Brethren are caught up in the Jesus 
movement. Many disagree with the the- 
ology and with the movement's style of 
worshiping and witnessing. But where 
church youth groups are most alive and 
exciting, usually there is strong evidence 
of the Jesus movement's fundamentalism. 



For many adults, parents and pastors 
alike, the thought seems to be, "Oh, 
no, not this again. Isn't this the same old 
simplistic fundamentalism which we 
struggled with across the last 30 years? 
Must we go through all this again?" 

Yes, for the most part, it is approxi- 
mately the same brand of fundamental- 
ism. The emphasis on the "fundamental 
truths," the view of the Bible as "a di- 
vinely inspired, inerrant, every-word-is- 
God's-message-to-me guidebook for all 
matters of faith and life" are familiar to 
most Christian adults. 

This kind of fundamentalism is very 
attractive. It provides concise, in-focus 
answers for their perplexing questions. 
Its easy-to-grasp handles are appealing to 
people who for a long time have been 
groping and hoping for something secure 
and solid. The four spiritual laws give 
the step-by-step instructions that anyone 
can follow. 

Dealing with the theology of this new 
brand of the old fundamentalism is a 
task which the churches will have to face. 
And it's a little difficult to criticize the 
Jesus movement in light of its glaring 
accomplishments. 

" 'At least they're not on drugs' — so 
says a nun in Milwaukee who criticizes 
their simplistic theology but respects their 
strict morality. 'At least they're not on 
drugs,' echoes a Jewish psychiatrist in 
Philadelphia who considers them an 
infantile escape from the problems of the 
real world but prefers them to the acid 
heads he has committed to the state 
hospital. 'At least they're not on drugs,' 
repeats a suburban Chicago mother 



Evangelism and Youth: 

The Gospel BUtz' 



by Matthew M. Meyer 



4-1-72 MESSENGER 9 



deeply disappointed by her eighteen-year- 
old daughters fanatic devotion to soul- 
winning activities but relieved that she is 
no longer experimenting with drugs and 
sex" {Jesus Trip, by Lowell D. Streiker, 
Abingdon 1971). 

Some of the crunch in the church 
occurs when these effervescent Christians 
bring "the gospel blitz" back to their 
local sanctuaries and expect the pastor to 
provide for the same kind of emotional 
experiences they have had at the Jesus 
rallies. When these youth encounter a 
cool reception from the more sedate 
contingents of their congregations, they 
are likely to become impatient, discour- 
aged, and, perhaps, tempted to leave the 
church. 

Outside the church it appears that the 
Jesus movement has crested. Some say 
it is on a rapid decline. Jon Buckle, 
managing editor of the Hollywood Free 
Paper, a Jesus-people paper claiming a 
one-million circulation, recognizes a 
healthy change. He says that the 
Madison Avenue aspect of the movement 
has faded — the glitter and gloss, the 
buttons and stickers, the excessive media 
coverage. He welcomes this because it 
provides a better setting for working with 
seriously committed followers of Christ. 

And there are many disillusioned 
youth who are Jesus-movement dropouts. 
Ross Greek, a veteran minister of the 
Sunset Strip who never was verv- 
impressed with the Jesus movement in 
the first place, says that many youth drop 
out within six months, revert to their old 
patterns and styles of living, and then 
are in deeper depression, despair, and 
guilt than before. The bright and shining 
promises of the Jesus group fade when 
individuals find themselves too human to 
live up to the purist standards of 
perfection. 

The word overdose is often shortened 
to OD. Someone, recalling his earlier 
dietary and religious experiences, ex- 
claimed, "I ODed on peanut butter at the 
age of ten and fundamentalism at the 
age of twelve and I haven't been able to 
stand the taste of either one since." 

Is it possible for people to overdose on 
Jesus, to overdose on the gospel, to 
overdose on the Bible? An overdose 
usually means life has been endangered, 
perhaps destroyed. Yes, an overdose is 
possible, even on something as good and 



right as the Bible and Jesus. If loyalty 
becomes fanaticism to the point of 
obscuring the vision, or distorting reason 
and common sense, or causing wholesale 
condemnation of all who differ from 
us — then it becomes self-destructive. 
These are the symptoms of a gospel 
overdose. 

When someone cannot speak one 
sentence without swearing, it seems they 
have OD'ed on profanity. When some- 
one cannot speak one sentence without 
bringing Jesus into it, it seems they have 
OD'ed on Jesus. 

The first time you hear the switch- 
board operator at the Hollywood Free 
Paper answer the phone with "Jesus 
Loves You," instead of "Hello" or "Good 
Morning," it's intriguing. The tenth time 
is boring, and the twentieth time it 
seems almost profane. Glibly tossing 
around sacred words, either as a tool for 
pressure or as a badge of righteous 
achievement, seems improper, if not an 
act of desecration. 

It is possible to expound the gospel in 
such a way that the whole thing becomes 
nauseous to the listeners. Sometimes this 
means the speaker has been too pushy 
and insistent in his attempt to get his 
hearers to do his bidding, like the person 
who told the crowd at a Jesus People 
rally, "Get saved or you're going to hell." 
Sometimes being OD'ed means dismissing 
all of the world's problems as being 
beyond our concern ("Jesus is coming 
soon — leave it to Jesus"). 



Ihc youth are a huge, available task 
force eager and ready to serve the Chris- 
tian cause. Most young people are 
hungry for spiritual food. They are 
longing for the Christian message. They 
are open to Bible teaching and inter- 
pretation. They are willing to make 
heavy life commitments. And they are 
especially capable in sharing their faith 
with others, free from the faith-sharing 
hangups of their ciders. 

Can the church adequately respond to 
this tremendous opportunity? Can the 
church use this mighty army camping on 
its doorstep? The answer can be "yes"! 
The following suggestions are made with 
that goal in mind. 

1. Communicate with the "Jesus 
People," both mside and outside the 



church. The Jesus people need the 
church, and the church needs the "Jesus 
People." Include in the corporate wor- 
ship experiences faith-sharing oppor- 
tunities from the various elements within 
the church. Publicly thank God for 
the variety. 

2. Teach, preach, and interpret. 
Youth are eager for Bible study sessions. 
Present the gospel boldly with a fervent 
spirit and a mature interpretation. 

3. Confront, challenge, and invite! 
The youth are willing to respond to a 
challenge for commitment, especially if 
they sense the person presenting the 
challenge really believes what he's saying. 
Bland acceptance is not enough. Conver- 
sion and commitment seldom occur with- 
out a confrontation and challenge. 

4. Adults: Make room for youth. 
The youth have a lot to give and they are 
eager to give it! Request their help on 
worship planning groups and on church 
program committees. Work with them, 
developing mutual respect and growing 
together in Christ. 

5. Youth: Give adults a chance (again 
and again}. Be patient, but keep the 
pressure on. Don't let closed doors re- 
main closed. Your gift is urgently 
needed by the church, even if sometimes 
the church doesn't seem to realize it. Try 
to understand and respect the feelings 
and viewpoints of adults. For them 
change is often frightening. Quick 
change can be unbearable. But change in 
a setting of trust is acceptable and often 
cherished. Many adults are bored too. 
They usually want change almost as 
much as you do. 

Respect the power that you have. You 
have enormous power. Use it but don't 
abuse it. I don't know any pastor or 
church moderator who wouldn't be 
impressed and influenced by a delegation 
of youth who come to set up an ap- 
pointment to share concerns and make 
suggestions regarding the program and 
policies of the church. 

The Church of the Brethren is richly 
blessed with thousands of talented, 
spirited youth. The awesome power need 
not be feared or fought, but rather 
affirmed, consecrated, and used to the 
glory of God and the blessing of the 
Church of the Brethren. The 70s are 
bound to be exciting years for the church 
— and that's putting it mildly. □ 



y 



10 MESSENGER 4-1-72 




The Ninth Hour J 

Luke 23:44-49 

It is a time to be afraid. 

See how the sky drops its face, 
how clouds knit their brows. 
The hills hide any sign of kindness 
and the clustering darkness frowns 
even though it is only midafternoon. 




A 



\V 



.\. 



O black, silent sky, 

what omens do you carry? 

When will the thunder break 

and release the tension 

of apprehension and anxiety? 



And where has the sun gone? 

Is the hero of the sky hiding somewhere, 

afraid to stride again boldly 

across the burning heavens 

from his rising to his setting? ^ 

It is a time to be afraid. 

Heaven lowers its burden on the earth 
while menacing shadows search out 
all the city's streets 
announcing the presence of fear. 



Listen ,. ^ 
^ to.the 

Sunrise 



Earth Tremors 
Matthew 27:51-53 

It is a time to be anxious. 



Even the earth trembles. 

Its surface shivers and shakes. 

The waters shimmer. 

The forest slips, 

rocks split apart, 

streets divide, 

crevices crack in a country road, 

buildings totter, 

curtains tear, 

children whimper, 

and mothers cry in terror. 

Surely God himself is shaken. 

Has he now forsaken us? 

The world seems unbalanced. 

There is a darkness at noon 

and a strange brightness at midnight. 

Someone nearby whispers, 

"What if God is dying, or already dead?" 

The thought unnerves me 

even more than the fear of the dark 

or the unsettling shaking of the earth. 

I listen to a new lament 
like the sighing and singing 
of the daughters of Jerusalem 
who even now, this dark day, 
weep for themselves 
and for their children: 



1 





Lament of a Contemporary 
Luke 23:26-30 

You know how it is now . . . 

Tlie judge on tiie bencli lias been indicted. 

The maimers of laws bend them to their own advantage. 

The guardians of the peace collaborate 

with those who threaten. 
There is murder in broad daylight 

and no witnesses will testify. 
A woman is attacked but no one heeds her cry. 
The innocent pay while the transgressor goes free. 
The young are restless, impatient with a world 

they did not choose. 
Public words speak of peace, 

but secret papers rattle with schemes of violence. 
The casualties of warmaking are no longer only 

on the field of battle. 
The blood-letting has come home to us 

and we are neighbors to our victims. 
The enemy looks at us from a mirror, 

but we continue to bomb the fields of our friends. 
Nor has the earth escaped the pollution of our spirit. 
We have alienated a generation of the living. 

And we prescribe a barren world 

for generations yet unborn. 

You know how it is now . . . 

Once we followed leaders 

but now we must choose among images. 
Once we could speak face to face 

but now we respond to lines on a screen. 
Once we gathered to hear the songs of our tradition, 

but now we are lonely listeners 

missing each other's voices in the dark. 
Once we knew the warm ties of family, 

but now we are bitter and hungry for love. 
Once we marveled at the miracle of creation, 

but now we have lost the picture of a God who lives 

and moves in a world he made. 

There were darknesses before, 
but now the sun is so overcast 
it is difficult any longer to see 
the silhouette of three black crosses 
on a hill — and the hill is so far away. 



t ♦ 






,W'tift^4 



There Is No Out ^^B, 
Ecclesiastes 1:3-9 |H 

So, 1 run here and away fl 
among strangers and friends mm 
hoping they will reassure me. 9 
1 look for someone to say, " 

"Do not fear, do not fly, 

the sun also rises, darkness must go, 

after one day, a second day, a third day 

God will return, and love will reign ..." 

But so many say, "No, 

this midnight is forever. 

The only light is at the end of the establishment. 

The only order is anarchy. 

The only meaning is the reality of misery." ^^^ 
They quench their fears with anger. ^^H 
They answer anxiety with resentment. ^^^B 
They have only a hell and no hope of heaven, ^H 
and they wearily advocate T^t 
ingenious ways ^H 
of dropping out, ^^H 
copping out, ^M 
opting out. ^M 
But there is no out. ^| 


• •* * * • ^ 
^* * * * • 

• • * • • ^ 
_^* * • * • 

• • • * * ^ 
^* • • * • 

• * • • • ^ 
* • • * • 

• • • * • Ik 






4^i^A 


^■iipi 



If God Is Dead 
Luke 23:50-56 



If God is dead, 

overcome by the evil 

he might have prevented but did not — 

If God is dead, 

rejected by the persons he loved, 

tried and sentenced in the name of religion, 

crucified because he is a threat to security, 

tormented because the world refuses his kingdom ■ 



If God is dead — 

then the deepening darkness is explainable 

and the coldness of the silent earth 

is appropriate. 

If God is dead, 

let us at least bury him in a lovely garden 

and seal his tomb for the duration; 

for it will be a long hard winter, 

and the Sabbath will come and go without any sound 

if God is dead. 



If. 






f/.f 



N/ 



X0.^ 



■.':^<A 




<*&j 



■ <f* 



V^A 




Interruptions in the Silence 
John 19:38-42 



Listen to tlie Sunrise 
Matthew 28:1-6 

Listen to the sunrise. 

Surely you must hear clouds moving 

when canyons split and open to the sun. 

Listen to the sunrise. 

Be sensitive to stones 

shaken by the daybreal<. 

One rumble of the dawn 

can root a rock and start it rolling, 

picking up pieces of thunder on its way. 



y^ . 



I 



/ 



f~ J 



i 



No night is ever total. 

Somewhere a candle flames, 

flickers, sputters, steadies, 

beaming ever-widening waves of timid light 

into surprising circumferences. 



Or here and there 

a restless sleeper pulls back 

curtains draping blackness 

and looks tentatively into the ebony 

dome of night, inquiring about stars. 



The distant suns, away by years, are there. 

Like the pricking of pin points, 

one by one they communicate light 

while drawing blood. 

So intimations of life break 

into the most solemn wake 

for the dead. 

If you listen, you know. 

Thin reedy sounds, like distant flutes, 

interrupt the heaviest silence. 

And who can number the seeds 
that sleep beneath the snow? 



■iiiliiJft_^! 




Listen to the sunrise. 
Listen to the sharp, bright morning. 
Listen to the first and glorious day. 
Listen to the sound of a heartbeat 

announcing in the womb of winter 

that out of darkness, 

out of dying, 

out of midnight, 

out of sorrow and travail 
God is bringing light to life, 
God is bringing life to light 
Listen to the sunrise. 
Listen to the first and glorious day. 




Flower in the Rock 
Luke 24:1-5 

From out that hostile stone 

I least expected life to come. 

But there, impossibly, blooms one fragile flower. 

Against all arguments a flower flames 

where reasonably it should not be, 

barricading tombs with beauty. 

Must God waste all his miracles 

on pessimists and doubters just like me? 

I could trample and crush that flower, 

dismember it, chill it with unconcern, 

yet there it is, 

blooming as trustingly 

as if all heaven sustained it 

and verified its joy. 

Yes, there one flower blooms, 

earth-rooted, opening to the sky — 

and where am I? 



L 








Bird Flight 

Matthew 6:26-32 

Watching birds in flight 

is listening to a language 

no one yet has learned to read. 

They carve wild patterns from each sky 

with every swerve, whip, glide, or dive. 

Their winged ways curve gently 

like the flow of poetry 

and they speak of faith 

such as an earth-bound creature 

seldom knows. 

They trust in currents felt 

but never seen, 

invisibly available to wings. 

I tremble at small heights. 

So heavy is my heart 

that gravity inclines me toward the grave. 

But birds are risen, free. 

Released in space they track new orbits, 

circumscribe expanding arcs, 

and weave their wonder into skies. 

Watching them in flight 

even I can trace 

the moving of God's grace. 




Every Time a Child 

Isaiah 9:2-7; Matthew 18:13-15 

Every time a child is born, 

death yields a fraction of its power. 
Every time a baby cries, 

despair has less to say to me. 
Every time a mother speaks her lullaby, 

faith looks up from faltering. 
Every step a child takes for the first time 

opens a highway through the heart's jungle. 
Every word a child speaks for the first time 

starts a shout to waken men from slumber. 
Every hand a child waves in innocent delight 

offers an invitation to tomorrow. 
Every time a child smiles back at God. 

I take courage. 

Death may be responsible for endings. 

It has no victory. 



Walking in the Resurrection 

1 Corinthians 15:57-58; Acts 3:1-8; Luke 24:28-35 

His friends were reluctant conscripts for the 

ministry of death, but instead he said Yes to life so 
firmly he went to prison and so gently that 
the judge was moved. He still endures mild 
crucifixions, but he spreads eternity wherever 
he walks . . , 

She never saw them — those impossible pupils — after 
they matured enough to discover they loved her, 
but the values she lived became a part of their 
heritage. Unmarried, alone, in weakening health, 
she is half-forgotten by the generations 
she nursed into adulthood. 

Shy, timid, sometimes fearful, a young mother is 
the one who cared enough to write a public letter, 
to speak at town meeting, to answer 
threatening phone calls, to risk her leisure, to 
disturb someone's evil peace. God helping her, 
she can do no other. 

The outcasts call him their friend, and he hardly 
knows why he lets them find him, for they have 
shaded his reputation. But he remembers the day 
a Christ-figure touched him and turned him 
around. There is a joy in his limp that comes from 
walking in the resurrection. 

Amazing is the word for sinners like you and 
me who might still be hollow pillars uphold- 
ing nothing much but who have been touched 
by the grace of God and filled with a new wine 
of the Spirit. Come, stumble with us into his kingdom. 




^f///m\imM 



God's Moment Has Come 
2 Corinthians 5:14-19 

It is time to awaken. 

There is a fire in the sky. 

High over eastern horizons 

rises the amber flame 

that will flood the world with light. 

Awake and see the marvel of morning. 
Reach up and touch the transformation. 
There is a new radiance, an electrifying energy. 
You can hear the sunrise break into alleluias. 



God's moment has come. 

This is the first day of the week, 

the first day of a hundred new lives, 

the first day of a new order and a new age. 

The time of God's visitation 

is the time of our liberation. 

Listen to the sunrise. 

Listen to the sharp, bright morning. 

Listen to the first and glorious day. 

God is bringing light to life. 

God is bringing life to light. 

Listen to the sunrise, and rejoice! 



text by Kenneth I. Morse 

graphics by Janie & Lindsay Russell 



It is a most humbling experience to see 
one's nation as it looks through the eyes 
of women from around the world. 

We sat together in a small room — 
perhaps sixty of us representing seventeen 
countries and several religious faiths • — 
and introduced ourselves by stating some 
of the reasons he had become a part 
of a women's workshop on peace 
building. 

I can't remember names: I'll never 
forget faces and feelings. A young 
woman from Mexico told us, "I have 
been a member of the Communist party 
in Mexico but I don't agree with that. 
I'm looking for another way." 

A gray-haired Catholic sister re- 
minded us, "As each of us takes thirty or 
sixty seconds to introduce ourselves, 
several more people have died in the 
Indochina War. How much longer?" 

A most intense Filipino nearly ex- 
ploded to us, "Have you wondered what 
happens to the extra weapons no longer 
needed in Vietnam as you "wind down' 
the war? Those guns are being sent to 
the Philippines! Nobody asked us — but 
we're getting them. And we don't want 
them!" 

A native Indian woman, now teaching 
Gandhian methods in this country, re- 
minded us, "Modern weapons are blind 
weapons; there are no war heroes. 
Humans are slaves to their weapons. We 
must live together or perish. We are 
coerced into that awareness rather than 
entering it joyfully. Death, instead of 
being a part of life, has become a prob- 
lem of life. We are making death, instead 
of letting it happen." 

An Indian American, working with her 
people in Oklahoma, observed, "I don't 



see how we can tell everybody else how 
they ought to act. We haven't learned 
to behave ourselves very well right here 
at home." 

"Some Americans are almost overcome 
by guilt because of this war," commented 
a woman from Burma. "Christians must 
never lose the realization that, with 
Christ, where there is wrongdoing, there 
is also forgiveness. Where inhumane acts 
have been done, there is the possibility 
of repentance. Always there is hope, 
opportunity for change." In later dis- 
cussion she observed, "Americans have 
been no worse than other people in the 
world. The mistakes you have made, 
others have made. The frustrations 
being felt by many around the world are 
because they had such confidence in the 
leadership of .America. Read your con- 
stitution. What hope this held for 
oppressed people! But now they have 
had to realize that you are not better 
than the rest of us have been. It is a 
disappointment, a disillusionment. We 
had expected so much more from your 
nation!" 

From Lebanon, a YWCA executive 
made a very emotional plea. "America! 
STOP arming every nation of the world, 
because that forces other nations to get 
help from Russia. If you feel you must 
arm nations, then let us arm people 
against hunger, poverty, ignorance. If 
you have money and don't know how to 
spend it, many people in the world can 
help you know how to spend it." 

A Japanese editor of a women's maga- 
zine, who remembers Hiroshima, warned, 
"Killing is madness. Men who kill in 
Vietnam are still killers. It takes a long 
while to get over this mentally — some- 



times more than one generation." 

A woman from South Africa com- 
mented, "The United States is not fight- 
ing in South Africa with guns, but the 
economic policies that perpetuate an 
impossible situation." 

There was much discussion on "what 
to do": 

1. Study voting records of politicians 
and candidates and let it be known that 
we'll support only those who oppose the 
war. 

2. Learn more about industries in- 
volved in war materials contracts and 
avoid buying products from those 
companies. 

3. Basically change our life-style: 
lower our standard of living as we realize 
that the gap between "have" and "have 
not" nations is increasingly intolerable. 

After a period of such idea sharing, 
a Vietnamese student slowly faced us and 
asked questions we could not answer. 

She began, "We have friends and fam- 
ily in Vietnam. Some are in jail because 
they have spoken out against the Thieu 
government or have expressed a desire 
for peace. They are very happy about 
this meeting — are waiting for us to 
write them about it. What am I to tell 
them? That American women are 
thinking of changing their life-style? 

"What will you do about ending the 
war? How long will it be? What can I 
write to my friends who are in jail, 
or will perhaps be arrested in a few days 
if they talk about peace?" 

Many of us looked at the floor. Some 
of us cried. None of us could look at 
her. 

Then all of us stood, clasped each 
others' hands tightly, and prayed. □ 



GLOBAL AWARENESS: 

A HUMBLING 
EXPERIENCE 

by JOY DULL 



4-1-72 MESSENGER 19 



BRETHREN 

INTERMEDIATE 

Q^UARTERLT 




UNIFORM 




20 MESSENGER 4-1-72 




Oft criticized and much revamped, the 
International Lessons have a unique 
stayini; power, especially among adults. 
Current resource is shown at the left 

byGLENE.NORRIS 



SERIES: 100th YEAR 



The International Sunday School Lessons 
Committee, now called the Committee 
on the Uniform Series, will celebrate its 
hundredth anniversary in Indianapolis 
this month. The Church of the Brethren 
will be represented at the celebration. 
The Brethren have cooperated in the 
work of the committee by using the 
International Lesson outlines as the basis 
for the development of church school 
curricular materials and also have helped 
to produce the outlines through repre- 
sentation on the committee itself. 

The earliest Brethren lesson helps 
based on the Uniform Series were written 
and published in 1879 by S. Z. Sharp, 
then president of Ashland College, in a 
four-page weekly entitled Our Sunday 
School. One page was given to the 
explanation of the lesson and a second 
page adapted the lesson to primary chil- 
dren. This publication was not long 
continued. Also in 1879 S. Z. Sharp 
began the publication of the Brethren 
Quarterly. This, too, was discontinued 
after a few years. 

Beginning with the Brethren's Quarter- 
ly in 1886, a series of Brethren publica- 
tions has offered lesson expositions 
based on the International Lesson out- 
lines, uninterrupted except for the 
special 250th anniversary lessons during 
the April-May-June quarter, 1958. For 
adults, this lesson material has been 
presented since 1897 in the Brethren's 
Advanced Quarterly, the Brethren Adult 
Quarterly, and currently in A Guide for 
Biblical Studies. Some of the very early 
lesson writers were S. Z. Sharp, Leonard 
Huber, James M. Neff, and Lewis 
Teeter. E. G. Hoff holds the record for 
writing lesson materials for adults for 
the longest period of time — twenty-five 
years. The complete list of writers of 
lessons for adults is too long to be 
included here. 

Beginning in 1918, International 
Lessons for youth were provided suc- 
cessively in the Brethren Intermediate 
Quarterly, the Brethren Intermediate- 
Senior Quarterly, and the Brethren Youth 
Quarterly. In the April-May-June quar- 



ter of 1958 the International Lessons 
were replaced by the special anniversary 
studies mentioned above, and after that 
by the CBYF Bible Studies. Some of 
those who wrote the youth lessons for 
considerable periods of time were Mrs. 
Rufus Bowman, Minna Heckman, Inez 
Goughnour Long, Kenneth I. Morse, 
Vernard Eller, and Chalmer Faw. 

Adaptations of the International 
Lessons for children were published in 
the Brethren's Juvenile Quarterly from 
1891 to 1915, then in the Brethren 
Junior Quarterly and in the Brethren 
Primary Quarterly from 1916 to 1948. 
Some of the outstanding writers of 
children's lessons have been Maud 
Newcomer, Elizabeth Rosenberger 
Blough, Edith Barnes, Genevieve Christ, 
and Irene Bittinger. 

Special helps for teachers were started 
in 1889 in the Brethren's Tcaclier's 
Quarterly. This was followed in suc- 
cession by Brethren Teacher's Monthly; 
Brethren Bible Study Monthly; and 
Church of the Brethren Leader, publica- 
tion of which ended with the July- 
August issue, 1970. At present, teachers" 
helps are to be found in A Guide for 
Biblical Studies. There was a period 
from 1901 to 1906 when an annual, the 
Brethren Lesson Commentary, was 
published. 

Brethren have not always been satisfied 
with the International Lessons. In 1898, 
1907, 1908, and 1909 four queries 
relating to the use of these lessons were 
brought to Annual Conference. The 
chief objection to the use of the Interna- 
tional Lessons, as stated in the queries, 
was that they were deficient in teaching 
the doctrines of the scriptures as under- 
stood by the Brethren. Some of the 
queries requested the production of 
alternate curricular materials for optional 
use in Sunday school. 

Besides using the International Lesson 
outlines in the preparation of church 
school curricular materials, the Brethren, 
through their representatives, chietly 
editors of church school literature, have 
participated responsibly in the work of 



producing the outlines. This participa- 
tion appears to have been constant from 
the time that the lesson committees were 
first composed of members appointed by 
the cooperating denominations. Thus 
we find the name of H. K. Ober, rep- 
resenting the Church of the Brethren, 
included as a member of the committee 
planning the outlines for 1918-1925. 
From that time forward, the following 
Brethren editors (and possibly others) 
have represented the Church of the 
Brethren as members of the International 
Lesson committees: J. E. Miller, E. G. 
Hoff, Kenneth I. Morse, A. Stauffer 
Curry, Glen E. Norris, J. Roy Valen- 
court, and Kenneth Shaffer. Of these, 
E. G. Hoff served for the longest time. He 
was editor of Brethren Sunday school 
literature from 1928 to 1953. As a 
member of the Uniform Lesson Com- 
mittee, he was regarded as a specialist in 
planning the quarterly temperance les- 
sons. In 1933 the committee asked him 
to make a survey of the temperance 
lessons and present his findings to the 
committee. At the February 1934 meet- 
ing he presented a scripture analysis of 
the temperance lessons for the 1932-1936 
cycle, together with a suggested cycle of 
topics on the problem of beverage al- 
cohol. At the December 1938 meeting of 
the committee, he presented a draft 
outline of the temperance lessons for six 
years, 1942-1947. 

Brethren who served on the Committee 
on the Uniform Series found opportuni- 
ties to secure the committee's considera- 
tion of certain lines of biblical teaching, 
especially some with social implications, 
which otherwise might have been 
neglected. They have also found their 
experience as committee members per- 
sonally rewarding, as they formed friend- 
ships across denominational lines and 
learned to work side by side with equally 
sincere persons from differing theological 
perspectives. Without doubt the coopera- 
tion required in the work of the 
Uniform Lessons Committee has pro- 
moted the spirit of Christian unity among 
the participants. □ 



4-1-72 MESSENGER 21 



OinilLQSD© FO'^DO'^i^i 




GodspellH 



-^^'Qf 



Now every human being 
is cousin to the King of Kings! 

Easter — the celebration of the resurrection of Christ — marks the 
greatest turning point in history. From the dawn of time we have 
been aware of a power outside our human universe — God or the 
gods. But for millennia this was felt to be a remote and sometimes 
malevolent power to be appeased by sacrifice or moral heroism. 

Jesus, in his earthly life, spoke of a God whom he called Father 
— a God of mercy, love, and compassion. But the crucifixion 
seemed to prove that here, again, was a good and helpful person 
whose work came to a cruel and abrupt end. 

Then came the crashing event of the resurrection from the dead! 
The incognito of the gentle teacher from Nazareth was discarded. 
Jesus was revealed as the Christ — as God in human form — ruler 
over life and death. And the world has never been the same since 
that day. His frightened, scattered disciples went out across the 
world shouting the good news: "Jesus is Lord." And every human 
being is cousin to the King of Kings! 

The church, his body on earth, has often failed to live up to its 
high calling. But every Easter reminds Christians once again of this 
basic fact of our faith. May we all, on this Easter in the year of our 
Lord 1972, in the midst of the strife and tension of our time, re- 
member with joy that "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- 
cipalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor 
height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to 
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 
8:38, 39). — Cynthia C. Wedel 



Blasphemy was enough to crucify one 
man. Pretentious mockery doomed some 
as heretics. Profaning the sacred has 
been known to split contemporary 
churches. All three labels and even 
worse fates may fall on Godspell if the 
listener rejects paraphrased scripture (in 
fact, one gospel book demythed) and 
musical settings which are a far sound 
from hymns and plainsong chants. But 
Godspell is confident of casting its spell 
on the listener, successfully capturing 
his acceptance of its now idiom. 

The writer, Stephen Schwartz, ob- 
viously saw a good thing in Superstar 
(Webber and Rice) and set out to feed 
the Bible-hungry, Jesus-worshiping cul- 
ture with more bread from the scrolls, ■ 
specifically the Gospel According to St. I 
Matthew. The Gospel content is clear i 
though not clearly scriptural. Simple 
lyrics occasionally rhyming and imageryi 
that is plain and to the point focus j 

primarily on life-style themes in Matthew 
including personal devotional life and ] 
ethical teachings. It is easy to get the 
feeling after forty minutes of listening 
once through that the essential content 
of all twenty-eight chapters is adequately 
recounted in this thirteen-song vignette. ; 
Even the omission of familiar passages i 
like the beatitudes and certain parables j 
should cause no great disappointment 
since parallel teachings ring clear in new, 
words. 

Although no particular effort is made 
to follow the narrative thread running 
throughout the book, the time line of 
Jesus' coming, dying, and resurrecting is 
bridged by two short passages which 
enter at the beginning and reenter at the 
end. First is the familiar Invocation from 
John the Baptist, "Prepare Ye the Way 
of the Lord," followed by a very simple 
prayer: 

Day by Day. day by day 

O dear Lord three things I pray 

To see thee more clearly 

Love thee more dearly 

Follow thee more nearly 

Day by Day 



22 MESSENGER 4-1-72 



Khythm and imagery from Matthew's gospel 



Working hard on ethical teachings and 
repentence are "Learn Your Lessons 
Well," a witty pan on legalism delivered 
in mocking honky-tonk, and "Turn Back, 
O Man" from the hymn text (see 
Brethren Hymnal #578) sung in sug- 
gestive female tones — a subtle satire 
effect. "Bless the Lord" from Psalm 103 
is also a hymn text (|29) and will pro- 
vide the listener a ready-made point of 
comparison with traditional hymnody. 

Two of the more interesting songs are 
"Light of the World" from the Sermon 
ca the Mount, a wild exhortation to live 
right and glow bright as lights and "Alas 
f ir You" which soundly denounces 
Scribes and Pharisees. The Finale 
captures both the joy and pain of the 
Passion and transmits the twain to the 
listener and through him. Excepting the 
Finale, lyrics to all the songs are printed 
on the inner jacket. This will be par- 
ticularly useful in reflection or discussion 
on word sense. 

Assuming that Superstar, Hair, and 
Other recent hits have prepared listeners 
(o accept rock music as a legitimate 
medium for contemporary man, Godspell 
fully flaunts this assumption and maybe 
more than any of its predecessors suc- 
ceeds. True, all of the music would not 
be classified as rock and this may en- 
hance its appeal. A bit of folk and even 
some ragtime add a fuller dimension to 
the work. Through it all there is plenty 
of sound — harsh, painful, joyful, jubi- 
lant with colorful highs and lows, far 
ranging melodies, beautiful if sometimes 
mysterious harmonies — all electrified 
and amplified. But the score is only half 
the scene for it dutifully gives way to 
lyrics in almost unprecedented balance 
and in so doing allays criticism so often 
eveled at rock music — "The music is 
so loud I can't understand the words." 

Composer Schwartz, who also as- 
sisted Leonard Bernstein on the score of 

ass, has some interesting things to say 
bout rock music in the church. He feels 
|ts growing use is a natural development 

hich does not, as some accuse, sell 



out to commercialism. "Religion is a 
popular force today and rock is the popu- 
lar music of the day" so their wedding 
is natural and predictable. He feels it is 
unfortunate that music written in former 
centuries is seen as "pure" while 
modern idioms are labeled commercial 
and profane. "Mozart was just as com- 
mercial as any writer today. He wrote 
the popular music of his time and took 
the money of his patrons." Schwartz 
advises those wondering how to bring 
rock into the church "to just sit back 
and not protest. If the church accepts 
rock, it will come in." 

Despite the writer's convincing argu- 
ments about the legitimacy of rock it will 
continue to bear labels of commericalism, 
sacrilegious, and noise for laymen, 
pastors, and church musicians until it 
successfully sheds its primary associa- 
tions with overnight dollar successes, 
blaring electronic cacophony, and dron- 



ing vocalists who find themselves com- 
peting with instruments for higher and 
louder vibrations far beyond the normal 
hearing level of most ears. 

But apparently it doesn't have to be 
that way. Electric guitars can play a 
variety of sounds plaintive and joyful, 
pianissimo and forte. Selective use of 
brass, reeds, and woodwinds can be a 
source of color rather than noise, and 
drums in the hands of discriminating 
players add a range of sounds in addition 
to rhythm. But above all, let these 
sounds be joined with lyrics of substance 
which capture the sacred as well as the 
secular cravings of man. 

Godspell takes a big step in this 
direction. Let's hope the spell will be 
infectious for other song writers and 
performers and for Christian laymen in 
and out of the pew. Purchase the record 
through local record outlets. Price: 
$3.99. —Wilfred E. Nolen 




4-1-72 MESSENGER 23 




compiled by 
WILSON O. WELDON 

Breckthru is an honest and frank 
compilation that reveals the thoughts 
and longings of young people, not 
hiding behind old customs and pre- 
tenses. Included are prayers, both 
traditional and contemporary; scrip- 
ture In several translations and ver- 
sions; poetry, meditofions, pictures, 
cartoons and sketches. 
$1.50 per copy, 10 or more, $1.30 
each. 

4 OTHER NEW BOOKS 

A Plain Man Faces Trouble 

fay Wilson O. We/don 

' From a faith strength- 

A i ened by years as a 

run 1 rather, pastor and coun- 

T^"""^ selor comes help to meet 

life's problems. 



His Finest Week 

fay Jomes Roy Smifh 

Through this day-by- 
l>v« day look at Jesus' last 
week on earth, one re- 
alizes that nothing can 
separate us from God. 



Quest for Meaning 
by Thomas f . Chi/cote 

Brings new awareness 
and meaning to The 
Apostles' Creed and 
heightened joy in reli- 
ance on the goodness of 
God. 





v« .Vf»-.»j 



:^i 



Soul among the Prophets 

by fric Routley 

The Old Testament 
speaks to modern man 
through the lives of 
Abraham, Jacob, Joseph 
and Saul. 



Above four books $1.25 per copy, 
ten or more, $1.00 each. Order from 

The Upper Room 

'908 Grond Avenue, Nashville, Tenn. 37203 
24 MESSENGER 4- 1-72 




LETTERS / from page 1 

an attempt to put forth a youthful, modern 
image? 

The late 1960s saw the beginning of dis- 
illusionment, a fracturing of the youth 
cultus, a stubborn war that would not bow 
to an easy six months' solution, a beginning 
realization that history could be ignored 
only at the price of assassination and riot. 

On stage with our denomination, the late 
1960s saw an organizational restructuring at 
the Brotherhood level which was an attempt 
to move from a more patriarchal, paternal- 
istic hierarchy toward a flexible staff, re- 
sponsive to the local congregation. These 
\ears witnessed a theological conference of 
the Brethren which included a wide diversity 
of theological and ecclesiastical viewpoints; 
the increased visibility and positive action 
of the Brethren Revival Fellowship and the 
Brethren Action Movement: a move away 
from the spectacular relief programs toward 
the more long-range service programs such 
as Fund for the Americas. Flat Creek Mis- 
sion, and Lafiya (Nigeria Medical Pro- 
gram). All of these stress the need for 
indigenous leadership. 

Now in the '70s we are witnessing a re- 
vival of concern for evangelism among the 
Church of the Brethren, with much time 
and effort being focused on this key issue. 

This hardly seems to be the picture of a 
church which has lost out. That's why I'm 
confused about the conclusion of your 
analysis. 

Second, another source of confusion is 
your reference to a dead end: "I've dragged 
my feet as we headed toward this dead end. 
I pray God that we will arrest ourselves be- 
fore going further into this 'no exit:' " I 
can accept that this may be where you see 
yourself personally or perhaps your own 
congregation, but I hardly think it is a pic- 
ture of the total church. I am still among 
the "younger pastors" of the Church of the 
Brethren, and my commitment to the pas- 
toral ministry has grown stronger during the 
seven years that I have been a pastor. Dur- 
ing that period of time some of my college 
and seminary classmates have left the full- 
time pastoral ministry to go into other areas 
of work, many times social and political 
arenas (and have continued a conscious 
Christian ministry there). 

But I and other pastors my age have con- 
tinued with the local congregation because 
we have a vision of a church gaining in- 
creased clarity on the task of glorifying 
God and humanizing persons. We are aware 
of the weaknesses and failures of institu- 
tions, the church included. But we have 
also been closely enough related to other 
institutions to see that the church generally 
stands head and shoulders above those other 



social and political institutions which have 
the service of mankind as their stated goal. 
So we are not disillusioned, nor are we 
overly optimistic about the sudden rush of 
many peoples toward the Way. 

So. Inez, in contrast to your conclusion, 
I do not see us traveling toward a dead end. 
Rather. I se-e us traveling toward a living 
end. the call of God in Jesus Christ. I want 
to underline the excellent suggestions which 
you made in answer to your own question, 
"What might be that Way for Brethren 
now?" I believe that the statements which 
you made in answer to that question are 
sound, possible, and e.xciting. I differ with 
you because I see us moving on that Way 
now and not, as you say, still headed toward 
a dead end. 

How.\RD A. Miller 
Harrisonburg, Va. 

RESERVOIR OF HESITANCY? 

So much has been said in favor of many 
of the innoN'ative ideas and programs that 
have been featured in recent years that one 
might scarcely suspect a vast reservoir of 
hesitancy on a part of substantial parts of 
the membership among the Brethren. Inez 
Long (Jan. 15) has spoken appropriately 
and well for a more cautious approach to 
many of the troubling issues of our day, 
whose solutions are really not very clearly 
pierceived by any of us. 

Congratulations to Mrs. Long for her pre- 
sentation and thanks to Messenger for car- 
rying the article. 

Raymond L. Flory 
McPherson, Kans. 

TAKING EXCEPTION 

In regard to the book review of Is Gay 
Good? (Jan. 15), I take exception to the 
majority of opinion concerning homosex- 
uals. They are sick, and Christ alone holds 
the cure. Let them first acknowledge their 
sin and repent of it; then they can be recon- 
ciled to God and have fellowship with 
him. . . . 

My Bible says the wages of sin is death. 
It also says the sex deviate is out of har- 
mony with God. These sins are all cataloged 
in Deuteronomy and are condemned as an 
abomination to God, in Psalms, and in the 
book of Romans in the New Testament. 

To say that anyone could indulge in 
these base sins and come and take com- 
munion with a clear conscience is an af- 
front to God and it is only due to his mercy 
and long suffering that they are not struck 
down immediately. . . . 

Instead of condoning such gross sin or 
outright condemnation of such people, we 
must help them to see their need of Christ 



and his power to cleanse their lives. . . . 
Christians must never compromise on 
these moral issues. . . . That is why I can- 
not accept any church taking in people such 
as this without first confessing their sins to 
God and with genuine sorrow and remorse 
asking him to rebuild and enrich their 
lives. 

Julius Replogle 
Martinsburg, Pa. 

'SEWER FILTH' 

The review by William Kidwell of the 
book Is Gay Good? Ethics. Theology, and 
Homosexualily contains the worst sewer 
filth I have ever read in any religious mag- 
azine. 

The overwhelming inference of the report 
was that homosexuality should be accepted. 
The reviewer quotes Troy Perry (one of the 
authors) : "Not once do I read Jesus saying, 
'Come unto me. all you heterosexuals, who, 
if you have sex . . . must have it in the 
missionary position, and I will accept you as 
the only true believers." " What verbiage to 
try and prove Jesus accepted homosexuality. 
Both Old and New Testaments condemn it. 
To try to prove Jesus accepted it is in the 
worst possible taste. The same type of de- 
fective logic could be used by . . . anyone 
trying to prove that his "thing" was also 
the Lord's "thing." 

The charge is made that the church has 
rejected the homosexual and has been more 
detrimental than helpful. There is no doubt 
some truth here. If the church rejected the 
liomosexual as a person, it erred. But the 
church today that accepts the homosexual's 
homosexuality errs also. Certainly Jesus ac- 
cepted the liar, the prostitute, the murderer, 
and the homosexual. But he did not accept 
their sin. 

Although not yet fifty, I have been an or- 
dained minister in the Church of the Breth- 
ren for over thirty years. Even though I 
have predicted the church would approve 
abortion and homosexuality, it is no com- 
fort as I see those predictions being fulfilled. 
I've had almost more than I can bear when 
I see such garbage spread on Messenger 
pages. And I want to say that those respon- 
sible for such filth must give an account to 
the Almighty God. 

Ellis G. Guthrie 
Eaton, Ohio 

RATIONALIZATION NOT AN ANSWER 

The single book review in the Jan. 15 
Messenger, out of the hundreds you might 
have considered, was on the "gay" people. 
Rationalizations were quoted in a style 
that would have been considered porno- 
graphic and illegal about ten years ago. 



Space was provided in our church magazine 
in defense of pagan conduct as "beautiful 
and right." We were told that the "thrust of 
the church" should be in "educating the 
public" for "acceptance and understanding 
the homosexual." 

Nowhere, however, was there . . . even 
token support for normal Christian con- 
duct. Biblical authority was not cited ... as 
a guide for those who might be concerned. 
Perversion was not even acknowledged as 
a sin. . . . 

. . . The church and its media have a re- 
sponsibility to call sinners to repentance. 
Others seem intent on defending the sin- 
ners' conduct rather than help them mature 
into more stable and responsible people. 
Unfortunately, those who find it easy to 
rationalize one form of evil . . . can gen- 
erally rationalize the others with little 
difficulty. Rationalizations are not the an- 
swer. 

If the church is to be a viable Christian 
influence, it is imperative that at least its 
leaders clear up their thinking on the ques- 
tions of morality; otherwise they contribute 
to the growing social problems rather than 
help in solving them. . . . 

Howard Bomberger 
Canfield, Ohio 

FROM THE EPHRATA CLOISTER 

Thank you for the good account of 
I 'orspici in "Churches on Stage." by Vernard 
EUer (Jan. 15). All the good publicity af- 
forded any of our activities is truly appre- 
ciated. There is, however, one paragraph 
on page 10 which could be incorrectly in- 
terpreted and needs clarification. 

"At the Cloister Gift Shop I picked up an 
attractive, slick, professional-looking bro- 
chure . . . advertising a Dutch Family Fes- 
tival located near Lancaster. Normally, slick 
brochures tooting 'Dutch stuff' around 
Lancaster are to be regarded with suspicion; 
that area is full of outfits that have com- 
mercialized and prostituted the Pennsyl- 
vania Dutch culture beyond all recognition. 
(One of their big items is a postcard that 
gets a hee-haw from the fact that Dutch 
country includes the town of Intercourse, 
Pa.)" 

I'm the manager-buyer of the gift shop of 
the Ephrata Cloister Associates, who started 
the gift shop . . . and who has made a con- 
stant, consistent. Christian policy of main- 
taining it. Not only does it finance all the 
activities of our organization but, more im- 
portant, it endeavors to inspire those who 
visit this religious shrine, through merchan- 
dizing items which relate to our property 
and area, on the highest level. . . . 

We have never handled any merchandise of 



a questionable nature. Specifically we were 
not the vendor of the postcard, as described 
in the article, and would not want your 
readers to relate to us beyond the first sen- 
tence of aforementioned paragraph. 

Richard A. Fleckenstein 
Ephrata, Pa. 

NO PART IN THE KINGDOM 

I completely disagree with homosexuality 
(see "Those Whose Sexual Orientation Dif- 
fers," Jan. 15), and I can't believe that true 
Christians are subject to such evil. 

And I would like to add that homosexuals 
will have no part in the kingdom of God, 
unless they have a born-again experience 
with Jesus. To verify my conviction read 
Romans 1:27-32. Paul said that such an act 
was indecent and unnatural (v. 27). And 
those who commit such things are worthy 
of death (v. 32). 

James Arford 
Robinson, Pa. 



NONRESISTANCE OR VIOLENCE 

I was upset after reading another article 
about Ted Glick in the December Messen- 
ger. I feel our Brethren national headquar- 
ters are overemphasizing Ted Glick's activ- 
ities and the fund set up for the defense of 
the "Harrisburg Eight." 

I would rather see more articles on Chris- 
tian nonresistance and nonviolence than ar- 
ticles about people and groups that burn 
federal draft records. 

Harold Baughman 
Lancaster, Pa. 

READABILITY 

Congratulations on the Feb. 15 issue of 
Messenger. Although the cover leaves a 
lot to be desired, the articles are readable 
and understandable. 

The issue on nonviolence (Feb. 1) cov- 
ered a lot of big ideas (and ofttimes with 
big words). Some of the articles were dif- 
ficult to wade through. 

I felt "homecoming," by Chaim Shatam 
(Feb. 15) made the point of why we should 
avoid war (be nonviolent) more clearly 
and reasonably than much of the long, theo- 
logical presentation in part of the Feb. 1 
issue. 

For people with the time and interest in 
concentrated reading, the Feb. 1 issue is 
great. But for getting something practical 
and meaningful in the limited time most of 
us have for magazine reading, let's have 
more issues with the readability of the 
Feb. 15 issue. . . . 

Marie H. Willoughby 
Rocky Mount, Va. 



4-1-72 messenger 25 



Scnie successful ventures to recount 



As I go about among the churches, I 
sense a feeling that the church has failed. 

So one day I wrote to pastors here on 
the West Coast about areas where the 
church has moved forward. I have not 
attempted to cover the total waterfront 
but have listed a few of the successful 
ventures of my generation. 

The West Coast churches have con- 
tributed only a "drop in the bucket." but 
they have done and are continuing to do 
some things which need to be lifted up. 
In referring to the West Coast churches, 
I do so only as I know them best and am 
sure that other areas have done as much 
and probably more. 

Eighty-one years ago the good people 
of the church on the Pacific Coast, with 
only a very few members, with no help 



NOW AVAILABLE 

in pamphlet form 
the well-known poem 

THE TOUCH 
>OF THE MASTER'S 
HAND 

by Myra Brooks Welch 




Please send copies of THE' 

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from industry', no help from foundations, 
no help at all outside the church, founded 
a school which they called Lordsburg 
College. Now as La Verne College it has 
become an ecumenical institution with a 
student body of 80% non-Brethren, but 
with the same emphasis that all are God's 
children and have the same potential for 
service and loyalts' to him. In the strictest 
sense, it is not a Brethren institution, but 
a corporation controlled by a board of 
trustees, not all Brethren. We believe this 
is essential if we are to serve a student 
body of 1,000 with 800 of other denom- 
inations. 

In the mid-40s, the Pacific Southwest 
Conference became aware that a need 
existed for homes for people over 65 
years of age. The district sponsored the 
movement which culminated in Hillcrest 
Homes. It has grown to proportions not 
dreamed of in the beginning with 1 32 in- 
dependent units and an additional 14 near 
completion, 159 congregate living units, 
an up-to-date convalescent hospital with 
49 beds and an infirmary with 30 beds. 

In the late 60s a group of people in the 
Long Beach church were concerned for 
low income people who were retiring 
without sufficient income to allow them 
to live in dignity and security. The 
United States government also was con- 
cerned. It was not easy, but at long last, 
these two got together and built a 300- 
unit housing unit, sponsored at first by 
the church. Now Long Beach Manor has 
a board of directors that includes people 
of other denominations but with a like 
concern for aging people. There is al- 
ways a waiting list and all units have been 
filled from the beginning. 

A few years ago, the Olympic View 
congregation in Seattle, Washington, be- 
gan working on a Long Beach type of 
project. After many months of struggle 
with city planners, disappointment in lo- 
cations, and government red tape, this 
project is soon to be completed. It will 
contain 200 units and is located near a 
shopping area which will make it doubly 
attractive. Like Long Beach, it is a 
rental proposition only and people of 
low income can afford the fee. 

The Wenatchee, Washington, people 
were interested in the Long Beach- 
Olympic View type of project. It was 



begun by the Baptists and since the Bap- 
tists and Brethren are working together 
there is also sharing of responsibility for 
the Manor. This is an 80-unit building, 
well located, with all facilities of the 
larger units. It is now complete and 
people are moving in. It is a strictly 
rental project. 

I have listed several projects which to 
me are outstanding in service to the 
church and community. I could add 
camps, physical plants, and projects 
which have been born out of the sacri- 
ficial giving of the membership. 

The greatest achievement during my 
lifetime, in my judgment, has been the 
leadership we have taken in our willing- 
ness to do alternative service rather than 
take human life. I was not in on the 
Great Mission Movement from the be- 
ginning, but I was close to Dan West and 
absorbed a bit of his philosophy. I was 
also with M. R. Zigler when he, with 
others, first challenged General Hershey 
for the right to do alternative service. In 
the 30 years since that day, this ideal has 
become a movement which is almost un- 
believeable. It certainly is out of the 
bounds of the churches and is permeat- 
ing every segment of society. 

I could have added the successful ven- 
tures in Home Missions, the great 
achievements of Church World Service, 
CROP, Heifer Project, the upgrading of 
the seminary program, and the General 
Board organization. The total account 
could not be contained in a book. 

In these days it seems that many mem- 
bers of the Church of the Brethren are 
beating themselves saying, "We are 
doing nothing to increase the welfare, 
happiness, and loving relationship in the 
area in which we live and serve." But I 
feel that to use the popular slogan, "The 
church is doing nothing," is to hurt and 
to belittle the sacrifices of the thousands 
of good people who have gone to their 
eternal reward. 

So before I leave the struggle, and 
there will always be struggle if we climb 
upward, I wanted to go on record that, 
in my judgment, the past has been good 
and that my faith in the future, whatever 
turn it may take, will be for the glory of 
God and the good of man. — • 
J. H. Mathis 



26 MESSENGER 4-1-72 



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For over 28 years, Heifer Project's "Living Gifts" have been helping hungry families around the world produce food 
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On going public with one's witness 



As a practical joke, an Indian student living in 
a big city placed an ad in a neighborhood news- 
paper. It stated simply, "Guru recently arrived 
from India now accepting students." In three 
days thirty applicants came for sessions, during 
which time only one expressed apparent suspicion 
of being taken for a ride. 

Putting aside questions of the propriety of the 
student imposter, what, do we wonder, brought 
the thirty inquirers to his door? What spurs the 
turn to Zen, Krishna consciousness, Scientology, 
transcendental meditation, Taoism, light radiation, 
psycho-cybernetics, astral projection — to cite but 
some of the movements in vogue? 

The drive, as seen by some observers, is for 
personal salvation, salvation now. Sparked by 
youth but not confined there, the press for peace 
and harmony, meaning and direction, God con- 
sciousness and a sense of being whole extends far 
beyond the reaches of established or mainstream 
religion. 

But concurrently, within the circles of Chris- 
tendom, the theme of salvation also is being re- 
opened, to discover what the Bible and tradition 
and a living Spirit all have to say to this very 
ancient and very contemporary concern. In par- 
ticular, through the World Council of Churches 
efforts in study and dialogue are under way on 
the topic of "Salvation Today." Input from many 
cultures and confessions will be shared at a major 
assembly this December in Thailand. 

Significant as the global interchange is, some- 
thing else that needs to break loose is a deep 
search by local groups and by individuals as to 
the meaning of salvation in Jesus Christ. Why 
are so many of us who strive to live out the faith 
so reticent in attesting to that faith to others? 
Why do many of us hang up with personal salva- 
tion as a concept that is archaic, otherworldly, 
selfish? What if we literally were to become the 
first persons in the prologue to 1 John . . . 

That which was from the beginning, which we 
28 MESSENGER 41-72 



have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which 
we have looked upon and touched with our hands, 
concerning the word of life — the life was made 
manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and pro- 
claim to you the eternal life which was with the 
Father and was made manifest to us — that which 
we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, 
so that you may have fellowship with us; and our 
fellowship is with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are 
writing that our joy may be complete. 

Suppose like the followers described here, we 
were to go public with our witness, to proclaim 
what we have seen and heard, not just through 
biblical restatement but in terms of events and 
happenings in our own lives. What holds us back? 

Perhaps, as some of the "Salvation Today" 
resources suggest, we may be silent because we 
feel our personal knowledge, our individual ex- 
perience, our unique testimony is subjective. It 
is. But is this not precisely the point of personal 
witness: that admitting to subjectivity one points 
to God's presence and action as one discerns it? 



rerhaps we feel our insights are limited and 
partial. And they are. But would not everyone 
remain silent if one were to arrive at a fullness 
of truth before speaking? Cannot partial insights 
and limited testimonies point toward wholeness? 
It is through the process of sharing, of crystalliz- 
ing for others that which is central to oneself that 
insights are sharpened and deepened. 

Perhaps our silence may stem from our want- 
ing not to inject ourselves into the picture, our 
wanting not to be conspicuous or vain. But the 
efl'ect of the witness described in 1 John is to 
transcend individuality, to touch base with others, 
to generate community . . . "so that you may have 
fellowship with us." 

In encountering the risen Lord the disciples 
were reborn into witnesses. Were we as individ- 
uals free to proclaim to others His presence and 
activity in our lives, or even to utter the cry for 
salvation, our joy too might be complete. — h.e.r. 



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■fct; 




After the earthquake, wind, and fire... 

. . . comes not a "still small voice" but cries of need from survivors, the homeless and helpless, 
threatened by pestilence and poverty. 

War in Nigeria. Human agony in Bangladesh. 

Hurricanes Camille and Celia. Earthquakes in Peru and California. Inverness tornado. 
Pakistan tidal wave. Fire in Southern California. Drought in Rhodesia. 

"Acts of God"? That's what some call them. 

But no question about what to call the responses they brought from the Church of the 
Brethren. 

Over $95,000 in personnel and materials — acts of God through his people for his people. 

And after the earthquake, wind, or fire, the Church of the Brethren will be ready to serve 
again. Because you care. 



e 



WORLD 
MINISTRIES 
COMMISSION 



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In creative * 
response. 



CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN 



APRIL 15, 1972 







Toward an 

Envir 

Ethic 



©©[nil 



Dsl^l^SD-^ 



^^ Public Education: Socializer or Liberator? As a nation we put 
a lot ot" faith in education. We've assumed that more people with 
more schooling would produce a better world. Ivan Illich in 
De-schooling Society declares this a false hope and offers counter- 
proposals. S. Loren Bowman reviews Illich's book 

JQ Toward an Environmental Ethic. How are the Christian faith 
and an ecological awareness to be brought together? Messenger 
opens a section on the environment with a montage of photographs 

and brief statements that offer some beginning points 

A Statement on Christian Life-Style. Study and research helped 

con\ince one group o( Brethren tliat an environmental ethic depends 
on the life-style individuals and famiHes choose. Responding to the 
insights of some members of the La Verne. CaHfornia, church are 
Floyd E. Bantz, WilHam R. Eberly, Wayne F. Geisert, Ruth Lyons, 
and Andrew G. Mathis 



To Construct New Attitudes. Ecological awareness can come 

with study. Robert T. Neher reviews some resources 

Man! You're in Charge! A confession and an alfirmation 
together call for stewardship of the environment 

Outlook features singers The Young Spirits, looks at developments in the 
National Council of Churches, introduces the nominee for executive of 
the American Baptist Convention, calls for hymns on environmental 
stewardship, and notes a hosteUng tour of Germany being offered by 
Camp Swatara {beginning on 2). . . . Dorris Blough and Mabel Bowman 
recount two very different styles of life that Brethren will recognize ( 19 
and 24 ) .... In Take It From Here Glee Yoder calls for a celebration of 
the earth (20). . . . An editorial proposes "A Campaign on Rethinking 
Mission" (28) 



EDITOR 

Howard E. Royer 

ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

Ronald E. Keener ' News 
Wilbur E. Brumbaugh / Design 
Kenneth I. Morse / Features 

ASSISTANT EDITOR 

Linda K. Beher 

EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Richard N. Miller 



VOL 121, NO. 8 



APRIL 15, 1972 



C.RF.DIIS: Co\er ^clr>ckvvise from inp. 
fir^tl RclifTious News Scrx ice; I second, 
fifth) I'nitcd N.-Jlions: (irani Ilcilman; I'S 
Dcpnrlmcnl of the Interior; I. 10 (third 
from Icf I ) . 17 U nl ted Nat ions; 2 Tom 
Warner; I Howard E. Rover; fi "Fciffer." 
roiirtes\ of the C.hiraj'o Siin-Thnrs and 
Piihlishers-Hall S\nrlifatc; 8 "Slorv Hour." 
hv Mabel \i. Farmer, reproduced from Che 
col left if )ns of the I.ihrarv of Clons^rcss; 10 
/first on left) (.rani Mellman; Mhinl, fifth) 
Religions News .Scr\icc; 12 ^first. third 
from left) Religious News Service; U altncr; 



14 Tom Stack for Tom Stack and Associ- 
ates; 15. 20 Edward ^Vall(^wiIcll: lf> Ed 
Carlin; 21. 24 Don Honick; 22 from Kni-iroii- 
wental Arliou: April 22 

>rF.ssENCER is thc ofTicial publication of the 
Church of tlie lircUircn. Entered as second- 
class matter .A,ug. 20. 1918, under -A,ct of 
Congress of Oct. 17. 1917. Filing date. Oct. I. 
1971. Messenger is a member of Ihe Associ- 
ated Church Press and a subscriber to Reli- 
gious News Sen ice and Ecumenical Press 
Service. Biblical quotations, unless otherwise 
indicated, arc from tlie Re\iscd .Standard 
Version. 

Subscription rates: S4.20 per year for indi- 
\idual subs( ripiions; S3.f)0 per vear for cliinch 
group plan: S3. 00 per year for every home 
life -subscription. .SGO; husband and 
S75. IE you move clip old address 
Melssencer and send with new address. 
Allow at least fifteen days for ad- 
dress change. Messenger is owned 
and published twice monthly by 
thc f.eneral Ser\ ices C()nunission. 
Church of the Brethren General 
Hoard . 1451 I>iuidee Ave. . Elgin , 
III. r)0120. Second-class postage 
at Elgin, 111.. Apr. 15, 1972. Copyriglit 
Church of the Brethren General Board. 



plan: 
^\ ife. 
from 



i 



III 



107 



SOURCE MATERIAL 

I liked the review by Associate Editor 
Keener of the monumental winter issue of 
Brclhrcn Life and Thought (Feb. 15), but 
for contrast he might have quoted the fol- 
lowing three excerpts. 

C. Wayne Zunkel concluded that "the 
future of the Church of the Brethren is not 
dark. The basic ideals hammered out by 
Mack and that handful at Schwarzenau have 
as much relevance for us as they had for 
them. ..." 

M. R. Zigler [names the relevance]: "no 
force in religion to compel anyone to be in 
the church or to leave it; opposition to take 
the legal oath to tell the truth or to affirm 
loyalty; no participation in war; separation 
of church and state, freedom to follow con- 
science." 

Graydon Snyder judges that the church of 
2000 will "stand in community with Jesus. 
. . . The model is Jesus surrounded by his 
disciples. . . . One model is clear: localism. 
The local communities will work hard to 
recapture and develop anew the kinds of 
communal values which have disappeared in 
the recent upheaval in American society. 
. . . This local church will be ecumenical in 
nature (that is, constituted by Christians of 
many backgrounds) but not ecumenical in 
the present sense of the word. . . . 

"I think another characteristic of the 
church will need to be radical openness. . . . 
In short, the church will have less a Messi- 
anic complex and more of a discipleship 
stance. . . ." 

This important issue of Brethren Life and 
Thought could well serve congregational dis- 
cussion groups as source material. 

Harvfy L. Long 
Elmhurst. III. 

OVERSIMPLIFICATION 

I roail Inez Long' article. "Why I've Been 
Pulling on thc Brakes" (Jan. 15), with great 
appreciation for what I consider a very pro- 
found and accurate assessment of what has 
happened in the Church of the Brethren. 

In the utterly simple mentality which cur- 
rently is in the driver's seat I question how 
many will bother to read this article, or will 
really understand ihc full import of what 
she is saying. 

By simple mentalily 1 mean the attitude 
which would mainlain a church without 
strong central leadership, which is tuned to 
the diffused voices that are taking the church 
where il is going today. 

For example. "Elgin" says that the local 
church knows best what it needs; so it waits 
for the "grass roots" to speak. But the grass 
roots church knows neither its identity nor 
its needs. 



m 



©DllC 



Youth says that in order to witness to 
our modern subculture we must identify 
with it. Many of our ministers say that in 
order to witness to youth, they must identify 
with them. 

Our educators say that the essence of 
Christian education is the communication of 
feehng. Much of the church in general says 
that the essence of the Christian faith is in 
human relationship. "To worship rightly is 
to love each other." 

Annual Conference says that the primary 
function of the church is to witness to the 
world by providing right answers to its prob- 
lems. To discover the will of God. form 
great lines before a microphone and take a 
vote. 

I hear many people say as they read these 
lines, "What's wrong with that?" 

It is this kind of mentality which is a 
gross oversimplification of the mission and 
work of the church, but which is taking us 
wherever it is that we are going. 

Lyle M. Klotz 
Olympia, Wash. 



PLEASE CANCEL 

I have followed up your issues concerning 
the Kent State issue. Your writings make 
me sick. How can you idolize such behav- 
ior? If the National Guard would not have 
stopped such behavior, there would have 
been many more deaths. 

You and the Brethren church preach not 
to kill or go to war, but it is okay to 
riot and beat National Guardsmen with 
rocks and clubs. I watched all of this on 
television news, and you are trying to make 
heroes out of college scum and tramps. I 
would have given anything to have been one 
of the guardsmen at that riot. 

Please cancel my and my father's sub- 
scription to your magazine. 

Allen Claar, Bruce Claar 
New Enterprise. Pa. 



ADULTS ARE GOD'S CHILDREN 

As one who is 88, I find our church has 
taken on a new and beautiful life. 

One of the inspirational sights is to see 
little children go forward for a sermon all 
their own. Could a child who is trained up 
in the way he should go ever forget this 
experience? 

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, loved 
little children. 

We adults are God's children. Perhaps 
he looks at us as we assemble for worship 
in the same manner as we observe little 
children as they gather for their sermon. 

Mrs. William Terford 
Glendale, Calif. 



What is termed as one of the boldest 
ventures in international cooperation 
ever attempted will occur in June in 
Stockholm, Sweden. It is the United 
Nations Conference on the Human En- 
vironment, bringing together represent- 
atives of at least 130 countries to focus 
on the critical environmental problems 
facing humankind. 

Among items to be considered are a 
Universal Declaration on the Human 
Environment, international standards 
and norms for environmental behavior, 
steps to save the soil and the oceans, 
a global system of monitoring, and a 
World Heritage Foundation to protect 
areas of natural or cultural significance. 

"Only One Earth" is the conference 
slogan, and the design noted here, de- 
picting man as part master/part crea- 
ture of his environment, is the official 
emblem. 

The question of managing the global 
environment in the overall interest of 
mankind "is the most intrinsically inter- 
national of all the great issues which 
have confronted, or are likely to con- 
front, the human race," declares the 
Secretar>'-General of the Conference, 
Maurice F. Strong of Canada. The plea 
of observers is that the conference result 
not only in studies and resolutions but 
in machinery with sufficient political 
clout to regulate policies. 

Mandator)' as governmental and in- 
tergovernmental study and action are, 
there is another institution which also 
could mount an assertive stance on is- 
sues affecting the global life system. 
It is the Christian church — the world- 
wide church but also the church in 
denominational and congregational set- 
tings. 

As Frederick Elder, author of Crisis 
in Eden, sees it, the impact of govern- 
ment, particularly as we Americans 
know it, may tend to be cautious, a 
reflection of what the populace in gen- 
eral thinks. On some issues government 
often is morally neutral, leaving to other 
institutions the establishment of moral 
identities. Of the institutions equipped 
to respond on ecology, Elder sees the 
church as having high potential, taking 
into account its understanding of crea- 
tion, its concern for all life, its inclina- 
tion to examine values. And while de- 



cided shifts in attitudes may be re- 
quired, the church has a concern and a 
base from which to evolve an environ- 
mental ethic. 

At least one group of Brethren, mem- 
bers of a California congregation, al- 
ready has worked at the task (page 13). 
Not that what they have to say about 
faith and ecology is a final word, but 
it is a word taken seriously enough to 
begin to reshape the patterns and goals 
of the persons involved. Comments 
about their statement follow on page 
16, presented with the view in mind 
that readers elsewhere may choose to 
engage in reflection and action on pat- 
terns of life-stvle for themselves. 




ONLY ONE EARTH 



Also in this issue, readers will find 
articles by guest contributors Dorris 
Blough, writer and former missionary, 
Nampa, Idaho: Floyd E. Bantz. pastor. 
Roaring Spring, Pa.: William R. Eberly, 
head of the new environmental studies 
program at Manchester College in Indi- 
ana: Wayne F. Geisert, president of 
Bridgewater College in Virginia: Ruth 
Lyons, Kent, Wash.; Andrew G. Math- 
is, psychologist, Tampa, Fla.; Glee 
Yoder, writer, McPherson, Kan.: Mabel 
Bowman, Astoria, III.: and S. Loren 
Bowman, general secretan,-. Church of 
the Brethren General Board: and book 
reviewer Robert T. Neher. professor 
of life science at La Verne College in 
California. 

The statement, "Man! You're in 
Charge!" appears with permission of 
the Section on Stewardship and Benevo- 
lence, National Council of Churches. — 
The Editors 



4-15-72 MESSENGER 1 



The Young Spirits tell their 
faith in folk musical idiom 

One hundred three West Milton, Ohio, 
young people have been sharing their 
faith through the folk musical and at the 
same lime have sparked a deepening re- 
lationship among themselves. 

The Young Spirits, as they call them- 
selves, come from 13 denominations in 
and near West Milton and had their 
beginning a year ago with their director 
Earlene Bradley, wife of the Church of 
the Brethren pastor. Phil Bradley. 

Mrs. Bradley had heard a group of 
youth present the folk musical "Tell It 
Like It Is" at a chorister's seminar in 
Kansas and returned home inspired to 
organize a similar group. Phil and Ear- 
lene Bradley approached other com- 
munity and area churches with the idea, 
and The Young Spirits were on their way. 

Last March the group performed "Tell 
It Like It Is" to 1,600 persons in the high 
school auditorium, at Christmas gave 
the seasonal folk musical "It's the Lord's 
Thing," and for Palm Sunday this year 
performed "Natural High." 

TTieir audiences have also included the 
Greenville Brethren Home. Bradford. 
Ohio. Council of Churches. Troy's com- 
munity lenten service, Southern Ohio 
Church of the Brethren conference, 
Miami County Fair, Veterans Adminis- 
tration Hospital, and many churches. 

And in June at Cincinnati, the Young 
Spirits will perform at the Church of 
the Brethren Annual Conference as part 
of the Insights 70s opportunities. 

"We had been looking for a meaningful 
youth ministry in our church and com- 
munity and the medium of folk musicals 
opened up for us," Phil Bradley said. "In 
addition to giving young people an op- 
portunity to express their talent, the 
musicals about God have given them an 
avenue by which they may share their 
faith." 

More than a musical group. The Young 
Spirits hold a retreat in connection with 
each production to polish off the perform- 
ance and to provide for personal 
growth in small groups. "Our being to- 
gether gives us a chance to dig into the 
meaning of each musical and to share 
personal concerns and discuss group 
problems," Mr. Bradley said. Sometimes 
the dialogue is rewritten by the youth to 

2 MESSENGER 4-15-72 




The Young Spirits: A support that cuts across clique lines, enabling self-discovery 



better express their own feelings. 

The Bradleys feel the group has pro- 
duced a feeling of unity among the adults 
and youth of the small community. They 
see a breakthrough in the high school 
too; "The youth are proud to identify 
with their faith and can now stand up to- 
gether and make a witness. They have 
found a support that cuts across clique 
lines." 

In his own church, where most of the 
youth are in The Young Spirits, Pastor 



Bradley finds them taking a keener inter- 
est in the CBYF. The young singers re- 
hearse at the Church of the Brethren and _ 
in many helpful ways the congregation I 

has been very supportive. 

The Young Spirits has enabled the West 
Milton youth not only to express their 
feelings "like it is," but have enabled 
them to witness to their faith across re- 
ligious lines, build individual leadership 
and group community, and discover anew 
themselves and others. 



Catholics in NCC? Study 
committee favors membership 

That a committee including top officials 
of the Roman Catholic Church would 
issue a report favoring Catholic member- 
ship in the National Council of Churches 
indicates the ecumenical movement has 
come a long way. 

The document issued in early February 
concluded that "nearly every argument in 
favor of the continuance of the NCC (or 
a comparable successor) is also an argu- 
ment for Roman Catholic membership." 

The joint NCC-RCC committee said 
that Catholic membership in the council 
would bring several advantages, and that 
there are no obstacles that would prevent 
the move. 

Dr. Edwin Espy, general secretary of 
the NCC, said it was a "foregone con- 
clusion" that the Catholic Church would 
be accepted if it applied for member- 
ship. 

The step if it comes — and it is up to 
the National Conference of Catholic 
Bishops to decide to apply for member- 



ship — would profoundly affect the col- 
lective life of American religious insti- 
tutions for generations to come. 

Indeed Catholic membership in na- 
tional councils is already a reality in sev- 
eral countries, and in the US several 
Catholic dioceses and parishes have 
joined regional and local councils. 

Giving perspective to the National 
Council-Catholic Church document for 
Religious News Service was Dr. Tracy 
Early. Excerpts from his observations 
follow: 

As recently as 194S, the Vatican re- 
fused to allow Catholics to attend the 
founding assembly of the World Council 
of Churches, even as observers. From the 
Protestant side, sharp condemnation of 
Catholicism for its attitude on religious 
liberty and other social issues, as well as 
on questions of doctrine and church au- 
thority, was common. 

But a new mood was developing, and it 
was accelerated by the work of Pope John 
and, in the US, the presidency of John 
Kennedy. 

The NCC appointed staff members to 
give Catholic relationships special atten- 



1 



American Baptists nominate 
professor as new executive 

Dr. Robert C. Campbell, dean and profes- 
sor of New Testament at the American 
Baptist Seminary of the West in Covina, 
Calif., has been nominated for the post 
of general secretary of the American Bap- 
tist Convention. The nomination will be 
presented to the annual meeting of the 
denomination in Denver May 10-14. 

The previous secretary. Dr. Edwin H. 
Tuller, resigned Dec. 31, 1970, to become 
pastor of the American Church in Paris. 

Dr. Campbell joined the faculty of the 
American Baptist Seminar}' of the West, 
then called the California Baptist Theo- 
logical Seminary, in 1953, and became 
dean the following year. Ordained in 
1947, he served as minister of churches 
in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Cali- 
fornia. 

As general secretary, Dr. Campbell will 
be the principal executive officer of the 
ABC, a 1.5 million-member denomination 
with headquarters at Valley Forge, Pa. 



The Denver assembly will also con- 
sider changing the denominational name 
to American Baptist Churches, meeting 
biennially, rather than annually, and 
major changes in denominational polity 
and structure. Mrs. Marcus Rohlfs of 
Seattle, Wash., is president of the 
American Baptist Convention. 

Virginia church honors 
men taking CO positions 

"We have all kinds of honors for those 
who participate in war, but what about 
those who stand for peace? We have a 
tendency sometimes to forget them." 

That sentiment of Graham Sowers, 
pastor of the First Church of the Breth- 
ren at Pulaski, Va., formed the basis for 
a peace banquet by the church's Youth 
HI fellowship to honor those men of the 
church who chose to witness through al- 
ternative service. 

During his pastorate at Pulaski Mr. 
Sowers has helped seven young men ob- 
tain conscientious objector status. Sev- 



eral of the men spoke at the banquet. 
Their comments: 

University student Danny Simpkins. 
on filing for CO status at his draft board: 
"I am more sure now than ever that what 
I did was right." 

Jimmy Harrison, 1970 high school 
graduate and recently baptized member: 
"I am proud to be a member of the 
Church of the Brethren and of the stand 
we take for peace." 

Hampton Buckner, who served with 
the forestry service in Michigan and 
Maryland during World War H: "It is 
not enough to be against war, we must be 
for something." 

University student Larry Runions: 

"The first time I attended the Church 
of the Brethren I heard a sermon on 
peace. I already had a conviction that 
war was wrong and it was almost unbe- 
lievable to find someone else who believed 
the same way I did." 

Cecil Buckner, seagoing cowboy dur- 
ing World War H: "It means something to 
give a part of your life to help other peo- 
ple and e.xpect nothing in return." 



tion, and in 1965 a joint NCC-RCC work- 
ing group was established, paralleling one 
formed the same year by the WCC and 
the Vatican. 

Catholic relationships with the NCC 
developed rapidly, with the NCC appoint- 
ing Catholic priests and nuns to its staff. 
Catholic groups cooperating with various 
program units of the NCC, and the Na- 
tional Conference of Catholic Bishops 
deciding in 1970 to appoint representa- 
tives to the NCC Faith and Order Com- 
mission. 

As early as 1967, a study showed some 
degree of Catholic participation in al- 
most every aspect of the NCC's work. 
And in 1968, the joint working group had 
progressed so rapidly that it was dissolved 
and replaced with the study committee, 
which was instructed to examine the spe- 
cific question of Catholic membership in 
the NCC. 

Though the National Council has been 
the principal institutional expression of 
ecumenism in this country, it could only 
be of limited significance so long as its 
membership did not include the Catholic 
Church. This was true even apart from 



the theological situation, since its 48 
million members made it by far the 
largest church in the nation. 

Not only would Catholic membership 
more than double the NCC constituency 
and add financial strength in a period of 
declining NCC income, it would likely 
make the present member churches take 
the council more seriously and might 
lead other churches that have stayed out 
thus far to reconsider. 

A Catholic decision to join the NCC 
would also be likely to advance the pros- 
pects of Catholic membership in the 
World Council of Churches, a topic of 
discussion at the 1968 Uppsala Assembly 
of the WCC, Pope Paul's 1969 visit to 
the WCC headquarters in Geneva, and 
sessions of a joint working group. 

Though the Catholic Church will 
doubtless be accepted into the NCC if it 
applies, a few people on the NCC side 
may be less than enthusiastic about it. 
Those who view the council's role largely 
as that of an advocate for liberal social 
policies can foresee that Catholic mem- 
bership will likely place some restraint on 
such activity, at least in some areas. 



However, on issues such as economic 
justice Catholic membership may give the 
NCC's work greater impact. Further- 
more, Dr. Espy reports that even the 
strongest advocates of social change are 
becoming disenchanted with the effective- 
ness of policy statements in bringing it 
about, and says the NCC would probably 
be changing its style in this regard any- 
way. 

In any event, top leaders of the NCC, 
such as Dr. Espy and Dr. Cynthia Wedel, 
NCC president, do not base ecumenism 
on such pragmatic considerations, but on 
theological grounds, an approach more 
in accord with the historic Catholic be- 
lief that unity is one of the intrinsic 
marks of the church. 

"Those who want to keep the ecumeni- 
cal movement monolithic on social issues 
must readjust their views of ecumenism," 
says Dr. Espy. "The basic principle of 
ecumenism is inclusiveness." 

Unity is not to be sought primarily so 
that the churches can achieve certain 
pragmatic goals more effectively, says 
Dr. Wedel, but because "this is what God 
wants." 



4-15-72 MESSENGER 3 



NCC meeting in December 
could 'phase out' assembly 

The December 1972 triennial General 
Assembly of the National Council of 
Churches could be the last such meeting 
of the Protestant-Orthodox organization. 

If the gathering in Dallas — and a ma- 
jority in each denominational delegation 
— concurs in adopting a new stmcture, 
the General Assembly will be phased out. 

(Church of the Brethren representa- 
tives to the Dallas assembly will be chosen 
in June during Annual Conference.) 

Also replaced would be a policy-mak- 
ing General Board which currently meets 
three times annually. Taking its place 
would be a Governing Board, larger than 
the present committee. 

The restructure plan, endorsed by the 
General Board last September, has been 
sent to the constituent churches, board 
members, and 25 nonmember groups eli- 
gible for NCC membership. 

The restructure holds open the possi- 
bility for Roman Catholic membership 
and for participation by non-NCC Pro- 
testant groups. 

Under the plan, the Governing Board 
would make legislative decisions and con- 
trol budget and program. The triennial 
General Assembly would be replaced by 
an occasional Ecumenical Congress, 
planned to assure broadest possible par- 
ticipation by all US Christian groups. 

The Governing Board is seen as more 
inclusive than the present General Board. 
It would include the chief executive of 
each member church, heads of major 
denominational boards and agencies, 
and the chief policy-makers of denomina- 
tions. 

Delegations would represent actual 
constituency in terms of racial and ethnic 
breakdowns, would be made up equally of 
lay men and women and whenever pos- 
sible would include representatives of 
regional ecumenical organizations. 

Seats would be provided for at-large 
members with special expertise and for 
representatives for nonmember churches 
which take part in NCC program units. 

Tlie work of the council would be or- 
ganized around sections and units of the 
Governing Board. As currently envis- 
ioned, the sections would be: Renewal of 
the Church for Evangelism and Mission, 
Human Need, Systematic Changes in 

4 MESSENGER 4-15-72 




New hymns are wanted on environmental stewardship 



The Hymn Society of America is calling 
upon hymnwriters, poets, and the poeti- 
cally inclined to submit hymns and hymn- 
prayers on "Man's stewardship of the 
earth environment." It is seeking verses, 
suitable to be sung in church services, on 
"this fundamental religious problem — 
hymns that speak to God and will also 
move men to action." 

This latest call for hymns is made in 
the fiftieth year of the Society's existence 
as a voluntary agency seeking and pub- 
lishing for all churches hymns related to 
social-religious and educational current 
concerns and problems. The Society 



points out that while ecology is "a rela- 
tively new emphasis for the preacher and 
the congregation, for the teacher and the 
class, it is vital for the survival of 
mankind." 

Writers should send new hymn texts — 
and suggestions of current hymn tunes to 
which they can be sung — by May 31 to 
the Committee on Environmental Stew- 
ardship Hymns, Hymn Society of Amer- 
ica, Room 242, 475 Riverside Drive, 
New York, N.Y. 10027. The Society 
hopes to copyright and publish a group 
which will be judged the best and to ask 
musicians to compose new tunes for them. 



Society, Culture and Life Fulfillment, 
and Christian Unity. Each Governing 
Board member would be assigned to a 
section. 

Program responsibilities would be car- 
ried out by units on Education and Min- 
istry, Church and Society, and Ecumeni- 
cal Ministries Overseas. Most members 
would come from the Governing Board 
but might also include persons from non- 
member churches and other ecumenical 
agencies. 

In addition, commissions on theologi- 
cal studies and dialogue, regional and 
local ecumenism, media programming 
and stewardship would operate. 

An executive committee of the Govern- 



ing Board is seen as overseeing research 
and planning, interpretation and informa- 
tion, administration and finance and per- 
sonnel. 

Funding for general management 
would come from fair-share assessments 
and donations. Services would be paid 
by those units using them and by par- 
ticipating churches. Under the new plan, 
the general secretary is also the chairman 
of the executive committee. 

The plan was developed over a period 
of several years. Dr. Thomas J. Liggett, 
deputy general minister of the Christian 
Church (Disciples of Christ) was chair- 
man of the Committee on Future Ecu- 
menical Structure. — r.n.s. 



.1 



Camp Swatara offers German 
tour, facilities to tourists 

Pennsylvania's Camp Swatara is offering 
20 persons a hosteling and bicycling tour 
of Germany from Aug 12-31. 

Camp director Gerald Greiner said the 
participants will fly to Luxemborg, take 
a steamer to Cologne, and rent bikes there 
for an itinerary that will carry them 
through Schwarzenau, medieval villages, 
and the Black Forest. 

Some major cities will be visited, but 
most of the travel will be through rural 
parts of Germany. Part of the trip will 
be by rail. 

Mr. Greiner also invites Brethren who 
are visiting eastern Pennsylvania to ob- 
tain lodging at Camp Swatara. The camp 
grounds, in the Blue Mountain of Berks 
County, has a Family Camping Center 
and is near Hershey, the Ephrata Clois- 
ter, and Roadside America. Vesper 
ser\'ices, discussion groups, and camp- 
fires are held on weekends, with special 
services during the Memorial Day, Inde- 
pendence Day, and Labor Day holi- 
days. 

Information on the camp facilities and 
the bike tour of Germany may be had 
from Mr. Greiner at 5710 Crickett Lane, 
Harrisburg, Pa. 17112, before June 1, 
and afterwards, at the camp, Route 1, 
Bethel, Pa. 19507. 

Moscow's English-speaking 
have Episcopalian chaplain 

The pastor to the English-speaking com- 
munity in Moscow is 29-year-old 
Raymond Oppenheim, who until Febru- 
ary was an Episcopal Church missionary 
in Alaska. 

Actually considered the Protestant 
chaplain, Mr. Oppenheim conducts Sun- 
day services twice monthly at the Amer- 
ican ambassador's home and twice 
monthly at the British Embassy. Week- 
day worship and activities are held in his 
residence. 

Five denominations — Episcopal, 
United Methodist, United Presbyterian, 
American Baptist, and Lutheran Church 
in America — began the program in 
1962 and alternate in supplying chaplains 
who basically serve American and British 
diplomats in the Soviet capital. 



mmdBirWn 



PEOPLE YOU KNOW 



Atlantic Northeast Disturict executive 



Harold Z_. Bamberger has been appointed by the Mennonite 
Central Committee to a one-year term on the Mennonite Men- 
tal Health Services Board which directs a program of mental 
health studies and hospitals in the US and Canada. 

Frances Clemens Nyce , Westminster, Md. , has been 
named Maryland representative for the US committee for 
UNICEF. She has been coordinator of 1±ie Carroll County 
"Trick or Treat for UNICEF" campaign for Church Women 
United since 1966. 

Serving as Southern Pennsylvania District peace field- 
worker this summer is Prudence Lenharr of the Waynesboro 
congregation. Presently she is in the peace studies mas- 
ter's program. Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Va. 

United Melihodist clergyman Alan Geyer has resigned as 
Christian Century editor to become 1ihe first Dag Hammer- 
skjold professor of peace studies at Colgate University. 

Representing the Church of the Brethren on the Jan. 31 
inaugural of the Oklahoma Conference of Churches was Byron 
E. Dell, Southern Plains District executive. 



THE PASTORAL SCENE 



Two Church of the Brethren mini- 



sters celebrated their fiftieth year in the ministry: Joseph 
M_. Baugher , York, Pa. , and Robert L_. Byrd , Bridgewater, Va. 

Serving as interim pastor at the Central Church of the 
Bret±iren, Roanoke, Va. , is Ralph E_. Shober . 

Pastoral placements ... John Lit ten , from Tear Coat, 
West Marva, to Walnut Grove in the same district. . .Ed 
Poling to Myersville, Mid-Atlantic. . . Percy Kegarise to 
Three Springs, Southern Pennsylvania. . . Charles Gibbs , 
United Methodist, to Zion in Michigan. . .and Phyllis Carter 
from Bethel Center, Northern Indiana to Wabash, South/ 
Central Indiana. 

Northern Ohio's Deshler congregation called Roger 
Harding as part-time pastor ... In the Southern Plains 
District Dan Blickenstaff has terminated pastoral services 
to the Antelope Valley church because of ill health. 

Dual fellowships in teaching and resident chaplaincy 
in Chicago call Larry Ul ri ch to resign his pastorate at 
Flower Hill in the Mid-Atlantic District. 

Brookville , Ohio, pastor Carl Zigler has resigned to 
become lihe first full-time chaplain at the Brethren Home, 
Greenville, Ohio. 



YOU'LL WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THESE 



Two new resources 



on the draft may be helpful to young men facing military 
or alternative service. The New Draft Law contains a list 
of draft classifications, pointers on how to register, and 
other information. Order from the Church of the Brethren, 
1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, 111. 60120, for 15<: per copy or 
$10 per hundred. 

Conscientious Objectors and the Draft provides com- 
prehensive information from the National Interreligious Serv- 
ice Board for Conscientious Objectors. Order from NISBCO, 
550 Washington Bldg. , 15th S New York Avenues, N.W., Washing- 
ton, D.C. 20005, at $15 per hundred plus shipping to anyone 
who orders it in quantity for free distribution. 

4-15-72 MESSENGER 5 



)PS©D®D \r(Bp(n)\rt 



Amnesty... yes or no 



by RONALD E. KEENER 

The young man's response to the Senate 
subcommittee examining the matter of 
amnesty pointed up the intermix of poH- 
tics and morality that any discussion on 
amnesty raises: The men who were 
forced to flee their country to avoid the 
Vietnam war. he said, deserved not so 
much a pardon as an apology from their 
government. 

And as Congressional — and public — 
sentiment stands now. they may receive 
neither. It is highly unlikely that any 
Administration would admit to the Viet- 
nam war's being a gigantic war crime, but 
it is upon this moral peg that many pro- 
amnesty speakers hang their arguments. 

Few are ready to share the feelings 
of columnist Garry Wills in declaring: 

""The real question is not whether the 
President should grant amnests. but if 
he should receive it. I think he should. 
I think all those responsible for this gris- 
ly war should be pardoned — are we not 
all. in some measure, responsible? — but 
only if they repent of that responsibility, 
no matter how partial. 

"And, so far, the President hasn't, 
which is the best argument advanced, to 
this point, against general amnesty.'" 

Estimates place some 70,000 young 
American men in Canada and Sweden 
who have refused the draft or quit the 



military. .Another 500 are being held in 
federal prisons for draft resistance, and 
about ,'^.000 have already completed pris- 
on terms, branded for life as felons. 

Last October, 16 prominent citizens 
issued a statement to Congress, the Presi- 
dent, and Presidential aspirants that 
pleaded: "... let there be no legal re- 
crrminations among ourselves for the 
fightmg or the refusing to fight this war. 
The healing and reconciliation of the na- 
tion, its redirection toward peace with 
rtself. will be difiicult enough. It will be 
folly to make it even harder by exacting 
heavy legal penalties from these young 
men. . . . The alternative would be a class 
of political exiles, haunting us for decade 
after decade." 

But should some price be extracted 
from those young men who avoided 
military service while others stayed home 
and faced the music? Among those with 
this feeling are the editors of The Living 
Church, an unofficial national Episcopal 
magazine, who believe that some distinc- 
tion between those who fled and those 
who fought should be made. 

A January editorial said there is a dif- 
ference between one who leaves his coun- 
try with the intention of renouncing 
citizenship and one who intends to return 
after the war is over. The latter is deser- 
tion, it said, and a form and degree of 
treason. 



"Moreover, the nation must give heed 
to precedent," the editors said. "If it 
gives amnesty to those returnees it will 
be saying to the young men of some pos- 
sible future wartime: "If you don't ap- 
prove of this war, find some safe neutral 
spot where you can sit it out, and when 
it's all over come home: all will be for- 
given.' " 

On the position that the expatriates 
must earn the right to come back, to be 
taken seriously, the amnesty bills now 
in Congress are based. 

Both bills, by Senator Taft of Ohio 
and Representative Koch of New York, 
offer amnesty to draft resisters (but not 
to deserters) on the condition that they 
undertake three years of alternate volun- 
tary service, such as in VISTA or a vet- 
eran's hospital. 

In any respect draft resisters, whether 
in exile or prison, are unlikely to accept 
the conditions of the Taft-Koch bills. 
The implication that American citizen- 
ship is a higher value than the dictates of 
conscience will not be attractive to re- 
pentant resisters. Still, it is probably the 
only legislation that stands a chance in 
Congress. One national poll revealed 
that while some 71 percent of the people 
favored amnesty, most of them preferred 
a conditional amnesty only. 

Full amnesty is opposed particularly 
when included are men who deserted the 
military after induction. The Knights of 
Columbus publication, Columbia, of)- 
poscd amnesty for those "for whom the 
alleged immorality of US involvement in 
Indochina was an alibi rather than a con- 
viction. . . . The assumption that all 
draft dodgers and deserters were prodded 



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6 MESSENGER 4-15-72 



by conscience rather than opportunism 
suggests considerable naiveness." 

Arguments on amnesty, whether con- 
ditional or unconditional, posit on one's 
view of the rightness or wrongness of the 
war itself, whether amnesty is regarded 
as "forgiveness" or in its old Greek sense 
of "to forget." 

Many draft emigrants to Canada say 
they do not intend to return to the US. 
Many do not want amnesty. 

There are some who want to return and 
some persons in the US think amnesty 
should be granted so the resisters could 
make a free choice between alternatives. 

President Ni.xon in early January said 
he did not choose to decide on amnesty 
for Vietnam resisters until all US per- 
sonnel held prisoner in Vietnam are re- 
leased. 

Granting amnesty while the war goes 
on seems undesirable and unlikely. But 
public debate on the issue is in place. 

Encouraging that debate, and seeking 
full amnesty, is the National Committee 
for Amnesty Now (200 Legal Center 
Building, Eugene, Ore. 97401). 

The organization, headed by former 
Oregon Congressman Charles O. Porter, 
is drafting its own bill that would offer 
amnesty to both draft resisters and de- 
serters. It seeks also to get amnesty planks 
in both national party platforms this sum- 
mer, to obtain such commitments from 
Presidential and Congressional candi- 
dates, and a petition campaign to support 
the bill. 

For Mr. Porter, "the amnesty issue 
goes to the heart of the moral issue of 
this war. No man should be punished for 
refusal to participate in an immoral war." 



The American Civil Liberties Union is 
also involved with the amnesty issue, as 
is a new group, the American Refugee 
Project. It is trying to get the United Na- 
tions to designate the resisters abroad as 
official refugees. Several national and 
international church organizations have 
long spoken of the resisters as "refu- 
gees." 

The main focus on amnesty by the 
churches is coming through the Amnesty 
Center for Information and Action (P.O. 
Box 179, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48107), in- 
itially being funded by the United Metho- 
dist Church. 

Following the example after World 
War II, The New York Times editorially 
suggested an independent agency or 
board be appointed to pass on each am- 
nesty request. 

"Congress could hardly frame a com- 
prehensive law taking account of the le- 
gal and human complexities of resistance 
to service in Vietnam," it said. 

"It would be more constructive ... to 
establish an Anmesty Review Board 
which . . . could cut across jurisdictional 
lines between the military code and the 
criminal law." 

Yet if the last war's amnesty board is 
any model, it won't serve today's draft 
exiles very well. Walton Hackman of the 
Mennonite Central Committee has noted: 

"Of the 15,805 men who were prose- 
cuted for their violations during and fol- 
lowing World War II, only 1,523 pardons 
were recommended by the amnesty 
board." 

Totally disregarded by the three-man 
board, said Mr. Hackman, were the 4,300 
Jehovah's Witnesses who refused both 



military service and work in the Civilian 
Public Service camps, those blacks who 
opposed the military because of its seg- 
regation, the Puerto Rican Nationalists 
who did not pledge their allegiance to the 
US, and the Hopi Indians whose tribal 
beliefs prevented them from participating 
in war. 

Draft violations can have serious con- 
sequences. Maximum punishment for 
violators is five years in prison and a 
$10,000 fine. Deserters face sentences of 
up to ten years and less than honorable 
discharge. This may make the man little 
more than a second-class citizen, unable 
to vote or hold public office in many 
states, and having difficulty in obtaining 
and holding a job. 

"Is it necessary for the minority to 
sacrifice their beliefs for the sake of the 
majority, or is there enough latitude with- 
in our society to respect and accept those 
who hold dissident views?" Mr. Hack- 
man asks. 

When conscience counsels disobedience 
of the law, especially those considered 
unjust, should the persons expect to face 
the consequences of their actions? Or 
if the war is unjust and immoral in itself, 
are they merely being punished for hav- 
ing done the right thing? 

It's a tough issue that finds many on 
both sides, for and against amnesty. Mes- 
senger welcomes the views of its readers 
on the amnesty issue. 

Even for those who concur that am- 
nesty be given, there is disagreement. 
Many are concerned about the implica- 
tions of the precedent if amnesty without 
penalty is given; others reiterate that rec- 
onciliation is more important than laws. 



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Public education: Socializer or liberator? 



DE-SCHOOLING SOCIETY, by Ivan lllich. Edited 
by Ruth N. Anshen. Harper and Row, 1971, 
$5.95 

As A NATION, we have put a lot of faith 
in education. \\'e assumed that more 
people with more and more schooling 
would produce a better and better world. 
So we developed a remarkable system of 
universal, compulsory- schooling. 

lllich, in De-scbooUng Society, declares 
unequivocally that this is a false hope 
and that our system of education will not 
produce the society we want. In fact. 



he maintains that our schools have be- 
come instruments of social control 
geared to fulfilling the demands of a 
consumer society. This process of so- 
cialization has replaced education's more 
basic goal of liberation of persons. 

The way to get the society we want — 
one that puts persons, not things, first — 
is to de-school society ... to disestablish 
our present model of universal education 
before it also ruins the non-Western 
world. 

If you can examine such a claim 



with some degree of objectivity, you may 
wish to spend some time with this pro- 
vocative book. I suspect there is not 
much point in doing so. unless you are 
ready to have your educational assump- 
tions challenged; to have your feelings 
about the achievements of education 
probed; to have your educational experi- 
ences evaluated from new perspectives. 

I shall not review the book idea by 
idea, chapter by chapter, but touch 
briefly on the author's description of 
education's "bad days" and his concept 



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of de-schooling. Then, I shall deal with 
his "Learning Webs" which have as many 
implications for church education as for 
[ public education. 

' Troubles/ illusions. Evidence abounds 

that our schools are in trouble. Achieve- 
ment levels are falling in many of the 
better school districts; pupil dropout 
rate is still climbing, now reaching aca- 
demic achievers: costs are getting out of 
hand; teacher disenchantment is growing. 
Increasingly, persons in and out of the 
school system are questioning the validity 
of our commitment to the certified, stand- 
' ardized, lockstep curricular process of 
the school system. 

Illich describes three types of responses 
being made to education's "bad days"; 
efforts to reform present classroom 
methods; proposals to disperse "free 
schools" throughout the society; pro- 
posals to turn society (the life about us) 
into one huge classroom. He argues that 
these proposals continue and extend the 
pervasive social control of the present 
schools. 

Moreover, they do not come to grips 
with the illusions which tend to make 
education ineffective. These seem to be 
crucial from Illich's perspective: schools 
are the only way to education; most 
learning is the result of teaching ( instruc- 
tion) ; knowledge can be placed in neat, 
sequential packages: all can profit from 
universal compulsory education. 

Disestablish. The society we need to 
create requires the facing of these illu- 
sions and the developing of more drastic 
measures than the current reform ap- 
proaches. The need is to disestablish our 
universal education system ... to de- 
school our society. Although one can 
rightly question whether Illich provides 
support for it, the thesis is that "the in- 
stitutionalization of values leads inevit- 
ably to physical pollution, social polari- 
zation, and psychological impotence; 
three dimensions in a process of global 
degradation and modernized misery." 
Or, you may find these statements 
, more meaningful: "Schools are designed 
I on the assumption that there is a secret to 
' , everything in life: that the quality of life 
depends on knowing that secret: that sec- 
rets can be known only in orderly suc- 
cessions; and that only teachers can 



properly reveal these secrets. An indi- 
vidual with a schooled mind conceives of 
the world as a pyramid of classified pack- 
ages accessible only to those who carry 
the proper tags." 

Actually de-schooling (how you invert 
education) is inferred, rather than de- 
fined. And much of the argument of the 
chapter centers around poverty and the 
inappropriateness of universal education 
for the masses of the Third World. He 
gives this positive definition — "school 
as the age-specific, teacher-related pro- 
cess requiring full-time attendance at an 
obligatory curriculum" — from which 
you can infer what he wishes to dises- 
tablish. He insists specifically that 
schools have robbed the poor of their 
self-respect by declaring salvation comes 
only through the educational system. 

Learning Webs. The heart of Illich's 
positive proposals from my perspective — 
though I'm not convinced that they rep- 
resent a complete alternative for the 
schools — are found in his discussion of 
"learning webs." The ideas are not novel 
but the descriptions and the combinations 
offer creative potentials that should be 
explored. Implications of these proposals 
seem as potentially fruitful for church 
education as for public education. And 
at a number of points they appear to be 
congenial with some recent emphases in 
our programs of Christian education. 

Briefly, the claim is: learning should 
grow out of life: it should be more cas- 
ual: it should be more voluntary', not 
based upon power of one to require an- 
other to attend. EdLication, Illich says, 
has been turned around: It has pulled 
persons away from everyday reality to 
consume a special commodity and to ac- 
cumulate abstract knowledge about life 
instead of learning from an environment 
which is human, an environment in which 
most have access most of the time to the 
facts and tools needed to shape their 
lives. 

Basic resources for these learning webs 
are available everywhere, to everyone: 
things: models: peers; elders. You could 
call them "opportunity webs." he says, 
since they provide the foundation for a 
network of relationships with the life 
about us. He admits that there will be 
need for educators/ facilitators in under- 
standing and utilizing these resources but 



he does not describe organizational mod- 
els for such roles. 

Avenues to these basic resources are 
suggested. 

1 . Establish a network of learning ob- 
jects. The community could finance the 
network and arrange for it to be open to 
all at reasonable hours, or it could limit 
opportunities on basis of age or need. 
Illich claims that "public schools transfer 
control over the educational uses of ob- 
jects from private to professional hands. 
The institutional inversion of schools 
could empower the individual to reclaim 
the right to use them for education." 

2. Develop networks of skill ex- 
changes. Here those who have skills 
agree to share with those who wish to 
learn the skills. Community inducements 
may be necessary, and could be provided 
by supporting "free skill centers" or by 
giving credit (a monetary voucher) to 
acquire fundamental skills. 

3. Encourage a system of "peer-match- 
ing." This requires no special incentives 
— just a desire and a network of com- 
munication. With today's computer, all 
that is needed for peer-matching is name, 
address, activity or interest you wish to 
share. Persons using the system would 

be known only to others with the same in- 
terest. 

4. Provide a network of professional 
educators. The functions would be in 
pedagogy and intellectual leadership in 
knowledge fields. The skills required 
would be more like those of the staff of 
libraries or museums than those of the 
present school system. And the number 
required would be fewer. 

You will find fuller descriptions of 
these resources and avenues which Illich 
proposes as the ingredients of the educa- 
tion needed today. He is calling for radi- 
cal measures — measures that will result 
in a different kind of person and a differ- 
ent kind of society. 

Personally, I'd like to encourage the 
discussion of his book — not because it 
answers all the questions it raises, but 
because it raises questions. Further, I 
should like to commend the "learning 
webs" to the careful study of Christian 
education/ nurture commissions. The 
skill-sharing and peer-matching hold 
many possibilities for learning in the ex- 
tended family of the church and in the 
local community. — S. Loren Bowman 



415-72 MESSENGER 9 




Then God said, "Let 
us make man in our image, 
after our likeness; and let them have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over 
all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps 
upon the earth." So God created man in his own im- 
age, in the image of God he created him; male and fe- 
male he created them. And God blessed them, and 
God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and 
fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion 
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the 
air and over every living thing that moves up- 
on the earth. . . . And God saw everything 
that he had made, and behold, it was 
very good. — Genesis 1:26-28, 31 



You need only smell 
the exhaust pipes of our 
samlors and buses, or listen to the 
soul-destroying sounds of our long tail boat 
or slip on the distasteful oil sludges both on road 
and water to realize that we are as much at fault in the 
pollution war as more industrialized societies. — Edi- 
torial, The Post, Bangkok, Thailand 

The simple truth is that no place on our planet lives 
alone — and no place can deal alone with the pol- 
lution of the planet. We are far from one world 
politically — but, by necessity if not by choice, 
we are one world environmentally. And the 
crisis of the environment has made us 
common victims of a common adver- 
sity. — Edmund S. Muskie 




Toward an 
Environmental Ethic 



10 MESSENGER I 15 72 



Suddenly it appears to 
many people, with frighten- 
ing intensity, that we are pushing 
against the limits of a finite world, that in 
all likelihood something vital will before long give 
ay, and that the traumatic reassessments which will 
i;hen be forced upon us will be full of possibilities for 
tragedy. . . . The questions to be faced are novel, 
their complexity is daunting and the time span 
within which responsible action must be taken 
seems alarmingly short. In the face of a numbing 
temptation to do nothing. Christians are sum- 
moned to reflection and action, with all people 
of goodwill, to participate in the building 
of God's earth. — World Council of 
Churches 



The first ethics dealt with the relation between individuals, 
the Mosaic Decalogue is an example. Later accretions dealt with the 
relation between the individual and society. The Golden Rule tries 
to integrate the individual to society; democracy to integrate social 
organization to the individual. There is yet no ethic dealing with 
man's relation to land and to animals and plants which grow up- 
on it. . . . The extension of ethics to this third element in hu- 
man environment is, if I read the evidence correctly, an evo- 
lutionary possibility and an ecological necessity. It is the 
third step in a sequence. The first two have already been 
taken. Individual thinkers since the days of Ezekiel 
and Isaiah have asserted that the despoliation of land 
is not only inexpedient but wrong. Society, how- 
ever has not yet affirmed their belief. — 
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac 



One practical decision after anoth- 
er has led to the brink of cosmic dis- 
aster. And there we sit, in pollution and 
chaos, courting the end of the earth. Just 
how practical can you get. — Ada Louise 
Huxtable, The New York Times 



uu\ ^ 




I find man utterly unaware of what his wealth is 
' or his fundamental capacity is. He says time and 
again, "We can't afford it." For instance, we are 
jsaying now that we can't afford to do anything about 
lollution but after the costs of not doing something 
)out pollution have multiplied many fold beyond what 
it would cost to correct it now, we will spend 
many fold what it would cost us now to 
correct it. — R. Buckminster Full- 
er, The World Game 



4-15-72 MESSENGER 11 



. . . What is desperately needed now 
in Western society is the emergence of a 
modern asceticism. ... It would not involve a 
withdrawal from the world in the way Medieval ascet- 
icism was, but would simply be a new way of thinking 
and acting toward and, we can say, with the world. 
Elements of this new asceticism might eventu- 
ally be several, but for now I can specify three 
that are fundamental. These are: ( 1 ) restraint, 
(2) an emphasis upon quality existence, and 
(3)reverence for life. — Frederick Elder, 
Crisis in Eden 




I believe an ecological vision can help us 

to perceive spiritual values now latent: a sense 

of the interdependence of all life, a love of simplicity 

the discipline of restraint, and sensitivity and even 

reverence toward our nonhuman environment, God's 

good creation. These are values that now find little 

place in Christian experience and thinking. 

— James C. Livington, Christian Century 



12 MESSENGER 4-15-72 



i 



statement on 
Ghristlan Life-Style 



The need lor a change 

As twentieth-century Christians, we 
face the same basic dilemma which has 
confronted every preceding generation 
of Christians. We are caught between 
the demands of the gospel and man's 
self-centered desires. But given the 
world situation as it is today, we must 
ask how we are to be faithful followers 
of Christ. We, as members of the La 
Verne Church of the Brethren, have 
been struggling with this question for 
several months. We have studied the 
Christian faith and the critical problems 
which we now face. It is our conviction 
that in view of our commitment to 
Christ, and awareness of the tremen- 
dous problems which must be solved, a 
change in our own life-style is impera- 
tive. Therefore, we have outlined some 
basic elements of the style of life which 
we believe to be demanded of us. 

We realize that it is impossible to 
touch every area of life. Nevertheless, 
we believe that all of the issues involved 
in living a faithful Christian life are 
intertwined. The economic, aesthetic, 
political, ecological, and spiritual di- 
mensions of life cannot be divorced 
from each other. Therefore, we at- 
tempt a comprehensive statement — re- 



How are the Christian faith and an ecological awareness to he brought 
together? One crucial means is by the lifestyle individuals and families 
choose to pursue. 

This is the insigin drawn by a group in the La Verne, Calif., Church 
of the Brethren from a study of environmental and theological concerns. 
The brief but wide-ranging statement issuing out of the study was approved 
and signed by about twenty members. 

Its publication in Messenger is not so much to lift up a definitive 
stance as it is to offer a suggestion and encouragement to groups or individ- 
uals elsewhere in search of guidelines and directions. Comments on the 
statement follow on page 16. 



alizing its dangers and its advantages. 
We have no naive expectations thai 
our change in life-style will "bring in 
the kingdom," but we believe that as 
individuals and as families we must 
take seriously the changes in style of 
life which are demanded of us as 
Christians. 

In the process of working on the 
elements of this statement, we have 
come to realize how important it is to 
support and encourage each other as 
we try to live out the realities of this 
commitment. We need each other for 
support, for resolution, and. if need be. 
for reprimand. Therefore, we enter in- 
to this commitment as a group, re- 
sponsible and dedicated to each other 
and to the wider family of man and 
the universe. 



The crisis we lace 

We are becoming increasingly aware of 
the multifaceted crisis which faces us 
in this generation. It is literally a mat- 
ter of life and death for millions of 
persons who are now living, and for 
the many millions who will be born. 
We are destroying each other and the 
land upon which we are dependent for 
life. We are living in a society which 
has a perverted value system. We are 
developing a quality of life that is in- 
compatible with sustained life on earth. 
One of the major aspects of the pres- 
ent crisis is related to the areas of over- 
population and the destruction of our 
environment. Put simply, there are too 
many people for the resources which 

4-15-72 MESSENGER 13 



we have. In addition, there is a tre- 
mendous imbalance in the amount of 
resources used by the world's popula- 
tion. We of the United States comprise 
only six percent of the world's popula- 
tion, yet we consume over fifty percent 
of the natural resources. \\'e pollute 
our water, land, and air so that irre- 
parable damage is done to these nat- 
ural resources. We upset the ecological 
balance of nature in the name of prog- 
ress. 

Part of the orthodoxy of the society 
in which we live is that "more means 
better." We are encouraged to buy and 
use products which are unnecessary, 
and the value of a person is too often 
measured by the material affluence 
which he manifests. We buy more and 
more: therefore, we use up more of 
the earth's limited raw materials, and 
then we clutter up the water, land, and 
air with our waste products. This style 
of consumption becomes a demonic 
circle; therefore, we feel that we must 
make our break with its assumptions, 
its practices, and its effects. 



The theological base 

We believe that our statement on life- 
style should have its roots within the 
Christian faith. Therefore, we look to 
the resources of our faith for a per- 
spective on how they can help us in 
this effort. The Bible, church history 
(including the heritage of our own de- 
nomination), and the present commu- 
nity of faith comprise these basic re- 
sources. 

It is clear that God is the source of 
all creation, but, according to the Gene- 
sis account, man has been given the 
responsibility of shaping and using cre- 
ation in a constructive manner. There- 
fore, to damage or exploit God's crea- 
tion in any way is a denial of our 
God-given responsibility — be it in the 
name of progress, rising Gross National 
Product, or economic leadership of the 
world. Man is a part of God's creation; 
hence, when he destroys or misuses na- 
ture, he is destroying a part of himself. 

At the core of Jesus' message is the 
commandment that we should love our 
neighbor as ourselves. This means that 



we have a responsibility to and for our 
neighbor, whether near or far. There- 
fore, when we as individuals or as a 
nation make decisions about our needs 
and wants, we must consider the conse- 
quences of these decisions on our neigh- 
bor. Realizing the low standard of liv- 
ing common to the masses of humanity, 
we must decide if the implications 
of our actions will deprive our neigh- 
bor of the basic necessities of life. 
Closely related to this love com- 
mandment of Jesus is the biblical un- 
derstanding of the corporate view of 
man. Especially in the Old Testament, 
a person's identity is defined basically 
by his association with other persons. 
The responsibility, guilt, and accom- 
plishment of one person was shared by 
his defining group. With such a view 
of man, one individual has to take into 
account not only his own wishes and 
desires, but also those of his neighbor. 
We believe that the corporate view of 
man is needed in our time. 

An aspect of the Brethren heritage 
that needs to be resurrected and rede- 
fined is the concept of the "simple life." 
In its better moments, this theme has 
been a help in defining the kind of 
uncluttered life which is demanded by 
the Christian faith. In its more de- 
monic moments, the "simple life" has 
been the basis for self-righteousness 
and exclusivity. It is our desire to in- 
terpret the "simple life" with the for- 
mer intention. 



Some elements 
of Christian lile-style 

I . Population. We will do all that 
we can to naturally reduce and stabilize 
the national and world population 
through education and responsible self- 
control of birth. Specifically, we will 
make certain that we will father or 
mother no more than two children. 
Those of us who already have more 
than two children will make certain that 
we have no more, and will support and 
encourage the rest of our group to limit 
their families as stated above. If we 
desire more children, and believe that 
we can responsibly raise more, we will 
adopt. After fathering or mothering no 
more than two children, we will strong- 
ly encourage each other to seriously 
consider sterilization as a positive birth 
control measure which will prevent 
worry, accidents, and lapses of will. 

We all agree that the most desirable 
form of population control is respon- 
sible preventative birth control. We do 
feel, however, that the possibility of 
legal abortion should be made readily 
available to all for cases in which there 
is a possibility of physical or psycho- 
logical damage to the child or mother 
if the pregnancy would be carried to 
term. 

As Christians we feel that a stand 
needs to be taken against abortion as 




14 MESSENGER 4- 13-72 



a birth control technique. Responsible 
sexual practices, family planning, and 
sterilization should prevent the need for 
abortion. Affirming the value of all 
human life, abortion is a serious mat- 
ter, which should be used by the Chris- 
tian only as a last resort. 

2. Conservation and consumption. 
Since overconsumption by each of us, 
directly and indirectly, causes such 
widespread damage to the air, water, 
and land of the world, and since the 
population of the world far exceeds 
its carrying capacity, we will work to 
develop a "land ethic" that will help to 
bring about the saving and restoration 
of the earth, of which we are a part. 
We realize that we are not owners but 
stewards of the sea and land, and that 
we cannot destroy either without de- 
stroying ourselves. 

We will constantly reevaluate our 
needs versus our wants, and our desires 
versus what is necessary. In our fellow- 
ship we will constantly review and ex- 
amine these factors, and in light of our 
own actual consumption, we will accept 
corporate advice and criticism in the 
making of our decisions. By so doing, 
we hope that we will begin to develop 
a value system which is not determined 
merely by the basically materialistic 
society in which we live, but by an 
ongoing community of faith. We also 
hope that we can begin to value rela- 
tionship, trust, and faithfulness more 
highly than possessions. 

There are various specifics to which 
we commit ourselves. Whenever pos- 
sible, we will use only products which 
can be recycled and avoid those prod- 
ucts which are nonbiodegradable. For 
example, we will recycle cans, glass, 
and newspapers, and avoid plastics, sty- 
rofoam, and detergents which are pol- 
luting. We will attempt to buy con- 
servative but lasting products, and 
maintain them properly, rather than 
buying items which need to be replaced 
frequently, for example, autos, appli- 
ances, furniture, and homes. Where it 
is feasible, we will attempt to share 
property; for example, lawn mowers 
and garden tools. 

Each of us as a family will join and 
support a group which is working for 
population control and/or conservation. 




Some possibilities include ZPG (Zero 
Population Growth), Friends of the 
Earth, Sierra Club. People's Lobby, and 
Common Cause. In addition, we will 
actively support local and national legis- 
lation which aims at improving the en- 
vironment. 

We do not want to support com- 
panies which contribute to the war 
effort or those which contribute to the 
deterioration of the environment by 
either buying their products or investing 
in their companies. With regard to in- 
vestments in general, we seriously ques- 
tion the seemingly compulsive need to 
be financially secure. High investments 
tend to make us concerned to raise the 
GNP, rather than the spiritual quality 
of life. 



Relation lo the church 

As part of the style of life which we 
are advocating, we commit ourselves to 
be active members of the church. We 
realize that we have much to give to 
the church and that we have much to 
receive from the church. Therefore, 
we will support it with our energies and 
with our money. 

As part of our commitment to the 
church, we recognize the priority of 



God's authority over man's authority. 
Therefore, the values which we believe 
to be Christian may be different from 
the values which our society or our 
government affirms. This is especially 
true in relation to national policies con- 
cerning war and violence. We reject 
violence as a means of solving problems 
— either by the government or by anti- 
governmental forces. We believe that 
nonviolence must be our stand. 

Another aspect of our relationship 
to the church is the intention to deepen 
our commitment to the Christian faith 
through study, prayer, discussion, and 
worship. We hope to do this as individ- 
uals and as groups. 

Some considerations. We enter into this 
commitment as individuals and as fam- 
ily units. We feel that it is important 
to stress the familial aspect of this com- 
mitment and to attempt to pass on to 
our children the values which we con- 
sider important. 

We also enter into this commitment 
voluntarily and joyfully. We have no 
desire to be martyrs; we make no claims 
that this is "The Way" for everyone, 
and we know that this statement will 
have to be reevaluated periodically. 
Nevertheless, as Christians, we hereby 
commit ourselves to the style of life 
outlined above. □ 



4-15-72 MESSENGER IS 



COMMENTARY / "CHRISTIAN LIFE-STYLE" 



Floyd E.Bantz: stewardship, 

not primitivism, is what 

is required 

Any group of people who has taken 
seriously the threat of scientific, tech- 
nocratic, industrial society to our ecol- 
ogy must be commended. Certainly it is 
time to cease the rape of nature and her 
resources which is now in process. We 
have justified this wantonness by quot- 
ing Genesis 1:28, but not even the au- 
thor of those words, let alone God, 
intended that "dominion" implied the 
right to destroy both resources and their 
womb. 

Yet our scientific, technocratic in- 
dustrialism has enabled us to do just 
that. The question that now faces us is 
whether the planet, its atmosphere and 
its inhabitants, can exist if the present 
trends continue. Anyone who does not 
take this threat seriously is not taking 
modern life seriously. Nothing said 
here is meant to denigrate this concern. 

The theological base of the statement 
roots the concern and proposals in two 
major premises which I read to say that 
the creation exists as a gift to us for our 
good. We have been given stewardship 
over the creation so that we may sur- 
vive — but not just survive. We are to 
survive so we can be mature and loving 
servants of God. We do not have stew- 
ardship over the creation for our own 
survival at the expense of all other con- 
siderations. We have this stewardship 
so that our existence can be beneficial 
to all of creation and to God. 

I believe our capacity to industrialize 
is one of the resources which we have 
been given. It is a tool for us to use. 




Its purpose is to help us make proper 
use of all the other resources of the 
creation. As we can with any other 
tool we possess we may use it or misuse 
it. 

This means that industrial skill is not 
to be dismissed as evil in and of itself. 
It is evil or good, depending upon the 
use of it. If it is properly used, this in- 
dustrial skill does help us survive and 
become the creatures that God intends. 

This perspective is extremely im- 
portant. Many who are genuinely 
alarmed about our present situation are 
tempted to condemn industrial ability 
and the scientific technology such abili- 
ty has prompted and produced. They 
are also tempted to go "back to nature." 

Although such a return to "mother 
earth" is not suggested by this state- 
ment, it is a temptation to be resisted. 
I am convinced that if we take our mis- 
sion seriously, as it has been stated in 
"The Theological Basis," corrections to 
the present situation cannot be accom- 
plished by such a "return." It will not 
help us be as beneficial to all peoples, 
to our fellow creatures, and to our sur- 
roundings, as it is possible for us to be. 

If we are to correct the present sit- 
uation and use our stewardship for its 
original intention, we will need all the 
scientific technology we can muster. 
Without using the same skills that have 
caused the crisis in the effort to resolve 
the crisis, the crisis will not be resolved. 
The burden of more equitable dis- 
tribution of food, medical skills and 
supplies, raw materials, machines, and 
wealth is too great for primitivism to 
carry. Primitivism may preserve the 
creation, but it does not allow us to 
make full use of creation's resources as 
God intends. Rather, we are called to 
see industrial ability as a resource so 
that the creation can expand in its 
capacity to be the place in which hu- 
man kind can become the kind of be- 
ings God intends. 

This will be both an act of proper 
respect for the creation and responsible 
stewardship. Our survival demands 
that we make full u.se of all the re- 
sources we have been given. Survival, 
however, also demands that we must 
husband those resources and their habi- 
tat. If we abuse our gifts, and hence 
misuse the creation, our part of the 



creation can easily be destroyed. 

Therefore, it is a paradox that our 
own survival demands that we make 
our survival a secondary item. We 
can survive only if we make the proper 
stewardship of all our gifts our first 
concern. This is the ecological dimen- 
sion of Matthew 16:25: "For whoever 
would save his life will lose it." □ 



WayneF.GelsertiAgrow.ng 

GNP is a requisite 

As a social scientist, I feel that the 
Statement on a Christian Life-Style is 
a commendable endeavor which stands 
up well in terms of basic thrust and 
general principle but which has some 
flaws within its specific comments con- 
cerning some aspects of our society and 
economy. 

Perhaps the best stated parts of the 
document are those which relate to the 
population problem. It is refreshing 
for an economist, who endeavored to 
acquaint students with the nature of the 
world's population problem in his earli- 
i est college teaching endeavors of over 

I two decades ago, to realize that the 
church is taking seriously the Malthu- 
sian specter. The statement could have 

I been improved by a more deliberate 

II recognition of the fact that, compara- 
|: lively speaking, our population prob- 
il lem is a modest one when viewed 

against the backdrop of a world in 
which population has been pressing 
against the means of subsistence for 
generations. Perhaps the statement 
should also take note of the fact that 
some of the peoples of the world would 
be adversely affected by a reduction of 
the US birthrate since they have their 
livelihood meshed into providing basic 
products, particularly raw materials, for 
an increasing number of Americans. 

The preference for positive birth con- 
trol measures as compared with abor- 
tion is well stated and the stand taken 
against abortion as a birth control 
technique is, as I see it, a Christian 
posture. Today's advocates of free and 
easy abortion do not seem to see the 
relationship of their posture to an ulti- 
mate placing of a low price on human 
life deemed to be nonproductive and 



16 MESSENGER 4-15-72 



burdensome because of physical or 
mental incapacity. 

As a person who has devoted his 
adult life to serving relati\ely small 
colleges, I appreciate the thrust of the 
document which suggests that we 
should not equate quality with statisti- 
cal bigness. Yet, I am disappointed 
that a rising gross national product 
seems to be equated with the destruc- 
tion and misuse of nature. .Actually, we 
should strive for an increasing gross 
national product based on a sound 
stewardship making every endeavor to 
avoid the "demonic circle." A growing 
GNP must be a part of the American 
picture if the unemployed are to be 
employed and if the poverty-stricken 
are to move to satisfactory levels of life. 
This fact is even more conspicuous 
when related to that major portion of 
the world's population whose poverty 
conditions make our conception of pov- 
ert\' look like an acceptable level of 
life. It should be emphasized that the 
world's economic problem is still that of 
a sheer lack of productivity rather than 
a simple distribution problem, though 
the latter is a part of the picture. Even 
a hasty review of either national or 
United Nations statistics will under- 
score this fact. 

At a few points the statement moves 
into particular illustrations and makes 
pronouncements which weaken rather 
than strengthen the overall document. 
It is inappropriate to make a commit- 
ment to the concept of recycling as a 
rather hard and fast principle. Re- 
cycling is to be commended in some 
instances but it is subject to limitations 
imposed by costs, not so much in mone- 
tary terms as in terms of expenditures 
of scarce resources or creation of other 
problems in accomplishing the recycling. 
For example, noxious fumes from re- 
cycling may in some instances create 
more problems than the procedure 
solves. Obviously, we should recycle 
when to do so means the preservation 
of the world's resources for future gen- 
erations. Just as obviously, we ought 
to place considerable focus upon im- 
proved disposal procedures relative to 
wastes whether or not recycling is in- 
volved. Given certain improvements in 
the technology of incineration, it could 
well be that we should advocate rather 



^^f*^" 



,¥- 



■»■ ,-'•**' 




than discourage the use of plastics and 
similar products over against glass or 
scarce metals. It should be noted that 
many of the earth's hideous scars can 
be attributed more directly to metal 
technology than to plastic productivity. 

Likewise, the comments concerning 
investments leave something to be de- 
sired. The statement does not seem to 
recognize that major investments m.ust 
continue to be made both publicly and 
privately if the level of life for any 
large portion of the world's people is 
to reach a reasonable level. I assume, 
perhaps unfairly, that here too the in- 
adequacy of the statement is based on 
the fallacy of assuming that the level of 
economic life is exclusively a distribu- 
tion problem rather than primarily a 
problem of inadequate productivity 
relative to the number of God's chil- 
dren. 

Overall, the statement is a good be- 
ainnina and is to be commended. ^ 



William R.Eberly: The wor/d 5 

carrying capacity is 

already overextended 

I am very much mipressed by this state- 
ment and the significance of its being 
adopted by a group of individuals as a 
personal commitment of each of them. 
The ecological implications inherent in 
the statement are very sound. The twin 
enemies of our environment are over- 
population and overconsumption (with 
all of the implications of pollution and 
resource depletion ) . 

Technology may be able to develop 



methods of producing goods without 
pollution and may be able to recycle 
materials to reduce the drain on new 
raw materials, but if the population 
continues to increase, demanding more 
and more, the human race will certainly 
face some disastrous consequences in 
the future. There is strong agreement 
among many scientists that the present 
population "far exceeds (the) carrying 
capacity" of the world. The carrying 
capacity is the ability of the environ- 
ment to support a particular number of 
individuals of a given species (in this 
case, man). It is related to the total 
quality of life, not just one factor like 
food. Under our present levels of tech- 
nology and social conditions that exist 
in the world, if the total world popula- 
tion were between one and two billion, 
the quality of life for each person would 
have the potential for being much 
greater than it is now with the nearly 
four billion persons crowding the globe. 
It is true that if it were possible to 
applv worldwide our present agricultur- 
al know-how, we could produce food 
for many more persons than now ex- 
ist. But life consists of more than just 
keeping the body alive. We should re- 
member, too. that we are not doing too 
good a job feeding our present popula- 
tion. Recent figures suggest that 15.000 
persons starve to death each day! 

Population limitation, through con- 
ception prevention and birth prevention, 
is a matter of top priority in the world. 
The La Verne statement on individual 
responsibility to control population 
growth is very good. However. I see a 
little inconsistency in the position that 
a "stand needs to be taken against abor- 



4-15- 



MESSENGER 17 



tion" and the conclusion that "abor- 
tion should he used as a last resort." 
1 quite agree that for many persons 
there will he no need for abortion. But 
for vast numbers of persons in the 
world, abortion may be the only avail- 
able option for controlling and limiting 
births. If abortion is to be continually 
opposed by those who personally have 
no need or who have rejected it as a 
method, it will not be available even as 
a last resort for those who need it. 
From a world perspective, the human 
population must be controlled and lim- 
ited by any and all ways. We have only 
two alternatives: Prevent excess births 
or find some way to remove persons 
after they are born. I personally find 
the first alternative much more accept- 
able. I prefer not to have people 
starve to death, be killed in war, or 
suffer all kinds of mental and psycho- 
logical torment because of overcrowd- 
ing. 

It is a fine goal to use only products 
which can be recycled. It should be 
pointed out that each individual should 
work in his community to develop and 
encourage agencies and industries to use 
recycled materials. At present, this is 
available in very few communities. 

The group appears hesitant to recom- 
mend this statement to others. It could 
be said that until at least a majority of 
the people of the world accept these 
views, little will be done that will affect 
the course of world history. This state- 
ment ought to be accepted as "the way" 
for everyone. Perhaps we ought to be- 
come evangelistic on this issue! □ 



Rlltn Lyons! two inseparable 

problems, qualify and 

quantity 

The statement of the California Breth- 
ren says a change in their life-style is 
imperative. It would more accurately 
reflect the immensity and urgency of 
the worldwide environmental situa- 
tion if they declared that a change in 
the life-syle of all persons is a necessity 
for halting the rush toward environ- 
mental disaster. It is far more popular 
to talk about ecology and the popula- 
tion explosion, to name two issues from 



the proposal, than it is to do something 
about them. This is no doubt true par- 
tially because as individuals we are 
overwhelmed by the enormity and com- 
plexity of the environmental crisis. In 
addition few of us can bring ourselves 
to leave the comfort of our daily rou- 
tine to make the necessary change of 
life-style. .'Mso there are many persons 
unconvinced that there is indeed such a 
crisis although scientific evidence attest- 
ing to such a crisis is abundant. The 
La Verne proposal at least acknowl- 
edges the crisis and provides a means 
for some personal, positive action. 

From the ecological point of view, 
the two elements of the proposal which 
could produce the most positive action 
toward quality of life are the population 
control commitment and the require- 
ment for family membership in a popu- 
lation control and/or conservation 
group. It is essential to become a part 
of such groups, both to keep informed 
on vital ecological issues and to make 
a witness to one's convictions where it 
counts — at the government level. It 
takes a well-organized, well-financed, 
large group of persons, armed with 
facts, to make the necessary impact on 
our government at every level. A few 
individuals, no matter how committed, 
cannot hope to accomplish the task. 

The proposal on limiting to two the 
number of children fathered and moth- 
ered by a couple is a socially responsible 
position. Paul R. Ehrlich. department 
of biological sciences, Stanford Uni- 
versity, considers population control to 
be the most important issue of our time. 
He believes only a fantastic world ef- 
fort over the next five years at changing 
the attitude of people towards family 
size, and the development, promotion, 
and distribution of birth control tech- 
nology can possibly arrest population 
growth at two or three times its present 
level. Hugh litis, department of botany. 
University of Wisconsin, says environ- 
mental problems are all the multiple ef- 
fects of the same cause — too many 
people. If we don't solve the quantity 
problem, the quality of life problem 
will no longer bother us! 

This one group of persons says that 
though the issues are immense and 
grave, they must try to do something 
about them. I admire and rejoice in 



the spirit and intent of the proposal; I 
am not optimistic about its workability 
to any significant degree. Only a dedi- 
cation and cooperation on the part of 
peoples and nations on a scale beyond 
anything the world has ever yet wit- 
nessed can bring about the radically 
changed life-style essential to averting 
global ecological disaster. □ 



Andrew G.Malhis: A new 

ethic comes with 

struggle and pain 

The merit of any group struggling with 
the issues involved in formulating an 
environmental ethic is most likely to be 
for those who engage in the process of 
working it out. This involves both 
looking to the external world as openly 
as we can to ascertain what is, and 
looking within to determine what we 
value (the good life) and therefore are 
prepared to commit ourselves to pursue. 
This is part of the ongoing process of 
working out a rational ethic and being 
alive in a changing world. 

The alternative is to follow blindly 
the statements of those who lived and 
struggled long since and came up with 
relevant oughts and shoulds for their 
time such as "be ye fruitful and multi- 
ply." Borrowed ethics, particularly if 
they are not openly aired and re- 
digested, do not always fit in the pres- 
ent as "what is" often differs from 
"what was " when the ethic was formu- 
lated originally. 

As for myself and those whom I at- 
tempt to influence toward "the good 
life" the most meaningful assumption 
about ethics stems from the concept of 
mutual respect. There is relevance in 
this concept for the use of our land, 
air, water, and reproductive organs. In 
my experience any basic change in 
ethical outlook that makes a difference 
seldom transpires without individual 
struggle and often emotional pain. 
Thus, the individual's feelings which are 
involved in this process of change are 
most relevant data to focus upon the 
process of working out an ethic. Often 
we do not give up our early program- 
ming without a fight or the experience 
of grief. D 



18 MESSENGER 4-15-72 



All this and Heaven too 

or 

the fair-halred generation 



by DORRIS BLOUGH 

Uorn with a golden spoon in his mouth, 
the fair-haired child. That described the 
child born between 1920 and 1945 in the 
United States of America. No person in 
the history of the world has ever had it 
so good, or ever will again. 

Those born before 1920 were victims of 
diseases without remedy, a hand-to- 
mouth economy and long hours of labor 
for their daily bread, which was a plain 
diet, often deficient in essential nutrients. 

Before those of that era start singing 
the praises of the simple life and hard 
work, let us look at their goals. The most 
pressing desire of the parents raising 
children in the after 1920 era was that 
their offspring would not have to work 
from sunup until sundown and could 
enjoy good health and prosperity. 

Those farmers, for most of them were 
rural, sacrificed that their children could 
attend college, enter the professions, or 
become master farmers who could in- 
crease productivity and become affluent 
like their urban cousins. 

And it happened! En masse, the chil- 
dren of the Brethren entered college and 
came out prepared to increase their in- 
comes many fold over that of their par- 
ents. The goal was reached! 

And didn't they enjoy it! New houses, 
cars, travel, the best cuts of meat, coun- 
try clubs, beauty parlors, lush carpets on 
once-linoleum floors, imported foods, 
miracle drugs to conquer pain and dis- 
ease, hi-fi sets. 

But they did not neglect the "spiritual." 
These children could afford to contribute 
to build new church buildings, a semi- 
nary, and even support foreign missions. 

Theirs was untarnished joy. For they 
had achieved all this themselves. Hadn't 
they studied hard, worked hard, to 
build up businesses and farms? They de- 
served to enjoy the fruits of such prodi- 
gious labor. They declared themselves 
to be "self-made" and cried that anybody 
could "make it" if he really tried. Were 



they not the best examples of that? They 
could see forever and the good life 
stretched as far as they could see. 

The only ugliness that marred their 
world was the continuing wars, although 
even that was acceptable since commu- 
nism had to be controlled. 

And there was that atomic bomb. The 
children of the Fair-Haired Ones (born 
ofter the birth of the Atomic Age in 
194.^ ) were saying unsettling things about 
the probability of world annihilation, the 
real possibility that they would not live to 
be grandparents. Strange words to their 
ears, but they put it down to tv and 
doomsayers. Anyway, no one would dare 
use atomic weapons. The people in 
charge were, after all, the peers of their 
generation; they could be trusted. 

Then suddenly in the latter 60s, the 
myth exploded. The fantastically delight- 
ful life this generation had been living 
had actually caused such major pollution 
of the environment that only drastic steps 
could keep the earth from being de- 
stroyed. The fair-haired generation 
shouted in frustration that it wasn't their 
fault, and how could it happen when they 
wanted only to enjoy life and help others 
enjoy it too. 

Their parents had prepared the way 
for the American dream to be fulfilled, 
but had themselves known disease and 
deprivation. Their children will continue 
to participate in a culture more fabulous 
than any ever known, but tainted with 
the knowledge that self-destruction is a 
distinct possibility. 



Ond so, out of man's history, one gen- 
eration will be known as the Fair-Haired 
Generation, for we lived, loved, and 
prospered mightily, blissfully unaware 
that so soon we would turn to find angels 
with (laming swords standing at the gate 
of our Paradise. Ours was the only gen- 
eration to partake of unbounded affluence 
coupled with untrammeled belief that 
such Paradise would go on forever. □ 



Church of the Brethren 

^fearbook 
1972 «^ 

edition n \ 1 

1972 
'fei-bodc I 




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4-15-72 MESSENGER 19 



D'S a^rmmi hmrm'i 




Needed: 

a new kind 
of person... 



who views all of life on earth as fundamentally good, 
who condemns any effort to destroy life, 
who senses the sacredness and holiness of the earth, 
who realizes the dependence of all creatures on each other 
for life itself, 
who recognizes a relationship to the environment 
not as 

economic gain, 

increased productivity, 

greater consumption of goods, or 
easier and more comfortable living, 
but as 

a precious gift of God to us, 

entrusted to our care and keeping. 



bycieevoder 



Celebrate 
the earth... 



Rachel Carson in The Sense of Wonder 
writes, "If a child is to keep alive his 
inborn sense of wonder ... he needs the 
companionship of at least one adult who 
can share it, rediscover with him the joy, 
excitement, and mystery of the world 
we live in." 

Walk into the out-of-doors on a warm 
April day. Lift a stone and watch the 
beetles, centipedes, millipedes, earwigs, 
earthworms scurry from the light and 
your intrusion. Make sure you replace 
the rock for some of those tiny creatures 
cannot live long exposed to light and heat. 

Stop and watch the ants carrying loads 
bigger than their bodies, a wasp building 
its nest, a spider spinning a web, an 
earthworm burrowing in the soil, a bee 
gathering nectar from a flower blossom, 
or a seed sprouting in the garden. 

Go to a wooded area and listen to the 
singing of birds and insects. Observe 
their busy activities. How do you feci as 
you stand quietly there? What colors do 
you see? What do you think causes you 
to feel as you do? Have you felt this way 
before? What evidences have you seen 
that man is destroying much of our natu- 
ral beauty? 

As you ride through the countryside, 
what things do you see that detract from 
beauty? How is much of the land being 
used? In the city, are there ugly areas? 
What do you see that obstructs the view 
of the sky? How do you feel about it all? 

Discuss with children the ways that 
each individual can not only develop en- 
vironmental awareness, but can do some- 
thing about what he sees, hears, smells, 
and tastes that he does not feel is con- 
tributing to the benefit of the whole earth. 



20 MESSENGER 4 15-72 



use 

nature's 
gifts... 



Paints. When you are walking along 
the street or along a stream, look for soft, 
colored stones which can be used to make 
natural paint, just as the Indians once 
did. You'll find these stones in parking 
lots as well as in the bed of small streams. 
Grind the soft stones into a fine powder, 
using hard flat stones as grinding tools. 
Grind with a circular motion and add 
small amounts of water until a rather 
thick paste is formed. 

After several colors have been made, 
you are ready for Indian painting. With 
your fingers or a feather, paint your face 
as the Indians do for their ceremonial 
dances or celebrations. To get different 
colors, try mixing two paints. 

Dyes. The early pioneers didn't have 
Rit or Tintex dyes which you can buy 
in a store. They used herbs and berries 
which grew nearby to make their own 
dyes. 

Did you know that marigold blossoms 
make a lovely yellow dye? Onion skins 
a bright orange? Get out your old white 
T-shirts, blouses, and shirts. Experiment 
by dyeing them with nature's own bril- 
liant colors. 

Boil the vegetable matter at least one 
hour. Strain the liquid through a clean 
cloth. Then dip the material you have 
ready to dye in the liquid. Remember 
that the different boiling times change 
the intensity of the color so you may 
get several shades of the same color. 

For dyes: 

Yellow: Marigold and golden Mar- 
guerite blossoms, milkweed 

Orange: The papery brown skin of 
common cooking onions 

Red: Dahlia and zinnia petals 

Lilac blue: Fruit of the native elder- 
berry 

Brown: Black walnut hulls soaked 
overnight, then boiled 



For tie dyeing pull up a shape in the 
cloth resembling a rabbit ear. Separate 
the rabbit ear from the flat cloth by 
tightly tying it with string at its base. 
Wrap the string around it many times. 
The wider the band of string, the wider 
the circle will be. 

Experiment with scrap material before 
trying the pattern on your shirt. A tip: 
Old cotton material dyes best. Man- 
made synthetics are very diflficult to dye. 



Beads 
are In... 

Nature's beads. Melon, pumpkin, and 
squash seeds must be washed, then soaked 
overnight. While wet they can be 
pierced with a needle and strung on 
nylon fishing line or heavy waxed thread. 

Eucalyptus pods, cloves, and allspice 
can be soaked overnight and pierced 
with a needle, making a very fragrant 
necklace. Pierce the cloves through the 
stem. 

Clay beads. Clay beads are simple to 
make. Form clay into little balls and 
make a hole in each one with a nail. 
Smooth with water, dry, and then fire, 
if a kiln is available. Instead of glazing 
them, you can mosaic them with tiny, 
smooth pebbles. Use epoxy glue to 
secure them on the clay. 

Flower leis. Our Hawaiian friends 
greet us with flower leis and "Aloha." 
Children make leis from clover blossoms 
and dandelion stems. Why don't you 
"celebrate" the good earth by making a 
colorful lei from her treasures? n 




[f®©©[LQir(i 



TO construct new attitudes 



A NEW ETHIC FOR A NEW EARTH, Glenn C. 

Stone, Ed. Friendship Press, 1971. 176 pages, 

SI. 95 paper 
AND THOU SHALT DIE IN A POLLUTED LAND, 

by Paul Folsom. Liguorian Pamphlets and 

Books, 197). 99 pages, $1.50 paper 

I SHUDDER IN DISBELIEF whcn I read 
about, or talk to, persons still frantically 
fighting to convince us (or themselves) 
that we have no air, water, or land pollu- 
tion problems, or that we are well on our 
way to solving what little we do have. 

This thinking is ten years behind the 
times. Rachel Carson"s Silent Spring 
{ 1 962 ) gave early warning of the dangers 
already facing our earth. By 1969. such 
scientists as Paul Ehrlich and Barry Com- 
moner, and a hundred others like them, 
had inspired the youth of America to 
organize a national Earth Day, April 22, 
1970. But that was only the beginning. 
Since then a wealth of well-documented 
information has been published, clearly 
defining our problems and making it ob- 
vious that our difficulties are all too real! 

Unfortunately some of us became ""ex- 
perts" too fast, without first being fully 
schooled in the diversity and complexity 
of our environment. Some information 
led us to draw faulty, or at least hasty 
conclusions (for example, phosphate, 
NT.A. calcium carbonate detergents vs. 
soap), but it made us sorely aware of the 
huge gaps in our knowledge about the 
earth and its intricate workings. These 
shaky beginnings at attempting to repair 
the damage that man had done to his en- 
vironment alienated some people, wid- 
ened the credibility gap, and led many to 
believe that if ecologists were wrong 
once, they must always be wrong. 

But ecologists were right far more 
often than they were wrong. We have 
only to examine the plight of any major 
city and we find that our worst fears arc 
well-founded. Although tremendous re- 
search and investigative efTorts have 
brought about practical and usable solu- 
tions to many problems, their incorpora- 
tion and utilization has been met with 



typical American apathy, because we in- 
tuitively realize that the repair of the 
damage that we have wrought to our en- 
vironment will cost each of us a great 
deal. The thought of having to give up 
some of our "things" or stabilizing our 
standard of living, produces such para- 
noia and irrational fear in us, that ap- 
parently we would rather die. 

The books A New Ethic for a New 
E'.irth. edited by Glenn Stone, and Paul 
Folsom's And Thou Shall Die in a Pol- 
luted Land are not from the same mold 
as most of the early ecology literature. 
These books begin at a point where most 
other authors leave off, and take a long 
look at the implications of faith and re- 
ligion in our environmental crisis. Father 
Folsom's book is a well-illustrated state- 
ment, full of fascinating quotes. It deals 




»«♦,< 



with the consequences of the Christian's 
failure to respect nature. Folsom points 
out that: 

1 . The man-centered nature of West- 
ern Christianity has made it possible for 
us to rationalize our actions by insisting 
that it is God's will and desire that we 
utilize and exploit all of the earth for our 
good and for our maximum profit; 

2. The traditional Christian stress on 
othcrworldliness minimizes the need to 
take care of what we have on this earth 
since this life is far less significant than 
the next; 

.3. Our man-nature dualism tends to 
prevent us from taking ecology seriously, 



since we believe that we can isolate our- 
selves from nature, and that we are above 
nature. This allows us to easily forget 
that we are totally dependent upon it. 
Folsom stresses that a solution lies in the 
developing of balance between the secular 
and the sacred, and the subsequent de- 
velopment of a moral approach to nature 
and the awareness of man's oneness with 
his surroundings. The need for responsi- 
ble action to man, to the earth, to God, 
and to the "unborn" is discussed in de- 
tail, yet the book irresponsibly fails to 
mention the very basic, direct relationship 
between overpopulation and the ecologi- 
cal crisis. 

A New Ethic for a New Earth should 
be read by every Christian. It is a series of 
1 2 papers published by the Faith-Man- 
Nature Group, a national interdisciplin- 
ary and intcrfaith organization that is ex- 
ploring our ecological crisis in its reli- 
gious dimension. This book is far broader 
in scope, and far more penetrating than 
Folsom's book, making it impossible for 
me to do more than touch a few high 
spots. Its dozen different authors give 
us a kaleidoscopic, realistic, and frighten- 
ing view of the problems. In it, we see 
ourselves as basically selfish and greedy, 
unable to see far into the future or learn 
from the mistakes of the past, and 
tightly shackled by the values and drives 
of Western man. 

It is made vividly clear that the crisis is 
not a problem that can be isolated from 
religion, for it is at the very heart of it. 
What we do about our environment de- 
pends upon our basic beliefs about God, 
ourselves, and the world, and until we 
realize that all things on this earth — not 
just man — have real, lasting value, a 
reason for being here, and an equal right 
to be here, continued human existence is 
unlikely. 

You will find the reading of this book 
a real mind-expanding experience! As 
the problems unfold one immediately be- 
gins to search for new resources which 
will enable us to construct new attitudes 
toward the world in which we live. The 
Christian has these resources available to 
him. His faith, his discipline, and his 
reverence for life demand that he serious- 
ly confront this problem, doing whatever 
is necessary, so that future generations 
might have the opportunity to live. 
— Robert T. Neher 



MESSENGER ^ 15-72 



Why the death of children? 

Why the torture of the innocent? 

Why suffering? 

Why hunger? 

Why war? 

If there is a God- why? 

Why? 



FROM THE APPLE TO THE MOON 

(Full-color filmstrip/93 frames) 

Who among us has not said or thought 
such things in a troubled moment? 
Annie \'aIlotton popular author and il- 
lustrator of Good Xeics for Modem 
Man takes you on a simple walk 
through the story of man — a few 
brushstrokes, a few spots of color, a few 
words. They may answer vour ques- 
tions . . . they may lead to more ques- 
tions. . . Vet our walk on the earth must 
have meaning . . . and it can when 
it is lixed in tune with the Spirit of 
God. Based on the book From the Apple 
to the Mooti, this is an unusual film- 
strip . . . adaptable tor young people or 
adults. 

AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL 
AWARD WINNERS: 

PAUL, PRISONER FOR CHRIST 

56 frames/color. Ages 10-12 

Paul is .seen as a very vital, living 
personality. The filmstrip covers im- 
portant periods in his life — from his early 
training and background through his 
conversion to Christianity, and a special 
look at his letters. 

GOD'S PLAN FOR HIS WORLD 

.57 frames/color. Ages 6-9 

Unusual in approach. God is found 
in the daily lives of people in a city. 
Makes the child aware of problems 
people must face. Relates these problems 
to God's ultimate hope for life, God's 
natural laws. His plan for individuals, and 
man's responsibility toward others. 

OTHER POPULAR FILM STRIPS 

BIBLE LANDS AND TIMES 

66 frames/color. Ages 8-12 



Based on the Old Testament. Views 
some of the most important periods of 
biblical history. Helps child understand 
origin of Christian customs and beliefs. 

A CHILD CAN SERVE 

55 frames/color. Ages 6-9 

Three characters are used to illustrate 
concern for others. Helps children con- 
sider the meaning of some of the most 
basic concepts of Christian living. 

A SIGN OF LOVE 

66 frames/color. Ages 8-12 

A beautifid combination of full-color art 
and photography teaches children to 
become more sensitixe to and care about 
the needs of other people. .Allows the 
viewer to make his own choices and 
organize his own meanings for the frames. 

Each of these six full-color filmstrips 

comes in three forms; 

Filmstrip with script and cassette. 

Each. .S12.,50 

Filmstrip with script and record. Each, 

.•i>10 

Filmstrip with reading script only. 

Each, $7 

Other fdmstrips are available. 




d' Ljouf bed book oc /uppltj ytoce 

obingckxi 
Qucfio-gfophia 



B] 



4-15-72 MESSENGER 23 




by Mabel Bowman 



Recounting 




good me 



When the Inglenook Cook Book, 1911 
edition, was reprinted by The Brethren 
Press two years ago, only one of the or- 
iginal contributors was at the Lincoln An- 
nual Conference where the new printing 
was released. She was Fannie Bucher 
Stambaugh, who as a girl had submitted 
a receipe for snitz and knep. 

In October 1970 Mrs. Stambaugh died. 
What follows are some reflections on her 
life, revealed by a daughter. Revealed 
too is "the simple life" that many Breth- 
ren once knew well: the closeness to the 
earth of orchards and a truck patch; the 
cellar full of home-canned goods; the 
welcome to strangers and friends alike by 
a large family whose members clustered 
in living groups of their own near the 
family home. 

For some it is a life-style far removed 
from the 70s, yet certain of its values 
may reemerge in new forms. The reader 
may wish to note particularly the con- 
trasts and the parallels between the ac- 
count here and the proposal for a con- 
temporary life-style told earlier. Each, 
in its distinctive way, speaks of living 
out the Christian faith. — Editor 

Iflother!" I smiled. "How did you get 
here?" "Here" was the church dining 
room where cookies and Kool-aid had 
just been served to daily vacation Bible 
schoolers. At eighty-six. Mother still 
loved to mingle with the children, call 
them by name, and instruct them in 
religious ways. She taught many little 
ones the Bible truths, "God is love, love 
one another, be kind to one another." 

"Oh, I came in with the children this 
morning," she answered. We were at 
the last vacation Bible school Mother was 
to attend, and she was fully enjoying her 
part in it, in the same way that she has 
savored each event in her long life. 

Fannie Bucher Stambaugh was the first 
child of Elder Cyrus Bucher and Leah 
Gibble Bucher after their 1882 move 
from Pennsylvania to Illinois. She and 
ten others of the twelve Bucher children 



24 MESSENGER 4-15-72 



1% •! 



project for 

Vacation 

Church Schools 



remained in Fulton County to grow up, 
marry, and establish homes near the 
Woodland Church of the Brethren at 
Astoria. 

Fannie B., as mother signed her name, 
went to Mulberry Country School, at- 
tended Mount Morris College for several 
months, and obtained a teacher's cer- 
tificate. Her life had the characteristics 
of her father's: the Elder Bucher, who 
could preach in both German and 
English, never allowed earthly possessions 
to affect his sincerity and his belief in the 
simple life. At twenty, she married 
George Stambaugh, widowed when his 
first wife — • Fannie's sister Leah — died, 
leaving two daughters. As ten more 
children were born. Mother prayed that 
each might be healthy and God-fearing. 
But she and Dad could help us accept 
the death of our twelve-year-old brother 
Jay when they gathered us together on 
the day of his funeral for a prayer to "a 
friend who is closer than a brother." 

Our full lives went on. Mother learned 
photography, developing and printing 
film in the bathroom. She sewed a large 
number of quilts and comforters. There 
was always a cellar filled with canned 
fruits and vegetables. Dad kept an 
orchard and a truck patch, raising most 
of the family food. We purchased flour, 
sugar, and salt. A sewing woman came 
to help Mother make our Easter dresses 
and bonnets. Though we dressed simply, 
the Brethren way, if lace was popular, 
or ruffles, or pleats, our dresses had those 
touches. 

Our home exuded warmth and friend- 
liness. Schoolteachers stayed overnight. 
It was nothing for Mother to hitch her 
driving horse to the buggy and take one 
of us along to do a friendly deed for 
a neighbor. She welcomed Fresh Air 
children from Chicago during the sum- 
mer. Many an agent or visitor knew there 
would be an invitation to pull up a chair 
if it was mealtime. Our dinner table 
could seat twelve or sixteen persons and 
a baby in the high chair. Regularly the 
table was laden with homemade bread. 



cured ham, ginger cake, fried chicken. 

Before meals we always said grace, 
and we used the morning worship period 
to read a chapter from the Bible. We 
knelt in prayer before breakfast, when 
Mother and Dad would take turns pray- 
ing, and we children, as we became mem- 
bers of the church, were given the priv- 
ilege of praying "our Lord's prayer." 
Neighbors could set their clocks by the 
Stambaughs' weekly trip to Sunday school 
and church, by horse and carriage, 
sleigh, and later, automobile. We always 
went, snow, rain, or sleet, living out in 
our own way the family creed, "I believe 
in God, I love God, I serve God." 

Dad died in 1954, just six months after 
the celebration of his and Mother's 
fiftieth wedding anniversary. He had left 
enough provisions for Mother so that she 
could continue living on in the Woodland 
community, within walking distance of 
the church where in 1896 she had been 
baptized on a cold, blustery day. 

From the family home she watched as 
the Stambaugh children graduated from 
Astoria High School, as two daughters 
earned degrees from Manchester College, 
as a nurse, teachers, workers, and home- 
makers developed. By October 9, 1970, 
the day of her death, Fannie Stambaugh's 
family numbered 170. 

We would remember her as a woman 
who shared her worldly goods with Beth- 
any Hospital and Seminary, the General 
Board, and Manchester College; who 
corresponded with the workers in the 
India church up to the last and regularly 
received correspondence from them; who 
had begun attending Annual Conference 
at age nineteen and missed few Annual 
Meetings between 1903 and 1970; who, 
at eighty-six, kept in touch with denomi- 
national work and was enthusiastic in 
ecumenical endeavors as well. 

Her children, and all who knew her 
best as Aunt Fannie or Grandma Stam- 
baugh, will remember her as a woman 
who knew what is meant by the verse, 
"All things work together for good to 
those who love the Lord." □ 



PUT LIFE IN 
YOUR GIVING 

Give a "living gift"! 

$60.00 to $100.00 will buy a 
goat that gives 8 cups of milk 
a day for a needy family. 



$25.00 to $50.00 will buy 100 
chicks that will lay an end- 
less supply of eggs and give 
chicken dinners besides. A 
$60.00 to $100.00 pig will pro- 
duce a ton of meat annuallv, 
and a $400.00 to $500.00 heifer 
will give 20 quarts of milk 
every day and a calf every 
year! 

"Living gifts" multiply and 
go on giving year after year. 
And recipients share in the 
giving as they pass on their 
gift's first offspring to a 
needy neighbor. 

Supported by churches and 
individuals of all faiths, Heif- 
er Project, Inc. has since 
1944 sent more than a million 
"living gifts to needy families 
in 90 countries as well as 18 
of our own states. Gifts are 
tax deductible. 



HEIFER 
PROJECT, INC. 

1610 S. 12th Street 
Goshen, Ind. 46526 



Please send your FREE litera- 
ture packet and sample church 
school materials. 



Name 




Address 



Zip 



Church 



S571 



415-72 MESSENGER 25 



"Man!" 


and the land and the water? 


Some 


God called out 


and the land under the water 


who've assumed dominion 


to Adam, 


and . . . " 


have 


"have dominion 




held authority 


over this world 


"All of it!" 


preciously, , 


1 created. 




provided responsibility j 


Be fruitful 


"Wow! Lord!" 


responsibly; 


and multiply! 




some 


Explore it 




have grabbed authority 


Probe it 


Down the ribbon of Time 


but fumbled responsibility. 


Dig in it 


Adam 


Some 


Fly over it 


and all 


became 


Enjoy it 


his begotten kin 


authority 


and remember 


have taken turns 


and ignored responsibility. 


1 give you 


accepting 


Some listened 


authority over it 


authority 


to God 


and 


and responsibility; 


while 


responsibility for it. 


some men 


others turned deaf ears 


In short, Man, 


have 


to Him. 


you're in charge!" 


harnessed fire 
conceived the wheel 






developed engines 


Today 


"All of it?" 


designed wings 


God ^ 


asked Adam 


while 


still calls out: ^^^^ ^M 


incredulously. 


others 


^^■^ W 




have drilled for oil 


Have dominion ^^^i^^Wj 


"All of it!" 


dug for coal 


over this world ^^^^^k. 


replied God 


refined for tools 


created! ^^^H^^ 


firmly. 


probed for light 
searched for health. 


Explore ^Kfr^g 



"The fish in the sea? 
the fowl in the air? 
the beasts in the fields? 



1 



i*. 




A • 



A 



1 

Probe it 


"The fish dying 


Fly over it 


in the sea? 


Conquer it 


birds fluttering 


Subdue it 


in the air? 


.Enjoy it 


beasts moaning 


IJ 


in the fields? 


; 1 give you, Man, 


and the raped land? 


authority 


the stagnant air? 


and responsibility 


the fouled water? 


for it. 


and . . . ?" 


in short, IVIan, 


"All of it!" 


you're in charge!" 






"Forgive us, Lord!" 


'Over all of it?" 
We ask incredulously. 






: "All of it!" I 




is the resounding 




, answer. 





Man! You're 
In Charge! 




4-15-72 MESSENGER 27 



A campaign on rethinking mission 



In an effort to break the apathy and silence that 
so much surrounds the cause of Christian mis- 
sion, a church agency in Hamburg. Germany, 
last year took an innovative tack. It created for 
public media an advertising campaign on chang- 
ing concepts in mission, concepts which may have 
been dealt with in articles and sermons but which 
had failed to score in pubUc consciousness. 

As a sample of the approach followed, one 
ad on the Third World depicted a very bare in- 
fant against a mother's bare but very full breast 
and asserted that the critical lack in this chUd's 
life was not milk but schools. Another message, 
a bit more discreet in visualization, alluded to 
situations in which missionaries had outgrown 
their usefulness and had returned home — a mark 
not of failure but of maturity on the current scale 
of mission values. 

If such ads by the Evangelical Committee 
for World Mission in Germany were abrasive, 
the thing they had going for them was high in- 
tention. Any denomination or church agency 
would subscribe to the motivation underlying 
the campaign: to get people to talk mission, to 
think critically about mission, to update their 
images and expectations of mission, to invest 
their resources and themselves in mission. 

One of the realities of the missionary enter- 
prise wherever it occurs, whomever it involves, 
has been stated well by John V. Taylor of the 
Church Missionary Society in London. He insists 
"there has always been a subtle difference be- 
tween the hopes of those who have initiated, sup- 
ported, and prayed for a missionary society or 
board and the expectation of the people overseas 
who look to the society or board for help." 

In this the Church of the Brethren is no ex- 
ception. We have been long in mission work, but 
we have been late in discerning how the national, 
or the minority person, views the contribution we 
bring. Years after service is completed former 
workers on occasion have been heard to speak so 
disparagingly of the culture or life of those they 
encountered that one wonders if mutuality ever 
took place. Mission enthusiasts sometime appear 



so zealous to have our namesake, our tradition, 
our investment made visible in churches abroad 
that World Ministries executive Joel Thompson 
was prompted to say to Annual Conference, 
"Whose church is it that we build?" 

In examining how we perceive mission we may 
find help in the observations tendered by a com- 
mittee studying mission from an international 
view. Among "clues for rethinking mission" sug- 
gested by the committee are these: 

— Each church (local, denominational, na- 
tional) is the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ 
in its own individual way. This individuality 
stems from the church's interaction with its sur- 
rounding culture. 

— What makes a church authentically the 
church of the Lord Jesus Christ are not external 
criteria (the traditional signs of word, sacrament, 
discipline) but the evidence of God's presence 
in its midst (the work of grace, of love, of fel- 
lowship). 

— Even when errors or irregularities appear 
as gauged by Western codes, an authentic church 
may be present, in terms of a theology and an 
ethic sensitive to the culture. 

— The foreign missionary remains alien even 
when the gospel has been assimilated. 

— For most Christians the church is more 
an immediate reality than a universal one; inter- 
national and ecumenical links are secondary. 



w. 



rhether we accept these particular clues as 
instructive, or set out to formulate our own, for 
most of us there are aspects of our thinking that 
need correction. To find ways of shedding paro- 
chial views ... to interact with other cultures or 
with minority groups and be enriched by them 
... to expose ourselves and what we cherish to 
risk and vulnerability ... to meet people at the 
level of their deepest hurts and highest affirma- 
tions — these are dimensions we would do ex- 
ceedingly well to weigh. 

A campaign on rethinking mission? It is a 
prime need of us all. — h.e.r. 



28 MESSENGER 4-15-72 



CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN ANNUAL CONFERENCE 



JUNE 27 -JULY 2, 1972 



FUmecI by tIie Sdirit 



CINCINNATI, OHIO 




ISSUE-ORIENTED BUSINESS 

Abortion, Low-Income Housing, Investments, Bethany 
Theological Seminary, Review and Evaluation of General 
Board Program, Noncooperation With the Draft, The 
Church's Needs in Music, Theological and Social- 
Economic Dimensions of FAUS, Equality for Women, 
and Health and Welfare Program. 



O 



< 

6 



VOLUNTEER HELPERS 

NOTE: Each year Conference depends on many volunteers to help with 
tasks vital to its effective operation. YOU CAN HELP US. The task needing 
the largest number of persons is ushering. Please use this form to indi- 
cate your availability. 

I will be available to help with the tasks I have marked below (Mark them 
in order of your preference). I plan to arrive at Conference on June .. 

Tellers (Standing Committee 

and Conference business 



Name 



Registration (Type badges, 
collect fees, sort cards) 

Ushers (Business and gen- 
eral sessions) 

Child Care Service 

Count Offerings 

Messengers (Standing Com- 
mittee and Conference busi- 
ness sessions) 



sessions; 

Information Desk 

Ticket Sales 

Mail Distribution 

Please circle approximate age: 
16-22 22-30 30-40 

40-50 50-60 60-70 



Address . . 

Additional volunteers may indicate their interest in serving on another paper. 



PROGRAM BOOKLET 



Please send 

Booklet (available May 1) 



Name 



. copies at $1.50 each of the 1972 Annual Conference 



Address 



(Zip) 
Amount Remitted $_ . 

(All delegates sending their delegate authorization form and registration fee 
will automatically receive a program booklet, the cost of which is included 
in the fee.) 



CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES 

For school age children, ages 6-11 years 

Please enroll my child (children) for the following days at Annual Con- 
ference: 



- Wednesday 



_ Thursday 



. Friday 



. Saturday 



Name of Parent 



THEME-RELATED PREACHING AND BIBLE STUDY 

Brethren speakers include: Dean Miller, David Miller, 
Graydon Snyder, Phyllis Carter, Dale Brown, Kenneth 
Gibble, Anna B. Mow, and Robert O. Hess. Other featured 
speakers are: Rosemary Reuther and Tom Skinner. 

INSIGHTS '72 

More than 40 late evening and Sunday morning sessions, 
each an opportunity for growth and learning experiences. 



Home address . ^ 

Names of Children 



Grade Completed 



FEE: $1.25 per session per child. Hours: 8:30 a.m. to approximately 10 
minutes after the close of the forenoon Bible study session of the Confer- 
ence. Total fee is to be paid when child attends first session. Only children 
who have been preregistered will be accepted. Six-year-olds must have 
completed first grade. Deadline for preregistration is June 1, 1972. 






Robert A. Raines 

Lord, Could You Make It a Little Better? 

What is prayer? A conversation with God? A cry for help? An expression 
of faith? Perhaps it is all of these things, but to Robert Raines a prayer 
is the "outward yearning of my inner being." It is seeing, hearing, 
touching, smelling, remembering, and hoping with intensity. This book of 
prayer poems is tender, moving, poignant, reverent, and inspiring. $4.95 

Ross Snyder 
Contemporary Celebration 

Dealing specifically with the rapidly developing field of celebration. Dr. 
Snyder encourages contemporary man to fulfill his innate desire for the 
celebrative life not only in his worship services but in his personal 
philosophy as well. Through each chapter the author gives valuable 
guidance in developing the art of constructing contemporary celebration. 
He lucidly explores the elements involved, from an actual definition of 
celebration to suggested celebrative designs. Each chapter is characterized 
by his "explorations" or poetic bursts of celebration which illustrate some 
facet with which that chapter has dealt. $4.75 

Elizabeth O'Connor 
Search for Silence 

This book takes the reader on a journey to the quiet depth of one's inner 
being. At this place of "central silence," one's own life and spirit are 
united with the life and Spirit of God. The first half of the book deals with 
confession because this is essential to the quieting of the individual's mind 
and the silence of prayer. In the second portion, prayer and silence are 
presented as a preliminary to creative action. Six exercises in confession, 
prayer, silence, and contemplation help readers take the personal steps on 
the journey of self-understanding. Miss O'Connor will be remembered 
for her book. Call to Commitment. $4.95 

William Barclay 
Daily Celebration 

Here are devotional selections — one for each day of the year — for personal 
or family use. Free of meaningless platitudes and the sound of assembly 
ine production, every reading is rich in biblical insights with practical 
applications to life each day. Dr. Barclay talks about life and those 
situations which confront people every day: intolerance, greed, war, loss of 
faith, marital problems, financial difficulties, and many more. $4.95 

Postage: 20c for first dollar; 5c each additional dollar 

The Brethren Press, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, III. 60120 



messenger 



CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN 



MAY 1, 1972 



People look at me and then ask. if lam Korean or Spanish* 

When I say I am an Indian they ask 
me about conditions in India » 
Then I explain that Vm an 
American Indian " 
aMavaJo" and 
the expression 
on their faces 
is one of 
utter 
amazement* • . 

Jessie Garcia 




Dsl^lts^^ 



14 



18 



From the General Board. . . . Investments, ecumenical posture, 
and reports from study committees engaged the General Board in 
its March gathering. Ronald E. Keener reports 

Wealth, Property, and Money in the New Testament. The 

gospel makes it clear that wealth is not to be despised if it is used as 
a means of generosity and compassion to persons, by Donald E. 
Miller 

Navajo Student Placement as Viewed From the Pennsylvania 
Dutchland. "My friends back home ask me if I've met any nice 
boys. I answer that I am not here to get a boy but to get an educa- 
tion." The comments of one of sixteen Navajo youth placed in foster 
homes far away from their parents and friends at Lybrook, N.M., 
introduce the story of Student Intercultural Program and the in- 
volvement of Brethren families, by Vivian S. Ziegler 

Navajo Student Placement as Viewed From Navajoland. "It 

is not an easy thing to have our children leave us for nine months 
without seeing them," says a Navajo parent. "But we have felt it 
better to sacrifice in order that the child may have educational ad- 
vantages." Edith Mae Merkey describes the placement program from 
parents" point of view 

American Indians in Mission to Humanity. Four books by and 
about Indian Americans underscore values and point to our com- 
mon humanity. Merle Crouse reviews 

In Touch profiles Dean Young, Jeannine Petry, and Ernest M. Wampler 
(2) .... Outlook previews Annual Conference queries, notes the offer by 
a California congregation to give sanctuary to seven men in military serv- 
ice, and describes the aftermath of a flood in West Virginia (beginning on 
4) .... "New Features for Conference Business Sessions" will spark the 
186th recorded Annual Meeting, according to Dean Miller (10) .... John 
Drescher comments on the church that is too "at ease" (11) .... "The 
Gunfight at the Corral Is Not Okay" is Ben Simmons' critique of Western 
movie morality (23) .... An editorial turns "A Wary Eye on National 
Service" (24) 



EDITOR 

Howard E. Royer 



ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

Ronald E. Keener / News 
Wilbur E. Brumbaugh / Design 
Kenneth I. Morse / Features 



ASSISTANT EDITOR 

Linda K. Beher 



EXECUTIVE EDITOR 

Richard N. Miller 



VOL. 121, NO. 9 



MAY 1, 1972 



CREDITS: 3 Ronald E. Keener: 5 Gladden 
Boa7: 8 H. McKinlev Coffman: 10 Don 
Honick; 1517 W. Ste\cn Noh: 18 H. .\rm- 
strong Roberts 



Messenger is the official publication of the 
Church of the Brethren. Entered as second- 
class matter .Xug. 20. 1918. under .\ct of 
Congress of Oct. 17, 1917. Filing date, Oct. 1. 

1971. Messenger is a member of the .Associ- 
ated Church Press and a subscriber to Reli- 
gious News Service and Ecumenical Press 
Ser\ice. Biblical quotations, unless otherwise 
indicated, arc from the Re\ised Standard 
Version. 

Subscription rates: S4.20 per year for indi- 
vidual sitbscriptions; S3-60 per ^ear for church 
group plan: 53.00 per \ear for c\cry home 
plan; life subscription. S60: husband and 
wife. S75. If you move clip old address 
from Me-ssencer and send with new address. 
Allow at least fifteen days for ad- 
flress change. Messenger is owned 
and published twice monthly by 
the (.eneral Ser\ices Conimission. 
Church of the Brethren General 
Board. 1 45 1 Duntlee -\\e.. Elgin, 
111. 60120. .Second-class postage 
paid at Elgin, 111., .Mav I, 1972. Copyright 

1972, Church of the Brethren General Board. 



■ 



TRIPLE AMEN 

A triple amen to Marvin Sherman's let- 
ter, "Regarding "Brethren Bombs'" (March 
1). Looks like some folks are telling the 
church. "Put your money where your mouth 
is!" Not a bad idea, and the sooner the 
better! 

Virgil Rose 
Brethren. Mich. 

EMBARRASSING 

How embarrassing to discover that the 
Church of the Brethren, as a corporation, 
holds investments in corporations which sup- 
ply war materials to the government. Let us 
forthwith sever our connections with sinners 
so that we may denounce evildoers from a 
position of pure holiness. (Lord. I thank 
thee that I am not as other men are, espe- 
cially that tax collector, Richard Nixon!) 

It is not difficult to persuade ourselves 
that we are righteous if we reserve the right 
to decide whose sins are to be condemned. 
Whether we can force God to approve that 
arrangement is another matter. 

Do the church members who chide the 
General Board for "improper" investments 
live above reproach in the eyes of God? 
Christian Bashore 
Gettysburg, Ohio 

ONE VOICE 

Charles A. Wells, a Quaker, contends 
that instead of investing in businesses such 
as low-cost housing, nursing homes, factories 
employing the handicapped, and other in- 
dustries bearing a moral dividend, churches 
are investing in war industries which are 
in business for the purpose of killing. 

If all the churches through the power of 
their pulpits would unite in one voice against 
this war. they could end it in a week. The 
pulpit has power to make or break empires, 
but use it very carefully as most ministers 
know that their influence is hampered by 
the big boys in the front pews who raise the 
budget and thus decide policy and in sub- 
tle ways inform their pastors what they are 
to preach about. As long as they stick to 
the text and do not ramble off into the so- 
cial gospel or tamper with big investments 
is their tenure assured. 

Of course it goes without saying that if 
pastors wish to rise in their profession, they 
should be good platform men." . . . 

The Berrigan Brothers are in and out of 
prison simply because they refuse to ride 
the currents of the status quo and. like the 
early apostles, oppose those in power. Near- 
ly all of the early apostles died violent deaths 
because they preached against Rome, the 
Pharisees, and the ideas of the establishment, 

V. P, Mock 
Chippewa Falls, Wis, 



[0) 



(Q)D1]( 



PROTEST 

I am protesting the review of the book 
Is Gay Good? (Jan. 15). I never expected 
to see such filth as this in any church paper, 
especially by a Brethren pastor, except as he 
might caution it to be unfit reading. . . . 

The article spoke of no heterosexual scrip- 
tures. Here are a few . . . : Rom. 1:25-27; 
1 Cor. 6:9; Gen. 2:24, 1:27-28; Matt. 19:4- 
6; Rev. 21:1-8; Rev. 22. Here we see mar- 
riage ordained between man and woman, 
God giving the blessing and joy in partner- 
ship with him in creating a new life. Also 
we see in these scriptures homosexuality 
condemned. In Revelation, we see the value 
of living the Christian way. . . . 

As to how we should treat these in 
church, same as any other sinner, with con- 
cern, help, and prayer, introducing them to 
the power of the Holy Spirit, that they and 
we all together may be pure in God's sight, 
found only in Christ's gift of righteousness 
to those who will accept it. 

Florence Oliver 
Mondovi, Wis. 



DON'T PLANT THE SEED 

I am concerned about the abortion prob- 
lem which will be before the delegate body 
of Conference in June. . . . 

In the beginning God said, "Let us make 
man in our image." So he did and said, 
"Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:26-28). 
Later in Exodus 20 he said, "Thou shalt not 
kill," and also, "Honor thy father and moth- 
er." 

Now parents want to get rid of children. 
This is the first step if it's voted in. But 
remember if you say yes, then you have 
signed your own death warrant. 

The next step is the children's choice. 
Let's get rid of the parents; they are old 
anyway. (See Matt. 10:21; Mark 13:12; 
Luke 21:16.) For God's word says, "What- 
ever you wish that men would do to you, do 
so to them" (Matt. 7:12). If you don't 
want children, don't plant the seed ( 1 Cor. 
9:27; Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5); discipline 
your bodies, says the scripture. 

If you don't want children have yourself 
sterilized — the husband or the wife. Don't 
sacrifice the innocent, 

Ruth Robbins 
Sacramento, Calif. 



1834: STARK, NOT DARKE, COUNTY 

The story "Brethren Gather by the Ohio 
for 1972 Annual Conference" (March I) 
sent me spinning, I have read all the his- 
tory that has been written in Southern 
Ohio on Annual Conferences, and I never 
knew that "past Conferences in Southern 



Ohio [were] in 1834 in Darke County," 

We wonder if you have Stark County 
mixed up with Darke for 1834? . . . The 
first Conference west of the Alleghenies was 
in Columbiana County in 1822. . . . 

The article should have included the 
Conference held at Bellefontaine in 1903, 
Northwestern Ohio then but now with 
Stony Creek, a part of Southern Ohio. It's 
really sixty-nine years since Conference has 
been held in Southern Ohio. I have spent 
forty-five of my nearly seventy years of life 
in Darke County and if the Conference was 
ever held there in 1834 I would know where 
it was. . . . 

This is to remind the Messenger staff 
that they should be on their toes when they 
publish anything concerning the history of 
the church. 

John C. Puterbaugh 
St. Pete Beach, Fla. 

Mr. Puterbaugh is right! The 1834 Con- 
ference was held in Stark County, which has 
never been in Southern Ohio District. Al- 
though special Annual Meetings occurred in 
Southern Ohio as early as 1820, according 
to the 1920 district history, the first regular 
Annual Meeting in the district is considered 
to have been in 1850 at Bear Creek, Mont- 
gomery County, on the Brumbaugh-Bow- 
man farm ten miles west of Dayton. Others 
have been in 1862 at Erbaugh church, 
Montgomery County: 1875 at Covington, 
Ohio: 1876 at DeCraff, Logan County 
(which corrects a typographical error in the 
original story): 1884 at Dayton. Ohio, and 
1886 at Pitsburg, Ohio. Until about 
1964 when the districts merged, the Stony 
Creek church near DeGraff (1876) and the 
Bellefontaine church were in Northwestern 
Ohio District, but today are in Southern 
Ohio. — Editors 

NOT BEHIND CLOSED DOORS 

In answer to the letter on White House 
feet-washing published in the March 15 
Messenger: 

To me Jesus taught we should be humble 
enough to wash one another's feet, regard- 
less where we meet them, be it in Washing- 
ton, Europe, Asia, or Africa. 

How can we be Brethren and pick whose 
feet we will wash? When Jesus said we 
ought to wash one another's feet, this 
means peasant or king, black or red. And 
why should it be behind closed doors? 

Jesus said, "I have given you an example 
that you should do as I have done to you." 
And that means to be a servant to ail man- 
kind. 

Elmer Waggy 
East Berlin, Pa. 



In an editorial on rethinking mission, 
the April 15 Messenger urged readers 
to try to perceive how our outreach 
looks not only to ourselves but to the 
people we serve. 

A beginning toward such understand- 
ing comes in this issue in articles on the 
Student Intercultural Program of the 
Lybrook Navajo Mission. In the one 
article Vivian Ziegler, a homemaker 
and teacher at Quarryville, Pa., speaks 
from firsthand experience as a host par- 
ent. As a follow-up, in what is likely 
a first in Messenger coverage, Edith 
Mae Merkey of the Lybrook Mission 
staff records how the placement pro- 
gram looks and feels to Navajo parents. 

To gather reactions from Navajo 
families, Miss Merkey for nearly a week 
visited in homes widely scattered in the 
mission area in north central New Mex- 
ico. She was surprised how open and 
earnest many parents were in convers- 
ing. She was even more elated when 
on the following Sunday evening every 
parent responded to the invitation to 
come to the mission to discuss the 
article she had drafted. Moreover, at 
the groups's initiative, it was decided 
to meet the first Monday of each month 
on an ongoing basis, to share feelings 
and concerns about the students away 
from home. 

Beyond furthering communication 
within the Navajo community, it is our 
hope that the dual Messenger treat- 
ment will help sensitize readers to is- 
sues before the American Indian and 
the Anglos as well. For those who 
want to study the concerns further, 
some helpful resources are included 
in the books reviewed by Merle Grouse, 
whose portfolio in World Ministries in- 
cludes administrative responsibility for 
the Lybrook Mission and other Ameri- 
can Indian ministries. 

Other guest contributors are Dean 
M. Miller, moderator-elect of Annual 
Conference and pastor of the York Cen- 
ter church in Illinois; Donald E. Miller, 
Bethany Seminary professor who has 
researched matters related to church in- 
vestments; John M. Drescher, editor of 
The Gospel Herald, a Mennonite week- 
ly published at Scottdale, Pa.; and Ben 
Simmons, pastor of the White Branch 
congregation, Hagerstown, Ind. — The 
Editors 



5-1- 



MESSENGER 1 





Dean\bung: School board member 



At nineteen Dean \'oung looks like 
the college student he is: longish 
hair, thoughtful, bright eyes, earnest. 

But the Malone College sopho- 
more is atypical in at least one way: 
Last November Dean became the 
youngest school board member in 
Summit County. Ohio, when he out- 
distanced his nearest opponent by 
1.045 votes. 

A member of the Springfield 
Church of the Brethren at Akron, 
Dean declared throughout his cam- 
paign, "I'm not running as a teen- 
ager." but as a citizen intently 
interested in his township's educa- 
tional system. 

That interest began during high 
school days when Dean co-edited The 
Free Press, Springfield High's under- 
ground newspaper. Even then he 
was encountering and dealing with 
school officials in attempts to en- 
hance student interest in school 
board and administration policies. 

As a senior Dean extended his 
long membership on student council 
by winning his bid for president. A 
week's study in New York and Wash- 
ington, D.C., with the Christian 
Citizenship Seminar sponsored by the 



Church of the Brethren convinced 
him that "churches need to reaffirm 
some type of faith in the process of 
government. And churches need to 
exert some type of influence on the 
decisions of government." 

"Aside from the educational and 
personal experiences I had there, it 
was during that week that my re- 
ligious and political opinions were 
most strongly shaped." Dean re- 
flected. 

New experiences as one of Ohio's 
six under-twenty-one school board 
members continue. In April Dean 
represented the state of Ohio at the 
National School Board Association 
convention in San Francisco. 

He commands the admiration of 
his associates, among them his pastor, 
Paul L. Groff. "Dean has a quality 
in that he can raise excellent ques- 
tions and follow through for the 
answers. This applies to his Christian 
faith." 

Now anticipating a career in law. 
Dean affirms that faith this way: 
"Christians have an obligation to be- 
come involved in the processes of our 
society, because our love or the con- 
cept of love has to take active form." 



infers 




JeanninePetry: An axiom 

What the late A. J. Muste exempli- 
fied in his life Jeannine Retry has set 
for her own: "There is no way to 
peace; peace is the way." 

Acting upon this conviction at the 
time of graduation from Belmont 
High School in Dayton, Ohio, last 
year, Jeannine tried out for the role 
of student speaker at commence- 
ment. She was selected out of a class 
of 426, but then drafted four com- 
plete speeches before having the 
presentation okayed by a school ad- 
ministrator. 

While fully aware that Belmont 
school is situated in a district with an 
air force base and a military supply 
corporation, Jeannine in her com- 
mencement address felt impelled to 
center on nonviolence as a life-style. 
Paraphrasing John Kennedy's state- 
ment. "We must accept the fact 
that there is not an American solu- 
tion to every problem." Jeannine de- 
clared. "There is not a military solu- 
tion to every problem." Nonviolence, 
she continued, is "the method of 
change which affords the fullest pro- 
tection to one's self-respect and 
honor. . . . (It) must be a consistent 
and inseparable part of our very 
being." 

The speech, which touched on spe- 
cific courses of action, precipitated 
at least a few boos and the consterna- 
tion of school officials. It also 
brought enriching encounters with a 
wounded Vietnam veteran and a 
school board member. When the 
speech later was presented at a youth 
service in Jeannine's church. Mack 



2 MESSENGER 5-1-72 




o live 



Ernest M.Wampler : 'Wang Mushih' 



Memorial, one worshiper was moved 
to write a folk hymn: "You can't 
shoot an idea with a gun." Jeannine 
gave the speech a third time at Na- 
tional Youth Conference. 

But more than talking about non- 
violence, the Manchester College 
premed major is concerned with liv- 
ing nonviolence. Failing to get alter- 
natives to military service included 
in presentations at the Military 
Career Day in high school, she and 
others presented the subject to sever- 
al classes. She has accented the 
peace motif further through involve- 
ment in Southern Ohio youth activi- 
ties, Dayton's Metropolitan Churches 
United, Another Mother for Peace, 
the People's Peace Treaty, and col- 
lege deputations. At National Youth 
Conference she accepted the chal- 
lenge to fast a meal a week, contrib- 
uting the money saved to church 
causes. In a special term at Gustavus 
Adolphus College in Minnesota this 
winter, she shared freely on the 
Church of the Brethren and its teach- 
ings on peace. 

Daughter of Lowell and Loisanne 
Petry, Jeannine is looking forward to 
being one of Mack Memorial's voting 
delegates to Annual Conference in 
June. There on the Conference floor 
and in informal groups she is certain 
to be heard and seen passing the 
word: "Peace is the way." 



To the Chinese with whom he spent 
27 years in village evangelistic work, 
Ernest M. Wampler was Wang 
Mushih, or Pastor (Shepherd) 
Wampler. His full name to the 
Chinese was Wang Pu Lin. 

Today, from his Bridgewater, Va., 
home, he recalls fondly his years 
among the Chinese. At the same 
time, realism enters his assessment of 
the future of the church in China, 
even with President Ni.xon's visit. 

"The old typical mission work, like 
I did there, is completely out," he 
says. If Westerners ever again have 
an opportunity for church work in 
China, he says, it must come at the 
invitation of the Chinese Christians, 
and for work done preferably by 
Chinese expatriates, not occidentals. 

Now 86, Mr. Wampler served in 
China from 1918-22 and 1928-50, 
mainly in Shansi province in north 
China. He and his wife Elizabeth 
(his first wife Vida died in 1926) 
worked in seed improvement and the 
Chinese use of wool for knitted and 
woven articles. Elizabeth, a nurse, 
did public health work as well as 
mission work. 

He firmly believes that the Chris- 
tian message must go hand in hand 
with filling stomachs and clothing 
backs. "You can't do much preach- 
ing when people are hungry. They 
don't pay much attention." The 
Wamplers served in China during 
three famines. 

His one regret is that no more than 
three ordained Chinese ministers 
were produced during his work there. 



He remains firmly committed to the 
indigenous and independent church. 

Since leaving China Mr. Wampler 
served two years in deputation work 
for the Brotherhood board, was ex- 
ecutive for seven years of the former 
Second Virginia district, and is now 
chairman of the chaplains committee 
of the Bridgewater Home. 

His China experiences are told in 
two books, China Suffers ( 1945), an 
account of China under the Japanese, 
and Seeking God's Will for Me 
( 1969), his autobiography. 

Ernest Wampler was called to the 
ministry ("I wasn't a volunteer") by 
the Timberville congregation near 
Harrisonburg. Va.. when he was 31. 
At the time he was a store clerk and 
a huckster wagon driver. 

Always an advocate of closer ties 
between countries, he applauds new 
US initiatives being made with China, 
but has no illusions that all problems 
will be resolved. But as one of the 
last Brethren out of China in 1950, 
Wang Mushih remains one of the 
church's most concerned — and per- 
sonally involved — China-watchers. 



5-I-72 MESSENGER 3 



Cincinnati delegates will deal 
with four queries of last year 

The lS6th recorded Annual Conference 
will receive four committee reports on 
queries that originated last year. They 
are: 

[/* Fund for the Americas in the 
US. Assigned to examine how evangelism 
can be related to F.AUS, the committCL- 
acknowledged the differing interpreta- 
tions given within the church to evange- 
lism as '"witness" and "service." 

The report calls attention to a num- 
ber of present F.\US programs closely 
related to minority churches, and to pro- 
cedures already in existence to provide 
funding of groups whose main concern 
is evangelism. 

Two minority programs funded for the 
development of black clergymen are the 
Black Churchmen's Ecumenical Training 
Facility and the Black Study Urban Min- 
istries Project. 

The committee considers evangelism 
and religious development within the 
scope of community organization, one 
of the thrusts of FAUS under Part I 
grants, and recommends that Brethren 
avoid the image of a white evangelizer 
among minorities. The committee fur- 
ther recommends that local congrega- 
tions seek to become more personally 
involved in FAUS projects in their areas, 
where helpful, for the sharing of techni- 
cal, financial, and personal resources, 
cultural perspectives, and the Christian 
faith. 

Committee members are Warren E. 
Miller, chairman, George M. Kreps, Fay- 
tonia Fair, Arthur Gish, and Harold S. 
Martin. 

i^ Church Music. A study of the 
needs of the church in music, hymns, 
and other songs, prior to the considera- 
tion of the publication of new resources, 
recommends that the present Brethren 
Hymnal be continued in use with empha- 
sis placed on its newer, often unused 
hymns, and to offer yearly supplements 
in an expandable binding for future 
printings. 

The initial work of the committee was 
confined to music, lyrics, and format. 
Working at the assignment were Phyllis 
Carter, Doris Coppock, Patricia Sherfy, 



Melanie May, Wil Nolen, Steve Engle, 
and David Albright. 

w* Dr.\ft Noncooperation. Focus- 
ing on the ramifications and implications 
of the 1970 amendment to the Statement 
on War regarding noncooperation with 
the draft and reactions to it within the 
Brotherhood, the committee concluded its 
study by commending the total peace 
position of the church expressed in the 
Statement on War. 

"Young men who have chosen the posi- 
tion of alternative service or noncoopera- 
tion are on the cutting edge of the peace 
witness today," they concluded. The 
committee of Raymond R. Peters, chair- 
man, John H. Eberly, Joseph Kennedy, 
W. Hartman Rice, and Guy Wampler Jr. 
found that the 1970 Conference action 
requires further interpretation and must 
be read in light of other position papers 
as "The Church, the State, and Christian 
Citizenship" ( 1967), "Obedience to God 
and Civil Disobedience" ( 1969), and the 
entire "Statement of the Church of the 
Brethren on War" as amended in 1970. 

In light of the other papers, said the 
committee, "it is readily apparent that 
the church does not endorse or support 
anarchy" in commending open, nonvio- 
lent noncooperation with the draft sys- 
tem. 

The church, reiterated the committee, 
"does recognize the obligation of Chris- 
tians to obey civil government except 
when obedience to God demands dis- 
obedience to the state, and even then to 
accept the consequences of such dis- 
obedience." 

The committee is helpful in defining 
"sanctuary," a term used in the paper, as 
extending cordial Christian fellowship 
and not as hiding a person from officers 
of the law. The paper rejects anew the 
destruction of people or property in their 
understanding of nonviolence. 

(X Housing. "Brethren were once a 
homeless people who came to this coun- 
try seeking a place to build a new 
life. . . . We have always been aware 
that our judgment will some day be based 
on whether we have offered shelter to 
the stranger as well as other forms of 
service (Matthew 25)." 

Thus begins the response to the query 
about the church's responsibility for work 



with the housing problems of people of 
moderate and low income. 

A committee survey revealed consider- 
able Brotherhood interest in the issue of 
housing. They propose: information 
sharing by national staff; expanding the 
church's relationship with the American 
Baptist's department of architectural 
services to include low- and moderate- 
income housing counsel; using denomina- 
tional investment funds, including FAUS 
monies, for housing mortgages; and ask- 
ing the Washington Representative to 
make housing one of his priorities in 
working with government. 

The committee — Roy Johnson, chair- 
man, Gordon Bucy (of the American 
Baptists), Clifford Huffman, F. Willard 
Powers, and Jean Wehrheim — also com- 
mends Brethren to study the development 
of community and the politics of housing. 

Other Conference business initiated or 
authorized in previous years will deal 
with a stance on abortion, theological 
education and Bethany Seminary, health 
and welfare coordination, and a review 
and evaluation of the General Board 
operations. 

Seven men given 'sanctuary' 
by San Diego congregation 

The youth in alternative service has made 
his decision about the draft before in- 
duction. But what of the late bloomer, 
the young man whose beliefs on con- 
scientious objection develop only after 
he has entered military service? His bur- 
den is perhaps more difficult. 

The First Church of the Brethren at 
San Diego, Calif., in recent weeks has 
helped bear that burden for seven men 
serving on the aircraft carrier Kitty 
Hawk by granting them "sanctuary." 

In early January the 154-member con- 
gregation in this major navy town voted 
to offer sanctuary to men who for reason 
of conscience could not cooperate with 
the military. Three weeks later their ac- 
tions became deed when two marines 
asked for and received sanctuary in the 
church building. 

They stayed two days and nights and 
returned voluntarily after the necessary 
papers had been secured and presented 
to authorities. 

Two weeks later two sailors arrived 



4 MESSENGER 5- 1-72 



at the church, followed in a few days by 
three others. Four more in this time ob- 
tained sanctuary at a Presbyterian 
church. 

"The full impact of the methods and 
purposes of the military comes to a man 
after he has been drafted or enlisted," 
said Kenneth Acschbacher, San Diego's 
witness commission chairman. "It is at 
this time that he especially needs the 
support of the church. 

"By offering sanctuary to these men 
we offer them moral support, time to 
seek legal, medical, and spiritual coun- 
sel, and the opportunity to openly state 
their belief about the military and war 
and their relation to it." 

In the experience, which brought 
singer Joan Baez to the church, the con- 
gregation maintained an open, public 
stance, not harboring the men from law 
officers, but rather giving them a chance 
to gather their thoughts, examine their 
positions, and chart a direction. 

When the first two men took sanctu- 
ary in the church Feb. 14, Ken Acsch- 
bacher stayed with them the first 24 
hours. He arranged for meals to be 
brought in by families of the congrega- 
tion during their four-day stay. He ar- 
ranged for different church members to 
be with the men at all times, including 



Pastor M. Guy West's wife, Naomi. 

She recalls the morning the men left 
voluntarily with naval authorities. 
Gathered in a circle on the sanctuary 
floor the group sang "I Ain't Goin" Study 
War No More." She remarked: "Never 
had the words of that song held as much 
meaning for me as they did at that 
moment." 

When the first two men came to the 
church, the congregation affirmed that 
the Church of the Brethren "believes that 
no government has the authority to abro- 
gate the right of individual conscience. 
. . . What we seek for ourselves we seek 
for all — the right of individual con- 
science. 

"In order to demonstrate a sense of 
community and fellowship with one who 
conscientiously chooses noncooperation 
with the military, the church offers sanc- 
tuary and spiritual support." 

One of the five who found sanctuary at 
the First church was 22-year-old Ernest 
C. Ryder of Hurst, Tex. His decision 
against the Vietnam war — and all war, 
he said — evolved from his personal ex- 
amination of the issues. 

The airman stated: "I am an aviation 
ordinance man. That means that I load 
bombs on airplanes so that they can be 
dropped on Vietnam. I did not choose 



this rate, I was assigned it upon com- 
pletion of boot camp. Since then I have 
been otT the coast of Vietnam helping to 
kill. 

"It was in the last month that I have 
had really deep thoughts about the part 
I had played. I have seen pictures and 
read books and articles about what Amer- 
ican bombing has done to the peoples of 
Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. I can 
no longer be a part of this kind of or- 
ganization. Even though it means break- 
ing the laws. That's the way I feel." 

Returned to their ship, then at sea, 
the men had desertion charges reduced to 
lesser offenses because they had surren- 
dered voluntarily. A few of the men are 
awaiting responses to their requests for 
conscientious objector status. 

The role of First church in offering 
sanctuary didn't come without some 
adjustments on both sides, said Gladden 
Boaz, San Diego member and Southwest 
Pacific Conference missions and service 
chairman — to differing life-styles. 

"For years the question has plagued 
our church: How do we become known? 
How can our witness be made manifest?" 
he said. 

"The answer seems clear. Start being 
the church in the fullest measure and the 
world will notice it." 




San Diego witness commission chainmin Ken Aeschbacher (r) interviews Roy Hawkins; newsmen gallier at arrival of naval authorities 

51-72 MESSENGER 5 



From the General Board... 



General Board investments , . . 

The Church of the Brethren General 
Board will sell its stock holdings in 
corporations directly producing defense 
or weapons-related products and its gov- 
ernmental securities that are believed to 
channel funds into military appropria- 
tions. 

Meeting at Elgin, III., in March, the 
board also tightened its investment guide- 
lines, declaring that words and acts 
should be brought together "so that the 
clearest possible witness can be given to 
the inclusive reconciling love of Christ." 
The statement recognized, however, that 
"at any given moment the commitment 
can be one of direction only — it cannot 
be one of absolute achievement." 

The implication is that mergers and 
company reorganizations sometimes 
bring into the firm products or ideals in- 
consistent with the Brethren stance. 

Based on market prices the divestment 
of stocks represents four percent of the 
general investment portfolio and 6.5 per- 
cent of the pension fund portfolio. US 
Treasury bonds being sold amount to 
5248,813. The board declined, however, 
to sell the 5274,894 in bonds pledged for 
a loan to Bethany Theological Seminary. 
They will be sold only as they are re- 
leased from escrow. 

Board treasurer Robert Greiner esti- 
mated a loss of 518,300 instead of an 
518.000 gain that would have been rea- 
lized if the bonds had been held until 
maturity. Any possible loss on the stock 
investments being sold and reinvested 
was not known. 

Last year's National Youth Conference 
in a resolution urged the board to sell 
its US Treasury bonds. And in January 
the National Council of Churches' Cor- 
porate Information Center, in which the 
Brethren participate, divulged the stock- 
holdings of ten denominations in the top 
60 firms in military sales. The Church 
of the Brethren had investments in nine 
such companies, totaling 5329,258 in 
1971 cost value prices. The church's 
pension fund also held 5613,303 of com- 



mon stocks in 13 corporations appearing 
in the list. 

The revised guidelines now declare 
that the board will not knowingly invest 
in corporations producing defense or 
weapons-related products; in companies 
which fail to practice fair and equal em- 
ployment opportunities; nor in banks or 
firms which transact business with gov- 
ernments having apartheid policies. 
Similarly prohibited are investments in 
the tobacco and alcoholic beverage in- 
dustries and companies making excessive 
profit. 

More positively, the guidelines stipu- 
late the board will invest in companies 
working to improve the environment, in 
government agencies that are clearly non- 
military, and in such industries as food, 
housing, clothing, utilities, education, 
and medical supplies. 

When the board discovers that it has 
holdings in a company that does not 
meet the religious, racial, or social ideals 
of the church's oflficial statements, the 
investment committee may approach the 
company or speak at stockholders' meet- 
ings. Failing to effect a change in com- 
pany policy, the stocks are to be sold. 

Producing the sharpest disagreement 
was the question as to whether govern- 
ment bonds contribute to the Vietnam 
war effort or simply toward regular gov- 
ernment operations. Still, a strong ma- 
jority of the board believed that the 
bonds directly supported the war effort 
and should be divested. 

Such action, some contended, bespeaks 
a "disengagement from the US govern- 
ment" and fails to recognize that a large 
part of the federal budget goes toward 
programs of which Brethren could heart- 
ily approve. 

On the other hand, a couple speakers 
noted that even in such nonmilitary pro- 
grams as agriculture and economic devel- 
opment, government policy can be re- 
pressive and manipulative and divergent 
from Brethren ideals. 

Moderator Dale W. Brown of Lom- 
bard. III., said that the church needs to 
confess its credibility gap. "I'm calling 



for an acknowledgment that we haven't 
done our best." 

Among a few board members disasso- 
ciating themselves from the majority ac- 
tion was Jesse H. Ziegler of Dayton, 
Ohio. He described the sale of the gov- 
ernment bonds as a "divisive act that 
finally will drive the Church of the 
Brethren to the point of increasingly 
making people ask what we're about." 
He pleaded for the board to take healing 
and compromising action that would 
leave room for various views among the 
membership. 

The board's officers were instructed 
to estimate any loss of principal or in- 
come that may accrue from the divest- 
ment of Treasury obligations and issue 
an appeal for interested members to make 
special contributions so that the ongoing 
ministry of the church or the equity of 
the pension funds will not be curtailed. 
The guidelines are also commended to 
other church agencies and to individuals. 

Despite the eight hours over two days 
of sometimes intense debate, David B. 
Rittcnhouse of Dunmore, W. Va., ex- 
pressed the feeling of most board mem- 
bers in saying that he voted for divest- 
ment of the stocks and bonds not with 
enthusiasm, but out of genuine humility, 
struggle, and soul-searching. 

An affirmation of mission . . . 

Convinced of the need today for the mes- 
sage and mission of the Church of the 
Brethren, the General Board called for 
"the continuation and strengthening of 
our denomination at all levels of its 
life." 

In adopting "An Affirmation of Mis- 
sion" the board revealed something of 
its current ecumenical stance. On the 
one hand, the statement looks with dis- 
favor upon actions at this time which 
"would limit or bias cooperation by se- 
lecting certain denominations as prefer- 
able to others for ecumenical relations." 

On the other hand, where congrega- 
tions or other units determine they can 
better fulfill their mission through coop- 
eration, the statement encourages such 
responses as yoking, federation, or aflfllia- 
tion. 

"If, in the providence of God, the mer- 
ger of the Brethren with some denomina- 



6 \fESSENGER 5- 1 -72 



tion(s) is to occur in the future, the 
church must prepare itself to bring its 
best strengths to such a merger, not 
weakness and brokenness," the statement 
concluded. 

The denomination has not consciously 
reviewed its basic ecumenical posture 
since 1966 in the debate on Consultation 
on Church Union and 1968 in a review 
of the National Council of Churches 
membership and the creation of the Com- 
mittee on Interchurch Relations. 

The Affirmation alerts the church to 
the dangers of deciding its ecumenical 
direction by default. It will be part of 
the board's report to Annual Conference. 

Since 1966 have come new dimen- 
sions to an ecumenical posture; More 
congregational dual alignments, shifting 
conciliar structures, new cluster/con- 
sortia groups, and the seminary's future 
which poses ecumenical questions. 

Another is the "Associated Relation- 
ship" that is proposed with the Ameri- 
can Baptists and which will come before 
the conference this year. It proposes co- 
operation and joint projects short of ac- 
tual merger. The board's acceptance of 
"An Affirmation of Mission" is essential- 
ly advisory to the CIR and the Annual 
Conference which have the final authori- 
ty to determine the church's ecumenical 
stance. The Affirmation expresses the 
board's judgment that it is unwise at this 
time to ahgn the Brethren with any one 
denomination at a national level. 

If the conference rejects the Associ- 
ated Relationship, the Affirmation still 
encourages local churches to pursue 
cooperative arrangements where they can 
best serve the congregation's mission. 

Bethany Seminary study . . . 

Two concerns are central in the 1972 re- 
port of the Bethany Seminary Study 
Committee of Annual Conference. One 
is a conclusion by the committee "that 
some form of affiliation with one or more 
other seminaries is necessary in order that 
Bethany may be viable, fiscally and edu- 
cationally." 

A second thrust insists that "the his- 
tory, heritage, teachings, identity, and 
practices of the Brethren must not be 
lost in any affiliation with schools of dif- 
ferent traditions." 



In considering affiliation, the com- 
mittee urges the Bethany Seminary direc- 
tors to seriously explore the development 
of a center for theological studies, either 
at its present Oak Brook, 111., campus 
or at another location. 

"It is clear to the committee that such 
direction will mean the reduction of 
Bethany faculty and staff and investment 
in physical plant," the report states. "This 
is the painful part of what is necessary 
to bring Brethren investment in theologi- 
cal education to a level more commen- 
surate with denominational size and re- 
sources." 

Elsewhere in the report the committee 
commends Bethany's current educational 
program as being outstanding, places the 
task of recruitment for the ministry 
largely upon the home and the congrega- 
tion, and suggests closer affiliation with 
Bethany's neighboring Northern Baptist 
Seminary as a step but not a long-range 
answer for Brethren in shaping theologi- 
cal education for the future. 

Statement on evangelism . . . 

A statement on evangelism, urging the 
Church of the Brethren to be "more 
positive in affirming our loyalty to Jesus 
Christ and more aggressive in seeking 
commitments," was adopted and passed 
to the Cincinnati Annual Conference. 

The paper begins with a theological 
affirmation centering on the idea that 
"the best news comes to us in Jesus 
Christ and makes things happen," which 
is primarily descriptive of the Christian 
gospel and the differences it should make 
in persons and in congregations. 

Things happen, the statement says, in 
every person "because the Holy Spirit 
provides the impetus for power and ac- 
tion . . . when persons acknowledge and 
accept their calling to be an evangelist 
. . . when people choose a life-style of 
personal and social holiness. . . in homes 
developed as center for love and sup- 
port. . . when persons realize their true 
vocation is being Christian. . . when peo- 
ple discover they must be stewards of 
their personal resources. ..." 

It further affirms: "The Holy Spirit 
makes things happen as hearts are open 
to God's movement in and beyond the in- 
stitutional walls of the church. As peo- 



ple discern the need and the power, they 
support the Spirit's encounters every- 
where." 

A second section deals with character- 
istics and qualities of the kind of evan- 
gelism that should develop within the de- 
nomination. 

The paper is the work of Alan L. Whit- 
acre, Kettering, Ohio, Phyllis Carter, 
Bryant, Ind., Olen S. Landes, Harrison- 
burg, Va., Robert W. Knechel Jr., North 
Manchester, Ind., and Kenneth I. Morse, 
Elgin, III. 

National youth conferences . . . 

Feeling that national experiences give 
youth an awareness of the dimensions of 
the church beyond the congregation and 
district, the Parish Ministries Commis- 
sion approved the scheduling of another 
National Youth Conference in 1974 and 
succeeding conferences each four years, 
for youth ages 16 to 19. 

In addition, in 1976 and each four 
years following, a mini-NYC will be ap- 
pended to the Annual Conference. 

The intrastaff Youth Culture Task 
Force is also looking at a proposal that 
would provide a triennial conference for 
the 20- to 25-year-old young adult. 

In other actions during the week, the 
General Board and/or its three commis- 
sions: 

u^ Adopted the historical perspectives 
and concerns of the Equality for Women 
paper, first presented last November, 
while rejecting the employment of a staff 
woman in a full-time assignment in 
women's awareness, believing that cur- 
rent staff assignments are enough to allow 
increased program activities, many al- 
ready under way. A training event in 
discriminatory practices towards persons 
will be held for the board and stalT with- 
in a year. 

\/^ Cited Glen and Betty Campbell 
for their 18 years of service in India. 
Now serving the Liberty Mills, Ind., 
church while on furlough, they will not 
be returning to India. Born in India, 
Betty was a third generation missionary 
there. 

1/^ Learned that the Selective Service 
System has authorized the World Minis- 
tries Commission to place conscientious 
objectors in projects without prior project 



5-1-72 MESSENGER 7 



approval from either national or state 
SSS offices. The blanket authorization 
allows for greater freedom for placement 
in social justice projects, within national 
interest limitations. 

\^ Approved a plan to keep the 
board's undesignated reserves between 
three-quarters to one million dollars. Re- 
serves now stand at $644,000. 

i^ Noted that Dr. and Mrs. John 
Horning. formcrU' Brethren workers in 
Ecuador for 15 years, will go to the Ni- 
gerian field this summer to work in pub- 
lic health. This past year they have been 
on furlough in suburban Chicago. 

^^ Passed to -Annual Conference and 
urged that it affirm and rejoice in the 
new stance of the sister church in Ni- 
geria, the Eastern District (Lardin 
Gabas) of the Church of Christ in the 
Sudan, as "now a church in its own right, 
walking its own road, ordering its own 
life, and e.xercising autonomy in matters 
of its own polity and program." The Ni- 
gerian church last year adopted its own 
constitution. The paper affirms the role 
of the Nigerians in working "out their 
own vision of what it means to be Chris- 
tian in an African world." 

\^ Extended invitations to the sister 
churches in Nigeria, Ecuador (United 
Evangelical Church), and India (Church 
of North India) to send fraternal dele- 
gates to the Cincinnati Conference. 

\^ Learned of a three- to four-week 
study tour of Nigeria in October/Novem- 
ber 1973 during the fiftieth anniversary 
year of Lardin Gabas. 

i^ Judged the eight years of contacts 
with the Russian Orthodox Church as a 
successful program on both sides and as 
providing "opportunities at a very criti- 
cal period in history for the 'outside' in- 
volvement of the Russian Orthodox 
Church at a time when it desired to move 
from relative isolation into the world 
ecumenical fellowship." While both 
churches are open to exploring new 
points of discussion and action, less 
Brethren involvement is foreseen. 

^^ Greeted Dr. Ernst Winter, director 
of the Transnational Research Center in 
Austria, who briefed the World Ministries 
Commission and staff on his visit, prior 
to President Nixon's, to the People's Re- 
public of China. He discussed with 
WMC possible program relationships 
with China. 



Mammon gives God an assist 
in West Virginia flooding 

The coal compan>' was calling it "an act 
of God." But the survivors of the flood- 
ing that burst down West Virginia's Buf- 
falo Valley hollow in late February were 
seemg it as another example of the grip 
that the state's major industry has on its 
people. 

The Pittston Corporation, which owned 
the 18-acre dammed-up basin, explained 
in a New York Times article that "God 
made the pond incapable of holding all 
that rain water." One West Virginia edi- 
tor replied that God couldn't be reached 
for comment. 

Upwards to 150 persons were killed 
and some 4,500 made homeless when the 
50-foot wall of coal-gray water poured 
down the 17-mile valley, destroying some 
ten coal camps in its path. 

On the evening of the disaster Glen 
Sage, pastor of the Crab Orchard, W. Va., 
Church of the Brethren, two counties 
distant, was in the Buffalo Creek area 
to help as he could. 

Mr. Sage takes clinical pastoral edu- 
cation at Beckley Appalachia Regional 
Hospital, one of nine associated com- 
munity hospitals. His supervisor at the 
hospital asked him to drive to the area 
near Man, W. Va., an hour's drive which 
that evening took two and a half hours. 



Mr. Sage also has a citizen's band radio 
in his car that proved useful. 

Arriving in Man at midnight, the su- 
pervisor took the responsibility of minis- 
tering to hospital patients in the absence 
of the staff chaplain, whose house was de- 
stroyed in the flood. Another companion 
went to the morgue and Mr. Sage worked 
for 20 hours with displaced and home- 
less persons being brought to the high 
school. He recounted two days later: 

"I called and arranged for someone to 
supply my pulpit and we continued to 
work around the clock trying to help the 
people deal with their grief. 

"From time to time the impact of the 
whole thing almost overwhelmed those of 
us who were trying to minister. There 
were only about half a dozen ministers 
working with people at the scene. 

"Some families had lost several mem- 
bers of the primary family unit and the 
whole situation was a state of shock. 
Very few people were able to deal with 
feelings by crying. 

"From time to time I went to my car 
to help with radio communication in the 
local area and direct other mobile units 
to the area with supplies." 

In the meantime the Crab Orchard con- 
gregation was serving as a collection 
point for needed relief materials. 

Surveying the destruction two days 
after the flooding, H. McKinley Coffman 
from New Wmdsor. Md., called it "the 




West Virginia fioodwaters devastated a 17-mile valley; scenes like this were common 



8 MESSENGER 5- 1-72 



most complete devastation I've ever 
seen." The Church of the Brethren dis- 
aster services director flew into the area 
by helicopter and met with John Price, ex- 
ecutive for the West Virginia Council of 
Churches. They visited the point where 
the dam broke, near the now nonexistent 
town of Lorado. 

With his firsthand report and an ap- 
peal by the Council of Churches, ap- 
proval was given for an initial appropria- 
tion of $10,000 from the Emergency 
Disaster Fund of the Church of the 
Brethren. The funds may be used to 
field a team of volunteers and a coordi- 
nator when specific needs are identified. 
Further monies may be needed and an 
appeal to congregations for contributions 
has been made. 

Still, on a second visit to the area with 
D. Miller Davis, New Windsor's general 
services director, Mac Cofl^man reported 
that the need then was mainly for a few 
ministers and social workers to help peo- 
ple work through their feelings of an- 
guish and helplessness. 

Mr. Coffman has been designated the 
representative of Church World Service 
in the area and he will coordinate both 
CWS and Brethren responses. Initial 
government discussion was rumored to 
center on making a model valley of the 
area, involving as much as S15 million 
for a new road and possibly a new sewage 
system to offset individual needs at start- 
ing over again. 

"Starting over again" is not an unfa- 
miliar experience for West Virginia's 
mountain people. It has become an in- 
evitable part of life. Wrote the New York 
Times reporter: "There is an enduring 
kind of strength in the fatalism of the 
Appalachian hill people. Endless vicis- 
situdes — coal mine disasters, unemploy- 
ment, poverty, disease, hunger, poli- 
ticians' neglect — have conditioned them 
to expect the worst and, in expecting it, 
to struggle on." 

As the emergency passes, the rebuild- 
ing begins and continues. The kind of 
concern that Glen Sage shared will be 
needed in the weeks ahead. "I didn't 
preach in the classical sense," he re- 
flected, "but the fact that ministers from 
this area were concerned enough to come 
in and share their pain and suffering I 
felt spoke a real message of love and 
grace to the people of Man." 



[LODTidlsirDDinic 



WHAT'S COMING IN MESSENGER? 



Two special emphases shape 



the next issues of Messenger. On May 15 look for feature 
articles and resources on the Appalachian region , a 13- 
state area where one fifth of the Brethren are located. 
More than a geographical designation, though, Appalachia 
has a rich culture and heritage in which we can share. ... 
Then, on June 1, Messenger takes a look at theological ed- 
ucation and Bethany Theological Seminary, an Annual Con- 
ference topic you'll want to be informed about. The report 
of the General Board's study committee on Bethany Seminary, 
an interview with Warren Groff , and a discussion of new 
models of theological education are in store. 



DISASTER MONIES GIVEN 



One thousand dollars from the 



Emergency Disaster Fund has been sent to Java in Indonesia 
in response to flooding that left 83,000 persons homeless. 
Summing up, $55,000 has gone toward typhoon and refugees 
relief in East Bengal/India/Bangladesh via Church World Serv- 
ice since last fall. The $5,000 for use in achieving a 
political resolution of the Pakistani conflict was instead 
shifted to Bangladesh relief as the war broke out. 

NEAR AND FARR ... The musically talented Farr Family, 
which performed at last year's Annual Conference, is accept- 
ing invitations from churches for its 1972 summer tour . 
Taking a northern route via Cincinnati, they will be in Cal- 
ifornia in July, returning through the central states. They 
will be temporarily residing in Nashville, Tenn. , after Sept. 
10. Write Nick Farr, P.O. Box 16, Middletown, Pa. 17057. 



ON THE PASTORAL SCENE 



In t±ie Pacific Southwest Con- 



ference, Harold I. Bowman has resigned his pastorate at the 
South Bay church in Redondo Beach, Calif., due to the ill- 
ness of his wife. . . . R_. Dale Ferris , pastor at Paradise, 
resigned in February and returned to his home at Modesto. 
... Steven B. Gregory , formerly at Outlook, Wash., has be- 
gun his work at the Ladera church in Los Angeles. 

In other pastoral changes, Clarence R. Bowman leaves a 
six-year pastorate at Unity, Shenandoah, for assignments at 
Tampa, Fla. ... Robert Figgers is retiring from his post at 
Concord, Shenandoah. ... Galen E. Hoover to Cherry Lane, 
Middle Pennsylvania. . . . Edgar L. Manges , to retirement in 
Bridgewater, Va. , from Elk Run, Shenandoah. . . . S. Wayne 
Crist , from Pomona, Calif., to McPherson, Kans. ... and 
Mark W. Emswiler , from Prairie View, Western Plains, to 
retirement. 



AFTER FIFTY YEARS 



Our best wishes to couples mark- 



ing golden wedding anniversaries : the John F_. Wol fs , Avon 
Park, Fla.; the Sherman Kauffmans , Belief ontaine , Ohio; and 
the Joseph Phlegars , Roanoke, Va. 

Other couples celebrating wedding anniversaries include 
the H_. G. Wertenbergers , Norcatur, Kans., 55; the Ray 
Smi ths , Panora, Iowa, 55; the Earl Deardorfs , Panora, Iowa, 
57; the George McCoys , Empire, Calif., 59; the Joel Bow- 
sers , Pomona, Calif., 61; the Forest Longneckers , Pomona, 
Calif. , 64; and the Mason Helds , Cando, N.D. , 66. 

5-1-72 MESStNGER 9 



New features for Conference business sessions 



by Dean Miller 

In an effort to provide more time for the 
handling of major position statements 
and matters affecting the future of the 
church and its related institutions, the 
Annual Conference Central Committee 
announces some new features for the June 
business sessions of the Brethren gathered 
in Cincinnati. 

On Tuesday evening. June 27, Moder- 
ator Dale Brown will lead the call to wor- 
ship, opening the 186th recorded Annual 
Conference of the Church of the Breth- 
ren. This beginning celebration will in- 
clude a dedication of delegates and a con- 
secration of the entire assembly for the 
tasks of the week. 

Immediately following the forty-five- 



the spacing of standing reports from var- 
ious institutions and agencies of the 
church. Previously, these had been 
handled as a unit, postponing until later 
in the week the debate and discussion on 
items of business related to church polity 
and position statements. The Central 
Committee through the Conference of- 
ficers will be establishing specific times or 
"orders of the day" for these standing re- 
ports and they will be presented at an- 
nounced times throughout the week. For 
example, the report of the General Board 
will be presented on Saturday morning as 
the first item of business following the 
major program interpretation input from 
the General Board in the Friday evening 
session. 

The Conference officers arc meeting 
this month to work on the business 




minute service, a series of hearings will 
take place on major business items com- 
ing before the Conference. The delegates 
may select the issue around which they 
have the most concern; persons respon- 
sible for official reports and proposed re- 
sponses to queries will be present to 
answer questions and share interpreta- 
tions of their work. 

Such activities on Tuesday evening will 
enable the delegates to begin considera- 
tion of major business items on Wednes- 
day. Previously, this day had been given 
over to the dedication of delegates, the 
usual introduction to the business, and the 
official hearings on agenda items, with 
little time left for the actual handling of 
study committee reports. 

Another change in the agenda will be 



agenda and plan for other ways to maxi- 
mize the time the delegates will have to 
discuss the issues which are more con- 
troversial because of differing perspec- 
tives held by the Brethren. It is expected 
that efforts will be made to permit debate 
on the main motions before amendmen