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The World Council of Churches (WCC) has strayed far from its historical roots and needs to reaffirm unity in Jesus Christ as the basis for ecumenism, according to a group of evangelicals from North American mainline churches.

The WCC is about to chart its future, and evangelicals’ voices must be heard, says Thomas Oden, chair of Project EC-Z (Evangelical Challenge—Zimbabwe) of the Association of Church Renewal (ACR), representing 4.5 million evangelical mainliners. ACR is issuing its appeal at the WCC’s Jubilee Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe, December 3-14.

“We want to announce our presence and seek to bring the WCC into far greater accountability to the one body of Christ,” says Oden, a United Methodist theologian. Evangelicals are a significant part of the WCC, but their views have been overshadowed by the liberal minority in control, he says.

The Zimbabwe declaration is in response to a WCC document that aspires to “macroecumenism,” which would allow non-Christian faiths to join.

The declaration calls for churches in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe to lead the WCC renewal movement. The 50 million-member Russian Orthodox Church, the largest of the WCC’s 330 members, is demanding a “total reconstruction” of the organization. Evangelicals see parallels with the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops, where liberal North American bishops were outnumbered by conservative Two-Thirds World bishops (CT, Sept. 7, 1998, p. 32).

Parker Williamson, editor of the Presbyterian Layman and member of the Project EC-Z steering committee, says North American mainline denominations are showing signs of a declining membership and “watered-down gospel.” North American Christians need to shed their cultural bias and see the gospel through the eyes of Christians in the Two-Thirds World, many of them products of North American missionary efforts, Williamson says. “We need their vision to correct our accommodation of the gospel. It’s sort of a reverse thrust,” he says.

Along with the Zimbabwe declaration, ACR is releasing seven position papers on topics including homosexuality, syncretism, and feminism.

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Compass Direct News Service

The Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) wants all foreign missionaries working in India to leave the country because of “forcible conversions.”

Even though the Indian government stopped issuing missionary visas to Christians in 1964, VHP general secretary Acharya Giriraj Kishore says missionaries will be “requested” to return to their homelands. “We do not want Hindus to be converted against their wishes,” he says. Kishore also accuses foreign missionaries of being involved in insurgency in northeastern states.

In September, Surendra Kumar Jain, the national governor of the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the VHP, claimed Christians worked against national interests and did not have the moral right to stay in India.

“We will compel them to leave India by virtually launching a quit-India movement against them,” says Jain, who objects to the divine-healing camps of Christian missionaries.

In a sharp rebuke, the president of the Maharashtra unit of the All India Catholic Union, Dolphy De Souza, accused the Bajrang Dal of building a venomous environment against Christians and other minority religious groups. There are an estimated 300 Americans from U.S.-based Protestant missions groups in India.

Meanwhile, Hindu fundamentalists have carried out more than 30 attacks against Christians in the western India state of Gujarat since March.

On October 30, around 40 delegates to the Alpha Missionary Movement were forced out of their lodgings and beaten with sticks, belts, chains, and fists by members of the group Bajrang Dal.

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—A plane carrying short-term missions volunteers with Caddo Mills, Texas-based Living Water Teaching International crashed into a mountain in western Guatemala November 1, killing 11 people and injuring 7. Rain from Hurricane Mitch may have contributed to the crash. The volunteers were returning from a medical outreach in Playa Grande. Mission founder James Zirkle, 57, and his son, James II, 30, one of the aircraft’s pilots, both died in the accident.

—Graham Hutt, a British yachtsman convicted of smuggling Bibles in Morocco (CT, Aug. 10, 1998, p. 27), sailed out of the country October 6 in his yacht, which had been impounded four months earlier. Hutt was allowed to keep the yacht after paying a $10,000 customs duty fee, but charges of smuggling are still pending.

—The Supreme Court of Khakassia has ordered the closure of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Tuim in the Russian republic. The mission has been subjected to several court cases during the past year in an attempt to stop its activities. Witnesses reported that judges, under pressure from local secret police, repeatedly tried to intimidate them during a two-day hearing.

—Daniel Manase Zindo, 54, acting archbishop of Sudan, died in a car crash October 20 en route to Kampala, Uganda, to set up a regional office for the Episcopal Church of Sudan. His wife was murdered last year.

—Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presided over a pan-Orthodox convention in October that mended a rift between rival factions in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. More than 30 Orthodox leaders acknowledged Patriarch Maxim as the legitimate head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and former followers of Patriarch Pimen agreed to end the schism.

—South Africa’s Constitutional Court struck down the country’s sodomy laws October 9. The laws classified sodomy, along with rape and murder, as an offense punishable by life imprisonment.

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With a solemn, yet joyful worship service October 4, members of four Protestant traditions celebrated their entry into full communion, promising to live “day by day” into deeper commitment to one another.

More than 2,000 people jammed into the Gothic-style Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago for the worship service bringing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ one step closer together in the quest for Christian unity.

The denominations had previously approved the bold “full communion” venture that will enable each to share ministers, sacraments, and members. It also allows them to operate joint ministries while still retaining denominational identities.

The service opened with a four-way processional leading to a central baptismal font—the symbol of the basic sacrament of membership in each of the bodies. A common recitation of the Nicene Creed and a Renewal of Baptismal Vows emphasized common beliefs each tradition holds.

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Hand-carved from solid rock, the 11 churches of an impoverished Ethiopian mountain village are a wonder of the medieval ingenuity that created them. And their abundant treasures reflect the religious devotion that maintained the churches for centuries.

They also are the scene of a sickening betrayal that has left many wondering if there is something rotten at the heart of one of Christendom’s oldest churches. An Ethiopian Orthodox priest, whose forefathers have preserved the Lalibela churches (see p. 87) since they were carved from the mountainside in the twelfth century, last year stole one of the church’s most priceless sacred objects: a 15-pound solid gold cross that had been kept safely in Lalibela for more than 700 years. The priest and a market trader to whom he gave the cross are in jail, but no trace of the priceless cross has been found.

Home to Christianity since A.D. 34, Ethiopia has some of the most historically valuable Judeo-Christian relics, manuscripts, and art in the world. With increasing frequency, such priceless artifacts are disappearing from Ethiopian monasteries and churches. Concerned the nation is losing its heritage, the Ministry of Culture has proposed a plan to move the artifacts out of churches and monasteries into secure museums. Patriarch Abune Paulos, head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, agrees in principle but wants to build secure display places in each church and monastery. For now, neither side has enough money to do either, and parish priests and monks strongly resist anything denying them access to treasures they have guarded for centuries.

Patriarch Paulos says the isolation and simple life of the clergy has been warped by easy money bestowed by tourists. The crisis is not confined to remote churches and monasteries. In Axum, the most important cultural city in Ethiopia, a monk was dismissed after allegations that he stole items from the temple. A committee of the church synod was appointed to investigate allegations against the patriarch himself.

“The committee has expelled large numbers of appointees of the patriarch, who were considered a source of the problem,” says Taddesse Tamrat, a religious historian at Addis Ababa University.

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Though the Darkness Hide Thee, by Susan Wise Bauer (Multnomah, 364 pp.; $11.99, paper). Reviewed by Annette LaPlaca, associate editor of MARRIAGE PARTNERSHIP.

Through the dark glasses of personal sin, it’s hard to see God’s glory in a fallen world, but we’re looking all the same. That is the topic at the heart of every “Christian” story, because it is the condition of every Christian soul. In some stories, such as Flannery O’Connor’s, these moments of epiphany rip through the narrative and leave the reader gasping over truth. In others, like Susan Wise Bauer’s Though the Darkness Hide Thee, the search for God’s face is portrayed with gentle authenticity.

Bauer-whose first novel, The Revolt, was published by Word in 1996-unfolds a fast-paced mystery that involves dark-and-dirty crimes, old and new. The story line of criminal secrets should satisfy even those readers most inured to subtlety in Christian fiction (which will come as a tonic to those numbed by Christian-market offerings that are more propaganda-with-a-plot than literature).

Unobtrusively echoing the whodunit plot line, the heart of Bauer’s second novel is the search for God’s character and his will on the part of the protagonist and her minister husband. Amanda and Thomas Clement are attempting a fresh start in the small Virginia town where she grew up-leaving behind the big city where they were bruised in ministry and disillusioned by the world of business. Bauer’s portrait of their flawed but tender relationship is so winsome and rings so true, it’s hard not to guess that she has drawn herself, heart and soul, into this narrative. And she has: The Bauers themselves recently moved back to family property in a rural Virginia community, where he ministers to a small fellowship while she teaches literature at William and Mary.

There is a plainspoken naturalness to the prose, both in descriptive narrative and declarative passages like this one: “Thomas wanted a family, a home, a place to perfect his service to God; and I wanted something more elusive. I wanted reassurance, reassurance that I could still find a place where God was as real as the sunlit fields, as easy to hear as a hawk keening overhead. Somehow I’d lost that certainty.”

Bauer captures an experience every believer encounters at some point: the silence of God. How many of us have prayed, despite the coolness of our own spiritual temperature and despite our doubts that God will act? Bauer writes, “I stood on the back porch and prayed for Thomas and the Sunday morning service and the Little Croft congregants; I put them all together and held them up to the God who lingered just out of sight and pleaded, Break through to us.”

Thomas and Amanda are a believable pair. Whatever mistakes they make, in serving God or approaching each other, their intentions are so pure, their desire to see God’s glory so wistful, that their errors in judgment are easily forgiven.

The young couple’s search for authentic encounter with God has the unintended effect of turning them into searchlights illuminating Amanda’s family and the rural community where they have transplanted themselves. “Darkness” is stripped away at community, family, marital, and personal levels, sometimes with frightening results.

Bauer draws strong personalities (and their secrets) with great finesse and with penetrating insight into family stories that cross generations. The perennial story of human sinfulness obscuring truth plays out powerfully among these characters. Beware, for example, the farmer who, despite the muck and mire of his workaday chores, insists on wearing dress shirts and bow ties every day of the week. Something’s wrong here: Who is that farmer trying to be?

Christian writers often struggle with depictions of human sinfulness. Draw characters with too much earthy reality, and you will have to find a secular publisher. (Can anyone imagine Buechner’s Bebb coming out of the Christian market?) Write a book that is overtly spiritual, and you’ll find your work rejected as “too religious” to be marketable by secular presses. Bauer nimbly walks that fine line, depicting failure and evil compellingly in a book that overtly, realistically describes the spiritual seeking and setbacks of believers.

The darkness hides God’s glory. The eye of sinful man God’s glory may not see. But thank heaven for the distinct hopefulness in that simple word though! Though the darkness hides him, God is still holy, merciful, and mighty.

Few evangelical organizations I hear about in my role with this magazine surprise me since most fit into ready-made categories—prison ministry, humanitarian relief, crusade evangelism, and so on.

So when I learned about Overseas Council last year, a 25-year-old ministry whose mission and scope was unlike any I had encountered before, I wondered how I had missed it all these years. Under the leadership of John C. Bennett, president of its American division (based in Indianapolis), this organization has set out to help local churches establish “flagship” graduate-level theological schools or training programs in 17 strategic regions in the Two Thirds World. These indigenous programs provide the caliber of theological and pastoral training for local churches that historically has been available to non-Western Christians only by traveling at great expense to Western institutions.

A big part of the council’s role is raising funds by establishing partnerships with individuals and organizations in Western countries. The funds they generate (the goal is $46 million by decade’s end) not only help local churches with the capital they need for buildings and faculty, but also allow needy students to meet tuition expenses. This year alone the council will provide over $1 million in student scholarships.

Two of the contributors in this issue of CT—Antonio Barro in Brazil and David Kasali in Kenya—are the direct recipients of the council’s good work. The schools they serve as presidents, the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology and the South American Theological Seminary, are able to run in part because of the partnership program.

Overseas Council’s current newsletter gives updates from schools in over two dozen countries. The very names and locations of some of these institutions seem miraculous—Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary; Russian-American Christian University (Russia); Myanmar Evangelical Graduate School of Theology; Nusantara Bible Seminary (Indonesia); Evangelical Theological Seminary (Croatia); New Pines Seminary (Cuba).

The existence of these schools reinforces what church historian Mark Hutchinson notes in this issue (p. 46): evangelicalism’s centers of influence are no longer confined to Western institutions; and our evangelical movement needs exactly the kind of partnerships Overseas Council is creating if we are to thrive into the next millennium.

In the spirit of the council’s mission, we present this special issue devoted to letting evangelical leaders report—in their own words—on the state of the movement in their corners of the world. We think you will be impressed with the truth that God’s plan for his church is both global and local—and fascinating and diverse and surprising.

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“Tough Love” Toward Israel?

* Thank you for the careful, thought-provoking articles reviewing evangelical attitudes toward Israel [Oct. 5]. Timothy Weber’s cover article was instructive. Calvin Shenk’s sidebar was pastoral, and the article on Brother Andrew was challenging! You mentioned an organization linking evangelical churches with Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza; your readers might be interested to know that there is another program matching families and churches in North America with Palestinian families whose homes are threatened with demolition by the Israeli government. Christian Peacemaker Teams (Chicago) coordinates this program in cooperation with several Israeli groups (including Rabbis for Human Rights) who together form the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

For those who want what is best for Israel, it is important to see that as distinct from supporting whatever the current government of Israel does; we must not lazily assume there is one Israeli point of view. The Bible shows us a God who loves all, and who consistently sides with the oppressed. Maybe it is time for us to practice “tough love” toward Israel.

Rich H. MeyerMillersburg, Ind.

* Weber cites Richard Cizik’s belief that “most evangelicals simply have not thought through the issue of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.” This troubling indictment grabbed my attention more dramatically than Weber’s history of the dispensationalists’ prophetic excesses. In our rush to help Jesus take his place upon David’s throne, have we forgotten the gospel of peace?

David R. DarvalFresno, Calif.

Christian Friends of Israeli Communities (CFIC) appreciates being labeled “one of the most innovative humanitarian organizations supporting Israel,” but we protest three inaccuracies in Weber’s cover story:

(1) I am misquoted as saying “God is sending Jesus back to Israel to set up his kingdom.” The quote was that God is sending “Messiah” back. (2) You say, “By the end of the war the Jews were now well armed and ready to force the issue of statehood,” and “by November [1949] the better-trained Israeli troops had prevailed.” Jews who escaped Auschwitz (and other camps) to emigrate to their promised homeland were re-interned to concentration camps in Cyprus. Jews already in the Holy Land were harshly regulated, forbidden to own weapons, and not allowed military training. Instead, the Brits trained Palestinians, turning military bases and weapons over to them when they departed on May 14, 1948, leaving the Jews defenseless. Pentagon generals gave Israel three weeks at the outside to succumb to the combined onslaught of British-trained, Petro-provisioned armies of the seven surrounding Arab states. (3) It is an insult to be told one must be a dispensationalist to support the re-establishment of Israel.

I believe the way to get blessed is to find out what God is doing and cooperate with that process. CFIC is trying to do that.

Theodore Temple Beckett, Intl. ChairmanChristian Friends of Israeli CommunitiesColorado Springs, Colo.

* Tim Weber’s essay on the untold story of Israel and evangelicalism was eye-opening and convicting. He accurately described how some far-fetched evangelical eschatologies have directly affected the way Christians view the modern secular State of Israel today. Friends who are Palestinian Christians tell me they feel abandoned and wounded by our refusal to embrace them and recognize their suffering. And they are perplexed that we view everything through an “end time” lens, even Israel’s failure to be faithful to its own covenant with God.

I was speaking with a British worker from an evangelical relief organization based in Jerusalem who summed up this perspective poignantly: “Genesis 12:2 says that those who bless Israel, God will bless. America is doomed if it does not give Israel everything it wants.” And what of our Arab brothers and sisters in Christ, I asked, who sometimes suffer in Israel? “They are simply in the way of God’s plan for the ages.”

Prof. Gary M. BurgeWheaton CollegeWheaton, Ill.

Weber performed a valuable service in tracing the impact of dispensationalism on evangelical attitudes toward Israel. However, the article cries out for the telling of another story—one which, so far as I know, has never been told in a mainstream Christian publication. This is the story of Arab attitudes toward Israel as expressed in the popular press, in books and pamphlets, and in other cultural forums. Like the story Timothy Weber tells, it involves a complex mixture of religious and political agendas, of scholarly (or pseudo-scholarly) and populist discourse. Many readers of CT, I believe, would be shocked not only by the virulence and the intransigence of these views but by their wide acceptance within the Arab world. The telling of this story would not provide a warrant for Israel to violate with impunity the human rights of Palestinians, or of anyone else, but it would provide a tonic dose of reality therapy.

John Wilson, EditorCarol Stream, Ill.

Weber’s assertion that dispensationalism has been the leading force behind evangelical support for Jews and Israel is a shock to the millions of evangelicals who don’t believe its unbiblical tenets (e.g., that the church is a mere parenthesis in history).

It isn’t doctrine or theological systems that make us love the Jew and Israel, but Jesus Christ himself. Furthermore, where would the church be without the Jew?

The beliefs of dispensationalists wax and wane. But Jesus Christ and his love for the Jew and for Israel remain forever!

Warren AngelCongregational Christian ChurchesOceanside, Calif.

The forced admixture of faith and political ideology always results in a compromised faith. Evangelicals who support Israel should do so for political reasons alone. Otherwise, there is an inevitable, subtle diminishing of Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah. Dispensationalists who continue to rewrite the scripts for fanciful end-time scenarios should be reminded of the words of the Christ himself: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

Timothy D. PylesCarrollton, Tex.

* Is it a bad thing that God is moving across denominational lines to give the church a heart and love for Israel? Should we believe the replacement view and just forget about them since God [in their eyes] has anyway? Yes, we are part of the grassroots “fringe” movement you refer to, and either support or directly participate in nearly all the ministries you mentioned. But isn’t it just possible that God can still work outside the carefully patrolled confines of “the system”? I fear that “the system” is so concerned that there be no “strange fire” on the altar that there is for the most part no fire on the altar.

Norm and Annie SchaafCable, Wis.

The Benefit of the Doubt

Your October 5 editorial [“The Prodigal President“] sets up a false contrast between sinner Clinton and sinner (Prodigal) Son: “There is a huge difference between being found and being cornered.” In our Lord’s sly and wondrous parable of the overwhelmingly gracious, grace-filled Father, we aren’t told whether the Son was truly penitent. From the Father’s standpoint, the Son is “found.” But from the Son’s standpoint, the trigger-motive is hunger (Luke 15:17, NIV, “starving to death”), not repentance. He “came to his senses” (same verse) in realizing that his diet would improve if he returned home.

Clinton was cornered by Starr, the Prodigal Son was cornered by hunger. Each carefully crafted his cover speech. Neither is the other’s moral superior. But Starr and the Father are very different. The former kept demanding that the cornered make full confession and grovel. The latter broke into the canned speech before the groveling.

You are right that “only God knows” whether Clinton’s repentance is genuine. Grace, the graciousness of the American people, should assume it is. Let’s give him at least the benefit of the doubt.

Willis ElliotCraigville, Mass.

* Thank you for the powerful editorial on why Clinton’s apology misfired. I appreciate the courage and insight of that editorial. It is sad that Mr. Clinton appears to desire the power and prestige of being President more than he desires the grace and forgiveness of God. Seems to me there was another “Rich Young Ruler” who had a similar problem.

Rev. Gary PrestonBoulder, Colo.

* Although I didn’t vote for President Clinton, it grieved me to see CT‘s editorial writers take such a hard line against him. A publication for and by evangelical Christians should take the lead in forgiveness, regardless of the kind of confession or apology offered. Jesus did not come to condemn, so why do we think our role is to judge? A song we used to sing had the words, “They shall know we are Christians by our love.” Does President Clinton know we are Christians by our love?

Patty GortonSan Diego, Calif.

* The President never confessed anything at the prayer breakfast or anywhere else, but he admitted to something only after getting cornered. What did he say he was sorry for? Was it even necessary for him to do it? No, it wasn’t necessary for him to make this pious admission, and that is one big reason why I am so suspicious of his motives. He invoked the church in an age when we supposedly live in a separation of church and state. When it is convenient for him and many with a liberal ideology to invoke religious ideas, they do. When it’s not, they stifle and inhibit religious ideas at will. All bets are off now until Bill Clinton stands for Jesus Christ and bans abortion.

David HaleRockford, Ill.

Apologies or Repentance?

* In his opinion piece, “Me? Apologize for Slavery?” [Oct. 5], Gordon Marino wrote that “many white students … are being asked to feel guilty and repent for racist institutions and actions in which they themselves had no hand.” Marino then explains that we must apologize and repent for the privileges we enjoy today, benefits gained through centuries of suffering by African-American slaves. Good as far as it goes. But Marino fails to understand why guilt remains even when apologies are made. His piece fails to grapple with the deep meaning of repentance. Apologies are easy, repentance is not. Apology without repentance fails to address the problem of guilt.

The real problem is our desire to have our cake and eat it too. Is it any wonder that superficial apologies without restitution (restoration fourfold) only deepen our sense of guilt? We are as unrepentant for the American Holocaust, the atrocities committed against Native Peoples of North America, as we are for the institution of slavery. Apologies are cheap (though not unimportant) while Christian discipleship is costly. When will the church begin to talk about sacrifice, equity, and redistribution, if not restitution?

Bruce D. MartinEastern Mennonite UniversityHarrisonburg, Va.

* Why single out black slavery or, for that matter, why stop with American history? Following his own logic, Professor Marino owes me an apology because his Roman forebears enslaved my British kin.

Ben BrozovichTacoma, Wash.

* I am a peace-loving person and really don’t have a quarrel with anyone, no matter the color of their skin. But what about the racism I have experienced through verbal abuse and sometimes under threat of physical abuse simply because I made eye contact with an African American in the hallway of my school? What always fails to be mentioned in articles and news reports on racism is that (believe it or not) racism goes both ways in America. How much repenting, sorrow, anguish, and even apologizing will it actually take for blacks and whites to be reconciled? Has anyone ever heard of a biblical concept called forgiveness? If I am a racist and responsible for horrible abuses that happened years ago, then I ask for forgiveness from every black person in America; but please accept my forgiveness by embracing it and putting the transgression behind us just as Jesus has forgiven all of our sins and doesn’t keep throwing them in our face after we have asked for forgiveness.

Neal KorfhageGlendale, Wisc.

Casting blame over such a vast gap of time, space, and logic reveals a graceless scorekeeping spirit. Repentance is our mutual criterion for group identity; it runs far deeper than race. We need to condemn slavery and move forward on mutual terms.

Joel Mark SollidayNew Haven, Conn.

A Fresh Look at Hell

Sincere thanks for a fresh look at the issue “Is Hell Forever?” [Directions, Oct. 5]. Every evangelical should be disturbed at the millions continuing to reject Christianity because of its medieval and unbiblical portrayal of Satan and his angels as the eternal tormentors of souls in hell. As for the lost souls, Christ plainly declared, “Fear him [God, not Satan] who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Jesus died to establish his right to justly destroy Satan and his angels—as he did Sodom and Gomorrah!

The struggle does not end with Satan eternally torturing billions in hell, and Jesus left to reign over billions less in heaven. It is through God’s lake of fire—the second death—that he silences the protesting wails of the lost. Then eternal harmony will extend across God’s vast unspotted universe.

Norman L. MeagerSonora, Calif.

For thoughtful believers who recognize that the Bible clearly teaches the fact of hell, the crucial question has to do with its duration. Where the duration of after-death punishment is expressed, the Greek word used is aionion, usually translated as eternal. However, the word literally refers to an age or ages to come, and an age has an end as well as a beginning and a middle. Thus, the “accursed” will go away into aionion punishment and the righteous into aionion life. Those deserving retribution will pay the penalty of aionion destruction/ruin away from the Lord’s presence (2 Thess. 1:9). The only mention of postmortem punishment beyond aionion is reserved for the Devil, the Beast, and the False Prophet. The Greek term for never-ending duration is used solely with reference to the bliss of Christians, when Christ comes and takes them to be ever with him.

Ruth Pera DodsonFairfax, Va.

Corrections

1. A letter from Prof. Donald G. Bloesch in the October 5 issue erroneously contains an unintended letter s in the following sentence: “I oppose a gender egalitarianism that erases real differences between men and women but hold [not holds] to the full equality of both sexes under God and to women in ministry.”
2. The Web site address in the Arts article regarding the Christian Performing Artists’ Fellowship [Oct. 5] should read www.ChristianPerformingArt.org
3. The correct e-mail address for Shari Plunket in Conversations [Oct. 5] is sp1rsRt@dnai.com

CT regrets the errors.

Brief letters are welcome. They may be edited for space and clarity and must include the writer’s name and address if intended for publication. Due to the volume of mail, we cannot respond personally to individual letters. Write to Eutychus, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, 465 Gundersen Drive, Carol Stream, IL 60188; fax: 630/260-0114. E-mail: cteditor@christianitytoday.com ( * ).

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Sun Myung Moon could take the Unification Church with him to his grave, says his former daughter-in-law. In her new book In the Shadow of the Moons (Little, Brown & Co.), Nansook Hong charges her 35-year-old ex-husband Hyo Jin with physical abuse, adultery, cocaine addiction, alcoholism, and neglect of their children. She accuses Sun Myung Moon of complicity in his son’s behavior and charges that the 78-year-old founder of the New York-based Unification Church engaged in adultery himself, leading to an illegitimate child.

“Since his family is not anywhere near the ideal family, what does that say about Reverend Moon?” Hong asks. She fled the Moon “compound” in Irvington, New York, in 1995. Now living near Boston and divorced since last December, she has become the center of a recent media blitz about the Unification Church. Her book’s damning profile of life at the top of the Moon empire has been defended by prominent ex-members Donna Collins and Un Jin Moon, Hyo Jin’s sister. Collins’s parents led the Canadian church, but she left six years ago at age 22. “Moon did not deliver on his promise of a utopia, either for his own family or the membership.”

Unification leaders Tyler Hendricks and Chris Corcoran say the Hong book will not damage the faith of members. Corcoran, a public-relations spokesperson, says Hong’s “full frontal attack” is “extreme.” Hendricks, president of the U.S. church, says the book is “ideologically motivated” because of Hong’s contacts with anticultists.

Both leaders acknowledge Hyo Jin’s failures, although Corcoran says the son has a “brilliant philosophical and theological mind.” Hendricks and Corcoran suggest Hong may have been partly to blame for the failed relationship. “Maybe she never figured out how to unlock his heart,” Corcoran says.

Herbert Rosedale, president of the American Family Foundation, which monitors questionable religions, says, “That’s the kind of nonsense that is used against every battered woman.” He calls Hong “one of the most truthful people I have ever met” and believes the book will create havoc for Unificationists struggling to reconcile “the difference between their idealism and the actual way Reverend Moon lives.” Moon preaches extremely rigid and demanding standards on tithing, church work, and especially sexual purity. In a 1975 sermon, Moon said “adultery is not forgivable at all.”

PROVIDENTIAL ADULTERY? On the serious allegation about Moon’s adultery, Hong claims that Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han, told her of the affair and defended it as a “providential” act. Hong says the illegitimate child was raised by prominent Korean members who live in Virginia. Collins, daughter of the founders of the Unification Church in Britain, confirmed Hong’s allegation. Corcoran calls the accusation of adultery “just a rumor” and says Moon “would not violate his own teaching.” Hendricks adds that Moon is “absolutely sincere, righteous, and trustworthy. We exercise good faith and give him the benefit of the doubt.”

However, two longtime Unificationists, who requested anonymity, told CT that rumors of the affair have circulated for years in the church and its verification would force many Unificationists to adopt a more realistic understanding of Moon’s humanity.

In a phone interview from London, sociologist Eileen Barker, an expert on the Unification Church, says there is no reason to doubt Hong’s account. She suggests the movement created the “providential explanation” only after rumors of the affair circulated among older Korean members.

Frank Flinn, adjunct professor of Religious Studies at Washington University in Saint Louis, contends that Moon “is not a model for his own sermons.” He says that Moon’s extramarital affair fits in with the earlier pattern of the 1950s where Moon “had spiritual, emotional, and sexual relationships with more than one woman” in his quest for a new bride. Flinn, one of the earliest academics to study Unificationists, adds, “Moon should go back and read the temptation accounts in the Gospel of Matthew and pay attention to them.”

Corcoran refers to Moon and his wife as “God’s champions.” He says Moon must be viewed through the eyes of faith and be seen as a fully “biblical figure” who is “complicated” but “blameless.” Corcoran says “nothing is going to defeat this man” and claims that the latest round of criticism has not hurt the church.

DAMAGE CONTROL: Hendricks notes that recent mass wedding ceremonies conducted by Moon in Washington and New York brought together hundreds of churches and representatives from many major religions. In addition, Moon has a long record of courting church leaders, including evangelicals, in an effort to achieve acceptance (CT, Feb. 9, 1998, p. 82). Moon’s son Hyun Jin has recently been appointed vice president of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification International, a move that clearly balances the negative image presented by his older brother Hyo Jin.

In a more direct assault on In the Shadow of the Moons, Unification leaders provided CT with documentation for the claim that some material in Hong’s book is plagiarized from an earlier book by British scholar George Chryssides. The charge is directed toward Eileen McNamara, a Boston Globe reporter who ghostwrote the book. McNamara has denied the allegation.

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE? Meanwhile, Unificationists are directing their focus to two spirit mediums who are reportedly giving messages from Hak Ja Han’s deceased mother and from Sang Hun Lee, a Unification scholar who died last year. Lee even provides a letter purportedly from Jesus to the “True Parents” (Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han) in which the Son of God thanks them for his new bride in heaven and also expresses regret that Christians are still not trusting in Moon.

Hong has changed her beliefs since leaving the Moon family. “I believe in God and I also believe that Jesus is the Messiah,” she told CT.

Barker predicts that Hong’s book will have its major impact on members who are wavering in their faith and with academics who will now be more skeptical about participation in Moon’s various programs. “Most Unificationists have been aware for quite a long time that their church is not that special.” Whether that loss of idealism extends to the Korean “messiah” himself will determine the future of the movement.

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Those considering a second career in missions may need to take a number. An overflow crowd packed the first missions conference of the Finishers Project, a movement aimed at sending baby boomers, now entering their fifties, out as missionaries (CT, Oct. 5, 1998, p. 72).

At some sessions of the October 1-3 Chicago gathering, nearly as many attendees sat on the floor, in the doorways, and out into the halls as were seated in the chairs. After conference planners realized they could not accommodate more than the 660 already registered for the Chicago conference, including 100 exhibitors, they turned away 300 people and 20 missions agencies.

The conference was so successful that the Navigators, an international discipleship ministry based in Colorado Springs, is considering hosting similar conferences every 18 months. The next one, tentatively planned for the spring of 2000, will be five to seven times the size of the Chicago conference.

LITTLE IMMEDIATE PAYOFF: However, representatives from some of the 30 mission agencies in attendance confirmed that few potential recruits seemed ready to go immediately. In addition, many participants were not retirees, but middle-aged workers weary of the rat race.

"Almost everyone here is looking toward the future," said Dave Hendry, director of Career Missionary Services for Operation Mobilization. "Most are two to five years away from retirement."

Another mission representative, Thomas Gibson, human resource director of Group Ministries for Campus Crusade for Christ, estimates that only a quarter of the participants will be ready to go soon.

Bill Mackie, 43, and his 46-year-old wife, Karen, of Valparaiso, Indiana, are not close to retiring. But they are dissatisfied with their existing careers—his at a library and hers at a restaurant.

"I've been a clerk at one library for 13 years," he said, "and it seems like all of the stuff I have, my private stuff, is practically an extension of work. I can't just be clinging to all this stuff anymore."

Instead, the Mackies are ready to quit and move into full-time ministry, preferably involving the puppet ministry they have done in their spare time for the past seven years.

"I think a lot of the excitement over Finishers is drawn from midlife crises," says Gospel Missionary Union's Kent Reiner. "These people are wondering, 'Is this all there is?' They've made it in the corporate world, and now they're worried about downsizing, and whether what they've done has significance and meaning."

Nelson Malwitz, founder and chair of the Finishers Project, does not believe attendees are motivated by a midlife crisis. "It's a demographic phenomenon where you say, 'I've done what I've done. Now what?' "

While some Finishers may be looking at missions more to bring meaning into their lives than because of an interest in the lost, Malwitz is not concerned. "We're not questioning their motivation right now," he says. "Our calling is to give them the opportunity and challenge."

OPPORTUNE TIME: Because changing careers can take several years, Malwitz is glad most attendees were in their forties. "If it hits at 55, they won't be ready," he says. "At 42, you can build relationships, go on short-term missions, and prepare."

Such thinking is relatively new. Ron Linkenback, 49, and wife, Jan, 48, tried to go a few years ago. "Mission boards didn't know what to do with us. It seemed like mission boards wouldn't even consider you if you're over 35," says Jan Linkenback. "At this conference, we've been overwhelmed. There's an army ready to be recruited here."

As with the Mackies, who say they do not have much of a nest egg in place, the Linkenbacks are not waiting for their 401(k) to kick in. "Early retirement is kind of a cop-out," says Jan Linkenback. "I don't think it's really relying on the Lord to use his resources."

Ron Linkenback just changed jobs, and they are in the middle of a move from Cleveland to Springfield, Illinois. Still, they are ready to begin full-time ministry as soon as they can. "If God wants us to go, we'll go," Jan Linkenback says.

As with the Linkenbacks, many of the conferees have had previous overseas missions experiences. By attending this meeting, most sought more than the two-week blitzes they had typically experienced in the past.

SHORT-TERM PREFERENCE: Still, mission agencies exhibiting at the conference are not counting on the years-upon-years of service the boomers have given to their careers.

"There are two crucial factors at work here: aging parents and grandkids," says Roger Shriner, director of recruitment for OMS International. "I'd estimate that about 75 percent of the people here are going to have to orient themselves around those bookends." As a result, he says, OMS and other mission agencies are hoping to recruit Finishers only for a year or two.

"But that's not new," he says. "Most missionaries today are short-term, and then they generally repeat. But even if they don't, they're better prayer warriors. They give more to missions. They're more holistically 'world Christians,' and the experience has made them new persons."

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