Page 4667 – Christianity Today (2024)

Under a little-publicized rule change enacted by the Small Business Administration (SBA), some religiously oriented businesses are now eligible to apply for government-guaranteed loans.

The new regulation, announced in June, states that only those businesses “principally engaged in teaching, instructing, counseling, or indoctrinating religion or religious beliefs” will not be able to seek guaranteed loans. However, according to an SBA statement, small businesses will no longer be considered ineligible “merely because they offer religious books or articles for sale or because they encourage moral and ethical values based upon religious beliefs.”

At a White House press briefing, SBA administrator Philip Lader said that businesses such as Christian bookstores, developers of religious computer software, and producers of religious gifts would be among those enterprises now able to seek SBA financial assistance.

Under previous SBA policy, which had been in place since the government agency’s establishment in 1953, churches and “organizations promoting religious objectives” or attempting to shape public opinion were automatically disqualified from applying for SBA loans.

Lader said the change came out of President Clinton’s concern about “the increasing secularization” of U.S. society and the “unintentional obstructions to religious expression [and] expressions of faith in the marketplace.”

SBA deputy general counsel Ronald Matzner acknowledged that definition of what constitutes being “principally engaged” in religious activities will have to be determined by local SBA field officers on a “case-by-case basis.”

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

A four-year feud between two Plymouth Brethren organizations over a $27 million fund has ended, although not without rancor. On June 25, Stewards Foundation (SF), a Wheaton, Illinois-based corporation that provides loans to Brethren assemblies, dropped its appeal of a court ruling in favor of Stewards Ministries (SM), a Barrington, Illinois-based nonprofit that provides gifts and grants to Brethren assemblies, commended workers, and related ministries.

SF executive director Kevin Engle says many churches had urged the organization to drop its appeal after last August’s ruling (CT, Nov. 13, 1995, p. 76). “We were not prepared for the aggressive maneuvering, delays, and obfuscation by SM and their attorneys. We are now turning the matter over to a much higher court, with God in heaven.”

The end of the litigation means SM has been “completely vindicated,” according to SM president Paul Regan. “This confirms that all of the actions of Stewards Ministries and its Board of Trustees were entirely legal and proper.”

Both SM and SF say they hope to heal the rift, but wounds seem to remain. The two sides issued separate statements on the end of the legal matter.

“While we hold no personal animosity against these men, repentance and restitution must always precede reconciliation,” Engle said of SM.

Meanwhile, Regan said, “We never believed the litigation was the appropriate or biblical way to resolve our differences.”

A casualty of the strife and division has been the movement’s 62-year-old monthly magazine, “Interest,” which published its final issue in June. Interest Ministries has laid off four employees and will now publish a newsletter instead.

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Southern California evangelist Greg Laurie continues to draw a younger generation to his Harvest crusades with Christian musicians such as Cece Winans and Bryan Duncan.

A four-night event July 4 through 7 in Anaheim drew 155,000, including Laurie’s largest single-night attendance ever, 63,000 on Independence Day when the crusade included a fireworks show.

Laurie, 43, has been pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside–now the country’s eighth-largest church–for 23 years. In 1990, he began conducting crusades primarily in the West, although he branched out to Florida and New York last year. His crusades have drawn 1.6 million.

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

• Russian patriarch Alexi II and Constantinople patriarch Bartholomew I have mended a rift and prevented a full schism. Alexi suspended relations in February over the Orthodox church in Estonia (CT, April 29, 1996, p. 55). In a joint statement issued May 16, the patriarchs said they would use “extreme dispensation” and “allow the Estonian Orthodox the freedom to choose to which ecclesiastical jurisdiction they wish to belong.”
• The city of Kharkov in Ukraine canceled an international festival of Jewish music and dance May 24 to 26, causing Messianic Jewish organizers Hear O Israel Ministries of Rochester, New York, to lose $250,000. Militia surrounded the football stadium where the festival was to be held and told Hear O Israel executive director Jonathan Bernis he needed government religious affairs approval to stage the event. Seventy Christians from the United States had paid their own way to participate in the festival.
• Three Muslim extremists accused of murdering a Pakistani Christian outside a Lahore courtroom in 1994 (CT, May 16, 1994, p. 48) have been acquitted due to a lack of evidence. One of the three, Muslim cleric Maulvi Fazl-e-Haq, had been a plaintiff in a case accusing 20-year-old Manzoor Masih of blaspheming the prophet Muhammad. Masih died from a head wound, while the other two Christians were wounded. The Christians were later acquitted of blasphemy.
• Art Gay, 59, is stepping down after five years as president of the Wheaton, Illinois-based World Relief (WR) July 19 to return to parish ministry in the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference. During Gay’s tenure, WR began relief-and-development work in Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Myanmar, Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovinia.
• Thomas R. Koch is the new general director of BCM International (formerly Bible Club Movement), an Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, organization with more than 700 missionaries in 45 countries. Koch served as founder and director of Serving Other Servants Ministries from 1989 to 1995.

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

• After an investigation (CT, April 8, 1996, p. 92), the Florida Baptist Convention has expelled two charismatic churches for advocating doctrines such as speaking in tongues and being “slain in the Spirit.” The state mission board voted May 17 to deny voting privileges to, and mission gifts from, Trumpets of Truth International Church (formerly First Baptist) of hom*osassa Springs and Riverside Christian (formerly Riverside Baptist) Church.
• Three major church agencies have agreed to begin cooperating in refugee resettlement programs in the United States: the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, and the Immigration and Refugee Program of Church World Service, the humanitarian aid arm of the National Council of Churches of Christ.
• Brian C. Stiller, who served as interim president of Ontario Bible College/Ontario Theological Seminary starting in June 1995, has been appointed to the post permanently. Stiller, 53, helped save Canada’s largest seminary and oldest Bible college from insolvency (ct, Aug. 14, 1995, p. 59). He has been the president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada since 1983.
• Chuck Kelley, Jr., has become president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, succeeding Landrum Leavell II, who held the post for 20 years. Kelley had been professor of evangelism at the seminary since 1983.
• Jay A. Barber, Jr., is the new president of Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon, replacing Marshall Christensen, who stepped down June 30 after 15 years. Barber, who previously served as executive vice president at the school, had been development director of Oregon Health Sciences Foundation.
• Rick Hicks, 46, became president of Operation Mobilization (om) USA last month after 12 years with the Forest Home Christian Conference Center in Forest Falls, California. The Tyrone, Georgia-based om has missionaries in 80 countries.
• Ken Smitherman became president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Springs-based Association of Christian Schools International (ASCI) on July 1. ASCI is the largest Christian school organization in the world, representing more than 3,600 Protestant schools in 71 countries.
• John Moore, 61, is the new president of Grove City (Pa.) College. He has been director of the International Institute at George Mason University and associate director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
• Stephen Freed, 39, is the new president and chief executive officer of International Teams/USA, a 35-year-old evangelical missions agency based in Prospect Heights, Illinois, which has 400 staff serving in 20 countries. Freed has had executive posts with Trans World Radio, Campus Crusade for Christ, and MasterWorks.

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), with conservatives firmly in control, voted to rebuke President Clinton for his veto of the partial-birth abortion ban, to censure Disney for promoting “anti-Christian” values, and to recommit themselves to Jewish evangelism.

The three measures were among 14 resolutions approved at the denomination’s annual convention in New Orleans, and all three drew rapid rebuttals from their intended targets.

Although the convention’s attendance was 30 percent lower than in 1995 and the lowest since 1981, the 13,700 Baptist messengers, or delegates, at the Superdome were quick to reaffirm the conservative direction of the nation’s largest Protestant body by selecting as their new president Tom Elliff, a third-generation Southern Baptist pastor from Del City, Oklahoma. Last fall, 80 top conservatives met in Atlanta to agree on Elliff as a consensus candidate. This election was the first in at least 50 years in which a new president was elected without an opponent.

Elliff, following his election to a one-year term, clearly aligned himself with conservatives, saying, “We are a Word-driven denomination with a mandate from Christ to spread the gospel.” He said he is committed to using the appointive authority of the presidency to place into leadership individuals who affirm the “inerrancy” of the Bible.

However, outgoing president James Henry, Jr., during his final address, sounded a more conciliatory note, saying, “We as Southern Baptists are a diverse people. We must appreciate and appropriate this diversity for the common good.”

PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION: Prior to the convention, Henry and 10 former SBC presidents wrote a letter of protest to Clinton because of his veto of the partial-birth abortion bill (CT, May 20, 1996, p. 74). Less than a week later, Clinton wrote a lengthy reply reiterating his position of support for banning the controversial abortion procedure–provided health exceptions were made. He said, “I do not support the use of this procedure on demand, or on the strength of mild or fraudulent health complaints. But I do believe that it is wrong to abandon women . . . whose doctors advise them that they need the procedure to avoid serious injury.”

Nevertheless, the SBC overwhelmingly passed a resolution labeling the abortion method “barbarous” and “cruel.” The denomination asked Clinton to revoke his veto, or alternatively, for Congress to override the presidential veto.

DISNEY BOYCOTT: In another resolution, the convention expressed disappointment at Disney’s policy of health benefits for live-in partners of hom*osexual employees and the “objectionable” film “Priest,” produced by the Disney subsidiary Miramax (CT, May 15, 1995, p. 52). The resolution calls for a boycott of Disney stores and theme parks if the company continues “this anti-Christian and anti-family trend.”

A number of other national organizations, such as the American Family Association and the Eagle Forum, are already boycotting Disney for similar reasons.

Disney has responded by saying, “We find it curious that a group that claims to espouse family values would vote to boycott the world’s largest producer of wholesome family entertainment. We question any group that demands we deprive people of health benefits.”

JEWISH OUTREACH: On its fourth attempt, the SBC’s Messianic Fellowship successfully presented a resolution favoring Jewish evangelism, which was adopted by the convention. In addition, the Home Mission Board has appointed a missionary to American Jews.

“The Great Commission is to the Jewish people too,” said Gus Elowitz, a Messianic Southern Baptist from Houston.

Yet, Jewish leaders rapidly condemned the SBC’s resolution. Phil Baum, head of the American Jewish Congress, said the SBC is “misguided,” and the resolution is “offensive doctrinal arrogance.” He said, “The sturdiness and stamina of Jewish religious commitment has been demonstrated over the millennia. Jews are not put on this earth just to give employment to missionaries.”

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Just the other day, CT Senior News Writer Kim Lawton counted up the countries she has visited as a reporter: In her 11 years as a professional journalist, she has visited 16 countries on assignment. A surprising tally. Although she has worked in a variety of journalistic posts (Christianity Today’s Washington editor, UPI radio’s religion editor, managing editor for News Network International), she has recently made her primary beat religious persecution and freedom-of-conscience issues in oppressive societies.

When reporters like Kim travel, they often make sacrifices and take risks to get the story. That takes dedication. But more amazing than the risk-taking reporter is the risk-taking national who puts life or livelihood in peril in order to get the story out beyond the borders of a totalitarian regime.

Among the repressive societies Kim has visited are Vietnam and China. She visited ‘Nam in ’95 just before the U.S. renewed diplomatic ties. Christian leaders responded to secret underground news of her presence by risking their lives to meet with her. One pastor traveled several days on a bus from the highlands to tell his tales of persecution. Had that clandestine meeting with an American Christian journalist been discovered, the pastor would have faced charges of treason, punishable by a long prison term or even death.

“They risked treason charges to meet with me because they wanted people in the West to know what they were suffering because of their faith,” Kim says. “For me, it was such a humbling experience to meet with those who had already suffered so much and were willing to risk more.”

One pastor described for her–“in a very nonchalant, matter-of-fact way”–the details of his imprisonment. “He was in a crowded cell with other criminals,” Kim said, and to avoid detection, “he would whisper about the gospel in the ear of his bunkmates.” When the authorities discovered his evangelistic activity, they put him in solitary confinement. It was the only way to quash his witness.

Part of Kim’s preparation for this issue’s special report on persecution took her to Prague, to a meeting of key evangelical leaders from around the globe. Their topic for discussion and strategy: resurgent nationalism in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and elsewhere.

With resurgent nationalism comes intolerance and, often, religious persecution. And evangelicals are frequently an easy target.

This issue: Kim’s news report details this new wave of persecution. Next issue: a more literary reflection on twentieth-century Christians who have made the ultimate sacrifice, a preview of Susan Bergman’s forthcoming book “Martyrs.” Both articles should move us to supportive prayer and action.

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

A surprisingly large number of readers responded to Pastor Ed Dobson’s editorial in the May 20 issue on whether political activity belongs on the church’s agenda. The letters revealed once again how polarizing this subject can be. Many writers chose to ignore Dobson’s narrower focus (political activity in the church) and broadened the discussion to Christian activity in the public square. Just as with the discussion initiated last year by Prof. John Woodbridge (“Fighting Words,” Mar. 6, 1995), those who wrote are passionate in their opinions: There is no apparent middle ground, and a near equal division of sentiment.

Ron Kruis of Grand Rapids, Michigan, argues that, historically, it has been “the absence of Christians from the public square that has helped contribute to bad law and bad social policy,” while others, like William Wu of Henrietta, New York, agreed that “our priority is the gospel of and witnessing for Christ Jesus.” And Jeffrey C. Ording, chair of the Christian Business Men’s Committee’s Annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in Illinois, offers a reminder that “We have an obligation to support evangelical brothers and sisters in Christ that God is calling into the political arena [and] trust [they] are being obedient . . . followers of Christ.”

Many readers also responded to the several articles on the subject of contemporary Christian music, nearly all agreeing that the ccm industry has gotten off course. Rodney W. Johnson suggests that former industry executive Stan Moser “quit too soon,” and that he “ought to use his perception, insight, and Christian commitment to values to galvanize the industry into going back to basics.”

AN UNPOPULAR STAND

The editorial “Taking Politics Out of the Sanctuary,” by Edward G. Dobson [May 20], seems so biblical and logical, this reader wonders why this concept is so rarely heard in evangelical circles. Pastor Dobson is to be commended for his courage to take an unpopular stand.

When Christians find it necessary to voice a concern to government, the contact should be respectful and kind. To be arrogant and offensive brings reproach on the name of Christ. It is altogether unbecoming and at the same time all too common.

David L. MillerPartridge, Kans.

* Dobson is on the right track when he says the church should not be co-opted by political action. Whenever I see abortion protesters with graphic photographs and the public reaction to them, I contrast that with Jesus’ mandate that “they will know you by your love.” Much of our “Christian” political activism has only made it harder to follow Dobson’s first priority of sharing the good news.

Ken BergerUnion City, N.J.

I wonder if there could be a more important editorial? Oswald Chambers, writing at the turn of the century, foresaw a great spiritual showdown at the end of the age: not Christian versus New Age or anything like it; rather, he described treason from within our own ranks. Chambers said the “doctrine of the anti-Christ is absolute moral perfection.” He figured the only way the man of sin could “exalt himself above all that is called God” would be for him to make the issue of morality the highest priority. By making such smokescreen issues as abortion and gay rights the focus instead of the cross, the man of sin would attempt to “out-moralize” even God himself.

Bob DayBoring, Oreg.

* I object more to the tone of the editorial than its content. Dobson seems proud that his church did not join the petition drive to repeal the Gay Rights Ordinance in Grand Rapids. He and his congregation certainly have the right to stand apart from the messy world of politics if they so choose. But there are many good reasons why local churches ought to do what they can to restrain the spread of evil. After all, the same Lord who commanded us to be light also called us to be salt.

Pastor Ray PritchardCalvary Memorial ChurchOak Park, Ill.

What one church member considers to be mere “politics” (e.g., the abortion issue), another may see as a grievous act involving victims (the unborn child), created in the image of God and in need of physical intervention. To stifle these voices within the walls of the church is to make the church and the gospel irrelevant.

In order to “remove politics” from the church, pastors must ignore many passages of Scripture that call us to concerted action on behalf of others. Dobson says his “consuming commitment is to the gospel and sharing the good news.” That’s wonderful. But is he “teaching them to obey” the commands of God and assisting them in that obedience?

Douglas GwinnPasadena, Calif.

* Certainly there are major moral changes needed in our society today. However, the needed changes will not come about by laws or a shift in the political party in power, but by individuals getting to know personally, and being transformed by, the God of the Bible.

John HelgesenSouthold, N.Y.

God calls us to pursue both justice and mercy [Micah 6:8]. No question-mercy is a “kinder, gentler” place to live, and Dobson’s criticism of some justice–seeking activists is legitimate. But I would remind him of Francis Schaeffer’s words to those who once criticized the Moral Majority: “If you personally do not like some of the details of what they have done, do it better.” The Christian role in public policy is one of the most divisive–and pressing–issues in America today. I was hoping for clarity from Ed Dobson, not a reactive one-sidedness. Now, more than ever, we need churches to seek both justice and mercy.

John EldredgeFocus on the FamilyColorado Springs, Colo.

Some 60 years ago the German church failed to take a stand when there still might have been time. If CT had been publishing during this period, might we surmise that its editorial writers would have been critical of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoeller for bringing politics into the sanctuary?

Bruce A. LavenauWestchester, Ill.

Dobson’s editorial was a home run! Thank you for representing the historic Christian position that evangelism matters more than politics, and that loving our neighbors with a view toward redemption is more biblical than rallying against them.

Van CampbellIndiana, Pa.

CCM: “LIGHT IN DARKNESS”

* I read the articles on contemporary Christian music in your May 20 issue with interest [“Can’t Buy Me Ministry”]. I, too, have begun to wonder exactly what its mission has become; it does often seem that business is just as much, if not more, of a driving force for the artist than is the desire to serve God and the world through song. However, I also feel this music is important to our society, regardless of the motive for creating it, and I disagree with Michael Card that “when you scan the dial, you can’t find the Christian radio station” and “many of the songs don’t betray anything specifically Christian.” When I listen to my pop-Christian station, I hear very few songs that don’t convey a godly, truly “Christian” message. And even those that seem to be merely “moral” are important to me.

Since when did “good morals” come from anyone but God anyway? Music that proclaims godly messages, even if not about God, is light in the darkness. If artists can get more out into the world and make it as high quality as possible, so that it will be attractive to all kinds of listeners, they will do much to help combat the evil Satan is trying to accomplish through secular music.

Cheri BlomquistSpringfield, Ill.

* A few years back we did not see life-sized displays of the artists in bookstores. Yet, when you listened to the albums put out by artists like Keith Green or the 2nd Chapter of Acts or Dallas Holm, you could sense the presence of the Lord in a special way. This may be subjective on my part, but maybe this industry has lost its “innocence” by glorifying the artists instead of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ronald RinaldiSpringfield, Mo.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I were on the staff of a local Christian school. In planning a formal affair, we decided to get a Christian group to provide the music. After contacting the booking agent, we were presented with a contract for which I needed legal counsel to review. The group came and, subsequent to that, won their first “Dove Award.” The next year, we contacted their agent and found that their price had increased substantially as a result of their newfound fame. It was at that point that I realized contemporary Christian music is not ministry–it is entertainment. With the exception of the lyrics of their music, there was no difference between dealing with them or Hootie and the Blowfish.

David L. PropesDecatur, Ga.

* Thanks so much for keeping out in the open the tension always existing where commerce and Christianity intersect. I’m in the process of relocating Artists in Christian Testimony to the Nashville area. And happily, I see much spiritual integrity, and commitment to the local church and to Christ’s values lived out in the marketplace in the people I’ve met.

Byron Spradlin, DirectorArtists in Christian TestimonyNashville, Tenn.

You omitted one important facet: while the pop/rock culture does indeed appear to shun all things “Christian,” the same cannot be said for country music. Some of the best Christian music today is being made by “secular” country music artists. Kathy Mattea’s Good News is the most thoughtful collection of songs about the Incarnation I have ever heard.

Lisa A. CawyerSan Diego, Calif.

Your articles about CCM distress me for what they leave out. The ever-expanding CCM money-driven industry/ministry got its ever-expanding piece of the pie-shaped chart by driving out whatever was there before–the good anthems and the sacred classics. You write as though these never existed. We have a generation that rarely, if ever, hears music from Elijah by Mendelssohn, “Great Is Jehovah” by Schubert, or “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth” from Handel’s Messiah, just to scratch the surface.

Warren Paul NewmeyerRoslyn, Pa.

TRUE COMMUNITY

* I am sorry that Philip Yancey is so easily bored with people like himself [“Why I Don’t Go to a Megachurch,” May 20]. I suspect that, like the rest of us, his self-proclaimed tendency to “hang out with folks like me” has less to do with the size of the church he “visits” than he (or G. K. Chesterton) may think. True community is not somehow forced on us by virtue of limited options. True community results from choices we make to accept and honor one another, with, or in spite of, all our irritating differences or boring similarities. While I admit that avoiding one another is more difficult in a small church, I can’t accept Yancey’s apparent conclusion that nonavoidance equals community. I believe community is much more than that, and it can be forged in churches of all sizes–even in the dreaded megachurch!

David HortonPalatine, Ill.

THE CHURCH AT JERUSALEM

– One faces a dismaying task in trying to present an accurate montage of the church scene in Jerusalem and/or Israel today. The May 20 cover story [“Will the Jerusalem Church Survive the Peace Process?”] leaves the reader with doubts of the viability and future of the church in Jerusalem due to current political, economic, social, and religious pressures.

Some of the sources for this story are noted for their biased view of the Hebrew Scripture (our Old Testament). For instance, one Arab church leader in Jerusalem, who was quoted, stated in my hearing, “The God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New Testament, but a tribal deity.” On another occasion in a public meeting, that same leader tore the Hebrew Scriptures from the Bible, claiming all that matters is the New Testament. To ignore the place of Israel in both Testaments is an injustice to God and his covenants in the Bible with his as-yet unfulfilled promises of a land, people, and nation forever to the literal offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Distinct from his covenants with the seed of Jacob, there is today a very vital church in Jerusalem and many kehilot (congregations) throughout Israel. There are gatherings of Israeli and Arab congregations meeting in joint services of prayer, proclamation, and fellowship, proving there is a “unity of the body” that transcends political, social, and religious differences in Israel.

Our promise from the Head of the church is that the “gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” God will bring to pass his determined future for the church and for Israel.

William E. CurrieInternational Director, Church Ministries AMF InternationalLynwood, Ill.

Holocaust guilt among evangelical Christians can be brought to its natural and logical conclusion by adding one more item to their agenda: They can effectively preach or lecture to the Arabs, Muslim and Christian alike, stating that if many Arabs maintain a smug attitude of superiority over Western civilization over the years, they prove it by welcoming the Jews of Israel instead of wanting to murder them as was done by the Nazis. Otherwise their religious bigotry will remain at the same level of the Western world before 1933.

Milton L. KosbergPalm Springs, Calif.

BRING BACK THE READERS’ POLL!

The CT Book Awards now reflect the views of “scholars, pastors, writers, and other church leaders” [April 29]. Although we are told what to read by these pundits, CT should include a bestseller list (what we read) and reinstitute the readers’ poll (what we like to read).

In the past, the readers’ poll has served to filter the opinions of the professionals through the views of a large group of reading Christians. CT is missing a valuable resource that its energetic readers provided in the readers’ poll. Not only has it served as a guide to classic Christian reading–“Pilgrim’s Progress,” “Mere Christianity,” “Where Is God When It Hurts?”–but it has been a reality test for touted new books.

Delvyn C. Case, Jr., M.D.Cumberland Foreside, Maine

Brief letters are welcome. They may be edited for space and clarity and must include the writer’s name and address. Send to Eutychus, Christianity Today, 465 Gundersen Drive, Carol Stream, IL 60188; fax: 708/260-0114 (area code changes to 630 on August 3). E-mail: ctedit@aol.com. Letters preceded by * were received online.

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

When I became president of World Vision U.S. nine years ago, the most significant issues we faced were famine, infant mortality, and poverty. These are big problems, but we are able to alleviate them–if not solve them–given the right resources, people, and time.

Since then, the world appears to have spun out of control. Now the greatest challenge for relief organizations is to work toward the reconciliation of hostile factions in places like Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Burundi, and Liberia. “Without reconciliation,” said a Bosnian cleric who had seen little but death and destruction for more than three years, “everything is nothing more than a preparation for another war.”

WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD

With the collapse of the bi-polar world of the Cold War, old animosities have surfaced; the so-called New World Order has turned out to be anything but orderly. The West may have won the war, but it failed to secure the peace.

In the first three years after the end of the Cold War, there were 85 major conflicts, 35 of them classified as wars (because more than a thousand people died in them annually). Two-thirds of these wars were conflicts within nations rather than between nations, in places where people’s otherness–their God-given uniqueness–counted against them. Ethnic cleansing entered our vocabulary and filled our television screens. More and more, it is not state-sponsored conflict we are dealing with but conflict between hostile ethnic and religious groups. Welcome to the Real World Order.

In the Real World Order, otherness is demonized and, if possible, eliminated. The fear of otherness can become so intense that even minority groups in a hostile environment are sometimes driven to make preemptive strikes–chasing neighbors from their homes, raping women, and murdering their husbands and children.

These conflicts seem intractable to those who do not believe in a sovereign God. Increasingly, the secular world is looking to the church for answers. Faith-based organizations have never before had such an open door.

There are good reasons for the church’s timidity in offering answers in the post-Cold War era. Reconciliation of hostile parties does not come easily. There are no quick fixes when great injuries have been inflicted and the pain of suffering and injustice is seared in the memory of a people, ofttimes passed from generation to generation. To engage in the ministry of reconciliation, we must be committed for the long haul. Compassion, listening, patience are all prerequisites-as is the willingness to take risks. Reconciliation does not just involve mediating the grievances of adversaries; sometimes it involves taking the side of an oppressed party, naming injustices done, calling people to accountability, and rooting out the causes of the conflict.

We have shied away from answering questions like “How do we get along despite our differences?” Perhaps that is because the Western church does not always do this very well, either. Our churches are not just segregated by race, but they are divided between rich and poor, urban and suburban, evangelicals and mainliners. In too many churches, purity issues trump those of unity as we eject those who are most contentious or do not agree with every jot and tittle of our doctrine; this approximates a form of “ethnic cleansing.”

THE CRUX OF THE MATTER

If the church is going to engage in reconciliation, its work must be grounded in the gospel of God’s reconciling love. God brings us together–regardless of our differences–at the Cross. The church exists on the basis of God’s reconciling work in Christ, and its life together is a witness to the reconciliation of God in Christ; only when our corporate life demonstrates reconciliation can we be an instrument of God’s reconciliation in the world (2 Cor. 5:18-19). Inasmuch as we do this well, we bring credibility to the church and relevance to our God, and we make sure the gospel is truly good news for the world.

Too many of us ignore the reality of God’s reconciliation in our salvation. If at conversion we do not grasp the cost to our Lord of restored relationship, it will be difficult to appropriate the power of our faith when we need it most–when a Hitler comes for our Jewish neighbors, when L.A. is torn by racial unrest, when we are dealing with troubled children in a Chicago school, when a voice on the radio incites Hutus to attack their Tutsi neighbors.

WHEN MY NEIGHBOR IS MY ENEMY

The greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbors. But the hardest commandment is to love our enemies. Today, it seems as hard to love our neighbors as to love our enemies, and often we cannot tell the difference. A Franciscan priest in Bosnia told me, “It’s easy to love your neighbor if he lives a long way off.” But in Bosnia, enemies became neighbors, then enemies again, and now some at the grassroots are learning how to be neighbors again. On this small planet, we can no longer keep our neighbors at a distance.

There are 28 women in the town of Fojnica, Bosnia, who are living fruits of the ministry of reconciliation. Every day the women–displaced Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats–work side by side, depending on each other to earn a living. They have built a business producing linens. World Vision provided them training and money to buy equipment and supplies. In less than a year, their business has become self-sustaining. If these women demonstrate that the principles of reconciliation work, perhaps these principles will be appropriated by the other 3,500 displaced people in Fojnica, and then, it is to be hoped, by other Serbs, Croats, and Muslims throughout Bosnia.

Christians need to be proactive in writing the rules for these disorderly times-the New World Order; promoting preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution should be high on our organizational agendas. But mostly, we must personally demonstrate reconciliation. Without the ability to accept and even embrace one another in our diversity, we will see more ethnic cleansing, more genocide, more deterioration of our cities and families.

The church has much more to contribute to these times. But if reconciliation were the only message the world heard, it would be light years ahead of where it is today, and the gospel would be manifest even to the most jaded audience.

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Whoever is responsible for the rash of black church arsons–whether conspirators or copycats–should be forewarned: what they intend as a blow to the heart of the African-American community may instead be a wakeup call to the church, both black and white.

Groups as different as the Christian Coalition and the National Council of Churches have come to the support of the black churches. That has to be some kind of progress. The Christian Coalition is offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who can expose racially motivated links between the arsons. The National Council of Churches is pressuring the Clinton administration to step up the federal investigation.

Some, though not all, of these churches are covered by fire insurance. Even so, replacement costs often exceed the insured coverage. Here is a challenge for the congregations of this land: donate an amount equal to the casualty insurance premiums on your church building to be used by these black congregations in their rebuilding efforts. In my congregation, that comes to a modest $5.92 per member. A fund has been jointly established by the National Association of Evangelicals and the National Black Evangelical Association ("Partnership to Rebuild the Churches," World Relief, P.O. Box WRC, Wheaton, IL 60189).

Gifts toward rebuilding may be merely symbolic. Indeed, financial support may not be the greatest need in their time of anguish. It would be better for some folks from majority churches to relate directly to these congregations. For instance, Mennonite Disaster Service, typically known for cleanup and reconstruction efforts following natural disasters, is using volunteers to rebuild one of the burned-out churches in Alabama. For all of us, this should be a time of looking deep within our own souls to see what racism lingers there.

A generation ago some of us, inspired by Martin Luther King's dream, hoped that racism might one day be eradicated. Regrettably, like kudzu, that creepy, crawly vinelike weed that perennially stakes its claim in vegetable gardens, racism has not been rooted out.

To expect no more racism in America would be heaven on earth, an eschatological hope. It is what we pray for when we repeat the Lord's Prayer–and what we work toward. In the meantime, we should expect that the church will be the church. Human distinctions and hostilities engendered by race, gender, or economic status have no place in the redeemed community.

Copyright © 1996 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.