VOL. 63, NO. 1 January-February 1968r,, 25 CENTS IVIAGA2 tELIGIOILIS FREEDOM WILLIAM H. HACKETT Assignment: Washington

An interpretative report of church, state, and politics on Capitol Hill.

■ While a Federal court judge was ruling ventions are being urged by some to follow out a protest against the 1967 Christmas the "Federal plan," which means to leave stamp carrying a picture of Mary and the the door open to financial aid for parochial Christ child, a move was under way for schools. authorization of a stamp honoring another religious hero. This year marks the three- ■ The Jewish War Veterans of the United hundredth anniversary of Father Jacques States, whose legislative director is Marquette's exploration. Congress author- Felix M. Putterman, have sent a strongly ized the Father Marquette Tercentenary worded resolution to Congress on separa- Commission, and Members of Congress are tion of church and state. The resolution being urged to pressure the Postmaster says that the First Amendment "is seri- General to approve a Father Marquette ously weakened by the flow of Federal funds stamp. into parochial school systems," and points out that religious practices are still car- ■ Congress continues, year after year, ried out in some schools despite rejection to pigeonhole bills making Columbus Day of the Becker Amendment. a legal holiday, but the day does not go "As a religious people," the resolu- unnoticed in the Capitol. On the occasion tion states, "we look upon the synagogue, of the last Columbus Day, Congressman Frank church, home, and religious school as a Annunzio presented each Member of Congress proper and legitimate place for the prac- with a medallion commemorating the 475th tice of one's most personal belief." anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the New The organization also urged enactment World. The presentation was made on behalf of judicial review legislation, affording of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian plaintiffs "standing to sue" in litigation Americans of Chicago. over the use of taxpayer funds in sectarian institutions. The National Columbus Day Committee, headed by Mariano A. Lucca, appealed to ■ With the United States Supreme Court each Member of Congress to make his car turning thumbs down on an appeal in the available for a motorcade in Washington on Pennsylvania school bus case, Congress is Columbus Day. The parade caravan ended at still confronted with requests for a more the Holy Rosary church for high mass. definite position on Federal aid for At the Federal Smithsonian Institu- church-controlled schools. tion at Columbus Day ceremonies Vice-Pres- The nation's high court had been in ident Hubert Humphrey was presented with session only one week when it announced the Columbus medal by the ambassador from its refusal to hear an appeal attacking a Italy. Pennsylvania law requiring use of public school buses for transportation of chil- ■ When Congress passed the Elementary dren to their parochial schools. A group and Secondary Education Act, it passed the of Philadelphia suburbanites claimed such buck to the States on the religious issue. busing violated the First Amendment to the Several States are now in the throes of Constitution. In an unsigned order the holding constitutional conventions and Supreme Court dismissed the appeal on the the church-state issue is one of the knotty ground that it did not present "a substan- problems under consideration. These con- tial Federal question." VOLUME 63, NO. 1 JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1968

25 cents Washington a copy LIBERTY D.C. A MAGAZINE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

EDITOR ARTICLES Roland R. Hegstad

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Marvin E. Loewen 8 The Way to Freedom Edward Heppenstall W. Melvin Adams James V. Scully 12 Religion's Biochemical Missionaries Herbert L. Ford ART EDITOR Terence K. Martin 16 When Is a Church a Church? C. Stanley Lowell

CIRCULATION MANAGER S. L. Clark 17 Albania v. the Churches

FIELD REPRESENTATIVES 19 The Parable of a Pastor Bob W. Brown C. M. Willis Clifford Okuno 20 Anti-Sunday-Law Strategy Forecast Robert W. Nixon CONSULTING EDITORS W. P. Bradley, Neal C. Wilson, M. V. Campbell, 24 The Church's Greatest Need A. G. Daniells R. L. Odom, Cyril Miller, Theodore Carcich Darren Michael 26 Hands Off, Uzzah! John Erhard CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Dr. Jean Nussbaum 27 How Long Did the Early Church Keep W. L. Emmerson Kenneth Holland Sabbath? V. Norskov Olsen C. Mervyn Maxwell Warren L. Johns

LEGAL ADVISER FEATURES Boardman Noland

EDITORIAL SECRETARY 2 Assignment: Washington William H. Hackett Thelma Wellman

LAYOUT ARTIST 4 From the Editor's Desk Alan Forquer 5 "Dear Sir" RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 22 Discount-House Religion Sydney Allen ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 23 Voices in the Ecumenical Wind Declaration of Principles

We believe in religious liberty, and hold that 30 Editorials: Court Rejects Amish Case .. . Clergymen Threaten to this God-given right is exercised at its best when Withhold Tax . . . A Man for All Seasons there is separation between church and state. We believe in civil government as divinely ordained to protect men in the enjoyment of 31 Religion and Politics William Muehl their natural rights, and to rule in civil things; and that in this realm it is entitled to the re- spectful and willing obedience of all. 32 World News We believe in the individual's natural and inalienable right to freedom of conscience: to 34 The Launching Pad C. Mervyn Maxwell worship or not to worship; to profess, to prac- tice, and to promulgate his religious beliefs, or to change them according to his conscience or opinions, holding that these are the essence of religious liberty; but that in the exercise of LIBERTY: A Magazine of Religious Freedom is published bimonthly for the Religious this right he should respect the equivalent Liberty Association of America by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, rights of others. Washington, D.C. 20012. Second-class postage paid at Washington, D.C. Address editorial correspondence to 6840 Eastern Avenue NW., Washington, D.C. 20012. We believe that all legislation and other gov- LIBERTY is a' member of the Associated Church Press. ernmental acts which unite church and state are subversive of human rights, potentially per- THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA secuting in character, and opposed to the best was organized in 1889 by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Dedicated to the preservation of interests of church and state; and therefore, religious freedom, the association advocates no political or economic theories. that it is not within the province of human President, M. V. Campbell; general secretary, Marvin E. Loewen; associate secretaries, government to enact such legislation or per- W. Melvin Adams, Roland R. Hegstad, James V. Scully. form such acts. We believe it is our duty to use every lawful COPYRIGHT: The entire contents of this issue are copyrighted C) 1967 by the and honorable means to prevent the enactment Review and Herald Publishing Association. All rights reserved. of legislation which tends to unite church and state, and to oppose every movement toward SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One year, $1.25; one copy, 25 cents. Slightly higher in such union, that all may enjoy the inestimable Canada. Subscription rates subject to change without notice. All subscriptions must blessings of religious liberty. be paid for in advance. Except for sample copies, papers are sent only on paid subscriptions. We believe that these liberties are embraced in the golden rule, which teaches that a man CHANGE OF ADDRESS OR SUBSCRIPTION CORRESPONDENCE: Please enclose address should do to others as he would have others label from magazine or wrapper. Allow one month for address change. Write: Review do to him. and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D.C. 20012.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 3 from the editor's desk

Hippiedom The Way to Freedom?

VERY major American city now has an enclave of them. Unwashed, un- E shod, unkempt, and uninhibited; hallucinating and undulating in mo- tion with their own "disanthropic" universe; purporting to replace the present parasitic order of rot and payola with their psychedelic order of pot and peyote; Turning On with LSD, Tuning In to a hallucinatory world beyond reality, Dropping Out of Society to pursue their own vision of the Holy Grail—they are that bizarre, if not berserk, mod-podge of the New orality called hippiedom. To the nonpsycho, there is pathos in the spectacle of the male hippie sperately seeking confirmation of his manhood while peering through a hairdo that leaves the new acquaintance unsure whether to kiss him or shake ands with him. ( And a bit of humor in the sight of females, who for years have been squirming into foundational confinement for the sake of a dimin- ished silhouette, now flouting their emancipation under the heading of "hippies.") But humor and pathos aside, the hippies raise questions of concern to our society, one of which concerns the relationship of law to freedom. Are they mutually exclusive? "No," says Dr. Edward Heppenstall, director of Theological Seminary ( West Coast), Andrews University, who last summer led a seminary in- vasion of London's hippiedom. "True freedom does not lie in escape from commitment to society, nor in evasion of responsibility to law. Rather, paradoxically, freedom exists only where there is submission to law." For Dr. Heppenstall's fuller appraisal of law and freedom, see page 8. Even love, the ethos of the grand gurus of hippiedom's sawdust trail, is not antithetical to law. Said Christ, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" ( John 14:15 ). "0 that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea" (Isa. 48:18). The hippies, along with more conventional misfits, boast of liberty when they are slaves of selfishness, perverted appetite, licentiousness, drugs. Hard- core hippies in San Francisco are costing the city $35,000 a month for treat- ment of drug abuse, and venereal disease already is up six times from the city's 1964 rate! All this in the name of freedom! Obedience to God means liberty from the thralldom of sin, deliverance from passion and impulse. When one surrenders his will to Christ, the mind is brought under control of law, but it is the royal law of liberty, which pro- claims liberty to every captive. By becoming one with Christ, who was the law of God walking about in human form, man becomes truly free. He is restored to his manhood and to his destiny as a son of God. The hippies, with unintentional candor, have adopted the daffodil as their chief weapon in their arsenal of "flower power." Far better that they cultivate renewed affection for God's forget-me-nots.

4 LIBERTY, 1968 The area which I have circled, particularly No. 5, simply makes me ill. The repetitious use of the Communist term dialog and the failure of your author to indicate the least bit of unhappiness with the views expressed at this surrender conference gall me. All talk of a balance of terror, threats "dear sir:" by both parties, et cetera, is false and displays a great mis- understanding to the point of naivete regarding the Communist Aqlligi141AM menace. When will you well-intentioned men of the cloth awaken to the fact that it is Communism, and not Capitalism, that is threatening the terror, providing the threats, et cetera? America need make no apologies. "Creative steps toward PACEM IN TERRIS—BAD DREAM? peace," as your article calls them, require some common sense. GEORGE S. RICHARDSON, M.D. Communism demands on its part total victory for the forces Roswell, New Mexico of atheism; a compromise of light with darkness will dim the light but not affect the darkness. The hour is late and the body tired, but I must grab this typewriter and drop you a note concerning the September- October issue. DETENTION CAMPS You have given so much favorable publicity to Justice Doug- las, Senator Fulbright, Robert Hutchins, dialog between Pope JOHN ASFELD Paul and that fellow Blake, Bishop Pike and others, one al- Bernville, Pennsylvania most wonders if you have had a bad dream. I have read with interest various articles in your fine maga- No council or meeting of men, under the guidance of zine relative to the so-called "detention camps." those who appear in this issue of your magazine, can ever Your readers need only go back 25 years to the start of bring the peace we seek to this world.... The American people World War II when our misguided Government placed thou- must repent and remember that Paul gave them timeless ad- sands of its citizens in such camps with no appeal whatsoever! vice in having no communion with darkness, no fellowship At that time very few churchmen of various faiths fought with unrighteousness, and to stand fast in the liberty with the detention-camp concept. which Christ hath set us free. . . . 1. American citizens of Japanese ancestry were uprooted First, we must define the "peace" we seek and see if the from their homes and businesses and moved into deten- proposers . . . seek the "peace that passeth all understanding" tion camps, but only those residing in the Far West. or the peace that comes when all the world has accepted one 2. Japanese-Americans in Hawaii were not affected what- world government, one world church, one world money, one soever! world enforcement, and, inevitably, one world leader replacing 3. Repatriation was offered to those with Japanese citizen- Him to whom our devotion is due.* ship. However, a good many of these families were in f* That's what we thought we said.—ED.) the position of being denied U.S. citizenship but their JOHN J. LANGENBACH, Pro Ternpore Judge native-born children were U.S. citizens. Olympia, Washington 4. In one case with which I am familiar . . . a widow with two remaining children ( both girls) was detained at Volume 62, No. 5 of LIBERTY for September-October, the camp located near Tule Lake, California. After hav- 1967, contains an article "Pacem in Terris." On page 31 ing been in camp for more than two and a half years a the following appears: U.S. Government official offered two choices, "5. Cessation of acts of war against North Vietnam, to a. Repatriation to Japan, or be followed by negotiations for a cease-fire, free elections, b. She would have to sign a loyalty oath for release political amnesty, and the withdrawal of all foreign troops." from the camp and would then have to settle in Why should there be a cessation of war only against the Eastern U.S. North Vietnam? Why not also against South Vietnam? She chose repatriation (subsequently her two daughters If the war was not rolling south, there would have been who were native-born citizens returned to the U.S.). She no reason for American troops to be in South Vietnam. Now, had two sons fighting for the United States in Italy, and all of the fighting is in South Vietnam. In fact, the aggres- one of them had been killed in action on the Rapido sion only comes from North Vietnam. River. [LIBERTY reported the views of Pope Paul in his message This can happen again, and the time to fight the system is of greeting to the convocation; it did not endorse them.—ED.} NOW!

B. Y. WICKSTROM, Editor Zephyrhills News LIBERTY OF CHOICE Zephyrhills, Florida TERRY M. BLAKE, Minister I have enjoyed your publication over the recent years some- Church of Christ one has sent it to our office, especially your fine cover art, but Madison, Wisconsin your article "Pacem in Terris II" was a great disappointment; particularly in the fact that it appeared at all. I have just finished reading with keen appreciation the July- My tolerance comes to an end when it comes to granting August issue of your attractive and well-written magazine. . . . a podium, or in your case should I say "pulpit," to pro- I would be dishonest if I left the impression that I agree Communist and National Council of Churches' liberal views. with everything presented in your magazine, and I would be Perhaps next you will join those radicals in churches who prepared to furnish evidence from both the Bible and history wish to give "an equal voice" to the bar operators, dope to support my differences with those of the Seventh-day Ad- peddlers, et cetera. ventist persuasion. But on one point I am warmly sympathetic

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 5 and freely acknowledge myself your active supporter: I do JIM W. LANAHAN not want anyone to be compelled against his will to adopt Nashville, Tennessee anything I personally believe, but instead to adopt of his own free will, after intelligently examining the proof I offer him, I have just finished reading the conclusion of your article anything I may teach or advocate. And I sincerely appreciate "The Jews and the Death of Christ" and would like to com- the persuasive way in which you are presenting the corner- ment with regard to who is to blame for His death. To those who would like to put the blame on the Jew stone premise of our Republic through the pages of LIBERTY. With clear conscience I can sincerely bid you Godspeed in for the crucifixion of Christ, I can only say that if you this plea for true religious liberty of choice, and so I do. had experienced the new birth from above, then you would not be blinded to where the blame lies. As a follower of Christ, redeemed by the grace of God through the blood JEWS AND DEATH OF CHRIST of Christ, redeemed by the grace of God through the blood of the Lamb, I know without question that His death on I. RUSSELL WEINSTEIN, Diplomate Calvary was for sinners like myself, who were lost and with- American Board of Oral Surgery out hope. Coral Gables, Florida It was I who placed the crown of thorns upon His head. The New Testament tells us that when Jesus was brought It was I who drove the nails in His hands, and it was I before the Jewish high priest he was asked whether he was who pierced His side and caused His blood to flow. So the Son of God. When he answered in the affirmative he was don't blame the Jew. He was only an instrument. Blame automatically found guilty of blasphemy. Afterward, when he me because I was the reason He was crucified. Blame every was brought before Pilate, he was asked an entirely different reborn child of God for His death, not the Jew. The only question: "Art thou the King of the Jews?" Which, then, was Jews to blame are those who have received, like all others, the criminal charge—that he claimed to be the son of the Jew- salvation through the shedding of His precious blood on ish god or that he was a leader of the subjugated people and Calvary. as such the potential cause of unrest and rebellion? Obviously, I am proud to accept the blame, because for me it means the priests and the Romans were interested in two disparate eternal life with my Saviour. May God in His loving mercy things. That the Romans were concerned only with the latter soon open the eyes of those who would still refuse so great and not with the former is seen afterward when they have a salvation. Jesus alone and mock him by saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And still later, the New Testament states, "Over his head they set a written proclamation of his offence, This is Jesus, the THE AMISH King of the Jews." So, whatever his offense against the Jewish ELSTER S. HAILE religious law, there was an entirely different offense against Palo Alto, California the Romans; and it was apparently for this that he was exe- cuted. Furthermore, let us recall that crucifixion was a Roman, Because I was Kansas born and have taught constitutional not a Jewish, method of execution. . . . law in a California law school, Kansas v. Garber and its It seems that the tellers of the tale allowed their religious social, religious, and legal interpretations arouse enough zeal to affect their historical accuracy. And for that, millions personal interest for me to pass on a small contribution. of Jews were discriminated against, badgered, persecuted, The Amish's record, of course, needs no defense—in the beaten, tortured, burned, executed, and murdered for the next language of stereo and high fidelity, the "flip" side is all two thousand years! It is not for Christians in the Vatican or too well filled with the moral inadequacies of many of any other place to speak about forgiving the Jews but rather Sharon Garber's contemporaries. for the Jews to ask themselves what sign or gesture, what act I, for one, will be pleased to see the Supreme Court con- of contrition or remorse, what reversal of policy, has now sider and speak upon the constitutional liberties of a com- appeared that will justify their forgiving the Christian. There pletely moral segment of our society. It could be a "change is a lot to forgive. that refreshes." [See editorial, page 30.—En.)

J. F. GALLIMORE Tryon, North Carolina JODY BUNCE Opa Locka, Florida Your pious, compromising with Jewry in your July-August issue is disgusting beyond words! Since you both have a com- Mr. Lindholm's article "Kansas v. Garber" not only inter- mon Sunday, why don't you join the synagogue? Your Judeo- ested me—it amazed me. Christian dialogues & relations just might reach its zenith. He expertly reported the State's side and Mr. Garber's side. Read the enclosures, and look up the Bible verses. Let Christ His facts pertaining to the law and religion were accurate . . . & Paul speak for themselves. and cold. I'm not a religious person. I don't belong to any church or [Christ: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, attend one. I'm not an educated person. But I have heart. I if ye have love one to another" ( John 13:35). respect anyone's religion. And I possess common sense. Paul: "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither What is religion but heart? is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is Religion is warm—personal. How can Mr. Lindholm write a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the on such a subject and use words one would expect only from heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God" (Rom. 2:28, 29)• a computer. It was Peter who said, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no I had never heard the word Amish until I read Mr. Lind- respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, holm's article, but from what he reports I can't help but feel and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him" (Acts 10:34, it would be a much better world if we had more Amish people 35).—ED.) —especially Amish mothers.

6 LIBERTY, 1968 In comparison how many mothers of popular religious be- I believe everyone has a place in our society and that liefs teach their daughters to cook and sew or keep a flower college degrees are not necessary for every walk of life. Forc- garden? ing so-called education is not making us a Great Society. The majority of modern mothers are so busy gadding Evidence of this is found in the great increase of crime. about that they haven't time for their children, and most I enclose a donation ( I wish it could be more) to help don't care what the kids do or where they go so long as they the Amish in a righteous cause. It is my prayer that they don't bother them. shall prevail. Solomon asked for wisdom, not education, as It's refreshing to hear of a group of people who want to defined today. be responsible for their children. [If all contributions for the Amish were half as generous And now they have to fight for this right! No wonder the as that enclosed by Mr. Callaway, the National Committee for world is laughing at us. Amish Religious Freedom would soon be able to tackle I wish I had been brought up in a home where love of God several of the other educational problems facing the Amish. was important. And that I had been taught to cook and sew. Readers who wish to put their money where their heart is Give Mr. Garber his daughter. And may she feel the same may send their donations to: The National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom, care of LIBERTY: a Magazine of about her daughters. Religious Freedom, 6840 Eastern Avenue NW., Washington, D.C. 20012. Funds will be forwarded to the committee, and MARY GROGAN acknowledged by LIBERTY.—R.R.H.] St. Petersburg, Florida GEORGIA SUNDAY LAW The Amish and their quest for religious freedom are bring- FRANK F. FAULK, JR., Counselor at Law ing forth some fundamental questions in our American Albany, Georgia democracy. And those questions are: "Is the child a product of the parents or a tool of the state?" And, "Should educa- As far back as 1965 I began receiving issues of LIBERTY. tion be voluntary with the consent of the parents or com- At first I accorded to it only cursory attention tantamount pulsory with the enforcement of the state?" to that which professional people might be expected to give Indeed, these questions are so basic and so fundamental to unsolicited pieces of second-class mail. Recently, however, that they make us realize that this skirmish is not just a conflict I carefully perused a copy and found to my delight that it between a small group of supposed ''religious fanatics" and is one of the finest periodicals of this character which to my the state, but it is a conflict between freedom and slavery; knowledge is now in circulation. The Declaration of Principles indeed, between Democracy and Communism. set forth on your title and contents page is one of the best Freedom should mean what we originally intended the and most concise statements of the matter with which it is word to convey—the freedom of the individual over the concerned that I have ever seen. slave state—the right of the individual to make his own At its 1967 session the Georgia Legislature enacted "The free decision regarding religion and education. Sunday Business Activities Act," which specifies some twenty different occupational practices or types of "prohibited items" the Sunday sale or trade relating to which this law proscribes SAM CALLAWAY under penalty of fine and imprisonment. Atlanta, Georgia The tacit assumption which seems to underlie this piece My religious training convinces me that our Creator gave of local legislation is evidently the attempt to embody in us the divine right to use our own will. I believe that right Georgia's antiquated and comprehensive "Blue Laws" a set of action should only be hampered by man when it abuses of new "guidelines" to show local authorities where to crack the rights of others. down. I believe education in this country has become a political In my opinion it is masterful mockery of any lucid and pawn, that we should provide our citizens with the oppor- responsible concept of government by law to provide new tunity to learn the four R's—reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic, and crutches for an invalid and unenforceable sanction which religion. To page 33

AND HERALD HARRY ANDERSON, ARTIST

FROM THE SYMPHONY OF CERTAINTY—Two thousand years ago that Thomas we call "Doubting" said plaintively to Jesus, "Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" The note of eternal certainty which Jesus struck in reply sounds yet amid the myriad voices competing for the loyalty of mankind: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Artist Harry Anderson translates that imperative into twentieth- century visual imagery, and we set his canvas, proudly, against the art, both pop and pap, that portrays the inner vacuum of hippiedom.

7 Does It Lie in Escape From Law?

By EDWARD HEPPENSTALL, Ph.D.

Director of Theological Seminary (West Coast) Andrews University

HE cry for freedom falls readily from the lips. crushed ambitions for freedom, one ideology boldly It is heard above the bedlam of breaking glass proclaims the way to perfect freedom and offers it to the Tand roaring flames that spell riot in our cities. peoples of the world—Christianity. It affirms that God It is bandied about at rallies on university campuses. sent His Son into the world to bring freedom: "Then It is the theme song of the uninhibited hippies, that said Jesus . . . If ye continue in my word, then are new generation of flower children flourishing among ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, the weeds. and the truth shall make you free" ( John 8:31, 32 ). The struggle for freedom has become an obsession But many who seek freedom renounce the Word of with the peoples and nations of the world—in the God, the promise of Christ. Freedom, they believe, is Middle East, where tanks stand anxious vigil under arbitrarily restricted by the requirements of the divine skies that amplified the angel chorus, "Peace on earth, Lawgiver. Was it not He who spoke those restrictive good will toward men"; in the Far East and Africa, pronouncements on Mount Sinai, that old morality where nationalism seeks to cast off the vestigial append- now given way to the new? Modern man needs a mod- ages of colonialism; in a score of nations where the ern code, relevant to today's enlightened concepts of realities of dictatorial rule mock the theory of demo- morality, something more permissive, more accom- cratic process. An emerging generation of youth, dis- modating. illusioned with the product of the law and order espoused "Away with restrictions!" is the cry. Rightly inter- by their parents, are transforming the cry for freedom preted, it reads, "Give us privilege without responsi- into rebellion against established forms of society and bility, pleasures without value, exploitation without government. self worth." Yet most people never find freedom. They are learn- The step from freedom to license is a short one. ing that the right to freedom is one thing, and the way And many youth there be who take it. The Bible to freedom is another. story of the prodigal son is the classic example for Amid the confused definitions of freedom, the all time of the working and the retribution of freedom

8 LIBERTY, 1968 Miniature editions of the world's flower children reveal their immaturity

in the Liberty studio.

J. BYRON LOGAN PHOTO

JANUARY-FEBRUARY falsely so called. And like that prodigal, the products slavery than that of being bound in chains in a dun- of the new freedom are finding themselves far from geon. home, hungry and degraded, without purpose and The slavery born of illusion is found even within without responsibility, bereft of self-respect, of security, the churches. "We are no longer under law, but under or of moral values. grace," say some "Christians" in justification of their "We are free! Free to do as we please!" they cry moral turpitude. That man is, indeed, saved by grace defiantly from a hundred Greenwich Villages, Dupont and not by works of the law, the Scripture makes Circles, Haight-Ashbury districts, and Piccadilly Cir- clear. But it makes clear, too, that grace does not free cuses. But men do not develop a free mind who are a man to sin: "What shall we say then? Shall we not made better by the freedom they claim to enjoy. continue in sin, that grace may abound?" "Shall we A sixfold increase in venereal disease, a plea for wel- sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? fare handouts, vacuous stares hidden behind dark God forbid." "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live glasses—these are not testimonials that sell. They reveal any longer therein?" (Rom. 6:1, 15, 2 ). Fidelity to enslavement, not emancipation; impoverishment, not the moral law is the lodestar amid the moral degeneracy enrichment; indulgence, not integrity; incrimination, of our time, a corrective guide to those who "see not discrimination; license, not freedom. through a glass darkly."

At a rite in San Francisco a group of hip- pies burn psychedelic posters and other memorabilia. Disdaining the hippie label, they wish to be called Free Americans.

All creation is subject to law. Law is written into every fiber of our being, into every mote and current of our world. Laws operate with quiet irresistible sovereignty. If man wages war against them, he suf- fers the consequences. And this is just as true in the realm of spiritual laws: Violation carries with it its inevitable penalties. The freedom taught by Christ is the freedom to

RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE PHOTO obey the law of God, not freedom to disobey it. "'What do you mean by saying, "You will become But what glamour there is in license! Youth's world free men"?' In very truth I tell you,' said Jesus, 'that of illusion is portrayed in psychedelic hues, false mag- everyone who commits sin is a slave' " ( John 8:33-35, nitudes, lurid lights, exaggerated art, all producing the N.E.B.).* appearance of enjoyment, love, personal glory and Men cannot disobey the law of God or go con- achievement. "Satan himself is transformed into an trary to God's will without being in some degree angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14). blinded. Scales begin to form on the eyes of the But their world is one of barren reveries and quick- mind. The conscience hardens. A creeping paralysis sand patches. Always the pull is down—down to irre- withers the power of the will. The evil that license sponsibility, down to slavery, down to despair, down works in the life is sin's most terrible consequence. to tragedy. Life is void of purpose and accomplish- The great argument against a life that violates the ment; they become the galley slaves of fleshly lusts, law of God is the darkening of Heaven's light in the serfs of the cheap and ugly, victims of drugs, disease, soul, the warped affections and passions, the destruc- and death. tion of man's nobility, the loss of God's peace, the Their fate is the product of their belief—that the degrading of man's capacity to love. way to escape bondage of the flesh is to yield to it. The great argument in favor of freedom in Christ Because of the inherent selfishness and corruptness is that it makes possible the fullest development of of the human heart, no man can find freedom within man. He who is free to fulfill the law of God is himself. Instead, in abandoning himself to control of delivered from the bondage of sin. Christ affirms the his lower nature, man enters the essential slavery. To rights and integrity of one's manhood or womanhood. be mastered by low passions and selfish desires, to be • The New English Bible, New Testament. (7) The Delegates of the Oxford at the mercy of sinful habits, is an infinitely worse University Press and the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press 1961.

10 LIBERTY, 1968 TEUVO KANERVA PHOTO We take an important step toward maturity when we realize that, like it or not, we are governed. We are not independent of law—either the laws of man or the laws of God. Yet, the law of God is not a club that bludgeons the conscience and the will into sub- mission. The appeal of Christ, as expressed in His law, is reasonable, gracious, loving, and right. And it is in the keeping of it that we attain to maturity, to a responsible relationship to God and to our fellow man. However, simply submitting to law does not make us free. A dog is not cured of rabies by wearing a muzzle. A madman is not restored to reason by being put into a strait jacket. A prisoner is not made honest by handcuffs. The restraints of law alone cannot make us free. Only the power and the truth of Christ, which alone can bring our wills into perfect conformity to God's perfect law, can do that. In terms of personal liberty, what one commits himself to, makes the difference. It is high time that Who said miniskirts are for the birds? we recognize this fact, for the rot and the riots and the irresponsibility of our society are sweeping us toward the precipice of anarchy, the end result of rebel- lion against law. Daily our capacity to hate and to kill increases in magnitude. Daily license masks itself Christ emancipates from the thralldom of evil. Christ more securely in the mantle of freedom. But daily, awaicens all the latent capacities. "The people that too, the Word of God bears its unflinching witness: do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" "Have you forgotten that the kingdom of God will (Dan. 11:32). never belong to the wicked? Don't be under any Bible records of man declare this. Sinful men, weak illusion—neither the impure, the idolater or the adul- men; working men, unknown men, under the influ- terer; neither the effeminate, the pervert or the thief; ence of the God who makes man free, all grow into neither the swindler, the drunkard, the foul-mouthed commanding characters in the service of righteousness or the rapacious shall have any share in the kingdom and freedom. The truth Christ offers unlocks and in- of God. And such men, remember, wete some of you! spires the best in men and women. Out of timid, But you have cleansed yourselves from all that; you obscure fishermen and tax collectors rose the majestic have been made whole in spirit; you have been justified apostles. Their surrender and obedience to the will before God in the name of the Lord Jesus and in his and truth of God wrought magnificent triumphs for very Spirit" (1 Cor. 6:9-11, Phillips).* the kingdom of God. God has redeemed us in Christ. We are made for the man who surrenders his life to Christ does not freedom at His hands. Because God loves us with a lose his freedom. He gains it. Hence the words of Christ: love that can be trusted, He 'never enslaves those who It is he who "loseth his life" who really finds it; commit themselves to Him. He never exploits us. He that is, he who surrenders all self-serving. never uses us. Christ is the way to freedom because He Freedom "frees a man to say No to error and dark- alone can control the vital forces that constitute us as ness, Yes to truth and light. Every athlete understands persons for the highest realization of life. Christ is the what that means. In exchange for license to do any- way to freedom because He alone can save men to the thing—to sinoke, to drink, to abuse the mind and uttermost. There are no enslaving habits that He cannot body—he gains freedom to achieve what otherwise break. There are no degrading forces that He cannot would be impossible, because he lives according to master. There are no emotional problems that He cannot the laws of his being, under which God made him. solve and heal. The philosopher, the scientist, the psy- Freedom means living a life of worth and responsibility chologist or the psychiatrist, the builder or the banker— before God and man. By deliberate and sincere expo- none have the answer. Christ gave it to us long ago: "If sure to Christ, man with all his basic urges and powers the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be is freed from every evil thing, that he may live hero- free indeed" ( John 8:36 ). *** ically for truth and righteousness. Human life is given • The New Testament in Modern English, © J. B. Phillips 1958. Used new dignity; new nobility; new faith, hope, and love. by permission of The Macmillan Company.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 11

Religion's Biochemical Missionaries katioimm-

Wherein Crow Indian Frank Takes Gun of the Na- tive American Church argues that to deny the use of peyote in rites of his cult is to deny religious liberty.

By HERBERT L. FORD

111".111,111r SMALL band of peyote-eating science which is finding the essence of Indians lazes the night away that worship—the taking of drugs—in- A staring into the flickering fire jurious, and sometimes fatal, to the on the floor of a hogan on the wind- health of the worshiper. What reputable swept, high desert of southern Utah. A lawyer wants to defend successfully a young coed searches for "cosmic con- group of drug-supping religionists in sciousness" by munching a sugar cube court only to have half of them wind up impregnated with lysergic acid diethyla- in the neuropsychiatric section of the lo- mide in her Midwestern university cal hospital? What is he defending any- dormitory room. In the Carolinas a way—freedom to practice religion, or self - appointed "minister" swallows freedom to chance mental derangement psilocybin crystals as he seeks "reli- or death via religion? Similar questions gious enlightenment." have arisen in the past to be sure,, and These are glimpses which, multiplied almost always such cases have been a thousand times and more, constitute a decided in favor of freedom to worship, growing and perplexing challenge to even when that freedom was given in one of America's dearest concepts—the the face of possible health hazard. Yet freedom of religion. The mushrooming the potent quality of some of the new number of such acts represents a grow- religious "vehicles" would cause any ing dilemma for health officials, legisla- court to raise its collective eyebrows. tors and religious leaders who, in one The controversy over the marriage of way or another, must deal with the religion and drugs is already in full newly popularized biochemical "mis- bloom. The courts are now hearing sionaries" of the new religions. cases, and the case load will get bigger. The questions posed by psychedelic, The list of drug "missionaries" is grow- or mind-manifesting drugs, when used ing, getting bigger almost every week as in connection with newly created reli- fearless — or brainless — experimenta- gions, can be baffling to even those tion continues. constitutional experts who have had In the relatively mild category of notable success in defining and de- psychedelic drugs there are morning- fending what constitutes religious lib- glory seeds, nutmeg, and marijuana. erty in the United States. For now, in Those of a slightly more potent quality addition to fighting for the freedom to include bufotenine, mescaline, psilo- worship in form, freedom must also be cybin, and dimethyltryptamine. In the sought to disregard the evidence of a singularly potent class there is LSD,

12 LIBERTY, 1968 about seven thousand times more powerful than mesca- of a defense organization incorporated as the Pan-In- line.' The religions these drugs have been attached to dian Peyotist Association. Also to the defense of the range from as-yet-unnamed, completely unorganized proponents of peyotism came James Mooney, a Smith- groups of ten or twenty persons, to large bodies such sonian Institution ethnologist who assisted in the forma- as the Native American Church, which claims some tion of the Native American Church, which was in- 200,000 card-carrying members. Although some experi- corporated in Oklahoma on October 10, 1918. In 1944 mentation does go on among the long-established reli- the Oklahoma articles of incorporation were amended gions of the country, most shun the chemical mysticism so that the association could take on national status, with of the drug experimenters as either blasphemous or the name "The Native American Church of the United absurd, or both. States" being adopted.' The record, at least the one that finds its way into the In the southwest, peyotism was carried to the Taos public press, of the new breed of religionists, seems to Indian Pueblo in New Mexico by Indians who had bear out the opinion of the country's older religious visited in Oklahoma and had entered into the rites they groups. The "instant mysticism" of LSD, for example, saw there. Use of the buttons spread throughout the has put hundreds of its users into mental health centers Pueblo, then came upon bitter opposition by the Pueb- or mortuaries. Overdoses of the milder psychedelics lo's Catholic religious hierarchy when, it was charged, have led to similar, if less disastrous, circumstances. Yet, the "Peyote boys" would not attend mass. The dispute for all their questionable record, the new, drug-using continued, becoming so bitter that it resulted in a hear- religions cry loudly for freedom to practice and prose- ing before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in lyte. And in today's world of topsy-turvy morals, 1936. bearded mystics, and God-denying clergymen, they will At the hearing it was alleged that a deputy law-en- get their day in court—if the record of at least one forcement officer of the Indian Service arrested and such religion is a criterion. Since its incorporation as a State-wide organization A drummer in the costume of the Eagle Dance in Oklahoma on October 10, 1918, the Native Ameri- of the Tesuque Pueblo in northern New Mexico. can Church has used the buds or "buttons" of the spine- less, turniplike cactus (Lophophora williamsii) 2 in what the church's current president, Frank Takes Gun, calls "a semisacramental position something akin to the bread and wine of Christian services."' The buttons from the cactus, called peyote, are chewed by partici- pants in the only ritual the Native American Church has. The buttons contain the psychedelic mescaline. Far from originating the idea of using peyote, the Native American Church can trace use of the buttons to the Aztecs of Mexico, who were found using them when the Spanish came to Mexico City some four hun- dred years ago. In Spanish Inquisition documents of 1631 some reference is made to the use of peyote by Queres, and also the Tewa and Tano Pueblo people who today live near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Most early records of the Taos and the Hopi show peyote used as medicine or to induce visions for the purpose of finding lost or stolen things. In 1891 a new use for peyote is recorded among Indians in Oklahoma who practiced a "mescal rite," and formed a "Peyote cult." By 1908 a loosely knit group of tribes known as the "Mescal Bean Eaters" had spread eastward, south to Oklahoma, and north to Nebraska. In 1909 the group became known as the Union Church. With the continuing growth of peyote use among these Indian groups came efforts to curb its use. In 1918 a determined effort was made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to have an antipeyote law passed by the U.S. Congress. This threat brought about the formation RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE PHOTO

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 13 brought to trial several tribal members, charging them In the mid-1850's thousands of Navahos were dis- with using peyote in rites of the cult. The charge also placed from their homes in Arizona and northwestern contended that this officer sat as witness, prosecutor, New Mexico and taken into virtual captivity at Fort and judge in the trial that resulted in a thirty-day Sumner in southern New Mexico because they would prison sentence for three of the defendants. Addition- not bow to the white man's laws. The displacement at- ally, the Senate Committee heard, fifteen members of tempt proved disastrous, and the Navahos were finally the Native American Church were brought to trial and returned to their former fertile lands, now gone bar- fined $100 each. Since the defendants had no funds, ren, in 1868. The angry tribe was given some 35,000 their land, a total of about two hundred irrigated acres, sheep and goats for food. was taken from them, some of the guilty being stripped During the next forty years the herds prospered un- of all their land. til some one million sheep units were grazing on lands John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, finally capable of handling only about half that number. Over- resolved the dispute through the drawing up of a four- grazing produced serious soil erosion. As the giant point agreement. The first point read: "Affirmation by Boulder Dam began to rise on the Colorado River in the Pueblo of the principle of complete religious lib- the 1930's, tons of red topsoil eroding from overgrazed erty." The agreement's fourth point, containing six sec- reservation lands along the San Juan River, which tions, seems to contradict the first as it calls for "the drains the Navaho country, began to pour into the new Peyote Church to eschew all proselyting activity." The water-storage complex threatening the genius of Boul- agreement was, nonetheless, acceptable to both parties, der. The only answer to the problem, as the United and despite the no-proselyting ban, the peyote cult flour- States Government saw it, was to reduce the size of ished." the Indian herds, which were causing the erosion. The By 1910 peyote was being used on the Taos Pueblo; decision made, the slaughter began. by the mid-1930's it had appeared on the Navaho Caught in the second treachery of the white man in Reservation in New Mexico. The cult caught fire among the memory of all the elders of the tribe, the Navahos the Navahos, say some observers, as a backlash result were ripe to turn to something, anything, that was of one instance of America's colossal mishandling of purely Indian, that had nothing to do with the hated Indian affairs. "white eyes." They turned to peyote. As the use spread, tribal leaders began to see threats HEBERT L. FORD to the long-established influence of the medicine man and of the authority of the Tribal Council itself. In 1940 a resolution was passed prohibiting the sale, use, or possession of peyote. By 1954 members of the cult were finally successful in having the resolution discussed by the Navaho Tribal Council, but no decision was made to change it." Amid rising charges of immorality associated with the rite of the Native American Church, Frank Takes Gun, the newly elected president of the organization, who is a Crow Indian, decided to act. From his head- quarters in Albuquerque, Takes Gun began attempts to force the States of New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, as well as the Navaho Tribal Council, to amend their laws prohibiting the use of peyote, so that its sacra- mental use in his church could be legalized. By 1959 he had succeeded in New Mexico. He next moved against the Navaho Tribal Council, which proved to be a considerably tougher foe than the New Mexico Legis- Navaho Indians before their hogan in Monument Valley. lature had been. At the end of 1967 the Tribal Council

14 LIBERTY, 1968 Displaced, their herds slaughtered by the white man, the Navahos were ripe to turn to anything that was purely Indian. They turned to peyote.

notes that Federal narcotic laws do not label peyote a narcotic, nor state that its possession warrants criminal prosecution.' He also cites Irvin A. Wiley, director of the United States Postal Service Division, who affirms that peyote is mailable and is accepted in the mails .° The United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, says Takes Gun, has assured him by letter that it does not view the use of peyote in traditional religious ceremonies as a violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which restricts the distribution of peyote to prescription dispensing:" When the Government sought to stop use of peyote at tribal rites in California, Indian users of the drug gained another ally—that State's Supreme Court, which, in a 5 to 1 decision, upheld the Indian's right to freedom of religion. A review of the rocky road traveled by the peyote cultists in their convincing efforts to be left to practice religion as they choose would most likely cause all but the most sincere to give up attempts to legalize the use of the newly popularized biochemicals as any sort of religious sacrament. But the proliferating marriages of biochemicals and religious experience, along with all the attendant publicity they generate, will surely cause serious students of religious liberty to beat their way RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE PHOTO back to the fundamental question of this important subject: Just how free is, and how free should be, re- had not yet changed its resolution prohibiting the use ligion in this democracy of ours? *** of peyote, although Tribal Council chairman, Raymond Nakai, was accused of breaking tribal law by allowing REFERENCES 'Time, June 17, 1966, p. 30. the Native American Church to hold its first convention 2 Listen, July-August, 1964, p. 7. 3 Hearings before the Subcommittee on the Judiciary United States Senate, on the reservation in June of 1966: The cult has be- Eighty-ninth Congress, First Session on S. 961, 962, 963, 964, 965, 966, 967, 968, and S.J. Res. 40 to protect the constitutional rights of the American come a political issue in Tribal Council elections, and it Indian, June 22, 23. 24, and 29. 1965, p. 163. "Peyotism and New Mexico," pp. 7-9. seems certain that the tribal ban will again receive 5 /bid., pp. 10-12. a Ibid., pp. 17-20. thorough review under the constant prodding of Mr. 7 Religious News Service, Wednesday, July 20, 1965. Hearings before the Subcommittee on the Judiciary United States Senate, Takes Gun and the growing number of Navahos who Eighty-ninth Congress, First Session on S. 961, 962, 963, 964, 965, 966, 967, 968, and S.J. Res. 40 to protect the constitutional rights of the American hold membership cards in the Native American Church. Indian, June 22, 23, 24, and 29, 1965, p. 166. 9 Ibid., p. 166. Frank Takes Gun argues that a denial of the use of "Ibid., p. 167. peyote in rites of his cult is a denial of religious liberty, (Additionally many papers, monographs, bulletins, letters, and extracts were read in preparation of this article. The entire, very large file of information since the use closely approximates the use of bread and on peyote compiled by Dr. J. Lloyd Mason at the Monument valley Seventh- day Adventist Indian Hospital was studied, and special thanks is due for his wine in traditional Christian religious services. He generous sharing of this material.)

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 15 That is a nice point which Cassius Clay, colleges undertook to prove that they were the Black Muslim prize fighter, raises with not churches and therefore entitled to re- the United States, of which he is a citizen. ceive public funds. He informs the government's military draft officials that he is a minister of religion. Objective Standards Needed Since ministers of religion are exempt from One point emerges rather clearly from this the draft, he is, ipso facto, exempt. welter of cases. The churches cannot be The government replies: "You are not given sole discretion in the matter of defining really a minister of religion. You only say themselves. Some objective standards must you are. A minister of religion is clearly de- be applied, and under our system this is done fined in the law, and you don't qualify. by civil authority. We are governed according Therefore, you aren't exempt." to a Constitution. This document makes it This same point has come up many times clear that it is the civil authority which de- in the history of church-state relations. Who fines for legal purposes—and particularly for writes the legal definition of a church—the tax purposes—what a church is. The branch WHEN IS A CHURCH A CHURCH?* By C. STANLEY LOWELL, Editor, Church and State

church itself or the government? Who de- of the civil authority that has this continually fines a minister of religion? Who determines under assessment is the judiciary. what rites are essential to the practice of a The Constitution separates church and given religion and which are not? state by its provision that forbids acts re- This was one of the points in the famous specting establishment of religion or inter- Mormon polygamy case of 1879. The Mor- ference with the free exercise of religion. But mons argued unconstitutionality under the the definition of what it is that may not be First Amendment of a law banning polyg- established or interfered with is made not by amy. They said that their church taught the church but by the state. Were it the polygamy as a basic doctrine and that under other way, the church theoretically could de- the First Amendment the government was fine itself into many functions that are forbidden to interfere with religious belief plainly within the province of the state. and practice. But the Supreme Court held that the government could overrule even a Danger of Abuses church's basic theology when this violated It is true as well that when the civil author- the law of the land. ity has power to define the church—as, for In 1958 the Christian Brothers, an order example, for tax purposes—this could be of the Roman Catholic Church that manu- occasion for serious abuse. Could not the factures brandy and wines, argued that the civil authority define the church out of exist- order was a church and therefore tax ex- ence or at least reduce it to a mere shadow? empt. Under our system, said the Brothers, Such abuses have arisen in the past, but they a church defines itself. Officials did not see have been characteristic of despotic political it that way. regimes. A free government of the people is something else. Drugs and Church "Rites" There is, to be sure, an inviolable area of When the government tried to put a stop personal conscience that government may to the use of the drug peyote at tribal rituals not penetrate. For example, government of the Navaho Indians, it was met with the properly refuses to draft into the armed contention that these were religious services forces men with convictions of conscience and that the government was interfering against such military service. Our Constitu- with the free exercise of religion. The In- tion guarantees to all persons and churches dians won that one, too. the free exercise of religion, and such exer- When the government moved against Dr. cise must be diligently protected. Timothy Leary and his sponsorship of the A free government has within it checks hallucinatory drug LSD, it was startled by and balances against abuse and injustice. the doctor's contention that his drug seances When a free government of the people is were the rites of a "church" and impervious involved with free churches of the people we to interference under the First Amendment. have on both sides a built-in protection Again, the point that a church defines itself against such intrusions. While the balance and, under the separation doctrine, the gov- between the two is never complete or easy, ernment is supposed to accept the definition. neither is apt to become pre-emptive of the The same point was raised in reverse in the other. *** Maryland college case of Horace Mann v. • Reprinted by permission of Church and State Review, Sep- Board of Public Works. Here church-related tember, 1967, p. 11.

16 LIBERTY, 1968 Albania v. the Churches

TWOFOLD, carefully planned antireligious although using it as an instrument for mobilizing Al- program in Communist Albania has now bania's Orthodox population behind the regime's poli- A reached the point where the closest ally of Red cies. China is promoting the Marx-Leninist dogma as "the Within the present frontiers of the Albanian state, only true religion" of the people. Roman Catholics account for approximately 10 per This newest stage of Albania's atheistic campaign cent of the country's almost 2 million people. Moslems follows a 20-year-old quest to dominate all religions by claim 70 per cent and Eastern Orthodoxy 20 per cent reducing their administrative structure to make their of the population. spiritual and functional programs ineffective. It is mark- In the early days of Communist rule (since the end edly out of step with varying attempts for church-state of 1944) the regime devised various methods of de- coexistence or accommodation in other Communist priving the churches of their income, curbing their countries of Eastern Europe. influence and outlawing religious instruction by the ex- These observations are reported by Dr. Rexhep Kras- propriation of monasteries and all kinds of schools, in- niqi, former Albanian Minister of Education and now cluding seminaries, libraries, et cetera. According to president of the Free Albania Committee in New York. new laws and specially promulgated orders, the elec- He bases his study on a continuing analysis of the official tion or appointment of personnel of all churches must Albanian press and diplomatic reports reaching the be approved by the regime. committee from friendly sources in Tirana, the capital All religious communities are obliged to send im- of this vest-pocket but ideologically aggressive Com- mediately to the Council of Ministers all pastoral letters, munist state. messages, speeches, and memoranda that are to be According to Dr. Krasniqi, the Enver Hoxha regime printed or made public in any form. The law further in Albania is concentrating its antireligious agitation requires that the education of the youth be conducted mainly on youth. In carrying out its over-all program, by the state and that religious institutions have nothing the government has pursued three separate but inter- to do with it. It also forbids religious communities to related strategies: operate hospitals and welfare institutions or to own 1. Elimination of the Roman Catholic Church be- real estate. cause of its power, strong organization, and its ties Thus the three "nationalized" churches in Albania with the Western world. are supposed to serve the same Marxist master plan as 2. Toleration, within limits, of Islam—mainly be- prescribed for all Communist-ruled states. To achieve cause of its propaganda value in connection with Com- this objective as soon as possible, the Albanian Com- munist subversive activities in the Moslem nations of munists have acted vigorously. the Middle East. During the more than 20 years of Communist op- 3. Recognition of Eastern Orthodoxy as an enemy, pression, all three churches and their adherents in Al-

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 17 bania have been under constant and severe pressure. which he had used to produce Christian calendars. Some 200 priests of the three churches have been exe- As Albania's population is predominantly Moslem, cuted, murdered without trial, or sent to prison or this religious body has been used to fulfill a specific forced-labor camps. The main pressure has been di- purpose toward the free Moslem world by demonstrat- rected against the Catholic Church. ing to them the "harmonic togetherness" of the Mos- Just one month after the Communists had seized lem community and Communism. Under the cover of power they confiscated the Catholic press, kindergar- religious and cultural purposes, Tirana delegations con- tens, elementary schools, seminaries--as well as all sisting of people with Moslem names have been very high schools, which were taken over by government. active in the Middle East and North Africa—at first to Priests who were not imprisoned, deported, or exe- propagandize Moscow's line, today to push Peking's cuted, were continuously put under pressure. Toward brand of Communism. In addition, delegations from the end of 1952, of 93 priests in the secular clergy, these countries are invited time and again to visit Al- 17 were executed or murdered without trial; 39 were bania and see for themselves the "progressive" Moslem imprisoned or sent to forced-labor camps where some life there. of them died; 11 were drafted into military service; The regime's total control over Moslems was 10 died; 3 escaped to foreign countries; 13, most of achieved by attacking separately one after another the them elderly, remained unharmed. many Moslem sects which existed in Albania, in order Of the 94 priests of the Jesuit and Franciscan orders to weaken systematically the whole complex of that 16 were shot; 16 were expelled as "foreigners"; 35 were church. imprisoned or sentenced to forced labor; 13 went into At first the regime seemingly favored the powerful hiding and some of them escaped; while 6 died. All sect of Bektashis, and three of their leaders—Baba Fajo, members of the Order of Don Orione and 85 nuns were Baba Feijzo, and Sheh Karbunara—were "elected" dep- expelled because of their Italian origin; 43 of 200 nuns uties to the People's Assembly. When later on all three were imprisoned or sent to forced-labor camps. of them were assassinated in one way or another, this Elimination of the Catholic Episcopate began in alliance came to a sudden end. Thereafter, the Com- 1948. Archbishop Vincenc Prennushi, Metropolitan of munists used familiar tactics of imprisonment and exe- Durres (Durazzo), one of the oldest in Christendom, cution of the entire leadership of the Moslem clergy. was imprisoned without trial and tortured to death. Because of the traditionally nationalistic character of Bishop Gjergj Volaj of Sappa, was arrested and exe- the Albanian Orthodox Church, the Communist re- cuted; Bishop Frano Gjini of Leshi (Alessio) was shot; gime's plan was to use it in the first place as an instru- Archbishop Gasper Thaci, Archbishop of Shkodra ment of mobilizing the Orthodox population behind its (Scutari), died mysteriously while in the hands of the policy. At the same time, however, steps were being Red police; the 90-year-old Bishop Shllaku of Pulati, taken to eliminate all those elements within the church was confined to his residence in the Northern Albanian who were considered "unreliable." All the churches mountains, where he died. and monasteries were infiltrated by Communist agents. In this way all the heads of the Albanian Catholic Soon after that, the regime brought the entire Church were liquidated. At present an elderly priest church under its strict control. The sole seminary was in Shkoder is formally performing the duties of the abolished, while some church buildings and all the sole bishop in Albania. monasteries such as those of Ardenica, Narta, Vlora, Among the Catholic clergymen executed or killed Voskopja, and their property were confiscated by the without trial are some of the most prominent Albanian state. scholars, poets, and writers—Father Anton Harapi, Fa- Elimination of the leaders of the Orthodox Church ther Bernardin Palaj, Father Gjon Shllaku, Dom Lazer was carried out in the same cruel way as against the Shantoja, Father Donat Kurti, Dom Mdoc Nikaj, an Moslem and the Roman Catholic clergy—by murder, octogenarian who died in prison, Dom Ndre Zadja, execution, and imprisonment. and others. In 1948, during the period of Soviet tutelage, there In 1959 another terror wave against religious groups came the merger of the Albanian Orthodox Church was staged. On this occasion two Catholic priests were with the Russian Orthodox Church. After Tirana broke the main victims. Charged with being "agents" of with Moscow in 1961, the ties between the two Yugoslavia's regime, after the usual mock trial, Father churches became insignificant. Dom D. Malaj was sentenced to death and executed, Despite this unrelenting persecution of religious while Father T. G. Marku received a long-term im- leaders, Dr. Krasniqi maintains that the regime has prisonment. failed thus far to eradicate basic religious belief among In 1965, one of the two priests of the only Catholic the people, including the generation which was ex- church in Tirana, the country's capital, was sentenced pected to learn only the dogma of Marx-Leninism.— to a long prison term because of alleged theft of paper, From the Religious News Service. ***

18 LIBERTY, 1968 Once upon a time there were churchmen who accepted gifts from government. . . . The or a._ Pastor

By BOB W. BROWN Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church Lexington, Kentucky

NCE there was a pastor who had a hard time making ends meet. He wasn't hungry, his children weren't destitute, he wasn't without shelter. A group of ten men in his church agreed among themselves to supplement his income each week by giving him a personal donation. Within two or three weeks they "organized," and each man gave his dona- tion to the "treasurer" of the group. The pastor accepted this gift each week. It equaled his salary. He bought a new car, a color TV, and new clothes. He never had it so good. Soon one of the "donors" called the pastor one evening in response to a sermon. "I don't like to criticize your preaching, but I really think you're in a rut lately, preacher. Why don't you lay off sin for a while and talk about God's love. After all, we're pretty good people here in our church or we wouldn't be supplementing your salary the way we do." The pastor was tempted to tell the "donor" that he would preach on any subject that he felt led to. But then he remembered the monthly car payments . . . One of the other "donors" came by to say, "Now that your salary has improved, pastor, I think you should purchase a new refrigerator. Now I'm not telling you what to do, but the refrigerators that I sell are the best in town and I will give you a good price." The pastor's wife didn't really want a new refrigerator, and they couldn't afford the extra payments even with the salary sup- plement, but if this "donor" were to withdraw his gift, they couldn't meet the TV payments, so they bought the refrigerator. Another "donor" called to say that his family was going away on a vacation, and they wanted to leave their two dogs with some- one who was dependable and who would take good care of their pets. They had immediately thought of the pastor's family and felt that "because we have been donating money for that salary boost, you wouldn't mind at all taking care of our dogs." Now, the pastor began to realize that the "donations" were not gifts at all. He was losing his self-respect and right of determination.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 19 He could not preach to his people with the same conviction that he used to feel. There was something costly about it all. But his troubles were just beginning. When other people in the church heard about the "donations" they began to wonder. Soon they began to criticize. Then they stopped giving. "Let the don- ors do it," they said. "Why should we labor and tithe our income to support our minister when he is taking money from another source?" The church budget went down. The people refused to give. They sent their money to other causes. Their allegiance shifted, because where your treasure is there is your heart also. The people cor- rectly assumed that the "donors" were controlling the pastor. They correctly judged that the congregation no longer set the church policy. They correctly decided that the relationship between the pastor and the "donors" was a fa- vored agreement that left them out. Their pastor had sold out. They had Governor Calvin L. Rampton lost him to the "donors." Eventually he left the ministry and now works for one of the donors.

ONCE upon a time there were churchmen who accepted gifts from the government. They said that their schools, hospitals, and other institutions couldn't keep up without supplementary income. And all was said to be legal, necessary, and right. There was no con- trol. The government just wanted to help the churches. Of course the churches could no longer be sectarian. Nor could they be religious. They could not "bite the hand that was feeding them." They could Anti-Sunday-Law not chart their own course. And the church people didn't like it. They quit giving their money. They refused to pay both tithes and taxes to Strategy the same institution. Church adminis- trators couldn't understand it. Their in- forecast in Utah governor's veto stitutions had modern equipment just like the big state institutions. In fact, they had become state institutions. And everyone wondered what had happened By ROBERT W. NIXON to the church hospitals, church schools, and church institutions. Moral: The one who pays the piper calls the tune. ***

20 LIBERTY, 1968 tors belonging to his own church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He decided golf wasn't the real name of the game. He vetoed the Sunday-closing bill. And the reasons he sent to Utah's Secretary of State Clyde L. Miller give an insight into what arguments op- ponents of Sunday-closing bills might successfully use in the so-called "off year" of 1968. Wrote Governor Rampton, "I am deeply convinced this bill should not be allowed to become law for two reasons: "1. It represents an unwarranted attempt on the part of the state to interfere with the privileges and liberties of the individual citizen without sufficient justification.

"2. It is patently unconstitutional under principles al- ready decided in similar cases by the Supreme Court of Utah." Governor Rampton admitted that as society becomes more and more complex, the state has to exercise more and more of its police power to limit freedom for the public good. But, explained the governor, "In order to preserve the dignity and freedom of the individual, each such attempt must be carefully weighed to make sure it is truly required by the public interest and is not merely an attempt to regiment the citizenry for inadequate reasons." The governor's veto message pointed out that the bill "had been advanced principally by the manage- ment of large mercantile stores," supposedly for the "health, recreation and welfare of the people of the State of Utah." These business interests, claimed the governor, said the law would aid both "those who shop and .. . those who would be employed on Sunday." Governor Rampton thought these arguments were not valid. Pointed out the governor, "Those who desire to shop on Sunday are not going to, be forced into recreational or social activities merely because of the unavailability of a place in which to shop." HICH man breaks the law? The man who "Furthermore," he continued, "the evidence indicates opens the pro-shop at a golf course on Sun- that while a few families do the weekly grocery shop- Wday and sells golf balls? Or the man who ping on Sunday, the great majority of Sunday pur- opens his sporting goods store on Sunday and sells balls? chases are small items, which merely represent a quick These were two of the questions that confronted trip to the store rather than a protracted shopping ex- Utah's Governor Calvin L. Rampton in March, 1967. pedition. There is little Sunday purchasing of major Governor Rampton then had to decide whether or not items of personal property, such as furniture, major to sign into law Senate Bill 82, a Sunday-closing pro- household appliances, [or] automobiles. . . ." posal. What about employees who have to work on Sun- Governor Rampton could have taken the easy way day? Governor Rampton indicated their bosses seemed out. He could have signed the bill into law. It was sup- more worried about the problem than the workers. ported by the predominant business and religious in- Explained the governor: "Only a very few of such terests in his State. It was opposed by several minority employees have taken this position, and those that have groups, chiefly several food and drugstore chains and are overwhelmingly outnumbered by employees, many the Religious Liberty Association of America. of them part-time workers and students, who fear they The governor acted contrary to the wishes of most will lose their employment. big businesses in his State and of several leading legisla- "Employees today are protected by wage and hour

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 21 legislation against exploitation by unscrupulous employ- have "uniform operations," as provided in Article I, ers either in the matter of hours of work or salaries." Section 24, of the Utah State Constitution. The governor also pointed out that commercial interests The governor further observed that the proposed law covered by the act employ fewer than 10 per cent of had several inequalities written into it. For instance, the 321,000 Utahans employed in nonagricultural pur- service stations whose primary business is selling gaso- suits. line and oil could stay open on Sunday. They could Supporters of the Sunday-closing legislation also even hire mechanics and perform auto repairs. Auto failed to prove their economic arguments. Governor repair shops, however, would have to close. Rampton observed that the bill's proponents did not Governor Rampton pointed out these additional in- prove "any observable difference in prices of like ar- equalities: Magazine stores could remain open. Book ticles based upon whether or not the store selling the shops couldn't. Shops "generally associated with the pro- items operates six or seven days a week." motion of recreation" (pro-shops, for instance) could stay open. A sporting-goods shop couldn't. Large stores could sell only specifically exempted products. Small stores with three or less employees could sell anything. "What reasonable basis of distinction," asked the Discount-House Religion governor, "so far as the public health or welfare exists between the operation of a store with three employees The fatal weakness of the postwar religious revival in America can be seen in the fact that leaders of the shiny and one with four?" new temples built during the fifties feel so threatened Why shouldn't the governor sign the bill into law by discount houses open on Sunday mornings that they have and then let the courts decide its constitutionality? The pressed a campaign in the sixties to enforce their closure, hoping, evidently, to impose a brand of sanctity upon their governor's veto message indicated he had received such people by city ordinance that publicity gimmicks, shallow a suggestion. He answered: "This might be an ap- sermons, ethical cowardice, confused theology, and a rinse of coffee and punch were unable to accomplish. propriate procedure had I no other objections to the When will churchmen learn that a religion that strays bill and were its constitutionality (not) in doubt. . . . from pressing the constraints of faith and love and seeks the I feel my duty as governor permits no other course arm of flesh is doomed? Let sermons be delivered with clarity and conviction, than to disapprove the measure." offering helpful answers to current dilemmas; let the people Unlike former Utah governor, George Dewey Clyde, become involved in works of mercy; let churchianity be who vetoed a similar bill in 1959, Governor Rampton transmuted into the religion of the family altar; and people will pass up a price war among a constellation of price- avoided the religious issue entirely in his message to cutting discounters in order to press into the courts of the the legislature. Rampton said, "Not one individual has Lord, even though those courts be located in a stucco box urged that executive action on this bill be taken on the designed by a committee of artless carpenters with crooked eyes. basis of religious teachings or principles." He did not It is a disgrace to any religion when its leaders put their indicate the number of persons who opposed the meas- trust in princes or city councilmen instead of in the Lord ure because of religious reasons. their God. If the religion promoted in our Sunday schools and from our popular pulpits is powerless to withstand the The religious issue had been raised before the Senate lure of a glorified dime store, then it is no wonder some Business and Commerce Committee by Max K. Man- people hive received the mistaken impression that God gum, a Mormon lawyer who spoke for the Religious is dead.—SYDNEY ALLEN. Liberty Association of America and several food and drugstore chains. Mangum, who practices in Salt Lake City, said both the committee and the Utah State Legislature as a whole were predominantly Mormon in religious make-up. "Furthermore," continued the governor, "there has Mangum pointed out two articles of the State constitu- been no showing that there is an appreciable difference tion guaranteeing religious toleration. He used selections in profit margin of stores themselves, based upon the from Section 134 of the Mormon Church's Doctrine number of days of operation. The increase in the vari- Covenants to show its basic doctrines support separation able expenses occasioned by the extra day of operation of church and state and freedom for dissenting persons. appears to be about counterbalanced by the spread of Mangum said such a bill never could be enacted fixed costs, over the greater volume of business." without religious support. The legislators, however, ap- Governor Rampton said he had no doubt that the proved the bill and sent it to the governor for his con- bill was unconstitutional. He said two Sunday-law cases sideration. [Broadbent v. Gibson, 140 P. 2d. 939 (1943) and Governor Rampton analyzed the bill, declared it Gronlund v. Salt Lake City, 194 P. 2d. 464 (1948)1 clearly unconstitutional in his opinion, and vetoed it. clearly indicated the State had constitutional power to Business—and religious liberty—will go on as usual in enact general Sunday-closing statutes but that they must Utah. ***

22 LIBERTY, 1968 Voices in the Ecumenical Wind

"WORK, FOR THE NIGHT IS COMING" RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE PHOTOS (An Old Protestant Hymn) ;,11401"1- '101 New York.—The Protestant Council of the City of New York may soon drop the word "Protestant" from its name. . . . The Reverend Lawrence R. Dur- gin, pastor of the Broadway United Church of Christ, said that to speak of Protestant Christians "is now, happily, to speak in interim terms." —New York Times "Chisel it. Hammer it. Clip it away. .45 Calvin's embarrassing; Wesley's passe. Don't be a drag over doctrinaire nits. (Whadda you care if the document fits?) Get with the challenge: cosmopolite blight Down with the 'someone' who's 'sinking, tonight.' Protestant, Catholic, Moslem, and Jew Merge into one ecumenical goo. When all our leveling labor is done, No one will know Dr. Peale from a nun." —W. H. von Dreele From the National Review

An "ecumenical sing-in" in St. Marie Goretti Cath- olic church at Arlington, Texas, attracted fifteen hun- dred Protestants and Catholics. The program featured folk songs; a cantor from a Jewish congregation in Fort Worth, who chanted Psalm 130; and the song "Amen."

Top-ranking scholars from Lutheran churches and the Roman Catholic Church discuss the Eucha- rist at their fifth national-level dialog in St. Louis.

Participants in an official Methodist-Roman Catholic dialog placed particular emphasis on ways in which the Eucharist and preach- ing complement each other in theology and church practice.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 23 THE CHURCH'S CNA Can It Be Supplied by tho Government?

By A. G. DANIELLS

perishing in sin, His disciples were to carry the ever- lasting gospel. How could this be done? With the com- mission is the power: "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth . . . And, Lo, I am with you alway, even until the end of the world." The disciples had been eyewitnesses of His power. They had seen Him heal the sick, and still with a word the stormy elements. They had seen sin-stricken souls, whom Satan had chained to his chariot, delivered; and some who had passed under the dominion of death, come forth from the prison house of the enemy, clothed with the bloom of health and youthful vigor. And now He assures them that with all the power in the universe at His disposal, He will be with His struggling church till the end of time, as its divine Leader. Endowed with this heavenly commission, the church "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the began its work. They began at Jerusalem, with a dead flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you church, filled with bigoted Pharisees, Sadducees, and overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath hypocrites, and trusting in lifeless forms and ceremonies. purchased with His own blood." Acts 20:28. But a mighty power was seen. Superstitions and tradi- tions of men were swept away. Priests and rulers were powerless to stay the onward march of the gospel. Shortly HESE words of the apostle Paul define who con- after Pentecost they were forced to confess that Jerusalem stitute the church of God. It is composed not of was filled with the apostles' doctrine. The ramparts of the Tany one organization, but of all those in every age enemy were stormed, and the strongholds of sin captured. and nation who have by faith accepted Christ, been The Roman Empire, the mightiest incarnation of power washed from their sins, and "purchased with His own that had ever appeared on the earth, held sway over all blood." These believers are "members of His body, of His the earth. But this iron monarchy was powerless before flesh, and of His bones." The true head of this mystic the humble fishermen, who, clothed with divine power, body is our divine Lord Himself. He is the "head of the and led by the One who commands the armies of heaven, church," the "Saviour of the body." From Him, the in- "went forth and preached the word everywhere." visible Head, come all the life and power which have The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to the ever been manifest in His true church. believer. The agency through which this power is com- To His body, the church militant, He has committed municated to the church is that of the Holy Spirit. In a mighty work. With His work on earth finished, and the "upper room," before leaving His disciples, Jesus standing but a step from His Father's throne, He com- promised them a helper. As He looked out into the world, missioned His church to go into all the world and teach darkened with sin—a wilderness in which His disciples every nation, kindred, and tongue. To the entire world, were to go forth like sheep among wolves—He well

24 LIBERTY, 1968 doms gave way before the spiritual power of the church; sinners were converted; and, "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners," the church went forth "conquering and to conquer." Christians made no appeal to Caesar for aid. Everywhere they were opposed by the power of the state, yet they triumphed EST NEED gloriously. They sought no union or federation in order to secure power and wax great; for they were already endowed by the Head of the church with a power in- finitely greater than the power of all the combined kingdoms of this world. The only union the church sought was the union with Christ through the Holy Spirit. It is only when the church has lost the power of God, when her grasp on the "sword of the Spirit" has been paralyzed by sin, when her accumulated iniquity has divorced her from Christ, the real Head of the church, that she seeks, through federations, to lay hold of the sword of Caesar, and by this means endeavors to accom- plish that which can be done only through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is with sadness that we see the professed church of Christ today seeking for power by appealing to the state for help. It indicates a moral degeneracy; it denotes an alarming loss of spiritual strength. It is a sad spectacle, indeed, when a woman turns from her lawful husband, and asks help from strangers. It is equally sad to see the church turning from her professed Spouse, and seek- ing help from the State. Power to convert sinners will never be obtained by federation. Every such union, or combine, will be wholly abortive. The Holy Spirit is the only agency which can change the sinful, deceitful heart of man. The only power which can stay the incoming tide of wickedness, which is sweeping over the land, threatening to carry everything to ruin, and before which the professed church understood that more than the power born of a human of God stands helpless, is the third person of the God- confederacy would be needed to meet the organized forces head, the Holy Spirit. This is the church's greatest need of the principalities and powers of wicked spirits. To today. Instead of federating, and sending petitions to Con- comfort them, He said, "And I will pray the Father, and gress for help to stem the prevailing flood of iniquity, He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide the church should seek unity with Christ, and send its with you for ever." He was leaving them, and returning petitions to the throne of God, and with strong crying and to His Father; but He promised to send "another," a per- tears, and repentance and confession of sin, seek for an sonal representative and successor, to take His place in outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When professed Christians His church on earth, till time would end. He promised confederate as they should with the powerful agencies that He would not leave them orphans. Just as a father, above, they will have no need of forming worldly and dying, says to his children, "I am going to leave you; but artificial federations to gain control of worldly power. another will come and take my place, who will remain Ezra said, "I was ashamed to require of the king a band with you forever." 0 what a promise! of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy And on the day of Pentecost, in burning power the in the way." The crimson blush of shame should likewise Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, came and mantle the cheeks of every Christian today as he wit- took His official position in the church. The book of Acts nesses the efforts being made by the professed church contains the history of the church immediately follow- of Jesus Christ to secure, by human legislation, help to ing the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This book might well do its work. Instead of turning to the broken cisterns of be named the "Acts of the Holy Spirit," for it records earth, let the church seek the living stream of the Holy what was wrought by the church under the leadership Spirit, and a pentecostal baptism of power from on of the Holy Spirit. The temporal power of earthly king- high.—LIBERTY, April, 1906, pp. 3, 4. ***

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 25 observance but the spirit that counts. Steady the ark! Put hands upon sacred things, so long as it is for the good of the nation, the community, the church. Twist, change, set aside the moral law for convenience, or to please the majority, or for lack of courage to stand for right. Look around at some who seek to steady the ark. Some would legislate religion; some would unite church and state; some would make a Christian nation by Constitutional amendment; some seek tax money for church activity; some wish a universal day of rest, some would force the minority to conform to the ma- jority. The kingdom of God would be ushered in speed- ily if only the ark were left to them. Let me illustrate one way the sacred things of God have been touched by presumptuous hands. In the be- ginning God created this world and then set aside the rlcis seventh day to commemorate the event. He rested on that day, sanctified it, and blessed it for man. In the Decalogue, God called the seventh day His Sabbath. Corr, In other words, it is God's. It is sacred. Men are not to touch it, try to change it, or to trample upon it. ! However, Uzzahs have touched this sacred law. They have made arbitrary rules concerning the Sabbath. Jesus was persecuted because He did not keep it according to their rules. They have substituted and enforced another A warning to those who are trying to ad- day in place of God's Sabbath. Right here in America vance the kingdom of God in ways contrary we find many examples of those who were fined, to His instruction. placed in stocks or in jail, and forced to work in chain gangs for nothing more than hoeing in their gardens, By JOHN ERHARD hunting, fishing, kissing, or not attending church on this Pastor, Escanaba, Michigan new Sunday "Sabbath." BOUT three thousand years ago a man by the Today old Sunday blue laws are being dusted off name of Uzzah, thinking he was doing himself, and enforced in various parts of our country. New laws A his business friends, his nation, and his God a are being proposed and old ones revised. Why? Because favor, touched the ark that contained the law of God's modern-day Uzzahs—businessmen, labor leaders, legis- government and was struck dead. lators, clergy—no doubt doing what they think is best, King David had issued orders to move the ark—a are forgetting that God's sacred things are not to be magnificent chest containing the Ten Commandments— tampered with. Heart religion cannot be legislated, to Jerusalem. Uzzah, whose responsibility it was to su- and God is particular. pervise the operation, reached out to steady the ark as The great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon once the oxen carrying it stumbled, and God struck him dead. said: "As to getting the law of the land to touch our Why was God so severe? Uzzah was only trying to religion, we earnestly cry, 'Hands off! Leave us alone!' help, wasn't he? Your Sunday bills and all forms of act-of-parliament Uzzah should have known better. God had given religion seem to me to be all wrong. Give us a fair certain rules as to how the ark was to be cared for field and no favor, and our faith has no cause to fear. and how it was to be moved. Christ wants no help from Caesar." The ark was holy. It was a symbol of God's presence God wanted no help from presumptuous Uzzah three and of His throne, based upon law. None but the thousand years ago. He wants no help from modern-day priests, the descendants of Aaron, were to touch it. Uzzahs. Though it might seem pleasing to the major- In fact, only a certain group of the priests were to move ity, we dare not legislate the conscience of men. Christ it—and then only upon their shoulders. died that men might have freedom of choice to accept Uzzah was moving it upon a cart. It was a new cart. Him, reject Him, or neglect Him. He will not force That showed respect, did it not? men to serve Him. The conscience of man is sacred. There are still Uzzahs who reason this way. What The things of God are sacred. Be careful, Uzzah, hands God says isn't really important. It is not the letter of our off!

26 LIBERTY, 1968 By V. NORSKOV OLSEN HOW LONG President, Newbold College, England DID THE EARLY CHURCH KEEP SABBATH?

Striking Evidence That the Seventh-day Sabbath Was Widely Observed in the Christian Church for Centuries

N HARMONY with predictions given in the New that at the close of the second century some Christians Testament,' the church began to lose its purity began to call Sunday "the Lord's day." This was es- I after the death of the apostles, and the second pecially the case in Alexandria and Rome, as well as in century became the Age of Heresy. One historian says those churches under their influence. that "the condition of the church at the close of the In other parts of the world Christians still observed second century [was) a striking contrast to that of its the Sabbath, in spite of Sunday laws and a growing beginning." 2 In the second century the seed was sown of apostasy in the church. Socrates, one of the church most of the un-Biblical teachings that came to full fathers (c. A.D. 385-445), writes: "For although al- bloom in later centuries. Therefore it is not surprising most all of the churches throughout the world cele-

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 27 brate the sacred mysteries It ought to be emphasized that those who worshiped on the Sabbath of every in the church on Sunday in these early times still in- week, yet the Christians variably honored the Sabbath also. This testifies to the of Alexandria and at fact that the dignity of the Sabbath was so well rooted Rome, on account of in the consciences of the Christians that even Sunday some ancient tradition, laws and apostasy could not easily do away with it. One refuse to do so."' Sozo- of the many statements to that effect may be cited: men, another Christian "With what eyes can you behold Sunday, if you dese- writer during the same crate the Sabbath? Don't you know that these days period, tells us that "the are brethren? He who little esteems the one, disregards people of Constantinople, the other." and several other cities, AM1111 16 assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the next day; which custom is THE writings of those who opposed the Sabbath never observed at Rome, or at Alexandria." ' clearly indicate that it was very difficult to suppress the One of the greatest Christian figures in the fourth observance of the Sabbath, and that even in Rome as century was Athanasius. Five times he was banished late as A.D. 600 Pope Gregory I (590-604)—the first from his church because he adhered to the Biblical outstanding pope of the Middle Ages—speaks strongly concept of the divine-human nature of Christ. He also against those who keep the Sabbath. It may be of in- revealed a clear understanding of the Sabbath, as the terest to quote at length what Pope Gregory I writes: following statement indicates: "We are assembled on "Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to his most the day of the Sabbath not because we are infected beloved sons the Roman citizens. It has come to my with Judaism, for we have never appropriated to our- ears that certain men of perverse spirit have sown selves false Sabbaths; but we approach the Sabbath among you some things that are wrong and opposed to to adore Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath." the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on The importance of Sabbathkeeping as a memorial of the Sabbath-day. What else can I call these but preach- God's creation is emphasized in a well-known Christian ers of Antichrist, who, when he comes, will cause the document from the fourth century. We read: "0 Lord Sabbath-day as well as the Lord's day to be kept free Almighty, Thou hast created the world by Christ, and from all work? For, because he pretends to die and hast appointed the Sabbath in memory thereof, because rise again, he wishes the Lord's day to be kept in rever- that day Thou hast made us rest from our works, for ence; and, because he compels the people to Judaize the meditation upon Thy laws." that he may bring back the outward rite of the law, and Augustine, one of the most illustrious men in early subject the perfidy of the Jews to himself, he wishes the church history, preached on the Sabbath. In one of his Sabbath to be observed. . . . We therefore accept spirit- sermons Augustine makes this remark: "On this day, ually this which is written about the Sabbath. . . . On which is the Sabbath, mostly those are accustomed to the Lord's day, however, there should be a cessation of meet who are desirous of the Word of God. . . . In earthly labor, and attention given in every way to some places the communion takes place daily, in some prayers so that if anything is done negligently during only on the Sabbath, and in some only on Sunday." the six days, it may be expiated by supplications on the This statement of Augustine is in harmony with the day of the Lord's resurrection." recommendations of the Council of Laodicea about It was also Pope Gregory I who sought to subdue the A.D. 365. Religious services on the Sabbath were ad- Sabbath-keeping Celtic Church in England. Christianity vocated in the following way: "On Saturday, the Gos- came to England at a very early time, but when the pels and other portions of the Scripture shall be read Anglo-Saxons conquered Britain, the Christians were aloud." left in peace only in parts of Scotland, Ireland, and Even though Sunday at this period was used by Wales. Thus at the close of the sixth century the many for worship early in the morning in order to com- greater part of Britain was pagan. For this reason Pope memorate the resurrection of Christ, yet the day was Gregory sent a monk by the name of Augustine to not considered to be a day of rest. Jerome gives the Christianize England. When he arrived at Canterbury a following description of a Sunday at a women's "mon- meeting was arranged with representatives from the astery": "On the Lord's day only, they proceeded to the Celtic Church, the purpose of which was to bring the church beside which they lived, each company follow- Christians of the isolated Celtic Church into submission ing its own mother-superior. Returning home in the to Rome. same order, they then devoted themselves to their al- When the representatives from the Celtic Church lotted tasks, and made garments either for themselves realized that the Roman form of Christianity was dif- or for others." ferent from their own, they withdrew in protest. In

28 LIBERTY, 1968 this connection a prominent British historian makes the tinued to hold its place as late as the seventh century, following remark: "The Celts permitted their priests to although condemned by the papacy. The survival of marry, the Roman forbade it. The Celts held their own Sabbathkeeping is still more remarkable when it is re- councils and enacted their own laws, independent of membered that Sabbathkeeping was forbidden by the Rome. . . . The Celts used a Latin Bible unlike the enactment of civil and religious laws, while Sunday Vulgate, and kept Saturday as a day of rest with spe- was favored by the same laws. Sunday became the cial religious services on Sunday.' Thus the ob- prominent day of worship and the Sabbath was largely servance of the Sabbath as a day of rest was one of the discarded when the Eastern churches had crumbled un- reasons that the Celtic Church could not submit to der the Mohammedan conquest, the Celtic Church had Rome, and therefore had to suffer persecution. been subdued, and Western Europe had accepted the In the early centuries the Christians fasted on Roman form of Christianity. Wednesday and Friday of each week, but Rome, which was the very place where the Sabbath first ceased to be honored, introduced fasting on the Sabbath in order to A LL the Reformers of the sixteenth century agree make it a preparation day for Sunday, which then that from the sixth and seventh centuries the great apos- could be a day of joy and gladness. The intense op- tasy, predicted as antichrist, was an accomplished fact and position toward fasting on Sabbath is an indication of had lasted up to their own time. It should therefore not the great respect many Christians had for the Sabbath. be a surprise that the true Sabbath, together with other Accordingly, Augustine wrote to Jerome early in the evangelical truths, had been submerged. The Reforma- fifth century that "if we say that it is wrong to fast on tion rediscovered the Bible and basic evangelical truths the seventh day, we shall condemn not only the Church as well as the right relationship between law and grace. of Rome, but also many other churches, both neighbor- All the Protestant creeds and confessions testify to the ing and more remote, in which the same custom con- immutability of the law of God including the Sabbath tinues to be observed. If, on the other hand, we pro- commandment. It is a theological paradox that the nounce it wrong not to fast on the seventh day, how fourth commandment has been literally interpreted as great is our presumption in censuring so many churches related to Sunday, as for example among the Puritans in the East, and by far the greater part of the Christian in England and later in the Sunday laws of the New world!" " England states. Another indirect evidence for Sabbathkeeping, es- A few men recognized this paradox and began to pecially in the Eastern churches, is found in the Greek keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Among these could be Gospel Lectionary. This Lectionary contains certain mentioned the famous court physician Dr. Peter Cham- short readings from the Gospel assigned to be read on berlen, Edward Stennet, Francis and Thomas Bampfield, the various feast days in the church. As more and more all living in England during the latter part of the sacred days were added to the church calendar, more seventeenth century. Their work led to the organization readings were added to the Lectionary. New Testament of Seventh Day Baptist churches in England. At least scholars who have studied the historical development eleven such churches were organized before the close of of the Greek Gospel Lectionary declare that the earliest the seventeenth century. In America thirty of these readings were those which had to be read on the Sab- seventh-day-Sabbath-keeping churches existed when the bath and early Sunday morning. In this connection a first of them was organized in 1671. The fact that today prominent New Testament scholar, Bruce M. Metzger, more than one and a half million Christians, among all writes: "In the Eastern Church the Sabbath, with the people and tongues, keep the seventh-day Sabbath is exception of the Great Sabbath between Good Friday strong evidence of a return to Biblical theology and and Easter day, was observed as a festival." " Contrary orthodoxy. *** to Rome, which sought to make the Sabbath a day of REFERENCES 'See Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4; 2 Timothy 4:3, 4; 1 John fasting, the churches in the East considered the Sabbath 2:18, 19. 2 W. Walker, A History of the Christian Church, pp. 53, 54. New York: a day of rest and joy. It was also a day dedicated to Charles Scribner's Sons, 1918. The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. 2, p. 132. worship and the reading of God's Word. Ibid., p. 390. Pseudoathan, de semente, torn. 1, p. 885. ...Constitutions of the Holy Apostles," b. 7, ch. 36, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, p. 474. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899. THE evidence thus shows that the Sabbath was gen- Sermon 128, tom. 7, 629, Epistle to Janerius, ch. 2. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, vol. 2, p. 310. Edin- erally observed by Christians during the first four cen- burgh: T & T Clark, 1876. 9 Jerome, Letters to Fustochius, letter 108, The Library of Christian turies. Its decline was more rapid in the Alexandrian- Classics, vol. 5, p. 364. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. ." Migne, Patrologia, tom. 46, vols. 309, 310. Romanized branch of the church, where it was made a ', Epistles, b. 13, epistle I, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. 13, p. 92. sorrowful fast. The Eastern Church and the Celtic z Flick, The Rise of the Medieval Church, p. 237. New York: G. Put- nam's Sons, 1909. See also Bellesheim, History of the Catholic Church in Church, less corrupted by Romish influence, retained Scotland, vol. 1, p. 86. "'The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 1, pp. 353. 354. the Sabbath more in accord with the New Testament New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1892. 1, Metzger, Bruce M., The Saturday and Sunday Lessons From Luke in conception. Yet even in the West the Sabbath con- the Gospel Lectionary.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 29

as the editors see it

COURT REJECTS AMISH CASE commitment for the improvement of life," the clergy- men declared. N LATE October the United States Supreme Court Reminds us that the Pharisees once sought to bring I refused to accept jurisdiction over an appeal of Jesus into disrepute with the authorities by asking Him, Kansas Amishman LeRoy Garber to set aside his con- "What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto viction on the charge of failing to keep his daughter Caesar, or not?" (Matt. 22:17.) That is, Should we Sharon in school. (See "Kansas v. Garber" by William Jews pay taxes and thus acknowledge the sovereignty C. Lindholm, LIBERTY, September-October, 1967, page of Rome? 17.) The Roman Government was, in many ways, unjust For Mr. Garber the decision means that he must and oppressive. The very city in which the question was pay the $5 fine and $64.25 in court costs. For the asked echoed to the footsteps of a Roman army of oc- 50,000 Amish in the United States it may mean much cupation. What a chance for the Saviour to condemn more. Rome for its aggression! To decry its system of slavery! A spokesman for the National Committee to Defend To insist that, until it escalated its domestic and foreign the Amish discerns an eagerness in several States that commitment for the improvement of life, Jews should have held up rigid enforcement of their attendance withhold their taxes. laws pending Supreme Court action to bring the Amish "Shew me the tribute money," Christ commanded. to heel. "And they brought him a penny. And he saith unto What they will do, instead, is send the Amish to them, Whose is this image and superscription? They heel. Already LeRoy Garber has sold his Kansas farm say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render and is searching for an Amish community in another therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; State where he may be able to rear the rest of his chil- and unto God the things that are God's." dren—Galen, 14, Ann, 6, and John David, 2—accord- "When they had heard these words," says the scrip- ing to his beliefs. A group of Amish from Bruno, tural record, "they marvelled, and left him, and went Arkansas, last year moved to British Honduras. "The their way." government is gradually taking away our religious We, too, marvel at the wisdom of the Saviour's freedom," said their bishop, Harold Stoll. answer and at some of the positions taken by men who There is not much to cheer us in the Garber case. profess to act in His name. R. R. H. On the positive side it did bring the plight of the Amish to many thousands and inspired creation of the A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom, OLLYWOOD has so long rewritten biographies which is not about to cry uncle. Its uncheerful impact was well summed up by NCARF treasurer Robert H to conform to the arbitrary dicta of contem- Showalter: "All Amish lost a little ground in this porary appetite that we really should not have been surprised. For more than one narrow-minded bigot has decision." R. R. H. come out a wide-screen humanitarian and real-life sin- ner a celluloid saint—or vice versa. And, if we under- stand the movie industry's merchandising methods, we CLERGYMEN THREATEN TO WITHHOLD TAX have only our appetites to blame: What the public WENTY-THREE Missouri Catholic priests re- wants, the public gets. cently sent letters to their United States Senators What the public wants in this age of hail fellow well sayingT they "could not in conscience pay a tax ear- met, is—during the public's better moments—brother- marked for deeper involvement in the [Vietnamese] hood. No matter if history has to be rewritten and a war." The priests referred to the ten per cent surtax few sordid chapters of man's inhumanity to man ex- urged by the President. "We have decided now is the punged. Down with the liturgical rubric, up with the time to disavow the policy of escalation of killing and ecumenical gloss! The new morality, brother, is based to promote the escalation of our domestic and foreign on love.

30 LIBERTY, 1968 So Sir Thomas More comes off pretty well in the widely acclaimed movie A Man for All Seasons. So IN MEMORIAM well, in fact, that the film is the "first . . . honored jointly by both . . . Protestant and Roman Catholic of- 1888-1967 ficials as the best film in 1967 dealing with explicitly Dr. Jean Nussbaum is dead. religious, Biblical, or historical material." Commented The long-time Secretaire General, Associa- one Christian journal on the award, "The Christian tion Internationale pour la Defense de la Church needed a Man for ALL Seasons." Yes. As we said, What the Christian church wants, Liberte Religieuse, died at his Paris home, of a the Christian church gets. Sir Thomas comes through heart attack on October 29. He was 79. as the humanitarian saint of medieval England. We, his colleagues in the cause of religious There was a time, closer to the reality of More and liberty, mourn his passing, as will thousands of his age, when he did not project so kindly. The con- the oppressed in many lands whose lot is better temporary chronicler Hall described him as "a great because of his intercession. persecutor of such as detested the supremacy of the An extended account of his career will bishop of Rome." Foxe—of Foxe's Book of Martyrs— called him "blinded in the zeal of popery" to all hu- appear in the next LIBERTY. mane considerations in the treatment of Lutherans, Today we try to take comfort in his life while another Protestant of his age denounced him as —and in his, and our, hope of life to come. a "merciless bigot." But the sun has gone down. Having allowed for a substantial degree of bias on The afternoon is chill. the part of his Protestant contemporaries, and having, And silence lies over our hearts. moreover, seen him through the eyes of Erasmus, as a man "born and made for friendship, of which he is the THE EDITORS sincerest and most persistent devotee," we must admit— as Edward P. Vandiver, Jr., pointed out in a recent let- ter to the Christian Century—"that he caused suspected heretics to be carried to his house at Chelsea on slender pretenses, to be imprisoned in the porter's lodge, and when they failed to recant, to be racked in the tower." "To everything there is a season," said the wise man. "A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break Religion and Politics down, and a time to build up; . . . a time to embrace, "When our Constitutional founders proscribed the and a time to refrain from embracing." Perhaps Sir state church, it did not occur to them that they would Thomas' age was the time to kill and tear down. And, be understood as forbidding the mixture of politics and again perhaps, with a nod to the Christmas season and religion. This would have seemed as absurd as pro- New Year's resolutions, now is the season for healing hibiting the association of politics and geography or and building up—though a good case could be made, politics and economics. One has only to read the basic on the basis of Revelation 13 and 17, that this is, in- documents of that historic period to find that the stead, the season to "refrain from embracing." We are Judeo-Christian world view undergirded the founda- content to leave Sir Thomas More to the heavenly as- tions of the new republic. References to ultimate values size that shall, inevitably, weigh all men on scales are almost always made in specifically theological of equity—a measure of weight seemingly unknown in language. Hollywood, where cant instead of candor seems to be "This expression of religious feeling was not pious the diet for all seasons. R. R. H. deceit. Nor did it represent a desire to use religion as a bulwark of the new national consciousness. It was grounded, rather, in the realization that man's political institutions are inevitably related to his ultimate values "Though all the winds of doctrine were and that it is one of the responsibilities of leaders to let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be make the relationship clear. Our founding fathers did in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and not feel that it would be a 'wise thing' to express sec- prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let ular concepts in sacred jargon. They felt that it was her and falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open natural and proper to admit verbally the spiritual encounter. Her confuting is the best and assumptions which they were making."—WILLIAM surest suppressing."—JOHN MILTON, The MUEHL, Mixing Religion and Politics, Reflection Books Areopagitica. ( Association Press, Fall 1958).

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 31 world news

UNITED STATES "Transportation involves only the getting of the pu- pils to the place where the educational process takes Baptist Board Deletes "Hot Potato" place. There is involved safety in transportation of From College Menu pupils on the public street on the way to a place of education, helping to avoid hazards of that transporta- Fresno, Calif.—The executive board of the Cali- tion possessed in common with that to a public school. fornia Southern Baptist Convention deleted a section "But in the case of furnishing of textbooks, the on Federal aid before returning a detailed study on the expenditure of public money does not stop at the door operation of California Baptist College to the com- of the school but overflows into the school itself, and mittee that drafted the report. takes care of part of the education there taking place. The study report on the Riverside college had recom- Public funds are there expended for the essential func- mended that it be allowed to accept Federal loans for tioning of the school itself, a school under religious building construction, "where advantageous." auspices, the support of which is basically banned by It also asked that until a consensus on the issue of the First Amendment." Federal aid could be determined among California's Southern Baptists the college be permitted to partici- pate in Federal aid programs to individuals, those train- U.S.S.R. ing students in specialties needed for national survival, and programs that would strengthen the institution but Communist Youth Newspaper not involve "significant subsidies." A convention official said the section was removed Publishes Defense of Religion "because it's a hot potato." Moscow.—Komsomolskaya Pravda, daily newspaper of the Young Communist League, has surprised its Textbook Aid Unconstitutional, regular readers by publishing an impassioned defense of Christianity. Rhode Island Court Rules The proreligious statement, a letter to the editor by Providence, R.I.—Rhode Island's 1963 textbook loan Mrs. A. Zyazyeva of Berezovsky, was countered with a law has been declared unconstitutional by the State's lengthy defense of atheism by V. Kokashinsky, but its superior court. publication in a journal that has always seemed spe- Judge Fred B. Perkins held that the law which re- cially devoted to atheism, even by Soviet standards, was quires cities and towns to lend science, mathematics, generally considered remarkable. and foreign-language textbooks to parochial and pri- Some of Mrs. Zyazyeva's remarks had a tone and vate-school children violates both the First Amendment content that might be familiar to Americans who fol- to the U.S. Constitution and the freedom of religion low religious controversy related to schools. guarantee of the Rhode Island constitution. "All the faults of our education of children and Attorneys for five city of Cranston taxpayers, who young people lie in the fact that our education is with- brought the textbook-aid case to the courts, plan to out religion," she said. "We have driven Christ out of seek an injunction against the Cranston School Com- the family and the schools, and morality has disap- mittee, in an effort to halt expenditures for the distribu- peared with Him." tion of textbooks. She described atheists as "evil" people dedicated to a Abraham Goldstein, an attorney for the school com- single law of "struggle." mittee, said, however, that Judge Perkins' decision prob- Mr. Kokashinsky's reply was considered unusually ably will be appealed to the State supreme court. mild in such circumstances. It avoided invective and Judge Perkins held that assistance given church ridicule and devoted its extensive space more to de- school children under the State's textbook-loan law is fending atheism than to attacking religion. The major different in degree, and perhaps in kind, from that in argument presented by Mr. Kokashinsky was that de- providing bus transportation, which was upheld by the votion to the good of mankind is preferable to a belief U.S. Supreme Court in 1947. He wrote, in part: in the supernatural.

32 LIBERTY, 1968 "Dear Sir:" Perhaps the politicians who divined the new and novel approach (which is itself essentially negative in prohibiting From page 7 the diversity of enumerated things) thought that their drastic effort at discrimination would offset the worse ill of nobody never could stand on its own two feet. Section 9 of this new having any idea or warning as to what was actually deemed panacea says: by the public pulse to offend the peace and dignity of the "Notwithstanding any provision of this Bill, it is not majority (which is to presume that the majority decides on the intention of the General Assembly to in any man- at least one day wherein it can manage to be somewhat more ner amend or repeal Ga. Code 26-6905" (which reads peaceful and supposedly dignified). However, the converse as follows) : appears to be true. Already the witches are being burned. Crusades have begun whereby disgruntled competitors in "VIOLATING THE SABBATH DAY—Any person who business, sensing that there is something fresh in the air shall pursue his business or the work of his ordinary calling which can be turned to their advantage, are forcing innocent on the Lord's day, works of necessity or charity only excepted, people to make bail and face up to the horrors attending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor." criminal prosecution. It is truly difficult to imagine how there could be a more Well, it's a mad, mad world. Please send me all the old blatant statutory tie-in with religion than this bit of big- copies you can find which treat this sad situation, and find en- otry demonstrates to have found its way into (and remain closed my check for a permanent subscription. upon since 1865) the books. Yet, the Supreme Court of Georgia, this State's highest appellate authority, decided a SWANTON SCHOOL VENTURE month prior to the new bonanza becoming effective (in the case of Berta v. The State) that the old and general pro- DONALD HACKEL, ACLU of Vermont hibition was not unconstitutional. Rutland, Vermont I think that it would be only fair to prosecute every min- Re the Swanton school venture, I enclose pertinent material ister who preaches or otherwise "works at his ordinary call- developed by the ACLU affiliate in Vermont. ing" next Sunday. In the first place, they are the only fairly As we see it, the test of the Swanton venture will come intelligent classification that I can conceive of which would and can only come if and when a nondenominational entity not be fain to deny that they were engaged in their endeavor has been formed and its directors have applied to the pub- on "the Lord's day" or who might be reluctant to insist that lic school for released time, and have put forth a specific the State prove by competent evidence beyond a reasonable operational plan. Until that is done, the actual details of the doubt, exactly which of the days in the week was, indeed, Swanton plan remain unknown and no constitutional judg- "the Lord's" and which was or were not. They might, how- ment is possible. ever, be brash enough to contend that their labors were born We have deep reservations about the constitutional pro- of necessity or wrought "for charity only." While this would priety of the Swanton school board having used public funds appear to be a little ridiculous, perhaps, so would this iron- to study, in concert with religious authorities, a plan, intended, bound inducement to pray with the pack. in part, to solve the problem of religious instruction. How- Other legislative attempts touching ball games and theaters ever, because the funds have been expended and the study were made in 1949 to salve over the fact that although is completed, we have chosen to treat the issue as moot. hardly "necessary" these occupations and preoccupations were We are not going to regard any plan that may arise from being heartily participated in on Sunday in spite of the this study as poisoned fruit but instead, will test it constitu- sweeping interdiction that trembled in the boots of a hob- tionally on its own merits. Our attitude is that since the same nail rule. Georgians both young and old can only wonder plan could have developed without such concert and without when the goose-stepping will start and who shall next be the use of public funds, to fault the plan on the basis of its kicked in the face. The decisions say that this is a "police" antecedents would be to avoid the real issue. regulation. I quite agree. How long will it be before we Please note the drastic changes the plan has undergone have a "police" State? since its inception, due largely to civil libertarian efforts.

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the launching pad

With C. MERVYN MAXWELL Department of Religion, Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska

Q. I'm not sure this question is in the church- rendered by sectarian institutions if the payments state field, but I need to know. What did the Pope cover all the institution's costs. State payments to really say about birth control? Please rush your the Salvation Army, the court said, were not made answer. [Washington, D.C.] under a full-reimbursement plan but a , "partially matching plan," paying only 40 per cent of the A. I suppose that with a column titled "The Army's actual relief costs and nothing for adminis- Launching Pad" we should have expected a question tration. like that! In his encyclical On the Development of The court differed with a contrary Georgia court Peoples, Pope Paul declared that it is for parents to ruling by stating: "Aid in the form of partially match- decide on the size of their family, "following the de- ing reimbursement for only the direct, actual costs mands of their own conscience, enlightened by God's of materials given entirely to third parties of any or law authentically interpreted." no faith or denomination and not to the church it- According to the polls, a bit better than 50 per self is not the type of aid prohibited by our constitu- cent of American Catholics are following their own tion. demands if not their consciences. "The aid prohibited in the constitution of this state is, in our opinion, assistance in any form what- Q. In some areas don't you think merchants have soever which would encourage or tend to encourage been using religion as a mask to hide their attempt the preference of one religion over another or religion to stifle competition on Sunday? [North Carolina] per se over no religion." A. Some clergymen within your own State seem I'm only explaining, not defending. to think so. Last fall a number of them spoke out against enactment of a Sunday blue law by Raleigh's Q. Liberty City Council. Some objected to the sponsoring Ra- has carried several articles on taxa- tion of church properties. . . . Is it true that New leigh Merchants Bureau's invoking of such reasons Mexico has decided to tax churches? [California] as the "moral well-being" of the community in urg- ing adoption of the ordinance when the real motiva- A. A tax reappraisal program in New Mexico tion behind it, they said, is material and aimed at is adding large amounts of previously untaxed "discount houses" which do a thriving business on church property to the tax rolls, but a spokesman Sunday while other stores are closed. for the State Tax Commission denies that there has An article in the January-February, 1967, Liberty been any fundamental change in policy. Commission (see "The Blue-Law Merchants," page 14) strongly secretary Jesse Kornegay blamed previous "exemp- supports your viewpoint. In some areas clergymen tions" on a "misunderstanding." use a health and welfare rationale to mask their at- "In the past," he explained, "some assessors of tempts to benefit religion. church property thought all church property not used for commercial purposes was exempt from tax- Q. In Arizona, State welfare payments are being ation. But this is the wrong rule to apply, because all made to the Salvation Army. Isn't this a violation church property not used for church worship should of church-state separation? be on the tax rolls. "We now will have houses and other church- A. Not according to the Arizona Supreme Court, owned property on the rolls. Only places of worship, which ruled recently that the "true beneficiaries" the parsonage and necessary lands and buildings are the relief cases handled by the Army—not the thereto, such as a garage, are nontaxable." Army itself. Many New Mexico counties are uncovering such This decision was based on the child-benefit the- "lost property" in the reappraisal, and their value ory that "it is not the school or sectarian institution runs into the millions of dollars. Properties which will that is receiving the benefits of the appropriation now be taxed, include: the Roman Catholic Chris- but the child itself," as Justice Lorna Lockwood, who tian Brothers' Retreat Ranch at Chupudero, the wrote the unanimous decision, put it. The ruling did Methodist Assembly grounds, the Episcopalians' contain a strong hint that Arizona's Supreme Court Camp Stoney in Santa Fe, the Glorieta Southern Bap- would not condone State payments for services tist Assembly, and the Presbyterians' Ghost Ranch.

34 LIBERTY, 1968

Liberty's position on taxation of church properties traffic in dope, alcohol, and tobacco among young has been set forth many times in articles and edito- people. rials. Basically it supports exemption of the church sanctuary and industries which are an integral por- Q. When Christ's apostles gathered at the Jeru- tion of a school curriculum, favors taxation of salem Council a few years after His death, they church-related businesses. decreed that "it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than Q. Did Georgia Governor Lester Maddox really . . . [to] abstain from meats offered to idols, and ask members of the State Legislature to take the from blood, and from things strangled, and from pledge? [Tennessee] fornication" (Acts 15:28, 29). There is nothing here about any obligation to keep the Sabbath; A. According to the Religious News Service, legis- why is it, then, that you teach that everyone ought lators last October received pledge cards in a letter to keep the seventh day? [Nebraska] asking for help in recruiting new members for the Governor's Youth Council on Alcohol, Tobacco and A. The decree of this Jerusalem Council says Health. nothing about worshiping idols, taking God's name They were asked to pass along names—and, in vain, stealing, lying, or disobeying one's parents; presumably, signed pledge cards—to a minister, the neither does it provide for the worship of God, or Reverend Clifford Brewton, director of the program. for the support of the poor—or for many other "I got a letter with a pledge card in it—and tore important aspects of Christianity. If Christians based it up," one DeKalb County legislator reported. their entire concept of morality, ethics, and Chris- Another, an Atlanta lawmaker, commented: "If tian worship on this decree, they would be almost they are serious about this, they'd really have to indistinguishable from many respectable pagans in reapportion the Georgia General Assembly." the world today. According to the RNS, the program originally The Jerusalem Council concerned itself with Jew- started out as a project to combat use of tobacco. ish ritual laws, and more specifically with one of The council was known in the beginning as the Con- these ritual laws, ceremonial circumcision. The ference on Youth, Smoking, and Health. Somewhere council's decree was not intended to deal with the along the line, alcohol was added. larger questions of faith and morals. The seventh- The pledge card states, "I will not partake of, or day Sabbath is a part of the Ten Commandments, use, alcoholic beverages or tobacco in any form. I God's great moral code, and hence was not under understand should I violate this pledge my member- discussion at the Jerusalem Council. ship will cease. . . ." Q. Matthew 28:1 says that Jesus was resurrected In view of the governor's support of Sunday laws, on "the first day of the week." An acquaintance of we would like to see him take a pledge to preserve mine says that in the original Greek this really is separation of church and state and respect the rights "on the first of the Sabbaths," meaning that Jesus of minority religious groups. was resurrected on the first Christian Sabbath. Doesn't this prove that Sunday is the true Sabbath Q. I know that you Adventists place a lot of that Christians ought to keep? [California] emphasis on the second coming of Christ and the setting up of His kingdom, but what are you doing A. It cannot possibly! Honest! in a practical sense to alleviate poverty and suffer- Prove it to yourself by looking up Acts 20:7 where ing? . . . Aren't you concerned for the causes of Paul holds a meeting on "the first day of the week." rioting in our cities? [Maryland] The Greek is the same as in Matthew 28:1. If it means "the first Christian Sabbath" in Matthew A. Adventists operate 320 clinics, hospitals, and 28:1, then it has to mean "the first Christian Sab- sanitariums around the world. Last year the church, bath" in Acts 20:7, even though this Sunday fell through its good-neighbor program, helped more 27 years after resurrection Sunday! than 10 million persons—many through its 2,762 The Greek mia sabbaton looks like "first of the health and welfare centers and welfare units. At its Sabbaths" to a person who hasn't done his Greek Autumn Council in 1967 church officials voted an homework, but never to a pro. intensified program to aid underprivileged minority Mia is feminine singular; sabbaton is neuter plu- groups of the inner cities. Included in the proposed ral. Idiomatically the word "day"—which is femi- projects are classes in adult education, health and nine singular—is missing, making the sentence hygiene, home nursing, cooking, sewing, budgeting, say in English, "the first [day] of the Sabbaths." and nutrition; and establishment of clinics and sum- But "Sabbaths" was used in New Testament times mer camps. as a synonym for "week," making the phrase mean The program also will seek to involve youth in "on the first day of the week." church work and to launch a strong evangelistic The greatest Greek lexicographers and gram- thrust in the inner cities. Congregations will be marians, Liddell, and Scott, Arndt and Gingrich, trained and equipped to meet the ever-increasing A. T. Robertson, and the rest, all agree.

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BE REVIE,N AND HERALD DAINTIN .ED HARRY ANDERSON The Way to Freedom doe tQ vowt SENATOR REPRESENTATIVE MINISTER TEACHER EDITOR LAWYER MAYOR And why forget YOUR study?

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In His Steps