MRS. O’HAIR TAKES AIM. From time to time there are reports about the activities of this archatheist that later prove to be exaggerated or untrue, but Moody Monthly (September, 1982) reports she is still active in combatting religion in our national life. She has targeted the chaplaincy programs of the military services for her latest attack. She has asked the services to give her information on the expenses involved in the remuneration and support of chaplains for the past fifty years in preparation for taking action against this program. On the other hand, the same news section carries an item, NEW COALITION EYES GOVERNMENT INTRUSIONS, announcing that Dr. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has organized the “Coalition for Religious Liberty.” At least thirty cases now before the federal courts reflect government efforts to threaten religious freedoms. The new organization will use legal and educational means to counter such intrusions. The Coalition will open an office this fall near Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
VATICAN BANK SCANDAL – Evangelical Newsletter (8/13/82) reports that “a billion dollar fraud has rocked the Vatican Bank, sending tremors that have shaken the world banking system.” Several people involved in the crisis have either been murdered or committed suicide. For the first time in its history, the Vatican has called in three outside banking experts to examine dealings between the Vatican Bank and a large private Italian Bank.
NEW EDITOR FOR CHRISTIANITY TODAY. On October 1, 1982, Dr. V. Gilbert Beers, 54, former editorial director of the David C. Cook Publishing Co., will become the new editor of this important evangelical magazine. He succeeds Dr. Kenneth S. Kantzer, 65, who will remain a consulting editor, but returns to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, to teach. Moody Monthly says, “His selection is seen as an attempt to increase the readers hip among lay people. Currently, 60 percent of CT subscribers are pastors and other full–time church workers.”
PLANNED PARENTHOOD ADVOCATES PERMISSIVE SEX is the title of a lengthy article in Christianity Today (9/3/82) by Addie Jurs. The author documents how the materials of the Planned Parenthood organization are used in government sponsored “sex education” classes in many public schools. These courses do not only teach the physical fact s about sex, but proceed from the standpoint that individuals should be free to practice sex acts outside of marriage. Rather than discouraging the rampant premarital sex of present day teenagers, such ideas tend to encourage it by teaching birth control and making the teenagers believe that the important thing is not getting pregnant. Deviant sexual orientation like masturbation and homosexuality are not condemned but defended as inherent “rights” of individuals. The author sums up her message as follows: “We have sat idly by, letting Planned Parenthood, often financed by our tax money, advocate reproductive freedom to our young people. It is not consistent with the values of the Christian ethic and Western cultural tradition generally accepted by our pluralistic society.” In this connection, this article is followed by a brief commendation of the sex education materials of Concordia Publishing House (Missouri Synod Lutheran) as a Christian alternative to the humanistic materials often used in public schools.
The same issue of CT contains an article by R. C. Sproul entitled BURNING HEARTS ARE NOT NOURISHED BY EMPTY HEADS. He warns against the anti–intellectualism of our day which also is reflected in evangelical circles in the churches. He says,“There is a primacy of the intellect in the Christian life as well as a primacy of the heart.” The concluding paragraph reads: “We must have passion indeed hearts on fire for the things of God. But that passion must resist with intensity the anti–intellectual spirit of the world. The entrance of that spirit into the house of God is like a Trojan horse, concealing within its belly the troops of the enemy who would beguile us with contentless religion—fire without light. Its only legacy will be a tomb for a forgotten diety inscribed with the epitaph, ‘To an Unknown God.’” Well said, brother.