November, 1998 (Vol. 14, No. 1)

Growing pressure from Islamic hard-liners to create an Islamic state in Pakistan appears to be working.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif  is pressing for a sweeping bill that would impose Islamic law, although hard-liners say his actions are just a ploy to consolidate power, reports the Associated Press (Oct. 23). The change could be seen in the way Islamic activists are being treated by the government. The last time the revivalist Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, tried to rally in the capital, the government, then led by Benazir Bhutto, resisted and hundreds of police stopped demonstrators at the city limits.

At a recent rally, however, Sharif’s government lent a helping hand, deploying extra traffic police and cooperating with organizers. One observer says the government is aware of the increasingly powerful religious lobby in Pakistan, which many people say motivated Sharif to try to amend the constitution to impose a new Islamic order.

The underground “house church” movement in China is becoming more outspoken about their situation both with Chinese leaders and the West, reports the evangelical newsweekly, World (Oct. 3).

The once largely silent evangelical house church movement is said to be the fastest growing segment of Christianity in China, as well as among the most restricted and persecuted by the government. The new assertiveness is evident in the recent communiqué sent to Western media by leaders of the underground movement, which called for a “dialogue” between house church leaders and the government and asked officials to release their members who are in prison.

The document also requested that house church Christians be dropped from the government’s list of  cult leaders and requested a refined definition of the term “cult.” House church leader Zhang Rongliang says the communiqué is a way of applying direct pressure to the government and letting the outside world know of these Christians’ plight. They add that there are 80 million house church members in China — a figure that is double that of even the most generous estimates of this movement.

Nina Shea of Freedom House says that these leaders are also responding to “revisionist history” from their government and Western mainline Christians who support the government-supported churches. But many Western church leaders, including evangelicals, view the communiqué as only increasing government scrutiny on house churches and that such leaders represent a small minority of Christians in China.

(World, P.O. Box 2330, Asheville, NC 28802)

After a long period of  downplaying the religious identity of its schools, the Church of England is seeking to reassert the Christian and Anglican nature of these institutions.

The British Catholic magazine The Tablet (Oct. 10) reports that since the late 60s, Church of England primary and secondary schools have emphasized serving the entire community and minimizing their Christian orientation. Today, “Increasing numbers of influential people within the Church” are working to expand the Anglican role in education.

Often re-introducing the Anglican factor into these schools means holding (often ecumenical) worship services and religious education, although many non-Christians (such as Muslims) attend them. But the high demand from parents for many of these schools is actually increasing the religious emphasis. In order to choose students from a large pool of applicants some schools pick those students whose parents attend church regularly.

(The Tablet, 1 King St., Clifton Walk, London, W6 0Q2  UK)

Despite setbacks and opposition from critics and ex-members, the Family (formerly the Children of God) appears to be passing on leadership to the second generation and keeping its distinctive identity, according to a report in Nova Religio, (October) a journal on new religious movements.

The Family has courted controversy since its beginnings in the Jesus movement during the late 1960s for its mix of evangelical Christianity with the  liberal social mores of that time. For almost a decade, the group has dismantled some of its most controversial aspects — authoritarian rule, encouraging women members to engage in sexual relations with potential converts, and cases of child abuse. John Bozeman writes that the move toward more openness to American society continues. The group, which has about 14,000 members, has published a charter outlining its beliefs and practices, aimed both at critics and members to inform them of their rights.

The Family has also taken a less stigmatizing  stance toward ex-members and those members not involved in the communal segment of the group. The more marginal members are now given “Fellow Member” status where they are not expected to follow the full charter. Ex-members have been sent apologies for past intolerant behavior. Bozeman adds that the group is “going through a period of internal renewal.

A rising second generation is in the process of making [founder] Father David’s message their own . . . The family has welcomed it and encouraged their youth to occupy positions of responsibility within the Family community.” The Family still practices extra-marital relations among members, called “sharing,” while holding an “extremely literal” understanding of the Bible — thereby not likely to form many ties with either liberal or conservative Christians.

(Nova Religio, Seven Bridges Press, LLC, P.O. Box 958, Chappaqua, NY 10514-0958)

The Nation of Islam is shedding much of its anti-white rhetoric and beliefs, according to the newspaper In These Times (Oct. 4).

Last month RW noted the unusual alliance between Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan and New Age visionary Jose Arguelles. It appears that this development may be part of a broader change in the NOI toward orthodox Islam and away from its “foundations in anti-white racism.” This change was evident during the recent Million Youth March in New York’s Harlem, which stirred controversy in its call for black militancy. Organizing the march was Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a former NOI leader who was dismissed because of his strongly anti-Semitic and anti-white message.

Farrakhan and his regional representative Benjamin Muhammad (formerly Benjamin Chavis, head of the NAACP and United Church of Christ activist before his conversion) had little or no role in the New York march and have actively “bad mouthed” the event. Instead, Farrakhan gave his  support to an Atlanta Million Youth Movement, an outgrowth of the Million Man March of 1995 that attempts to work within the African-American mainstream.

Farrakhan has also been moving away from the “fundamentals of [founder’s] Elijah Muhammad’s message in his recent visits to non-black Muslim nations (where he was accorded head-of-state status). In 1997 he convened  an International Islamic Conference in Chicago as “part of a larger attempt to gain theological legitimacy.” He notes that Khalid Muhammad denounced this event as caving into “Arab Islam.”

(In These Times, 2040 N. Milwaukee, Chicago, IL 60647)

The new unity and strength among conservative Third World Anglican bishops is likely to have repercussions on churches in the U.S. and other Western countries, according to the Christian Challenge (September/October), a traditional Anglican magazine.

The growth and influence of conservative Anglicanism in the Third World has been taking place for a number of years (with the number of bishops outside Europe and the U.S. predominating in Anglicanism), but their emerging leadership was most strongly felt at last summer’s Lambeth Conference, a worldwide Anglican gathering, as they passed a measure that opposing gay rights in the church.

The magazine notes that conservative laity and clergy in the West have “swiftly allied themselves with the global South’s moral leadership.” Before the gathering, conservative Anglicans had been forming new relationships with Third World bishops as a way of circumventing their own liberal bishops in the U.S. [see June RW]. During Lambeth, conservative caucuses, such as First Promise, organized pre-conference meetings for non-Western bishops.

British and American orthodox Anglican theologians also served as consultants and advisors for these bishops on the sexuality debate. The decisions of Lambeth have no binding authority on Anglicans throughout the world,  such as the Episcopal Church in the U.S. But the magazine says the conference has given “Episcopal conservatives a major edge,” as liberals in the U.S. church are likely to feel increasing challenge from the new Third World power bloc.

(Christian Challenge, 1215 Independence Ave., S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003)

In the last five or so years, rapidly increasing numbers of Catholic teenagers are participating in  revitalized youth programs in all parts of the country.

The Catholic World Report (October) find growing numbers of young people drawn to church-directed programs based on strongly orthodox Catholic teachings in the context of socially oriented outreach. Some five years ago, Catholic youth ministers may have seen little if any reason to believe such a turn-around could occur. But now convincing evidence exists showing such a revitalization.

The number of young people participating in Life Teen Ministries has doubled to 40,000 in this time period. Subscriptions to the Catholic teen magazine YOU! has gone from  l0,000 to 40,000; the attendance at the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, meeting every other year, has grown by 143 percent; some 17,000 young people attended its meeting last year in Kansas City, and Catholic colleges, such as Franciscan

University of Ohio, have added substantially to the number of youth oriented retreats in their ministries. Observers suggest the single most important cause for the boom came from the hugely enthusiastic welcome teens gave to Pope Paul John II in Denver in l993. Critics suggest the boom is due mostly to young peoples’ enthusiasm for meeting other peers in a socially safe environment. Proponents acknowledge that may be part of the attraction, the other being a reawakened desire to learn the Catholic fundamentals that their parents hadn’t taught them.

An informal opinion poll taken at a youth conference at Franciscan University shows 84 percent say they attend Mass weekly, 74 percent go to confession once a year. More than 75 percent state they “love the Church” and 69  percent claim they “love the Pope.” Equally large numbers say that priests should remain celibate, that Mass is not boring, and that receiving communion while in a state of mortal sin is wrong.

Promising  as these signs are, leaders of youth programs note the major obstacles to further growth that are facing the participants. Youth today do not see a significant Catholic presence in their daily lives; they still encounter lackluster teaching in their parishes, as well as the pervasive influence of popular teen culture. Yet, the movement is much farther along today than just five years ago. More seminarians are entering youth ministry careers, experts on youth culture are working more closely with diocesan leaders, and bishops are giving high priority to expanding youth ministries.

— By Erling Jorstad

Despite recent attempts at interracial unity, divisions based on race are still stirring in American Pentecostal churches, according to Charisma magazine (October).

Pentecostals made headlines in 1994 when the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America, which represented mainly white denominations (such as the Assemblies of God), voted to dissolve itself and form a new multi-racial entity called the Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA). It was called the “Memphis Miracle,” (as the founding  of the PCCNA was in Memphis, Tenn.) but today blacks and whites view the effects of this development differently. White Pentecostal leaders tend to “view the event with glowing optimism, and they report that their denominations are adding minority clergy and lay members.”

Black Pentecostal leaders interviewed in the magazine say they still feel isolated from their white colleagues and shut out from positions of leadership. For instance, while the Church of God has a large contingent of black congregations, in such a state as Florida,  whites and blacks still maintain separate structures. White denominations are slowly becoming more multi-racial. The Assemblies of God has 169 black churches, all headed by black clergy, as compared with 141 in 1994.

However, it is still rare to find a white congregation led by a black minister. Prominent black charismatic televangelist Fred Price has stirred the flames of controversy further on this issue, recently preaching a series of sermons contending that white Christians still bring racist baggage to church with them on Sundays and that little is being done to confront such attitudes.

(Charisma, 600 Rhinehart Rd., Lake Mary, FL 32746)