Nearly 50-50 J* It is a surprising thing that so many churchgoers favor union of churches. In a recent Gallup poll, the question was asked, “ Do you think it would or would not be a good thing for all Protestant churches in the United States to com bine into one church?” The figures showed 42% favored such union, 47% were against it, and 11% were uncertain. The percentage favor ing union, I believe, shows a dangerous growth in the past two-score years, which is just another solemn indication of that coming day of compulsory world wide church union. Big Missionary Gifts Some 1946 figures point to several large Baptist churches in Dallas, Texas with heart-warming records of most generous missionary contributions. The First Baptist Church gave $232,445 which was well over ,50% of its total budget; Cliff Temple Baptist Church gave nearly $90,000, and the Gaston Avenue Church nearly $70,000. It has come to our attention that a smaller church in the city of Pasadena, Califor nia, with a membership' of barely 200 gives each year between $25,000.00 and $40,000.00. These figures are a challenge to all other churches. WMBI-FM Now 50,000 Watts The Moody Bible Institute of Chi cago operates both an AM and FM radio station. Recently, the Federa l Communications Commission ruled that the Moody FM station might increase its power to 50,000 watts, which will make it the most powerful FM station in the Chicago area. Programs include Bible study, devotional talks, sacred and classical music, and public service fea tures. Exodus to Paraguay Recently, in western Canada, nearly 2,000 Mennonites packed up their be longings to sail to South America in or der to maintain conscientiously their particular mode of religious life. Most of these had come from Saskatchewan where, according to business standards, they had enjoyed increasing prosperity. However, wealth brought envy and bit ter competition for worldly possessions. So followed the decision of the old-line Mennonites to seek a new place in virgin territory where they might once more practice the plain and simple way of godly living. Republican Plank «it As a part of the policy of the Repub lican, party, the following plank was in serted in their platform: “ We welcome Israel into the family of nations arid take pride in the fact that the Republi can party was the first to call for the establishment of a free and independent Jewish commonwealth. The vacillation of the Democratic administration on this question has undermined the prestige of the United Nations. Subject to the letter and spirit of the United Nations char- S E P T E M B E R , 1 9 4 8
William W. Orr, D.D.
every Christian faith with the exception of the Roman Catholic, will meet official ly. There will be no “ Protestant Pope” or even a unified high command, but hope is being held out that advance in broth erly understand ing will be reached thereby. Although conservative Chris tians expect little real spiritual results from such a meeting, there is no doubt that world-wide united prayer is always in order, and will bring its own measure of blessing. More Women • <£ Research workers, in a recent In dianapolis, Indiana survey, report that in the membership of Protestant churches there are seven women for every three men. Also, from the laboring classes of our country, only one out of twelve men is found in regular church attendance. Worse still, while the population has greatly increased in the last fifteen years, the Sunday School enrollment has shown a sharp decline. This corrobo rates what nearly every pastor knows, that far too often the mother has to shoulder the entire burden of church attendance for the family. There is need for concerted prayer for the ’men of every community, and study made to ward making the program of the local church of interest to him as well as the rest of the family. Crime in a Black-Out How can intelligent people condone a habit that will be responsible for the following: A news item tells of the bru tal strangulation of an estranged wait ress wife by her husband. According to the man’s own statement, he arranged a meeting to discuss reconciliation, tak ing along with him a bottle of whiskey. Very little more was remembered about the whole incident until the murderer read about his crime in the papers three or four days later. The tragedy of this, which is not an isolated case, is that the drink which is the real criminal and which caused this hideous crime can be freely and easily obtained \on nearly every comer of every village and city of this country. Page Five
ter, we pledge to Israel full recognition, with its boundaries as sanctioned by the United Nations, and aid in developing its economy.” Comics Code «5* Because the ubiquitous comic book has been condemned as one of the chief contributors to juvenile delinquency in the United States, 14 major comic book publishers with a combined monthly cir culation of 14,000,000, agreed on a vol untary clean-up campaign of their own. Among the code’s provisions were these: (1) no sexy, wanton comics; (2) no glorifying of crime; (3) no scenes of sadistic torture; (4) no vulgar and ob scene language; (5) no glamorizing of divorce; (6) no religious or race ridi cule. Without doubt this is a much-needed re form, but the amazing feature about the entire comic book scandal is the criminal apathy on the part of parents who with out question regularly hand over to their youngsters the money necessary to buy them. North Dakota Nuns *£ For the past thirty years, when school boards could not find other suit able teachers, Catholic nuns have been employed in the public schools of North Dakota. In a recent election, the citizens of this state decided by a large majority that the nuns must go, or at least they must not wear their distinctive religious garb. Now, we understand, the nuns will be allowed by the Catholic authori ties to teach in ordinary civilian dress. Church Bells A call is being issued to all United States churches asking them to ring their bells once every hour from 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M; on Sunday, August 22nd. The purpose of this is to summon all Christians to prayer, for on that day in Amsterdam there will begin a meet ing which has been termed, “ the most significant occasion since the Protestant Reformation”—the first assembly of the Council of World Churches. For four teen days the Council, including almost
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