Global Report

by Robert L. Nicklaus

MANIPULATED MISSIONS
Some foreign governments, especially anti-Western ones, for years have accused missionaries of being spies. Reports now coming to light substantiate these charges in some instances. Although the practice has virtually ceased, the implication of these reports may place the entire missionary effort under suspicion.

MANIPULATED MISSIONS
Some foreign governments, especially anti-Western ones, for years have accused missionaries of being spies. Reports now coming to light substantiate these charges in some instances. Although the practice has virtually ceased, the implication of these reports may place the entire missionary effort under suspicion.

An allegation of the Central Intelligence Agency's manipulation of missions was published in 1970. The same charges resurfaced in 1975 in two more books containing chapters on CIA-church collaboration. The coauthor of one book, John D. Marks, did additional research and then reported his findings in two articles published by the National Catholic Reporter.

One columnist concluded that the reports make an obvious point: the CIA holds nothing sacred, including the sacred.

The unexpected bomb in the allegations was the degree of participation by missionaries. Marks estimated that between 30 and 40 percent of the missionaries he, sampled "either had a CIA-church connection story to tell or knew someone who did." Christianity Today's Edward Plowman thought this percentage too high. Missions observers he interviewed thought that "between 10 and 25 percent of America's 35,000 Protestant and 7,000 Catholic foreign missionaries have given information to intelligence authorities. "

The information was generally given not for money or from patriotic motivation, but through concern of what Communist victory would mean to the national church and their work. "These zealous missionaries don't see themselves as spying for America, but as defending the Lord's work," explained one mission official.

Reports indicate that the CIA made more use of Roman Catholics than Protestants. Marks alleged that a Catholic bishop in South Viet Nam was on the CIA payroll until 1971; that priests in Cuba operated in a CIA-financed anti-Castro network; that nuns in Bolivia were unwittingly used to collect political data. Marks gave figures that totaled millions of dollars which flowed from the CIA into Catholic relief agencies and radio stations in order to combat leftist governments in Latin America during the sixties.

Many of these CIA-Catholic operations took place in Chile where Marxist Salvadore Allende was in power. But the National Courier came up with a more serious allegation about long-range espionage activities: "The Vatican operates one of the world's best intelligence networks, based largely on missionary input, and exchanges much information with Vatican-based American intelligence operators." Both Vatican and State Department sources deny the charge.

Marks also cited cases of Protestant collaboration with the CIA. Some missionaries in Bolivia reported frequently on Communist activity and membership. Furloughing missionaries from chaotic Southeast Asia were approached for a "debriefing" of local conditions.

Much of the material gleaned from missionaries "is useless," lamented one CIA official, "because they don't know what to look for." About 95 percent of the information concerns what individuals feel and think about their government. The CIA uses other sources for gathering military information or spying on government officials.

While this information has been of little value to the espionage people, the potential cost to the missionary enterprises could be incalculable. "This is one of the most serious threats to missionary outreach in my entire experience," said a former missionary Episcopal priest. "The groundwork has been laid for wholesale expulsions of missionaries or at least strict controls on their entry and activities, as occurred in China, India, Ceylon and, elsewhere in Asia and Africa after World War II."

Increased suspicion and unfair accusations could easily add to the missionaries' already long list of occupational hazards. Although the major mission in Viet Nam, for example, had a policy of non-involvement with intelligence gathering agencies, a newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya, accused it of being "the CIA's most active instrument in the early days of the Viet Nam war."

The high cost to missions for the intelligence gathering of a few is not without irony; they may pay on an outdated bill. Time magazine reports that the CIA as a matter of policy now rarely tries to use a missionary in the field; spot checks indicate that even the "debriefing" practice has virtually ended.

Some Catholic and Protestant mission boards have taken steps to cut off any connection between individual missionaries and the CIA. Other missions should follow suit. Disadvantages far outweigh any minimal good resulting' from cooperation.

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OCCULT CONVENTIONEERS
Everyone is having a convention these days. So why not Satan?

The first World Congress of Sorcery was hosted by Bogota, the capital of Colombia, in late August. One report estimated that 3,000 magicians, sorcerers and witches participated in pagan rituals and sessions on occult arts. Close to 150,000 visitors came to witness the Satan Celebration. They saw such interesting people as Simon Gonzalez, the "Warlocks Pope"; real witches from the Colombian Sierra Nevada; High Priest Yogakrishnanda, guru and spiritual guide; Uri Geller, the man who bends silverware and repairs clocks through sheer "concentration"; Enrique Castillo, the Latin American UFO expert who claimed to have just returned from a whirl in space.

Serious-minded demonologists had a choice of lectures on parapsychology given by thirty-two experts like Dr. Jean Mayo of Stanford and Dr. Thelma Moss of U.C.L.A. Seminars on "occult communication" included palm readers, fortune-tellers and clairvoyants. Other sessions featured astrology, divination and alchemy.

But to many visitors the congress must have seemed more like a trade fair than a conference on the occult. Paraphernalia for practicing witch craft and magic were on sale, as expected. But so were washing machines, blenders, encyclopedias, carpets – and, of course, deviled ham. Each of the stalls displayed one distinguishing reminder of the unique congress: a cartoon devil busily enjoying the product being advertised in each stall.

The consensus, including The New York Times' opinion, was that this first congress on the occult was a flop. Why? Was it the miserable, wet weather? Was it the failure of so many self-vaunted magicians and witches to do anything scary? Or was it the disgruntled crowds that turned to fist-fighting and breaking windows?

Perhaps the responsibility for the congress' failure should be laid on the evangelical community of Bogota. The Christians banded together before the congress hit town. Then they moved to the streets with tracts for distribution. 'They prayed both before and during the conference that Satan would be bound.

That is apparently what happened. Tiring of inept and dull performances, one of the 200 reporters covering the event finally asked in exasperation, "For heaven's sake! Where are the devil's real representatives? Have they become an extinct species?"

Despite the financial and moral flop of the first World Congress of Sorcery, fourteen nations are already competing for the dubious honor of holding the second convocation next year. That should give the Christians of whichever country is chosen enough time to marshal their forces to insure that the second congress fares no better than the first.

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LOVE CHINA '75
Study groups concentrating on evangelizing Mainland China have been increasing in size and frequency. The latest and most significant of these assemblies took place during four days in September in Manila, Philippines.

Love China '75, sponsored by 18 organizations, brought together 420 delegates and observers from 19 countries. Fifteen Protestant denominations and 55 mission agencies were represented; the Jesuits also sent an official delegate.

David H. Adeney pointed out its unique feature: "For the first time since 1949 Chinese Christians from all over the world met for fellowship and prayer with former China missionaries and leaders of many different organizations that are concerned for the church in China, longing to see the gospel made available to one-quarter of the human race."

One China-watcher addressing the seminar was Mr. -David Aikman, Time magazine correspondent living in Hong Kong. He startled the delegates by predicting that American evangelical leaders would soon be invited to China. Mr. L. Joe Bass explained that China is modifying its behavior toward the outside world in order to modernize the country and thereby discourage Russian aggression. Other speakers presented topics ranging from a history of the church in China to life in China today.

Considerable time was given to reports of witness already penetrating the Bamboo Curtain. One organization told of Bibles being smuggled into China, but gave no details. The Far East Broadcasting Company (Manila) reported that the entire country is now covered not only by shortwave broadcasts, but with regular AM programs as well. Visitors to China told of bell-hops in a Peking hotel listening to FEBC; there were also reports of people finding radios already tuned to Manila in stores.

After the seminar with its reports and studies was over, another meeting was held the following 'morning. Representatives of different organizations met behind closed doors to determine practical steps in the evangelization of Mainland China. But, as David Adeney observed, "Lasting results from Love China '75 will depend upon the dedication of the delegates and their ability to share their vision in the countries to which they return."

China is not impenetrable. Last year alone. over 600,000 Chinese from Hong Kong visited the mainland. But a renewed witness on a scale necessary for China's 800 million will demand an aroused, concerted effort by the world's evangelicals. The delegates to Love China '75 could be the vanguard of such a movement.

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NEW MISSIONS CATALYST
"This is a lay organization. It is made up of local church mission committees, which in turn are made up of lay people. That's new in the world of missions." This is how Edward R. Dayton, a missions researcher and communications expert, summed up the first annual convention of the Association of Church Missions Committees (ACMC) held at the end of July in Wheaton, Illinois.

Although less than a year old, ACMC already has eighty churches from twenty denominations. Their combined local church mission budgets represent over eight million dollars. Dayton sees this impressive beginning as the harbinger of great things: "It is not difficult to believe that three years from now the ACMC will be made up of over one thousand local churches from over fifty denominations with one hundred million dollars of combined local mission budgets (onequarter of the total North American giving)."

The movement originated with key lay people who realized that the-success of the missionary enterprise depended on the local church. But they also realized that the local church had almost no influence on the mission strategy of its denomination. ACMC grew out of this concern. Dayton calls it the only organization in the United States, of which local churches of different denominations can become members, which is organized around the single task of world evangelization.

Several mission agency officials addressed the Wheaton convention. They voiced mutual optimism concerning the contribution of ACMC in missions outreach. The sharing of information across denominational lines and having recourse to resource materials on unreached peoples are bound to encourage a better informed constituency and therefore more committed support for missions.

ACMC, for example, has put together a report on Third World missions and how to relate to them. One mission executive called it "the most advanced work done to date concerning this new movement of the Spirit of God on the frontier of missions.,"

Edward Dayton, however, takes the consequence . of an inspired and informed laity one step further. He sees the ACMC as a catalyst for making the present "missions system" more responsive to changes needed in cross-cultural witnessing. "It is extremely difficult, for one agency to 'tell it like it is' when other agencies serving in similar areas are not reporting the same story. Now it would appear that the local churches may be the instruments of change as they tell the agencies that the local churches know what things are really like and want to see changes come about. "

The ACMC promises to bring to the missionary enterprise the kind of creative tension that will help mission agencies keep pace with change – provided each party involved does not consider itself the repository of ultimate wisdom.

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BILLY GRAHAM CENTER
The Billy Graham Center now being organized at Wheaton College will have a number of vital support programs for the world missionary enterprise, Dr. Donald E. Hoke, executive director, reports. A missionary for 21 years in Japan under the Evangelical Alliance Mission, Hoke came to the Graham Center post directly from his responsibilities as director of the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne in 1974.

A definitive library on evangelism and missions is envisioned for the center. Already a collection of 8,000 volumes on evangelism and revival in the English language has been purchased. It is hoped that this library will be the finest in the world on these subjects in days to come. Along with the library will be the archives of Billy Graham, and conversations are underway with IFMA and EFMA concerning housing also the archives of their related missions.

A key program of the center will be short-term, intensive training programs for Third World Christian leaders. Emphasizing primarily strategies of evangelism and critical problems of contemporary theology, it is intended to bring in two classes a year of leaders from Third World countries for one month's intensive study in these areas. These programs will offer opportunities for missionaries to direct influential national leaders to the center for theological strengthening and evangelistic vision. It is hoped also that this program may be broadened to send teams of experts in these areas to national church and organizational conferences on invitation.

A conference ministries program is also planned for the center, which will have continuing schools of evangelism, conferences on every phase of evangelism and missions, and accommodations for those desiring to come and use the library, archives, and tutorial resources of the center.

Hoke also expressed his personal ambition that a larger number of furlough homes for missionaries may be made available in the future.

Copyright © 1976 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.

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