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More than 5,000 Muslims participated in riots that left 10 Protestant churches severely damaged or destroyed in Surabaya, the second-largest city in Indonesia, on June 9.

Mobs, led primarily by Madurese militants, attacked with rocks, clubs, and crowbars on Sunday morning while several of the congregations were holding services. Several worshipers suffered injuries requiring hospitalization.

Compass Direct news service reported the eyewitness account of Pentecostal pastor Jeremiah Batubara. “Some daring persons climbed over the outer wall through a side entrance of the building, while others in the crowd roughly broke down the main front door of the church after they tore through the metal fenced-in front of the building,” Batubara said. “The crowd surged in to destroy everything in the building.” At least half the congregations reported that those in the mobs robbed congregants of jewelry, money, or clothes. At East Java Christian Church, the intruders even stole offerings from collection plates. At least four churches reported that their sound systems and musical instruments were destroyed or stolen, while four also reported that vehicles parked outside the buildings were damaged.

Worshipers who tried to calm rioters at Pogot Batak Protestant Church were beaten. At Living Word Indonesian Bethel Church, a mob destroyed furniture at a manse. At Calvary Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, the pastor was beaten and women sexually assaulted.

Indonesia is about 80 percent Muslim, and with 150 million adherents of Islam it has more than any other nation. Several arrests have been made, and members of the churches are continuing to meet.

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With a Bible in one hand and a hammer in the other, a Fijian Christian entered a Hindu temple July 4 and smashed a statue of the monkey god Hanuman as well as other religious objects.

Iliesa Raqili, a recent convert from Hinduism, pleaded guilty to destroying property, but insists that God told him to damage the temple in Nausori. Raqili, 25, received a one-year suspended prison sentence.

The light sentence drew protests from local Hindus, who make up 38 percent of Fiji’s population. Many organizations condemned the attack, including the ecumenical group Interfaith Search Fiji, which includes Methodists, Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Hindus, and Muslims.

While Fiji’s constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion, it also designates the country “a Christian nation.” Christians constitute about half of the population.

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The Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) is facing a dire financial crisis that will affect the viability of the ecumenical organization unless it soon receives an influx of funds.

“By the end of the year, despite strict expenditure control and savings, the general funds and reserves available will have been used up,” WCC General Secretary Konrad Raiser wrote in July, seeking direct aid from member churches and supporting organizations. “Income is no longer sufficient to pay for the present activities in which the Council is engaged.”

The WCC, which spent $81 million last year, plans to eliminate 42 of its 276 staff positions. By the end of the year, the agency’s work force will be one-third less than in 1991.

Raiser says the WCC is going through a decline in income that “has been greater and lasted longer than anticipated, and shows no sign of improvement.” One reason is that only 156 of 330 member churches paid the required minimum of $800 in annual dues to the WCC last year.

Copyright 1996, Christianity Today International/Christianity Today MagazineVol. 40, No. 10, Page 112

To stave off eviction, members of an Inglewood, California, church took to sleeping in the building and filing for bankruptcy protection in July as sheriff’s marshals prepared to evict them. A structureless denomination is pitted against a small charismatic group in the battle for the $1.5 million property, the 14-year home of Lockhaven Christian Lighthouse Church.

“The specter of a secular government agency being employed to evict a congregation is a stench in God’s nostrils,” says Steven McFarland, director of the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom. “The heart of this seems to be dollars and cents, with a veneer of denominational principle.” The congregation had previously been a part of the Churches of Christ (Campbellite) and in 1982 had borrowed $70,000 from the Christian Development Fund (CDF), a Church of Christ-affiliated lending association. Elders agreed to give CDF title to the property if the congregation strayed from Campbellite doctrine. A new, charismatic pastor, Anthony Sanders, arrived a month later. Sanders says Lockhaven has not changed its doctrines, and it paid off the loan in time.

Yet Brad Dupray, CDF executive vice president, says the loan payments are irrelevant. “We are prepared to go through with the eviction.”

By Mark A. Kellner.

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Local governments typically do not become enmeshed in controversial federal legislation. But Kettering, Ohio, had a vested interest in the partial-birth abortion bill vetoed by President Clinton. Martin Haskell, the originator of this dilation and extraction (D&X) method, does second-trimester abortions at Women’s Med Center in the Dayton suburb of 60,000.

Subsequently, the Kettering City Council voted 6 to 0 on July 23 to pass “a statement of personal intent” supporting a congressional override of the veto. In a D&X procedure, the abortionist stabs scissors into the base of the baby’s skull after partial delivery, then suctions out the brain. No government statistics are kept on the procedure, but pro-life groups estimate that between 400 and 1,200 are done each year, with Haskell doing about 200 of those.

The council became involved due to pressure from local pro-life and ministerial groups. More than 2,500 signatures had been gathered at local churches the Sunday before the vote urging such action. Fourteen pastors attended the meeting.

Clergy spokesperson Kenny Mahanes of Far Hills Baptist Church reviewed how the veto has drawn unprecedented criticism from all eight American Catholic cardinals and the current and 10 former presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention. Mahanes tailored his prepared text because he was instructed by the mayor not to be graphic. “The procedure is so barbaric and grotesque he didn’t want it described in public,” Mahanes told CT.

“When wanton cruelty happens in a city, people have to respond to it,” council member John J. White told CT. White says the city has exhausted means to try to keep Haskell from operating, and on legal advice, did not pass a full-fledged resolution.

Nearby Washington Township passed zoning ordinances to try to keep Haskell from operating there in the early 1980s. Haskell ended up winning a $2.25 million judgment against the township for violating his rights.

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The FBI has seized more than $10 million-including an $8 million investment account-from LaSalle University, a Mandeville, Louisiana-based Christian organization that grants diplomas through the mail.

An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court by FBI special agent Alexis Hatten cited mail fraud, credit card fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering as the basis for the seizure.

Despite the confiscation, LaSalle remains open. Thomas Kirk, president of World Christian Church, which operates LaSalle, said that a few accounts were not seized and the university continues to receive daily income. Kirk said the school plans to set up bank accounts outside the United States to which LaSalle’s foreign students can send tuition payments.

Hatten’s affidavit said during the past several years more than 100 LaSalle students have complained about various aspects of the school, including “its bogus accreditation,” and the charging of significant hidden costs to students.

By Jeremy Reynalds.

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Michael English, who in 1994 won six Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association, including Artist of the Year, launched his mainstream pop music career in July. “Your Love Amazes Me,” the first single released from his debut secular album, Freedom, quickly entered the top 20 on Billboard‘s adult-contemporary chart.

In another song on the album, “Freedom Field,” English, 34, sings of a break with his Christian roots: “Old man religion, I’ve got your name; the best part of my years were wrapped up, tied up in your thang.”

In 1994, a week after winning the Dove honors, English admitted to adultery (CT, June 20, 1994) with a pregnant Christian singer who miscarried. Warner Alliance quickly dropped the now-divorced English from its roster of artists, but he then signed a recording deal with Curb Records. English has continued to have relationship woes. After an argument outside a Nashville club, his girlfriend filed, then later dropped, an assault charge against him.

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The Federal Election Commission (FEC) filed suit against the Christian Coalition July 30, accusing the Chesapeake, Virginia-based nonprofit of “expressly advocating” the election of several Republican candidates for federal office in 1990, 1992, and 1994.

Among the FEC allegations: the Christian Coalition illegally spent funds by turning out voters for President Bush, making phone calls on behalf of Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, publishing a letter calling House Speaker Newt Gingrich “a Christian Coalition Inc. 100 percenter,” and distributing a scorecard “to distinguish between good and misguided Congressmen.”

To retain its tax-exempt status as a “social welfare” non-profit, the Christian Coalition is prohibited from endorsing or donating to candidates.

Interfaith Alliance Executive Director Jill Hanauer hailed the suit. “The Christian Coalition has been flagrantly taunting both the FEC and irs with their blatant support of candidates for office, particularly with an extremist position,” she said.

But Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed called the suit “totally baseless.” “Christian Coalition has abided by both the letter and spirit of the law,” Reed said. “We are totally confident that we will be fully vindicated.”

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The controversial RU-486 abortion pill, used for more than eight years in France and five years in England, is moving closer to becoming a new method of abortion in the United States.

Facing apparent “fast-track” U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of RU-486, pro-life activists say they will now concentrate their opposition efforts on grassroots education about the drug’s potential dangers.

On July 19, an FDA advisory committee recommended that RU-486-known in the United States as mifepristone-be approved as a “safe” and “effective” method of abortion. The drug, when taken along with another medication for several days, induces abortion during the earliest stages of pregnancy without surgery. It is the first chemical abortion method to be considered by the fda in more than 20 years.

FDA Commissioner David Kessler says the recommendation by his agency’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee was a “very strong signal” that RU-486 should receive final approval for use in the United States within a few months. Because some researchers have suggested that there may be other “therapeutic” uses for RU-486, the FDA has proclaimed it a “priority drug,” which will receive swift attention.

POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS:

Pro-life leaders acknowledge that with the advisory committee recommendation, prevention of the drug’s entrance into the United States is unlikely. They believe the rapid timetable has the blessing of President Clinton.

“Considering the fast track that the drug has been on, one has to presume that the President wants this thing in the public before the elections,” says Olivia Gans, spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee. “He made that promise to the abortion advocacy groups.”

Life Issues Institute consultant Richard Glasow says, “The politicized FDA seems totally incapable of carrying out its statutory responsibility to analyze the scientific and medical data on the safety and efficacy of RU-486.”

Mifepristone may only be used during the first seven weeks of pregnancy and requires a combination of drugs for several days. At least two visits to a doctor’s office would be required during the procedure, plus follow-up visits. Even if all steps are followed correctly, the pill’s manufacturers concede that RU-486 does not successfully induce abortion about 5 percent of the time. In those cases, surgical abortion usually follows.

HEALTH RISK QUESTIONS:

Some physicians have raised concern about the lack of study on the long-term health risks for women taking RU-486, as well as any potential risks for future pregnancies and future children. During testimony before the FDA, Charles Cargille of the Louisiana State University Medical School listed 29 “documented or suspected pharmacological actions” of the drug, which could pose long-term threats to women and children’s health.

Cargille and other physicians also have protested the lack of scientific studies on the particular effect of RU-486 on Native American women, as well as on women from Latino, Asian, or African descent. The longest-term studies available have been conducted in England, France, and Sweden, which have significantly lower percentages of these minority population groups than the United States.

Donna Harrison, an obstetrician/gynecologist who works with low-income clients in Michigan, said she is particularly concerned that young women, poor women, and women for whom English is a second language will not be adequately informed about the complicated procedure of an RU-486 abortion or the potential health consequences of the drug. “My patients will be the ones … left to deal with deformed children or hemorrhaging,” she says.

AMERICAN STUDIES:

Since October 1994, the Population Council, a nonprofit organization that holds the U.S. patent rights to RU-486, has conducted studies involving 2,100 American women at 17 test sites. According to the council, only a small percentage of women experienced severe complications after using the drug.

However, at least one physician is questioning the accuracy of the U.S. statistics. Mark Louviere, a family practice doctor in Waterloo, Iowa, says he was called to an emergency room in November 1994 to help treat an RU-486 patient who appeared to be “bleeding to death.” The woman survived after emergency surgery.

Louviere says he reported the incident to Planned Parenthood, the group administering the RU-486 trial in Iowa. Yet, six months later, Planned Parenthood concluded its clinical testing “with no complications reported among 238 women” who had participated in the local study. “I am concerned that all of the true complications of RU-486 are not being reported to both the media and to the FDA,” asserts Louviere, an abortion-rights supporter.

The FDA advisory committee, which recommended RU-486 approval by a 7-to-1 vote, acknowledged that RU-486 is not “risk-free.”

Pro-life leaders said they are concerned by recent polls suggesting that doctors who are uncomfortable performing surgical abortions would be willing to prescribe RU-486. “If RU-486 hits the market, it will not just displace some surgical abortions, it will significantly increase the total number of abortions and drive abortion deeper into our social fabric,” says Glasow of Life Issues Institute.

There have been more than 200,000 RU-486 abortions since the drug became legal in Europe.

Pro-life organizations have supported an economic boycott against Hoechst A.G., a German chemical company that is the parent company of Roussel Uclaf, the French manufacturer of RU-486. Hoechst sold the U.S. patent to the Population Council. However, many U.S. pro-life groups still boycott Hoechst, which produces many agricultural products and generic prescription drugs.

By Kim A. Lawton in Washington, D.C.

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With every issue of Books & Culture, we send a readership survey to a small number of randomly selected subscribers. We’re eager to hear from you, and we appreciate the time and effort invested by those who take the trouble to return the survey forms to us. (You don’t have to wait for a questionnaire, of course; we’d be happy to hear from you any time.) In a recent survey, for example, the results of which we just received, we asked about a possible new feature, offering a concise roundup of recently published books on a particular subject. The response was very positive, and you can expect to find that feature in future issues. In the meantime, as a down payment, here’s a lightly annotated list of significant books on higher education, the subject of this issue’s special section.

John Henry Newman’s The Idea of a University is a classic cited everywhere but perhaps rarely read. A new edition, edited by Frank M. Turner (Yale University Press, 367 pp.; $35, hardcover; $18, paper, 1996), has been issued as the second volume in Yale’s promising series, Rethinking the Western Tradition. (The first volume, published in 1993, was Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy.) The aim of the series is “to address the present debate over the western tradition by reprinting key works of that tradition along with essays that evaluate each text from different perspectives.” So along with an abridged text of Newman’s work (comprising the nine foundational discourses delivered at the Catholic University in Dublin in 1852 and published the same year, and four of the ten lectures and essays on university subjects), this volume supplies five interpretive essays, among them George Marsden’s “Theology and the University: Newman’s Idea and Current Realities” and George Landow’s “Newman and the Idea of an Electronic University.”

In our own time, Clark Kerr’s The Uses of the University (Harvard University Press, 4th ed., 226 pp.; $15.95, paper, 1995) has been the single most influential book on the American research university. Kerr, who was president of the University of California, Berkeley, during the tumult of the Free Speech Movement, gave three lectures at Harvard in 1963 defining the role of the emerging “multiversity.” New layers were added to the text in 1972, 1982, and again in 1994; all are included in this edition. Not surprisingly, Kerr begins by contrasting what the university has become with Newman’s vision for it, though his version of Newman is close to a caricature. “This beautiful world,” Kerr says of Newman’s “academic cloister,”

was being shattered forever even as it was being so beautifully portrayed. By 1852, when Newman was writing, the German universities were becoming the new model. The democratic and industrial and scientific revolutions were well underway in the western world. The gentleman “at home in any society” was soon to be at home in none. Science was beginning to take the place of moral philosophy, research the place of teaching.

Where Newman made the case for a theologically ordered education-in which, as Marsden observes in his essay, knowledge of God provides the context for all other forms of knowledge-Kerr concludes that the “uses of the university” are “better knowledge and higher skills.”

Bill Readings, in The University in Ruins (Harvard University Press, 238 pp.; $29.95, 1996), sees signs of decay precisely where Kerr sees vigorous health. “The University,” Readings says, “no longer needs a grand narrative of culture in order to work”; rather, it has become “a bureaucratic institution of excellence.” (Elsewhere he remarks that “the University is no longer primarily an ideological arm of the nation-state but an autonomous bureaucratic corporation.”) Indeed, “We have to recognize that the University is a ruined institution, while thinking what it means to dwell in those ruins without recourse to romantic nostalgia.” Readings (1960-94), associate professor of comparative literature at the Universite de Montreal, was killed in a plane crash before his book was published. Bristling with references to Derrida, Bourdieu, Lyotard, and their ilk (“While I applaud the exemplary anti-hu manism of Lacan’s gesture,” runs a typical clause in a footnote), The University in Ruins is representative of one of the strongest ideological currents in the academy today.

For a radically different perspective on the university, see Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Thinking Christians, edited by Kelly Monroe (Zondervan, 368 pp.; $17.99, 1996), a gathering of testimonies by 42 individuals with a Harvard connection (chiefly as students or faculty, though Solzhenitsyn and Mother Teresa are included by virtue of having spoken there). Monroe, chaplain to graduate students at Harvard and founder of the Harvard Veritas Forum, has assembled a diverse and provocative collection. In a few instances she has drawn on published sources, but most of the pieces were written specifically for this volume. At the risk of singling out a few among many strong pieces, Glenn Loury’s “A Professor Under Reconstruction,” Nicholas Wolterstorff’s “The Grace That Shaped My Life,” and Lamin Sanneh’s “Jesus, More Than a Prophet” (about the Gambian-born Sanneh’s conversion from Islam) struck one reader as particularly powerful. And in a moving epilogue, “A Taste of New Wine,” Monroe tells of how she herself has found a lively fellowship of Christian scholars, students, and friends, centered in Harvard but extending far and wide. “In my search for God at Harvard,” she writes,

I expected to find something new, something beyond Jesus, but instead I have found more of him. I have begun to see how the pure light of God’s truth refracts and falls in every direction with color and grace. I found the memory of this truth in the color of crimson, in the iron Yard gates, and in the symbols of the college seal. I began to see him in the work and eyes of fellow students, in rare books, in a friend’s chemistry lab, in recent astrophysical abstracts, and in the lives and legacies of founders and alumni who, whether living or beyond this life, would befriend and teach us.

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