Archive: Speaking Out

An occasional column for guest opinion

WCC: What More Can We Say?

by Riley B. Case

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has once again become the center of controversy. This time it’s because of a Reader’s Digest article entitled “Karl Marx or Jesus Christ” (August 1982), and a recent segment on CBS ‘s 60 Minutes.

To those acquainted with the WCC, criticism is not new. The council is accused of being more interested in leftwing political movements than in proclaiming the Gospel.

In response, WCC defenders are crying “foul.” Journals of denominations related to the WCC have carried lengthy rebuttals to the Reader’s Digest article, calling the effort a “hatchet job.” UM Church formal and informal presentations by bishops and superintendents, along with much printed material, lambaste the critics and defend the council as the Church’s conscience- brought to bear on the problems of the world.

In light of the criticism and counter-criticism, is there anything more that can be said about the WCC? I believe so.

There is much that is positive about the WCC. It was my privilege to attend the two-week World Council Assembly in Evanston, Illinois, in 1954. I heard the preaching, read the literature, and listened to the debates. I was impressed by the deep faith of many of the participants. With 120,000 others, I lit a candle in Soldiers’ Field, Chicago, as a dramatic, symbolic witness to “Christ, the Hope of the World.”

One cannot go through an experience like that without a certain appreciation for the council. The WCC is a gathering point where Christians from many countries and many traditions can discuss matters of mutual concern and share their common faith together. The WCC is needed for the coordination of certain ministries (like relief work) that can best be done ecumenically.

At the same time, we need to recognize that sincere Christians have problems with the WCC. Highly respected churchmen, such as Helmut Thielicke, Jacques Ellul, and Peter Berger, men who can hardly be accused of operating from political motives, have expressed their disillusionment with the WCC.

The question most often voiced is, “Do leaders of the WCC believe there is salvation only in Jesus Christ?” The WCC is most accommodating toward other world religions, but most intolerant of systems judged to be racist or economically unjust.

An anti-American and anticapitalistic flavor is present in wee pronouncements. WCC rhetoric often sounds suspiciously like Marxist rhetoric. While the WCC claims it does not advocate violence, it continues to give its blessing to groups that do advocate violence. Its position, in fact, is on record:

All else failing, the churches [should] support resistance movements, including revolutions, which are aimed at the elimination of political and economic tyranny which makes racism possible (The Consultation on Racism, 1969).

For evangelical Christians, the concern with the WCC is more than just the political and economic stances of the WCC. Rather, it has to do with what evangelicals understand to be the essence of faith and mission in the Church.

Many, like the Reader’s Digest, criticize the WCC from a conservative political point of view. The WCC has “bad” politics and “bad” economics.

For evangelical (and many other) Christians a greater concern is that the WCC has bad theology.

WCC activists would emphasize a this-worldly religion, instead of traditional Christianity, which would stress the fallenness of mankind and all human structures, a salvation only in Jesus Christ, and a restoration of creation only at the end times. According to these activists, God is at work everywhere—in the secular world as well as the Church, whether in Cuban socialism or in Malcom X or the African National Congress (the revolutionary group in South Africa)—to bring about His purposes.

Those purposes can be summed up in the word justice, the new religious code word which would subsume everything else in the faith. Evangelism should contribute to justice. Feeding the hungry should be handled to promote justice. All the Church’s resources should be enlisted for justice.

Unfortunately, this particular understanding of justice seems to owe more to sociology than to the Bible. Biblical concepts of just and unjust no longer refer to the saved and lost, or to believers and unbelievers, but to oppressed and oppressors, or to the rich and the poor. Traditional Biblical ideas are turned upside down and inside out in the hands of WCC activists.

This is nowhere more apparent than in the Program to Combat Racism. Since 1970 this program has funded 130 organizations to the tune of over $5 million. Almost none of these are churches or organizations with a stated Christian purpose. They are groups with political, social, economic, and racial axes to grind. They have no commitment to Christian beliefs, ethics, or goals. The WCC says the grants go for humanitarian purposes. Of course if the aid was really for humanitarian purposes, the grants could be given to churches. The grants are political statements which intentionally identify the name of Christ and the mission of the Church with a specific and secular, political, and social program (which just happens to be left of center).

If this is not “another gospel,” then what is it?

The problem is bigger than the WCC. Unfortunately, the same kind of thinking that characterizes parts of the WCC also characterizes the National Council of Churches, and denominational agencies like the UM Board of Global Ministries. Also, unfortunately, there seems to be an unwillingness in these organizations to admit the validity of any other point of view. Supporters of the WCC have said they would welcome responsible criticism, but they have yet to admit that any criticism that has been voiced is responsible. Indeed, most detractors from the WCC line are discounted as racists and right-wingers.

What can be done? Recognize that the problem is primarily ideological. It is important for evangelical Christians to know their faith, and to know how that faith relates to the forces that operate in the world. We believe truth will ultimately win out. We must believe there are still persons with genuine concern for the Church who will put the cause of Christ before political ideology, and that these persons will eventually be in positions to bring about change. To that end we pray and work.