THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Wild Right-Wing Charges Hurt Church Movement
By REV. FRANKLIN
LITTELL
National Institute
on the Holocaust
PHILADELPHIA —
Newspapers and maga-
zines, not to mention the
radio and TV, have been
having a field day with
charges against the new
president of the National
Council of Churches. He is
James Armstrong, a bishop
of the United Methodist
Church located in In-
dianapolis.
The charges were levied
by Rev. Greg Dixon,
(
._____preacher in the In-
dianapolis Baptist Temple,
during an interview with
Penthouse magazine. If the
quotations are accurate,
Dixon accused Armstrong of
being "a Communist, a
modernist and a humanist."
Winding up the inter-
view, Dixon, head of a huge
independent preaching
post, commented, "There's
no question in my mind that
Communists are in many of
the pulpits of the old-line
denominations across
America, who are not Chris-
tians at all. They are wolves
in sheep's clothing."
Later he said, "When I
say Dr. Armstrong is a
socialist, all I'm saying is
he and the Methodist
Church and the National
Council of Churches and
the World Council of
Churches in their slated
policies . . . have been on
the side of the socializa-
tion of the world."
"Former FBI Director J.
Edgar Hoover said years
ago that there are Com-
munists in many of the
pulpits of the mainline
denominations. And
when I am asked to name
one, people like Bishop
Armstrong immediately
come to mind."
In a "debate" at the local
CBS-TV station in In-
dianapolis, Dixon, head of
Indiana's "Moral Majority,"
accused Armstrong of lack
of orthodoxy in belief and
asserted with shaking voice
that "we are locked in a war
between Communism and
Christianity." Bishop
Armstrong mildly defended
his Christian beliefs and in-
vited Dixon to "join in a
ministry of love." Further-
more, in conclusion, he said,
"My judge is not Greg Di-
xon. God is my judge."
Circling around this
bizarre situation, a number
of random thoughts come to
mind What is the magnetic
attraction of Penthouse and
Playboy to these electronic
churchmen? It was a
Playboy interview that got
Jerry Falwell into a series of
arguments with church and
political leaders, on matters
spiritual and ethical, and
now it's a Penthouse inter-
view where another reli-
gious right-winger gets
himself into quotations and
misquotations.
If they're truly conserva-
tives, one might think
they'd be travelling in other
circles than Penthouse and
Playboy!
And what's this citing of
J. Edgar Hoover on "Com-
munists" in mainline pul-
pits!? J. Edgar Hoover has
been exposed in public
documents as a pathological
personality whose word on
any number of subjects from
Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr., to the Governor of
Alabama had little to do
with truth and a great deal
to do with his own ambi-
tions. Is it possible that the
Indiana leader of "Moral
Majority" is simply ignor-
ant of what has been pub-
lished on Hoover's cynical
manipulation of the "Com-
munist problem," on his
connections with the syndi-
cate, on his blackmail of
Congressmen and other
politicians?
The truth is that J.
Edgar Hoover, like his
noisier ally Senator Joe
McCarthy, was one of the
biggest assets the inter-
national Communist con-
spiracy ever had in
America. "McCar-
thyism," as the slipshod
and raucous response to
Communism has come to
be called, so covered
anti-Communism with
disgrace that for three
decades it has been vir-
tually impossible to get a
serious discussion of the
Communist threat in
most academic or church
circles.
And, unhappily, Com-
munist infiltration and
influence are important
forces on some of the cam-
puses and in some of the
religious organizations.
There is a major denomina-
tional women's organiza-
tion whose Number 2 execu-
tive has followed every
twist and turn in the Com-
munist line for more than a
decade.
There is a denomina-
tional executive working at
the UN whose office is a
pipeline for Communist and
pro-PLO propaganda.
Monies raised by devout
Christians out in the con-
gregations have, as a mat-
ter of fact, been siphoned off
to finance terrorist move-
ments in Asia and'Africa.
The time has certainly
UJA Conference
Slated May 21-23
in Washington
NEW YORK — Leaders
of American Jewish com-
munities throughout the
United States will meet at
the UJA National Leader-
ship Conference, May 21-23
in Washington, D.C.
The conference will in-
clude briefings by high-
level officials of the White
House, State Department
and Department of Defense,
as well as by members of
Congress and representa-
tives of the academic com-
munity. The conference
agenda also will feature
sessions on the issues un-
derlying the 1983 Cam-
paign and workshops de-
veloping innovative cam-
paign techniques and pro-
grams to meet the national
goals for the regular cam-
paign and Project Renewal.
come for loyal Christians,
including United
Methodists, to give some at-
tention to the problem of a
spiritual fifth column in its
bureaucracy.
The time has come, and in
fact there has been a major
exchange of views and a
critical report published in
the United Methodist Re-
porter, the denomination's
leading journal. But now,
just when things were be-
ginning to precipitate prop-
erly, along comes another
wild set of charges from an
outsider, an outsider im-
mediately perceived as a
"McCarthyite" by local
Methodists and decent
people with memories.
James Armstrong is a
very bright and able
preacher and adminis-
trator, not by the wildest
chance a Communist in
act or intention. And in
the exchange with Greg
Dixon he came off a far
more credible Christian,
as well as earning his
own good marks for sim-
ple activity.
As president of the Na-
tional Council of Churches,
Bishop Armstrong will, we
hope, show some leadership
in dealing with sectors of a
vast bureaucracy that have
shown themselves frivolous
in reference to PLO ter-
rorism and pitifully weak in
confronting Soviet prop-
aganda and penetration.
The political foolishness
of the "Moral Majority"
spokesman has, like
classical McCarthyism, di-
verted attention and pro-
vided a cover for some indi-
viduals who in truth need to
be ferreted out.
Reckless charges from the
radical right are simply a
gift to those of the extreme
left who need a large and
defensive pool of the
liberalism within which to
swim freely.
Friday, February 26, 1982 25
Popularity Poll
JERUSALEM (ZINS) —
The latest poll by the Public
Opinion Research Institute
shows a gain in popularity
by Likud and a correspond-
ing loss for the Labor
Alignment.
Of those polled, 41.2 per-
cent chose Likud and 32.7
percent chose Labor.
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