7486 A Rough Estimation
Roman Catholics and Protestants comprise about 1 billion people, or one-fourth of the world. Moslems and Hindus comprise almost exactly another one-fourth of world population. Atheists and Pagans number still another fourth of total population. And other religions, such as Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism, comprise the remaining fourth.
7487 More Detailed Figure
The number of adherents in the world’s principal religions are as follows:
Pagan 924 million
Roman Catholic 584 million
Muslim 455 million
Hindu 395 million
Protestant 224 million
Buddhist 161 million
Eastern Orthodox 142 million
Shintoist 67 million
Taoist 51 million
Jewish 13 million
7488 Islam And Ecumenism
In The Cross and the Crescent Dr. Francis Steel of the North Africa Mission predicts an eventual union between apostate Protestantism, as represented by the World Council of Churches, and Islam. We quote his warning in full:
Two lines seem to be converging. One represents the various “Christian” groups. As these lose their Biblical distinctives and evolve a sort of Unitarian universalism, they veer to the left. The other line represents the great ethnic religions; Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. As these purge themselves of their more objectionably carnal aspects and emerge clothed in a philosophical monism or universalism, they veer to the right. Eventually the two will meet in a glorified Baha’i.
7489 World Conference Of Religions
Los Angeles Times dispatch of May 10, 1970 said: “A World Conference of Religions for Peace will be held at Kyoto, Japan, Oct. 16 to 22, according to Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, Pres. of the union of American Hebrew Congregations.
“It will be attended by representatives of the world’s greatest faiths: Judeo-Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Shintoist and others,” said Eisendrath. “It will be the first attempt by the powerful leaders of the great faiths to find a common ground of belief on a matter central to most religions—that of PEACE for our time.
“The conference, the first of its kind, will send its message of peace on behalf of the world’s 2.5 billion people to global leaders in a way which cannot be ignored.
“Among the Christians invited, were representatives and cardinals from the Vatican, the WCC, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Also leaders from behind the Iron Curtain, from Africa and every corner of the world. Its goal is to mobilize the religious constituency of the world, and to apply their respective teachings to the achievement of PEACE.”
7490 World Council Of Churches
The World Council of Churches (WCC) held its first meeting in 1948. It is a fellowship of over 120 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox and Old Catholic churches from some 90 countries throughout the world. Total membership: 400 million.
The first goal of the ecumenical movement spearheaded by the WCC is to bring all churches into one visible organization. The ultimate goal of the movement is to bring all religions together. The WCC now holds dialogues on “peace” with representatives of 1.5 billion people on earth.
7491 A Central Committee Message
The Central Committee of the WCC is the principal policy-making body of that organization. In its meeting in Addis Adaba, Ethiopia, some six years ago, it heard messages urging new approaches to non-Christian faiths.
“Because Christians cannot claim to have a monopoly of truth, we need to meet men of other faiths and ideologies as part of our trust in and obedience to the promise of Christ.”
The Committee was told of new opportunities to widen religious dialogues with Marxists, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and other religions.
7492 “Fragments Of Truth In Each”
To encourage dialogue the WCC has suggested that Chairs of Buddhists, Hindu and Muslim scholars be appointed in Christian universities and colleges, and that an appeal be made to Muslim, Hindu and Buddhists universities to have a Chair of Christian studies. Ecumenicists believe that divine truth is so rich and many-sided that only fragments are found in any one faith.
7493 U.N. Church Center
A public cornerstone-laying ceremony was held in 1962 for the 12-story Church Center at the United Nations.
The $2,000,000 center is being financed by the Methodist Church, which has offered it for the use of denominational and interdenominational agencies. Dr. Ernest L. Inwood, director of U.N. programming of the National Council of Churches, said the center “will be a Christian symbol, a constant Christian witness, a home of Christian hospitality, a place of Christian service, and a center of Christian education in international relations radiating across the United States and overseas.”
Main speaker for the ceremony was Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, newly-elected president of the U.N. General Assembly. He is a Moslem.
7494 Pluralism At Harvard
A committee on the future of Memorial Church, Harvard University’s chapel built in memory of its graduates killed in World War I, has recommended that the church’s status as a Protestant place of worship be changed “to take account of religious pluralism.”
Dean Krister Stendahl of Harvard Divinity School, who is a member of the Lutheran State Church of Sweden and frequently mentioned aspirant for that church’s highest preferment (the archbishopric of Uppsala), presented a report calling for reconstitution of the Protestant Board of Preachers into a troika that would include a Protestant minister, a Roman Catholic priest, and a Jewish rabbi.
“We would consider these preachers to the university as co-equal in their roles and their relations to the university,” said the report. One committee member who did not sign the report objected to the fact that it says nothing about the religions of Africa and Asia. “Harvard,” he said, “is a world community.”
—Christianity Today
7495 Moon’s Church Refused Membership
Twice in six months, despite intense lobbying, the Council of Churches of the City of New York has denied membership to Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. Directors and denominational executive cited the sect’s theology (Jesus failed in his mission, but a Korean messiah will save mankind) and pressure on young converts to leave their families. It’s the first time the council has rejected an application.
7496 Pope At The U.N.
Pope Paul, in the summer of 1955, came to New York and made a speech for world peace before the U.N. His message centered around two points—peace and prosperity. It was a strong ecumenical appeal.
The pope’s appeal was acclaimed by no less than 107 nations and major religions that gave promises of cooperation. Immediately after the Pope’s speech, a prominent Roman Catholic proposed to bring the various world religions into one fold—the UNICHURCH.
7497 Dialogue With Atheist
According to the Washington Post dispatch of Oct. 2, 1968, the Roman Catholic Church issued an unprecedented broad call for Catholics and members of all faith to join in a dialogue with atheists.
“The appeal was issued in a document prepared by the Vatican’s secretariat for nonbelievers, headed by Franziskus Cardinal Koenig of Vienna, who had a long private audience with Pope Paul VI, who gave the 5,700-word policy-making document “Dialogue with Nonbelievers” his full approval.
The appeal, to make the world “more human,” was not intended to convert people but to express “brotherly love” and meet the needs of mankind … ”
7498 Pope Greets Buddhists
Vatican City (AP)—Pope Paul VI greeted a group of Japanese buddhists after his general audience in 1977. The Pope told them:
“We cordially welcome the delegation of Japanese members of the International Buddhist Brotherhood association. We would encourage you to continue to devote your attention to helping the sick; for where there is need, there should go our efforts to give aid. May God guide you and reward you.”
7499 Muslim Prayer Meet In Canada
There were 3,500 of them—all on their knees, praying. The date? December 25, 1975. The place? The Coliseum of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. Christians praying for revival? No. The photograph in our daily newspaper showed 3,500 Muslims gathered for prayer during Eid Ul Adha, festival of thanksgiving honouring the tradition of the Prophet Abraham.
—Prairie Overcomer
7500 Arab World’s Religious Push
The Arabs are pushing religion. A group of Muslim broadcasters recently launched a global broadcasting campaign to spread the Islamic faith. And in Libya, a tax-supported Islamic center with a $20-million budget is directing propagation of the faith in thirty-five other countries.
7501 Saudi’s Religious Leadership
The oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia is planning to spend billions of dollars in order to unite the world’s widely scattered Moslem nations under Saudi Arabian religious leadership.
The Saudi dream is certain to run against the harsh realities of theological splits, political feuds, and the sheer geographical spread of the Moslem faith.
But the Saudis want to recapture some of the glory of a seventh-century Islamic Arab Empire that stretched from the Himalayas to southern France at its apex. That and the succeeding Ottoman Turkish Empire, which brought Islam to the gates of Vienna, covered much of the known world of the time.
The Saudis, keepers of the Moslem cities of Mecca and Medina, see themselves as the logical leaders of a 20th-century Islamic resurgence. The new empire, as they see it, would be based on religion and shared wealth, not conquest.
—Prairie Overcomer
7502 U.S. Soldier In Hindu Headdress
The first U.S. soldier permitted to wear a Hindu headdress, Private Hari Nam Singh Elliott, 23, received honors of “best recruit” in his basic-training unit. He was allowed to keep his long, red beard as well as his turban and to wear religious jewelry.
7503 Buddhist Red, White, & Blue
Honolulu (UPI)—American converts to a Japanese Buddhist sect are painting Buddha red, white and blue and decorating him with star, at the Honolulu convention of North American followers of Japan’s Nichirensho Buddhist sect.
The next night they put on a three-hour music-and-dance panorama of American history.
Today the sect claims 25,000 followers in North America, most of them in the United States. Many are urban, middle-class young people. Nichirensho offers them an uncomplicated ritual of daily Buddhism prayers, designed to build self-confidence. Converts also find they make new friends, and can take part in a wide range of church busy-work and social activity.
The sect had its Honolulu convention July 26–27, officially recognized as part of the US Bicentennial celebration.
7504 Buddhist Chaplain Of State Senate
Named as chaplain to the California Senate: Shoko Masunaga, 58, Japanese-American pastor of the Buddhism Church of Sacramento, an affiliate of the 25,000-family Buddhist Churches of America (Jodo Shinshu Buddhism), headquartered in San Francisco, Masunaga was nominated to the one-year term by Senator Albert Rodda, a United Methodist who had made the chaplaincy nominations for the past sixteen years.
—Christianity Today
7505 Rabbi In Protestant Church
Rabbi Abraham L. Feinberg, formerly of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, is now “rabbi in residence” at Glide Memorial Methodist Church in San Francisco. Questioned as to how he could hold such a position Rabbi Feinberg answered that it was easy—as long as the Church is unconventional, doesn’t mention the word of Christ in its liturgy, and is concerned with people, not theology. And that, he said, is the philosophy behind the Glide Church, which offers its worshippers a sometimes ear-splitting combination of live jazz music, light shows, singing, and rock dancing at each Sunday’s “celebration.”
See also: Ecumenicity ; Dan. 11:37; Rev. 13:12; 17:16.