Area Schools Fear Campus Proselytizing

In 1978 a Fundamentalist preacher named Kip McKean became pastor of the Boston Church of Christ, which at that time was based in Lexington and boasted only 30 members. Today the Church holds Sunday services in the Boston Garden for a fanatically loyal flock of well over 3000.

Among the throng are 30 Harvard undergraduates, many of whom have joined the church in the past year.

The increasing number of students attracted to the church has drawn concern from administrators and clergy at several schools in the Boston-area, who are stepping up their efforts to stem proselytizing on their campuses.

At Harvard, officials in the College and the United Ministry have distributed a special pamphlet to warn students about proselytizers in general and have been outspoken in their criticisms of the Boston Church of Christ. They say the Church's recruiting pattern at Harvard and at other colleges in the area oversteps the bounds of legitimate religious activity.

Harvard officials say these practices, which include door to door solicitation in dormitories, repeated odd hour telephone calls to potential recruits, and deceptive descriptions of Church structure and activities, amount to harrassment of students.

Concerns about the Church have grown this year as it dramatically increased its Harvard recruiting efforts, targeting especially freshman.

Church officials deny these charges, claiming they are simply obeying the New Testament edict that Christians should spread the Gospel everywhere.

"I'm not aware of any real harrass- ment of outsiders by our members. We simplybelieve very strongly that people need God, thatpeople need to come to God. In order to bring thisabout, we will talk to people as long as they willlisten," says Boston Church of Christ HarvardMinistry leader Preston Shepherd.

"The means that we use to try and persuadepeople aren't any different from the ones thatanybody might use to talk a friend into doing theright thing, or even into going out to dinner or amovie," Shepherd says "Persuasion is a normal partof everyday life."

One student recruited by the church, who spokeon the condition of anonymity, says she joined thechurch after she was approached while eatingdinner alone in the Union. The student says shewas asked to go to a bible meeting, where everyonewas very affectionate and caring. It was madeclear, she says, that these friendships would onlycontinue if she devoted herself to the church.

Psychiatrists at University Health Service(UHS) say freshmen are especially vulnerable tohigh-pressure proselytizing because of theirrecent severance from home support networks. Acorrelation exists between the poor academicrecords of some freshmen and their involvementwith the Church, Harvard and United Ministryofficials say.

But Church officials point to students whosegrades have improved since they joined the Church.They claim that the Church provides a supportive,caring environment in which converts can growspiritually while continuing to achieve in thesecular world.

Nonetheless several univeristies have increasedtheir efforts to stem the Church's influence ontheir campus.

Boston University recently banned the Church'snon-student members from entering Universitybuildings.

The school's chaplain, Robert Thornberg, wrotein an August letter to the Church that they had"repeatedly engaged in actions which interferewith the privacy of Boston University students andthe policies of the University regardingsolicitation and proselytizing on campus,particularly in the residence halls."

Thornberg says Church members had been in thehabit of signing into B.U. residence halls tovisit particular students, and then goingdoor-to-door once they gained entry to thebuilding. B.U. proctors, like their Harvardcounterparts, also have reported many instanceswhen students complained of being harassed byChurch members to attend meetings.

While no such drastic action is contemplated byHarvard, administration officals, such as Dean ofFreshman Henry C. Moses, say they will actstrenuously to protect individual students' rightto be free from coercion.

The United Ministry at Harvard has disavowedthe Church, which occasionally holds services inPhillips Brooks house, on the grounds that itrefuses to conform to the Ministry's officialpolicy against all religious proselytizing oncampus. The administration and the United Ministryboth say, however, that they do not oppose theright of Church members to freely express theirreligious beliefs on campus.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III says theBoston Church of Christ has received no officialpermission from Harvard to conduct ministry oncampus. But he plans no specific measures againstthe Church.

Administrators at B.U. say official restrictivemeasures against the church and otherproselytizers are necessary because students arenot equipped to deal with high pressure religiousrecruiting.

"Students, particularly those who have justleft home, are ultimately vulnerable in that theyare in an unfamiliar and often hostile world cutoff from their usual sources of support such asparents, friends, and home churches," Thornbergsays. "When duplicitous, high-pressure recruitingtactics are used by religious groups, the basictrust of education is violated."

"Students need to be protected not fromideas--for they can make up their own minds givensufficient evidence--but from manipulativeproselytizing," Thornberg says.

The Harvard congregation is small but growing,with between 40 and 50 baptized members, 30 ofwhom are undergraduates. At a recent Harvardchurch service in Phillips Brooks House, fullyhalf of the group had joined in the past year.

McKean is still the spiritual leader andprimary preacher, but most of the day-to-dayoperations of the worldwide church, drawing onmembers from more than 75 different countries, areentrusted to a group of church Elders led by AlBaird, who holds an M.I.T doctorate. Contributionsfrom members make up the Church's finiancialholdings, which total approximately $3 million.Most of the money goes to support new church"plantings" in climes as exotic as Johannesburgand Bombay.

Churches of Christ dot the country; religiousexperts say they are the inheritors of the 19thcentury Campbellite Fundamentalist reform movementin America. The Church of Christ should not beconfused with the United Church of Christ, a muchmore centrist descendant of the New EnglandCongregationalist tradition.

But the Boston Church of Christ is unique inits agressive prostelytizing efforts. The Churchbulletin publishes weekly service attendance,contribution and baptism figures, and sermonsoften stress the absolute importance of themembers being "fruitful," both in terms ofrecruitment or "discipling," and in personal cashcontributions.

During the Sunday service in PBH, a youngmember got up and discussed a passage from theBook of Malachi, which stated that the Lorddisdains people who bring him inferior offerings.Immediately afterwards, a collection plate waspassed around amongst the student congregation,which promptly filled it with five and 10 dollarbills.

According to Thornberg, the leading Boston areaexpert on the Church, the average weeklycontribution per member is $22. Thornberg alsoclaims that the Church bills members for"voluntary" contributions, and that these accrueif not paid week to week. Church officials denythis.

They freely admit, however, that members arerigorously expected to "fellowship," or spread theword, outside the Church community. Indeed, somesenior members such as Shepherd left ministerialposts in other denominations because they weredissatisfied with the slow conversion rates.

"I was frustrated by the non-growth of otherchurches, the sense that they were all preachingthe same tired, mellowed out Christianity and thatthey had departed from the Scriptures," Shepherdsays. Shepherd went on to stress that evangelizingwas "a direct command of Christ," and that memberswho did not evangelize were by definition badChristian in the Church's view.

Doctrinally, the Boston Church of Christdoesn't differ that radically from otherFundamentalist churches. They, too, preach thatthe Bible is the ultimate authority on all moralquestions, that adult baptism by immersion isnecessary for salvation, and that most establishedchurches have departed from the true path of theLord.

What sets the Boston Church of Christ apart isits rigidly authoritarian organization, in whichall members are responsible to superiors in theChurch for all facets of the conduct of theirdaily lives. All but the most junior members,further, are responsible for ensuring thespiritual progress of certain designated "youngerChristians". Members practise public confession oftheir sins to their peers and to their Churchsuperiors.

According to a former member who left becauseshe was fed up with the authority structure of theChurch, there is subtle but omnipresent pressureto confess.

"We were never explicitly told to confess oursins, but in fact there was always the sense thatwe weren't supposed to hide anything, that anysecret actions or doubts were by definition bad,and that we should therefore feel guilty aboutthem," the former member says.

"Everyone is self-programmed to think that,while doubt is inevitable, it is also unnaturaland comes from Satan," she says. "The goal is toeliminate all doubt and become confident in one'sfaith."

Members tend to live, work, eat and sleep withother members, and dating outside the Church isstrictly forbidden, according to both current andformer Church members. Indeed, according to oneformer member who asked that she not beidentified, many people end up leaving the Churchbecause they become involved with outsiders.

While members are not specifically urged tosever contacts with former friends, there isalways the sense that outsiders are only relevantinsofar as they are convertable.

One freshman, who was intesely recruited over aperiod of about 10 days, without going to anymeetings says that his contact had been lessinterest in him for himself, despite extraordinaryfriendliness, as in wracking up personal spiritualpoints by bring in a convert.

"Greg made an incredible effort to convert me,but for his own sake, not mine. He did it to gethimself to heaven, and once it became clear that Iwasn't going to buy it he never called me again."The Boston Garden, site of The Church'sSunday meetings.