In University

A week of Gather for Jesus propaganda in preparation for Friday evening's rally in Civic Square culminated in a lunch-hour meeting in the Union Hall at which three distinguished personalities (?) ventured to give their accounts of a belief in Christ.

Mr Adams-Schneider, true to his "honourable profession" (he said it), embarked on a vociferous discourse that at times seriously threatened to challenge the accepted supremacy of Billy Graham, and judging by the response at the end of his 'campaign' the audience was either with him from the start or else he had indeed accomplished a miraculous conversion.

He did however state his firm belief in three basic principles of Christianity- (i) that all men (and women) are equal, (ii) they need a Saviour in Jesus and (iii) whoever accepts him shall have eternal life.

His refusal to be drawn on the question of how he reconciled his belief in the equality of all men with his Party's attitude to apartheid evoked some loud criticism, especially when he stated that the central problem of apartheid was political and that he had been invited to give a talk on his Christian belief, but would willingly return to a discussion on apartheid at a later date.

Marcus, after hitting out at the professional hecklers, spoke of how he had "seen the power of Christ working". He lamented that society was both apathetic and greedy and what was needed above all was love. "Christ opens the mind and gives the love that society needs".

From the auditorium, James K. Baxter commented that he would not wish to quarrel with the man who recognises good but does not know where it comes from, so that chanting Christ's name can become a noise. What about a man like Ghandi?

Although Marcus was quite prepared to admit his recognition of other great teachers for their manifestation of a particular quality, for him, Christ embodied all these qualities. In conclusion, he expressed the wish that the student body might only examine Christian teaching as much as it did Eastern philosphy.

Dean Hurst spoke briefly, and observed that some people try to push others into their mode of belief instead of sitting down to help them work out their own. "It's easy to sit in judgement -but we must accept people as they are and lead them to Christ."

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