Tidings

The U.S. is going to the devil, at least according to a study by the Center for Policy Research. The Manhattan-based agency studies social trends, and the findings of a recently published survey show, among other things, a marked increase in belief in the devil. The survey, taken last spring well before the current Exorcist craze, sampled the opinions of 3,546 adults across the U.S. and found that 48% were certain that the devil exists. Another 20% thought his existence probable. In a similar 1964 poll, only 37% of those surveyed were convinced that the devil exists. Clyde Z. Nunn, senior research associate of the center, attributes the change to a mood of helplessness in a world where "things seem to be falling apart." In response to a question about the future, those who believed in the devil also tended to think that things were getting worse. Trying to make sense of a senseless world, Nunn said, many people "look for scapegoats like the devil."

The 2.8 million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod continues to be racked by dissension between moderates and conservatives over a cluster of issues involving among other matters, literal biblical interpretations. Last week four members of the church's 18-man mission-board staff resigned, partly in protest against "the oppressive use of power" in the denomination's hierarchy, headed by conservative President Jacob A.O. Preus. Two weeks ago, the staffs director, William H. Kohn, quit, and two more members will resign when they return from trips overseas. The departures from the staff, which administers all church mission activity at home and abroad, follow the spectacular split between the church's Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and "Seminex," the new, more liberal seminary in exile (TIME, March 4). That situation is still confused. Last week the Rev. Martin H. Scharlemann, acting president of Concordia, resigned, suffering from nervous exhaustion. In May, Missouri Synod congregations will have to decide whether to choose new graduates from the rebel Seminex as pastors-though they may face expulsion if they do. Any notable defiance will be a test of Preus's power in the embattled denomination.

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