The original reports on conference keynote speeches, reproduced in this Square Inch website, remain a fascinating read. Here are some quotes, with links to the full report.
Dr. C.T. McIntire: “We Christians must ourselves experience a spiritual disaffiliation from the American way of life. Until we have done this we are one with the spirit of this world.” (1970 report)
McIntire stated that there is an overwhelming crisis In North America because of the increasing number of young people who reject outright the American way of life. (1970 report)
About the New Morality, the moral position of many liberal Christians, James Olthuis gives an equally harsh critique: “Love is the only final norm. Love shoulders aside all codes — code-less love over against loveless code. Love is a ‘greased pig’ in the New Morality. It has no definition and little meaning; it keeps slipping away. The end result of the ‘New Morality’ is frustration. (1970 report)
Olthuis showed, from history and contemporary accounts, that friendship is in eclipse, and that it is often considered to be homosexuality today. “It is high time that Christians raise their voices in favour of friendship and rehabilitate it.” (1971 report)
Hendrik Hart demonstrates that the pietists have given rise to their opposite, the social gospelers, those who over-stressed social witness in the world. Both are sides of a false dilemma, he asserted, and they cannot and should not be welded back together because both have become unbiblical and totally separate entities. (1971 report)
Hendrik Hart: organizations are nothing but channels, and must be quickly discarded when they become establishmentistic and idolatrous. (1971 report)
Worship needs more emphasis in its communal musical dimension, Bert Polman said. We ought to seek more communal styles with music that encourages broad participation by everyone present. (1972 report)
Dr. Runner showed how conservativism and progressivism have become the terrible political choices directing men and how these terms get away from religious roots. (1972 report)
Both lecturers (Dr. A.B. Cramp and Dr. B. Goudzwaard) warned against activism and the demand for easy solutions. (1974 report)
We listened to Penelope Tyndale of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship who whistle-stopped her way through history, setting us aghast at the pervasive denial of woman as a full human being. (1975 report)
One movie about the feelings of the Indians (“All seasons are good”) contrasted sharply with the second movie of the evening. This movie was concerned with oil in the Arctic and the technology involved in getting it to southern regions. Man conquered the land, “used” it, unlike the Indians. (1976 report)
Arnold De Graaff showed that, as an outgrowth of capitalism, corporatism has grown in the 20th Century. Our government, our marketing, our military, our families, all aspects of life have fallen into the powerful grip of international economic politics. (1976 report)