Religion: Baptists in Asia

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On the rim of the Communist world, in Hong Kong, 132 young Asians met last week in the warmth of Christian fellowship. It was the first Asia Baptist Youth Conference, held under the auspices of the Baptist World Alliance and the calm blue eyes of its president, Dr. Theodore Adams of the First Baptist Church of Richmond, Va. (TIME, Dec. 5).

Young men and women from Japan, Korea, Nationalist China, the Philippines, Malaya, Thailand, Burma, India and Ceylon—representing nearly a million Asian Baptists—lived for a week at Hong Kong's Baptist mission school, held daily morning sessions of Bible study and group discussion, spent afternoons and evenings enjoying picnics, excursions, movies, talk. Leading topic: national prejudice and discrimination. Said 28-year-old Japanese Reiji Hoshizaki: "When our delegation arrived to attend this conference, our hearts were heavy with apprehension as to how other Asian delegates would feel toward us. We aren't apprehensive any longer. The good fellowship and understanding have done away with all our suspicions."

Before they separated, with plans to send a representative to the 1958 World Youth Conference in Canada, Baptist Ted Adams reminded them that there are "many different forces contending for your mind and soul. Communism says there is no God. Christianity says there is . . . Christianity is not frightened but challenged, not dismayed but stimulated . . . This is because Christianity has outlived, outdone and outdied all forms of dictatorial government and way of life . . . [Today] people must be willing to give their lives for Jesus Christ. In the present world God has use for expendable people only."