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- I just read Timothy George's article on biblical authority and interpretation ["What We Mean When We Say It's True," Oct. 23]. After all the discouraging and divisive "battle for the Bible" controversies a few years ago, I was pleased to find such a balanced, sophisticated, yet humble overview of the issues evangelicals face in seeking to uphold the authority of Scripture and apply the inspired Word to faith and practice of living Christian communities. When I read articles like this, I feel evangelical scholarship is truly coming of age and evangelicals are increasingly well-positioned to provide leadership for the whole Christian church as it enters the twenty-first century.

- David C. Downing

Lewisberry, Pa.

I'm puzzled: If we evangelicals really approach God's Word as inerrant and perspicuous, why have so many ignored or concocted systems to explain away Jesus' teachings on loving one's enemies? The early church understood the Word of God to be inerrant and chose not to participate in any violent response to evil for over 300 years. If we approach God's Word as inerrant and perspicuous, shouldn't we practice it as such?

- Gary Blosser

Wauseon, Ohio

A NEAT DISPOSITION OF PROBLEMS?

* Craig S. Keener in "Kisses and Veils" [Oct. 23, sidebar] was necessarily brief but came across as making pronouncements that neatly dispose of problems simply not considered.

For example, 1 Corinthians 11:16 indicates [that what] Paul taught regarding head covering was observed by all churches at that time. Yet research shows this cultural practice varied from place to place. The apostle seems to have been urging a practice for the church that countered culture, at least in some locations. Furthermore, the injunction for men not to wear a covering is equally clear. It may be that in our age of feminism the instruction to women is our thorn, but in other times and places it was the instruction to men. This continues to be the truth which needs to be believed and practiced regardless of age or culture.

- Pastor Arlie D. Rauch

Community Bible Church

Glendive, Mont.

"Kisses and Veils" is a classic example of "selective" obedience of the Scriptures.

1 Corinthians 11 addresses two "ordinances" of the church: veiling for Christian women and the Lord's Supper. Consistency would seem to require the literal observance of both, not just one.

- Geo. R. Brunk II

Harrisonburg, Va.

ABSURD GRANDIOSITY

Robert Patterson's review of Tony Campolo's "Can Mainline Denominations Make a Comeback?" [Books, Oct. 23] was astonishing. The liberal dream "has been discredited by the Reagan years, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Persian Gulf War, Richard John Neuhaus, Rush Limbaugh, Forrest Gump, and the 1994 elections"? Good grief! What absurd grandiosity!

Campolo is not an old hippie tilting at windmills ("a fossil from the 1960s," writes Patterson). He is a deeply faithful man who dares to give voice to parts of the gospel conservatives choose to ignore. Given the choice of Reagan, Limbaugh, or Campolo, I'll line up behind Campolo any day.

- Ronald W. Feltman, Associate Pastor

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Columbia, S.C.

LOVE AND FORGIVENESS IN ATLANTA

I was pleased to see that First Baptist Church of Atlanta was more interested in following Scripture than in following the crowd in an interpretation error that has permeated the church for too long ["Stanley Dilemma … ," News, Oct. 23]. Nothing in Timothy or Titus in the passages referring to "husband of one wife" so much as mentions divorce. If that was an issue in qualifying elders and deacons, it would have been specifically mentioned. A normal understanding of the passage is simply to take it as it says: A qualification for elder and deacon is to be monogamous.

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December 11 1995, Vol. 39, No. 14