HAVE SAINT, WILL TRAVEL
There is always an extremist to run something into the ground. That fellow who roars through the village in a yellow hard-top convertible used to have six racoon tails streaking behind. That was four cars ago. Next his aerial wobbled under two fake TV antennae, then it was three confederate and two pirate flags. Now he still has a doll with blinking eyes in the rear window, but the cluster of baby shoes is gone from the rear view mirror and the dash ledge is populated with saints.
Not one saint, you understand. That would not be unusual. There is some talk in Detroit of developing a dashboard image as optional equipment. But this character has his ledge crowded with a whole company of saints. I haven’t identified them individually from the fleeting glimpses that are possible. I think there are more than twelve, though they may be the Apostles with some supplementation. They all seem to be plastic, have long robes, and face to the rear. Perhaps they are all replicas of St. Christopher, installed on the assumption that a proper image-horsepower ratio should be maintained.
The first manufacturer to develop a forward looking saint for hood ornamentation should earn the blessings of the whole auto industry. These plastic dash figures go back to plaster-of-paris originals of the last century. They are not designed for the current sport car. A figure in golden aluminum alloy, the motif taken from contemporary ecclesiastical art, but with a horizontal movement.… This would catch the eye of our convertible friend (and thousands like him, well-known to motivational research analysts); he would promptly buy the new Christopher Cruiser and get it off to a jet start all over our area. Later, of course, as they became available, he could add aluminum images to the front fenders, and mount two on the fish tails to share with motorists missed in passing.
EUTYCHUS
HUMANISTS AND TENSIONS
“Do Humanists Exploit Our Tensions?” … by Arthur H. De Kruyter (April 28 issue) … is indirectly a powerful indictment of the Christian churches … How many pastors and representative church leaders are members of Local, State or National Associations of Welfare or of Mental Health or Council of Social Agencies? Here where they would be in position to bring to bear the Christian ministry and judgment of the Christian faith is the place they should be rather than standing outside and criticising the efforts of the humanists. Truly, De Kruyter is right when he says that the humanists moved into a vacuum left by the withdrawal of the Church.
Kentucky Council of Churches
Lexington, Ky.
Perhaps the success of the movement (of Mental Health) is, as De Kruyter says, an “indictment of the Church.” If so, the great increase of mental patients brought the Church under indictment long before. How long has it been since the Church has sent a herd of swine crashing into the sea?
Adelaide Street Baptist
London, Ont.
Psychiatry is somewhat schizophrenic (a splitting the mind from reality) when it refuses to acknowledge sin. There is a vast difference between admitting the fact of sin and an attempt to get at the cause of the sinful behavior. An internist does not deny the existence of pain and physical damage to the human organism simply by concentrating on the etiology and symptoms of a disease. Yet, some psychiatrists often do this very thing in dealing with mental illness. Both the Church and psychiatry ought to describe immoral behavior as sinful, moral behavior as righteous, and amoral behavior as neither “bad” nor “good” … Denominations have all kinds of departments—maybe we need another one dedicated to the improvement of mental health among our church members.
Dean
Alderson-Broaddus College
Phillippi, W. Va.
De Kruyter … mentions Dr. G. B. Chisholm as “quoted approvingly as a ‘psychiatrist of wide recognition’ ” in The Interpreter’s Bible … It is true that the quotation … is correct and is used to describe Dr. Chisholm. This statement in itself is not in any manner a statement of approval. This is a cold, hard fact. But in no manner is approval given to the man or his thought. In fact he is quoted to show the fallacy in this position.
The author has a right to show disapproval of The Interpreter’s Bible, and there are parts of it I do not care for myself. However, by implication he is saying that this commentary approves of the humanists’ doctrine. There may be other quotes that may imply this, but the one in question certainly does not.
Rockland Methodist Church
Belpre, Ohio
• Reader Quick’s criticism is justified. The Interpreter’s Bible indeed goes on to speak of a “more profound perception” than that of Dr. Chisholm.—ED.
The Mental Health Association … is headed up … by psychologists and psychiatrists who differ … widely on their theories of psychology … These men have had no training in theology, and … frequently use theological terms such as sin and guilt in a different sense than we do … Most of the leaders of Mental Health would deny that all feelings of guilt are wrong, just as most ministers would deny that all feelings of guilt are good. When they speak of guilt, they are referring to those destructive emotions in a state of depression when insignificant acts of misbehavior are exaggerated … out of proportion to their reality, or of that in people who actually attribute to themselves certain things for which they feel guilty and yet of which they are innocent … People in such a state of mind are not under the conviction of sin brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit, but … are manifesting symptoms of deep emotional disturbance which can lead to suicide … They are not able to accept the assurance of forgiveness from God in many instances, until they have received treatment from a psychiatrist.
Hope Presbyterian
Portland, Ore.
Before allowing your columns to condemn the mental health movement, I suggest that your editors make a study of the number of persons who now lead normal lives after having psychotherapy.
Shorewood, Wis.
We agree with … De Kruyter’s views and wish to congratulate you for featuring his enlightening article.
President
Station WMAQ
Chicago, Ill.
A book entitled “Mental Robots” … by Dr. Lewis Alesen … points out that we are being cleverly and skillfully deluged under schemes of the Mental Health Program. The thesis of this work is that collectivists now turn to the field of mental health as a means to effect the coup de grace … Lavrenti Beria has given the avowed mission of the Soviet “psycho-politicians” in stating, “With the institutions for the insane, you have in your country prisons which can hold a million persons and can hold them without civil rights or any hope of freedom … The tenets of rugged individualism, personal determinism, self-will, imagination, and personal creativeness … are no more than illnesses which will bring about disaffection, disunity …”
Spring Lake Christian Reformed Church
Spring Lake, Mich.
The article … is superb.
Larkspur, Calif.
De Kruyter moves with a sure hand to expose what I consider a grave danger connected with certain aspects of the so-called “Mental Health Movement.” It is quite evident that there are strange forces at work in this movement which have little to do with the true mental health, which comes only from God, and much to do with subverting loyalty to God and country in favor of secular internationalism and totalitarian regulation of every phase of human life.
Dept. of Psychology, Rollins College
Winter Park, Fla.
I am … securing reprints for sending out to our chairmen.
Anti-Communist League of America
Park Ridge, Ill.
De Kruyter came close to the most vital matters in his piece on humanists! God have mercy on us if we fail to understand! For the humanism based on evolution is an atheistic system planning the utter end of both Christianity and all supernaturalism, in the name of scientific socialism at whose topmost pinnacle it stands as the new “religion”—a religion with man as Supreme Being!
Anti-Evolution Compendium
Henniker, N. H.
JEWISH EVANGELISM
Dr. Gartenhaus (Apr. 14 issue) talks of … “old prejudices … yielding … so that the New Testament has penetrated into many Jewish homes and hearts.…”; some there may be who may wish to re-evaluate; that there are many, I doubt. Otherwise the results would become more apparent.… Jewish evangelism, I believe, will meet the same obstacles today as in the days of the Acts, but the distressing difference between those days and ours lies in the fact that then Christians were concerned with their spiritual responsibility to the Jews, while today a great many are, at the most, benevolently indifferent.
Emmanuel Center
Baltimore, Md.
He … made me feel guilty of my failures to attempt more seriously to reach for Christ the members of our Jewish Community.
College Church
Hampden-Sydney, Va.
DIVISION IN RELIGION
Most certainly the Foundation for Economic Education has done and is doing a splendid job, but it is as rash as it is unseemly for a writer (Mr. Howard, Mar. 17 issue) to declare that this much younger organization, not organized until 1946, has done more with the religious community than Constitutional Educational League, Committee of Constitutional Government, American Legion Anti-Subversive Committees, or perhaps even American Economic Foundation or America’s Future.
… I would have been loud in his praise had he stated the well-known fact … that there is a division within the religious community.… The principle group representing organized Protestantism, the National Council of Churches, and its principle affiliated denominations, are dominated and controlled completely by a leadership which is devoted to politics and economics rather than religion, promoting the preaching of Communism-Socialism under the fancy names of “social gospel” and “social action.” Minorities in the churches and some non-affiliated church groups protest, but their voices do not ring out loudly or clearly because all avenues of communication are almost entirely denied to them.… In … 1953, the NCC issued a … pamphlet … titled the “Facts about the NCC” … devoted to castigation of the American Council of Christian Laymen, its officers and publications, with some futile attempts to refute charges made against NCC. Thus NCC “told the world” just who and what were troubling it …
American Council of Christian Laymen
Madison, Wis.
ART AND WORSHIP
Those who criticized Roth’s criticism of “Head of Christ” (Mar. 3, issue) missed the whole point of his article.… In a word, he said that art must be worship, or it has no right to exist. Worship certainly cannot be a subjective matter. It can only turn to God with his due. Sometimes this “due” is difficult to give. Sometimes it is hard to extract the “I believe.…” But we know that we must, or perish.
At very best, the “Head” is subjective. It enables the moralistic pietists to find there just what they are looking for, a “goody-goody” whose chief aim is to stay on friendly terms with everybody, but quick to turn up the Pharisaic nose at one who would polish his shoes before church on Sunday morning. Roth’s description of the painting is indeed clever and intriguing—but true, completely.
Those who criticized this one point of his article, then, failed to understand the major premise. Perhaps they were just too hurt by some sentimental worship objects being attacked. Worship is objective, but once we worship objects, such as a painting, then we have succumbed to thinking we can comprehend God. Worship goes out to God, but it does not enclose him.
St. Timothy Luthern Church
Hickory, N. C.
According to the second commandment … it is just as wicked to paint the likeness of a man as it was for the Israelites to make the golden calf.
First Baptist Church
Wilmington, Ill.
I told [an Arizona Indian chief] our Bible story.… He was very much impressed.… And then came the climax.… He said that one day he was talking to God … when suddenly he saw a strange face, very beautiful, and he had always wondered whose face it was.… I had in my pack a copy of “Sallman’s Christ” … and I placed it in his hands. He gazed at it intently, and with a smile remarked, “Same face I saw.” You can imagine what followed. He accepted the Christ, and after … much deep thinking, he was baptized.
Trinity Cathedral Offices
Phoenix, Ariz.
Anyone with the right attitude can look at this picture and feel warmth, strength, courage, tenderness, and love—and receive inspiration through the Holy Spirit to face every task with renewed confidence. Perfection in creation—God’s masterpiece—is another impression to be gained. Note the splendid physical structure. Jesus himself did not mar any of this by unkind thoughts, words, or deeds.…
And so, to me, this picture very definitely portrays Christ. For, I too, have had the privilege of a vision, in which his heavenly appearance, although very similar, was much more glorified.
Berlin, N. J.
Were I an artist capable of portraying Christ, I would try to paint him according to Isaiah 53.
Ashland, Ore.
THE MEALS WE SERVE
“The confusing ‘C’ in the YMCA” (Apr. 14 issue) was most sensible and interesting.… The main thing in [early] days was to line up every “Y” member and see that he knew the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour and help him give a glowing testimony.… We went to the jails, workhouses and hospitals and took a “Y” group Sunday nights to set the churches on fire with our ringing testimony.
These days as I contact the YMCA … and ask them about their Christian testimony and Bible classes they answer me something like the … secretary did … when she said, “We show our Christianity by the kind of meals we serve.” … Yet I believe there is beginning to be a turn toward the spiritual in the “Y”.…
Long Beach, Calif.
In very effective phrasing the author has taken our thinking back into the holy order of the spiritual, where God lives in the abundance of his promised heritage through the Son—Jesus—whom he sent to be the living expression of his love and wisdom for humanity.
Claremont, Calif.
How wonderful it is to have in these materialistic days with their danger and disillusionment the Anglican communion service with its reiteration in the consecration prayer … the direct reference to the Lord’s second coming unequivocably; which is heard by the people in 25,000 churches in England every Sunday morning.
St. Albright’s Rectory
Stanway, Colchester
OPTIMISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
In the April 28 issue … you printed comments by H. D. Sanders … upon … “Sex and Smut on the Newsstands” (Feb. 17 issue).… The … comments seem to be based upon a purely optimistic anthropology.… He has apparently forgotten that man is by nature the child of disobedience and that his basic drives are no longer subservient to the Creator but to the inherent sinful nature.
Johnson City, N. Y.
Insofar as procuring “voluntary” cleanups from dealers is concerned, I believe it is the business of the Church to proclaim its belief in any matter and let those who have ears to hear, hear; not to attempt to enforce these beliefs on the public by group pressure. Regarding bringing such dealers into court, the Church, in this country officially and by its own desire separated from the state and having nothing to do with the making of laws, seems to me a particularly inappropriate agency for demanding the enforcement of laws which the community as a whole does not seem concerned with.
… Paganism is neither obscene nor illegal. I have the feeling that the members of your commission … have been operating under the assumption that “contemporary community standards” are identical with, or at least very similar to, the standards of Christianity. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In the overwhelming majority of the heavily populated areas of the country these standards have virtually no connection with Christian morality. They are themselves, to put it bluntly, what the Church would—and should—call pagan.
St. Peter’s Episcopal.
Pomeroy, Wash.
Our society, as a matter of civil law, has adopted the ideal of monogamy as its basic unit.… Every state and every community has laws regulating marriage, prohibiting polygamy, adultery, bigamy, incest, and carnal knowledge of young girls. In all states except Nevada, easy divorce is discouraged. Rape and sodomy are punished.… In the process of defending the ideal of one man married to one woman as the central unit of the social order, we must restrain those who exploit sex for base purposes.
Washington, D. C.
MEDITATION MULTIPLIED
I’ve just read “Meditation” (Mar. 31 issue).… I think I can understand something of the kind of cynicism that gives birth to a piece of this kind. It has a depressing effect whenever I meet it.… Mr. Hough understands the thing that is bad.… Mr. Hough has no understanding of the thing that is good. He sees very little.
St. Mary’s Episcopal
Eugene, Ore.
Do you not think, dear Mr. Hough,
Your “Meditation” slightly rough?
With all my teeth I find it so,
In case the name is Mr. Hough.
That we love souls more than our stock
You should be told, dear Mr. Hough.
Real prayer and praise ascendeth oft In old cathedrals, Mr. Hough.
Great churches have religion too.
Where have you been, dear Mr. Hough?
All Saints Cathedral
Albany, N. Y.
I wonder when Mr. Hough last spent more than five minutes in a church ‘or, better still, a Cathedral?’ … May I quote a saying attributed to William Penn of blessed memory: ‘O God, help us not to despise or oppose what we do not understand.’
St. Peter’s Vicarage
South Wimbledon, London
Jesus, where’er thy people meet
There—even in an Episcopalian Cathedral—they behold thy mercy seat.
… God fulfils himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world (or the Church).
The Rectory
Cong, Ireland
PRIVATE POLL
Desiring a magazine that would reach the ministry on a non-denominational basis, I polled the ministers in town here and am happy to tell you that your magazine was the winner on a 10–3 vote.
Mesa, Ariz.
I tape record the magazine for my father who is blind.
Belmont, Mich.
