THE BELLS
There’s the ringing of the bell,
The doorbell;
I must go to find out
what this fellow has to sell;
Or it is the tot next door,
With her sister and four more,
Ringing, pounding on the door;
No, a van is at the gate—
“Yes, this house is 308,
But my name is not McGuire
And I did not buy a dryer.”
Now again I take my pen,
and blot the puddle where it fell—
There’s the ringing of the bell,
The doorbell,
The pestilential, residential
ringing of the bell.
There’s the ringing of the bell
The phone bell
Dutifully I answer it,
although I know quite well,
Telephone communication
Has its ground for installation
In the endless conversation
Of the younger generation.
All the latest parent polls
Show beyond doubt
Just for whom the Bell tolls
Must be paid out.
“Hello, this is Eutychus
A moment please. O Sue!
Kathy on the telephone;
She would like to speak with you.”
As I close the study door
So that Sue can be alone
I know that for an hour or more
She has quieted the phone,
Stopped the ringing of the bell,
The phone bell,
The electronic, un-Poe-etic
ringing of the bell.
There’s the ringing of the bell,
Alarm clock bell.
What a warm and dreamy haze
it riots to dispel!
And the trauma it inflicts
When I find it’s half past six!
Someone set it, what a crime,
A quarter hour ahead of time.
Now the phone is ringing, too.
“O, yes, pastor, so it’s you.
Yes, I am an early riser,
Though I think it might be wiser
To remain in bed. O, yes.
I can make those calls, I guess;
Phone my friends about the meeting,
Push some doorbells with our greeting.
Yes, the church that rings the bell,
Rings the bells,
Rings doorbells, phone bells,
church bells, bells.”
EUTYCHUS
THE ELECTION
In my opinion the decision just made by the American electorate will be revealed by the long perspective of history, to be as fateful as the Dred Scott Decision. The American people have faced themselves with an unhappy dilemma. Either they will win back lost liberties, which is good, by a strife of brothers, which is bad, or, peace will be preserved, which is good, at the price of liberty, which is sorrowful to contemplate. In either case the question raised by Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address is now before us, whether the lovely thing so sacrificially begun by our founding fathers “can long endure.”
The question is not whether a Catholic should be President or not. It would be a great day for America if a Catholic were to be President, or a Jew, or a Negro. Similarly for a Southerner, or a woman! The question is about the Catholic church in its relation to the state, not about an American citizen who happens as an individual to be a Catholic. That never was in question, though those who feared the right question tried to make it seem as if that was indeed in question.
The Catholic church is a perfect institution for the evasion of responsibility in a matter like this. The few hierarchs would be unimportant without the millions who follow them. Yet the decisions are made not by the millions but by the few hierarchs. The millions are irresponsible. The hierarchs cannot be called to account.
The Catholic church has a position (“thesis”) where it can establish it, and a next best position (“hypothesis”) where the normative position is not immediately attainable. There are theologians and even a few hierarchs who sincerely oppose this. But the classical position has never been set aside. It contemplates a special status for the Catholic church in relation to other churches. It considers it a matter of right to instruct Catholic rulers and citizens when it chooses to do so. The recent instance of the bishops in Puerto Rico is a textbook example. The Vatican—final repository of all decision—explicitly stated that the Puerto Rico hierarchs were within their rights when they forbade the faithful to vote for Muñoz Marín on pain of sin.
Now we come to the question of sanctions, the real weight of the foregoing considerations. The Roman church is not a church as Protestants are likely to understand the term. The being (esse) of the church is the clergy, especially the bishops, more especially the pope. The people do not comprise the church but are in it, as in a building, or around it, as children are around a mother. Nor does religion mean in the Roman church anything resembling what the term connotes to Protestants. To them the religious subject is decisively involved in the central religious matter: “do you acknowledge Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Saviour?” In the Roman system the Sacraments constitute the religious matter (res), and the Sacraments are altogether objective, beyond the subject.
Now then. The hierarchy has unshared control of the Sacraments, the “power of the keys.” The layman has no rights in the matter. None. If the Sacraments are withheld from him his eternal destiny is gone. He may gain the whole world and lose his own soul. He will think long before he defies the hierarchy when they mean business.
They may hold their hand. As long as they do the Catholic politico and we are in luck. Similarly for the Catholic part of the electorate. But meanwhile the decision remains not with the political figure, not with the Catholic electorate, not with America, but with men who in this matter are not Americans but hierarchs of the Catholic church.
As long as the historic position is in effect, supported by such sanctions, no Catholic should be President. Now that one has been elected, a decision as fateful as the Dred Scott Decision has been made.
CLIFFORD L. STANLEY
Department of Theology
The Virginia Seminary (Episcopal)
Alexandria, Va.
When the tumult and the shouting die, we shall slowly realize that God has willed it so.… Perhaps, among other reasons, to make us Protestants re-examine our loyalty to Him, to the mighty acts of His intervention in Christ, to the quickening power of His Word in the hands of the Spirit, to His saving grace as our sole hope of glory.
WILLIAM CHILDS ROBINSON
Columbia Theological Seminary
Decatur, Ga.
ON APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION
The article “Is There an Apostolic Succession?” in your Oct. 24 issue by Dr. Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, an Anglican scholar, is a very stimulating presentation. I admired its forthrightness. However, there is the other side, equally interesting and substantial.
THOMAS THEODORE BUTLER
Diocese of Long Island Lynbrook, N. Y.
The “Lambeth Quadrilateral” sets forth as one of its “principles of unity,” “a ministry acknowledged by every part of the Church as possessing not only the inward call of the Spirit, but also the commission of Christ and the authority of the whole body.” The Bishops meeting in Lambeth in 1930 made it clear that “a ministry acknowledged by every part of the Church” means “the historic episcopate.” This was reiterated again by the Bishops in 1948, and in the Anglican Congress of 1954.
C. OSBORNE MOYER
Christ Church
Holly Springs, Miss.
He speaks for himself, not for the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Communion.
JAMES BRICE CLARK
St. Barnabas Church
Omaha, Neb.
If the doctrine as believed in by the historic Church is false and without reasonable foundation why concern yourself with it? Could it be that this doctrine which is officially held by the three branches of the Holy Catholic Church (Anglican, Roman, Orthodox) … is unsettling the faith of too many thinking Protestants?
RUFUS L. SIMONS
Saint Stephen’s in the Field, Episcopal
Elwood, Ind.
I write this on the eve of the Protestant Reformation celebration. And I grieve to think of all the individualism which will most certainly be preached tomorrow.… I do admit that the events of the 16th century were the result of a tyrannical Church. But that tyranny has been replaced by the much more devastating tyranny of individualism. And look at the littered wreckage which has resulted! I look upon Protestantism as a great, empty, helpless mass of froth and chaff. Stumbling, straining at gnats, incapable to marshall any unity to combat the powerful challenges of the day, or meet the needs of even its own members. If ever the Church needed Apostolic direction and unity, it is today.…
But our differences go much, much deeper than this. All our ecumenical discussions are superficial, if they do not begin at the beginning. We don’t believe in the same God! We disagree on His very Nature, His purpose in Creation, His destiny for Man, to say nothing about the means by which these purposes are to be accomplished.
E. O. WALDRON
St. John’s Episcopal Church
Mt. Vernon, Ind.
I am very happy that Dr. Hughes wrote what he did on the question of an apostolic succession. His thesis that there is an apostolic succession of doctrine rather than one of any ecclesiastical order is the very doctrine which Luther stressed, as did also Calvin of course. And that apostolic doctrine is set forth in the New Testament, though supported also by the Old Testament, for both testify of Christ.
To me it seems almost miraculous that in this time of confusion and dogmatical double talk there should appear so many learned men with divinely guided insight to stress greatly needed basic scriptural truths.
J. THEODORE MUELLER
Concordia Seminary St. Louis, Mo.
EVANGELICAL RESURGENCE
Thank you so much for Dr. Ockenga’s article on “Resurgent Evangelical Leadership” (Oct. 10 issue). I have read nothing that points out more clearly the origins, problems, differences, similarities, and objections of the various theological concepts. This will help a lot of us to redefine and re-evaluate our positions. As for me, I am more proud than ever before to call myself an evangelical!
RANDALL GREEN
Maple Grove Baptist Church
Louisville, Ky.
Dr. Ockenga apparently has not yet realized that many of us have been through the fundamentalist grist mill and have found a more liberal theology far more meaningful. What would Dr. Ockenga suggest? That we become hypocrites and proclaim our belief in the plenary inspiration of scripture, the virgin birth, etc., as “essential beliefs,” when in all honesty we do not?
RALPH SILVIS
Hamersville Larger Parish
Congregational Christian Churches
Hamersville, Ohio
Dr. Ockenga seeks to define evangelicalism as fundamental in creed, liberal in churchmanship.… Can you renounce separatism without thereby becoming an inclusivist?…
There is one flaw in Dr. Ockenga’s proposal that we infiltrate the citadels of liberalism with the fire of a new evangelicalism. The modernists did not hesitate to practice deceit and even bold misrepresentation of their views to infiltrate the major Protestant denominations. We cannot match their dishonesty without losing our integrity.
OLIVER W. PRICE
Bible Lovers League
Oklahoma City, Okla.
On his principles there would have been no Reformation. For when did Rome officially repudiate her historic confessional basis? Does she not confess the Bible to be the word of God and the ancient ecumenical creeds to be her confession of faith? While we’re infiltrating, let us infiltrate Rome as well.
THEODORE J. GEORGIAN
Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church
Rochester, N. Y.
SAY, ABOUT THAT BOOK LIST
I studied with considerable interest the “Evangelical Book List” (Sept. 26 issue) …, and was considerably astonished by the absolute omission of any volumes authored by one of Scotland’s most celebrated theological writers, Alexander Balmain Bruce.… Three of his works especially deserve inclusion, The Training of the Twelve, The Humiliation of Christ, and The Parabolic Teaching of Christ.
RAYMOND L. COX
Hillsboro Foursquare Church
Hillsboro, Ore.
On page 18, it is erroneously stated that two books by Muhlenberg Press are “out of print.” They are J. L. Neve, A History of Christian Thought (1943, 1946), and T. G. Tappert, The Book of Concord.
W. D. ALLBECK
Both titles are currently available.
Springfield, Ohio
I would most heartily recommend your Evangelical Book List to serve as a foundation for all church libraries. Our church library, containing 300 volumes, includes 34 books from your list and contemplates adding 25 more in the future.
DAVID A. DENISCH
Towson, Md.
QUERY ON HOG-WASH
Pray tell me why you waste good paper and print on such hog-wash as “The Power Of A Godly Pen” (September 26 issue). The shortage of preachers and teachers in our churches and schools has been worn thin during the past two or three decades in all publications from the daily newspaper to the “once in a lifetime publication.” And now you add the “alarming” shortage of Christian writing. Of course this all makes good reading copy for the uninitiated—but aren’t there more urgent and weightier matters to bring to the attention of readers today than such misleading articles? It doesn’t require a microscope to see that newness, freshness, and creativeness are not welcomed in any of these three fields. The nauseating sounds of “traditionalism” and “conformity” resound throughout! Match up to surface qualifications; show that you have been in step with the past—experience (bah!); and at least have half of the alphabet trailing your name, and then perhaps you’ll make it in. You say, quote: “It is time for publishers to become spiritually literate.” I could make that far stronger, and not only for publishers. New discoveries have never been made in history through rocking chair conformity. And new talent will never show up today as long as those in command fear to launch out and dare to be different from the proud status quo.
I had better quit spouting off before I damage this typewriter.…
VINCE FISHER
San Diego, Calif.
I very much appreciated the article on the Christian novel. What we need is a Protestant counterpart to The Devil’s Advocate. Dorothy Clarke Wilson has turned out some very beautiful material on the lives of Protestants, but as you say, we have nothing that seethes with the stuff of which most people’s lives are made. As a consequence, most people are terribly misinformed, almost completely uninformed, about the work that the Church is doing today.
THEODORE E. KIMMEL
Cherry Grove Church of the Brethren
Lanark, Ill.
TO ERUPT GOOD WILL
In the wake of the exposition of a new concept in education, the Engagement Quotient (E.Q.) in Religious Education (July–August, 1960), I would love to address a request, through church leadership, to parent-teachers associations, how to erupt the good will of the nation for the battle of reversing the now increasing trend of juvenile delinquency into a decreasing one. The main idea is that home and school clubs, etc., should have a committee of education whose chairman could be contacted, on a free and voluntary basis, by school guidance whenever the E.Q. oscillation of a pupil would fall below the threshold level 120. The chairman would alert the religious organization of the child’s affiliation and offer proper inspiration and persuasion.
E. F. MOLNAR
St. Luke’s Presbyterian
Bathurst, New Brunswick
FIDEL UNVISITED
In the September 12 issue in … “Castro Allegiance Divides Cuban Christians” … there are certain references made to me which I would like to clarify.… I have never seen Dr. Fidel Castro personally, not even from a distance, and only on television programs. I have never heard any mention of the possibility of the creation of a National Protestant Church.
Matanzas, Cuba
RAFAEL CEPEDA
