Christmas Wrapping
Season’s greetings!
Magic month of fantasies—
Candle glow on Christmas trees,
Mouse-gray houses suddenly
Elegant in finery.
Strings of jewel lights they wear,
Earring wreaths; the vacant stare
Of windows blind now winks with cheer,
Enjoying, so it would appear,
The thaw in social atmosphere.
Season’s greetings!
In the stores a fairyland—
Make-believe in earnest, planned
To make a child believe in dreams;
A magic wonder-world that seems
To leave no longing unfulfilled—
A rocket for a boy to build,
A model universe that whirls
The worlds in orbit; and for girls
Sophisticated dolls with pearls.
Season’s greetings!
Furs and velvet to enhance
Glamour, gaiety, romance,
With a bright extravagance.
Gowns of diamonds for the dance,
Worn, without disparity,
At the ball for charity.
Parties are arranged for Causes;
Pennies, as the shopper pauses,
Go to comer Santa Clauses.
Season’s greetings!
Christmas wrapping that conceals
Under tinfoil, ribbon, seals,
The burden of apostasy,
And fabricates a fantasy.
Sweet idolatrous illusion,
Holly hedge against intrusion
Of the dread epiphany,
Or the frightful Christmas tree
Where he hung on Calvary!
Season’s greetings!
Garb the advent mystery
With the season’s witchery;
Tie in glamour your pretense,
Pay tribute with benevolence.
A fantasy so lyrical
Must substitute for miracle.
No swaddling clothes of faith you hold,
But winding sheets of foil you fold
To wrap with make-believe the cold
Dead doll you yet call Christ!
EUTYCHUS
Billy Graham
The estimate or evaluation of Billy Graham (Nov. 10 issue) is the most accurate that I have seen anywhere. There is no eulogy, partisanship, or magnifying of facts; but a clear-cut statement of the truth about the manner, message, and purpose of one of the most remarkable and greatest gifts to Christianity that has appeared on any continent, or in any age. Bristol, Tenn.
J. L. ROSSER
I was keenly interested in the Crusade statistics. It was my privilege to direct the first Graham Crusade in Grand Rapids, Michigan, back in 1947.… This was a one-week Crusade, and the attendance rather than 6,000 as you have indicated, was well over 12,000, with decisions numbering over 800. I am glad to see the report under-estimated rather than over-estimated.
TED W. ENGSTROM
Pres.
Youth for Christ International
Wheaton, Ill.
To wallow in the wacky world of words, and in the wistful wilderness of wit and wisdom, I read CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
A rather disturbing element keeps me from ecstatic enjoyment or even pleasurable agreement with much that I read. Recently, your ameliorating, vacillating neutralism in matters of doctrine and practice have shown definite signs of weakness and wear. In the same issue you castigate WCC for stacking delegates to the New Delhi conclave, but ask that we practice a regimented reaction to Billy Graham. Further your loose assumptions of common mediating grounds for Jewish-Christian understanding completely ignore scriptural premises of the fact that “there is no difference.”
Your agitated, critical readers are still going to “the church of their choice,” after six years in the wonderful wilderness of words!
J. A. PAULSON
Undenominational Church of Byron Center
Byron Center, Mich.
Dissonance On Delhi
I heartily sympathize with that confused New Delhi lay delegate who “doesn’t ‘know enough about theology to tell’ whether he is ‘neo-orthodox, conservative, or whatever else.’ ” More articles like your “American Delegates at New Delhi” (Nov. 10 issue) can only serve to heighten the confusion further. This pretense of scholarly research and reporting … falls short at the point where any sound research should begin—precise definition of terms.…
I plead for an end to “labels.” Until there can be semantic agreement among us on what they mean, they had best be discarded. Or, would you want to tackle the task of writing a new dictionary, the definitions of which would have the endorsement of both the Rt. Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill and Mr. Carl McIntire?
My prayers are that the delegates at New Delhi will be guided in their deliberations through the quiet workings of the Holy Spirit.…
J. RUSSELL HALE
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
Collingswood, N. J.
Praise the Lord for your extensive article on New Delhi. I am a member of a denomination belonging to the NCC, but my personal experience is that most delegates to General Assembly, NCC and WCC, and similar gatherings, are not informed on basic issues, or are running for office.… May God have mercy on us.…
GEORGE L. NARAMORE
Washington, D. C.
Preaching To The Times
“Christ is Coming!… Soon!” by Manfred E. Reinke (Nov. 10 issue) is a masterpiece, and is certainly timely for the serious days in which we live. His message is a comfort for the Lord’s people, and should make the unsaved realize their need of accepting Christ as Saviour.…
HOMER STANLEY MORGAN
Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church
Wellborn, Fla.
Dilemma Discerned
I wish to commend the review of The Crisis in Psychiatry and Religion, by O. Hobart Mowrer in the October 27 issue by Theodore Jansma. He rightly discerns the dilemma facing evangelicals when our vocabulary is loosely and erroneously appropriated in a field already beset with semantic confusions. I personally was appalled by the ready reception evangelical friends were giving Mowrer and others just because our “words” were being used. In our efforts to be accepted it would seem that we haste to embrace anyone who would conciliate psychiatry and Christianity, disregarding the terms of the rapprochement. Thus we are invidiously led to propositions which are antithetical to a historic biblical position. Jansma clearly is aware of this pitfall as he so clearly delineates in the review.…
E. MANSELL PATTISON
Department of Psychiatry
College of Medicine
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
To Dam The Tide
With reference to Flood Tide of Obscenity on American Bookstands (Editorial, Oct. 27 issue) …, it is highly encouraging to learn what the Chicago Tribune has done in these days.… The Tribune is making a radical change in its policy of publishing the weekly list of “best selling books in the Midwest.”
The following is certainly not to be misunderstood by any with some degree of reasoning power: “We have come to the conclusion that we can no longer publish this list raw. We have become aware that some of the best sellers that have appeared on our lists were sewer-written by dirty-fingered authors for dirty-minded readers.… We should have instituted the new policy long ago, and apologize to our readers for not having done so.”
Our thanks to the Tribune.
G. HARRY NELSON
First Covenant Church
Bremerton, Wash.
The Saints Be Praised!
In the article (“Tax Churches on Business Profits?” Oct. 13 issue) there were many references to churches operating businesses under the name of the church and paying no federal or state taxes.…
As manager of Zions Securities Corporation, I wish to state that the … Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has carefully planned to have its business properties and profit producing enterprises owned by Zions Securities or by individual corporations organized for the purpose of conducting their specific role and that each of these organizations … pays local, state, and federal taxes.
In 1922 the Church organized Zions Securities for the sole purpose of holding title to income-producing properties so that its activities would not have an unfair advantage over competitive private enterprise and so that the Church-owned businesses would pay their fair share of all taxes.…
GRAHAM H. DOXEY
Manager
Zions Securities Corp.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Church Organization
Mr. Anderson’s recent article on church organization (Oct. 27 issue) was superb from every angle. It should be placed in the hands of every evangelical minister in America. I do hope that our own brotherhood (Church of God, Anderson, Indiana) will read and re-read this timely article dealing with such an acute problem in our ranks.…
H. C. HATHCOAT
Bakersfield, Calif.
Beyond Television
Thank you for the excellent analysis of religious journalism (Sept. 25 issue).… The problems and hopes expressed are the concern of many of us.
Unfortunately, your helpful biography was spoiled somewhat by missing the quality and breadth of Ralph Stoody’s A Handbook of Church Public Relations.
While the bibliography referred only to radio and television, the book actually covers the full range of opportunities in church relations with the public, both within and outside the church membership.
LEE RANCK
General Board of Christian Social Concerns of the Methodist Church
Washington, D.C.
Buchman And Oxford
With amazement I beheld, in the August 28 issue (News) of so erudite a publication as CHRISTIANITY TODAY, the oft-disproved statement that “Buchman started the movement at Oxford University in England.”
Dr. Buchman did not start his movement at Oxford University in England; in fact, it was first introduced into Oxford University by a team from Cambridge University. The name “Oxford Group Movement” has no basis in fact or history and is simply an instance of the “snob-appeal” characteristic of the group. Being thoroughly dishonest, it is a nice commentary on the Group’s preaching of “absolute honesty.” So baseless is the use of this name that Mr. A. P. Herbert raised the matter in the British Parliament in the hope of having this piece of dishonest advertising prohibited by law.…
W. EDWIN COLLIER
Philadelphia, Pa.
Ultimate Weapon Unveiled
For centuries the Church has had meager success in saving the souls of men because it has not used “the secret weapon!” Brave soldiers of the cross in the past, as well as the perspiring evangelists and preachers of today, have had little effect on the unbelieving hordes of the world because they have not used the “right technique!” Article after article in your periodical treating more effective missionary procedures have been so much wasted space. The “ultimate weapon” is here. In fact it has been used for years by its secret band of discoverers!
What is this new “secret weapon” against unbelief? What is this new “short cut” to winning the world for Christ? It is amazingly simple. It is called a “funeral service.”
What a labor saver this new technique has proven to be! No longer do you have to waste many hours witnessing to that unregenerate old man down the street from your church. No longer will you have to spend long hours in prayer for him. Just wait until he dies. Then volunteer your services to his survivors. A half-hour funeral service with all the trimmings, a ten minute commital service, and you’ve made an heir of heaven out of what would otherwise have been fuel for the fires of hell.
Don’t laugh—I’ve seen it work! Not long ago a man in my community died. For years he had successfully repulsed the Christian witness of several pastors and a host of mission-minded laymen. A few days after his death a neighboring clergyman performed “the magic rite” over his casket, assuring the mourners that this man was now one of the white-robed saints of heaven. An amazingly simple mission technique, isn’t it?
Thanks to thousands of clergymen throughout our land who are now employing this new “short cut to heaven” ninety per cent of the unbelievers in our communities need no longer fear the eternal wrath of God. They are certain that “someone” will, by his “comforting presence” or even his words, assure the mourners (and also a surprised God) that heaven has another inhabitant. And just think of the successes the Church could have if we employed this method in our mission fields throughout the world!
When are the leaders of our Protestant churches going to put a stop to this abominable practice?
REV. M. K. HARGENS
Zion Lutheran Church
Hardwick, Minn.
