ARE YOU LISTENIN’?
On Euclid Avenue there is a diner called the Beef Snak Coffee Shoppe (très intime). I was in there late one night last week chomping away on a beef snak with onions, and nit-picking among my streams of consciousness, when happily my eye fell on a spare copy of The Metal Workers News. Late at night in East Cleveland, it seemed worthwhile to catch up on the metal workers’ game, and I really was impressed with the number of things I didn’t know a thing about. There were even pictures of men who have “made good” in terms of the standards upheld by The Metal Workers News.
I was reminded again that in Pike County, Kentucky, there is a newspaper called The Pike County News with the sub-heading, “The only newspaper in the world devoted to the best interests of Pike County.” Rumor has it that the newspaper in Bath, England, is called The Bath Observer, and I am glad to report this. Up at Ravenna, Ohio, they used to have a sign outside town that said: “The Home of the World’s Highest Flag Pole.” A good friend of mine knows of one town that advertises itself as “The Home of Jim Greengrass”; but this same friend said that he asked a youngster one time, “Isn’t this the home of Dizzy Dean?,” and this youngster said, “Who’s Dizzy Dean?” Mutatis mutandis. “The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings”; and if God is even half as much interested in his creation as I am, he must have, among other possibilities, a very interesting life.
The word is around that it is time “for the Church to listen to the world,” and this I would be very happy to do if I could find out what the world is saying. “The common people heard Him gladly,” and this was one of the wonderful things about him: but it seems to me that the world is to listen to him and not the other way around. I don’t think the world has anything to tell us except that some are confused and many are lost.
EUTYCHUS II
RACIAL INTERMARRIAGE
The editorial on racial intermarriage (Oct. 11 issue) rightly asserts that “the Christian Church seems to be offering little guidance in the matter” and that “no argument can safely be drawn one way or the other.” The responsibility of the Church, however, seems to lie in this area of guidance rather than argument. The need is for positive leadership in guidance rather than negative argumentation. The dangers and pressures of the interracial marriage must be pointed out, but a greater need exists in the Church’s willingness to accept and love those whom society or ethnic groups frown upon. It is within these situations that the Church must rise to the occasion to welcome and accept those whose marital choice has left them without a racial home.…
P. DOUGLAS KINDSCHI
Chicago, Ill.
Your editorial sounded like something from the Afrikaans leadership in South Africa.
LAWRENCE VAN HEERDEN
First Baptist
Williamson, N. Y.
Though I consider myself an agnostic and do not profess a belief in any Christian faith, I wish to say that I consider that article the best exposition on the subject that I have seen or can imagine being written.
A. W. BLAIR
Peoria, Ill.
Your contention that “neighbor love is a matter of justice, of giving another his due, of fulfilling the law …” runs tragically counter to the statement of Jesus, “Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself.” Jesus’ idea of neighborly love was specifically illustrated in the story of the good Samaritan, and this amplification of neighborly love leaves no room for “legalistic love” or race-conscious pride. The same concept of love is in no way legalized or diluted by Paul’s First Corinthians arguments for the excellence of love in all human relations.
Fortunately for the presentation of Christ and his Gospel there are Christians whose love for their Negro brethren goes beyond the legal requirements of this “neighbor love” on which you have reported. I wonder if such Christians are sinning by doing more than your legal type of love requires?
CHARLES R. ATWATER
Sterling, Kan.
Most opposition to interracial marriage is voiced in such terms that it incites people believing in equal justice to advocate interracial marriage. This opposition assumes that the white race is so superior that interracial marriage degrades (or “mongrelizes”) it. They forget that “hybridization” can also produce strains superior to either parental strain.
MARCIUS E. TABER
Pentwater, Mich.
It is extremely heartbreaking to realize that we of Negro blood constitute such a problem when the subject of intermarriage is discussed. If God had made us less human and less innately able to achieve than you of the white race, we would rest content with our inferior constitution and not wonder for a moment why the subject of intermarriage with us creates such a controversy.
I agree with your article generally, but I think it betrays drastic weaknesses in an hour when the Church of our Lord Jesus should make unequivocal statements about the race problem for the sake of its own testimony to the world.… God has stated his will absolutely by stating that he created man in His own image (this includes the Negro) and made a female answering to him for marriage. In addition, nowhere in the Bible does God complicate the matter on the basis of race alone. (God forbade the intermarriage between the Jew and the Gentile to maintain the purity of the Mosaic religion.) …
The editor suggests that it may be “an act of gross lovelessness to thrust a [mulatto] child involuntarily into a scornful society.” I take issue with this argument against a racially diverse marriage for these reasons: (1) practically all children born to Negro mates are thrust out involuntarily upon a scornful society. Would the editor for that reason suggest that Negroes should not marry one another and have children? (2) Jewish children are thrust out involuntarily upon a Jew-hating society. Would the editor suggest for that reason that Jews should not marry one another and have children?
ROLAND C. WROTEN
Pine Street Baptist Church
Scranton, Pa.
Paul in saying “all one in Christ,” was speaking of grace, not race.
ESTELLE MURRAY
Leadon, Pa.
You cited the Book of Revelation and Acts 17:26 with regard to tribes, tongues, and nations. Does exegesis actually yield the concept of “race” on which American society has been leaning for the last several centuries? I think not.
In another place you say, “It is not Christianity’s mission to provide a panacea for a pagan world that seeks solution of its problems while it persists in rejecting Christ.” Perhaps they have rejected the message of grace because we have not been gracious. Perhaps the early Church had such a profound influence on the pagan world round about because of willingness to care for babies who had been left to die by unloving pagan parents. Perhaps we have gotten into the habit of retreating from the earthy problems of life.
JAMES B. WHITE
Philadelphia, Pa.
So few of those who favor integration give proper consideration to the near certainty that removal of barriers between Negro and white will result in a good deal of intermarriage. The so-called race problem is essentially a matter of cultural differences. There are genuine cultural differences between middle-class American culture and the culture of Negro Americans. Some characteristics of American Negro culture are due to their confinement to the lower socioeconomic levels, and in this respect their attitudes and behaviors are similar to those of lower-class whites. (In this connection it is well to remember that middle-class whites often discriminate against lower-class whites.) …
If, then, we manage to break the bonds of the Negroes, they will become culturally like middle-class whites, and we may expect people who are culturally similar to marry one another regardless of the minor physical hereditary differences.… There is no question but that racial intermarriage in a society which frowns upon it may have regrettable consequences for both parents and children. We must ask ourselves, however, whether we are prepared to deny the Negro his legitimate rights simply because of the … suffering of a transition period.
ROBERT B. TAYLOR
Manhattan. Kan.
The While Man’s Creed: I believe in God the White Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who came into the world as the Saviour of the white man. I believe the white man to be the custodian of the world’s wealth and wisdom, chief governing official in all areas where humans gather, inspiration and strength of all peoples everywhere. I believe members of all other races and colors should render homage to the white man, thanking him each day for favors given, and to have no other desire than to serve him. I believe in the holy, universal white church, the communion of white saints, and the life everlasting in a white heaven. And now abideth Little Rock, Old Miss, and Birmingham, these three, but the greatest of these is Birmingham.
JOHN ROSSEL
The Federated Church of Harvey Congregational and Presbyterian
Harvey, Ill.
BAPTIST PRESS AND BILLY GRAHAM
Re “The Crowded Coliseum” (News, Sept. 27 issue) and the statement that the press service of his own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, “practically ignores” Billy Graham:
Far from it! Baptist Press reports the numerous occasions when he speaks to some meeting or is connected with some event in the Southern Baptist Convention. Since his worldwide activities otherwise are amply covered by Associated Press, we do not try to duplicate their stories. The twenty-eight Southern Baptist state papers (circulation 1.6 million) gladly give generous space to his far-flung crusades.
W. C. FIELDS
Public Relations Secretary
Southern Baptist Convention
Nashville, Tenn.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
It appears to me that the present administration is fast turning this country into a welfare state, whereby they seem to be leading the people into a belief that the government will do everything for them, and that there is no further need [for] God and the kind of Christianity Jesus taught; therefore, I expect that CHRISTIANITY TODAY will soon be out of business.… Keep up the high standard you now have, and may God bless you all even after the Kennedy Klan and the Supreme Court have put you all out of business.
HERBERT JENNINGS
Shreveport, La.
THE WITNESS WAS WITNESSED
Mr. Farrell in his article “Outburst of Tongues: The New Penetration” (Sept. 13 issue), states that I claim “to have witnessed to foreigners in their own languages, unknown to [me] (such as Polish and Coptic Egyptian).” If my own account of speaking in tongues unknown to me were unsupported by witnesses, I would expect skepticism. Fortunately, the Egyptian who identified my tongue immediately shared what she had witnessed with three well-known Christian leaders, none of whom spoke in tongues.…
In spite of this and other corroboration, I think we would be making a great mistake to pin the validity of tongues on our being able in each instance to identify the particular language spoken. Never after Pentecost do the Scriptures identify the languages employed by the persons speaking in tongues. Paul says (1 Cor. 14:2), “For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto God; for no man understandeth him. Howbeit in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries.” When Paul prayed in tongues which he did “more than ye all”—he said his understanding was “unfruitful.” Once God had established that tongues are definite languages as he did at Pentecost, he apparently did not go on repeating the demonstrations. In our day people do occasionally speak under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit languages unknown to them but known to the listener. Though this is not the rule it happens often enough to confirm the fact that tongues really are articulate speech and not gibberish as some of our brethren have supposed.
I appreciate the frequent evidences in CHRISTIANITY TODAY that you have not closed your mind on this subject, and that you are making a genuine effort to distinguish between the tares and the wheat that thrive so closely together in this charismatic renewal.
HARALD BKEDESEN
First Reformed
Mount Vernon, N. Y.
60-YEAR PERSPECTIVE
As one of your new subscribers I am moved to express my great delight in the article by Paul Rees on the subject of the texture of preaching (Sept. 13 issue). In all my ministry of more than sixty years I have never read anything of more practical value to the would-be preacher. How I wish that I had been told what Mr. Rees tells me, sixty years ago! And how I envy the young men of today in their opportunity to accept and act upon such as this!
There are many voices these days speaking out in more than mere pessimism, in a sort of terror, about the absence of great preaching. A careful study of the threads that make up the texture of effective preaching would change those materially.
HENRY FRANCIS SMITH
Kennebunkport, Me.
