Standing by God or by ourselves?
How Dogmatic Can You Get?
For Holiday magazine Clifton Fadiman once gathered up a delightful collection of puns. The one I liked best was, “Any stigma will do to beat a dogma.” Of course, if you don’t know the original, you won’t really appreciate this brilliant turn.
Nothing seems to scare people more today than for someone to accuse them of being dogmatic. The accusers forget, of course, that to say, “You are too dogmatic” is to make a very dogmatic statement.
These and like thoughts came to mind as I was reading Leslie Weatherhead’s The Christian Agnostic. Some of the claims on the dust jacket are interesting. “He does not pull any punches.… He sincerely believes that the theological demands of Christianity are a barrier to an honest participation by many [that word “honest” right there is interesting—whose honesty?].… He insists that many of the dogmas which modern adults observe are not valid in themselves [and I take it that such insistence is dogmatic].… He believes that many agnostics are much closer to belief in the true God [shall we examine the term “true” God?] than many conventional churchgoers.” On the whole, I get the impression that this is pretty dogmatic—and, interestingly, pretty loose—reasoning.
To quote Weatherhead himself, “The certainties of the Christian faith are very precious to me. They are what I call the essentials, and they are very few. To add to them and then demand belief in what has been added as well as in the fundamentals seems to me a criminal activity” [italics mine].
The word “criminal” is a pretty clear one, but just what does Weatherhead mean by “certainties” and “essentials” and “fundamentals”? And who is he to say we have no right to “add to” what he believes are the essentials? In the name of tolerance, he sounds—if you will pardon the expression—pretty dogmatic. Most critics of the fundamentalist position do.
EUTYCHUS II
A Good Critique
Re “Your Theology Is Too Small,” by Harold O. J. Brown (Apr. 15 issue): The article reminds me of a parable Jesus told in Luke 18:9–14.… Mr. Brown appears to be standing and praying thus “with himself”: “God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, such as Robinson, Bonhoeffer, and Tillich, but that I am among those of us who hold the Word of God, who are the legitimate heirs of the prophets, apostles, and martyrs.” …
JIM RUDD
Assoc. Minister
First Christian Church
Abilene, Tex.
The article is one of the very finest things that I ever read.…
C. STANLEY LOWELL
Assoc. Dir.
Protestants and Other
Americans United
Washington. D. C.
The author has … come up with an original and intellectually respectable critique of the “death of God” people. Bethlehem Lutheran
DAVID R. YOUNG
Lakewood, Colo.
I admire very greatly the article.…
D. ELTON TRUEBLOOD
Earlham College
Richmond, Ind.
Splendid Unmasking
Thank you for the splendid article, “Let’s Unmask John Barleycorn,” by Horace E. Chandler (Apr. 15 issue). Intoxicating drink is a sin against God and a crime against humanity. What a tragedy that some churches serve liquor at church functions, and even some “ministers of God” feel justified to encourage the drinking of alcohol by their own example.… I would like to see those men who feel a great concern for the social ills of society … alert the public to the devilish results of alcohol.…
RICHARD H. WATSON
Presbyterian Church of our Saviour
Chicago Heights, Ill.
Reprints should be made available to all pastors throughout the country to remind them of their responsibility to preach against social drinking and the evils that are the result of the free liquor traffic. I am sure that almost every family of our nation has been affected directly or indirectly by this degrading alcoholic problem.…
AL MALACHUK
Vienna, Va.
Unclouding Cloudy Judgment
How much more proof is needed that “God is dead” than a full-page editorial (“Clouded Judgment,” Apr. 15 issue), which tries to prove that James J. Reeb was not a martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ? How unchristian can you get?… Is a man to be judged by what he says he believes or by the way he lives his life?…
The James Reebs, the Pope Johns, and the Bishop Pikes are (and/or were) the only leaders of organized religion who seem to be in contact with reality today. At least, they appear to have some contact with the reality that I know.
What does it matter whether there was or was not a virgin birth? If Jesus Christ was or was not the Son of God? If the Bible was divinely inspired? If these beliefs are important to some people, if it helps them lead a better and more meaningful life, fine. I certainly would not want to destroy these or any other beliefs which somehow bring some order and purpose to their lives. But neither would I judge them to be good or evil, Christian or unchristian by the beliefs they subscribe to.
What is important, at least to me, is the fact that Christ did live. He was not a phony or a hypocrite.…
RICHARD GAIKOWSKI
The Knickerbocker News
Albany, N. Y.
• And he claimed to be the divine Son of God and conditioned eternal salvation upon belief in him as the divine Redeemer.—ED.
Refurbish And Return!
Re “Pentecostals Refurbish the Upper Room” (Apr. 1 issue): It is with deep sorrow that I agree with most that was said, and this “refurbishing” is a shame on the Pentecostal movement rather than a credit … a backsliding rather than an evolution.
Having been born and raised in an Assembly of God pastor’s home, and having been ordained myself for the past sixteen years, my heart’s desire is that Pentecostal people “return” to the upper room rather than try to “refurbish” it.
FRED O. RICE
Hulman Street Assembly of God
Terre Haute, Ind.
He Dared To Pray
As an alumnus of Bob Jones University, I want to commend you for the forthright article about Bob Jones University (“Graham in Greenville,” Apr. 1 issue).
When the Billy Graham crusade was going on in New York City, Dr. Jones Sr. forbade the student body to pray for it. A student did dare to pray for the crusade and was reported … and expelled in a matter of hours.
What kind of conscience is it that would motivate a fundamentalist to speak (blasphemously) as Dr. Jones Jr. did and pray the mock prayer?
I used to call myself a “fundamentalist”; I prefer the term “evangelical.” Some fundamentalists have “too much fun,” and “too much damn,” and “too little mentality.”
DONALD E. MCCLINTOCK
Oglesby Union Church
Oglesby, Ill.
You did an excellent job of reporting the situation as it really is, which is a difficult job, to say the least. In addition to the issue at hand, I was glad to see that you also mentioned some things about the university itself. I found the catalogue misleading, and I am sure many others have, too. I hope that prospective students … will consider carefully before entering a college in which they are quite likely to be disappointed.…
LINDA WITTHUN
Nashua, N. H.
It gave a very good explanation of the case and an evaluation of both sides that the Christian world ought to know.…
M. HORN
Brethren Church Schools
Paramount, Calif.
I believe that your reporting was slanted and a smear.…
RONALD C. PURKEY, SR.
Assoc. Pastor
Temple Baptist
Albuquerque, N. M.
Thank the Lord there is still a school such as this that dares to stand for what is right and refuses to play footsie with apostasy.…
MARION E. FAST
Bible Baptist Church
New Buffalo, Mich.
I take strong issue with your news report. You lament the antagonistic attack of Bob Jones University against the Billy Graham ministry. Then you manifest your “Christian brotherhood” by taking the edge off Bob Jones University and the South Carolina Baptist Fellowship by inferring with the use of an asterisk reference that Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Seventh-day Adventists, Unitarians, Christian Scientists, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are of the same opinion because they are not actively sponsoring the Graham crusade. As a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I know that the aggressive attack of and boycott by the Bob Jones University against the Graham crusade is not the attitude of our church. Nor do I appreciate being aligned with this “regrettable spectacle.” …
I too, rejoice with the decisions for Christ made in Greenville!
DUANE RICHARD PETERSON
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Hinsdale, Ill.
Big, Fat High Horse
Please take me off of your mailing list!…
Don’t you think it’s high time you got off your big, fat high horse and gave some attention to sincere men that are trying to make Christianity more meaningful today? They aren’t poor, miserable sinners like you are. They believe that as a man thinketh, so is he.…
I’ll tell you something. God’s ways and thoughts are not our ways and thoughts, and there is plenty of evidence today that the Church has been fulfilled and must change in form. The power structure must disappear, and each man must face himself and come to the cross himself. Each man must stand alone and be a Christ, which means to mature and stop being a child.
ROBERT A. CRAIN
Denver, Colo.
Win A Prize
The annual competition for anthems for average church choirs is announced by Chapel Choir Conductors’ Guild of Capital University, Columbus, Ohio 43209. A prize of $100.00 is offered. Contest ends September 1, 1966. Rules may be obtained on request.
EVERETT W. MEHRLEY
Chapel Choir Conductors’ Guild
Capital University
Columbus, Ohio
A Pleasant Surprise
I want to commend the article by Dr. John W. Duddington entitled “The Crisis of Impending Judgment” (Apr. 15 issue). I am pleasantly surprised that a minister of the Episcopal Church should take a stand on the question of the judgment and the return of the Lord. I am in full agreement with Dr. Duddington’s article and enjoyed it very much.
ROBERT A. GORSLINE
Librarian
Dawson County Public Library
Lamesa, Tex.
Thrust Of Cod
“Ghosts in the Pulpit” (Apr. 15 issue) is indeed a thrust of God into the heart of each preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every minister should read and reread these paragraphs each week as he prays for, receives, and prepares the message to be delivered from God to the people.
ERNEST S. OWENS, JR.
Cherokee Baptist Church
Memphis, Tenn.
Poetry Plaudit
I was really challenged by what the poem “Remorse,” by Sue Fife (Apr. 1 issue), has to say. The challenge and inspiration of that poem was certainly worthy of your high-quality magazine.
PAUL BENSON
Greenville, Ill.
A Reader’S Rebuttal
Surely you know you can’t print a letter like that from George L. Tappan (Eutychus, Apr. 1 issue) without receiving at least one letter like this from a (Roman) Catholic asking for the chance to rebut. For the benefit of Mr. Tappan and anyone else who cares to read this, I would like to point out that:
1. The government of Spain is not the “Roman Catholic system of government.” It is the Spanish system of government.
2. Children who attend a Catholic parochial school are taught exactly the same “principles of government” that their public school contemporaries learn.
3. We do not want your tax money; we only want part of our tax money. Or is reader Tappan under the impression that Catholics pay no taxes?
JAMES K. GALLAGHER
Exeter, N. H.
Readers Say …
To charge you with “keeping Christianity out of the twentieth century” (Eutychus, “Readers Say …,” Apr. 15 issue) is an obituary to the truth of the Bible. Here is a Methodist that stands behind you (but not too far behind!) in the blessing you bring to the ministry.
NICKY BLACKFORD
Ochelata Methodist Church
Ochelata, Okla.
After reading in the current issue (April 15), I said to myself as I have so often, “Thank God for CHRISTIANITY TODAY!” Your faithfulness to the Word of God is most appreciated and heartwarming.
DONALD E. DEMARAY
Dean
School of Religion
Seattle Pacific College
Seattle, Wash.
Your magazine … was truly appreciated during my years in seminary. Your articles always dealt with so many of the problems with which I found myself struggling.…
MURRAY GRAHAM
St. Luke’s Presbyterian
Bathurst, New Brunswick
I read each issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY in detail and I am most impressed with the wonderful piece of work that God is enabling you to do.…
DAVE BREESE
President
Christian Destiny, Inc.
Wheaton, Ill.
I want to tell you that I personally look forward eagerly to each issue. There has been such a need for a work of your caliber and theological stance. I think you are giving “heart” to many who might have begun to think that to earnestly contend for the faith was a rather futile and intellectually suicidal operation. If the God of the Bible is true, and if our beloved Lord Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, and if in him are indeed hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and if our God has set at nought all the humanistic, rationalistic speculations of “natural” men—then CHRISTIANITY TODAY had to come into being by sheer demand of truth. Again, thank you.…
CHARLES E. LENKER
Lancaster Brethren in Christ Church
Lancaster, Pa.
