Dear Quiz Kids:
The recent radio trivia games (Who was Lamont Cranston?) made me think that you religiophiles might, as a respite from life’s trials, enjoy a quiz on the minutiae of American religion. Your grasp of the grand sweep of great events and major doctrines of the faith may be profound, but the real depth of your religious erudition will be seen in your ability to retrieve the tidbits of info called for by the following questions:
1. Who was Billy Sunday’s song leader during his heyday, and what instrument did he play?
2. George Baker married a blonde and commuted between his several heavens. By what name was this religious figure better known?
3. Name the third dispensation.
4. Who preached the highly publicized 1922 sermon, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”
5. You have often sung, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer.” Just what is it you are here raising?
6. What priest from the Shrine of the Little Flower was a frequent critic of FDR on his national radio broadcast?
7. What flamboyant evangelist was thought drowned in the Pacific Ocean in 1926 only to turn up five weeks later in Mexico alleging kidnaping?
8. What publisher is said to have telegraphed his editors: “Puff Graham”?
9. On what basis were ministers formerly categorized as strong, young, or crude?
10. What religious broadcaster invites listeners to establish a “point of contact” with him? How? Why?
If you answer all ten correctly (answers on page 40), you are entitled to a splinter from a chair demolished by Billy Sunday during a sermon in his 1915 Omaha campaign; for nine right, a swatch of skin from a rattlesnake handled by a miracle-worker in the hills of Tennessee to demonstrate his powers; for eight correct, a drop of duck blood like that poured by Father Philip Berrigan on draft files last year. If you score five or less, send in your old Christian Endeavor pin as a proper show of contrition.
EUTYCHUS III
Trivially and convivially,
OF LOVE AND MARRIAGE
I consider “A Minister’s Wife Speaks Out About Sex” by Opal Lincoln Gee (Jan. 5) to be the finest concise statement of the Christian view of marriage I have seen.
J. ROY CLIFFORD
The Tabernacle Baptist Church
Richmond, Va.
LITURGY—MORE OR LESS
Although I have been eagerly awaiting a scholarly evangelical appraisal of the liturgical movement, I was somewhat disappointed with Professor Donald G. Bloesch’s critique, “What’s Wrong with the Liturgical Movement?” (Jan. 5).…
A thoroughgoing critique should be based not on superficial aspects of “high church” worship but on some of the movement’s deeper theological considerations.… Evangelical theologians need to respond to the liturgical movement’s seemingly contradictory secularization of worship on one hand and their formalization of it on the other.…
Dr. Bloesch is not correct when he states that the movement aims to focus attention on the choir rather than the congregation. Many liturgists favor having the choir sing from the rear of the church or even intermingled with the congregation to make singing truly an act of praise and worship by the entire congregation and not just “a mighty good show.” I am grateful, however, for Dr. Bloesch’s other comments concerning singing and the selection of hymns.…
Concerning the Lord’s Supper, evangelical Christians are always justified in re-echoing Luther’s classic labeling of the sacrifice of the Mass as “that dunghill of Popery,” but merely because we reject the idea of a repeated sacrifice or a localized presence; we err greatly when we fail to see that the Lord’s Supper can make a vital contribution to an evangelical worship service.…
What is needed today is a truly evangelical eucharistic theology. We should respond to the liturgical movement not on the basis of externals, but with a positive presentation of what we believe about the Lord’s Supper. Our investigation and critique of their movement should be carried on with a spirit of openness and humility. Perhaps there is something in their dual emphasis on the Word and the sacrament that would enrich evangelical worship.
DEIRDRE B. DAY
Dallas, Tex.
You might want to review the front-page story in the New York Times (Dec. 25) on the Africanization of Christianity. This trend toward cultism has many implications for future missionary efforts—there and in other underdeveloped parts of the world.
There needs to be more serious consideration of how much accepted as normative Christianity (such as the altar call) represents an accommodation with the world or contemporary life styles. Furthermore, these African cults—and some that have appeared in South America—seem to develop out of liturgical excesses in normative Christian groups. Which brings me back to my contention that the need may be for less liturgy rather than more.
BELDEN MENKUS
Bergenfield, N. J.
SPEAKING OF UNITY
I was interested to note the editorial, “The Overlooked Majority Tries Harder” (Jan. 5) … I feel very deeply that we must speak out these days in favor of closer understanding and ties among evangelicals with a view to closer action.
WILLIAM W. CONLEY
Chairman, Department of Missions
St. Paul Bible College
St. Paul, Minn.
Is group action really the answer to the world’s need? Even if that group is wholly united and wholly biblical, how impressed will the world be? Men in Jesus’ day were impressed, not by the fact that crowds followed Christ, but by the works that he wrought.
STEVE GROSECLOSE
Holdrege Assembly of God
Holdrege, Neb.
ANSWERING A LETTER
I was shocked at … the letter of Mr. Alan J. Krauss concerning the cover of November 24 (Eutychus and his kin, Jan. 5).…
I believe the Negro has been grossly subjugated, exploited, and humiliated in America, and I have done and am doing all I can to help him gain equal rights and the respect to which every American is entitled. I am on the board of directors and am the director of publicity for a non-profit organization whose primary aim is to provide scholarships in college education for Negroes. During 1967 I preached in perhaps ten Negro churches, and my message often was, in essence: “I want the will of God done; I want your brotherhood; I want your interests served.”
But I also urge these brethren of mine to refrain from violence, to continue to make Christ their pattern, to educate themselves and their youth, and to take peaceful advantage of the many and sweeping opportunities now available to them.
This is in sharp contrast, of course, to the politics of the “new left” or the “new breed.” These advocates favor violence … estrangement, fragmentation, chaos. Their advocacy will bring disaster, both to the Negro’s hopes and to America. What I advocate will have considerable prospect of bringing fruition to the dream of equality, progress, and a unified nation.
VERNON W. SMITH
Director of Publicity
Foundation for Christian Education
Nashville, Tenn.
I quite agree with [Mr. Krauss] in regard to the word “despicable”.… Why must you generally take such a negative attitude to such an important aspect of the Gospel? Christians have enough trouble without adding to it by such improper caricatures.
WILLIAM HAUB
First Methodist Church
Washington, Mo.
When a conciliar action is taken and its proceedings “leaked” to the press, there seems frequently to be a waiting period in which public reaction is assessed. If this reaction proves to be negative, then the responsible officials of NCC make the (to us) evasive statement that a given conference is speaking to rather than for the churches. If it be true that at the Detroit conference the way was left open to the conclusion that the sniper in the tower might be the agent for righteous action, then it seems to me that the NCC left itself open to all of the rebuke which is implied in the cover cartoon. Somewhere there needs to be a courageous confrontation from a neutral source with the vaguely directed pronouncements of the supposed avant-garde of the council.
HAROLD B. KUHN
Professor of the Philosophy of Religion
Asbury Theological Seminary
Wilmore, Ky.
KEEPING THE PEACE PEACEFULLY
I enjoyed Dr. Laurin’s article, “Significance of the Patriarchal Narratives” (Dec. 22). A lot of jokes have been made about Sarah’s age when she was inducted into the harem of the king of Gerar.… I am told that until a very recent date native African chiefs used to take wives from all the leading families of their neighbors, irrespective of age or ugliness. The poor ladies were really hostages for the good behavior of their tribes. It was a lot cheaper way of insuring peace than a standing army. True, it did not always work as a deterrent, but neither did a standing army. (One hates to suggest that President Johnson and DeGaulle might try keeping a harem, but it would probably work as well as the U.N.) Abraham was a rich man with many servants and some reputation as a warrior. The king of Gerar, finding there was no daughter, decided to seize a sister. That she was ninety years old did not matter; she was to be a pledge that Abraham would be a good boy. What would have happened if Isaac had been born a Philistine prince? Happily God took care of the situation, for Abraham’s sake—and ours. Fillmore, Calif.
O.T. BRYANT
ONE OF A KIND
I appreciate CHRISTIANITY TODAY more than any other magazine that comes to my study. I think this magazine is in a class by itself.
JAMES L. CLEMENTS
Memorial Methodist Church
Lynchburg, Va.
