Blandly Absorbed At The Last
These are lean days for sacred cows. By papal decree sundry saints have been demoted (travelers must go more warily), red hats banished. The papacy itself took a clobbering for some brave and brutal words on birth control.
Foundation-shaking has been felt also among Anglicans. A publication from that stable carries three letters to the editor under the heading “Respect Due To Bishops.” Now, let me say at once that I am ill equipped to comment on this theme. The only bishop I knew really well won my respect immediately because he’d been to Tierra del Fuego, and wanted me to join him on a safari to Samarkand (I know that sounds unlikely, but it’s true). Negotiations broke down when it turned out he was thinking in terms of Flecker’s golden journey while I, with no poetry in my soul, became obsessed with the difficulties of getting a Russian visa.
But about those Anglican letters. The first pointed out, referring to a Lambeth Conference decision, that giving respect to bishops was “hardly likely to result in a mass return to church worship.” The second writer, perhaps shackled by an English upbringing, proved to be a self-confessed “My Lord”-er in addressing a prelate, though he added seriously, “whatever I may call him in the privacy of my own home.” But it was the third scribe who hit a note rare in the episcopal context. He told of the bishop who asked a class of children if they knew who he was. Came the answer from one: “Yes, sir—a miserable sinner.”
That bishops as a breed have not always had a good press might be adduced from a pronouncement of that nineteenth-century enfant terrible Sydney Smith. Let those in denominations currently under pressure to take episcopacy into their systems ponder his solemn words. “I am quite ready to be swept away when the time comes,” remarked the irrepressible canon. “Everybody has his favorite death; some delight in apoplexy, and others prefer miasmus. I would infinitely rather be crushed by democrats than, under the plea of the public good, be mildly and blandly absorbed by bishops.” (Dear printer, do not capitalize a word in that last sentence or I’m in trouble with the DAR.)
Lest I be accused of colossal prejudice against bishops, let me quote approvingly from Bengt Sundkler’s recent biography of Nathan Söderblom—who, incidentally, deserves better than to be canonized by the WCC. To his clergy, that former Archbishop of Uppsala gave the counsel: “You must work yourselves to death—but slowly, please.” That’s the kind of episcopal sagacity we want more of.
Constructive Contrast
Thank you for “Christian Answers to Immaturity” and the “Appeal to Conscience” in your May 23 issue. Such excellent presentations of constructive contemporary thought regarding maturity and conscience encourage the development of more relevant expressions of personal faith. [They are] a refreshing contrast to daily news of campus revolt and abuses of “conscience” as some feel it relates to war and social unrest!
Danville, Ill.
I just completed reading the article “Christian Answers to Immaturity” and came away from it with a sense that here is something down to earth, applicable in the parish ministry. Thank you for printing the article, and I pray God that I will find more men like Dr. Walters.
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
Union Grove, Wis.
Dr. Walters held our hand and took us for a walk to look at immaturity.… He showed us that growing up in families produces deep effects upon our personalities. Unhesitatingly he points to our egocentricity as a frustration to man’s highest aspirations.
Isn’t it a matter of much gladness and praise to our Heavenly Father that we have had graciously created for us a new family in which to grow up, the family of the Body of Christ?…
Much of our Christian immaturity is caused by the frustration of trying to adhere “enabling grace, human effort, and sustained process” to our egocentricity in isolation. Surely we do not grow up into maturity in Christ out of the context, for example, of Ephesians chapter four.
Would you invite Dr. Walters to take us for a more strenuous walk to show us further Christian answers to immaturity in the Church?
Ulpha Vicarage
Lancashire, England
Salt For Tensions
Charles C. Ryrie’s article “Perspective on Palestine” (May 23) makes sense. Having visited Palestine three times and talked with many Arabs and Jews, I have been disturbed by the premillennialists’ disregard for justice toward the Arabs. While I am not in total agreement with Dr. Ryrie, it is encouraging to see a premillennialist with an intelligent sense of concern for the Arabs, who are also God’s people.
There is much more that needs to be said on the subject. A Christian witness is needed in the Middle East. Without offending the religious loyalties of Muslims or Jews and without an immediate goal of making them Christians, we need the kind of witness where the ethical teachings of the Sermon on the Mount are brought to bear as a solution to the conflict. The key insight to this approach to such a witness may be Jesus’ symbols of salt and light and leaven. Surely if Christianity is valid, the Christian Gospel can shed enough light and provide enough leaven and salt to save the situation.
The United Methodist Temple
Russellville, Ky.
The Christian Arabs in Gaza and elsewhere in occupied Jordan are daily harassed along with their brother Muslim Arabs. Examples are rounding up the men in a truck to leave them in the desert for twenty-four hours with only a juicy onion for sustenance; another harassment has been for Israeli troops to come into a home when the family is away and cart off a piano and a TV set; another harassment has been bulldozing a row of homes.
We have had many serious discussions here with American and Arab friends about the United States’ ever regaining any Arab country’s trust. Most thoughtful people are quite pessimistic. Thoughts we have had to mend relations are as follows:
1. Have each of the fifty states open its doors to two families from some of the worst refugee camps. This would show our good faith and let individual Americans share in getting the families settled.
2. Send Peace Corps teams to each refugee camp to teach skills that will make the men and boys and young women employable. Or churches could send capable teams.
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Gnawing Termites
Thanks for the editorial “Termites in the House of God” (May 23).
Some of us have seen for thirty-five years what was coming.
Victor Federated Church
Florence-Carlton Community Church
Victor, Mont.
Thank you for your editorial. I appreciated your … forthrightness.
You did leave one central question unanswered, though, in your presentation of solutions to the problem. What can be done when the termites are in control of the denominations? The Bible does have considerable to say about not having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness and about turning away from those who have forsaken the truth. Your emphasis upon the supernatural and the resurrection of Christ, as the central features of salvation, is certainly biblical and commendable. Adherence even to this minimal doctrinal standard would spell the doom of much of what is labeled “cooperative evangelism” today.
Asst. Prof. of Systematic Theology
Dallas Theological Seminary
Dallas, Tex.
The editorial literally sent a scare through my evangelical bones. For the author conveyed to me the impression that a theological witch-hunt was a necessity in the future, if the Church was ever to see revival.…
True, we need a return to biblical truths which in turn will show the “angel of light” for what he really is, but who is to be the interpreter of those basic truths? Who will determine the biblical base which is “broad enough to include all true believers and narrow enough to exclude those who are not”? The author fails to mention and therefore seems to have forgotten that the Holy Spirit was sent to give us insight and wisdom to deal with such a problem. It is only in looking to him for guidance that we can bring a solidarity of truth back to the Christian faith.
Associate Pastor
Oakhurst United Methodist Church
Oakhurst, N. J.
Exemption Distinction
Thank you for your kind words regarding the National Council of Churches’ recent policy statement on “Tax Exemption of Churches” (May 23). I was not sure there was anything the NCC could do which would win commendation from CHRISTIANITY TODAY, but there it was—“A commendable policy statement.…”!
In the last sentence, however, the editorial questions whether there is any “substantial difference between direct ownership of a business [which the NCC statement considers should result in taxation of the income therefrom] and ownership of its common stock [which the NCC does not suggest should be taxed].”
There is at least one substantial distinction. In the latter case, the church is merely participating in the ownership of a business, along with many other owners of stock, individual and corporate. If the latter stockholders are also tax exempt (colleges, hospitals, etc.), they do not pay taxes on income from their investments; why should the church be singled out for taxation of this type? If other (secular) non-profit tax-exempt associations are to be taxed on their investments, then churches should be also.
This type of investment is clearly distinguishable from the situation in which a church uses its investment funds to buy up a business and thus competes in the marketplace with taxpaying competitors, using its tax exemption as an advantage to underprice its competitors.…
In the former case, the business in which a church may own some stock does not acquire the church’s tax exemption; in the latter case, it does. That is the difference. The NCC statement observes, “Churches should not be in a position where they are tempted to ‘sell’ their exemptions to businesses seeking a tax advantage over taxpaying competitors.”
Dir. for Civil and Religious Liberties National Council of the
Churches of Christ
New York, N. Y.
What’S In A Name
I was intrigued by your “Editor’s Note” (May 23). It must have been a shock … to finally discover that you are “first of all … Christian.” A study of Acts 11:18–26, in light of Isaiah 56:5; 62:1, 2, and 65:15, would have shown you that this is the name that God intended for his children. The conversion of the Gentiles was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy and signaled the birth of the new name. Why can’t we all just be Christians?
Sullivan Road Christian Church
Knoxville, Tenn.
Forty Days From Easter
I greatly appreciated the article “A Day to Remember” (May 9) by Dr. Fry.
Even in liturgical churches, there is a tendency to overlook the fortieth day after Easter. In the Roman Catholic Church in Canada, for instance, Ascension Day has been moved to the Sunday following, and is no longer observed on its proper day.
Let’s keep “Ascension theology” alive and begin by starting to celebrate this great coronation day of Our Lord on the day in which it falls.
Christ Lutheran Church
Kipling, Saskatchewan
Reality Of The Left
I have found most all recent editorials refreshingly immediate, yet grounded in Scripture, insightful, and truthful. It was with some dismay, therefore, that I read “The Death-Wish Psychosis of the New Left” (May 9).
You are asking the question, Why: why do they want to topple the system? why, when they have had so much freedom? why, when they have enjoyed the affluent society? So you settle on Muggeridge’s somewhat myopic answer: The New Left suffers from an inward death-wish which has been directed outward to society at large.…
As I view (and try to love) the New Left, I see a much simpler reason.… True, these kids have great freedom, and they are participants in an affluent society, but this is precisely why they raise their voices; they are experiencing existentially the “reality” that freedom (so-called) and affluence do not bring peace, joy, and love.
Christians should be aware of this “reality” more than anyone, for they know that only Christ sets one free. If any segment of our society is openly asking ultimate questions, it is the kids of the New Left. The Christian has something very crucial for them to hear: that their unrest merely confirms something Jesus Christ came 2,000 years ago to proclaim, and that he died that we might have it.
It is frustrating to me, therefore, that more Christians are not in the midst of these kids saying this, rather than at the sidelines condemning them …
In light of all this, I find your attempt to “explain away” the New Left distressing. Perhaps they may suffer a “death-wish,” but this is because they are living out what the Church should have told them (as well as itself) long ago: materialism is no substitute for Calvary. Let us tell them that today, and then live this answer to prove the truth of our words.
Asst. Prof. of Economics
Gordon College
Wenham, Mass
