Driving Out The Fundamentals
The recent passing of Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick brought press notices suggesting that the ninety-one-year-old pastor was most commonly remembered for his part in the so-called fundamentalist controversy. As it happened, I had this summer been reading a sermon of his that dealt with this theme. It was preached forty-six years ago in New York’s First Presbyterian Church, and was entitled, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”
In churches controlled by fundamentalists, Fosdick suggested, the policy says to young folk: “Come, and we will feed you opinions from a spoon. No thinking is allowed here except such as bring you to certain specified, predetermined conclusions.” He pitched that angle strong before going on to expatiate on the stark contrast of a world situation smelling to high heaven (a naïve concept at that time yet unexploded by the Bishop of Woolwich, who was three at the time).
Dr. Fosdick’s conclusion was a masterpiece of its kind: “And now, in the presence of colossal problems, which must be solved in Christ’s name and for Christ’s sake, the Fundamentalists propose to drive out from the Christian churches all the consecrated souls who do not agree with their theory of inspiration. What immeasurable folly! Well, they are not going to do it; certainly not in this vicinity. I do not even know in this congregation whether anybody has been tempted to be a Fundamentalist. Never in this church have I caught one accent of intolerance. God keep us always so …” (the italics are mine).
There is no record of how many resisted temptation that day and went forward to dedicate their lives to the crusade against fundamentalism. No studious neutrality. Intolerance not to be tolerated. (What was it the preacher said: “No thinking is allowed here …”?)
Against such a presupposition one hesitates to quote the Bible with its intolerant commands (didn’t they tell us it wasn’t inspired?), but how about a word from a broadminded Hindu? Said Rabindranath Tagore: “If you shut your door to all errors, truth will be shut out.”
In commending a book entitled Our Living Bible, a journal I saw last month says: “Based upon the latest archeological research, this illuminating book by a distinguished editorial board contains over 100,000 words of text. The entire work is non-theological.” If that description is accurate, this volume is obviously a must for those engaged in the unrelenting struggle to ensure that the fundamentalists (whoever they are) shall not win.
EUTYCHUS IV
Justified Glow
I didn’t attend the U. S. Congress on Evangelism but heard glowing reports. If Leighton Ford’s address, “Evangelism in a Day of Revolution” (Oct. 24), is fairly typical, I’m sure this response was justified.
ROBERT L. CARTER
Terre Haute, Ind.
After several years attempting to equate the obvious failure of the evangelical church with the vibrancy manifested in the Book of Acts, I feel that Mr. Ford has presented cogent arguments for a change, not in the message which is “ever old, ever new,” but in the methodology.
KENNETH MEYER
Annandale, Va.
Mad Devil
Great, great, great! That’s what I think of Lon Woodrum’s little story, “If Dropouts Turn On” (Oct. 24). I was completely with those who feel that we evangelicals should be in the thick of where the action is, to plant the Cross right in the middle of the action. When I finished reading the little story, I amened it and then prayed a little prayer: “Dear Lord, please help me to do this thing that makes the devil the maddest.”
BILL SOLOMON
First Presbyterian Church
Cedartown, Ga.
In this brief but penetrating analysis of the present “religious” crisis, there is a freshness and originality which is quite pleasing.…
May I continue to be (with God’s help) a “turned-on” evangelical who is doing “her thing”—trying to reach the pious, “religious,” and lost Roman Catholics in this city and this province.
LOIS STEWART
Quebec, Que.
Fundamentalism’s Fashion
Concerning your editorial, “Harry Emerson Fosdick” (Oct. 24), his reference to fundamentalism as reactionary rather than orthodox is technically correct, accuracy being a virtue practiced by Mr. Fosdick in contrast to a great many of those who opposed him.
While Dr. Fosdick’s theology may leave something to be desired in certain areas, he never forced it upon his hearers with threats of hell-fire to those who disagreed. The fundamentalists were the ones who talked about the spirit of Christ and exhibited so little of it, while Fosdick became the living example of that spirit.…
Unfortunately, as you state, fundamentalism is by no means dead; in fact, it is well and alive, dressed up in the new clothes of respectability called neo-evangelicalism. However, this fact is in no way indicative of divine approval nor changes the judgment that it is essentially heretical.
JAMES A. ROHNE
Charlottesville, Va.
Bad For Good
Your editorial “Mass Media and Church Reform” (Oct. 24) is classic, and this is to say thanks. There is nothing wrong with the good old gospel story except the bad old ways of sharing and communicating it. We do not have to make it appealing and attractive. We cannot anyway. It is for us to release its appeal and attraction and to refuse to defile it with our own worn-out methods and clumsiness.
DONALD F. HAYNES
Glendale, Calif.
Amen For ‘Angels’
I enjoy your reporting on Billy Graham.… He is a man who stands out from all others in my estimation as one to whom God has given the gift of evangelism. For the first time I learned the somewhat romantic details about the beginning of his evangelistic ministry at Anaheim and was really thrilled to read the splendid report “At Home with the Angels” (Oct. 24). This is worth a real hallelujah amen!
(The Rev.) ARTHUR F. WESLEY
Lakeland, Fla.
Pleasing The Devil
The writing of L. Nelson Bell, always wholesome and timely, was especially so in his recent article entitled “Beware!” (A Layman and His Faith, Oct. 24).
I can think of few things that would please the devil more than for evangelicals to dissipate their energies in futile humanistic efforts instead of preaching the Gospel to a confused and spiritually lost generation. Hearts changed by grace are the only hope of needed changes in society.
PASCAL P. BELEW
Church of the Nazarene Evangelist
Danville, Ill.
“Beware!” was far and away the most offensive piece that CHRISTIANITY TODAY has ever published.…
The fact is that 90 per cent of the members of our evangelical churches are still completely inert regarding men’s social and physical needs. They are far from being in danger of the errors Dr. Bell warns against. They haven’t even begun to get involved in social problems. They are unmoved, unsympathetic, self-righteous, and harsh in their judgments of the poor, people on welfare, minorities, and other forms of sinners. In short, they are un-Christian and ought to be told so. Instead, Dr. Bell’s article has the effect of encouraging them in their inactivity. I believe it will be a long time before the evangelical churches need the corrective he offers.
This article might have a helpful function if printed in the Christian Century. There it might have been prophetic. Here it is simply pathetic.
GEORGE VAN ALSTINE
Evangelical Baptist Church
Sharon, Mass.
Latin Evangelism
The article by W. Dayton Roberts (“Latin American Protestants: Which Way Will They Go?,” Oct. 10), which purported to advocate moderation in the problems of evangelicals in Latin America, belied such a goal by its incendiary language.…
It seems strange indeed that Mr. Roberts should call into question the value of a congress dedicated to increasing interest in evangelism throughout the continent. It seems most appropriate that such a congress should be held to share the vision for spreading the Gospel in Latin America in days of great opportunity. Already Latin America has inspired evangelicals in other continents to renewed efforts in outreach. This congress should intensify the growth of the churches there.…
This is not to say that the congress will be insensitive to the massive, surging problems of the society in which this witness must be conducted. On the contrary, the congress will deal with the role of the Church in the present situation.
WADE T. COGGINS
Asst. Executive Secretary
Evangelical Foreign Missions Association
Washington, D. C.
Roberts’s analysis of the Latin American versus the North American concept of “revolution” is incisive, and we would agree that “the true revolution is something else. The word itself suggests a turning of the wheels of progress wherein anachronistic structures are displaced and a new order of things is initiated.” This, however, does not mean that Castro’s Cuba is a shining example of “genuine revolution of total social dimensions” (in the Christian view).
All of us are aware of the tension between individualistic evangelism and social involvement. It is our prayer that as we come together in Bogotá the evangelistic task, so badly out of focus in our contemporary world, will be brought back into true biblical perspective as a result of this gathering and that its definition will indeed be sharpened by the grindstone of scriptural authority.
VERGIL GERBER
Executive Secretary
Evangelical Committee on Latin America
Wheaton, Ill.
Political Products
I agree that a memorial service would be fitting for all the victims of Ho wherever they may be—even his own people reluctantly following him (“Hooray for Ho?,” Oct. 10).
Your view that the Boston University seminary students are not politicians seems to overlook the political nature of men. Even, and especially, seminary students who correct wrongs by doing wrong can be political, and probably will be so in the pulpit.… Perhaps not enough laymen know or appreciate that the products of some of these schools are going to have a vast influence on this country and the world.
W. G. LYNCH
Lake Charles, La.
The Pressure Of Prayer
After reading the October 10 issue I started to wonder whether the “Open Letter to President Nixon” might not come as yet another pressure upon a man already pressured almost beyond endurance.
Instead of writing him subscribing to your suggestion, I felt constrained to drop him a thank-you note for all that he is seeking to do for us and the world and assuring him of my constant prayer.
HAZEL OLSEN
Toronto, Ont.
Heading Up The Body
Your editorial “Every Christian A Minister” (Oct. 10) was an excellent example of the astonishingly superficial thinking on this subject which is so prevalent among evangelical clergy. When are you going to come to grips with the fact that you cannot expect a man to behave like a minister out in the world when he is not recognized as a minister within the Church?…
Every day, hundreds of believers are waking up to the realization of their amazing potential as ministers of Christ. Many, all over the country, are beginning to meet as expressions of the “body of Christ” as described in First Corinthians 12. Most are meeting in homes, and clergymen are not part of the picture. Many former clergymen, like myself, are learning to become members of the body, rather than miniature heads. Those who refuse may find themselves with no congregation to hear that “indispensable” Sunday-morning sermon. Things are changing, brethren; get with it!
GARY HENLEY
Oak Park, Ill.
Hurrah For Happiness
Hurrah for Addison Leitch and his last two paragraphs in “Art Is Long” (Current Religious Thought, Oct. 10).…
Let’s quit emphasizing the sexually discorded life of David, and remember that there was a pure Joseph in Pharoah’s court; quit emphasizing the utter financial and spiritual failure of Judas and look at the redemption work in Matthew the Publican, or in Zacchaeus; quit emphasizing the self-righteous failure of the Pharisees and hear Paul testifying that “salvation is not of works”.…
Artists who possess a real personal faith in Christ can truthfully paint a picture depicting the rescue of a bad man, can write a song inviting people to the liberty of salvation, and can produce a play or script that ends well and right.
L. K. SIDER
Calvary Missionary Church
Hamilton, Ont.
The Light is blinding; when the scales fall, you’re in Damascus, headed out into the desert. As Dante discovered, the way Home is the long way around, and the Celestial Rose is the end (which enfolds the beginning).… C. S. Lewis knew the angels and how it was with them—an exhilarating awe for even the best man. But don’t we all long for the Day when we can bear the Light and join the angels in telling it like He is, join the dance moving, as Lewis has it, “farther up and farther in”?
F. EUGENE WARREN
Rolla, Mo.
Balancing Sex
Thank you for the timely article “Sex Education in Public Schools” (Sept. 26). Although I’m sure you will receive some static from the “fringe” element, the article presented a fair and well-balanced approach to a topic that has been distorted and misunderstood by many within the evangelical subculture.
RONALD M. ENROTH
Assistant Professor of Sociology Westmont College
Santa Barbara, Calif.
Degrading our United States seems to be the theme so many are on the band wagon for with sex education rather than the concern of uplifting this country with culture.
MRS. F. J. SCHULTZ, SR.
Abbeyville, S. C.
I was encouraged to see the positive article “Sex Education in Public Schools.” It was more objective than most of your articles which deal with the issues of our day.…
As social-science department chairman at El Dorado High School in Placentia, California, I have charge of the sex-education program at our school. Believe me, it can be an area which causes more witch hunts today than yesterday’s Communism and un-American charges. I consider myself an evangelical; however I am very upset at times over the emotion displayed by my fellow churchmen over the issues of the day. What makes it particularly sad is that their campaigns are not founded on a fountain of knowledge.
RICHARD P. VOUGA
Yorba Linda, Calif.
While I appreciate Mr. Huffman’s emphasis on the need for a truly biblical theology of sex among evangelicals, I wonder if we are not evading our responsibility as Christians when we condone the presentation of the “unbiblical, relativistic point of view” that inevitably accompanies the discussion of codes of sexual conduct in the public school. While ideally we should be able to teach moral values in school, from a practical standpoint it has become impossible to agree on judgments of “right” and “wrong” to which our classroom teachers will adhere—taught, as they are, in a relativistic approach in the university. The Christian parent is hard put to it to counteract such teaching at home.…
As Christians, we can and should support the dignified teaching of the biological facts of reproduction and of the principles of family living, but the objectives of the sex-education programs typified by SIECUS lend themselves far too easily to misuse and the cause of evil to be excused and accepted by a Christian.
DORIS M. ARAUJO, M.D.
Anaheim, Calif.
In my opinion, the primary responsibility for sex education within an evangelical and biblical framework is in the home; but unfortunately, many parents have abdicated their responsibility in this area, and the evangelical churches have often failed to support and help the parents in this matter of sex education. It is therefore to some extent the fault of the parents and the churches that the public schools have stepped into the breach with a view to trying to remedy the deficiencies in this area. I feel that we as Christian parents should do our utmost to fulfill our obligations in the matter of a healthy, biblically oriented sex education for our children, and that the pastors and youth leaders of our evangelical churches should be ready and willing to give guidance and counsel to parents whenever necessary in these most important matters.
W. C. JOHNSON, M.D.
Hanover, Mass.
What Keeps Us Going
Allow me to express appreciation for your gracious reference to me in “100, and Going Strong” (News, Sept. 26).
You are helping, more than you can know, in keeping many of us going on.
W. A. MOORE
Sumner, Wash.
Enriching Wealth
Just a note to thank you for the continuing wealth of inspiring material which fills each issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. My ministry is being enriched and deepened.
JERRY SWEITZER
Martinton Church of Christ
Martinton, Ill.
