A Relevant Issue
Last evening I finished reading the March 7 issue of CT. There was so much that was good for my soul and mind. I was struck by the prophetic relevance of the main articles on abortion, goodness, and interracial marriage. I was challenged.
After more than 32 years of probing reading that has not always been comfortable, I continue to look forward to CT. Thanks!
John F. Sills
Salem, Oreg.
No regrets for offense
If it is possible for a jeremiad to be coolly communicated, Charles Colson’s trenchant essay “Begging for Tyranny” [Mar. 7] could be so described. In his Confessions, Saint Augustine felt guilty for his boyish prank of stealing fruit from an orchard, not because he was hungry, but just for the fun of mischief; today, children and adolescents and adults indulge in vicious and random offenses without even the pretense of regret.
A secular katzenjammer is bound to occur when moral judgments are strictly taboo, but licentiousness is tacitly condoned. Society has seemingly set an unholy imprimatur on portrayals of violence and selfish hedonism; materialism is devolving into gaunt nihilism. The political implications are starkly manifest, as Colson suggests. Despotism can use lawlessness as a pretext to dissolve long-established rights—and it will assert that it’s all for the common good.
William Dauenhauer
Wickliffe, Ohio
Colson needs to add to his file the recent murder of Rhonda Maloney in Denver. The suspect first abducted Rhonda in Golden, Colorado, near the headquarters of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department. After Rhonda was assaulted and escaped, she was picked up by a Good Samaritan, who headed toward the Thornton City Police Department. The suspect followed the two women, wounding the Good Samaritan and abducting Rhonda a second time on the lawn of the Thornton police station.
It later developed that the suspect’s father was a police officer, and the suspect had worked for U.S. West for a number of years. The suspect’s violent behavior toward his fellow employees had caused a number of them to file complaints with some bureaucratic investigative agencies. To a man, the bureaucrats did their trillion-dollar best: they opened and closed the case and sent out a dismissal letter to the victims while charging the taxpayers $50,000 per year per man in taxpayer-supported salaries.
Too bad the victims of the U.S. West serial murderer can’t get some of those bureaucrats to give back some of the trillions in tax dollars they charged to do absolutely nothing for years.
Phyllis Pottorff-Albrecht
Broomfield, Colo.
Most enlightening article
“Why Be Good?” by Philip Yancey [Mar. 7] is possibly the most enlightening article I have ever read in CT. It helped me understand better than before why the salvation of Christ is so difficult to grasp intellectually. Salvation is all about the development of a certain kind of love relationship between the Triune God and a human being. (Thank heaven, that relationship is energized and directed by the indwelling Holy Spirit of God the Father and God the Son; if it were up to us to manage the course of such relationships, there couldn’t be any!)
People can experience living in this relationship without conceptualizing what is happening to them, but it is a serendipity when someone like Philip Yancey can provide a conceptual framework for psyches like mine that seem to need one.
Phyllis C. Beatty
Indianapolis, Ind.
The last section gives three good reasons for “being good” but fails to mention a fourth: Disobedience is displeasing to God. This reason provides a completely different perspective!
Yancey’s friend Larry finds himself in a difficult situation when he insists on continuing his drunkenness and fornication. Recently Yancey asked, “Will God forgive me for what I am about to do?” [Nov. 23, 1992]. The answer, of course, is no, as he strongly implied.
Russ Burcham
Kennett, Mo.
Gregory not “divorced”
Readers should be aware that the Gregory Kingsley case [“Child vs. Parent,” News, Mar. 7] was overturned on appeal to the Florida Supreme Court. Gregory remains a ward of the state—a foster-care case—and cannot be adopted by the foster family he lives with.
The real significance of Gregory and many like him has nothing to do with children “divorcing” their parents. Rather, these situations illustrate the tragic reality that families in need often don’t get help. Gregory’s mother apparently was so stressed by parenthood that she placed her son in foster care three times in the course of eight years. The suffering of abused or neglected children is compounded when legal entanglements keep them from being free for adoption, robbing them of permanency throughout the short years they are minors.
A question for CT’s next article on this topic: Is the church doing anything to introduce Christ’s presence into efforts to halt the growing incidence of abuse and neglect? Or is it too caught up in defending “parents’ rights” to notice the extent of the problem?
Beth Spring
McLean, Va.
No UMC boycott threat
In the March 7 issue’s “People & Events” column, there is an example of a bias that sends a subtle message: “The United Methodist Church has forgiven Colorado, thanks to the December ruling by Denver District Judge Jeffrey Bayless.” To imply that the UM denomination had condemned and then forgiven Colorado is to demonstrate ignorance of the nature of the UM church and of the facts in this case.
The UM church never condemned Colorado. Some vocal and powerful factions within the church were strongly urging the church to do that, but the action was never taken. The only group who could have done that was the commission charged with setting up our general conference session in 1996. This agency debated last summer, and affirmed, the church’s plans to meet in Denver in May of 1996. “The church” never threatened to boycott Colorado—only some agencies of the church called the church itself to boycott. “The church” answered, through that planning group, and said clearly, “No boycott.” And they did that long before Judge Bayless ruled Amendment 2 unconstitutional.
Richard Bayard
Armona, Calif.
Not a perfect world
Regarding Harold Myra’s editorial “Love in Black and White” [Mar. 7], I am a Christian and have also struggled with the issue of interracial marriages. While recognizing the truth in your position, I have reached a different conclusion: blacks and whites should not marry for the same reason that people of mixed religions should refrain from marrying. We do not live in a world of perfect people, and will not do so until Christ comes.
Bryant McGlohon
Greenville, N.C.
Jesus and ethnic reconciliation
Thanks for Mitali Perkins’s article on interracial marriage [“Guess Who’s Coming to Church?” Mar. 7], As a New Testament professor, I’d add that the New Testament opens with the testimony that Jesus was a mixed-race child. Matthew cites four Gentiles in Jesus’ ancestry to kick off his theme of the Gentile mission and ethnic reconciliation.
Craig Keener
Hood Theological Seminary
Salisbury, N.C.
After reading your article “celebrating” interracial marriages, I was visibly hurt, bitter, and angry. As a black Christian, I was brought up to believe in staying within my own people, and that’s the way it should be, as indicated in Leviticus 21:14. I believe that we are all God’s children, but an interracial marriage is nothing less than a slap in the face to strong, God-fearing black Christians everywhere.
Unless all black Christians begin to unite for solutions on how to keep black families strong and together, more interracial families will continue to happen.
James Robertson
Detroit, Mich.
Thank you for Mitali Perkins’s article. I find it biblically based and uplifting.
I also experienced racial discrimination in my marriage. I am a Filipino Christian physician who married a white Christian nurse. Before my marriage, I was interested in going back to the Philippines as a medical missionary. I contacted an American mission whose major work is in the Philippines. The leader at first was interested in me. When he learned I was planning to marry a white women, his happy face turned sour. I never heard from him again.
Also before my marriage, my pastor’s wife and son disagreed with the marriage. My pastor’s son said, “Don’t get married in our church because the kingdom of God will be broken. I want you to get married in another church.”
My marriage was richly blessed by God. We now have four grown children who are all Christian believers. The lesson I learned is this: The Bible and not culture is the foundation of the believer’s beliefs and actions.
Phil H. Regualis, Jr., M.D.
Battle Creek, Mich.
I hope and pray that the day in which “America’s churches may better demonstrate Christian unity to a nation scarred by racial division and hatred” will come soon.
Mike Dean
Grand Rapids, Mich.
Stay-at-home moms
Thank you for the interview with Brenda Hunter [Mar. 7, “The Maternal Imperative”]. It was so helpful and encouraging. I am a stay-at-home mom. Our society seems to ridicule people like me. Questions like “What do you do with yourself all day?” can be annoying and even hurtful.
The church needs to be more involved in encouraging those women who stay home full-time. Older moms need to be more available to younger moms for encouragement and guidance. We seem to take for granted that people know how to be good parents.
In this day and age, when so many adults have shaky parental role models, the church needs to find ways to meet these needs.
Beth Ferwerda
Mukwonago, Wis.
Small groups and historical study
In his article on small groups, Robert Wuthnow noted that groups typically “do little to increase the biblical knowledge of their members,” and that they “seldom study religious history or formal theological statements” [“How Small Groups Are Transforming Our Lives,” Feb. 7].
During a study of Romans, the members of my small group raised many complex theological questions. To get a firm grasp of the issues involved, we decided to examine the development of Christian doctrine in the context of church history. However, I have been unable to find a study guide on this topic. The dearth of suitable materials has led me to conclude that little or no demand exists for such items. We have turned to a variety of textbooks on church history, creeds, and doctrine to guide our discussion.
Susan Rutherford Meckel
Boston, Mass.
In a recent article on small groups by Warren Bird, you described me as a “Southern Baptist curriculum writer.” While the Southern Baptists have published several of my books in the distant past (well over 10 years ago), I have never been a “curriculum writer” for them. For the past 15 years I have been president of Touch Outreach Ministries, and on January 1, 1995, I will become president of Touch International, an organization that will network cell churches around the world.
Ralph W. Neighbour, Jr.
President, Touch Outreach Ministries
Houston, Tex.
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