Appreciate your suggestions for a speaker to address our area-wide Reformation Day Rally. I took the trouble to have one of our fraternal workers check the library on the writings of the men you mentioned. Can’t imagine where you came across them.
This Dr. Luther sounded fine at first. German scholarship and all that—most impressive, provided the man’s English is acceptable. But our spot check of his books shocked us all. The fellow is an apostle of discord. He doesn’t hesitate to attack leading churchmen by name. Publicity given to certain of his observations could set back our relations with the Vatican a whole generation. Terribly opinionated too. Of course his insights are along classical Protestant lines—salvation by grace through faith, but he shows so little appreciation of differing viewpoints. Talks as though he had a corner on the truth. Seems to be a Biblicist also. He is completely out of the question—the irenic tone of our rallies would be lost beyond recovery with such a speaker.
Professor Calvin is really no better. His dogmatism would establish no rapport at all with our Deepwell Heights people. His judgmental attitudes are out of keeping with the maturity and democratic independence of our constituency. I glanced through one of his addresses. It was of extraordinary length, with no apparent concern for the attention span of his hearers, and consisted of exposition with some application of the text of an Old Testament prophet. Of course this has its place for specialists in biblical studies, and you know how I favor greater biblical literacy, but, really, we must be relevant. I am also informed that Calvin shares many of Dr. Luther’s faults as an ecclesiastical trouble maker.
How did such atypical speakers come to your attention? Even the pictures you enclosed were too forbidding for good publicity. No one poses in academic regalia these days, and the simulated wood-cut is affectation.
Thanks anyway for your suggestions. I don’t often hear from you and I appreciate your cooperative spirit in this instance. We want our Reformation observance to deepen our sense of community in Deepwell Heights. What do you think of a more positive term for the rally—perhaps Renewal Day?
Cordially,
MISSION OF THE CHURCH
If your editorial (Aug. 18 issue) were followed to its logical conclusion, these churches on the National Missions frontier would be relegated to the position of being told what to do, and whom would be sent as missionary (why not become Episcopalian in full), what their program must be, with no participation by the local church. There may be cases where this should be done, but there are certainly more cases where this should not be done.… I prefer to participate in the Mission of the whole Church of Jesus Christ to the whole inhabited world to proclaim the whole Gospel—the Eumenical Mission.
While the heathen multiply faster than they are being converted, … boards infected with ecumenical fever, blinded to the Great Commission, confine missionaries—“fraternal workers”—to assist already organized national churches, and destroy their autonomy and weaken them by subsidies.
Lansdale, Pa.
SEEKING AN APPROACH
Mr. Howard speaks as if the welfare of man were a goal inimical to the glory of God (Aug. 18 issue). The Christian approach would not be limited to a humanistic welfare of man, but it would recognize that there can be no glorifying God on the part of one who is indifferent to the welfare of man. Jesus said, “Inasmuch as ye did it not to the least of these, ye did it not to me.”
Haran Baptist Church
Roanoke, Va.
Mr. Howard says that no labor union has the right to deny a man “the right to work.” On what biblical principle does Mr. Howard conclude that an employer has this right, while a league of fellow employers has not? What of the medieval guilds, the various state medical societies, and unified state bar of many states? Are all arrangements which require a man to link his interests in his employment with those of his colleagues immoral and unchristian?
Crivitz, Wisc.
Mr. Howard’s remarks about people who seek security in pensions are all very well, but I believe that Christians who are blessed with this world’s goods and are inclined to disparage old age pensions, Social Security, etc., might do well to read James 2:15, 16.… While I am fully aware of the perils of “welfare economics,” I believe that sometimes a form of the “welfare state” may be the lesser of two evils.
San Antonio, Tex.
MERE CHRISTIANITY
Among your delightfully humorous observations (Eutychus, Aug. 18 issue), you remarked that “only as bold a writer as C. S. Lewis would entitle a book Mere Christianity.” Professor Lewis … is a specialist in sixteenth century English literature. I would venture to say that he is using the term “mere” in the sense current in that period (and as Shakespeare used it) when it meant “absolute.”
Charleston, Ill.
JONAH’S PRECEDENT
“The Story of Clergy Fares” (Aug. 18 issue) was most interesting, but told only part of the story.… If we really believe in the “priesthood of all believers,” on what basis can we claim special discounts in transportation or any other services?… True, ministers may not always be paid adequately, and they do have to travel. But the answer to this is better salaries, not patronage.… Personally, I’m for Jonah, who paid the fare.
First Congregational Church
Westfield, Mass.
INITIAL REACTION
I received the first copy last week … it was worth the entire subscription.
Cape May, N. J.
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