Eutychus and His Kin: July 5, 1963

Countdown On Cholesterol

Dr. Grandiose Slugs, who is a friend of Bill Vaughn (and if you don’t know Bill Vaughn, you are completely uneducated—you probably live a provincial life on the East Coast or the West Coast), makes the following statement: “You ask me what is the future of science, sir, and I reply that science is going to be a con founded nuisance, sir.” This is a view point with which I heartily concur.

Two weeks ago we put in our air conditioning and switched over for a couple of hot days; then the temperature dropped to around freezing, and we switched back. That, it seems to me, makes sense. But the new air conditioning blew out the pilot light; and when they came to fix the pilot light, they cracked the furnace; and when they fixed the furnace, they had to re-do the air conditioning. In the meantime, something has gone wrong with the TV, and the men who were fixing the furnace stepped on two of our petunias.

The Atlantic Monthly, some months ago, described the ultimate traffic jam in New York City, with the traffic backed up for over four miles in every direction. It looked to them as if the ultimate solution might be to have a perfect traffic jam and then to pave over the tops of the cars and start all over again. At times it does seem as if we are not far from the ultimate solution.

People are killed by thrombosis. I am beginning to theorize that this is the way nations die, too. It could happen to education; and if you don’t think religion is getting complex, you haven’t been reading the papers when they sort out for the news mediums what it is that actually goes on in assemblies and conferences. It isn’t much, but there is a tremendous “heave and ho,” not to mention salaries and travel accounts, just to keep circulation going. Whether we are keeping things in circulation fast enough to get rid of the poisons and pass out the nourishment is a question that worries me even on my better days. Life is such a wonderful thing that it will be a shame if it turns out to be nothing but a confounded nuisance.

EUTYCHUS II

Mission To Military

Your last issue, “Ministering to the Military” (May 24 issue), is the best yet. Never before have I been privileged to see such a great problem covered so completely.… One testimony in particular was wonderful: the testimony of General William K. Harrison.…

Cedartown, Ga.

While I enjoyed your issue … I was a little disappointed at its lack of insight. It seemed to repeat over and over again with plaintive voice that these are just boys away from home and that they are an above average group of Americans. I am not so sure that it is all that simple. To begin with, this is the worst “above average” group I have ever been in; no less than five of the men in my basic training platoon had the choice of either jail or the Army. Even educational and awareness levels were below those of men with whom I worked as a laborer during summers between academic years. Interests in the world and this country were very slight, and the Army presentation of any important issues or events was so watered down or dry as to not stir any one’s concern—even more dogmatic statements were not able to stir the intelligent.

Chaplain’s Assistant

Ft. Belvoir, Va.

Chaplains in the military certainly have a fertile field in which to operate, but it is pure hypocrisy for religious leaders to advocate “praising the Lord, and passing the ammunition.” It is not possible for mature Christians to reconcile Christ’s teaching and militarism.

New Bloomfield, Mo.

Though like most of its undertakings, it is exceedingly well done, on the part of the editors of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, it nevertheless … appears that though the field to be approached is the enlisted man, the opinions of the enlisted man are not sought out. I think this one factor is what has been wrong with the church over the centuries as well as what is wrong with all sectarian magazines, including non-sectarian magazines—the thoughts, the meditations, the concepts of the little man in the street … are not sought out.…

Philadelphia, Pa.

A word of congratulation.… This issue was outstanding.

Chaplain

Second Training Regiment

Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

Christian Servicemen’s Fellowship, Officers’ Christian Union, Navigators, and Christian Businessmen’s Committee are all doing their share in reaching the military for Christ. I think your readers would be interested and inspired to know just how.

For instance, the Navigators focus upon developing all-out Christian leaders as they witness generally.

The Christian Businessmen sponsor Christian Servicemen’s Centers all over the world where men are challenged for Christ in a social and recreational setting.

The Officers’ Christian Union, to which my husband (an Army colonel just retired) belongs, operates through small prayer and Bible study groups plus, of course, personal witnessing seven days a week. Led by Lt. Gen. William K. Harrison, U. S. Army (Ret.), this Union includes commissioned and warrant officers of all branches of our Armed Forces and students training for commissions who subscribe to the following affirmation of faith:

“Inasmuch as I am a sinner and deserve the wrath of God, and since Jesus Christ died for my sins, was buried and has been bodily resurrected, according to the Scriptures, I have accepted Him as my personal Saviour and am saved by His grace alone.”

Because Union members are in positions of authority in the military as the powers that be scatter them around the globe they have unique opportunities to obey the great commission, “Beginning in Jerusalem … to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

OCU Bible study groups operate in eighty-four of the state-side military installations. There are Bible study groups in the Washington, D. C., area, thirty-six states (including Alaska and Hawaii), Bermuda, Greenland, Iceland, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Guam, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Okinawa, and the Philippines. Also, our OCU cooperates with the OCUs of Great Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Fin land, Sweden, South Korea, and Ghana.

Several years ago, OCU helped found the Christian Servicemen’s Fellowship, patterned after OCU and made up mostly of enlisted men with a few officers, usually chaplains, belonging also. CSF is now sponsored by the Chaplains’ Commission of the National Association of Evangelicals. OCU and CSF, along with evangelical chaplains, work in cooperation with the Navigators and Christian Servicemen’s Centers whenever their paths cross.

Very significantly, the four lay missions to the military I have described include active church and chapel members from all the major Protestant denominations.

Alexandria, Va.

Thank you so much for your timely [issue]. Among the effective organizations dedicated to reaching servicemen is Overseas Christian Servicemen’s Centers.…

Minister to Youth

First Baptist Church

South Pasadena, Calif.

Agony In The South

Reference in your May 24 issue [Editorials] seemed to reflect one-sided information about the racial disturbances in the South, particularly in Birmingham. You speak of dogs lunging at Negro demonstrators without mentioning the fact that these demonstrations were illegal and were practically turned into riots. You also failed to mention that they threw rocks, bricks, knives, and everything else available at the police, some of whom were seriously wounded.

Here in Nashville we witnessed the so-called non-violent Christian demonstrations. The Negroes blocked doorways of businesses for hours; they shoved the police back against the walls. The police were ordered not to retaliate in any way. They injured several persons, knocked completely innocent white persons down inside and outside of the stores.… Mind you, Nashville is already integrated. The schools have been integrated for several years and most of the stores are. There is practically no Negro unemployment, but nevertheless the rioting and incitement to riot continue making a complete farce of their claims to be guided by Christian motives.

Nashville, Tenn.

A word of appreciation and praise for such a statement of conviction. For myself, as one at work in the Deep South, it rang clear and I might add loudly! It was what needed to be said and was stated thusly! All I might add to this note would be one resounding word … amen!

Back Bay Mission

Biloxi, Miss.

You go altogether too far out in your one sided condemnation of those who sought to uphold the law in Birmingham. You make much of those who were restrained by the police and the means used by the police. But what have you to say about those who caused such disorder—those who recklessly brought about the very scenes you describe?

Lutheran Church of the Epiphany

Montgomery, Ala.

Your recent editorial … amazes me. Could it have been written on the basis of snap-judgment, or a desire to stigmatize the South? Yes, the Birmingham situation is ugly. No one of either race will deny it. But you seem to be oblivious of its background in the radical and subversive social agitation which has produced it. Do you not know that the Communist movement has decided to make a break-through in America, using the race question in the South as the crisis issue?

First Presbyterian Church

Opelika, Ala.

We have integration at our Missouri University in Columbia. Negroes enroll freely and move about the campus without molestation. But, let white students talk to them freely, as though they were human beings, and that is something else.… My twenty-year-old daughter would not date a Negro but believes otherwise in equal treatment for him and speaks as freely with Negro students as white. She must work to eat, and during this semester this is what she has faced: turned away from a number of jobs she was qualified for; accused by a girl who frequented Student Union of being a dope pusher; fired from a job at medical center she was happy in because of her “association with colored students at the Union”; referred to in clandestine student publications as setting up a prostitution business in Student Union; ordered out of Student Union finally, though she went there for company rather than ride around in the dark with amorous swains. In spite of all this she calmly continues to treat Negroes as though they were human beings. There is still a price to pay for being true to your convictions. My daughter does not drink, smoke or dance, is active in church, and church youth work—but it does not save her from the vicious smear campaign that “hate” students are capable of, ridiculous though some aspects of the campaign may be.

The Methodist Church

Fairport, Mo.

God bless you for your editorial. The backing-and-yelling or even outright racism of many Southern leaders, even about Birmingham, has been a disgrace to Christ. Thank goodness you’ve taken this clear, strong stand.

Nashville, Tenn.

Like A Crazy Quilt

We appreciate the writeup concerning Churches of Christ (News, May 24 issue). Having been born and bred within this element of Christendom, I must say that your reporter has made some keen observations.

One problem any reporter faces in talking about the so-called Churches of Christ is to ascertain just what faction among us he happens to be with at the time. Right here in my home state of Texas we must have fifteen or twenty different “loyal” Churches of Christ, hardly any of which will have any fellowship with any other.

We are divided over premillennialism, institutionalism, teaching methods, missionary methods, Sunday schools, cups for Communion, wine for Communion, Freemasonry, divorce and remarriage, and I don’t know what all. Presently a major division is in the making over the Herald of Truth program [you] mentioned.…

And all this is our trouble. As of now, divided like a crazy quilt, we are not fit to unite with anyone, the Christian Church included. First, we must unite ourselves, and from the way things look, that will take a long time. But I am happy to report that from all the segments among Churches of Christ there is a concern to attain the unity for which our Lord prayed. There is a kind of grass-roots underground movement among us that beckons us to join the Christian world. A case in point is that a lot of us read non-Church of Christ stuff like CHRISTIANITY TODAY, and that is really something for us! Give us another generation, then check.…

Professor of Philosophy

Texas Woman’s University

Denton, Tex.

Allow me to commend you for your very fine and fair report of our lectureship at Abilene. L. Nelson Bell was at his best in his article, “Faith and Obedience.” It was excellent, and should call many back to the real New Testament meaning of faith. It is imperative that a man not only have faith but he must live by that faith.…

La Vega Church of Christ

Waco, Texas

Precocious Pair

Re the letter of Willis Bergen (Eutychus, May 24 issue): In 1899, William James was in Germany. Then Karl Jaspers was sixteen years old and Martin Heidegger ten years old. Did they really come in touch and discuss philosophical problems?

Philadelphia, Pa.

A Look Back

The special report on the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (May 24 issue) is most revealing with respect to the divergency which can exist between a denomination’s standards and its practice. When a minister of this denomination, I fought hard to have the church abridge this gap where personal freedom and justice were concerned. The findings of the General Assembly’s Permanent Committee on Christian Relations, as included in your special report, point to a continuing basis for this need in the Southern Presbyterian Church.

Plymouth Congregational Church

Corona del Mar, Calif.

Campus Legislation

I am writing to add my hearty agreement to your editorial, “Morality on the Campus” (May 10 issue). Having recently been graduated from a Christian college, I have seen first hand some of the fallacies of “legislated Christianity” as you described.… One senior from our school told me personally that she did not understand why her denomination believed a certain thing, but was accepting it anyway because “it must be right.” One would think that after four years of Bible training, a person would be able to give something of “a reason for the hope that is within them.”

Spring Lake Missionary Church

Manito, Ill.

The editorial … had a very wholesome emphasis upon freedom and personal conviction as opposed to legalistic systems. In several respects it did not go far enough, but it was a welcome step in the right direction.

Kingston, Ont.

God’s law inherently forbids promiscuity in love, and certainly promiscuous love is a contradiction in terms. But we must recognize the truth, and say so, that normal sex drives are good. It is in the application of properly interpreted biblical truth for the control of these sex drives that balance is attained. This should be our message to both evangelical youth and to the unbeliever. Young people will love, and will inevitably want to express their love. It is our responsibility to show that God’s law is for all men the controlling principle for a full and happy life, and not what it has been made to seem: the law that is impractical, irrelevant, and condemnatory of that which is best in human experience.

The failure of the Church to interpret God’s law for today’s youth is evidenced by growing promiscuity on the campus, backsliding among our evangelical youth, and disillusionment and despair of the young who seek a truth which has living relevance.

Glenside, Pa.

White Face Or Red Face?

To the best of my knowledge, we did not then or at any time recommend the book mentioned in the letter (Apr. 12 issue) to CHRISTIANITY TODAY.…

Assoc. Dir.

Office of Information

National Council of Churches

New York, N. Y.

“A bibliography, ‘The Negro American—A Reading List,’ was prepared in 1957 by the Department of Racial and Cultural Relations of the National Council of Churches. It was intended solely for leaders and students of Negro history, for them to read and determine for themselves whether or not they wished to make use of the books on the list, just as a library makes available its reading material without comment.… It is now out of print, and there are no plans to re-issue the bibliography.… No book on the list has ever been held to be obscene by any duly constituted and competent agency, public or private” (release by NCC Office of Information, April 25, 1961).

“Some time ago an article was written for Eternity, attacking the National Council of Churches for some literature which one of the NCC Commissions seemed to espouse.… We showed it to the proper NCC officials, who were quite red-faced about it. The material was printed without proper authorization, they admitted with some embarrassment … and no more would be printed” (editorial in Eternity Magazine, June, 1963).

“Four ‘shameful, filthy, morbid and obscene’ books should be removed from the Fairfax County Public Library, a lawyer in the county says.… Named as defendants in the suit were Bucklin Moon for his book ‘Without Magnolias’; Storm Jameson, author of ‘A Month Soon Goes’; Margaret Halsey for ‘Colorblind’ [sic], and A. B. Guthrie, Jr., who wrote ‘The Big Sky.’ All four books deal with love affairs between different races …” (The Washington Star, May 17, 1963).

I should like to comment on the letter of Mr. James Moore, associate director of the Office of Information of the NCC, in regard to “The Negro American—A Reading List,” that “to the best of my knowledge, we [NCC] did not then or at any time recommend the books”.…

Mr. Moore says relative to my letter, “We do not know where he got his in formation.” If Mr. Moore had looked on pages 4 and 5 of the reading list which the NCC published, recommended, and promoted, he would have seen where my information came from.

Now as to the NCC contention that “no book on the list has ever been held to be obscene by any duly constituted and competent agency, public or private”: this is refuted categorically by the fact that Llewellyn D. Crandall, acting postmaster of the United States Post Office at Larkspur, California, stated in a letter to Mrs. Anne Smart the following ruling concerning three of the books appearing on the NCC reading list:

“Dear Mrs. Smart:

“Your attention is directed to the mimeographed circular, mailed in this office March 24, 1956; entitled ‘To the leaders of the Community’—sheet number: two—March 12, 1956.

“The material identified above is non-mailable under section 1461 of Title 18 U. S. Code.

“You are cautioned against depositing such matter in the mails in the future. Very truly yours.”

Now, for your information, Section 1461 of Title 18 of the U. S. Code reads as follows: “Obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy publications or writings or mail containing or concerning where, how, or from whom such may be obtained, and matter which is otherwise mailable but which has on its wrapper or envelope any indecent, lewd, lascivious, or obscene writing or printing. Any mail containing any filthy, vile or indecent thing.”

My information, therefore, came from an official source which declared at least three books recommended by the NCC as “obscene, lewd, lascivious or filthy publications.” The National Council has evaded this issue repeatedly for apparently they do not wish to acknowledge even the existence of the error.…

I will be happy to document Postmaster Crandall’s letter with photostats if necessary.

Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies

King’s College

Briarcliff Manor, N. Y.

From The Pew For The Pew

I have been sitting in the pews. Due to a throat operation I have been sidelined for four weeks. I have attended a number of churches, large and small, and frankly, I’ve been terribly disappointed.

I have gone hopefully. I have left discouraged. I have looked about me at the people. During the sermon they shift in their seats or study the stained-glass windows. Some sit straight and seem to be listening respectfully, but I wonder whether they really are listening.

Every time the sermon begins, I look for a word from God. I want help. I want to hear something relevant. I don’t hear it. The minister is off in a world by himself. He is talking, but not to me. He is talking about Christianity, but he is not saving anything to me!

Why not? Is it me? What do I want?

I want help. I want forgiveness. I want strength. I want to know how to cope with life; that I have to cope with life I know already. I want to know how to live in this world; that I must not become an alcoholic, I know. That I must not give in to temptation, I also know.

But how do I fight temptation? Nobody tells me. Not in the churches I attended.

Sometimes the minister is biblical. He puts together a number of Bible stories and quotations. But it turns out to be a crazy quilt—many different patches with no one message. It really hasn’t “warmed” me. Sometimes there is so much non-biblical material that it seems like the Reader’s Digest in a backwards collar.

Or the delivery is so monotonous that I can’t believe the preacher himself is interested in the Gospel. Why has it failed to grip and excite him? And when that unimaginative exhortation follows a good anthem—usually the music is very inspiring in our churches today—I could hardly consider what followed, preaching. What did it proclaim?

I also heard a man with a good delivery and impressive voice. The opening five minutes were worth hearing. Then he wandered off and tried to say something about everything from personal sin to race relations, from Christian living to world tensions. I asked myself as I walked out, what was his point? What does he want me to do? To believe? I did not know. I went away confused.

No wonder these churches had everything but filled pews. They were small, large, old, new, one service, two services, suburban, city, and small town churches, with choirs, soloists, preachers (sometimes assistants), teas, clubs, youth activities, and weekday programs—but empty pews.

No wonder! We’re emptying our churches with colorless, unimaginative, unrelated, unnecessary, and irrelevant sermons. And what is worse, we ministers think we know what the man in the pew is thinking. Do we? Then why don’t we help him and talk to his deep problems, his searching questions, his inner self?

This man who comes to visit us some Sunday is really sincere. He wants help. He wants “know how.” But if week after week we fail him, he is going to go elsewhere—or nowhere.

I can’t blame him. If I had to listen to the drivel (excuse me) I’ve been subjected to for these four weeks, I wouldn’t last as long as most of our new members who keep slipping out of our back doors at an alarming rate.

I’m pleading for a resurgence of genuine, Christian preaching. God’s Word to man’s need—simple, direct, challenging, personal, relevant! I’m going to ask myself about every sermon: What is my point? Have I made it clear? Have I honestly faced the problem? Have I given helpful answers? Am I presenting Jesus Christ, not in trite, rote phrases, but with clarity, conviction, and concern for those who come to worship?

I make one other suggestion. Taperecord next Sunday’s sermon. One month later listen to it. Invite a good friend to share in the listening. Ask him to give you his frank opinion. Then, be tough on yourself!

Please, let’s try to do something about our empty pews.

South Hollywood Presbyterian Church

Hollywood, Calif.

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