Eutychus and His Kin: September 13, 1963

Washing Out A Few Things

A book that has had a good sale (and it is hard to figure out why) is The Sand Pebbles by Richard McKenna. It is light summer reading about a gunboat on the China rivers; one gathers from the blurbs that McKenna, having served on such a boat, knows what he is talking about.

The great thing about the story is how the crew regained its self-respect by being forced to do its own work, and this under the pressure of a life-and-death situation. Among other things, when all the Chinese cheap labor had run away the sailors had to do their own washing, and McKenna has a nice touch when he tells of the deep satisfaction the men had in folding up and putting away the washing which they had done themselves. I think there was a therapy in this little accomplishment which was a kind of turning point for the whole story. If there is one thing more than another wrong with our society, it is that we have lost too many therapies. This is the point at which the gifts of our machines can be a curse. It is no surprise that institutions put us on “hand work” when our nervous systems have fallen apart. The pity is that so much of this is “busy work.”

A preacher friend of mine tells me he would like to take a job laying bricks for about a year so as to get again a sense of clear-cut accomplishment—so many rows of brick laid in so many hours. Lacking bricklaying, he seeks out little definite things to do in his broad and crushing ministry as his own private therapy.

Everybody is after us to think about world problems, to solve issues in the large, to worry ourselves practically insane over troubles we can’t do a thing about. This is not to say that we can be unconcerned about the large issues. It is to say, however, that it is possible to hold very wise opinions on large issues and be senselessly negligent about our own front steps.

“If any man would be my disciple, let him take up his cross.…”

The way to pull the crew together is for everyone to wash out a few of his own things.

EUTYCHUS II

Challenge Of Latin America

I want to write expressing my very great appreciation for the July 19 issue as it deals with the Latin American missionary endeavor. It has been very helpful.…

Our society began work in the Province of Cordoba in 1909, and has had a continuous missionary service in that land since that time. Our most successful work in Argentina has been during the last ten years. We have some twenty different missionaries serving, with four families in the Buenos Aires area. We have some twenty-five different congregations. We have had a very successful Bible institute for many years, presently located at Almafuerte. We have some very successful radio broadcasts. Just recently the large station in Buenos Aires told our missionaries that we have received more mail from the listeners than any other program on the station.

In Brazil, we have had a very successful missionary program in the lower Amazon valley. This dates back about ten years. We hate successful work at Macapa, Icoaraci, Capenema, and on several islands in the mouth of the Amazon River. We have three Christian day schools functioning and with a very effective ministry.

General Secretary

Foreign Mission Society

The Brethren Church

Winona Lake, Ind.

In your article on “Latin Americans in the United States” it is stated that “there are eighteen Protestant refugee centers, all related to Church World Service.” Our church has maintained such a center in Miami since the beginning of the refugees coming to that city, and our center is not related to Church World Service.

This issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY is outstanding.…

General Director

Board of Home Missions

National Association of Free Will Baptists

Nashville, Tenn.

Your editorial concerning “Evangelical Coordinating Agency Needed for Spanish Work” was brought to my attention since I staff the Committee on Spanish American Work in the Division of Home Missions of the National Council of Churches.

A study undertaken by the Bureau of Research of the National Council, a few years ago, concerning Spanish American Work … gathered most of the facts, including the number of congregations or mission stations of most of the Protestant communions (both those belonging to NCC and non-NCC). This data was classified state by state. The researchers recognized in the introduction to the study the data difficulties mentioned in your editorial, but insofar as Hispanic peoples could be identified from social data, this information was also listed for each state. Only 100 copies of the study were printed from page proofs, since the pre-publication inquiries indicated little demand for the information. However, although the 100 page-proof copies, unbound, sold for $6 each, they have all been gone now for some time.

The missionary education “home theme” for 1964–65 is “The Spanish American in the U. S. A.” This mission study program is developed by the Commission on Missionary Education of NCC. Study books are prepared for each age level on the selected theme. The study will be introduced at twelve World Mission Study Conferences next summer which are held in a number of places throughout the country (North-field, Massachusetts; Silver Bay, New York; Evanston, Illinois; Williams Bay, Wisconsin, etc.).

I have read advance copies of all of this study material and can assure you that this study will surely accent item 3 of your editorial suggestion. On the basis of past experience, the Commission on Missionary Education expects to print and sell 150,000 books on the home theme.

You are perhaps aware of the existence of the Council on Spanish American Work which accents the concerns of the Southwest; this council has been in existence for fifty years. The Protestant Latin American Emergency Committee (P.L.A.E.C.), now officially related to the Miami Council of Churches, is giving very much attention to the Hispanic population in Miami (both Cuban refugees and other Spanish peoples)

Assoc. Exec. Secy.

Div. of Home Missions

National Council of Churches

New York, N. Y.

Sincere thanks for your excellent reporting and unusually perceptive analysis of the Latin American evangelical church.

Danforth Gospel Temple

Toronto, Ont.

Your issue on Latin America is terrific—one of your best issues ever.

Religion Editor

The Miami Herald

Miami, Fla.

I was impressed with the introductory article … by W. Dayton Roberts. In speaking of the “Challenge of a New Day” in Latin America he declares, “Protestant Christians cannot in scriptural conscience wash their hands of the enormous social problems facing Latin America.” Again he says, “… the Latin American is discovering that he cannot be unmoved by the problems of social justice.”

These observations are significant in the face of the character of those churches which are dominant in the evangelical movement in Latin America. These churches are those which in Protestant America have been most vocal in decrying the concern of “theological liberalism” for social reform. Perhaps their insight of their responsibility in Latin America will awaken them to their social responsibility in Protestant North America.

Director

United Presbyterian Center

Frenchburg, Ky.

My sincere congratulations on the excellent issue dealing with Latin America. Mr. Dayton Roberts and his colleagues have done a masterful job summarizing the conditions and developments in Latin America. We can only hope that churchmen, especially pastors and mission leaders, will realize the value of the material presented here and keep it available for study in the churches.

We thank God for this encouraging picture of this great area to the south.

The Committee on Spanish American work of the NCC Home Missions Division has been making a real effort to do something about the situation as far as their own missions are concerned. As far as I know, this has not touched any of the evangelical agencies, and these are considerable, perhaps as many or more than the NCC has. So I would think that the suggestion by CHRISTIANITY TODAY is justified. Evangelicals ought to get together in the home missions framework and set up such a council. I will make a suggestion of this at our joint retreat between IFMA and EFMA this fall.

Public Affairs Secy.

National Association of Evangelicals

Washington, D. C.

Black, White, And Gray

Thank you for your editorial on the murder of Medgar Evers, and the article by Dr. Bell on “Christian Race Relations” (July 19 issue). The politicians and others, on both sides, who have an axe to grind are distorting the whole thing and are likely to create more problems than they solve.

I am aware that Christianity has little to do with what is going on. But Christians have a special guilt. We have been saying that we must not do justice, because we feared that evil would come of it. Now this is a strange position if we believe in a God who loves the good and hates the evil. For we have been perpetuating an evil, and praying that good would come of it.

It seems to me that throughout, there has been a failure to distinguish between civil rights which are impersonal and inclusive, and social rights which are personal and exclusive. I fear that our failure to recognize this distinction, and to act accordingly, is going to exact a terrible price in loss of liberty and in social confusion.

Charlotte, N. C.

Concerning Dr. Bell’s article … in which integration is encouraged if not advocated, do you not know that President Lincoln, when speaking to a delegation of free Negroes in Washington, said to them that because of the great difference existing between the black and white races (greater than between almost any other two races) it would be well for them to keep separate?

In the light of Lincoln’s words, here and elsewhere, spoken truly and kindly, those who today desire to live separate from Negroes are not, I submit, justly chargeable with hate, prejudice, or discrimination.

Integration all too often has resulted in intermarriage and the undermining of race integrity, with unhappiness and tragedy for those concerned, and, therefore, is undesirable for both blacks and whites.

Long Beach, Calif.

L. Nelson Bell … supported the Life magazine symposium on race relations’ statement. This statement proclaims that “… all Christians are brothers in Christ,” as well as “… the urgent necessity of removing all barriers to spiritual fellowship in Christ, without at the same time trying to force un-natural social relationships.” This dichotomy between “spiritual fellowship” and “social relationships” is a tragic misunderstanding of the nature of the Gospel and is surely responsible for the “civil rioting” which Mr. Bell deplores. If “Brothers in Christ” are to serve their Lord, they must love and accept each other fully in all dimensions of their existence. It is as impossible to separate “social” and “spiritual” unity in the Lord as social and spiritual unity between marriage partners. The local Christian fellowship, as the family of God, is called to nothing short of complete openness and acceptance of all individuals, regardless of the color of their skin. The Christian layman is called to express the spirit of Christ’s love and reconciliation in his total life in the world. To fully accept one’s brother in all the varied aspects of human existence is “integration.” To love one’s brother as well is to be a “Brother in Christ.”

East Harlem Protestant Parish

New York, N. Y.

Mrs. Murray’S Indictment

Last evening I read in your “Worth Noting” (News section) in the July 19 issue a statement attributed to Mrs. Madalyn Murray.… Her words are an indictment against me and against too many other Christians. We have railed at her and other unbelievers for what they are trying to do. But we haven’t spent comparable time and effort asking God to convict her of her sin and save her soul. Or if we bothered to think along these lines at all, it was for the purpose of ultimately preventing her from changing the status quo rather than concern for her personally.

Bergenfield, N. J.

Neoorthodoxy And Its Progeny

Neoorthodoxy is not to be assessed merely for its weak view of Scripture. It is a philosophical unity which can logically be expected to bring forth certain consequences. Nor has it come from nowhere. Theologically it was the choice of desperation after the old type of liberalism became bankrupt. Yet it is not related only to what theologically preceeded it. When old types of philosophical rationalism failed, the currents of philosophy proper had previously entered this cycle. Art forms had already followed the same road; and even law had come to the same place in the United States in the twenties by the rise of “legal realism” with its pragmatic, relativistic legal emphasis. Thus, existential theology was the laggard discipline and had only walked the same road that philosophy proper and the art forms had already taken. Even the current application of the word “fundamentalist” in economics should remind us of the related curves in all these fields of thinking. It is well to be academically orientated in the differences among Barth, Brunner, Bultmann, Niebuhr, Tillich, Richardson, Robinson, Fuchs, Ebeling, and others. But to know the differences without seeing the flowing stream is to sleep on the pillow of academic scholasticism. It is like knowing the differences in Roman Catholic theology among the different Roman Catholic orders at the time of the Protestant Reformation without knowing there was that which could be called “Rome,” and as such rejected with clear words as a unit by the Reformers. The Reformers certainly understood the differences between the orders, but their faithfulness to God rested upon the comprehension of the fault of the whole.

Equally, ambivalent judgments are not in place concerning neoorthodoxy. For anyone to think of neoorthodoxy as even a “halfway” return from liberalism shows no comprehension of neoorthodoxy’s heritage or direction.

The philosophic unity which neoorthodoxy is has natural “practical” results—ecclesiastical, cultural, and political. Should we not all long ago have known that neoorthodoxy would bring forth, with its relativistic, subjective base, what it is bringing forth in moral, psychological, and sociological areas? Should we not equally have known that it would bring forth in the denominations in which it is in control that which it recently has been bringing forth? Nor is this the case only in the United States: it can be observed across the whole international ecclesiastical, and Protestant and Roman Catholic ecumenical, spectrum.

Nor has this failed to have an influence on those evangelicals who have stayed in the denominations in the United States that are largely controlled by neoorthodox and post-neoorthodox thinking. It would seem to me that much of the organized and unorganized general evangelical framework, based on disowning or minimizing the principle of the purity of the visible church, has moved from its ecclesiastical contacts and practical contacts such as evangelism, to theological bridge-building that first accepts neoorthodoxy as a third force between orthodoxy and liberalism, and then champions the neoorthodox conjunction of “biblical authority” with “biblical errancy.” In this sort of an atmosphere it is not surprising that institutions and organizations which have been known as evangelical are now in a position where the full inspiration of Scripture has been minimized or set aside.

Huemoz sur Ollon, Switzerland

The Enlisted Man

Re your May 24 issue which attempted to cover, more or less adequately and realistically, the problem of ministering to the military: There was not one article or statement of positive testimony, or critical analysis by an enlisted man.… I fully realize that the military is not a democratic community and that it has long been standard operating procedure that testimonies of enlisted personnel are unnecessary, unlearned, and irrelevant (as well as sometimes irreverent). Yet to neglect totally the voice of the enlisted ranks in your issue is, it seems to me not only inaccurate, but evangelistically and evangelically unconscionable.…

Nine weeks at Fort Slocum does not prepare the average chaplain for ministering to enlisted men in a realistic manner. If the chaplain is to “minister unto” his men concerning Jesus Christ, how is it that denominational and military authorities do not require training in the enlisted ranks? If Jesus Christ came and suffered as one of us and became as we are that he might redemptively sympathize and empathize with us, as well as forgive us, how is it that the chaplain retires so discreetly from this life of identification?… Surely, a two-year tour of duty as an enlisted man, with all its frustrations, harassments, etc., is not too much to ask of a young man who takes his vocation as chaplain seriously.

Editor

The Northern Light

Northern Baptist Seminary

Chicago, Ill.

Description Disputed

In his letter in the April 12 issue, Prof. Martin mentions two books: Color Blind by Margaret Halsey and Without Magnolias by Bucklin Moon. Of the first he says, “The book Color Blind also contains obscene passages.…” Now, I defy Prof. Martin to cite one single passage, one single sentence, that could not be printed verbatim in CHRISTIANITY TODAY. The fact is he could not, although CHRISTIANITY TODAY would probably prefer to abstain from using the common word for an illegitimate child which occurs once in Color Blind.

Without Magnolias is a different matter. It is an adult book written about adult problems and relationships. But it does not even come close to obscenity, and Prof. Martin’s characterization of the book as “… sheer, unmitigated pornography …” is ridiculous and absurd. The language is somewhat coarse in a couple of passages but not nearly as coarse as the language which the real-life characters would have used. The usual four-letter words which characterize obscenity are completely absent. The few love scenes in the book are most restrained, and details are left almost entirely to the imagination of the reader. In this respect, the book is in very good taste.

Both books are, however, guilty of what some people consider a sin. They are guilty of being critical of and antagonistic toward the policies of white supremacy and racial segregation. To the distorted vision of an individual who sees obscenity in a Negro man dancing with a white girl, Color Blind would appear obscene. But I doubt that the majority of us in this country share this view, regardless of our individual attitudes toward integration. Certainly the courts do not.

Berkeley, Calif.

On The Horns

The Rev. Mr. Bustanoby’s discourse, “The Right to Die” (May 24 issue), lent new intensity to the heat of the ethical and practical problem of the medical care of those persons who have been in one way or another deprived of their endowments of personality, intelligence, and self-knowledge. As a recently qualified physician seeking to practice the tenets of my faith in medicine the problem is intensely real to me.

I commenced to read the article in hope that he might expound a principle on which the Christian physician might [stand] in the face of this problem. I was disappointed. He very ably stated his personal philosophy, but I rather doubt that any doctor cognizant of his human limitation would even dare to exercise the prerogatives of judgment which the enactment would require. The burning bedside question would be, “Is this person any longer useful in Christian service?” And the theological sequel is another question: “If he is no longer useful to Christ on earth, then why does not God call him home? Is the Master forgetting about his worn-out servants nowadays, so that we physicians find it necessary to hasten the heaven-bound traffic?”

On the other hand, what shall we do about the ever-growing quantity of human husks: the bodies bereft of personality and self-awareness whose dying we are bound to delay because we dare not assume the judgmental function of the Creator?

I should like to think that my Christian commitment would give me a position of practical insight, but on this problem it has not thus far, and in fact, has only pinned me on the horns of a dilemma.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

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