Eutychus and His Kin: August 16, 1968

Dear Ministerial Superstars and Lesser Lights:

As much as we love evangelical pastors, honesty compels us to admit that their roosts contain a certain number of cocksure bumblers who love to crow. Baptist minister Richard Milham holds a funhouse magnifying mirror up to this fowl breed in a new satirical work, Brother Fred Chicken, Superpastor (Broadman, $1.75). His book may ruffle the feathers of a few cocks of the walk, but it will delight all who have to laugh so they won’t cry over the foibles of some pastors.

Brother Fred Chicken (and it’s always Brother Fred) is long on palaver and short on sensitivity, square in his pietism but a corner-cutter in his personal ethics. When a young man seeks him out one night to learn how he can become a Christian, the Superpastor bombards him with a pamphlet against evolution but overlooks his real need. At a ministerial meeting the next day, Brother Chicken eagerly tries to tell of the midnight dialogue but is repeatedly thwarted. Finally, he closes in prayer: “Bless that young man that called me in the middle of the night and got me out of my warm bed. You know how I sought to.…”

Fred is a man with forceful convictions. He’s a master of dispensational charts for bold eschatological preaching; he campaigns vigorously against tobacco (until an acre of it is planted for him as a love gift); he strenuously opposes dancing at his church’s college. In his witness to a Jewish merchant, the Superpastor implores him to “cling to that cross—that same cross that you and your people murdered our Saviour on,” finally leaves him with the reminder not to forget “my preacher’s discount” on a pair of shoes, and then wonders, “Why is it so hard to reach some people with the good news about our riches in Jesus?” He is not averse to receiving kickbacks for funerals referred to a particular mortuary, customarily leaves a miserly tip accompanied by a tract entitled, “Here’s a Tip for You,” and uses a system of telephone signals to avoid long-distance charges.

Brother Chicken yearns to fly high in his denomination. He lands a large pastorate after a carefully planned service to impress the pulpit committee at which two young children, previously pressured by the Superpastor, respond to his baptism invitation. He thinks God one day will make him denominational president.

Milham’s amusing book lays only one egg. In his epilogue he feels constrained to warn readers that his book is satire and that thousands of ministers are not of the Brother Fred Chicken variety. If such an explicit explanation is really necessary, I fear there are more Brother Freds than we realize.

Your friendly chicken-plucker,

EUTYCHUS III

A DISTINGUISHED DOZEN YEARS

Dr. Carl F. H. Henry’s farewell note (Editor’s note, July 5) leads to comment upon the great contribution to religious journalism and Christian thought that he has made during his twelve years as editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. As one of his friends since the beginning of his career and as his coeditor from 1963 to 1966, I know something of the devotion to Christ with which he has used his brilliant ability, editorial skill, and exceptional knowledge of theology and related fields to further the cause of evangelical Christianity throughout the world. The position of CHRISTIANITY TODAY as one of the foremost religious journals of these times is a measure of Dr. Henry’s distinguished leadership. As he enters upon his year of study and reflection at Cambridge, he deserves the gratitude and prayerful good wishes not only of the evangelical community but also of other Christian men of good will everywhere.

FRANK E. GAEBELEIN

Arlington, Va.

I wish to congratulate Dr. Henry for producing consistently one of the most readable religious periodicals.…

I have recently assumed the job of religion editor here. Our paper is the largest daily in Alabama.

WALLACE HENLEY

The Birmingham News

Birmingham, Ala.

PANEL APPLAUSE

I appreciated … “Technology, Modern Man, and the Gospel” (July 5). I applaud Dr. Henry’s excellent biblical answers to what appears to be a very modern, universalistic theology.… If we can tell men today that they are forgiven through God’s act, without emphasizing their personal awareness of sin and the need for forgiveness, then there is no need for evangelism today.

BENNIE H. CLAYTON

First Southern Baptist Church

Willows, Calif.

On clinical grounds, I disagree with Harvey Cox that “the first news of the Gospel is not that you’re a sinner but that God has acted and forgiven you.” In the mental-hospital setting, we know that until a person fully accepts his illness and his helplessness in the face of it, there is no way to healing.…

And yet, I would argue against Dr. Henry’s view that the terms sin and sinner are meaningful in helping broken people today. The modern moralistic connotations make the words almost unusable.… Modern man is concerned primarily with the pain he himself is suffering.… Most people today go to God because they are desperate rather than because they feel guilt.… As long as the prodigal comes home, who cares what drives him?

EARL JABAY

Chaplain

New Jersey Neuro-Psychiatric Institute

Princeton, N. J.

COGENT BREVITY

To the “Plight of the Evangelicals” (July 5)—Amen! This is penetrating analysis; its brevity is defied by the depth and cogency of its message. Every point should be carried home to our hearts if we who rest our all in Christ are not to betray his cause at this turning point.

ROBERT M. METCALF, JR.

Memphis, Tenn.

I think that I can suggest at least two basic reasons for the “plight”.… We Mennonites find ourselves in a somewhat peculiar position. In doctrine we are generally with the evangelicals … [but] we are much more comfortable with more liberal groups in the areas of social action.… The tendency to identify America with Christianity … to many of us seems to border on idolatry.… To us the Church, the people of God, come from all nations, kindred, and tribes. The large part that hate … plays in fundamentalist messages and speeches … we cannot accept. We believe that the Bible teaches love for the brethren, for those in need, and for all men and even our enemies. We readily admit that we do not fully practice this, being human, but we certainly try not to make hate a part of our faith.

RALPH NOFZIGER

Archbold, Ohio

NOT SO RED, WHITE, AND BLUE

Please do not write any more editorials about Viet Nam until you have thoroughly investigated the sorry history of our involvement there.…

To say (“Spock, Coffin, and Viet Nam,” July 5) that we must remain to stand for “freedom” is to show ignorance of the peasant’s life under the aristocratic land-lord government that has been in power in the absence of the Viet Cong. The present Saigon government is not a study in moral, conscientious government.…

The picture in Viet Nam is not the simple portrait in red, white, and blue that the evangelical pulpit would like to paint.…

CHRISTIANITY TODAY is the greatest, until it wanders into unfamiliar territory.

LEWIS W. FLAGG III

Cambridge, Mass.

INCOME ATTENTION

“A Guaranteed Income” (A Layman and His Faith, July 5) deserves a lot of attention.… I see no essential injustice in a guaranteed income. There is intrinsic injustice in the old welfare idea.… Guaranteed care for the poor … is a part of the fundamental Hebrew-Christian Ethic.…

Sound ethics will put an economic base under a person because he is a person.… Sound ethics will also call for political integrity which does not use money to exploit the poor.…

The will to work definitely deserves serious consideration. Public support is not the Christian way of life.…

The New Testament pictures a labor pool (Matt. 28:1–16) where those who are willing to work stood all day waiting to be employed. “Why stand ye here idle?” was answered honestly: “No man hath hired me.” The man who says, “If any one will not work, let him not eat,” must have a job to offer. And the New Testament just income is full pay for the fellows who stood in the labor market all day indicating that they were willing to work all day if the employment service would provide the kind of work they could do.… The fact is, if we all knew how to live by every word … of God, these nagging problems would be well on their way to solution.

FRED RUDDER

Knoxville, Tenn.

I have recognized for some time that I am something of a … schizophrenic bird—a religious conservative and a political liberal.…

I just don’t think enough time went into research on the realities of the situation, the workings of various solutions.… The idea of churches and individual Christians meeting today’s social and economic problems on their own sounds great. But the record is one of dismal failure. Let’s put aside the notion that government is something strange and evil. It can be whatever we choose to make it. Let’s borrow a page from the strategy of our Communist foes and start boring from within.

HARRY M. DURNING, JR.

Editorial Writer

WBZ-TV 4

Boston, Mass.

DID NOT—WAS NOT

I covered the Ninety-fourth General Assembly of The Presbyterian Church in Canada.… It was with dismay that I read [your] erroneous report (July 5).

The assembly did not vote to modernize rules, simply to experiment with the form of the 1969 General Assembly.… Coles was not named to head a panel of three, in fact no panel or committee has been set up yet.

DECOURCY H. RAYNER

Editor

The Presbyterian Record

Don Mills, Ont.

FRY AND PRESBYTERY

The issue of the Rev. John R. Fry versus the McClellan Committee (“Gun Cache at First Church,” July 19) was supposedly resolved at the last meeting of Chicago Presbytery. Yet it is still very much a live issue.…

Presbytery rightly acted in support of Mr. Fry in the face of a committee whose proceedings under any normal laws of jurisprudence are extra-legal at best and gratingly abusive at worst. To any reasonable person, Presbyterians included, John Fry remains innocent until proven guilty.…

By the same logic, any reasonable person, Presbyterians included, cannot conclude the Senate committee, the Mayor of Chicago, the police force, and its individual members guilty as charged by Mr. Fry until similarly proven guilty.

What remains is the substantive issue of conflicting testimony.… Senator McClellan’s railings have no more right to shape the church than a group of ecclesiastics wearing “Fry’s My Guy” pins have the right to dictate federal legislative procedure.

What is needed, now that the dust has begun to settle, is for the Presbytery of Chicago to seek to determine, as the court of Jesus Christ which it is, the propriety of the Rev. Mr. Fry’s conduct as a member of that ecclesiastical body.… The emotional whitewash given at our last Presbytery meeting just will not do.

R. NORMAN HERBERT

First Presbyterian Church

Waukegan, Ill.

IT’S SENSIBLE

The little booklet “Heaven or Hell?” by Fred Carl Kuehner (June 21) is about the most sensible treatment on the subject I have seen in a long time.

WALDO H. TINDALL

Trail Community Church

Trail, Ore.

The title “Heaven or Hell?” leads one to believe there will be a real contest, but as it turns out, Hell won by a landslide. Kuehner hardly gives Heaven honorable mention! Is this good news?

BARRY H. DOWNING

Ass’t Minister

Northminster Presbyterian Church

Endwell, N.Y.

INFORMED BUT TOO FREE

Thanks for the fine articles by W. F. Albright and K. A. Kitchen (June 21). However, I feel that James L. Kelso used his well-informed imagination a bit too freely, and thus I must challenge certain assertions which he made without adducing any supporting evidence, either biblical or extrabiblical. For example, I cannot agree that Abraham was a “big business man … engaged in international commerce”.… According to Kitchen (Ancient Orient and Old Testament), Abraham and Isaac were “keepers of flocks and herds and occasionally grew crops of grain (Gen. 26:12; 37:7).… It is going far beyond the biblical evidence to turn Abraham into a full-time donkey caravaneer or a professional merchant”.…

I know of no convincing linguistic evidence to support the etymology of the word “Hebrew” as meaning “caravaneer”.… As long ago as 1961 … Albright promised a forthcoming paper on this problem in which he proposed to prove that the ancestral Hebrews were caravaneers. It should be interesting indeed to read this still future article by Albright, since he claims to have irrefutable evidence. But until it appears, I shall continue to regard Abraham as a wealthy semi-nomadic stockbreeder.

KENNETH L. BARKER

Assistant Professor in Old Testament and Archaeology

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Deerfield, Ill.

DOWNING’S UFOs

Albert L. Hedrich did your readers a disservice in his unfavorable treatment of Rev. Barry Downing’s book The Bible and Flying Saucers (June 21). The book may be criticized for lack of sufficient bibliography, for focusing on certain obscure aspects of biblical history that might be UFO-connected while ignoring more substantial items such as Ezekiel’s “flying wheels”.… It may also be criticized for digressing into some quasi-metaphysical speculations about “heaven” which can be more simply understood as God’s vast transgalactic civilization. [But] Rev. Downing’s book should receive wide support since he has made an initial attempt to break this subject into the religious community.… It certainly enhances the credibility of Scripture to realize that Jesus left this planet in a technologically advanced spaceship rather than in a “cloud.” This was the misperception of the people of the time. And only in our own “Space Age” can we conceptualize biblical events with more insight and understanding.

CHARLES D. WILLIS, M.D.

San Francisco, Calif.

The book may be “far out”, but … it certainly does not discredit the Bible; it only gives us a different viewpoint of some things. Whether God used an anti-G beam to hold back the Red Sea or did it some other way makes no difference to me. He did it.

MRS. ERIK KOREEN

St. Paul, Minn.

FUNDAMENTAL DISTORTIONS

May I enumerate the distortions in “Fighting Fundamentalists” (News, June 21): (1) The entire [Pillsbury College] faculty resigned at the close of the first year the school operated, 1957–58. (2) … Dr. Monroe Parker denies that he was forced out when he resigned three years ago. (3) … [Former president] Cedarholm did not double the enrollment.

RICHARD V. CLEARWATERS

Fourth Baptist Church

Minneapolis, Minn.

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