Eutychus and His Kin: August 6, 1971

PAY YOUR MONEY AND TAKE YOUR CHOICE

He looked at me intently, and his big brown eyes radiated all the cosmic concern that an eight-year-old is capable of as he asked, “Dad, how can I become a race-car driver?”

Frankly, I didn’t have the foggiest idea. And as it turned out, the problem was more complex than I realized.

It seems that some months ago he and his older brother entered into a type of agreement that is frowned upon in our house and usually goes under the name “bet.” The terms were that he has to pay his brother five dollars if he does not become an astronaut.

I began to smile as he told me about it, but the gravity of the matter was reconfirmed by his solemn look. Put yourself in his place. You have your whole life ahead of you. The excitement in anticipating a career as an astronaut has palled. Now nothing looks quite so exciting as driving a race car. But standing in the way is a bet that involves the gigantic sum of FIVE DOLLARS and a considerable amount of personal pride. I tried to assure him that when the time came to make the final decision, the five dollars wouldn’t really matter. But it didn’t seem to help much. He still feels vocationally boxed in.

A few months after this incident I talked with a twenty-eight-year-old whose vocational problem was similar. It seems this young man holds a Ph.D. in a rather obscure branch of engineering. He got this degree, he said, “sort of by accident.”

The way he explained it, his grades were good in physics and so he was encouraged to consider engineering. When he finished his bachelor’s degree, he was encouraged to consider specializing in an area where there was scholarship money and little competition.

As a result he holds a Ph.D. and a considerable commitment to a field that he finds unrewarding.

The two incidents brought to mind my own vocational choices and the fact that we are often called upon to make these choices before we have the necessary information or maturity of judgment.

Perhaps the Church can help. Perhaps we should abandon our preoccupation with four-year liberal-arts colleges and take another look at the two-year junior college. Perhaps the churches by providing a two-year program could give the student a good liberal-arts foundation within a Christian perspective and still leave him time to pursue a specialized vocation.

Perhaps they could, but I’ll bet you five dollars they don’t.

BOLD ABOUT ABORTION

The latest in your series of articles and editorials on abortion (“Abortion: The Psychological Price,” by Kenneth J. Sharp, June 4) expresses certain opinions which need further examination.

The overriding fact about abortion under any circumstances and for any reason is that an innocent human being is killed. This has been stated quite boldly even by pro-abortion groups such as the California Medical Association.…

When morally responsible people express an opinion favoring abortion, there are usually two factors at work. One is that they are thinking of abortion as “termination of pregnancy,” not as taking a human life. The second is that they are not aware of how abortions are performed. On this latter point, abortion has to be one of the most barbaric methods ever devised for killing. There are laws in most states that prohibit the killing of animals by the cruel processes used to kill the innocent unborn baby.…

But above all one must bear in mind that the human being who begins life [because of rape] is innocent, and simply cannot be killed because the circumstances of conception are emotionally painful.…

A careful examination of liberalized abortion laws, such as the one in California, reveals that rather reasonable sounding reservations, such as permitting termination of pregnancy in the event of a serious threat to the mental health of the mother, have become through interpretation abortion on demand. This was not, perhaps, intended by the legislators, but it is what has happened, and what will happen everywhere there is any relaxation in abortion laws. There is a massive movement afoot in the culture to make abortion solely a matter between a mother and her doctor. These forces are pushing for, and take immediate advantage of any change in abortion laws, or any weakness or equivocation on the part of those who oppose abortion.

Donald S. Smith Associates

Anaheim, Calif.

THE LAST RESORT

The Dallas Independent School District has received a number of letters from readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY who were concerned over the editorial, “Making the Rod Count” (June 18).…

We feel that each student has the right to receive an education that will prepare him to be a productive member of society, to explore relevant materials which relate to his learning ability, to be treated by faculty and students with courtesy and respect, and to participate in the development of standards within his school community. We also expect students to respect the rights of others, to abide by school regulations, and to recognize and accept the authority of faculty and staff.

We firmly believe that the relationship between teachers and students should emphasize the positive and de-emphasize the negative. In addition, we feel it is the principal’s responsibility to maintain order and discipline in his school in order to insure its effective and efficient operation.

Occasionally, despite the efforts of the faculty and fellow students to provide a worthwhile and effective educational environment, there are some students who cannot or will not control themselves and repeatedly disrupt the school program.… Through counseling and special attention, these children usually develop self-discipline and a more positive self image. But, … there are times when corporal punishment is the only process remaining.… This technique is used as a last resort, just as a parent spanks as a last resort.

General Superintendent

Dallas Independent School District

Dallas, Tex.

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS

Praise the Lord for fresh winds blowing! I hear the strains of the Hallelujah Chorus. Thank you for Calvin Linton’s “Literary Style in Religious Writing” (June 18, July 2).… His voice crying in the wilderness of words refreshes as only the unexpected oasis that sends forth living springs of water to the dying soul.

Okeene, Okla.

BALANCED DISENCHANTMENT

Stanley Sturges’s revelation that polarization exists within the Adventist church will not surprise anyone familiar with groups of human beings and how they act (“The Growing Quarrel Among Seventh-day Adventists,” June 18). What is more remarkable is the undeniably large measure of unity evident among so heterogeneous a church, whose two million members include almost every nationality, culture, color, and educational level.

Sturges is correct when he deplores “the slavish use of her [Ellen G. White’s] comments to support almost any point the writer wishes to make.” Compilers of such lists have probably done more damage to Mrs. White’s image as a Christian leader and writer than all her detractors together. However, Sturges errs when he says Adventists put E. G. White writings on a par with the Bible. Some unwittingly do. But she herself spoke of her writings as a “lesser light to lead men and women to the greater light”—the Bible.

Though disenchanted with certain aspects of Adventism, Sturges is to be commended for a certain balance. His is no vengeful tirade. In fact, I have never seen so many complimentary things about Mrs. White in any other evangelical paper.

Book Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association

Mountain View, Calif.

As a Seventh-day Adventist in his early thirties and one who has worked inside the church and outside for ten years now, I would like to report there is no “growing quarrel”.… Like a fresh breeze, revival has been spontaneously and quietly spreading through our ranks for several years. Beginning with our young people who are falling in love with Jesus Christ, the revival and reformation are permeating Adventists of all ages everywhere.

Seventh-day Adventists are a people who love Christ. Because this is so, most of us are too busy trying to fulfill the commission he gave each of us to have time for quarrels.

Instructor of Journalism

Andrews University

Berrien Springs, Mich.

CONFUSING COMMISSIONS

Mr. Tarr’s report on the Canadian Presbyterian General Assembly (News, “Canadian Presbyterians: Down the Middle of the Road,” July 2) illustrates what happens when a reporter, unconnected with the church written about, fails to get the official record or otherwise to check his report.

I refer in particular to his paragraph on the “charismatic renewal.” The appeal to Assembly from a member of the Westminster Presbytery concerned the presbytery’s procedure. A judicial committee of Assembly made a preliminary report that the procedure was in order. It was the presbytery itself that petitioned for the appointment of a judicial commission, which was granted. The judicial committee, with two members added, became the commission. That commission has now found the presbytery’s actions legally correct, and is proceeding to make an investigation under wide terms of reference. The doctrinal aspects were not handed to another “commission.” The Assembly’s standing committee on church doctrine has been assigned the duty of making a study and of reporting to another Assembly.

Clerk of Assembly

The Presbyterian Church in Canada

Ontario

THE COLOR OF TRUTH

Having heard one verbal report on the 111th General Assembly, and having read all of the printed reports which came to my attention from official and liberal sources, there seemed to linger a questioning echo in my mind. That echo I now believe to have been “the death knell of the Presbyterian Church as a historic entity,” reverberating all the way down to Texas.

The reports I read no doubt were factual, as statistics are factual, but they lacked the subtle color and the “ring of truth” expressed and implied in Russell Chandler’s smoothly written report, “Death Knell for Southern Presbyterians?” (July 2).

The professionals who wrote the other reports could sell arrowheads to Indians, but they can’t fool a battle-scarred conservative with fifty years of observation stored in his mind.… Thank you for the excellent report; well-written, restrained, statesman-like. Tyler, Tex.

SLEEPING LIFE AWAY

CHRISTIANITY TODAY quoted me as saying that I’m against the church (News, “Graham Crusade: Satanists Lose to Jesus Power,” July 2). This is a misquote. What I did say is as follows: Street people that we reach for Christ today are turned off by formalism and “church” that has a form of life but not life itself. I’m referring to the great sleeping giant, evangelical fundamentalism.

Chicago, Ill.

PREDETERMINED NONSENSE

I read with interest your report on tongues-speaking (News, “Testing Tongues,” June 4).… It seems that the study, reporter, and forthcoming book have already predetermined tongues as nonsense. However, the Holy Spirit cannot be tested scientifically, for he is God.

Highland Heights Presbyterian Church

Little Rock, Ark.

HUMORLESS JUDGMENT

I … appreciate CHRISTIANITY TODAY. I read it with real profit.

However, I criticize your editors for what I consider a judgment of poor taste in the use of the so-called art of Mr. Lawing (“What If …,” July 2). For a conservative religious periodical I thought this was a cheap attempt at humor.

East District Bishop

Church of the United Brethren in Christ

Grand Rapids, Mich.

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