Eutychus and His Kin: May 23, 1975

Fanning The Fame

“How,” asked St. Paul, “shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14). In Paul’s day, the visit of a half-way decent traveling preacher or teacher to a new community was always of sufficient interest that an audience would gather. Therefore it may never have occurred to Paul to ask, “How shall they hear if they won’t come and listen?” But it occurs to us. There are plenty of people who have a good message, but to whom few listen. And there are others who have the same message, and who do not appear to have one hundred or one thousand times the oratorical skill, but who attract one hundred or one thousand times more eager listeners. What is the difference?

Certainly one factor is fame, which in our day is tied up with the mass media. Fame gets attention: attention means that people will listen to you. Having people listen to you means that you have a greater opportunity to minister to them. Hence, what promotes one’s fame also promotes one’s ministry (and sometimes one’s income, which may be an indication of a growing ministry). If one is devoted to one’s ministry, it is prudent to protect one’s fame, which is after all a prerequisite to an ever-wider ministry. From this we derive what may be called Eutychus’s Second Law, the Law of Prudent Protection: if one has a successful ministry, it is not prudent to say or do anything that might antagonize those who might otherwise be one’s audience (or customers).

Eutychus’s Second Law, though newly formulated, is already being widely practiced by many religious leaders who recognize instinctively that their celebrity and the good will they enjoy are valuable assets. Some people have an instinct for this sort of thing. Let one example stand for many. A newly famous and successful evangelical was recently asked to make a statement about a vital moral issue on which that person was known to have strong convictions. But prudence prevailed. After all, one has to think of the work. Not passing the request to the celebrity, a spokesman fielded it like this: “We support you, but we cannot afford to have our name associated with anything controversial, as it might damage our ministry. People have written to us saying, ‘I used to support you, until I learned your views on———.’ Our books are best-sellers. The Lord has given us this ministry, and we cannot do anything to endanger it.” This is not exactly the same as what Pope Leo X is supposed to have said (“The Lord has given us the papacy; let us therefore enjoy it”), but somehow it isn’t much more satisfying.

The only trouble with Eutychus’s Second Law is that those who prudently follow it overlook one troublesome possibility: what if the Lord has allowed one to become famous not just to sell one’s evangelical product but so that one’s witness in some other area will be heard? If this should turn out to be the case, it can be added as a footnote to the Second Law. In the meantime, those evangelicals who follow the law in its original form can be assured of earning their places in the forthcoming Dow-Jones handbook of religious successes, Profiles in Prudence.

Fresh And Inviting

Congratulations on CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S facelift! It is most attractive and readable. The headlines are clear, sharp, and the whole book has a fresh, inviting look to it.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY is the one religious publication I feel I cannot be without—although, with many others, I cannot always agree with the posture on some of the issues.

Executive Vice President

World Vision International

Monrovia, Calif.

Another Maxim

My sincere thanks to Eutychus VI for his scintillating analysis of Bishop Creighton’s recent pronouncement about not ordaining any males until such time as the Episcopal Church permits the ordination of females to the sacred priesthood (“A Modest Proposal,” April 25). I do hope that the bishop reads CHRISTIANITY TODAY and comes to see the dishonesty of the position he has taken.

In the examination prior to his consecration as a bishop … he was asked: “Will you be faithful in ordaining, sending, or laying hands upon others?” His answer on May 1, 1959, was: “I will so be, by the help of God.” This was his pledge and promise to God on that day, but now, because he believes that God’s Holy Catholic Church is not obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he rejects and denies this promise to God. Let’s not mince words: he is being dishonest and should resign his see forthwith!… I loved Eutychus’s closing new maxim: “Eat your cake now and bake it later.” It quite properly leads into an even older maxim frequently heard on the streets: “Put up or shut up.”

St. John’s Episcopal Church

Kansas City, Mo.

Taking A Stand

The editorial on “Waste as a Wrong” (April 11) was rightly directed toward examples of resourcefulness in the Bible. Similarly, there are many proofs of God’s abundance toward men in this book. Remember the widow’s vessels which Elisha filled with oil, and the disciples’ nets which, when cast on the right side, were filled with fishes.

God is continually demonstrating his care for us in supplying our every need when we turn to him in prayer. It is our obligation to him to make the most of the moments, opportunities, and energy he abundantly gives to us. This is taking an active stand against waste.

Elsah, Ill.

Another Bird

In listing clerical birds of the mid-seventies (“New Clerical Types, April 11), I am surprised that Eutychus VI left out clericus daemonigpaegnans furiouso, characterized by seeing Satanic activity in every untoward happening, and exorcising everyone in sight, with a maximum of showmanship and a minimum of exposition of Scripture for the spiritual stability of the exorcised. Chicago, Ill.

Clarifying Facts

Thank you for publishing the news story, “Released Time” (April 11). However, I feel some clarification needs to be made. The Bonneville Bible Academy is not sponsored by the Conservative Baptist Association as reported, but by the Washington Heights Baptist Church of Ogden, Utah. However, the academy is under the direct control and guidance of an interdenominational board of directors, and classes are for students of all denominations. The largest single denomination represented in the Bonneville Academy is Mormon. The article stated that the Bonneville Academy is headed by clergyman Henry Green. The name is the Reverend George Green and he is the teacher of the classes, and is doing an excellent job.

The Bonneville board is developing another academy at a new Weber County High School. A building has been constructed, and the classes will begin next year. The Conservative Baptist Home Mission Society is planning to furnish a teacher for the Weber Academy, but it is operated as an interdenominational program.

The Reverend ROBERT VANCE

Chairman

Board of Directors for Bonneville and Weber Academies

Ogden, Utah

The Old Straw Man

After reading Belden Menkus’s review of my book Hebrew Christianity: Its Theology, History, and Philosophy (Books in Review, March 28), I was left in a daze.…

One statement of his reads, “Fruchtenbaum concludes that a Jew who does not maintain his or her Jewish identity after becoming a Christian has not been truly redeemed.” Did I really say that in the book? As I looked through it again I found no such statement. On top of that I am a Calvinist who believes that redemption is solely based on one’s faith. I wish Belden Menkus had put in the page number where he arrived at that conclusion.… The reviewer totally confuses a distinction maintained by a separate Hebrew Christian church, with the maintaining of a Jewish culture within the local church. Is the Gentile Christian wedding ceremony any more “Christian” than a Jewish Christian ceremony? This is the real question that the reviewer has totally failed to wrestle with. When the Gospel is proclaimed to blacks, are the blacks required to give up their black culture and adopt the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture so prevalent in American Christianity? I assume that Belden Menkus would say that the answer is no, the black need not give up his black culture but simply conform his culture to the teachings of the New Testament, and certainly not everything in the WASP culture is Christian. Cannot Belden Menkus extend the same courtesy to Jewish culture? If maintaining black culture does not require a separate black church, why does the reviewer feel that maintaining a Jewish culture can only lead to a separate Jewish church?

Furthermore, he states that I conclude that “the Hebrew Christian is obligated to observe at least the six major annual festivals of Judaism.” Did I really say that? As I reread the book I wrote, especially pages 106 through 110, the point I made is that freedom from the Law meant the freedom not to observe anything demanded by the Law or the freedom to observe those parts of the Law that one may wish to observe on a voluntary basis. This hardly warrants Menkus’s strong word “obligated.” Would Belden Menkus say that since Christians are free to worship on Sunday or Wednesday they are therefore obligated to worship Sunday or Wednesday? When I said that the Hebrew Christians are free to observe and not to observe, that hardly means they are “obligated” to.

I do not demand that people agree with the things that I write. But I certainly demand that a reviewer know what I wrote and to portray what I wrote correctly. He is then free to criticize after presenting my correct views. This the reviewer failed to do, tragically. It is the old “straw man” technique. Apparently he simply states what he wished I believed and then proceeded to knock it down.

Editor and Director of Publications

American Board of Missions to the Jews

Englewood Cliffs, N. J.

To See It Work

As an evangelical who serves as a state senate chaplain, I concur with your March 14 editorial deploring California’s appointment of a chaplain outside the Judeo-Christian heritage (“When the Buddhist Prays”). However, I couldn’t let pass the innuendo of your suspicion that “the senate chambers, if they are like others, are pretty empty when the chaplain prays anyway.” Though I cannot answer for the other forty-nine states, here in Colorado better than 90 per cent of the senators are in their places when I pray. One day last week, when a significant minority were dawdling, the majority leader issued a quorum call prior to the invocation!

Incidentally, when I was first appointed, a cynical friend told me that “if you like baloney and love the law, you should never go see either one made.” To the contrary, I’ve spent enough time observing to be encouraged that integrity, hard work, and genuine public service still exist in these United States.

Chaplain, Senate of the State of Colorado

Lakewood, Colo.

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