Eutychus and His Kin: August 10, 1984

In Search Of Sustenance

Ever since Richard Foster, in Celebration of Discipline, introduced me to the prospect of fasting for spiritual purposes, I’ve hungered to know more. Closer communion with God at the cost of a few meals is a rare bargain indeed. And so, with journal in hand, I proceeded.

Sunday, 12 Noon—What better day to enter “communion” than the Sabbath. Foster recommends that beginners fast from lunch to lunch. I first decide to stock up. I down a two-fisted corned beef sandwich, then begin the fast with prayer—and a stomachache.

2 P.M.—Prayer and meditation postponed by a ballgame on television. (I can still taste the corned beef. Who said fasting was tough?)

4 P.M.—My stomach is growling. No matter, I’m almost there, right?

6 P.M.—Wrong! I’m starting to realize that fasting is not a piece of cake. (Oh that it were! Chocolate, preferably.)

8 P.M.—I’m beginning to wonder about Richard Foster. This is one book he should never have written.

9 P.M.—Symptoms of hunger setting in. All the ones Foster talks about. The coated tongue. The bad breath. I’m feeling weak. Must forgo bedtime prayers. (God knows my heart anyway.)

7 A.M.—What a night! I dreamed I was standing in line at McDonald’s. Some old woman was behind me asking “Where’s the beef?” I told her, “Forget the beef, I’ll settle for a nice big bun.”

8 A.M.—Drag myself to work. I feel like Gandhi after 30 days. I ask my secretary if she thinks I’m losing weight. She says I look “as chubby as ever.”

10 A.M.—No fair. Chocolate frosted donuts stand in the way of my perfect communion with God. My coworkers ask me why I won’t take one. I can’t tell them. Foster says it’s against the rules. I tell them I don’t like chocolate frosteds.

10:30 A.M.—I realize I lied about the chocolate frosteds. Lying is against the rules too. For penance, I must eat one.

10:32 A.M.—Donuts gone. I say a hasty “Our Father”—less for communion purposes, more for “daily bread.”

12:00—It’s over! Time to celebrate my newfound discipline—over a Big Mac and fries.

1:30 P.M.—Final entry. Fast was worth it. I covenant with God to maintain tighter spiritual communion—between meals, of course.

EUTYCHUS

Bicentennial Reflections

As a full-time observer of the 1984 United Methodist General Conference in Baltimore, I appreciated your coverage of that pivotal event [News, June 15]. However, you and some others perpetuate a myth about why many of us prompted a “cap” on denominational programs there. Some, like Ed Robb, saw it as a reflection of “a lack of confidence in the liberal leadership of our boards and agencies.” In reality, the members of the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference initiated that action to limit general church spending (and therefore annual conference spending) in order to stimulate a radically increased spending for missions at the local church level. Criticism of general boards and agencies was a secondary issue which many people like yourself picked up and made primary.

KENT E. KROEHLER

United Methodist

Eastern Pennsylvania Conference

Valley Forge, Pa.

I was thankful to see the article regarding the bicentennial of Methodism. As an ordained United Methodist elder, I have found my spirit torn between trying to understand my conservative evangelical identity in Jesus Christ and trying to understand the whole spectrum of other identities the same Lord seems to bring to others.

While theological pluralism may be the biggest problem of our denomination, it has brought us blessings as well. When we celebrate Communion at our annual conference, hundreds of laity and clergy come forward and kneel before the Lord’s Table. This is one time each year I experience togetherness with people I normally oppose dramatically. In that brief moment we are one—in God, in Christ, and in his family, the church. There is neither male nor female (nor black or white; nor rich or poor; nor old or young; nor gay or straight; nor liberal or conservative).

Perhaps if we can now come together around the Lord’s Table, we shall one day go together in his service around the world.

REV. ALLEN LEE EDWARDS

United Methodist Church of LaMonte,

Dresden, and Georgetown

LaMonte, Mo.

I believe strongly that language is important. We ought, therefore, not to be using the language preferred and misused by the homosexuals [“gay”] or the sodomites, as the Bible refers to them.

JOHN LOFTON

Conservative Digest

Washington, D.C.

Numbers Game

The article, “Frankly, I Don’t Care How Many Are in Your Sunday School” [June 15], was a good reflection of how many of us feel. However, much of its impact was lost when the acknowledgement of the author said, “He is the author of four books and more than 200 magazine articles.”

Frankly, I don’t care how many books and articles he has written.

REV. J. WADE PARKER

Mira Mesa Grace Chapel

San Diego, Calif.

J. Grant Swank, Jr., gives a one-sided view of church measurement. Apparently, he doesn’t care about numbers; but his master, the Lord Jesus Christ, did. He taught that the shepherd counted only 99 sheep and went looking for the one that was lost.

Swank should have balanced his article and suggested that numbers alone are not the criteria for measurement. Instead, he implies that qualitative questions dealing with nurture and relationship are the sole standard.

In the final analysis, one cannot have church quality without quantity or, to put it another way, one cannot have a spiritual church without giving attention to organization matters and vice versa.

ELMER L. TOWNS

Liberty Baptist College

Lynchburg, Va.

The Schaeffer Legacy

The news report on the death and life of Francis A. Schaeffer IV by Stephen Board [News, June 15] rightly recognizes many of the contributions he made to twentieth-century evangelicalism. However, Mr. Board’s comments about criticisms of Schaeffer by “some faculty members at evangelical colleges” go a bit overboard in defending Schaeffer.

Scholars can be petty and jealous in their criticisms. In the case of Francis Schaeffer, my personal experience suggests that the critiques arose from legitimate, scholarly differences of opinion. My personal gratitude for the intra-evangelical debate over Schaeffer can scarcely be put into words. My gratitude for what Schaeffer did for individuals at L’Abri and elsewhere is likewise full and overflowing.

DENNIS D. MARTIN

Associated Mennonite

Biblical Seminaries

Elkhart, Ind.

Francis Schaeffer had the ability to speak with clarity to a certain type of “modern” mind and to point the way to the truth of Christ.

For those of us awash in the mind-boggling chaos and confusion of secularism (which has invaded so much of the church), and disoriented by the monumental changes in both church and culture, meeting Schaeffer through his work could be, and often was, a life-changing experience.

He will be missed.

GLORIA WARNER

Anacortes, Wash.

Neither Southern Nor Rural!

While I am not a subscriber to your magazine, I could not help but react when I was shown your story [News, May 18] concerning the Gallup-University of Pennsylvania study on what you called “the electronic church.” Your summary of its findings was an attempt to denigrate ministries, such as my father’s, whose messages and results apparently cause you considerable intellectual discomfort.

I would note by way of example your conclusion that “Swaggart draws rural Southerners.” That statement, which has no basis in the report, reflects an apparent effort to pigeonhole this ministry and its viewers. Our relative southern viewership is indeed the highest, according to the report. But even at that, over half of our viewers are not located in the South. As for rural viewership, you have again misrepresented the statistics in the report: 54 percent of the viewers are nonrural. Obviously, then, most of our viewers are neither southern nor rural.

Despite that, however, the point I wish to make has nothing to do with the South. What I object to is your creative twisting of the facts. It cannot benefit the cause of Christianity when a magazine such as yours engages in the same sort of distorted and selective reporting for which the secular media is known.

DONNIE SWAGGART

Jimmy Swaggart Ministries

Baton Rouge, La.

A False Sense of Security

Your magazine is giving readers a false sense of security by publishing articles like “Humanism Suffers from Lack of Leadership” [June 15]. Humanism is an atheistic cause embraced by millions of people (including Christians) who are so enamored by the “world” that they don’t recognize demon worship when it is staring them in the face.

Please spare us your idealism and naïveté concerning issues so vital to our very existence. Humanists would do away with CHRISTIANITY TODAY if they could. Please don’t help their cause.

DONNA EYMAN

Florida City, Fla.

City Limits

Raymond Bakke [“The City and the Scriptures,” June 15] neglected to say that specific cities were also roundly denounced by Jesus (“Woe unto you Chorazin, Bethsaida! If Sidon had seen what you have seen, its people would have repented.”)

God deals not with corporate entities so much as he does with the people they embrace. There clearly are cities today out of which he still calls his faithful Lots.

MARY A. SPENCER-MCCOY

Birmingham, Ala.

Where’s the Church?

The news report on North Korean churches [June 15] is misleading. You say no churches can be built, but also say there are 1,000 house churches. Are there or are there not “churches” in North Korea?

JACK ISAACSON

Houston, Tex.

(The North Korean government will not permit the building of churches. Religious expression in private homes is tolerated—barely.—Eds.)

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.