Eutychus and His Kin: November 8, 1985

Synthetic Slingshot Stones

I read the other day that the sponsors of the National Skipping Stone Championships, held annually on Mackinac Island, were being sued by a manufacturer of synthetic skipping stones to be allowed to enter the contest.

It started me wondering what would have happened if the salesman for Simon’s Super Synthetic Slingshot Stones had shown up in the valley of Elah just before that epic match between David and Goliath.

“I tell you, Dave boy,” he might have said, “these stones are custom made for giant killing. We cast them out of top grade synthetic granite, then we mill ‘em down to tolerances as close as .0001 of an inch. And every one of these little beauties gets a thin coat of beeswax and a hand polish job that’s guaranteed to increase its velocity by 45 percent. We can practically guarantee you’ll get giant results every time.”

“And listen, kid, if you act now, we’ll even throw in this genuine, tailor-made, synthetic sheepskin pouch to keep ‘em in. You’ll probably be the first kid in your pasture to have one.

“Oh, and one very important thing I almost forgot, Dave boy. If any one of Simon’s Super Synthetic Slingshot Stones ever proves to be defective—and it misses its target—we’ll replace it absolutely free of charge!”

EUTYCHUS

Called To Knowledge

As a former public school teacher, now pastor of an evangelical, Baptist church, I commend Charles Glenn for his expertise and insight [“Why Public Schools Don’t Listen,” Sept. 20]. The point cannot be stressed enough that Christian leaders (pastors, parents, politicians, etc.) are called to be knowledgeable as to the strengths and weaknesses of our society’s educational system. Furthermore, all Christians are called to invest in the training of the coming generations. Glenn’s refusal to throw the baby out with the bath water (i.e., public education with the difficulties in the system) shows faith, ingenuity, and good stewardship.

REV. JAMES SHELDON

Warren Avenue Baptist Church

Brockton, Mass.

Glenn seems to imply that Christian teaching is a mere alternative to statist education. Such reasoning can only lead I to the proposition that other systems of thought are equally valid. The idea that religion should in no sense be favored in public schools is a myth of nonsense, since religion is the heart of education.

M. H. SCHELB

Coral Springs, Fla.

A Much-Needed Alarm

Gregg Lewis’s excellent guest editorial [“TV Advertising’s Double Threat,” Sept. 20] sounds a much-needed alarm about the dangers inherent in TV commercials. He might well have noted that radio advertising, including that carried on “good music stations,” is similarly laden with appeals to snobbery and self-indulgence.

DOROTHY I. BLANCHARD

Philadelphia, Pa.

Cosmic Consequences

I was delighted to read Anthony Hoekema’s essay, “Heaven: Not Just an Eternal Day Off” [Sept. 20]. He has challenged a significant misunderstanding of what Scripture teaches concerning the future. Where in the Scriptures do we find the future life as a “spiritual,” heavenly state of immeasurable rest and relaxation? Yet this is the kind of eschatology that motivates most evangelical Christians today. We insist on the literal resurrection of Christ, yet fail to affirm its cosmic consequences.

DANIEL G. REID

Mercer Island, Wash.

Surely Prof. Hoekema wrote as a spoof. It’s just not real! If, on the other hand, he was seriously attempting to write a melodramatic portrayal of what “earth-based eternity” will be like, he failed. I remember hearing this same “kingdom message” as a reluctant Jehovah’s Witness.

LORRIE AUVINEN

Portland, Oreg.

The Start Of Personhood

A key issue in the abortion controversy is whether the fetus can be legally considered a “person” before birth. Paige Cunningham (“Reversing Roe vs. Wade,” Sept. 20) states that viability may now be medically indicated at 20 or 21 weeks, and test-tube technology could put it at conception. What is not usually understood is that personhood is not a biological achievement, nor dependent on medical technology. It is an endowment given us by our Creator. Cunningham states that “photography of the unborn child compellingly illustrates its humanity.” Indeed, we cannot “see” a person physically: we can see the body a person uses.

J. E. SMITH

Minneapolis, Minn.

Making abortion illegal again without addressing the needs of scared women and girls—rape or incest victims, or those recently widowed or divorced—would only cause more deaths. How can the life of the unborn child be sacred, but not the life of the woman or girl? I am not advocating abortion but rather compassion for those in distress.

REBECCA L. FAHLIN

Bloomington, Minn.

Colson: Heartwarming

What a heartwarming column by Charles Colson: such truly Christian thoughts in his “Budget Cuts and Self-denial” [Sept. 20]. I have yet to read anything equal to it in my Catholic publications—sad to say.

FRANK J. MEINEN

Chippewa Falls, Wis.

Colson is right. I wish his column “Budget Cuts and Self-denial” could be reprinted on the editorial pages of every newspaper in North America.

ROD HURON

Cincinnati, Ohio

Campolo: Risk-Taking Christian

I read the three-part report on Anthony Campolo with great interest [News, Sept. 20]. I am curious as to why Bill Bright was apparently unwilling, as Jay Kesler was, to keep Campolo as a speaker “for the sake of unity.” I am frightened when I see leaders such as Kesler “lying down” when someone raises objections to an issue or person, especially when the objection is on doctrinal grounds. It is as if a Christian who takes risks and attempts to think and speak creatively is, at best, held in suspicion.

J. ANDREW BUSCH

Community Baptist Church

Ontario, Wis.

Kenneth Kantzer’s critique of Campolo’s A Reasonable Faith is condescending, paternalistic, much like that of organizations that banned Campolo from their premises in the name of unity. Campolo, I think, deserves a better press. We need more leaders like him, who will risk asking (and answering) tough questions, to which they themselves may have incomplete, partial, even inadequate responses.

DOUGLAS FOSTER

Missoula, Mont.

I appreciate Kantzer’s firm and forthright treatment. As previously, he has made an analysis in the most gracious spirit, yet dealt squarely with the issues.

Evangelicals need to be aware that any free-wheeling tendency to downgrade historical and systematic theology soon yields to the temptation of a short-cut to sound faith. To compromise the nature of Christ undermines the Atonement and the heart of the Christian faith. To affirm inerrency of Scripture does not necessarily save one from default in doctrine. The Thomas Howard and Tony Campolo cases ought to alert us to the dangerous climate in which evangelical Christianity now finds itself.

SAMUEL J. STOESZ

Canadian Theological Seminary

Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

So, the Christianity of Bill Bright and the Roddens is acceptable, but the Christianity of Tony Campolo and Thomas Howard is not?

JEFF TOBIN

Lynwood, Wash.

If Campolo is right in his contention that the living, historical, resurrected Christ lives in all people regardless of whether they are Christians, it would go a long way toward explaining how Mahatma Gandhi could accept and live by the Sermon on the Mount without becoming a Christian.

HAROLD PETERS

Newton, Kan.

If Bill Bright relies on secondary opinions by micro-theologians without first reading the primary source (A Reasonable Faith) and forming a judgment himself, I feel his credentials as the leader of a crusade in academic circles are questionable. In the end, Campus Crusade may be a bigger loser than Campolo.

KEVIN H. BROTTON

Fulton, Mich.

The articles reveal the rigid and paranoid attitudes that still lurk behind evangelicalism. I think it was bad taste to reprint the Rodden cartoon depicting Campolo as a mystical wizard mixing heretical potions.

REV. RYAN AHLGRIM

Peoria, Ill.

I pray that there is reconciliation and healing for all parties involved, and I thank CT for presenting a caring and objective view.

PAMELA SERETNY

Philadelphia, Pa.

Campolo’s problem is that he tends to interpret the Bible rather literally. Such passages as: “… as you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to me,” and “Blessed are the poor,” provide him with his bread and butter sermons. In eighteenth- or nineteenth-century evangelical circles he would have felt right at home. But in the twentieth century, these texts have been politely avoided by vast portions of evangelicals.

DANIEL J. PRICE

Easton United Presbyterian Church

Fresno, Calif.

Confine your doctrinal heresy trials to the book review columns or the editorial pages.

JOHN WAGNER

Oklahoma City, Okla.

We are all heretics to the extent that we have insecurely clung to small-minded formulizations of God and obscured his omnipresence to nonbelievers. Let us hope that this situation will stimulate creative growth and reconciliation in the Body, and not the factual finger pointing that only serves to tear down sincere believers and amuses those who are called to teach.

RONN HUFF II

St. Davids, Pa.

Whatever happened to Mark 10:15?

KENN SIDOREWICH

The Final Delivery Ministries

Bellmawr, N.J.

Those criticizing Tony Campolo should heed an observation by Oswald Chambers: “The danger is lest we made the little bit of truth we do know a pinnacle on which we set ourselves to judge everyone else.”

PATRICIA GORTON

Milwaukee, Wis.

Abundant Life Here And Now

Donald McCullough [“The Pitfalls of Positive Thinking,” Sept. 6] talks a lot about half-empty cups, suffering, unfulfilled dreams, and disappointments. To him, heaven is something we all wait for, a “pie in the sky when we die.” I have found my cup overflows with the joy of the Lord, and Jesus has given me abundant life in the here and now.

JEFF STEVENSON

New Rochelle, N.Y.

Instead of dwelling upon unfulfillment, even if our cup is only half full, we owe God thanks for it. Furthermore, this negative approach to life also seems to result in a self-fulfilling prophecy, for expecting the worst seems to help to make it happen. It is due, in all probability, to some of our own thoughts and actions, as well as failure to believe in God’s power.

ISAAC C. CRIST

Columbus, Ohio

McCullough implies, or states, that positive thinkers, to a man, are dreamers, empty-headed, lacking in self-control. As if pessimists (realists) never dream. As if pessimists (realists) never blow up. As if there aren’t stupid pessimists (realists).

It is not important, or even relevant, to the Christian, whether his cup is half empty or half full, but that it is no longer empty. And there is peace and joy in that, beyond understanding. Perhaps McCullough needs to stop trying to understand it and just humbly receive it.

KEVIN HREBIK

Vincennes, Ind.

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