DOES ROME CHANGE?

All my life I have heard from my Protestant teachers that the Church of Rome cannot and will not change: Rome never changes! This may well be true, but as I grow older I grow more and more skeptical of absolutes.

A recent news item pictures Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston, kneeling in silent prayer at the Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church in Boston. He addressed some 200 protestant clergymen in the parish hall. In his address he called for Catholic and Protestant unity at the “grassroots” level as a supplement to the higher level discussion going on among scholars.

Recently in my home town of Dallas the Roman Catholic bishop of that city lunched with ministers in the basement of a Christian Church, and they talked together about the Ecumenical Council in Rome and Christian unity in general. They prayed together. It was the first such gathering in Dallas.

These are only two instances among many of recent date that indicate that a dialogue has begun that is long past due. Regardless of how much “change” this indicates, it is certainly a step in the direction when a gentleman with a red cap can and will pray in a Protestant church, and when Roman and Protestant clergy and laymen can lunch, talk and pray together.

It all leads me to ask: how about us; how much can we change? Are we ready to kneel in an Episcopal Church and pray for unity? We might start by doing so in our own Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. While visiting Westminister Abbey in London last summer I was impressed with a sign that read: Prayers for Christian Unity in this Chapel Each Thursday at 2 p.m.

When I see a sign that reads like that at a Church of Christ, that will be the day! It may be as pertinent to say that the Church of Christ never changes as to say that the Church of Rome never changes.

It is because I believe that men can and will change that this journal goes forth each month. And that is why I solicit your help.

THREE CONVERSIONS

It may appear farfetched to speak of a person being in need of three conversions, but I wish to suggest that there is an important sense in which this is true. I speak of being converted to the church, to the Christ, and to the world, though not necessarily in that order. It is unlikely that these would come together. They are a matter of Christian growth. Those of us who are so stunted in our Christian development that we are yet carnal in our thinking may never have experienced any of these conversions. It is likely, however, that once a man has really experienced anyone of them he will go on to experience the others.

By conversion to the church I refer to the awakening of what the ecclesia of Christ on earth really is. Christianity begins to look different when one can get beyond the pale of his own sectarian confines and sees the catholic church. He discovers a brotherhood much larger than he supposed existed, which embraces those he once excluded. This comes when he rises above partyism and sees men in terms of their sonship to God rather than in terms of party loyalty.

Passages like the following become more meaningful to the one who is converted to the universality of the church:

“Through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Eph. 3:10-11)

“I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named . . . “ (Eph. 3:14-15)

“You may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.” (1 Tim. 3:15)

“He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” (Col. 3:18)

One might take his concordance and look up the numerous references to “all the saints” as a further illustration of this point. For instance, Eph. 3:18-19 reads: “that you may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.”

Surely “the fulness of God” in human hearts is not restricted to those saints that wear our particular brand. A deeper concept of “all the saints” will cut across both racial and sectarian lines, for it will acknowledge a brotherhood that includes all who are in Christ. Churches and schools that draw a line on color, which most of our churches and schools do, simply are not converted to the church as the Christ intended it --- or they simply are not converted (period).

Like the Copernican revolution that shook the foundations of people’s thinking in the time of the Renaissance, an awakening to the true nature of the body of Christ will jar us loose from our narrowness. It was disconcerting when people learned that the earth is but a small part of the universe instead of the center of it. Some of us need to learn that God’s kingdom on earth would not be too much worse off if we were not part of it, and that we should be thankful to be the small part that we are.

The second conversion is to the Christ, and the point here is that so many of us may spend a lifetime in “the Lord’s work” and be converted to the work rather than to the Lord. “As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith.” (Col. 2:6-7)

I am not speaking of the initial conversion to the Lord which comes through faith and baptism, but to the growth in the Christ that leads to such spiritual profundity as “For me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). While we are urged to “Come to him . . .” (1 Pet. 2:4), there is a real question as to whether we have done so. There can be a big difference between being a minister of religion and a minister of Christ. Think of those words: minister of Christ. More frequently these days do I ask myself if I am truly a servant of the Lord or a servant of my own selfish interest.

Some may misunderstand my suggestion that we are to be converted to the world too, and yet it is this point that needs the most emphasis. It is true that in some respects “the world is too much with us,” but it is also true that in some respects we are not sufficiently worldly. Worldliness is a much abused term, a term not in the Bible incidentally, though “worldly” does appear in some versions and always means carnal. A monk who says prayers and counts beads all day, completely shut off from the world in his ascetic and celibate life, may be very worldly in the carnal sense; while a business man on Wall Street may be truly spiritual and free of carnality (worldliness).

And yet that Christian business man is worldly in an important sense: he is engaged in pursuits that make the world a better place to live. And he is doing it for the Christ’s sake, and because of his love for God and man. It was world-mindedness that caused God to give his own son. “God so loved the world . . . “ teaches us that we too are to love it. True, we are to “love not the world or the things in the world” (1 John 2:15), but we are to be lights in it (Phil. 2:15) and the salt of it (Matt. 5:13). True, we are not to be of the world but we are in it, and the Lord has sent us into it (John 17:16-18). We are in the world for a purpose: “ . . . that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (John 15:16). That fruit can include such things as honorable business practices on Wall Street, skillful heart surgery in Madison, unbiased jury service in Dallas, running a farm in Georgia, and selling groceries in Titusville. All for God and all because of God through Christ! Jesus was a blessing to the world into which he came. He was here to make it better; yea, he was here to save it. That is what we are here for --- to save it!

CAMPBELL AND JEFFERSON

We appreciate the review of our monograph on Alexander Campbell and Thomas Jefferson: A study of Two Old Virginians in a recent issue of “The Christian” magazine, published in St. Louis by the Disciples of Christ. The reviewer, B. Clifford Hendricks, says of the comparative study:

Professor Garrett contends that there was closer agreement in their religious philosophies than Campbell was aware of. He mentions that Campbell was disturbed by Jefferson’s regard for the writings of Thomas Paine and Voltaire and also that Campbell charged Jefferson with “repudiating the Bible . . . and dreaming of a happy people without a faith, a hope or a desire for Christian immortality.” However, the author thinks that if Campbell had been permitted to read Jefferson’s letters he would have rated his Deism as a Christian sort . . . calling, as it did, for a revival of primitive Christianity.”

We take this occasion to urge you to read this 32-page booklet on a subject that will not only deal with interesting comparisons between two great men, but it will provide background information on our nation’s struggle for civil rights, religious freedom, and free schools for all. We are amazed to think of what has happened in our great nation since the time of Jefferson and Campbell. Virginia was not only a slave state; it was also without religious freedom, having an official state church, and there were no public schools. Jefferson and Campbell did something about all these conditions. Our booklet serves to show that Campbell was far more than the leader of a religious movement. He was truly a Christian statesman, and his wide variety of interests revealed his conception of what all is involved in a restoration of the ancient order.

The monograph on Campbell and Jefferson is available at our office at 50 cents.

CAMPBELL NOT PAROCHIAL

The following announcement appeared in the 1844 Millennial Harbinger. It should be of special interest to those of the Restoration Movement who restrict the faculties of their colleges to “Church of Christ” professors.

Brother Young, who has been since the commencement of the session in charge of the Preparatory Department at the Family Mansion of Bethany College, has been induced, by the continual solicitations of the Baptist Church in the city of Trenton, N. J., to return to that State, and to resume his labors in that community.

In the selection of our professors and teachers, we have not been at all exclusive. Brother Young is a Baptist minister, from London, of liberal views, and very popular talents as a speaker. He has often, during his stay here, spoken in the church at Bethany with much acceptance; and he will carry with him the Christian regards and the prayers of the church for his usefulness and prosperity.

We have also a Presbyterian professor in our department of the languages, very highly esteemed for his virtues and for the faithful discharge of his professional duties. We are always pleased to cultivate the most intimate friendship with all good and useful men, of all denominations, reputable for their intelligence and piety, and would be glad to be frequently visited at the College hall by respectable preachers of all Protestant denominations. Why do the Presbyterian and Methodistic ministry visit us so seldom?

Alexander Campbell