A RELUCTANT REJECTION
BILL HUCKABY

(Editor’s Note: Believing as we do in the voice of dissent, we pass along these criticisms from one of our fine young princes. If we are wise, we will listen to such voices. Such criticisms need not all be valid in order to be of value to us. Mr. Huckaby is presently a teacher at Shelbyville High School, Shelbyville, Tenn. While at David Lipscomb College he was president of the student body and preached often for various Churches of Christ, intending at that time to become a Church of Christ minister. He has since changed his mind.)

Throughout my entire life I have worshipped and lived within the somewhat narrow fellowship of the church of Christ, and at the age of seventeen became a student at David Lipscomb College, a school supported by the churches of Christ. Four years later I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree having a major in Mathematics (60 hours) and a major in Bible (62 hours). I preached my first sermon while still in high school and since have preached in six different states, have spoken at numerous youth rallies and have participated in nine Campaigns for Christ sponsored by the churches of Christ, and was at one time the vice president of Mission Emphasis at David Lipscomb College.

All of this has been said to emphasize that I have a reasonable acquaintance with what the members of the church of Christ believe and practice. I know most of the arguments supporting their beliefs since I have used most of them myself at one time or another and have studied them continually for four years. And yet as early as 1962, while still in high school, there were questions in my mind regarding certain of our beliefs. I engaged in some religious discussions with a friend at school who seemed to me to be a Christian, but I knew he was not for he belonged to one of the denominations and all denominations were wrong (we referred to ourselves as nondenominational, though I slowly came to feel that we were more of a denomination than most other churches.) Since that time more and more questions have arisen, but few of them have been asked, since at Lipscomb one is looked upon as dangerous and radical if he dares to question the established beliefs or admit that he actually doubts what is to the church of Christ the “infallible truth.” But one can coast along with such questions while in the sheltered arms of such a school, since a sort of idealism develops that is only shattered when exposed to real life. And after ten months away from Lipscomb my own idealism has been broken and I must rebuild on its ruins a more substantial foundation which can face the test of reality. Yet it is with reluctance that I must reject certain beliefs and practices which I have held almost my entire life for they have become almost a part of me. In many cases I don’t know what to put in their place. I only know that the time has finally come that I can no longer remain silent. Just as the Springfield Presbytery, so well known in the annals of the Restoration Movement, dissolved itself into the universal Body of Christ, I must join them in recognizing myself as just a Christian and not a Church of Christ Christian. If that means that here and now I must be a Christian completely free from any group or that I must work for Christ in another fellowship, that does not mean that in another place and under different circumstances I would not again work and worship within the church of Christ. On the contrary, I sincerely hope that the time will come that I can fully support all that the church of Christ stands for, and that they can accept me as a true Christian.

I must begin by admitting that I am not a scholar, and have never thought myself to be one. All I know is that, based on my limited experience and study, there are certain beliefs, attitudes and practices which are prevalent in the church of Christ which I cannot accept. They are the following:

1. Most of our doctrinal problems stem from our basic approach to the Bible which I feel is not justifiable. Since we have used it as a rulebook we have illustrated the truth of II Corinthians where Paul says that the letter kills while the Spirit gives life. We say others interpret and don’t realize that we do the same. Our principle—that everything which is not specifically authorized is necessarily denied—is not even found in the Bible. Yet we use it to determine what is right and wrong and in so doing undermine the very purpose for which the Bible was written. It is interesting that so many men who have studied the Bible their entire lives have come to conclusions different from ours. We say they were not really looking for the truth and then we quickly add that sincerity is not enough. It is also a shame that so much history was included in the New Testament, for that could have been replaced by pages of rules and laws which would make it clear to everyone exactly what God wanted. And even Jesus, when he actually broke the law of Moses, excused David for doing the same and said that man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for man.

2. Closely tied to the preceding is our view of inspiration. Since it borders on the principle of “dictation” there is within its framework no reasonable explanation of the synoptic problem (most of our people don’t even know what the problem is). Our view provides no reasonable justification for Paul saying “I think” or stating that he spoke completely on his own apart from what God would have him say. There are no answers to the challenges of modern Biblical Criticism, no explanations of such apparent contradictions as the resurrection story (one Gospel says there was one man at the tomb, one Gospel says there were two men, one says there was one angel, and the other mentions two angels.)

3. Our claim to have all of the truth is not only conceited, bordering on self-righteousness, but it prevents us from growing in understanding and gaining depth to our lives and our thinking. It destroys our personal integrity, since we warn others to beware of thinking they stand lest they should fall. We say “Let’s study together. If you can show me that I’m wrong I’ll change, and if I show you you are wrong, then you will change, OK?” But we have no intention of ever reexamining our beliefs; we really mean ‘’I’ll pretend to listen to your side, but I know I’m right so as soon as you are finished I’ll show you what is really correct.” We are afraid to even listen to the other side of any issue; but if we are so sure we are absolutely right, why should we be afraid of what anyone else believes? We know of other denominations only what we read in our books which are far from objective since most of them are written for the sole purpose of disproving what others believe when it differs from our beliefs. We say that others will never come to an understanding of the truth because their minds are closed, yet at times I wonder how open ours are.

4. Our attitude towards other Christian people is often far from the attitude Jesus seemed to display (see Mark 9:38-42). We say “I don’t know whether others are lost or not if they are not in the church of Christ,” but we mean “Actually I think they are lost but won’t say it since people will think I am narrow-minded.” Yet whether we say it or not people know what we think. I have heard preachers say that there were towns in the northeast with 250,000 population which had in them no more than a dozen Christians (which means there were no more than a dozen members of the church of Christ). When I hear such things I can only hang my head in shame and ask how one could prove such a statement. We assume that God will forgive us our sins of unchristian living, but will not forgive those who are not doctrinally pure like we are. I think it was Jesus who told the parable of the judgment in which the question was asked “Did you feed the poor, visit the sick, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty?” and not “Did you worship without an instrument and go to a church that was scripturally organized?”

5. We strain out gnats but swallow camels, a sin the Jesus accused the Pharisees of committing. He said that the weightier matters like Faith, Mercy, Justice and Love were being neglected and details were emphasized. When a preacher of ours talks about Love and Faith all of the time we fear that he is not “grounded in the truth,” and call him “too liberal.” In a recent sermon, typical of so many I have heard, the preacher was discussing how to recognize the church of the Bible. He mentioned such important matters as worshipping right (no instrumental music), having the church organized right, meeting on the correct day, taking the Lord’s Supper at the right time, etc. I guess he overlooked Jesus’ own description of His followers found in John 13. He said that the one way to recognize His disciples for certain was to see if they loved each other as He had loved them.

6. Even though Paul said there was freedom in Christ, we allow almost none. Anyone who does not conform, or who will even admit that he is not sure about some matter which we consider vital is looked upon with a critical eye. He is never trusted with teaching a class and often he is driven from the church of Christ. The disciples of Jesus were those who wanted to follow Him. He never asked that they accept a certain body of beliefs; He simply said “follow me.” And who among us can decide exactly what must be accepted since we are so badly divided ourselves?

7. If our worship is in spirit and in truth, it is only because we proclaim it to be so in almost all of our Sunday morning prayers. While our people go spiritually unnourished we preach to those who are not even present. Should the preacher say something about our living, we become upset and call him nosey. Our prayers are like reading from a litany. The only difference is that we rearrange our phrases and sometimes pray for the sick and afflicted the world over before we are thankful for this day and all its many blessings. We make a farce out of the Lord’s Supper by our efforts to get our pocketbooks and billfolds out for the collection (which many honestly consider the third part of the Communion Service.) All spontaneity is gone from our worship since everyone knows the order so well that to suggest having four songs before the sermon instead of three will bring criticism from someone for sure. (One lady thought this was unscriptural.)

8. We refuse to participate with other Christians (we call them Christians only “in the broad sense”) when there is a good work to be done in the community. Our motives may have some small measure of merit, but outsiders cannot see that. All they know is that there is work to be done and everyone wants to help but the church of Christ. By refusing to “condone their errors” we give the world occasion to condemn us for knowing to do good and not doing it.

9. We are inconsistent even with regards to the slogans which we have set up to follow, and our announced principle of Biblical interpretation. We say we will call Bible things by Bible names, but even the word “Bible” is not a Bible word. We say we speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where it is silent but do neither. For example, the Bible speaks of equality of all races. I have never heard a sermon on the relationship between white and Negro, whether as fellow Christians or not, even though the matter is such an important issue in our day. I do remember hearing more than one member of the church say that he hated niggers. We allow our people to have such an attitude and are afraid to speak against it. In most of our congregations (the vast majority are segregated) if integration begins many members would quit the church.

The Bible is silent on women taking part in the worship by teaching. Therefore, we do not allow them to preach to the congregation, but we do allow them to sing which is described as teaching and exhorting one another. No preacher I have asked has produced the Apostolic example of women singing in the worship. These are just two of the many examples of speaking where the Bible is silent and remaining silent where the Bible speaks.

10. Our approach to the Christian life is basically negative. We derive much of our “rightness” not from what we do, but from all of the things we don’t do. In fact, what separates us from the world and other churches is not the good things that we do, but the “bad” things and “unscriptural” practices that they engage in.

11. We neglect our young people to the extent that far more than half of them are lost to us before they reach the age of 21. I would not want to bring up my children in an atmosphere where all that is provided for them by the church is a word from the preacher every once in a while. And that word is almost without exception, “Be careful not to dance or park and pet, or drink, etc., etc., etc.” We usually give them no place in the work of the church and then wonder why they drift away.

12. There is almost complete absence of assurance within the churches of Christ. If someone is baptized and asks if he is saved, the answer is yes. If he asks a week later we have to say we don’t know, and through his life he is alternately saved and lost and his salvation depends on when he dies—if he has just prayed for forgiveness, fine, but if not he may be lost. Could it be that in our fight against the Baptists we have gone to the opposite extreme on the matter of Grace? We seldom talk about it and seem to have no real understanding of what it is. Paul talks about the man in Christ having his sins covered, and says, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed unto Him against that day.” Oh, that we could say the same!!

13. We are continually looking backward, seeking to walk in the “old paths.” As a result our religion becomes irrelevant to the world today. We have no answers to the vital moral and spiritual issues of the day because we are too busy fighting battles that are not being waged and building straw men so we can tear them down.

Before I conclude, I would like to mention first of all that I am aware of the fact that many of our churches are interested in their young people, some churches provide truly valuable worship experiences, others do participate with other churches on worth-while projects, and so on, but these are the exceptions and not the rule. Yet it pleases me to see that people are finally beginning to awake from their slumber of unconcern and maybe a new day will be dawning upon the churches of Christ everywhere.

I now join the ever-increasing ranks of those young people who wanted with all of their hearts to find a permanent place within the churches of Christ, but could not simply because they above all had to be true to the truth as God gave them to see it. We can still be wholeheartedly behind your efforts for good even though you cannot be behind our efforts, since not being fully and completely devoted to the church of Christ as you know it we are thus no longer Christians even if we are devoted to Christ. We are faced with deciding either to stay in the church of Christ and not be fully accepted or choosing another church which will undoubtedly have as many problems as the church of Christ.

I love so many of you who are in the church of Christ as I know you love me, and I would ask of you only one thing: Do NOT FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE IF YOU CAN DO DIFFERENTLY!! For I would be with you now if I could. All I would ask is that you do your part, whether small or great, to help create an atmosphere within the church of Christ which will draw men and women, young and old alike, to that better way of life both temporal and eternal which was first and most perfectly lived by a man from Galilee two thousand years ago. Make Him live today in your heart and in your life so that He may still draw men nearer to the divine, and in so doing help to make the church of Christ truly the church of CHRIST.—122 Carlisle, Shelbyville, Tenn. 37160