AN IMPRESSIVE CONCESSION

Sometime back Prof. A. T. DeGroot of Texas Christian University, a respected Disciple historian, made the following judgment of Churches of Christ.

No group in the religious world other than themselves considers them to be a genuine unity movement.

The professor made this evaluation in reference to our claim of being the means of unity for all churches. We have made it clear that our answer to the problem of division is for all others to become like ourselves in respect to doctrine and practice. We may not always be so blunt as to tell others that they must become carbon copies of ourselves in order to be truly Christian, and so we use terms like “New Testament Christianity” and “accepting the truth” to soften the force of our arrogance. Men like A. T. DeGroot are not slow to see that we equate “New Testament Christianity” with our own preferred practices, and that our “accepting the truth” plea is hardly more than a call for a Church of Christ interpretation of the scriptures.

Anyone taking our plea seriously could well come up with ideas about foot washing, the holy kiss, and speaking in tongues, all of which were a part of “New Testament Christianity” and can surely lay claim to being part of “accepting the truth.” But such ones would be summarily rejected, and they could not be part of us. When such ones insist on the things we oppose they are heretics. When they oppose the things we insist upon they are hobbyists.

This kind of mentality makes void any appeal for unity to men like DeGroot. Surely we cannot be serious, they ask themselves, in supposing that a divided Christendom will see in us the panacea for its perennial illness. They see our plea for unity as nothing more than a demand for conformity. In their eyes we are more like a sect seeking to strengthen itself rather than a movement seeking to unite all Christians. Indeed, we have long left the impression that there are no Christians besides ourselves, that only we are the true church, and that unity is a simple matter of “obeying the gospel” and “going by the Book.” That means of course that all other churches, everything from high church Episcopalians to lowly Pentecostals, will become Churches of Christ such as may be seen by any inquiring person in such places as Nashville and Dallas.

It is no wonder that no one has thus far paid any attention to us. While DeGroot is right in saying that no group thinks of us as a genuine unity movement, it is also true that the Christian world does not think of us at all. What we keep saying we say mostly to ourselves, which is good, for we do less harm that way. We simply have no witness to the world for we have no contact with the world. We have not been a part of “the Great Conversation” that has long taken place among church leaders in the search for oneness. Our witness has taken the form of a monologue within the framework of our own party or parries rather than a dialogue within the larger Christian world.

These things we have said many times in this publication, and along with it we have expressed confidence that we are arousing from our slumber and are at the dawn of a new day. Many are discovering what it means to be free in Christ, and along with it they are discovering a new world. They are joining the human race and are becoming more sensitive to the human predicament. They are loving more and are being more honest. They are indulging in the fine art of self-criticism.

An instance of this has to do with this very statement from A. T. DeGroot. One of our preachers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area recently delivered a provocative message on unity, and to make sure that his message got across he passed out copies of it to all in attendance. It would be well if it could be distributed far and wide, not as some diatribe of a Ketcherside, a Meyers, or a Garrett or some other heretic among us, but as an appeal from the seat of orthodoxy.

He acknowledges that the plea for unity of the Churches of Christ has been “weak and timid, if heard at all.” And then he quotes DeGroot’s charge against the Churches of Christ: No group in the religious world other than themselves considers them to be a genuine unity movement.

With refreshing candor he says of DeGroot’s charge: It is difficult to deny.

In humility he concedes to what he would no doubt have once considered fighting words, or as a vicious attack upon the church. A Church of Christ minister concedes to a charge by a Christian Church scholar that we are not a genuine unity movement! And this he did before his Sunday morning assembly, and issued copies of it to make sure they understood!

So you see why I am encouraged.

There is more and more of this kind of thing going on. They are signs that we are maturing, and as we mature we will place ourselves in a better position to witness for Christian unity and to become a genuine unity movement. That movement will first find impetus in our own ranks as we make a sincere effort to love and to understand each other in the several factions of Churches of Christ. United ourselves we will be ready for a serious and impressive testimony to the Christian world.

And then the T. C. U. professor will have to take it all back!—the Editor