REMARKS ON FOREGOING

As we become a freer and more responsible people the likes of this will be less and less frequent. May God hasten the day! The evil here is not so much that young men are disappointed and their habits of life disrupted or that congregations are disturbed, but that the human spirit’s desire to grow and expand is frustrated. The wrong is not that a preacher is needlessly denied employment or that a congregation is bereft of a minister, however annoying these things are. The sin is in obstructing soul-growth, the souls of those within the congregation as well as that of the preacher.

What do such incidents teach the man who wants to get along. He learns not to say what he really thinks. He cannot engage in the free exchange of ideas even with those of his own profession, for one’s fellow ministers are not to be trusted. They’ll tell on him if he thinks loudly enough to express ideas that are outside the beaten path. He even learns that he cannot afford to stand by a brother that he believes needs his help. He will be declared “guilty by association,” a trick used by every witch-hunter, if he shows sympathy and love for the brother who has been blackballed by the gang.

He learns that if he is to get along he must believe or profess to believe this jazz about our infallibility. Brother Elkins’ sins were no more serious than suggesting that instrumental music might not be as wrong as we’ve made it, and that our view of brotherhood should be broad enough to include all baptized believers. For this he has “doctrinal errors” and is fired! And we criticize the pope for his claims of infallibility!

It is not enough for a brother to disbelieve in the organ, for he must believe it is a sin for others. And all of this on a subject not even referred to in the New Covenant scriptures. It is not enough for him to believe that we should be Christians only, for he must believe that we are the only Christians.

The elders of the Lennon Road congregation are probably fine men with high Christian ideals. It would be repugnant to them to bind children hand and foot and cast them into a dark dungeon, thus impairing their growth and well-being. They would consider such conduct both cruel and criminal, and no doubt they would do most anything to spare a child such misery.

Yet they are doing something far worse than this when they bind and fetter the souls of men. A man may not be hurt badly when his job is taken from him, for he can get another; but irreparable damage may be done deep down inside him when he is persecuted by his own brothers for thinking. And so with those is the congregation. How many there might have been who were refreshed in the Spirit by this venture beyond the party lines, only to be disillusioned when this resource of power was snatched from them for the sake of party politics.

Such elders must remember that they are under-shepherds of the great Shepherd of our souls, and to Him they are to give an account for their pastoral responsibilities. The prophet’s cry is relevant: “Woe to the shepherds who feed themselves, but do not feed my sheep.”

It is unlikely that in the judgment we will have to give an account for our views on instrumental music or Sunday Schools, pro or con, but I may have to give an account for the way I treat my brothers in Christ—all of them, and especially those who hold views different from my own.

Brother Elkin’s letter calls other things to mind. The men God had at Harding who jarred David out of his lethargy may no longer be there, judging by recent events. Some of the most respected professors have either been fired or have resigned due to circumstances similar to what David experienced in Michigan. All this may suggest that we do not deserve anything better. When we drive our best and most enterprising minds from pulpit and classroom, we are saying that we prefer mediocrity to excellence. We are saying that we prefer a party man to a Christ man. We are saying that we don’t want to think and that we want no new ideas that will in any way disturb us. Our vote is for sectarianism and obscurantism.

With such choices de we really deserve anything better? We have what we have asked for.

Too, the letter illustrates that our talk about autonomy is but an illusion. Not only do the Lennon Road elders “unchurch” its minister and one of its elders, but it draws the line of fellowship on a sister congregation. Imagine that, one congregation withdrawing fellowship from another congregation! Is it out of order to ask for scriptural precedent for such behavior? We are the first to insist on congregational autonomy, and we pride ourselves in being different from the Methodists and Episcopalians in this respect, but we are the last to practice it.

All that is implied by these events, and much more, is what may be called the system. The man who chooses to be free had better think twice before he looks to such a system for his economic well-being. David describes how one makes his way through the system until he “has it made.” If you go to the right colleges, take the right courses, learn to excel in the virtues held dear by the party, then success is yours. David obeyed all the rules in those early years, and this, coupled with more than ordinary talent, catapulted him to a place in the stars. When he began to think and speak as a free man rather than the party man he was groomed to be, his heavenly status exploded in his face. Once cast out of heaven and uprooted from his place in the stars, he found his existence very earthy and mundane. He now works for General Motors for a living.

The story is similar with all men who have declared themselves free in Christ. Just as man cannot serve both Christ and mammon, he cannot be both free and a party man. Those who serve the flesh will always persecute the sons of the freewoman. It is in this context that the apostle speaks of the inevitability of persecution. It has long been evident that the powers that be within Churches of Christ will persecute any man that questions the system that gives those powers their place in the sun. It is the arrogance of power, whether in politics or religion.

This is why I strongly urge our bright young men with ambitions to change the status quo to prepare themselves to be financially independent of the system. A man can become a slave not only by being owned by another, but also by being under the economic control of another. Somewhere in the Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton says, “When a man controls the economic life of another, he has a leverage over him.” One need not own me if he has power over what I produce. As our young ministers move up through the system and become increasingly dependent upon it for a livelihood it is more and more the case that whatever he is and whatever he produces belongs to the system. The system has the leverage over him. Serious criticism of the system is well nigh impossible.

Economic freedom is basic to all other freedoms. One cannot be free from ignorance without it, nor can he be politically free without it. He certainly cannot be a free man in Christ, one dedicated to the whole of truth wherever he may find it, unless he is economically free.

We are saying that the ugly shadow that falls across this whole story, and all the stories similar to it, is Mammon. The system must have money. It is built on money and thrives on money. Mammon is its god. Mark my word. The system will destroy any man that gets in its way if it can, irrespective of how good a man he may be or how noble his intentions. The system has no interest in either goodness or nobility. Its concern is for mammon and its own preservation. It is the system that crucified Christ, and it stands ready to crucify any man who chooses Christ over the system.

David Elkins is a wonderfully blessed man. He has learned what the majority of men dare not learn, men who love the praise of men more than the praise of God. It is as crucial as anything our Lord ever said.

No man can serve both God and Mammon.—the Editor