OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

Elsewhere in these columns you will read of the massive walkout in Dallas. Well, as we go to press with this number there is another walkout in this area. Some 75 of our brothers and sisters are now meeting separately right here in Denton, formerly members of the University Church of Christ, across town from our home and not the congregation my family attends except as occasional visitors. Same story, same issue—freedom. And “the control group,” if I may use the psychologist’s lingo, makes the same old mistakes, which only drives away those that are on the verge of leaving. Rather than threatening the disenchanted and giving them the old “obey the elders” bit, why not say something like: “We all know and love these people and believe they are really dedicated to Jesus. So if they would get up and walk away from us like this, maybe there is something wrong with us. Let’s listen to what they are trying to tell us.” And this business of obeying the authorities is as old as tyranny itself. In these cases, why not tell the authorities to be shepherds. To the “keepers of orthodoxy” who browbeat people with threats of withdrawing fellowship if they don’t submit to elders, I would advise that they recall a bit of our own history. The Church of Christ is a “faction” by our own terms, for we walked off and left what we now call the Christian Church. What would we have then said to the complaint that we were factious and were not submissive to the elders? But I still say that we ought to “hang in” and not leave unless we just have to. I would have said the same thing back in the 1880’s and 1890’s, for my reading of that history convinces me that a split could have been averted. In later life Campbell said the same thing about the Disciples and the Baptists, that they should have and could have been one people. Well, what I have been saying about these walkouts is becoming true. And they will continue if our leadership doesn’t wake up and get with it. After awhile there’ll be so many walkouts that it won’t be news anymore!

Edward Fudge, commonly associated with “conservative” Churches of Christ and Gospel Guardian, is editor of a new psalter, a booklet containing 40 psalms set to music. He calls for more singing of the psalms in our assemblies. In reviewing this work, Fred Blakely, editor of The Banner of Truth, calls it “a delightful and valuable psalter,” and gives it an extensive writeup. But he makes this complaint: “It is regrettable that Brother Fudge chose to inject into his introduction the subject of the legalistic and unwarranted ban of musical instruments in the singing, which man, not God, has imposed.” He then says: “This seems to us highly ironic, for the matter of this untenable position is, of all places, glaringly incongruous in a consideration of the Psalms, which, according to the Scriptures, were originally sung to instrumental accompaniment.” And then he gives references, including 1 Chron. 16:4-36 and Psa. 150. It is true that Eph. 5:19 teaches us to sing psalms, and it would be most hazardous to contend that psalms were sung a capella. This is one more reason why the music question must become “no issue” in terms of unity and fellowship, with each person and each congregation deciding for himself whether to be organic or inorganic!

Bering Drive Church of Christ in Houston is giving blood as part of its ministry. They have chosen the Institute of Hemotherapy as the depository for their gift to those who will have need. Now that may not be in the same class as installing indirect lighting, but it may be a way to let your light shine. Giving one’s blood. For some vague reason it sort of sounds faintly Christian!

My revered professor at Harvard, Henry J. Cadbury, died recently at 91, precipitated by a fall down the staircase. The Friends Service Committee, of which he was one of the founders and honorary chairman until his death, sent me notice of his death, along with valuable memorabilia that I highly cherish. One item was an article of his on “What Makes a Good Quaker?” in which he says, “A conscientious Quaker cannot expect an easy time. He will find himself often in the minority, or even swimming against the stream.” He himself was an example of that. As a young professor at Haverford during World War I, he was forced to resign for opposing the war and for saying that the Germans did not have any more hatred for Americans than Americans had toward them. But Harvard, free Harvard, took him in. In 1949 he went to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for the Friends Service Committee. In those years he helped prepare the Revised Standard Version of the New Testament. In his retirement he lectured, where else but at Haverford (!), and in the intervening years that Quaker college also honored him with a doctorate. Dr. Cadbury well exemplified the ideal set by John Woolman, that pioneer Quaker he so admired: “To turn all the treasures we possess into channels of universal love becomes the business of our lives.” I was pleased to have had an exchange of letters with him shortly before his death.

Julian Bond, the black state representative of Georgia, spoke recently at Abilene Christian College. The Student’s Association made the visit possible, and its president said, “We hope his presentation will help the community become more aware of the need for citizen involvement in local, state and national government.”

The conservative Christian Churches now report some 528 missionaries in service overseas, plus 1,064 engaged in missionary activities in North America. They now have the National Missionary Convention to serve as a mouthpiece for all these workers, which meets annually. They are hopeful that this convention can serve all the diverse missionary efforts of the Restoration Movement.