CONCERNING INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

No one should have treated a dog like I treated that dear young brother, but it was inadvertent.

He spoke at our Upper Room assembly (officially the Church of Christ in Denton) and told us of a ministry dear to his heart. Ours is a good group to lay something like that onto, for they are not only sympathetic but usually lend a helping hand financially as well.

I figured he must be a newcomer to “the Lord’s church” because of some of his expressions, such as “when I was born again.” But the thing that interested me most about him was that he only recently completed three years in one of our schools of preaching. After the assembly we talked our way downstairs and out onto the sidewalk, and soon we were the only ones left. Since I leave home ahead of Ouida to visit a nursing home, she too had gone on home to prepare dinner. The lad had a rather catholic view of the nature of the church and seemed to know what the gospel is, which I thought was really OK after three years in a school of preaching. He had the usual youthful certitudes, but was not really dogmatic, though almost so in his anti-premillennial position. I cautioned him not to be so sure on that subject, for “the other side” has a lot going for it. He admitted he didn’t know what to do with “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” He rather easily admits it when there is something he doesn’t know, which impressed me.

When I saw he had nowhere to go for dinner except back to Dallas, I suggested that he come along with me, even if Ouida wasn’t expecting anyone. As I watched him through my rearview mirror follow me from the courthouse square where we meet out to our home, it dawned on me that I had never introduced myself to the fellow. That could be a problem for him, I thought, for a lot of graduates of our schools of preaching are warned not to associate with or read anything written by two men, and I happen to be one of them. What was I to do, having gone this far without revealing my identity? It was unlikely that the visit could extend through dinner and on into part of the afternoon without any name being given. Besides, he might not want to eat with a heretic, even if it was Ouida’s cooking and company. I could have just assumed a nom de plume and saved him any possible embarrassment, but I thought that would be carrying good intentions too far, and besides Ouida would not likely have gone along. It is just possible that he will know nothing of me, I thought, however unlikely that was since I knew some of those who had been teaching him. There was only one manly thing to do. I would have to tell him to “guess who’s coming to dinner.”

He was hardly inside the house when I quietly asked him if he had ever heard of a man named Leroy Garrett. Yes, he said with that same kind of certitude shown back on the sidewalk, and it was all bad. When I told him, as unapologetically as I could, that I was Leroy Garrett, Ouida said later that he was visibly shaken. I noticed that he leaned himself against the wall and looked at me incredulously and said, Really! He immediately brought to mind an instance or two in which he had been warned against me, once publicly from the pulpit, but I thought you were up north somewhere. “That is the other one you were warned against that lives up north,” I informed him. But he couldn’t call his name, some hard name. Ketcherside?, I hazarded, only a shot in the dark, of course. Yeah, that’s it, Ketcherside, he said as he continued studying me, not unlike one would gaze upon a hybrid animal in a zoo, but with his same poised Christian demeanor.

I was all for getting this nice chap off the hook, so I had the task of assuring him that we were delighted to have him, but if for conscience’ sake he felt he had to … But once he saw Ouida’s specialty, that she “stole” from Galatoire’s when we dined in New Orleans several years ago, of shrimp, potatoes and peas, he seemed willing to stretch his scruples, at least for the moment. And few men there are, young or old, who can resist Ouida’s hospitality and charm, with or without an accompanying heretic.

We had a beautiful visit with the brother. He did come to the Church of Christ from a “denomination,” and he was excited about his newly found truths, but he obviously was not buying it all. He believed that Baptists were his brothers, even if they are Baptists, and he did not believe that the Church of Christ is exclusively the Lord’s church. He even suggested that he might be happier working with Christian Churches. That was too much for Ouida, so she explained to him that it was for such digressions from the Church of Christ party line that I was a heretic.

It soon became evident that he was enjoying being in forbidden territory. You really are Leroy Garrett, aren’t you?, he said, noticing my name on a book he took into his hand. Boy, oh boy, if the fellows could see me now! By this time there was a bit of the daring in his voice.

He surprised me when he began to argue for instrumental music. Like his anti-premil position, he was adamant in his conviction that the instrument could be established as scriptural. He believes our churches would do well to have the instrument. He even went into some of the scriptures, such as Rom. 15:9, where “I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing praises to you” which is taken from Psa. 18:49, where the instrument was in common use. He also felt sure that passages in Revelation make it clear that the Church of Christ in heaven is even now using instruments, and if the early church sang “psalms,” which they did, they used an instrument with them.

I made only one point: your position illustrates how sincere Christians can and do differ on this matter, so we must allow for the difference and go on and accept each other, having some churches that have the instrument and some that don’t. I might have stood my ground and argued the non-instrument position, but not with a graduate of a school of preaching. It was too incongruous!

I asked him if the teachers at his school knew where he stood. Indeed, they did, for he had presented a paper in favor of the instrument for one of his classes, a study that attracted no little attention. The teacher would not turn it back to him in spite of his repeated requests. He was certain the teacher withheld it because he was unable to refute it and did not want it circulating among the students. He is convinced that. the Church of Christ leadership is fearful and uncertain in its position on the instrument, and they will not step out and face it honestly.

I asked him if there were others in the school who believed as he did, not just on the instrument but in regard to his general departure from the party line. He assured me that there were a lot of them, “laying low” as he put it.

Now this lad did not come from Abilene or Pepperdine, but from a Church of Christ, true blue, School of Preaching. Three years of it, mind you, and there he was farther removed from the Church of Christ party line than Leroy Garrett. And he is by no means alone, he assured me.

And some of you wonder why some of these party leaders, professors and elders alike, are as upset as they are and do a lot of silly things, such as withdraw from each other and demand all sorts of loyalty tests. A lot of their students and members are pitying them. They simply are not going to buy the old sectarian bromides and party shibboleths, not many of them, not for long.

We are changing, and it is mostly for the good, and praise God for that. But we still have a long way to go, and there is much work yet to be done.

But there is one issue that we should let die right now, and let it be buried once for all, and that is instrumental music. It need not be argued, pro or con, not in reference to unity and fellowship at least. William James insisted that if an issue is a real issue, it must be living, unavoidable, and momentous. In our ranks the question of the instrument is none of these, while we have scores that are, such as our mission to the poor of the world and our relationship to other Christians.

If an honest young man can be indoctrinated for three long years in one of our most conservative institutions on the sinfulness of instrumental music and end up writing papers and arguing for the instrument, then it is unlikely that another hundred years of debating will do any more good in settling the issue than the last hundred years. And the teachers are scared out of their wits when a student starts thinking for himself and questions the old stale arguments. They wouldn’t even turn the chap’s paper back to him!

So, I humbly plead that we all come down off it—including our eager beaver Christian Church brothers who are out to defend their instrumental cause—and admit it to be the issue it is: dead, avoidable, and trivial. It must be declared a non-issue for all those who love Jesus and who long for the unity of all our people. Let each congregation decide for itself whether it will be instrumental or a capella, charismatic or non-charismatic, cooperative or non-cooperative, Sunday School or non-Sunday School, premil or no, etc., etc. and let us all be the Christian Churches or Churches of Christ together, united in such differences. For these are all opinions and no part of the ancient faith that makes us brothers and sisters together.

And praise God for our schools of preaching! —the Editor