Pilgrimage of Joy. . . No. 32

THE COW PASTURE DEBATE
W. Carl Ketcherside

My first discussion with Brother G. K. Wallace has been referred to as “The Cow Pasture Debate.” There was no place in the area large enough to accommodate the expected crowds, so brethren secured a huge tent and pitched it in a large field five miles north of Paragould. Hundreds of people came from many states. Hotels and motels for miles around were filled to capacity. The debate began on June 30 and closed July 4. J. A. McNutt was selected as timekeeper for Brother Wallace. My uncle, L. E. Ketcherside, operated in the same capacity for me.

The first two nights Brother Wallace affirmed, “The employment of a preacher to preach for the congregation as now practiced by the church of Christ, at 2nd and Walnut Streets, in Paragould, Ark., is scriptural.” The third night I affirmed, “The New Testament authorizes an evangelist to exercise authority in a congregation which he has planted until men are qualified and appointed as bishops.” On the fourth night, Brother Wallace affirmed, “The organization, by Christians, of schools such as Freed-Hardeman College is in harmony with the New Testament scriptures.” On the last night I affirmed that it was contrary to the New Testament scriptures.

It is not my intention to review the substance of the debate. It was put into print and can be read in its entirety. Brother Wallace was a worthy opponent. A typical “Church of Christ” debater, he was constantly watching for a chance at the jugular. He knew all of the debater’s tactics, was witty and sharp and one did not dare to let down his guard. I think his weakest moments came in his dealing with the difference between preaching and teaching and gospel and doctrine. He read the wrong definition from both Thayer’s Lexicon and Webster’s Dictionary.

There were scores of preachers present, many representing both positions. A few did not have clear cut ideas about either. Each afternoon public meetings were held at Beech Grove. In these any brother could say anything upon his heart by way of strength and edification. It was decided that no discussion of or reference to the debate would be made in these meetings. It was probably the greatest array of public talent ever assembled at Beech Grove. Every meeting was stimulating and uplifting.

The debates drew people from the area who came as Puritans would attend a bear-baiting, or those south of the border would go to a cock-fight. Not too many of them understood the issues but they liked the excitement. This was evidenced when men gathered in country stores like the one at Hooker’s Switch. The question of the debate came up as they sat talking on the front porch, and one old resident said, “Well, for my money, that Baptist from Saint Louis is giving that Campbellite about all he needs.”

One of the greatest blessings which came to me during the debate was to meet Leroy Garrett. Students from David Lipscomb College called him in Dallas after the first night of debate, urging him to come. He deeply impressed me when I first shook hands with him. We held much in common but we also differed in our concepts regarding many items. We had been reared in different areas. I did not know the brethren with whom he had worked. He did not know the ones with whom I had labored. But both of us knew Jesus, and because of Him we wanted to know each other better.

It was only a short time later when he called me from Winfield, Alabama, where he was in a tent meeting. I went down to spend several days with him in the small hotel. There, in the presence of three David Lipscomb College students, we explored the points upon which we differed for three whole days. We began talking early in the morning and continued until late at night, merely taking time out to go to the tent for meeting. The people in the community did not know what was taking place as we sought to understand one another and the Word of God. Later we set up meetings in homes in Dallas, and then decided to widen the scope and invite all to participate. These were some of the most profitable and soul-searching experiences of my life.

Two weeks after the debate I returned to Beech Grove for two weeks. Each afternoon we held a two-hour session of Bible study. It was open, free and positive. It was generally agreed the debate had helped our cause. People from many other congregations came to hear and be blessed. An instructor from Harding College came to lead the singing. Brethren from various parties came and went away without rancor. The little congregation now had a reputation all over the United States. It had refused to roll over and play dead!

Before I leave the debate I must tell you of what happened to our antagonists later on. G. K. Wallace who was a Bible teacher at Florida College left the school and turned against it. Franklin Puckett who came with him to issue the challenge split with Brother Wallace and died on the other side of a rift which knew no reconciliation. The two congregations in Paragould whose preachers signed the article in Firm Foundation sounding the alarm that I had invaded the south, fell out with one another. My uncle and I attended a debate between them at 2nd and Walnut. The alienation exists to this day. Many of the preachers who attended the debate have since that time become involved in another schism and are attacking each other.

I am not glad these things happened. I am saddened by them. But I now understand why they came about. They are a built-in part of the System. There will be trouble in every congregation eventually. There will be new divisions in every generation. All of the programs, all of the excitement, all of the hullabaloo, will not prevent it. Legalism leads to division. It can lead nowhere else for men in the flesh. So long as men substitute love of law for the law of love trouble is waiting in the wings. It will come in on cue. Church of Christism is like any other “ism.”

Four days after the debate finished, Brother D. Austen Sommer died of a heart attack as he sat in his home in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was born in Kelton, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1878, and was 74 years of age. His departure brought home to me the fact that the generation of those who had influenced my younger years in the faith was retreating into the shadows. The Sommer family, which once exercised such an influence in the northern states was disappearing. Composed of men who knew the Book but who were jealous of each other, they had fragmented both their family and congregations throughout the land. Yet it was sad for me to see them die disillusioned and forlorn.

In October, 1952, Brother Garrett launched a monthly journal called Bible Talk. In his initial editorial he wrote: “We feel that institutionalism and professionalism are teammates in that inauspicious game of apostasy into which they have enticed the church. “ He proposed to expose them for what they were, while at the same time dealing with worldliness, health habits, use of leisure time, the Christian home and worship. It was quite a sizeable order for a paper.

The first issue bore a picture of the youthful-looking editor and Ansel Chandler of Tyler, Texas, wrote that he was a graduate of Freed-Hardeman College, Abilene Christian College, Southern Methodist University, Princeton University and Harvard University. Bible Talk was the forerunner for Restoration Review and did much to define issues confronting a great segment of the restoration movement sparked by the Campbells and their contemporaries.

The 1953 Mission Messenger featured a series of articles by Albert E. Winstanley, on various topics. At the same time I started one on “The Elders of the Church.” There were twelve articles about the bishops dealing with an in-depth study of their qualifications, selection and appointment. The January issue carried a picture and an account of the golden wedding anniversary of Brother and Sister W. E. Ballenger.

He had begun preaching two years after I was born and had planted new congregations all over the central states. Meticulous in dress and with shoes shined like a mirror, he had endeared himself to rural and village people because of his genial attitude. Some of them said he could walk through mud and none of it would dare rub off on him.

In February I went to Valdosta, Georgia at the invitation of brethren who had attended the debate. My mission was to visit and talk with preachers and others in the area. It was the first time I had been that far south, but I knew that Valdosta was the home of Jessie F. Love who had visited us in Missouri shortly after my father was immersed into Christ. He was a curiosity in our village with his broad southern dialect. I located his wife who was still living in Valdosta.

I talked with Joe Goodspeed, minister at Remerton, and Evans McMullen who was laboring at Hahira. Both were graduates of Florida Christian College. Other brethren came from Florida, Alabama and other parts of Georgia to converse with me. We met in a home and talked until midnight every day.

On January 24, J. A. Freed died at Topeka, Kansas, at the age of 77 years. The day of his death was also that of his 49th wedding anniversary. He had been a friend of our family for many years and was a relative of the Brother Freed who founded the college at Henderson, Tennessee. J. A. Freed had proclaimed the gospel for a half century, and was well known.

On February 20 I began a series of Bible studies in the American Legion hall in Paragould, Arkansas, despite a good deal of opposition. I was on the radio daily discussing trends in the religious world. The result was that our crowds were good, reaching a total of 150 in many sessions. In the April issue of our paper I announced that I was scheduled for studies in Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia during the year. The increasing number of calls made it impossible to continue the Saint Louis studies. We canceled them after fifteen years of continuous teaching.

During the Arkansas debate, Sterl Watson, who was preaching for the West End Church of Christ in Saint Louis, arose and issued a challenge for me to debate Brother Wallace on the same issues in Saint Louis. Being satisfied with the Arkansas encounter, which was put in print, I saw little use of a repetition of the debate. But before Brother Watson left Arkansas for Saint Louis he announced that he was coming to the city to run me out of it, so when he repeated the challenge to the congregation at Manchester Avenue there was little we could do except to agree to another debate.

Each congregation appointed a committee to work out the details and it was agreed that I would debate Brother Wallace in Carpenter’s Hall October 26-30. It was decided that the debate would again be printed and thus four of my discussions would be in book form.