Pilgrimage of Joy. . . No. 38

A LETTER FROM ABILENE
W. Carl Ketcherside

It must have been about 1963 that Mission Messenger began to be influential internationally. Included in reports to be found in the paper for that year are some from Australia, Canada, Okinawa, England, The Netherlands, Chile, Scotland, Thailand, Denmark and Finland. It was great to receive letters and subscriptions from such far-away places, but this eventually proved our undoing. Nell was taking care of all the wrapping and bundling of the papers, as well as looking after the subscription list. Some people moved so frequently that it actually amounted to us sending the paper to them and paying them for reading it.

Eventually the paper was going to more than 8200 homes on every continent. We had to stop. Nell was actually working for twelve hours some days. After giving notice of intent for three years we reached the end of our row on December 1, 1975. Although we ceased publication then we still receive a great many subscriptions. Persons who have never heard of us before, will read an old paper and send in a dollar asking to be put on the list. We claim to be the only publishers who ever discontinued because they were too successful.

It was on January 31, 1963, that J. D. Thomas of Abilene Christian College published in Gospel Advocate, an article entitled “Brother Ketcherside’s New Fallacy.” It was full of such manifest error that I wrote B. C. Goodpasture asking for space in which to reply. He would not grant it. So I wrote to Brother Thomas and made an offer for fair examination of my ideas at Abilene. I wrote as follows:

“Since I am sure that you believe in the right of sincere brethren who present their appeal in love, to be heard, can it be arranged that I come to Abilene for three sessions of two hours each, for public examination of my thesis? If so, I suggest that in the first two sessions I present objectively my position as to unity of the believers for one hour, and then submit to an hour of public questioning by a panel composed of three brethren, yourself being one and the other two being men of your selection. I further suggest that in the third session, after presentation of my views, I submit to questions (either oral or written) from the entire audience, yourself acting as chairman of the meeting.

It would be understood that neither yourself nor Abilene Christian College concurred in or endorsed my views, but simply that as free men we met in interest of truth. I pledge upon my honor, that I will conduct myself with gentlemanly courtesy to all of the brethren, and if I cannot lessen areas of conflict I will not widen them.”

At the time I had confidence that I might be invited to Abilene on the above fair and equitable terms, so that the perceptive students could hear and then reach their own conclusions. My hopes were dashed when, on February 9, I received the following curt note from Brother Thomas:

“Dear Brother Ketcherside: In reply to your recent letter inquiring about a public discussion of your present views, I wish to state that, for good and sufficient reasons, I would not be interested in trying to have such a discussion. Sincerely yours, J. D. Thomas.”

I kept on trying, thinking that conditions might have changed. Every year I published my offer to come to any college among us and subject my views to the scrutiny of faculty members. I then saw a letter written to the president of Abilene Christian, by Norman Parks, and after reading the reply to it I gave up on ever receiving a fair hearing before the student body. It was obvious that the administration and the doctors were fearful of what might happen. They could attack my views at will and refuse me the opportunity of being heard in an equitable exchange.

This was the year in which I was first asked to speak at the North American Christian Convention. It was held at the Long Beach Convention Center. I was appalled to see the sectarian attitude so rampant in one meeting. Fortunately, the brethren have “cleaned up their act” since that time, but the demonstration they put on in that meeting was one of the most childish and blatant exhibitions of party spirit I had ever seen exhibited. My speech was delivered on the evening of June 27, and it had an electrifying effect. It was the first time a non-instrument brother had spoken and it received the first standing ovation ever accorded up to that time.

Since that time, Leonard Wymore, has tried to feature one or more men from the non-instrument segment. Bill Banowsky, Norvel Young, Marvin Phillips, Ira North, Leroy Garrett, and others have spoken and been well received. I substituted once for Joe Barnett from Lubbock, whose secretary telephoned the night before his appearance and said he was sick. The meeting is the largest and best attended of any within the restoration movement. I have addressed the saints three times and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is strictly a preaching convention. No business is transacted. No resolutions are drawn up. The brethren believe in the autonomy of the local church. It is a great big get-together of people from all over who meet and enjoy one another’s company. Leonard Wymore is one of God’s noblemen.

During the year I spoke at numerous colleges, among which were Manhattan Christian, Manhattan, Kansas; Nebraska Christian, Norfork, Nebraska; Puget Sound College of the Bible, Seattle, Washington; Johnson Bible College, Kimberlin Heights, Tennessee; and Minnesota Bible College, then in Minneapolis, but since moved to Rochester. In everyone of these I found students who were eager to hear the message of peace on earth to men of good will.

There were two opportunities afforded to really cross over lines. In Nebraska I was invited to Dana College, on March 22. It is a liberal arts school under supervision of the Augustanan Lutheran Conference, and a great many of the students were Scandinavian by birth. It was interesting to me to see the ritual in chapel. It was much like that to which I was accustomed in my earlier days in the Missouri Synod. After speaking to the students publicly I went down to the lounge and conversed with them privately and in small groups for another hour. I found them turned off by the liturgy.

The other occasion was on October 27 when I went to Kendallville, Indiana, to deliver a Reformation Day address. It came three days before the anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing the 95 theses against the church door in Wittenberg. We had a joint meeting of all the Protestant Churches and I spoke on “Heretics and Heroes.” I made the point that a heretic is a hero ahead of his time. All a heretic has to do is to be dead a hundred years and he will become a hero. One generation hurls stones at a heretic, which the next generation picks up and makes a monument from them.

Everything that has been gained in religion has been gained by those accused of being heretics. Luther, Huss, Zwingli, Calvin and Wesley, were all branded as such by their contemporaries. It is often easier to label one a heretic than it is to deal with what he is saying. Luther faced an Establishment which was well entrenched. The Elector of Saxony said, “I am not at all surprised that it has made so much noise; for he has committed two unpardonable crimes; he has attacked the pope’s tiara, and the monk’s bellies.”

I pointed to the need of another reformation with Luther’s words: “I will say what I mean, boldly and briefly; the Church needs reformation. And this cannot be the work either of a single man, as the pope, or of many men, as the cardinals and councils: but it must be that of the whole world, or rather it is a work that belongs to God alone. As for the time in which such a reformation should begin he alone knows who has created all time. The dike is broken, and it is no longer in our power to restrain the impetuous and overwhelming billows.”

It was during this time that Martin M. Mitchum, who was an elder in the Christian Church at Rolla, Missouri, and a man with great insight, decided to take definite steps to do something tangible about the unity of believers. He invited Don DeWelt, Howard Short, and myself, to engage in public dialogue on fellowship. Don was from Ozark Bible College. Howard was editor of The Christian, now called The Disciple. This was before restructure had taken place among the Disciples of Christ, and we had a meaningful discussion. Each of us spoke fifteen minutes and then sat down together to field questions from the audience. All three of us came away with a greater feeling of respect for each other.

I have often wondered since what would have happened if such discussions could have continued among top-level men. Would it have made a difference? Was the sectarian spirit so ingrained and crystallized that we would have to go on to the bitter end? Or do things have to work out of their own accord and in the good time of God, as Luther indicated? We talked about these and many other things as we drove back to Saint Louis that night.

But one of the outstanding gatherings was at Wynnewood Chapel in Dallas, Texas. It was held June 30-July 7. Speakers and teachers were Darrell Bolin, Leroy Garrett, and myself. This launched a series of meetings which were held annually. Sometimes there were two meetings per year. They were notable for their openness and for their freedom of spirit. As time went on, brethren from every background were given an opportunity to speak. Brother DeGroot and Ralph Graham from the Disciples of Christ, Jack Holt from the anti-cooperation wing, Ervin Waters from the one-cup brethren. We invited brethren from every segment and they came. One day Pat Hardeman came and asked a lot of insistent questions. He was with Florida College at the time. We were surprised a little later to learn that he had gone with the Universalist Church. Sometimes things warmed up quite a bit as brethren brought with them some of their clan. They came to listen to their man and as soon as he had finished they walked out.

J. D. Phillips joined with us in teaching and it was great to share with him. He was editor of “The Truth.” His knowledge of restoration history was amazing and we were greatly blessed by the anecdotes which he told. Bill Thurman taught one year and gave fresh insights into the Word. There was nothing static about the meetings. They changed from year to year as the personnel of the congregation changed. There was much to learn in the exchange of ideas. Looking back on things I can see that these meetings were within the will of God. They were a part of our struggle for the meaningful life. The influence of Leroy, calm and unruffled, was a real part of the gatherings.

In December I finished a reprint of articles by Reuel Lemmons and my reply to the same. I said: “Better days are ahead for all of us. There are signs everywhere that attitudes are changing. Brethren are becoming more bold in their declarations against orthodoxy and legalism. Of course we anticipate further areas of personal attack and boycott, but this is a small price to pay for freedom in Christ Jesus. Be sure that we shall not allow ourselves to become embittered or cease to love. Our hope of sharing with Jesus over there depends upon our exhibiting love to all of the brethren over here.”

That year, the Hartford Forum featured talks by Russell Boatman on “The Basis of Authority”; Harold Key on “Fellowship and Endorsement”; Roy Key on “Legalism and Faith”; Grayson Ensign on “Is Unity Possible in Diversity?” and by Leroy Garrett on “The Vocabulary of the Holy Spirit.” I spoke on “The Relationship of Immersion to Fellowship.” A great time was had by all!