Pilgrimage of Joy. . . No. 59

MORMONS AND JEWS
W. Carl Ketcherside

Nell and I received a blow when we learned of the almost sudden death of Brother Melvin Burton at Escondido, California. We had known Melvin and Gladys most of their lives. They moved to Saint Louis shortly after we did and our families grew up together. Their son Curtis married our daughter Sue. Bro. Burton had served until retirement in the criminal investigation division for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He had helped to close the case against Tom Pendergast, the racketeering boss of Missouri, and had worked on the Al Capone case in Chicago. When he retired he was honored by the President of the United States as well as by many others in the political spectrum. There was never a breath of scandal against him.

In Oct., 1975. the Saint Louis Realtor’s Association decided to have a prayer breakfast. It was to become an annual event if it was successful. They asked me to speak at it. A great deal depended upon the reaction. It was at 6:30 in the morning at a prominent hotel. Many of those who came had been “out on the town” the night before. A great many were smoking cigarettes as if their life depended on it, rather than the opposite. The president was a consecrated Christian gentleman. After breakfast he made a few remarks, led a prayer for God’s guidance, and introduced me. I have never before felt the same nearness of the Spirit.. I spoke about 18 minutes. After the first five the attention was riveted. At the close there was a standing ovation. I am glad to report that the prayer breakfast is a regular thing now.

I was invited to come next to the Kentucky State Teen Convention at Lexington. It was great to see the hundreds of youthful Christians gathering for the occasion. The singing was rousing, the spirit encouraging and the atmosphere was excellent. It gave me a great thrill to touch so many lives while they were still in the dewy freshness of young manhood and womanhood. The courage, faith and hope of such people is a tremendous source of strength to me.

I went from there to Canada to the Ontario Christian Seminary. The president was Alan Larue. I had first met him years ago at a little rural congregation in Ohio. He was always a man of vision and foresight. He had gone to Toronto and built the school up to its present rating. It was a brilliant move. Toronto, an Indian name meaning “a place of meeting,” was already the second city in Canada, in point of population. It had just begun to expand. A great medical, museum and musical center, it was also the home of Toronto University, one of the great educational centers of our day. The city was also the home of a tremendous annual exposition. The seminary was small in number, but had an impact beyond its size. It was great to be able to talk with the students between sessions and to share in their plans and ambitions.

December 3-5 found me at Wickliffe, Ohio. Here I was permitted to be with Jack Ashworth, who previously labored with the Church of Christ, but who had been delivered from a lot of the sectarian hang-ups. Because of the freedom and openness of the congregation it was under suspicion by many others in the general Cleveland area. The very first morning six of the preachers came together to question me. Just as soon as I announced we were ready for queries from the audience they “hogged the show” and sought to dominate the proceedings. It was rather interesting. They followed the pattern I have seen so often. One would ask a leading question, and the other would have his hand in the air before I answered it. They laid down a barrage of questions but fortunately I had heard all of them before, many times.

One of the interesting features about this kind of tactic which I have experienced so often is the reaction upon those who attend my meetings and who did not grow up in an exclusivistic Church of Christ atmosphere. They can hardly believe their ears. In most cases the questioners keep an eye on their watches and about five minutes before quitting time “they fold their tents like the Arabs. and as silently steal away.” When they leave, someone is almost certain to burst out with, “Who in the world are those men, and what do they represent?” Of course, these men cannot eat luncheon in the meetinghouse, so they never meet people informally and personally. They can only hit and run, so they appear cowardly to those who cannot understand either their purpose or their method of trying to attain it. The sectarian spirit makes cowards of men who ought to be brave.

Since Kirtland was quite close, I was eager to go over and see this place which Joseph Smith made quite famous. It was very near the home of Sidney Rigdon, who was a Baptist preacher at Mentor originally. He was an eloquent man who was led into what was called “the current reformation” by Alexander Campbell, after an all night talk on the front porch at Bethany. He became very close to Campbell, even traveling with him by horseback to Washington, Kentucky, to take notes on the debate with McCalla.

Rigdon was led into Mormonism by Parley P. Pratt, who with his brother Orson, was another defector from the Campbell movement. Rigdon had a profound effect upon the developing Mormon faith and is credited with a lot of the theology which became part of it. He expected to become its head, succeeding Smith, who was shot to death in the jail at Nauvoo, Illinois, by enraged citizens who resented his ambitious attitude and his taking of other wives. But he was shouldered aside by Brigham Young, and at the age of sixty returned a broken man to his boyhood home in Friendship, New York. Here he worked as a shingle-packer, disillusioned and upset, referring to himself as an “exile.”

The “saints” as they refer to themselves, built a “temple” in Kirtland. It is still maintained by the “Reorganized Church” of Independence, Missouri, one of the five branches into which the movement separated. The caretakers and guides try to make it appear that the blueprint was inspired and the Lord acted as foreman in its erection. It is evident that this is only part of the myth of which the whole false system has been constructed. It has been built into one of the most cleverly-contrived fabrications ever devised to fool and deceive an unsuspecting world.

On two consecutive Tuesdays in December I was scheduled to be the speaker at the Messianic Forum luncheon in Saint Louis. These are held every Tuesday at noon at the Downtown Holiday Inn. They began on May 14, 1948, the day that Israel became a nation, following a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly, on Nov. 29, 1947. This called for an end to the British Mandate for Palestine which had been established by the League of Nations in 1922. I have now spoken about 36 times to the group, which is attended by Jews with a great deal of love for Jerusalem. Some of these are believers in Jesus, but a great many are opposed to him. They are held together by a mutual love for Israel, although their reasons for that love differ widely. I have been privileged to meet teachers and writers exiled from Russia, as well as presidents of large manufacturing concerns, and persons from every walk of life. The most versatile and articulate presentation I ever heard in answer to my presentation about the Lordship of Jesus, was made by a manufacturer of men’s pants.

Once I was invited to speak by the United Jewish Men of Saint Louis. I appeared with a popular and respected rabbi, who presented counter-arguments to my contention that Jesus was the Messiah. There were 800 men present for the dinner and program which followed. The thing which impressed me was the number of Jews who were humanists. The rabbi was in almost as much trouble as myself. The question period lasted an hour and he was attacked for his belief in the existence of God about as severely as I was for urging that Jesus was His Son.

The last event of the year was the Saint Louis Forum. This had always been an honest effort to discuss anything, regardless of how “sticky” it was, without qualm. Any person could feel free to state anything or to ask any question. In 1975 we stretched the program to the point that we engaged in open discussion of moral questions and obligations such as we had not discussed before. We had twice invited women to appear as speakers in a survey of women’s rights and privileges in the church. But this time we invited two men who were doctors to frankly discuss the abortion issue; and two persons who were involved in the political spectrum to talk about the Christian’s role in modern politics. We asked them to’ address frankly the problem of whether a Christian had the right to march in peace demonstrations, or to use the power of organized revolt to overthrow laws that were unjust.

Two students of prophecy talked about modern Israel in the plan of God. One of them felt that Jerusalem was destined to play a dramatic role in the future dealings of God with the world; the other felt that Jerusalem meant no more to God than Saint Louis or New York. This made for a good question period. There were two more who spoke on the subject of marriage and divorce especially as divorce and remarriage applied to one who was chosen to serve as an elder. I made an announcement of the forum in the paper but there was no coverage given it because by the time it was held the Mission Messenger was no more.

On December 1, Nell had addressed and wrapped the final paper and I had placed it in the proper bag according to the zip code. I loaded the nine mail sacks in the car as I had been doing each month for thirty-seven years and drove to the loading dock at the main post office in Saint Louis. I am sure it must have come as a great relief to Nell, and to Brother and Sister Ratliff, who had faithfully helped us wrap them for months. Sister Ratliff continued to do so after she had partially recovered from a paralytic stroke. I am not sure how we would have made it without the ministrations of this faithful pair. I said goodbye to the mail handlers on the dock and went into the weighing office and bade farewell to the men who had helped me so much. Only one was left who had been there when I started. I climbed in the car and started for home with mixed emotions. More than a third of a century lay behind me.

I could not help but think of the changes I had made in those years. In my next, and last article in this series, I hope to detail some of the changes in my perception of the will of God which have occurred to me. I have been attacked and abused for stating them. It appears that we are often more comfortable with one who continues to wear the rags and tatters of a disproven theology than with one who dons a new suit provided by the Spirit of God. If one tells the truth about changes to which he has been driven he becomes the victim of verbal assault; if he lies or cavils or conceals his true feelings he becomes a recognized, if uneasy, party hero.

In the remainder of this space I want to thank all those who have helped us in any manner. Many of you are still doing so. Your encouragement and sharing are wonderful. I have often thought what I would say if I were requested to name the five persons who have most affected my life. I have reached the conclusion it would be impossible to answer. Surely God has brought all of you into my life for an eternal purpose. You have touched by life for good and I am forever grateful. I have survived three wars, and even two world depressions. I have lived to see numerous changes in”the higher powers” that govern. Men have come, and men have gone, but I have continued with unabated faith in Him “who puts down kings and raises them up.”

From one who was an intolerant debater and defender of the party line I have been delivered and made to see the earnest attempt to please God of many who never heard of the Campbells. I have been led to see the inherent good in the youth of our land and have been able to properly appreciate the strength of middle age, and the wisdom and experience of old age. I am thrilled that I was invited to share this “Pilgrimage of Joy” with you, and since the journey is not completed I trust that you will pray for me that it may be finished as it began.