READER'S EXCHANGE

 

I too lament the sad situation which necessitates this generation’s best preachers no longer desiring and no longer welcome to work in the Church of Christ. The list grows. We kid ourselves if we think it will ever change. While we sit around waiting for that change, the Spirit passes us by and finds others more receptive and unencumbered by “our heritage.” Thank God the Church of Christ is not His only option! or ours!—Stan Harbour, Christ’s Church, Roswell, NM.

(The change will come, down the road. Reform must take place within, so those who will be used of the Lord to bring about the change will be committed to the task and will stay, even when it is difficult. Some will have to leave to serve God elsewhere, and we must love them no less and bid them God’s speed. We have a great and noble heritage. The problem is that we have betrayed that heritage.—Ed.)

I read your article about the World’s Fair, and I must say I thought you were overly critical of the way the (Church of Christ) display was run and especially the hand out materials. You seem to preach tolerance in so many of your articles, then you write so negatively about this work. You are unfair. We attended the Fair and were proud of what the church was doing. I don’t usually write these kind of letters, but this article really made me angry. You may take our name off your mailing list.—Wichita, KS.

(Tolerance is not necessarily a Christian virtue, and so this journal makes no effort to be “tolerant.” In fact we are very intolerant of some things, such as the party spirit, which Paul puts in the same category with the occult and idolatry (Gal. 5:20). But we do intend always to be fair. The person who wrote the above does not accuse me of distorting the facts or of stating untruths. I assume it is “fair” for the Church of Christ to criticize others but “unfair” when the Church of Christ is criticized. Did not the apostle say something like, Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?—Ed.)

“In opinions liberty” is one of the great watchwords of the Restoration movement. But among many in the churches of Christ there is precious little liberty, and less of charity. The climate in much of the brotherhood is totally hostile toward any truly objective study of the Scriptures, and any man who offers any new insights—anything which differs in any degree from “the old paths” of prevailing popular opinion—is immediately anathema.—a Church of Christ minister to an editor.