READERS' EXCHANGE

 

We enjoy good fellowship with the conservative Christian Church folks. In fact we have had two of their preachers hold meetings for us. Church of Christ folk need to learn that being kind and loving does not mean you condone what they have done or what they believe. Jesus showed kindness to the woman at the well in In. 8 but he did not condone her sin. —Antoine Valdetero, Jennings, La.

I don’t like what I see going on among our most conservative brethren these days. When J. D. Bales and Rubel Shelley are pursued by the mob for being “liberals,” just where does that leave guys like you and me? You are the eternal optimist, so speak to me. —Jim Sims, Oelwein, IO.

(We are a changing people, mostly for the good. That is why Bales and Shelley are being pursued and called names. They are changing. Even the “conservatives” are changing. They have to survive. Some move along slowly but at their own will. Others are carried along by the tide, kicking and screaming. —Ed.)

Thanks for the lessons we heard last week-end in Oregon. Our friends were correct when they told us that you were extremely encouraging. While we enjoyed your comments at First Christian in Roseburg on Sunday, we especially needed your comments on Friday evening in Sutherlin. I wish all of us Christians could love each other and accept each other with our individual uniqueness, but I don’t believe that day will ever come, since we human beings are what we are. —Bob and Charlene Howard, Myrtle Creek, Or.

(Never doubt that the love and unity that our Lord prayed for will come. It is coming even now in the lives of multiplied thousands including you and me. —Ed.)

Restoration Proclamation is a newsletter designed to inform people, particularly those who are unaware of Restoration history, of the need to exalt Christ, using the Bible as our guide. —David L. Burns, editor, Box 82, Browning, IL 62624.

One woman walked two miles with her five children and asked for medicine for worms and itch. The itch had made sores and were badly infected. Two of the children were twin boys less than a year old. Mim treated them for worms and sent itch medicine home with them. An alligator ate three people at Tikal Village where the people go to get water. Orders are to kill the alligator —J. C. Reed, Flores, Peten, Guatemala.

We are excited about the Amsterdam Convention report as Carl Ketcherside tells it. We re-read your reports from the faraway places. For several years we have sent support to a little girl in Bangladesh through World Vision. This includes her education in a Christian school. But our preacher thinks this is wrong since it is not done “through the church treasury.” —Marguerite McFadden, Dumas, Texas.

(It is interesting how devotion to “going by the Bible” can actually blind us. Here is a preacher who believes it wrong to do deeds of mercy unless it be through the church treasury. And where, pray tell me, is there even a church treasury in the Scriptures? —Ed.)

Our more recent subscribers might like to see what we have been saying in years past. We will send you 18 back issues, selected at random, for only 3.00. These are mailed but once a month, so you must be patient. Please inform us in advance of any change of address, and you must send us both your old and new addresses. If you move and the post office has to inform us, we remove your name from our mailing list. We make it both easy and inexpensive for you to share this journal with others, and it may surprise you how much your thoughtfulness will help others. In clubs of four or more the sub rate is but 3.00 per year per name, and that may include your own renewal.

Our last bound volume (1981-82) entitled Jesus Today is in handsome hardback with dust jacket, and the price at 9.00 is less than the sub rate. The Stone-Campbell Movement: An Anecdotal History of Three Churches by Leroy Garrett is widely hailed as readable, interesting, and informative (and controversial!). There are two good ways to get a copy from us: purchase a copy at 21.95 (postpaid if you pay in advance); or receive a bonus copy by sending us eight subs to this journal at 3.00 per name (24.00 total). RESTORATION REVIEW, 1201 Windsor Dr., Denton, TX 76201

You will remember that we do not publish in July or August. The September number will be our next issue.