READERS' EXCHANGE

 

Floyd Rose, onetime minister among black Churches of Christ and now minister to the Family Baptist Church in Toledo, wrote as follows regarding the black leaders at the Gold Coast Restoration Forum that was reported on in our last issue: “The subjects to be discussed are at the heart of what the Restoration Movement was all about. It is unfortunate that the inheritors of the Movement lost the spirit of its founders. To claim to be Christians only is admirable. To claim to be the only Christians is abominable.”

We are victims of a “system” of which we do not completely approve. If we continue to support that system, it is not going to change very fast. People can stand a few jabs now and then in the form of a caustic article, but they cannot stand for us to withdraw our support of the “system.” If we did that, it would rapidly collapse. So I believe we need to have the courage of our convictions and begin practicing what we preach. —Fred L. Copeland, Prescott Valley, AZ.

A dear brother who preaches for an instrumental church of Christ and I have been doing what all of us in the Restoration heritage should have been doing all along, talking with each other. I have learned “the rest of the story” and it is not what I was taught growing up in non-instrument churches. My congregation is now providing part of my support as I go to congregations who need help. Anyone interested in my help can call me at 614-622-5461. —Jim Blevins, 1800 Chestnut St., Coshocton, OH 43812.

I am not so sure about Solon’s wisdom being realized in our age, as you suggest, especially in reference to “Psychologists wisely referring to the importance of one’s self-image.” That is contrary to the facts of what our need really is. We are too self-centered. A good study of self is Paul Brownback’s The Danger of Self Love. Of course “self’” is the big thing in the New Age movement. It is too bad that the “shrinks” try to inflate man. Let’s hope that we as “stretchers” know whose image we are to put on. We really have to be stretched to do that. —R. L. Gring, Pearsall, TX.

(Yes, and even for self to be crucified with Christ. —Ed.)

Tell Ouida if she expects to collect any insurance on you she is going to have to wait awhile, for if my prayers are answered the Lord will keep you around for a good while yet to bless us with your wonderful articles. And Ouida won’t mind waiting on that insurance —Talmadge McNabb, Brown Mills,NJ.

(You don’t know Ouida. My teacher retirement is arranged so that it ends not when I die but when she dies! So she gets it now and she’ll get it then. Tal, I believe in your prayers, but you’ll have to do a lot of praying to get ahead of that woman. —Ed.)

Your article on “The Campbell Myth” was priceless. It really laid bare our inconsistencies. Do you read The Christian Appeal? The Shelburnes have some lovely thoughts on unity in the issue I recently received. I thought of you as I read them. —Marguerite McSpadden, Dumas, TX

(Yes, I read The Christian Appeal, Gene Shelburne, editor, and I recommend it highly. The sub price is $4.00 a year. You may obtain a copy of the May issue on Unity by writing to 2440 West 11th Ave., Amarillo, TX 79106. These brethren are known as “the non-Sunday School” Church of Christ and this journal is alive to the real issues of our time. —Ed.)

BLACK CHURCH

Your article on “The Underbelly of the Black Church of Christ” (June issue) is degrading and insulting to all black ministers of churches of Christ in its depiction of their not having “an exemplary reputation when it comes to women” (p. 311). I view this statement as a stereotypical, racist generalization based on hearsay, which only helps to perpetuate a racial myth held by many white people about black leaders, and contributes further . to the polarization of the black and white races. The Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan could not have said it better (or worse). —Jack Evans, President, Southwestern Christian College, Terrell, TX 75160.

(Probably no other journal in the history of our Movement has attempted to do more to make peace between the races than this one, and it was not my intention to invalidate that in my “Underbelly” article on the black church in the June issue. That an editor is truly colorblind is evident when he commends and criticizes without distinction. If he is a “racist” when he criticizes the black church, what is he when he criticizes the white? As for my remark “Black ministers often have less than an exemplary reputation when it comes to women,” which clearly does not refer to all black ministers or even to most of them, I was led to that impression when I lived in a black world as a professor in a black Baptist college. The point of my article stands, and that is the leadership of the black Church of Christ must manifest more of the spirit of Christ and show more forbearing love if it is to have any real impact for good. It is unlikely that the Grand Wizard has ever manifested more vehemence toward blacks than those ministers in Miami showed toward their own black brother. If an aged and respected sister would stand in angry protest and cry out against the hostility (she used that word as if she were a prophet!), you can believe that it was as bad as I say. True, white preachers are often less than exemplary, but this time around I was reporting on my visit with black brethren. As I said in the June article I say again, I love the black church, including the underbelly, and I am hoping for better things. —Ed.)

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Christ’s Prison Fellowship is a newsletter issued by a ministry of the same name and sponsored by the Turnpike Church of Christ (Box 531899, Grand Prairie, TX 75053) and funded by congregations and individuals in the Dallas area. You might want to write and ask to be put on their mailing list. You will see how they are changing lives by not only ministering behind prison walls but by helping to rehabilitate prisoners once they are released.