A PLEA FOR RESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM

There is an article in the May issue of Firm Foundation, a Church of Christ publication out of Houston, entitled “A Journey Into A ‘Far Country’,” that leads me to issue a call for more responsible Christian journalism. It is an account of a Church of Christ minister’s journey among Independent Christian Churches,’ which he describes as a far country. He confesses to the “faithful” brethren that he has been a prodigal and wants to come back home.

If a brother chooses to leave the Church of Christ and work among the Christian Churches, it is of course his and their business, and we should respect it as such. And if he then decides he wants to “come back home” to the Church of Christ that too is for him to decide, and it is not for us to judge him in the matter. We can of course raise a question about where “home” should be. Should not Jesus Christ always be our home, wherever we may be assembling? We should not be “leaving home” when we move from one Christian assembly to another.

So, such a “journey” as the brother describes is in itself understandable, but the things that he says in telling his story is as irresponsible as anything I ever recall reading. If the author of the piece is to be blamed for writing it, the editor of the Firm Foundation is to be blamed even more for publishing it. I question it because it makes ridiculous and irresponsible charges against our sisters and brothers in the Christian Church. The article falls so short of the common courtesy that should be shown in Christian papers that it might be ignored, but it gives one editor, myself, an occasion to plead with another editor, the Firm Foundation editor, that we give all diligence to pursue the things that make for peace and unity, especially at a time when serious efforts are being made for better understanding between Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. There are times when an editor should return a manuscript with an attending note, “The way this reads it will do more harm than good. Rewrite it!”

It is incredible that an editor would allow such a judgment as this to appear in his paper: “There is no way that one who wants to be true to God’s Word (and I do) can be in fellowship with the Independent Christian Church.” This does not merely say that those in the Christian Church may be in error about some things, but that they do not even want to be true to God’s word! They are not only wrong but are insincere in their profession to follow Christ! I am ashamed that any paper among us would allow such an abusive statement to appear in its columns. Such an ungracious and unkind spirit only drives the wedge of division deeper.

It gets worse as the author gives his reasons for such a judgment. He can’t fellowship the Christian Church anymore because they worship Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny! Some congregation must have had a Christmas party and some kids must have gone on an Easter egg hunt. Big deal! That’s worshipping Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny! In the face of such nonsense as that is there any wonder that we are losing our young people? Do we in the Church of Christ worship the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus when we take our kids on an egg hunt and exchange gifts at Christmas? Should not Christian love temper such a wild judgment of others as that?

Then comes the old bromide that Church of Christ leaders have been feeding us ever since our break with the Christian Churches a century ago: “I was out of place among people who really do not give much thought to Bible authority.” The Church of Christ honors the authority of the Bible while the Christian Church does not—all because they use instruments of music, concerning which the Bible is silent, and we don’t! If that reasoning holds up, what are we to say when our non-Sunday School brothers say that they accept biblical authority while we don’t—since we have the Sunday School, concerning which the Bible is silent, and they don’t?

Can’t people who respect biblical authority sincerely differ with each other? It is not only ungracious but comes close to being self-righteous when we accuse others of not respecting the Bible because they do not reach the same conclusions that we do, especially in areas where God does not speak.

I am probably as well acquainted with Christian Churches as anyone among Churches of Christ, and my impression is that they esteem the Scriptures the same as we do. All our people in the Stone-Campbell Movement have made the Bible basic to our faith throughout our history with such mottoes as, “No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible.” We all believe that. And yet we’ve never seen the Bible eye-to-eye on every point. That doesn’t mean that part of us disregards biblical authority, but only that we disagree on what the Bible teaches. God calls us to disagree agreeably and lovingly when we have to disagree, but we have not always heeded that call.

There is a frightening implication in part of what this Firm Foundation article says. The author names all sorts of “erroneous ideas and teachings” that he found in the Christian Church, such as salvation by grace only, baptism (one does not have to understand that it is for the remission of sins), premillennialism, the role of women, divorce and remarriage, qualification of elders, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The frightening implication is that we have to see all these questions and issues alike. If there is diversity of opinion, one must leave, as the author did the Christian Church, and find conformity in a “sound” church.

Our brother is not going to find any group of believers that sees all such issues alike, including the kind of Church of Christ to which he returns. The Firm Foundation itself started as a faction over one issue that he names—whether one has to understand that baptism is for the remission of sins for it to be valid—and it was an issue within Churches of Christ rather than Christian Churches. None other than the revered David Lipscomb taught, as did Alexander Campbell before him, that baptism is predicated upon faith, not knowledge. This is why Lipscomb and Campbell took people in on their “Baptist baptism.”

Our people never reimmersed Baptists until Austin McGary, who was both a sheriff and a preacher in Texas, started rebaptizing as many Church of Christ members as he could persuade back in the 1880’s, insisting that they had to know that baptism was for the remission of sins, and started his own paper to support his cause. This not only led to an ongoing controversy between McGary of the Firm Foundation and Lipscomb of the Gospel Advocate, but was the root cause of a feud between our Texas and Tennessee churches that has not fully abated until this day.

I say it is a frightening prospect to insist that we have to agree on such matters as the millennium, the role of women, divorce and remarriage, and all such issues because we would be a dull and sterile people, afraid to think and unable to grow. We need honest differences and the freedom to explore new ideas—to question, to challenge, to sharpen each other in a spirit of love and acceptance.

Since we will see things differently (period!) our choice is clear-cut. We can demand conformity and stifle thought and thus consign ourselves to the fate of being a narrow, bigoted party. Or we can accept diversity (in all of life as well as in the church) as a blessing to be used in glorifying God by cultivating a reconciled diversity. This we do by loving and accepting one another even as Christ loves and accepts us, even when we are wrong.

This does not mean that diversity has no limits, for in matters that are basic and essential we will be of “one heart and one mind” and will “speak the same things” as the Scriptures teach. We will thus not only allow but encourage liberty of opinion. Only one rule is imperative, that we not be pushy about our opinions nor make them tests of fellowship.

So, we have no more reason to quarrel with our brothers and sisters in the Christian Churches as we have to quarrel with each other. We are not each other’s enemy. We rather have a common enemy—one who is effectively at work in this world that we live in together. If we put on the whole armor of God and rally our forces against him and all his strongholds, we will have neither time nor incentive to fight each other.

I might say in closing that I have to assume some responsibility for our brothers prodigal journey to the Christian Church and back, for in said article he attributes his difficulties to “reading too much Restoration Review, One Body, and similar liberal ilk, and not enough Bible.” To this I can only say that it is my prayer that whatever he reads he will be led to keep it straight who the enemy is. When he was with the Christian Churches the enemy was not the Churches of Christ, and now that he is back with Churches of Christ the enemy is not the Christian Churches. He says he needs to read the Bible more. Well and good, but lest we forget we have lots of folk who read nothing but the Bible, and when at last they put on the whole armor of God and come out raring to fight. It is their own sisters and brothers in Christ that they want to fight rather than the Old Deceiver himself!

Let us be up and at him, not each other! We will look to the Firm Foundation to stand with us in this appeal.—the Editor