LITTLE BOXES, LITTLE FOXES
For those of you who know the difference between folk and country music let me recommend the song called “The Little Boxes.” A careful hearing of this number will take you right back into Ecclesiastes; and, by the way, there are a lot of “Bible-believing Christians” who spend so much time on five or six verses in Paul that they miss the fine astringency of that excellent Old Testament Wisdom:
The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south, and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it.…
Negro spirituals were probably part of the internal bleeding of a cruelly oppressed people. No program is complete now without a Negro spiritual and some amateur baritone embarrassing us with “Old Man River,” trying to pump feeling into the song but never quite coming off with it because he never really did “tote that bale.”
“The Little Boxes” is something else. This is music in our day coming out of the sadness of middle-class, respectable, successful, all-American living. If we can no longer identify with “Old Man River,” we can sure nuf identify with “The Little Boxes.” The little boxes are all those little houses on the hillside that are painted pink and yellow and blue and green and that all look more or less alike in a housing project where $15,000-a-year people have ganged up. The plot to the song is that you build your little box and raise your children and put braces on their teeth and send them to college and start them in business and they end up buying another little box on another hill. Meanwhile the little foxes nibble the vines.
In Ecclesiastes the fear of the Lord is the solution. Or in the modern scene, “What does it profit us if we gain the whole world and lose our soul?”
EUTYCHUS II
THE MAJOR TASK
Re … the Spring Book Issue (Feb. 14): It is a great issue. It is very well done. It covers very relevant areas and material. It will be much appreciated. Thank you all for it.
But, as I sat back and reviewed the impressions of the whole issue, I tried to determine just what had been accomplished. In the light of the objectives of Jesus Christ, of his Church, of the Word of God, what progress has been made?…
Is missions the main job of the Church? Is the evangelization of the world the main task of the Church? Did Jesus and then Paul project a plan—in fact the only plan—for taking the Gospel of salvation to all the world?…
In the list of Choice Evangelical Books of 1963 there are two books, possibly three if we include the one on Young Life, that deal directly with missions. Bob Evans’s book on Europe is one of the most significant books to come off the press dealing directly with the subject of missions for two or three years.
And this is all we have to offer.
You are right when you reply that one cannot review books unless they are written. I too deplore the dearth of books in this area.
But my concern is that the theologians, the biblical commentators, the historians, the religious philosophers and psychologists are not relating their thinking and their writing to what God has revealed is his major purpose in himself, for his Son, and in behalf of his creation—missions.
RAYMOND B. BUKER, SR.
Professor of Missions
Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary
Denver, Colo.
I have enjoyed the issue. F. F. Bruce’s knowledge of New Testament studies is absolutely marvelous.
ROBERT H. MOUNCE
Assoc. Prof. of Biblical Lit. and Greek
Bethel College
St. Paul, Minn.
SMOKING AND COMMANDMENT SIX
You are most certainly right in declaring smoking, in the light of recent scientific findings, to be a moral issue (Editorials, Jan. 31 issue). Smoking is a slow form of suicide which is a violation of the sixth commandment.
The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and it is far more wrong to desecrate it than to desecrate a church dedicated to the worship of God.
Congratulations on your stand!
DUNBAR W. SMITH, M.D.
New York, N. Y.
Re the article, “Churchmen Speak Up on Smoking” (News): It would have been fine if they had.
I noted six of the selected comments showed grave concern for the youth and their exposure to the promotion, use, and addiction to tobacco, but apparently there is little concern for the adult. Why is it any different for the youth than the adult as a violation of the temple of God?
The answer is clear—adults are the smokers, the investors, the manufacturers, the promoters, the poor witnesses. And this is the crux of the entire problem of youth—the poor adult image and the absence of the witness to the young.… Let’s be honest with ourselves and admit that we are miserable witnesses to our young people.
We say, “Don’t do as I do, but do as I say,” and the youth say, “What you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say.”
KARL O. NYBERG
Moorhead, Minn.
THE MISSOURI CHAPLAINS
The letter by Joseph MacCarroll (Eutychus, Jan. 31 issue) is a masterpiece of confusion.
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has a distinctive doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. In the light of the same it believes that Communion may be received not only as a blessing but “unworthily,” bringing a “judgment” upon him who does not “discern the Lord’s Body.” Hence it cannot engage in joint celebrations with those who deny the Real Presence. Therefore, also, it is love rather than lovelessness which insists on instruction before communing.
Nowhere does The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod indicate, as the Reverend MacCarroll states, that it believes all others eat and drink unworthily.
High-ranking military chaplains of various denominations constantly tell the undersigned of their respect and regard for their colleagues of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, not of “stiffness of heart and mind” to which the writer referred.…
Is a church body to be faulted for having learned to participate in civic and patriotic affairs without compromise of principle? The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and her chaplains are far from perfect, but, thank God, they do stand for something.
ARTHUR M. WEBER
Chaplain
Armed Services Commission
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Washington, D. C.
BISHOPS WAIT LONGER
The article on John Jewell (Current Religious Thought, Feb. 14 issue) was stimulating and proved the author’s introductory paragraph that history is not irrelevant. In fact, history is sometimes phenomenal. Jewell, born in 1552, became Bishop of Salisbury in 1559. Is this a theological child prodigy? No, this is a typographical error; he was born in 1522.
STEPHEN BOARD
Philadelphia, Pa.
SOURCE OF RELEVANCE
I just finished reading the splendid article by young Peter Marshall on “Billy Graham at Princeton: A Student’s View” (Jan. 17 issue). I thought the ideas expressed were both stimulating and inspiring.
All of us hear many people talking about relating the Gospel to our day, and about making Christ relevant. I quite agree with Marshall that the problem is not in making Christ relevant, but rather becoming “channels through whom God himself will make Christ relevant”.…
B. THOMAS TRIBBLE
Benbrook Methodist Church
Benbrook, Tex.
To quote Peter Marshall, I too “feel that Dr. Graham struck at the very heart of the needs of the ministry in the modern Church.”
D. C. RICHARDSON
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
Kenton, Tenn.
POSSE TRACKING A SHEPHERD
We thought we heard a couple of jarring notes in Mr. DeBoer’s “The Parable of the Restless Shepherd” (Jan. 17 issue).
First, and most obviously, he makes it clear that the hero became a better man by trying to become a more successful man. He practiced his piety before men in order to be seen of them, and ended up a true shepherd. Starting—and continuing—with a less than lofty motive, he became, we are told, spiritually alive.
Our own experience has been that when we operate from low motives, we get about what we deserve. Look at those men who make a show of their religion, says Jesus; and with a touch of irony he adds: “They have had all the reward they are going to get”.…
The other jarring note is the complete absence of visiting pulpit committees. Did this pastor live in Patagonia or in Red China? If he wrote that many letters today, the church would have to rent extra parking space for the out-of-town visitors every Sunday.
The unseemly zeal with which pastors seek other sheepfolds (it was different in my case, of course!) is matched only by the posse-like vigilance of pulpit committees in tracking down a new shepherd. I’m afraid that Mr. DeBoer’s parable promises more than it can deliver.
FRED MANSFIELD
The United Presbyterian Church
Benkelman, Neb.
WE NEED MORE
I want to congratulate you on publishing the article, “The Biblical Certainty Of Christ’s Return,” by Robert J. Lamont, in the January 17 issue of the magazine. Mr. Lamont expresses the views I have held for sixty years, and for fifty years I have taught it and preached it in my ministry. We need more preaching on this subject.
W. F. SMITH
United Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.
Chattanooga, Tenn.
IT SOUNDED RIGHT
I have a little comment of purely microscopic proportion. In Elva McAllaster’s poem on “Jephthah’s Daughter” (Jan. 17 issue), on line 18, I am at a loss to understand the form “than them all.” I should think that the sentence would require “than they all.” I wonder whether Miss (or Mrs.) McAllaster has felt that grammar of the sentence should be sacrificed to the euphony. Of course another possibility is that she feels that by now “than” can be considered as a preposition.… I make bold to present this question which is quite secondary in the midst of the total excellence of the poem and of the whole issue.
ROGER NICOLE
Gordon Divinity School
Wenham, Mass.
• Let our poetry editor reply to Dr. Nicole: “Dr. Nicole is undoubtedly right grammatically. According to Fowler, ‘himself more outcast than them all [were]’ is indefensible. Than is never a preposition except in expressions like more than twenty, possibly.
“Elva McAllaster’s only, and poetic, justification is that ‘himself more outcast than they all’ sounds awkward. I’m usually very sensitive to cases after than, but because of the himself, ‘than them’ sounded right.
“One up to Dr. Nicole, but I like the sound of her line still.”—ED.
SALT
Your editorial … “Evangelicals and Public Affairs” (Jan. 17 issue) discusses issues which very much need to be brought to the forefront of Christian thought. To be socially irresponsible or socially unconcerned is not to be “the salt of the earth.” Well done—keep up the good work in this area.
JOHN A. KNUBEL, JR.
Oxford, England
Let me … comment on the fine quality of recent articles whose timeliness and relevance have been marked not only by fidelity to New Testament Christianity but also by real courage, not only on doctrinal matters, as we have come to expect, but also in such delicate areas as race and politics.…
L. ARDEN ALMQUIST
The Evangelical Covenant Church
Chicago, Ill.
Your editorial said a lot that should have been said long ago. In the struggle for survival against liberalism several lamentable phenomena have developed. Among them is the fact that the very real fear of evangelical Christians for the fate of our spiritual message has had the tendency to blind us to other areas of life. Civic concern and responsibility for the great social issues of our time are easily brushed aside with statements about spiritual welfare, leaving the field to those whose message seems to have a social focus alone.
Certainly the foregoing should not deny the spiritual imperative, but it would seem as though oftentimes Christians have the feeling they have told the world to stop while they got off. To be sure we must remember that the greatest need of men is for Christ, and we have a spiritual responsibility to share this treasure. But how are we to answer to God for the other resources with which we have been entrusted.…
Basically the Christian’s problem is one of dual citizenship, and it is very easy to become preoccupied with the one at the expense of the other.… What is called for seems to be a recognition that not all our work is spiritual, or better that our responsibilities for public and social concerns is a spiritual work. But lest we become discouraged we need to remember that this work too can redound to the glory of the God we love and serve: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).
PENELOPE L. MITCHELL
Los Angeles, Calif.
MIGRATION SOUTHWARD
Your article on “South Africa’s Race Dilemma” in the January 31 issue (News) was very refreshing indeed.
Most of what we hear and read about South Africa these days is emotional and sentimental hogwash based on a preconceived and idealistic philosophy. Very few people in this country realize that South Africa was virtually uninhabited until the whites of England and Europe founded the coastal trading centers in connection with the Far Eastern trade and gradually the blacks migrated southward from central Africa. The slogan: “Africa for the Africans,” by which is meant the blacks, has no application to South Africa.
You have done a good job in objective, factual reporting. This does not solve South Africa’s complex problem, but it at least helps correct the misinformation which is in the minds of the American public and thus helps to make them … more sympathetic.
HAROLD T. COMMONS
President
Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, Inc.
Philadelphia, Pa.
TIME FOR PREPARATION
I appreciated John Holum’s article (Jan. 3 issue) so much that some response to later comments in letters (Feb. 14 issue) may be appropriate. His purpose, as I understand it, was to prepare pastors and laymen for the day when newspapers will proclaim that a scientist has created life. This will mean that research workers have synthesized a type of molecule which (given suitable raw materials) is able to make more molecules of the same type. “Life” in this sense will mean “self-reproducing molecule.”
Such an announcement will be no surprise to scientists, for it will be a natural extension of current research in molecular biology. Futhermore, there is no evidence whatsoever for any divine limit or restriction on such lines of research.
What will this news report tell us about God? Some people, no doubt, will claim that these findings represent another argument against God, but they have no logical basis for doing so. This is the crucial point. New information about biosynthetic processes can lead to more sophisticated speculation about the origin of life but cannot provide direct evidence as to what actually did occur. The basis for our faith in God as Creator will be unchanged—his revelation, the Scriptures.
It is the misinterpretations, not the experiments themselves, that will concern us as Christians. At such a time the general public will give extra weight to statements by persons on the research team itself. I hope that several devoted Christians will be on the active forefront and thus able to bear a unique witness to their faith. We ought to encourage our able young people to enter such a field, rather than counsel against it.
V. ELVING ANDERSON
Assistant Director
Dight Institute of Human Genetics
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minn.
THE SILENT ONES
While I cannot accept your theological platform, I think you deserve praise for taking a stand in your January 17 issue (Editorials) which most editors and leaders dodge.
You condemn the silence of those who will not follow the admonition of the Apostle and “approve the things that are excellent,” but accept without protest books and movies without moral or artistic value, paintings which violate a fundamental principle of pictorial art by being deliberately “non-representational,” singing by those who have no voice and never learned to sing. Do all these silent folk really enjoy these distortions of art?
WILBUR L. CASWELL
Patterson. Calif.
Those theologians who have lost confidence in the basically sound witness of the New Testament and who replace historicism with theoricism are in danger of producing an “abstract” type of religion, matching the abstract poetry, music, painting, and sculpture with which we are now afflicted.
J. N. BECKSTEAD
Ottawa, Ont.
GUSTAVE WEIGEL
Many thanks for your statement about Father Weigel (Editorials, Jan. 31 issue). Your closing sentence is another of your profound concepts very aptly put, “… the pursuit of truth must never be disengaged from the practice of love.” Many of our “defenders of the faith once for all delivered” quickly forget this.
G. WILLIS MARQUETTE
The Methodist Church
Spring City, Pa.
Your editorial on Gustave Weigel was very moving. Conservative Protestants have much in common with thoughtful Roman Catholics. Roman Catholic jurists, along with CHRISTIANITY TODAY, really open up this problem of church-state separation. (… I am a member of the D. C. Bar.) Liberal Protestants and the Supreme Court continue to muddy legal and historical waters. The American Bar Association has evidently been intimidated to the point of abject submission.
ROY STRICKLAND
Sterling, Va.
IT HAUNTS ONE
I sincerely appreciated your editorial on “Youth and the Church” (Jan. 3 issue). As I had tried to think through the reasons for failure some time ago I concurred with your diagnosis. However this lack of communication has struck me with new force. Here in a foreign culture and culture in transition this confrontation is felt.…
The sense of inadequacies to properly communicate this wonderful Gospel message to the few teachers, scientists, and doctors and especially the young disturbed teens floods my soul. I cannot but feel that God’s message is so relevant to this age, but the how-to-make-it-so haunts one.
W. NORMAN BARRAM
Unalakleet, Alaska
ECUMENICS
Under the heading of Current Religious Thought (Jan. 17 issue) Addison H. Leitch wrote an excellent article on some of the problems faced in “church union”.…
I firmly believe in biblical Christian unity and I pray for “a united Church for a divided world.” But true Christian unity must take place on the basis of a deep common faith and truth firmly believed rather than upon the compromise of truth in order to have a statistical union. And after all, statistical union is a long, long way from the biblical unity for which Christ prayed (John 17).
Let’s all work toward Christian unity, but not for a church union based on a creed of the lowest common denominator.
DWIGHT L. DYE
Westridge Hills Church of God
Oklahoma City, Okla.
I really do not see why Addison H. Leitch should cavil at C. H. Dodd’s statement that in ecumenical discussion the intractable issues are at a deeper level than the theological. This is common sense to most candid Englishmen. Thus in the present “conversations” between the Church of England and the British Methodist Church the differences are in church order, not in doctrine properly so called, though sharp differences in order can in some cases indicate differences in doctrine of the church. But if there are doctrinal differences they can be reasonably argued about, and argued among the few who are seriously interested in theology. There is hope of agreement, not indeed by compromise on principle, but by comprehension of complementary principles in a richer whole. The real obstacle is that embedded in the inchoate “group mind” there is the irrational heritage of the past—the unconscious assumption of superiority on the one side, and of defensiveness on the other. It is far harder to dispel lack of charity than lack of understanding. Thus the issue is “deeper.”
JOHN LAWSON
Associate Professor of Church History
Candler School of Theology
Emory University
Atlanta, Ga.
The highest evidence of intelligence, and for that matter, scholarship as well, is revealed in simplicity of expression.… He has taken a profound problem facing [Christendom] today, which gives promise of being with us for some time, stripped it of the ecumenical verboseness and nonsense, and reduced it to simplicity itself.…
ERLING C. OLSEN
New York, N. Y.
SEMINARIES AND MOVIES
I was surprised to see that [Eutychus II is] … “inclined to visit movie theaters,” calling it “modern relaxation” (Jan. 17 issue).…
CHRISTIANITY TODAY declares to be orthodox and anti-modernist. But theological modernism has many subtle ways of expounding its views—in theory and life, and one of them is the movies. Its script-writers often pretend to expound biblical history, but they change God’s historical Word to suit their carnal inclinations or outlook on life, past and present.…
Mental modernism in seminaries [is] less dangerous than the philosophy of life expounded in the movies.…
OLAV EIKLAND
Brooklyn, N. Y.
TO HALT THUMB TWIDDLING
Mr. R. P. Marshall’s article on the liturgical movement in the Church (Dec. 20 issue) said much that is very relevant to those of the “informal” denominations of Canada. I cannot agree, however, that an introducing of congregational responses will improve the interest and understanding of those present. It does not take long for any congregation to become used to repeating prayers written on the church calendar or printed in the church hymnary. Surely unique individual efforts would be far more effective!
May I suggest that the “preliminaries” be taken by a member of the congregation and that frequent changing of personnel be introduced? A reviving of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds in this part of the service would certainly help to make it more interesting, but only an intermittent usage would prevent congregational boredom.
If perhaps the pastoral prayer was said from the heart of an elder or deacon, less twiddling of thumbs would take place under the church pews.
The Holy Spirit works through more than one individual, and the more individuals used (in a logical manner) would help inspire the whole congregation by its unifying collective effort. A church inspires its members in proportion to the members’ inspiration. What better way may a man grow in Christ than through responsible service on his Lord’s behalf?
DEANE PARKER
Port Credit, Ont.
