Eutychus and His Kin: March 28, 1960

EASTER CLOTHING

Pastor Peterson submits the following poem on the meaning of Easter from a seventh grade classroom:

Easter is for everyone!

The Easter bunny brings

Baskets full of colored eggs,

And candy chicks and things;

Jelly beans and chocolate eggs,

My name is sugar white—

Must I eat my dinner now?

I just don’t feel quite right.

Easter’s not just eating, though;

It’s so much more than that

Easter means that I dress up

In my new coat and hat

Daddy wears his new gray suit

And Mother her new pearls,

Handbag, hat, and dress, and gloves

And coat and furs (and curls!)

Easter is for more than that—

For music, church, and flowers,

Spring, and buds, and shining clouds,

And splashy April showers.

Easter comes so late this year,

So far past April Fool;

Best of all this Easter means

We’ll soon be out of school!

Knowing Pastor Peterson’s prejudices against our secularized holidays and his penchant for doggerel, I am suspicious about the origin of these verses. He insists they were found in a seventh grade desk, and that this establishes their source as firmly as any Dead Sea scroll. But they fit a little too neatly into his constant warnings as to the Easter we are giving our children.

He has announced for his sermon subject, “Easter Clothing.” I was relieved to learn that he has in mind two main points: the discarded grave clothes (John 20:6, 7), and the garment of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:53; 2 Cor. 5:4). Still, one can never be sure as to the remarks he may make in passing about the vanity of Easter finery!

EUTYCHUS

BIRTH CONTROL TROUBLES

It is with surprise that I read in (Feb. 1 issue) the editorial headed “Exploding Populations and Birth Control” a statement … flatly contradicted by the facts.

You state: “Take the Lambeth conferences. In 1920 contraceptives were declared immoral. A subsequent conference ‘hedged.’ The last conference approved.”

The first of these three statements about Lambeth conferences is correct. The second is a matter of opinion and depends upon what is meant by “hedged.” But the third statement is entirely false. The Lambeth Conference speaks through its resolutions which are formally adopted by the Conference as a whole. Reports of various committees are not authoritative and whatever such committees may declare is of no authority until and unless the same declarations are stated in the resolutions. The Lambeth Conference resolutions simply make no reference to the matter of contraceptives either for or against. You are quite in error in stating that the Lambeth Conference (of 1958) approved.

HARRIS T. HALL

St. Peter’s Church

Ripon, Wisc.

On the part of those who profess to believe in the inspired Scriptures, why do we not seek therein for the answer to such a disturbing question (News, December 21 issue)? There are many portions which directly or indirectly relate to the subject [such as] 1 Cor. 7:27–38.… The Apostle Paul … is here presenting the idea of the single versus the married state, not by mandate but by choice and self-dedication, as giving the individual the greatest freedom and opportunity for the most important matter to any Christian—the matter of serving Christ in a swiftly passing and perishing world. Who rises up in the name of the One who commissioned Paul, to say that the same end or a better one is achieved by means of contraceptives and birth control?

J. W. SHIKE

Chanute, Kans.

The apostle Paul shows that the marriage relationship can have another purpose other than procreation (1 Cor. 7:1–9). When such is its purpose, and not procreation, can it be wrong to implement the purpose when Paul shows that the purpose is right?

JAMES D. BALES

Harding College

Searcy, Ark.

STATE IN WELFARE WORK

May I especially commend the articles “Has Anybody Seen ‘Erape’?” (Jan. 4 and Jan. 18 issues) and “The State in Welfare Work” (Jan. 18 issue). I felt that these discussions were thoughtful and most enlightening.

JAMES W. WOELFEL

Cambridge, Mass.

I cannot praise enough “Has Anybody Seen ‘Erape’?”.… The editor … has portrayed absolutely the terrible welfare aspect of centralized government in federal, state, county, and city—impersonal and cold, as it has now become rather than warmly through the local church.… Why do not more ministers and alert laymen complain to their senators and congressmen against the leftist pressure of Arthur S. Flemming (Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare) who is a graduate of the Federal Council of Churches, which in November, 1950, became the National Council of Churches? Flemming is the man who pushes “life adjustment” in education, “fluoridation” through the Public Health Service and now “socialized” medicine through increased taxes with Social Security.

FRANK P. STELLING

Oakland, Calif.

Congratulations on your excellent editorial in Jan. 18 issue: “The State in Welfare Work.”

LEE DYMOND

United Church of Christ

(Evangelical and Reformed)

Freeburg, Pa.

In your apparent eagerness ultimately to discredit public welfare and its relation to the churches in “The State in Welfare Work,” you conveniently overlook two important points.

The first of these is the possibility that social welfare just might be a right of citizens of a state. Public assistance today is hardly an “undeserved favor.” It is a legal right, one sanctioned by law. This you deny, without any discussion of the pros and cons. Rights may be natural (inherent) or conferred (as, for example, by the State).…

Secondly, you tend to negate the church’s relationship to civic righteousness, and the individual Christian’s responsibility for active support and participation in this secular sphere. (And, in fact, such participation on the part of the believer does not remain civic righteousness but becomes a vital part of his sanctification.) After all, we are members not only of His Kingdom of Grace, but still also members of His Kingdom of Power in which we still have a vital, Christian role. The mistake of the Social Gospel was not in emphasizing the Kingdom and the strong social imperatives of the Gospel, but in doing so to the partial or even total exclusion of the message of the Cross by which the Kingdoms of Grace and Glory are established.

THEODORE ERNST

Trinity Lutheran Church

Bogota, N. J.

Several powerful thrusts were made at the concept of absolute economic equality, which almost no one advocates. Such attacks on straw men cannot divert attention from the fact that unnecessarily extreme economic inequality still exists, even in the United States. For instance, in the week that a great industrial leader spent a quarter of a million dollars on his daughter’s coming-out party, some parents in the county in which I live had difficulty in finding 25 cents to pay for their children’s school lunch. Although individual deeds of love (which usually fall far short of agape) are to be encouraged, there is little hope that this program can meet all the real needs.

Laws will not bring God’s Kingdom on earth; neither will deeds of personal piety. Until Christ comes in the fullness of his power, the power of sin will corrupt even the best of human life. Industry, labor unions, even churches, as well as individuals will cling to vested interests, and support selfish claims with pious arguments. Human laws can restrain the powerful and provide some temporary relief for the weak who might otherwise be exploited or neglected. For a Christian, “Erape” institutions are a compromise, perhaps a compromise necessitated by living “in the world;” but until the new age comes they may be necessary.

HOWARD WALL

Maysville Presbyterian Church

Buckingham, Va.

One of the tragedies of the age is the division of state from Christianity.… The dogmatic opinion that state welfare work destroys the opportunity for church or private charity is nonsense; there is plenty of need for all of all three.…

O. L. WILLSON

Monmouth, Ill.

Cannot our nation be presented to the world in the light of having as its basic concepts … compassion and mercy? Has not the welfare work of our land developed out of Christian concepts? It may be true that other concepts have crept in that are not based upon compassion and mercy but this would not invalidate our basic concept that these things are a necessary and proper activity of government.…

Your editorial opens up this whole region of evolvement in the culture which is now the position of the churches. You would have us extract ourselves of this evolvement but it is not easy and it never will be. But first of all we will have to forge some sort of an “articulate philosophy” and when we do we surely will not be in step with much of the capitalist structure of present day America and Western world.

You have scratched the surface, now let us dig.

IRVIN KELLEY

Jasper, N. Y.

In the light of your discussion of “Erape,” and my current interest in studying the meaning of agape, would you suggest to a New Testament scholar, who is versed in the papyri, to make an up-to-date analysis of the use of agape in pagan circles. Moulton and Milligan and Thayer are very deficient, and Bauer (Arndt and Gingrich) merely gives some literature which I find unavailable. Bauer says the new findings “take on new meaning,” but does not elaborate.

WARD WILSON

Oakland, Calif.

A PROBLEM OF IDENTITY

In your editorial you say “Jungle Rot Comes from the Jungle” (Feb. 1 issue); “We honor the sons and daughters of Israel. We thank God for them.” And it is obvious that you mean the Jews. I cannot understand how any one who has ever read the Bible and professes to believe it can show such gross and woeful ignorance. Apparently, people just refuse to believe what the Bible says.…

The Jews do not belong to the Semitic people; they are not descendants of Shem; and their own Jewish Encyclopedia will bear witness to this truth. The Jews were originally known as Khazars before they came into the land of Palestine about 600 years before Christ and took possession of the land after the Israelites were taken away into captivity.…

When I read your editorial on Jungle Rot, I see the type of mind that is so prevalent today. The vast majority of people today have more respect, more honor, more love for the Christ-hating Jews than they have for the faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

JOHN W. FULTON

Pitman, N. J.

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