Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 13
September 7, 1961
NUMBER 18, PAGE 3,12b-13a

News And Views

Charles A. Holt, 4662 University Dr., Wichita Falls, Texas

It's Up To The Parents

I don't deny kids pleasure. I want them all to have fun, but I hate to see them getting killed or seduced in cars and getting into all kinds of trouble....and the statistics are that they do get into lots of trouble.

What to do about it? The parents have got to have the guts to be parents. It takes a little courage to face up to a kid when you know he is wrong. Our own parents had rules, simple rules, and we knew what they were and most of the time followed them....or else.

You either went to school and did a good job or you went to work. If you went to college, you waited to get married at least till you were out. If you wanted a car or a raccoon coat or whatever — I'm not talking about rich kids, but average kids of working families — you worked, to get the money for it. Sometimes you couldn't.

Now, the kid starts with a car which is given him for no good reason except he wants it and "all the other fellows have one." He can't go out on Saturday night unless there is a car. There's a bus that passes his house a block or two away, but he won't take it. He must have the car.

The trouble with today's teenagers is they expect everything in life to be free. We've tried to make our kids happy by giving them everything that we didn't have in life. It doesn't work out. You do a kid no good by giving to him, because the only thing he gets out of life that way is the habit of receiving. You've denied him the joy of achieving.

Does anybody say to a kid any more, "You're off Saturday. You've got nothing to do. How about working for that extra five bucks you want?" He never heard of it. He gets panicky. That's when to lay down some of the rules. One of the biggest is that a youngster must be taught to be self-sufficient. He has to start growing up.

And going steady....at 15? First thing you know.... they don't know a thing except how to neck or rock'n roll.... They walk in with some idiot and say, "Ma, we're going to get married. And Ma says yes because maybe next week the kid'll walk in with an even worse idiot.

Then the parents are supporting the kids through the first babies or through college, or both. In the old days, you remember, mother and father made all the arrangements. They met the girl — or the boy. They met the family, and they investigated — practically FBI, fingerprinting — and everything.

The free car, the early marriage, the unsupervised dates, they're all symbols....symbols of kids getting things they are not ready for, all unearned increment. It's spoiling their lives. They're denied the wonder of anticipation, of being able to say, "Look, when I grow up, I'm going to work and I'm going to do this and that and the other thing, buy for myself the things I want, earn them with my own hands and my own brains."

That's a beautiful thing. It's in the American tradition — the right — the natural tradition. When you give the kids everything before they have achieved the right to earn them, you're undermining that basic American tradition — and them.

D's up to the parents. Who else is going to protect the young. The tiger does it for her cubs. We'd better find out where we stand in this world, find out our values in this society.

The teenagers need a reason for living, too. They need a devotion. They need an example. They need something that's better and more important than the car. The kids are confused because the whole code of values is upset. A child must be raised with a sense of responsibility to himself, to his parents, to his country. It's time that the parents took the rules back in their own hands. — Sam Levenson, well-known radio and TV star, via Canoga Park, California, bulletin.

The College And The Church

Is there such an institution, known as a college, operated by brethren, which is separated from the church? Is there a single one in existence that does not attempt to place preachers; either directly, or indirectly? Is there a single one in operation that does not claim to be doing a service for the church? Why does the traveling man for the college always consult the churches and preachers for his prospects for the schools? Why does he not consult the school and its teachers for such information? Why do they wear the name Christian?

The fact remains that not a single college is completely separated from the church. All of them, including FCC (Florida Christian (?) College) would, in one way or another, suffer if they dared to cut loose from the church; and the brethren know it.

Much has been said about the church support of colleges and many prayers have been offered in behalf of such men as Reuel Lemmons that he will continue to oppose the church support of the schools. Why pray for the liberal churches to refrain from the support of anything? Should we pray that the First Christian Church should refrain from such?

Why are brethren so blinded to the evils of modernism and apostate bodies? I should not be surprised to hear some pray for the devil and ask the Lord to keep him from lying. when all Bible readers know that he has been a liar from the beginning. (Jno. 8:44)

Brethren have played around with Abilene, hoping to see the School converted, until it was too late to convert it or even separate it from the church. Brethren are now playing around with FCC. The President of that School knows full well that they have no right to wear the name Christian, but they have failed to come to the front and make corrections. They are now doing what the Herald of Truth is doing, dramatizing the gospel of Christ, a thing that some brethren have protested with heated arguments. Is it any worse for brethren in Abilene to play the part of Jesus, Paul and the devil than for brethren in Florida to do the same?

Brethren need to quit playing around and take a solid stand against all the evils that confront the church. Some are saying, with reference to church homes, "I thought we were fighting the organizational setup. I didn't know that we should stand against one of the homes under the elders of a church." That is the main trouble, brethren don't know what they are fighting in all too many instances. Modernism is our enemy and it must be fought in all quarters, wherever it dares to raise its ugly head. Men would have to be blind or dishonest to protest the name ACC and favor FCC. — Wilson M. Coon, Phoenix, Arizona.

You Couldn't Be Serious

I know a fine young woman on the West Coast who teaches school, is quite intelligent, well read and does her own thinking. In conversation with a sophisticated acquaintance one day, she was being given a few of the reasons why she should drink intoxicants. Said the lady: "A cocktail or two will make you feel so good." "Oh, I feel fine," replied my friend. "But a cocktail will make you feel so at ease in the presence of others." "I feel perfectly at ease with others." "Yes, but you will be able to converse so much more easily," said the lady. "I can converse with people easily," replied my friend, "and I know what I am saying." Now I was not there, but I can imagine that this lady of the world must have thought, "What a square, thinking that she can cope with the tensions of this age without being half drunk."

When men know the truth and have no pleasure in it, God sends a working of error that they should believe a lie and be damned. He will not allow a church to continue to support a human institution like Boles Home and restrain them from supporting ACC.

The sooner the liberal churches break forth and support the colleges, the sooner they will be known as apostate bodies to all members. Let them go. If I were to offer a prayer for the liberal churches to refrain from putting the colleges in their budgets, knowing that the other human institutions are already in, then I should offer one for the Methodist and Baptist churches.

It would likely never occur to the worldly mind that just being a Christian, a faithful Christian, solves one of the basic problems that cause people to drink. People who drink are afraid of something. They feel inferior, and alcohol temporarily removes that inferiority complex. The Christian may realize that he is not a "big shot" by the standards of the world, but that doesn't worry him. He is only here for a short visit anyway, and very soon he will own as much of this world as the "big shot." Being a Christian, a faithful Christian, provides a peace of mind that the man of the world can neither have nor understand. He doesn't have to drink alcohol, because he is not afraid of anything, not really afraid. He doesn't have to be afraid of anything — BUT GOD. And that is a fear that dispels all other fears, and brings peace of mind.

The person who drinks only sweeps his problem under the rug until tomorrow. There is no escape from reality. Liquid, however potent, can never replace the backbone. — Luther Blackmon, The Echo.


Five Reasons For The Fall Of Rome

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon is one of the great historical works written in the English language. Following are the five neasons which Gibbon gives for the collapse and fall of Rome's empire — the greatest of them all.

(1) "The rapid increase of divorce; the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.

(2) "Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace.

(3) "The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.

(4) "The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within; the decadence of the people.

(5) "The decay of religion — faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people."

Listen, America

Listen, America! Can you hear any warnings about the future of our country from the fate of Rome? Can you see parallels between the collapse of Rome and the signs of internal decay in our society?

What about the problem of juvenile delinquency here and in every major city? What about the breakdown of the home, the rate of divorce, and the glorification of sex and sensuality?

Do we trust in nuclear bombs and the power of massive retaliation rather than in the spiritual and moral values that have sustained our country in every other hour of crisis?

When the "cold war" is going against us all around the globe, can we see the absolute necessity of sacrifice on a national scale? Or, are we more interested in what our "rich Uncle Sam" can do to make our life more pleasure ridden — and less value-filled?

How many Americans worship at the shrine of materialism? How deeply rooted is the religious faith of most Americans? How many churches have become middle-class social clubs? How many television programs are elevating or educational? How many are sadistic, violent, crime-filled, more conducive to moral decadence than to its cure?

Listen, America! It's later than you think!

Listen, Christian

Listen, Christian! We believe that the church is the kingdom of Christ, ruled by one of whom we say, "thy throne 0 God, is forever and ever," albeit a kingdom not of this world. But do our lives reflect such a faith? Are we lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation? Or has the church absorbed so much of our nation's moral and spiritual decadence that it, too. is in danger of following Rome?

How much true spirituality is found in the church, and by way of contrast, how much gross materialism? Do we judge our strength by the size of our buildings rather than by the size of our lives?

Is marriage losing its sanctity even among those who are called to be saints? Do we, too, find our delight in the sensual and sexy and upon this meditate day and night? Have our churches become Sunday social clubs, rather than bastions of non-conformity and true spirituality?

Listen, American Christian! Can you hear any warnings from the past that both the church and the nation face hours of jeopardy? Will some 30th century Gibbon — if That Great Day be so long delayed — write, "When a godless materialism swept over the world, the greatest democracy had grown too decadent to avert its catastrophe. And in its decline, the church had become impotent to warn and guide the people." I am not a prophet of doom — but I am an anxious questioner! — Bill Humble, via The Examiner