"An Uproar"
"And when they heard this they were filled with wrath, and cried out, saying Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And the city was filled with the confusion." (Acts 19:26,29.)
Some may think that such chaos and confusion as recorded by Luke were confined to the first century. This is not true. The city of Bakersfield, California, and specifically, the East Bakersfield Church of Christ in that city has recently witnessed a mob action very similar to that at Ephesus. In a way it was even worse, for this violent outburst was engineered, promoted, guided, and carried out by people who had once been enlightened in the truth and who had at one time been regarded as faithful members of the body of Christ. They gave every evidence of being motivated by the same evil spirit that seized upon the Ephesians; as the Ephesian mob was determined to commit murder rather than suffer any affront to their idol, Diana, so the mob in Bakersfield gave every evidence of being perfectly willing to destroy the body of Christ rather than yield their "sponsoring church" hobby.
But to give you the story: The East Bakersfield congregation had assembled for worship in its customary manner on Sunday morning, August 5, 1956. The day was calm and serene, no different from any Lord's Day in sunny California; the church in her usual and accepted practice had assembled for worship — when into our midst came a mob of about one hundred persons, led by C. E. Franklin, minister of the Oildale Church of Christ in Bakersfield, with the announced intention to "take over" and to "straighten out" the East Bakersfield church! The mob led by Franklin was composed of three members who had some months previously been withdrawn from by the East Bakersfield church, plus a motley crew of members from other congregations in the San Joauqin Valley and elsewhere (some coming from as far away as Los Angeles), plus a goodly number of people who were nonmembers of any Church of Christ, and never had been!
Incredible? Well, It Happened!
Behind this violent mob action by Franklin and his wrecking crew were these factors: Some months prior to this time the elders of the East Bakersfield church had found it necessary to withdraw from three members of the church. The reasons for that withdrawal are fairly well known, and need no lengthy elaboration here. Suffice it to say that one man, T. A. Spivy, once an elder in the congregation, was withdrawn from because of sowing discord in the church, fomenting rebellion, and in general "walking disorderly" before the whole congregation. The two other men were withdrawn from because they aided and abetted Spivy in his wicked action, and sought to overthrow the eldership of the church and force the congregation into an acceptance of certain of their "hobbies" about sponsoring churches and orphan homes. The elders of the church reached a unanimous decision some time in 1955 to cease their contributions to institutional orphan homes. T. A. Spivy, an elder at the time, had fully concurred in the decision, and had signed a statement setting forth to the congregation the fact of such a decision and the reasons for it. Later on, under pressure apparently from his family and from some of the hobby-riding preachers in the area, Spivy reversed himself, and announced his withdrawal from the decision previously announced. This would have been no cause or occasion for trouble if he had allowed the matter to rest there, but he did not. Again under the prodding of the hobbyistic preachers in the area he began to stir up the congregation, agitate in every possible way, refuse to participate in any action of the eldership, and to walk in such open and obvious "disorder" that the church, after many admonitions, had no recourse but a withdrawal action.
Shortly after this withdrawal, a mimeographed letter purportedly written by Rue Porter to one of the men withdrawn from was circulated throughout Bakersfield, and raised the flaming passions of the hobbyists to a, white-hot pitch. Brother Porter in this letter strongly urged these withdrawn from men to go to law against the church, and to take over the property from them. He volunteered his own enthusiastic assistance in such an ungodly and wicked action. (Brother Roy E. Cogdill recently reviewed Brother Porter's shameful action in an article in this journal. He showed that Brother Porter, in his present attitude and action, is one of the moat dangerous threats to the peace and security of the church in the nation.)
Under Porter's encouragement, and the constant urging of the "sponsoring church" hobbyists in the Bakersfield area, these three men did go to law against the elders of the church, seeking to gain control of all church property and church funds. When it was evident that these three men were bent on stealing the church property, in order to protect the congregation the elders answered their suit with a cross-complaint against these three men. The combined action was tried in the court of the Honorable Gordon Howden last July. The three apostate members secured false witnesses who testified that according to the accepted practice among Churches of Christ the elders of a congregation DO NOT have the final authority in the church, but that every decision they make is subject to review, either to be accepted or rejected by the congregation! This, of course, is the old "majority rule" idea of the Christian Church, and was one of the major causes of the split between the Christian Church and the Church of Christ.
So inflamed were the "hobby-riders" in the Bakersfield area, however that they went on the witness stand and perjured themselves under oath to declare that this false doctrine was the "accepted practice" among faithful New Testament churches! Among the perjurers were J. D. Bothwell, minister of the Central Church; Woodrow Gann, an elder at Oildale, Earl Warlord, an elder at Central Church. The testimony of these four men is a matter of record, and shows how repeatedly they swore that no decision of an eldership is final and binding until, and unless, "the bulk of the congregation" passes on it and affirms it. Thus the final authority rests in the congregation, not in the eldership.
The East Bakersfield elders got such men as M. C. Cuthbertson, Yater Tant, and Floyd Thompson, to set forth the true Bible teaching on the subject, namely, that when an eldership acts in harmony with Bible teaching, their decision is final, absolute, and not subject to any sort of review, modification, or other action by the congregation except obedience. Judge Howden, in view of the conflicting testimony between Rothwell, Franklin, Gann and Warford in favor of "majority rule" and that of Cuthbertson, Tant, Thompson, and others in favor of "the rule of elders," finally handed down a judgment in the case, leaving the property in control of the East Bakersfield elders, but requiring them to re-admit the three withdrawn from men to membership and to all places of leadership or authority previously held by them for a period of not less than two weeks; during which time the congregation was to try to settle its differences and work them out. If they could not do so within that period of time, the Court outlined a "legal" procedure which he thought would stand up in any court by which the three men could be legally withdrawn under such conditions as would give them no grounds at all on which to base a suit for the church property.
The elders of the East Bakersfield Church, recognizing that the three men had been scripturally withdrawn from were nevertheless perfectly willing to abide by the Court's recommendation for a legal withdrawal, and were planning to undertake one last final effort to reclaim the apostate brethren before completing the legal withdrawal, And that was the situation that prevailed on Sunday morning, August 5, 1966, when Franklin led the "invasion" against East Bakersfield church. It was a blitzkrieg — carefully planned down to the last detail, with rabble-rowers, foot-stampers, booing, hissing, cheering, hand-clapping partisans. Our services usually start with the Lord's Supper, and did so on this morning. The preaching service customarily follows the Supper. After the elements had been passed, and as the collection was being taken, T. A. Spivy, one of the three men withdrawn from, rose to his feet and demanded that he be given time to make a speech. He was asked to take his seat. He refused. It was then that Franklin sounded the signal for his carefully coached gang to go into action. Pandemonium broke loose! You must keep in mind that Franklin was not even a member of East Bakersfield Church, and never had been. He was, and is, preacher for the Oildale Church of Christ, and should have been in his own pulpit that Sunday. But he is one of the bitterest of the "sponsoring church" hobbyists; and seized upon this opportunity to lead a mob action against East Bakersfield. Frenzied shouts and accusations were hurled against the elders; someone of Franklin's crew turned off the electricity, stopping the air-conditioner from working, and shutting off the lights; there was a spectacle of wildly waving arms, fists being shaken in the face of humble and godly Christians who had gathered there that day to worship God, and such a howling, hooting, frenzy as is seldom seen even at the most exciting and hotly contested football games.
It became necessary for the elders to call for the city police to come and try to quell the riot. Even this wasn't sufficient to quell the disturbance, and permit the church to go on with its worship. The police officers, no doubt feeling that it was simply a "family fight," were reluctant to arrest the rioters. Faithful Christians were sickened and disgusted at the violent action of the hobby-riders.
Franklin, Spivy, and their mob literally "howled down" any effort that any sensible person might have made to try to get them to be reasonable. They declared that they were going to "take over" the East Bakersfield property, and intended to put on a demonstration like this every time the faithful members tried to meet in that building from here on! In view of this fact, the elders of the congregation thought it the part of wisdom to arrange for all meetings of the congregation to be in another location until some final settlement could be had from the courts of the land. Consequently the Moose Hall, in the neighborhood, was secured for the congregation, and that is where we are meeting now.
Since beginning to meet in the Moose Hall we have had an average attendance of about 200 per Sunday. (We have 160 members.) There have been about fifteen responses since moving; and everything is going along in peace and harmony. It is the present feeling of the elders that they do not wish to press the battle against our apostate brethren through the courts, but will let the Franklin-Spivy mob keep control. We believe the sincere and faithful Christians in Bakersfield and this area will perhaps get their eyes open to the danger of the "sponsoring church hobbyists" more quickly, and realize their ungodly and wicked rebellion against Bible truth sooner by our submitting to their stealing the church property than would be the case if we enforced the court's decision and compelled them to relinquish the church building to the congregation.
Meanwhile, let all faithful churches everywhere be warned against this newly developed hobby which is wreaking havoc among the churches. The only salvation for God's congregations is an informed, a taught, membership! It is not too much to say that the small cloud of "institutionalism" is fast turning into a mighty storm of digression. We have seen the havoc of its blind fury here in Bakersfield; your city and your congregation may be next. Do not tarry; do not linger. Time is fleeting, your opportunities are fast passing. Teaching is our only hope. Otherwise ignorant and untaught fanaticism will take the day.
We invite all faithful Christians to remember that the East Bakersfield Church of Christ is now meeting in the Moose Hall, 134 Goodman Street, in Bakersfield, California. We invite you to worship with us when passing through this city.