More For The Record
In a late issue of the Banner I said:
"I really feel for the schools in the embarrassment some of the crackpots, mostly young preachers, are causing them in these critical times. One writes a book on Can A Christian Kill For His Government?". Another sends out a tract ranting against aiding killers, meaning soldiers, our armed forces, by working in munitions factories, buying bonds, or even giving them a cup of water ...
This idiotic drivel and unpatriotic rot with a lot more like it may be ordered from the A. C. C. Bookstore, Abilene, Texas'. The Abilene Christian College Press prints a lot of stuff like that, written by long-faced crackpots.
Of course, it is embarrassing to the school. The president, a swell fellow and personal 'friend of mine, does not believe what is dripping from the dwarfed minds of these youths of military age, who enjoy exemption as 'ministers of the gospel', and take advantage of it to attack the war effort. The Board of Trustees, I understand, are on record in full support of the government.
I am in receipt of a letter from President Morris of Abilene Christian College which makes some corrections and explanations, and furnishes more for the record as to the patriotism of the school, and its loyalty to the government in time of war. The letter is dated July 22, 1944 and is as follows:
Dear Brother Wallace:
I have just read the following statements in your article in the Bible Banner, page three, June, 1944.
The Abilene Christian College Press prints a lot of stuff like this, written by long-faced crack-pots.'
This idiotic drivel may be ordered from the ACC Bookstore, Abilene, Texas.'
Reference is made to a tract or bulletin written by a conscientious objector.
Brother Cled, somebody gave you information that is not true. The Abilene Christian College Press does not print and has not printed any conscientious objector literature of any kind. As far as the sale of the booklet you mention is concerned, neither the college, nor the Students Exchange, our store on the campus, has had any part in it. Sometimes those not acquainted with the campus mistake this store, which belongs to the college, and the A. C. C. Bookstore, off the campus, the one for the other. The A. C. C. Bookstore is not operated by the college or anyone connected with the college and is entirely a private business.
Those who have lived at the ACC during the past two and one half years know something of how much has been given from this hill to the war. Bonds and stamps have been on sale on the campus by the college since the beginning of the war. A salary deduction plan for the purchase of bonds by ACC faculty members has been in operation since that plan was inaugurated by the government. This past year ACC faculty members invested between eleven and twelve percent of their total salaries in war bonds. This is all very little. What amounts to much is that approximately eight hundred ACC boys, four of them faculty members on leave, are in the Service. Twelve of them have given their lives in service to the nation; others are missing. The college is proud of these eight hundred boys. I have indicated such many times, in chapel, in speeches in various parts of the state, and on at least one state wide radio hook-up.
Our nation is engaged in a gigantic effort to subdue lawless men and nations on the earth. All should co-operate wholeheartedly and fully in this great task.
Best personal wishes. Sincerely, (Signed) Don. H. Morris, President.
* * * *
Now that is a fine letter and I have no disposition whatever to question any statement of fact in it. About a year ago a long list of names of ACC students appeared in an Abilene daily paper. They were in the armed forces of the country. I made some comment about the matter in the Bible Banner. In view of this, the fact that the name of the school was being used by a Bookstore to advertise some of the rot appearing in print was burning me down. Believe you me, it has been widely commented on by well-wishers of the school-and others. The advertising being done under the name "A. C. C. Bookstore" spreads far and wide a stigma against the school. Just who out in the public would not connect it with the school? I am glad therefore for the president's explanation of the matter to have a wide circulation. As for the College Press, I was simply mistaken, a victim of the same confusion Brother Morris says is not uncommon. It appears that the Press is absolved from all blame and that the "A. C. C. Bookstore" is the sole agent of embarrassment for the college in this matter. And since it is "entirely a private business" and the college has no control over it whatever, I take it that the school can do no more about it than correct a widespread and damaging impression as President Morris has done in his letter.
In the light of Brother Morris' letter the president, board, faculty and student body of ACC are to be congratulated on their patriotic sentiments and activities. If there is any such a divided condition as Brother Hardeman has revealed exists in his school, Brother Morris made no mention of it. Brother Hardeman says:
"This college is not a unit on the matter of objection. Like the church it is an individual affair and some of the faculty would no doubt be objectors, while others of us feel otherwise."
It would be an interesting development indeed if Brother Hardeman could, or would, go on record for his school as Brother Morris has for Abilene Christian College. Maybe he can and will--we hope. Sure, I know how he stands. He is "of us" who "feel otherwise." "Some of the faculty would no doubt" make an effort to keep his tongue tied should he be disposed to speak right up in meetin' as Brother Morris has done. It might create a storm, but methinks the sun would shine bright and clear after the tempest was over.
Another conscientious objector opens his heart and spreads it out in print. Jake Hines of Dallas, who is fast gaining notoriety for the editorial company he keeps, and the wild antics that would be expected as a consequence, has this to say in the Dallas paper he scotches for:
"I do not have it in my heart to say anything that would make the burden heavier for Cled: but for the benefit of the lads yet untouched by the fever of war and adventure, and to help Christian parents to teach differently, I must charge that Lt. John W. Wallace, son of Cled is the victim of unfaithful teaching by his father and that his father must face the whole thing in the judgment.
Abraham offered his son to Jehovah; while Cled offered his son to the god of war. Brethren Cled and Foy Wallace, Jr., are doing more to carnalize the churches than all others combined..."
The reference is to my son, John, who was reported "missing in' action over Italy, April 21st." Jake refers to me as "My good friend, Cled Wallace." It appears that Job also had some friends! He cannot "make the burden heavier for" me, for I neither respect his sentiments nor his tactics highly enough to be affected by them. I have been warned more than once that some fanatic with a medium for expression would take advantage of my personal misfortune to do as Jake has done. I am not surprised at the source from which it came. It will not have the effect on brethren generally that the author of it hopes. It will have the very opposite effect. Only a man without a father's heart, who has no children, could sit drooling over the prospect for the judgment for fathers whose sons are "missing in action." Fathers will probably, as I do, feel more pity than censure for such desolation of mind and heart. Sensible people will doubtless conclude that this is not the judgment day and Jake is not the judge anyway. Besides, it is too early for him to preach my son's funeral, especially since he has not been given an invitation to do so. There has been no announcement of the boy's death. We still entertain strong hope that he is alive and shall do so until we are informed otherwise. So it is a little early for such conscientious objectors, as the editors of Gospel Broadcast, to editorially celebrate his death, and consign his father to the terrors of judgment.
In this connection it may be interesting to note that Jake Hines took quite a hand in the recent campaign to oust the sale of liquor from Dallas county. In the Dallas News of July 6th he wrote:
"Remember the fight is on, so all you fellows who are for selling America to the gutter; come on out and fight; but if you are afraid, then we are going to blast you from your filthy den."
Minister, Sunset Church of Christ, Hollywood and Wentworth, Dallas.
"Come on out and fight"! "We are going to blast you from your filthy den"! Now, how can "we" do a thing '' like that without the use of force? A voting non-resister!
Vote it out and close the dens and enforce the law. Jake was in that fight but if the nation arms and defends its existence and protects its citizens, including silly Jake, against foreign hordes, it sins, and everybody involved in it --is a murderer, and fathers whose sons die fighting for liberty are going to face the judgment for not teaching them better! If they did not know more than Jake does, where would we be? The brethren are being treated to a burlesque show, staged in all seriousness. Jake and Gene, Siamese twins of fanaticism, are declaring and carrying on war against us and most of the churches and preachers of Dallas and Fort Worth. They are now bosom friends of Frank Norris! What nice things they say about him, and how unfairly we have treated him'. The way they giggle and make eyes at him a real romance may be in the making. And Frank is giggling back. And what makes the silliness more astounding, J. Frank Norris is a premillennial Baptist and is not a conscientious objector. He is attacking the churches and preachers. So is Jake and Gene. He is taboo as far as most Baptist churches are concerned. Jake and Gene are fast becoming so with churches of Christ. I'm not holding up the terrors of the judgment to them. The mesh of the seine will probably let their size through.