Some Questions For Brother Guy N. Woods
(Note: On March 13 I received a letter from Bro. Woods in reply to this letter, but not one of these questions did he answer. E. B.)
Mr. Guy N. Woods 3584 Galloway Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee Dear Brother Woods:
I have heard you say that the candor and honesty of a man may be determined by the way he answers questions. In view of your recent and frequent charges that I have misrepresented you, and in view of the failure of many of us to reconcile your past statements with your present teaching, I would appreciate an unequivocal answer to the following questions. The way you answer or fail to answer these questions will greatly affect my attitude toward you and the position you hold.
1. Have you ever been mistaken or taught error concerning any Biblical subject?
2. Since you have said that you "know" that elders must turn their money over to others for the purpose of engaging in actual child care, where is the passage that so states?
3. Do you believe that the ONLY obligation the church has to the needy is providing the money for their care?
4. Please give the chapter and verse which authorizes the church to raise money to be spent under the oversight of another organization.
5. Give the Scripture which authorizes the church to contribute to any work not its own or which it cannot oversee.
6. Please define exactly what you meant by the term "institutionalism" in your ACC lecture of 1939.
7. Since you say the church is only to provide the money in benevolence, what organizations were "brethren" building in 1939 "to do the work the church itself was designed to do" (raise money)?
Remember, you said such organizations "usurp the work of the church," so they must have been organizations designed ONLY to raise money for benevolence. What were they?
8. Were you condemning the Christian Schools when you included organizations to teach "young men to be gospel preachers" in your condemnation of 1939?
9. What organizations were "brethren" forming in 1939 similar to a Missionary Society for the purpose of "caring for orphans"?
10. You now say you have never condemned the care of orphans under a board of directors separate from the church, and in the same speech you endorsed the Tipton Home under elders, so what were you condemning?
11. Did you mean what you said when you said. "it is right for the church to care (Emphasis mine. E. B.) for the fatherless and widows in their affliction?"
12. Do you now believe it is right for the church to care for them or only provide the money for their care?
13. What were the "boards and conclaves unknown to the New Testament" which you condemned among brethren in 1939?
14. Since you voiced strong protest against "any other method or arrangement" (note that is singular) in caring for orphans, was the method the one under elders or a board of directors?
15. When you said benevolence must be done "by and through the church" did that include a board of directors composed of men from different churches?
16. Specifically, what were you condemning as "institutionalism" in the 1939 ACC lecture?
17. If you should say you were condemning some work or organization of the Christian Church, did you and do you still regard them as "brethren?"
Who among the Christian Church saw "grave danger" in a Missionary Society?
Do you regard the Christian Church as the "Ship of Zion?"
18. When you said in 1946: "The church is the only organization authorized to discharge the responsibilities of the Lord's people" did you mean the responsibility of the Lord's people is only to raise money for benevolence? If so, do the Lord's people have no responsibility at all in caring for the needy? If not, whose people have that responsibility? If you say yes, then you must have thought the church (the Lord's people) had a responsibility to care for the needy a well as to provide the money.
19. Does Acts 6:1-6 show that the Jerusalem church was a caretaking institution?
If not, what organization did they set up to do the work?
I understand that the widows lived in a home or homes.
20. In Acts 11:27-30, did elders have charge of the actual work of benevolence or did they just raise the money?
21. What would orphans need in the way of care and supervision that COULD NOT BE PROVIDED by the church under oversight of the elders?
22. Are elders over the church and its work?
23. Is it ever a work of the church to provide a home and care for the needy?
24. May churches of Christ build and maintain that which elders of the church cannot oversee?
25. Churches have no right to build anything which is not a work of the church, and if what they build is a work of the church, then are not elders over such work?
26. You have offered as one objection to the Missionary Society that it replaces the church and when it gets through the church has nothing to do. Isn't it true that Churches must supply the funds for operating the Missionary Society? And haven't you said that this was the ONLY obligation the church has in benevolence? So it seems churches must do in their arrangement the ONLY thing you say they can do in benevolence, therefore the M. S. does not replace the church in their evangelism any more than the Benevolent Society does in "our" benevolence.
27. Give book, chapter and verse where a church or churches ever set up a board or association separate front the church through which to do any of its work, 28. Give book, chapter and verse where a church or churches ever contributed to a church or churches which were not in need.
29. Give book, chapter and verse where a church or churches ever sent funds to a church to enable the receiving church to do a work in a third place to which all were equally related.
30. Where does the New Testament teach that a church or churches may work THROUGH (not TO) another church?
Sincerely yours, Eugene Britnell