A Correction And Some Corrections Yet To Be Made
In September 19, 1957 issue of GOSPEL GUARDIAN this writer had "AN OPEN LETTER TO W. D. RHODES AND GAYLE OLER." My open letter was in response to an article by Rhodes in THE HOME JOURNAL, official publication of Maude Carpenter; which article was reprinted by Oler in BOLES HOME NEWS. The article was written about the situation at Butler, Missouri. From start to finish, it was filled with misrepresentation and deceit. The misrepresentation, obviously deliberate, was against my twenty-year-old brother who then preached for the church at Butler. Said article was malicious and designed to destroy the influence of the twenty-year-old preacher who is opposed to churches contributing to human institutions.
My "OPEN LETTER" exposed the misrepresentation, deceit and malice of Rhodes' article. In response to the "OPEN LETTER" I received mail from Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky and Texas commending my exposure of the malicious intent of Rhodes and Oler in printing such an article. I received no comment that was critical of my review of their action.
Finally, I received a letter dated February 18, 1958 from one Horace K. Hill of Butler, Missouri, taking exception to only one statement made by me in the "OPEN LETTER." The statement of mine to which he objects is, "But you did not tell your readers one of these 'elders' had been in the Christian Church and never made any public acknowledgment or change, did you Brother Rhodes?" Bro. Hill goes on to brand this statement as false, saying there is only one brother at Butler to whom I could have reference. Bro. Hill then writes me: "This brother at one time did 'join' the Christian Church of which his father was a member." He then relates that the brother was subsequently baptized into Christ, giving time, place, etc. This latter I gladly accept and humbly apologize for my words "and never made any public acknowledgment or change." It has never been my desire to misrepresent anybody. I did not intend to do so in this instance. That point of the information I had was in error. Of course, I cannot apologize for the statement that "one of these 'elders' had been in the Christian Church" for Brother Hill admits this to be true.
All of us do need to be careful of our statements. We should he careful not to misrepresent unwittingly. There is only one thing worse: such deliberate misrepresentation as that characteristic of W. D. Rhodes in his article in THE HOME JOURNAL and Gayle Oler in reprinting the article. It is our hope that brother Horace K. Hill has been as solicitous of truth prevailing in regard to Rhodes and Oler as he has to me. Perhaps he has prevailed upon them to correct their deliberate misrepresentations. If so, it has been to no avail.