The Innocent Victims
In the raging controversy over "our orphan homes," now effectively dividing congregations of Christ over the land, it seems to us too little attention has been paid to the storm-center of the controversy — the orphan himself. This innocent child is almost "the forgotten man" in the picture. While brethren have been swinging wildly at one another with charge and counter-charge about "incorporations," "bodies politic," "who has changed?", "anti-ism" and "liberalism," the hapless child has been all but shoved off the stage!
Indeed, it becomes increasingly clear with every passing day that those brethren who have tried to pitch the battle along the lines of "child lovers" versus "child haters" have apparently pulled a monumental boner — a spiritual and tactical miscalculation which makes the Cuban invasion fiasco look like a minor irritation. We carry two articles in this issue (by O. D. Wilson and Cecil B. Douthitt) which show the unmistakable trend of the future. Give these articles a careful reading; there is more here than a simple announcement of the cessation of a couple of orphan homes.
These articles show clearly "the wave of the future." With the passing of another fifty years it is almost a foregone conclusion that there will be no "orphan homes" in America! The orphanage is a doomed and passing institution. It belongs to the horse and buggy days, and was called into being because of the high incidence of orphan children connected with the dangerous and primitive life of pioneer days. It is an anachronism in modern society. It served its purpose, and should be relegated along with the moustache cup and the asafetida bag to an unlamented past. And brethren who have divided the Lord's body by trying to promote these institutions in modern society are either invincibly ignorant of the current trend, or else incorrigibly inhuman in their contempt for the welfare of innocent children.
A few years ago brother James L. Lovell of California wrote his appraisal of a number of brethren then "prominent" in the churches. He opined that "the future" of the churches lies in the leadership of certain younger (at that time) men who have utilized to the fullest extent all the propaganda techniques of modern salesmanship to "sell" themselves and their programs to the churches. And the men he named have gone all out for the "more and bigger" church orphanages line. They have certainly taken a considerable number of congregations down the river with them — so much so that in the book "Churches of Today" apparently every congregation listed was asked to go on record as to whether it did, or did not, contribute to "our orphanages"! And quite a number who shamefacedly admitted that they did not contribute were quick to give assurance that their reasons for non-contribution were financial rather than otherwise. Is it possible that these brethren, and churches, are so calloused and hardened as to deliberately exploit the helpless children for their own aggrandizement? We think not. We would surmise that they were swept up into this "orphan-home craze" on a wild wave of enthusiasm and had committed themselves to it without realizing what was happening. And once publicly committed, and with their prestige at stake, they have decided to how their necks and "steam-roller" all opposition — no matter what the cost in shattered congregations, cruelly twisted lives of hapless children confined in their institutions, and broken hearts! With the powerful propaganda agencies of the colleges, the Gospel Advocate, and the Firm Foundation in their control, plus the combined vigorous help of a number of men who were growing independently wealthy out of the orphan home promotions, it was a fore-gone conclusion that they could foist these semi-penal organizations on an unsuspecting and uninformed brotherhood for at least another generation.
We are very certain that, like all men in such a situation, they have rationalized their conduct, and have convinced themselves that what they are doing is for the good of the church, as well as for the good of the innocent victims of their ambition. They want to purge the church of all "antis," and they also are convinced they are taking care of children that nobody else would have.
Otherwise, we do not think even the most hardened of them could sleep at night. If they REALLY understood what they are doing to the children (and to the churches), we have no doubt at all that they could be swept by such a wave of remorse and disgust with their actions as to settle once and forever in our generation the "orphan home" problem. For where is the heart so hard and mercenary that it cannot be touched with the plight of a suffering child? Who could knowingly deprive this child of the love and tender care of a father and mother, and condemn him for all his childhood years to the impersonal "care" of an institution? A mother's love is a priceless thing; the world knows nothing more tender and unselfish. Never knowing such devotion leaves a man's whole life bereft and limited. This love is what is denied a child who is ruthlessly thrust into one of our "orphanages." He grows up in loneliness and isolation — with neither father nor mother, neither brother nor sister; but only fellow-inmates, fellow victims!
In all the heated controversy over "our orphanages" we think it high time somebody spoke out for the children.
— F. Y. T.
No Paper Next Week
In keeping with our custom of past years, and in harmony with the terms of our mailing permit, we issue no paper the first week in July. But we will be back as usual week after next. Your next issue will be dated July 13.
A Worthy Man Needs Help
We pass on to our readers the sad news that brother Charles H. Crider is the victim of a series of heart attacks, and for many weeks was confined to the Reidsville hospital in North Carolina. He has labored most of his life in what others designate "mission" fields, and is in dire need of financial help. His hospital and medical bills have mounted astronomically, and will burden him for many years if he has to pay them without help. We feel that there are those who will want to share this load with him, and for that reason insert this brief notice. Brother Crider will have moved to Henderson, Tennessee, by the time this appears in print (where he has a modest home), and any help sent him should be addressed to: C. H. Crider, Route 1, Box 2, Henderson, Tennessee. His condition is promising, and with proper care he hopes to be able to resume his preaching this fall.
— F. Y. T.