Rewards For Birmingham Bombers?
(Editor's note: Many fine articles appear in local church bulletins which are deserving of a far wider reading than most bulletins afford. The following short comment on "The Mayor's Problem" appeared recently in the weekly bulletin of the North Birmingham church. We think it worthy of your study.)
The bombings which have recently taken place in Birmingham have been a cause of much concern to the law-abiding citizens, and especially to our mayor. He hopes to see large rewards offered for apprehension of those responsible, but he seems to feel there is little the city can do in this direction. An item in the Birmingham News of August 17th reports, "Boutwell said that while the city is unable to 'find specific authority....to offer a reward for the arrest and conviction of the criminal, I am hopeful that....others will come forward with offers of rewards...
We are interested to note that the city cannot offer a reward because they are "unable to find specific authority" for it. But when we insist that the church must have specific or even generic authority for all it does, we are accused of being "hamstrung by legalism." Could this be the mayor's problem? If he really wants to offer a reward, there are plenty of preachers in town who can easily maneuver him around the need for specific authority. Their arguments would likely be:
1. That apprehending criminals is a good work and if offering a reward will help to accomplish it, then that is all the authority needed. The end justifies the means, they argue.
2. If the mayor thinks that others (meaning citizens of the city) can come forward with rewards then why can't the city do it? After all, the city is no more than its citizens. Surely, anything the citizens can do the city can do.
3. A reward can surely be justified on emotional grounds. If we can pay a well-fed, prosperous detective a good salary to find clues, surely we cannot afford to withhold a reward from some poor widow or some destitute old settler who might offer information.
4. These preachers would probably advise the mayor just to go ahead and act without authority and then prepare a vicious attack on any who might question his authority. He can call them "anti-law enforcement"; he can claim they do not believe in apprehending criminals; he can call them legalists for thinking they have to have authority for every little thing they do; he can say, "I'd rather do the wrong thing than nothing at all" as though these were the only alternatives.
It is doubtful, though, that the mayor will call on the preachers to help him get around the need for specific authority. He has too much respect for the law — laws made by men like himself. What a pity that so many preachers have so much less respect for laws made by God. A list could be made of more than a score of activities being practiced right here in Birmingham among religious people, for which there is no authority whatsoever, either specific or generic. And the saddest fact of all is that more and more of these things are being practiced by those who have claimed in days past to speak only where the Bible speaks.
We at North Birmingham are determined to do only that for which we have clear Bible authority...Can we be wrong in making such an effort?
— P. O. Box 5323, Birmingham, Alabama