Uncle Floyd's Letter
Dear Brother Editor:
The battle of human organizationalism has reached Willow Row. This week the church here suffered its first casualty in the form of outright desertion. Zelda Smith moved her membership to Pea Ridge.
Fer months Zelda has been agitatin' that the church send money to an orphan home. Several brothers has talked to Zelda but to no avail.
Last week one of them college professor preachers held a big meetin' at Pea Ridge. Zelda went ever night. Saturday night he lambasted all the churches that don't send contribution money to orphan homes, old folk homes, brotherhood-broad TV programs, and so on. He said Willow Row wasn't practicin' pure religion as outlined in James 1:27 because it didn't send donations to a home fer poor little orphans. He farther said churches like Willow Row would soon die on the vine.
The Pea Ridge church has got about a hundred members. They send five dollars a month to some orphan home in another state. I figger that averages out to one nickel fer one person fer one month, or a grand total of sixty cents per person fer one year. Now that plumb dumbfounds me, brother Editor. In January the Willow Row church gave one sister, a widow woman, one hundred dollars. That's more than Pea Ridge gives fer charity in a whole year, but it don't count cause it don't go to no orphan home organization. In March the Willow Row church gave twenty-five dollars to a family among us in need, but that don't count neither, in Zelda's book. And there's no tellin' how many individuals at Willow Row is helping needy folk. Per instant, Abraham Taylor is carin' fer two orphan children as a foster daddy. But none of this counts, accordin to Zelda and them Pea Ridge folk.
It's queer to me that James 1:27 no longer covers any kind of charity 'cept what goes to some organization hookup. A church can give and give and give to help needy folk, and individuals can give and give and give, but it don't amount to a hill of beans unless some organization is gettin' some of it.
I can't help feelin' sorry fer misguided souls like Zelda. She's got a heap of relatives at Pea Ridge and they think these big city preachers with their college degrees just can't be wrong.
If churches of Christ is got to give to orphan home organizations to practice pure religion, there wasn't a single church that practiced pure religion prior to 1910. That makes it look mighty bad on ole Jerusalem, Antioch, Corinth, Philippi and them other Bible churches!
Yours truly, Uncle Floyd