Boles Home Changes Complexion
It has not been too many years ago since Gayle Oler was insisting that Boles Home was "kingdom business", meaning that it was an operation and work of the Kingdom or Church of our Lord. He even insisted at one time that the work of Boles Home was "under an eldership". This was back in the days when the institution was struggling and when brethren had not been led far enough away from the truth to accept many things which are now being done without an eyebrow being raised.
The Boles Home, Inc. has grown financially and fastened itself upon the brethren now to the extent that like a giant octopus, it feels that it cannot be limited or stopped. Nothing in the State of Texas has had as much influence in leading the churches of Christ into apostasy as Boles Home, Inc. unless it be Abilene Christian College. Gayle Oler has completely deserted his former position concerning this institution - like any other home - from which the Churches of Christ only buy services. This is the worst kind of subterfuge and in fact is rank falsehood in which Oler and no one else with any degree of intellect can be honest. They have grown so intoxicated in their promotion of institutionalism that they have forsaken divine authority, the church, and even common truth and honesty in their attempts to deceive the brethren and justify in their minds what they want to do.
This writer has been acquainted with Boles Home for many years - in fact from its beginning. The Colley's - A. O. and Flavil - who secured the deed from the Boles family to the land where the original "home" is located thought that they were establishing a "church institution". They would not have anything to do with it without it being under an eldership, and. at first it was under the elders of the Pearl and Bryan Church in Dallas. Brother and Sister Boles thought they were donating the farm land which they gave to the churches of Christ to maintain an "orphan home" - that is a place to take care of orphans. Both the Colley's and the Boles would turn over in their graves probably, if they knew what kind of "institution" this child of theirs had grown into.
In recent years in their effort to deceive and pacify the brethren and retain the support of the churches, Gayle Oler and others like Guy N. Woods have contended that the institution of Boles Home, Inc. , is entirely divorced from the church. It is not owned by the churches, cannot be run by the churches, is not doing the work of the churches; but in spite of all this they have continued to beg, plead, pressure and deceive the churches into supporting it with regular donations. When the yearly donations to the institution by the churches of Christ do not aggregate the actual expense of running the institution, the churches are pressured to give more liberally and make up the deficit. I have a yearly financial report of the institution that shows that they claimed an operating deficit of some $11,000 while their over all operation yielded a capital gain of $154,000. This is the kind of rank dishonesty practiced. Again, they claim that the churches are only buying services when they well know that many churches that never sent a child to that institution and actually have no responsibility toward any child in the "home" have made contributions for years. They have blindly ignored the difference between buying services and making contributions and have deceived many of the brethren into thinking there is no difference.
Gayle Oler has promoted the institution into a giant and controls a vast far flung operation with the help and approval of his "Board".
When such men as Richard Meggs, John Pratt, Reeves Holmes, and others on the Board are responsible for the affairs of the institution there is no way of telling where the end will be. Meggs has been an elder (?) of the Skillman Avenue Church of Dallas for years and before that was an elder at old Sears and Summit Church. This writer preached for that church for several years and knows Richard Meggs and his attitude. He has always been very scanty in his knowledge of the truth of God's Word and indifferent and careless in his regard for it. While he was an elder and I was the preacher at Sears and Summit Church we had severe disagreements over such questions as dancing and upon one occasion I had to threaten to expose and oppose him taking his young people's class to Lake Dallas for a week-end outing. They proposed to stop long enough in their play to have the Lord's Supper and conduct a period of worship. It is no wonder to those of us who have known him that he has no scruples in promoting the churches into anything. He is one of the principal causes of leading a once sound and faithful church (Sears and Summit) into one of the softest and most modernistic churches of our day. Men like these who have absolutely no understanding or regard for divine truth think themselves smarter than God Almighty and able to improve substantially upon any plan that He might have evolved. They change the church at will and sign the Lord's Name to anything they consider a good work and anathematize anyone who gets in their way.
Recent clippings have come to us from the Boles Home News, The Dallas Morning News, and other sources that give an idea of how Boles Home, Inc. has extended its tentacles to control and promote almost every kind of project imaginable in connection with the original purpose for which it was established. In addition to the giant operation located at Quinlan, Texas, under the pretext of being a home for orphans they have several other projects under their control:
1. They have built a second "home" for children in Stephenville, Texas under the same board and superintendent as the one at Quinlan. Whoever the "en loco parentis" (which means "in the place of parents" in what they call a "restored home") may consist of since they are the same ones, they have two families, living more than a hundred miles apart and with different names. They would be bigamy in any other language.
2. They have a "camp" with facilities located on the shores of Lake Texoma which they operate.
3. They have rent property worth many thousands of dollars such as business buildings at Odessa, Texas, one of which is leased to the United. States Gov't. for a post office. It would be surprising to the brethren who support this religious "Frankenstein" to know just how much property they do own.
4. They have recently bought 24 acres near Mesquite, Texas, in proximity to acreage upon which the proposed "Christian College of the Southwest" is to be built. Mr. Ben F. Tisinger, according to the Dallas News "persuaded the Church of Christ" to develop this college. He also managed the purchase of the 24 acres of land by Boles Home, Inc. for $100,000. John Pratt, trustee, and also an elder of Skillman Ave. Church, is quoted as saying, "This is a beautiful tract of land and it will be developed to benefit both the college and the home." So they have gone into the land development business both for the benefit of the "home" and the college. This is what the contributing churches are making possible. Of course, contributing churches are not being told all of this but they are pressured constantly to send their contributions, bigger and bigger ones, and practice "pure and undefiled religion" by taking care of "homeless, destitute, children" who have lost their homes and need to have them restored. Brethren are being "suckered" into making contributions to this octopus of an institution by being constantly propagandized through "Boles Homes News" and other media by such subterfuge and deceit as "You cannot serve God, the Father, and forget a 'fatherless child!"
5. But the end is not yet. In a fairly recent issue of "Boles Homes News" we are treated to the news that "under the auspices of Boles Home" they have acquired seven and one-half acres of land in a prominent part of Dallas "to provide services and housing to Christian people." This is to consist originally of a building with "207 complete apartments." "Boles Home has taken the lead in setting up the corporation and seeing that proper provisions are made for management, operation, and competent service of the project." "Because of the charitable status of Boles Home, Federal Internal Revenue exemption from federal taxes has been granted, and the same exemption is expected from the city of Dallas." "The proposed project is to be financed through the Community Facilities Administration of a 100% loan at 3% repayable in fifty years." This is big business and a big promotion.
This is exactly the kind of an organization Guy N. Woods said in the Birmingham debate would be wrong. Does he still say it, or has he changed again?
In the Birmingham debate I pressed Guy N. Woods to describe to us what kind of an organization to do benevolent work for the churches would be wrong. He finally yielded to the pressure with this illustration:
Chart Goes Here
In other words if many churches contributed to a centralized board of directors and they operated various homes or benevolent projects, this would be unscriptural. He said that such an arrangement would be comparable to a missionary society. (Illustration and comment on pages 296 and 297, Cogdill-Woods Debate.) Now since Woods claims that he never changes and has never changed, we call upon him to admit that if Boles Home operation is scriptural, a missionary society would be scriptural! Will he do it?
Gayle Oler has long since quit trying to defend what he does with anything except snide remarks, deceit, and misrepresentation. He knows that from a Bible viewpoint it is indefensible and this means that as long as he can carry on the promotion, he does not care.
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