What Is A "Bible Chair"?
We call your attention to the front page article this week, written early last year by Brother Leslie Diestelkamp while he was still living in Aurora, Illinois. Because he says some things that need to be said, and because it gives us a good opportunity to clarify the subject a bit we are glad to publish his article. Read it carefully.
Much of the modern confusion over "Bible Chairs" among conservative brethren grows out of a rather loose and unfortunate use of the term. Actually, there is no more logical or scriptural objection to a "Bible Chair" than there is to an "Orphan Home." And who in his right mind would object to a "home" for homeless orphan children? So far as we know, in the long history of Christianity, stretching now nearly to the 2,000 year mark, there has not been one (not ONE!) Christian who has ever objected to an orphan child having a home. We dare say that if anybody should come up with one example (just one) of such a person, it would be quickly established that the person was either never a Christian or else was demented. So all these millions of words that have been written about a group of ogres and inhuman monsters suddenly appearing some fifteen or twenty years ago who objected to homes for orphan children are just so much wasted effort - an example of unparalleled malice on the one hand, or of monumental stupidity on the other. No such monster ever existed except in the fevered imagination of excited and agitated brethren.
What is a "Bible Chair?" It is simply an arrangement by which the Bible can be taught to college students on an elective basis, and the college give credit toward a degree for a certain number of hours - twelve hours in the State of Texas. This is the basic and elementary meaning of the term. But a whole family of peripheral and vaguely related ideas have come to be associated with the term, and these peripheral connotations have led many good brethren to come out in strong condemnation of the "Bible Chair" when they don't mean to be objecting to the Bible Chair at all, but only to certain wrong and unscriptural procedures which have gradually attached themselves to many (we might say most) of the Bible Chairs supported by churches of Christ.
A Scriptural "Bible Chair"
Because we have only this summer terminated our connection with the "Bible Chair" in Stephen F. Austin State College at Nacogdoches, Texas, after five fruitful and happy years there, and because we are in a position to speak with authority stemming from full knowledge of it, let us describe how this "Chair" actually operates:
1. The State Board of Regents for Higher Education in the State of Texas has adopted a resolution that twelve hours credit can be given for courses in the field of Bible taught in any state (tax supported) college in Texas (there are about thirty-five such colleges in Texas.)
2. The Bible teacher cannot be supported by state (tax) money, nor can the class-room facilities be provided from such funds. The teacher cannot be the pastor (that is the term the Regents use) of a local congregation, and he must meet the academic requirements set by the regents - a Master's degree or its equivalent with a major in the field of Bible.
3. Each local college can offer whatever courses its faculty curriculum committee may approve. These courses are listed in the college catalogue, with a brief description of each course. Among the titles listed at Stephen F. Austin State College are: "The Life of Christ"' "The Life of Paul." "Old Testament Survey," "The Book of Job" "The Gospel and Epistles of John" "Bible Teaching on Marriage and the Home, " "The Origin of the Bible," "The Bible and Personal Problems" "The Old Testament Prophets," and perhaps another two or three which we do not recall at the moment. Each teacher is free to teach the course without restriction or restraint so long as he emphasizes Biblical content. While certain text-books are suggested or recommended in some courses, they are NOT obligatory; and in most of the courses each teacher is free to use, or not use, whatever supplementary books he may desire. This writer, in his courses, relied heavily on the actual Bible itself, using the suggested text-books mostly for supplemental or outside reading.
Organizational And Recreational Features
What then are the objections to "Bible Chairs" which most brethren have in mind when they condemn them? Usually the objections center around two basic aspects: (1) the organizational control of the "Chair", and (2) the social and recreational features ordinarily associated with most "Chairs." The Bible Chair at Stephen F. Austin was, and is, free of both of these objectionable features. It is solely the work of the Mound and Starr congregation: the teacher is supported wholly by this congregation, the class-room is furnished by the congregation (one of its larger Bible School rooms in the church building itself); and there is NO recreational or social activity related to the program. This is simply an arrangement by which the Mound and Starr congregation pays the salary of a full time Bible teacher, and provides a class-room in which he can teach the Bible to all who will attend his classes. There will be a certain number in each class who simply "audit" the course, and who neither desire nor receive any college credit for it.
Most "Bible Chairs" operated by Churches of Christ entail a "sponsoring church" kind of arrangement in which one congregation becomes the receiving, managing, and controlling director and overseer for the funds of many other churches; and most of them have also a more or less elaborate program of fun and frolic, recreational and social activities connected with the "Chair".
Brother Harold Tabor, lately of Indianapolis, Indiana, will assume his duties as the full time Bible teacher in the teaching program at Stephen F. Austin State College next month. He will be supported (as was this writer) by the Mound and Starr congregation. The arrangement is scriptural; the church is scriptural; and we are certain the teaching done will be in harmony with the Bible.
Anybody have any objections to that?
F. Y. T.