The Overflow
Looking back Now that Ernest Beam has openly joined the digressive church and is Pastor of the First Christian Church at Los Gatos, California, it is most interesting to look back through his "Christian Forum" and notice the men whom he praised and commended for their "constructive thinking." Prominent in the list are Earl Pullias, Ralph Wilburn, and the men who participated in the annual Lectureship at Pepperdine College. We are convinced that Wilburn and Beam are not the last of these "constructive thinkers" who will wind up in the Christian Church.
—O—
Preacher Wanted:
The Christian Leader under the above caption carries an ad from an Indiana church seeking a preacher. The ad says, "Application must include record of accomplishments in the ministry and references." That gives us an idea. If the brethren are going in for that sort of stuff, why doesn't every preacher build him a "scrapbook" like the theatrical people do? One could list all his gospel meetings, together with the number baptized and restored, include clippings from the gospel papers which tell of his great "accomplishments," paste in pictures of the worn-out, tumbledown frame shacks the brethren had when he started his work and in contrast the huge piles of brick and mortar they had when he left them, list the names of the "great ones" he converted (i.e. mayors, colonels, bankers, doctors, football stars, hillbilly radio singers, etc.), include copies of all the letters he received from colleges and other places inviting him to appear on their programs, list the number of baccalaureate sermons he has delivered . . . excuse us while we hunt something for our stomach. We feel slightly nauseated.
—O—
No broken bones Remember that East Texas preacher we commented on a few weeks ago who declared that if a woman wasn't "a good thing" then she was no wife, and her erstwhile husband would be free to marry again? Well, the same fellow now comes up with the teaching that it is impossible for a true Christian to have a broken arm. He says, "The Bible say that not a bone of his body shall be broken; so if you are a part of Christ's body, then you ain't going to have no broken arms or legs!"
—O—
Unanswerable We heard an unanswerable argument at the ACC lectures in favor of an elder being a married man. It goes like this: Suppose the elders of a church come together in a regular business meeting, discuss some project at length and come to a unanimous, whole-hearted decision as to what action they are to take. If one of those elders is a bachelor, who in the world will he have to change his mind on that matter before the next meeting? Ergo, elders MUST have wives!
—O—
Let sinners be heard Do you read the ads on the back page of the G.G.? Well a couple of weeks ago we wrote one entitled "Both Sides," which pointed out our policy of giving equal space to sincere brethren who may differ on some matter. We wrote, "Read the Gospel Guardian. Get both sides of whatever question may be up for discussion. Let sincere brethren who may differ on a point be heard, each in his own words, and in his own article." Well, it finally came out that "sincere brethren" somehow had been metamorphosed into sinners." Sabotage! We suspect now an then that some of the brethren who write may be "sinners" all right — but we're too polite to say so out in public.
—O—
Touch!
"Just noticed Vaughn Shofner's comment in the "Overflow" that the Guardian's worth 'can be measured by the attention it gets.' Some children I know have temper tantrums (not Tant-rums) because of their belief in the same basic theory." Signed: Dale Richeson, Searcy, Arkansas. And Brother G. C. Brewer wrote us some time back that a "dead rat" was hard to ignore, but that that didn't argue anything as to its respectability. We guess that ought to put us in the proper place ... but we can't restrain a chuckle at the neat way in which we were "hoist with our own petard."
—O—
"No stipulated salary"
Some of the brethren who are screaming their lungs out about "located preachers on a stipulated salary" have devised a clever way by which they can do the same work, and receive the same support as those whom they condemn. One of them over in Alabama is reported to have told the elders of the church where he preached that they are to vary his pay check a little bit each week, and never let him know what the exact figure on it is going to be until he receives it. Thus he is NOT preaching for "a stipulated salary"! How silly can brethren get?
—O—
Appreciation We'll never forget the first time we saw Grand Canyon. As we gazed in fascination and awe at the overwhelming sight, our senses almost reeling under the impact, we noticed a teen-age girl with a party of tourists and sight-seers nearby. She had glanced ever so briefly and casually at the mighty spectacle, and then had gone avidly back to a breathless perusal of a movie magazine which she had brought along — or maybe it was one of those pulp sheets, "Hot sizzling Romances" or some such title. The gum-chewing adolescent was reading like mad the last glimpse we had of her, and was obviously completely disinterested in the Canyon. All of which came back to memory recently when we read the following item in the editorial columns of the Christian Leader from the pen of the worthy editor of that journal, Brother Burton Coffman:
—O—
"Forty-two games"
"For twenty years I attended the ACC lectures without a single interruption. One of the inconveniences of moving East has been the inability to get back to Texas for the Annual Jamboree at Abilene. Many happy recollections throng the heart as we recall those lectures. There were times when men like B. Sherrod, Brother F. W. Dailey, Sr., and various preachers and elders would play "forty-two" after the night lecture in one of the hotel rooms . . . To all of you who have the opportunity to go, we are happy, therefore, to say, `,Don't miss it!' And, if any of you "forty-two" players get stuck for want of a partner, just call me long distance, Washington, D. C., and I'll join in by telephone!" (For the benefit of our non-Texas readers "forty-two" is a modified version of auction bridge, played with dominoes instead of playing cards.)