Two Kinds Of Radicals
Many institutions of a secular nature have been prominent factors in the growth and progress of the church.
For more than half a century a paint manufacturing company in Louisville has meant much to the cause of Christ in that section of Kentucky. For twelve years I lived and worked in the same church with the founder and controlling owner of this paint company. I could see constantly that this brother was making his business enterprise count much for the church of our Lord.
A life insurance company in Tennessee has been a potent element in the church's growth in many places. About twenty years ago the president of this insurance company would make periodic visits to the company's offices in Birmingham, Alabama, where I then lived, as I suppose he did to many other places in the states where his company was licensed to do business. It was his custom on these visits to call his agents and their families to the company's office and there teach them the Bible for about an hour. He would inform me of the nights these lessons were given and invite me to come. I always went. He invited me to preach in a series of meetings in the church in Nashville where he was an elder. I accepted. As I sat in his Bible classes in Birmingham and as I watched his work during that meeting in Nashville, I could see as plain as day that this brother was making his business institution a mighty factor in the furtherance of the gospel.
Some colleges and schools of many kinds have played a vital part in the dissemination of truth and the growth of the church: such as the school of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9, 10), the schools at Abilene, Searcy, Henderson, Nashville, in Alabama and many other places. An interesting and informative article on the subject, "RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN TEXAS," appeared in a religious journal on February 12, 1931, in which the author presented some helpful facts on the work of schools in the growth of various religious institutions.
Time would fail, if I told of all factories, stores, shops, schools, publishing houses and other secular institutions that have been prominent factors in the growth of the churches in many places.
Had it not been for such business firms and educational establishments, churches of Christ today might be as few in number and as insignificant in influence as the Primitive Baptist churches, as some claim. I do not know about that, but I do know that these institutions of a secular nature, owned and operated by faithful Christians, have been potent and cogent elements in the progress of the gospel, and I believe that "brethren should maintain them."
Does this mean that the churches should donate money from their treasuries to grocery stores, paint factories, secular schools, insurance companies, and all other establishments of men that have helped the church? Does this mean that the churches should put such institutions in their budgets? The answer to both of these questions is no. There is a scriptural way that "brethren should maintain them."
In their attitude toward schools that teach secular courses along with the Bible, two classes of radicals exist among us. In some circles these groups would be called "left wing" and "right wing," or "leftists" and "rightists." For purposes of identification and comparison (not to be discourteous or unkind), I shall call these extremists "Right Wing Radicals" and "Left Wing Radicals."
The Right Wing Radicals believe that schools in which both secular branches and the Bible are taught are detrimental to the churches, and that no brother in Christ should give any of his money or effort or time to building or maintaining such schools. These extremists have never been numerous, and they do not seem now to be making any noticeable progress in winning new converts to their hobby. They perhaps are as few in number and as weak in influence as the Primitive Baptists. However, they do have a few churches under their control, and they are neither afraid nor ashamed to preach their convictions on this issue.
The Left Wing Radicals among us believe that schools in which both secular branches and the Bible are taught may be supported scripturally by donations from church treasuries, if the churches so desire. These hobbyists in the church are fewer in number than either the Right Wing Radicals or the Primitive Baptists. In the last ten years a great number of their followers have left them, and churches of Christ that can be persuaded to make donations to a college are exceedingly hard to find today. Unlike the Right Wing Radicals, these extremists are almost totally lacking in the courage of their convictions. They seem to be both afraid and ashamed of their position. Very few of their number will teach the theory at all, except by implication. Some who advised the churches twenty years ago to contribute to the schools are so ashamed of it now that they openly deny they ever did such a thing, though scores of people know that they did. Changing from error to truth is not dishonorable, and they should not deny their guilt of once preaching error; for some of them know well and proclaim widely, "The Judgment Lies Ahead of Us," and they should know that a person in that "Judgment" that "lies ahead of us" might be called on to answer for the denial of his guilt as well as for the sin that he denies he was ever guilty of. But all of this does show that church-supported school-radicalism among us is dying out faster than the Primitive Baptists and their predestination-radicalism.
If both of these classes of extremists could ever learn the truth that schools, like other helpful secular endeavors, should be maintained by individuals, and not supported by church treasuries, and determine they would never again disturb another church with either of these hobbies, then they and the churches would be better and happier.