An Open Letter To Frank Cawyer, Highland Elder
Box 153 Ranger, Texas Mr. Frank Cawyer
Herald of Truth Abilene, Texas
Dear Brother Cawyer:
Recently you visited me while I was still living in Lometa, Texas. We talked together for about an hour and a half. Several things were discussed but the main talk had to do with the right of the "Herald of Truth" to exist as it now is. You began to present letter after letter to try to prove the dishonesty or the unscrupulousness of certain men who have been outspoken in their opposition to your program. At that time I told you that I wasn't interested in personalities but in what the Bible teaches in regard to authority of elders, etc. You continued with some things which I doubted at that time but had no information on to offset what you said therefore I let them alone, but immediately upon your departure I wrote some letters to try to find out the truth concerning the subjects you introduced, and I found that you have been presenting, in your rounds over the country, some things that evidently put you in the class of dishonest and unscrupulous. I don't know where you have told your stories but evidently wherever you have gone you told what was told me. These things need to be repudiated by YOU in a public statement which, if you will send to me, I will have published in the Gospel Guardian. You should take steps to have it in the Firm Foundation and Gospel Advocate for it would do no good for me to send it to either of those papers. But here is what I'm talking about.
First, you are telling that Roy and Yater got the radio program off the air in Blytheville Arkansas." (Your words.) That statement is absolutely false. Roy and Yater have nothing to do with that program and if they did they wouldn't be the least bit interested in having it off the air. But, the program is NOT OFF THE AIR AT ALL.
I don't know where you got that information, but Whoever told you told you something false and you were so glad to get something (anything) that you didn't think of finding out whether it was true or not. You just grabbed at something like Brother Harper did in taking Whit's word for what happened in Lufkin. Brother Cawyer, a Christian would straighten up that matter. What will you do?
Second, ,you accused a faithful gospel preacher of being a church divider. (I'll not mention his name; we both know who I mean.) But you said he divided the church in Brady, Texas, and you further said this was his history EVERYWHERE he had preached and mentioned specifically churches in Houston and Brownwood. I have a photostatic copy of a letter signed by ALL the elders in Brady agreeing to the starting of a new congregation there some time AFTER this brother had left Brady. Also I wrote to one of the elders in the Houston church and he knows of no trouble at all in the congregation there because of this man. Also in Brownwood the statement is: "I know of no trouble in the church in Brownwood while ___________ was there." Now, Brother Cawyer, evidently you are spreading that story and in so doing you are slandering the good name of a faithful gospel preacher, and doing it behind his back in places where he has no opportunity to defend himself. What are you going to do about that matter?
Then, you had a letter from Yater Tant in which he threatened to get an injunction against the Chronicle Co. in connection with the publishing of the Harper-Tant Debate if certain extra material was inserted. You were greatly upset that a brother would engage in civil action against another brother and began crying about 1 Corinthians 6 being violated and were busily engaged in advertising Brother Tant as a low sort of fellow. I told you then that if what Brother Tant accused the Chronicle of was true, then you folk had committed the first wrong and that needed to be straightened up before you started crying about the sins of Brother Tant. You declared that the contract gave you the right to put into the book all the material that was inserted, BUT, you very conveniently didn't have a copy of that contract with you for people to read. You had room for everything else that you thought would help your cause but you didn't have that contract which, if what you said were true, would definitely indict Yater as the culprit. Why didn't you have it? Why, because we find that Yater did have a contract such as he suggested and the Chronicle, with the approval of Brother Harper and the elders at Highland, did violate that contract. Now, Brother Cawyer, what are you going to do about that? Will you give me the statement repudiating what you have spread — or not?
Some people, and perhaps you, will wonder why I have made these things public rather than coming to you with them first. Here's the reason. The things I am discussing in this letter have already been made public by you. The ONLY way to right them is to expose them publicly. Privately will not get the job done. Many preachers who have opposed you folk have been slandered and nothing has been done about it, myself included. The public needs to be exposed to some of the falsifying, slandering, and chicanery, that is taking place. They need to know just what kind of people we are dealing with in this battle for truth. When they see what we must deal with then perhaps they won't be quite so weak-stomached about the way the battle is fought.
Looking forward to hearing from you, I am
Sincerely yours,
Robert L. Craig