Brother Goodpasture
When we revealed last August that Highland Church in Abilene was not making her usual monthly contribution to Herald of Truth; that the salary of her own paid elder was supplied by other churches; and that her mission work was being gradually diminished to the vanishing point, the ten elders of that church rushed into print in the Gospel Advocate declaring that our entire statement was "utterly false." Whereupon we published Highland's own financial record, from which our facts had been taken. This was a crushing refutation; and apparently Highland's elders were willing to drop the matter — but not Brother Goodpasture! He comes out with a long editorial in the Gospel Advocate, quoting some of Highland's financial records for the first ten months of 1957 (which, incidentally, confirmed rather than refuted what he had originally said), and citing a couple of letter of "recommendation" from two Abilene business houses, and makes another hysterical charge of falsehood against the Gospel Guardian. Once again, we repeat: Highland's own financial records tell the story: (1) she made no contribution to Herald of Truth during two months of 1957; (2) the salary of her own paid elder, John F. Reese, is paid by other churches; (3) during the first ten months of the year, her weekly contribution was approximately $700.00 per Sunday under her budgeted expenditures; (4) her mission work is only a fraction of what it was before she became involved in Herald of Truth. All Brother Goodpasture's frantic defense of the organization cannot refute this. Facts are stubborn things!
"Not to be discouraged"
From the "Home Journal" we learn that the people at Maude Carpenter Home have "learned not to be discouraged at the size of the task, or to be dissuaded by every pigmy that squeaks on a reed about following patterns for taking care of orphans where there is no pattern." Even a pigmy like Paul, squeaking on agreed about the all-sufficiency of the church, will not perturb or discourage these ardent "do-gooders."
Another new one Brother Tant Williams from Houston, Texas, sends us a newspaper clipping containing a quotation from one, Paul B. Osborn, of Plainsfield, New Jersey, who lists himself as a member of the "Seventh Day Baptist Church of Christ." That title is almost as cumbersome as the "Fellowshipping and Good Works Church of Christ" of Morton, Texas, which was recently organized — and forthwith refused to "fellowship" the faithful church which has been in Morton for these many years!
Christhaven
"And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." But some of the good brethren in the Fort Worth area are going to remedy that; their new benevolence organization there is to he known as "Christhaven." Now if "Childhaven" is a home for homeless children, then "Christhaven" must be designed to serve the same purpose for a homeless Jesus.
Preaching and practice One highly significant thing in the recent Birmingham debate was the "change" which Brother Cogdill pointed out as having taken place among nearly all gospel preachers in the last ten or twelve years. For many, many years gospel preachers have been teaching the same thing on the organization, all-sufficiency, and equality of New Testament churches. Following the recent war, when huge promotions began to take on a bandwagon psychology, all gospel preachers were awakened to a realization that there was an obvious and growing inconsistency between their preaching and their practice, particularly as respected the organized benevolence and cooperative arrangements among the churches. A great number of faithful men have sought to change their practice to bring it into harmony with their preaching — but others have changed their preaching so as to make it harmonize with their practice. This divergence is basic and fundamental; the chasm will not be bridged between these two types of thinking.
Tbacc
Since some brethren argue that James 1:27 gives authority for another organization (in addition to the church) for visiting "the fatherless and widows," and since there is a terrific amount of lying slander going on against those who do NOT believe in this separate organization, certain brethren have proposed that still a third organization be formed, based on James 1:26, and to be known as the TBACC — "Tongue Bridlers Association Of The Churches of Christ." We will report developments — if we ever learn of any.
But thoroughly Brother Thomas B. Warren has written a book in which, he boasts, the subject of church cooperation and orphan homes has been "thoroughly discussed;" one church helping another to preach the gospel is established by "thorough proof;" fifteen objections to such are "thoroughly refuted;" the scriptural right of orphan homes to operate is established by "thorough proof;" and seventeen objections to such are "thoroughly refuted!" Sounds to us like this must be a right "through" job! No doubt component parts, constituent elements, total situations, etc., will be flying thicker than flies at a country picnic. Truly our Brother Warren is a man who is "often in error — but never, and we do mean NEVER, in doubt."
Pulled too Green When some of the brethren at Birmingham heard that Brother W. F. Cawyer of Abilene, Texas, the "roving elder in church of promotions for Herald of Truth" had been made an elder in his middle twenties, they declared, "Well, that explains a lot. He was simply pulled too green."
"Be It Resolved:"
Now comes word that the elders of four congregations in Wichita Falls, Texas, met in executive session a few weeks ago, and drafted a joint resolution that the fifth church in that city would not be permitted to have her name on the same highway bill-boards with the other churches unless she renounced her opposition to Herald of Truth and the institutional orphan homes. The decision was not unanimous, but carried by majority vote. Each elder was allowed one vote. The church with only two or three elders was obviously at a disadvantage in comparison with a congregation having eight or ten elders. It will be interesting to watch this sort of thing in the years ahead (it is not confined to Wichita Falls), and note the reaction when some congregation of 200 members comes to one of the voting conclaves with thirty-four duly authorized and bona fide elders!
Terms of membership From the Houston, Texas, area we have word of a congregation seeking to incorporate, and including in its charter a provision that no one can be a member of that congregation unless he publicly avows his belief in and support of Herald of Truth and the institutional orphan homes. But they got into a fight over which orphan homes one had to endorse, the Firm Foundation variety or the Gospel Advocate variety, and at last report some were in favor of chucking the whole idea, and simply letting the New Testament set the standards and requirements for membership. Not a bad idea, at that!
Fellowship will follow Well, we have an advertisement from the church at Merkel, Texas, to attend an "Area-Wide Young People's Meeting" at which Brother J. T. Marlin of Sweetwater, Texas, was scheduled to speak. In big bold letters we are informed that "Fellowship Will Follow Service." We are glad J. T. is able to speak again — and we suggest that the next time he gets a chance at one of these affairs he speak on the subject "The Difference Between Bible Fellowship and a Basket Dinner." But of course if he does that, his invitations to such affairs will cease — pronto.
Passages, not verses Some weeks ago this column carried the comment that in a recent meeting at Henderson, Tennessee, Brother Clay Pullias had used twelve passages of scripture in his first nine sermons, and observed that that was an average of one and a third verses to each sermon. Some of the Freed-Hardeman brethren want us to make it clear that some of the passages he used, or referred to, contained more than one verse, and one Old Testament selection which he read at the beginning of a lesson had perhaps as many as twelve verses in it. We are glad to get this further explanation of the matter. With his great oratorical ability and fine pulpit powers Pullias could be a great force for truth. Let us hope the Freed-Hardeman friends will be able to have some influence in bringing him to realize that it takes scripture as well as speaking ability to make a good preacher.