Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 11
December 3, 1959
NUMBER 30, PAGE 4-5b

The Situation At Abilene

Editorial

We call attention to two articles in this issue concerning conditions at Abilene, Texas. Brother A. Hugh Clark reports on a gospel meeting he recently held at North Park church, and J. David Tant gives a few comments on the six years he spent as a student on the campus of Abilene Christian College (three years in high school; three in college. We think these two articles will give brethren some faint idea of the tragic depths to which prejudice can combine with Bible ignorance and "promotionalism" to destroy and undermine the spirit of love and brotherliness which ought to characterize those who would follow Christ.

The editor can speak from his own unhappy experience of the attitude to be found in Abilene. When we moved there in the summer of 1950, we placed membership with the College Church of Christ, and for three years continued in full and happy fellowship with that congregation. Glenn L. Wallace was the local preacher, and at various times in his absence from the pulpit in 1951, 1952, and 1953, this writer was invited by the elders to preach.

In the summer of 1953 we moved to Lufkin, Texas, and lived there for three years, returning to resume our residence in Abilene in the summer of 1956. Meanwhile, College Church had changed preachers; some new elders had been appointed — and The Herald of Truth had begun to make its influence felt in Abilene. Upon returning to Abilene, we had never a thought but that we would return to the College Church — but little did we dream of the change that had come to that congregation in three short years! We had been in the city only a few days when one of the elders of College Church informed us that the elders in a meeting prior to our return had discussed what they would do if we presented ourselves for membership. They decided to accept us all right — but agreed that they would immediately withdraw fellowship at the first indication of any teaching contrary to the Herald of Truth and the orphan homes! That, of course, would have been the second week we were there, or as soon as the next issue of the Gospel Guardian came out, since practically every issue has questioned the scripturalness of one or the other of these promotions.

We placed membership with the North Park congregation upon learning of this attitude. For some five or six months there we continued in full and happy association and. fellowship — When various members of Highland Church and others began to put pressure on the North Park elders to withdraw from us. The preacher for North Park congregation, Brother O. B. Proctor, received as many as twenty-five telephone calls in a single week from members of other Abilene churches, urging that North Park congregation "withdraw from the Tant's"! The elders of North Park did not yield to this pressure, but, on the contrary, did withdraw from two North Park members who were acting as chief agents of the institutional agitators in these sorry matters.

When this withdrawal was made known there was an immediate "protest meeting" held on the campus of Abilene Christian College, attended by various preachers and elders from other Abilene churches and by various faculty members of Abilene Christian College, seeking some way by which they could remove the elders of North Park congregation. Following this meeting a "document of removal" was circulated among North Park members which said in effect, We the undersigned members of North Park congregation do here by remove the following men from the eldership of this congregation." This document was signed by 59 members of North Park; and then the names of 67 other members were FOR to the paper, and it was presented to the eldership. (This forgery was confessed later by some of those who were guilty of it.) The elders ignored this document. And upon this, a systematic effort was made by a number of the Abilene brethren to persuade every member who could be contacted to leave North Park and worship elsewhere! The two members who had been withdrawn from were received into full fellowship elsewhere; and tremendous pressures (almost incredible pressures!) were put on others to leave. Scores did leave. But the congregation did not fold up. It has continued to function, to mind its own business, and to worship and serve God as best it can under the continuing pressures and ungodly attacks and misrepresentations.

This will give some idea, however sketchy and inadequate, of the evil "pressures" which are to be found in Abilene against any congregation or any person who does not "follow the party line" as laid down by the Herald of Truth and Abilene Christian College. Faithful young Christians attending Abilene Christian College will be marked, embarrassed, ridiculed, and badgered by both students and faculty if they dare to express themselves as opposed to the orphan homes and to Herald of Truth. Some will remain faithful to their convictions; others will wilt and weaken under the constant barrage of insults and taunts. Highland Church has become one of the most tremendous "pressure blocs" the church of our Lord has ever known. The Missionary Society in her wildest and most vicious days rarely ever equaled, and never exceeded, the meddling kind of interference in the affairs of local churches which has characterized Highland Church almost from the beginning of her sad misadventure into the murky "Herald of Truth" quagmire. Churches all over the nation have been victimized, agitated, "pressurized" and troubled in varying degrees by her traveling representatives. The faithful North Park church has not yielded to the pressure. Other churches have yielded. Still others have been rent asunder; divided, and left in a miserable state of frustration and weakness because of the ruthless promotions and agitation of the Herald of Truth cooperative. It has written a sad and sordid chapter in the history of the church of our day.

We trust our readers will read carefully and objectively these articles by Brother Clark and by David Tant. They give a sorrowful view of what can happen among God's people when worldly and ambitious men decide they want to "do something big". The love, humility, and brotherly spirit that ought always to characterize children of God has been a scarce and difficult thing to find among the promoters of Abilene these last few years. We doubt that much improvement will be discernible for many years to come. The evil spirit is in command there, and until the Word of God once again makes itself felt in that sad city the brethren who question the "promotions" are going to be in for a rough, rough time.

— F. Y. T.