Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 9
July 25, 1957
NUMBER 12, PAGE 5,9b

Reading The Bulletins

Charles A. Holt - P. O. Box 493 - Florence, Alabama

News From Here And There

Bill Parsons has moved from Hobbs, New Mexico to Dallas to work with the Highland Park church . after five years with the Southwest 36th St. church in Oklahoma City, Albert Sweet has moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma. . . . G. W. Patterson has moved from Sulphur, Louisiana to Crockett, Texas. .. . R. L Box has moved to Carrolton, Texas to work with the church there.... J. C. Townsend is now preaching for the church in Chamblee, Georgia . . . Bill Rogers has moved from Paducah, Ky. to work with one of the churches in Huntsville, Ala. .. . B. J. Jones is now in Decherd, Tenn. He moved from Estill Springs, Tenn. .. . James Trigg is now working with the church in Overton, Texas. . . . Ralph V. Graham is the president of the Collingswood, N. J. "Ministerium". He was one of the speakers at the "Holy Week Union Services" sponsored by Collingswood Ministerium. He was listed on the program as (and I quote) "The Rev. Ralph V. Graham." The affair was conducted at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. . . . Keith Thompson will leave Owen Sound, Ontario in August and move to Beamsville, Ontario to work with the church there. . . . John Whitfield will move from Meaford, Ontario to Owen Sound. . . . Walter Dale, now of St. Catherines, Ontario, will move to Meaford. . . . A new congregation recently started in southwest Dallas at Highway 67 and Loop 12. It will be known as the South Loop 12 church. Virgil Poe will be the preacher. This makes more than eighty churches in the greater Dallas area.

"Area Wide Young People's Meetings"

Bro. Reuel Lemmons, editor of the Firm Foundation, recently had some remarks to make under the above hearing. He told about attending one such meeting and that it was perfectly right and proper. He seems to labor under the false impression that some people think that such a meeting AS HE DESCRIBED is "unscriptural and sinful." No one I know would oppose such. It is when the church gets involved in such; or, when some church "sponsors" such that we oppose it. Only this latter kind have been opposed thru this column.

Bro. Lemmons is one of these "nice fellows" who does not "call names!" Like Cleon Lyles, he writes about various people and makes snide and slurring "digs" at them without ever naming the ones he has in mind. This is the same sort of cowardice that motivates the anonymous letter writer — the one who writes a letter to someone venting his spleen and does not sign it! In the article under consideration, Lemmons says, "We continue to see slurring references made to 'area wide young people's meetings' as if they had to be wrong. It is easy to make slurring remarks about something." Wonder if he had this column in mind? If so, why did he not say so? It certainly comes with poor grace for Lemmons to talk of anyone else using "slurring references" and "slurring remarks." There is not a man in the brotherhood who does more of this than Reuel Lemmons! Indeed he is the consummate expert at such. That sort of thing consumes about half of the space in his editorials. He "slurs" everybody with whom he may disagree! The only man I know who can even stand in his shadow at such is the one mentioned above — Cleon Lyles! Even in this very editorial he puts in plenty of his "nice" slurs — the cowardly kind in which no one in particular is named. Listen to this one: "The church continues to suffer from the all too prevalent practice of brethren who damn a thing just of the sadistic pleasure of seeing it damned." Now did you ever see a statement from any of us to equal this charge against his brethren? Who is so depraved that they engage in the "sadistic pleasure" of "damning a thing" purely for that reason? Let Lemmons name them. If ever a man took it upon himself to sit in judgment of some of his brethren and their motives, Lemmons does it in this indictment. It is a vicious and false charge. Such cowardly insinuations, which are to be found in almost every editorial he writes, are about the lowest form of lying!

Bare Facts

It is quite possible for a person to be immodestly dressed. Christians are to shun this practice in keeping with the Scripture in I Timothy 2:9, 10, "In like manner, also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works." Compare also I Peter 3:3, 4.

The word of God censures the wearing of gaudy or sensually appealing clothes. A person may be guilty of this by "over-dressing" through pride or vanity.

It seems to be equally possible for people to be immodestly undressed. At this season when little boys are thinking of going barefooted, their older brothers and sisters frequently "outstrip" them by baring considerably more than a foot.

Some pretend that this virtual undressing is to make the summer heat more bearable. Whom do they fool? They are not fooling those who have been in tropical climates and have seen demonstrated the fact that the surest way to parch to a crisp is by ignoring the need for a protective layer of light clothing.

Then, too, the disrobing always begins in the spring long before the weather becomes unbearably warm.

The psychologist understands that the wearing of scant clothing is an expression of the yearning which so many have to be bold, daring, and risqu. It is a sensual form of exhibitionism. There is no shred of modesty in it.

Time was when such talk pointed to the public swimming places. Now it includes the front lawns, sidewalks, and streets of every city and town.

About all that remains to be done by those who want to be more bold than the rest, is complete nudity. How long will our laws against even that be enforced?

Chastity involves more than abstinence from adultery. It includes a modest avoidance of that which encourages adulterous thought.

It may be noted that women of the world dress to be chased. Women of God dress to be chaste. The difference is not just in the way they are spelled. — Belview Beacon, Birmingham, Ala., Bob Crowley, Editor.