Answering G. K. Wallace
The Gospel Advocate of July 19, 1982, carries an article by G. K. Wallace entitled "Florida Christian College and Confused Connie." It is a typical tirade against Florida Christian College, Charles Holt and me. The occasion for the article was an editorial in the Newburn Admonisher, the bulletin I edited while working with church in Newburn, Tennessee, in which I questioned the continual use of a church bulletin as a medium for advertising the college. Particular reference was made to the Humboldt Observer, edited by J. E. Williams. For years its pages have been filled with announcements and promotions of various affairs at Freed-Hardeman College. It is not a matter of an occasional announcement which might have been of some interest to some members of the church, but the continual use of it as a medium for advertising the college.
Brother Wallace said that Florida Christian College is a sacred cow to the "antis," that while they criticize other schools, they can see no wrong with FCC. Nothing could be further from the truth. Criticisms of the school have been made in recent months in some of the papers by some brother Wallace would call "anti." He then went back to 1952 to a statement sent from the college business office to the Riverside Park church in Jacksonville, Florida. The letter was a bill. It is my understanding that you do not send out a bill for a donation. The letter itself indicates that it was a bill for services rendered. Note that brother Wallace had to go back ten years to find something to use in this matter, and then does not find what he needs to dispute the statement that Florida Christian neither solicits nor receives contributions from churches. He then informs his readers that FCC runs a hospital (dispensary), hotel (dormitory), cafeteria, orange grove, tomato patch, and saw mill. Well, G. K., so what? It is not the church. It is not supported by the church. Now, if FCC decides to do like others and starts trying to get its hands into the church treasuries, then I for one will criticize it. We are taught to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." That is what I did with reference to Freed-Hardeman College.
He brought up the matter of Charles Holt announcing about the Living Link program in the Contender at Franklin, Tennessee, in 1956, and about brethren announcing the various appearances of the school chorus in bulletins and from the pulpits. Charles Holt is able to answer for himself. Why didn't brother Wallace quote something from my bulletin like that? He can make of it what he likes, I do not advertise the college either from the pulpit or in the bulletin. But even if I did, he missed the point of my criticism of the Humboldt Observer. Week after week it is filled with the affairs of Freed-Hardeman College, and has been for years.
He said I gave considerable advertising space to Freed-Hardeman College in the Newburn Admonisher and wants to know why it is right to "cuss" a school in the bulletin, but wrong to "bless" it. For the same reason it is right to reprove denominational error in the bulletin but wrong to approve and endorse it. When colleges solicit and receive funds from churches, they have led the churches into doing that which is unauthorized and thus sinful. It is right to reprove such.
Brother Wallace brought up again about FCC renting a place to the Episcopalians. That matter has been thoroughly and ably answered by Jim Cope. And when the Gospel Advocate Company stops selling Methodist Disciplines and Baptist Manuals, all for profit, then some of us may be a little more inclined to take seriously what they say along this line Brother Wallace has been upset with me ever since the trial over the property of the church at Spring Creek, Tennessee, when he, H. A. Dixon and W. A. Bradfield used their influence to defend the election of elders by majority vote and to get the faithful brethren put out of their building. I reported what they said in the Newburn Admonisher and have access to the entire court record of their testimonies. It makes interesting reading if you have a strong stomach. I received several letters from him while at Newburn. It was evident that he and others at the school felt the pressure. They could not just elevate their noses in dignified silence and ignore what we were saying. They had to strike back. Thus brother Wallace writes a two page tirade in the Gospel Advocate, a paper which has been known for defaming men and institutions which cross them, without allowing them one word of defense in their columns, an article in which I am criticized for criticizing. Is it that Connie is confused, G. K., or is it that you and your companions are red hot because the yoke of Freed-Hardeman College over the churches of west Tennessee has been exposed, and your unsoundness is brought to light from your ridiculous testimony in the Spring Creek trial, that has prompted this tirade? What is the basis of your attack on Florida Christian College except that your detective work to uncover something that smelled bad failed, and you had to go back to 1952 and, pervert something to build a case on?
The fact that the school has resisted the efforts to line it up with the liberalism which characterizes other schools, is a source of constant unhappiness to the Gospel Advocate and her writers, one of whom is G. K. Wallace. And why at this late date take another swing at Charles Holt unless you are still smarting from what happened in the Florence debate? No, it is not that Connie is confused, it is that G. K. is hot under the collar because the solicitations of funds from churches by Freed-Hardeman College has been brought to light, and their meddling behind the scenes in the affairs of churches has been exposed.
I urge brethren to observe from this the effect these small bulletins are having. The high and mighty Gospel Advocate would not condescend to devote two full pages to something that appeared in a church bulletin unless the weight of it was being felt. Many have been led to see the truth relative to current problems through reading and studying these small papers. May their tribe Increase!
— 1708 Hastings, Orlando, Florida