A Shame?

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On Fri, 4 Sep 1998 10:33:25 -0400 brian_berger@JUNO.COM writes:

>Herein lies the evil ness of _THE_BEARD_THREAD_.

I don't believe that EITHER side is evil on this.

>The postings do not say anything new. And the attitudes are 
>almost unhealthy. The posters have been reduced to three 
>main, and four secondary daily and the single 
>moderator. Such a shame. Such a shame.
>
>Brian Berger 

No, it is a shame for men to grow their hair long.  It is not a shame for
people of God who have questions to ask them.  And I'm sure that when
Paul "withstood Peter to the face" that it wasn't a "sit down with tea
and quietly discuss terms"...  Not that I am condoning flaming.  I do not
believe that Paul called Peter names or made ANY personal attacks, but I
do believe that he BOLDLY proclaimed what he saw, and knowing what I do
about Peter, I can't imagine him being shy about proclaiming his views
either.

It needs to be in love and it needs to be remembered that it is not (or
at least should not be) personal attacks, but 
it needs to be done.  I say, it IS healthy for people to discuss such
things.  IGNORANCE is not healthy.

People have too many questions that go unanswered.  Why?  Many of them
are afraid or embarrassed to ask them.  And the problem is, that the more
people get in Church, the more it is ASSUMED that people know, the more
widespread the sort of automatic ignorance is inherited.  We cover the
Oneness, Baptism in Jesus' name, but what else?  Do we encourage personal
use of the Bible?  No, I don't mean in the generic "read your Bible
daily", I mean dynamically, where the Word is something that you not just
read, but USE.

At the Church I was at before this, I was the High School level Sunday
School Teacher and I was shocked that none of the kids knew much about
their Bible.  At school, they silently smoldered when talk of the theory
of evolution came up.  Their Baptist friends would always get the last
word in the Trinity discussions.
We started sWord drills so they could learn the books of the Bible; and,
remembering the EXCELLENT example given by Bro Boone Farney when I was in
High School level Sunday School class, we started having debates once a
month so they could practice in ACTIVELY using the Word.  This class
included of kids who have been going to that Church for all of their life
as well as the Associate Pastor's daughter and they were all but
clueless.

Oh, they could TELL me there was One God; they could TELL me that you
needed to be baptized in Jesus' name, but outside of Acts 2:38, there
wasn't much they could SHOW me in the Bible, nor could they explain WHY
they believed this outside of their parents or Pastor.

And crutches like that aren't designed to last long.

Jerry Welch

www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/2810/

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