The Pervading Silence

W. Carl Ketcherside

[Page 61]

     A brother writes from Saskatchewan to enquire if our offer to various colleges has received an answer. Another brother, who lives in Texas, writes, "I have been watching your columns anxiously to see if your courageous offer would receive a favorable reply and an invitation from my alma mater. I will be grievously disappointed if they do not accept your proposal." Both of these men refer to the following statement which we published in our issue of last October.

     To those who are of a disposition to place the quest for truth above partisan politics we make this proposal. We will appear at our own expense on the platform of the annual lectureship at George Pepperdine College, Abilene Christian College, Lubbock Christian College, Harding College, David Lipscomb College, and Florida College, and submit to open public questioning by members of the faculty, or if permitted, by the entire audience. We pledge that we will conduct ourselves with proper Christian decorum and love those who disagree as much as we do those who agree with our views.
     This article constitutes our personal permission for any freedom-loving alumnus or group connected with any of the colleges mentioned, to petition the administrative heads of their alma mater for a fair hearing on our position. We have been the subject of discussion in absentia in every one of these schools in classes or on the public platform. We await with interest the outcome of this offer to see if a single one of them will dare to face up to the greatest challenge of the twentieth century--that of offering a real basis for Christian unity which transcends all partisan, sectarian and factional considerations.

[Page 62]

     Thus far only a deathlike silence has greeted our offer insofar as college officialdom is concerned. But a faculty member of one of the colleges wrote that some of his colleagues had agreed that if one of the professors in Abilene Christian College had presented my position on fellowship and unity he would have been hailed as "the savior of the restoration movement," although they did not dare acquiesce in it now, for it would be "the kiss of death."

     There is a grassroots movement gathering momentum which will not always be squelched. Students and faculty members alike are growing tired of the projection of a partisan image in a world calling for relief from the burden and scandal of the sectarian spirit. Who knows but what the time may yet come when I shall be allowed to set forth my own position and defend it before audiences which have heard attacks made which were unfair and unjust? Our brethren cannot always hide from the truth for "the eternal years of God are hers."