Abilene Christian College

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     Norman Parks is head of the department of social science at Middle Tennessee State University. He was dean of David Lipscomb College for eight years and also taught at Freed-Hardeman College and Oklahoma Christian College. Here is a letter which he wrote to Don Morris, President of Abilene Christian College, on November 17, after reading my appeal for an open dialogue at Abilene.

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     Dear Don: After reading Carl Ketcherside's "An Open Proposition" in the October issue of MISSION MESSENGER, I am taking this means of urging you to respond favorably to the proposal.

     Like myself, you do not have many years left in the educational field. At the near close of your active career is presented an opportunity not previously available and soon unrecallable to meet in a courageous and productive way the issue of disunity in the Restoration movement. It could well be the most important and certainly the most courageous moment of your life. I feel very strongly that unless action is taken soon, time is going to pass us by, Abilene Christian College will be just another small denominational college, and the rising generation will look elsewhere for their answers.

     In some ways, I may be in a better position than even you to assess contemporary developments. You are so deeply involved in a sectarian enterprise, in raising brick and stone, and moving in numbers that give the false impression of tidal success that it is not easy to see objectively the true picture. I find myself in a state university which has about half as many Church of Christ students as you have in Abilene, commingled with even larger numbers of Baptists and Methodists. Sectarian disillusionment is rampant, not only in our own numbers but in other denominational groups as well.

     Here is both our opportunity and our fatal illness. Until we cast off our own narrow sectarianism we cannot even hold our own youth, much less speak to the youth generally. Obviously, the place to begin is within the ranks of the Restoration Movement as Ketcherside drives home in every issue of his paper.

     Let me urge you to strike boldly! You have nothing to lose but sectarian chains. You have the chance to write your name in religious history. Surely there can be no loss in open dialogue. Truth never has anything to fear from error when, as Jefferson said, reason is left free to combat it. Who has ever seen truth worsted, Milton asked, in the open arena of combat? Is this not what the college itself is all about? If ACC is really a college, it will welcome such a dialogue. But if it is in fact what Campbell called a "collegia de propaganda de fide" it will retreat in smug complacency behind its sectarian walls. I hope the latter will not be the case. Sincerely, Norman.