Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 91:363 (Jul 1934)
Article: Editorials
Author: Rollin Thomas Chafer

BSac 91:362 (Apr 34) p. 257

Editorials

Rollin T. Chafer

Seasonal News Releases

A veteran newspaper man once said to me, “I have seen so much of the seamy side of life in my newspaper experience that I have lost confidence in God and mankind.” It has become part and parcel of our Americana that crime and sensational events hold first place in estimating news values. Notwithstanding the abundance of such news, there still remains a great amount of news print space to be filled up, hence the papers are also compelled to use what we may designate hackneyed calendar news-seasonal treatments of surviving ancient customs, folklore and superstitions. For example, December brings a crop of articles, gleaned from the encyclopedias, setting forth the sources of the pagan elements in the Christmas festivities; in February, the ground hog’s shadow as a weather omen is never forgotten; the Easter season not only demands much space for the description of new styles, but also affords opportunity for more articles on customs of pagan origin, while wedding announcements have claimed the extra space in the sixth month.

In more recent times, however, a newcomer in calendar news has appeared. Space formerly devoted to the June bride has been encroached upon by the yearly announcement, often rather exultingly expressed, that the “liberals” in attendance upon the annual convocations of the various church courts or representative bodies which meet late in May or early in June, have overwhelmingly captured the high seats, and that various proposals of the “fundamentalists” have received scant attention. Not infrequently these latter press reports are accompanied by “reassuring” statements that doctrinal and theological questions are not at stake, merely matters of policy being involved. This “assurance” is no doubt gratifying to the rank and file of church members who have no clear idea what it is all about. Not so, however, with the intelligently militant contenders who are sure they can see other indications

BSac 91:362 (Apr 34) p. 258

beneath the surface, if not, in truth, openly exhibited above it.

The similarity of these annually recurring church reports is significant indeed to one who is able to survey, with an attitude of entire detachment, the trend of modern religious movements. Seven years ago I typed the following editorial comments which seem to me to have greater applicability for the present moment than the time for which they were written: “The president of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America has recently brought to the fore again the question of a united Christendom on the basis of an ‘irreducible minimum of faith.’ He is quoted as saying: ‘I would be glad to see a holiday given to all theologi...