A Final Debate Note

Last year I met Ben Vick Jr. in a written debate over the sponsoring church arrangement.  That debate came about as a result of Jim Waldron’s scurrilous attack on non-institutional brethren in Jim’s paper Bulletin Briefs.  Jim wanted to deride “parachurch organizations” as unscriptural while still holding on to the sponsoring church arrangement (an impossibility), and then went out of his way to blame non-institutional brethren for today’s rampant liberalism.

Sadly, Waldron wouldn’t defend what he wrote.  Despite my pleas for him to be courageous enough to enter the debate ring he would not, so I had to settle for Vick.  Mostly, I debated Vick because Waldron promised to run the debate in his paper.  This was an unprecedented opportunity to reach many brethren who have only been told untruths and lies about non-institutional brethren.  Now they could read and evaluate the truth for themselves.  Incidentally, since the debate I have been contacted by Bulletin Briefs readers who agreed that the sponsoring church was indeed unscriptural, and this is tremendously gratifying.

Yet in all of this Waldron was terribly callous and high-handed.  He refused to answer my emails and pretty much treated me as a pest unworthy of his time.  He evidenced no concern for truth or interest in serious Bible study.  “Yet still,” I thought, “he has agreed to publish the debate in Bulletin Briefs so it’s the readers that matter.”  Little did I know that Jim wasn’t done being unfair and difficult.  In my last article I answered Vick’s charge that the sponsoring church only handles the money and doesn’t really have oversight of the work by citing numerous documents from sponsoring churches in which they claimed oversight of the work.  This was a devastating blow to Vick’s assertions, and Jim clearly knew it.  I pressed the point in my closing paragraph by directing debate readers to Westside’s website ( www.justchristians.com) where they could read even more documentation of this point.

Jim deleted that line from the debate.

Without my knowledge or consent, he simply edited it out of my article.  He did not do me the kindness of informing he would do such, or even give me a chance to re-write the material or appeal to fairness and our debate agreement.  He just did it.  He deliberately kept Bulletin Briefs readers from reading additional material on this issue and seeing the evidence I had marshaled.  Jim Waldron “suppressed the truth” (Romans 1:18).  When I called Jim to talk about this an elder there answered the phone, told me Jim was in India and he would call me when he got back.  Good thing I’m not holding my breath till Jim calls me, as that has now been over four months and my phone hasn’t rung yet!

Brethren, I write this report for several reasons.  First, to let brethren know the kind of scoundrel that Waldron is, and that he is absolutely not to be trusted.  Be careful debating the man who will re-write and edit your material before he prints it!  Second, it is yet another example of the miserable attitudes shown by liberal brethren towards non-institutional brethren.  For all their talk of brotherly love those brethren have a funny way of showing it, haven’t they?  I have said before and say again: I debated a Muslim several years ago and he showed me more kindness, consideration and fairness than Jim Waldron.  Finally, I believe what Waldron did shows clearly where the truth lies.  If the case against sponsoring churches is so weak, if Vick is so right, then Waldron would have nothing to fear in letting anyone read more about this issue.  His deliberate suppression of truth is astonishing, ungodly, and ultimately, sadly telling. 

If you are a Bulletin Briefs reader please come and see the material Waldron doesn’t want you to even know about.  If you don’t have web access write me and I’ll mail it to you.  We have nothing to hide.  We just want to study the Bible and do what is right.  It is a shame that even some so-called brethren don’t share that basic agenda.