The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-08-20
THE QUESTION MARK.

Index, comes again pleading that his
seeming extreme sarcasm be interpre-
ted in terms of his "unswerying faith
in the Bible. Pardon us for assuming
the role of critic to pass opinion on
such a man, but we have found the
most useful religious leaders refusing
to permit the story of creation, Jonah
and the whale, the Hebrew children
and the fiery furnace. Daniel and the
lions den, the parting of the waves of
tn Red Sea and the Jordan and other
similar Biblical incidents to serve as
the yard stick Of faith.
Ministers of great power in all de-
nominations of today preach and work
and go on doing good without ever
trying to make the layman in the
ranks settle these things. One never
hears the pastor of greatest influence
trying to make his hearers believe
that damnation is scheduled for the
individual who fails to solve these Bib
lical mysteries according to certain
standards. The religious bigot, the
man who is intolerant Of beliefs which
conflict with his own, the man obsti-
nately and blindly devote to his own
| ideas, might require the person with
his name on the church roll of mems
tership to determine these Biblical
passages in the light of certain cut
and dried nciples,-might require
him to travel only certain beaten
paths, and might thus eternally and
forever exclude the exercise of indi-
vidual, independent thought, but that
is not the Christianity of any age or
clme,-if we know but the least bit
Of what Christianity means.
Frankly, we are not basing our claim
to any of the glories of another and a
better world upon any sort of neces-
sary solution of these Biblical mystic
ries.
Here are the problems which con-
front the honest, faithful Christian:
How to do the most good in the world,
help the needy, manifest real love
for mankind, tolerant, patient, self
sacrificing love; clothe and feed the
poor and help educate the ignorant;
brighten the lives of those who know
no Joy; speak i'll of no mortal being;
and live always so as really and hon
estly to reveal the light of the Christ
life.
Real Christian leaders are so busy
with these problems that they never
have time to study obscure, unessen-
tial Biblical mystery the which can
never serve as an agency for bring
ing the human race any nearer heav-
en-. The pulpits of greatest power to-
day never lost a minute on the mys-
teries that are now so often worrying
the Christian Index.
The world is bothered less with the
man who would care to put question
mark after some of the things taught
in the Bible than it is with the religi-
Gus bigot The latter person is right
in the ranks of the church, sometimes
at the head of great religious depart
ment of publication. If the pages OF
the Christian Index that are devoted
to the nightmare, infidelity, were CIV
en- to an effulgence of Christian love
and charity, the story of the good to
be done in the living present might be
far different.
Determining whether the whale
swallowed Jonah is the least thing in
the Christian vocabulary. What have
we gained if we do count the Bible
the word of God and have no idea OF
it's essential and true meaning? Real
Christianity steps out at one door
when bigotry enters at the other.
Where are wo going to find any two
persons settling issues in the same
light believing alike because they
have a similar perspective? God does
not endow us all with the same out
look. and he has hardly constructed
heaven only for those who have
but one certain way of looking at
things.
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| -nAr I hMJ MAKING RODX