The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1942-07-16

~. THE KEl
mix. Turn to the story found in the
eighteenth chapter of ST. Luke,
which begins, 1.-TWO men went up
into the temple to pray, the one
Pharisee, land the other a Publ
can. q -sr'....r lab
Question five, docs the Church
make membership too easy?" gets us
a 70:9796 negative against 29.O4%
affirmative.
There's good argument In there
somewhere. When Jesus said, Him
who cometh unto Me will in no
wise cast OUT He was opening the
doors wide. In His time, the church
had surrounded itself with so many
rules and regulations that an or
binary sinner couldn't get inside.
Many people spent their entire
lives studying the ordinances so they
could, so to speak, learn how to
keep their noses clean. And if you
had broken law, check! Bring a
choice sacrifice, without blenish, or
no reinstatement. You couldn't ap-
pease the wrath of that terrible,
bothersome, critical God, sitting UP
in Heaven with Ia lnawkeye out for
your mistakes. If you were too poor
to afford the ritual you got in deep
er and deeper as your sins accumu-
lated and you quietly gave up or
went beSerk.
It was left to Jesus to tip that ap-
plecart upside down. He offered sal
walton as a free gift and you couldn't
buy it if you had all the money in
the world. The only requirement was
sincere repentance shown in mended
ways. That's Dhe background for
OUR question. Some people contend
that we take persons into the, church
without sufficient doctrinal train
ing to enable them to cope with
temptation. They become bewilder-
ed, discouraged, then Indifferent. To
rectify that, some branches have in
stituted preliminary course of in
struction, others, st-baptismal
study. However, If no denomination
will have you, Christ will so this
may be called technical detail. The
naian objection is, we have too
prevalent tendency to "saNe" a soul
and leave him to his own devices.
Paul called a new Christian a babe
in Christ. He must learn to crawl
before he could walk.
Question six, care the church peo-
pie unfriendiy?" made a smore of
No. $1,000, Yes, 1870. AT first
glance that appears to be a good
rating, but considering what Christis
principle is, a Christian should make
it impossible, by his treatment Of
others, for him to be considered
snobbisl, selfish, self righteous or
untouchable. Jesus brought out
THAT point when he washed the disci-
pies feet. .s -. r.. T.. ......1....
Christianity completely eradicates
class distinction and does away with
race prejudice. A genuine Christian
is a fine person, but in summary,
what makes him Christ-hke? The
color of his skin? Ancestors n the
Mayflower? Wealth and power? So
cial position? Intellect? One can po-
sess all those attributes and remain
cheap, dishonest, immoral. No, the
only thing that makes a Christian
Is accepting Gods discernment of
what is right and what is wrong,
above our own judgments and aver
|sions. I know THAT many intelligent
people do not consider an Oriental
or a Negra as an equal. Are we BET :
ter then than st. Paul, who called
the runaway slave his beloved bro
Their" and again, ''my son Onesi-
mus?" Or Moses, the great lawgiver,
woh talked with God face to face,
land was married to an Ethiopian?
Kipling said EAST is east and west
is west, and never the twain shall
meet" think if Jesus had been a
poes He would have put it this way:
Flesh is flesh and blood is blood
all quickened by Gods heartbeat"
Some day I'm going to creep UP
on an unsuspecting Ethiopian or
Japanese or Hindu and stick him
with a hatpin, just to see if he has
feelings. Although the situation in
some parts of our country z. yes
I'll use the nasty word stinks in
regard ito the negro, enlightened peo-
lple are shedding their prejudices and
will continue to shed them. We are
beginning to realize THAT, unlike the
Aryans, we are not a superior race
We now have a flying school where
the white boys share their dormi>
tories and sit ut meals with the col
ored, and they have discovered that
they like each other. Both are bet
ter for the experience Someday we
will all measure up to the men who
wrote OUR constitution, but until then
I wonder where some of us will go il
we cannot associate with the dark
races in Heaven? As far as know