Back in 1975, newspapers carried the accounts of the First Unitarian Church of Richardson, Texas which hosted a strip tease act during its morning "worship" service. The Associated Press reporter stated that "the church's 200 adult members and their children watched in fascinated silence as Diana (King) removed her clothing and did the same dance she performs nightly at a Dallas night spot." Bill Nichols, "Pastor" of the suburban Dallas congregation commented, "I haven't had one complaint. I feel like exotic dancing is a part of life. It fit very well into our service."
But shortly after that incident occurred, another Unitarian preacher, Dr. J. Frank Schulman of Emerson, Texas, rose in rebuke of Nichols saying that "to pretend there was anything religious about a strip tease is absurd." Schulman went on to say, "To define religion so broadly that it includes nonsense debases religion. It reminds me of Robinson Crusoe's goat pasture. The enclosure was so large that the goats within were just as wild as the goats without. Like the goat pasture, if we define religion so broadly that it includes the immoral, we have no need for religion. Religion must include some glimpse of the holy, some vision of greater possibilities, some touch of grace, some contact with the Eternal."
Needless to say, moral standards and religious conviction have not improved since this incident of 14 years ago. And the tragic apostasies and moral corruption's that characterize the religious world around us ought to provide members of the church of Christ with some valuable insight into where the road of liberalism could ultimately take us.
We should be able to see clearly what is the natural end of those whose desire it is to "widen the borders of the kingdom" by adopting denominational and worldly practices. Engaging in such activities as church sponsored recreation, the use of enticing prizes to lure children to church (such as are used in bus ministries), moves to fellowship erring Christians and even non-Christians, and the rampant practice of overlooking situations of immorality that exist within the church can cause the loss of features that make the Lord's church, truly THE LORD'S CHURCH, distinctive in nature from all man-made religious bodies. In all too many places churches of Christ have become like Robinson Crusoe's goat pasture with borders so inclusive that those within are just as "wild" as .those without.
Indeed, we better maintain our identity with our head, Jesus Christ, and with the church you can read about in the New Testament. To do otherwise is to have the Lord withdraw His recognition of us as belonging to Him (Revelation 1:12,13; 2:5).
"Wherefore come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters" (II Corinthians 6:17-18) --Pat Jones
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Page last updated: March 03, 2003