by Keith Bassham
One great advantage of being the editor of this magazine at this particular time is the legacy of words and thoughts of those who preceded me in the office. I profited from the personal experience I had in the seven years I assisted Mike Randall, and since his resignation, I continue to visit regularly with him and his predecessor, James Combs.
I am a bit more removed from Wendell Zimmerman, who held the office after founder Noel Smith’s death in the 70s, and most of my contact with those two is with their writing, and Smith especially so because of the sheer volume of editorials, reviews, and articles he produced over about 25 years.
I say this so that readers will know that when I reproduce or reference the former editors, it is not out of mere nostalgia or sentimentality (Smith, though fond of things old and reliable and memorable, had no use for sentimentality). Rather, it is because often the issues we face are not so new as we might think. They may be packaged a little differently, but the effects of the Fall were so profound and universal that once you take away the layers of modern complications, you find the same primary elements telling us what is wrong in society today.
One avenue toward at least partial solutions is the political process itself. I understand the limits of what men and women in government can do, but what we can do we should. And no one says that better than Mr. Smith, here from a sermon he preached in 1966:
As a Christian citizen of the United States I not only have privileges, I have obligations. I have the obligation to take as active and intelligent and practical a part in government as any other citizen. I have the obligation, constitutional and moral, to get “mixed up” in politics. I have the obligation to get out where there is cursing and drinking and gambling and do my duty as a citizen. Seventy-five percent of the corruption in this country today is due to the practical indifference of lazy, cowardly, flabby, “built-up” saints who don’t want to risk soiling their soft white hands by getting into politics and taking a practical stand for what is decent and right. Half of them don’t even vote. They say they are waiting for the Lord to come and “clean up the mess.” They conveniently forget that the Lord taught that they should be busy while He was away, and when He came. And if we shouldn’t be busy about our citizenship, upon which depends the very foundation of civilization and the future of our children and grandchildren, what should we be busy about?
Now, be sure that when you go to church the Sunday after election day, you have nothing to repent of