The Christian’s Relation to Civil Government
My grandfather James D. Bales was a prolific writer, and in his time, his books and many tracts circulated widely within the Churches of Christ and founding organizations of the modern conservative movement like the John Birch Society.
A couple of years ago, when I was visiting my family in Arkansas, my great aunt (on my mother’s side) told me she had been cleaning out her mother’s attic and had come across some papers I might be interested in, and then she pushed an envelope into my hand. Inside was a copy of the only book of my grandfather’s that he had disavowed, The Christian Conscientious Objector, in which he recommended that Christians not participate in war—a bold claim in 1943. Inside was also a mimeograph, on yellowing 8-inch-by-14-inch paper, of a lecture my grandfather had written, “The Christian’s Relation to Civil Government.” It was a rebuttal to The Christian Conscientious Objector.
The lecture lays out with some care how it was that my grandfather came to disavow his previous work. It is undated, but it was written sometime in the mid-1950s, not long after the Korean War. Whether my grandfather delivered the lecture while teaching at Harding University or preaching; whether he included copies of it when he sold The Christian Conscientious Objector; whether he published it separately in a magazine, I don’t know. But I suspect others may find it as historically interesting as I do. Below the fold, I have reproduced the lecture in its entirety.
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History, Peace & War / 0
