Seven Reasons Why a Scientist Believes in God

Found this pamphlet in folder #131. "The Presence of God":

Seven Reasons Why a Scientist Believes in God

Prayer for Humility—A Poem

Currently Scanning: #140. "Retailers of Religion"

I found this interesting poem among the many (and I mean MANY) clippings in folder #131. "The Presence of God":

Full text:

Prayer for Humility, by Burnham Eaton

God of the simple trees:

Deliver us from vainglory.

God of the flowering of the Earth:

Deliver us from pride.

—That we may reach toward Thee

As a bare tree in winter

Reaches toward the sun

Itself lined on every branch with light.

—That we may flower richly

As a tree in summer

Not from self-light

But from higher light.

—That our life my bear fruit

Not with pompous glitter

But as the forthright

And simple tree.

God of true light:

May we come as near to Thee

With as clear view unbroken

As the tree to the sky. . .

Help us to cast so lovely a shadow

Upon Earth.

Prayer for the Day of Atomic Bombs

Currently Scanning: 131. "The Presence of God."

One thing that is becoming increasingly evident about my great-grandfather as I learn more about him through his sermons is his strange combination of traditional, conservative theology and social progressivism. Yesterday's post featured a newspaper clipping of an article by Bob Jones. Today we have another clipping featuring a prayer against the violence and destruction caused by the American nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In a time in which wars often had a definite cause behind which U.S. citizens could rally (far from the uncertain nature of our government's secret and numerous international "conflicts" we see most prominent today), to stand against the nuclear option as a viable form of warfare seems pretty bold to me.

Bob Jones, Why You Gotta Be Hatin' on Judas?

Currently Scanning: 121. "Rational Reasons for Our Faith in God."

Apparently, Pa found this article on Judas by Bob Jones helpful in sermon #105, "Lord, Is It I?".

I am not a fan. Obviously.

I don't appreciate Judas being referred to as the "picture of human depravity," nor the suggestion that those who fall under the vague label of "modernistic preachers and educators" should hang themselves. I much prefer Clarence Jordan's (a Southern Baptist!) description of Judas:

"[The Book of Acts] says Judas fell and busted open and his guts spilled out. Here I think we have a clue as to why Judas really betrayed his Lord. He's a man who has been subjected to great tension—the pull of Jesus Christ (the prophetic message of the Gospel) and the pull of Caiaphas the High Priest. The pull of this professional religious establishment and the pull of this prophetic Gospel pulled the man in two and broke him. His body symbolized what had already happened to his spirit. Judas was what we might call a busted gut Christian. And let me tell you his number is legion."—Clarence Jordan, "The Sons of God"

African Tithing and a Peculiar Blight

Currently Scanning: 120. "How to Know God."

Among the various folders of sermons, I have encountered a wide array of supplemental materials that Pa included with his sermons over the years. Some are funny, some are overly sentimental, some are theologically disappointing, and some are just plain bizarre. Take, for example, these two newspaper clippings from sermon #103, "Christian Stewardship," which describe (respectively) the method of tithing in an African village and a town's crops stricken with an unusual blight: