What Came Out of Jubilee ’93?

The Nashville Jubilee had its 1989 birth in July hosted by the Madison Church of Christ. The first Jubilee attracted considerable interest as to the intent of the sponsoring churches and the future direction of Jubilee. Jubilee number 2 (1990) was sponsored by the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ. As expected, Rubel Shelly was the dominant factor in the Jubilee equation. Serious questions were immediately raised about the presence on the program of some speakers known to hold liberal views.

However, it was during Jubilee ’91, sponsored by the Antioch church, that the Nashville Jubilee was suddenly thrust into the limelight by the news media. This aroused considerable controversy among the churches of Christ. Lectures presented by Gayle Napier and Gary Wilson were headlined in the Nashville Tennessean: "Conservative Churches May Foster Incest." Napier said that "power-addicted preachers in such churches encourage incest and pornography in the home." He also said this insidious presence was prevalent in churches of Christ. Gary Wilson claimed that male dominated settings could drive Christians into homosexuality and pornography. The Napier and Wilson statements were humiliating and embarrassing to churches of Christ across the nation.

The defenders of Jubilee were quick to blame Ray Waddle, religion editor of the Tennessean, for the lurid headlines. However, Waddle reported what happened accurately. Rubel Shelly’s essay, "God Never Alters — But the Church Must Change," further stirred the controversy. Shelly put the traditional and conservative churches of Christ under harsh and uncompromising attack.

He castigated the conservative churches for their "imperfect dogmas" and their "deep ruts" of tradition. He pictured the hapless pew sitters as listening to "tedious preachers delivering threadbare speeches on insignificant themes." Some preachers indeed may be smitten by their own speeches as was Herod Agrippa when he approved the shout of the people that his was the voice of a god, not a man. Churches of Christ need to properly identify their adversaries and not be lured by the clever rhetoric of modern, religious pied pipers.

Jubilee ’92 got underway without unfavorable media coverage — that is, until Rubel Shelly began talking again out of hand. The public again was regaled with a series of captioned news stories: "Churches of Christ"; "Heretics Hurting Churches of Christ"; "Minister Not Telling the Truth"; "Churches of Christ Blast Liberal Worship."

The Nashville Tennessean honored Rubel Shelly once more by printing another of his essays in the section titled the "Nashville Eye." It was captioned: "Hollywood Heaven": "The movies and music can teach old churches new tricks." Brother Shelly shuttles the apostle Paul off to one side in a secondary role as he applauds the role of Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act. (Shelly is billed as philosopher-
theologian for the Woodmont Hills Church
of Christ.)

Jubilee had been "burned" two years in a row by the news media. The sponsoring churches of Jubilee ’93 laid careful plans to clean up the image of the Jubilee ’93 and Jubilees to follow. The theme was one of "sweetness and light" — "To God Be the Glory." Lecturers were carefully screened to eliminate some much-
publicized liberals in churches of Christ.

About a month before Jubilee opened, the area churches supporting Jubilee ’93 mounted a news "blitz" in each Sunday edition of the Tennessean. The names of supporting churches and prominent church men were listed urging people to attend Jubilee. The names of eleven churches and five prominent church leaders made up the first such ad in the paper’s "Religion Directory." Each week the number of sponsoring churches and individuals endorsing Jubilee grew. The final advertisement listed 19 churches supporting Jubilee and around 100 individuals endorsing Jubilee. A Nashville church attracted attention because it did not carry the caption, "Attend Jubilee." Ads were calculated to make it appear that area churches of Christ were swarming in support of Jubilee.

Right in the middle of the church media blitz with each church urging people to attend Jubilee, the headline appeared in the Nashville Tennessean — "Not Everybody Jumps for Jubilee" with a subtitle which read: "Forces Tug at Churches of Christ." Ray Waddle, religion editor of the Tennessean, wrote the story. Ray Waddle writes impartially addressing all the churches making news, the Methodist, Southern Baptist, et al. Waddle provided a balanced presentation for the "pros" and "cons" of Jubilee ’93. Supporters of Jubilee called it a joyful, healthy expression of Christianity. On the other hand the critics denounced Jubilee as a sellout to worldly values and a growing threat to the identity of the church of Christ. For the third year in a row the general public learned that Jubilee had indeed become a battle ground between the conservative and liberal elements in churches of Christ.

The sponsoring churches were reported to have taken special care to weed out speakers who were thought to be potential trouble makers. Furthermore, the 1993 sponsors of Jubilee proposed to form a corps of about 10 sponsoring churches to pay the cost and give Jubilee a good image in the years ahead. The report was circulated that the dominant influence of Rubel Shelly would be diminished or even eliminated in future Jubilees. That remains to be seen. These are not the plans of Rubel Shelly who announced during Jubilee ’93 that the Woodmont Hills Church will host Jubilee ’94. He said that well-known liberal brethren would again be among the featured speakers.

The reactions to the Ray Waddle, Jubilee news story were mixed. A Nashvillean is always prepared to hear that this is just another case in which the Tennessean slanted stories calculated to put the churches of Christ in a bad light. However, it is abundantly clear that Waddle gave a balanced appraisal of Jubilee ’93. Three ministers of three high-profile Nashville churches reacted to the reporting that "not all are jumping for Jubilee." One such writer who knows next to nothing about Restoration history and church "politics" wrote: "Well, Sunday’s Tennessean on Jubilee ’93 reaffirmed my belief that anything regarded worthwhile in serving God will be criticized by someone (usually including well-intentioned people)." We do not fault the young man for this impassioned statement, but we do the church eldership who encouraged and allowed the printing of it in the church bulletin.

A second preacher for a high-profile church, who does understand church "politics," wrote: "Jubilee is coming up very soon. The Tennessean reporter didn’t wait until it was over to bring up the negative." The preacher writes that Ray Waddle enjoys raking up trouble in the churches. (What about our brethren creating trouble that did not exist prior to Jubilee?)

A third preacher for a large Nashville church in East Nashville gives a balanced and informed appraisal of Jubilee ’93. He began with the Tennessean front page headlines — "Not Everybody Jumps for Jubilee." Then he added: "All readers of the Sunday paper now are aware of division in the churches. In January of this year the elders informed the sponsors of Jubilee ’93 that the church would not endorse Jubilee." Then repeated "pressure" telephone calls from a prominent brother started coming urging the church and the preacher to support Jubilee.

The preacher reacted to Jubilee pressure with these words: "Do we not still have congregational autonomy? Can you not simply worship and serve the Lord to the best of your ability without choosing sides? ... Trying to line up preachers and congregations in the newspaper is no way to promote unity." I agree with the observation of the preacher — "We in the churches of Christ are going to keep on until we have Jubilee churches and anti-Jubilee churches." He made the observation at the time that only 16 of the 116 area churches of Christ had been lined up for Jubilee.

A Summary Appraisal

The transactions of Jubilee ’93 came to a stunning climax on Friday evening. LaGard Smith delivered his keynote address, "Let the Earth Hear His Voice." LaGard Smith was by far the most acclaimed speaker on Jubilee ’93 as in the previous year. If we may call him such, his was the shining star in the array of Jubilee speakers. First off, he let it be known that Jubilee was something other than he had thought it to be.

His words reminded me of my own gentle, strong-willed mother with whom I always consulted on matters where good judgment was sought. He told his audience that in so many words his mother had her misgivings about his appearing in Jubilee ’93. There is no doubt that LaGard Smith had come up with serious misgivings about his appearance
on the program. As he addressed and commented on the ultraconservative, legalistic churches in a critical manner, his words were met with sustained
applause. When he turned on the "New Age" liberal church supporters and let it be known in no uncertain words that it all comes down to what the Bible says, then his comments were met with a muted silence.

Rubel Shelly was so stunned when he arose after the keynote speech, he had nothing to say in response. LaGard Smith made it clear that, while he enjoyed the company of Dr. Shelly on a recent archaeological dig in Israel, he does not fully endorse the theology and religious positions of Rubel Shelly. LaGard Smith let it be known that he doubted that he would be invited back.

Other matters of notable importance came to light before and during Jubilee ’93. Some of the lectures made guarded attacks on conservative churches and preachers. At least one lecture belongs to the "theater of the absurd." The speaker advised that to communicate with the teens, we must speak their language, or as captioned in the Tennessean — "Like lose the church lingo, dudes."

We would advise Jubilee experts on the teens to read a feature (July 26) in Time magazine under the title, "Religion: A Babble of Bibles," with the subtitle, "Will Scripture Hip to What’s Happening Snare New Believers?" Look at this quotation from the Black Chronicle paraphrase of Scripture to make Scripture hip to one segment of the society: Eve says, "Yeah, snake, I can eat of these trees, just not the tree of knowledge or the Almighty said I’d be knocked off." This is just a "teaser quote" to prepare the readers for another look into the transactions of Jubilee ’93 that will appear in this paper at a later date.