Heretics and Politics by Thomas A. Fudge

[derAlte]

It seems that we in 2017, with our own life experiences and familiarity with the spirit of our own age, possibly come away with a distorted perception of the mindset and philosophy of men such as C.H. Yadon who lived in another era. When I was first exposed to Pentecost in a meaningful way in the mid-1970s, I was privileged to become acquainted with C.H. Yadon and his daughter Jewel Dillon who was my Sunday school teacher and a long-time member of the church where I was baptized in Jesus’ Name before her stint at JCM.

I have only fond memories of this family. When I knew them, Jewel Dillon and her father were fine, godly people. Jewel and her husband Gene were faithful supporters of our church and I have no doubt that they loved God with all their hearts and had a real relationship with Him. They were very kind to me and I will never forget how they help nurture me as a new convert. They are a part of the period in my life shortly after I received the Holy Ghost when I loved everybody and no one had any faults. I admit I may look back to those years through rose-colored glasses.

Our pastor taught the full Acts 2:38 message as the plan of salvation. Only once did Jewel share with me that there were some folks who believed that being born again of the water might mean something other than being baptized in Jesus’ Name. She told me that some folks believed it meant being naturally born. She didn’t tell me whether or not that is what she believed. Perhaps she did. But she did not cause disunity in our congregation by teaching us young people this alternate doctrine. As far as I know, she (and her father) truly believed the Oneness of God, that baptism was to be administered in Jesus’ Name and that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is a real experience. If they were “one-steppers,” we never knew it at the time. We later learned that many old Northwest folks believed in the Light Doctrine. Perhaps the Yadons believed it…I don’t know.

C. Haskell Yadon came and preached several times at our church. My impression of him was that he was an old Pacific Northwest type whose life experiences mirrored those of my own family in the first half of the twentieth century. He was kind, wise and real and ministered to me through his messages. Again, there was no whiff of divergence from what we knew as the truth that ever came out of his mouth while in the pulpit of our church. I loved the guy and found him easy to relate to. He had lived in the real world…not in the hermetically sealed environments found in some Pentecostal churches today and could relate to people. He was humble and non-judgmental. I also saw these same traits in such preachers as Voar Shoemake and Fred Kinzie who also visited our church.

When I came into Pentecost, I had been attending a Lutheran Church with my family. The other young people in the UPC who witnessed to me at our High School were thoroughly into Bible Study and doctrine. When I began attending the UPC, one friend of mine, who was a charismatic Lutheran, tried to convince me that what the Pentecostal Church taught was heresy. We dug into the Scriptures to see what it actually said and went at it. And after weighing the evidence by looking at what the Bible actually had to say, I came away convinced that the Bible plan of salvation was found in Acts 2:38. I also came away convinced of the Oneness of God. And in all the years since that happened when Gerald R. Ford was president, I haven’t changed my mind.

[Evang.Benincasa]

der Alte, it is an extreme pleasure to read your posts.

[Aquila]

I was taught...

Faith & Repentance is unto justification (an imputed righteousness).

Baptism is for the remission of sins (forgiveness or pardon).
Holy Spirit infilling brings regeneration (new and abiding spiritual nature).

While the repentant soul is justified before God, the purpose of justification is to allow one who was previously under condemnation to come forward and freely receive pardon and a new spiritual nature though being born of both the water and the spirit.

To stop at repentance unto justification and claim salvation is to interrupt this process and jeopardizes the soul.

[Scott Pitta]

Jewel Yadon was surprised at my literary task, but graciously helped me whenever I asked. She also provide some direction to the book project. Jewel also provided some documents from the Harry Morse Mission.

I only met her over the phone. I miss being able to chat with her.

[Evang.Benincasa]

Originally Posted by Scott Pitta

Jewel Yadon was surprised at my literary task, but graciously helped me whenever I asked. She also provide some direction to the book project. Jewel also provided some documents from the Harry Morse Mission.

I only met her over the phone. I miss being able to chat with her.

Awesome.

By the way Scott is that a long sleeve camo shirt?

[Scott Pitta]

Yep.

[navygoat1998]

Originally Posted by derAlte

It seems that we in 2017, with our own life experiences and familiarity with the spirit of our own age, possibly come away with a distorted perception of the mindset and philosophy of men such as C.H. Yadon who lived in another era. When I was first exposed to Pentecost in a meaningful way in the mid-1970s, I was privileged to become acquainted with C.H. Yadon and his daughter Jewel Dillon who was my Sunday school teacher and a long-time member of the church where I was baptized in Jesus’ Name before her stint at JCM.

I have only fond memories of this family. When I knew them, Jewel Dillon and her father were fine, godly people. Jewel and her husband Gene were faithful supporters of our church and I have no doubt that they loved God with all their hearts and had a real relationship with Him. They were very kind to me and I will never forget how they help nurture me as a new convert. They are a part of the period in my life shortly after I received the Holy Ghost when I loved everybody and no one had any faults. I admit I may look back to those years through rose-colored glasses.

Our pastor taught the full Acts 2:38 message as the plan of salvation. Only once did Jewel share with me that there were some folks who believed that being born again of the water might mean something other than being baptized in Jesus’ Name. She told me that some folks believed it meant being naturally born. She didn’t tell me whether or not that is what she believed. Perhaps she did. But she did not cause disunity in our congregation by teaching us young people this alternate doctrine. As far as I know, she (and her father) truly believed the Oneness of God, that baptism was to be administered in Jesus’ Name and that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is a real experience. If they were “one-steppers,” we never knew it at the time. We later learned that many old Northwest folks believed in the Light Doctrine. Perhaps the Yadons believed it…I don’t know.

C. Haskell Yadon came and preached several times at our church. My impression of him was that he was an old Pacific Northwest type whose life experiences mirrored those of my own family in the first half of the twentieth century. He was kind, wise and real and ministered to me through his messages. Again, there was no whiff of divergence from what we knew as the truth that ever came out of his mouth while in the pulpit of our church. I loved the guy and found him easy to relate to. He had lived in the real world…not in the hermetically sealed environments found in some Pentecostal churches today and could relate to people. He was humble and non-judgmental. I also saw these same traits in such preachers as Voar Shoemake and Fred Kinzie who also visited our church.

When I came into Pentecost, I had been attending a Lutheran Church with my family. The other young people in the UPC who witnessed to me at our High School were thoroughly into Bible Study and doctrine. When I began attending the UPC, one friend of mine, who was a charismatic Lutheran, tried to convince me that what the Pentecostal Church taught was heresy. We dug into the Scriptures to see what it actually said and went at it. And after weighing the evidence by looking at what the Bible actually had to say, I came away convinced that the Bible plan of salvation was found in Acts 2:38. I also came away convinced of the Oneness of God. And in all the years since that happened when Gerald R. Ford was president, I haven’t changed my mind.

I do enjoy your post so very much. Thank you!

[Evang.Benincasa]

Originally Posted by navygoat1998

I do enjoy your post so very much. Thank you!

I love his postings.

[derAlte]

To Evang. Benincasa, Amanah and Navygoat 1998. Thank you kindly, gentlemen!

[derAlte]

Tom Fudge makes this statement on pages 12 and 13 of his book:

Heretics & Politics is a story of tragedy. It is easy to take sides in historical controversies, especially when the stakes are high and issues of truth and theology intrude. In this book I have tried to present nuanced sympathy for the efforts of Don Fisher and his colleagues – at Jackson, Mississippi and in Portland, Oregon – at the respective colleges where Fisher served in administrative capacities. On the other hand, it would be near-sighted to fail to appreciate the other side in the struggles and conflicts which convulsed JCM, especially between 1979 and 1981 and which beset CBC in its last years. There were men on the other side of the equation who opposed Fisher and his ideas and vision for the Bible colleges. They considered him a ringleader within a Trojan horse of heretics and those weak on the message within the fellowship of the United Pentecostal Church. That perspective cannot be ignored.

It would be unfair not recognize that such concern had merit. Don Fisher certainly threatened their ideas. His philosophy of education ultimately ran counter to established tradition. His detractors, in some cases, believed fervently that he and his colleagues in the south and on the west coast not only undermined the denomination but imperiled souls. Once inside the colleges, he emerged with his colleagues from a Theological Trojan horse and proceeded to plant weeds which threatened to choke out the life of the wheat. This was intolerable. Believing Fisher and his academic colleagues to be toxic and dangerous heretics teaching heresy to impressionable young students helps in understanding why his detractors took the position they did in wishing to remove Fisher and other theological suspects from college level influence. The Trojan horse and its occupants had to be expelled from the collegiate city, and the walls and gates made secure once more.

Dr. Fudge sums up the conflict quite succinctly in these two paragraphs. This conflict is yet another chapter in the great chronicle of human hubris that continues in tandem alongside the works of the Holy Ghost as the unfathomable purpose of God revealed in the Scriptures marches to its foreordained conclusion.

Don Fisher was a smart guy. The few times I was around him, I couldn’t help but notice his whip-smart intelligence. Fudge records Fisher’s ability to charm as well as his struggle to suffer fools gladly. I knew Don Fisher’s parents, Harry and Frieda much better than I knew Don. They were good folks and longtime Great Northwesterners, as was C. Haskell Yadon. I can’t imagine the anguish they must have suffered as they watched the sad end of their only son after his meteoric rise and fall in UPCI circles. They themselves attended the United Pentecostal Church in Bend, Oregon until their deaths.

To boil things down (or to make a long story even longer), in my view, Don Fisher was guilty of hubris in two areas:

1. He assumed the Pacific Northwest was still the stronghold of old PCI Northwest men who would support him. Although still a force in Idaho and somewhat in Washington, Fisher did not realize there had been big demographic changes in the Oregon District ministry in the years since he had left. I remember in the buildup to his assumption of the presidency, he sent out promotional literature dropping the names of individuals that were no longer in fellowship with the UPC. He had a promotional slogan that stated, “We’re not flashy out west, just solid.” Unfortunately, his definition of “solid” and the ministers of the Oregon District had diverged.

2. It seems that Fisher wanted to create CBC in the image of other Liberal Arts Colleges where the academic freedom to explore, debate, and question everything in an atmosphere of intellectual ferment is encouraged. But by its very nature, a School of Theology exists to indoctrinate its students in the faith of the supporting church. It was, to me, a serious lapse of judgment to think he could get away with changing this. The Acts 2:38, holiness-believing parents of young, impressionable UPCI youth wanted to send their kids somewhere where they could do some growing up and be grounded in the faith that was once delivered to the saints and find the will of God for their lives. The realistic ones knew it would be a lot of fun for their kids, some of whom came from small churches. Their children could get some desperately-needed fellowship, make lifelong friendships…and yes, maybe even find a godly mate. We used to kid around that CBC had an imaginary slogan: “A ring in the spring…or your money back!” They didn’t sign their kids up for what Fisher wanted to offer. They didn’t want their children questioning their faith. I feel seriously disappointed that Fisher didn’t get it as smart a guy as he was. I can’t help but believe that Fisher would have been so much happier if he had left the administration of UPCI Bible Colleges and had joined the faculty of a regular Liberal Arts College. With his philosophy toward education, he would have thrived in that environment.

I wish I could say the whole sordid mess ended and everyone fell on each other's necks sobbing and asking for forgiveness. Unfortunately, many dozens of lives were impacted for the worse. Many of Fisher’s former students came away with their faith in God destroyed. Only the All-Knowing knows whether Fisher is to blame or his opponents in each individual case. The ugliness and lack of Christian charity shown by some of Fisher’s opponents soured many of the people in close proximity to the situation in that hubris-fueled struggle. My old friend Sabby’s observation in another post in this thread regarding the toxicity of the atmosphere of those times has a lot of truth to it. I know that only a tiny handful of Fisher’s former students still attend UPCI churches. I wish it had never happened. It unleashed forces that are still in play today to the detriment of the God’s kingdom.