Doxology
By Foy Valentine
Whither the Center for Christian Ethics?
What`s Up for Christian Ethics Today?
"To everything thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven." So Solomon said. And he was right.
There is a time to start and a time to stop, a time to edit and a time to quite editing.
For me, the time is now. My fast-approaching 77th birthday underscores the rightness of the decision.
The sheer ecstasy of this impending serendipity has settled over me and nestled down around me like a warm blanket on a cold night. It feels good.
It is not that the "night" of editing this journal has been all that cold or all that dark. Not really. But the warmth of the blanket of deliverance from the everlasting deadlines (deadlines of reading and hunting and searching and eliciting and cajoling and calling and checking and fixing and proofing and couriering and proofing again and publishing and mailing) has become so inviting that I am determined to pull it up under my chin and tuck it in all around me. No regrets. No tears. No moaning at the bar. No looking back.
Hallelujah.
Doxology!
This, then, is to be the last issue of Christian Ethics Today that I edit.
What a wonderful ride it has been.
Starting in the Spring of 1995, Christian Ethics Today was conceived as substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen, tangible proof that the cause of Christian ethics was alive and well and that us partisans were willing and able to nurture it. As energy and finances permitted, we said from that first Issue, we would, God`s willing, stay by the stuff and make it happen. This is the 28th such happening.
Of course, many fortuitous and providential factors have combined to bring the journal to this point.
Financial contributors to the enterprise have been unfailingly faithful and generous. Not once have we been in financial jeopardy. Never once have I panicked because of lack of funds. Not one time have I sent out an emergency appeal pleading for money. Heartfelt thanks therefore are extended to hundreds of thoughtful and generous supporters who have enabled this project to happen.
Encouragers, from the first Issue until now, have spoken, called, written, faxed, and buttonholed me personally and out of the blue to make editing this journal a ministry of deep fulfillment and unvarnished joy.
Working partners in the project have been major players. They deserve unqualified praise and a hearty salute: Marilyn Davis who has used the computer to make magic transformation of typed material into wondrous little discs, Randy Shebek who has used his layout expertise to prepare yet other magic discs ready for me to take in my trembling and age-spotted hands to the printer, the Etheridge Printing Company whose dedicated and highly competent employees have consistently produced extraordinarily attractive journals of high quality, and James Kim at Postal Tech, Inc. who has efficiently and helpfully processed the mailing for each issue. Especially deserving of praise and thanks is Mary Louise, my wonderful wife of 53 years who has patiently, uncomplainingly, and with uncommon excellence proofed the copy of each issue in the four or five stages each one went through, thus assuring a far better finished product than would have otherwise been possible.
The authors, usually about a dozen of them for each issue, deserve major credit for their notable contributions in making this copy-driven publication effective beyond our early hopes. The authors have shared their gifts, and often their genius, to carry the journal without benefit of staff, art, slick paper, four colors, illustrations, or advertising. Wow.
So. There you are.
And here am I-wishing all the readers of Christian Ethics Today all good things and the blessings of God as we move now into the future.
Whither the Center for Christian Ethics?
The Board of Trustees of the Center for Christian Ethics has voted to disband on June 1, 2000 when the direction of the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University passes entirely into the hands of the new Director, Dr. Robert Kruschwitz. Dr. Kruschwitz will be a tenured faculty member at Baylor with all the rights and privileges and duties and responsibilities "appertaining thereto." This is an inordinately happy development. It has come to pass slowly, but we believe providentially. Dr. Herbert Reynolds who was then President of Baylor University, was the first person at Baylor to start this ball to rolling. When he retired, Dr. Donald D. Schmeltekopf, Baylor`s Provost, enthusiastically and with remarkable vision and courage took this ball and carried it, with the advice, consent and support of Baylor`s new President Dr. Robert Sloan. In due time, Baylor`s Regents blessed the enterprise, Dr. Kruschwitz was enlisted, and the Center for Christian Ethics Trustees signed off on it.
I believe that good and great things are ready to come of all this. In short order, Dr. Kruschwitz and Baylor will enlist an Advisory Board for the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor. Exciting and visionary initiatives are in store. A staff will be enlisted. Financial assistance will be sought. Foundations will be approached. Conferences will be sponsored. New programs will be implemented. And the cause of Christian ethics will be greatly strengthened and significantly expanded. Dr. Kruschwitz has announced his intention of editing and publishing a new quarterly journal beginning in the Fall of 2001. We should all look forward to these new initiatives with keen anticipation.
Dr. Kruschwitz and the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University will have my full cooperation, my enthusiastic support, and my unqualified blessing.
What`s Up for Christian Ethics Today?
Christian Ethics Today has from its beginning been defined as a journal of Christian ethics published within the constraints of energy and finances about every other month. From the beginning it has been sent without charge to those who have requested it. Its purpose has been to be a voice for Christian ethics championing the moral values without which civilization itself could not survive, addressing the ethical dimensions of public policy issues, and focusing on Christian insights that challenge the people of God at the point of social concerns. Contributions of Baptist individuals and churches through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship together with those of about half a dozen special friends of the cause of applied Christianity have been the major financial lifeline for the publication; but about as much financial support has come each year from the generous gifts of individuals and local churches, ranging from $5 to $10, $20, $25, $30, $50, $100, $500, and occasionally to $1,000. If the journal has accomplished good things across the years, major credit must be pinned on the lapels of these generous contributors.
Since many readers strongly believe that the journal has met a need and deeply feel that it should be continued in its present form and format, a nonprofit corporation has been formed called the Christian ethics Today Foundation to carry out this purpose. Incorporators and Board members are Dr. Pat Anderson, Dr. Tony Campolo, Dr. Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, Dr. Fisher Humphries, and Dr. Darold Morgan. Dr. Joe Trull has accepted the editorship and will publish Christian Ethics Today and direct the affairs of the Corporation. The August issue, Number 29, will be his first issue to edit, and he expects to publish Issue 30 in October and Issue 31 in December. Then before the first issue of 2001, Number 32, he and his Board will review its reception, its reader response, its supporting contributions, and its overall viability. They look with hope toward the indefinite continuation of this voice for Christian ethics. Dr. Joe Trull will have my full cooperation and blessing as he assumes his editorship of this journal. From time to time I would like to be able to contribute something in writing to it. I would promise, of course, not to judge his corn by my nubbins.
For now, however, Doxology once again or, to be more precise, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow."
