This issue of the Report contains:
1. Writing: Does It Pay? 2. Jesus Versus Whatever 3. Bits and Pieces
1. WRITING: DOES IT PAY? by Stanley C Baldwin (scbaldwin@juno.com)
Many writers feel they are on the River of No Return, or at best
are getting a meager return on the time and effort they put into
writing. At what point does one give up? I sometimes offer as encouragement
at writers conferences these words attributed to Mark Twain: "Write
without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three
years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most
implicit confidence that sawing wood is what he was intended for."
One conferee responded, "Three years! I've been at it much longer
than that already!" Should she quit? Should you? We live in a time
when good Christian writers are legion in America, though the same
cannot be said for many countries. A generation ago, when I started,
it was comparatively easy for a good writer to get published and
hard for a publisher to find good material. Through writer associations,
conferences, training, and critique groups, we have drastically
changed that situation. Members of the writer community are now
victims of our own success. At a recent conference, I asked writer/humorist
Bob Hansen why God seems to have gifted and called more people to
write than the marketplace needs. Bob pointed out that we Christians
are in this thing for the long haul-eternity. He suggested that
we might use writing beyond this earthly life, that we may well
take with us the skills and talents we have nurtured, and use them
in ways we can't even imagine. Later he wrote to suggest that the
seeming excess of talent among Christian writers may be used in
the plan of God for some unforeseen revival, when demand for good
reading material will be greater. Or God may use such writers to
"retake the ground" forfeited by the Christian community when it
largely abandoned secular media to the world. Maybe. Meanwhile do
we keep writing? Keep working to polish our craft? Some say they
do, simply because they are writers. That is what writers do-they
write, whether they make any money or not, whether they are even
published or not. Should you write? Perhaps the advice applies that
an older pastor once gave a young man thinking of becoming a preacher.
"If you don't have to, don't." Jeremiah was once a discouraged writer.
(Little wonder when you read what was done with his dictated work.
King Jehoiakim cut his manuscript to pieces and fed it to the fire-see
Jeremiah 36:20-32). Yet, God's message was like a fire in his bones,
and even when he purposed to stop speaking it, he could not (Jeremiah
20:9). If not quite as on fire as Jeremiah, I can say that most
of my writing has flowed from a conviction that I have learned from
God certain truths and insights people need. Elizabeth Baker, in
her first book, published after years of frustration and rejection,
wrote, "The only reason I have persisted in this foolhardy venture
is that I have discovered something wonderful . . . and I want with
a fervent want to share these things with you." That's it. That's
why we write. However, it is also true that people write for a variety
of other valid reasons, some of which are: Writing is an art form.
Just as a painter or a sculptor works to create a thing of beauty
out of ordinary materials such as pigment and stone, so a writer
works with words. Writing is a means of self-education and enlightenment.
We hammer out our thoughts on an anvil of paper until they take
satisfactory shape and we nod in recognition of the truth. Writing
is therapy. We gain understanding and healing by writing about what
life has brought into our experience. Sometimes we may write for
dubious reasons as well. Martin Luther said, "There is no measure
or limit to this fever for writing. Everyone must be an author,
some out of vanity to acquire celebrity and raise up a name, others
for the sake of lucre and gain." Why do you write? Are there reasons
to write that I have omitted? If you'd like to contribute to a dialog
on the question, e-mail me at the address above. Note: This article
was first published in the ICW Report for August, 2000 2. JESUS
VERSUS WHATEVER The following is a review of my book in RALPH (the
Review of Arts, Literature, and the Humanities) www.ralphmag.org/DP/old-age.html
. I think you will find it provides an interesting insight into
one alternative to the Christian worldview. A Funny Thing Happened
On My Way to Old Age Life Changes After 50 Stanley C. Baldwin (IVP)
Despite the thirty-five photographs of geezers dancing cheek-to-cheek,
throwing their arms in the air, Stanley C. Baldwin, it turns out,
is not a happy camper. He reveals, in A Funny Thing, several facts-of-life
in the darkening world of Wrinklelandia not often highlighted in
the mailings we get so regularly from the AARP. His primary beefs
are the usual ones: getting things tangled up (like extension-cords),
dropping things, fretting over whether to buy butter rather than
oleomargarine. There is as well a hint of anger over the most heinous
sin of them all: being shoved off to the edge by a society that
does not value our wisdom nor our years. The author turns out to
have another cross to bear. He's a practicing Christian. Despite
his "walks with God" and his personal ship-of-state "under the command
of the Lord Jesus Christ," there is a note of despair in his writing,
even a touch of blame. Thus, when he finds himself in a pickle,
who does he finger? Satan. Fighting with Satan is not easy, he says.
In fact, it's total war: "I can never retire from it [the battle],
because Satan's minions won't let me. They are on the attack, and
I have to be ready to fight back or I am at their mercy, of which
they have none." You may ask what temptations do those of us who
are so antediluvian have to battle. "Almost everything I face daily,"
he reports, "carries potential for victory or defeat." He lists
many problems: an aching back, high blood-pressure, rapid heartbeat,
fear of calling a doctor late at night. But as real as they are,
problems not unfamiliar to many of us, we find ourselves wondering
at the choice of words. Must we call it "the fight?" Must we dwell
on "the enemy?" This posturing seems a tad dramatic, perhaps even
touched by self-pity. There is, too, a note of dismissal in his
writing, scorn for those of us who, because of age --- or disease,
or both --- are partially or fully dependent on others. After an
especially hard fall, Baldwin found himself in just such a place,
but, he assures us, "the dependence was temporary. For some people,
it is the rest of their lives. That seems like one of the hardest
scenarios I can imagine." The word he uses for those of us who need
help from others is "a burden." As in "I don't want to be a burden
to you." Thus he sees us, his disabled brothers and sisters, as
pitiable on our walkers and in our wheelchairs. He is certainly
setting himself up for a sorrowful old age. Finally, the book shows
an implicit prejudice against women who are free [see photo of lady
with mop below], and an explicit fear of older women who have lost
their husbands. Baldwin writes, reasonably, "I don't want to be
the man Job described, who 'dies in bitterness of soul, never having
enjoyed anything good...'" But then, in a peculiar twist, he adds:
"But neither do I want to forget that, as Paul wrote, 'The widow
who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.' You see, a
widow could take the attitude that she has served her time. Now
with no husband to accommodate and children to rear, she can just
have fun. § § § Bless me if I can figure out what to offer Baldwin
for his pique. He's stuck with a bad deck of cards: women may forget
him after he has popped off; the devil gets on his case nightly;
and he can't even expect the extension cords to lie straight or
people to get out of his way when he's shopping at the 7-11. His
life is turning so sour that the only thing I can suggest is that
he consider trading his shop-worn and obviously unserviceable religion
in on another --- one that is more gentle, less onerous, less hag-ridden.
Quakerism would be a good possibility: an hour or two a week of
silent vigil in the meeting-house; enforced kindness (no battling
the devil in this one); calling friends and strangers alike "thee"
and "thou;" avoiding animal flesh (no struggle between butter and
oleomargarine). Another possibility is Judaism. It utilizes the
very same Bible (at least a major part of it) that he is so familiar
with. There is an emphasis on ceremony and the one god. Most of
all, it is a religion rich with tradition. If he sets his mind to
it, he could --- over the next few years --- make an engrossing
(not to say therapeutic) study of the Torah, the Mishna and the
Kaddish. This would reward him with a vast new field of thought
and discipline, if not personal comfort. He might even consider
giving Buddhism a whirl. It's an intellectual religion which could
help him rid himself of the ruinous expectations that plague all
of us, young and old. It would also give him a solid foundation
on which to build for dotage, utilizing the four verifiable truths:
Life is a royal pain; pain has but one source; that source is desire;
and there is a way beyond that self-destructive desire. Once he
came to see truth of this, Baldwin could begin to free himself from
the never-ending treadmill of birth and rebirth, could become part
of a more forgiving faith --- one that has, at its terminus, a veritable
jackpot: that he would never have to go through suffering, ageing,
dying, death again. Moreover, he would never have to deal with tangled
extension cords, hungry widows, and --- best of all --- would never
ever have to fight Satan again. For, as the Buddhists have known
for the last 2,500 years (but have scarcely discussed --- they don't
like to talk bad about other religions), the fallen god that the
Christians know as Satan does not lie without, he lives but within
the depths of the human heart. MY RESPONSE: I did not try to answer,
point by point the many distortions in this review. Instead, I sent
the following. Thank you for taking the time to write an extensive,
even if unfavorable, review of my book A Funny Thing Happened on
My Way to Old Age. I do think you push the envelope by doing an
analysis of me based on slim or misconstrued evidence, or pure speculation.
What you say about me indeed reveals more reliable insight into
you than it does into me. You write that I display "a hint of anger,"
then "a note of despair," and "a touch of blame." A hint, a note,
and a touch? Seems your evidence is pretty weak, and perhaps only
in the eye of the beholder. I'm tempted to say I see more than a
"hint" of hostility in your review, but not toward me so much as
toward Christ. When we finally get to the bottom lines of your review,
and you recommend Buddhism to me; well, that explains a lot. You
trace my difficulties to desire and say there's a way to get beyond
that, by which I could "begin to free myself from the never-ending
treadmill of birth and rebirth." You also hold out the possibility
of a "terminus" of desire (and pretty much everything else). No,
thanks! That sounds like death to me. Jesus came to give life more
abundant, and that includes desire, yes, and even passion. Is your
life so very bad that the prospect of an end to your personal existence
sounds good? Jesus has much better for you. Stanley C. Baldwin 3.
BITS AND PIECES MALSAWMI JACOB writes: Thank you so much for the
diagnosis and prescription for writing ills (February Report). I
suffer from a few of them, and will now try the remedy. It's great
that you spend so much time and thought in mentoring us. MICHEAL
RIPON BISWAS writes: Greetings from National Christian Prayer Fellowship
of Bangladesh! Cold you remember to me. How was your work. May well.
I am also fine. Can you try again one seminar in Bangladesh? I can
help you. Another one also you can give opportunity to attend your
conference. Do you know we are not ability do big things but we
good mind do work for God. Please pray for Bangladesh.May God bless
you. Michael Ripon Biswas, Executive Director National Christian
Prayer Fellowship of Bangladesh Editor: SAMANTARAL (Bangoli Monthly
Magazine) CHERYL LADD stars in the movie version of Jerry Jenkins's
Zondervan novel Though None Go With Me, scheduled to air on the
Hallmark Channel Thursday, April 20 at 9 pm ET. INTERVARSITY PRESS
writes: Congratulations. A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Old
Age has been reprinted. This is the third printing, bringing the
total number of copies in print to 6,385. We are pleased to see
your book have this continuing ministry. (This word came just as
the book was nearing the first anniversary of its publication, April
1, 2005.) Until next time, keep writing. Stanley Baldwin
