Howard C. Wilkinson - "Right Is Not Wrong" (June 25, 1961)

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	(soft organ music)	0:03
-	The topic for today's sermon is Right is not Wrong.	0:20
	This appears to be a very simple truth,	0:30
	and one that is self-evident.	0:33
	So obvious, in fact, that it seems absurd to choose this	0:37
	as a theme for a sermon to a university congregation.	0:43
	It appears to be in a class with the statements	0:48
	such as up is not down,	0:53
	Duke is not the Carolina,	0:57
	poor is not rich,	1:01
	a dog is a dog is a dog.	1:03
	So right is not wrong.	1:06
	How trite can we get?	1:08
	However, before anyone concludes	1:13
	that this subject is so dull	1:15
	that the next 30 minutes	1:18
	would more properly be given over to sleep,	1:20
	let me hasten to point out something	1:23
	which may be quite relevant.	1:25
	Namely, that not everything which is simple	1:28
	and obvious and self-evident	1:33
	is appropriated as active truth	1:37
	in the lives of even very intelligent	1:40
	and highly educated people.	1:44
	It often is the case that individuals	1:49
	who are among the most highly educated	1:53
	have their lives ruined	1:56
	because they live in ignorance of truths	2:00
	which are evident to all members	2:05
	of the junior high school student body.	2:07
	Indeed, the very truth which we have in mind this morning,	2:12
	namely right is not wrong,	2:15
	seemed to have been very widely ignored	2:19
	in the days of Isaiah.	2:21
	Because, as you will recall,	2:24
	the scripture which Dean Jones read a little while ago	2:26
	contains a number of significant woes	2:30
	which this ancient prophet pronounced	2:34
	upon many people of his day.	2:39
	He was very much upset	2:42
	because people did not call right wrong	2:44
	because they apparently were willing to believe	2:48
	that wrong can be right and right can be wrong.	2:51
	He said, "Woe to those who call good, evil, and evil, good,	2:55
	who put darkness for light, and light for darkness."	3:00
	And so it happens that again and again, in history,	3:07
	both in the field of religion and in other fields,	3:12
	truths which are plainly evident	3:18
	such as up is not down, right is not wrong,	3:20
	are sometimes ignored and really not believed.	3:25
	Well, now why does it happen?	3:32
	How come intelligent people sometimes	3:35
	do not believe the evident?	3:41
	Now, what we're interested here	3:44
	is not in judging or condemning,	3:46
	but simply an understanding why.	3:49
	I think that an answer to this question of why can be given	3:54
	if I tell you about a little psychological experiment	3:58
	which I have performed again and again at parties	4:02
	and other social gatherings for the last 20 years.	4:07
	It's a source of amusement to me, and I have enjoyed	4:10
	and doubtless will enjoy doing it in the future.	4:14
	When some learned member of the social group	4:18
	propounds a conundrum to the other members of the group,	4:22
	such as if a cat and a half eat a rat and a half	4:26
	in a minute and a half,	4:31
	how long will it take one cat to eat one rat?	4:32
	Or the brain teaser,	4:36
	the farmer who has a fox and a goose and some corn	4:39
	would like to get all three of them across the river,	4:43
	but he has only a boat so small that he can carry himself	4:46
	and one of the other three.	4:49
	He doesn't want to leave the fox with the goose,	4:53
	or the fox will eat the goose.	4:55
	He doesn't wanna leave the corn with the goose	4:57
	because the goose will eat the corn.	4:59
	How does he get all three across the river?	5:00
	And I sit there very smugly waiting my turn,	5:04
	and being as dumb in reality,	5:08
	or dumber than any other member of the group	5:11
	in answering the difficult conundrums	5:14
	which are propounded.	5:16
	Finally then, when everyone's mind	5:20
	is firmly wrapped around these brain teasers,	5:22
	I ask my question.	5:25
	I lean forward in my chair and say,	5:30
	"Now, listen carefully to the question.	5:32
	How much are two and two?"	5:38
	Generally, the members of the group	5:46
	will look at each other,	5:49
	and then the ceiling, then the floor,	5:52
	to their watches, peer around.	5:55
	"You mean like two cats and two cats?"	6:01
	"Yes, like two cats and two cats."	6:06
	"Well, would it be any different	6:09
	if it was two chairs and two chairs?"	6:11
	"No, it wouldn't be any different."	6:13
	They don't know.	6:17
	And generally, if there is a little child in the group,	6:21
	he will say, "Could the answer be four?"	6:24
	And of course it could.	6:27
	Now, why is it that wise people,	6:30
	educated and intelligent people,	6:35
	under those circumstances do not know	6:38
	that two and two are four?	6:42
	I think the answer is that their minds	6:45
	had become so preoccupied with difficult questions,	6:48
	with problems that are hard to work out,	6:52
	that they became temporarily unsure	6:55
	of the simple axiomatic fundamentals.	6:58
	And it would be a contribution to the solution	7:05
	of the more difficult questions	7:09
	if they could be sure that two and two are four	7:11
	and start from there.	7:14
	Now, I think this does not simply happen	7:17
	at parties and social gatherings	7:20
	and these absurd psychological experiments.	7:21
	I think it happens in religion.	7:26
	Very often, our theologians become so obsessed,	7:30
	very often, our laymen and preachers become so obsessed	7:35
	with the hard questions of why does a good God allow evil	7:39
	to happen in a world which He created?	7:45
	How is it that a God of love can allow so much hatred	7:50
	to exist in a world which He has created	7:55
	and wants to redeem?	7:59
	How is it that there can be three persons	8:02
	and yet only one God and not have three gods?	8:06
	How is it that Jesus Christ can be both fully divine	8:11
	and fully human?	8:15
	How is it that we can look with higher criticism	8:18
	upon certain aspects of the Bible	8:23
	and yet regarded as the word of God,	8:26
	the inspired word of God?	8:29
	How is it that this?	8:33
	How is it that that can be true?	8:35
	And we've become so preoccupied	8:38
	with the difficult questions of our faith,	8:40
	that when we are asked so simple a question	8:44
	as can right be wrong, can wrong be right,	8:48
	sometimes we're not sure.	8:53
	We don't know.	8:56
	We look at the ceiling, we look at the floor,	8:57
	we look at our watches, we look at the calendar.	8:59
	We ask the person next to us, can right be wrong?	9:01
	Can wrong be right?	9:04
	Is right always right?	9:05
	We don't know.	9:07
	It is my opinion that no more healthy thing	9:10
	could happen to the church	9:12
	and to the Christian movement in the world today	9:14
	than to regain the certainty which it has clearly lost	9:17
	that right is not wrong and wrong is not right.	9:21
	I believe we have lost that certainty	9:27
	because we have become so preoccupied	9:29
	with all kinds of impossible possibilities	9:32
	and existential relativities that we do not know	9:34
	whether there is something that we can call right	9:38
	which is the will of God and which remains right	9:41
	and whether wrong can be right or not.	9:45
	Indeed, it has not been very long ago	9:49
	that a question was circulated	9:51
	among some of the theologians of the world.	9:53
	The question was, could it ever be a contribution	9:56
	to the establishment of paganism	10:01
	for a person who is a Christian	10:03
	under all circumstances to act like a Christian?	10:07
	And three of the leading theologians replied	10:10
	that it could be a contribution	10:12
	to the establishment of paganism	10:14
	or a Christian to act like a Christian.	10:17
	Well, now before we take a closer look at this affirmation	10:22
	that right is not wrong,	10:27
	let's pause for a moment	10:28
	and be sure that we are not misunderstanding	10:31
	what is involved here	10:35
	and say something that this truth does not mean.	10:37
	We're aware of the fact that right	10:43
	does not always manifest itself	10:48
	in the same identical fashion	10:51
	under all circumstances and in every age and in all places.	10:54
	The principle of right	11:01
	may manifest itself one way in this generation	11:03
	and in a different way in the next generation	11:07
	and still be the same principle of right.	11:10
	We have a hymn that we sing from time to time,	11:16
	which begins, once to every man and nation	11:19
	comes to the moment to decide.	11:22
	And on down further in hymn,	11:25
	we come to a stanza which reminds us	11:27
	that time makes ancient good uncouth.	11:30
	What was good in one day may become uncouth in another,	11:37
	not because right,	11:42
	the basic principle of right has changed,	11:44
	but because the application of the principle has changed.	11:47
	In the United States,	11:53
	it is proper to drive on the right side of the street	11:54
	and it is criminal to insist	11:57
	upon driving on the left side of the street.	11:58
	In England, it is proper to drive	12:01
	on the left side of the street	12:03
	and criminal to insist upon driving	12:05
	on the right side of the street.	12:07
	In some sections of the city,	12:10
	it is proper to drive 20 miles per hour	12:13
	and it is not proper to drive more than that.	12:16
	On the open highway,	12:19
	the same principle of right dictates	12:21
	that you should not drive less than 40 miles an hour	12:23
	and not more than 60 miles an hour.	12:26
	Now, it is the same principle of right	12:29
	that tells us to drive on the right side of the street here	12:31
	and the British to drive on the left,	12:34
	and one place we'd drive 20,	12:36
	in another place we drive 60.	12:38
	The same principle of right with different applications.	12:40
	But the important point which we need to consider,	12:46
	which seems to me is basic,	12:50
	is the principle of right and the principle of wrong.	12:51
	These do not change,	12:57
	though the application of them does change.	12:59
	All right, now let's come back then	13:04
	and take a closer look at the statement	13:06
	that right is not wrong understood in this context.	13:09
	I believe that even as there are 97% of the individuals	13:14
	in the United States who say they believe in God,	13:23
	so there would be found some 97% of the American people	13:27
	who would say, well, sure, in general, right is not wrong.	13:32
	But even as they act as though	13:38
	they did not believe in God,	13:39
	when it comes down to particulars,	13:41
	so we Americans and people around the world	13:44
	begin to make exceptions to the statement	13:49
	that right is not wrong	13:52
	when it comes to the application of it	13:54
	in our own particular situation.	13:56
	Just as in the general assembly,	13:59
	let us say that the representative from Forsyth County	14:02
	says when a bill is introduced,	14:05
	"I will vote for this to be statewide law	14:08
	provided we can make an exception for Forsyth County	14:11
	and it will not apply in Forsyth County."	14:16
	And then the representative from Cumberland County says,	14:19
	"And Cumberland must be accepted.	14:22
	And if it is accepted,	14:24
	then I will vote for it as a statewide bill,"	14:25
	and so on it goes.	14:27
	We Americans, and certainly those of us	14:30
	who are members of the church and call ourselves Christians	14:32
	are willing to affirm without any hesitation	14:34
	that right is not wrong.	14:37
	But then we begin to make exceptions.	14:40
	We will vote for it to be a general principle	14:44
	as long as we can make our own exceptions.	14:46
	There are three main exceptions which we try to make.	14:50
	The first, I suppose, might be called the exception	14:55
	of the prominent person.	15:00
	That is to say, if a prominent individual, some leader,	15:03
	some recognized outstanding individual does wrong,	15:09
	then it's all right for me to do wrong	15:14
	because he did it first.	15:17
	This is a very old habit of the human race.	15:22
	When God confronted Adam with the fact	15:24
	that he had transgressed	15:26
	the clearly established will of God,	15:29
	Adam did not deny that he had done it,	15:32
	he simply said, "Eve did it first,"	15:34
	as if that made it right.	15:37
	Some years ago, when I was pastor in another city,	15:41
	some members of my church who were close friends	15:44
	of a certain physician came to me and said,	15:47
	"This physician is engaged in an unethical practice	15:49
	which will not only ruin him	15:52
	but which is hurting a great many other people.	15:53
	And since he is something of a friend of yours,	15:57
	why do you not go to him and talk to him about this?"	15:59
	Well, having no better sense,	16:04
	I went to him and talked to him about it.	16:06
	He did not deny that he was doing it.	16:09
	He did not say he was sorry he was doing it.	16:11
	He did not promise to stop.	16:13
	He simply said, "I didn't do it until I knew for a fact	16:16
	that two other doctors were doing it."	16:20
	That made it right.	16:24
	When you define right as being that which I can do	16:28
	and have a right to do the privilege of doing,	16:33
	and which nobody really can stop me from doing,	16:37
	it's the thing to do	16:41
	because others did it first.	16:45
	Now, as I say, it is particularly appealing	16:49
	when it is done by an outstanding or a prominent individual,	16:52
	this seems to make a difference.	16:55
	Wrong can become right.	16:57
	In the year 1947, there was a house in Washington, D.C.	16:59
	that was entered by burglars	17:02
	who took off a number of the household objects.	17:04
	The owner of the house upon returning called the police	17:07
	who came and he listed his losses.	17:10
	The newspaper reporter had got hold of it	17:13
	and after looking at the list of articles	17:16
	that had been stolen from the house,	17:19
	called the office of the United States men	17:21
	and asked this question,	17:25
	"Is it proper for an individual to have a $20 gold piece?"	17:27
	They said, "Why do you ask?"	17:34
	He said, "Well, a house here in Washington	17:35
	has been burglarized and the owner of the house	17:37
	lists a $20 gold piece	17:40
	as one of the things that was stolen."	17:42
	Well, the official at the United States men said,	17:44
	"Of course, it is not legal,	17:47
	it is illegal for a private citizen	17:48
	to have a $20 gold piece.	17:51
	They were all supposed to have been turned in	17:53
	some years ago.	17:55
	Incidentally, whose house was it that was burglarized?"	17:58
	The newspaper reporter said, "The house of Mr. J.A. Krug,	18:02
	who is a member of the president's cabinet	18:06
	being Secretary of the Interior."	18:08
	The official at the U.S. men,	18:11
	according to the newspaper reporter	18:12
	answered, "Oh, well, I suppose it's all right	18:15
	for a person to have one or two as a souvenir."	18:17
	Wrong can become right if prominent people do it.	18:22
	If it's advertised in life magazine,	18:27
	it's all right to buy it.	18:29
	If Eddie Fisher or Marilyn Monroe do it,	18:32
	it's all right for you to do it.	18:34
	At 10 minutes to eight in the morning	18:38
	of May 8th in the year 1902,	18:40
	a mountain on the island of Martinique,	18:44
	the mountain being named Mount Pelée,	18:50
	blew its whole head off	18:54
	and in so doing killed 40,000 people	18:57
	in the nearby City of St. Pierre.	19:01
	Now, the only persons who were spared	19:05
	were a few families who three or four days before this	19:10
	had mounted their carriages,	19:15
	left the city and gone into the surrounding mountains	19:17
	on the opposite side of the city from Mount Pelée.	19:20
	40,000, however, in the city were killed	19:25
	in spite of the fact that most of these 40,000	19:28
	had made preparations to leave the city.	19:32
	The passenger lists on all of the liners in the harbor	19:37
	were completely filled with individuals	19:42
	who wanted to leave the city.	19:44
	This was true in spite of the fact that month delay	19:47
	had been growling and grumbling and rumbling	19:50
	and making fireworks for weeks	19:52
	in spite of the fact that three days before May 8th	19:57
	enough lava had come from the top of the mountain	20:01
	to kill 28 people on the slopes of the mountains.	20:03
	The reason these 40,000 did not leave the city	20:08
	was that His Excellency, Governor Mouttet,	20:11
	who was running the island for the Republic of France	20:15
	and who lived in a country villa some distance	20:20
	beyond the city from the mountain	20:24
	felt that it would be bad for business	20:27
	for everyone to flee the city	20:29
	and so to reassure the population,	20:32
	he moved from his country of stay into the city	20:34
	and announced that all was well.	20:38
	That the city was safe	20:41
	and to prove it, he was moving into the city himself.	20:42
	40,000 people died	20:47
	because a prominent man	20:50
	was thought to be a dependable expert	20:54
	on the matter of whether or not a mountain would explode.	20:59
	Prominent people may be prominent people	21:05
	and the reason for their being prominent may be good,	21:07
	but this does not prove that they are dependable guides	21:10
	in matters of what is right and what is wrong.	21:14
	When we see some outstanding person doing something	21:19
	which we would otherwise think to be wrong,	21:22
	we say, well, it's right.	21:24
	And we think that when we say it's right,	21:25
	this makes it right, but this is not the case.	21:27
	And one of the debates which Lincoln had with Douglas,	21:32
	he was having some difficulty getting Mr. Douglas to see	21:36
	that he had no facts to support	21:40
	a certain contention he was making.	21:42
	And he was simply affirming this point of view	21:45
	over and over again.	21:48
	And there was nothing behind the affirmation	21:50
	in the way of truth or evidence or data.	21:52
	And somewhat impatiently in the debate,	21:56
	he turned to Mr. Douglas and said,	21:58
	"By the way, how many legs does a cow have?"	22:00
	Well, Douglas was somewhat startled by the question	22:07
	and said, "Well, I don't know	22:09
	what this has to do with the argument,	22:10
	but a cow has four legs."	22:12
	Mr. Lincoln said,	22:15
	"All right, now suppose we call a tail a leg,	22:16
	now, how many legs does she have?"	22:18
	He said, "Five."	22:20
	Mr. Lincoln said, "That's where you're wrong.	22:23
	Just calling her tail a leg doesn't make leg."	22:25
	And just calling wrong, right	22:30
	doesn't make it right.	22:32
	Now, there is a second exception,	22:37
	which many people make to the general principle	22:38
	that right is not wrong.	22:41
	They would like to plead an exception on account of this.	22:45
	They say circumstances sometimes alter	22:48
	our obligation to right	22:55
	and that while in general and under most circumstances	22:58
	we're supposed to do right,	23:02
	it's all right to do wrong	23:03
	if the circumstances are such as to alter the situation.	23:05
	If you will study the Manu code,	23:12
	which governs the lives of some 250 million Hindus,	23:15
	you will find under the heading of telling the truth	23:21
	and telling lies,	23:24
	this rather interesting observation,	23:26
	it is never permissible for a Hindu to tell a lie,	23:31
	except under two circumstances.	23:37
	One, when he's attempting to save a life.	23:40
	And second, when he's paying a compliment to a woman.	23:44
	As I read the New Testament,	23:49
	I do not find any exceptions to the Christian injunction	23:51
	to tell the truth and not to tell a lie,	23:57
	but there are many who would like to plead circumstance.	24:02
	My circumstances are such that I cannot do what is right.	24:07
	I ought not to do what is right.	24:11
	I need to do temporarily.	24:14
	And in this circumstance,	24:15
	what would otherwise be thought to be wrong?	24:17
	So that a basketball player	24:21
	whose wife is going to have a baby may accept $1,200	24:23
	to shave a few points in a game.	24:27
	Now he knows that this is generally wrong.	24:30
	That this is not right, generally	24:33
	that ordinarily when a basketball player goes into a game,	24:36
	he supposed to try to make all the points he can	24:39
	for the home team and to play it according to the rules.	24:41
	But in these circumstances, after all, it's only a game,	24:45
	why should I not make $1,200	24:50
	to pay the hospital expenses of my wife	24:54
	when my child is born?	24:56
	Circumstances change right into wrong and wrong into right.	24:59
	Or a person who is on a television program	25:07
	may decide that he can go along with a fix	25:10
	because he's in debt.	25:14
	He needs to get out of bed.	25:17
	After all these creditors need their money, don't they?	25:18
	They have their grocery bills to pay	25:20
	and their medical expenses, they must have their money.	25:22
	This will give them their money.	25:25
	And so circumstances being what they are,	25:26
	it's all right, for me to hoodwink the public	25:29
	into thinking that something is going on	25:32
	in the television studio that is not.	25:34
	The officials have an electric corporation	25:39
	may deprive the public of funds unjustly	25:42
	by fixing contracts illegally	25:47
	because the circumstances are such	25:50
	as to change the nature of what is right and wrong	25:54
	so the temporarily, of course, always temporarily	25:59
	and only in this circumstance and only now,	26:01
	never later and never in any other place	26:04
	and never under other circumstances,	26:06
	but in this circumstance,	26:07
	right can become wrong and wrong can become right.	26:12
	It is unfortunate that there has been a climate	26:18
	of ethical thinking in the present day	26:20
	which has encouraged this,	26:23
	which has encouraged people to believe that circumstances	26:24
	determine what is right, rather than the will of God.	26:27
	That is circumstances determine what you ought to do	26:32
	rather than the will of God as revealed in Christ	26:38
	and as understood and biblical Christianity.	26:42
	I was on another campus a few months ago	26:47
	and was talking to a student,	26:49
	a young woman who was going to have a child out of wedlock.	26:53
	And as we discussed her plight,	26:58
	she explained to me that she had gone to her campus minister	27:01
	and had said, "I've been reading a lot about	27:07
	some fellow by the name of Freud	27:10
	and what some guy by the name of Kinsey Said,	27:11
	and I'm a little bit mixed up and confused,	27:14
	and I'm not sure what is right and what is wrong	27:17
	as we understand it today, could you help me?"	27:19
	And she said, his answer was, there are no absolutes,	27:23
	and there are no easy answers.	27:25
	This led her to think that the circumstances	27:30
	had a great deal to do with what a person	27:34
	would do in any given situation.	27:36
	And then her misery later,	27:40
	she regretted that she had come to believe	27:42
	that right could sometimes be wrong	27:47
	and wrong could sometimes be right.	27:49
	If you were going to be called a square	27:52
	and if you were going to be left to yourself,	27:53
	then wrong can be right	27:55
	and right can even be wrong.	27:58
	I do not wish to deprive her	28:02
	of any of the responsibility for her,	28:04
	the situation in which she found herself.	28:06
	But I believe that that minister	28:08
	is going to have to share some of her guilt	28:10
	because he allowed her to believe	28:14
	that things can become so relative	28:15
	that right can be wrong and wrong, right	28:18
	when circumstances are such as to alter the situation.	28:21
	The third and last of the exceptions that we mainly ask	28:26
	when we consider this basic principle	28:31
	that right is not wrong,	28:34
	is that generally we will do right	28:37
	but when it becomes necessary to do wrong	28:42
	in order to establish ourselves	28:44
	in a situation where we can do a lot of good,	28:46
	then it is proper to do wrong	28:50
	in order to get into position to do right.	28:54
	Now, this is a very appealing sounding argument	28:59
	in general, it is wrong to lie,	29:04
	in general, it is wrong to misrepresent,	29:06
	but if I'm going to do anything really great	29:09
	for the kingdom of God,	29:11
	I have to occupy a certain stance in society.	29:12
	I have to hold a certain position.	29:16
	And if in order to hold that position	29:18
	and to maintain that certain stance, I have to tell lies,	29:21
	I have to make invalid promises,	29:25
	I will do this in order to maintain this position.	29:27
	Because if I maintain this position,	29:32
	then I can do a lot of good in the world.	29:34
	I can build the kingdom of God.	29:36
	And so there are those who have hoodwinked themselves	29:39
	into believing that wrong can become right	29:43
	if it is necessary in order to be in position to do good.	29:45
	Shall men sin in order that grace may abound?	29:51
	The question of Jesus Christ still echoes down	29:55
	through the quotas of history	29:58
	when he said, "How can Satan cast out Satan?"	29:59
	How can we by doing that, which is wrong,	30:05
	contribute to the upbuilding of that, which is right.	30:08
	It is my belief that there is no good	30:13
	which we can hope to do in the end that ever makes right,	30:16
	the doing of something that is wrong	30:19
	in a situation where we imagine we must do wrong	30:22
	in order to be in a position to do right.	30:25
	Instead of the end justifying the means,	30:29
	the means determine the end.	30:33
	I do not believe there is any acceptable substitute	30:37
	for honesty, for integrity,	30:40
	for telling the truth and not telling lies,	30:43
	for doing justly,	30:46
	and having basic fundamental integrity of character	30:49
	so that a man will die before he will tell a lie,	30:52
	a man will die before he will be dishonest.	30:56
	This is a very practical matter for many students	31:02
	who hope to be in some kind of profession, school teaching,	31:04
	medicine, law, the ministry or whatever.	31:08
	And they realized that in order to be in this position	31:13
	to do this good, they have to have a college degree.	31:15
	And in order to have a college degree,	31:18
	they have to pass their courses.	31:20
	And in order to pass their courses this time	31:21
	they have to cheat.	31:24
	So that cheating becomes a means	31:27
	whereby we put ourselves in position	31:30
	to do a great deal of good, or do we?	31:34
	When cheating become so widespread	31:40
	that a leading business official says	31:42
	that he cannot have any confidence in the grades	31:46
	or in the record of students	31:48
	who come from certain colleges and universities	31:51
	because of the widespread cheating there,	31:53
	what has it accomplished?	31:56
	What have we accomplished	31:59
	when circumstances allow us to do wrong calling it right?	32:00
	So that people wonder when they watch a television program	32:08
	if there's anything in it,	32:11
	when they say, how can we have confidence	32:14
	in a basketball game before our very eyes.	32:16
	When say, can you have faith in what the minister says?	32:21
	Can you have faith in anything?	32:28
	Brethren, the only way there can be confidence and stability	32:32
	and progress and redemption in human life	32:36
	is for there to be people who will say they will be right	32:39
	whatever the circumstances and whatever the cost	32:43
	that there will not be now or at any time,	32:48
	here or anywhere else,	32:51
	something which will be so important	32:54
	that they will have to turn their back	32:56
	upon the known will of God.	32:58
	We become confused when we do this,	33:02
	there is no basis for confidence in anything.	33:04
	We cannot hire enough policemen to make people right	33:07
	if they do not have the principle of right	33:10
	in their own hearts and are committed to it in their lives.	33:12
	When we become so relativistic in our concept	33:18
	of what we will do and what we will not	33:22
	that we have no absolutes,	33:25
	we have no principles by which we will stand,	33:27
	we lose our identity.	33:31
	Dr. Charles T. Thrift,	33:33
	who is now President of Florida Southern College,	33:35
	some years ago was professor of Bible and Religion	33:38
	at Southwestern University.	33:40
	I happened to be a student in that class	33:43
	and he shared with the class one day,	33:46
	the results of one student's examination.	33:49
	The forum in which he gave this exam wasn't,	33:52
	maybe a graph set of papers clipped together.	33:55
	All we had to do was fill in the blanks	33:58
	and make the checks at the proper places.	34:00
	Question number 36 in Dr. Thrift's examination was,	34:03
	what is your first name?	34:07
	A boy whose first name was Jim	34:11
	answered question number 36 with Mary.	34:14
	I wonder how he did it.	34:22
	When we begin to make compromises, we lose our identity.	34:26
	Jim can become Mary.	34:29
	Certainly he will not be one	34:32
	you would recognize as a son of God.	34:34
	The only answer is unflinchingly	34:39
	to maintain it dedication and devotion	34:42
	to the right as seen in Jesus Christ.	34:46
	Dr. Theodore Parker who was thought	34:50
	to be the best educated man of his day in America.	34:51
	Harvard College was embarrassed by the fact	34:57
	that it claimed to be the leading educational institution	34:59
	and here are the most highly educated man in America	35:04
	that did not have a college degree from Harvard.	35:09
	So they sought to enroll him in Harvard College	35:12
	and get him to earn a Harvard degree.	35:16
	But he was too busy with his theologizing	35:18
	and his social reformation, his preaching	35:21
	to go back for this Harvard degree.	35:25
	And so Harvard did what I think was the proper thing.	35:27
	They gave him a Harvard degree.	35:31
	Instead of making him come to Harvard,	35:34
	Harvard went to Theodore Parker	35:36
	because they recognized	35:40
	that he had more educational quality than they had.	35:42
	And it was attributed to them that he had a Harvard degree	35:47
	rather than a tribute to Harvard that Parker had a degree.	35:51
	Now, I think instead of taking the will of God	35:57
	and God's righteousness and making it conformed to us,	36:00
	then what we wanna do and the way we wanna do it,	36:04
	the thing for us to do is to conform to the right,	36:07
	always, everywhere, and under every circumstance,	36:13
	Eternal God, our heavenly father,	36:25
	who has to reveal thy self	36:28
	unto us through thy son, Jesus Christ	36:29
	help us to know the right	36:33
	and give us courage to do it.	36:35
	Now may the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ,	36:38
	the love of God, the father,	36:41
	and the communion of the holy spirit.	36:42
	Rest upon you and abide with you now and to evermore.	36:45
	(gentle music)	36:56

Item Info

Title:

Howard C. Wilkinson - "Right Is Not Wrong" (June 25, 1961)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4dv1hp7b

Date:

June 25, 1961

Speaker:

Wilkinson, Howard C.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0148
ref5502_5yf
uachapelsermaud
duke:628090
dcrau002165
ark:/87924/r4dv1hp7b
ee1ccd4c-e5d7-4cde-b78e-aa2173f22824

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "Right Is Not Wrong" (June 25, 1961)

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