My dear Friends,
I received two hats for Christmas and neither of them fit properly. The mystery had to do with a new concept in hat making, I gather. Hats now come in three sizes—small, medium and large.
I’m sure somebody somewhere thought maybe the public will settle for three head sizes and we can cut our costs. Well, it so happens that my head is neither small, medium nor large but somewhere in between, and I like my hats to fit.
We’ve all been watching those embarrassing TV commercials assuring us that the American worker is up to snuff. They show good honest folks, the salt of the earth, smiling as they run machines or carry boxes of snap off beer can tops. But when I see those inadequate hats I realize it’s not the American worker we have to worry about, it’s the American boss. Somebody in a policy position told the workers to make only three sizes, and what could the workers do but comply.
The issue made me think about other products we all use in this failing world and what would happen if they came in small, medium and large. How about shoes, or eyeglasses? How about caps for our teeth? Tires? I was threatened recently with bypass surgery; I wonder if they will someday offer me one of three lengths of arteries.
No, some things by their very nature demand a lot of variety and others we can settle with fewer choices. One area in which I think we could stand a narrower selection is the churches. There are too many “sizes,” too many denominations. Churches ought to be made to fit the Bible and ideally we shouldn’t be able to tell one from another. But open up the Yellow Pages sometime and just look, at the infinite sub-groups under the heading “Churches.” The telephone company would probably opt for fewer denominations also.
I heard that there were over 300 American Christian denominations! How did we ever get to many shades of difference out o£ to brief and clear a gospel? Judaism interestingly enough follows the small, medium and large concept, having only three major divisions. You can go to the Reform synagogue, the Conservative or the Orthodox. If you don’t like any of these you can stay home. But this is not to say that all the people within one o£ those divisions agree about anything. There’s an old proverb, “Where there are two Jews there are three opinions.” In general the Orthodox Jews keep all the law they know about and deeply respect the scriptures. Synagogue attendance it a very high priority with them. The Conservatives opt for a modernized Judaism using the vernacular language more often and keeping much less of the law. As to the Reform, I’m not aware of what they believe if they believe anything at all. I can’t tell the Reform synagogue from the liberal Christian church and the existence of both is a mystery to me.
We don’t all have the same size heads but we do all have the same size sins. Every one of us is condemned, but fortunately one salvation fits all.
Thanks so much for helping us get that message out in 1980. God bless you.
Your messenger,
