Wake Forest College Alumni News [December 1944]

IN THIS ISSUE: All-American Santo Claus : Dr. Kitchin's Christmas Chapel T olk : Med. School on the Up and Up : What Is Right With Our Col leges : Campus and Classroom Echoes : Con vention Compromises Merger Proposal : Foot boll Team Second in Southern Conference : Basketball Schedule : With the Colors : Alumni Casualties : Letters From Servicemen. Vol. XIV. No. 2 DECEMBER 1944 • December issue WAKE FOREST COLLEGE ALUMNI NEWS Page Two WHAT IS RIGHT WITH OUR COLLEG ES By EUGENE OLIVE '10 Chaplain and Pastor at Wake Forest Nobody should be denied oppor ployees of the Convention itself? They casion to go to the church basement a tunity to ask what is wrong with our ought to be, undoubtedly. But the im few minutes before time for the meet colleges. Neither churches nor Chris passioned statement to that effect, ing in the church auditorium. I noted tian colleges should ever be immune publicly or privately made, would im a light in one of the small rooms. to criticism. Their staunchest friends ply that there is something wofully Through the glass door I observed a and supporters will be among the wrong with these trusted servants of group of young men on their knees in first to agree that there is a measure God and of the people. That is hardly prayer. From time to time faculty of truth in charges of imperfections justifiable. members are invited to meet with in them. Their existence is for the Nobody can establish a claim to in groups of students in fraternities and purpose of teaching, upholding, and fallibility in judging Christian charac other rooming places for discussions setting the example of an altogether ter. However, an honest effort to get on religious themes. nobler way of living. Since they are. at the facts would reveal that officials Every student who receives a degree by their very genius. a standing judg and teachers in our Baptist colleges at Wake Forest is required to com ment on ignorance, superstition, and would hardly take second place in plete at least six semester hours of the ordinarv \\'avs of men and socie comparison with an equal number of courses in the Department of Religion. ties. they invite reprisals. If we of the any other group of Christians. be they That is an opportunity to secure, under colleges are wise. we shall ·welcome pastors. deacons. teachers in the Sun scholarly guidance and instruction, a warmlv, with good grace and good day schools. or missionaries. knowledge of the Bible and training humor: honest criticism; for it will Any catalogue of Christian virtues in Christian work. In the Wake Forest help us to achieve that which for all must include honest. thorough, pur community there live several mis of us, not excluding the critical fra poseful work for the good of others. sionary families and retired ministers. ternity itself, is always a difficult job without primary consideration for These, as well as the numerous mis -to see our own failings. personal gain or advantage. 1\Ien and sionaries and ministers who visit the When it becomes the habit for able women of the colleges are prepared College, are an asset to the religious speakers to proclaim in public and for to stand the test at that point against life of the students. Publicly and others to state in private. ''We want all comers In matters of personal in privately, students are urged to dedi our colleges to be Christian." the fair tegrity and standards of Christian cate their lives to Christ as his de ness of the implication ought to be living, they are in the front rank. As voted followers and servants. examined. Such remarks betray a intelligent. loyal, devoted members of failing common to all such outcries. the churches, they compare with the "BY THEIR FRCITS YE SHALL Vice has a higher news value than best. KNOW THEM" virtue. That is why murder and war This, then. is right with the colleges: are such a journalistic godsend. A de their administrative officers and in The last issue of The Tie, a publica faulting bank official or an absconding structional staffs are. with rarest ex tion of the Seminary at Louisville. wife enjoys all the noisy publicit~· of ception. and I know of none. men and states that Wake Forest College men court and press. It does not always women of fine Christian character and enrolled now. in the Semmary number dawn upon the headlong public that intelligence. 71. The next largest group from any for every defaulting bank officer there other college is -15. Wake Forest has are ninety-nine honest ones. and that THEIR CHRISTIAN EMPHASIS led for many years in the number of for every woman playing false to her students in the Louisville Seminarv. husband there are nine hundred and Readers of newspapers ought to At the recent Convention in Charlotte ninety-nine who are devoted and understand that such matters as Chris a representative of the Southwestern faithful. tian nurture, worship, and the com Seminary stated that there are -14 So it is with criticism of the col monplace loyalties of daily Christian North Carolina students enrolled there. leges. Calling attention to their fail living do not receive the same pub most of whom are from Wake Forest. ings, or alleged failings while keeping licity as athletics and social events. A few Wake Forest students are now silent about the ninety-nine unhonored At Wake Forest College-and just as at the Baptist Bible Institute and some and unsung virtues they possess and wholesome atmosphere will be found are in theological seminaries in the engender, may gain publicity and ap at other colleges-the religious em North. For many years more than ten plause for the critic, but entitles their phasis and spirit are primary and cen per cent of Wake Forest's enrollment friends to a modest protest. tral. In normal communities oppor have been ministerial students. tunity is provided for young people Wake Forest College is by no means THE COLLEGES ARE CHRISTIAN to attend and participate in not more responsible for all those who enter than five religious services a week, the ministry. The home, the home We speak of Christian churches, four on Sunday and one Wednesday church, and other human factors are Christian ministers and missionaries night. In addition to these. students involved along with the divine ele and denominational officials. It is just at Wake Forest attend three chapel ment entering into the high calling. as appropriate to speak of Christian services a week, two of which are ex It is significant that for such a long colleges. What are the colleges? They clusively for worship and religious time students for the ministry have include students, faculty, administra instruction and are conducted by mem chosen to come to Wake Forest, and tive officers, and physical equipment. bers of the faculty and occasional visi that such a great company of them Baptist colleges are governed by and tors; six vesper services are held and have gone out from the College to belong to the Baptist State Conven voluntary attendance is from sixty bless mankind. That number is not tion. But when one demands that the five to one hundred and twenty-five diminishing. but increasing in these colleges become thoroughly Christian, daily; weekly prayer groups are held recent years. If it be pointed out that he is speaking primarily of administra by students in rooming centers with fewer missionaries to foreign lands tive officials and faculty members. The total attendance reaching as high as have been sent from Wake Forest Col men and women belonging to this three hundred. lege in recent times, it is not fair to group, in the North Carolina Baptist Many special meetings for groups assume that there is less missionarv colleges, do not deserve the verbal like the ministerial conference of emphasis than formerly. Most de spankings that uninformed or misin sixty-five members, the Christian cisions for foreign mission service are formed persons administer to them service group, the Y.W.A., the Baptist made after college days. Opportunities now and then. Student Union Council, and others are to go to some of the mission fields have Who would think of calling upon held weekly for distinctively religious been limited for years, first because the Baptist State Convention to issue purposes. During a recent Foreign of scarcity of money, and second be a mandate to the pastors to become Missions week, with a different mis cause of conditions created by war. Christian? Or the officials and em- sionary speaking each night, I had oc- (Continued on page three) Page Three December issue WAKE FOREST COLLEGE ALUMNI NEWS CONVENTION COMPROM.ISES MERGER PROPOSAL The Baptist State Convention in brother-and-sister schools we were you home with them, it is no idle meant to be. There are no hard feel annual · session at Charlotte, No ings so far as we students are con gesture: they mean it. Our alumni vember 15, disposed of the pro cerned. We hope you older people all in that city, not as numerous as posal to merge Meredith and Wake over the state know that." in some areas, are nevertheless 100 Forest colleges by: percenters in neighborliness and One, allowing Meredith to stay in their affection for Wake Forest. in Raleigh. The alumni luncheon, attended Two, granting Wake Forest the by 250, was highlighted with a privilege of admitting girls to all masterful address by Governor J. classes - freshman, sophomore, Melville Broughton '10, who junior, and senior. Hitherto Wake warned that the Baptists must Forest had co-eds in only the take better care of the financial junior and senior classes.

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