Author's Preface
1. Accepting Or Uniting
   
2. Who Is A Christian?
   
3. "Why Don't You Leave The Church of Christ?"
   
4. The Iniquity Of The Fathers
   
5. Our Judicial System
   
6. "You Are My People Now"
   
7. Serving "Otherwise Than As Prescribed"
   
8. Does Baptize Really Mean To Immerse
   
9. Our Relationship Through Baptism
   
10. Those Gospel Meetings
    
11. A Prelude To Worship
    
12. Worshipping In Spirit And Truth
    
13. The Forbidden Prayer
    
14. "I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray"
    
15. Communion Prayers
    
16. Communion With Bread, Wine, And Money
    
17. Thursday Is The Lord's Day Too!
    
18. Not Forsaking The Assembly
    
19. Acts 20:7 One More Time
    
20. Our Father Who Art Where?
    
21. Does Nature Reveal God's Love
    
22. Copyrighted: All Rights Reserved
    
23. Don't Pour Water On Them
    
24. The Remaining Restriction For Women
    
25. Some Questions About Revelation
    
26. Must One Fully Repent Before Baptism?
    
27. Nicodemus In Context
    
28. Our Respected Myths Of Religion
    
29. Hook's Points: A Potpourri
    

This will not be another doctrinal discourse. I want to tell you about a man named Earnest Pitre.

Being supported in a mission effort in New Iberia, Louisiana, Lea and I , with our six-weeks-old Sol, moved there in 1951. That was Cajun Country in the middle of southern Louisiana. There the descendants of the French Acadians, who were once driven out of Canada, lived. Those unfortunate people had taken refuge in the then worthless marshlands bordering the Atchafalaya Basin. Longfellow popularized their sad story in "Evangeline," and the Evangeline Oak still stands at nearby St. Martinville.

The genteel and industrious Acadians drained the marshes and developed a prosperous agricultural industry while nurturing their flavorful French-Catholic culture in relative isolation. When we moved there, many of the older people could speak no English. World War II and the development of their rich oil reserves began to change all that.

Soon after we arrived in New Iberia, a second radio station began operation. We managed to get a seven-day per week broadcast in prime time. After some time, I was told of a man in Loreauville nine miles away who was very interested, but I was given no name. On Sunday, September 9, 1953, this man came to our assembly for the first time and was baptized. How could I have known of the traumatic emotions tearing at his heart that day?

Thus I met Earnest Pitre, aged 64, a blacksmith and welder who could neither read nor write. Though he was illiterate, he was intelligent. He had even patented a rotary hoe used in the cultivation of sugar cane, the main crop of the area. No paved road had come to his town until a year or so before.

The influence of the Catholic religion was incredibly strong among the "Cajuns." When Earnest's younger brother was christened, the priest mistakenly spelled and pronounced his last name differently. As a result, the brothers went through life with different last names! He was taught from childhood that it was a sin to read the Bible.

Eventually, Mr. Pitre came into conflict with his church. After his wife had left him for another man, he remarried without the approval of his church. He could not tolerate the injustice of his consequent rejection for his marriage. So for years he had listened to various radio broadcasts in search of an answer offering him hope. My lessons seemed to offer the truth this unknown listener sought. As he learned, he began to talk with his wife about their obeying the gospel. She was in agreement; that is, until her children found out about it! Then she became adamant in her opposition. Finally, unable to live with his conscience any longer, he told her he was going to the church to be baptized. She warned him that if he did, she would leave him. He expressed his love for her, and concluded, "Well, then you will just have to leave me!" Knowing nothing of that, little could I have realized what a courageous step he was taking that morning.

To his relief, his wife did not follow through on her threat. However, her children initiated a write-in campaign to the radio station to get me off the air, but the station manager stood by me.

After his conversion, he was a happy man, loving all and loved by all. He was at each service, and when greeted with, "Brother Pitre, how are you?" he would always reply, "Lovely, just lovely!"

His new-found relationship offered so much joy that he was eager to share the gospel with family and friends. But to his dismay, one by one they distanced themselves from him.

Now that he was no longer afraid of the Bible, he had another dream. He wanted to learn to read it for himself. But his age and poor eyesight made that seem but a dream.

This was before the time of cassette recordings, but I purchased for him a record player and the recorded New Testament scriptures. He was in heaven! To say that he played them over and over does not tell the story. He lived with the scriptures. Also, by obtaining an extra-large print New Testament, he was then able to find corresponding places in the scriptures and the record and follow along. In his devotion to this learning experience, he wore out the set of records so that they had to be replaced. He almost memorized the entire Book. Maybe it was more the memorization than actual reading, but he taught himself to read the Bible.

By the time he had learned to read, I had gotten a tape recorder for my broadcasting use. So I invited him to come to our home to read some for recording. It was a proud moment for him and a touching one for Lea and me to hear him read in his strong Cajun accent, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," and other passages as well. Here was on illiterate man with failing eyesight approaching the age of seventy who had taught himself to read the Bible!

His continued rejection by his former church, family, and friends prepared him for another painfully emotional experience which led him to an enriching realization.

A grandson of Brother Pitre was killed in an auto accident. A half dozen of us went to Jeanerette for the funeral. We took our seats about midway in the building of the Catholic Church. Then came the procession with the body followed by the family, as their custom was. As Brother Pitre entered with the family, he immediately turned to the back wall and stood with a forlorn look of dejection that tore at the heart. He no longer belonged with his family, his church, his people, his culture. There he stood in loneliness and rejection.

As soon as the family was seated, I arose and went back to him. When he saw me, it was as though his spirit had returned to his body. He came and sat with us, and then stood with us for the final ritual in the churchyard cemetery. None of our group had spoken a word. Then as the crowd was dismissed, he turned to us and said simply, "You are my people now."

What a profound expression of the real meaning of the fellowship of the community of Christ! Earnest Pitre has been gone many years. Louisiana has changed. The Catholic Church has changed. I have changed. But the need for acceptance has not changed.

May we never let age, or fears, or costs, or pressures, or hindrances stop us from learning and growing. And out of all the wounds and rejections of life resulting from misunderstandings, prejudices, or arrogance, let us accept, and find acceptance with, all of God's community of believers. Then in God's support group, let us treasure on another, saying simply, "You are my people now!"