Personally Speaking...

Sitting on the Fence

SITTING ON the fence used to be
an enjoyable way to pass the time
back in earlier days when there were
rail fences and people who had time
to sit.  A lot of the world's problems
used to be solved back
at Bunker Hill, in
Pope County, by my
Dad and his neigh-
bors as they sat on
the fence and talked.
But sitting on the
fence has just about
dissapeared as a prac-
tice.  Even if we had
time for it today, it
is not easy to sit on
a barbed wire fence,
an it is especially difficult to sit on a
fence that has a charge of electricity
running through it.
Now when we speak of "sitting on the
fence" we use the expression figura-
tively.  A lot of time we use this ex-
pression of someone who for one rea-
son or another hesitates to come right
out and say he feels just as we do about
some issue of the day.
Those Arkansas who have been "sit-
ting on the fence" on the race issue
of integration or segregation are find-
ing the fence to be carrying a rather
high charge of emotional electricity at
the time this is written.
Since the race issue is one that finds
our Baptist of the state on the fence
and on both sides of the fence, and
since this paper is the official organ
of the Arkansas Baptist State Conven-
tion and not the private publication of
this editor, we are taking no stand
either for or against integration.  But
we want to be counted with those who
stand for law and order, for clear,
cool thinking, and for the lives motivated
by the love of Christ.
Both sides of the fence profess to be
motivated by a desire to have what is
best for the people of the State: both
sides can quote scriptures which, to
their own satisfaction, justify their
stands.  Abraham Lincoln, the Great
Emancipator, is likewise quoted by both
sides.  At the moment our State govern-
ment and our national government are
not agreed as to which has prece-
dence in determining what is the law
of the land as it relates to the issue
before us.
Where there is more than enough
heat already, we doubt that the flar-
ing of additional tempers would add
any light to help us find our way out
of the jungle.  It might be that we
ought to lay aside our fixed bayonets
and get some bent knees and talk
to the Lord about the mess we are in.

[Edwin L. McDonald, signature]

ARKANSAS BAPTIST