(Editor's Note: The following article by William E. Wallace appeared as an Editorial in the Gospel Guardian, November 22. 1973. See this week's Editorial in Truth Magazine for the first portion of a reply to be made to what Brother Wallace has said.)

The editorial of brother Cecil Willis in Truth Magazine of October 18, 1973 brings me to a conclusion I have tried to avoid for a long time. I have tried to give the man the benefit of the doubt and to think the better of his intentions and motives.

His editorial' comes in the mail as we prepare to go to press, and thus we will not deal at length with it now, but will have a full review of it and his subsequent editorials beginning in the issue following next week's Facts For Faith.

I am convinced now of the truth of the suggestion made to me by a renowned brother among us that Cecil Willis is trying to head-up his own Church of Christ, and those who will not shape-up will have to ship-out.

I can refer to brother Willis as "political" in good conscience because of the carnal weapons (2 Corinthians 10:4) he employs. The most damaging thing he has yet used against us is the confidential note I penned to Ron Halbrook. Brethren Willis and Halbrook have demonstrated a sinful disregard for ethics in their dealings with brethren. It is apparent that Editor Willis will use any means available to destroy those who will not shape up to his views and policies as sort of a titular head of the church.

Because of the damaging effect of the revelation of the confidential note to Ron Halbrook, I hasten to make a brief explanation.

Many of the real friends of Edward Fudge, among whom I am numbered, have thought for a long time that he ought to come out in the open and meet the criticisms and critics with forceful replies and explicit answers. We have never thought him to be guilty of the extreme positions charged to him. But Edward, having a disdain for what he views as brotherhood politics, has been reluctant to enter into discussion that would in effect make him a brotherhood issue.

I have felt that he ought to be "smoked-out" of his reticence, and deal with all these matters forthrightly. I have sought to "smoke him out" in private conversations, urging him to deal with these matters forthrightly. I have sought all along to be of help to Edward while others seemed to want to destroy him. I was sure that when he was "smoked out" he would exonerate himself from the extreme positions charged to him. If I had known that Ron Halbrook was possessed with the same killer instinct which moves editor Willis, and had I known he was a man who deliberately violates confidence, I would have used a different term than "smoked-out" and worded my note more cautiously. I hereby apologize to Edward Fudge for having written in such a way concerning him.

I was very much pleased when brother Fudge was moved to react against his detractors. His articles have been refreshing and gratifying. He is inclined to pursue the matter no further because he is convinced, as I now am, that there are some "dirty politics" involved in the attacks on him, and on the Gospel Guardian.

I will close for now by saying that the efforts to destroy the fraternal feelings and working relation between the Gospel Guardian and C.E.I. personnel have failed. Folks here in our office enjoy a deeper penetration of Christian principles in their lives than that manifested by Editor Willis, and are thus not liable to be divided and set against each other by the tactics of those who use carnal weapons.-W.E.W.

Truth Magazine, XVIII:7, p. 2
December 13, 1973