As I read the “Open Letters” — “Letters of Resignations from Four Elders of Chapel Hill Bible Church” — I was again reminded about the power of analogy and its effectiveness in communication!  The ability to give clarity and force is almost unmatched.  The reason is partly because of the strength of “story,” along with its ability to nail down an important truth in a clear way.

Here is that portion of the “Open Letter” written by Walker and Katherine Hicks.

[Walter Hicks’ referencing his wife’s letter]

Katherine closed her letter with a story and an exhortation. I’d like to finish by sharing it.

I’ll tell you a true story that I feel relates to this situation. Years ago, I had a colleague who also did health economics research, like I do. For several years, much of his time at work was spent on studies aimed at understanding the costs and benefits of an eye screening program for children. The screen was a fairly simple and low-cost one, but identified a fairly rare eye problem that, if diagnosed and treated, prevented many debilitating and expensive problems in the future. He was becoming somewhat of an expert in our field regarding interventions for eye and vision problems. One day my colleague was at Target with his kids. He saw something that he thought one of his sons, who was around 8 or 9 at the time, would like, so made a statement about that item to the son. The boy looked up toward the item, then hesitated, stepped a few feet over, and then clearly recognized and acknowledged how much he liked it. His dad was confused and asked, “What just happened there? Why did you step to the side like that? You could see it from where you were.” His son replied, “Oh, I just had to get myself in a place so that I could use my good eye to see it.” He and his wife soon learned that their son had the very problem with his vision that he had been working for years to get diagnosed in other kids. My colleague was an expert on this vision problem but didn’t recognize that it was right there in his own family.

I think the Bible Church unknowingly has only “one good eye.” It is great at studying and appreciating the scriptures. It is a warm and nurturing place for many people. But I would argue that one of our eyes doesn’t work, the one that truly shows Christ’s love for everyone . . . .[1]

√ “Unknowingly!”
√ “. . . . has only one good eye”

1. https://all-things-church.org/2022/03/09/an-open-letter-four-elders-resign/