18 Living in Revolution
Over against these three types, there is one other which
is the true product of our Biblical faith at its best. We will
name it the justifiable type, because its whole strength comes
from the admission that no one can possibly be all right.
Our trust in this justifiable type began in our childhood
before we could think for ourselves. My first impression of
it can be traced back to a family who, in the summers, took
me to live with the families of relatives in a country com-
munity, where the community church had been founded by
one of my ancestors under Jonathan Edwards. In that con-
nection of families I learned whom to believe. They were
not a company of saints—quite mixed in fact. Even the hypo-
crites of the community helped my judgment. For I remem-
ber hearing of a pillar of the church who was brought up
for discipline because he had thrown a butter plate into his
wife’s face. He still thought he was good enough to be in
the church, and defended himself by claiming that he only
meant to throw the butter. The plate slipped from his
fingers. A pious old hypocrite like that, passing collection
plates on Sunday and tossing butter plates on Monday, was
an asset because he helped you recognize a real Christian
when you saw one. A dear old aunt of mine appealed to
me especially because she was at her best when dressing
down an old skinflint like that.
And yet she never pretended to be good—that was
the point. She never took a holier-than-thou attitude to
interfere with our morals, and would have laughed at any
praise of her own virtue. But whenever I was left in her
hands, without any pretensions at all she would give her en-
tire will and time to take care of me and identify herself
with my childish needs, patiently enduring my obvious de-
ficiencies. Ingeniously she beguiled the hours with all sorts
of amusements, ending with a treat of her special molasses
cookies over an inch thick; so that my earliest impressions