Front Page: autumn 1991


           SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES 

   What a difference a year makes! When we began publication last year, 
many of our free trial-subscriptions were greeted  with angry rejections. 
Copies were returned to us marked REFUSED, and letters were received call-
ing The Skeptical Review "junk" or "trash."  Even phone calls came from 
people demanding that their names be removed from our mailing lists.  Some 
compliments were paid, but they were few and far between, and only a frac-
tion of those who had received free subscriptions paid to continue them.

   This year brought a dramatic change.  As we prepare this final article for 
the last issue of 1991, we still receive negative letters, but the positive ones 
far outnumber the negative. On a typical day, the mail will bring letters from 
new readers ordering back issues and from old readers suggesting names to 
add to our mailing list. Subscription requests will come from people who heard 
about TSR from this relative or that friend. Sometimes these recommendations 
have crossed the country from one side to the other.  Just recently a profes-
sor of philosophy and religion at a university in Mississippi wrote and said, 
"I do not know how my name got on your mailing list.  But today I received 
a copy of The Skeptical Review, and I think it is superb.  Please keep my 
name on your mailing list."

   Sometimes we even get phone calls from people looking for help as they 
try to find their way out of the mess that religious fundamentalism has made 
of their lives. The last such call came from a Baptist who, after embarking on 
a plan to study the Bible and really come to know what was in "God's word," 
become disillusioned at the inconsistencies he had found in it. He called The 
Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Dan Barker suggested that he contact 
us.  He is now on our mailing list.

   We would like to share with you more of the communications like these that 
we are now receiving, but to do so we would have to sacrifice space that we 
need to discuss the inerrancy issue.  Your letters indicate that you like what 
you are seeing in TSR, so we will continue to try to bring you the same kind 
of articles.  We have never solicited financial help, but some have included 
contributions with their subscription payments and orders for other materials 
that we publish.  We appreciate the help and see it as a definite indication 
that we are attracting readers who consider The Skeptical Review to be a 
worthwhile enterprise.

   Still there are those who object to what we are doing, especially former 
friends and associates who knew us when we were deeply entrenched in the 
absurdities of Bible fundamentalism.  They continue to write to express their 
dismay at what they are reading and their personal disappointment in us. 
They rarely attempt to refute what we say in our articles; they concentrate 
on reminding us of what we once were in an apparent effort to arouse feel-
ings of guilt.  Our position, however, is that one should never feel shame or 
guilt over taking a stand for truth, and we believe that we have the truth on 
our side.

   The Jews at Beroea were once commended because they "searched the 
scriptures daily" to see if the things Paul was preaching to them "were so" 
(Acts 17:11).  We present the same challenge to readers who think that we 
have drifted off into a terrible apostasy.  Check to see if we are right. We 
don't just make wild assertions; we document every major point we make with 
specific scripture references. So when we say that scripture x contradicts 
scripture y, you have the opportunity to verify what we are saying.  Search 
the scriptures to see if what we are saying is so.  That's all we are asking 
for--a fair hearing.



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