It seems that every time I pick up a religious journal or bulletin anymore, I see an article dealing with some "opinions" from our liberal brother in Madison, Tennessee, Ira North, concerning the "conservative" churches of Christ. He believes that we are "drying up and withering away." Of course we know that such is not really the case.

I have been corresponding with brother Diosdado L. Anelle for over a year now. He is a faithful gospel preacher who lives in Pagadian City, Philippines. Evidently brother Anelle has been reading the same things many of the rest of us have, and he doesn't agree either. I am going to quote a segment of a recent letter from him. You judge for yourself and see if we are "drying up and withering away." I wonder what brother North would thing about these statistics?

"The gospel is fast spreading in all directions in our country. New congregations are being established in cities, towns, and villages. Far from "drying up and withering away" as editor Ira North of the Liberal camp has wrongly concluded, we, the so-called "Antis" are growing and multiplying on. Ira North needs only to come to our province of a million people and discover for himself that the opposite of what he said is true. He would be lucky if he could find more than 5 congregations of his own kind against 55 congregations of those whom he brands as "Antis." Actually the ratio is 11 to 1 in favor of the conservatives. Right here in Pagadian City there are 3 conservative congregations against none or 0 for the Liberals. It's them who are "drying up and withering away."

Truth Magazine XXIV: 7, p. 123
February 14, 1980