Gordon Clark: Evil Advice (Southern Presbyterian Journal)

1955. Evil Advice. The Southern Presbyterian Journal Sep. 14: 6-7.

Evil Advice

By Gordon H. Clark, Ph.D.

In the popular magazine Look, issue of September 6, 1955, page 35, someone raises the question whether he (or she) should keep the pre-marriage promise to raise his children Roman Catholics. He is not a Catholic, he regrets the promise, he wants to take the children to his own church, but is troubled by the promise the Roman church once extracted from him.

Norman Vincent Peale gives the answer. He asserts that to break the promise would be dishonorable. A promise once made should be kept, no matter how difficult the keeping may be.

Another question is. Does Dr. Peale give good advice?

To answer this last question, let us ask another. Is it always right to keep a promise? Suppose, and this supposition is not so far removed from the sordid realities of life, that one criminal promises another to murder a chosen victim. Should he, if he comes to regret his premise, commit the murder even if it is now distasteful to him? When we thus canvass the range of possible promises, we see clearly that it is not always honorable to keep a promise. The only promises that are honorable to keep are honorable promises. It is never right to keep a promise to do wrong. The second wrong does not erase the first wrong.

Anyone who promises to raise his or her children as Romanists is sinning. It is a sin to promise to induce children to worship images. The Romanists, who bow to statues and who pray to the Virgin, are idolaters. To persuade anyone so to act is a sin. The promise is a sin and the carrying out of the promise is a worse sin. A person who is troubled because of having made such a promise should be urged to repent and to sin no more. Any contrary advice is evil advice.

Of course, it would have been better not to have made the promise in the first place. When a boy and girl fall in love, one or both of them may lose a sense of value. He or she may do or promise ill-considered actions. And a warning, such as this article, may not be well received. Btu if young people can fix their principles ahead of time, if they can take a firm stand against idolatry before they fall in love, they may well avoid falling in love with the wrong person. And they may be able to see through some of the evil advice that is served up in the popular magazines.