Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1545

Carbon of a letter from Heath to Thaddeus Ashby, c/o Faith & Freedom, Spiritual Mobilization, 1521 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles 17, California

February 14, 1955

Dear Mr. Ashby:

My attention was strongly arrested by your excellently told story, “My Argument with a Communist,” appearing as the lead article in a recent number of Faith & Freedom.

I am one of those persons who believes in the crea­tive freedom of the New Testament principle of doing unto others in a new manner — in the manner that we would have others do unto us — if we would enter the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and attain abundance of life thereby. This to me describes the free enterprise system of serving others while others in turn serve us, which in modern times is practiced almost exclusively in the Western and nominally Christian world with its high standard of living and length of days.

     But I, too, have encountered the dilemma of the com­munist argument, and have not found in our Constitutional system, based upon coercion instead of contract and exchange, any way out of the logical dilemma involved. I cannot presume that you wish the dialectic victory of the communist to stand — that you are, in fact, sympa­thetic to the communist point of view. I am moved, therefore, to ask you in all earnestness what you do consider the way out. I have searched succeeding numbers of Faith & Freedom, hoping to find how you would resolve the dilemma.

     In all earnestness, and in admiration of your liter­ary artistry, I remain,

Sincerely yours,

SH/sm