Month: September 1956

Des Moines: One of the largest church conventions in the nation is under way in Des Moines. Upwards of 8,000 persons are attending a six-day international conclave of the Disciples of Christ. A report dealing with racial practices in churches is on the agenda.

_______

Washington: An American religious leader says Christian leaders in Red China seem to be sincerely convinced that churches are getting along well under the Communist government. Dr. Eugene L. Smith, vice president of the National Council of Churches, quoted Dr. K.H. Ting, an Algerian bishop in Red China, as telling him “The church in China has freedom of worship, freedom to witness, to evangelized, to publish Christian literature without censorship, to conduct Christian work among students at the university.” And Dr. Smith said Bishop Ting seemed to reflect accurately the prevailing opinion of the Chinese churches.

_______

Boston: The American Foundation for the Preservation of the Christian Heritage is planning to reproduce in Southern California three cities in the Holy Land. They will be reproduced on a 2,000-acre site and the project will cost about $20 million. The cities that will be reproduced are the walled city of Jerusalem, the town of Bethlehem, and Christ’s hometown of Nazareth. It will be called “Christian Land.” Funds will be raised by public subscription.

_______

The head of the Methodist Church in the New York area predicts that Negroes and whites within the Methodist denomination will be integrated within the next 10 years. Bishop Frederick Newell, addressing a mixed audience, said they must insure that the move toward integration does not tear down the church, even though it should be carried out as quickly as possible.

_______

And along the same line in Washington, a prominent Negro bishop from Florida says Christian churches must act with vigor and determination to insure peaceful integration of the nation’s schools. Bishop D. Ward Nichols, of Jacksonville, urges a nationwide study of how many churches have met or have failed to meet the challenge of preventing racial violence.

_______

Again, Washington: It is reported that Lutheran Bishop Lajos Ordass may be restored to his full church rank soon by the Hungarian government. Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, president of the United Lutheran Church in America, says he has been corresponding with the Hungarian government and expects the restoration of Bishop Ordass any day. The Hungarian prelate was convicted on a charge of currency violation in Hungary. He has spent the past two years in prison.

_______

The general board of the National Council of Churches has voted to set up a special committee to coordinate relief needs of an estimated 1 million Arab refugees from Israel. The committee would recommend appropriate action by American Protestant churches to meet the need.

_______

Buffalo, New York: More than 10,000 delegates from 24 Catholic archdioceses and 83 dioceses are attending the Tenth National Congress of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in Buffalo. Several high ranking prelates form Canada, Central and South America are attending. The conferences will end today.

______

Some clerics and scholars of the Old and New Worlds are tying to find a way by which millions of Christians might re-enter the Roman Catholic Church. The sessions of the Unionistic Congress in the St. Procopius Abbey at Lisle, Illinois, this week aim to have some 200 million Eastern Orthodox Christians united with Rome. They would become Roman Catholics of the Byzantine rite or one of the other non-Latin rites that now have about 8 million members. The Eastern Orthodox Christians left the Roman Church about 900 years ago. That was the Great Schism of 1054, based on political, social, cultural, and doctrinal differences. The congresses aiming toward the reunion have been going on since 1907. Until World War II they were held in Czechoslovakia, where Saints Cyril and Methodius began Christianizing Slavonic peoples in the ninth century. St. Procopius Abbey has held a papal commission for 29 years to work for the rejoining. It now has bi-ritual faculties; that is, priests trained by it may conduct services in both Latin (or Western) and Byzantine (or Eastern) liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church.

———

Pope Pius, through a special representative, has praised the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine as one of the two great treasures of Roman Catholics. The Most Rev. Monsignor Francesco Roberti names the other as the Catholic school. The monsignor is secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Council in Rome.

More than 3,500 lay and clerical delegates are at the Tenth National Congress of the Confraternity, which is meeting in Buffalo, New York. On the agenda is a controversial new Roman Catholic hymnal prepared by a committee of the confraternity. The committee chairman, the Rev. John Selner of St. Mary’s Seminary, in Baltimore, Maryland, says opposition centers on omission of two hymns. Father Selner adds that some Protestant hymns may be included if they are found to be not native to Protestant worship.

_______

An official of the Disciples of Christ Christian churches says that denomination is doing some missionary work in full partnership with other groups. The information comes from Dr. Donald West, forum chairman for the World Mission division of the United Christian Missionary Society. Dr. West has told the World Mission leaders that such cooperation already is a fact in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Africa. And in Nepal and Okinawa, representatives of the Disciples are working with other Protestant groups. The Disciples’ United Missionary Society met in Des Moines this week prior to an international convention assembly that began Friday. The United Missionary Society is an international board of the Disciples. It carried on a $5 million program in 11 overseas nations in 1955-56.

_______

Labor leaders and clergymen of Fresno, California, are planning a series of joint meetings. The National Council of Churches adds that delegates of the Fresno Labor Council will meet with ministers representing the Fresno Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey-Fresno Council of Churches. The first topic of the labor and church assemblies will be Sunday closing of stores and businesses.

_______

A fabulous religious treasure of the British Museum is to get a modern printing. It is the Lindisfarne Gospels, an illuminated Latin manuscript of the Gospels made about 700 A.D. by Eadfrith, bishop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island. The Gospels are famed for their elegance and precious coloring and are noted as a classic piece of Anglo-Celtic book illumination. The modern copies will be printed in facsimile in Switzerland for distribution in the U.S. The two-volume work will be limited to 680 copies, at $375 a copy. Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Mediterranean styles are combined in the words and decorations of these gospels. Its Latin text is very close to the original Vulgate gospels. The manuscript also contains four portraits of the Evangelists.

_______

The Unitarian Church recently observed a period of recognition of the importance of freedom of the press. This observance honors Elijah Parish Lovejoy who was one of the early martyrs for freedom of the press. He was anti-slavery when to be so was looked upon much as we – at least some of us – look upon subversion today. He was publisher of the St. Louis Observer. His plant was wrecked by a mob and he moved to Alton, Illinois. One press was thrown into the river en route. Another arrived and it was destroyed. In 1837 still another was purchased. The next day a mob attacked Lovejoy’s plant. It was defended by Lovejoy and a few patriots. Lovejoy was killed in the fray.

Why bring this up in connection with a religious news program? The reason should be obvious: A free people must have a free press. Without it and the other freedoms associated with it, it is difficult to see how we could have freedom of religion. Lovejoy was a man about whom it would be well for us to know more. In our day defenders of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not always popular. But it is these who keep alive the flame of American liberties, which is probably the greatest single thing that distinguishes our system here from that among the dictators. And speaking of a companion freedom, that of speech, Woodrow Wilson made an observation that shows how foolish it is to try to curb free speaking. He said, “I have always been among those who believed the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.”

_______

One very encouraging development this week was the ruling in New York by Federal Judge Palmieri that the one-time kingpin gambler, Frank Costello, could not be deprived of his citizenship through the use of evidence obtained by wiretapping. The judge went on to emphasize that he was dismissing the case without prejudice to reinstitution of action by the government. This leaves the way open for possible denaturalization and deportation if sufficient evidence is presented in the future to justify it.

The judge’s ruling was obviously made not out of any sympathy for the way the racketeer once made his living. Costello is now serving a five-year prison sentence for income tax evasion, and it is likely the judge would feel little sympathy toward this activity of Costello. The ruling came within the framework of the First Amendment, and also the Fourth Amendment, which is designed to make citizens secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Eager beavers who would like to expel persons of Costello’s caliber from our midst will criticize the court’s findings. Our own attorney general of the United States has urged upon Congress a wiretapping bill, with the excuse that such is necessary in order to detect criminals. However, most of us recognize that if an officer can tap our telephones without our knowing it, they can secure information, not only about crimes, but also about personal matters which we would discuss with no one but our friends and neighbors; that conceivably materials secured in this matter by unscrupulous people could be used for blackmail purpose; and, in short, that wire tapping would open a Pandora’s box of troubles which would be inimical to the tradition and mores of a free people. To put it bluntly, we think that what we discuss with friends – or enemies – over the telephone is none of the business of government. With so much talk about decentralizing government these days, is it not remarkable that those who do the most talk about it are the same ones that urge further centralizing government through giving that government the right to listen in on our most intimate conversation? Believers in the Constitution and its Bill of Rights will applaud Judge Palmieri’s decision, while at the same time condemning the activities of the individual against whom government attorneys tried to use this illegal evidence.

_______

Only once or twice on this program have I suggested that you write to me your opinion of it. Today’s broadcast completes two years of the program. It has been designed at all times to be a non-sectarian comment on items of religious significance that appear in the press from time to time. Several times I have had an impulse to discontinue it, for, regardless of its merits or lack of them, it does require considerable time to prepare script. There is no financial consideration involved, for I have never received or asked to receive compensation for what I have tried to do. WJHL has generously contributed its facilities for bringing the program to you. Do you wish the program continued? Whether it is or not will depend to a large extent upon your response to this question. Send a post card or letter to me at State College or in care of WJHL letting me know your wishes on the matter.

 

Chicago: Methodist Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam of Washington, D.C., has been elected president of the Council on World Service and Finance of the Methodist Church. He succeeds Bishop Clare Purcell of Birmingham, Alabama. The council administers all general and benevolence funds of the Methodist denomination.

_______

Greenwich, Connecticut: A Catholic and a Protestant clergyman in Greenwich have joined in a traffic safety campaign based on the Fifth Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” The group, representing 16 churches, adopted as its campaign slogan, “Drive as though God was sitting beside you.” The crusade will get under way in Greenwich on September 30 and if successful will be expanded on a nationwide basis.

_______

Hong Kong, China: A Catholic mission bulletin in Hong Kong says the church still has 52 seminaries in operation in Red China in spite of major persecution by communist authorities. The report mentioned seminaries in Hupen, Hunan, and Kansu provinces.

_______

Castel Gandolfo, Italy: Pope Pius has urged the world’s scientists to press ahead with a peaceful conquest of the universe. The pope, addressing 400 delegates to the Seventh International Astronautical Congress, told them that God did not intend to place a limit to mankind’s effort of conquest when he said “Conquer the Earth.” The pontiff went on, “It is the whole of creation which God entrusted to mankind and which he offers to the human spirit, in order that he should penetrate it and may thus understand ever more fully the infinite grandeur of his Creator.” The delegates were received by the pontiff in a special audience at the pope’s summer residence.

______

Assisi, Italy: A leading Jesuit theologian has appealed to the Roman Catholic Church to cut down on the use of Latin and give modern language a growing place in Church ritual. Father Joseph A Jungmann, a theology professor at Innsbruck, Austria, said reforms by Pope Pius have started breaking down the armor which surrounded liturgy. The pope has permitted a number of nations to use modern languages instead of Latin in certain ceremonies, but the church remains steadfast against replacing Latin with modern languages in reciting the Mass.

_______

Des Moines, Iowa: The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that a divorce decree may not stipulate the religion under which a child must be reared. The decision reverses a lower court ruling which had cited Mrs. Gladys M. Lynch, of Clarion, Iowa, for contempt of court. Her divorce decree had specified that she should rear her 9-year-old son as a Catholic. Instead, she permitted him to attend the Congregational Church. When her ex-husband secured the contempt action, she appealed.

_______

The 2,500 or so persons living in the little taconite mining community of Silver Bay, Minnesota, are setting a unique pattern for Protestant unity. What these people of a dozen different denominations are doing may ultimately have other communities pause to reflect whether their religious needs require several competing churches. Silver Bay sprang into being about three years ago when the taconite iron mining industry was started. Situated in the wilderness on Lake Superior’s north shore, Silver Bay now has 650 homes with about 70 more planned or under construction. All will be owned by employees of the taconite project which the Reserve Mining Company operates. At the outset, planners of the community decided to allocate sites for only three churches – Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and another Protestant church. In 1953, the Minnesota Council of Churches sent a chaplain, the Rev. Cecil Mankins, to the community. In time, persons attending the council-sponsored churches were asked to select the denomination they wished to develop a church for them. However, they expressed a preference for an interdenominational church, not one of a single denomination. The next step found Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Baptists, and members of other affiliations drawing up a covenant proclaiming the founding of the United Protestant Church. Among other things, the covenant said, “We believe that we can, with God’s help, unite in one church for the advancement of God’s kingdom in the world.” Their new church was partially completed late in July. It seats 180, and can accommodate an overflow of 60. The Rev. Mr. Hankins serves as moderator of the congregation. According to the 55-year-old Baptist clergyman who spent most of his ministry with the Ohio Council of Churches, the worship service itself has enough elements of a liturgical church to make people with that background feel perfectly at home. He points out that parishioners run nearly the entire gamut of theological background. Members are from both labor and management, and, as he explains, “cut across nearly every line of social structure.” Financing, construction, and a number of other aspects have at times complicated the program. But many obstacles have been circumvented or worked out and folks at Silver Bay are undaunted. It is hard to say how many churches Silver Bay will eventually require, but none, to be sure, will be more unusual than the United Protestant Church.

_____

Ten prominent church leaders were asked within the past week for their views on the role of a clergyman in the field of politics. The question long has been a controversial one in Protestant circles. This being an election year, it has special significance. The survey was conducted by the information service of the National Council of Churches’ Research and Survey Bureau. The ten leaders were generally agreed that as a private citizen, the minister has a duty to consider all issues and take sides. They were also agreed that he should not use his pulpit for partisan purposes. However, it was decided to leave it to the minister’s own good sense and judgment as to how and where he expresses his political views away from his pulpit. There were widely varying views, moreover, on the nature, extent, and vigor of a clergyman’s political action. Some said he should separate his political life from his spiritual role, but others insisted that this was clearly impossible.

_______

The general board of the National Council of Churches meets in Washington next Wednesday and Thursday to consider a heavy agenda of policy and other matters relating to the life of the churches. The items on which some action may be taken are the spiritual needs of the armed forces, Christian churches behind the Iron Curtain, Arab refugees, funding a new state-by-state study of church membership, and church relations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

———

Probably about everyone prays at times, or at least engages in prayer. It is not necessarily uttering words, and, indeed, the thoughts are not necessarily addressed to the deity. The people who call themselves atheists pray. Some pagan prayers have literary merit and show a remarkable kinship with nature. Medieval prayers were characterized by great passion, desperate faith, groveling humility, but with little or no social visions. The prayers of and following the Wesleyan revival in America were and sometimes still are frenzied, largely incoherent, noisy, lengthy, and sometimes crude. The typical prayers of American Protestantism are all too often of the “gimme” type. They imply that God is something of a Santa Claus and that every day is Christmas. Some prayers are complaints about the shortcomings of parishioners; some are a sort of report to God about planetary conditions. Others are largely advice to God on how to run things.

Probably few thinking people believe that prayer changes the facts of nature. God, the dominant phase of the universe, having ordained that a colt must be younger than its mother, cannot change that fact. Prayer will not deliver groceries to people marooned on a raft, or divert the course of a bullet, or cure the common cold. Prayer should be subjective, and while it may not change God or nature, it may change ourselves. Psychology of religion gives us a broader conception of prayer than was formerly held.

In one sense, prayer is something of a battleground of the spirit. Perhaps the head pulls one way and the heart another. A decision must be made. The problem is the old one of want to do this; ought to do that. The struggle is prayer. We take ourselves in hand and say, “This is rationalization. This is the wistful thinking. This is emotional drive, not reasoned thinking.” But still a decision must be reached. Thus, in this battleground of the spirit there are three steps: Decision (what is right or best); Resolution (to do what is right); and Execution (working to that end). In How Green Was My Valley, the minister says to the boy, “Don’t be afraid of prayer, lad, it is but another name for hard thinking.”

But prayer is also a process of self-analysis. Dr. Douglas Steere in a little book speaks of prayer as “a dip in acid.” He was talking about the kind of prayer that enables us to get away from ourselves and look critically at ourselves when we are praying. It is doubtful if any of us comes to know ourselves completely. But without prayer as self-analysis we live out our days as strangers to ourselves. Prayer that is self-analysis helps us discover in us trashy gossip, reckless criticism, hypocrisy, selfishness, hidden fears, and other defects. Hence, this kind of prayer is diagnostic. It is also therapeutic. It is this kind of prayer that sees the fault, provides resolutions to end such fault, and pushes for repairs. Not alien to this kind of prayer is gratitude for victory and aspiration for further victories.

But prayer is also a process through which we become acquainted with and often express our innermost desires. In this sense, it is a crisis process. Perhaps this is the most common form of prayer. The jockey trying to win a race, the poet struggling with rhyme and meter, the citizen facing a problem. Emerson said, “Be careful on what you set your heart. You are likely to achieve it.” Since all life is sacred, planning deliberate prayer as to our desires cleanses and motivates and makes us conscious that this life of ours is a trust…. It is well to give our ambitions an overhauling from time to time. To do so is prayer.

But prayer may also be a process of expressing thanks and appreciation. This kind of prayer need not necessarily be verbalized, and certainly there is no need to reduce it to gush. Some people see no beauty in the sea at first. The same is true of mountains, plains, deserts, music, painting, poetry, church, and people. Life is crowded with value, meaning, beauty, truth, and goodness.

To appreciate all these things, including people, we have to look for good in them, learn to appreciate them. As one renders thanks daily for the few things for which he is grateful, the list will grow until sometimes it is not inconceivable that he can embrace the whole world in his heart.

But, finally, prayer is also an adjustment to brute facts. Man’s environment is partially hostile, partially favorable and partially neutral. The things in nature and society that we cannot manipulate we call brute facts. We cannot do much about time, space, growing old, death, or the convulsions of nature. We can only partly control disease, poverty, births, floods, etc. To that which we cannot control we must adjust (as much as I dislike to use that word). The nicety and adequacy of a person’s adjustment to the inevitabilities of life is to some degree a measure of the soundness of his religion. When catastrophe comes, most people pray, though they have put off thinking about religion for years. They are likely to grab at any religion no matter how absurd. Wise people establish their religion before disaster comes. They identify brute facts and make adjustment to them before they are crushed by them.

With some, tragedy when piled on tragedy brings cynicism. He who has yielded to cynicism has failed, has permitted life to conquer him. There are certain tragic situations where all that is left are renunciation, resignation, perhaps hope, and a peace that passeth all understanding. Under certain tragic circumstances the words, “I accept” are the most beautiful of prayers, difficult though those words may be. There are times when action is not called for, but we must in quietness of spirit wait upon life.

 

All of us have watched with mounting concern – interspersed occasionally with brief moments of optimism – the increasingly tense Suez Canal matter. Very obviously, it has been and is, a good example of how unrealistic our approach to effectively handle matters involving the interests of two or more nations in today’s shrunken world. Not all the facts have been given to the people of the U.S., or to the world, for that matter. For example, our own “Secretary of Statements” [John Foster Dulles] has not made clear why in the first place we promised funds to help build the Aswan Dam, then later reneged on that promise. We have glibly been led to assume – partly by actual name-calling, that Nasser is another Hitler, which he may well be, but calling him such does not help solve the problem; it well may intensify it. Nasser may be just a political opportunist responding to the well-known rising Egyptian nationalism so characteristic of countries which have recently won their independence.

But, we approach the matter with bluster and threat of military force. When that fails to scare the other side, we resort to the time-worn, and worn-out method of getting a conference of interested powers, hoping by a show of over-balance of power to cow the other side into agreement. Then when that fails to work, we try a so-called “Canal-Users’ Association.” Now that does not seem any more palatable to the Egyptians. In the process, we hire expert canal pilots to walk off the job, hoping to control the situation indirectly by breaking down effective operation of the canal; this, apparently, giving Russian and other communist countries opportunity to step in and fill the vacuum caused by our own ineptness and questionable tactics.

At long last, the protagonists and antagonists have been forced to seek – regrettably as a last resort – turning the matter over to the United Nations, where it should have gone in the first place. What will happen there is anybody’s guess. Our own government has been reluctant to have it taken there, though it does not tell us for what reason. The nearest hint we’ve been given is that Russia may block any positive action toward a solution by the exercise of the veto in the Security Council. And this may well be true. On the other hand, the U.N. was set up to handle just such matters as this. It was set up because we recognized, but did not meet, the need for establishing an international organization to deal with matters that could not safely be left in the hands of individual nations. And, if that organization is inadequate, the solution is not to by-pass it every time we think we may not get exactly our own way, but to profit by revealed inadequacies in the organization, and proceed to remedy them by amendments to the U.N. charter. What we, along with other nations, apparently want is to eat our cake and have it too, i.e., to have an international body to settle international disputes, but at the same time retain the right of national sovereignty, or the right to have our own way every time. All history should prove that this simply cannot be done.

Moreover, if the Security Council reaches a stalemate, there is always the possibility of calling the General Assembly into action. This was done once before in a critical international situation, and it worked. What are we afraid of? Why not try this again if necessary? All Americans are interested in the maintenance of peace. We are simply not going to get it by following the same paths of diplomatic double talk and finagling that have brought us to nothing but recurrent wars in the past. Christ came to bring to earth peace to men of good will. But good will is something that must be demonstrated by all concerned, and so far there has been a lamentable lack of it on both sides. This is a situation that calls for statesmanship with international convictions and viewpoints, and there are no statements of any kind on the present horizon. And yet, those in positions of power are wielding that power in such a way that well could bring, not a little war, for there is no such in today’s world, but a war that could explode throughout not only the Middle East but throughout the world. It is very urgent that men of good will in private life let those in public office know that there can be peace without appeasement, but that it is hardly likely to come about until and unless we approach this 20th century problem in a 20th century manner.

_______

It is somewhat refreshing to turn from a moment of reflection on a world problem that is so pregnant with possibilities of strife to come of the results of another world group, this time of churchmen from some 44 nations who have been meeting in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, for the past 10 days and now have themselves been taking an inventory of world problems and their concern as church men about them. This past week the representatives of 18 million Methodists pledged themselves to work toward a human society in which discrimination based on race or color no longer exists. A message adopted at the end of the World Methodist Conference called for an end to race discrimination and production of nuclear weapons. The 2,000 delegates heard a summary of the conference findings presented by Bishop Corson of Philadelphia who emphasized the following points:

1. The Bible is the main guide for the conduct of individuals and institutions.
2. Man’s first responsibility for obedience is to God; his second, to the state. They, i.e., the delegates, affirmed that the state serves man best as his tool, not his master. And this is interesting, considering the widely different kinds of governments prevailing in the countries from which the delegates come;
3. Our practice in race relations falls far short of our precepts and principles;
4. There is no real conflict between science and religion. Science is to be embraced as a means of enabling man to live a more understanding and appreciative existence.*
5. Religious illiteracy is one of the most serious handicaps of Protestants.

*Delegates said the truths of science have often been spurned by the churches as a tool of the devil, when in actuality they are the key to a fuller understanding of God’s handiwork, and the building of his kingdom.

In a sort of man-bites-dog movement, the delegates came out and complained that too much speech making characterized this, as well as other church conferences. That by the time the speeches were over the delegates were too tired to have much energy and enthusiasm for attacking the real work of the conference. They urged that in the future, instead of being worn out by long-winded speeches, more time be given to practical group discussions. This is a sentiment that could well be applied, not only to meetings of church groups but also to teachers meetings, clubs, and other organizational get-togethers.

_______

On the theme of the political duty of the Christian, Dr. Charles Allen of Atlanta, this week observed that while the Christian layman should in no sense avoid political thought and activity, at the same time he refuses to let his church pulpit become the sounding board for partisan politics. Parts of his comments seem worth repeating here. He says:

“I think thoughtful persons sincerely resent (the) narrow partisans who somehow think that God fights on their side or who feel that their party has a priority on godliness. No blustering political argument, however heated, will ever make God into a hard wheeler of one party or another.”

But, he goes on,

“A study indicates that Christian laymen have often avoided active political responsibility… The preachers themselves apparently avoid the ballot box as they would a plague, for the percentage of ministers who actually vote is not impressive. There may be various explanations for this. Perhaps ministers wish to remain neutral … so as not to offend a parishioner. But his ballot is secret … whatever his reasons, the minister who doesn’t vote is a poor citizen, however noble his spiritual life may be. What I say about the preacher is equally true of the Christian layman.”

At this point, Dr. Allen summarizes by himself quoting from a book entitled Politics for Christians, where he says:

“The best Christian thought has never been willing to exclude any care of life from the formulations of theology. Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Calvin all related the demands of the Christian faith to both the theory and practice of politics. If what they have to say on the subject seems remote from what we know as politics today, this reflects the changes in the political process even more than any change in the relevance of theology.”

It is the thesis of this reporter that while one might conceivably be a Christian without voting, he can be a better one by doing so in a manner that reflects his dedication to the cause of human betterment.

_______

Washington: Some 3 million public school children have been enrolled this fall for weekday religious courses. Church officials say the courses are being offered in 3,000 communities in 45 states on a so-called “released time” basis. Children are given time away from public school during school hours to attend religious classes. The enrollment is the largest in the history of the released time program.

Now, it is easy to be misunderstood in the matter of opposition to released time. However, the courts have made it very clear that ours is a system of separation of church and state. It is difficult to see how legally the school authorities can square such released time with the clear intent and spirit of court decisions from the highest court in the land. Some years ago I chided a priest friend of mine with the comment that he couldn’t attract and hold children because of the impelling nature of his message, so he reverted to reliance on the state with its compulsory attendance laws to provide him with guinea pigs on which to operate during the school year. He, good-naturedly, agreed that there was considerable truth in this. The more religion, any religion, relies upon the state to bolster its cause, to that extent it admits the weakness of its appeal and the futility of its mission.

_______

Castel Gandolfo, Italy: Pope Pius has told doctors they are under a double veto, moral and legal, in the matters of euthanasia, abortion, and contraceptional practices. The pope’s views were submitted in a 5,000-word message to the International Congress of Catholic Doctors meeting at the Hague, Holland. He said medical law could never sanction such practices as euthanasia, abortion, or contraceptives because medical law is subordinated to medical morality, which expresses the moral order. The moral order, he says, is clear on this point. The speech is considered the most important the pope has made on medical topics in many years.

_______

Millions of Jews the world over observed Yom Kippur during the last week, i.e., the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish religious calendar. Yom Kippur began at sundown Friday and ended at sundown Saturday. It is a day of fasting, abstention and prayer, and finds Jews examining their deeds of the past year and seeking forgiveness for their sins.

_______

For the first time in history church membership in the U.S. has exceeded the 100 million mark. That is nearly two out of every three persons in the country. The National Council of Churches says the total membership includes nearly 58.5 million Protestants, more than 33 million Catholics, and over 5 million persons of the Jewish faith. Eastern Orthodox churches have over 2 million members, while Buddhists and Moslems total nearly 100,000. Translating these figures into percentages, the report states that almost 61 percent of Americans belong to churches, the highest on record.

_______

In the not-too-distant future, a delegation of U.S. Christian youth may visit Russia to exchange views with church young people in the Soviet Union. The proposal for such an exchange of visits between youth of the two countries was made recently by the nation’s Protestant youth organizations at Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The representatives said one purpose of such a trip would be to learn what Christian youth and students in Russia are doing to manifest their beliefs in Christianity.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Merger of the Congregational Christian churches has been approved unanimously by delegates to the Tenth Triennial General Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church. The newly formed organization will be known as the United Church of Christ and will have some 2 million members. It will be the sixth largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. The action culminates a 16-year movement toward union between the two denominations.

At the same conference, a minimum salary of $4,000 a year has been proposed for some two thousand ministers and executives of the VA Evangelical and Reformed Church. That salary is $400 above the current income.

_______

Lake Junaluska, North Carolina: An Australian clergyman has told delegates to the World Methodist Conference that the Church must provide salvation for a world reeling from threats of war, racial strains, and economic changes. The Reverend Harold Wood told the 2,500 delegates form 70 countries that the Church must proclaim the Gospel to a world which has almost lost hope. Only the Church, he said, can provide the liberation and salvation that are needed.

_______

Vatican City: Vatican sources say Catholics have full liberty of opinion on the question of whether there is life existing on Mars or any other planet in the universe. Although speaking unofficially, theologians say there is nothing categorical in Catholic doctrine on the question. In any case, they add, the plurality of inhabited worlds would present no problem for the dogma of redemption.

_______

Nice, France: Roman Catholic authorities have called for medical reports to establish whether a miracle occurred in the case of a Communist who reportedly was healed at Lourdes. The Communist, Louis Oliveri, is said to have recovered from paralysis while bathing at the holy shrine. Archbishop of Nice, Paul Remond, said no pronouncement of a cure can be made until doctors have made their report to the verification office at Lourdes. Oliveri said his right side had been paralyzed from a fall from a ladder and a hospital chaplain had suggested he seek a cure at the shrine at Lourdes.

_______

In Denver, Dr. J.H. Jackson of Chicago again has been named to the presidency of the National Baptist Convention.

_______

A mood like a tearful twilight, but also like the fresh lilt of sunrise is pervading Jewish homes and synagogues. It is an extraordinary sense of reverence born of the Jewish spiritual new year. Observance began Wednesday evening and will continue until next Saturday evening. The president of the Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbi Solomon Sharfman, defines it as a time of spiritual regeneration. The celebrants join their voices in prayer and psalms, such as, “I will lift mine eyes unto the hills….” Jewish tradition holds that before God will pardon a transgression, the sinner must first seek the forgiveness of the person who has been wronged and try to right the wrong.

_______

The new National Chaplain of the American Legion is the Reverend Bernard Gerdon of Indianapolis. Father Gerdon was a Roman Catholic chaplain in World War II and in the Korean fighting. He was elected at the Legion’s final convention session at Los Angeles on Thursday.

_______

The director of the information center of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City says Communism will never undermine the Christian church. The Reverend Charles McManus says Christians must be honest in expressing their own spiritual worth. What the Communists do not understand, continues father McManus, is that God had redeemed us and uses us to carry out his policy and program. The remarks were made to the more than 400 lay and clerical workers of the New York Catholic charities at their annual Day of Recollection service.

_______

One item in the week’s news recalled to mind that this reporter dealt with the same subject some months ago, and in this year of elections, it might be well to think seriously on it was we are besieged from both sides to support this or reject that. The subject is the question of what is happening to the family farm, and where do we as a people want to go in the matter of our farming pattern. To put it bluntly, there are two alternatives: to let things go on as they are, and the family farm as known historically in America will disappear, to be replaced by the tractor in the field, huge farm corporations controlled by capitalists and managed from executive offices in the cities, and farmed by hired help who spend little if any other than their working hours on the soil.

Now it is easy to indulge in bucolic nostalgia and revere the family farm as an element of our past, and to do so wholly without regard to the march of mechanization in agriculture. On the other hand, it is undeniably true that the huge surpluses we hear about today are largely the creation of the giant corporate farms, not the result of the activities of the family-sized farm. Furthermore, the family farm contributed something to human values that the corporate farm cannot. First there was, of course, the family security felt by the farmer as he realized that he lived within an economic framework that would provide him and his the necessities of life. Second, there was the constructive, creative satisfaction he and is family received by seeing concretely the result of their efforts in managing the soil, planting crops, nurturing them to maturity, and harvesting the results. And third, but by no means least, farming was not only a way of making a living, it was a way of living at life, and there is little doubt that the farm family felt in a way that they were partners with the Creator in utilizing natural forces to produce foodstuffs to sustain human life.

Perhaps few of us would go so far as the speaker at the Catholic Rural Life Conference did a few years ago when he declared that the farmer’s is a dedicated calling, as much as is the minister who is called to serve the spiritual needs of humanity, but there is little doubt that the framework of farm living encouraged, inculcated, and nourished a set of values that find no counterpart in non-rural living.

Well, as a people, what do we want to do about it? Neither party offers anything in the way of discouraging the trend toward fewer and larger farms and the concentration of land ownership and management in fewer and fewer hands. The two differ only in how much parity they will advocate. Neither offers anything suggesting the use of governmental efforts to encourage more widespread farm ownership for young people who wish to make careers of farming. As one humorist recently put it, farm population is declining because the farmer’s daughter moved to town to get a job, and the farmer’s son had to move to town to get a date. A lot more farmers moved to town because they decided to follow their profits.

Politicians throughout our history have given lip service to the nobility of the farmer’s calling, but few have done very much to ennoble that calling, and now it looks as if the time is not far distant when the small farmers, as Mr. Benson recently put it, will be plowed under and family farm life will be only something our children will read about in history books. When that is true, the homely but sound virtues spawned by family farm living will doubtless be transferred to the textbooks also. So, we can do either or a combination of three things. 1. Set forces in motion to stimulate and encourage ownership and operation of farms of family size; 2. Take the attitude that nothing can or need be done about it, which seems to be what we are doing now; 3. Decide that we want large-scale agriculture and set forces in motion to speed up the process of concentration of ownership and management. Whatever we do, whole scales of human values and human satisfaction will be involved.

_______

Last Sunday I devoted a major portion of the time on this program to a consideration of the integration debacle at Clinton, Tennessee. Little need be added, I take it, to relate what has happened since. Sturgis, Kentucky, and a nearby community seem to be repeating much the same picture as did Clinton and Oliver Springs. However, something new has been added in the form of a statement that emerged from the President’s news conference on Wednesday of this week. When asked about his attitude toward use of federal force if necessary to uphold the law, the President took refuge in a statement that is entirely true, but leaves us about where we were before the question was asked. His words are, “It is difficult through law and through force to change a man’s heart … but I do believe that we must all, regardless of our calling, help to bring about a change in spirit so that extremists on both sides do not defeat what we know as a reasonable, logical conclusion to this whole affair, which is recognition of equality of men….”

Now nobody can object to this statement. Certainly changing attitudes, or spirits, or whatever you want to call them, is a major problem in dealing with the question of integration. However, the President did not declare himself on or even recognize the fact that what Clinton and Sturgis are dealing with is behavior resulting from attitudes. We may not change people’s hearts by force, but behavior is something overt that can be controlled, and that is what the National Guard contingents in the two states are at their present locations for. Furthermore, behavior that violates this law is violation of a federal law, and while this reporter is a staunch believer in states rights, he also believes that the national rights of the individual citizens are paramount to the prejudiced behavior of citizens who would deprive him of those rights. The President’s statement, while true and admirable, tells us nothing of where the administration stands on the matter. Veritably, the so-called middle-of-the-road is getting crowded these days, by non-committers in both parties.

_______

A final item deals with a column by a syndicated writer this week who urges school teachers not to be “justa,” going on to defining “justa” as the reply that is often received when a teacher is asked her occupation, to the effect that she is “justa” teacher. The writer goes on, “I urge them to take pride in the wonderful profession to which they are devoting their lives. They deal with children and have unlimited opportunities for molding human character and implanting ideals.”

Well, all true enough. But many teachers are getting pretty bored with hearing all this. We know it already, and repeating it will not help much. As to whether teaching is a profession is a matter of how one defines profession. From this reporter’s viewpoint, it hardly rates as one. Many of us teach for three reasons:

1. We like the kind of work entailed: study, reflective thought, organization, presentation of materials.
2. It affords us a living, of a sort, though the layman has little if any idea of the demands made upon the teacher in many ways, simply because he is a teacher, and those demands far outweigh the scope of the salary of the average teacher.
3. We have faith in the possibility of people, through learning, to learn not only to make a better living but also to live better lives.

Maybe you can think of other reasons, but boiled down, those seem to this reporter, who has spent many years in the classroom, to about cover the subject. Personally, I don’t care much for the missionary preaching that is handed out to teachers about the nobility of our calling. We already know all about that for we’ve heard it hundreds of times, many times extended to us in lieu of salary increases. Maybe I’m ill-adjusted, but I guess I’m just a teacher.

 

First, a potpourri of religion in the week’s news as reported by United and Associated Press services.

A 12-day World Methodist Conference opened yesterday at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. Delegates and visitors from 70 nations are attending. The conference is sponsored by the World Methodist Council which represents about 18 million Methodists. Bishop Ivan Lee Holt, of St. Louis, the council president, calls this conference the biggest international gathering of Methodists ever held. The World Conference itself was organized in 1881 and last met in the United States in 1947. It is not expected to meet again in this country for some 15 or 20 years.

_______

From Washington it is announced that Pope Pius has relocated ecclesiastical boundaries and established two new dioceses in Missouri. The dioceses of Kansas City and St. Joseph have been united under archbishop of Kansas City, Edwin V. O’Hara. Former bishop of St. Joseph, the Most Rev. Charles H. Blond has been transferred to a new titular see. A new Diocese of Jefferson City was established with the Most Rev. Joseph M. Marlin as first bishop.

_______

At sundown this coming Wednesday start the 10 holiest days in the Jewish year. They are the High Holy Days, begun with Rosh Hashanah in the spiritual new year, not the festive one. The latter – Simhath Torah – comes 23 days later, and is known as the rejoicing of the law. Rosh Hashanah in reality marks the creation of the world for the Jews, and as such marks the year 5171 in Jewish history. Messages and statement issued by Jewish leaders and civic groups throughout the world, anticipating Rosh Hashanah, have stressed hope for peace and freedom. For example, the Rabbinical Council of America has pleaded for peace and international cooperation.

_______

The National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. notes American churches will observe Labor Day in services for the 47th year. The council says in its annual Labor Sunday message that the U.S. seems to be enjoying widespread prosperity at the moment. It also states unemployment is still a threat in many communities. The Protestant church group further declares Christians cannot ignore the economic and moral issues involved in the effect on the U.S. economy of such proposals as those caring for workers during unemployment. The council sees it as the church’s task always to uphold the ethical principles and Christian values that are to be applied even to complicated economic and industrial situations.

_______

Tomorrow the General Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church is to vote on authorization of a unifying general session with the Congregational Christian Church. Approval for the union is expected in Cleveland next year. Even so, the Evangelical and Reformed Church proposes to carry out a new three-year “program of advance,” as it puts it. After the uniting session, a new constitution would have to be written and then adopted by the newly merged groups, which would have the name “United Church of Christ.” The three-year advance program includes establishment of some 100 new churches in North America, recruiting 200,000 new members, and training some 200 new missionaries and overseas workers. The church now has about 2,800 congregations in 34 states, and about 750,000 members. The Tenth Triennial Session of the Synod is being held in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, one of the very early strongholds of the Reformed Church in America.

_______

The Vatican says that more than 1 million Poles have given evidence of continued Roman Catholic strength in Communist Poland. It adds that many attended recent ceremonies honoring the Virgin Mary. The observers marked the 300th anniversary of the proclamation of the Virgin as “Queen of the Polish People.” Pope Pius has wired his blessing of the gathering.

_______

Within the past week we have seen here in Tennessee, at Clinton, the origination and development of a situation that is depressing, disgusting, and disturbing. It all began when a dozen colored pupils were admitted to the local high school as a beginning of compliance with a court order for integration in education with all deliberate speed. As in almost every other situation where incidents have occurred over integration, the center of the disturbance is outsiders. One, a John Kasper from Washington, D.C., is apparently a professional agitator. His real motive is not entirely clear, but it is highly likely that he hopes to swim in the waters that he is doing his best to keep troubled. As his activities began to receive more and more publicity, members of the White Citizens Council of Alabama rushed into the already uncertain situation, and took up where Kasper was forced to leave off after a contempt of court citation. There is little if any evidence that a crisis of any kind would have occurred if outsiders, and this includes local residents who are not going to school, as well as those out of state, had not intruded themselves into the situation.

But, like the proverbial snowball, once the emotional jag started rolling, it became larger and more dangerous, until by the end of the week the situation was described by the Associated Press as “tense”, “a mob of feverish pitch,” and the like. Cars have been stopped, people molested, property has been destroyed, and houses have been broken into. It appears that school authorities are standing firm, but such statement can hardly be made regarding assistance requested from the state government in Nashville. [Governor] Clement called out National Guard.

Well, what’s it all about anyway? The whole thing rests on the mistaken assumption of this idea of racial superiority, for which Hitler and company were famous – or infamous. It assumes that a person, because of his race, and because of that one factor alone, is superior in all ways to an individual of another race. But what is this thing called “race” anyway? The truth is that nobody knows. Anthropologists would like to expunge the word from our vocabulary, for it has no precise scientific meaning. But since it is a word that is used popularly and widely, albeit loosely, they try to define it as simply saying it refers to a grouping of the human race who have certain physical, inheritable qualities that passed on to offspring through the process of conception.

But, they hasten to point out, quite rightly, that even taking the three great racial groups – Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid – there are more similarities among individuals of different groups than there are differences. All have the same bodily structure, there are no physiological differences among members of the various groups as to cultural potentialities, that is, an American of white, Anglo-Saxon parentage, reared from birth by a Chinese family, would be culturally just as much Chinese as would an individual of Mongoloid parents.

Moreover, and this is vitally important to keep in mind, there is simply no such thing as a “pure” race today. The ancestry of all peoples is mixed. To illustrate, let me recall for you that in the eighth century Charles Martel drove the Moors – Negroes – south of the Pyrenees, out of France and into Spain. In the process, several hundred Moors were taken captive back into France. There they were at first slaves, but the easy-going Gallic nature of the Frenchman soon permitted those captives their freedom, and finally full rights within the social order. During the course of history these Moorish people have disappeared through merging with their much more numerous white neighbors, and today, many of us who claim to be pure white, though of French descent, might well ask ourselves if it is not possible, even likely, that some of the blood coursing through our veins may have been contributed by our Moorish ancestors. To me that is not a matter for emotional disturbance, it is simply a fact of history. But perhaps the emotionally aroused mobs of Clinton do not know or want to know much history.

If they looked at our own history in this country, they would recognize that it is in the South, where laws and other artificial barriers of all kinds have been set up to keep the races apart, that the most racial mixing has occurred. And this mixing has gone on despite laws, or other factors.

But to what does all this add up as far as “Religion in the News” is concerned? Well, maybe it is easy for me to oversimplify an admittedly complicated phenomenon, but it is difficult for me to see how one can believe in a god who is the father of us all, and yet makes some of us better than others simply because of a minor difference in skin color, or other unimportant detail. Integration, not only in education, but in every aspect of our lives, has been a challenge to the churches long, long before there was any Supreme Court decision on the matter. One wonders, naturally enough, how comfortable the racial supremacists could or will be in the infinite beyond if they find around them members of another racial group. Not only is integration the law of the land, it is a challenging practical situation where men of good will of whatever faith have an opportunity to put the principles we preach so much about to work in our own community.

Christ’s concern began and ended with the individual. Race, color, national origin, made no difference to him. The woman of Samaria, outcast though she was in the eyes of “respectable” Jews, was as precious to him – perhaps more so – than the canting, hypocritical pharisee. The penitent thief on the cross received assurance that Pilate, with all his earthly pomp, could not get.

America has been built and made great and strong by many peoples of all lands and races. Even our language is a hybrid composed of borrowings from about all the languages of the world. The American Indian contributed immensely to our knowledge of the land, new foods which are with us today, staples that our pre-Columbian forbears never heard of; the Chinese blasting his way through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to help build the First Continental Railway; the Italian laborer in the mines and the mills; the German, Swedish, Russian pioneers who wrung a civilization from the wilderness; the Jew who peddled his wares from door to door, providing a service badly needed by the people of earlier America; and so on down – or up – it goes. A complete catalog of those who helped make America what it is today cannot be compiled.

Here, out of diversity, we have been continually working toward unity with diversity. Our declaration of principles in 1776 said “all men,” not just “some.” The Bill of Rights and the rest of our Constitution make no allusion to racial differences. But as a people we have been marching, though not always steadily, toward a realization of the principle that certain rights should be shared by all, and these include the traditional freedoms of speech, religion, etc., and the right to equality in education. Perhaps we shall never fully attain our goal of equal justice for all, but if we ever reach the place where we stop struggling toward it, we shall become another kind of social order.

This kind of equality does not force anyone to become personal associates with anyone who has undesirable characteristics. We whites make all sorts of distinctions among our acquaintances. Some whites we know we do not care to be around or associate with at all. Your and my children going to school have their own preferences among their class and school mates. There is no enforced equality in the classroom other than that minimum necessary for the common welfare of all in seeking better learning conditions. So there is no point in waxing emotional over the idea of more than one race occupying the same classroom.

Certain it is that the program of integration is one that calls for calm, rational thinking, not emotional outbursts of indignation. It is also a program that is going to demand in every community the support of straight-thinking citizens who believe in the essence of American democracy, i.e., the dignity and rights of the individual, regardless of his color or race. It is difficult to see how religion of the Christian variety can be squared with any other concept.