December 30, 1956

Washington: Government experts predict that America’s churches will go on their biggest building spree in history during 1957. They’re already enjoying a record membership boom. During 1956 a record amount of $775 million was spent on building or enlarging churches, synagogues, and Sunday school edifices. Commerce Department analysis says next year’s outlay should be about $875 million, or 13 percent more. That’s about 20 times what was spent 20 years ago. As for church membership, the latest figures – for 1955 – show membership at an all-time high of more than 100 million. Sunday school enrollment climbed to 39 million.

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New York: A religious news director rates the release of three churchmen from communist imprisonment as the outstanding religious news story of the year. Richard T. Sutcliffe, associate director of the Department of Press, Radio, and Television of the United Lutheran Church in America, picked that as first among the top 10 religious news stories. The three churchmen released were Cardinal Mindszenty, the Roman Catholic primate of Hungary; Bishop Lajos Ordass Head of the Lutheran Church in Hungary; and Cardinal Wyszynski, Roman Catholic primate of Poland. Sutcliffe gave second place to the exchange of American and Russian delegations; and third, the merger moves among American Protestant churches.

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Vatican City: The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano has called on the United Nations to follow the appeal of Pope Pius and take action against the oppressors of Hungary. Either that or forfeit its role as the main instrument of peace. In an editorial, the newspaper rejected the war-mongering charges hurled at the pope by the communist press for his Christmas message. The pope had urged the U.N. to refuse life membership rights from those nations which refused to admit U.N. observers.

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Again Vatican City: The pope last Thursday received in private audience Republican Representative Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania. During their brief talk, Rep. Scott expressed gratitude for the pope’s leadership on the Hungarian problem.

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New York: The head of the National Council of Churches said that he believes the nation is on the edge of a true religious revival. But, says Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, it will come to fruition only if it becomes intellectually deeper, more personal and social, more practical and local, whatever that means. Dr. Blake says the increase in religious interest and support in our time is heartening to church people in spite of some indications of superficiality. He added, “I do not believe the day will be won by mass appeal and smart advertising techniques. It will come out of a revitalized Christian congregation worshiping and serving in your town.”

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The first large-scale meeting for Southern Baptist students since 1938 has heard that Christian students should use the worldwide crisis to serve humanity. The appeal has come from a professor of religious philosophy, Dr. Culbert Rutender of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has told the Nashville, Tennessee, student congress that students can respond in three ways to the world crisis. One is to ignore it and hope that it goes away; the second is to flee in fear; but the third response is to make it an opportunity for service.

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A Japanese weekly has disclosed that Emperor Hirohito himself helped draft the imperial rescript that 11 years ago renounced his claim to divinity. One of Japan’s outstanding educators, Tamon Maeda, writes in Shukan, Tokyo, that Hirohito, on January 1, 1946, disclaimed divinity and debunked the mythological divine existence of the imperial house of Japan. Maeda adds the decision for the renunciation was made because everything was chaos and the people were confused in the months after the surrender. Maeda helped with the draft of the renunciation. He adds that the emperor was very cooperative…offered suggestions…and was helpful with the language used in the imperial rescripts.

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A Russian defense ministry publication had accused the U.S. of using its chaplains to achieve what the Soviet Military Herald terms “ideological stupefaction” in its Armed Forces. Among other things, the paper declares that U.S. chaplains take advantage of religious feelings and try to justify social inequality and advocate the inevitability of war from a religious point of view.

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In Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday, the president of the National Council of Churches ended an 11-day tour of Alaskan defense installations. The Reverend Dr. Eugene Carson Blake told a group of commanding officers and chaplains that he would work for more effective support of the ministry of chaplains. The National Council head, who is also executive officer of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., heard praise for his efforts from high military authorities. It was the third consecutive Christmas that Dr. Blake had left the states to carry the Christmas message to U.S. service personnel overseas.

During Christmas also, Francis Cardinal Spellman celebrated a Christmas midnight Mass at the new chapel at Thule Air Base in Greenland, at the U.S.’s farthest north outpost.

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Boston: A Boston native has been named to a high Roman Catholic position in some Pacific islands. Pope Pius has named the Rev. Vincent Kennally as vicar apostolic of the Caroline-Marshall Islands and titular bishop of Sassura. As vicar apostolic, or delegate of the pope, Bishop-elect Kennally will have virtually the same powers over the island’s 22,500 Catholics as a bishop does in his diocese. The 62-year-old Jesuit priest succeeds another Boston prelate in the Caroline-Marshall Islands post, Bishop Thomas Feeney, who died last year.

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Last week I reported on the discouragement expressed by the commander of NATO, Henri Spaak of Belgium, on the uncertain effectiveness of the United Nations. This week, a nationally-syndicated columnist devotes his day’s work to this subject, pointing out that while the U.N. serves a purpose, it represents the brutal facts of today’s world. As for the purpose it serves, Wellington Long says that it is useful as a forum on the policies of democratic governments. He goes on to emphasize, however, that it has little if any effect on the policies of dictatorial governments, the heads of which go on their determined way, relenting only when it is expedient for them to do so. And in this connection one cannot help but recall that during the war, Stalin decreed freedom of religion in Russia, not because he expected that such freedom would be permitted, but because it would store up capital of good will for him among the democracies, with which he was currently allied from force of necessity.

The brutal facts that Mr. Long points out are all too well known to both radio listeners and newspaper readers, namely, that the U.N. can move with some effectiveness when the matter concerns small of democratic states. But note reluctance and refusal for swift, decisive action in regard to the Russian-Hungary murders. Hence, moral authority is the chief, and about the only weapon which the U.N. can use, and moral force is of no force with immoral governments. It could or would not take steps to force Hungary to admit U.N. observers. Of course all of this is not unexpected. The nations of the world were too selfish, too arrogant to delegate any real power to the international organization that they so proudly proclaimed in 1945 would avert another world catastrophe. We all hope that it will, but there is nothing tangible on which to base this hope until or unless nationalism everywhere is reduced to the point where it will surrender some of its lawmaking and law-enforcing powers to a democratically-constructed international body – powers sufficient to keep the peace, but small enough to leave nations free to determine their own internal destiny. Then and only then will peace on earth to men of good will be something upon which we can safely rely.

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Now that Christmas itself has come and gone, perhaps it is better to review it and its meaning in retrospect than it would have been to preview it, as this reporter, understandably enough, had an urge to do. One can look back at both anticipation and realization; before, he could only look forward to realization with anticipation.

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From the Rev. Irving R. Murray of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, comes this comment upon the changing nature of the work of ministers. He says that it is time now to recognize that some of the old functions of the ministry have to be sloughed off if the new church is to emerge. Old-fashioned parish calling, he says, is incompatible with a counseling ministry. There just isn’t time to visit every home once or twice a year and work intensively with men and women in trouble. Again, it must be recognized that some ministerial roles required specialization if they are to fulfilled with adequacy. And that means other roles must be neglected with only one minister in smaller churches. No precise pattern can be established. But the role of every minister must be defined and understood by his people, with a view to the realization of his talents and the fulfillment of their need. For the frenetic life of the ministry today points only to the collapse of the full-time leadership of the church.

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Some listeners took exception, and quite rightly so, if they so desired, to some comments made on this program some weeks ago in an admittedly crude effort to define religion. Explanation of the natural characteristic religion is called theology. The critical examination of the claims of religious systems is called the philosophy of religion. The theological systems have not adopted knowledge as rapidly as it has accrued, and today there is a gulf between religious systems and modern knowledge. Truth is largely a very high degree of probability. The churches, Christian, have generally insisted that all people needed to do was, in some creedal or emotional sense, to “accept Christ,” and all would be well. After centuries of this, not all is well. The pragmatist points out that the supernatural systems do not work for most people, that on the whole, they do not add to human happiness. The notion that the pay-off is after you are dead sounds like the sales talk of a uranium salesman. Theological systems are, for the most part, like eggs; you cannot reshape them. So the systems have had to ignore knowledge or oppose it. Of course the preservation of a logical system may not be too important. What is important is that the church give direction on the basis of the best knowledge available. At one time, logic very thoroughly supported the idea that the earth was flat.

Be all that as it may, once the world was dark and forbidding. Cold and hunger or heat and thirst pursued everyman. Fear dogged everyman’s footsteps, sat at everyman’s table, and at night mocked his slumbers. From over the horizon, from the land of ought-to-be into this world of insupportable misery came a figure of surpassing masterliness. He looked upon the people of the fields, bound and condemned, and loved them, and said, “Ye shall be free.” He walked the city streets, He saw children with stomachs swollen from starvation, covered with sores, and tormented with vermin, and He loved them and placed his hands upon them in blessing and said, “Ye shall be free.” He saw the workmen hungry, beaten, sullen, and without hope, and He loved them and said, “Ye shall be free.” He saw the lepers, the insane and the prostitutes and He loved them and said, “Ye shall be free.” He saw the priests, the scribes, the tax gatherers, and officials, saw them in all their blindness and wickedness, and He loved them and said, “Ye shall be free.” Soldiers in glittering armor clashed down the street and pushed him out of their way, and He loved them and said, “Ye shall be free.”

This person dreamed the beautiful dream that ever was or ever shall be – a dream of justice and love. The people heard Him gladly. But one day the soldiers came and took Him away to die. For wickedness cannot stand before so beautiful a dream. But the dream itself did not die. It lived, and it lives at all Christmas seasons. So fair was it that in every generation there have been the pure of heart who have been the keepers of that dream. And even the scoffers know that when there no longer are keepers of that dream, there will be no dream, and when there is no dream, everyone will be eternally lost.

December 23, 1956

A soldier from Ft. Lewis, Washington state, will be in Korea this Christmas because he knows what it means to be an orphan at that time. Staff Sergeant Rex Richard Gilman says his parents abandoned him and his five brothers and sisters when they were small children. So, Sgt. Gilman and his wife will adopt a Korean orphan – a 29-month-old boy who has been crippled by polio. The soldier explains further, “We chose him because not many people want to adopt a crippled child.”

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Again Korea, a Korean-speaking Santa Claus is brightening the season for 150 waifs living near no-man’s-land between South and North Korea. U.S. soldiers from the United Nations Armistice Commission are helping him distribute clothing in four orphanages.

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In Santa Fe, New Mexico, a conditional release has been given an artistic convict in time for Christmas. He is life-termer Ralph Dubose Pekor, famed for his painting of a smiling Christ made while he was in a Florida prison. Pekor is dying from cancer.

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Chinese and Russian will be among the 25 languages the Christmas message by Pope Pius will be broadcast in today.

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Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York is on a Christmas visit with U.S. servicemen in the far north. The Roman Catholic prelate will hold special services for Americans in Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland, and Labrador. U.S. servicemen in Alaska will have the Rev. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake as a yuletide visitor. He heads the National Council of Churches in the U.S.A., a group of Protestant and Orthodox churches.

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A leading rabbi says the whole of what is termed “our Christian civilization” is rejecting Christ and his teachings. The statement comes from Dr. Maurice Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. He said if he were a Christian minister, he would lament nothing so much and resent nothing so bitterly as the wholesale turning of such a holy day as Christmas into so heathen a holiday. And many of us can echo a fervent amen to this.

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Spot reports from all over the country have indicated more good will and selflessness by working groups this Christmastime. Civilian employees of the Boston Navy Yard used more than $20,000 usually allotted to shop parties to be hosts to more than 1,000 orphans. About $15,000 worth of gifts have been distributed to needy children and to hospitalized veterans by employees of the Republic Aviation Corporation at Farmingdale, Long Island. The Arizona Game and Fish Department has canceled its usual Christmas party in favor of aiding a young Japanese-American widow and her three small children. Her husband was a Game and Fish Department employee who was killed in an automobile accident. The Agriculture Department’s Foreign Agricultural Service will send about 200 toys to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, for distribution among Hungarian refugee children. And a Louisville, Kentucky, Radio Station (WKYW) has adopted a needy family for Christmas day instead of its usual Christmas party. Those are some of the ways with which people are endeavoring this year to remember the birth of the Christ Child almost 2,000 years ago.

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Last Sunday I mentioned briefly the 41,000-mile road building program undertaken – to the tune of about $90 billion – by the federal government, and that no provision had been written into the bill regulating billboards along such roads, thus leaving the way wide open for unsightly eyesores along the way and at the same time tending to accident hazards. Some of you listeners failed to see much of religious significance in that item. While I have no desire to argue the point, for one sees religion according to his own conception of what constitutes religion, I might emphasize that saving of lives, as well as saving of souls, is or should be the concern of all religions. Furthermore, two columnists whose writings are nationally syndicated have devoted as many articles to the matter this week, and Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee has also this week told a newspaperman that he will seek to learn what the states are doing to protect their portions of the proposed highway network. Gore, incidentally, favored writing billboard control into the original bill, but apparently the billboard lobby reached enough lawmakers to cause them to threaten the whole measure if any such provision were included.

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Did you know that during this past week, we also elected a president of the United States? Last month, you and I, the voters, went out and voted here in Tennessee, not for Eisenhower or Stevenson, but for a number of electors who were pledged to cast their vote for one candidate or the other. Since the first election, in 1788, these electors have, with few exceptions, cast their votes according to the way they promised the voters they would do before the election. It has become part of our political – and moral – mores that such electors are ethically bound to support the nominee for whom they announce.

Down in Alabama this week, however, one elector strayed from the fold, and instead of casting his vote for Stevenson as he had promised, voted for one Judge Walter B. Jones. This was legal, all right, but there are a number of things that are legally correct but are morally wrong. This single act by a wayward Alabama elector signalizes no great menace to the Republic, but his behavior illustrates one way in which the will of the voters can be flouted by our antique electoral college system. It is past high time that we abolish this college outright and let you and me and the Joe Smiths throughout the country vote directly for president and vice president. That way there will be no opportunity for an elector to jump the track, break his promise, and thwart the will of the voters.

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As stressed on this program time and again, our freedoms are indivisible. Speech, religion, press, and others are all bound up in a bundle which, if broken weakens the whole structure. Apart of our democratic constitutional system is the rule of the majority, for when a minority can impose its will upon the majority, tyranny results. Moreover, in recent years, all of us have been more and more concerned with economic opportunities, and have relied upon government to protect, and in some cases provide, such opportunities.

One of the most vicious attempts to deny both political and economic opportunities is the so-called right-to-work movement, whereby it would be illegal to require a worker to join a union in order to retain employment in a union shop. Actually it is a union-busting movement masquerading under a more respectable title. How it works is this: Suppose 900 of our 1,000 employees in a given shop vote that a certain union is the one they with to represent them in their bargaining with their employees? A contract is drawn up and signed by both parties whereby the employer may hire anyone he wishes, but whomever he hires must decide within, say 30 days, whether he wishes to affiliate with the established union or to discontinue his employment and find work elsewhere. The so-called right-to-work laws would make such a contract illegal. In other words, such laws would say that one man is stronger than the 900 whose welfare is at stake. Obviously, if an employer wished to break up a workers’ organization, backed by such a law he could specialize in hiring persons who would refuse to be affiliated with the established union until pretty soon the union would be wrecked, and the welfare of the 900 threatened. It is doubtless true that there are unions in this country that have made mistakes. There are also employers who have made mistakes. Two mistakes do not make something right. Our high standard of living for the average worker, about which Fourth of July and Labor Day orators prate much, is due in large part to the collective bargaining carried on in good faith by the employer and employees. Anything that strikes at the heart of family welfare should be of concern to everyone, and the courts have declared that right to organize and bargain collectively is one of our fundamental rights. Thinking citizens will not be misled by movements that are subversive of this right, regardless of whatever high-sounding title they are presented under. A country’s wealth consists not in its gold at Fort Knox but in how well its families are housed, clothed, and fed – and these are the things of concern to religious-minded people, as they were of the Master. They will be less well housed, clothed, and fed, if their economic rights are undermined and denied.

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In this season of wishing peace on earth, a statement this week by the secretary general of NATO, Paul-Henri Spaak of Belgium is disturbing, though it is entirely realistic. He expresses the conviction that the United Nations is a dangerous and ineffective instrument in its present form and goes on to assert that unless it is changed it will not long endure. This statement is all the more meaningful when we recall that Spaak is a former president of the U.N. General Assembly, has been three times prime minister of his own country, and four times its foreign minister. And, the statement is all the more disturbing when we place alongside it the stated conviction of our own government officials who assert their complete confidence in the U.N. and say that it is only beginning to show its virtue.

Well, our memory does not have to be very long to recall that it acted decisively when Britain and France invaded Egypt, but that it wrangled and passed a half-hearted resolution of condemnation against Russia at her recent – and continuing rape of Hungary.

Many of us who are familiar with the pattern of performance of the League of Nations throughout its short life fail to see much reassurance about its successor, the U.N., unless something is done drastically to change its structure and authority. Spaak would have modification of the charter to abolish the veto, revise the procedure of voting to make it more responsible, have the charter decree that violators of international law are excluded from the organization, and set up a real international army.

This reporter recommended these and several additional changes more than once on this program. After all, the problem is simple: We either set up an international organization with delegated powers to make and enforce law designed to keep the peace among the nations, or we let the nations do as Russia is now doing – murder innocent people in a neighboring country while the U.N. twiddles its thumbs and wrings its hands wondering what to do. At the risk of being called cynical, I emphasize that this is decidedly not the way to bring peace on earth or good will to men.

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An excerpt for Dr. Harold Scott, pastor of the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City, seems worth including as a closing item on today’s broadcast. It goes like this.

I’m not mad at anybody but I am sick at my stomach. Among the things that make me that way are:

 

  1. The well-meaning mother who works, instead of living on her husband’s income and taking care of the children, so that the children can have the alleged advantage of a subdivision home, a car that isn’t paid for, and $100 worth of Christmas presents apiece. She says, “It’s worth going into debt just to see their little faces light up, and anyway it would be terrible if all their friends got lots for Christmas and they were left with only six or eight things.”
  1. The childless couple who own two large dogs and engage in esoteric hobbies like jewel-cutting, but cannot afford to put a lawn in front of the two-year-old house that won’t be theirs until they are sixty.
  1. Automobile commercials that run, “You never looked so good as when you’re in one of our 1957 Junkmobiles. Watch the neighbors stare when you drive past. Bigger than ever – 300 horsepower just straining for action at your command.”
  1. Mass media that inculcate idolatry of the unreal and morbid in our children. In other countries kids are taught to venerate intellectuals and patriots who lived on this planet.
  1. Pleasant, sincere, well-educated people who are so afraid of life and of themselves that they cannot bear to be alone for a minute.

Well, these are some of the things about which the good doctor feels less than in the top of condition in the general region of his abdomen. Most of us older ones can remember when the neighbors didn’t look down on people who paid their debts, or stayed out of debt, who minded their own business, and who went to church because they loved the experience, and who looked upon Christmas as a holy day rather than merely a holiday.

December 16, 1956

This week saw Lutheranism in North America get a boost toward union. Commissioners representing four Lutheran church groups voted at Chicago to proceed with plans for merger. That followed agreement that no serious doctrinal disagreement separates them. The union would make a new church of almost 3 million members, including the United Lutheran Church in America, the Augustana Lutherans, the Finnish Evangelical Lutherans, and the American Evangelical Lutherans. A steering committee is to make a pattern of organization. Commissioners of the four groups will meet in Chicago next March to begin drafting a constitution. All told, there are about 7 million persons belonging to 18 Lutheran bodies in North America, which includes congregations in Mexico and Canada. The Lutheran Church Evangelical Synodical Conference claims the most members, about 2.5 million.

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Albany New York: Protestant and Jewish clergymen are doing four-hour shifts as hospital orderlies and hearing lectures on psychiatry and medicine. Their work and studies are part of a 30-week extension course offered by Andover Theological Seminary, Newton Center, Massachusetts, and sponsored by the Federation of Churches in Christ in Albany and vicinity.

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In Egypt this week, the Rev. Russell Stevenson has made a survey of refugee needs for some U.S. churches. His sponsoring agency, the National Council of the Churches of Christ, has said reports indicate some 60,000 refugees need aid because of the Egyptian hostilities.

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In Jerusalem, the foreign consular members have cancelled their traditional Christmas procession to Bethlehem. One of the diplomats says the abandonment is to protest Jordan’s refusal to allow the procession to use the southern road. This is the route over the old Roman road said to have been used by Mary and Joseph in their journey to Bethlehem. However, the usual Christian pilgrimage by another road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem will be permitted by Jordan.

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The head of the Roman Catholic Church has pleaded for a little more quiet in modern life. Pope Pius has told Italy’s Anti-noise Congress that mechanization is responsible for most of today’s noise. He has named streetcars, trains, subways, and heavy trucks as offenders that disturb what the pontiff describes as “the serene joy that should reign at family hearths.”

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Reaffirmation of their faith in dogma of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been made by some 35,000 Catholic pilgrims from 140 parishes around San Antonio, Texas. The candlelight procession and high pontifical Mass celebrated the appearance of the “patroness of the Americas” to a simple Indian in 1531.

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Washington: American churches have begun to wage a religious crusade against death on their highways. Clergymen are telling their members that reckless driving is not merely dangerous; it is a sin. Churches of all denominations are joining in the campaign to bring Christian conscience to bear on traffic safety problems. Pope Pius and many Protestant leaders have endorsed it. The widely circulated Protestant magazine, Christian Herald, has an editorial in its current issue entitled “Are You a Christian at the Wheel?”

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Indianapolis, Indiana: The managing editor of The Christian Century magazine has urged the nation’s churches to go ahead with interdenominational projects even though they disagree on theology. Dr. Theodore A. Gill told a divisional meeting of the National Council of Churches that Christians need theological clarification, not looking for a super church, but a superior national church.

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Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Spencer was elected at a meeting of the group to succeed Herschel Pettus, of the Louisiana Baptist Foundation.

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Pasadena, California: The Methodist Council of Bishops has set a $1 million goal in a resolution appealing for donations to aid Hungarian refugees. The resolution authorized collection of funds through January 6 in the 40,000 Methodist churches throughout the country.

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Indianapolis, Indiana: The head of the National Council of Churches says an all-powerful totalitarian church is as great a menace to the worship of God as an all-powerful totalitarian state. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake says the church in America is in a far happier situation than is the church in most other nations. He urged all religious groups to reexamine the tax-free status of the church in America as a possible threat to freedom.

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Almost every day enough items having moral, ethical or religious significance crop up in the news that fifteen minutes well could be devoted to them. Hence, trying to prepare a broadcast weekly on such items necessitates simply trying to decide, and with very little time at that, which of the many are more significant. The following seem worthy of inclusion under the latter category and comment upon insofar as time will allow:

Yesterday, December 15, marked the 165th anniversary of the adoption of the first 10 amendments known as “The Bill of Rights,” to the federal Constitution. In these days when in so many areas of the world, there is no value of human dignity, we Americans should give special attention to this all-important document. Here in Tennessee we have seen during recent weeks denial of constitutional rights to American citizens and resort to the potentially strong arm of the federal government to secure those rights which are plainly embodied in the Constitution and spelled out by court interpretation.

Furthermore, the U.N. Committee on Human Rights worked out some years ago a Universal Declaration of Human Rights and presented it to the member nations. Our nation, once the only nation standing out clearly on the world horizon as the staunch declarer and defender of human freedoms, has refused to endorse this declaration. Why? Because individuals in both parties, whom we have a right to expect to assume the stature of statesmanship, have, instead, chosen the path of political expediency. One of the unnecessary ways to be defeated and to defeat ourselves is to assume at the outset that nothing is possible or can be done about a situation, then proceed to do nothing about it. So far, neither Truman nor Eisenhower has presented this document to the Senate with full administration backing!

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Another subject about which considerable has appeared in recent weeks and months, and more this week than usual, is the matter of billboards on our highways. The federal government has authorized spending over $40 billion of your and my money during the next few years in the construction of a network of highways throughout this country. So far, only a feeble attempt has been made to get written into law protection of the public against commercial blights strung promiscuously along the highways where we shall drive. Ours is beautiful country, and could and should be made more so. But shall we sacrifice that God-given natural beauty to the unsightly commercial appeals that urge us as we drive along to use this soap, that gasoline, another brand of beer, to try this gadget. Or that some medical panacea for all human ills will cure everything from an in-grown toenail to a bald head? Aside from the purely aesthetic aspects of this problem is another one: safety. Here in Tennessee, the governor’s Emergency Traffic Safety Committee has become very much concerned over the distraction of motorists’ attention to billboard appeals when that attention should be concentrated on driving. Nobody rejects the right of advertising as a part of the right of free expression, but nobody has a right to yell “Fire!” in a crowded building merely for the purpose of seeing the people surge to the exits, and perhaps get killed in the process.

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Again in Tennessee, two matters of more that usual importance are shaping up for a legislative battle in the forthcoming legislature. One is the matter of reapportionment. (I am aware that some of you listeners will fail to see any religious significance in this, but there is some anyway.) Ours is a representative government; one in which the voice of each and every voter is as nearly equal to that of each and every other voter as possible. As long as this is true, each person can make his influence felt as much as anyone else in selecting public officials, influencing their actions, and securing the kind of government that he thinks will promote the general welfare. But, when legislatures fail to live up to their constitutional obligations, when certain portions of the state are denied their rightful representation in the halls of government, that government, to that extent, is longer fair, honest, or moral.

The Tennessee Constitution requires that the state be divided into legislative districts after each federal census, such districts to be as fairly designated as possible in order to give all voters an equal voice in influencing their government. The last time the Tennessee legislature did this was in 1901, 55 years ago. Since then the social and economic picture has changed. Cities have arisen, population shifted. Today, East Tennessee is under-represented and other regions of the state have more voice than they should. Rural areas are grossly over-represented, while the voice of urban areas is small indeed. In addition, Democrats have so gerrymandered the districts of the state that Republican representation is far out of line with what it rightfully should be.

Civic-minded, public-spirited groups have sought justice for the people through appeal to the courts. The U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to consider the matter, holding that this was a problem for the people of the state to handle. But are we going to do it? The strategy of the recently elected legislators and the administration at Nashville is to consign reapportionment proposals to a study committee for report two years from now. We do not need any more study or reports. The only right, moral, ethical, legal thing to do is to reapportion the state immediately and without regard to vested interests, political affiliations, or anything else but the right of each citizen to have an equal voice in the government – no more, no less. Suppose you write your senator and representative and tell them how you feel about this? Religious people have a greater obligation to do this than anyone else.

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Well I promised to treat another state question, but I see time is running out, and there is another topic I wish to deal with briefly. I shall save the other topic until next week.

This is the season of the year when our thoughts turn toward an event of 2,000 years ago that was small, insignificant, within itself. Few people were aware it was happening. It took place in a town of which few people in the then-known world knew or cared. It was a simple event: a little baby was born, but that birth was heralded by angels themselves declaring that this day is born a king, who is to be the savior of all mankind. Wise men brought gifts to him, and lowly shepherds fell down and worshiped him. His was a life of service; he was man without a home, with only a single garment, which his executors cast lots for. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. But not all the strong men of history have had the influence upon human history that his life has had.

In observance of this life of service to the betterment of mankind, we set aside December 25. How do we observe it? To the wondering, but not cynical observer, it would appear that we have let our observance degenerate into an occasion on which we exchange merchandise. This week a student of mine said that when she became president she was going to declare Christmas giving silly, for it kept her wondering who was going to give her what, in order that she might know what to give who (English teachers make the most of that ungrammatical use). And she was understandably concerned over whether her gift to her friends would be of equal value as those she received. I know this student pretty well. She is not mercenary minded, but she feels that in order to maintain her status with her friends, she must give material things of approximately equal value to those she receives. Is this the spirit of Christmas? Are we not paying more attention to the things that are Caesar’s than to the things that are God’s?

December 9, 1956

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

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New York: Protestant and Eastern Orthodox churches in the U.S. have begun a drive to raise $2 million in aid to refugees from Hungary and Eastern Europe. Dr. R. Norris Wilson, executive director of World Church Service says the funds will be used to continue relief programs and help in the resettlement and rehabilitation of escapes from iron curtain countries.

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Atlantic City, New Jersey: A record 89 congregations have been established in the United Lutheran Church in the past year and another 68 congregations probably will be organized next year. Dr. Ronald Houser, of Chicago, secretary of the Division of English Missions, made the report at the 30th annual meeting of the church’s Board of Missions.

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Chicago: The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference is considering a proposal to extend membership to a number of foreign churches. The proposal was made by Dr. Walter Baepler, President of the Concordia Theological Seminary at Springfield, Illinois, at the 44th convention of the Lutheran conference.

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Again Chicago: Membership in the Methodist church now is just under 9.5 million – a gain of 1.4% in the past year. The Methodist statistical office says that in addition, there are more than one 1.25 million preparatory members of the church.

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Des Moines, Iowa: A Baptist minister charges that Elvis Presley is leading American youth into an “anything goes” era. Reverend Carl E. Elegena, pastor of the Grand View Park Baptist Church in Des Moines says, “We’re living in a day of jellyfish morality, India rubber convictions, and a day when spiritually is as wide as the Sahara Desert and twice as dry.” Anybody want to argue with the man?

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Minneapolis: Parishioners of a Negro Methodist church in Minneapolis have been invited to become members of a white Methodist church. The Negro church is about to be razed to make way for a redevelopment project. Methodist Bishop D. Stanley Coors and Dr. C.A. Pennington, minister of the Hennepin Avenue church, extended the invitation. Said Bishop Coors, “This is a proposal of Christian love and fellowship. I believe this date will be remembered as one of the significant days in the history of Minnesota Methodism.”

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Binghamton, New York: Reverend Dr. Arthur McKay, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, has accepted the post of president of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. He will begin his new duties on February 1st next year.

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Vatican City: The traditional Christmas broadcast by the Pope this year will contain what Vatican sources call a message of extraordinary importance. They predict the Pontiff will appeal again to responsible statesmen to avert a third world war. The Pontiff may also use the occasion to fill 100 vacancies in the Sacred College of Cardinals.

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Milan, Italy: Italy’s largest circulation magazine, Oggi, says two Americans are among prelates being considered by Pope Pius for elevation to the rank of cardinal. The two Americans being considered, according to the magazine, are Monsignor Fulton Sheen, auxiliary bishop of New York, and Monsignor John Joseph Mitty, archbishop of San Francisco. Vatican sources say they can neither confirm nor deny the report.

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And from Washington, D.C. comes news that the Pope has transferred one American bishop and named two auxiliary bishops. Bishop Lambert A. Hoch, of Bismarck, North Dakota, has been transferred to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Monsignor Joseph Brunini, vicar general of Natchez, Mississippi, has been named auxiliary bishop of Natchez, and Monsignor Harry A. Clinch, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Taft, California, has been named auxiliary bishop of Monterey-Fresno, California.

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The just-completed agreement between the Catholic Church and Poland includes restoration of religious education to the state schools. The sweeping settlement follows four weeks of negotiation by a joint church-state group. That commission had been formed after Poland’s prelate, Stefan Wyszynski was released from house arrest. And that release followed Poland’s successful (we hope) revolt against heavy Russian domination. Another point in the agreement is that the Church recognizes the Polish state has a theoretical voice in church appointments. But it is understood that the state has agreed never to veto appointments. It will be interesting to see if this last point is respected by the state in the months and years to come.

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An American Jewish writer says personal investigation has shown no evidence of Hitlerian anti-Semitism in Egypt’s treatment of stateless Jews. Alfred Lilienthal has told a news conference in Cairo that he did learn of injustices in the course of far-reaching security measures by Egypt. But he adds many corrections have been and are being made. The U.S. writer, who has often taken an anti-Zionist line, says he went to Cairo to inquire into widely publicized charges by Israeli officials that Egypt was persecuting Jews.

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In Manchester, New Hampshire, a Congregationalist minister will give parishioners an opportunity to talk back during the sermon. The Reverend Mark Strickland has decided the congregation need not sit and take what he has to say. So today, Dr. Falko Schilling will rise from the congregation to present his views on today’s sermon, which is entitled, “The Doctor and Christian Faith.”

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A study by the Milwaukee Field Office of the U.S. Census Bureau indicates little opposition will be forthcoming to a religious preference question in the 1960 census. Bureau officials say only three persons of 431 interviewed in four Wisconsin counties flatly refused to answer the question. The Census Bureau had earlier stated that results of the Wisconsin survey might determine if the religious question should be asked of the whole nation. This is a touchy subject, and always, if it is used, there should be perfect freedom for the interviewee to refuse to answer if he wishes to do so.

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One hears a great deal these days about “the power of positive thinking,” and we are subject to a barrage of propaganda of various sorts, mostly aimed at emphasis on the importance to “accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative” from our everyday experiences. However, did you ever stop to think that it is the pessimist who is made happy because life presents him with unexpected dividends but that the optimist is destined to meet frustration and disappointment? I know my colleagues in the psychology department will frown upon this, but I said it. The salvation of mankind can most readily be advanced if we recognize that this is a world of darkness now that must be made light. Realism for the present – hope for the future. Probably we need what the Jews and early Christians had: a great and intrepid dream against a background of dark reality. Early Christians referred to Jesus as light moving in darkness. We no longer mean it when we sing “Watchman, Tell Us of the Night.” We pretend there is no night. We pull the watchmen down. Such makes us uncomfortable and we insist on being comfortable. We can’t want to know what the signs and promises are if the signs are ill, so, when disaster comes we are like bewildered children singing “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” while the roof blows off. Suppose we stop kidding ourselves. Infirmity, insecurity, and death lurk in our neighborhood and sometimes do not forget to knock at our door. He who does not see the darkness cannot read the stars. Those who do not recognize the darkness cannot know the glory of light. First, admit the darkness then join those who are striving for light. Perhaps the statement of the inimitable Mr. Dooley is apropos here, when he said that my duty is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

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Have you ever tried to define religion? If not, sit down sometime and try to put into articulate form just what it is as far as you are concerned. Certainly it should not be too difficult to put something as all-embracing as religion is into some form of definite expression. Yet, it will probably be harder than you think if you have never tried it. Perhaps there is no all-inclusive definition of religion, but here are a few considerations to keep in mind, for what they may be worth in your opinion. For one thing, religion is man’s response to the totality of his environment. It is surrender to the best he knows. It is the art of living, the science of life. It is the discovery of values, the promotion of values, the protection of values, and the exploitation of values. It is the shared quest for the good life for ourselves and our children’s children. It is building a good society. It is a sense of direction. It is conscious loyalty to the best we know or about which we can dream. It is also, of course, a lot of other things. Let me have your definition of it, and if possible, I shall read it on a future broadcast.

I am well aware that to put one’s religion into words for another is impossible. One can talk about the psychology of religious experience, or about the historical, textual, or other aspects of the Bible. One can examine the salvation schemes of the past and present. He can inspect for validity of theological terms, concepts, and creeds. But he cannot tell another what his religion is any more than he can tell you what electricity is. Human communication has not yet well enough developed among human beings that our gossamer intimate yearnings, that complex we call our religion, can be passed on.

Sometimes, it seems to me, that we need to keep in mind the difference between our religion and its intellectual framework or rationalization. In other words, our theology. Theology is important. An integrated philosophy of life is important as a yardstick for daily use in meeting problems. Without it a person is at the mercy of the latest breeze that blows. A person’s theology is his explanation of the universe; his religion is what he is, and what he does. The explanation may not fit the behavior. Some pious people have behavior that leaves much to be desired, while some intellectually capable persons find social relations difficult to master.

In some respects, religion is like music; but it is more comprehensive. I little understand music, but it stirs my imagination and my emotions. Of course, music, as sound, is susceptible of some analysis. But the parts do not add up to the whole. There are no words to describe one’s personal religion or music as a subjective experience. You experience it, but you don’t construct it. Religion is a matter of sensitivity to values and appreciations that cannot be weighed, measured, and reduced to atomic analysis. A cathedral is constructed of bricks, mortar, stone, glass and wood. But a pile of these materials does not make a cathedral. The story is told that the night Philips Brooks matriculated in theological seminary there was a student meeting. One student after another got up and told how he loved the Master, how dedicated he was to saving the souls of the heathen, and what a wonderful thing it was to be saved through such soul-shaking experience. Brooks was discouraged. He had had no soul-shaking experience such as those about which he was hearing. The next morning at the eight o’clock class, Philips Brooks was the only student who had translated the assigned number of lines, despite his lack of theological coherency.

Religion implies concern, devotion, surrender, consecration, commitment. One of the things that this reporter cannot help but wonder about in religion is the often seen waste of human devotion to that which is worthless, and an inability or unwillingness to critically ascertain that which is worth devotion.

December 2, 1956

Doubtless all of us have been stirred with many emotions these last few weeks at what is going on in Hungary. The murder not only of those staunch fighters for freedom but also of innocent bystanders, men, women, and children, has horrified the free world, and has aroused people everywhere to wish to do something both to stop the senseless killings and to aid those trying to escape from the Russian-imposed terror. Americans of all shades of political complexion, with the probable exception of the communists, applauded when the president asked that 5,000 refugees be admitted to this country. Even Rep. Francis Walter, co-author of the much-criticized McCarran-Walter Act, has urged that not only 5,000, but 17,000, be admitted. Obviously, Mr. Walter’s education in principles of humanity had improved greatly as a result of his visit to Austria and Hungary.

Doubtless all these suggested actions reflect the heart and soul of the American people. However, our attempts to carry these actions out have developed into something of a mess. Hundreds of public and private agencies are trying to handle bits of the big and growing job. Nobody is in charge to coordinate the efforts of these agencies and make them bear fruit. Not only that, but government bureaus as well as those of private agencies are getting into each other’s way and hair by not having centralized coordinators. An eyewitness, for example, observed the first 60 refugees land here the day before Thanksgiving. About five times as many officials were on hand to greet them as there were Hungarians to greet. The Army representatives would not even let representatives of the White House and the State Department greet the arrivals. And at one point, armed military police barred the heads of sponsoring agencies from speaking to the refugees. The processing of these unfortunates was to take only a short time, but it lasted far into the night. And a week later, some of these first 60 refugees didn’t know where they’d go for homes and jobs.

Overseas aid is about as badly snarled. The Red Cross is supposed to be collecting money to aid the refugees now in Austria, but it is not putting on a campaign because it does not want Hungarian relief to interfere with the numerous community campaigns it is making in this country this fall. At least 50 other groups, some local and some national, are collecting money on their own, and it is possible that professional fund collectors are utilizing this merry-go-round to secure funds that will never aid anyone but the collectors. Furthermore, there is no central place where money for clothing or supplies can be sent. And generous Americans have gotten nowhere trying to make special efforts on their own. In San Francisco, for example a concerted drive gathered more than 100 persons who were willing to act as sponsors for Hungarian families, but for more than a week they could not get the necessary forms to send in their applications. Pittsburgh bakers wish to send their own unit to Austria to bake bread for the refugees, but they have been sent from one government agency to another, for it appears that none of these agencies knows to whom they should go to put their idea into practice.

The height of the ridiculous was reached when supplies donated by our own International Cooperation Administration, and bearing labels indicated that they came from the U.S. were barred from admission until the International Red Cross erased the labels and replaced them with some of their own.

What can be done about this unfortunate situation? Well, it is, in effect, an international matter, and only the White House itself can act forthrightly and effectively to straighten out the snarl. The president could appoint a national director to straighten out both the government bureaus and to integrate and coordinate the efforts of private agencies and individuals. Here is an opportunity to put the amazing potentialities of American human desires to effective work to relieve human suffering. Hungarians are hungry, and we are not feeding them; they are in prison, and we are not visiting them; they are sick, and we are not ministering unto them. Not because we cannot, but because we let the very machinery of government that should expedite aid bog down in petty jealousy and indecision. Until we get that machinery functioning smoothly to get offered aid to the needy, we are shooting below par, whichever course we take.

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Last week I reported to you on the preoccupation of the last Congress with a matter of adopting a general resolution approving the Ten Commandments as a part of our basic faith. A similar instance has come to my attention this week in the reported decision of the president of George Washington University not to consider for employment on the university faculty any person who does not believe in God.

At first blush this might seem to be a commendable policy. However, the thinking person is immediately faced with such questions as: how can you be certain when a person believes in God? In what kind of God do you expect him to believe? And, as a practical matter, if you were an atheist, and your employment hinged upon your asserted belief in a deity, would you hesitate to make such a declaration?

Aside from the purely theological abstraction involved here, are the considerations to be given to the academic side of the matter: freedom to learn, to hear, to read, to know, is basic in a democracy. A great university would certainly be under no obligation to employ an atheist any more than it would be to employ a Protestant, a Catholic, a Democrat, or a witch doctor. The basic question is: Should one be barred from such employment because he happens to fall within one of more of these categories? A thorough knowledge of the atheist viewpoint could do just as much to make a confirmed believer in religion out of a student as it could to make him an atheist. Any other premise assumes that the learner is not capable of thinking for himself, and if this is true, the whole premise upon which democracy is founded tumbles. It is hoped that President Marvin will reconsider his policy decision in the light of calmness and objectivity.

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A rather curious bit of anti-Semitism came to my attention this week in the form of some comments made by a well-known woman reporter whose column is syndicated widely in American newspapers. Entitling her column, “America Can Now Free Herself of Dictation,” the reporter discusses briefly the situation in the Middle East, construes the election results as a verdict on our foreign policy, and   proceeds to insist that until recently our foreign policy has been influenced unduly by our sympathy with the state of Israel and by our (to her) disproportionate regard for our diplomatic ties with France and Britain.

In her comments upon the influence of American Jews on our foreign policy she says, “There is not the slightest hope of salvaging American influence in the Arab world until, or unless, the United States shakes off the stranglehold that Israel, via the powerful Zionist organization of America, has exercised over our policies…. In all American history there is no comparable example of a national minority…. America cannot have any policy in the Middle East if her actions are dictated by the interests of one single Middle Eastern state, a newcomer at that, and one established against the vehement protests of the whole Moslem world…. The Eisenhower administration has tried to break that dictation, regardless of the domestic political consequences…. The election landslide … evaporated the myth of “the Jewish vote” – as interpreted by the Zionists.”

The reporter thus faces the reader with a dilemma: She cannot prove that her assertion is true; neither can the thinking reader prove that it is in error. All of us are aware that there are Jews in this country; all of us are aware that there is a Zionist movement. But it is difficult to believe that there is such a thing as a “Jewish vote.” Most analyses of Jewish voters concludes that the Jews, like any other ethnic group, vote pretty much according to their socioeconomic status rather than along strictly cultural or religious lines. The reporter in question, though, has inserted a neat bit of suggested propaganda that will probably be grist for the mills of those who wish to promote religious intolerance in America.

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Washington: Church leaders, both Protestant and Catholic, are becoming more concerned about the increasing numbers of interfaith marriages. Marriages between Catholics and Protestants once were rare in the United States, but are now becoming commonplace. The official Catholic Directory reports that more than one-fourth of all marriages performed last year by Catholic priests involved a non-Catholic partner. Many thousands of other interfaith marriages were performed by Protestant ministers or civil authorities. Clergymen say that not only do many such mixed marriages end up in divorce, but also that there is a strong tendency for one or both partners to drift away from religion altogether. And that tendency, they add, also extends to the children.

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The world’s Jews are celebrating now the world’s first great war for religious freedom. That war started some centuries ago, when a small, motley group of troops took on the armies of King Antiochus IV of Syria, with guerilla warfare. The Maccabeans finally shattered the vastly superior forces that were used to try to make the Jews become pagans. Dr. Maurice Eisendrath, the president of the American Hebrew Congregations, says Judaism – and also Christianity – would not be except for those efforts in 168-165 B.C. Legend says when the Syrians were defeated the temple lamps burned for six days on a normal one-day supply of oil. Thus began “Hanukah,” with the candles glowing in Jewish homes and synagogues in what is sometimes called the Festival of Lights. This past Wednesday the first “Hanukah” candles were lit at sunset. On each evening then, until the final day, this coming Thursday, one more candle is lit. At the end, eight candles burn in the “menorah,” a special candelabra. While the Hanukah gives glory to God for the preservation of the faith against tyranny, it also recalls the fighting Jew. Such a figure is often overlooked in the long record of Jewish oppression and disaster. But Rabbi Samuel Silver of New York City has noted that when the Jew has the least means and the cause is important, he fights as do the best. Thus in memory of the first big war for religious freedom, candles are lit, songs are sung, pageants staged, and gifts exchanged.

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A Vatican City publication says the apostolic exarch in Sofia, Bulgaria, has been arrested. The paper, L’ Osservatore Romano, adds the arrest of Monsignor Cirillo Kurteff means all Catholic bishops in Bulgaria have disappeared under the persecution. An apostolic exarch is a Roman Catholic bishop appointed as head of a diocese of the Eastern Catholic Church.

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A Presbyterian conference on promotion of world missions has heard plans for increased interchange of information about foreign mission activities of the three U.S. Presbyterian denominations. Dr. Edward Grige, of Philadelphia, has told the area mission meetings at Louisville, Kentucky, “We must alert the home church to what is going on abroad.” Not only will information be exchanged by the United Presbyterians, the Presbyterians U.S.A., and the Presbyterians U.S.; so will missionaries.

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Rome: Withdrawal of government subsidies may force Catholic Bantu schools in South Africa to curtail their activity. The missionary news agency, Fides, says the 800 schools were seriously affected by the Bantu Education Act, which forces them to accept the government’s so-called apartheid (or segregation) policy, or lose their government subsidy. The schools teach 121,000 students.