Month: January 1957

Harvard University has begun a five-year study to develop mental health training for future clergymen. Heading the study will be Dr. Hans Hofmann, now of Princeton Theological Seminary and trained in both psychology and theology. Dr. Hofmann is ordained in the Reformed Church of Switzerland. His project will be to direct creation of a curriculum in mental health for Protestant theological seminaries. Harvard says similar studies are planned in Loyola University, a Roman Catholic institution in Chicago, and Yeshiva University, a Jewish institution in New York City.

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The American Jewish Committee plans to break ground this year for its Institute of Human Relations in New York City. The $1.5 million building will be dedicated to brotherhood.

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The largest Methodist church in Minneapolis has accepted a small Negro Methodist congregation as fellow worshipers. Almost 70 members of the Border Methodist Church have been received into the Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church, one of Minneapolis’ most exclusive congregations. The small church’s building is to be demolished to make way for a redevelopment project. But the pews, baptismal font, and other furnishings have been donated to other churches and religious institutions. The Border Church minister, the Rev. Dr. Charles Sexton, has been named to a position in the Minneapolis Methodist district. Hennepin’s senior minister, the Rev. Dr. Chester Pennington, says a missionary in India wrote him that such news is invaluable in that part of the world.

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An Associated Press writer well-versed in Soviet and satellite nation history says a major diplomatic crisis is likely to develop sooner or later because Josef Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary is in refuge in the U.S. legation in Budapest. Foreign news analyst Thomas Whitney says the Soviet puppet regime in Hungary may demand that the U.S. turn over the Catholic prelate, and the U.S. is likely to refuse. He adds that other possibilities include an offer of “safe conduct” to the cardinal to go to the Vatican. If Mindszenty should accept, and then be arrested, the incident no doubt would arouse great protest in the U.S. The Hungarian cardinal occupies the rooms of U.S. Minister Edward Wailes in the legation building. He holds occasional masses for legation personnel. And so far the Hungarian communists have apparently not objected to his staying there.

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Washington: Religious leaders say that America’s church boom is concentrated heavily in suburbs and small towns. By contrast, they say, churches in big cities and in rural areas have been suffering a steady decline in membership. Officials of major denominations have made a study of the uneven impact of the back-to-church movement and have come up with some facts. Most of the church building of recent years has been in the suburban areas, yet they cannot keep pace with the demand. During the same period, rural churches have been closing at the rate of nearly one thousand a year. And many of those Protestant churches in particular are disappearing from the centers of cities. There are only two left in downtown St. Louis and only three in Cleveland, for example.

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Again Washington: The Kresge Foundation of Detroit has contributed $1.5 million to help build a new Methodist theological seminary in Washington. The grant is contingent upon the church raising a similar amount to match it. Methodist Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam says construction of the seminary, which will be located on the campus of American University, is scheduled to begin in April, with its opening set for the fall of 1958.

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Kenilworth, England: An English preacher has doubled his congregation by retelling the New Testament in the jargon of science fiction. The Rev. John Thompson says he even uses stage props, including hydrogen-filled spaceships which shoot up to the church roof to add drama to his narration. Sounds come from a tape recorder he takes with him. Says the Rev. Thompson, “I think our belief in incarnation lends itself very well to explanation in terms of space travel.”

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A Methodist bishop from the South says U.S. churches must apply Christianity to the problem of racial segregation or quit trying to win foreign converts. The warning has come from Bishop William Watkins of Louisville, Kentucky. He also told a meeting of Cumberland Presbyterian ministers at Bethel College, McKenzie, Tennessee, that the decision cannot be long delayed.

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Many people are more distressed now that at any previous time of the Cold War. With Nehru’s visit here and reliance on the United Nations and the moral force of world opinion, it looked for a short time as if peace might be worked out under a real United Nations police force, that force acting like real [?] policemen. But now the policy is announced of the mailed fist of the U.S. in the East – the old balance of power again. The British and the French moved out of the East. Now it appears that the U.S. is going to move in, and there is little less likelihood of war with us there than there was when Britain and France were there. The problems of the have-nots cannot be solved by guns. It is wrong to kill people because you do not like their government and all the double talk of statesmen cannot change that. How long is the world going on talking in 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th century terms in a 20^th century that has already seen three of our B-52 Stratofortresses encircle the globe in 45 hours? That just puts all of us within less than 24 hours distance from anyone who may wish to bomb us. It is about time we brought our thinking up to cope with the realities or our present day bombers.

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Recently the Chicago Tribune‘s station, WGN-TV, canceled at a late hour the showing of the film “Martin Luther.” This brought a strong protest from groups who believe in both freedom of religion and freedom of communication. It was alleged that pressure from the Catholic Church was responsible for the ban, but a spokesman of the church, Monsignor E.M. Burke, chancellor of the Chicago Diocese, denied this. However, air wavelengths belong to the people, and this means to all the people. They are licensed to private corporations to be used in the public interest. Anyone has a right to protest a presentation, to refrain from viewing it and to attempt to persuade others not to see it. But it is obnoxious to freedom of communication, on which our democratic system rests, to have any group seek to impose a general censorship on material of which it disapproves according to the special standards of that group.

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And in the same connection, a more highly publicized controversy arose when Cardinal Spellman made one of his rare appearances in the pulpit of St. Patrick’s Cathedral to back up the Catholic Legion of Decency’s condemnation of the film “Baby Doll” and to warn Roman Catholics against seeing it “under pain of sin.” This reporter did not see the picture, but a good friend of his did, and her succinct evaluation of it was that it was not so much risqué as it was stupid. While still another critic made the comment to this reporter that if sex were objectionable, then the Ten Commandments should have been banned, but the public, including the Catholic Church lapped that one up. I wonder why it is that when approaching such matters relating to religion, so many of us are willing to accept uncritically something bearing a religious label, without looking under that label to see whether it is religious in name only. But to examine (publicly, at least) such things is not even considered ethical. I know because of the reaction several months ago to my comments on the picture entitled “A Man Called Peter.”

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One very wholesome proposal, apparently with administrative backing, now pending in the Tennessee legislature is a bill that would require that all meetings of public boards, commissions, and legislative bodies in the state be open to the public. Americans are notoriously suspicious of the transaction of public affairs in a secretive manner. However, school boards and other bodies have been just as notorious in trying to conduct their business secretly. This time, with the backing of the Tennessee Press Association, it looks as if positive action may result. Those who oppose it will be the ones who have a “Father Knows Best” complex, an attitude that those who believe in the true democratic process will reject summarily.

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All of us have seen, heard, and read about the reluctance, and, in one or two cases, the downright refusal, of certain labor leaders to testify before a congressional investigating committee regarding possibility of racketeering in the ranks of organized labor. As a matter of fact, the present convention of AFL-CIO leaders, meeting in Miami Beach, Florida, has put this matter of testifying as the first order of business. Nobody knows what the decision will be, but there is a moral principle involved in the matter (and I say this as a member of an AFL affiliate). What labor does or does not do is a matter of public concern, for organized labor has grown until its structure, organization, and functioning can mean good or ill for the whole country. It is just as unfair for labor to refuse to divulge information which Congress legitimately needs to know as it is for management to do so. Both labor and management will prosper and will be entrenched in public support only so long as the public has confidence in them. Both have a responsibility to the public in seeing that their houses are in order, and refusal to talk about this very important matter is no way to build public confidence.

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An interesting case of vacations in reverse cropped up this week in Virginia, a case of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. E. Claiborne Robins, president of a pharmaceutical firm, has practiced shutting down his plant from time to time in order that his workers may all take off to New York, Miami, or elsewhere, for a round of play. This week, he and Mrs. Robins departed via airplane for Acapulco, Mexico, on a two-week vacation. In breaking the news to their president, the employees handed Mr. Robins two checks: one drawn on the Bank of Good Times for a good vacation, the other, a real one, for $4,200, compliments of the employees.

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Ladies and gentlemen, it has been suggested to me that it might be indiscreet for me to include this last item on this program. That item is the fact that Rep. Harry Lee Senter of Kingsport, representing Sullivan County in the state legislature, has introduced in the House a bill that would prohibit public schoolteachers from encouraging integration on school grounds, and would make violations of this grounds for dismissal. In commenting upon it, Senter said, “We don’t believe that the question of integration or segregation should be made a part of the curriculum.”

This is not a fit subject for legislation. Teachers have no right to use their special position in the schoolroom to promote their own pet ideas, whether those ideas include segregation, or the relative merits of last year’s bird nests. They do, however, have an obligation to discuss frankly and fearlessly any social or other problem confronting the community. It would be difficult to conceive a more ubiquitous social problem than that posed by court decisions on segregation. Students of all ages are asking what are the facts? What do they mean? Teachers have an obligation to help students answer these questions. Moreover, it is the thesis of this reporter that teachers have a right to state their convictions about any subject, but do not have any right to try to impose those convictions upon their pupils. This right exists, not for the benefit of the teacher, but for the benefit of the community, including the pupils. In a democracy, no problem is solved merely by sticking our heads in the sand, or in gagging people from talking about that problem. Gag rule is a trapping of dictatorship, not a democracy. Academic freedom exists for the teacher because through it only can he encourage and promote the study of controversial issues. Democracy rests basically on the discovery of truth and upon popular acceptance of policies based on the facts. It is hard to subscribe to the theory that ignorance about anything is better than knowledge about it. Perhaps the sponsor of this legislation should read John 8:32, which is as follows: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Muskegon, Michigan: For the first time in nearly a century, no Dutch Reformed churches in the Muskegon area will have sermons delivered in the Dutch language. The final sermon in Dutch was given last Monday. The Rev. Alkema explained that “It is apparent younger generations are content with religious services in English and apparently have little interest in Dutch rites.” And I might, as a sociologist, point out that once a church has given up its different language from that of the country in which it is located, it has taken about the last step in becoming assimilated, in this case of religion, into the main stream of American churches.

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Warsaw, Poland: Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, the Catholic primate of Poland, has conferred on church-state problems with communist Premier Cyrankiewicz. The meeting was believed to be the first time the cardinal has discussed religious problems with a government leader since Titoist Gomulka took over as Communist Party boss last October. The Polish news agency says the cardinal and premier discussed the appointment of candidates to clerical posts and the introduction of religious teaching in schools, which the new regime is permitting.

And in connection, further, with Poland, Cardinal Wyszynski has urged all Polish citizens to get out and vote today. As one statement put it, “Catholics as citizens are urged to fulfill the duty of their conscience and take part in the election.” This urging was brought about partly because of the widespread fear in Poland that many people would abstain from voting, thus weakening Gomulka’s stand against home-grown Stalinists and in his dealings with Moscow. Informed Catholics say that the church recognizes that if Gomulka is not given support of the country in today’s election, this very limited and restricted experiment in democracy will give tough Stalinists an argument that they need to try to return to power.

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Vatican City: Pope Pius has been pronounced in perfect physical condition by examining physicians. The pontiff will be 81 years old in March. The examining physician was Professor Antonio Gasparrini, one of the physicians who treated the pope during his grave illness during the winter of 1955.

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Again Vatican City: The pope has been presented with the first copy of the 1957 Annuary. The book, bound in white parchment, was presented to the pope by the assistant pro-secretary of state of the Vatican, Monsignor Angelo Dell’acqua.

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Washington: A church leader says one of America’s most pressing religious problems is finding a Christian path through the pitfalls of prosperity. The Rev. Cameron P. Hall, of the National Council of Churches, says that for the first time in history a whole nation is subject to the temptations that Christ had in mind when he warned that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter to enter the kingdom of heaven. One danger, says Hall, is that we may become so blessed with material possessions that we crowd out other values in life. Wonder if he has examined the financial status of schoolteachers? But then we are in a minority in a sea of prosperity.

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Buck Hills, Pennsylvania: The Rev. Dr. Earl R. Brown has retired as secretary of national missions of the Methodist Board of Missions. Dr. Brown served in the past 12 years. The new secretary is Dr. W. Vernon Middleton.

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Atlantic City, New Jersey: A Methodist church official charges that the Roman Catholic Church is trying to pressure some Methodist colleges into dropping study of the Bible. In an annual report to the Methodist Board of Education, the Rev. Myron F. Wick, of Nashville, Tennessee, director of the Department of Secondary and Higher Education of the board, declared attempts in his words, “represent, apparently, a steady but calculated probing for timorous sects among all Protestant schools and colleges.” He said the alleged interference is centered on Protestant colleges attended by Catholics. The Rev. Wick does not document his statement, at least as reported by United Press. But if it is true, then probably Catholics are somewhat like us Methodists: they would prefer that everybody studied their Bible.

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One of the obsessions of the present time, in some circles, educational and political, for example, is a bewailing of the alleged dearth of physical scientists and engineers. So, their logic goes, our colleges and secondary schools are not turning out enough young men and women who wish and plan to go into the physical and chemical laboratories of the nation, sufficient enough in numbers to keep pace with what is happening among our potential enemies, particularly the Soviet Union. The next step in their so-called logic is that we must offer greater rewards in the field of natural science so as to attract greater numbers to teach it and to promote it. The net and end result of such logic is to make every endeavor, through higher salaries, greater headlines, etc., to enlarge our activity in science.

No informed person would disparage the amazing work of science, nor decry the benefits it has brought to the human race in terms of more food, more light and heat, greater speed of travel and communication, wonder medicines, better understanding of diseases, and so on, ad infinitum. However, the concern of the present seems to be mainly in the field of nuclear devices related to the armaments race. And, again, no informed person would desire to see our own country so outdistanced in the field of security that we should stand no chance of survival if attacked.

But the very spectacle and emphasis upon a single area of our existence causes thoughtful men and women to ponder the unbalanced perspective nuclear zealots have of the world in which we live. Many of us think that we have a greater scarcity of equipped people in the human sciences than in the physical. To put it bluntly: We have the hydrogen bomb, but we do not know what to do with it. We live in a world in which the greatest industrial nation (our own) is presented with a proposed budget of $72 billion, 53 percent of which is allocated for military spending. If to this, you add the interest on the national debt, which is mostly for past wars, and the amount to be spent, we hope, in debt retirement, plus all other charges relating to our past conflicts and their by-products (for example veterans’ administration), we come out with the startling and discouraging fact that only some 10 percent or 15 percent at most will be spent for purposes unrelated to past or possible future wars.

What has happened and is happening to our system of values when persons in high places see nothing in the future but continued emphasis on bigger, if not better, weapons of destruction, with corresponding relatively less emphasis on seeking ways and means to avoid destruction? Science is a wonderful instrument, but science cannot tell us what is good or bad, right or wrong. Science can give us a knowledge of germs and the possibility of germ warfare, but it cannot and does not tell us whether to use this knowledge for the destruction or the salvation of mankind. Science, in short, can arrive at truth, but it cannot tell us what to do with the truths it discovers.

How, where, and when to use the results of science rests entirely upon the values that we as a people hold. Our values include not only knowledge but also feelings, beliefs. I cannot prove to you that a college education will make one a better citizen, but I believe that it will. Otherwise I would not be trying to teach. I do not know that people are happier and better off in a democracy than they are in a dictatorship. But I believe they are because democracy as an abstraction and a process rates high on my scale of values. Hence, I am constantly trying better to understand it and to promote its better functioning. And one could go on and on, citing intangible but very real things that go to make up life; things that rest not on science, but upon our cultural conditioning, our beliefs, our customs, our mores.

And it is just these things that are not inculcated by science, but by the social sciences, the humanities, and other subject fields not included in the realm of natural science.

Do we have an over-supply of people seeking ways and means to help avert war? Persons who try to promote understanding among the peoples of the earth? People who believe that international understanding and peace are not only possible, but attainable? People who look at the stark realities of the present day and are appalled that so much time, space, and attention are given to those movements leading to international suicide and so little to those leading to a peaceful world?

Our real problem today, among us as well as among peoples everywhere, is the promotion of values that would impel us to use the benefits of science for the welfare, not the destruction, of mankind. These values rest on feeling, and sometimes, perhaps upon fancy. Feeling and fancy take the stark and ugly realities of life and shape them into beautiful forms, dress them in beautiful garments, and cause hope to displace despair, discipline to take the place of sorrow.

If we look upon life only with the cold eye of scientific objectivity, there is little inducement for us to want to continue it. We come into this world causing pain. Our first cry is a protest. Our childhood is a history of wanting to do the things we are not permitted to do, and being forced to do the things we do not want to do. We have to go to bed when we are not sleepy and get up when we are sleepy. Life, looked at in this way, is all contrariety and frustration. But if we crown reason and scientific truth with feeling, the scene changes. Birth is a precious pearl bought at great price. The first cry of a baby is a paean of victory. The whole life of the child is a poem, its separate parts written in different meters always to be concluded and never dull, and through it all runs the motif of aspiration and achievement. Life of the adult becomes a sacred trust – talents that must not be buried, lights that must not be hidden under a bushel. Life is a romance greater than the pen of man has ever portrayed or the test tube in the laboratory can ever demonstrate. Feeling can inform us that life is a stage on which we always play the leading role: and we ourselves sit in at the performance, and are at once the most critical and appreciative of all the audience.

Values rest in the hearts of men. We recognize anew the truth that great visions come to humble men. These men were out under the stars close by nature, or amid the busy hum of machinery in the roar of a great city. They are not befuddled or beclouded by ships and commerce, tariffs and trade agreements, spheres of influence, oil and colonies – though these make very loud noises. They are men who try to think their way through the morass of today’s immensely complicated world; to see it in terms of people rather than machines; to regard machines and weapons of destruction as means to an end (i.e., peace eventually) rather than ends in themselves.

We need today wise men who are willing to travel over the barren wastes of materialism, under the scorching suns of pressure groups with their selfish interests, and over the frozen mountain passes of derision, and to hold on to those values that the experience of the race has proved to be good. The wise men of this type carry the burden of the foolish. We hold in grateful memory the men who followed a star; a Socrates drinking the hemlock, Jesus on the cross, Paul in chains, Stephen praying for his tormentors, John on Patmos, Savonarola at the stake, and thousands of those who are unknown and nameless, but put human values first and adjusted all other things to them.

The world needs natural scientists today, yes. But more than that, it needs people who do not permit their outlook – and hopes – for the future to become lost in the trees of the scientific moment, but who can stand off and see the forest of humanity that needs to understand itself, and value the best of itself. The whole problem may be illustrated by the young Tennessean who is reported to have said that “When I went to school they learned me to figger but not to read. Now as I drive down the road and see the mileposts, I can tell how fur but not whur to.” It is about time we not only knew how far, but where we are going.

Throughout the South generally, and here in Tennessee particularly, the critical issue of human rights was the subject of violent action, gubernatorial recommendations, legislative proposals, and considerable vocal gas from many sources. Bombs endangered the lives of citizens in Alabama, destroying property in the process. It reached the point where a leading pro-segregation newspaper commented acidly that “It is no longer a question of integration; it is a question of whether Alabama is a safe place for citizens to live.” At least four Negro churches were damaged in the explosions, but the local authorities spurned the governor’s offer to send in detachments of the National Guard to assist in maintaining order. Apparently the city fathers are not overly concerned about the safety of lives of their citizens.

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The governor of Tennessee on Thursday of this week delivered his own brand of interposition in the segregation issue, which after all did not amount to proposals to do anything new. The major theme of his position is that authority should be given local boards to assign pupils to whatever schools they wish – authority which good legal advisor, outside of the state government, ­point out the boards already have. One phase of his recommendations, if carried out, could conceivably create a three-headed school system instead of the twin-headed one we now have; namely, create a system of schools for Negroes only, one for whites only, and a third for integrated schools. This obviously could create more confusion than clarification of the issue, and is a stalling tactic, designed to appear all things to all people.

Regardless of the innocuous nature of the recommendations, members of the legislature are prepared not only to take them seriously, but also to go beyond them and try, by state statute, to nail down segregation – at least for the next two years. Commenting upon both the governor’s recommendations and the vocal explosions of certain members of the legislature, the Knoxville News Sentinel comments quite appropriately that the proper steps for the legislature to do on the subject is exactly nothing. Whatever it does will probably only lay the basis for further litigation in the courts, stall the issue for two years, and the next general assembly will be confronted with the same problem in aggravated form.

Out of all this welter of proposals, charges, and counter-charges stands one amazing fact: the lack of ability or willingness to meet probably the most crucial social and moral problem of our time, and to deal with it in a realistic, rational, informed manner.

Closely related to the issue of segregation is the movement on the part of some Tennessee legislative members to enact legislation restricting the operation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an organization that has spearheaded efforts to bring about school integration. Present proposals would require this organization to submit to public officials membership and financial records and would make it a misdemeanor to instigate a lawsuit in which the NAACP is not a direct party.

Well, perhaps the legislators should require this of all organizations of all kinds in the state. Certainly it should do that for all if it does it for one. It might be enlightening to them also to read the First Amendment to our federal Constitution, which guarantees the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition government for a redress of grievances. Sometimes it may be that the courts are the final resort of presenting such petitions without hope of achieving the desires of the petitioners. This is the same amendment, too, that protects religious freedom. Freedom is indivisible, and tampering with one cannot but help weaken others.

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Well, it would seem as if Tennessee is committed to mediocrity in higher education. For several years now, Memphis State College has contended for elevation to “university” status. This year, they have seemingly made it, via the side door. The main proposal was to have it called the “University at Memphis.” This week, a so-called compromise arrangement would continue the college under control of the State Board of Education, but would give it the title of “Memphis State University.” The original plan would have made it an integral part of the University and place it under the control of the board of trustees of the university. Tennessee does not now have and never has had a first-class state university. The question boils down to whether it would be better to concentrate on developing a great institution in the present university, or dividing what is already mediocrity between two so-called universities. Proponents of raising Memphis State insist that it means no more expenditure than would otherwise be entailed. If it is not going to be improved – and improvement would cost money – then why call it a “university”? There is no magic in the mere name. But opponents of the plan are not fooled, for once having gotten her nose under the tent, future legislation will be sought to divide funds between Knoxville and Memphis instead of as at present among the several state colleges. If a mere legislative act would create a better institution, the conclusion is obvious that all state schools of higher learning should be dubbed “university,” which in the light of the ability of the state to support education is ridiculous. Probably more Tennesseans than ever, desiring graduate training of real university caliber, will now be compelled to go beyond the confines of the state to get it.

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A magazine of national circulation points out in its current issue that no pope in modern history has, in it’s words, “so persistently cultivated the universality of the Roman Catholic Church” as has the present Pope Pius XII. Within the year just ended the 80-year old pontiff received about a million people in audiences (including people of all faiths) and delivered more than 200 speeches and radio talks, and many more minor addresses.

Among the varied activities of His Holiness are such things as lecturing before 700 gynecologists on the subject of painless childbirth; speaking to racing drivers and members of an automobile club on politeness; receiving such notables as Germany’s evangelical Lutheran Bishop Otto Dibelius, and our own Atomic Energy Commissioner Lewis Strauss; workers of Lombardy; the Roman nobility; 360 U.S. servicemen from NATO; and officials of the U.S. Office of Public Information. Included also among those who came to see him was Baptist ex-president Harry S. Truman. He spoke to the Seventh International Astronautical Congress, to whom he said that their efforts to explore the universe were legitimate before the deity.

The British Catholic Historian, Christopher Dawson sums up this activity on the part of the pope by saying that “Never perhaps in the history of the Church have the peoples come to Rome in such numbers and from so many different regions…. We seem to see the beginnings of a new Pentecostal dispensation by which all men hear in their own tongues the wonderful works of God.”

Washington: The Episcopal Church in Washington is trying an experiment in what it calls “advangelism.” The idea, adopted by the Episcopal Diocese is an attempt to sell the services of the church to the public through a series of paid advertisements in local papers. The ads will run weekly at least through Easter. Episcopal leaders want to test a theory that churches, like business firms, can profit by professionally drafted ads.

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Vatican City: Pope Pius has said that he believes Catholic parents have a right to expect a positive attitude toward religion from teachers in state-run schools with compulsory attendance. The pope recently told 130 teachers from Munich, Germany, that “It would be a violation of man’s elementary rights to force parents by law to entrust their children to a school whose teachers take a cool, negative, even hostile stand toward religious and moral convictions.”

Well, at the risk of being accused of what the pontiff abhors, this reporter considers the position unsound. Obviously, what the pope means by “religion” is his “religion.” It is highly unlikely that he would endorse a positive attitude toward Islam, Mormonism, even Protestantism, to say nothing of Unitarianism. Yet, we teachers in state-run schools must serve all alike, indiscriminately. All of us would probably subscribe to the idea that the public schools should favor morality, but then there are all sorts of definitions of moral. Public school teachers, in America at least, have no business mixing public school instruction with religion. It is reported, for example, that some teachers inquire of their students on Mondays which of them went to church or Sunday school the day before, and then proceed to give merit ratings of some kind to those who did. This too, is out of the sphere of the rightful scope of the teacher. Whether a child goes to church or not is a matter for him and his parents to decide, and certainly one who does not should not be made to feel embarrassed, or be penalized by the public school teacher. Doubtless such teachers do this from the sincerest of motives, but separation of church and state is vital to our American principles, and this was clarified without any question in the famous McCollum case in Illinois a few years ago. While I am a Methodist, I do not want any public school teacher trying to make Methodists, or any other kind of religious affiliate, out of my children. It simply is none of their affair – to put it bluntly.

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Chicago: Youth and Christianity are called the most effective opponents of communism. Dr. Robert Cook, president of the Youth-for-Christ International, told a mid-winter convention of 150 regional directors of the group that no government can forever squelch or contain the religious drives of its people. He predicted a religious awakening in Russia and said once it hits it will fan its way through all of communism.

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Berlin, Germany: The world-wide Catholic students organization, Pax Romana, has concluded a five-day board meeting in West Berlin with a resolution to step up aid for Hungarian refugees. Board members from 24 nations took part in the meeting.

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Evanston, Illinois: The Council of the National Methodist Student Commission says it wants to continue exploration of merger possibilities with other denominational student groups. The council said, however, the Methodist Student Movement must remain faithful to its responsibility to the Methodist Church. This apparently, is like saying, “Go ahead and merge, but let them come to you; don’t go toward them.”

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Washington: It is announced that Pope Pius has created a new Diocese of Gary in Northwestern Indiana and named Monsignor Andrew Grutka, of Fort Wayne, as its bishop. The pope also made the Most Rev. Leo Pursley of Ft. Wayne, bishop of Fort Wayne; the Most Rev. Robert J. Joyce of Burlington, Vermont, bishop of his diocese; the Most Rev. Thomas J. McDonough, of St Augustine, Florida, bishop of Savannah, Georgia; and the Very Rev. Hillary B. Hacker, of St. Paul, Minnesota, bishop of Bismarck, North Dakota.

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And along the same topic, Mexican Roman Catholics hope the pope will name one of their number to the College of Cardinals when a new consistory is held. Mexico’s 30 million people are estimated to be 90 percent Roman Catholic. But Mexico is said to have been denied a cardinal because of differences between church and state in the revolution earlier this century.

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A U.S. newsman has relayed hope for the early release of 10 Americans, including some missionaries from Red China. William Worthy of the Baltimore Afro-American has broadcast from Red China that Premier Chou En-Lai has dropped hints about early parole for some U.S. prisoners because of good behavior. Worthy adds that even without such time off, three of the 10, a Lutheran missionary, a Franciscan priest, and a Jesuit priest, are due to have their sentences end in May, June, and July, respectively. The Baltimore newsman says that so far as can be learned in Red China the general charge against the Americans is espionage.

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A recent compilation of suggestions for pastors and parishioners to consider this year includes some practical, as well as churchly, matters. The list is composed of ideas from worshipers and from letters from ministers and church members to other persons and to church journals. One item is the recommendation that people avoid condemning another’s religion unless they are sure they know more about it than he does. Another is the suggestion that churches put more hooks in cloakrooms, so worshipers do not have to sit on their coats. On the church etiquette side is the plea that hymnbooks be placed gently in pew racks after the service, and not with a clatter right at or before the benediction. Many clergy and worshipers would also be glad to hear the offering plates referred to as such, not as collection plates.

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A Southern rabbi says racial tensions in the South are undermining the U.S. doctrines of freedom of thought and freedom of speech. The Rev. Jacob Rothschild of Atlanta made the statement in a sermon at New York City’s Central Synagogue. He has added that vague and not-so-vague threats of economic boycott and physical violence have been directed against persons who seek a peaceful solution. Or, worse still, he says, against those who dare to counsel compliance with the Supreme Court desegregation decision because it is the law of the land. Dr. Rothschild also states the right to speak freely and openly is curtailed if what one says disagrees with the popular point of view. Well, there was once an itinerant carpenter’s son who got into trouble for the same reason. But it would seem that in the field of religion, or upon matters having religious implications, at least, people who call themselves religious should be tolerant enough of opposing viewpoints not to stifle the mere expression of such differences. However, there is little doubt but what the good doctor says is true, for Rothschild has for 10 years been spiritual leader of Atlanta’s Hebrew Benevolence Congregation and is a long-time resident and community worker in the South.

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Today begins another Christmas – this one, the observance of the Nativity by Orthodox Christians. The services date back more than 1,500 years and depend on the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian one held to by other Christian denominations. The colorful services have humble origins. For example, some Serbian Orthodox Christians burn a Yule log. And in the chancels of their churches they place straw, to remind them that the Christ child was born in a stable. And today, for other Christians, it is the Feast of the Epiphany. This service marks the worship of the baby Jesus by the Three Wise Men.

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For the past few weeks, even months, newspapers and other media of communication have been full of news regarding racial problems attendant upon attempted or proposed integration of public schools. This reporter has deliberately stayed away from comment upon them because there did not seem to be much he could add to what was already being said. However, this past week, two columns in as many days have been devoted to the race question by Dr. Charles Allen, of Atlanta. In one he raises the question, “Is one race inferior?” He goes on to point out that some white people insist on maintaining racial segregation because of:

1. Economic reasons: They fear to compete in the labor market and in any other kind of market with members of the colored race;
2. Fear of Negro control of local government: Parenthetically, this would assume that Negroes vote as Negroes first and citizens second, while studies show that the reverse is true;
3. Desire to maintain a servant race of people;
4. People with inferiority complexes derive some compensation by thinking that colored people are inferior to them because of color or other racial traits;
5. Resistance to any social change. One perturbing thing about social change for all of us is that it requires us to reappraise ourselves in the light of changed circumstances, and we don’t like that;
6. Some believe the Negro race is, as a race, actually inferior to the whites and thus they do not want to live on an equal level with them;
7. Some people insist upon segregation because they fear intermarriage. How many sins of prejudice has this old myth been used to cover!
8. Some want segregation not necessarily because of prejudice but because they sincerely believe the two races are better off apart.

Well, there is the list Dr. Allen presents. It is as good a one perhaps as could be compiled. Most of us could think of other reasons. The point is: Are these reasons valid and worthy? Examine your own hearts and answer that question honestly.

In presenting what he calls the “Case for the Negroes,” Dr. Allen lists some four reasons why Negroes do not like segregation.

1. They resent restrictions that segregation imposes on them. Many of them prefer to live in Negro communities, but simply do not like to be told where they can or cannot live;
2. Some want integration because they have not fared well under segregation and hope for better education, jobs, etc., if segregation is abolished;
3. Some oppose segregation because it presupposes inferiority, and they strongly believe they are not inferior;
4. Some Negroes want integration because they actually feel inferior and want to escape from this feeling through the integration process.

Of course Dr. Allen is a white man telling us what the Negro wants, how he feels, and why he feels that way. One of the unfortunate lacks in the welter of arguments over integration is that about all who have written or talked have been white people. All too few Negroes have spoken out comprehensively and clearly as to what they want. However, because Dr. Allen has lived in the South for many years, his circle of acquaintances includes many people of both racial groups.

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This reporter was told, rather pointedly, about a year ago, that the matter of segregation did not involve any religious element, and that it would be better to avoid it on this program. To that, my only reply is it depends upon how you define religion. If by “religion” you mean something sacred embalmed between the lids of a book that you take out on Sundays or other special days and treasure it, and then put it back until another such day and forget about your religion on the days in between, and in your relationships with other people, then segregation probably has no religious implications for you. But if your definition of religion embraces the idea that religion should be concerned about people as such – their rights, their responsibilities, their opportunities, their right to respect because they are God’s creatures – then it is difficult to see how segregation could be viewed as a non-religious, academic subject. The Nazarene was not concerned about one’s race, nationality, socioeconomic status, or anything else. His only concern was the need of the persons with whom he came in contact, and he truly exemplified what Paul had in mind when he said, “God hath made of one blood all nations of men.” It is difficult to see how any other conception squares with realities.