Month: June 1957

The Tennessee Press Association, meeting this week at Gatlinburg, continues its fight for the right of the people to know how government is handling, or mishandling, the public business. Resolutions were approved affirming the stand of the association, under the slogan, “What the people don’t know will hurt them.” Is it not ironical that in America, devoted to the government supposedly of, by, and for the people, that elected and appointed officials should consider that the work they are doing in behalf of the people is none of that same people’s business? Boards of education, meeting of administrative officials, and the like, which should be open to the public are being held behind closed doors from which the public is excluded. The press should be commended for its continuing fight for democracy against the stubborn undemocratic attitudes of public agencies that would deny the people the right to know what their government is doing.

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One adjustment to the uncomfortable summer weather in this region is made by the Rosemont Presbyterian Church of Bristol, which began this morning at 8:30 its services normally held at 11:00 o’clock. Sunday school, usually preceding the service, will hereafter be held immediately after the sermon. This practice is intended to continue through the worst heat period of the summer. It is the first adjustment of its kind that so far has been reported in the news.

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A prominent speaker and writer, one Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, writes that God always answers prayer. If you get that for which you pray, that’s proof. If you don’t, he says, “Your prayer has been answered negatively.” This would seem to be a sort of “heads I win; tails you lose” proposition, is it not? Anyway, it is very definitely in the Peale tradition. That should be something, though just what, it is very difficult to say at times.

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A short lesson in theology appeared in the news this week. It goes like this: “Humanism is not a denomination but a philosophy of religion. Unitarianism is not a philosophy of religion but a denomination, providing a framework for many different philosophies of religion. Each person should make his own spiritual adventure. Thoreau said we do not all march to the beat of the same drum.” Make sense, does it not?

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It is gratifying to know that the Ten Commandments for parents that were passed along in the last broadcast struck a receptive note with some of you, and it is a pleasure to pass along the ten for children, which was mentioned then. Here they are:

1. You shall not cause one parent to turn against the other.
2. Remember your parents have the same right as you to enjoy life, secure rest, and to have the fruits of their labor.
3. You shall not ignore your parents’ experience and wisdom.
4. You shall share in the responsibilities and labor of the family according to your ability and according to the need.
5. Your brother and sister shall be your friend and not your rival.
6. Your behavior before your teacher and in the community shall not bring reproach upon your family.
7. You shall respect the privacy of your father and mother, brother and sister.
8. You shall not reveal the secrets of your household nor bring gossip within your gates.
9. You shall observe the routine of your household and need not to be reminded of your daily tasks.
10. You shall learn diligently thy faith, observe its commandments, and attend its worship that you may be worthy of the best life.

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Much has been appearing in recent weeks and months about censorship. Movies, radio, television, newspapers, and even courts have dealt with the matter – not to mention the local busybodies, official or self-appointed, who are always trying to tell someone else what can be read. These same people would resent anyone telling them what they could or could not read. Several times the National Organization for Decent Literature, a Catholic agency, has been mentioned on this program. And some of you listeners have taken offense when none was intended. For that matter, it seems appropriate here to explain again the program viewpoint on the matter. The Roman Catholic Church, or any other private agency has a right to express its opinion on literature. That is merely an exercise of the right of freedom of speech. However, it does not have the right to coerce publishers or bookstores. The government is forbidden by the First and 14th Amendments to abridge the freedom of the press. If Catholics want this organization to tell them what they can and cannot read, that is their business, but it is likely that most of us resent having a priest, minister, or rabbi tell us what may or may not be read. It would appear that the organization’s priests are not in favor of sex. Under its express standards it would be logical to ban the Bible, the Odyssey, and Shakespeare. It would be very illuminating to you listeners, Catholic and non-Catholic, to secure a list of books banned by this organization. You can then see the dangerous quagmire into which such interference with legitimate knowledge can lead.

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And along the same line, it is pertinent to observe that the Supreme Court this week held that freedom of speech and press under the First Amendment does not extend to the obscene. Now probably 95% of Americans could agree upon certain things as being obscene; a similar proportion might be found agreeing upon what is not obscene. But what about the in-between? By what criteria is obscenity to be determined? Any of you listeners want to send in a definition that will fit all situations? It is more than likely that the court is going to have a fine list of cases coming up to it where not even the wisdom of a Solomon can draw a dividing line between the ’tis and the ’tain’t. In most cases it is also likely that whether something is or is not obscene depends upon the inner state of the reader or hearer, and this fact defies even the collective wisdom of the Supreme Court.

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So you have evinced some interest as to why this, a program devoted to current items of religious significance, is concerned so often and so much about various American freedoms, some of which are not exclusively religious in themselves. There should be no wonderment on this. Our bundle of freedoms is indivisible, and an attack on one anywhere anytime is a potential threat at least to all the rest of them. How can one have freedom of religion without freedom of speech? If speech can be curbed in the name of secular ideology, it can also be restrained next, in the name of religion. Without freedom of the press, dissemination of diverse views on religion would not be possible. If men and women were not free peaceably to assemble, if government at any level can prevent today a meeting of a political group, it may tomorrow, with as much logic, interfere with the gathering of a religious body that it does not like. Restriction of any one of the traditional freedoms sets up a chain reaction that can have reverberations throughout the whole range of civil liberties, including that of religion. And yet, some religious-minded people, or people who think they are religious-minded, would, if they could, curb ideas, meetings, or publications they do not like. I personally detest some of the stuff that rolls over the air waves, purporting to be music. To me, it is just noise, and very unpleasant noise at that. But who am I to say that it shall be banned? Some people actually like that stuff. And I could not be consistent in my thinking and behavior if I tried to ban it. Instead, I reach for the knob and turn it off. That is the limit of my freedom to curb. If my neighbor wishes to listen to it, that is his business, not mine.

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All of us are familiar with a supposed saying of a former president that his minister was “agin sin.” Well, the current chief executive, it would appear, is also. At his press conference this week, he was asked for a comment on the recommendation by a federal study commission that Congress make it a crime for private citizens, including newsmen, to disclose secret government information. The president replied that anyone doing that ought to be ashamed of himself. It is comforting to know that he is going to take such a firm and forthright stand on a very critical issue.

In Louisville, Kentucky, this week the Grace Lutheran Church opened its doors for the vacation Bible school. Out in front of the church had been placed a sign which read “All Children Welcome.” The church has been in existence for 66 years as an all-white institution, and it had no apprehension that the sign would be taken literally by non-white children, but that is what happened. Eleven Negro children showed up unexpectedly, and in about half a minute a 66-year tradition had been broken. For the minister, the Rev. Henry Kleckley, and the school director, Mrs. P. E. Davis, decided immediately to take the Negro children into the classes. The church governing body moved to support the decision, and thus this Lutheran Church is believed to be the first all-white church in the Louisville area to adopt integrated vacation Bible classes, and the first of its denomination south of the Mason-Dixon line. Believers in democracy and in Christianity applied cannot but applaud this episode, and hope that there may be more like it –  soon.

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Some time ago there appeared in the local daily newspaper two sets of 10 Commandments: one for parents, another for children. Since this reporter is more of a parent now than he is a child, he has taken the set for parents more seriously and wishes to pass them on to you, in modern day version. They were prepared by Rabbi and Mrs. William M. Kramer of California, and read as follows:

1. You shall strive to banish fear and anxiety from your gates and invite love and security within your portals.
2. You shall see your child as a personality to be released, not as a possession to be retained, praising his accomplishments, judging them according to his youth and gifts.
3. You shall honor and cherish your mate so that love permeates the household and adorns its inhabitants.
4. You shall train your child to respect himself, but in so doing not feel rejected by you.
5. You shall not be cowardly or overly-indulgent lest your child knows not the bounds of decency and good behavior.
6. When you are vexed with the ways of childhood remember, then, the days of your youth.
7. You shall help your child love beauty, uphold truth, walk in friendship, and serve his nation.
8. You shall make your home your child’s home wherein his friends are welcome guests.
9. You shall not exploit, nor compete with your child for gain or for pride or for any selfish end, nor visit upon him your parent’s shortcomings towards you.
10. You shall teach your children diligently your faith, to observe its commandments and attend its worship, prepare him for marriage, and the doing of good deeds.

It is entirely possible, even probable, that not everyone will subscribe to all of these, but it is also unlikely that many will disagree with very much. Parenthood is essentially a responsibility vested in parents, a responsibility which they cannot escape, to provide the best possible environment so that their children may develop in wisdom and stature to the utmost of their physical, mental, and moral capacities. For parents, both of them, to do anything less, is to shirk their responsibilities and to stunt the full development of young lives entrusted together to their care. Parents who put their own narrow and personal desires ahead of the welfare of their children are likewise not living up to their most important obligations.

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Perhaps many of you can recall that about two years ago there was much publicity about the so-called Reese Committee study of the foundations – Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, and others of the large philanthropic funds set aside for particular purposes. Particularly did the Ford Foundation come under fire of the committee mainly because it was making objective and impartial investigations and reports in areas and in a manner that aroused the ire of vested interests with whom members of the committee were very much in sympathy. The Fund for the Republic, a branch of the Ford Foundation, particularly, came under committee attack because it was sponsoring studies in the field of human rights and the American tradition.

An undertaking of the fund initiated within the past year has been little publicized, but is one which potentially could be very productive, and in its nature, is designed to articulate and make more widely understood basic elements of the American scheme of things. It is entitled “The American Traditions Project,” intended to discover and dramatize incidents from daily life, particularly those which might never reach the headlines, in which courage and good sense of Americans had been demonstrating in action our traditions of freedom and justice.

A series of awards was offered for letters reporting true stories of individuals or groups who had successfully defended the rights to think and read freely, and who had applied the principles of the Bill of Rights in concrete human situations against the dictates of expediency. These letters were submitted to a panel of distinguished judges who selected those most worthy of award. The first prize was awarded last year to Mr. John B. Orr, Jr., a native Southerner of Florida, who, as a representative in the Florida state legislature, was the only one who stood up and voted against legislation designed to control school segregation in his state in spite of the Supreme Court decision. This was not only risking a political career, but was undertaking an extreme hazard to his own personal safety. He believed segregation was morally wrong, no matter how long it had existed. So he voted, one in 90 members, against what he believed to be evil. He was running for re-election even as he cast his vote, and while his vote was contrary to the personal statements of virtually all his constituents, the election was a great tribute to him and the good common sense of the voters, for while there were the usual threats, abuse, anonymous telephone calls, he was re-elected because enough of the people in his district admired and respected his courage and integrity.

The second award, while not having the drama of legislative debate on a public issue, reaches deeply into the American tradition that prevails among the masses of the American people. Two women were waitresses in a bus depot in Akron, Ohio. A stranger, an unknown man, had come into the bus depot after attending a midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. He fell asleep there. Some local police came in, awakened, abused, struck, handcuffed him and finally arrested him for loitering, and took him to jail. This man was a recent refugee from communist Poland and had suffered many years in Nazi concentration camps, but the ladies did not know about that. They saw only a stranger who was threatened unjustly. After the man was taken away they drove out to the man’s home in an adjoining town. They spoke to his landlady, to the police, and even went to see the mayor of the town. When they went to court, though their employer had broadly intimated they should not voluntarily testify, they did so in the man’s defense, and as a result of their testimony, the man was released. They did all this for a person whom they had never seen before but because he was a human being receiving treatment that was alien to the American concept of fair play and justice. And had they had not acted in his behalf, he would probably have been thrown in jail and stayed there for a term for something he had not done. These women received the Fund for the Republic award because of their perseverance and insistence on American traditional fair play. Their names are Mrs. Ann Harr and Mrs. Bessie Dick.

Time does not permit enumeration in any detail of the other awards. A third involves a courageous newspaperwoman in Lexington, Mississippi, who, despite deep-seated community opposition, attacked bootlegging in a supposedly dry state. She opposed race violence, and in her forthright editorials made her convictions clear, though she suffered a judgment of libel brought in a suit by a local officer, and was charged with contempt of court. Fortunately higher courts threw these out. She is Mrs. Hazel Brannon Smith.

It is examples such as these that keep the true spirit of American traditions alive. The people involved had little to gain by espousing unpopular causes, but it was such espousal of such causes that created our heroes at Valley Forge. And if America ever reaches the point where such kinds of courageous people with disinterested convictions failed to exist and act, the most vital essence of the American spirit in human affairs will have ceased to exist, and we will be a morally bankrupt people.

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Four Congregational Christian Churches and a number of ministers and laymen have asked federal court action to prevent merger of their denomination with the Evangelical and Reformed Church. The suit, filed last Thursday, asked a declaratory judgment that the basis of the union is null and void and that the idea of a merger at this time is illegal and invalid. The group filing the action contend the Congregational Church General Council does not have the power to conduct the merger. The Congregational churches are described as fully independent and the General Council is termed an advisory body with no authority over any of the churches. However, Dr. Fred Hoskins, minister or head of the Congregational General Council, has stated that the lawsuit contains nothing to prevent proceeding with uniting the General Synod this coming week in Cleveland. The proposed church will have the name of the United Church in Christ, with some 2.1 million members.

These are two of America’s oldest Protestant denominations. The Congregational Christian Churches, descended from the pilgrims who came to New England aboard the Mayflower; while the early German and Dutch immigrants established the Evangelical and Reformed Church in this country in the early 18th century.

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The 171st Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren has passed a statement on war that says its members should neither participate in war nor learn the art of war. Concern is expressed over what the church terms the nation’s increasing movement toward a permanently militaristic outlook. It urges the Brethren to study international relations and foreign policy and the constructive use of atomic power for the benefit of mankind. The convention has been meeting this week in Richmond, Virginia. This church has a long record of conscientious objection to war, and its actions this week is well within its long-established tradition.

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Again Richmond, the Temple of the Jewish Beth Ahabah Congregation stands only one block from the St. James Episcopal Church. Several months ago, a service was held in the synagogue for the retiring Episcopal rector. The Episcopalians were invited, and saw the Rev. Dr. Churchill Gibson presented with an inscribed Bible. Now the two congregations have gone further. They had jointly bought three of the homes separating their two buildings, and will make a parking lot. This will work out well, for Beth Ahabah worships on Saturday, and St. James congregation on Sunday.

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In Munich, Germany, a Catholic priest, a rabbi, and a Protestant minister have recorded interviews for broadcast behind the Iron Curtain as a symbol of religious freedom in this country. Father Robert Welch, Rabbi Frederick Bargebuhr, and Lutheran minister George Forell are members of a unique religious education experiment at The Iowa State University. They conduct classes in their beliefs at the university’s School of Religion…. The only one of its kind in the United States.

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London: Russia is starting to woo Moslem religious nationalist movements in the Arab world. A policy review in the Russian publication Kommunist urges that special attention be paid to religious sects and leaders in the Middle East.

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Indianapolis: A Methodist bishop says there must be closing of what he calls a “gap of misunderstanding” between Protestant and Roman Catholic churches. Bishop Richard C. Raines, the Episcopal head of the Methodist Church in Indiana, referred to the closing of Protestant institutions in Spain last year. He said this action makes Americans, in his words, “apprehensive lest the Roman Catholic should ever become dominant in the United States.”

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Waterloo, Iowa: Methodist Bishop Gerald Ensley believes the average community thinks ministers are much like Eagle Scouts – nice but not important. He told the North Iowa Conference of the Methodist Church that the community looks on ministers benevolently, but doesn’t take them seriously. This, he added, is worse than being persecuted or verbally attacked.

Today near Nashua, Iowa, is a celebration of the centennial of a song about a church, “The Little Brown Church in the Vale.” It was written on June 14, 1857, by music teacher William Pitts about a spot where a church did not stand. But the place impressed him as waiting for a church to be built there. Pitts saw the spot en route to visit a girl, Ann Warren, and to ask her parents’ permission to marry her. He sang the song at the dedication of the church in 1864. Later Pitts became a doctor. “The Little Brown Church” has its own long-time tradition as a very popular wedding place.

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The United Presbyterian Church of North America has voted to merge with the Presbyterian Church USA next May…. The moderator of the United Presbyterians in their final year is to be Dr. Robert Montgomery. He is president of Muskegon College, in new Concord, Ohio, where the church has been holding its final separate assembly.

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A scholarly yet easily-read book has been published to help tell the story of Judaism. Dr. Bernard Bamberger, rabbi of New York City’s West End Synagogue, stresses in his work the development of the great ideals of his religion. In the book, entitled “The Story of Judaism,” he states his firm belief that the core of Jewish experience is religious. In the core are the God idea; the concept of man and of humanity; the moral law; the future hope; the two foci or centers of synagogue and home; and the system of study, prayer, and observance. But Rabbi Bamberger says the current secular Jewish philosophies are a challenge to Jewish religion and thus must be considered. Still, he adds, the Judaism of today is the Judaism of Sinai. He tells the story from the seeds and roots – as Abraham and Moses and the exodus from Egypt. The Torah is explained. The author terms it more than “law.” Instead, “Torah” means the direction given man by God for the guidance of his life

In other chapters, the author writes of the effects of the Jews, Greeks, and Romans and their religions on each other; of the Jews and their religion up through the middle ages; the combating of discrimination by American and French revolutions; pogroms and anti-Semitism; American Judaism; and the state of Israel today.

Bamberger says that Paul, or Saul of Tarsus, made Christianity a different kind of religion than his and its native Judaism. The author defines Judaism as a religious discipline of acts and duties. “Pauline Christianity,” he declares, is a plan of salvation achieved through faith. Judaism is seen as centered around a divine command, and Christianity around the divine person.

Judaism, he goes on, is the source of another world-religion, Islam. But Islam never had any connection with corporate Jewish life. Although its teachings closely resemble those those of Judaism. Dr. Bamberger says that Mohammed taught a religion derived largely from conversations with Jewish acquaintances. Islam means “submission,” that is, submission to the will of the deity. The author sees the ethical standards of the Koran is fairly high and doing much to lift the Arab moral tone. But he adds that the Koran does not teach the full measure of universalism and sensitive tenderness found in the best Jewish teachings.

Well, that is the evaluation of his own religion and of other religions, and one can forgive him if he is ethnocentric about that to which he subscribes. Is there any of us who is not?

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Two Roman Catholic missionaries from California have been released from four years of jail and house detention in Communist China. The Rev. Charles McCarthy, 45 years old, of San Francisco, and the Rev. John Alexander Houle, 42 years old, of Glendale, expect to be in Hong Kong in about 10 days. By telephone from Shanghai, Father McCarthy has reported that he and Father Houle are in fair health. But he also said that Father Houle has a back ailment for which he is in bad need of treatment.

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A Protestant Episcopal minister charges that evangelist Billy Graham is using Madison Avenue advertising techniques to fill Madison Square Garden every night. The Rev. Howard Graf, of the Church of St. John’s in Greenwich Village, New York, said “There are thousands in the garden who are there because they love a parade, a show, circus, or to watch the fire engines go by.” Graf spoke from the pulpit of his church to about 100 persons. Graham has been preaching nightly to crowds estimated at 15,000 – 19,000 persons. Graham has never been a favorite or hero to this reporter, and many times he has aroused skepticism about many things. But could it be that the Rev. Graf may have a little jealousy also at the contrast in size of respective audiences? Is it not about time we quit throwing stones at each other? It is to be hoped that the net effect of Graham’s activities will be good. Who can complain about one who does good, however small that amount of good may be? It is better to ignore such if you do not to agree with them, then to berate and give them more publicity and perhaps make a martyr them to some.

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Vatican City: The newspaper L’Osservatore Romano has reminded its readers that the Vatican holds that there can be no collaboration between Catholics and socialists. The paper pointed out that the church not only condemns the communists, but has explicit reservations with regards to socialists, even when they have no formal links with the communists. It would be wonderful if labels were accurate and distinctions between right and wrong were always so simple.

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A 46-year-old man who spent 16 years in prison for a murder he did not commit has been ordained a Presbyterian minister. Nearly 450 persons were on hand to see John Cacopardo, of Hackensack, New Jersey, ordained at the Oliver Presbyterian Church on Staten Island. Cacopardo, married, and the father of two children, was sent to prison in 1937 for the murder of a young woman. Later, his uncle, Paul Petrillo, who had been a witness against him, was proved to have committed the murder. Cacopardo was granted a full pardon by Gov. Averell Harriman.

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Vatican City: The primate of Poland, Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, returns on Monday, tomorrow, to Poland after a 39-day stay in Italy. The 56-year-old cardinal who was released last October from the communist detention camp had a farewell audience on Thursday with the pope. He will return to Poland by train, by way of Vienna.

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One more brief comment on liberal religion and the attitude of the religious liberal: The liberal is tolerant, hospitable to truth from every and any source. Tolerance does not imply a don’t-care attitude, nor does it mean a mush of complaisance. It does not mean everyone is right, and it certainly does not mean appearing to agree when you don’t. In short, it does not mean being a hypocrite. The liberal would explode superstition wherever he finds it; he would expose error; uncover fraud; stop exploitation of man by man; oppose wickedness; and correct ignorance. It is possible to pursue a gladiatorial attitude towards evil without impairing other values.

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The Walt Disney movie production which this reporter has not seen comes highly recommended in reviews that he has read, and he intends to see it when the opportunity arises. It is about the city of Boston where its citizens revolted when they believed their rights as Englishmen were denied. The review goes on to point out that the picture shows how hard-won and precious is our political heritage. This picture of Englishmen who had to become Americans in order to ensure domestic tranquility and secure the blessings of liberty comes highly recommended.

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It is a matter of increasing concern to many of us who like our system here in this country, and would seek to improve it, that so many take our freedoms, and this includes religious freedom, for granted, and refuse to see that if these freedoms are attacked, it will not be by a frontal assault but by persons seeking in the name of freedom to protect it by their own authoritarian devices and strategy. For example, in some parts of this country and by some elements of the population, both public and private, our Constitution is mocked and the Bill of Rights, disregarded. Within the past few years many reputations have been ruined by government stool pigeons. Citizens’ rights to travel are now being abridged and denied, and a possible new tyranny under the name of “internal security” sweeps over the land. Both private and public-appointed sensors survey the books we read are permitted to read, the magazines we buy, and the friends we have. Reports crop up now and then  – how many more there are that do not get revealed cannot be estimated – of browbeating of the press and intimidating the clergy. The press, on its part, plays up the releases given out by investigating committees and censors boards, and thus participate in character assassination. The self-styled intellectuals in many churches busy themselves with the metaphysical contradictions of Barth, Niebuhr, and Graham, while defenders of our traditional liberties are called suspicious characters and enemies of liberties are given metals as patriots. Coercion at home becomes coercion abroad, and the U.S. could easily become a replacement of Britain as a bully among the nations, telling them what kind of government they can have and what their several foreign policies shall be.

These are not welcome facts, but they are facts. The Pollyannas will keep repeating to themselves that “God’s in his heaven, all’s well with the world,” and maybe some of them will actually believe it. Democracy flourishes only when all are informed and willing to face facts realistically in the face of them. Perhaps it will do us all good to see “Johnny Tremain” and reorient ourselves in the true spirit that activated the people of Boston who made it possible through their acts to provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare.

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Some of the materials that crossed my desk this week contained writings of certain neo-orthodox disciples, writings that have very pious sounds. However, if one seeks the meanings behind these sounds, the writings become very confusing. What these neo-orthodox persons are saying in effect is that religious man must give up the idea of human understanding and place his faith in the absurd. To put it in their phrase, “The ways of God are beyond human comprehension; therefore absurdity is the ultimate basis of faith.” Well, if the ways of God are beyond comprehension, how are the neo-orthodox in a position to make any statement about God and God’s ways? Ancient theology, when subjected to a rigorous methodology, can often become incredible and absurd. But the neos, in an effort to hold the line, make a bold pitch for the incredible, the absurd, and the contradictory as the only basis of true faith. There appears little difference between Cadillac neo-orthodoxy and pedestrian fundamentalism.

There is a sense in which the church and believers in it are not free: They are not free to reject sound scholarship; They are not free to deny the valid conclusions of science; They are not free to believe where there is no evidence; And they are not free from mental discipline, whatever men may put into books to the contrary.

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The much-maligned Fund for the Republic, part of the Ford Foundation, recently announced the establishment of a Commission on Rights, Liberties, and Responsibilities of the American Indian. This commission is headed by O. Meredith Wilson, president of the University of Oregon. The purpose of the commission is to arrive at a better understanding of the obligation of other citizens, and the federal and state governments to the Indians. This particular cycle of studies, commissions, surveys, recommendations, studies, etc., infinitum, has been going on now for at least 150 years, and the Indian has shown a remarkable vitality, enough to survive and to make remarkable progress in spite of his continuing role as a guinea pig in a land where he ante-dated the bureaucrats, benevolent or otherwise.

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Expressions of concern expressed on this program regarding censorship of reading materials by both public and private groups have been met with misunderstanding by some listeners; and, it would seem, by misinterpretation by others, perhaps misinterpretation based on misunderstanding. My meaning has always been clearly in mind, even though the words may not always have conveyed clearly that meaning. Any private group has a right to evaluate literature, movies, etc., and to make known its evaluation. That is a part of private freedom possessed by all. However, when an organization, public or private, tries to prevent the public from having access to literature, movies, television and radio programs, it enters a field where only the courts can make decisions regarding what is and is not obscene.

Perhaps the most widely known and publicized private group of this kind is the National Organization for Decent Literature, a nationwide organization whose membership is made up largely of Roman Catholic layman. Its units are to be found in many towns and cities. Its purpose is to campaign against “the lascivious type of literature which threatens moral, social, and national life.” Now few if any will disagree in principle with such a worthy purpose. It is only when it campaigns through use of force, expressed or potential, to prevent the public from reading what it, the organization, conceives to be immoral, and prevents the public from having access to the criticized materials that its work becomes indefensible. The novel, for example, which may be thought of by a committee of Catholic mothers to be unsuitable for a Roman Catholic adolescent may not be so thought of by a non-Catholic. The organization thus becomes a self-selected conscience of the whole country. And at the risk of crowding out other materials today that might well be included, it appears justifiable to observe that the recommendations of this organization have often gone far beyond merely expressing disapproval of a publication.

For example, representatives of the organization … call upon booksellers and ask that the condemned titles not be offered for sale. They inform non-complying booksellers that they will boycott him unless he complies with the request, thus contradicting its own assertion that the list is merely an expression that the publication does not conform to the organization’s code. Newsdealers who agree in advance not to sell anything to which the organization objects, are given monthly certificates of compliance. Lists of complying and non-complying dealers are widely publicized, and the public, both Catholic and non-Catholic, are urged to confine their purchases of all commodities to complying dealers. Check-ups by organization representatives are recommended at fortnightly intervals, thus creating a private-morals police force. And, worst of all, in many cases … , prosecuting attorneys, and military commanders of Army posts have issued instructions or orders that no books or magazines on the organization list shall be sold within their jurisdiction, thus putting the authority of the state in the service of a private sectarian group. For example, the prosecutor of St. Clair County, Michigan, has officially recognized the organization’s list as a guide to what publications cannot be sold in his jurisdiction. Thus the judgment of a particular group is being imposed upon the freedom of choice of a whole community.

Furthermore, many of the titles appearing on the organization’s proscribed list are considered among the most distinguished in literature. Books by recipients of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award have been made markedly less available to the reading public by the censorship of a private and anonymous jury acting under its own standards of morality and taste. To mention just a few: Nelson Algren, National Book Award winner of 1950 had his “The Man With the Golden Arm” banned by the organization; William Faulkner, prize winner of many awards, had his “Sanctuary” denounced by the group; James Jones, who wrote “From Here to Eternity,” found that book listed among the immoral; Ernest Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not” met with a similar fate. Works by such famous writers as John Dos Passos, Aldous Huxley, Erskine Caldwell, Kathleen Winsor, Richard Wright, and many others have been banned.

For an organization to let the public know what it thinks of a given publication is one thing, a justifiable action; to decide that the public must not read certain materials, and to use pressure to prevent publication and distribution of such matter, is another, and decidedly unjustifiable, procedure. To defend its right to evaluate is in no sense to support its right to prohibit. Freedom to know is an essential ingredient of the American bundle of freedoms, and no private group, Catholic or otherwise, has a right to impose its conviction and prejudices upon the public at large.

It would be both interesting and illuminating to know who, of those seeking government aid to suppress literature they do not like, are also among the emotional crowd now bewailing recent decisions of a branch of that same government, the federal judiciary, upholding the right of individuals to see the evidence upon which they are being tried for criminal charges. Unless one can separate morals from religion, both are involved here. All the courts have done is to say that a man cannot be convicted in a criminal case on secret evidence. But the congressmen and the Department of Justice have become near hysterical over these decisions and have rushed legislation seeking, as they put it, to protect the FBI files. They ignore or fail to mention that the FBI can protect itself, while the individual, faced with the power of government, is the one who really needs protection, to the end that government itself does not wreak an injustice.

Why are some Americans, who now constitute the most powerful nation in the world, afraid of the magnificent, fundamental liberties nailed down in the last years of the 18th century by a small nation, one that was weak, poor, and exhausted by a victorious war against a great power?

To put it another way, one may ask why should 170 million Americans, armed with the hydrogen bomb, be alarmed by the rights to free speech, press, and religion, won for us by fewer than 3 million colonials who at times not only fought barehanded but, at Valley Forge, barefoot in the snow. Are we so terrified of internal subversion on the part of a mangy political party, whose numbers probably do not exceed 50,000 persons, that we are willing to let civil liberties guaranteed to us by the Constitution go by default? Until the [Supreme] Court in recent decisions called a halt to such attrition, the guarantee in the First and Fifth Amendments were literally going by default. What the court has done is simply to scrape the barnacles off this vital portion of the ship of state.

If those now yapping at the Court for returning to fundamental American precepts want to put the matter to a test, let them have the courage of their convictions and try to get an amendment in Congress to repeal the Bill of Rights. That way we could find out if the American people are running so scared that they will yield up their basic liberties for a false security. Who, minus liberties, is secure? What is security, minus freedom, except prison?

Too often the past 10 or 15 years any unpopular idea, even fluoridation of water, has been equated with subversion and pronounced communistic. The people who established the Constitution had had considerable experience with unpopular ideas, but they were not afraid of them when they wrote the Constitution and, two years later, framed the Bill of Rights.

The record of their fears of unbridled government, i.e., one without a Bill of Rights, is impressive. Both Virginia and New York came to the first session of Congress with separate and long bills of rights. The subject was a major item of business in the first session of the first Congress of the United States. North Carolina even refused to ratify the new document until such a bill was added. Massachusetts and New Hampshire ratified it, but made urgent recommendations that civil rights be spelled out. Until the Court spoke out these past few weeks, these great, fundamental rights were being nibbled away little by little by little people who were afraid of the very freedoms that make America unique among her enemies. Secret trials and conviction by secret witnesses are trappings of the dictatorships against whom we are competing. To emulate them is to become like them and destroy the very reason for competing. To imitate them is to surrender the right to freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion –  and nobody but the commies wish that. And they wish it because they are afraid of it. It is time Americans quit being afraid.

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New York: Two Iowa clergymen report the tremendous postwar prosperity in West Germany has brought with it a decline in religion, while in communist-run East Germany there is a religious revival. Father Robert Welch, a Roman Catholic priest, and Dr. George Ferrell, a Lutheran minister, returned last week from a one-month tour of Germany, France, Holland, and Switzerland. Both men are associate professors in The University of Iowa School of Religion. Dr. Frederick Bargebuhr, a Rabbi, who is also an associate professor at the School of Religion, accompanied them on the trip. Dr. Bargebuhr is now in London. The chief purpose of their trip was to tell students and teachers about the School of Religion. Students who attend their lectures often expressed amazement that clergymen of three different faiths now associated socially but traveled together and spoke from the same platform.

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Mackinac Island, Michigan: Representatives of India, Japan, and South Korea addressed the Moral Re-armament Assembly of Nations at Mackinac Island this past week. Japanese Senator Takeshi Togano called the gathering, in his words, “a testing ground for the atomic bomb of moral re-armament. This fallout, he said, will blanket the world in answer to the fallout of the military bomb.”

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A 10- year-old Lutheran girl and her mother are flying to Lourdes, France, seeking a miracle cure at the Roman Catholic shrine. Neighbors of Lynn Lambrecht of West Allis, Wisconsin, donated $1,000 to cover expenses for the trip. The girl is critically ill with arthritis. Catholic authorities have confirmed the report that many miracles have occurred at the shrine. But the Rev. Adolph Kappes, pastor of the Lutheran church attended by the Lambrecht family, said, “The shrine of Lourdes has no more power to cure than any other church.” So, it would seem that this is a case of “You pays your money and you takes your choice.”

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Dr. Maurice Eisendrath, President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, returned last Friday from religious conferences in England, France, and Switzerland. He also attended the meeting of the World Union for Progressive Judaism in Amsterdam, Holland. His organization is the parent body of more than 550 Reform temples in the United States and Canada, representing more than 1 million congregants.

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A prominent Jewish author died this week. He was Sholem Asch, who had said he tried to demonstrate in his novels the interdependence of the Jewish and Christian religions. That was in the hope that mutual understanding might lead to a better world. Asch left his home in Miami Beach, Florida, about four years ago because of some Jews’ hostility towards his books. They had criticized his handling of New Testament personalities in such works as “The Nazarene.” To persons who said Asch seemed preoccupied with Christianity, the author replied he had never considered leaving the faith of his fathers and never intended to. He admitted his books made him some enemies. But he added that he had shown how deeply rooted Christianity is in Jewish history and religion. He was a fervent Zionist, inspired by the state-building experiment in Israel.

Asch was born in Poland and received rabbinical training. But he decided such spiritual leadership was not for him. He came to the U.S. in 1910 and became a citizen in 1920. He died in self-imposed exile in London at the age of 76.

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This weekend, the Seventh-day Adventists are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their youth department. The meeting is being held on the campus of the Adventist Mount Vernon Academy [Ohio], where the movement was started in 1907. When it began, the department had about 5,300 members. Almost that many, 4,000, are attending this golden anniversary session. Now the youth department has more than 400,000 members all over the world.

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A flying hero says he will now limit his air trips to serving his two congregations. He is the Rev. Lester J. Maitland, former Air Force brigadier general, one-time aide of Air Force General William Mitchell. Friday of this week he was ordained a priest in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and will serve at St. John’s Church in Iron River and St. David’s at Sidnaw, both in Michigan’s upper peninsula.

Washington: A New York congressman has asked the president to sponsor a meeting of the world’s religious leaders to organize a collective security pact for the protection of the souls of mankind. Representative Herbert Zelenko said the religious leaders (and it is a pretty good guess that he means Christians only) could issue a manifesto that would be a philosophical rallying point for men of spiritual belief everywhere.
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Philadelphia: The Rev. Clarence W. Crawford, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., has been nominated without opposition as president of the American Baptist Convention. He will be installed tomorrow at the closing session of the meeting.
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Paducah, Kentucky: The Memphis Conference of the Methodist Church has voted to permit Negro churches to request membership in the annual conferences of white churches. The measure is permissive and applies only to conference activities. It does not apply to local membership in individual churches.
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New Concord, Ohio: Final action will be taken next week on a proposal to merge two Presbyterian Church groups into one denomination comprising 3 million members. The 99th General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America will vote next Friday on merging with the Presbyterian Church, USA. The latter group voted approval of the merger last month.
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Washington: President Eisenhower named Edward McCabe, his associate special counsel, to represent him at a solemn pontifical Mass yesterday honoring St. Benedict the Moor. The Mass commemorates the 150th anniversary of the canonization by the Catholic Church of the first Negro ever elevated to sainthood. Wonder what the white citizens councils and the Catholic haters think about that!
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In Syracuse, Sicily: Polish Primate Cardinal Wyszynski said Mass this week before the image of the weeping Madonna, fulfilling a vow he took during the dark days of persecution and confinement in his homeland. Said the cardinal, “In the most anguishing time of my life, I turned with faith to the Virgin Mary, vowing to kneel here before her.” More than 10,000 Sicilians watched the Polish cardinals celebrate the open air Mass.
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Vatican City: Pope Pius has told a group of American surgeons they are dedicated men who devote all their energies to the essential good of the individual and the community. The pope spoke in English to representatives of the American Section of the International College of Surgeons who are visiting Italian medical centers.
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Again, Vatican City: The pope says that even in an age of automation a biblical injunction will apply. This is that men must earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. But the pontiff adds that new forms of labor will replace those eliminated by automatic machinery and electronic brains. He also stated that spiritual as well as material values must be kept in mind as automation develops. And he has charged that Marxists are wrong in attributing a determining weight to the technical side of life and claiming automation by itself can change the life of man in society. Well, anybody want to bet that it won’t? Despite what the good pontiff says?
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A 40-year-old reductionist priest and author has been named director of the Family Life Bureau of the National Roman Catholic Welfare Conference. He is the Rev. Henry Sattler, a native of North East, Pennsylvania, and a leader of many retreats and conferences for married and engaged couples. Father Sattler has written a book entitled “Parents, Children, and the Facts of Life.”
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Trained sponsors and friends will be the rule from now on for confused, rebellious children in Louisville, Kentucky. A youth program has been set up to show that kindness is not a gimmick. This program is undertaken by the new Committee on Institutions of the Louisville Area Council of Churches. The chairman of the council’s Juvenile Court Committee, Edgar Price, explains the aims will include leading youths in a Christian way of life, aiding the juvenile court with problems and helping young persons prepare for and find jobs.
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A Baltimore, Maryland, policeman is going to change from a uniform to clerical dress. Patrolman Thomas Barranger will resign from the force at the end of this month. Next month he will become a Protestant Episcopal Church deacon in Roundup, Montana. Patrolman Barranger has been in the Baltimore Police Department since 1943. It took him 10 years of night study to earn a college degree. He is already ordained, is married, and the father of three children.
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Three Midwestern professors have found a lively interest in Germany in the University of Iowa’s Interfaith School of Religion. They have told the Berlin Society of Christian-Jewish cooperation that they help university students arrive at a better understanding of religion. Professor F. B. Bargebuhr, representing the Jewish faith, has stated it is not the teachers’ intention to put the Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish beliefs into a melting pot. Professor G. W. Forelli, a Lutheran, declared the U.S. background keeps Americans from considering it unusual that professors of three different religious faiths work together. Also on the tour is the Rev. Robert Welch, a Roman Catholic member of the University of Iowa Interfaith School faculty.
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The president of the Rabbinical Council of America says Orthodox Judaism is experiencing a new vigor on American soil. Rabbi Solomon Sharfman has told a meeting of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America that theirs is no longer a religion for the aged. He adds that Orthodox Judaism has begun to capture the imagination of Jewish youth, who are, he says, returning to the synagogue and giving it new energy and militancy.

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Some of you listeners have been interested in having me pursue further the term “liberal religion,” which is been used quite frequently on this program. Any attempt to define any term is hazardous because the person doing so perforce reads into it something of his own prejudices and values. However, I should like to make it clear that the liberal is not free to believe in anything he would like to believe. He is constrained by history, reason, science, observation and common sense. For example, he is not free to believe that a man named Balaam had a donkey that could talk, that the earth was created by divine fiat in exactly 4004 B.C., or that God dictated the Bible.

The liberal approaches religion as he does everything else…. Suppose, for example, we sit in on a conference of scientists. A member reads a paper setting forth a conclusion in the tentative form, based on research. He presents evidence for critical evaluation and perhaps lists some difficulties in the acceptance and calls for further exploration. He has use the scientific method – observation, experimentation, calculation, and history of previous relevant studies according to the needs of the investigation. He has felt free to use any method that promised to yield results. He is modest and by truth he means only a very high degree of probability supported by unvarying evidence. This is what the liberal means by freedom, freedom under discipline.

But how different across the street in the church were there is a meeting of Orthodox churchmen. No modesty is found there, nothing is tentative. There heard thundering affirmations and dire predictions of doom for all who disagree. The difficulties are not mentioned, such as that which is not in accord with common observation, the contrary evidence of history and science, and the absence of testing by logic. In all that is spoken, reason is downgraded, emotion is upgraded. It is plain from what is said that all good people will accept and that those who do not are sinners. Appeal is made to writers on religion of centuries ago, and their writings are labeled as the final word. Appeal is made to ancient materialistic creeds that are meant to summarize what the speaker thinks people used to believe. The self interpretation of some religious fanatic long since dead may be cited as authority.

In short, while the scientists are engaging in an earnest and continuing quest for truth, the church, a backward and undemocratic organization, is saying “Stop here. This is the end. We know what is good for you to believe and we’ll tell you, and if you do not accept you are not a religious person.”

Liberal religion means freedom to exchange the views of yesterday as new evidence becomes available. At one time every religious person believed the earth was flat. But anyone would seem pretty silly insisting that this is true today. Religious liberalism is free, democratic, unafraid, and thus is well calculated to make contributions to the happiness of the race.

Some people attack reason in religion by calling attention to all the problems that reason has not solved. Well, authoritarianism, revelation, self-appointed revelators, and holy virgins have not solved them either. Elaborate rituals have not solved them. Appeals to God in the sky to intervene have not solved them. So far as problems have been solved it has been by slow, careful, patient, scientific investigation. So the liberal chooses between the creeds and superstitions of yesterday and today’s relentless search for truth.

Of course there is more to religion than reason, and the liberal recognizes that. Religion has to do with the whole of life. But the liberal also says that if religion will not stand up under the impact of reason, it needs revision. Religion is not static. It is not something delivered full-grown once and for all to the hands of this planet, complete and finished. It is intrinsic, a potential, native and natural, and must change as man changes and grows in knowledge and spiritual insight. The person who will not reason in religion is a bigot. He who cannot reason is a fool. He who dares not reason is a slave.

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Two events this week have moral and ethical if not strictly religious implications. Last Monday the Supreme Court handed down a decision that said in brief that a person cannot be convicted on a criminal charge if the evidence used to secure the fiction is marked secret for security purposes and the accused or his attorney does not have access to examination of this evidence. The other event involves whether an American soldier, on duty in Japan, who killed a Japanese civilian should be tried by Japanese or American courts.

The howls about these two events were remarkable. In the case of secret evidence, the newspapers, of all agencies, three of them serving the Johnson City area, blazed forth with editorials urging that Congress do something to prevent baring secret materials in criminal cases. One wonders if those editors have not read Amendment Six to our Constitution which guarantees that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to be informed of the nature and cause of accusation and to be confronted with the witnesses (evidence) against him? What would those same editors have said had a decision been handed down restricting freedom of the press that is guaranteed under the First Amendment of that same Bill of Rights?

In the case of the American soldier accused of killing the Japanese woman, the veterans organizations, the professional patrioteers, the DARs, and others of similar mind made speeches, wrote letters denouncing the executive branch for permitting an American to be tried in other than an American court. Unfortunately, the soldier’s case is confused by technicalities. He was on duty at the time, but the act he committed which is said to have caused the death was not exactly in line of duty. Furthermore, the civilians had been warned to stay off the range where the firing was taking place. A further complication is found in our Status of Forces Agreement with Japan.

But waving all technicalities aside, let us consider a moment the incidents and the howlers. If it is incumbent upon our Supreme Court to uphold Amendment One of the Constitution, it is equally responsible for defending the Sixth. If Japanese soldiers were on occupation duty in this country, those same ultra-nationalists would be demanding that the soldier be tried in American courts. One cannot but wonder if editors and patrioteers had thought of this. Was it not an itinerant carpenter in the insignificant little place called Galilee who said, “As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.”

Heidelberg, Germany: Episcopal leader, Rev. Henry I. Loutitt, says church attendance among members of the Armed Forces is particularly encouraging. Loutitt, who is Protestant Episcopal bishop of South Florida and chairman of the Armed Forces Division of the National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church, says attendance of Armed Forces personnel at church services compares favorably with any civilian church.

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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts says he believes a Roman Catholic could be elected president. Kennedy says the people are running ahead of the politicians who say a Catholic would have no chance for the presidency. In 1928, says Kennedy, Al Smith failed in his presidential bid for reasons other than his Catholic religion. He pointed out that Smith did better in the South that year than Adlai Stevenson did in 1952. Well, it is a pretty good bet that any presidential candidate with hopes for election is going to have to espouse civil rights for all on a basis of equality. Al Smith lost many votes because of his religious affiliation, and any candidate of that faith probably would lose votes. Given both an integration declaration and a Catholic affiliation, it is more than doubtful that such a candidate could carry a single southern state. Had this reporter had a vote in 1928, he would have voted for Al Smith, largely because of the bigotry injected into the campaign. There is considerable evidence that anti-Catholic bias has decreased considerably in the last 25 years, but no conclusive evidence that it has disappeared, unfortunately.

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In Montgomery, Alabama, this week two white men, one a teenager, were acquitted of charges of bombing a Negro church. An all-white jury rendered the verdict and a packed courtroom cheered the verdict. The prosecutors told jurors that an acquittal would say that it’s all right to bomb Negro churches and dwellings, and might lead to retaliation. The defense countered with the assertion that an acquittal would serve notice “that we are not going to yield another inch fighting for our way of life.” And what is that way of life? Simply a denial to other human beings, because of the accident of race (which is unimportant anyway and about which the individual can do nothing) those same rights that they, the white folks, demand for themselves? How one person can insist upon those rights for himself, deny them to other human beings, and then say that he honestly believes that God is the father of all humanity? It is impossible to see. It would indeed be a capricious father that would show so much partiality among the children he creates. Perhaps a form of tragedy would have emerged from the trial, whichever way the verdict had gone; but it is tragic for individuals so to try to deceive themselves on such fundamental matters.

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From Chicago and Philadelphia comes more comforting news. In Chicago, the Southern Baptist Convention has urged an end to resistance to integration. It also has demanded in a unanimously adopted report that persons perpetrating violence against Negroes in the cause of segregation be brought to legal justice. And by the end of the autumn of 1958, a fifth Southern Baptist seminary may be admitting qualified Negro students. Thus the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary at Wake Forest, North Carolina, would be added to other Southern Baptist clergical educational institutions – teaching Negroes at Louisville, Kentucky; New Orleans, Louisiana; Fort Worth, Texas; and Berkeley, California.

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In Philadelphia meanwhile, the American Baptist Convention has voted to choose ministers and accept the membership in its 6,000 churches without regard to racial background or origin.

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A noted biblical archaeologist and Jewish leader has gone back to Israel on a twofold mission. Dr. Nelson Glueck, president of the Hebrew Union College, a Jewish institution of religion in New York City, will put final approval on plans for a half-million dollar graduate school in archaeology. The school will be operated in Jerusalem by the college institute. Dr. Glueck also will resume his mile-by-mile exploration of the Negev desert region. Last summer, the theologian-archaeologist uncovered some prehistoric settlements. These pointed to a thriving agricultural civilization in the Negev as long as 4,000 years ago.

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Quite a furor has been aroused in England by the accusation of the archbishop of Canterbury, directed at the Roman Catholic Church there. Dr. Geoffrey Fisher says that the Roman Catholic Church in Britain is hostile to the established church and does not work with it as Catholics work together with other churchmen in Europe. Dr. Fisher, speaking at Wolverhampton, charges that the Catholic Church is waging what he termed “open war” against Anglicans.

The reply came from London by Dr. William Godfrey, Roman Catholic archbishop of Westminster, who declined to reply to the Anglican minister’s charges, but said that he would “rather not make any statement. I prefer to leave it to the good sense of the British people to judge who is waging open war.”

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Back in our own country, something of a tempest in a teapot was aroused by the warning some time ago that Catholics should not attend the so-called Crusade Services now going on in Madison Square Garden, New York City. The Rev. John E. Kelly says in Washington that he was not voicing personal prejudice when he warned Catholics to stay away from Graham’s revival meetings. Kelly, information director of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, says he was voicing a long-established rule of the Roman Catholic Church. Kelly says he has received a lot of mail from Catholics as well as Protestants accusing him of bigotry. And when churchmen wade into such an argument, it is the time for a layman reporter to stay out of the ridiculous mess.

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Last Sunday I dealt with in as much detail as the time permitted with the current schools of thought regarding objective criticism of biblical literature. It is not surprising that it aroused some of you to disagree. That is good, for where there is no disagreement, there is not likely to be any thinking.

The fact is the books of our Bible are not all in the order of events or in the order in which they were written. Thus the first five books of the Old Testament are composed of four separately written narratives composed years apart, and combined and recombined, re-written and re-edited from about 850 B.C. to 250 B.C. The Jews had two Bibles. One in Hebrew was made official about A.D. 100 but no Hebrew manuscript exists that is earlier than the 10th century. They have a Greek Bible that was translated the second and third centuries B.C. So, even when we talk about the Old Testament, we may be talking about either one or both of these Bibles.

In studying any part of the Bible, it is necessary to restore as nearly as possible the actual wording of the original manuscript of the author. This is known as “lower criticism” and fortunately has been pretty well done for the present-day student.

“Higher criticism” includes all that can be learned about a passage and its author that is not included in lower criticism. In considering any part of the New Testament, for example, it is necessary to look for the sources of ideas. One person has identified 11 separate sources for the fourth Gospel, and not all those sources were Hebrew. A part of this higher criticism is to see if a passage in question is supported by parallels in other Gospels and in apocryphal literature. In addition, the careful student, in considering any part of the Bible will try to find who wrote it, when it was written, the cultural pattern at the time of writing, the political situation, the interest of the writer, and the language conveyed to the people to whom it was addressed. It is especially pertinent in the Old Testament to identify the approximate time of writing in order to know the trend of changing religious thought under the impact of political and cultural change due to contacts with alien cultures.

The truth is that the Bible has many literary stereotypes. These may be classified as miracles, legends, folk-tales, parables, naive philosophy or wise sayings, traditions, etc. Moreover, considerable work has been done in separating Jewish from Hellenistic elements.

Today more is known about Bible literature than at any previous time. It is a fascinating literature, and it stands in its own right. It’s moralities, philosophies, errors, and insights find parallels in the literature of many peoples – in English, Chaucer and Shakespeare, for example.

Comments made here on these two programs are intended in no way to detract from the importance of biblical literature; on the contrary, they should make the person who really wants to know something about this great literature more satisfied than ever. In this connection, the book entitled “Origin and Character of the Bible” is highly recommended.

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Allusion has been made here a few times to the incredible situation in South Africa. Now comes a recent issue of The Christian Century that underscores the shocking things happening there. There are about 3 million whites and 10 million Africans. In that unhappy land it is legal to persecute Africans. The theory of the law seems to be that anyone who does not like the government of South Africa as presently constituted is a communist and therefore guilty of treason. This is an old McCarthy trick that the South Africans seem to have imported.

In July 1955, a so-called Congress of the People was called and an alleged “Freedom Charter” was drawn up. Its contents seem innocent. Indeed, it sentiments and propositions might well appear in any Christian sermon on any Sunday in the year. Yet, over 200 arrests have been made charging those who signed it with treason. The barbarous white masters of that strange country have passed laws that zone the whole country racially, register the population by race, forces an education that prepares the Africans as servants of white masters, and controls the movements of the Africans.

In parts of our own country there is race prejudice, but prejudice and discrimination are not elevated into law. The reverse is true; Negroes are legally free to propagandize, educate, and agitate. Also, it is not a case of a minority enslaving a majority.

Of course the South African Union is a part of the British Empire. In theory the parliament of Britain has complete control over all the empire from dominions to crown colonies, but this principle is not applied. Legally the British Parliament could repeal all or any part of the Constitution of South Africa. Probably it would not be politically smart. But couldn’t it do something? If not, is this not something the United Nations might take up under its human rights declaration? It would appear that the great powers of the world are more ready to defend oil and other commerce than human beings.