Month: April 1958

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Last week I reported briefly on criticism emanating from the Associated Church Press meeting in Chicago to the effect that religious papers are not aggressive enough in espousing great social issues. There is more news of the same vein in this week’s news. Fear was expressed at the meeting that the church press may be relinquishing moral leadership to the secular press because of its reluctance to discuss realistically the big issues. And Dr. Harold E. Frey, editor of The Christian Century, said religious publications ought to stick their necks out more on vital public questions.

In New York, meanwhile, two secular dailies and the United Press Association received awards of merit for distinguished coverage of local, national, and international religious activities. The papers are the Detroit Free Press and the Medford, Oregon, Mail Tribune. They were honored by the National Religious Publicity Council at its annual meeting. And in Washington, Louis W. Cassels, religion editor of the United Press, was named to receive the 1958 Faith and Freedom Award in American Journalism, which will be presented May 3 at a banquet highlighting the ninth annual pilgrimage of American churchmen.

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Dr. Douglas Horton, dean of Harvard Divinity School has announced the first professor in Catholic studies ever established at the school. Harvard’s Protestant Divinity School is 139 years old. Dr. Horton said Christopher Dawson, distinguished British Catholic historian and author, will become the first Chauncey Stillman Guest Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies. The new professorship is designed to attract to the Divinity School distinguished educators who can contribute to a wider understanding of the Catholic Church. Dr. Horton also announced appointment of another Englishman, Robert Henry Slater, to the newly-created professorship of world religions. Slater is theology professor at McGill University’s Montreal Diocesan Theological College.

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The Methodist Council of Bishops has called for a revised U.S. foreign policy in which the idealism of the American people is dominant. The appeal was issued in a message to the church from the meeting of the bishops of Miami Beach, Florida. The Methodist prelates urged a foreign policy that would not be based primarily on security and defense. They warned that the war for the minds of men will not be won so long as blind politicians demand tariff walls, envision fortress America, and call for more devastating weapons. It is no wonder, the bishops say, that the communist wins the exploited people. He tells them that he is out to abolish the exploitation of man by man. But, instead of telling the world that we give economic aid because we want a peaceful world, we advise them that such aid is in our national interest and to maintain our own security. The bishops went on to propose that the government seek advice from teachers, philosophers, preachers, missionaries, labor leaders, musicians, and artists, as well as business men and military leaders, when world-wide policies are being drafted.

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Two Catholic organizations warned during the week against over-emphasis on science and technology as a result of the age of satellites. Meeting at Detroit, the American Catholic Philosophical Association said much emphasis would constitute a danger to our way of life. At Buffalo, the Catholic Library Association urged educators to keep a proper balance between physical science and the humanities despite current pressures for more scientists.

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Bells made from the cones of Nike rocket boosters rang out at the opening ceremonies of a unique chapel near Carrizozo, New Mexico. The chapel was built entirely from scrap materials available at the isolated Red Canyon Rocket Range, plus stone cut from the walls of Red Canyon. Army rocket men began work on the chapel last December. Among their materials were old telephone poles and rails salvaged from the Southern Pacific Railroad. Col. John. J. McCarthy, head of the camp, said the chapel bells really have an excellent tone. The metal cones have been tempered by the extreme heat of exploding gases driving the Nike rockets skyward.

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In Washington, Monsignor Wm. J. McDonald was installed as rector of the Catholic University of America. Edward Cardinal Mooney, archbishop of Detroit, presided over the colorful ceremony. James Francis Cardinal McIntyre of Los Angeles and nearly 40 archbishops and bishops of the Catholic Church attended. In his inaugural address, the new rector expressed hope that the questioning now going on in American education will goad us into improvement.

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The oldest Baptist church in this country was rededicated at Providence, Rhode Island, after completion of restoration work. The church is First Baptist of Providence, built in 1775. Its restoration was made possible by a $0.5 million gift from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. This church, often called the Meetinghouse, has long been the scene of baccalaureate and commencement services for Brown University students. Baptist leaders from throughout the country took part in the dedicatory ceremonies.

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The American Jewish Yearbook, just published in New York, reports that enrollment of pupils in Jewish day and Sunday schools has doubled in the last 10 years. In 1947, there were 231,000 students in Jewish schools; by last year, the book says, the figure has grown to 490,000. The growth occurred during a period when the Jewish population increased by only 15-20 percent. Of the 5.25 million Jews in this country now, some 3 million are formally affiliated with an Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform congregation. An estimated 4 million, the yearbook says, are regarded as basically within the synagogue. The book estimated world Jewish population at 12,350,000.

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Two major U.S. Baptist leaders arrived in Moscow to worship with and confer with Russian Baptists. They were representative Brooks Hays of Arkansas, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Dr. Clarence W. Cranford, president of the American Baptist Convention. They were met at Moscow Airport by Dr. Jakov Zhidkov, president of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians, the Baptist group in the Soviet Union. Dr. Zhidkov was in the U.S. in 1956 as the guest of major American Baptist bodies.

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In Karachi, Pakistan’s President Iskander Mirza said several hundred thousand Christian farmers will get land from the government. President Mirza gave the assurance to Dr. R. Norris Wilson, executive director of Church World Service, relief agency of the National Council of Churches. Many Christian farmers in Pakistan were dispossessed 10 years ago when some 8 million Moslems left India and poured into newly created Pakistan. President Mirza said his government is aware of the injustice of the dispossession and is determined to right the wrong. He said Christian farmers will be eligible for land now available for resettlement. The Pakistani leader expressed thanks to Dr. Wilson for relief and rehabilitation work sponsored by American church agencies in his country.

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Some of you will be surprised at this next item; at least at its source, if not its subject. It is an article entitled “Segregation in the Churches,” by Dr. Wesley Shrader, associate professor of pastoral theology at Yale Divinity School. The article appears in the current, May, issue of Esquire magazine.

“… Here is the most striking irony of the twentieth century: that the church of Jesus Christ has become the primary instrument for the perpetuation of segregated life. This is more dramatically (though not exclusively) seen in the South where the Christian church openly represents the greatest bulwark of segregated power. The church will undoubtedly be the last bastion to fall – if, indeed, it will ever fall.”

Going on to report upon his interviews with representative spokesmen of various so-called Christian groups – Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and others – together with citing articles and other published statements on the subject, Dr. Shrader concludes his article with this paragraph:

“What is the future of the Christian church in the South? Are these tiny gains destined to set the pattern for better things to come? Or will the church in truth continue to boast about their large congregations, their extravagant church buildings and their overstuffed treasuries while denying a place of service and worship to a brother in Christ because of the color of his skin? Will segregation’s divisive wedge mar the life and honor of the church throughout the length and span of this generation? Time will tell.”

Here is a profound indictment of the very institution that should exhibit the least traces of distinction between because of the accident of race. “Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of these, ye have done it unto me.” Do segregationists really believe that? Or is merely words that they parrot? Apparently the latter. Anyway, don’t miss the article in the May issue of Esquire magazine.

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A correspondent sends me this incident: He says he met two men and “I thought they were a couple of Methodist bishops. They were talking about conversion and redemption. I moved in and found that they were bankers talking about bonds.”

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This week your reporter read carefully a radio broadcast address by Dr. Harold Scott, pastor of the First Unitarian Society of Salt Lake City, Utah. The script made sense. After pointing out that prayer in some form has been a characteristic of most peoples of all time, primitive and modern, he goes on to observe that Hebrews composed prayers that in their day were of much literary merit, but which reflect a conception of deity that today the science of religion must regard as superstition. The main theme is that Jehovah is taking care of the Jews and cares little about anyone else.

The Roman Missal and the Episcopal Prayer Book, he goes on, both have prayers for many occasions; some of which are of high literary merit, but embody so much of superstition that they are not usable by moderns in religion.

In most Protestant churches, the prayer is by the minister, is impromptu, and is likely to consist of fervid outpouring of pious phases which if written down would have no literary merit and would make little sense – just a loose series of religious sounding words.

Orthodox Jews funeral prayers make a direct appeal to God on behalf of the dead, presumably on the theory that God can be induced to changed his mind as to the treatment of the dead.

It is typical of Americans, he says, with more than a modicum of truth, that when they pray they ask for materials benefits. They will take a chance on anything to get hold of property. But of course this is nonsense, for goods are produced only by the application of labor to land. God does not run a department store. If you want more wages, praying won’t give them to you. Better join a labor union.

Prayer he emphasizes, to the rational person, whether Christian, Jew, or what have you, embodies:

1. An outpouring of thanksgiving for the good, the true, and the beautiful. This serves to sharpen our search for value, meaning, and appreciation.
2. It addresses itself to the pitiable state of mankind and voices aspirations that man can climb up out of hate, suspicion, fear, superstition, want, and misery.
3. The expression of a deep longing for more than life has thus far yielded. It should voice the aching sense of unfulfillment as we observe the great gulf between what we are and what we want to be.

Well, as Dr. Scott, observes, prayer may be many other things, but it is certainly these.

More than 10 years have passed since a Bedouin shepherd stumbled over the first cave hiding place of the Dead Sea Scrolls, considered by biblical archeologists as the find of the century. Since their discovery, many of the 2000-year old leather and copper documents have been thoroughly examined by scholars and technologists. These scholars have tried to answer tentatively the absorbing question of whether the scrolls actually shed any new light on Christianity. Archaeologist Frank Moore Cross, Jr., and Old Testament scholar and author of the recently-published book on the scrolls, “The Ancient Library of Qumran,” gives a qualified affirmative answer. Cross, who is the first to concede that his book is incomplete, says the light is not exactly shed, but rather is case by reflection. Most scholars agree that the scrolls were not the work of the early Christians, but rather a Jewish sect known as Essenes. This sect inhabited the Qumran community shortly before and shortly after the birth of Christ. Cross points out that the importance of the scrolls lies in the fact that the Essenes were an apocalyptic sect, or believers in the imminent triumph of righteousness on the ashes of the evil world. The primitive Christian church was also apocalyptic.

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Some question has been raised as to whether Samuel Cardinal Stritch will keep his American citizenship while serving in a high office in the Vatican. The cardinal, who has headed the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago for 18 years, is en route to the Vatican to become pro-prefect of the Church’s congregation for the propagation of the faith. The citizenship issue was raised by the National Association of Evangelicals, an association of 41 small denominations. It refers to itself as the Conservative Protestant Wing. At its annual convention, held in Chicago, the group said an American loses citizenship by accepting office in a foreign state. Delegates approved a resolution calling for an investigation to determine whether Cardinal Stritch is affected.

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A revision of the traditional church policy at Harvard University is being sought by a group of faculty members. A spokesman for the group explained that its petition to Harvard President Nathan Pusey was tempered, but otherwise declined to say what kind of revision is desired. At issue is whether Memorial Church in Harvard Yard should be used for services of faiths other than Christian. The controversy stems from a lengthy article which appeared recently in the undergraduate daily newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. The article charged that the university preacher refused to allow a Jewish student to be married in the church. Several letters were received as a result and an unidentified Harvard official said the Jewish student had not been denied the right. The spokesman noted, however, that the student was encouraged to be married by a Protestant minister with a rabbi present, and that the ceremony was performed in that manner. Harvard President Pusey takes the stand that the university’s historic tradition has been a Christian one. He says that while Memorial Church is not regarded as affiliated with any one denomination, it has always been thought of as a house of Christian worship.

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This reporter habitually avoids movies in order to avoid disappointment, but so much has been said and written that it seems pertinent to pass on to you an evaluation of the “Bridge Over the River Kwai,” prepared by Dr. Harold Scott of Salt Lake City. He says, “We saw a preview of the film, ‘The Bridge Over the River Kawi.’ We recommend you see the showing. It was strange to see Alec Guinness in a serious role but he was adequate. This is a serious picture showing (1) the irrationality of war, (2) the futility of principles held to be absolute in the face of pragmatic propositions, and (3) the violence done human personality by the slave code of the military whereby a man must obey another man instead of his own intelligence and conscience.”

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In Washington, the White House confirmed that President and Mrs. Eisenhower had contributed $1,000 toward a mural that was dedicated Easter Sunday in a Washington Negro church. Mrs. Eisenhower made the gift by check to Elder Solomon Lightfoot Michaux, a Negro evangelist whose congregation recently dedicated a $350,000 building called the Temple of Freedom Under God.

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The National Catholic Educational Association, meeting in Philadelphia, urged greater lay participation in the operation of Catholic schools. One resolution adopted at the meeting asked Catholic educators to explore the possibility of increased use of the laity for advisory boards, on citizen’s committees, and individually in the areas of special knowledge. The resolution suggested enlistment of lay volunteers as teacher aides, library assistants, and study hall supervisors. This, the Catholic educators said, would help relieve teaching loads and teacher shortages. (Parenthetically, it might be observed that it is also likely to relieve the quality of work that goes on in the school.)

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At Miami Beach, Florida, the Methodist Council of Bishops declared an amendment to the constitution of the Methodist Church adopted and in full effect. The amendment is the one voted by the Methodist General Conference in 1957 to set up a procedure for gradual dissolution of the denomination’s all-Negro central jurisdiction. It provides a system of permitting Negro churches voluntarily to transfer into the five white geographical jurisdictions. The bishops said the amendment has been approved by nearly all of the 127 annual conferences that have voted on it so far. Membership in the Methodist Church was reported at an all-time high of 9,566,000, an increase of nearly 150,000 over 1957.

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In Chicago this week the religious press was chided for failing to speak out forcefully on social issues and for not assuming a prophetic role in Christian journalism. The criticism came from Dr. Edwin T. Dahlberg, president of the National Council of Churches, and Milburn P. Akers, editor of the Chicago Sun-Times. They addressed U.S. and Canadian editors attending the annual meeting of the Associated Church Press. The organization is made up of Protestant and Orthodox publications. Mr. Akers expressed disappointment that many church publications avoided comment on great social issues. Dr. Dahlberg agreed, saying it is a great mistake to make church papers into mere program publications. The greatest opportunity of the religious press, he said, is that of adopting a prophetic role in society. Dr. Dahlberg said the religious press must deliberately educate and strengthen the conscience of the nation and be the voice of that conscience.

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Membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints increased by more than 70,000 last year. There are now close to 1.5 million Mormons. The figures were reported at the denomination’s annual conference at Salt Lake City. The report showed the Mormons have almost 13,000 missionaries, roughly half of them full-time. President David O. McKay told 8,000 delegates at the Salt Lake City conference that civilization is threatened by man’s failure to match progress in science and invention with progress in character and spirituality.

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After a long boom period, church construction is beginning to fall off, apparently because of the business recession. In Washington, the Departments of Commerce and Labor estimated new church starts in March totaled $61 million. That is $3 million less than the February level and $2 million below March of a year ago. Normally, March brings an increase in all kinds of construction.

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In Rome, the Vatican art gallery disclosed it is starting a new department dedicated exclusively to modern art. Up to now, the gallery has had nothing more recent than a painting of King George IV of England, done between 1820 and 1830. A number of works already have been donated to the new department.

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Newspapers reaching Hong Kong from the mainland indicate that communist leaders in China have started a witch-hunt for so-called rightists in the Chinese Protestant churches. One newspaper reported that the Red leaders had convened a meeting of Protestants from all parts of Kwangtung Province. According to the communist account, the meeting was used to unmask nine Protestant pastors. The clergymen were accused of collaborating with imperialists and engaging in activities aimed at overthrowing the Communist Party. Another paper described a similar unmasking of two Protestant leaders in Kansu Province. The papers did not say what happened to the accused men.

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Some details of the constitution for the New United Church of Christ were disclosed at Cleveland this week. The co-chairmen of a special commission drafting the chapter said it will guarantee the freedom of local congregations to own and manage property. The congregation also will be guaranteed the right to call ministers and choose their own form of worship and standards of membership. Ministers will be free to accept or reject calls to churches. The United Church was formed last June by merger of the general council of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical Reformed Church. It is being governed by a basis of union until the constitution is approved. The charter will define the organization and work of the new church’s general synod and describe the relationships between the synod and its local churches and agencies.

Meanwhile, the new denomination made an offer of what it called inter-communion, recognition, and fellowship to all Christian bodies who accept Christ. It asked other Christian bodies to adopt the practice of serving Holy Communion to all church members who proclaim their commitment to Him.

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The ethical standards of the TV industry’s advertising are about on the level of a con man. Many of the commercials are clearly fraudulent. The industry dresses up studio dopes in white jackets to impersonate a physician, then prescribes drugs wholesale without examination or diagnosis. It makes claims for tobacco, soap, toothpaste, and cosmetics that cannot be substantiated. It is highly doubtful if any TV company insists on a clearance from the American Medical Association. Better Business Bureaus are overwhelmed and the Federal Trade Commission is given too little money to police crooked business. Most Americans don’t seem to mind, but the claims of TV advertising have become incredulous and ridiculous.

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9,245 scientists of 44 countries have signed a petition to stop testing nuclear bombs by international agreement and that petition has been presented to the United Nations. The petition bears the names of 36 Nobel Prize winners, 101 of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, 35 fellows of the Royal Society of London, 216 members and correspondents of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., and leading scientists of other countries. The press of the U.S. has ignored this, but the wire services bring plenty of statements from Dr. Teller, the military and its captive, the Pentagon, assuring us there is no danger from nuclear testing and that preparation for collective homicide brings peace. How illogical, irrational, and stupid can we get?

It should be apparent to all that admirable as is the statement of the scientists, that the answer to the problem of war lies not in the scientific laboratory but in the political arena. As long as scientists of each country are trying to outdo all others in death-dealing weapons, with no international control over the use to which their discoveries will be put, we rush madly to collective suicide. But if the Russians have a Sputnik in the skies, we must have one too.

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Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, has borrowed some biblical language to solve a current problem. The problem was how to keep the curb in front of the church free of parked cars. A sign was erected that proved very effective. It read, “Thou shalt not park.”

 

 

During the last few weeks this program has carried items in the news on the matter of Sputniks and on the crisis in American education, and has pointed out something of the relationship between the two. This week, two articles came to my attention, putting both subjects in such pertinent focus that I shall report as many excerpts of them as can be included within the 15-minute limitation because of the secular and moral implications of the two subjects.

The first appears in the “easy chair” department of Harper’s magazine for April, and is written by guest editor, Col. E. B. Crabill, infantry officer in three wars, earning 12 decorations, and serving in many battles all over the world. He recently retired, but his training and experience make what he says of more than cursory value.

He points out that since the Korean War, American citizens have paid an annual tax bill of around $70 billion. Instead of diminishing, this bill shows every sign of increasing. He says:

“The primary excuse for this astronomical bite is that a sacrosanct monstrosity labelled ‘national defense’ – do not touch … Why should it be a sacred cow? Have the people so much confidence in the Defense Department that they think it can do no wrong? Isn’t there a possibility of a little empire-building mixed up with the real requirements? …

“What the defense setup needs is a good tough inspection. Let’s take a hard look at some of the prevailing sophisms that are responsible for this astronomical spending. Any of them could be the subject of a complete article???

1. The military leaders…are best able to determine our needs for national defense. They might be if they were able to rise above their prejudices, but they are not…. It might be possible to approach a solution by asking an admiral what the Army needs, an Army general what the Air Force needs, and an Air Force general what the Navy needs, but to ask each what his own service needs is like opening the doors of the treasury and handing him a shovel.
2. The money appropriated for military purposes is necessary for the defense of the country. It is about as necessary as it is to furnish each voter in the country with an air-conditioned Cadillac.

“The characteristic demanded by the service in their airplanes, ships, weapons, and vehicles are now so expensive that the cost of them is from two to ten times as great as that – with a small loss in comfort, efficiency, or accuracy – of a serviceable substitute…. The Russians have a heavy trench mortar that looks as though it had been machined with a sledge hammer, but it throws a lethal shell a long distance.”

3. It takes nine men in the rear to keep one man at the front. This is a great understatement. It started … far back … where animal transportation was all that was available…. Nowadays with motor and air transport, and radio and telephone communication, the proportion of rear-area personnel, instead of decreasing, has increased.
4. The officers in our services are brave, intelligent, zealous, and unselfish…. I would call this 20 percent correct. We owe our success in wars to a very small group of heroes. The rest just go along for the ride. Nor is this small group made up of more generals than privates or vice versa. It is about the same in all ranks.
5. All soldiers, sailors, and airmen contribute equally to their country’s defense and should be equally entitled to veteran’s benefits. Baloney.  If you believe this, go out some night when it is raining … dig yourself a foxhole with about four inches of water in the bottom and spend a couple of weeks there living on canned rations….

“Battles are won by a very few unusually brave men who are able to do the right thing at a critical time.… More often, they are decided by the boldness of some lieutenant or sergeant who makes a break-through which is then exploited by higher leaders….

6. Wars of the Future will be all-out wars like World Wars I and II. This is highly improbable and plays directly into the hands of the Russians who obviously have no intention of getting into an all-out war with the U.S.
7. Wars of the future will be decided by atomic bombs, airplanes, and guided missiles. Don’t you believe it. Any time she chooses to do so, Russia can march across Europe. There is nothing to stop her….
8. Atomic Weapons are so devastating that they will eliminate war as a means of settling international disagreements. Don’t believe that one either. History is replete with weapons so devastating that war would be impossible.
9. Wars are won by the nations having the best machines. This follows the old saying that God is on the side of the heaviest artillery…. History has too many instances in which a rabble poorly armed and trained but possessing high morale has defeated well-trained and well-equipped armies…”

Colonel Crabill lists nine suggestions which he calls “a better way,” only some of which can be reported here for lack of time:

1. Stop depending on guided missiles, atomic bombs, and airplanes to solve all defense problems. They probably won’t be used in small wars, and will be suicidal to use in big wars.
2. Keep ready and available in the … United States at least a dozen tough and well-trained divisions of professional soldiers that can be removed anywhere to back up decisions of the United Nations.
3. Reduce by 50 percent the personnel on duty in the Pentagon, including assistant secretaries, admirals, and generals….
4. Revise the military characteristics of war material, to eliminate requirements that make it expensive without proportionately increasing its combat value.
5. Start the pay of enlisted men at $50 a week; of officers at $6,000 a year. This would probably eliminate the draft.
6. Eliminate the corps of military police. This is an outstanding waste of good manpower.

Three other suggestions of similar nature are given. You read them in Harper’s for April, now on the newsstands. They are thought-provoking.

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This second item deals with the values that Americans as a people hold. The morality, the ideals of a people, like those of an individual, can be measured more by what a people do than what they say. We spend more for tobacco, beverages, chewing gum, than we do upon the education of our children, though every public speaker that touches upon the subject declares piously, and momentarily at least, sincerely, that our children are our most precious resource. Then we go right out and appropriate millions for highways and thousands for schools.

The following comment comes from Dr. John R. Everett, president of Hollins College, and it appears in a recent bulletin of that college (December, 1957) under the title “Hollins Herald Issue.” It goes like this, in full:

“The Sputniks seem to be doing what all the leaders in American education have failed to do. Some yet unborn historians will have a field day trying to explain a sequence of events that even now appear to be part of a grim irrational melodrama.

“Future historians who try to make sense out of our age might first take a few television commercials. In these they will find giant corporations spending millions of dollars to tell that they are first in research. Pictures of fine buildings, test tubes, sputtering electric circuits and all the rest flash on the screen to the accompaniment of ungrammatical Madison Avenue phrases. But the meaning is clear: American progress is firmly based in research and is guided by industrial statesmen who know the value of educated brains.

“Since we expect our historian to be rational, he will then wonder why a country with an extremely short tradition of learning, Russia, could surpass the United States in science. He will look around and find a number of small things like thoughtless rivalries in the defense establishment, poor coordination in program planning, use of captured scientists from Germany, congressional distrust of “eggheads,” and so on. But he will know that although these things contribute to the explanation, they are only a small part of the truth.

“In order to get further facts our historian goes into the musty files and reads literally thousands of reports made by all sorts of agencies and associations. Soon a peculiar feeling of reading in a Mickey Mouse world begins to dawn. In one set of statistics he reads that in the Commonwealth of Virginia the average college professor lost 10 percent of his purchasing power in a 15-year period (1941-1956), while industrial workers gained 197 percent in their power to buy. Going on to the president’s committee report he finds that fresh PhD’s entered college teaching at about $3,700 a year and could not expect to double their salary in their entire lifetime! And then he runs across the odd fact that railroad engineers got more income than senior scholar-teachers, and that a hip-waving, nasal-voiced guitar player got as much for one performance as a professor got for five years of teaching. There must be a reason.

“Before looking for the reasons it is necessary to see the effects. More reports are read, and the Mickey Mouse world begins to disappear. The ancient and tested laws of human behavior appear to begin working again. He finds that the production of the PhD’s increased four times in the 10 years between 1946 and 1956. But like sensible people these young scholars went into industry or some other activity that gave them a decent share of America’s production. Figures and statements of this sort begin to appear – ‘three of every four new PhD’s in chemistry who take new jobs upon graduation go outside education’s environs. Three of every five new PhD’s in physics and other physical sciences take the same path.’ All this seems quite normal to our seasoned observer of human action.

“Of course he knows that the mid-twentieth century Americans were not stupid so his next step is to find out how industry and government were dealing with the problem of helping new talent on its way through the schools. Sure enough he uncovered all sorts of foundations, corporations and individuals supplying scholarship funds. High school teachers, guidance counselors and national testing bureaus were all looking for and financing the exceptional student. There was much to be done, but a good start was underway. Indeed, it had been going on for generations; regular scholarship plans had been in operation since the colleges were founded.

“But who was teaching this crop of bright students? Some dedicated souls who would rather teach than eat well, some second- or third-rate people who could not stand the strain of business competition, some people who could never quite make up their minds about a career so they just slipped into teaching jobs? All these and more. Where was the great weight? Still with the dedicated ones, but the balance was rapidly shifting.

“The political managers of the United States took immediate and decisive action. They gave speeches and made low interest money available for dormitories and dining. This was right where it was least likely to do the most good.

“The other leaders also became decisive. One of the nation’s largest companies and one of its greatest consumers of educated manpower gave over $1 million to the cause – less than the cost of three hour-long television shows. But one should not forget that it was a good public relations gesture because over 1,000 news clippings were received and there were some 40 favorable editorials. Less enlightened leadership did not come up to this standard, but there were a number of speeches given to all kinds of audiences indicating something should be done by someone.

“Our historian was back in the Mickey Mouse world. He could find no adequate reason for a great nation with the world’s powerful economic system refusing to support its scholars and teachers. As one report stated, it was like the improvident farmer who ate up his seed corn and then wondered about next year’s crop.

“But at least the search through the libraries had not been in vain. Sputniks I and II and what came after were explained.”

 

 

 

This week, across the Holy Land, members of three great religious faiths observed ceremonies that are holy to them. Easter hymns of Christians mingled with Moslem calls to Ramadan prayers in the old city of Jerusalem. While not far away, Jews stocked up for their Passover observation. As the Way of the Cross procession began, Moslems gathered at the hallowed Dome of Rock for their usual prayers on Friday during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. This dome is said to mark the spot where Mohamed ascended on horseback into heaven. The rock once was the sacred altar of the Jewish temple where Christ is said to have driven the money changers from the temple. At the other end of the Way of the Cross, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Christians entered the church courtyard opposite the Mosque of Amar as loudspeakers in the mosque’s minaret broadcast sermons in Arabic.

At the same time, Jews in the new city of Jerusalem prepared for Seder, the feast just after sundown which opens the week-long festival of the Passover, commemorating the emancipation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. During the Passover week, only unleavened bread is served to remind the Jews of the haste with which their forefathers fled from Pharaoh’s bondage. Traditionally Jews change all cooking utensils. Only dishes which are kept especially for Passover are used.

To make the following comment: It is something of an anachronism that while the representatives of these great religious philosophies worship, each in his own way and in his own temple, that the land in which they worship is torn with strife and tension. One can observe without being suspected of disparagement of any one of these faiths that there is one thing common to them all: All, in one phraseology or another, subscribe to the idea which Jesus put in these words: “As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.” Is it not both ridiculous and distressing that apparently neither one of these three takes this precept seriously in its practice. If all did, there would not be strife and tension.

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In New York an electronic computer has compiled the first complete index of a major portion of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls. In preparation for making the index, 30,000 words from the scrolls and fragments found in the Dead Sea caves were transferred to machine punch cards. The cards were sent to New York where the computer converted the data into two reels of magnetic tape in two hours. The index will be a valuable tool for scholars seeking a more complete knowledge of the manuscript fragments. The lists prepared by the machine will enable a student to study any word of the scrolls in all its contexts. Also, by transposing prose into a series of mathematical relationships, the computer can make qualified guesses as to what words originally were written in hundreds of mutilated sections. This the machine does by analyzing words preceding and following each gap. Then it electronically scans thousands of words until it finds one that most nearly fits into the context.

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This next item comes under the “I don’t know what it means, if anything, department.” It says that the Queen Anne Christian Congregation in Seattle, Washington, used a novel method of breaking ground for its new church. More than 100 adults and children of the congregation grabbed onto six long ropes and pulled a plow through the earth of their building plot. Pitching in to help tug was the Rev. Chester Dunkin, pastor of the 52-year old parish. Unquote. You figure it out.

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An evangelical magazine published in the nation’s capital offers an interesting analysis of how Protestant ministers see themselves, theologically speaking. The magazine, Christianity Today, has published results of a survey made for it by the Opinion Research Corporation of Princeton. The ministers were asked to classify their own theological position, that is, to say whether they felt they were fundamentalist, conservative, neo-orthodox, liberal, or something else.

The largest number, 39 percent, called themselves “conservative.” Another 35 percent classified themselves as “fundamentalist.” Only 14 percent said they were “liberal,” and 12 percent, “neo-orthodox.” What, no radicals? The greatest radical of them all is the central theme of worship in all Christian churches today.

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Durham, North Carolina, was bombed with thousands of leaflets carrying invitations to attend Sunday school. This was the end of a month-long “Go to Sunday School” drive, conducted by the Edgemont Free Will Baptist Church of Durham in an effort to combat juvenile delinquency.

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Archbishop Makarios, spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus, has given an ancient Greek manuscript of portions of the New Testament Gospels to Boston University’s Schools of Theology. This manuscript is believed to date from the 10th century. Dr. Walter G. Muelder, dean of the school, received it from Dean John Zanetos of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral at Boston. The document will be made available for study by scholars.

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In Chicago, representatives of four merging Lutheran bodies resolved two major issues in the proposed union. They adopted resolutions concerning the ministry and control of seminaries. One measure declared that ministers ordained in the new church shall refrain from membership in secret societies or be subject to discipline. The second approved a compromise plan giving supervision of seminaries to the proposed new central church body and its constituent synods. Broad powers and duties would be assigned to a board of theological education. The four bodies are the United Lutheran, the Augustana, the Finnish Evangelical, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The new denominations will have a membership of about 3 million persons.

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Ground was broken at Elgin, Illinois, for a new $1.5 million headquarters building for the Church of the Brethren. It will provide space for the denomination’s central offices and will also house printing and merchandising facilities. The denomination’s general brotherhood board held a meeting at Elgin and adopted resolutions urging an end to nuclear weapons tests and more economic foreign aid.

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A nuclear test ban was also called for during the week by the Commission on Social Action of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, which held its annual meeting in Dayton, Ohio.

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And in Washington, a Quaker-sponsored petition supported by several religious pacifist groups was presented at the White House. The petition asked for cancellation of nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific as a first step toward disarmament and peace.

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While college tuition around the country continues to rise, a Catholic school in Vermont is offering a cut-rate family plan. Saint Michael’s College, Winooski, is operated by the Fathers of St. Edmund. Tuition there is $800 a year, but if a student’s brother enrolls, it costs the brother only $600. If another brother enrolls, his tuition will be only $400 a year.

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In Honolulu, USA Presbyterian officials announced the first Presbyterian church in Hawaii will be organized in a few months. In Hong Kong, a new orphanage called The Children’s Garden was dedicated this week in impressive ceremonies. The orphanage, which already houses 800 orphaned youngsters, 12 to a cottage, is sponsored by the Christian Children’s Fund. The fund is an independent agency, though it is affiliated with the National Council of Church’s division of foreign missions. American sponsors support the 800 children, write them letters, send gifts, and sometimes even visit them.

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In Toronto, the United Church of Canada reported spending $14 million to build 196 new churches and 85 manses in 1957. Dr. M.C. McDonald, secretary of the denomination’s board of home missions, said the church plans to erect 178 new churches and 59 manses this year at a cost of $13 million. In the last 10 years, 1,222 churches have been built.

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Dr. C. Oscar Johnson recently resigned from the pulpit of Third Baptist Church in St. Louis, the largest Protestant congregation in Missouri. He is former president of the American Baptist Convention, but has moved to California to join the faculty of Berkeley Baptist Divinity School, where he’ll teach evangelism and public speaking. He should find the academic climate agreeable, for the president of the seminary is his son, Dr. Ralph M. Johnson.

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Of course there is no necessary connection, but Federal Judge Robert Taylor this week came around to agreeing with the viewpoint of this program that the censor board in our neighboring country of Knox was unconstitutional. The swan song meeting of this august board, however, banned four novels and three magazines. Publication of the banning of these titles was about the best advertising they could have had. Anyway, perhaps now, restrictions of the press in Knoxville will come only as it should – when person or corporations are brought into court charged with specific violation of obscenity laws. But it is almost a certainty that the good judge’s decision left a lot of do-gooders unhappy.

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The state of California makes churches take a loyalty oath or pay taxes. This gives the conscience of the church into the hands of the state in a way not dissimilar to that which Russia exacts in Poland and elsewhere from the churches in order to let them stay in business. Three Unitarian and Universalist Churches have resisted this ridiculous requirement in the courts. And the U.S. Supreme Court has just consented to review these cases in the spring calendar – this session. Cost of this new action is about $20,000. Anyone wishing to contribute to freedom of religion can do so by mailing sums to the Fund for Religious Freedom, 2441 LeConte Avenue, Berkeley 9, California.

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In these days of mounting hypertension among the nations about whether to suspend or not to suspend nuclear tests, comes an understatement from former Secretary of Defense, Charles E. Wilson, who emphasized that “One of the serious things about this defense business is that so many Americans are getting a vested interest in it. Properties, business, jobs, votes, opportunities for promotion and advancement, bigger salaries for scientists, and all that. It is a troublesome business.”

Does this mean what the Russians have been insisting all along, that we are, deliberately or otherwise, perpetuating the Cold War as a means of trying to maintain a semblance of prosperity? If so, it is a sad commentary upon a system that can remain prosperous only by maintaining a potentiality for killing human beings.

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My comments a few weeks ago aroused various kinds of reactions from some of you listeners. With no apologies for what was said then, let me quote from a recent item of a national columnist who puts it this way: “A recent report on public education reveals that the biggest increase in enrollment in that state have been in driver education, office practice, and band. Opponents of this kind of education contend that it does not fit students for higher learning, but instead, confronts colleges with shoals of high school graduates who are unable even to read and write the English language properly.” And to that, this reporter can heartily attest. Do we believe in missions? Why not put that belief to practice in our own educational backyard?