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?