A somewhat curious thumbnail profile was reported this week of a captain of industry in New Jersey who always wept during Mother’s Day services. Yet he voted against … suffrage for women; was opposed to limitation of hours for women in industry and state supervision of working conditions in his facility, the minimum wage law, accident and unemployment insurance, and maternity and retirement compensation. He was doubtful of coeducation. He openly branded as “communism” any effort to remove the legal disabilities of women. He was opposed to conception control, urging prayer in its stead. Yet he meant to be a good Christian and was sure he was “saved.” In the face of all this, one well could be excused for asking, “Just what is religion, anyway?”
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A somewhat cynical comment comes from a minister who observes that most Protestant ministers have two theologies: one they learned in theological school, and another that laymen permit them to preach. If this is in any sense true, it is a sad commentary on us laymen. For if they learned truth in theological school, it means we do not want to hear it. On the other hand, if what they learned is not truth, it may be just as well that they do not preach their learning.
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One of the great commandments is that “Thou shall not bear false witness.” All of us can remember, but it is likely that few are proud of, the days not so long ago when inquisitions were the order of the day; trial by headline took the place of jury and courtroom; accusations, distorted and unsupported by evidence, took the place of the grand jury and the witness stand. The late juvenile senator from Wisconsin was a master at this sort of thing, and he and his supporters, largely the lunatic fringe, whipped this nation into a hysteria from which it will take a long time to recover. Even then, the pages of our history of that time will not be ones to which we will point with pride or about which Fourth of July speakers will orate. Comes now a book which this reporter has not read, but which he intends to do, entitled “False Witness,” which, according to Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, one of the abler members of the United States Senate, is at long last the “shining truth about the false accusers, the half-truth artists, the professional fabricators, the prevaricators for pay”; a book which “cuts through the dark and ugly clouds of doubt” the purveyors of false testimony “have so evilly blown up.”
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It would appear that some, perhaps most, people seem to need to feel superior to others, not because of their own intrinsic or developed merits, but superior period. A little digging throws some interesting light on this. For whenever there is talk of brotherhood or the equality of men, there is almost invariably an opposition voice which cries out that brotherhood is a fallacy and we often hear it said that if providence had intended men to be equal, it would have made them that way. Even a brief review of history would seem to indicate that the fallacy is in the argument of those who claim superiority. A writer in the International Journal of Religious Education points out that Cicero warned his followers not to obtain slaves from Britain. He said, “They are stupid and dull, an inferior people.” In the 14th century, a moor wrote of the Germans, “They are tall of stature and light of skin. But I have heard it rumored that they do not take baths, and are altogether a hopeless strain.” In this country, when the Ohio Territory applied for statehood, a member of the United States Congress said, “They are so rude and unlettered they will never make good citizens.” The truth is, of course, that the British developed an empire which has stood longer than any other in recorded history. They, along with the Germans, have been outstanding in science, philosophy, music, and art. And Ohio, the territory of the “rude and unlettered,” has given the nation seven presidents. History is filled with many similar instances. Concluding, the journal writer asks, “Who are we to draw sharp lines between groups … to shut ourselves out from fuller fellowship when the world’s new trend must not be toward brotherhood, whether we like it or not.”
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Some of you have apparently been disturbed over the statement on this program some weeks ago to the effect that both the Hebrews and the Mormons claim to have had their bibles handed to them by the deity and that there was about as much evidence for one as the other. It is good that people become disturbed, for only then are they likely to become curious, to think, and to search for answers. Anyway, the statement was the truth and I have no inclination to retract.
Let us be honest with ourselves and look at some facts. The history of religions reveals that there have been a great many religions that claim to have been founded by a message from a god or gods to man. While these religions have some points in common, they do not agree on the messages. It is queer that God revealed so many different religions. The religions of Arabia, China, Greece, India, and Japan, e.g., do not agree with that of the West. Yet in each there have been those who claimed their religion was the only true one because it was delivered to man directly from deity. These same religions do not agree as to the name and nature of deity, on whether there is a life after death, or what happens in that life, or how to avoid punishment and reap reward. Nor is there any agreement as to the climate in those places, or their location, or the occupation of the inhabitants. All these many religions claim to be the result of faith delivered to the saints. The orthodox faithful are urged to accept this on faith. Indeed, it is held by some that there is merit in accepting in faith what is hard to believe simply it is hard to believe. Does this make sense?
It is about time that we come to realize that experts in the field of religion have just about abandoned the idea of revelation. Students of comparative religions explain that belief in revelation came about because early man had so many needs and the normal ways he had of getting information were so limited that the crafty were tempted to claim revelation. The people demanded revelation and the priests delivered. One might define so-called revelation as “non-human communication of truth,” or what passes for truth. The modern science of religion says there are not two kinds of truth – revealed truth and the ordinary kind. Truth is truth. Some forms of this so-called revelation have been (1) significant occurrence (as in the racket called astrology); (2) casting of lots (much employed by the ancients); (3) examination of the intestines of slain animals; (4) oracles or communication through eccentric or deformed persons, or the head of a church who is believed by the faithful to be the source of all earthly truth; (5) dreams; (6) ecstasy, or a trance in which a person is believed to be invaded by some spirit; and (7) sacred literature.
As a people come to know more, these superstitions tend to disappear. Yet, in the United States, after a century of public school education, many people believe in non-human communication of truth; in short, in revealed truth. Of course that is an easier method of arriving at a decision than the difficult but surer one of testing every idea, religious or not, by the only reliable way of arriving at truth, i.e., the scientific process. It is easy to believe that God dictated the contents of the Bible to human beings. The only trouble with that is that Buddhists, Mohammedans, Hindus, and a lot of others believe that of their respective bibles. And each believes, just as devoutly as the others, that his is the only true revelation. Very confusing, isn’t it? And where does all this leave us? About where we came in, I suppose. But keep on thinking. Such has never known to prove fatal to anyone.
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I still wonder what Frankie and Johnnie are doing these days. They still have shown no signs of catching bomb riggers whose fiendish device blew a man into eternity.
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The nation’s largest religious organization, the National Council of Churches, opens its week-long annual general assembly today at St. Louis. Some 2,000 delegates will undertake the job of planning the future of 75 programs the nation’s churches conduct through the council. Since its inception, the council has become a very versatile institution. Its records of achievement include all sorts of public and pious works and illustrates that church business today is big business. The council and its working subsidiaries extend into scores of activities far beyond the pew and pulpit, including radio and television broadcasting, teaching illiterates to read, running health clinics, training marriage counselors, finding homes for refugees, prodding politicians, printing books, analyzing community problems, etc. The council stresses that it is not a church, though it includes 30 denominations. The common denominator for the council is a belief in the divinity of Christ. There, creedal identity ends, the council leaving to the churches concerned the wide range of ideas about baptism, communion, and other tenets.
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A group of Lutheran laymen reports continued success in its annual drive to keep Christ in Christmas. The campaign is aimed at inspiring an ever-widening appreciation by business houses and community groups of the real purpose and spirit of Christmas. Especially active in the campaign are two New York City laymen, Julius Nickleburg of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, and Henry Jaburg of the United Lutheran Church in America. Some suggestions of their effort include attending church services and urging others to do the same; recommending the use of nativity billboards, window displays, and articles in religious and secular publications; and the encouraging of outdoor singing of Christmas carols.
Is it not rather ironic, to put it timidly, that there should need to be an effort to keep Christ in Christmas? How much farther are we going toward making Christmas just an annual holiday on which we exchange merchandise, and calculate how much to get whom on the basis of how much whom is going to give me?
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The 17th biennial convention of the National Federation of Temple Brotherhoods opened this week in Pittsburg, and will continue through today. The federation is the layman’s branch of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the parent body of 550 Reform temples in the USA and Canada. It has a membership of more than a million.
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New York: The Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds has awarded two Jewish organizations in the 1957 William J. Shroder Memorial Awards. Winners are the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland and the Jewish Hospital Association of Cincinnati. The awards will be presented at the 26th General Assembly of the council at New Orleans next weekend. The awards are given in recognition of superior initiative and achievement in the advancement of social welfare.
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South Bend, Indiana: The University of Notre Dame is lending a helping hand to Ottumwa Heights College in Iowa whose only building was destroyed by a fire a month ago. Hundreds of books, plus equipment and supplies are being shipped from Notre Dame to Ottumwa Heights College, which is run by the Sisters of the Holy Humility of Mary, a Roman Catholic order. Many Notre Dame professors sent books from their private libraries.
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London: Radio Moscow has broadcast an appeal for peace by leaders of the Roman Catholic Church of Latvia. According to the broadcast, the bishop of Riga urged all nations to raise their voices against war and emphasized that atomic and all other energy should not be used to destroy people but should be used for the good of humanity. Latvia was taken over by Russia and incorporated as part of the Soviet Union. Everybody agrees with this in principle, but precious little is done about it in practice. What about convincing the USSR to do this? And this does not imply there are no warmongers in this country.