First, a potpourri of religion in the news of the week as reported by Associated and United Press.
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New York: Protestant and Eastern Orthodox churches in the U.S. have begun a drive to raise $2 million in aid to refugees from Hungary and Eastern Europe. Dr. R. Norris Wilson, executive director of World Church Service says the funds will be used to continue relief programs and help in the resettlement and rehabilitation of escapes from iron curtain countries.
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Atlantic City, New Jersey: A record 89 congregations have been established in the United Lutheran Church in the past year and another 68 congregations probably will be organized next year. Dr. Ronald Houser, of Chicago, secretary of the Division of English Missions, made the report at the 30th annual meeting of the church’s Board of Missions.
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Chicago: The Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference is considering a proposal to extend membership to a number of foreign churches. The proposal was made by Dr. Walter Baepler, President of the Concordia Theological Seminary at Springfield, Illinois, at the 44th convention of the Lutheran conference.
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Again Chicago: Membership in the Methodist church now is just under 9.5 million – a gain of 1.4% in the past year. The Methodist statistical office says that in addition, there are more than one 1.25 million preparatory members of the church.
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Des Moines, Iowa: A Baptist minister charges that Elvis Presley is leading American youth into an “anything goes” era. Reverend Carl E. Elegena, pastor of the Grand View Park Baptist Church in Des Moines says, “We’re living in a day of jellyfish morality, India rubber convictions, and a day when spiritually is as wide as the Sahara Desert and twice as dry.” Anybody want to argue with the man?
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Minneapolis: Parishioners of a Negro Methodist church in Minneapolis have been invited to become members of a white Methodist church. The Negro church is about to be razed to make way for a redevelopment project. Methodist Bishop D. Stanley Coors and Dr. C.A. Pennington, minister of the Hennepin Avenue church, extended the invitation. Said Bishop Coors, “This is a proposal of Christian love and fellowship. I believe this date will be remembered as one of the significant days in the history of Minnesota Methodism.”
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Binghamton, New York: Reverend Dr. Arthur McKay, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, has accepted the post of president of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. He will begin his new duties on February 1st next year.
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Vatican City: The traditional Christmas broadcast by the Pope this year will contain what Vatican sources call a message of extraordinary importance. They predict the Pontiff will appeal again to responsible statesmen to avert a third world war. The Pontiff may also use the occasion to fill 100 vacancies in the Sacred College of Cardinals.
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Milan, Italy: Italy’s largest circulation magazine, Oggi, says two Americans are among prelates being considered by Pope Pius for elevation to the rank of cardinal. The two Americans being considered, according to the magazine, are Monsignor Fulton Sheen, auxiliary bishop of New York, and Monsignor John Joseph Mitty, archbishop of San Francisco. Vatican sources say they can neither confirm nor deny the report.
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And from Washington, D.C. comes news that the Pope has transferred one American bishop and named two auxiliary bishops. Bishop Lambert A. Hoch, of Bismarck, North Dakota, has been transferred to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Monsignor Joseph Brunini, vicar general of Natchez, Mississippi, has been named auxiliary bishop of Natchez, and Monsignor Harry A. Clinch, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Taft, California, has been named auxiliary bishop of Monterey-Fresno, California.
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The just-completed agreement between the Catholic Church and Poland includes restoration of religious education to the state schools. The sweeping settlement follows four weeks of negotiation by a joint church-state group. That commission had been formed after Poland’s prelate, Stefan Wyszynski was released from house arrest. And that release followed Poland’s successful (we hope) revolt against heavy Russian domination. Another point in the agreement is that the Church recognizes the Polish state has a theoretical voice in church appointments. But it is understood that the state has agreed never to veto appointments. It will be interesting to see if this last point is respected by the state in the months and years to come.
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An American Jewish writer says personal investigation has shown no evidence of Hitlerian anti-Semitism in Egypt’s treatment of stateless Jews. Alfred Lilienthal has told a news conference in Cairo that he did learn of injustices in the course of far-reaching security measures by Egypt. But he adds many corrections have been and are being made. The U.S. writer, who has often taken an anti-Zionist line, says he went to Cairo to inquire into widely publicized charges by Israeli officials that Egypt was persecuting Jews.
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In Manchester, New Hampshire, a Congregationalist minister will give parishioners an opportunity to talk back during the sermon. The Reverend Mark Strickland has decided the congregation need not sit and take what he has to say. So today, Dr. Falko Schilling will rise from the congregation to present his views on today’s sermon, which is entitled, “The Doctor and Christian Faith.”
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A study by the Milwaukee Field Office of the U.S. Census Bureau indicates little opposition will be forthcoming to a religious preference question in the 1960 census. Bureau officials say only three persons of 431 interviewed in four Wisconsin counties flatly refused to answer the question. The Census Bureau had earlier stated that results of the Wisconsin survey might determine if the religious question should be asked of the whole nation. This is a touchy subject, and always, if it is used, there should be perfect freedom for the interviewee to refuse to answer if he wishes to do so.
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One hears a great deal these days about “the power of positive thinking,” and we are subject to a barrage of propaganda of various sorts, mostly aimed at emphasis on the importance to “accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative” from our everyday experiences. However, did you ever stop to think that it is the pessimist who is made happy because life presents him with unexpected dividends but that the optimist is destined to meet frustration and disappointment? I know my colleagues in the psychology department will frown upon this, but I said it. The salvation of mankind can most readily be advanced if we recognize that this is a world of darkness now that must be made light. Realism for the present – hope for the future. Probably we need what the Jews and early Christians had: a great and intrepid dream against a background of dark reality. Early Christians referred to Jesus as light moving in darkness. We no longer mean it when we sing “Watchman, Tell Us of the Night.” We pretend there is no night. We pull the watchmen down. Such makes us uncomfortable and we insist on being comfortable. We can’t want to know what the signs and promises are if the signs are ill, so, when disaster comes we are like bewildered children singing “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” while the roof blows off. Suppose we stop kidding ourselves. Infirmity, insecurity, and death lurk in our neighborhood and sometimes do not forget to knock at our door. He who does not see the darkness cannot read the stars. Those who do not recognize the darkness cannot know the glory of light. First, admit the darkness then join those who are striving for light. Perhaps the statement of the inimitable Mr. Dooley is apropos here, when he said that my duty is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
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Have you ever tried to define religion? If not, sit down sometime and try to put into articulate form just what it is as far as you are concerned. Certainly it should not be too difficult to put something as all-embracing as religion is into some form of definite expression. Yet, it will probably be harder than you think if you have never tried it. Perhaps there is no all-inclusive definition of religion, but here are a few considerations to keep in mind, for what they may be worth in your opinion. For one thing, religion is man’s response to the totality of his environment. It is surrender to the best he knows. It is the art of living, the science of life. It is the discovery of values, the promotion of values, the protection of values, and the exploitation of values. It is the shared quest for the good life for ourselves and our children’s children. It is building a good society. It is a sense of direction. It is conscious loyalty to the best we know or about which we can dream. It is also, of course, a lot of other things. Let me have your definition of it, and if possible, I shall read it on a future broadcast.
I am well aware that to put one’s religion into words for another is impossible. One can talk about the psychology of religious experience, or about the historical, textual, or other aspects of the Bible. One can examine the salvation schemes of the past and present. He can inspect for validity of theological terms, concepts, and creeds. But he cannot tell another what his religion is any more than he can tell you what electricity is. Human communication has not yet well enough developed among human beings that our gossamer intimate yearnings, that complex we call our religion, can be passed on.
Sometimes, it seems to me, that we need to keep in mind the difference between our religion and its intellectual framework or rationalization. In other words, our theology. Theology is important. An integrated philosophy of life is important as a yardstick for daily use in meeting problems. Without it a person is at the mercy of the latest breeze that blows. A person’s theology is his explanation of the universe; his religion is what he is, and what he does. The explanation may not fit the behavior. Some pious people have behavior that leaves much to be desired, while some intellectually capable persons find social relations difficult to master.
In some respects, religion is like music; but it is more comprehensive. I little understand music, but it stirs my imagination and my emotions. Of course, music, as sound, is susceptible of some analysis. But the parts do not add up to the whole. There are no words to describe one’s personal religion or music as a subjective experience. You experience it, but you don’t construct it. Religion is a matter of sensitivity to values and appreciations that cannot be weighed, measured, and reduced to atomic analysis. A cathedral is constructed of bricks, mortar, stone, glass and wood. But a pile of these materials does not make a cathedral. The story is told that the night Philips Brooks matriculated in theological seminary there was a student meeting. One student after another got up and told how he loved the Master, how dedicated he was to saving the souls of the heathen, and what a wonderful thing it was to be saved through such soul-shaking experience. Brooks was discouraged. He had had no soul-shaking experience such as those about which he was hearing. The next morning at the eight o’clock class, Philips Brooks was the only student who had translated the assigned number of lines, despite his lack of theological coherency.
Religion implies concern, devotion, surrender, consecration, commitment. One of the things that this reporter cannot help but wonder about in religion is the often seen waste of human devotion to that which is worthless, and an inability or unwillingness to critically ascertain that which is worth devotion.