Everyone gets around to thinking, at least at times, about how wealthy America is. And that brings immediately to mind the alleged store of gold at Fort Knox. However, the wealth of a country is not necessarily measured in terms of how much bullion it has stored away in the ground from whence it came. It is just as important to know how that wealth is distributed. For India is a rich country for some people, but for the masses, it is poverty-stricken. Moreover, a nation’s wealth can better be measured in terms of how well its families – the men, women, and children – are fed, clothed, and housed. Putting the two together, for they belong together (i.e., distribution of wealth and general welfare), one cannot help but think that the bankers and finance companies have about convinced the American public that people can get out of debt by borrowing money. Stock prices have risen 77 percent since 1952; the interest on home loans now is 7 percent as a rule rather than as an exception, with a reported large bonus in each case for handling the debt at all. Farmer income is down 23 percent. The so-called tight money policy seems to be benefiting only those who already have plenty of it, while those needing better food, clothing, and housing can expect less and less of these things. Is there not a moral as well as a financial consideration involved here? Public officials are quick and frequent to parade their religious affiliations with or without provocation, from the president down. Wonder if they read not only the stock market quotations but also if they analyze what is happening to those who need most. Seems like someone said once somewhere that “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.”
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A quotable quote comes from Dr. J. Edward Carothers of the Methodist Church in Schenectady, New York, who writes, “One of the mysteries of life in the church is the laziness of people when it comes to trying new hymns. It is a spiritual laziness which shows how far the soul has moved in the direction of dullness. In the jukebox world there are new tunes and songs by the bushel. In that world there is an attitude of hopeful watching and waiting for something better, more exciting, strange, and new. It is often unrewarded but it persists as an attitude. Churches can be horribly dull and inflexible, especially when it comes to singing hymns. People who have been going to church every Sunday for fifty years may not know more than a few hymns and then not be able to sing even so much as a stanza without a hymnal.” Is that true with you in your church?
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It has been interesting to note and think about reactions to the idea quoted on this program last week that a revolution on the college campus during Religious Emphasis Week might be a wholesome development. But where there is no controversy there is not likely to be any thought. In connection with the idea of revolution, it seems apropos here to cite an outstanding American, one Mr. Justice Louis Brandeis, who said, “Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change.” (Though the revolution suggested last week was in the realm of religious procedure.) Mr. Brandeis goes on, “They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty. To courageous, self-reliant men, with confidence in the power of free and fearless reasoning applied through the processes of popular government, no danger flowing from speech can be deemed clear and present, unless the incidence of evil apprehended is so imminent that it may befall before there is opportunity for free discussion.”
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Jung said there are four main ways one may view reality or the dominant phase of the universe to denote which we commonly use the word symbol of “God.” These four ways are sense experience, reason, feeling, and insight by intuition. Because some people incline to some of these four more than others, intelligent people have different emphasis in religion. It would seem to be more nearly counsel of perfection to suggest that people become mature in religion by developing and integrating all four.
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This last item is approached with considerable temerity, for it is accepted for once at least, that Freud was right when he said that “Crowds never thirsted after truth; they demand illusions and cannot do without them.” And, it may be added, they are likely to destroy those who take their illusions away from them. However, it cannot but be observed how many Americans go around saying things about themselves, and believing them, that are either not true, or not nearly as true as they wish you to think they are. All of this is brought about by reading an article in Mad magazine about a radio announcer who worked the all-night shift, and who got into the habit of saying just what he thought. His employers promptly fired him, but his audience demanded his return and he was re-hired just as promptly. Newspaper reporters, sensing a human-interest story, interviewed the announcer and got his evaluation of people who speak their minds versus those who do not. He responded:
“The average person today thinks in certain prescribed patterns. People … have a genuine fear of stepping out and thinking on their own. ‘Creeping meatballism’ is this rejection of individuality. It’s conformity. The American brags about being a great individualist, when actually he’s the world’s least individual person. The idea of thinking individually has become a big joke. Old Thomas J. Watson of I.B.M. came up with the idea for a sign which just said, “Think.” And today, it’s a gag. This is the result of “creeping meatballism.” The guy who has been taken in by the “meatball” philosophy is the guy who really believes that contemporary people are slim … and they’re so much fun to be with … because they drink Pepsi-Cola….
“Couple of years ago, we had horsepower competition. Now there’s fin competition. Today … the car with the highest and longest fin is the car everybody’s interested in…
“Today, everything has a badge. Take men’s suits. I go into Macy’s basement, where they sell cheap men’s clothing…. And they have this big rack of men’s suits, and it says “Custom Brand.” And I say, “Custom-designed suits? Whom are they designed for?” “Custom-designed means designed for an individual. But the salesman says, “They’re designed for us … the basement.” That means, it’s impossible in today’s world to buy a standard rack suit. All suits are custom-designed. Even if they’re designed for the rack, and they fit the hangers beautifully….
“I was listening the other day to an ad, and the guy was saying the car he was selling was designed like a jet plane. And I said to myself, “A jet plane is a beautiful thing. Sounds great.” Until I suddenly thought: What relationship does a jet plane have with a car that spends most of its time banging into fire hydrants on 59th Street, or piddling along at eight miles an hour in cross-town traffic? Why, it shouldn’t look like a jet plane at all. It should look like one of those rubber-bumpered things they have in amusement parks. That’s the ideal car for traffic. What possible advantage would a jet plane have for guy on Clark Street in Chicago? It would be like designing a house to look like a Spanish galleon. Everybody likes the looks of those so you might as well live in one.
But, the announcer concluded:
“Every one of us, I don’t care who he is, has a certain amount of desire to be individual within him. Because, no matter how many refrigerators you buy from Betty Furness, no matter how many custom suits you buy, no matter how many cars with fins you buy, you’re still an individual.
“Once a guy starts thinking, once he starts laughing at T.V. commercials, once he starts getting a hoot out of movie trailers, once he begins to realize that just because a movie is wider or higher or longer doesn’t make it a better movie, once a guy starts doing that, he’s beginning to make the transition from a conformist to an individual. He begins to have eyes that see, ears that hear, and mind that understands.”
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The Evangelical and Reformed Church has set for itself a three-point plan for enlisting the finest U.S. young people for full-time, life-time service. It wants, among other things, to recruit at least 700 more candidates for church-related vocations. The church’s president, the Rev. Dr. James Wagner of Philadelphia, also told the Cincinnati assembly the coming merger of the Evangelical, Reformed, and Congregational Churches will strengthen Far Eastern missionaries.
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The opening sermon at the Third World Assembly of the Lutheran Church will be delivered by Hungary’s once imprisoned Lutheran leader, Bishop Lajos Ordass. The assembly is to be held in Minneapolis in August. The secretary general of the 70-million-member World Lutheran Federation, Dr. Carl Lundquist of Lindsborg, Kansas, has described the Hungarian cleric as “a completely unshaken man.” Bishop Ordass is also reported in full function again as head of the 500,000 Hungarian Lutherans.
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The U.S. legation in Budapest is reported to have asked Roman Catholic Josef Cardinal Mindszenty to make no public statements while in asylum in the legation. The official Hungarian communist newspaper, has accused the prelate of issuing orders to suspend what the paper terms 18 “democratically-minded priests.” So far as is known, Cardinal Mindszenty has been able to send out only one message since he entered the U.S. legation as a refugee during the Hungarian uprising against Russia. That was a “thank you” note to President Eisenhower.
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A Roman Catholic agency says only 23 foreign Roman Catholic missionaries, of almost 6,000 at one time, are still in Red China. The organization, International Fides, adds that seven of the remaining 23 are in jail or under house arrest. Fides states that five of the seven are Americans: the Reverends Fulgence Gross of Omaha, Nebraska; John Wagner, of Pittsburgh; Charles McCarthy, of San Francisco; John Houle, of Glendale California; and Joseph McCormick of Ossining, New York.
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The Rabbinical Council of America has heard from its head that U.S. Orthodox rabbis should foster closer spiritual and cultural ties with Israel. Rabbi Solomon Sharfman of NYC has told the council’s Ninth Annual Midwinter Meeting that U.S. rabbis should be sent to an Israeli seminary for post-graduate studies. He adds they could be shining beacons of spiritual regeneration in U.S. Orthodox communities. The Atlantic City, New Jersey, meeting also heard an appeal from Ireland’s chief rabbi, Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits, who wants the rabbinical council and U.S. Jews to supply social workers and religious counselors to revitalize Jewish life in Western Europe.
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Washington: Laymen in the nation’s Protestant and Catholic churches are now taking on jobs that once were left to the clergy or left undone. They are planning budgets, conducting fund drives, leading youth organizations, visiting the sick, writing and editing church publications, and providing free counseling services. Federal Judge Luther W. Youngdahl, who was named Layman of the Year in 1955 by the Washington Federation of Churches, says the activity of laymen is the most significant spiritual advance in American churches in many years.
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The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano warns Hungarian collaborationist priests that they face automatic excommunication unless they give up church posts assigned to them by the puppet regime in Budapest. The newspaper says the Hungarian communist regime is atheistic and says religious persecution is rampant again in the country.
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Cleveland, Ohio: A national conference of the Presbyterian Church in the United States has been held during the week at Cleveland. The groups deliberated methods for increasing the present benevolence budget to $25 million in 1958, and to $50 million by 1962. A formula was used under which 50 cents should be contributed for national and world missions for every $1.00 contributed to a local church.
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London: Radio Moscow says restoration work will begin this summer on the inner walls of the famous St. Basil’s Church in Red Square. Mural paintings in the church date back to the 17th century. Restoration work outside was during 1954 and 1955. Inside restoration, says Radio Moscow, should be completed in 1959.