D01 0010 As a result, although we still make use of this distinction, there is
D01 0020 much confusion as to the meaning of the basic terms employed. Just what
D01 0030 is meant by "spirit" and by "matter"? The terms are generally
D01 0040 taken for granted as though they referred to direct and axiomatic
D01 0050 elements in the common experience of all. Yet in the contemporary
D01 0060 context this is precisely what one must not do. For in the modern world
D01 0070 neither "spirit" nor "matter" refer to any generally agreed-upon
D01 0080 elements of experience. We are in a transitional stage in which
D01 0090 many of the connotations of former usage have had to be revised or rejected.
D01 0100 When the words are used, we are never sure which of the traditional
D01 0110 meanings the user may have in mind, or to what extent his revisions
D01 0120 and rejections of former understandings correspond to ours.
D01 0130    One of the most widespread features of contemporary thought is the
D01 0140 almost universal disbelief in the reality of spirit. Just a few centuries
D01 0150 ago the world of spirits was as populous and real as the world of
D01 0160 material entities. Not only in popular thought but in that of the highly
D01 0170 educated as well was this true. Demons, fairies, angels, and a host
D01 0180 of other spiritual beings were as much a part of the experiential
D01 0190 world of western man as were rocks and trees and stars. In such a world
D01 0200 the words "matter" and "spirit" both referred to directly
D01 0210 known realities in the common experience of all. In it important elements
D01 0220 of Christianity and of the Biblical view of reality in general,
D01 0230 which now cause us much difficulty, could be responded to quite naturally
D01 0240 and spontaneously.   The progress of science over these last
D01 0250 few centuries and the gradual replacement of Biblical by scientific
D01 0260 categories of reality have to a large extent emptied the spirit world
D01 0270 of the entities which previously populated it. In carrying out this
D01 0280 program science has undoubtedly performed a very considerable service
D01 0290 for which it can claim due credit. The objectification of the world
D01 0300 of spirit in popular superstition had certainly gone far beyond what the
D01 0310 experience of spirit could justify or support. Science is fully competent
D01 0320 to deal with any element of experience which arises from an object
D01 0330 in space and time. When, therefore, it turned its attention to the
D01 0340 concrete entities with which popular imagination had peopled the world
D01 0350 of spirit, these entities soon lost whatever status they had enjoyed
D01 0360 as actual elements of external reality. In doing so science has unquestionably
D01 0370 cleared up widespread misconceptions, removed extraneous
D01 0380 and illusory sources of fear, and dispelled many undesirable popular
D01 0390 superstitions. There have been, indeed, many important and valuable gains
D01 0400 from the development of our present scientific view of the world
D01 0410 for which we may be rightly grateful.   All this has not, however,
D01 0420 been an unmixed blessing. The scientific debunking of the spirit world
D01 0430 has been in a way too successful and too thorough. The house has
D01 0440 been swept so clean that contemporary man has been left with no means,
D01 0450 or at best with wholly inadequate means, for dealing with his experience
D01 0460 of spirit. Although the particular form of conceptualization which
D01 0470 popular imagination had made in response to the experience of spirit
D01 0480 was undoubtedly defective, the raw experience itself which led to such
D01 0490 excesses remains with us as vividly as ever. We simply find ourselves
D01 0500 in the position of having no means for inquiring into the structure
D01 0510 and meaning of this range of our experience. There is no framework
D01 0520 or structure of thought with respect to which we can organize it and
D01 0521 no part
D01 0530 of reality, as we know and apprehend it, with respect to which we
D01 0540 can refer this experience. Science has simply left us helpless and powerless
D01 0550 in this important sector of our lives.   The situation in
D01 0560 which we find ourselves is brought out with dramatic force in Arthur
D01 0570 Miller's play <The Crucible,> which deals with the Salem witch
D01 0580 trials. As the play opens the audience is introduced to the community
D01 0590 of Salem in Puritan America at the end of the eighteenth century.
D01 0600 Aside from a quaint concern with witches and devils which provides
D01 0610 the immediate problem in the opening scene, it is a quite normal community.
D01 0620 The conversation of the characters creates an atmosphere suggesting
D01 0630 the usual mixture of pleasures, foibles, irritations, and concerns
D01 0640 which would characterize the common life of a normal village in any
D01 0650 age. There is no occasion to feel uneasy or disturbed about these people.
D01 0660 Instead, the audience can sit back at ease and, from the perspective
D01 0670 of an enlightened time which no longer believes in such things,
D01 0680 enjoy the dead seriousness with which the characters in the play take
D01 0690 the witches and devils which are under discussion. A teenage girl, Abigail
D01 0700 Williams, is being sharply questioned by her minister uncle,
D01 0710 the Reverend Samuel Parris, about a wild night affair in the woods
D01 0720 in which she and some other girls had seemed to have had contact with
D01 0730 these evil beings. For all involved in this discussion the devil is
D01 0740 a real entity who can really be confronted in the woods on a dark night,
D01 0750 the demon world is populated with real creatures, and witches actually
D01 0760 can be seen flying through the air.   As the play unfolds, however,
D01 0770 the audience is subtly brought into the grip of an awful evil
D01 0780 which grows with ominously gathering power and soon engulfs the community.
D01 0790 Everyone in Salem, saint and sinner alike, is swept up by it.
D01 0800 It is like a mysterious epidemic which, starting first with Abigail
D01 0810 and Parris, spreads inexorably with a dreadfully growing virulence through
D01 0820 the whole town until all have been infected by it. It grows terribly
D01 0830 and unavoidably in power and leaves in its wake a trail of misery,
D01 0840 moral disintegration, and destruction. The audience leaves the play
D01 0850 under a spell, It is the kind of spell which the exposure to spirit
D01 0860 in its living active manifestation always evokes.   If one asks
D01 0870 about this play, what it is that comes upon this community and works
D01 0880 within it with such terrible power, there is no better answer to give
D01 0890 than "spirit". This is not to attempt to say what spirit is, but
D01 0900 only to employ a commonly used word to designate or simply identify a
D01 0910 common experience. In the end the good man, John Proctor, expresses
D01 0920 what the audience has already come to feel when he says, "A fire,
D01 0930 a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy
D01 0940 face"! The tragic irony of the play is that the very belief in and
D01 0950 concern with a devil who could be met in the woods and combatted with
D01 0960 formulae set out in books was the very thing that prevented them from
D01 0970 detecting the real devil when he came among them. We marvel at their
D01 0980 blindness for not seeing this. Yet are not we of the mid-twentieth
D01 0990 century, who rightly do not believe there is any such "thing" as the
D01 1000 devil, just as bad off as they- only in a different way? In our
D01 1010 disbelief we think that we can no longer even use the word and so are
D01 1020 unable to even name the elemental power which is so vividly real in
D01 1030 this play. We are left helpless to cope with it because we do not dare
D01 1040 speak of it as anything real for fear that to do so would imply a commitment
D01 1050 to that which has already been discredited and proved false.
D01 1060    Even Mr& Miller himself seems uncertain on this score. In
D01 1070 a long commentary which he has inserted in the published text of the
D01 1080 first act of the play, he says at one point: "However, that experience
D01 1090 never raised a doubt in his mind as to the reality of the underworld
D01 1100 or the existence of Lucifer's many-faced lieutenants. And his
D01 1110 belief is not to his discredit. Better minds than Hale's were-
D01 1120 and still are- convinced that there is a society of spirits beyond
D01 1130 our ken". (page 33) On the other hand, a little later on he says:
D01 1140 "Since 1692 a great but superficial change has wiped out God's
D01 1150 beard and the Devil's horns, but the world is still gripped between
D01 1160 two diametrically opposed absolutes. The concept of unity, in which
D01 1170 positive and negative are attributes of the same force, in which good
D01 1180 and evil are relative, ever-changing, and always joined to the same phenomenon-
D01 1190 such a concept is still reserved to the physical sciences
D01 1200 and to the few who have grasped the history of ideas **h. When we see
D01 1210 the steady and methodical inculcation into humanity of the idea of man's
D01 1220 worthlessness- until redeemed- the necessity of the Devil may
D01 1230 become evident as a weapon, a weapon designed and used time and time
D01 1240 again in every age to whip men into a surrender to a particular church
D01 1250 or church-state". (page 34)   Apparently he does not intend
D01 1260 that those who read or view this play should think of the devil as being
D01 1270 actually real. Yet such is the dramatic power of his writing that
D01 1280 the audience is nevertheless left in the grip of the terrible power and
D01 1290 potency of that which came over Salem. It casts a spell upon them
D01 1300 so that they leave with a feeling of having been in the mysterious presence
D01 1310 of an evil power. It is not enough in accounting for this feeling
D01 1320 to analyze it into the wickedness of individual people added together
D01 1330 to produce a cumulative effect. For this does not account for the
D01 1340 integral, elemental power of that which grows with abounding vigor as
D01 1350 the play unfolds, nor does it explain the strange numinous sense of presentness
D01 1360 which comes over those who watch the play like a spell. The
D01 1370 reality of spirit emerges in this play in spite of the author's convictions
D01 1380 to the contrary. #SPIRIT AND COMMUNITY#   There is
D01 1390 nothing in the whole range of human experience more widely known and
D01 1400 universally felt than spirit. Apart from spirit there could be no community,
D01 1410 for it is spirit which draws men into community and gives to any
D01 1420 community its unity, cohesiveness, and permanence. Think, for example,
D01 1430 of the spirit of the Marine Corps. Surely this is a reality we
D01 1440 all acknowledge. We cannot, of course, assign it any substance. It
D01 1450 is not material and is not a "thing" occupying space and time. Yet
D01 1460 it exists and has an objective reality which can be experienced and
D01 1470 known. So it is too with many other spirits which we all know: the
D01 1480 spirit of Nazism or Communism, school spirit, the spirit of a street
D01 1490 corner gang or a football team, the spirit of Rotary or the Ku Klux
D01 1500 Klan. Every community, if it is alive has a spirit, and that spirit
D01 1510 is the center of its unity and identity.   In searching for clues
D01 1520 which might lead us to a fresh apprehension of the reality of spirit,
D01 1530 the close connection between spirit and community is likely to prove
D01 1540 the most fruitful. For it is primarily in community that we know and
D01 1550 experience spirit. It is spirit which gives life to a community and
D01 1560 causes it to cohere. It is the spirit which is the source of a community's
D01 1570 drawing power by means of which others are drawn into it from
D01 1580 the world outside so that the community grows and prospers. Yet the
D01 1590 spirit which lives in community is not identical with the community.
D01 1600 The idea of community and the idea of spirit are two distinct and separable
D01 1610 ideas.   One characteristic of the spirit in community is
D01 1620 its givenness. The members of the community do not create the spirit
D01 1630 but rather find it present and waiting for them. It is for them a given
D01 1640 which they and they alone possess. The spirit of the Marine Corps
D01 1650 was present and operative before any of the present members of it came
D01 1660 into it. It is they, of course, who keep it alive and preserve it
D01 1670 so the same spirit will continue to be present in the Corps for future
D01 1680 recruits to find as they come into it.
D02 0010 If the content of faith is to be presented today in a form that can be
D02 0020 "understanded of the people"- and this, it must not be forgotten,
D02 0030 is one of the goals of the perennial theological task- there is
D02 0040 no other choice but to abandon completely a mythological manner of
D02 0045 representation.
D02 0050    This does not mean that mythological language as
D02 0060 such can no longer be used in theology and preaching. The absurd notion
D02 0070 that demythologization entails the expurgation of all mythological
D02 0080 concepts completely misrepresents Bultmann's intention. His point
D02 0090 is not that mythology may not be used, but that it may no longer be regarded
D02 0100 as the only or even the most appropriate conceptuality for expressing
D02 0110 the Christian kerygma. When we say that a mythological mode
D02 0120 of thought must be completely abandoned, we mean it must be abandoned
D02 0130 as the sole or proper means for presenting the Christian understanding
D02 0140 of existence. Mythological concepts may by all means still be used,
D02 0150 but they can be used responsibly only as "symbols" or "ciphers",
D02 0160 that is, only if they are also constantly <interpreted> in nonmythological
D02 0170 (or existential) terms.   The statement is often made
D02 0180 that when Bultmann argues in this way, he "overestimates the intellectual
D02 0190 stumbling-block which myth is supposed to put in the way of accepting
D02 0200 the Christian faith". But this statement is completely unconvincing.
D02 0210 If Bultmann's own definition of myth is strictly adhered
D02 0220 to (and it is interesting that this is almost never done by those who
D02 0230 make such pronouncements), the evidence is overwhelming that he does
D02 0240 not at all exaggerate the extent to which the mythological concepts of
D02 0250 traditional theology have become incredible and irrelevant. Nor is
D02 0260 it necessary to look for such evidence in the great urban centers of our
D02 0270 culture that are admittedly almost entirely secularized and so profoundly
D02 0280 estranged from the conventional forms in which the gospel has been
D02 0290 communicated. On the contrary, even in the heart of "the Bible
D02 0300 belt" itself, as can be attested by any one who is called to work there,
D02 0310 the industrial and technological revolutions have long been under
D02 0320 way, together with the corresponding changes in man's picture of himself
D02 0330 and his world.   In fact, it is in just such a situation
D02 0340 that the profundity of Bultmann's argument is disclosed. Although
D02 0350 the theological forms of the past continue to exist in a way they do
D02 0360 not in a more secularized situation, the striking thing is the rapidity
D02 0370 with which they are being reduced to a marginal existence. This is
D02 0380 especially in evidence among the present generation of the suburban middle
D02 0390 class. Time and again in counseling and teaching, one encounters
D02 0400 members of this group whose attempts to bring into some kind of unity
D02 0410 the insubstantial mythologies of their "fundamentalist" heritage
D02 0420 and the stubborn reality of the modern world are only too painfully obvious.
D02 0430    The same thing is also evidenced by the extreme "culture-Protestantism"
D02 0440 so often observed to characterize the preaching
D02 0450 and teaching of the American churches. In the absence of a truly adequate
D02 0460 conceptuality in which the gospel can be expressed, the unavoidable
D02 0470 need to demythologize it makes use of whatever resources are at
D02 0480 hand- and this usually means one or another of the various forms of
D02 0490 "folk religion" current in the situation. This is not to say that
D02 0500 the <only> explanation of the present infatuation with Norman Vincent
D02 0510 Peale's "cult of reassurance" or the other types of a purely
D02 0520 cultural Christianity is the ever-present need for a demythologized
D02 0530 gospel. But it is to say that this need is far more important for such
D02 0540 infatuation than most of the pundits seem to have suspected.
D02 0550    However, even if the latent demand for demythologization is not nearly
D02 0560 as widespread as we are claiming, at least among the cultured elements
D02 0570 of the population there tends to be an almost complete indifference
D02 0580 to the church and its traditional message of sin and grace. To be
D02 0590 sure, when this is pointed out, a common response among certain churchmen
D02 0600 is to fulminate about "the little flock" and "the great crowd"
D02 0610 and to take solace from Paul's castigation of the "wisdom of
D02 0620 the wise" in the opening chapter of First Corinthians. But can
D02 0630 we any longer afford the luxury of such smug indigation? Can the church
D02 0640 risk assuming that the "folly" of men is as dear to God as their
D02 0650 "wisdom", or, as is also commonly implied, that "the foolishness
D02 0660 of God" and "the foolishness of men" are simply two ways
D02 0670 of talking about the same thing? Can we continue to alienate precisely
D02 0680 those whose gifts we so desperately need and apart from whose co-operation
D02 0690 our mission in the world must become increasingly precarious?
D02 0700    There is an ancient and venerable tradition in the church (which
D02 0710 derives, however, from the heritage of the Greeks rather than from
D02 0720 the Bible) that God is completely independent of his creation and
D02 0730 so has no need of men for accomplishing his work in the world. by analogy,
D02 0740 the church also has been regarded as entirely independent of the
D02 0750 "world" in the sense of requiring nothing from it in order to be
D02 0760 the church. But, as Scripture everywhere reminds us, God <does>
D02 0770 have need of his creatures, and the church, <a fortiori>, can ill afford
D02 0780 to do without the talents with which the world, by God's providence,
D02 0790 presents it.   And yet this is exactly the risk we run when
D02 0800 we assume, as we too often do, that we can continue to preach the gospel
D02 0810 in a form that makes it seem incredible and irrelevant to cultured
D02 0820 men. Until we translate this gospel into a language that enlightened
D02 0830 men today can understand, we are depriving ourselves of the very resources
D02 0840 on which the continued success of our witness most certainly depends.
D02 0850    In arguing in this way, we are obviously taking for granted
D02 0860 that a demythologized restatement of the kerygma can be achieved;
D02 0870 and that we firmly believe this will presently become evident when
D02 0880 we set forth reasons to justify such a conviction. But the main point
D02 0890 here is that even if such a restatement were <not> possible, the
D02 0900 demand to demythologize the kerygma would still be unavoidable.
D02 0910 This is what we mean when we say this demand must be accepted without
D02 0920 condition. If to be a Christian means to say yes where I otherwise
D02 0930 say no, or where I do not have the right to say anything at all, then
D02 0940 my only choice is to refuse to be a Christian. Expressed differently:
D02 0950 if the price for becoming a faithful follower of Jesus Christ
D02 0960 is some form of self-destruction, whether of the body or of the mind-
D02 0970 <sacrificium corporis, sacrificium intellectus>- then there is
D02 0980 no alternative but that the price remain unpaid.   This must be
D02 0990 stressed because it is absolutely essential to the argument of this concluding
D02 1000 chapter. Modern man, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer has told us, has
D02 1010 "come of age"; and though this process by no means represents
D02 1020 an unambiguous gain and is, in fact, marked by the estrangement from
D02 1030 the depths that seems to be the cost of human maturation, it is still
D02 1040 a positive step forward; and those of us who so richly benefit from
D02 1050 it should be the last to despise it. In any event, it is an irreversible
D02 1060 step, and if we are at all honest with ourselves, we will know we
D02 1070 have no other alternative than to live in the world in which God has
D02 1080 seen fit to place us.   To say this, of course, is to take up a
D02 1090 position on one side of a controversy going on now for some two hundred
D02 1100 years, or, at any rate, since the beginning of the distinctively modern
D02 1110 period in theological thought. We have aligned ourselves with that
D02 1120 "liberal" tradition in Protestant Christianity that counts among
D02 1130 the great names in its history those of Schleiermacher, Ritschl,
D02 1140 Herrmann, Harnack, and Troeltsch, and more recently, Schweitzer and
D02 1150 the early Barth and, in part at least, Bultmann. It is to this same
D02 1160 tradition that most of the creative figures in the last century and
D02 1170 a half of American theology also belong. For we must number here not
D02 1180 only the names of Bushnell, Clarke, and Rauschenbusch, not to mention
D02 1190 those of "the Chicago School" and Macintosh, but those of
D02 1200 the brothers Niebuhr and (if America may claim him!) Tillich as
D02 1210 well. Finally, we may also mention the several members of the self-consciously
D02 1220 "neoliberal" movement that developed at the University
D02 1230 of Chicago and is heavily indebted philosophically to the creative work
D02 1240 of Alfred North Whitehead.   What makes this long and diverse
D02 1250 tradition essentially <one> is that those who have belonged to it
D02 1260 have been profoundly in earnest about being modern men in a distinctively
D02 1270 modern world. Although they have also been concerned to stand squarely
D02 1280 within the tradition of the apostolic church, they have exhibited
D02 1290 no willingness whatever to sacrifice their modernity to their Christianity.
D02 1300 They have insisted, rather, on living fully and completely
D02 1310 within modern culture and, so far from considering this treason to God,
D02 1320 have looked upon it as the only way they could be faithful to him.
D02 1330    When we say, then, that today, in our situation, the demand for
D02 1340 demythologization must be accepted without condition, we are simply
D02 1350 saying that at least this much of the liberal tradition is an enduring
D02 1360 achievement. However much we may have to criticize liberal theology's
D02 1370 constructive formulations, the theology we ourselves must strive
D02 1380 to formulate can only go <beyond> liberalism, not <behind> it.
D02 1390    In affirming this we have already taken the decisive step in breaking
D02 1400 the deadlock into which Bultmann's attempt to formulate such a
D02 1410 theology has led. For we have said, in effect, that of the two alternatives
D02 1420 to his position variously represented by the other participants
D02 1430 in the demythologizing discussion, only one is really an alternative.
D02 1440 If the demand for demythologization is unavoidable and so must be
D02 1450 accepted
D02 1460 by theology unconditionally, the position of the "right" is
D02 1470 clearly untenable. Whereas Bultmann's "center" position is structurally
D02 1480 inconsistent and is therefore indefensible on formal grounds
D02 1490 alone, the general position of the "right", as represented, say,
D02 1500 by Karl Barth, involves the rejection or at least qualification of
D02 1510 the demand for demythologization and so is invalidated on the material
D02 1520 grounds we have just considered.   It follows, then, provided
D02 1530 the possibilities have been exhausted, that the only <real> alternative
D02 1540 is the general viewpoint of the "left", which has been represented
D02 1550 on the Continent by Fritz Buri and, to some extent at least,
D02 1560 is found in much that is significant in American and English theology.
D02 1570    In order to make the implications of our position as clear
D02 1580 as possible, we may develop this argument at greater length.   We
D02 1590 may show, first, that there cannot possibly be an alternative other
D02 1600 than the three typically represented by Bultmann, Barth, and Buri.
D02 1610 To do this, it is sufficient to point out that if the principle in terms
D02 1620 of which alternatives are to be conceived is such as to exclude more
D02 1630 than two, then the question of a "third" possibility is a meaningless
D02 1640 question. Thus, if what is at issue is whether "All ~S
D02 1650 is ~P", it is indifferent whether "Some ~S is not ~P"
D02 1660 or "No ~S is ~P", since in either case the judgment in question
D02 1670 is false. Hence, if what is in question is whether in a given theology
D02 1680 myth is or is not completely rejected, it is unimportant whether
D02 1690 only a little bit of myth or a considerable quantity is accepted;
D02 1700 for, in either event, the first possibility is excluded. Therefore,
D02 1710 the only conceivable alternatives are those represented, on the one hand,
D02 1720 by the two at least apparently self-consistent but mutually exclusive
D02 1730 positions of Buri and Barth and, on the other hand, by the third
D02 1740 but really pseudo position (analogous to a round square) of Bultmann.
D02 1750    A second point requires more extended comment. It will be recalled
D02 1760 from the discussion in Section 7 that the position of the "right",
D02 1770 as represented by Barth, rests on the following thesis: The
D02 1780 only tenable alternative to Bultmann's position is a theology that
D02 1790 (1) rejects or at least qualifies his unconditioned demand for demythologization
D02 1800 and existential interpretation; (2) accepts instead a
D02 1810 special biblical hermeneutics or method of interpretation; and (3)
D02 1820 in so doing, frees itself to give appropriate emphasis to the event Jesus
D02 1830 Christ by means of statements that, from Bultmann's point of
D02 1840 view, are mythological.
D03 0010    ONE HUNDRED years ago there existed in England the Association
D03 0020 for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom. Representing
D03 0030 as it did the efforts of only unauthorized individuals of the Roman
D03 0040 and Anglican Churches, and urging a communion of prayer unacceptable
D03 0050 to Rome, this association produced little fruit, and, in fact, was
D03 0060 condemned by the Holy Office in 1864.   Now again in 1961, in
D03 0070 England, there is perhaps nothing in the religious sphere so popularly
D03 0080 discussed as Christian unity. The Church Unity Octave, January
D03 0090 18-25, was enthusiastically devoted to prayer and discussion by the various
D03 0100 churches. Many people seem hopeful, yet it is difficult to predict
D03 0110 whether or not there will be any more real attainment of Christian
D03 0120 unity in 1961 than there was in 1861. But it must be readily seen
D03 0130 that the religious picture in England has so greatly changed during these
D03 0140 hundred years as to engender hope, at least on the Catholic side.
D03 0150 For the "tide is well on the turn", as the London Catholic weekly
D03 0160 <Universe> has written.   I came to England last summer to
D03 0170 do research on the unpublished letters of Cardinal Newman. As an
D03 0180 American Catholic of Irish ancestry, I came with certain preconceptions
D03 0190 and expectations; being intellectually influenced by Newman
D03 0200 and the general 19th-century literature of England, I knew only a
D03 0205 Protestant-dominated
D03 0210 country. Since arriving here, however, I have formed
D03 0220 a far different religious picture of present-day England. In representing
D03 0230 part of this new picture, I will be recounting some of my
D03 0240 own personal experiences, reactions and judgments; but my primary aim
D03 0250 is to transcribe what Englishmen themselves are saying and writing
D03 0260 and implying about the Roman and Anglican Churches and about the
D03 0261 present religious
D03 0270 state of England.   Since the Protestant clergy for the
D03 0280 most part wear gray or some variant from the wholly black suit, my Roman
D03 0290 collar and black garb usually identify me in England as a Roman
D03 0300 Catholic cleric. In any case, I have always been treated with the
D03 0310 utmost courtesy by Englishmen, even in Devonshire and Cornwall, where
D03 0320 anti-Catholic feeling has supposedly existed the strongest and longest.
D03 0330    Nowhere have I seen public expression of anti-Catholicism.
D03 0340 On my first Guy Fawkes Day here, I found Catholics as well
D03 0350 as non-Catholics celebrating with the traditional fireworks and bonfires,
D03 0360 and was told that most Englishmen either do not know or are not
D03 0370 concerned with the historical significance of the day. A Birmingham
D03 0380 newspaper printed in a column for children an article entitled "The
D03 0390 True Story of Guy Fawkes", which began:   "When you
D03 0400 pile your
D03 0410 "guy" on the bonfire tomorrow night, I wonder how much of the
D03 0420 true story of Guy Fawkes you will remember? In the 355 years since
D03 0430 the first Guy Fawkes Night, much of the story has been forgotten,
D03 0440 so here is a reminder". The article proceeded to give an inaccurate
D03 0450 account of a catholic plot to kill King James /1,. ## IN
D03 0460 SPITE OF the increase in numbers and prestige brought about by the
D03 0470 conversions of Newman and other Tractarians of the 1840's and 1850's,
D03 0480 the Catholic segment of England one hundred years ago was a very
D03 0490 small one (four per cent, or 800,000) which did not enjoy a gracious
D03 0500 hearing from the general public. The return of the Catholic hierarchy
D03 0510 in 1850 was looked upon with indignant disapprobation and, in fact,
D03 0520 was charged with being a gesture of disloyalty. In 1864 Newman professedly
D03 0530 had to write his <Apologia> with his keenest feelings in
D03 0540 order to be believed and to command a fair hearing from English readers.
D03 0560    Now, in 1961, the Catholic population of England is still
D03 0570 quite small (ten per cent, or 5 million); yet it represents a very
D03 0580 considerable percentage of the churchgoing population. A Protestant
D03 0590 woman marveled to me over the large crowds going in and out of the Birmingham
D03 0600 Oratory (Catholic) Church on Sunday mornings. She found
D03 0610 this a marvel because, as she said, only six per cent of English people
D03 0620 are churchgoers. She may not have been exact on this number, but
D03 0630 others here feel quite certain that the percentage would be less than
D03 0640 ten. From many sides come remarks that Protestant churches are badly
D03 0650 attended and the large medieval cathedrals look all but empty during
D03 0660 services. A Catholic priest recently recounted how in the chapel of
D03 0670 a large city university, following Anglican evensong, at which there
D03 0680 was a congregation of twelve, he celebrated Mass before more than a
D03 0690 hundred.   The Protestants themselves are the first to admit the
D03 0700 great falling off in effective membership in their churches. According
D03 0710 to a newspaper report of the 1961 statistics of the Church of England,
D03 0720 the "total of confirmed members is 9,748,000, but only 2,887,671
D03 0730 are registered on the parochial church rolls", and "over 27 million
D03 0740 people in England are baptized into the Church of England, but
D03 0750 roughly only a tenth of them continue". An amazing article in the
D03 0760 <Manchester Guardian> of last November, entitled "Fate of Redundant
D03 0770 Churches", states than an Archbishops' Commission "reported
D03 0780 last month that in the Church of England alone there are 790
D03 0790 churches which are redundant now, or will be in 20 years' time. A further
D03 0800 260 Anglican churches have been demolished since 1948". And
D03 0810 in the last five years, the "Methodist chapel committee has
D03 0811 authorized
D03 0820 the demolition or, more often, the sale of 764 chapels". Most of
D03 0830 these former churches are now used as warehouses, but "neither Anglicans
D03 0831 nor
D03 0840 Nonconformists object to selling churches to Roman Catholics",
D03 0850 and have done so.   While it must be said that these same
D03 0860 Protestants have built some new churches during this period, and that
D03 0870 religious population shifts have emptied churches, a principal reason
D03 0880 for this phenomenon of redundancy is that fewer Protestants are
D03 0890 going to church. It should be admitted, too, that there is a good
D03 0900 percentage of lapsed or nonchurchgoing Catholics (one paper writes 50
D03 0910 per cent). Still, it is clear from such reports, and apparently clear
D03 0920 from the remarks of many people, that Protestants are decreasing and
D03 0930 Catholics increasing.   An Anglican clergyman in Oxford sadly
D03 0940 but frankly acknowledged to me that this is true. A century ago,
D03 0950 Newman saw that liberalism (what we now might call secularism) would
D03 0960 gradually but definitely make its mark on English Protestantism, and
D03 0970 that even high Anglicanism would someday no longer be a "serviceable
D03 0980 breakwater against doctrinal errors more fundamental than its own".
D03 0990 That day is perhaps today, 1961, and it seems no longer very meaningful
D03 1000 to call England a "Protestant country". One of the ironies
D03 1010 of the present crusade for Christian unity is that there are not, relatively
D03 1020 speaking, many real Christians to unite.   Many English
D03 1030 Catholics are proud of their Catholicism and know that they are
D03 1040 in a new ascendancy. The London <Universe> devoted its centenary
D03 1041 issue
D03 1050 last December 8 to mapping out various aspects of Catholic progress
D03 1060 during the last one hundred years. With traditional nationalistic spirit,
D03 1070 some Englishmen claim that English Catholicism is Catholicism
D03 1080 at its best. I have found myself saying with other foreigners here
D03 1090 that English Catholics <are> good Catholics. It has been my experience
D03 1100 to find as many men as women in church, and to hear almost everyone
D03 1110 in church congregations reciting the Latin prayers and responses
D03 1120 at Mass.   They hope, of course, to reclaim the non-Catholic
D03 1130 population to the Catholic faith, and at every Sunday Benediction
D03 1140 they recite by heart the "Prayer for England":   "O Blessed
D03 1150 Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gentle queen and mother,
D03 1160 look down in mercy upon England, thy "dowry", and upon us
D03 1170 all who greatly hope and trust in thee **h. Intercede for our separated
D03 1180 brethren, that with us in the one true fold they may be united to the
D03 1190 chief Shepherd, the vicar of thy Son **h". A hymn often to be
D03 1200 heard in Catholic churches is "Faith of our Fathers", which glories
D03 1210 in England's ancient faith that endured persecution, and which
D03 1220 proclaims: "Faith of our Fathers: Mary's prayers/Shall win
D03 1230 our country back to thee". The English saints are widely venerated,
D03 1240 quite naturally, and now there is great hope that the Forty Martyrs
D03 1250 and Cardinal Newman will soon be canonized.   Because they
D03 1260 have kept the faith of their medieval fathers, English Catholics have
D03 1270 always strongly resented the charge of being "un-English". I
D03 1280 have not seen this charge made during my stay here, but apparently it
D03 1290 is still in the air. For example, a writer in a recent number of <The
D03 1300 Queen> hyperbolically states that "of the myriad imprecations the
D03 1310 only one which the English Catholics really resent is the suggestion
D03 1320 that they are 'un-English'". In this connection, it has been
D03 1330 observed that the increasing number of Irish Catholics, priests and
D03 1340 laity, in England, while certainly seen as good for Catholicism,
D03 1350 is nevertheless a source of embarrassment for some of the more nationalistic
D03 1360 English Catholics, especially when these Irishmen offer to remind
D03 1370 their Christian brethren of this good. ## ONE OF THE
D03 1380 more noteworthy changes that have taken place since the mid-19th century
D03 1390 is the situation of Catholics at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
D03 1400 At Oxford one hundred years ago there were very few Catholics,
D03 1410 partly because religious tests were removed only in 1854. Moreover,
D03 1420 for those few there was almost no ecclesiastical representation in the
D03 1430 city to care for their religious needs. Now, not only are there considerably
D03 1440 more laity as students and professors at Oxford, but there
D03 1450 are also numerous houses of religious orders existing in respectable
D03 1460 and friendly relations with the non-Catholic members of the University.
D03 1470 Some Catholic priests lecture there; Catholic seminarians attend
D03 1480 tutorials and row on the Cherwell with non-Catholic students.
D03 1490    Further evidence that Roman Catholicism enjoys a more favorable
D03 1500 position today than in 1861 is the respectful attention given to it
D03 1510 in the mass media of England. The general tone of articles appearing
D03 1520 in such important newspapers as the Manchester <Guardian> and the
D03 1530 Sunday <Observer> implies a kindly recognition that the Catholic
D03 1540 Church is now at least of equal stature in England with the Protestant
D03 1550 churches. On successive Sundays during October, 1960, Paul Ferris
D03 1560 (a non-Catholic) wrote articles in the <Observer> depicting
D03 1570 clergymen of the Church of England, the Church of Rome and the Nonconformist
D03 1580 Church. The Catholic priest, though somewhat superficially
D03 1590 drawn, easily came out the best. There were many letters of strong
D03 1600 protest against the portrait of the Anglican clergyman, who was indeed
D03 1610 portrayed as a man not particularly concerned with religious matters
D03 1620 and without really very much to do as clergyman. Such a series of
D03 1630 articles was certainly never printed in the public press of mid-Victorian
D03 1640 England. There was so much interest shown in this present-day
D03 1650 venture that it was continued on B&B&C&, where comments were
D03 1660 equally made by an Anglican parson, a Free Church minister and a Catholic
D03 1670 priest.   Catholic priests have frequently appeared on
D03 1680 television programs, sometimes discussing the Christian faith on an equal
D03 1690 footing with Protestant clergymen. A notable example of this was
D03 1700 the discussion of Christian unity by the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool,
D03 1710 Dr& Heenan, and the Anglican Archbishop of York, Dr&
D03 1720 Ramsey, recently appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. The good
D03 1730 feeling which exists between these two important church figures is now
D03 1740 well known in England. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with commentary
D03 1750 has been televised several times in recent months. And it was
D03 1760 interesting to observe that B&B&C&'s television film on Christmas
D03 1770 Eve was <The Bells of St& Mary's>.   Of course,
D03 1780 the crowning event that has dramatically upset the traditional pattern
D03 1790 of English religious history was the friendly visit paid by Dr&
D03 1800 Fisher, then Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, to the Vatican
D03 1810 last December. It was the first time an English Primate has done
D03 1820 this since the 14th century. English Catholics reacted to this event
D03 1830 with moderate but real hope.   Almost daily something is reported
D03 1840 which feeds this Catholic hope in England: statistics of the increasing
D03 1850 numbers of converts and Irish Catholic immigrants; news of
D03 1860 a Protestant minister in Leamington who has offered to allow a Catholic
D03 1870 priest to preach from his pulpit; a report that a Catholic nun
D03 1880 had been requested to teach in a non-Catholic secondary school during
D03 1890 the sickness of one of its masters; the startling statement in a
D03 1900 respectable periodical that "Catholics, if the present system is still
D03 1910 in operation, will constitute almost one-third of the House of Lords
D03 1920 in the next generation"; a report that 200 Protestant clergymen
D03 1930 and laity attended a votive Mass offered for Christian unity at
D03 1940 a Catholic church in Slough during the Church Unity Octave.
D04 0010 The death of a man is unique, and yet it is universal. The straight
D04 0020 line would symbolize its uniqueness, the circle its universality. But
D04 0030 how can one figure symbolize both?   Christianity declares that
D04 0040 in the life and death of Jesus Christ the unique and the universal
D04 0050 concur. Perhaps no church father saw this concurrence of the unique
D04 0060 and the universal as clearly, or formulated it as precisely, as Irenaeus.
D04 0070 To be the Savior and the Lord, Jesus Christ has to be a historical
D04 0080 individual with a biography all his own; he dare not be a cosmic
D04 0090 aeon that swoops to earth for a while but never identifies itself
D04 0100 with man's history. Yet this utterly individual historical person
D04 0110 must also contain within himself the common history of mankind. His
D04 0120 history is his alone, yet each man must recognize his own history in
D04 0130 it. His death is his alone, yet each man can see his own death in the
D04 0140 crucifixion of Jesus. Each man can identify himself with the history
D04 0150 and the death of Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ has identified
D04 0160 himself with human history and human death, coming as the head of a
D04 0170 new humanity. Not a circle, then, nor a straight line, but a spiral
D04 0180 represents the shape of death as Irenaeus sees it; for a spiral has
D04 0190 motion as well as recurrence. As represented by a spiral, history may,
D04 0200 in some sense, be said to repeat itself; yet each historical event
D04 0210 remains unique. Christ is both unique and universal.   The first
D04 0220 turn of the spiral is the primeval history of humanity in Adam. As
D04 0230 Origen interprets the end of history on the basis of its beginning,
D04 0240 so Irenaeus portrays the story of Adam on the basis of the story of
D04 0250 Christ. "Whence, then, comes the substance of the first man? From
D04 0260 God's Will and Wisdom, and from virgin earth. For 'God had
D04 0270 not rained', says the Scripture, before man was made, 'and there
D04 0280 was no man to till the earth'. From this earth, then, while it was
D04 0290 still virgin God took dust and fashioned the man, the beginning of humanity".
D04 0300 Irenaeus does not regard Adam and Eve merely as private
D04 0310 individuals, but as universal human beings, who were and are all of humanity.
D04 0320 Adam and Eve were perfect, not in the sense that they possessed
D04 0330 perfection, but in the sense that they were capable of development
D04 0340 toward perfection. They were, in fact, children. Irenaeus does not
D04 0350 claim pre-existence for the human soul; therefore there is no need for
D04 0360 him, as there is for Origen, to identify existence itself with the
D04 0370 fall. Existence is created and willed by God and is not the consequence
D04 0380 of a pre-existent rebellion or of a cosmic descent from eternity
D04 0390 into history. Historical existence is a created good.   The biblical
D04 0400 symbol for this affirmation is expressed in the words: "So
D04 0410 God created man in his own image; in the similitude of God he created
D04 0420 him". There are some passages in the writings of Irenaeus where
D04 0430 the image of God and the similitude are sharply distinguished, so
D04 0440 most notably in the statement: "If the [Holy] Spirit is absent
D04 0450 from the soul, such a man is indeed of an animal nature; and, being
D04 0460 left carnal, he will be an imperfect being, possessing the image
D04 0461 [of
D04 0470 God] in his formation, but not receiving the similitude [of God]
D04 0480 through the Spirit". Thus the image of God is that which makes
D04 0490 a man a man and not an oyster; the similitude of God, by contrast,
D04 0500 is that which makes a man a child of God and not merely a rational creature.
D04 0510 Recent research on Irenaeus, however, makes it evident that
D04 0520 he does not consistently maintain this distinction. He does not mean
D04 0530 to say that Adam lost the similitude of God and his immortality through
D04 0540 the fall; for he was created not exactly immortal, nor yet exactly
D04 0550 mortal, but capable of immortality as well as of mortality.
D04 0560 Therefore Irenaeus describes man's creation as follows:
D04 0570 "So that the man should not have thoughts of grandeur, and become lifted
D04 0580 up, as if he had no lord, because of the dominion that had been
D04 0590 given to him, and the freedom, fall into sin against God his Creator,
D04 0600 overstepping his bounds, and take up an attitude of self-conceited arrogance
D04 0610 towards God, a law was given him by God, that he might know
D04 0620 that he had for lord the lord of all. And He laid down for him certain
D04 0630 conditions: so that, if he kept the command of God, then he would
D04 0640 always remain as he was, that is, immortal; but if he did not, he
D04 0650 would become mortal, melting into earth, whence his frame had been taken".
D04 0660 These conditions man did not keep, and thus he became mortal;
D04 0670 yet he did not stop being human as a result. There is no justification
D04 0680 for systematizing the random statements of Irenaeus about the image
D04 0690 of God beyond this, nor for reading into his imprecise usage the
D04 0700 later theological distinction between the image of God (humanity) and
D04 0710 the similitude of God (immortality).   Man was created with the
D04 0720 capacity for immortality, but the devil's promise of immortality
D04 0730 in exchange for disobedience cost Adam his immortality. He was, in the
D04 0740 words of Irenaeus, "beguiled by another under the pretext of immortality".
D04 0750 The true way to immortality lay through obedience, but man
D04 0760 did not believe this.   "Eve was disobedient; for she did
D04 0770 not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed
D04 0780 a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin **h, having
D04 0790 become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and
D04 0800 to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed
D04 0810 [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become
D04 0820 the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race".
D04 0830 Because he interprets the primitive state of man as one of mere
D04 0840 potentiality or capacity and believes that Adam and Eve were created
D04 0850 as children, Irenaeus often seems inclined to extenuate their disobedience
D04 0860 as being "due, no doubt, to carelessness, but still wicked".
D04 0870 His interpretation of the beginning on the basis of the end prompts
D04 0880 him to draw these parallels between the Virgin Eve and the Virgin
D04 0890 Mary. That parallelism affects his picture of man's disobedience too;
D04 0900 for as it was Christ, the Word of God, who came to rescue man,
D04 0910 so it was disobedience to the word of God in the beginning that brought
D04 0920 death into the world, and all our woe.   With this act of disobedience,
D04 0930 and not with the inception of his individual existence, man
D04 0940 began the downward circuit on the spiral of history, descending from
D04 0950 the created capacity for immortality to an inescapable mortality. At
D04 0960 the nadir of that circuit is death. "Along with the fruit they did
D04 0970 also fall under the power of death, because they did eat in disobedience;
D04 0980 and disobedience to God entails death. Wherefore, as they became
D04 0990 forfeit to death, from that [moment] they were handed over to it".
D04 1000 This leads Irenaeus to the somewhat startling notion that Adam
D04 1010 and Eve died on the same day that they disobeyed, namely, on a Friday,
D04 1020 as a parallel to the death of Christ on Good Friday; he sees
D04 1030 a parallel also to the Jewish day of preparation for the Sabbath. In
D04 1040 any case, though they had been promised immortality if they ate of
D04 1050 the tree, they obtained mortality instead. The wages of sin is death.
D04 1060 Man's life, originally shaped for immortality and for communion with
D04 1070 God, must now be conformed to the shape of death.   Nevertheless,
D04 1080 even at the nadir of the circuit the spiral of history belongs
D04 1090 to God, and he still rules. Even death, therefore, has a providential
D04 1100 as well as a punitive function.   "Wherefore also He [God]
D04 1110 drove him [man] out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree
D04 1120 of life, not because He envied him the tree of life, as some venture
D04 1130 to assert, but because He pitied him, [and did not desire] that
D04 1140 he should continue a sinner for ever, nor that the sin which surrounded
D04 1150 him should be immortal, and evil interminable and irremediable. But
D04 1160 He set a bound to his [state of] sin, by interposing death, and thus
D04 1170 causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the
D04 1180 flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at
D04 1190 length to live in sin, and dying to it, might live to God". This
D04 1200 idea, which occurs in both Tatian and Cyprian, fits especially well
D04 1210 into the scheme of Irenaeus' theology; for it prepares the way for
D04 1220 the passage from life through death to life that is achieved in Christ.
D04 1230 As man can live only by dying, so it was only by his dying that
D04 1240 Christ could bring many to life.   It is probably fair to say
D04 1250 that the idea of death is more profound in Irenaeus than the idea of
D04 1260 sin is. This applies to his picture of Adam. It is borne out also
D04 1270 by the absence of any developed theory about how sin passes from one generation
D04 1280 to the next. It becomes most evident in his description of
D04 1290 Christ as the second Adam, who does indeed come to destroy sin, but
D04 1300 whose work culminates in the achievement of immortality. This emphasis
D04 1310 upon death rather than sin as man's fundamental problem Irenaeus
D04 1320 shares with many early theologians, especially the Greek-speaking ones.
D04 1330 They speak of the work of Christ as the bestowal of incorruptibility,
D04 1340 which can mean (though it does not have to mean) deliverance from
D04 1350 time and history.   Death reminds man of his sin, but it reminds
D04 1360 him also of his transience. It represents a punishment that he knows
D04 1370 he deserves, but it also symbolizes most dramatically that he lives
D04 1380 his life within the process of time. These two aspects of death cannot
D04 1390 be successfully separated, but they dare not be confused or identified.
D04 1400 The repeated efforts in Christian history to describe death as
D04 1410 altogether the consequence of human sin show that these two aspects of
D04 1420 death cannot be separated. Such efforts almost always find themselves
D04 1430 compelled to ask whether Adam was created capable of growing old and
D04 1440 then older and then still older, in short, whether Adam's life was
D04 1450 intended to be part of the process of time. If it was, then it must
D04 1460 have been God's intention to translate him at a certain point from
D04 1470 time to eternity. One night, so some of these theories run, Adam would
D04 1480 have fallen asleep, much as he fell asleep for the creation of Eve;
D04 1490 and thus he would have been carried over into the life eternal. The
D04 1500 embarrassment of these theories over the naturalness of death is an
D04 1510 illustration of the thesis that death cannot be only a punishment, for
D04 1520 some termination seems necessary in a life that is lived within the
D04 1530 natural order of time and change.   On the other hand, Christian
D04 1540 faith knows that death is more than the natural termination of temporal
D04 1550 existence. It is the wages of sin, and its sting is the law.
D04 1560 If
D04 1570 this aspect of death as punishment is not distinguished from the idea
D04 1580 of death as natural termination, the conclusion seems inevitable that
D04 1590 temporal existence itself is a form of punishment rather than the state
D04 1600 into which man is put by the will of the Creator. This seems to have
D04 1610 been the conclusion to which Origen was forced. If death receives
D04 1620 more than its share of attention from the theologian and if sin receives
D04 1630 less than its share, the gift of the life eternal through Christ
D04 1640 begins to look like the divinely appointed means of rescue from temporal,
D04 1650 i&e&, created, existence. Such an interpretation of death radically
D04 1660 alters the Christian view of creation; for it teaches salvation
D04 1670 from, not salvation in, time and history. Because Christianity
D04 1680 teaches not only salvation in history, but salvation by the history of
D04 1690 Christ, such an interpretation of death would require a drastic revision
D04 1700 of the Christian understanding of the work of Christ.
D05 0010    Furthermore, as an encouragement to revisionist thinking, it manifestly
D05 0020 is fair to admit that any fraternity has a constitutional right
D05 0030 to refuse to accept persons it dislikes. The Unitarian clergy were
D05 0040 an exclusive club of cultivated gentlemen- as the term was then understood
D05 0050 in the Back Bay- and Parker was definitely not a gentleman,
D05 0060 either in theology or in manners. Ezra Stiles Gannett, an honorable
D05 0070 representative of the sanhedrin, addressed himself frankly to the
D05 0080 issue in 1845, insisting that Parker should not be persecuted or calumniated
D05 0090 and that in this republic no power to restrain him by force
D05 0100 could exist. Even so, Gannett judiciously argued, the Association could
D05 0110 legitimately decide that Parker "should not be encouraged nor
D05 0120 assisted in diffusing his opinions by those who differ from him in regard
D05 0130 to their correctness". We today are not entitled to excoriate
D05 0140 honest men who believed Parker to be downright pernicious and who
D05 0150 barred their pulpits against his demand to poison the minds of their
D05 0155 congregations.
D05 0160 One can even argue- though this is a delicate matter-
D05 0170 that every justification existed for their returning the Public Lecture
D05 0180 to the First Church, and so to suppress it, rather than let Parker
D05 0190 use it as a sounding board for his propaganda when his turn should
D05 0200 come to occupy it. Finally, it did seem clear as day to these clergymen,
D05 0210 as Gannett's son explained in the biography of his father,
D05 0220 they had always contended for the propriety of their claim to the title
D05 0230 of Christians. Their demand against the Calvinist Orthodoxy for
D05 0240 intellectual liberty had never meant that they would follow "free inquiry"
D05 0250 to the extreme of proclaiming Christianity a "natural" religion.
D05 0260    Grant all this- still, when modern Unitarianism and
D05 0270 the Harvard Divinity School recall with humorous affection the insults
D05 0280 Parker lavished upon them, or else argue that after all Parker
D05 0290 received the treatment he invited, they betray an uneasy conscience.
D05 0300 Whenever New England liberalism is reminded of the dramatic confrontation
D05 0310 of Parker and the fraternity on January 23, 1843- while it
D05 0320 may defend the privilege of Chandler Robbins to demand that Parker
D05 0330 leave the Association, while it may plead that Dr& N& L& Frothingham
D05 0340 had every warrant for stating, "The difference between Trinitarians
D05 0350 and Unitarians is a difference in Christianity; the difference
D05 0360 between Mr& Parker and the Association is a difference
D05 0370 between no Christianity and Christianity"- despite these supposed
D05 0380 conclusive assurances, the modern liberal heaves repeatedly a sigh
D05 0390 of relief, of positive thanksgiving, that the Association never quite
D05 0400 brought itself officially to expel Parker. Had it done so, the blot
D05 0410 on its escutcheon would have remained indelible, nor could the Harvard
D05 0420 Divinity School assemble today to honor Parker's insurgence other
D05 0430 than by getting down on its collective knees and crying "peccavi".
D05 0440    Happily for posterity, then, the Boston Association did
D05 0450 not actually command Parker to leave the room, though it came too close
D05 0460 for comfort to what would have been an unforgivable brutality. Fortunately,
D05 0470 the honor of the denomination can attest that Cyrus Bartol
D05 0480 defended Parker's sincerity, as did also Gannett and Chandler
D05 0490 Robbins; whereupon Parker broke down into convulsions of weeping and
D05 0500 rushed out of the room, though not out of the Fellowship. In the
D05 0510 hall, after adjournment, Dr& Frothingham took him warmly by the
D05 0511 hand
D05 0520 and requested Parker to visit him- whereupon our burly Theodore
D05 0530 again burst into tears.   All this near tragedy, which to us borders
D05 0540 on comedy, enables us to tell the story over and over again, always
D05 0550 warming ourselves with a glow of complacency. It was indeed a near
D05 0560 thing, but somehow the inherent decency of New England (which we inherit)
D05 0570 did triumph. Parker was never excommunicated. To the extent
D05 0580 that he was ostracized or even reviled, we solace ourselves by saying
D05 0590 he asked for it. Yet, even after all these stratagems, the conscience
D05 0600 of Christian liberality is still not laid to rest, any more than is
D05 0610 the conscience of Harvard University for having done the abject penance
D05 0620 for its rejection of Ralph Waldo Emerson's The Divinity School
D05 0630 Address of naming its hall of philosophy after him. In both cases
D05 0640 the stubborn fact remains: liberalism gave birth to two brilliant
D05 0650 apostates, both legitimate offspring of its loins, and when brought
D05 0660 to the test, it behaved shabbily. Suppose they both had ventured into
D05 0670 realms which their colleagues thought infidel: is this the way gentlemen
D05 0680 settle frank differences of opinion? Is it after all possible
D05 0690 that no matter how the liberals trumpet their confidence in human dignity
D05 0700 they are exposed to a contagion of fear more insidious than any
D05 0710 conservative has ever to worry about?   However, there is a crucial
D05 0720 difference between the two histories. Emerson evaded the problem
D05 0730 by shoving it aside, or rather by leaving it behind him: he walked
D05 0740 out of the Unitarian communion, so that it could lick the wound of his
D05 0750 departure, preserve its self-respect and eventually accord him pious
D05 0760 veneration. Parker insisted upon <not> resigning, even when the majority
D05 0770 wanted him to depart, upon daring the Fellowship to throw him
D05 0780 out. Hence he was in his lifetime, as is the memory of him afterwards,
D05 0790 a canker within the liberal sensitivity. He still points an accusing
D05 0800 finger at all of us, telling us we have neither the courage to support
D05 0810 him nor the energy to cut his throat.   Actually, the dispute
D05 0820 between Parker and the society of his time, both ecclesiastical and
D05 0830 social, was a real one, a bitter one. It cannot be smoothed over by
D05 0840 now cherishing his sarcasms as delightful bits of self-deprecation or
D05 0850 by solemnly calling for a reconsideration of the justice of the objections
D05 0860 to him. The fact is incontestable: that liberal world of Unitarian
D05 0870 Boston <was> narrow-minded, intellectually sterile, smug, afraid
D05 0880 of the logical consequences of its own mild ventures into iconoclasm,
D05 0890 and quite prepared to resort to hysterical repressions when its brittle
D05 0900 foundations were threatened. Parker, along with Garrison and
D05 0910 Charles Sumner, showed a magnificent moral bravery when facing mobs
D05 0920 mobilized in defense of the Mexican War and slavery. Nevertheless,
D05 0930 we can find reasons for respecting even the bigotry of the populace;
D05 0940 their passions were genuine, and the division between them and the abolitionists
D05 0950 is clear-cut. But Parker as the ultra-liberal minister within
D05 0960 the pale of a church which had proclaimed itself the repository
D05 0970 of liberality poses a different problem, which is not to be resolved by
D05 0980 holding him up as the champion of freedom. Even though his theological
D05 0990 theses have become, to us, commonplaces, the fundamental interrogation
D05 1000 he phrased is very much with us. It has been endlessly rephrased,
D05 1010 but I may here put it thus: at what point do the tolerant find themselves
D05 1020 obliged to become intolerant? And then, as they become aware
D05 1030 that they have reached the end of their patience, what do they, to
D05 1040 their dismay, learn for the first time about themselves?   There
D05 1050 can be no doubt, the Boston of that era could be exquisitely cruel
D05 1060 in enforcing its canons of behavior. The gentle Channing, revered
D05 1070 by all Bostonians, orthodox or Unitarian, wrote to a friend in Louisville
D05 1080 that among its many virtues Boston did not abound in a tolerant
D05 1090 spirit, that the yoke of opinion crushed individuality of judgment and
D05 1100 action: "No city in the world is governed so little by a police,
D05 1110 and so much by mutual inspections and what is called public sentiment.
D05 1120 We stand more in awe of one another than most people. Opinion is
D05 1130 less individual or runs more into masses, and often rules with a rod
D05 1140 of iron". Even more poignantly, and with the insight of a genius,
D05 1150 Channing added- remember, this is Channing, not Parker!-
D05 1160 that should a minister in Boston trust himself to his heart, should
D05 1170 he "speak without book, and consequently break some law of speech,
D05 1180 or be hurried into some daring hyperbole, he should find little mercy".
D05 1190    Channing wrote this- in a letter! I think it fair to
D05 1200 say that he never quite reached such candor in his sermons. But Theodore
D05 1210 Parker, commencing his mission to the world-at-large, disguised
D05 1220 as the minister of a "twenty-eighth Congregational Church" which
D05 1230 bore no resemblance to the Congregational polities descended from the
D05 1240 founders (among which were still the Unitarian churches), made explicit
D05 1250 from the beginning that the conflict between him and the Hunkerish
D05 1260 society was not something which could be evaporated into a genteel
D05 1270 difference about clerical decorum. Because he spoke openly with what
D05 1280 Channing had prophesied someone might- with daring hyperbole- Parker
D05 1290 vindicated Channing's further prophecy that he who committed
D05 1300 this infraction of taste would promptly discover how little mercy liberals
D05 1310 were disposed to allow to libertarians who appeared to them libertines.
D05 1320 An institutionalized liberalism proved itself fundamentally an
D05 1330 institution, and only within those defined limits a license.
D05 1340 By reminding ourselves of these factors in the situation, we should,
D05 1350 I am sure, come to a fresh realization, however painful it be, that the
D05 1360 battle between Parker and his neighbors was fought in earnest. He
D05 1370 arraigned the citizens in language of so little courtesy that they had
D05 1380 to respond with, at the least, resentment. What otherwise could "the
D05 1390 lawyer, doctor, minister, the men of science and letters" do when
D05 1400 told that they had "become the cherubim and seraphim and the three
D05 1410 archangels who stood before the golden throne of the merchant, and continually
D05 1420 cried, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Almighty
D05 1430 Dollar'"?
D05 1440 Nor, when we recollect how sensitive were the emotions of the old Puritan
D05 1450 stock in regard to the recent tides of immigration, should we be
D05 1460 astonished that their thin lips were compressed into a white line of
D05 1470 rage as Parker snarled at them thus: "Talk about the Catholics
D05 1480 voting as the bishop tells! reproach the Catholics for it! You
D05 1490 and I do the same thing. There are a great many bishops who have never
D05 1500 had a cross on their bosom, nor a mitre on their head, who appeal not
D05 1510 to the authority of the Pope at Rome, but to the Almighty Dollar,
D05 1530 a pope much nearer home. Boston has been controlled by a few capitalists,
D05 1540 lawyers and other managers, who told the editors what to say and
D05 1550 the preachers what to think". This was war. Parker meant business.
D05 1560 And he took repeated care to let his colleagues know that he intended
D05 1570 them: "Even the Unitarian churches have caught the malaria,
D05 1580 and are worse than those who deceived them"- which implied that they
D05 1590 were very bad indeed. It was "<Duty>" he said that his parents
D05 1600 had given him as a rule- beyond even the love that suffused his
D05 1610 being and the sense of humor with which he was largely supplied- and
D05 1620 it was duty he would perform, though it cost him acute pain and exhausted
D05 1630 him by the age of fifty. Parker could weep- and he wept astonishingly
D05 1640 often and on the slightest provocation- but the psychology of
D05 1650 those tears was entirely compatible with a remorseless readiness to
D05 1660 massacre his opponents. "If it gave me pleasure to say hard things",
D05 1670 he wrote, "I would shut up forever". We have to tell ourselves
D05 1680 that when Parker spoke in this vein, he believed what he said, because
D05 1690 he could continue, "But the TRUTH, which cost me bitter
D05 1700 tears to say, I must speak, though it cost other tears hotter than
D05 1710 fire". Because he copiously shed his own tears, and yielded himself
D05 1720 up as a living sacrifice to the impersonalized conscience of New England,
D05 1730 he was not disturbed by the havoc he worked in other people's
D05 1740 consciences.   Our endeavor to capture even a faint sense of how
D05 1750 strenuous was the fight is muffled by our indifference to the very
D05 1760 issue which in the Boston of 1848 seemed to be the central hope of its
D05 1770 Christian survival, that of the literal, factual historicity of the
D05 1780 miracles as reported in the Four Gospels. It is idle to ask why we
D05 1790 are no longer disturbed if somebody, professing the deepest piety,
D05 1791 decides anew
D05 1800 that it is of no importance whether or not Christ transformed the
D05 1810 water into wine at eleven A& M& on the third of August, A&
D05 1820 D& 32. We have no answer as to why we are not alarmed. So we are
D05 1830 the more prepared to give Parker the credit for having taken the right
D05 1840 side in an unnecessary controversy, to salute his courage, and to pass
D05 1850 on, happily forgetting both him and the entire episode. We have not
D05 1860 the leisure, or the patience, or the skill, to comprehend what was working
D05 1870 in the mind and heart of a then recent graduate from the Harvard
D05 1880 Divinity School who would muster the audacity to contradict his most
D05 1890 formidable instructor, the majesterial Andrews Norton, by saying
D05 1900 that, while he believed Jesus "like other religious teachers", worked
D05 1910 miracles, "I see not how a miracle proves a doctrine".
D06 0010    I have, within the past fifty years, come out of all uncertainty
D06 0020 into a faith which is a dominating conviction of the Truth and about
D06 0030 which I have not a shadow of doubt. It has been my lot all through
D06 0040 life to associate with eminent scientists and at times to discuss with
D06 0050 them the deepest and most vital of all questions, the nature of the
D06 0060 hope of a life beyond this. I have also constantly engaged in scientific
D06 0070 work and am fully aware of the value of opinions formed in science
D06 0080 as well as in the religions in the world. In an amateurish, yet in
D06 0090 a very real sense, I have followed the developments of archaeology, geology,
D06 0100 astronomy, herpetology, and mycology with a hearty appreciation
D06 0110 of the advances being made in these fields.   At one time I became
D06 0120 disturbed in the faith in which I had grown up by the apparent
D06 0130 inroads being made upon both Old and New Testaments by a "Higher
D06 0140 Criticism" of the Bible, to refute which I felt the need of a better
D06 0150 knowledge of Hebrew and of archaeology, for it seemed to me that
D06 0160 to pull out some of the props of our faith was to weaken the entire structure.
D06 0170    Doubts thus inculcated left me floundering for a while
D06 0180 and, like some higher critical friends, trying to continue to use the
D06 0190 Bible as the Word of God while at the same time holding it to have
D06 0200 been subjected to a vast number of redactions and interpolations:
D06 0210 attempting to bridge the chasm between an older, reverent, Bible-loving
D06 0220 generation and a critical, doubting, Bible-emancipated race. Although
D06 0230 still aware of a great light and glow of warmth in the Book, I
D06 0240 stood outside shivering in the cold.   In one thing the higher
D06 0250 critics, like the modernists, however, overreached themselves, in claiming
D06 0260 that the Gospel of John was not written in John's time but
D06 0270 well after the first century, perhaps as late as 150 A&D&. Now,
D06 0280 if any part of the Bible is assuredly the very Word of God speaking
D06 0290 through His servant, it is John's Gospel. To ask me to believe
D06 0300 that so inexpressibly marvelous a book was written long after all the
D06 0310 events by some admiring follower, and was not inspired directly by the
D06 0320 Spirit of God, is asking me to accept a miracle far greater than any
D06 0330 of those recorded in the Bible. Here I took my leave of my learned
D06 0340 friends to step out on another path, to which we might give the modern
D06 0350 name of Pragmatism, or the thing that works. Test it, try it, and
D06 0360 if it works, accept it as a guiding principle.   So, I put my
D06 0370 Bible to the practical test of noting what it says about itself, and
D06 0380 then tested it to see how it worked. As a short, possibly not the best
D06 0390 method, I looked up "Word" in the Concordance and noted that
D06 0400 the Bible claims from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 to be God's personal
D06 0410 message to man. The next traditional step then was to accept it
D06 0420 as the authoritative textbook of the Christian faith just as one would
D06 0430 accept a treatise on any earthly "science", and I submitted to
D06 0440 its conditions according to Christ's invitation and promise that,
D06 0450 <"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether
D06 0460 it be of God, or whether I speak of myself"> (John 7:17).
D06 0470    The outcome of such an experiment has been in due time the acceptance
D06 0480 of the Bible as the Word of God inspired in a sense utterly
D06 0490 different from any merely human book, and with it the acceptance of
D06 0500 our Lord Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, Son of Man
D06 0510 by the Virgin Mary, the Saviour of the world.   I believe,
D06 0520 therefore, that we are without exception sinners, by nature alienated
D06 0530 from God, and that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth,
D06 0540 the representative Head of a new race, to die upon the cross and pay
D06 0550 the penalty of the sin of the world, and that he who thus receives Christ
D06 0560 as his personal Saviour is "born again" spiritually, with new
D06 0570 privileges, appetites, and affections, destined to live and grow in
D06 0580 His likeness forever. Nor can any man save himself by good works or
D06 0590 by a commendable "moral life", although such works are the natural
D06 0600 fruits and evidences of a saving faith already received and naturally
D06 0610 expressing itself through such avenues.   I now ever look for
D06 0620 Christ acording to His promises and those of the Old Testament as
D06 0630 well, to appear again in glory to put away all sin and to reign in righteousness
D06 0640 over the whole earth.   To state fully what the Bible
D06 0650 means as my daily spiritual food is as intimate and difficult as to
D06 0660 formulate the reasons for loving my nearest and dearest relatives and
D06 0670 friends. The Bible is as obviously and truly food for the spirit as
D06 0680 bread is food for the body. Again, as faith reveals God my Father
D06 0690 and Christ my Saviour, I follow without question where He leads me
D06 0710 daily by His Spirit of love, wisdom, power and prayer. I place His
D06 0720 precepts and His leadings above every seeming probability, dismissing
D06 0730 cherished convictions and holding the wisdom of man as folly when opposed
D06 0740 to Him. I discern no limits to a faith vested in God and Christ,
D06 0750 who is the sum of all wisdom and knowledge, and daring to trust Him
D06 0760 even though called to stand alone before the world.   Our Lord's
D06 0770 invitation with its implied promise to all is, "Come and see".
D06 0785    I STOOD at the bedside of my patient one day and beheld
D06 0790 a very sick man in terrible pain. As I ministered to his needs,
D06 0800 I noticed that his face was radiant in spite of his suffering and I
D06 0810 learned that he was trusting not only in the skill of his doctor and
D06 0820 nurse but also the Lord.   In his heart he had that peace of which
D06 0830 the Lord spoke when He said, <"Peace I leave with you, my peace
D06 0840 I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let
D06 0850 not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid">.   What
D06 0860 a joy to realize that we, too, can claim this promise tendered by
D06 0870 the Lord during His earthly ministry to a group of men who were very
D06 0880 dear to Him. He was about to leave them, to depart from this world,
D06 0890 and return to His Father in Heaven. Before He left them He promised
D06 0900 that His peace would be their portion to abide in their hearts
D06 0910 and minds.   I praise God for the privilege of being a nurse who
D06 0920 has that peace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It makes
D06 0930 my work a great deal easier to be able to pray for the Lord's guidance
D06 0940 while ministering to the physical needs of my patients.   How
D06 0950 often have I looked to Jesus when entering the sick room, asking
D06 0960 for His presence and help in my professional duties as I give my talents
D06 0970 not only as the world giveth but as one who loves the Saviour and
D06 0980 His creatures.   Looking unto God, the Prophet Isaiah wrote
D06 0990 these blessed words almost three thousand years ago: <"Thou wilt
D06 1000 keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because
D06 1010 he trusteth in thee">.   Are you longing for peace in your heart?
D06 1020 Such a calm and assuring peace can be yours. As only a member
D06 1030 of the family can share in the innermost joys of the family, likewise
D06 1040 one must belong to the family of God in order to receive the benefits
D06 1050 that are promised to those who are His own.   Perhaps you are
D06 1060 not His child. Perhaps you do not know if you belong to Him. You
D06 1070 may know that you are in God's family and be just as sure of it as
D06 1080 you are that you belong to the family of your earthly father.
D06 1090 <"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
D06 1100 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life",>
D06 1110 and <"as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
D06 1120 the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name">.
D06 1130    It is to those who believe on His name and belong to Him that
D06 1140 He gives His peace; not that empty peace the world offers, but a deep,
D06 1150 abiding peace which nothing can destroy.   Why not open your
D06 1160 heart to the Lord Jesus Christ now, accept Him as your Saviour
D06 1161 and
D06 1170 let Him fill you with peace that only He can give.   Then,
D06 1180 with the hymn writer of old, you can say:   "I am resting today
D06 1190 in His wonderful peace,   Resting sweetly in Jesus' control.
D06 1200    I am kept from all danger by night and by day,   And
D06 1210 His glory is flooding my soul".
D06 1215    SATELLITES, SPUTNIKS, ROCKETS,
D06 1220 BALLOONS; what next? Our necks are stiff from gazing at
D06 1230 the wonders of outer space, which have captured the imagination of the
D06 1240 American public. Cape Canaveral's achievements thunder forth from
D06 1250 the radio, television, and newspaper.   While we are filling
D06 1260 outer space with scientific successes, for many the "inner" space
D06 1270 of their soul is an aching void.   Proof? An average of 50 suicides
D06 1280 are reported in America each day! One out of every three or
D06 1290 four marriages end in divorce! Over $200,000,000 is paid yearly to
D06 1300 the 80,000 full-time fortune-tellers in the United States by fearful
D06 1310 mankind who want to "know" what the future holds! Delinquency,
D06 1320 juvenile and adult, is at an all-time high! Further proof? Read
D06 1330 your daily newspaper!   Unfortunately, in our rush to beat
D06 1340 the Russians, we have forgotten these truth-packed words of Jesus Christ:
D06 1351 <"What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world>
D06 1360 [that includes outer space], <and lose his own soul? Or what
D06 1370 shall a man give in exchange for his soul"?> (Mark 8:36, 37).
D06 1380    Gaining outer space and losing "inner" space is bad business
D06 1390 according to God's standards.   It is true that we must
D06 1400 keep up our national defenses and scientific accomplishments; only
D06 1410 a fool would think otherwise. But we must not forget man's soul.
D06 1420    Is putting a rocket in orbit half so significant as the good news
D06 1430 that God put His Son,
D06 1440 Jesus Christ, on earth to live and die to
D06 1450 save our hell-bound souls? <"For God so loved the world, that
D06 1460 he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
D06 1470 not perish, but have everlasting life"> (John 3:16).   Never
D06 1480 forget that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Your spiritual
D06 1490 "inner" space helps determine the spirituality of America
D06 1500 as a nation. We trust you are not one of the 70,000,000 Americans
D06 1510 who do not attend church, but who feel that various forms of recreation
D06 1520 are more important than worshipping the God who made our country great.
D06 1530    Is forgiveness of past sins, assurance of present help, and
D06 1540 hope of future bliss in your orbit? Or are you trying the devil's
D06 1550 substitutes to relieve that spiritual hunger you feel within? Pleasure,
D06 1560 fame and fortune, drowning your troubles with a drink, and "living
D06 1570 it up" with the gang are like candy bars when you're hungry:
D06 1580 they may ease your hunger temporarily, but they'll never take the
D06 1590 place of a satisfying, mouth-watering steak.   So it is spiritually.
D06 1600 No amount of religious ceremonies or even joining a church will
D06 1610 relieve the gnawing of your "inner" space. Why? Because your
D06 1620 soul was made to be filled with God Himself, not religious functions
D06 1630 "about" Him. Only He can satisfy the deepest longings. That
D06 1640 is why the Bible commands you to <"Taste and see that the Lord
D06 1650 is good: blessed> [happy] <is the man that trusteth in him">
D06 1660 (Psalm 34:8).   You can receive God into your heart and life
D06 1670 by a step of personal faith. Accept the sinless Son of God, Jesus
D06 1680 Christ, as your own personal Saviour. <"As many as received him>
D06 1690 [Jesus], <to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
D06 1700 to them that believe on his name">
D07 0010 <"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
D07 0020 the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be
D07 0030 afraid"?>
D07 0040 Psalm 27:1   A certain teacher scheduled a "Fear Party"
D07 0050 for her fourth grade pupils. It was a session at which all the youngsters
D07 0060 were told to express their fears, to get them out in the open
D07 0070 where they could talk about them freely. The teacher thought it was
D07 0080 so successful that she asks: "Wouldn't it be helpful to all age
D07 0090 groups if they could participate in a similar confessional of their
D07 0100 fears and worries"?   Dr& George W& Crane, a medical
D07 0110 columnist, thinks it would. He says: "That would reduce neurotic
D07 0120 ailments tremendously. Each week an estimated 20 million patients call
D07 0130 upon us doctors. Of this number, 50%, or 10 million patients have
D07 0140 no diagnosable physical ailments whatever. They are 'worry warts'.
D07 0150 Yet they keep running from one physician to another, largely to get
D07 0160 a willing ear who will listen to their parade of troubles. One of
D07 0170 the most wholesome things you could schedule in your church would thus
D07 0180 be a group confessional where people could admit of their inner tensions".
D07 0190    We are evidently trying hard to think of new ways to
D07 0200 deal with the problem of fear these days. It must be getting more serious.
D07 0210 People are giving their doctors a hard time. One doctor made
D07 0220 a careful survey of his patients and the reasons for their troubles, and
D07 0230 he reported that 40% of them worried about things that never happened;
D07 0240 30% of them worried about past happenings which were completely
D07 0250 beyond their control; 12% of them worried about their health,
D07 0260 although their ailments were imaginary; 10% of them worried about
D07 0270 their friends, neighbors, and relatives, most of whom were quite capable
D07 0280 of taking care of themselves. Only 8% of the worries had behind
D07 0290 them real causes which demanded attention.   Well, most of our
D07 0300 fears may be unfounded, but after you discover that fact, you have something
D07 0310 else to worry about: Why then do we have these fears? What
D07 0320 is the real cause of them? What is there about us that makes us so
D07 0330 anxious?   Look at the things we do to escape our fears and
D07 0340 to forget our worries. We spend millions of dollars every year on fortune
D07 0350 tellers and soothsayers. We spend billions of dollars at the race
D07 0360 tracks, and more billions on other forms of gambling. We spend billions
D07 0370 of dollars on liquor, and many more billions on various forms of
D07 0380 escapist entertainment. We consume tons of aspirin and tranquilizers
D07 0390 and sleeping pills in order to get a moment's relief from the tensions
D07 0400 that are tearing us apart.   A visitor from a more peaceful
D07 0410 country across the sea was taken to one of our amusement parks, and after
D07 0420 he had seen it all, he said to a friend: "You must be a very
D07 0430 sad people". "Sad" was not the right word, of course. He should
D07 0440 have said "jittery", for that's what we are. And that's worse
D07 0450 than sad. Watch people flock to amusement houses, cocktail lounges,
D07 0460 and night clubs that advertise continuous entertainment, which means
D07 0470 an endless flow of noise and frivolity by paid entertainers who are supposed
D07 0480 to perform in those incredible ways which are designed to give
D07 0490 men a few hours of dubious relaxation- watch them and you can tell
D07 0500 that many of them are running away from something.   In one of
D07 0510 his writings Pascal speaks of this mania for diversion as being a sign
D07 0520 of misery and fear which man cannot endure without such opiates. Yes,
D07 0530 and as tension mounts in this world, fear is increasing. Does that
D07 0540 explain why there is now such a big boom in the bomb shelter business?
D07 0550 We have so many new things to fear in this age of nuclear weapons,
D07 0560 dreadful things which are too horrible to contemplate. I doubt that
D07 0570 "fear parties" and "group confessionals" will help very much.
D07 0580 Suppose we do get our fears out in the open, what then? Isn't that
D07 0590 where most of them are already- right out on the front page of our
D07 0600 newspapers? Maybe we are talking about them too much. The question
D07 0610 is: what are we going to do about them?   Meanwhile, the
D07 0620 enemy will capitalize on our fears, if he can. Hitler did just that
D07 0630 23 years ago, building up tensions that first led to a Munich and then
D07 0640 to a world war. The fear of war can make us either too weak to stand
D07 0650 and too willing to compromise, or too reckless and too nervous to negotiate
D07 0660 for peace as long as there is any chance to negotiate. It is
D07 0670 said that fear in human beings produces an odor that provokes animals
D07 0680 to attack. It could have the same effect on Communists. The President
D07 0690 of the United States has said: "We will never negotiate out
D07 0700 of fear, and we will never fear to negotiate". That is a sound position,
D07 0710 but it is important that Moscow shall recognize it not merely
D07 0720 as the word of a president but as the mind of a free people who are not
D07 0730 afraid. And that's another reason why it is imperative for us these
D07 0740 days to conquer our fears, to develop the poise that promotes peace.
D07 0750    Turning to the Word of God, we find the only sure way to do
D07 0760 that. In Psalm 27:1 you read those beautiful words which you must
D07 0770 have in your heart if you are to master the fears that surround you,
D07 0780 or to drive them out if they have you in their grip: "The Lord
D07 0790 is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the
D07 0800 strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid"?   Well,
D07 0810 you say, those are beautiful words all right, but it was easy for the
D07 0820 psalmist to sing them in his day. He didn't live in a world of perpetual
D07 0830 peril like ours. He didn't know anything about the problems
D07 0840 we face today.   No? Read the next two verses: "When the
D07 0850 wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh,
D07 0860 they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my
D07 0870 heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will
D07 0880 I be confident".   That is almost a perfect description of
D07 0890 the predicament in which we find ourselves today, isn't it? Our
D07 0900 enemy is also threatening to devour us. He has already devoured huge
D07 0910 areas of the world, putting men behind concrete walls and iron curtains
D07 0920 and barbed wire, reducing them to slavery, systematically crushing
D07 0930 not only their bodies but their souls, and shooting them to death if they
D07 0940 try to escape their prison. Yes indeed, we too can see a warlike
D07 0950 host of infidels encamped against us.   What a terrible thing, that
D07 0960 "wailing wall" in Berlin! A man with a baby in his arms stood
D07 0970 there pleading for his wife who is on the other side with the rest
D07 0980 of the family. Another man tried to swim across the river from the East
D07 0990 to the West, but was shot and killed. A middle aged woman opened
D07 1000 a window on the third floor of her house which was behind the wall,
D07 1010 she threw out a few belongings and then jumped; she was fatally injured.
D07 1020 The entrance to a church has been walled up, so that the congregation,
D07 1030 most of which is in the western sector, cannot worship God there
D07 1040 anymore. Practically everybody in Berlin has relatives and friends
D07 1050 that live in the opposite part of the city. People stand at the wall
D07 1060 giving vent to their feelings, weeping, pounding it with their fists,
D07 1070 pleading for loved ones. But the enemy answers them from loudspeakers
D07 1080 that pour out Communist propaganda with a generous mixture of terrible
D07 1090 profanity. There is only one escape left, a tragic one, and too
D07 1100 many people are taking it: suicide. The normal rate of suicides in
D07 1110 East Berlin was one a day, but since the border was closed on August
D07 1120 13 it has jumped to 25 a day!   These things may be happening
D07 1130 many miles away from us but really they are right next door. We are
D07 1140 all involved in them, deeply involved. And nobody knows what comes next.
D07 1150 We live from crisis to crisis. And there is only one way for a
D07 1160 man to conquer his fears in such a world. He must learn to say with
D07 1170 true faith what the psalmist said in a similar world: "The Lord
D07 1180 is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the
D07 1190 strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid"?
D07 1200    Notice
D07 1210 that this man had a threefold conception of God which is the secret
D07 1220 of his faith. First, "the Lord is my <light>". He lived in a
D07 1230 very dark world, but he was not in the dark. The same God who called
D07 1240 this world into being when He said: "Let there be light"!-
D07 1250 those were His very first creative words- He began the world with
D07 1260 light- this God still gives light to a world which man has plunged
D07 1270 into darkness. For those who put their trust in Him He still says
D07 1280 every day again: "Let there be light"! And there is light!
D07 1290    In fact, He came into this world Himself, in the person of
D07 1300 His Son, Jesus Christ, who stood here amid the darkness of human
D07 1310 sin and said: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth
D07 1320 me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life". The
D07 1330 psalmist could say that God was his light even though he could only
D07 1340 anticipate the coming of Christ. He lived in the dawn; he could
D07 1350 only see the light coming over the horizon. We live in the bright daylight
D07 1360 of that great event; for us it is a fact in history. Why should
D07 1370 we not have the same faith, and an even greater experience of the light
D07 1380 which it gives?   This is the faith that moved the psalmist
D07 1390 to add his second conception of God: "The Lord is **h my <salvation>".
D07 1400 He knew that his God would save him from his enemies
D07 1410 because He had saved him from his sins. If God could do that, He could
D07 1420 do anything. The enemies at his gate, threatening to eat up his
D07 1430 flesh, were nothing compared with the enemy of sin within his own soul.
D07 1440 And God had conquered that one by His grace! So why worry about
D07 1450 all the others?   The apostle Paul said the same thing in the
D07 1460 language and faith of the New Testament: "He that spared not
D07 1470 His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with
D07 1480 Him freely give us all things? **h If God be for us, who can be
D07 1490 against us? **h Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
D07 1500 shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
D07 1510 or peril, or sword"? (Romans 8:31, 32, 35)   Salvation!
D07 1515 This is the key to
D07 1520 the conquest of fear. This gets down to the heart of our problem, for
D07 1530 it reconciles us with God, whom we fear most of all because we have
D07 1540 sinned against Him. When that fear has been removed by faith in Jesus
D07 1550 Christ, when we know that He is our Savior, that He has paid our
D07 1560 debt with His blood, that He has met the demands of God's justice
D07 1570 and thus has turned His wrath away- when we know that, we have peace
D07 1580 with God in our hearts; and then, with this God on our side,
D07 1590 we can face the whole world without fear.   And so the psalmist
D07 1600 gives us one more picture of God: "The Lord is the <strength>
D07 1610 of my life". The word is really "stronghold". It recalls those
D07 1620 words of another psalm: "God is our refuge and strength, a very
D07 1630 present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth
D07 1640 be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the
D07 1650 sea **h Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He
D07 1660 hath made in the earth.
D08 0010 But, again, we have no real evidence on this from that quarter until
D08 0020 the close of the ninth century A&D&, when an Arabic scholar, Tabit
D08 0030 ibn Korra (836-901) is said to have discussed the magic square of
D08 0040 three. Thus, while it remains possible that the Babylonians and/or
D08 0050 the Pythagoreans may perhaps have had the magic square of three before
D08 0060 the Chinese did, more definite evidence will have to turn up from
D08 0070 the Middle East or the Classical World before China can lose her
D08 0080 claim to the earliest known magic square by more than a thousand years.
D08 0090 #2. THE "LO SHU" SQUARE AS AN EXPRESSION OF CENTRALITY#
D08 0100 The
D08 0110 concept of the Middle Kingdom at peace, strong and united under a
D08 0120 forceful ruler, which had been only a longed-for ideal in the time of
D08 0125 the
D08 0130 Warring States, was finally realized by the establishment of a Chinese
D08 0140 Empire under the Ch'in dynasty (221-207 B&C&). But this
D08 0150 was only accomplished by excessive cruelty and extremes of totalitarian
D08 0160 despotism. Among the many severe measures taken by the First Emperor,
D08 0170 Shih Huang-ti, in his efforts to insure the continuation of
D08 0180 this hard-won national unity, was the burning of the books in 213 B&C&,
D08 0190 with the expressed intention of removing possible sources for
D08 0200 divergent thinking; but, as he had a special fondness for magic and
D08 0210 divination, he ordered that books on these subjects should be spared.
D08 0220 Many of the latter were destroyed in their turn, during the burning
D08 0230 of the vast Ch'in palace some ten years later; yet some must have
D08 0240 survived, because the old interest in number symbolism, divination,
D08 0250 and magic persisted on into the Han dynasty, which succeeded in reuniting
D08 0260 China and keeping it together for a longer period (from 202 B&C&
D08 0270 to A&D& 220). In fact, during
D08 0280 the first century B&C&, an extensive literature sprang up devoted
D08 0290 to these subjects, finding its typical expression in the so-called
D08 0300 "<wei> books", a number of which were specifically devoted to
D08 0310 the <Lo Shu> and related numerical diagrams, especially in connection
D08 0320 with divination. However, the <wei> books were also destroyed
D08 0330 in a series of Orthodox Confucian purges which culminated in a final
D08 0340 proscription in 605.   After all this destruction of old literature,
D08 0350 it should be obvious why we have so little information about the
D08 0360 early history and development of the <Lo Shu>, which was already
D08 0370 semisecret anyhow. But, in spite of all this, enough evidence remains
D08 0380 to show that the magic square of three must indeed have been the object
D08 0390 of a rather extensive cult- or series of cults- reaching fullest
D08 0400 expression in the Han period.   Although modern scholars have
D08 0410 expressed surprise that "the simple magic square of three", a mere
D08 0420 "mathematical puzzle", was able to exert a considerable influence
D08 0430 on the minds and imaginations of the cultured Chinese for so many centuries,
D08 0440 they could have found most of the answers right within the square
D08 0460 itself. But, up to now, no one has attempted to analyze its inherent
D08 0470 mathematical properties, or the numerical significance of its numbers-
D08 0480 singly or in combination- and then tried to consider these in
D08 0490 the light of Old Chinese cosmological concepts.   Such an analysis
D08 0500 speedily reveals why the middle number of the <Lo Shu>, 5,
D08 0510 was so vitally significant for the Chinese ever since the earliest hints
D08 0520 that they had a knowledge of this diagram. The importance of this
D08 0530 5 can largely be explained by the natural mathematical properties of
D08 0540 the middle number and its special relationship to all the rest of the
D08 0550 numbers- quite apart from any numerological considerations, which is
D08 0560 to say, any symbolic meaning arbitrarily assigned to it. Indeed, mathematically
D08 0570 speaking, it was both functionally and symbolically the most
D08 0580 important number in the entire diagram.   If one takes the middle
D08 0590 number, 5, and multiplies it by 3 (the base number of the magic
D08 0600 square of three), the result is 15, which is also the constant sum of
D08 0610 all the rows, columns, and two main diagonals. Then, if the middle number
D08 0620 is activated to its greatest potential in terms of this square, through
D08 0630 multiplying it by the highest number, 9 (which is the square of
D08 0640 the base number), the result is 45; and the latter is the total sum
D08 0650 of all the numbers in the square, by which all the other numbers are
D08 0660 overshadowed and in which they may be said to be absorbed.   Furthermore,
D08 0670 the middle number of the <Lo Shu> is not only the physical
D08 0680 mean between every opposing pair of the other numbers, by reason of
D08 0690 its central position; it is also their mathematical mean, since it
D08 0700 is equal to half the sum of every opposing pair, all of which equal 10.
D08 0710 In fact, the neat balance of these pairs, and their subtle equilibrium,
D08 0720 would have had special meaning in the minds of the Old Chinese.
D08 0730 For they considered the odd numbers as male and the even ones as female,
D08 0740 equating the two groups with the Yang and Yin principles in Nature;
D08 0750 and in this square, the respective pairs made up of large and
D08 0760 small odd (Yang) numbers, and those composed of large and small even
D08 0770 (Yin) numbers, were all equal to each other. Thus all differences were
D08 0780 leveled, and all contrasts erased, in a realm of no distinction, and
D08 0790 the harmonious balance of the <Lo Shu> square could effectively
D08 0800 symbolize the world in balanced harmony around a powerful central axis.
D08 0810    The tremendous emphasis on the 5 in the <Lo Shu> square-
D08 0820 for purely mathematical reasons- and the fact that this number so
D08 0830 neatly symbolized the heart and center of the universe, could well explain
D08 0840 why the Old Chinese seem to have so revered the number 5, and
D08 0850 why they put so much stress on the concept of Centrality. These twin
D08 0860 tendencies seem to have reached their height in the Han dynasty.
D08 0870    The existing reverence for Centrality must have been still further
D08 0880 stimulated toward the close of the second century B&C&, when
D08 0890 the Han Emperor Wu Ti ordered the dynastic color changed to yellow-
D08 0900 which symbolized the Center among the traditional Five Directions-
D08 0910 and took 5 as the dynastic number, believing that he would thus
D08 0920 place himself, his imperial family, and the nation under the most auspicious
D08 0930 influences. His immediate motive for doing this may not have
D08 0940 been directly inspired by the <Lo Shu>, but this measure must inevitably
D08 0950 have increased the existing beliefs in the latter's efficacy.
D08 0960    After this time, inscriptions on the Han bronze mirrors, as well
D08 0970 as other writings, emphasized the desirability of keeping one's
D08 0980 self at the center of the universe, where cosmic forces were strongest.
D08 0990 Later, we shall see what happened when an emperor took this idea too
D08 1000 literally.   All this emphasis on Centrality and on the number
D08 1010 5 as a symbolic expression of the Center, which seems to have begun
D08 1020 as far back as 400 B&C&, also may conceivably have led to the development
D08 1030 of the Five-Elements School and the subsequent efforts to
D08 1040 fit everything into numerical categories of five. We find, for example,
D08 1050 such groupings as the Five Ancient Rulers, the Five Sacred Mountains,
D08 1060 the Five Directions (with Center), the Five Metals, Five
D08 1070 Colors, Five Tastes, Five Odors, Five Musical Notes, Five
D08 1080 Bodily Functions, Five Viscera, and many others. This trend has
D08 1090 often been ascribed to the cult of the Five Elements itself, as though
D08 1100 they had served as the base for all the rest; but why did the Old
D08 1110 Chinese postulate <five> elements, when the Ancient Near East-
D08 1120 which may have initiated the idea that natural elements exerted influence
D08 1130 in human life and activities- recognized only four? And why
D08 1140 did the Chinese suddenly begin to talk about the Five Directions,
D08 1150 when the animals they used as symbols of the directions designated only
D08 1160 the usual four? Obviously, something suddenly caused them to start
D08 1170 thinking in terms of fives, and that may have been the workings of
D08 1190 the <Lo Shu>.   This whole tendency had an unfortunate effect
D08 1200 on Chinese thinking. Whereas the primary meanings of the <Lo Shu>
D08 1210 diagram seemed to have been based on its inner mathematical properties-
D08 1220 and we shall see that even its secondary meanings rested on
D08 1230 some mathematical bases- the urgent desire to place everything into
D08 1240 categories of fives led to other groupings based on other numbers, until
D08 1250 an exaggerated emphasis on mere numerology pervaded Chinese thought.
D08 1260 Scholars made numbered sets of as many things as possible in Nature,
D08 1270 or assigned arbitrary numbers to individual things, in a fashion that
D08 1280 seems to the modern scientific mind as downright nonsensical, and
D08 1290 philosophical ideas based upon all this tended to stifle speculative thought
D08 1300 in China for many centuries. #3. YIN AND YANG IN THE "LO SHU"
D08 1310 SQUARE# Although the primary mathematical properties of the middle
D08 1320 number at the center of the <Lo Shu>, and the interrelation
D08 1330 of all the other numbers to it, might seem enough to account for the deep
D08 1340 fascination which the <Lo Shu> held for the Old Chinese philosophers,
D08 1350 this was actually only a beginning of wonders. For the <Lo
D08 1360 Shu> square was a remarkably complete compendium of most of the chief
D08 1370 religious and philosophical ideas of its time. As such, one cannot
D08 1380 fully understand the thought of the pre-Han and Han periods without
D08 1390 knowing the meanings inherent in the <Lo Shu>; but, conversely,
D08 1400 one cannot begin to understand the <Lo Shu> without knowing something
D08 1410 about the world view of the Old Chinese, which they felt they
D08 1420 saw expressed in it.   The Chinese world view during the Han dynasty,
D08 1430 when the <Lo Shu> seems to have been at the height of its
D08 1440 popularity, was based in large part on the teachings of the Yin-Yang
D08 1450 and Five-Elements School, which was traditionally founded by Tsou
D08 1460 Yen. According to this doctrine, the universe was ruled by Heaven,
D08 1470 <T'ien>- as a natural force, or in the personification of a Supreme
D08 1480 Sky-god- governing all things by means of a process called the
D08 1490 <Tao>,
D08 1500 which can be roughly interpreted as "the Order of the Universe"
D08 1510 or "the Universal Way". Heaven, acting through the Tao,
D08 1520 expressed itself by means of the workings of two basic principles,
D08 1530 the Yin and the Yang. The Yang, or male principle, was the source
D08 1540 of light, heat, and dynamic vitality, associated with the Sun; while
D08 1550 the Yin, or female principle, flourished in darkness, cold, and quiet
D08 1560 inactivity, and was associated with the Moon. Together these two
D08 1570 principles influenced all things, and in varying combinations they were
D08 1580 present in everything.   We have already seen that odd numbers
D08 1590 were considered as being Yang, while the even numbers were Yin, so
D08 1600 that the eight outer numbers of the <Lo Shu> represented these two
D08 1610 principles in balanced equilibrium around the axial center. During
D08 1620 the Han dynasty, another Yin-Yang conception was applied to the <Lo
D08 1630 Shu>, considering the latter as a plan of Ancient China. Instead
D08 1640 of linking the nine numbers of this diagram with the traditional Nine
D08 1645 Provinces, as was usually
D08 1650 done, this equated the odd, Yang numbers
D08 1660 with mountains (firm and resistant, hence Yang) and the even numbers
D08 1670 with rivers (sinuous and yielding, hence Yin); taking the former
D08 1680 from the Five Sacred Mountains of the Han period and the latter from
D08 1690 the principal river systems of Old China.   Thus the middle
D08 1700 number, 5, represented Sung-Shan in Honan, Central China; the
D08 1710 3, T'ai-Shan in Shantung, East China; the 7, Hwa-Shan in Shensi,
D08 1720 West China; the 1, Heng-Shan in Hopei, North China (or
D08 1730 the mountain with the same name in neighboring Shansi); and the
D08 1740 9, Huo-Shan in Anhwei, which was then the South Sacred Mountain.
D08 1750 For the rivers, the 4 represented the Huai, to the (then) Southeast;
D08 1760 the 2, the San Kiang (three rivers) in the (then) Southwest;
D08 1770 the 8, the Chi in the Northeast; and the 6, the (upper) Yellow River
D08 1780 in the Northwest.   Note that by Western standards this
D08 1790 plan was "upside down", as it put North at the bottom and South
D08 1800 at the top, with the other directions correspondingly altered; but in
D08 1810 this respect it was merely following the accepted Chinese convention
D08 1820 for all maps. The same arrangement was used when the <Lo Shu> was
D08 1830 equated with the Nine Provinces; and whenever the <Lo Shu>
D08 1840 involved directional symbolism, it was oriented in this same fashion.
D09 0010 Few persons who join the Church are insincere. They earnestly desire
D09 0020 to do the will of God. When they fall by the wayside and fail to achieve
D09 0030 Christian stature, it is an <indictment of the Church>. These
D09 0040 fatalities are dramatic evidence of "halfway evangelism", a failure
D09 0050 to follow through. A program of Lay Visitation Evangelism can
D09 0060 end in dismal defeat with half the new members drifting away unless
D09 0070 practical plans and strenuous efforts are made to keep them in the active
D09 0080 fellowship.   The work of Lay Visitation Evangelism is not
D09 0090 completed when all of the persons on the Responsibility List have
D09 0100 been interviewed. In the average situation about one-third of those visited
D09 0110 make commitments to Christ and the Church. The pastor and the
D09 0120 Membership Preparation and Assimilation Committee <must follow
D09 0130 through> immediately with a carefully planned program. The first thirty
D09 0140 to sixty days after individuals make their decision will determine
D09 0150 their interest and participation in the life of the Church. Neglect
D09 0160 means spiritual paralysis or death. #PREPARATION FOR MEMBERSHIP#
D09 0170 CHURCHES THAT HAVE a carefully planned program of membership preparation
D09 0180 and assimilation often keep 85 to 90 per cent of their new members
D09 0190 loyal and active. This is the answer to the problem of "membership
D09 0200 delinquency".   It is important that persons desiring to
D09 0210 unite with the Church be <prepared> for this experience so that it
D09 0220 may be meaningful and spiritually significant. It is unfair and unchristian
D09 0230 to ask a person to take the sacred vows of Church membership
D09 0240 before he has been carefully instructed concerning their implications.
D09 0250    Preparation for Church membership begins immediately after
D09 0260 the commitment is received. _1)_ The pastor <writes a personal letter>
D09 0270 to each individual, expressing his joy over the decision, assuring
D09 0280 him of a pastoral call at the earliest convenient time, and outlining
D09 0290 the plan for membership preparation classes and Membership Sunday.
D09 0300 Some pastors write a letter the same night the decision is reported
D09 0310 by the visitors. It should not be postponed later than the next day.
D09 0320 A helpful leaflet may be enclosed in the letter. _2)_ The pastor
D09 0330 calls in the home of each individual or family for a <spiritual guidance
D09 0340 conference>. If possible, he should make an appointment in order
D09 0350 that all persons involved may be present. This is <not> a social
D09 0360 call. It is definitely a "spiritual guidance conference". He
D09 0370 will discuss the significance of Christian commitment, the necessity
D09 0380 of family religion and private devotions, and the importance of the
D09 0390 membership preparation sessions. There may be problems of conduct or
D09 0400 questions of belief which will require his counsel. Each conference
D09 0410 should be concluded naturally with prayer. A piece of devotional material,
D09 0420 such as <The Upper Room>, may be left in each home. _3)_
D09 0430 A minimum of <four sessions of preparation for membership> is necessary
D09 0440 for adults. Some churches require more. None should ask less.
D09 0450 Those who join the Church need to be instructed in the faith and the
D09 0460 meaning of Christian discipleship <before> they take the sacred
D09 0470 vows. They will have a greater appreciation for the Church and a deeper
D09 0480 devotion to it if membership requires something of them.   Many
D09 0490 churches find the Sunday school hour to be the most practical time
D09 0500 for adult preparation classes. Others meet on Sunday night, at the
D09 0510 mid-week service, or for a series of four nights. Some pastors have
D09 0520 two sessions in one evening, with a refreshment period between.
D09 0530 The sessions should cover four major areas: _A_- The Christian
D09 0540 Faith _B_- History of the Church _C_- Duties of Church
D09 0550 Membership _D_- The Local Church and Its Program
D09 0560    Following each instruction period a piece of literature dealing
D09 0570 with the topic should be handed each one for further reading during the
D09 0580 week. This procedure is much more effective than giving out a membership
D09 0590 packet. #FOURTH SESSION IMPORTANT# MOST PASTORS FIND
D09 0600 that the fourth session should take at least two hours and therefore
D09 0610 hold it on a week night prior to Reception Sunday. In this session
D09 0620 the persons seeking membership are provided information concerning the
D09 0630 work of the denomination as well as the program and activities of the
D09 0640 local church. The lay leadership of the church may be invited to speak
D09 0650 on the various phases of church life, service opportunities, the church
D09 0660 school, missions, men's work, women's work, youth program, social
D09 0670 activities, and finances. The budget of the church may be presented
D09 0680 and pledges solicited at this session. An "interest finder" or
D09 0690 "talent sheet" may be filled out by each person. (See sample on
D09 0700 pp& 78-79.) The fourth session may be concluded with a tour of the
D09 0710 church facilities and refreshments. The social time gives an opportunity
D09 0720 for church leaders to become acquainted with the new members. #ADDITIONAL
D09 0730 SUGGESTIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP PREPARATION# IN CONDUCTING
D09 0740 the Membership Preparation-Inquirers' Class, the pastor should
D09 0750 plan a variety of teaching techniques in order to develop greater interest
D09 0760 on the part of the class. The following have been found effective.
D09 0770 _1)_ <Extend the number of classes>. Some churches have
D09 0780 six or more training sessions of two hours each, generally held on Sunday
D09 0790 night or during the week. This gives greater opportunity for the
D09 0800 learning process. _2)_ <Use dramatization>- for example, in
D09 0810 discussing the Lord's Supper or church symbolism. _3)_ <Use
D09 0820 audio-visual aids>. Some excellent filmstrips with recordings and motion
D09 0830 pictures may be secured from your denominational headquarters to
D09 0840 enrich the class session. _4)_ <Have a "Question Box>".
D09 0850 Some new members will hesitate to ask questions audibly. Urge them
D09 0860 to write out their questions for the box. _5)_ <Use a textbook>
D09 0870 with assigned readings each week. _6)_ <Select class members for
D09 0880 reports> on various phases of the study. _7)_ <Conduct examinations>,
D09 0890 using a true-false check sheet. _8)_ <Ask each member
D09 0900 to write a statement> on such topics as: "What Christ Means to
D09 0910 Me", "What the Church Means to Me", "Why Join the Church",
D09 0920 "The Duties of Church Members", etc&. _9)_ <Assign
D09 0930 a series of catechism questions> to be memorized. _10)_ <Invite
D09 0940 class members to share in an extra period of Bible study> each
D09 0950 week. _11)_ <Ask each new member to bring his Pledge of Loyalty>
D09 0960 to the Reception Service. #WHAT ABOUT TRANSFERS?# THERE
D09 0970 IS A GROWING CONVICTION among pastors and Church leaders that
D09 0980 all those who come into the fellowship of the Church need preparatory
D09 0990 training, including those coming by transfer of membership. George E&
D09 1000 Sweazey writes: "There is danger in trying to make admission
D09 1010 to the Church so easy and painless that people will scarcely know
D09 1020 that anything has happened".   People appreciate experiences
D09 1030 that demand something of them. Those who transfer their membership are
D09 1040 no exception to the rule. For most of them, it will be their first
D09 1050 experience in membership training, since this is a recent development
D09 1060 in many churches. Those coming from other denominations will welcome
D09 1070 the opportunity to become informed.   The preparatory class is
D09 1080 an introductory face-to-face group in which new members become acquainted
D09 1090 with one another. It provides a natural transition into the life
D09 1100 of the local church and its organizations. #RECEPTION INTO THE CHURCH
D09 1110 FELLOWSHIP# THE TOTAL PROCESS of evangelism reaches the crescendo
D09 1120 when the group of new members stands before the congregation to
D09 1130 declare publicly their faith and to be received into the fellowship
D09 1140 of the Church. This should be a high moment in their lives, a
D09 1145 never-to-be-forgotten
D09 1150 experience. They should sense the tremendous significance
D09 1160 of joining the spiritual succession reaching back to Christ our
D09 1170 Lord and forward to an eternal fellowship with the saints of the ages.
D09 1180    Every detail of the service merits careful attention- the
D09 1190 hymns, the sermon, the ritual, the right hand of fellowship, the introduction
D09 1200 to the congregation, the welcome of the congregation. This is
D09 1210 a vital part of their spiritual growth and assimilation. It will help
D09 1220 to determine the attitude of the new members toward the Church. It
D09 1230 can mean the difference between participation and inaction, spiritual
D09 1240 growth and decay.   The worship service is the natural and logical
D09 1250 time to receive new members into the Church. The atmosphere for
D09 1260 this momentous experience can be created most effectively through the
D09 1270 worship experience. Psychologically the reception should be the
D09 1280 climax, following the sermon. _1)_ Ask the new members to meet thirty
D09 1290 minutes before the service to complete "talent sheets" and pledge
D09 1300 cards. Some denominations ask new members to sign personally the
D09 1310 chronological membership register. Provide a <name card> for each
D09 1320 new member. Outline plans for the entire service. _2)_ Arrange a
D09 1330 reserved section in the sanctuary where all new members may sit together.
D09 1340 Sponsors may sit with them also. _3)_ Invite sponsors or Fellowship
D09 1350 Friends to stand back of the new members in the reception service.
D09 1360 _4)_ Give each new member a certificate of membership. _5)_
D09 1370 Introduce each new member to the congregation, asking him to face
D09 1380 the congregation. _6)_ Lead the congregation in a response of
D09 1390 welcome. _7)_ Have a reception for new members in the parlor or
D09 1400 social hall immediately after the service. _8)_ Take a picture of
D09 1410 the group of new members to be put in the church paper or placed on the
D09 1420 bulletin board. _9)_ Have a fellowship luncheon or dinner with
D09 1430 new members as guests. #CHAPTER 6 PLANNING FOR THE ASSIMILATION AND
D09 1440 GROWTH OF NEW MEMBERS# THE CHURCH is "the family of God".
D09 1450 The members of the "family" are drawn together by a common love
D09 1460 for Christ and a sincere devotion to His Kingdom. Every member
D09 1470 of the family must have a vital place in its life. This is no spectator-type
D09 1480 experience; everyone is to be a participant.   Yet the
D09 1490 most difficult problem in the Church's program of evangelism is right
D09 1500 at this point- helping new members to become participating, growing
D09 1510 parts of the fellowship. Very easily they may be neglected and eventually
D09 1520 join the ranks of the unconcerned and inactive.   A study
D09 1530 of major denominational membership statistics over a twenty-year period
D09 1540 revealed the appalling fact that nearly 40 per cent of those who
D09 1550 joined the Church were <lost to the Church within seven years>. One
D09 1560 denomination had a membership of 1,419,833 at the beginning of the
D09 1570 period under study, and twenty years later its membership stood at 1,541,991-
D09 1580 a net growth of only 122,158. Yet during the same period there
D09 1590 were 1,080,062 additions. Another major church body had 4,499,608
D09 1600 members and twenty years later its membership stood at 4,622,444. During
D09 1610 this time 4,122,354 new members were brought into the fellowship.
D09 1620 Still another denomination had 7,360,187 members twenty years ago. During
D09 1630 this period 7,484,268 members were received, yet the net membership
D09 1640 now is only 9,910,741. These figures indicate that we are losing
D09 1650 almost as many as we are receiving into membership.   This problem
D09 1660 is illustrated by the fact that many local churches drop from the
D09 1670 active membership rolls each year as many as they receive into the fellowship.
D09 1680 Studies of membership trends, even in some areas where population
D09 1690 is expanding, show that numbers of churches have had little net
D09 1700 increase, though many new members were received. Something is wrong when
D09 1710 these things happen. The local "family of God" has failed its
D09 1720 new members through neglect and unconcern for their spiritual welfare.
D09 1730 #BASIC NEEDS# NEW MEMBERS <can> become participating, growing
D09 1740 members. But this will not happen merely through the natural process
D09 1750 of social life. It must be planned and carefully developed. The
D09 1760 entire membership of the local church must be alerted to their part
D09 1770 in this dynamic process.   If the church has followed the plan
D09 1780 of cultivation of prospects and carried through a program of membership
D09 1790 preparation as outlined earlier in this book, the process of assimilation
D09 1800 and growth will be well under way. Those who enter the <front
D09 1810 door> of the church intelligently and with Christian dedication will
D09 1820 not so easily step through the <back door> because of lost interest.
D09 1830    However, it is not enough to bring persons to Christian commitment
D09 1840 and train them in the meaning of Christian discipleship. When
D09 1850 they unite with the Church they must find in this fellowship the satisfaction
D09 1860 of their basic spiritual needs or they will never mature into
D09 1870 effective Christians.   The Church expects certain things of
D09 1880 those who become members. The new members justifiably expect some things
D09 1890 from their church family:  - Welcome into the fellowship
D09 1900   - Sincere Christian love and understanding  - Inspiring
D09 1910 and challenging worship experiences  - Social and recreational
D09 1920 activities  - Opportunities for Christian service
D09 1930   - Opportunities for study of the Christian faith and the Bible
D09 1940   - Creative prayer experiences  - Guidance in Christian
D09 1950 social concerns
D10 0010    MEN need unity and they need God. Care must be taken neither
D10 0020 to confuse unity with uniformity nor God with our parochial ideas
D10 0030 about him, but with these two qualifications, the statement stands.
D10 0040 The statement also points to a classic paradox: The more men turn
D10 0050 toward God, who is not only in himself the paradigm of all unity but
D10 0060 also the only ground on which human unity can ultimately be established,
D10 0070 the more men splinter into groups and set themselves apart from one
D10 0080 another. To be reminded of this we need only glance at the world map
D10 0090 and note the extent to which religious divisions have compounded political
D10 0100 ones, with a resultant fragmentation of the human race. Massacres
D10 0110 attending the partition of India and the establishment of the State
D10 0120 of Israel are simply recent grim evidences of the hostility such
D10 0130 divisions can engender. The words of Cardinal Newman come forcibly
D10 0135 to
D10 0140 mind: "Oh how we hate one another for the love of God"!
D10 0150    The source of this paradox is not difficult to identify. It lies
D10 0160 in institutions. Institutions require structure, form, and definition,
D10 0170 and these in turn entail differentiation and exclusion. A completely
D10 0180 amorphous institution would be a contradiction in terms; to escape
D10 0190 this fate, it must rule some things out. For every criterion which
D10 0200 defines what something is, at the same time proclaims- implicitly if
D10 0210 not openly- what that something is not. Some persons are so sensitive
D10 0220 to this truth as to propose that we do away with institutions altogether;
D10 0230 in the present context this amounts to the advice that while
D10 0240 being religious may have a certain justification, we ought to dispense
D10 0250 with churches. The suggestion is naive. Man is at once a gregarious
D10 0260 animal and a form-creating being. Having once committed himself to
D10 0270 an ideal which he considers worthwhile, he inevitably creates forms
D10 0280 for its expression and institutions for its continuance. To propose that
D10 0290 men be religious without having religious institutions is like proposing
D10 0300 that they be learned without having schools. Both eventualities
D10 0310 are possible logically, but practically they are impossible. As much
D10 0320 as men intrinsically need the unity that is grounded in God, they instrumentally
D10 0330 require the institutions that will direct their steps toward
D10 0340 him.   Yet the fact remains that such institutions do set men
D10 0350 at odds with their fellows. Is there any way out of the predicament?
D10 0360 The only way that I can see is through communication. Interfaith
D10 0370 communication need not be regarded as an unfortunate burden visited
D10 0380 upon us by the necessity of maintaining diplomatic relations with our
D10 0390 adversaries. Approached creatively, it is a high art. It is the art
D10 0400 of relating the finite to the infinite, of doing our best to insure that
D10 0410 the particularistic requirements of religious institutions will not
D10 0420 thwart God's intent of unity among men more than is minimally necessary.
D10 0430 In a certain sense, interfaith communication parallels diplomatic
D10 0440 communication among the nation-states.   What are the pertinent
D10 0450 facts affecting such communication at the present juncture of history?
D10 0460 I shall touch on three areas: personal, national, and theological.
D10 0470 #/1,# By personal factors I mean those rooted in personality
D10 0480 structure. Some interfaith tensions are not occasioned by theological
D10 0490 differences at all, but by the need of men to have persons they
D10 0500 can blame, distrust, denounce, and even hate. Such needs may rise
D10 0510 to pathological proportions. Modern psychology has shown that paralleling
D10 0520 "the authoritarian personality" is "the bigoted personality"
D10 0530 in which insecurity, inferiority, suspicion, and distrust combine
D10 0540 to provide a target for antagonism so indispensable that it will be manufactured
D10 0550 if it does not exist naturally. Fortunately the number of
D10 0560 pathological bigots appears to be quite small, but it would be a mistake
D10 0570 to think that more than a matter of degree separates them from the
D10 0580 rest of us. To some extent the personal inadequacies that prejudices
D10 0590 attempt to compensate for are to be found in all of us.   Interfaith
D10 0600 conflicts which spring from psychological deficiencies are the most
D10 0610 unfortunate of all, for they have no redeeming features whatsoever.
D10 0620 It is difficult to say what can be done about them except that we must
D10 0630 learn to recognize when it is they, rather than pretexts for them,
D10 0640 that are causing the trouble, and do everything possible to nurture the
D10 0650 healthy personalities that will prevent the development of such deficiencies.
D10 0660 #/2,# While the personality factors that aggravate interfaith
D10 0670 conflict may be perennial, nationalism is more variable. The
D10 0680 specific instance I have in mind is the Afro-Asian version which
D10 0690 has gained prominence only in this second half of the twentieth century.
D10 0700    Emerging from the two centuries of colonial domination, the
D10 0710 Afro-Asian world is aflame with a nationalism that has undone empires.
D10 0720 No less than twenty-two nations have already achieved independence
D10 0730 since World War /2,, and the number is growing by the year. As
D10 0740 an obvious consequence, obstacles to genuine interfaith communication
D10 0750 have grown more formidable in one important area: relations between
D10 0760 Christians and non-Christians in these lands. Colonialism alone would
D10 0770 have been able to make these difficulties serious, for Christianity
D10 0780 is so closely tied to colonialism in the minds of these people that
D10 0790 repudiation of the one has tended automatically toward the repudiation
D10 0800 of the other. Actually, however, this turns out to be only part of
D10 0810 the picture. Nationalism has abetted not only the repudiation of foreign
D10 0820 religions but the revival of native ones, some of which had been lying
D10 0830 in slumber for centuries. The truth is that any revival of traditional
D10 0840 and indigenous religion will serve to promote that sense of identity
D10 0850 and <Volksgeist> which these young nations very much need. Insofar
D10 0860 as these nations claim to incarnate traditions and ways of life
D10 0870 which constitute ultimate, trans-political justifications for their existence,
D10 0880 such people are inevitably led to emphasize the ways in which
D10 0890 these traditions and ways are <theirs> rather than someone else's.
D10 0900    All this works severely against the kind of cross-cultural
D10 0910 communication for which Christian missions stand. Africans and Asians
D10 0920 tend to consider not only missions but the local churches they have
D10 0930 produced as centers and agents of Western culture and ideology if not
D10 0940 of direct political propaganda. The people hardest hit by this suspicion
D10 0950 are, of course, Christians on the mainland of China. But the
D10 0960 problem extends elsewhere. For example, in Burma and Ceylon many Buddhists
D10 0970 argue that Buddhism ought to be the official state religion.
D10 0980 In 1960 Ceylon nationalized its sectarian- preponderantly Christian-
D10 0990 schools, to the rejoicing of most of its 7,000,000 Buddhists and
D10 1000 the lament of its 800,000 Roman Catholics. Again, India has imposed
D10 1010 formidable barriers against the entrance of additional missionaries,
D10 1020 and fanatical Hindu parties are expected to seek further action against
D10 1030 Christians once the influence making for tolerance due to Nehru
D10 1040 and his followers is gone.   The progressive closing of Afro-Asian
D10 1050 ears to the Christian message is epitomized in a conversation
D10 1060 I had three years ago while flying from Jerusalem to Cairo. I was
D10 1070 seated next to the director of the Seventh Day Adventists' world
D10 1080 radio program. He said that on his tour the preceding year a considerable
D10 1090 number of hours would have been available to him on Japanese radio
D10 1100 networks, but that he had then lacked the funds to contract for them.
D10 1110 After returning to the United States and raising the money, he
D10 1120 discovered on getting back to Japan that the hours were no longer available.
D10 1130 It was not that they had been contracted for during the interval;
D10 1140 they simply could no longer be purchased for missionary purposes.
D10 1150 It is not unfair to add on the other side that the crude and almost
D10 1160 vitriolic approach of certain fundamentalist sects toward the cultures
D10 1170 and religions among which they work has contributed measurably to this
D10 1180 heightening of anti-Christian sentiment. Ironically, these are the
D10 1190 groups which have doubled or tripled their missionary efforts since
D10 1200 World War /2,, while the more established denominations are barely
D10 1210 maintaining pre-war staffs.   Although I have emphasized the
D10 1220 barriers which an aroused nationalism has raised against relations between
D10 1230 Christians and non-Christians in Asia, the fact is that this development
D10 1240 has also widened the gulf between certain Afro-Asian religions
D10 1250 themselves. The partition of India has hardly improved relations
D10 1260 between Hindus and Muslims; neither has the establishment of the
D10 1270 State of Israel fostered harmony between Muslims and Jews. #/3,#
D10 1280 I turn finally to several theological developments. _1._ <Theocracy
D10 1290 reconsidered>. The modern world has been marked by progressive
D10 1300 disaffection with claims to divine sanction for the state, whatever
D10 1310 its political form. The American Constitution was historic at
D10 1320 this point in providing that "Congress shall make no law respecting
D10 1330 an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof".
D10 1340 One of our foremost jurists, David Dudley Field, has gone so
D10 1350 far as to call this provision "the greatest achievement ever made in
D10 1360 the course of human history".   The trend throughout the world's
D10 1370 religions has been toward a recognition of at least the practical
D10 1380 validity of this constitutional enactment. Pakistan was created in
D10 1390 1947 expressly as a Muslim state, but when the army took over eleven
D10 1400 years later it did so on a wave of mass impatience which was directed
D10 1410 in part against the inability of political and religious leaders to think
D10 1420 their way through to the meaning of Islam for the modern political
D10 1430 situation. "What is the point", Charles Adams reports the Pakistanis
D10 1440 as asking, "in demanding an Islamic state and society if no
D10 1450 one, not even the doctors of the sacred law themselves, can say clearly
D10 1460 and succinctly what the nature of such a state and society is"?
D10 1470 The current regime of President Mohammad Ayub Khan is determinedly
D10 1480 secular. And while the nation was formerly named "The Islamic
D10 1490 Republic of Pakistan", it is now simply "The Republic of Pakistan".
D10 1500    Comparable trends can be noted elsewhere. The new regime
D10 1510 in Turkey is intentionally less Muslim than its predecessor. The
D10 1520 religious parties in Israel have experienced a great loss of prestige
D10 1530 in recent months. During the years when Israel was passing from
D10 1540 crisis to crisis- the Sinai campaign, the infusion of multitudes of
D10 1550 penniless immigrants- it was felt that the purpose of national unity
D10 1560 could be best served if the secular majority were to yield to the religious
D10 1570 parties. Now that Israel enjoys relative prosperity and a reduction
D10 1580 of tensions, the secularists are less disposed to compromise.
D10 1590 And in this country Gustave Weigel's delineation of the line between
D10 1600 the sacral and secular orders during the last presidential campaign
D10 1610 served to provide a most impressive Roman Catholic defense of the
D10 1620 practical autonomy of both church and state. The failure at that time
D10 1630 of the Puerto Rican bishops to control the votes of their people added
D10 1640 a ring of good sense to Father Weigel's theological argument.
D10 1650 Everywhere there seems to be a growing recognition of the fact that
D10 1660 governments and religious institutions alike are too fallible and corruptible-
D10 1670 in a word, too human- to warrant any claim of maintaining
D10 1680 partnership with the divine. _2._ <Salvation reconsidered>. My
D10 1690 father went as a missionary to China in a generation that responded
D10 1700 to Student Volunteer Movement speakers who held watches in their hands
D10 1710 and announced to the students in their audiences how many Chinese
D10 1720 souls were going to hell each second because these students were not
D10 1730 over there saving them. That mention of this should bring smiles to
D10 1740 our lips today is as clear an indication as we could wish of the extent
D10 1750 to which attitudes have changed. I do not mean to imply that Christians
D10 1760 have adopted the liberal assumption, so prevalent in Hinduism,
D10 1770 that all religions are merely different paths to the same summit. Leslie
D10 1780 Newbiggin reflects the dominant position within the World Council
D10 1790 of Churches when he says, "We must claim absoluteness and finality
D10 1800 for Christ and His finished work, but that very claim forbids
D10 1810 us to claim absoluteness and finality for our understanding of it".
D10 1820 Newbiggin's qualification on the Christian claim is of considerable
D10 1830 significance. The Roman Catholic Church has excommunicated one of
D10 1840 its priests, Father Feeney, for insisting that there is no salvation
D10 1850 outside the visible church. In mentioning this under "salvation
D10 1860 reconsidered" I do not mean to imply that Roman Catholic doctrine
D10 1870 has changed in this area but rather that it has become clearer to the
D10 1880 world community what that doctrine is.
D11 0010 When they say that under no circumstances would it ever be right to "permit"
D11 0020 the termination of the human race by human action, because
D11 0030 there could not possibly be any proportionate grave reason to justify
D11 0040 such a thing, they know exactly what they mean. Of course, in prudential
D11 0050 calculation, in balancing the good directly intended and done against
D11 0060 the evil unintended and indirectly done, no greater precision can
D11 0070 be forthcoming than the subject allows. Yet it seems clear that there
D11 0080 can be no good sufficiently great, or evil repelled sufficiently grave,
D11 0090 to warrant the destruction of mankind by man's own action.
D11 0100    I mean, however, that the moral theologian knows what he means by "permit".
D11 0110 He is not talking in the main about probabilities, risks
D11 0120 and danger in general. He is talking about an action which just as efficaciously
D11 0130 does an evil thing (and is known certainly and unavoidably
D11 0140 to lead to this evil result) as it efficaciously does some good. He
D11 0150 is talking about double <effects,> of which the specific action causes
D11 0160 directly the one and indirectly the other, but <causes> both;
D11 0170 of which one is deliberately willed or intended and the other not intended
D11 0180 or not directly intended, but still both are <done,> while the
D11 0190 evil effect is, with equal consciousness on the part of the agent, foreknown
D11 0200 to be among the consequences. This is what, in a technical sense,
D11 0210 to "only permit" an evil result means. It means to <do it>
D11 0220 and to know one is doing it, but as only a secondary if certain effect
D11 0230 of the good one primarily does and intends. Of course, grave guiltiness
D11 0240 may be imputed to the military action of any nation, or to the action
D11 0250 of any leader or leaders, which for any supposed good "permits",
D11 0260 in <this> sense, the termination of the human race by human action.
D11 0270 Certainly, in analyzing an action which truly faced such alternatives,
D11 0280 "it is <never> possible that no world would be preferable to
D11 0290 some worlds, and there are in truth <no> circumstances in which the
D11 0300 destruction of human life presents itself as a reasonable alternative".
D11 0310    Naturally, where one or the other of the effects of an action
D11 0320 is uncertain, this has to be taken into account. Especially is this
D11 0330 true when, because the good effect is remote and speculative while
D11 0340 the evil is certain and grave, the action is prohibited. Presumably,
D11 0350 if the reverse is the case and the good effect is more certain than the
D11 0360 evil result that may be forthcoming, not only must the good and the
D11 0370 evil be prudentially weighed and found proportionate, but also calculation
D11 0380 of the probabilities and of the degree of certainty or uncertainty
D11 0390 in the good or evil effect must be taken into account. There must
D11 0400 not only be greater good than evil objectively in view, but also greater
D11 0410 probability of actually doing more good than harm. If an evil which
D11 0420 is certain and extensive and immediate may rarely be compensated for
D11 0430 by a problematic, speculative, future good, by the same token not every
D11 0440 present, certain, and immediate good (or lesser evil) that may have
D11 0450 to be done will be outweighed by a problematic, speculative, and future
D11 0460 evil. Nevertheless, according to the traditional theory, a man begins
D11 0470 in the midst of action and he analyzes its nature and immediate cosequences
D11 0480 before or while putting it forth and causing these consequences.
D11 0490 He does not expect to be able to trammel up all the future consequences
D11 0500 of his action. Above all, he does not debate mere contingencies,
D11 0510 and therefore, if these are possibly dreadful, find himself forced
D11 0520 into inaction. He does what he can and may and must, without regarding
D11 0530 himself as lord of the future or, on the other hand, as covered with
D11 0540 guilt by accident or unforeseen consequences or by results he did not
D11 0550 "permit" in the sense explained. By contrast, a good deal of nuclear
D11 0560 pacifism begins with the contingencies and the probabilities, and
D11 0570 not with the moral nature of the action to be done; and by deriving
D11 0580 legitimate decision backward from whatever may <conceivably> or possibly
D11 0590 or probably result, whether by anyone's doing or by accident,
D11 0600 it finds itself driven to inaction, to non-political action in politics
D11 0610 and non-military action in military affairs, and to the not very surprising
D11 0620 discovery that there are now no distinctions on which the defense
D11 0630 of justice can possibly be based.   Mr& Philip Toynbee
D11 0640 writes, for example, that "in terms of probability it is surely <as
D11 0650 likely as not> that mutual fear will lead to accidental war in the near
D11 0660 future <if the present situation continues>. If it continues indefinitely
D11 0670 it is <nearly a statistical certainty> that a mistake will
D11 0680 be made and that the devastation will begin". Against such a termination
D11 0690 of human life on earth by human action, he then proposes as an
D11 0700 alternative that we "negotiate at once with the Russians and get the
D11 0710 best terms which are available", that we deliberately "negotiate
D11 0720 from comparative weakness". He bravely attempts to face this alternative
D11 0730 realistically, i&e&, by considering the worst possible outcome,
D11 0740 namely, the total domination of the world by Russia within a few
D11 0750 years. This would be by far the better choice, when "it is a question
D11 0760 of <allowing> the human race to survive, possibly under the domination
D11 0770 of a regime which most of us detest, or of <allowing> it to
D11 0780 destroy itself in appalling and prolonged anguish". Nevertheless, the
D11 0790 consequence of the policy proposed is everywhere subtly qualified:
D11 0800 it is "a possible result, however improbable"; "the worst, and
D11 0810 least probable" result; "if it didn't prevail <mankind> would
D11 0820 still be given the opportunity of prevailing"; for "surely
D11 0830 anything is better than a policy which allows for the <possibility>
D11 0840 of nuclear war". If we have not thought and made a decision entirely
D11 0850 in these terms, then we need to submit ourselves to the following
D11 0860 "simple test": "Have we decided how we are to kill the other
D11 0870 members of our household in the event of our being less injured than
D11 0880 they are"? Thus, moral decision must be entirely deduced backward
D11 0890 from the likely eventuality; it is no longer to be formulated in terms
D11 0900 of the nature of present action itself, its intention, and proximate
D11 0910 effect or the thing to be <done>.   Several of the replies
D11 0920 to Mr& Toynbee, without conscious resort to the traditional terminology
D11 0930 with regard to the permission of evil, succeed in restoring the
D11 0940 actual context in which present moral and political decisions must be
D11 0950 made, by distinguishing between choosing a great evil and choosing in
D11 0960 danger of this evil. "It is worse for a nation to give in to evil
D11 0970 **h than to run the risk of annihilation". "I am consciously prepared
D11 0980 to run the continued risk of 'race suicide by accident' rather
D11 0990 than accept the alternative certainty of race slavery by design. But
D11 1000 I can only make this choice because I believe that the risk need
D11 1010 not increase, but may be deliberately reduced" [by precautions against
D11 1020 accidents or by limiting war?] "Quoting Mr& Kennan's
D11 1030 phrase that anything would be better than a policy which led inevitably
D11 1040 to nuclear war, he [Toynbee] says that anything is better than a
D11 1050 policy which allows for the <possibility> of nuclear war". "If
D11 1060 asked to choose between a terrible probability and a more terrible possibility,
D11 1070 most men will choose the latter". "If **h Philip Toynbee
D11 1080 is claiming that the choice lies between capitulation and the <risk>
D11 1090 of nuclear war, I think he is right. I do not accept that the choice
D11 1100 is between capitulation and the certainty of nuclear war". Even
D11 1110 Professor Arnold Toynbee, agreeing with his son, does so in these
D11 1120 terms: "Compared to continuing to incur a constant <risk> of
D11 1130 the destruction of the human race, all other evils are lesser evils **h.
D11 1140 Let us therefore put first things first, and make sure of preserving
D11 1150 the human race at whatever the temporary price may be".   Mr&
D11 1160 Philip Toynbee affirms at one point that <if> he shared the
D11 1170 anticipations of Orwell in <Nineteen Eighty-Four, if> he believed
D11 1180 Communism was not only evil but "also <irredeemably> evil", then
D11 1190 he might "think it right to do anything rather than to take the
D11 1200 risk of a communist world. Even a nuclear holocaust is a little less
D11 1210 frightful to contemplate than a race of dehumanised humans occupying the
D11 1220 earth until doomsday". No political order or economic system is
D11 1230 so clearly contrary to nature. But one does not have to affirm the existence
D11 1240 of an evil order irredeemable in that sense, or a static order
D11 1250 in which no changes will take place in time, to be able truthfully to
D11 1260 affirm the following fact: there has never been <justitia> imprinted
D11 1270 in social institutions and social relationships except in the context
D11 1280 of some <pax-ordo> preserved by clothed or naked force. On their
D11 1290 way to the Heavenly City the children of God make use of the <pax-ordo>
D11 1300 of the earthly city and acknowledge their share in responsibility
D11 1310 for its preservation. Not to repel injury and uphold and improve
D11 1320 <pax-ordo> means not simply to accept the misshapen order and injustice
D11 1330 that challenges it at the moment, but also to start down the steep
D11 1340 slope along which justice can find no place whereon to stand. Toynbee
D11 1350 seems to think that there is some other way to give justice social
D11 1360 embodiment. "I would far rather die after a Russian occupation of
D11 1370 this country- by some deliberate act of refusal- than die uselessly
D11 1380 by atomisation". Would such an act of refusal be useful? He does
D11 1390 not mean, in fact he addresses himself specifically to reject the
D11 1400 proposition, that "if we took the risk of surrendering, a new generation
D11 1410 in Britain would soon begin to amass its strength in secret in order
D11 1420 to reverse the consequences of that surrender". He wants to be
D11 1430 "brutally frank and say that these rebellions <would> be hopeless-
D11 1440 far, far more hopeless than was the Hungarian revolution of 1956".
D11 1450 This is not a project for regaining the ground for limited war, by
D11 1460 creating a monopoly in one power of the world's arsenal of unlimited
D11 1470 weapons. It is a proposal that justice now be served by means other
D11 1480 than those that have ever preconditioned the search for it, or preconditioned
D11 1490 more positive means for attaining it, in the past. "It is
D11 1500 no good recommending surrender rather than nuclear warfare with the proviso
D11 1510 that surrender could be followed by the effective military resistance
D11 1520 by occupied peoples. Hope for the future **h would lie in the
D11 1530 natural longing of the human race for freedom and the right to develop".
D11 1540 This is to surrender in advance to whatever attack may yet be mounted,
D11 1550 to the very last; it is to stride along the steep slope downward.
D11 1560 The only contrary action, in the future as in the past, runs the
D11 1570 <risk> of war; and, now and in the future unlike in the past, any
D11 1580 attempt to repel injury and to preserve any particular civilized attainment
D11 1590 of mankind or its provisional justice runs some risk of nuclear
D11 1600 warfare and the danger that an effect of it will, by human action, render
D11 1610 this planet less habitable by the human race. That is why it is
D11 1620 so very important that ethical analysis keep clear the problem of decision
D11 1630 as to "permitted" effects, and not draw back in fright from
D11 1640 any conceivable contingency or suffer paralysis of action before possibilities
D11 1650 or probabilities unrelated, or not directly morally related,
D11 1660 to what we can and may and must do as long as human history endures.
D11 1670    Finally, just as no different issues are posed for thoughtful
D11 1680 analysis by the foreshortening of time that may yet pass before the end
D11 1690 of human life on this earth, but only stimulation and alarm to the imagination,
D11 1700 the same thing must be said in connection with the question
D11 1710 of what we may perhaps already be doing, <by human action,> to accelerate
D11 1720 this end. We should not allow the image of an immanent end brought
D11 1730 about indirectly by our own action in the continuing human struggle
D11 1740 for a just endurable order of existence to blind us to the fact that
D11 1750 in some measure accelerating the end of our lease may be one consequence
D11 1760 among others of many other of mankind's thrusts toward we know
D11 1770 not what future.
D12 0010    MUCH MORE than shelter, housing symbolizes social status,
D12 0020 a sense of "belonging", acceptance within a given group or neighborhood,
D12 0030 identification with particular cultural values and social institutions,
D12 0040 feelings of pride and worth, aspirations and hopes basic to
D12 0050 human well-being. For almost one-sixth of the national population discrimination
D12 0060 in the free selection of residence casts a considerable shadow
D12 0070 upon these values assumed as self-evident by most Americans.
D12 0080    Few business groups in recent years have come under heavier pressure
D12 0090 to face these realities than real estate brokers and home builders.
D12 0100 This pressure has urged re-evaluation of the assumptions underlying
D12 0110 their professional ethics; it has sought new sympathy for the human
D12 0120 aspirations of racial minority groups in this country. It is not surprising
D12 0130 that, as spokesman for real estate interests, the National Association
D12 0140 of Real Estate Boards (~NAREB) and its local associations
D12 0150 have sought to limit and often ignore much of this pressure.
D12 0160    How does the local realtor see himself in the context of housing
D12 0170 restrictions based on race, religion or ethnic attachment? What
D12 0180 does he conceive his role to be in this area of social unrest? What
D12 0190 ought to be, what is his potential role as a force for constructive social
D12 0200 change? What social, ethical and theological insights can the
D12 0210 church and university help him bring to bear upon his situation?
D12 0220    Recently, a group of the faculty at Wesleyan University's Public
D12 0230 Affairs Center sought some answers to these questions. Several
D12 0240 New England realtors were invited to participate in a small colloquium
D12 0250 of property lawyers, political scientists, economists, social psychologists,
D12 0260 social ethicists and theologians. Here, in an atmosphere
D12 0270 of forthrightness and mutual criticism, each sought to bring his particular
D12 0280 insights to bear upon the question of discrimination in housing
D12 0290 and the part each man present played in it.   For a number of years,
D12 0300 Wesleyan has been drawing varied groups of political and business
D12 0310 leaders into these informal discussions with members of the faculty
D12 0320 and student body, attempting to explore and clarify aspects of their
D12 0330 responsibility for public policy. This article presents our observations
D12 0340 of that session, of the realtors as they saw themselves and as the
D12 0350 faculty and students saw them.   Such conversation quickly reveals
D12 0360 an ethically significant ambivalence in the self-images held by most
D12 0370 realtors. Within the membership of this group, as has been found true
D12 0380 of men in other professional or trade associations, the most ready
D12 0390 portrayal of oneself to "the public" is that of a neutral agent simply
D12 0400 serving the interests of a seller or buyer and mediating between
D12 0410 them. Professional responsibility is seen to consist largely in serving
D12 0420 the wishes of the client fairly and in an efficient manner. But as
D12 0430 conversation goes on, particularly among the realtors themselves, another
D12 0440 image emerges, that of considerable power and influence in the community.
D12 0450 Obviously, much more than customer expectation is determining
D12 0460 the realtor's role. Judgments are continually rendered regarding
D12 0470 the potential buyers' income, educational level and above all, racial
D12 0480 extraction; and whether these would qualify them for "congenial",
D12 0490 "happy" relations to other people in certain community areas.
D12 0500 #A NARROW PROFESSIONALISM# How explicit such factors have been
D12 0510 historically is evident in any chronology of restrictive covenant cases
D12 0520 or in a review of ~NAREB's Code of Ethics Article 34 in
D12 0530 the Code, adopted in 1924, states that "a Realtor should never be
D12 0540 instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood a character of property
D12 0550 or occupancy, members of any race or nationality, or any individuals
D12 0560 whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in that
D12 0570 neighborhood". Though the reference to race was stricken by the association
D12 0580 in 1950, being an agent of such "detrimental" influences
D12 0590 still appears as the cardinal sin realtors see themselves committed to
D12 0600 avoid.   The rationale for this avoidance was most frequently
D12 0610 expressed in economic terms; all feared the supposed stigma they believed
D12 0620 would inevitably attach to any realtor who openly introduced non-white,
D12 0630 particularly Negro, peoples into all-white, restricted areas.
D12 0640 They would become tagged as men not interested in being purely real
D12 0650 estate "professionals" but agitators for some kind of "cause"
D12 0660 or "reform", and this was no longer to be a "pro".   Obviously
D12 0670 what we are confronted with here is the identification of "professional"
D12 0680 with narrow skills and specialization, the effective servicing
D12 0690 of a client, rather than responsiveness to the wider and deeper
D12 0700 meaning and associations of one's work. These men- for the most
D12 0710 part educated in our "best" New England colleges, well established
D12 0720 financially and socially in the community- under kindly but insistent
D12 0730 probing, reveal little or no objective or explicit criteria or data
D12 0740 for their generalizations about the interests and attitudes of the
D12 0750 people they claim to serve, or about the public responses that actually
D12 0760 follow their occasional breach of a "client-service relationship".
D12 0770    This narrow "professionalism" does not even fit the present
D12 0780 realities of their situation, as the pressure of minorities and the
D12 0790 power and respectability of the realtors increase. As our discussion
D12 0800 continued, the inadequacy of the "client relationship" as an interpretation
D12 0810 of their "way of operating" became evident. Realtors
D12 0820 live in their communities as specialists in a given area of work, as
D12 0830 members of social and professional organizations, as citizens and civic
D12 0840 leaders, as church laymen, as university alumni, as newspaper readers,
D12 0850 etc&.
D12 0860 From such communal roles the realtor finds the substance that
D12 0870 shapes his moral understanding.   It seems to us that choices exercised
D12 0880 by realtors in moral situations center in at least three areas:
D12 0890 (1) the various ways in which they interpret a particular social
D12 0900 issue; (2) their pattern of involvement in the regular legal and political
D12 0910 processes; and, most pervasively, (3) their interpretation of
D12 0920 who is a "real pro", of what it means to be a professional man in
D12 0930 a technical, fragmented society.   (1) Most of the realtors minimized
D12 0940 their own understanding of and role in the racial issue, pleading
D12 0950 that they only reflect the attitudes and intentions of their society.
D12 0960 There is some reality to this; the Commission on Race and Housing
D12 0970 concluded that "there is no reason to believe that real estate
D12 0980 men are either more or less racially prejudiced, on the whole, than any
D12 0990 other segment of the American population". But such a reaction obscures
D12 1000 the powerful efforts made in the past by both ~NAREB and
D12 1010 its local boards for the maintenance of restrictive clauses and practices.
D12 1020 Also, it does not recognize the elements of choice and judgment
D12 1030 continually employed.   Like business and university groups generally,
D12 1040 these men had very limited knowledge of recent sociological and
D12 1050 psychological studies and findings that might illumine the decisions
D12 1060 they make. Realtors, both generally and in this group, have invariably
D12 1070 equated residential integration with a decline in property values,
D12 1080 a circumstance viewed with considerable apprehension.   Recent
D12 1090 studies by the Commission on Race and Housing and others, however,
D12 1100 point to a vast complex of factors that often do not warrant this conclusion.
D12 1110 There are increasing numbers of neighborhoods that are integrated
D12 1120 residentially without great loss of property values, the white population
D12 1130 having taken the initiative in preparing the areas for an appreciation
D12 1140 of the Negroes' desire for well-kept housing, privacy, etc&.
D12 1150 Data on the decline of property values in an area after a new racial
D12 1160 group enters it has to be assessed in terms of the trends in property
D12 1170 values before the group comes in. Often they are able to get in
D12 1180 only because the area is declining economically.   Significantly,
D12 1190 no realtor and few of the faculty present were familiar with any of
D12 1200 the six volumes (published by the University of California Press)
D12 1210 that present the commission's findings. No one anticipates any radical
D12 1220 shift in this situation, but questions concerning reading habits,
D12 1230 the availability of such data and the places where it is discussed must
D12 1240 surely be raised. The role of both church and university as sources
D12 1250 of information and settings within which the implications of such information
D12 1260 may be explored needs consideration.   Relevant "facts",
D12 1261 however,
D12 1270 extend beyond considerations of property values and maintenance
D12 1280 of "harmonious" neighborhoods. Discussion of minority housing necessarily
D12 1290 involves such basic issues as the intensity of one's democratic
D12 1300 conviction and religious belief concerning equality of opportunity,
D12 1310 the function and limitations of government in the securing of such
D12 1320 equality, and the spotlight that world opinion plays upon local incidents
D12 1330 of racial agitation and strife. #"AGAINST THE GRAIN OF CREATION"#
D12 1340 (2) Realtors realize, of course, that they are involved in an
D12 1350 increasingly complex legal and political system that is opening up opportunities
D12 1360 for leverage on their relation to clients as well as opportunities
D12 1370 for evasion of their responsibility for racial discrimination
D12 1380 in housing. On the positive side, recent Federal action has largely
D12 1390 undermined the legal sanction so long enjoyed by the segregationist position;
D12 1400 anti-discriminatory statutes in housing have now been adopted
D12 1410 by thirteen states and, while specific provisions have varied, the
D12 1420 tendency is clearly toward expanding coverage.   Realtors in attendance
D12 1430 at the colloquium expressed interest, for example, in Connecticut's
D12 1440 new housing law as setting standards of equity that they would
D12 1450 like "to have to obey", but in support of which none had been willing
D12 1460 to go on public record. As far as they were aware, the Connecticut
D12 1470 Association of Real Estate Boards had not officially opposed
D12 1480 the bill's passage or lobbied in its support. (This has not been the
D12 1490 case everywhere. In 1957, the Real Estate Boards of New York City
D12 1500 actively opposed the then pending private housing anti-discrimination
D12 1510 law. Official reasoning: the bill was a "wanton invasion
D12 1520 of basic property rights".)   There are sins of omission as
D12 1530 well as commission; the attitude adopted by realtors and their associations,
D12 1540 either negative or positive, plays a large part in the public
D12 1550 acceptance of such measures and the degree to which they may be effectively
D12 1560 enforced. Judicial opinion since the Supreme Court decision
D12 1570 on <Shelley v& Kraemer> (1948) has rendered racial restrictive
D12 1580 covenants unenforcible. Such a decision should have placed a powerful
D12 1590 weapon in the hands of the entire housing industry, but there is little
D12 1600 evidence that realtors, or at least their associations, have repudiated
D12 1610 the principle in such clauses.   In the states that have passed
D12 1620 laws preventing discrimination in the sale or rental of housing,
D12 1630 support by real estate associations for compliance and broadened coverage
D12 1640 through additional legislation could help remove the label of "social
D12 1650 reformism" that most realtors individually seem determined to
D12 1660 avoid. But as yet, no real estate board has been willing officially
D12 1670 to support such laws or to admit the permissibility of introducing minority
D12 1680 buyers into all-white neighborhoods.   One of the roles of
D12 1690 the social scientist, ethicist or theologian in our discussions with
D12 1700 the realtors became that of encouraging greater awareness of the opportunities
D12 1710 offered by the legal and political processes for the exercise
D12 1730 of broad social responsibilities in their work. But responsiveness to
D12 1740 these opportunities presumes that all of us judge the good as a human
D12 1750 good and not simply as a professional, white, American good. Such
D12 1760 judgments are meaningful only
D12 1770 in so far as persons are members of a world,
D12 1780 let us say a community, that embraces Scarsdale or Yonkers, but is
D12 1790 also infinitely richer since it is all-inclusive.   That community
D12 1800 of all creation is, then, the ultimate object of our loyalty and
D12 1810 the concrete norm of all moral judgment. Racial discrimination is wrong,
D12 1820 then, not because it goes against the grain of a faculty member trying
D12 1830 to converse with a few realtors but because it goes against the
D12 1840 grain of creation and against the will of the Creator. Thus, moral issues
D12 1850 concerning the nature of the legal and political processes take
D12 1860 on theological dimensions. #A FRAGMENTED SOCIETY# (3) Over the years,
D12 1870 individuals engaged in the sale of real estate have developed remarkable
D12 1880 unity in the methods and practices employed. Most realtors and
D12 1890 real estate brokers talk of themselves as "professional people"
D12 1900 with the cultural and moral values held by the traditional professions.
D12 1910 But what significance attaches to "professional", beyond the narrow
D12 1920 sense of skillfulness in meeting a client's stated needs as already
D12 1930 noted? Our faculty and students pressed this issue more than
D12 1940 any other.   As a theologian in the group pointed out, a professional
D12 1950 was, before the modern period of technical specialization, one who
D12 1960 "professed" to be a bearer and critic of his culture in the use
D12 1970 of his particular skills.
D13 0010    If we look about the world today, we can see clearly that there
D13 0020 are two especially significant factors shaping the future of our civilization:
D13 0030 <science> and <religion>. Science is placing in our
D13 0040 hands the ultimate power of the universe, the power of the atom. Religion,
D13 0050 or the lack of it, will decide whether we use this power to build
D13 0060 a brave new world of peace and abundance for all mankind, or whether
D13 0070 we misuse this power to leave a world utterly destroyed. How can we
D13 0080 have the wisdom to meet such a new and difficult challenge?   We
D13 0090 may feel pessimistic at the outlook. And yet there is a note of
D13 0100 hope,
D13 0110 because this same science that is giving us the power of the atom is
D13 0120 also giving us atomic vision. We are looking inside the atom and seeing
D13 0130 there a universe which is not material but something beyond the material,
D13 0140 a universe that in a word is not matter but music. And it is
D13 0150 in this new vision of the atom that we find an affirmation and an invigoration
D13 0160 of our faith. #ATOMIC ENERGY# To see this vision in perspective,
D13 0170 we need first of all a clear idea of the magnitude of this new
D13 0180 power from the atom. You know that I could hold right here in my
D13 0190 hand the little chunk of uranium metal that was the heart of the bomb
D13 0200 that dropped on Hiroshima. It was only about the size of a baseball;
D13 0210 but packed in that metallic ball there was the explosive force of
D13 0220 20,000 tons of ~TNT. That is enough ~TNT to fill the tower
D13 0230 of the Empire State Building; and with the availability of bombs
D13 0240 of that size, war became a new problem.   Now we might have restricted
D13 0250 the use of uranium bombs by controlling the sources of uranium
D13 0260 because it is found in only a few places in the world. But we had hardly
D13 0270 started to adjust our thinking to this new uranium weapon when we
D13 0280 were faced with the hydrogen bomb. Hydrogen is just as plentiful as
D13 0290 uranium is scarce. We know that we have hydrogen in water; water is
D13 0300 **f and the ~H stands for hydrogen; there is also hydrogen in wood
D13 0310 and hydrogen in our bodies. I have calculated that if I could snap
D13 0320 my fingers in one magic gesture to release the power of all the hydrogen
D13 0330 in my body, I would explode with the force of a hundred bombs of
D13 0340 the kind that fell on Hiroshima. I won't try the experiment, but
D13 0350 I think you can see that if we all knew the secret and we could all let
D13 0360 ourselves go, there would be quite an explosion. And then think how
D13 0370 little hydrogen we have in us compared with the hydrogen in Delaware
D13 0380 Bay or in the ocean beyond. Salt water is still **f, the same hydrogen
D13 0390 is there. And the size of the ocean shows us the magnitude of the
D13 0400 destructive power we hold in our hands today.   Of course, there
D13 0410 is also an optimistic side to the picture. For if I knew the secret
D13 0420 of letting this power in my body change directly into electricity,
D13 0430 I could rent myself out to the electric companies and with just the power
D13 0440 in my body I could light all the lights and run all the factories
D13 0450 in the entire United States for some days. And think, if we all knew
D13 0460 this secret and we could pool our power, what a wonderful public utility
D13 0470 company we would make. With just the hydrogen of our bodies, we
D13 0480 could run the world for years. Then think of Delaware Bay and the
D13 0490 ocean and you see that we have a supply of power for millions of years
D13 0500 to come. It is power with which we can literally rebuild the world,
D13 0510 provide adequate housing, food, education, abundant living for everyone
D13 0520 everywhere. #AN OCTILLION ATOMS# Now let us see where this power
D13 0530 comes from. To grasp our new view of the atom, we have to appreciate
D13 0540 first of all how small the atom is. I have been trying to make this
D13 0550 clear to my own class in chemistry. One night there were some dried
D13 0560 peas lying on our kitchen table, and these peas looked to me like a little
D13 0570 group of atoms; and I asked myself a question: Suppose I
D13 0580 had the same number of peas as there are atoms in my body, how large an
D13 0590 area would they cover?   I calculated first that there are
D13 0600 about an octillion atoms in the average human body; that is a figure
D13 0610 one with 27 ciphers, quite a large number. Then I calculated that a
D13 0620 million peas would just about fill a household refrigerator; a billion
D13 0630 peas would fill a small house from cellar to attic; a trillion peas
D13 0640 would fill all the houses in a town of about ten thousand people;
D13 0650 and a quadrillion peas would fill all the buildings in the city of Philadelphia.
D13 0660    I saw that I would soon run out of buildings at
D13 0670 this rate, so I decided to take another measure- the whole state of
D13 0680 Pennsylvania. Imagine that there is a blizzard over Pennsylvania,
D13 0690 but instead of snowing snow, it snows peas; so we get the whole state
D13 0700 covered with peas, about four feet deep. You can imagine what it would
D13 0710 look like going out on the turnpike with the peas banked up against
D13 0720 the houses and covering the cars; Pennsylvania thus blanketed would
D13 0730 contain about a quintillion peas.   But we still have a long
D13 0740 way to go. Next we imagine our blizzard raging over all the land areas
D13 0750 of the entire globe- North America, South America, Europe, Asia,
D13 0760 and Africa, all covered with peas four feet deep; then we have
D13 0770 sextillion peas. Next we freeze over the oceans and cover the whole
D13 0780 earth with peas, then we go out among the neighboring stars, collect
D13 0790 250 planets each the size of the earth, and also cover each of these
D13 0800 with peas four feet deep; and then we have septillion. Finally we
D13 0810 go into the farthest reaches of the Milky Way; we get 250,000 planets;
D13 0820 we cover each of these with our blanket of peas and then at last
D13 0830 we have octillion peas corresponding in number to the atoms in the body.
D13 0840 So you see how small an atom is and how complicated you are. #A
D13 0850 SPECK- AND SPACE# Now although an atom is small, we can still in
D13 0860 imagination have a look at it. Let us focus on an atom of calcium from
D13 0870 the tip of the bone of my finger and let us suppose that I swallow
D13 0880 a magic <Alice in Wonderland> growing pill. I start growing rapidly
D13 0890 and this calcium atom grows along with me. I shoot up through the
D13 0900 roof, into the sky, past the clouds, through the stratosphere, out beyond
D13 0910 the moon, out among the planets, until I am over a hundred and
D13 0920 fifty million miles long. Then this atom of calcium will swell to something
D13 0930 like a great balloon a hundred yards across, a balloon big enough
D13 0940 to put a football field inside. And if you should step inside of such
D13 0950 a magnified atom, according to the physics of forty years ago, you
D13 0960 would see circulating over your head, down at the sides, and under your
D13 0970 feet, some twenty luminous balls about the size of footballs. These
D13 0980 balls are moving in great circles and ellipses, and are of course, the
D13 0990 electrons, the particles of negative electricity which by their action
D13 1000 create the forces that tie this atom of calcium to the neighboring
D13 1010 atoms of oxygen and make up the solid structure of my finger bone.
D13 1020    Since these electrons are moving like planets, you may wonder whether
D13 1030 there is an atomic sun at the center of the atom. So you look down
D13 1040 there and you see a tiny, whirling point about the size of the head
D13 1050 of a pin. This is the atomic sun, the atomic nucleus. Even if the
D13 1060 atom were big enough to hold a football field, this nucleus is still
D13 1070 only about the size of a pinhead. It is this atomic nucleus that contains
D13 1080 the positive charge of electricity holding these negatively charged
D13 1090 electrons in their orbits; it also contains nearly all the mass,
D13 1100 and the atomic energy.   You may ask what else there is, and the
D13 1110 answer is nothing- nothing but empty space. And since you are made
D13 1120 of atoms, you are nothing much but empty space, too. If I could put
D13 1130 your body in an imaginary atomic press and squeeze you down, squeeze
D13 1140 these holes out of you in the way we squeeze the holes out of a sponge,
D13 1150 you would get smaller and smaller until finally when the last hole
D13 1160 was gone, you would be smaller than the smallest speck of dust that you
D13 1170 could see on this piece of paper. Someone has remarked that this is
D13 1180 certainly the ultimate in reducing. At any rate, it shows us how immaterial
D13 1190 we are. #MUSIC OF THE SPHERES# Now this 1920 view of the
D13 1200 atom was on the whole a discouraging picture. For we believed that the
D13 1210 electrons
D13 1220 obeyed the law of mechanics and electrodynamics; and therefore
D13 1230 the atom was really just a little machine; and in mechanics the
D13 1240 whole is no more than the sum of the parts. So if you are made of
D13 1250 atoms, you are just a big machine; and since the universe is also made
D13 1260 of atoms, it is just a supermachine. And this would mean that we
D13 1270 live in a mechanistic universe, governed by the laws of cause and effect,
D13 1280 bound in chains of determinism that hold the universe on a completely
D13 1290 predetermined course in which there is not room for soul or spirit
D13 1300 or human freedom. And this is why so many scientists a half a century
D13 1310 ago were agnostics or atheists.   Then came the scientific revolution
D13 1320 in the late 1920's. A suggestion from Louis de Broglie, a
D13 1330 physicist in France, showed us that these electrons are not point particles
D13 1340 but waves. And to see the meaning of this new picture, imagine
D13 1350 that you can put on more powerful glasses and go back inside the atom
D13 1360 and have a look at it in the way we view it today. Now as you step
D13 1370 inside, instead of seeing particles orbiting around like planets, you
D13 1380 see waves and ripples very much like the ripples that you get on the surface
D13 1390 of a pond when you drop a stone into it. These ripples spread
D13 1400 out in symmetrical patterns like the rose windows of a great cathedral.
D13 1410 And as the waves flow back and forth and merge with the waves from
D13 1420 the neighboring atoms, you can put on a magic hearing aid and you hear
D13 1430 music. It is a music like the music from a great organ or a vast orchestra
D13 1440 playing a symphony. Harmony, melody, counterpoint symphonic structure
D13 1450 are there; and as this music ebbs and flows, there is an antiphonal
D13 1460 chorus from all the atoms outside, in fact from the atoms of
D13 1470 the entire universe. And so today when we examine the structure of our
D13 1480 knowledge of the atom and of the universe, we are forced to conclude
D13 1490 that the best word to describe our universe is <music>.
D13 1500    The Island of Nantucket, part of the State of Massachusetts,
D13 1510 lies about thirty-one miles southeast of its mother State. Some of
D13 1520 the Island is sand and is not suitable for living. The Island folk
D13 1530 have their living almost entirely from summer visitors; the rest is
D13 1540 obtained from harbor scallops. During about three and a half months
D13 1550 of the year, in the summer, there are three boats that run from the mainland
D13 1560 to the Island carrying passengers, food, and cars; but the
D13 1570 rest of the year only one boat is needed, which ties up at the mainland
D13 1580 nights and makes the trip down to Nantucket in the daytime. This
D13 1590 is a fine trip, too, on a good day. With Martha's Vineyard on one
D13 1600 side and the open sea on the other, it makes an excellent trip of about
D13 1610 three hours.
D14 0010    TO WHAT extent and in what ways did Christianity affect
D14 0020 the United States of America in the nineteenth century? How far
D14 0030 and in what fashion did it modify the new nation which was emerging
D14 0040 in the midst of the forces shaping the revolutionary age? To what
D14 0050 extent did it mould the morals and the social, economic, and political
D14 0060 life and institutions of the country?   A complete picture is
D14 0070 impossible- partly because of the limitations of space, partly because
D14 0080 for millions of individuals who professed allegiance to the Christian
D14 0090 faith data are unobtainable. Even more of an obstacle is the difficulty
D14 0100 of separating the influence of Christianity from other factors.
D14 0110    Although a complete picture cannot be given, we can indicate
D14 0120 some aspects of life into which the Christian faith entered as at
D14 0130 least one creative factor. At times we can say that it was the major
D14 0140 factor.   What in some ways was the most important aspect was the
D14 0150 impact individually on the millions who constituted the nation. As
D14 0160 we have seen, a growing proportion, although in 1914 still a minority,
D14 0170 were members of churches. Presumably those who did not have a formal
D14 0180 church connexion had also felt the influence of Christianity to a greater
D14 0190 or less extent. Many of them had once been members of a church
D14 0200 or at least had been given instruction in Christianity but for one or
D14 0210 another reason had allowed the connexion to lapse. The form of Christianity
D14 0220 to which they were exposed was for some the Protestantism of
D14 0230 the older stock, for others the Protestantism of the nineteenth-century
D14 0240 immigration; for still others, mostly of the nineteenth-century
D14 0250 immigration, it was Roman Catholicism, and for a small minority it was
D14 0260 Eastern Orthodoxy. Upon all of them played the intellectual, social,
D14 0270 political, and economic attitudes, institutions, and customs of the
D14 0280 nation. Upon most of these Christianity had left an impress and through
D14 0290 them had had a share in making the individual what he was. Yet
D14 0300 to determine precisely to what extent and exactly in what ways any individual
D14 0310 showed the effects of Christianity would be impossible. At
D14 0320 best only an approximation could be arrived at. To generalize for the
D14 0330 entire nation would be absurd. For instance, we cannot know whether
D14 0340 even for church members the degree of conformity to Christian standards
D14 0350 of morality increased or declined as the proportion of church members
D14 0360 in the population rose. The temptation is to say that, as the percentage
D14 0370 of church members mounted, the degree of discipline exercised
D14 0380 by the churches lessened and the trend was towards conformity to the general
D14 0390 level. Yet this cannot be proved. We know that in the early part
D14 0400 of the century many Protestant congregations took positive action
D14 0410 against members who transgressed the ethical codes to which the majority
D14 0420 subscribed. Thus Baptist churches on the frontier took cognizance
D14 0430 of charges against their members of drunkenness, fighting, malicious
D14 0440 gossip, lying, cheating, sexual irregularities, gambling, horse racing,
D14 0450 and failure to pay just debts. If guilty, the offender might be excluded
D14 0460 from membership. As church membership burgeoned, such measures
D14 0470 faded into desuetude. But whether this was accompanied by a general
D14 0480 lowering of the moral life of the membership we do not know.   What
D14 0490 we can attempt with some hope of dependable conclusions is to point
D14 0500 out the manner in which Christianity entered into particular aspects
D14 0510 of the life of the nation. We have already hinted at the fashion in
D14 0520 which Christianity contributed to education and so to intellectual life.
D14 0530 We will now speak of the ways in which it helped shape the ideals
D14 0540 of the country and of the manner in which it stimulated efforts to attain
D14 0550 those ideals through reform movements, through programmes for bringing
D14 0560 the collective life to the nation to conformity to Christian standards,
D14 0570 and through leaders in the government.   Throughout the
D14 0580 nineteenth century Christianity exerted its influence on American
D14 0590 society as a whole primarily through the Protestantism of the older stock.
D14 0600 By the end of the century the Roman Catholic Church was beginning
D14 0610 to make itself felt, mainly through such institutions as hospitals
D14 0620 but also through its attitude towards organized labour. In the twentieth
D14 0630 century its influence grew, as did that of the Protestantism of
D14 0640 the nineteenth-century immigration. #THE AMERICAN DREAM# The ideals
D14 0650 of the country were deeply indebted to the Protestantism of the
D14 0660 older stock. Thus "America", the most widely sung of the patriotic
D14 0670 songs, was written by a New England Baptist clergyman, Samuel Francis
D14 0680 Smith (1808-1895), while a student in Andover Theological
D14 0690 Seminary. With its zeal for liberty and its dependence on God it
D14 0700 breathed the spirit which had been nourished on the Evangelical revivals.
D14 0710 The great seal of the United States was obviously inspired by
D14 0720 the Christian faith. Here was what was called the American dream, namely,
D14 0730 the effort to build a structure which would be something new in
D14 0740 history and to do so in such fashion that God could bless it. Later
D14 0750 in the century the dream again found expression in the lines of Katherine
D14 0760 Lee Bates (1859-1929), daughter and granddaughter of New England
D14 0770 Congregational ministers, in her widely sung hymn, written in
D14 0780 1893, "America the Beautiful", with the words "O beautiful
D14 0790 for pilgrim feet whose stern impassioned stress a thoroughfare for freedom
D14 0800 beat across the wilderness. America, America, God mend
D14 0810 thy every flaw, confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law
D14 0820 **h. O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years thine
D14 0830 alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears. America, America,
D14 0840 God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from
D14 0850 sea to shining sea".   The American dream was compounded of
D14 0860 many strains. Some were clearly of Christian origin, among them the
D14 0870 Great Awakening and other revivals which helped to make Christian
D14 0880 liberty, Christian equality, and Christian fraternity the passion of
D14 0890 the land. Some have seen revivalism and the search for Christian perfection
D14 0900 as the fountain-head of the American hope. Here, too, must
D14 0910 be placed Unitarianism and, less obviously from Christian inspiration,
D14 0920 Emerson, Transcendentalism, and the idealism of Walt Whitman. We
D14 0930 must also remember those who reacted against the dream as a kind of
D14 0940 myth- among them Melville, Hawthorne, and Henry James the elder,
D14 0950 all of them out of a Christian background. #REFORM MOVEMENTS# With
D14 0960 such a dream arising, at least in part, from the Protestant heritage
D14 0970 of the United States and built into the foundations of the nation,
D14 0980 it is not surprising that many efforts were made to give it concrete
D14 0990 expression. A number were in the nature of movements to relieve or
D14 1000 remove social ills.   Significantly, the initiation and leadership
D14 1010 of a major proportion of the reform movements, especially those in
D14 1020 the first half of the nineteenth century, came from men and women of
D14 1030 New England birth or parentage and from either Trinitarian or Unitarian
D14 1040 Congregationalism. Several of the movements were given a marked
D14 1050 impetus by revivalism. Quakers, some from New England, had a larger
D14 1060 share than their proportionate numerical strength would have warranted.
D14 1070 We do well to remind ourselves that from men and women of New England
D14 1080 ancestry also issued the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
D14 1090 Day Saints, the Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Science, the
D14 1100 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American
D14 1110 Home Missionary Society, the American Bible Society, and New
D14 1120 England theology. The atmosphere was one of optimism, of confidence
D14 1130 in human progress, and of a determination to rid the world of its ills.
D14 1140 The Hopkinsian universal disinterested benevolence, although holding
D14 1150 to original sin and the doctrine of election, inspired its adherents
D14 1160 to heroic endeavours for others, looked for the early coming of the
D14 1170 Millennium, and was paralleled by the confidence in man's ability
D14 1180 cherished by the Unitarians, Emerson, and the Transcendentalists.
D14 1190    We should recall the number of movements for the service of mankind
D14 1200 which arose from the kindred Evangelicalism of the British Isles
D14 1210 and the Pietism of the Continent of Europe- among them prison
D14 1220 reform, anti-slavery measures, legislation for the alleviation of conditions
D14 1230 of labour, the Inner Mission, and the Red Cross.   We
D14 1240 cannot take the space to record all the efforts for the removal or alleviation
D14 1250 of collective ills. A few of the more prominent must serve
D14 1260 as examples of what a complete listing and description would disclose.
D14 1270 Several were born in the early decades and persisted throughout the
D14 1280 century. Others were ephemeral. Some disappeared with the attainment
D14 1290 of their purpose. Still others sprang up late in the century to meet
D14 1300 conditions which arose from fresh stages of the revolutionary age. #THE
D14 1310 ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT# The movement to end Negro slavery began
D14 1320 before 1815 and mounted after that year until, as a result of the Civil
D14 1330 War, emancipation was achieved.   Long before 1815 the Christian
D14 1340 conscience was leading some to declare slavery wrong and to act
D14 1350 accordingly. For example, in 1693 the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
D14 1360 of Friends declared that its members should emancipate their slaves
D14 1370 and in 1776 it determined to exclude from membership all who did not
D14 1380 comply. In the latter year Samuel Hopkins, from whom the Hopkinsian
D14 1390 strain of New England theology took its name, asked the Continental
D14 1400 Congress to abolish slavery. As we have seen, Methodism early took
D14 1410 a stand against slavery. Beginning at least as far back as 1789 various
D14 1420 Baptist bodies condemned slavery.   After 1815 anti-slavery
D14 1430 sentiment mounted, chiefly among Protestants and those of Protestant
D14 1440 background of the older stock. The nineteenth-century immigration,
D14 1450 whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, was not so much concerned,
D14 1460 for very few if any among them held slaves: they were mostly in the
D14 1470 Northern states where slavery had disappeared or was on the way out,
D14 1480 or were too poverty-stricken to own slaves.   The anti-slavery movement
D14 1490 took many forms. Benjamin Lundy (1789-1839), a Quaker, was
D14 1500 a pioneer in preparing the way for anti-slavery societies. It was
D14 1510 he who turned the attention of William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879)
D14 1520 to the subject. Garrison, Massachusetts born of Nova Scotian parentage,
D14 1530 was by temperament and conviction a reformer. Chiefly remembered
D14 1540 because of his incessant advocacy of "immediate and unconditional
D14 1550 abolition", he also espoused a great variety of other causes- among
D14 1560 them women's rights, prohibition, and justice to the Indians. Incurably
D14 1570 optimistic, dogmatic, and utterly fearless, in his youth a devout
D14 1580 Baptist, in spite of his friendship for the Quaker poet John
D14 1590 Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) he eventually attacked the orthodox
D14 1600 churches for what he deemed their cowardly compromising on the slavery
D14 1610 issue and in his invariably ardent manner was emphatically unorthodox
D14 1620 and denied the plenary inspiration of the Bible.   A marked
D14 1630 impulse came to the anti-slavery movement through the Finney revivals.
D14 1640 Finney himself, while opposed to slavery, placed his chief emphasis
D14 1650 on evangelism, but from his converts issued much of the leadership of
D14 1660 the anti-slavery campaign. Theodore Dwight Weld (1803-1895) was
D14 1670 especially active. Weld was the son and grandson of New England Congregational
D14 1680 ministers. As a youth he became one of Finney's band
D14 1690 of evangelists and gave himself to winning young men. A strong temperance
D14 1700 advocate, through the influence of a favorite teacher, Charles
D14 1710 Stewart, another Finney convert, he devoted himself to the anti-slavery
D14 1720 cause. A group of young men influenced by him enrolled in Lane Theological
D14 1730 Seminary and had to leave because of their open anti-slavery
D14 1740 position. The majority then went to the infant Oberlin. They and
D14 1750 others employed some of Finney's techniques as they sought to win
D14 1760 adherents to the cause. Weld contributed to the anti-slavery convictions
D14 1770 of such men as Joshua R& Giddings and Edwin M& Stanton,
D14 1780 enlisted John Quincy Adams, and helped provide ideas which underlay
D14 1790 Harriet Beecher Stowe's <Uncle Tom's Cabin>. He shunned
D14 1800 publicity for himself and sought to avoid fame.   Wendell Phillips
D14 1810 (1811-1884), from a prominent Massachusetts family, in his teens
D14 1820 was converted under the preaching of Lyman Beecher. Although he
D14 1830 later broke with the churches because he believed that they were insufficiently
D14 1840 outspoken against social evils, he remained a devout Christian.
D14 1850 He was remembered chiefly for his fearless advocacy of abolition,
D14 1860 but he also stood for equal rights for women, for opportunity for the
D14 1870 freedmen, and for prohibition.   The anti-slavery movement and
D14 1880 other contemporary reforms and philanthropies were given leadership
D14 1890 and financial undergirding by Arthur Tappan (1786-1865) and his younger
D14 1900 brother, Lewis Tappan (1788-1873).
D15 0010    Individuals possessing unusual gifts and great personal power
D15 0020 were transmuted at death into awesome spirits; they were almost immediately
D15 0030 worshipped for these newer, even more terrible abilities. Their
D15 0040 direct descendants inherited not only their worldly fortunes, but also
D15 0050 the mandate of their newfound power as spirits in the other half of
D15 0060 the universe. Royal lineages could be based on extraordinary worldly
D15 0070 achievements translated into eternal otherworldly power.   Thus,
D15 0080 the emperor could draw on sources not available to those with less
D15 0090 puissant ancestors. But this eminence was not without its weighty
D15 0095 responsibilities.
D15 0100 Since he possessed more power in an interdependent universe
D15 0110 of living beings and dead spirits, the emperor had to use it for
D15 0120 the benefit of the living. The royal ritual generated power into the
D15 0130 other world: it also provided the living with a way to control the
D15 0140 spirits, and bring their powers directly to bear on the everyday affairs
D15 0150 of the world. Proper ritual observance at any level of society was
D15 0160 capable of generating power for use in the spirit world; but naturally,
D15 0170 the royal ritual, which provided unusual control over already supremely
D15 0180 powerful divine spirits, was held responsible for regulating the
D15 0190 universe and insuring the welfare of the kingdom.   This is the
D15 0200 familiar system of "cosmic government". The Chinese emperor, by
D15 0210 proper observance of ritual, manifested divine powers. He regulated
D15 0220 the dualities of light and darkness, <Yang> and <Yin>, which are
D15 0230 locked in eternal struggle. By swaying the balance between them, he
D15 0240 effected the alternation of the seasons. His power was so great that
D15 0250 he even promoted and demoted gods according to whether they had given
D15 0260 ear or been deaf to petitions.   In this system, no man is exempt
D15 0270 from obligations. Failure in daily moral and ethical duties to one's
D15 0280 family, outrages to community propriety, any departure from rigid
D15 0290 standards of moral excellence were offenses against the dead. And to
D15 0300 offend the dead meant to incur their wrath, and thus provoke the unleashing
D15 0310 of countrywide disasters. The family home was, in fact, a temple;
D15 0320 and the daily duties of individuals were basically religious in
D15 0330 nature. The dead spirits occupied a prominent place in every hope and
D15 0340 in every fear.   The common belief was that there existed one
D15 0350 moral order, which included everything. The dead controlled the material
D15 0360 prosperity of the living, and the living adhered to strict codes of
D15 0370 conduct in order not to weaken that control. Men believed they could
D15 0380 control nature by obeying a moral code. If the moral code were flouted,
D15 0390 the proper balance of the universe would be upset, and the disastrous
D15 0400 result could be floods, plague, or famine.   Modern Westerners
D15 0410 have difficulty comprehending this fusion of moral and material,
D15 0420 largely because in the West the historical trend has been to deny the
D15 0430 connection. Living in urban conditions, away from the deadweight of
D15 0440 village constraint and the constrictions of a thatched-roof world view,
D15 0450 the individual may find it possible, say, to commit adultery not only
D15 0460 without personal misgivings, but also without suffering any adverse
D15 0470 effects in his worldly fortunes. Basing action on the empirical determination
D15 0480 of cause and effect provides a toughness and bravado that no
D15 0490 powerful otherworldly ancestor could ever impart- plus the added liberation
D15 0500 from the constraint of silent burial urns.   In China,
D15 0510 the magical system par excellence was Taoism. The Taoists were Quietist
D15 0520 mystics, who saw an unchanging unity- the Tao- underlying
D15 0530 all phenomena. It was this timeless unity that was all-important, and
D15 0540 not its temporary manifestations in the world of reality. The Taoists
D15 0550 believed the unity could be influenced by proper magical manipulation;
D15 0560 in other words, they were actually an organization of magicians.
D15 0570    Mahayana Buddhism was no exception to these prevailing magical
D15 0580 concepts. After this form of Indian Buddhism had been introduced
D15 0590 into China, it underwent extensive changes. During its flowering in
D15 0600 the sixth to the eighth centuries, Mahayana offered a supernatural package
D15 0610 to the Chinese which bears no resemblance to the highly digested
D15 0620 philosophical Zen morsels offered to the modern Western reader. Mahayana
D15 0630 had gods, and magic, a pantheon, heavens and hells, and gorgeously
D15 0640 appareled priests, monks, and nuns, all of whom wielded power over
D15 0650 souls in the other world. The self-realized Mahayana saint possessed
D15 0660 superhuman powers and magic. The Mahayana that developed in the
D15 0670 north was a religion of idolatry and coarse magic, that made the world
D15 0680 into a huge magical garden. In its monastic form, Mahayana was merely
D15 0690 an organization of magic-practicing monks (<bonzes>), who catered
D15 0700 to the Chinese faith in the supernatural.   Nonmagical Confucianism
D15 0710 was a secular, rational philosophy, but even with this different
D15 0720 orientation it could not escape from the ethos of a cosmic government.
D15 0730 Confucianism had its own magic in the idea that virtue had power.
D15 0740 If a man lived a classical life, he need not fear the spirits- for
D15 0750 only lack of virtue gave the spirits power over him. But let us not be
D15 0760 mistaken about Confucian "virtue"; this was not virtue as we
D15 0770 understand the word today, and it did not mean an abandonment of the belief
D15 0780 in magic manipulation. To the Confucian, "virtue" simply meant
D15 0790 mastery and correct observance of three hundred major rules of ritual
D15 0800 and three thousand minor ones. Propriety was synonymous with ritual
D15 0810 observance, the mark of a true gentleman. To live correctly in an
D15 0820 interdependent moral and material universe of living and dead was decisive
D15 0830 for man's fate.   This, in brief, was the historical background
D15 0840 out of which Zen emerged. Promoters of Zen to the West record
D15 0850 its ancestry, and recognize that Zen grew out of a combination of
D15 0860 Taoism and Indian Mahayana Buddhism. But the "marvelous person"
D15 0870 that is supposed to result from Zen exhibits more Chinese practicality
D15 0880 than Indian speculation- he possesses magical powers, and can
D15 0890 use them to order nature and to redeem souls. Proponents of Zen to
D15 0900 the West emphasize disproportionately the amount of Mahayana Buddhism
D15 0910 in Zen, probably in order to dignify the indisputably magical Taoist
D15 0920 ideas with more respectable Buddhist metaphysic. But in the Chinese
D15 0930 mind, there was little difference between the two- the <bonzes>
D15 0940 were no more metaphysical than a magician has to be.   Actually,
D15 0950 Zen owes more to Chinese Quietism than it does to Mahayana Buddhism.
D15 0960 The Ch'an (Zen) sect may have derived its metaphysic from
D15 0970 Mahayana, but its psychology was pure early Taoist. This is well
D15 0975 evidenced
D15 0980 by the Quietist doctrines carried over in Zen: the idea of
D15 0990 the inward turning of thought, the enjoinder to put aside desires and
D15 1000 perturbations so that a return to purity, peace, and stillness- a
D15 1010 union with the Infinite, with the Tao- could be effected. In fact,
D15 1020 the antipathy to outward ceremonies hailed by modern exponents as so
D15 1030 uniquely characteristic of the "direct thinking" Zennist was a feature
D15 1040 of Taoism. So, too, was the insistence on the relativity of the
D15 1050 external world, and the ideas that language and things perceived by
D15 1060 consciousness were poor substitutes indeed for immediate perception by
D15 1070 pure, indwelling spirit: the opposition of pure consciousness to ratiocinating
D15 1080 consciousness.   Zen maintains that cognitive things
D15 1090 are only the surface of experience. One of its features attractive
D15 1100 to the West is its irreverence for tradition and dogma and for sacred
D15 1110 texts. One patriarch is supposed to have relegated sacred scriptures
D15 1120 for use in an outhouse. But this is not the spirit of self-reliant freedom
D15 1130 of action for which the Westerner mistakes it. It is simply that
D15 1140 in Taoist tradition- as in all good mysticisms- books, words,
D15 1150 or any other manifestations that belong to the normal state of consciousness
D15 1160 are considered only the surface of experience. The truth- the
D15 1170 Eternal Truth- is not transmittable by words. Reality is considered
D15 1180 not only irrelevant to the acquisition of higher knowledge, but
D15 1190 a positive handicap. The technique of reality confusion- the use of
D15 1200 paradox and riddles to shake the mind's grip on reality- originated
D15 1210 with fourth and third century B&C& Chinese Quietism: the
D15 1230 <koan> is not basically a new device.   It is important for an
D15 1240 understanding of Zen to realize that the esoteric preoccupations of
D15 1250 the select few cannot be the doctrine of the common man. In the supernatural
D15 1260 atmosphere of cosmic government, only the ruling elite was ever
D15 1270 concerned with a kingdom-wide ordering of nature: popular religion
D15 1280 aimed at more personal benefits from magical powers. And this is only
D15 1290 natural- witness the haste with which modern man gobbles the latest
D15 1300 "wonder drug". Early Chinese anchoritism was theoretically aimed
D15 1310 at a mystic pantheist union with the divine, personal salvation being
D15 1320 achieved when the mystical recluse united with divine essence. But
D15 1330 this esoteric doctrine was lost in the shuffle to acquire special powers.
D15 1340 The anchorite strove, in fact, to magically influence the world
D15 1350 of spirits in the same way that the divine emperor manifested his power.
D15 1360 Thus, the Mahayana metaphysic of mystical union for salvation was
D15 1370 distilled down to a bare self-seeking, and for this reason, the mystic
D15 1380 in Asia did not long remain in isolated contemplation. As the Zen
D15 1390 literature reveals, as soon as an early Zen master attained fame in
D15 1400 seclusion, he was called out into the world to exercise his powers.
D15 1410 The early anchorite masters attracted disciples because of their presumed
D15 1420 ability to perform miracles.   Exponents of Zen often insist
D15 1430 that very early Zen doctrine opposed the rampant supernaturalism
D15 1440 of China, and proposed instead a more mature, less credulous view of
D15 1450 the universe. In support of this, stories from the early literature are
D15 1460 cited to show that Zen attacks the idea of supernatural power. But
D15 1470 actually these accounts reveal the supernatural powers that the masters
D15 1480 were in fact supposed to possess, as well as the extreme degree of
D15 1490 popular credulity: "Hwang Pah (O baku), one day going up Mount
D15 1500 Tien Tai **h which was believed to have been inhabited by Arhats
D15 1510 with supernatural powers, met with a monk whose eyes emitted strange light.
D15 1520 They went along the pass talking with each other for a short while
D15 1530 until they came to a river roaring with torrent. There being no bridge,
D15 1540 the master had to stop at the shore; but his companion crossed
D15 1550 the river walking on the water and beckoned to Hwang Pah to follow
D15 1560 him. Thereupon Hwang Pah said: "If I knew thou art an Arhat,
D15 1570 I would have doubled you up before thou got over there"! The monk
D15 1580 then understood the spiritual attainment of Hwang Pah, and praised
D15 1590 him as a true Mahayanist. (1)"   A second tale shows still
D15 1610 more clearly the kind of powers a truly spiritual monk could possess:
D15 1620 "On one occasion Yang Shan (Kyo-zan) saw a stranger monk flying
D15 1630 through the air. When that monk came down and approached him with a
D15 1640 respectful salutation, he asked: "Where art thou from"? "Early
D15 1650 this morning", replied the other, "I set out from India".
D15 1660 "Why", said the teacher, "art thou so late"? "I stopped",
D15 1670 responded the man, "several times to look at beautiful sceneries".
D15 1680 "Thou mayst have supernatural powers", exclaimed Yang Shan,
D15 1690 "yet thou must give back the Spirit of Buddha to me". Then
D15 1700 the monk praised Yang Shan saying: "I have come over to China
D15 1710 in order to worship Manjucri, and met unexpectedly with Minor Shakya",
D15 1720 and after giving the master some palm leaves he brought from India,
D15 1730 went back through the air. (2)"   In the popular Chinese
D15 1740 mind, Ch'an (Zen) was no exception to the ideas of coarse magic that
D15 1750 dominated.   A closer look at modern Zen reveals many magical
D15 1760 carryovers that are still part of popular Zen attitudes. To the
D15 1770 Zen monk the universe is still populated with "spiritual beings"
D15 1780 who have to be appeased. Part of the mealtime ritual in the Zendo consists
D15 1790 in offerings of rice to the spiritual beings". Modern Zen presentation
D15 1800 to the West insists on the anti-authoritarian, highly pragmatic
D15 1810 nature of the Zen belief- scriptures are burned to make fire,
D15 1820 action is based on direct self-confidence, and so on. This picture
D15 1830 of extreme self-reliant individuation is difficult to reconcile with such
D15 1840 Zendo formulas as: "O you, demons and other spiritual beings,
D15 1850 I now offer this to you, and may this food fill up the ten quarters
D15 1860 of the world and all the demons and other spiritual beings be fed therewith.
D15 1870 (3)"
D16 0010    Pope Leo /13,, on the 13th day of December 1898, granted
D16 0020 the following indulgences: "An indulgence of three hundred days is
D16 0030 granted to all the Faithful who read the Holy Gospels at least a
D16 0040 quarter of an hour. A Plenary Indulgence under the usual conditions
D16 0050 is granted once a month for the daily reading". Pope Pius the Sixth,
D16 0060 at Rome, in april, 1778, wrote the following: "The faithful
D16 0070 should be excited to the reading of the Holy Scriptures: For these
D16 0080 are the most abundant sources which ought to be left open to everyone,
D16 0090 to draw from them purity of morals and of doctrine, to eradicate
D16 0100 errors which are so widely disseminated in these corrupt times". The
D16 0110 American Bishops assembled at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore
D16 0120 urged the Catholic people to read the Holy Bible. "We hope",
D16 0130 they said, "that no family can be found amongst us without a
D16 0140 correct version of the Holy Scriptures". They recommended, also,
D16 0150 that "at a fixed hour, let the entire family be assembled for night
D16 0160 prayers, followed by a short reading of the Holy Scriptures".
D16 0170    Since the Catholic Church expresses such desire that the Sacred
D16 0180 Scriptures be read, the following taken from the Holy Bible (New
D16 0190 Catholic Edition) will prove a means of grace and a source of great
D16 0200 spiritual blessing. #THE NEED OF THE NEW BIRTH# Do not wonder that
D16 0210 I said to thee, "You must be born again". St& John 3:7.
D16 0220 _THE NEW BIRTH IS NECESSARY BECAUSE GOD IS HOLY._ But as the One
D16 0230 who called you is holy, be you also holy in all your behavior; for
D16 0240 it is written, You shall be holy, because I am holy. /1, St& Peter
D16 0250 1:15, 16.   Holiness without which no man will see God.
D16 0260 Hebrews 12:14. _THE NEW BIRTH IS NECESSARY BECAUSE ALL HAVE SINNED._
D16 0270 As it is written, There is not one just man; there is none
D16 0280 who understands; there is none who seeks after God. All have gone
D16 0290 astray together; **h All have sinned and have need of the glory of
D16 0300 God. Romans 3:10-12, 23. _THE NEW BIRTH IS NECESSARY BECAUSE THE
D16 0310 NATURAL MAN IS SPIRITUALLY DEAD AND BLIND._ Therefore as through
D16 0320 one man sin entered into the world and through sin death, and thus death
D16 0330 has passed unto all men because all have sinned. Romans 5:12.
D16 0340    You also, when you were dead by reason of your offenses and sins.
D16 0350 Ephesians 2:1.   And if our gospel also is veiled, it is veiled
D16 0360 only to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this
D16 0370 world [Satan] has blinded their unbelieving minds, that they should
D16 0380 not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image
D16 0390 of God. /2, Corinthians 4:3, 4.   For his workmanship
D16 0400 we are, created in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:10. _THE NEW BIRTH
D16 0410 IS EFFECTED THROUGH THE WORD OF GOD_ For you have been reborn,
D16 0420 not from corruptible seed but from incorruptible, through the word of
D16 0430 God. /1, St& Peter 1:23.   Of his own will he has begotten
D16 0440 us by the word of truth. St& James 1:18.   Amen, amen,
D16 0450 I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water [symbol of the
D16 0460 Word of God, see Ephesians 5:26] and the Spirit, he cannot enter
D16 0470 into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
D16 0480 and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. St& John 3:5,
D16 0490 6. #EVIDENCES OF THE NEW BIRTH# _IF WE ARE BORN OF GOD WE HAVE
D16 0500 FAITH IN CHRIST AS THE ONLY SAVIOUR._ Everyone who believes that
D16 0510 Jesus is the Christ is born of God. /1, St& John 5:1.
D16 0520    As many as received him **h were born **h of God. St& John 1:12,
D16 0530 13. _IF WE ARE BORN OF GOD WE DO NOT PRACTICE SIN AS A HABIT._
D16 0540 Whoever is born of God does not commit sin [That is, he does not
D16 0550 practice sin. Cf& /1, St& John 2:1]. /1, St& John 3:9.
D16 0560    We know that no one who is born of God commits sin. /1,
D16 0570 St& John 5:18. [The new nature, received at the time of regeneration,
D16 0580 is divine and holy, and as the believer lives under the power
D16 0590 of this new nature he does not practice sin.] _IF WE ARE BORN OF
D16 0600 GOD WE PRACTICE RIGHTEOUSNESS._ If you know that he [God] is just
D16 0610 [righteous], know that everyone also who does what is just [righteous]
D16 0620 has been born of him. /1, St& John 2:29. _IF WE ARE
D16 0630 BORN OF GOD WE LOVE GOD._ Everyone who loves is born of God, and
D16 0640 knows God. /1, St& John 4:7. _IF WE ARE BORN OF GOD WE LOVE
D16 0650 THE BRETHREN._ We know that we have passed from death to life, because
D16 0660 we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. /1,
D16 0670 St& John 3:14. _IF WE ARE BORN OF GOD WE OVERCOME THE WORLD._
D16 0680 All that is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory
D16 0690 that overcomes the world, our faith. /1, St& John 5:4.
D16 0700 _IF WE ARE BORN OF GOD WE GROW IN [NOT INTO, BUT IN] GRACE._ But
D16 0710 grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
D16 0720 /2, St& Peter 3:18. _IF WE ARE BORN OF GOD WE PERSEVERE UNTO
D16 0730 THE END._ I am convinced of this, that he who has begun a good work
D16 0740 in you will bring it to perfection until the day of Christ Jesus.
D16 0750 Philippians 1:6.   Now to him who is able to preserve you without
D16 0760 sin and to set you before the presence of his glory, without blemish,
D16 0770 in gladness, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ
D16 0780 our Lord, belong glory and majesty, dominion and authority, before
D16 0790 all time, and now, and forever. St& Jude 24. _THE NEW BIRTH IS
D16 0800 NECESSARY BECAUSE THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM REQUIRES A SPIRITUAL NATURE._
D16 0810 Jesus answered and said to him [Nicodemus] "Amen, amen, I say
D16 0820 to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God".
D16 0830 **h "Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again
D16 0840 of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That
D16 0850 which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
D16 0860 the Spirit is spirit. Do not wonder that I said to thee, 'You must
D16 0870 be born again'". St& John 3:3, 5-7. #THE NATURE OF THE
D16 0880 NEW BIRTH# _THE NEW BIRTH IS A NEW CREATION._ For in Christ Jesus
D16 0890 neither circumcision nor uncircumcision but a new creation is of
D16 0900 any account. Galatians 6:15.   If then any man is in Christ,
D16 0910 he is a new creature [literally, "He is a new creation"], the
D16 0920 former things have passed away; behold, they are made new! /2, Corinthians
D16 0930 5:17.   For by grace you have been saved through faith;
D16 0940 and that not from yourselves, for it is the gift of God; not
D16 0950 as the outcome of works, lest anyone may boast. For his workmanship
D16 0960 we are, created in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-10. _THE NEW BIRTH
D16 0970 IS THE IMPLANTATION OF A NEW LIFE._ I came that they may have life.
D16 0980 St& John 10:10.   He who has the Son has the life. He
D16 0990 who has not the Son has not the life. /1, St& John 5:12.
D16 1000    He who believes in the Son [Jesus Christ, the Son of God],
D16 1010 has everlasting life. St& John 3:36. _THE NEW BIRTH IS THE
D16 1020 IMPARTATION OF THE DIVINE NATURE._ Through which he has granted us
D16 1030 the very great and precious promises, so that through them you may become
D16 1040 partaker of the divine nature. /2, St& Peter 1:4. _THE NEW
D16 1050 BIRTH IS CHRIST LIVING IN YOU BY FAITH._ Christ in you, your hope
D16 1060 of glory. Colossians 1:27.   It is now no longer I that live,
D16 1070 but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh,
D16 1080 I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
D16 1090 up for me. Galatians 2:20.   To have Christ dwelling through
D16 1100 faith in your hearts. Ephesians 3:17. _THE NEW BIRTH IS MIRACULOUS
D16 1110 AND MYSTERIOUS._ The wind blows where it will, and thou hearest
D16 1120 its sound but dost not know where it comes from or where it goes.
D16 1130 So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. St& John 3:8. _THE
D16 1140 NEW BIRTH IS IMMEDIATE AND INSTANTANEOUS._ Amen, amen, I say to
D16 1150 you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has life everlasting,
D16 1160 and does not come to judgment, but has passed from death to
D16 1170 life. St& John 5:24. #THE MEANS OF THE NEW BIRTH# _THE NEW
D16 1180 BIRTH IS A WORK OF GOD._ But to as many as received him he gave the
D16 1190 power of becoming sons of God; to those who believe in his name:
D16 1200 Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
D16 1210 will of man, but of God. St& John 1:12, 13. #A FINAL WORD#
D16 1220 You may be very religious, a good church member, an upright, honest
D16 1230 and sincere person; you may be baptized, confirmed, reverent and worshipful;
D16 1240 you may attend mass, do penance, say prayers and zealously
D16 1250 keep all the sacraments and ceremonies of the church; you may have
D16 1260 the final and extreme unction but if you are not born again you are lost
D16 1270 and headed for hell and eternal punishment. You cannot be saved;
D16 1280 you cannot go to heaven unless you are born again. Our blessed Lord
D16 1290 Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, who could not lie, said,
D16 1291 "Amen,
D16 1300 amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see
D16 1310 the kingdom of God" (St& John 3:3). "You must be born again"
D16 1320 (St& John 3:7).   Being convinced that salvation is
D16 1330 alone by accepting Christ as Saviour, and being convicted by the Holy
D16 1340 Spirit of my lost condition, I do repent of all effort to be saved
D16 1350 by any form of good works, and just now receive Jesus as my personal
D16 1360 Saviour and salvation as a free gift from Him.
D16 1365    YOU MAY DO AS YOU
D16 1370 PLEASE with God now. It is permitted. God placed Himself in men's
D16 1380 hands when He sent Jesus Christ into the world as perfect God
D16 1390 and perfect Man in one Being. He was then in man's hands. They
D16 1400 cursed Him. It was permitted. Men spit on Him. God allowed it.
D16 1410 They called Him a devil. God withheld His wrath. Finally men arrested
D16 1420 Him, gave Him a mock trial, flogged Him, nailed Him on a cross
D16 1430 and hung Him between earth and heaven; and God allowed it.
D16 1440    You can do likewise though Christ is not bodily present. You can
D16 1450 ignore Him. You can ignore His Book, the Bible, and His church.
D16 1451 You
D16 1460 can laugh at His blood-bought salvation, curse His followers, and
D16 1470 laugh at hell. It is permitted. The eternal Christ may knock at your
D16 1480 soul's door, calling you to give up sin and prepare for heaven.
D16 1490 You may refuse Him, spit on Him, call Him a devil, curse Him. It
D16 1500 is permitted. You may take His name upon your lips in oaths and curses
D16 1510 if you so choose. He is in your hands- <now>.   On the
D16 1520 other hand, you may seek His favor, humble yourself before Him and beg
D16 1530 His mercy, implore His forgiveness, forsake your sins, and abandon
D16 1540 your whole life to Him. He has said, "Behold, I stand at the door,
D16 1550 and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will
D16 1560 come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation
D16 1570 3:20). The choice is up to you. The latch is on your side of the
D16 1580 door. The choice is yours: the revellings and banquetings of this
D16 1590 world or quiet communion with God; the ever burning lusts of the flesh
D16 1600 or the powerful victory of Holy Spirit discipline. The choice is
D16 1610 yours: God is in your hands, <now>.   God has already set
D16 1620 the day when <you will be in His hands>. What He does with you <then>
D16 1630 depends on what you do with Him <now>. <Then> it will be
D16 1640 a "fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" if you
D16 1650 have abused Him in your hands.
D17 0010 I am a magazine; my name is Guideposts; this issue that you are
D17 0020 reading marks my 15th anniversary.   When I came into being, 15
D17 0030 years ago, I had one primary purpose: to help men and women everywhere
D17 0040 to know God better, and through knowing Him better to become happier
D17 0050 and more effective people. That purpose has never changed.
D17 0060    When you read me, you are holding in your hands the product of many
D17 0070 minds and hearts. Some of the people who speak through my pages are
D17 0080 famous; others unknown. Some work with their hands. Some have walked
D17 0090 through pain and sorrow to bring you their message of hope. Some
D17 0100 are so filled with gratitude, for the gift of life and the love of God,
D17 0110 that their joy spills out on the paper and brightens the lives of thousands
D17 0120 whom they have never known, and will never see.   Fifteen
D17 0130 years ago, there were no Guideposts at all. This month a million
D17 0140 Guideposts will circulate all over the world. Experts in the publishing
D17 0150 field consider this astounding. They do not understand how a small
D17 0160 magazine with no advertising and no newsstand sale could have achieved
D17 0170 such a following.   To me, the explanation is very simple. I
D17 0180 am not doing anything, of myself. I am merely a channel for **h <something>.
D17 0190    What is this something? I cannot define it fully.
D17 0200 It is the force in the universe that makes men love goodness, even
D17 0210 when they turn away from it. It is the power that holds the stars in
D17 0220 their orbits, but allows the wind to bend a blade of grass. It is the
D17 0230 whisper in the heart that urges each one to be better than he is. It
D17 0240 is mankind's wistful yearning for a world of justice and peace.
D17 0250    All things are possible to God, but He chooses- usually- to
D17 0260 work through people. Sometimes such people sense that they are being
D17 0270 used; sometimes not.   Fifteen years ago, troubled by the rising
D17 0280 tide of materialism in the post-war world, a businessman and a minister
D17 0290 asked themselves if there might not be a place for a small magazine
D17 0300 in which men and women, regardless of creed or color, could set
D17 0310 forth boldly their religious convictions and bear witness to the power
D17 0320 of faith to solve the endless problems of living.   The businessman
D17 0330 was Raymond Thornburg. The minister was Norman Vincent Peale.
D17 0340 Neither had any publishing experience, but they had faith in their
D17 0350 idea. They borrowed a typewriter, raised about $2,000 in contributions,
D17 0360 hired a secretary, persuaded a couple of young men to join them for
D17 0370 almost no pay **h and began mailing out a collection of unstapled leaflets
D17 0380 that they called Guideposts.   Compared to the big, established
D17 0390 magazines, my first efforts seemed feeble indeed. But from the
D17 0400 start they had two important ingredients: sincerity and realism. The
D17 0410 people who told the stories were sincere. And the stories they told
D17 0420 were true.   For example, early in my life, when one of my editorial
D17 0430 workers wanted to find out how churches and philanthropic organizations
D17 0440 met the needs of New York's down-and-outers, he didn't
D17 0450 just ask questions. Len LeSourd went and lived in the slums as a sidewalk
D17 0460 derelict for ten days.   That was nearly 13 years ago. Len
D17 0470 LeSourd is my executive editor today.   Many of you are familiar,
D17 0480 I'm sure, with the story of my early struggles: the fire
D17 0490 in January, 1947, that destroyed everything- even our precious list
D17 0500 of subscribers. The help and sympathy that were forthcoming from everywhere.
D17 0510 The crisis later on when debts seemed about to overwhelm me.
D17 0520    That was when a remarkable woman, Teresa Durlach, came to my
D17 0530 aid- not so much with money, as with wisdom and courage. "You're
D17 0540 not living up to your own principles", she told my discouraged people.
D17 0550 "You're so preoccupied that you've let your faith grow dim.
D17 0560 What do you want- a hundred thousand subscribers? Visualize
D17 0570 them, then, believe you are getting them, and you <will> have them"!
D17 0580    And the 100,000 subscribers became a reality. And then 500,000.
D17 0590 And now a million January Guideposts are in circulation.
D17 0600    With our growth came expansion into new fields of service. Today
D17 0610 more than a thousand industries distribute me to their employees. They
D17 0620 say all personnel have spiritual needs which Guideposts helps to
D17 0630 meet. Hundreds of civic clubs, business firms and individuals make me
D17 0640 available to school teachers throughout the land. They say it helps
D17 0650 them bring back into schools the spiritual and moral values on which this
D17 0660 country was built.   Thousands of free copies are sent each
D17 0670 month to chaplains in the Armed Forces, to prison libraries and to hospitals
D17 0680 everywhere. Bedridden people say I am easy to hold- and read.
D17 0690 Three years ago it became possible to finance a Braille edition
D17 0700 for blind readers.   Throughout these exciting years I have been
D17 0710 fortunate for, although I have never offered great financial inducements,
D17 0720 talent has found its way to me: William Boal who so ably organizes
D17 0730 business operations; John Beach who guides circulation;
D17 0740 Irving Granville and Nelson Rector who travel widely calling on business
D17 0750 firms.   Searching for the best in spiritual stories, my
D17 0760 roving editors cover not only the country, but the whole world. Glenn
D17 0770 Kittler has been twice to Africa, once spending a week with Dr&
D17 0780 Albert Schweitzer. Last summer John and Elizabeth Sherrill were
D17 0790 in Alaska. Van Varner recently returned from Russia.   Twice
D17 0800 a month the editorial staff meets in New York for an early supper,
D17 0810 then a long evening of idea-exchange. Around the table sit Protestant,
D17 0820 Catholic, and Jew. Each contributes something different, and something
D17 0830 important: Ruth Peale, her wide experience in church work;
D17 0840 Sidney Fields, years of experience as a New York columnist; Catherine
D17 0850 Marshall LeSourd the insight that has made her books world-famous
D17 0860 and Norm Mullendore, the keen perception of an advertising
D17 0870 executive.   There are people who travel long distances to assure
D17 0880 my continued existence. Elaine St& Johns may fly in from the West
D17 0890 Coast for the editorial staff meetings. Starr Jones gets up every
D17 0900 morning at five o'clock, milks his family cow, attends to farm chores,
D17 0910 and then takes a two-hour train trip to New York. Arthur Gordon
D17 0920 comes once a month all the way from Georgia.   We have also
D17 0930 seen the power of faith at work among us. Rose Weiss, who handles all
D17 0940 the prayer-requests that we receive, answering each letter personally,
D17 0950 has the serene selflessness that comes from suffering: she has had
D17 0960 many major operations, and now gets about in a limited way on braces
D17 0970 and crutches. Recently, John Sherrill was stricken with one of the
D17 0980 deadliest forms of cancer. We prayed for John, during surgery, we
D17 0990 asked others to pray; all over the country a massive shield of prayer
D17 1000 was thrown around him. Today the cancer is gone.   Perhaps it
D17 1010 is not fair to mention some people without mentioning all. But, you
D17 1020 see, those who are not mentioned will not resent it. That is the kind
D17 1030 of people they are.   Perhaps you think the editorial meetings
D17 1040 are solemn affairs, a little sanctimonious? Not so. Serious, yes,
D17 1050 but also much laughter. Sharp division of opinion, too, and strenuous
D17 1060 debate. There are brain-wracking searches for the right word, the best
D17 1070 phrase, the most helpful idea. And there is also something intangible
D17 1080 that hovers around the table. A good word for it is fellowship.
D17 1090 A shorter word is love.   Each meeting starts with a prayer, offered
D17 1100 spontaneously by one member of the group. It takes many forms,
D17 1110 this prayer, but in essence it is always a request for guidance, for open
D17 1120 minds and gentle hearts, for honesty and sincerity, for the wisdom
D17 1130 and the insights that will help Guideposts' readers.   For you,
D17 1140 readers, are an all-important part of the spiritual experiment that
D17 1150 is Guideposts. I need your support, your criticism, your encouragement,
D17 1160 your prayers.   I am a magazine; my name is Guideposts.
D17 1170 My message, today, is the same as it was 15 years ago: that there
D17 1180 is goodness in people, and strength and love in God.   May He
D17 1190 bless you all.
D17 1200    HAVANA was filled with an excitement which you could see
D17 1210 in the brightness of men's eyes and hear in the pitch of their voices.
D17 1220 The hated dictator Batista had fled. Rumors flew from lip to lip
D17 1230 that Fidel Castro was on his way to Havana, coming from the mountains
D17 1240 where he had fought Batista for five years. Already the city was
D17 1250 filled with Barbudos, the bearded, war-dirty Revolutionaries, carrying
D17 1260 carbines, waving to the crowds that lined the Prado.   And
D17 1270 then Castro himself did come, bearded, smiling; yet if you looked closely
D17 1280 you'd see that his eyes did not pick up the smile on his lips.
D17 1290    At first I was happy to throw the support of our newspaper
D17 1300 behind this man. I am sure that Castro was happy, too, about that support.
D17 1310 <Diario de la Marina> was the oldest and most influential paper
D17 1320 in Cuba, with a reputation for speaking out against tyranny. My
D17 1330 grandfather had been stoned because of his editorials. My own earliest
D17 1340 memories are of exiles: my three brothers and I were taken often
D17 1350 to the United States "to visit relatives" while my father stayed
D17 1360 on to fight the dictator Machado.   When it was my turn, I, too,
D17 1370 printed the truth as I knew it about Batista, and rejoiced to see
D17 1380 his regime topple. None of us was aware that the biggest fight was
D17 1390 still ahead.   I was full of hope as Fidel Castro came into Havana.
D17 1400 Within a week, however, I began to suspect that something was
D17 1410 wrong. For Castro was bringing Cuba not freedom, but hatred. He spent
D17 1420 long hours before the ~TV spitting out promises of revenge. He
D17 1430 showed us how he dealt with his enemies: he executed them before
D17 1440 ~TV cameras. On home sets children were watching the death throes
D17 1450 of men who were shot before the paredon, the firing wall.   Castro's
D17 1460 reforms? He seemed bent on coupling them with vengeance. New
D17 1470 schools were rising, but with this went a harsh proclamation: any
D17 1480 academic degree earned during Batista's regime was invalid.
D17 1490 Economic aid? He had promised cheaper housing: arbitrarily he cut
D17 1500 all rents in half, whether the landlord was a millionaire speculator
D17 1510 or a widow whose only income was the rental of a spare room. Under
D17 1520 another law, hundreds of farms were seized. Farm workers had their wages
D17 1530 cut almost in half. Of this, only 50 cents a day was paid in cash,
D17 1540 the rest in script usable only in "People's Stores".
D17 1550    A
D17 1560 suspicion was growing that Fidel Castro was a Communist. In my mind,
D17 1570 I began to review: his use of hate to gain support; his People's
D17 1580 Courts; his division of society into two classes, one the hero,
D17 1590 the other the villain. But most disturbing of all were the advisers
D17 1600 he called to sit with him in the Palace; many came from Communist
D17 1610 countries.   What should I do about it, I asked myself?
D17 1620 I had watched Castro handling his enemies before the paredon. There
D17 1630 was no doubt in my mind that if I crossed him, mobs would appear outside
D17 1640 our windows shouting "Paredon! Paredon! **h"   What
D17 1650 should I do? I was proud of the new buildings which housed <Diario>
D17 1660 now: the rotogravures, gleaming behind glass doors; the thump
D17 1670 and whir of our new presses. Here was a powerful, ready-made medium,
D17 1680 but it could speak only if I told it to.   Then one day, early
D17 1690 in January, 1960, I sat down at my desk, and suddenly I was aware
D17 1700 of the crucifix. It was a simple ivory crucifix which my mother had
D17 1710 given me. I had mounted it on velvet and hung it over my desk to remind
D17 1720 me always to use the power of the paper in a Christian manner.
D17 1730 Now it seemed almost as if Jesus were looking down at me with sadness
D17 1740 in His eyes, saying:   "You will lose the paper. You may
D17 1750 lose your life. But do you have any choice"?   I knew in that
D17 1760 moment that I did <not> have any choice. From that day on I began
D17 1770 to write editorials about the things I did not think correct in
D17 1780 Fidel Castro's regime.
