The Big Debate: A Catholic President?

The advent of the West Virginia primary May 10 saw the religious issue take on wholesome new meaning within the U. S. political scene.

Whatever the outcome, this much was clear: Candid debate about the political ramifications of Senator John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism marked a significant step forward in American Church-State understanding.

“Some very calm and respected national voices are saying that the open discussion of the religious issue is a sign of progress,” reported The Christian Science Monitor, “far better than the whispers which accompanied the 1928 presidential campaign.”

The spontaneous origin of the 1960 debate at grass roots may indicate that there has developed a fuller sensitivity to the role of religion in politics.

Some observers even dare to hope that discussions may permanently lay to rest the notorious notion that only bigots raise the religious issue.

As the Catholic hierarchy watched quietly, Kennedy began to speak freely of the religious issue even while discrediting its importance (as did other presidential contenders: Nixon, “inexcusable”; Stevenson, “irrelevant”; and Humphrey, “divisive”).

Pivotal point in the Kennedy strategy was his April 21 address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. It marked the first time he had gone out of his way to discuss religion. He scolded the press so severely that not a single editor of the 400 present took up his offer to answer questions.

“The great bulk of West Virginians paid very little attention to my religion—until they read repeatedly in the nation’s press that this was the decisive issue in West Virginia,” Kennedy said. “I do not think that religion is the decisive issue in any state.”

“I do not speak for the Catholic church on issues of public policy,” he added, “and no one in that church speaks for me. My record on aid to education, aid to Tito, the Conant nomination and other issues has displeased some prominent Catholic clergymen and organizations; and it has been approved by others.”

“The fact is,” he asserted, “that the Catholic church is not a monolith—it is committed in this country to the principles of individual liberty—and it has no claim over my conduct as a public officer sworn to do the public interest.”

Senator Kennedy became less convincing when he endeavored to cast doubt on the existence of Catholic bloc voting. Columnist Doris Fleeson promptly dug out a 3,000-word memorandum prepared for the 1956 Democratic National Convention under the direction of Theodore C. Sorenson, a Unitarian who was and still is Kennedy’s chief of staff. The memo spelled out in detail the “Catholic vote” which was drifting to the Republicans but which could be lured back by a Catholic vice presidential nominee.

Questioned privately of how he would define his primary allegiance, Kennedy initially described it to a CHRISTIANITY TODAY reporter in terms of the “public interest,” then indicated that it would be better expressed as a “composite” which includes “conscience.”

Did he feel that only a bigot would cite religious grounds for opposing a presidential candidate? No, but he said he found it hard to understand what intellectual anxiety there would be when one has answered in the negative (as Kennedy has) the all-important question: Would you be responsive to ecclesiastical pressures or obligations that might influence you in conducting the affairs of office in the national interest?

The Burning Issue

“The most burning issue of modern times is the race question.”

So began a statement by evangelist Billy Graham released to United Press International from his home in Montreat, North Carolina. It was one of many such commentaries currently heard from prominent clergy as a result of increased racial tension in the United States, in South Africa, and elsewhere.

In Cape Town, Anglican Archbishop Joost de Blank was criticized by a bishop of his own church for a statement chiding the Dutch Reformed church in South Africa, which accepts largely the government’s apartheid policy.

“I believe,” said Bishop Basil W. Peacey, “there are many Anglicans who disassociate themselves from Archbishop de Blank’s latest attack.”

Peacey said de Blank’s statement tended to “create a situation undermining fundamental Christian charity.”

From Rochester, New York, came a major policy statement on the race and and other issues by Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, Stated Clerk of the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.

“We have no right to criticize South African churches for their derelictions,” said Blake, “unless the corporate church in the United States continues to make it clear that the gospel requires us everywhere as Christians to stand for a non-segregated church in a non-segregated society, thus encouraging ministers and members everywhere to support all peaceful efforts by racial minorities to win proper respect and status even to the point of technical violation of the law when the law stands in the way of the right.”

Blake’s remarks were made at the Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, where he delivered the Rauschenbusch Lecture, perpetuating the memory of Dr. Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918), most eminent proponent of the “social gospel.”

Graham said he was convinced that “ ‘Jim Crow’ must go,” but that forced integration will never work. He also expressed the anxiety that “some extreme Negro leaders are going too far and too fast.”

“I am also concerned,” he added, “about some clergymen of both races that have made the ‘race issue’ their gospel.… Only the supernatural love of God through changed men can solve this burning question.”

Pope and Persecution

The Easter message of Pope John XXIII expressed a note of sympathy for persecuted Roman Catholics.

The Pontiff told tens of thousands gathered in the rain outside St. Peter’s Basilica that “many of our brethren do not enjoy any kind of real freedom, personal or civil, or religious; but for year after year have been enduring restraint and violence, and perfecting a sacrifice wrought in silence and in continuous oppression.”

“Our sorrowing gaze,” he added, “turns also to the other children of God everywhere, suffering because of race and economic conditions … or through limitation on the exercise of their natural and civil rights.”

‘Protecting’ the Baptized

Police seized three children from a Presbyterian school in Medellín, Colombia, last month and turned them over to their Roman Catholic uncle.

The children—ages 12, 11, and 9—were removed under judicial warrant secured by the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Medellín. Action was taken in accordance with Roman Catholic teaching which obliges the government to “protect” baptized children when their parents “apostatize.”

Father of the children is 56-year-old Juan Osorio, a widower who was converted three years ago and subsequently enrolled his children in the Presbyterian school over his Roman Catholic brother’s protests. Initial attempts to recover the children from their uncle’s custody were unsuccessful.

Secret Cardinals

The identities of the Roman Catholic hierarchy’s three cardinals in petto may never be known.

According to current canon law, to be a cardinal one must first be a priest. The Pope, however, is not necessarily bound by canon law. There is some speculation that precedent-setting Pope John XXIII may have named a layman.

It is not known whether the pontiff has shared with anyone the identities of the three secret cardinals. They may never be known.

The Pope announced that he had created three cardinals in petto following the elevation of seven whose names were announced earlier.

Protestant Pioneers

In a historic and precedent-shattering conference at Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania, 14 leading U. S. evangelicals gathered April 20–22 for a frank discussion of Roman Catholicism. They called for friendly conversations with Rome based on “mutual Christian respect.”

Motive for seeking the conversations, the evangelical leaders declared, was “the shared danger posed by growing secularism and revived paganism.” Goal to be sought was “that unity in truth which is demanded by the Word of God.”

Meeting in council with nearly 100 specially-invited guests under sponsorship of Christ’s Mission, Inc., of New York, conferees heard their discussions described as a “pioneering venture” in a “difficult field.” The Rev. Stuart P. Garver, new executive director of the mission, keyed discussions to a note described as quiet, irenic, serious and Christian.

The leaders were reminded that evangelicals and Roman Catholics are not only facing common problems in American secularism and materialism, but that they share a common belief in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and the validity of the ecumenical creeds of the first five Christian centuries. At the same time they admitted “the complexity of the differences between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism” and “the deep cleavage at certain most vital points.”

Some “signs of encouragement” were brought out at the sessions as well as “differences and cleavages.” These were among opinions expressed:

• The Christian intention of Roman Catholicism was acknowledged, invalidating the argument of some Protestants that there is little to choose between Romanism and communism.

• Dissemination of radical anti-Catholic literature is unworthy of Protestants.

• Many Roman Catholic laymen and even clergymen in Latin America have a concept of liberty and freedom that compares with the best concepts to be found in Protestant communities in America.

• Rediscovery of the Bible in the Roman Catholic church and its increasing vernacular use among the laity are healthy and hopeful signs.

• Mixed marriages are being increasingly frowned upon by both Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy.

• In many countries the Roman church’s primary thrust is political, contradicting St. Paul’s premise that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.”

• Roman Catholics have moved into our national government until they now occupy key positions in every department and dominate agencies of promotion.

• The Roman Catholic hierarchy is demanding parity in the choosing of chiefs of chaplains, although they are not supplying their quota of chaplains for the armed services. They insist that Roman Catholics alternate as chiefs of chaplains, which means in effect that the incumbent arranges the promotion of his Protestant successor and also picks the Roman chaplain who will be the next chief.

• When Protestants seek to counter the propaganda measures of the Knights of Columbus newspaper advertisements with dignified and temperate statements, the editors who publish Protestant advertising receive threats of boycott from the hierarchy if such “offenses” are repeated.

• Protestant businessmen who have defied the boycott threat and have stood on principle, have been surprised to find the threat gesture to be hollow and meaningless, and that the Roman Catholic laity itself has often repudiated the pressure tactics of clericalism.

• Martin Luther was able to stand up to Rome because of the years of study during which he had “saturated himself in Scripture.”

• Roman Catholic tradition used to mean “that which has been handed down from the past.” Today it means rather “the self-consciousness of the Church.”

• Protestants have 12 serious objections to Roman Catholic teaching regarding the sacraments, and are alarmed at the recent “promotion” of Mary in the Roman celestial hierarchy to the status of co-Redemptrix with Jesus Christ.

• Pressure from the American hierarchy upon a Roman Catholic president, while undoubtedly light at first, would tend to increase during the tenure of office.

• Protestants need to enter more vigorously into public affairs, piety being something that is not exhausted with cultivation of the inner life: it is also exercised in obedience.

• The American tradition of separation of Church and State has proved its value as a principle, and Protestants must be vigilant in maintaining the liberty within which spiritual truths operate.

• The classic weapons of Protestantism are spiritual. The evangelical thrust comes from the supernatural dynamisms of evangelism and revival, Christian education and Christian vocation. The reality of Christian experience remains the most powerful rebuke to the Roman Catholic mutilation of the grace of God; and the demonstration of the meaning of sainthood through Christian vocation is still the best refutation of error in Roman teaching.

While not all the conferees were unanimous in agreeing with opinions expressed at Buck Hill Falls, they joined in recognizing that fresh ground had been broken at high level in Protestant discussions of Roman Catholicism at long, medium and short range.

Shaken Loyalties

Uprisings in Korea indicate shaken loyalties among Protestants for the Liberal Party led by outgoing President Syngman Rhee.

Although Protestants are well represented in both of Korea’s major political parties, the majority have traditionally sided with Liberals. But the bloody demonstrations in April showed that many of Rhee’s Protestant supporters were indignant over the mishandling of elections, though they still distrusted the Roman Catholic influence in the Democratic Party.

Amidst demands for drastic national reforms, the resignations of Rhee and his cabinet were largely welcomed.

Active in the demonstrations were a number of Christian college students, two of whom were among those killed.

The Korean Council of Churches issued a statement asking that the March elections be declared void. The statement also called upon Christians to rise above partisan party conflicts in seeking a just solution to the country’s problems.

HLKY, Christian radio station, won wide public praise for broadcasting the first impartial news of disorders.

An Evangelist’s Travels

U. S. evangelist David Morken, whose headquarters are in Hong Kong, plans meetings in Ethiopia this summer before returning for furlough.

Morken’s most recent crusade was in Kerala. Said to be the most Christian of India’s 14 states, Kerala nonetheless chose Communist government for nearly two years.

The meetings by Morken began shortly after the Communist governors were defeated at the polls in February. Some 2,000 Indians were reported to have made decisions for Christ during week-long crusades in Kottayam, Trivandru, and Alleppey. Counseling teams trained by Navigator representatives aided the evangelist.

Morken also addressed conventions of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, which drew some 40,000 persons. He had been invited to Kerala by the Rt. Rev. Bishop John of South India.

Baptists in Cuba

Three Southern Baptist observers say evangelicals in Cuba now enjoy, for the first time, complete separation of church and state.

Cuban Baptists in particular, responding to the “most favorable conditions in history,” are said to be pursuing an aggressive mission program.

The observations come from W. C. Fields, public relations director for the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee, who attended a Baptist convention in Cuba last month with Loyd Corder and Glendon McCullough of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board.

In a statement issued upon their return to the United States, the three observers agreed that the overwhelming majority of the people support the revolution.

Evangelical denominations, they said, are enjoying complete separation of church and state for the first time, which prompts a more aggressive spirit.

They reported that government favoritism has shifted from the top 10 per cent to the bottom 90 per cent of the people.

Corder warned, however, that “there are indications that many fear the growing influence of communism.”

Herbert Caudill, superintendent of Southern Baptist mission work in Cuba, was quoted as having said that “conditions have never been more favorable than now for mission work.”

Mormon Gains

Delegates to the 130th General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, world’s largest Mormon body, learned of modest gains within their constituency.

World membership now totals 1,616,088, a net gain of 60,289 over last year, delegates to last month’s conference in Salt Lake City were told.

A key speaker at the conference was U. S. Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson, a member of the church’s “Council of the Twelve Apostles,” who had some solemn words of warning about Communist objectives:

“The major Communist objective, make no mistake about it, is to destroy any society that adheres to the fundamentals of spiritual, economic and political freedom—the integrity of man.”

Communism, Benson asserted, has brought more people under its control in 40 years “by trickery and force” than the total number of Christians now living in the entire world.

Another group of “Latter Day Saints” met at Independence, Missouri, last month: The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a much smaller body (current membership 150,000) which dates back to a division of Joseph Smith’s followers at his death in 1844, conducted its biennial conference in the Independence Auditorium, which serves as a world headquarters building. The conference rejected a proposal to change the organizational name to Restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Toward Peaceful Economy

Raymond Wilson, secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, urged Quakers last month to help create a climate of public opinion whereby adjustment could be made to a “peace economy.”

Wilson told delegates to the 280th annual session of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends that achievement of either partial or total disarmament will not throw the nation’s economy out of gear if government, business, and industry “adjust themselves to a peace economy.” His remarks were in response to a question as to whether a sharp cutback in defense production would create widespread unemployment and a stock market crisis.

Wilson reasoned that a lack of confidence in the ability of the nation’s economy to adjust quickly stands behind the hesitation of some Congressmen to work for total disarmament, especially those lawmakers whose districts represent concentrations of defense contracts. The problem is also the concern of labor unions, he said, and may explain their silence as well as that of many national organizations regarding total disarmament.

Honors for the Press

The National Religious Publicity Council, a fellowship of some 450 religious publicists and an assortment of other interested individuals, bestowed honors on three secular newspapers and one magazine at its 31st annual convention in Philadelphia last month.

In addition, a special citation was given Religious News Service for “outstanding service rendered to organized religion through the pursuit of impartial journalism, and as a testimonial to its continued efforts in behalf of all faiths to advance the spiritual life of the nation.”

“Awards of merit” were given the Ladies Home Journal, the Chicago Daily News, the Miami Herald, and the Seattle (Washington) Times.

The Journal was singled out for a series of articles on religion and sex.

The religion editors of the three dailies were made “NRPC Fellows”: the News’ David R. Meade, the Herald’s Adon Taft, and the Times’ Lane Smith. (Meade and Taft also are RNS correspondents.)

People: Words And Events

Deaths:Dr. Toyohiko Kagawa, 71, noted Japanese Protestant leader; in Tokyo … Dr. William Wright Barnes, 77, emeritus professor of church history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; in Fort Worth, Texas … Dr. George W. Davis, 57, professor of theology at Crozer Theological Seminary; in Chester, Pennsylvania … Dr. Jesse Dee Franks, 76, founder of the Southern Baptist seminary in Zürich, Switzerland; in Hopkinsville, Kentucky … the Rev. A. J. Thorwall, 69, retired field representative and director of evangelism of the Evangelical Free Church; in Minneapolis … the Rev. J. Chauncey Linsley, 101, believed to have been the oldest Episcopal clergyman in America; in Warren, Connecticut.

Appointments: As executive director of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Dr. Albert G. Huegli, Jr. (who did not immediately indicate whether he will accept the newly-created post) … as secretary general of the Congo Protestant Council, the Rev. Peter Shaumba … as minister emeritus of Marble Collegiate Church, New York, Dr. Daniel A. Poling … as president of The College of the Ozarks (United Presbyterian), Dr. William S. Findley … as professor of religion at Yale University, Dr. Erwin R. Goodenough … as professor of philosophy of religion at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Dr. J. V. L. Casserley.

Citations: To the Rev. Leonard H. Chatterson, veteran Presbyterian missionary, the Merite Camerounais, First Class, highest honor of the government of Cameroun … to Dr. Otto A. Piper, professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, the Cross of Merit, First Class, highest honor of West Germany.

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