Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-11
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

Mr.. Henry Ford is quoted, in an in
terview published in the June number
of the Red Book Magazine, as declaring,
THE commonest thing We do is the
thing We know least about" Just about
the time that assertion was being run
of the press there came q news item
from Fredericksburg, Va, telling how
this same gentleman was stalled in an
automobile on the street of that VEN
cradle city--or at least his chauffeur
was put to 1t to make car start, with
MIR. Ford Is passenger, until native
pointed out to him that he had for
gotten to turn on the ignition. But
that was something else again-Mr.
Ford was not referring to anything so
complicated as making one Of his
Model rs" 60. He was explaining
how much more important 1t was that
preachers should substitute dietetics in
place OF religion as the theme of their
sermons. Even preachers know enough
to turn on the ignition-they called it
hell few years ago-but, according
to the stalled automobilist, that Is the
reason they should now turn to some
topic they know less about-what to
eat and when.
81 was thinking about that this
morning while shaving" he began, as
reported by Mr.. Norman Beasley, the
interviewer. Thinking about that and
thinking about the clergy. For long
time now, the clergy has been teach
ing people to be good. They cannot do
this and disregard habits of living.
Health Is q condition that affects
everything. Instead of cluttering up
religion with a lot of things that do
not belong to 1t, why doesn't the clergy
teach people how to eat? There are
such great changes in mental attitude
to be obtained by correct habits of
diet that it would better pay the clergy
to attend to the commoner and more
respectable habits, such as eating, than
to some Of the bad results of bad eat
ing. Most wrong acts committed by
men are the result of wrong mixtures
in the stomach. Booze is no food, but
people put 1t into their stomachs, and
you know what frequently happens
Dope--wrong foodS-wrong mixtures of
good food. Crime, II that is what YOU
want to call it--comes from wrong
mixtures"
Mr.. Ford insisted that he does not
propose q course in dietetics instead
of religion, but as a part OF religion"
Discover the vital connection between
food and attitudes of mind and body.
then experience the benefit of proper
course"
In the name OF the late Mary Baker
Eddy, does Mr.. Ford think he has dis
covered new principle of theology?
Or OF psychology? Or of therapeutics?
Let some experienced D. D. take him
aside and explain how to shift his gears,
disengage the clutch and shift into neu-
trail. re-engage the clutch and at the
same time accelerate the engine, then
diSengage the clutch again and shift to
second, after which re-engage the
clutch, With q little experience this
can be made quietly so as not to awaken
the deacon in the amen corner or
arouse the controversy over infant bap-
tism.
Why confuse theology with such mod
ern unholy devices as digestion and a
traf1ic jam? But why not?
X X
There is nothing new under the sun
nor in a rain. What Mr.. Ford wants
the up-to-date preacher to undertake
today, In order to interest the hungry
tourist with carburetor trouble. was
done half century ag0-even in adj
vance of the first fliVver.
Now that Mr.. Ford wants to learn
more about 1t, let 1t be confessed that
1t was first introduced by "Mr. Deute-
who noted how the youth of
his day was running wild, disobeying
Its parents, showing a spirit of ScofflaW
and driving while drunk. Perhaps some
Chief Justice and former Attorney Gen.
eral OF that day were appealing to pub
lie sentiment to uphold the law, but this
Is what Deuteronomy directed as the
best course to pursue, and Rev. J. F..
Clymer quoted 1t as his first lesson from
Holy Scriptures and used partly as
text OF Ford sermon, in the First
Methodist Church of Auburn, N. Y,
June 20, 1880:
Deuteronomy, xxil8-20-"If a man
have a stubborn and rebellious son,
which will not obey the voice of his
father or the voice of his mother, and
that when they have chaStened him,
will not hearken unto them, then shall
his father and his mother lay hold on
him, and bring him unto the elders of
the city, and unto the gates of his
place; and they shall say unto the
elders OF his city: This, our son is
and rebellious; he viii not
obey our voice; he is . glutton and q
drunkard.
Then Rev. Mr.. Clymer outlined the
general mistake made in his timeS-49
years before Mr.. Ford thought Of it
that Sin has its center, seat, source
and circumference in the soul or the
nature of man. Hence we
readily admit the fact that influences,
good or bad, may pass over from the
soul to the body but We do not so
readily admit that other fact, equally
true, that influence, good or bad, may
go over from the body to the SOUL The !
road over which vicious thoughts and
lustflu imaginationS pass from the soul |
to the body is the highway over which !
unbridled appetites, unreStrained pas
SionS and unsubdued mstS in the body, |
may go to the soul, goading 1t to the |
widest conceptions of vice and lecher- |
Gus imaginations. The warm rays of |