The Omaha guide., 1940-12-28
Bishop Wright In Stirring Address To White Churchmen
TELLS THEM
THEY FEAR
TO APPLY
PRECEPTS OF
CHRISTIANITY



NP)-In an address, remarkable
for its sincerity and frankness, de
livered at the recent session here
of the Federal Council of Churches
Bishop R. r. Wright, Jr., AME.
Church prelate of the 18th Epis-
copal district, declared that fear"
in some form Of other is the
strange influence that prompts
preachers and other liberals to
preach justice and democracy, but
practice intolerance. He said:
in the study of social change
fear has played a great part ever
since the beginning of social life.
When | was a boy in the midst of
the great period of applying mo-
dern invention to industrial life.
workers Were organized to fight
the changes that were coming in
because of fear hat the extension
of the steam engine, the linotype
and the other labor saving devices
would throw them out of work
and reduce them to poverty. We
had a great war in this country
because people feared that the
change of slavery to freedom
meant the destruction of the South
of southern industry.
THE church has often been in
duced to fight intellectual prog
rams because of the fear that
learning would ALLEVIATE religion.
We look back upon these fears Of
ten with a tolerant smile for we
see that they were all unfounded,
but today we have the some fears,
capitalism fears and socialism
fears. The white people fear to
give the black people either DEM
ocraey or christianity.
white men in this meeting will
talk about brotherhood, will shake
hands with Negroes, and have fine
fellowship but some of them will
be afraid to recognize these Neg
roes after they have left this
place. This hotel will give you ev-
cry courtesy this week but it fears
to adopt a general policy of dec
ency toward colored people. Prea-
cheers will preach for democracy,
justice, but they fear to practice
it in the simplest, easiest way so
far as black people are concerned.
They fear the loss of business, loss
of social prestige, loss of church
membership, loss of money, be-
cause of fear. Many white liber-
al people are willing to moke both
Christianity and democracy a farcei
rather than apply them equally to
black and white alike.
One day my little girl of seven
came home and informed me that
| was a Negro and that Negroes
were the lowest of the races, that
teachers had said so and she show
ed me the book to prove it. Pers-
onally, | think the greatest crime
in America is the teaching Of
young children such u~nscientific
propaganda. The Church should
insist that there is one human
raes. The oneness of humanity
Is fundamental in our Christian
doctrine and we should ever en-
phasize this.
eff children learn early to des-
pise other people because of skin
differences and to shut these peo-
pie out of the privileges and equal
tiles, little progress will be made
in preaching to adults about de-
moeracy and Christionity."
Bishop Wright recently returned
from South Africa, where he said
that the element of fear in the at
titude of race is much greater
than here in America. 81 can see
a little reason for such fear in So.
America" said the bishop, be
cause the whites there took the
land away from the natives, and
still are a hopeless minority. But
there is absolutely no excuse for
such idiotic fear on the part of A
meriean Whites.D