The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1945-05-01
No Prayer For Peace

The laundering of opening the San
Francisco conference without formal
prayer and the substitution instead of
moments meditation" has only added
to the doubts already cloaking the actual
basis of the conference. In this nation,
more than any other, Freedom of religion
has been permitted to be expressed as
doctrine. BY freedom of religion, in part,
has been meant the recognition of the
universally of prayer. 1t is regrettable
that America, on whose soil the first in
ternational conference of this kind is
now being held, is represented by individ-
uals who apparently are Sunshine adj
herents of such doctrine.
A prayer to an Almighty Being was
the proper procedure and not a moments
meditation. Prayer in itself is an actual
means of not only worshipping God be-
fittingly but of open acknowledgment OF
our worship and appeal. That we should
see fit to withdraw that acknowledgment
for the sake of those who profess to know
no God makes questionable all future
similar manifestations and renders them
susceptible to the onus of being Zip serv-
ice", and no more.
All through this war the leaders OF this
country and other Allied nations have
declared the intent of such war to be
moral one; thereby declaring it to be
in the name of God. At time when the
European fury is drawing to a close and
the leaders of the nations Of the world
gather to discuss the future of the world
we subordinate the moral plane in defer
ence to people who, in the not too far
past, have ridiculed as indications of
our mental weakness the fact that we
profess our belief. We have acted like
the moralist who appeals to God only
when he lies in the thrOes of the agony
of sickness and it's fears and who forgetS
God and His nature when health has been
restored.
Are we to abandon all nationalism in
our search toward an international
plane? 1t would appear so from this
recent blunder Religion has been
dominant factor in the history of our
government. 1t has been the foundation
for our laws and creeds Of government.
Now in striving toward an international
plane, which is expected to see us among
the leaders, we divorce the element OF
religion from our pursuits toward inter-
national government and law. Again the
end justifies the means - the philosophy
of the naturalists and opportunists. We
will evolve an equation of International
ism in which at some more convenient
date perhaps, it will be suitable to inject
the element of religion, Christianity,
moral order or whatever term may be
given it. In our more immediate plan
ming it has no place because it is in
tangible and because, as indicated by this
recent blunder, it can be embarrassing
at times.
We are not carpng on small insight
ficant blunder now termed by many as
water under the bridge. 1t is not small
matter. We have vivid proof in the chaos
of the world today of what happens when
religion is subordinated as small mat
ter to make room for material oppor-
tunism. If we are to turn away our
eyes from this proof - such as the hor-
rible death camps of the Nazis - then
no amount of planning will ever bring
peace to the people of the earth. More
than any economic program ever de-
vised the universally of religion offers
more opportunity to arrive at common
understanding of the people of the world
We hope that in the minds of many OF the
delegates present on the opening day OF
the conference their moment of medita-
ton was spent in an intense probing OF
this condition and its results, and not IN
idle lip service.