Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-03-08
Columbus Pastors
Hit Church Council
As 'Un-American'
BY the Assoeiosed Press

BY the Asseeiofed Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio, March g.
Five Columbus clergymen last night
described the Federal Council Of
Churches OF Christ in America a.
"un-American" and asserted its
press releases constituted profound
disrespect to our soldier and sailo,
dead"
The five, criticizing a council COM
mitee report which deplored the
atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasah as morally indefensible, >
added:
This un-American council does
not speak for u.s."
The ministers, whossaid they were
members Of the American Council
of Christian Churches, declared in
q press statement:
THE press releases of the Federal
Council constitute no less than pro-
found disrespect to our soldier and
sailor dead, and they amount to
open insult to the thousands Of pa
triotic young men who fought for
the preservation of our liberties"
Council Ends Sessions.
Signers Of the statement, written
yesterday on the last day of the
three-day meeting of the Federal
Council here, were:
The Revs. c. C. Clawson of the
Memorial Baptist Church, H. C.
Stigers, Bible Presbyterian Church !;
Ernest Finkenbiner. Central Bap-
fist Church; William E. Ashbrook,
Calvary Bible Church, and Theo-
dore B. Hax, Emmanuel Lutheran
Church.
The clergymen were particularly
critical Of a report on atomic war
fare drawn up by a council commits
sion which deplored the morally
indefensible" atomic bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
ut is significant" the five as
serted, that the utterances Tin the
atomic energy report were pre-
pared by committee largely loaded
with Federal Council wheelhorses
from such centers of pacifism and
radicalism as Yale Divinity School,
Union Theological Seminary and
Chicago Theological Seminary.
Wanted Cities Rebuilt.
The atomic warfare report consti-
tuted an appeal by 20 prominent
Clergyman of the Nation urging,
among other declarations, that Hiro-
shima and Nagasaki be rebuilt by
the Americans as "a token of re-
pentance."
The Federal Council had referred
the report to the Executive Commit
tee, only passing on section asking
that civilians and not the military
have control of atomic energy.
The Rev. Boynton Merrill of the
First Congregational Church here
and a member Of the Councils Exec
utive Committee, said in reply to the
pastors criticism:
Surely the Federal Council is rep
resentative of millions of the most
effective and proven church men,
bers. To charge institutions like
Yale, Chicago and Union with I'M
Americanism verges on the ludi-
crous.
Nonsegregation Vote Hailed.
Meanwhile, colored Protestant
leaders hailed the council for hay
ing taken "a long step forward in
race relations" in its stand against
Jim Crowism.
The meeting closed with wor-
ship service led by the colored edu-
Gator, DR.. Benjamin May, president
of Morehouse College, Atlanta, and
vice president of the council The
meeting had adopted long state-
ment rejecting "the pattern of seq
regation."
The Rev. A. Wayman Ward, pas
tor of the Bethel African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church of Chicago,
commented that the council action
represented progress toward broth
erhood among the races, as well as
"a concrete program to take back
to- the churches"
The Rev. L. K. Jackson of Gary,
Ind, member of the National
Baptist Convention, declared in a
statement that "the colored people
of the earth are eternally grateful
for the far-sighted and statesman
like Christian courage which has
perEieated this entire meeting"
Bishop G. Bromley OMAN, head
of the Methodist Church in the New
York area and president of the Fed
eral Council, pleaded for the
cisurches to guard against being
drawn into a holy war" against
either Communism or capitalism.