Evening star., 1950-01-22
The Week in Religion
By Religious News Service


Plans have been announced for
an annual National Christian
College Week to be observed by
churches throughout the country
on the second Sunday after
Easter.
Intended to stimulate interest
in church-related colleges and to
increase financial support for
them, the observance will begin on
National Christian College Day,
April %, with college presidents
and professors occupying church
pulpits.
One of the overall emphasis
of the week will be on the vital
role of church-supported colleges
in promoting Christian and dem
ocratic ideals.
Announcement of the obServ-
ance was made at a meeting of
the National Protestant Council
on Higher Education, held in Gin
cinnati. The council was one of
several groups which met at Gin
cinnati to discuss problems af-
fecting church colleges and to
consider the place of religion in
education generally.
Losing Sight of Ideals.
According to one speaker at the
council meeting-Dr. Paul c.
Payne of Philadelphia, general
secretary of the Presbyterian
Omitted States of America) Board
of Christian Education-Ameri-
cans are losing sight of Christian
ideals because colleges and uni
versities are neglecting their re-
ligious needs.
Quoting the Duke of yelling
tons statement that education
without religion will give us a
race of clever scoundrels," DR..
Payne warned that "the church
suffers by having to live in a
society which is not in sympathy
with it's ideals and Christian
leaders increasingly are alienated
from Christian ideals" -
Meanwhile, resolutions were
adopted by the 36th annual meet
ing of the National Lutheran
Education Conference affirming
that private and church-related
colleges "are and must remain an
essential part of our American
democracy"
"We believe" the conference
declared. that our Christian
colleges and seminaries must re-
ceive much more generous sup
port from the men and women
of America who hold that these
constitute an indis-
pensable factor in the preserva-
ton of Americas spiritual herit-
age"
Obituaries premature"
That church-related colleges
have more important function
than ever before was stressed by
DR.. Otto P. Kretzmann, president
of the conference, who called
obituaries being read over them
premature.
They are premature" he said,
because the church-related COL
lege created a distinct citizen
sympathetic. spiritual, critical,
non-sectarian. Indeed. the tide
has turned toward the type of
education these colleges rep
resent"
DR.. Kretzmann asserted that
one of the great needs for church.
related colleges is to prepare for
the battle between "the two mas
sive ideologies of the world" He
said this battle will not be fought
in the air or on the sea. but "in
classrooms, laboratories and Ii
braries and in the quiet meetings
Of men Of thought and faith"
A Methodist educator saw signs
Of a growing relationship between
Christian colleges and the church,
but he stressed that academic
education must be the principal
job of the church-related school.
Hits Shoddiness.
These views were expressed at
a meeting of the National Asso-
citation of Methodist Schools and
Colleges by DR.. Goodrich C..
White, president of the associa-
ton, who is head of Emory Uni
versity, Atlanta.
II am very sure" he said,
that the church cannot afford to
offer a shoddy education or pre-
tense of education, and then de-
mand support or even the right
to exist on the ground Of church
loyalty, or even on the basis of
the fine moral influence of the
institution"
DR.. White added, however. that
primary concern over education