Evening star., 1950-01-25
|CIass Distinctions Ruin
UniversaIityofChurch,
Mission Session Told
By Casper Names
Stor Stoff CORRESPONDENT

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 25.-
Social and racial differences in
churches are tending Ito destroy
the universally of the church and
turn it into an exclusive club,
where only one specific group teels
at home" the Home Missions
Congress was told today!
I'm how many of our suburban
churches would a laboring man, a
Negro or a recently arrived dis
placed person feel at home?" DR..
Arthur L. Swift of New York,
professor at Union Theological
Seminary, asked.
More than 1000 delegates rep
resenting % major Protestant de-
nominations are attending the
meeting. which opened last night
and ends Friday. 1t is sponsored
by the Home Missions Council of
North America and is being held
for the first time in 20 years.
Nation of Goddess People"
The speaker charged that class
distinctions, mental indifference,
moral complacency and religious
insensitivity are marks of secu-
larism in the churches today. This
is leading us, he added, into be-
coming a nation of T. S. Eliot's
decent Goddess people whose only
monument is the asphalt road
and a thousand lost golfballs.
The church should use quail
fed laymen" to fill empty pulpits
in rural areas, DR.. Mark Rich of
New York. secretary of the Town
and Country Department, Amer
ican Baptist Home Mission So
ciety, suggested today.
"In many rural churches, dur
ing the war and postwar years
when trained ministry was lack
ing, lay people did the preaching
and held congregations and insti-
tutions together" he pointed out.
What has been accomplished in
an emergency could become a
more permanent contribution to
the rural church."
DR.. Rich pointed out that one
fourth of the rural churches do
not hold services every Sunday
while 10 per cent Of them are
closed. owing to the lack of min
isters.
Anti Semitism Fight Urged.
DR.. Conrad Hoffman,, secretary
of the Committee on the Chris
tian Approach to the Jews. called
on the churches to fight anti
semitism as absolutely irrecon-
cilable with the profession and
practice of the Christian faith"
He pointed out that while many
American Jews support the new
State of Israel few wish to settle
there, most American Jews re-
garding the country as IAN asylum
for their prosecuted compatriots
of other lands"
The closing session of the Con-
vocation on the City Church was
told yesterday that Protestants
should meet the aggressive pro-
gram Of the Roman Catholic
church" not by a similar aggres-
siveness but rather through CIV
ing its members "a more thor
ough program Of education in the
tenets Of its own faith"
It also urged Protestant
churches in changing area to
emphasize serving its own
neighborhood." and called for an
adequate ministry in poor Sec
tions.
Liquor Ad Ban Favored.
The convocation went on rec
ord commencing radio chains
that refuse to accept liquor ad-
vertising.
DR.. Ralph w. Sockman, pastor
Of Christ Methodist Church, New
York, declared last night that
hurdles in the path of church
union are created Gin the hier-
archy and the organizational
overhead. He said "devout lay
men are growing weary of these
hindrances at the top and are
asking the churches to manifest
a unity worthy to lead the di-
vided nations"