Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-01-06
Gray Plan Debate

ONGA tAAV
Gray report Is one among
adults who are motivated by
their interests, prejudices and
fears. Many who oppose the
proposed constitutional change
are concerned about the posi-
bility Of higher taxes, and
many who favor the change
are concerned about having to
associate with Negroes at PTA
meetings, recreational gather
ings and teachers conferences.
Actually, the issue primarily
concerns children-their well
fare and future happiness.
My children have long at
tended school with Negro chill
dren. and I think they are the
better for it. Their relation
ship with Negroes is a natural
one: they like and dislike in
dividual Negroes for the same
reasons they like and dislike
their white playmates.
My children aren't troubled
by any guilty feeling about
Negroes. They aren't uneasy or
condescending in the presence
OF Negroes.
Prejudice. fear and bad
conscience aren't good COM
panions. We who have grown
up in all-white schools and
lived very long in Virginia
know this. We know at heart
that many Of our rationaliza-
tons are partly an attempt to
overcome a secret feeling that
it isn't right-after all is said
that can be said--to make
some children equally sensi-
tive and as easily hurt as our
OWN use only the rear
entrance.
So for me it's enough to try
to get across to my children
the need to be honest with
ones self and respectful of
others, without trying to quail
ify this and justify different
sets of rights for different
racial and religious groups.
Philip S. Brown.
No act of our founding
fathers was wiser than the
firmness with which they sep
arated church and state in our
republic.
Therefore, as a Christian.
imperfect indeed. and stand
ing in the need Of prayer" I
deeply deplore the clergy, in
their clerical character. taking
part in political controversies.
I do not suggest that min
listers should be deprived of
their civil rights. But their
political activities should be
carried on in the hurly-burly
of the political arena, not from
the sanctuary of the pulpit or
ecclesiastical guilds, and as
American citizens. not min
listers of God. They should not
use the pulpit as a barricade
and the priestly cloth as a
shield but should stand forth
and take blow for blow even
as other men. 1t would be a
more manly posture.
1t is unfair to impose their
political views upon people
who go to church to worship
God and who are unable to
reply unless our churches are
to be turned into debating So
cieties, which would be an
unseemly spectacle indeed.
A friend of mine. devout
woman. daughter of one of the
most eminent clergymen of his
time. is so disturbed by the
political gyrations Of her pas
tor concerning the Gray re-
port that she says she feels
like worshipping in the fields.
And in another congregation
close by, financial support has
been withdrawn already by at
least one member. These are
ominous signs in the wind
which wise men would do we'll
to heed.
The clergy, of all people.
should remember the beauti-
full passage from Ecclesiastes
beginning, Ito everything
there is a season, such a time
to every purpose under
heaven" And surely no man
of the cloth can forget the re-
Spouse made by our Lord when
the Pharisees sought to en-
tangle Him in the politics of
His time, Render, therefore.
unto Caesar the things which
are Caesars, and unto God
the things that are Gods"
To expound their political
philosophy and denounce the
civil authorities in their priest
ly character is a gross i'm
propriety serving neither
church nor state. The most
likely result of their political
effort will be to split their
churches asunder. a conse-