Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1959-11-12
Hifs Hearsay

HIfS HeorSuY
Mrs. Lila Thomson, querying
''The Goals of Unitarians" in
her Sentinel column last week,
seemed to be a little nervous
about criticizing a church group.
She fears that at is tantamount
to public throat-cutting" and
states that it is a "fact that no
one wins an argument with a
church"
Someone should remind Mrs.
Thomson that, in America, no
group Is so privileged that it
can be above criticism. The mo-
ment this becomes true, our
most precious liberties have
been violated. AS far as Uni.
tarians are concerned, / would
like to reassure her that they
are not unaccustomed to being
assailed for their views, and
can receive her barbs with
reasonable eequanimity.
When the criticism appears in
the public press, however, they
can be justified in assuming
that even the sharpest critic has
some nodding acquaintance with
fact, particularly when the at
tack is carried in a paper like
the Sentinel, which maintains
high journalistic standards.
Mrs. Thomson evidently based
her comments on hearsay and
did not take the trouble to
check any of the reports that
so alarmed her.
This is highly unfortunate,
particularly when the gravity
of her charges emerge from her
impassioned prose. l might get
indignant myself If the Uni
tarians had indeed introduced
a "rabble-rouser" into our be-
loved community and backed
"rabble rousers who rabble for
profit" I, too, would be dis
turbed to learn that we, or any
other church group, had pre-
scented only the steelworkers'
side of a coming labor-manage-
ment dispute" and did that "a
month or so before the current
steel strike"
Since Mrs. Thompson was
clearly unable to attend either
of the meetings that excited her,
just on e telephone call would
have saved her fom the misrep-
resentation ignorance permitted
her.
Not "a month or so before the
current steel strike" but last
March 18th the Rockville Uni
tartan Center, at that time still
a branch of my church, spon-
sored showing of a film on
racial problems. Called 1.-THE
Burden of Truth" it was a
dramatization of events we have
all read about, and deplored in
the reading. 1t recounted the
experience Of a young Negro,
first in the South, then the
North. The climax of the film is
the mob violence which breaks
out when he n d his family
move into a white community.
There was a connection with
steel and labor, but that con-
nection had nothing to do with
labor management relations:
the film was produced as a pub
lie service by the Unitel Steel
workers of America.
Two weeks ago Monday, the
Montgomery County Chapter of
the Unitarian Fellowship for
Social Justice sponsored a meet
ing on "Open Occupancy Hous-
ing-A Pra ctical Approach"
Twenty-seven other groups CO.
sponsored the session, of which
only six were Unitarian
churches. If Mrs. Thomson had
been present, she would have
seen the meetings program, on
which the sponsors were listed.
II the Unitarians in the area are
up to something darkly devious,
then so are a Catholic, a Jewish,
and two Quaker groups, an area
Ministerial Association which is
a cross-section of all Protestant
churches, and a large number
of civic groups which contain a
majority of the most dedicated
and active citizens in the Coun
ty, with a fair sprinkling from
the District and Virginia.
The purpose of the meeting
was to hear and question Mr.