VERSE

...DSOC is still a painfully small organization, but for a small and young organization it has done some useful things...

...Garrett Evangelical Seminary at Evanston sent several representatives, notably Rosemary Ruether, the Catholic theologian, and James Will, One of the leaders was Jim Gorman, a Church of Christ pastor from Chicago who has written, "Atheistic humanism does not have the symbolic resources to confront the pollution of religious symbols (by capitalism...

...Much of the credit for this must go to the chairman, Mike Harrington...

...the Democratic Congress were elected by the people who suffer the most from unemployment, inflation, inequality and deterioration of our cities--they can be forceful advocates for that constituency or they can walk a middle line that goes nowhere...

...In effect, judgment suspended and delayed...

...What impressed me at Chicago was the high level of intelligence, civility and humor...

...Even a capitalist organ like Business Week has called him "a good and honest man...

...The overwhelming emphasis of the convention was on holding the Democrats' feet to the fire of full employment...

...Thomas, "A sufficiency of this world's goods is necessary for the good life...

...9 The basic socialist principle is democraeybthe state belongs to its citizens, the factories belong to their workers...

...DSOC's advocacy of public ownership is neither doctrinaire nor universal...

...Henceforth also to be a little better organized and circulating some literature of its own, thanks to a Jewish member, Harlan Baker...

...He stressed the need f o r a strong Humphrey-Hawkins bill and said that the retreat of many liberals on full employment marks the probable dissolution of the ideology formulated by the New Deal and underlines the necessity for a new push toward socialist solutions...

...One might have quoted St...

...As Jack Clark, the intense, dedicated young secretary, reminded us, its Democracy '76 project mobilized an impressive spectrum of political, intellectual, feminist and trade union leaders behind a progressive program for change that had an important effect on the Democratic platform...

...now working on a book about Christian Socialism...

...We were too busy organizing ourselves, so that there might be other times in the future, so that we might take advantage of what everyone acknowledged was a new and growing interest in socialism on the part of religious Americans...

...He is not a religious man, but I couldn't help thinking as I watched him that his personal style is remarkably Christian...

...One of its theorists, Erazim Kohak, had written in a DSOC leaflet, "State ownership of factories is no more socialist than capitalist ownership...

...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 DOM JULIAN STEAD DECEMBER NIGHT In the silence of the sea a new moon was the lamb of God ,that takes away the darkness of the world...

...Unfortunately, there wasn't time...

...It was the most high where, like polished slate, the smooth and silent water nursed its gulls till dawn_9 Commonweal: 199...

...It has made some distinguished converts, among the more recent being Walter Dean Burnham, Harvey Cox, James Farmer, Gloria Steinem and Lester Thurow...

...As a start he proposed a publiclyowned gas and oil corporation, nationalization of railroads within a comprehensive plan for mass transit, public and employee representatives on the boards of all major corporations, incentives and requirements for banks and corporations to invest in socially desirable projects and policies...

...The convention, recognizing that the structures of industrial democracy need to be more clearly defined, voted to set up a special committee of members and "sympathetic experts" to do so and to propose legislation that could move the country more quickly toward this goal...

...This must be done by the bearers of the Word, the stories, the dreams that give the lie to the golden calf...

...The question now is, can it convert the rank-and-file...

...One of the regular features of DSOC get-togethers is a meeting of "the religious caucus," henceforth to be known as the DSOC Committee on Religion and Socialism...

...Or one might have gone back to Isaiah, "This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke, setting free the oppressed and the homeless, clothing the naked . . . . Then shall your light break forth like the dawn...

...As Harrington put it, "full employment is the key to progress in every sector of the society"-racial and sexual discrimination in the" labor market, health insurance, foreign aid, development of the Third World, disarmament...

...There was a good representation of Catholic socialists, including several priests and nuns, but in some ways the most intriguing member was a man sitting next to me, a non-DSOC visitor, who said, "I have trouble understanding what religion has to do with economics...

...One might have quoted Jesus, "I was hungry and you gave me not to eat . . . . Depart, you cursed...

...JOHN C. CORT (1ohn C. Cort, fbrmerly one of the editors of Commonweal, is...

...In general, however, the feeling was that no matter how disappointing Carter turns out to be, the hopes for the future are in better shape than if Ford had won another four years of veto power...

...I recently spent a month with a Tibetan monk, a beautiful, spiritual man, and we didn't discuss economics once...