Religious Differences Again
RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES AGAIN pROPHECY and fable have both stressed the lying ¦*• down of the lion and the lamp. Ordinarily, however, such happy concord is difficult to find. It is not a thing...
...We Americans, fortunate in a state which respects the conscience of every citizen, may easily forget that it is the essence of all creeds to sense within themselves the virility of divinely given truth, none of which may be squandered or bartered away...
...Nor is it possible, in an age which has so largely substituted inquiry for authority, to expect any mass drift away from old habits of belief to new ones...
...It is an exceedingly difficult topic to handle in open debate...
...The fact remains that one's duty is not to imitate him but to follow the Lord Jesus...
...If Rabbi Wise believes in his principle that Jewry is the "background of Christianity," he ought (we think) to welcome even proselytizing as a substitute for complete apostasy...
...Expressed practically this charity permits of no untruth regarding differing views of life, demands veneration for what is good in each of them, calls for an almost passionate willingness to rest the issue upon the divine desire so that no meanness of one's own will betray the truth...
...It is not a thing you can legislate into being, nor will it spring to life in response to a bland smile...
...But how shall the work of making disciples be conducted ? Jewish speakers, led by Rabbi Stephen Wise, sponsored the belief that since the Jew is homeless outside Jewry he should be left "in his own household...
...But of course there are many methods of preaching, some of them objectionable indeed...
...On the other hand, Catholics are widely suspected of yearning to tear this map to shreds, for reasons peculiar to their subtle selves...
...Such speaking emphasizes what is persuasive in Americanism—the right to hold convictions and the right to be respected while holding them...
...Everyone will grant that "conversions" of Jews, as dictated in the past by social or financial advantages, have seldom meant a great deal...
...By this is meant something more than tolerance (which is wishy-washy and frequently condescending) and something more, too, than regard for the civil rights of others (a matter normally exacted by the law...
...We think incidentally that the practice hitherto adopted—of listing rather than examining "sources of conflict"— will have to be modified now because its usefulness has been exhausted...
...Louis, Missouri, on May 14 and 15...
...The only question which really matters is the legitimacy of these rival claims—a question which the average modern person, enmeshed in traditions, philosophies, inherited prejudices and moral attitudes, finds very hard to answer...
...Proselytizing and education came to the fore, with Jewish speakers most in evidence...
...At St...
...Louis papers handled the story remarkably well, and the committee did its part by arranging for speakers of distinction and (we suppose) instigating a congratulatory telegram from President Hoover...
...Caesar's Rome was alarmed at the apostolate of the early Christians and did everything in its power to eradicate the appeal of the martyrs...
...The religious content of education and the theory of the public school both came in for considerable discussion...
...Glib talkers may ignore these and bring on another barrel or two of soft soap...
...Whether or not this contained a core of genuinely positive belief was proposed for discussion, but of course not threshed out...
...Possibly they have enlisted the interest of those whose awareness of discrimination in the social, political and economic worlds leads them to fear for the safety of the community and the future...
...Louis as the strongest champions of the public school, presumably because they placed a high estimate on its value as a socializing agent...
...And the result...
...Here is a vast domain of human conduct wherein the devil cannot be fought with his own fire...
...The mere fact that representatives of differing faiths join in exposing prejudice can be of tremendous value if properly advertised...
...Stupidities will disappear with time...
...One rabbi went so far as to say that if parents desired further religious instruction for their children, this should be given at home...
...At least some citizen in remoter parts must, reading accounts of priests consorting with ministers, arrive at the conclusion that the tails and hoofs of Rome are less evident than has been imagined...
...Louis there was comparatively little concern with the church and state issue—either the "foreign domination" of the Papacy or the "alien outlook" of other creeds...
...Strangely enough, Jewish speakers emerged at St...
...Grant that another is arrogant, vicious and deliberately venal in his attitude toward the Church...
...With each succeeding conference, it is clearer that religious groups existing in the United States face no likelihood of pooling their views...
...Proselytizing has always been a source of bitterness...
...Protest against the last is entirely legitimate—as Catholics realize from the history of efforts to evangelize Italian or Mexican immigrants...
...The dividing lines emerge, clear-cut and firm...
...Far more helpful, it would seem, is the isolation of one or two well-known "grievances" regarding which people could then express their opinions...
...But the solid verities of charity and knowledge can only be fostered by courageous spirits willing to work hard...
...and the development of courtesy as something wholly compatible with sincerity and even argument...
...The chief secondary issue seemed to be the content of what is called "liberal Protestantism...
...The fact nevertheless remains that the true justification for this kind of cooperation must be sought in higher ground...
...Preaching the Gospel to others is so manifestly the practical conclusion arrived at in the New Testament that fidelity to this mandate is one of the first signs of a living Church...
...There" is little enough need for worry about legends of papal armament or innate Protestant malice...
...Realistic citizens will, however, recognize three possibilities all of which are worth attempting to follow out: understanding that such spiritual convictions as are held in common form some of the most notable treasures of mankind...
...Nevertheless the plain fact of the matter is that large numbers of men and women whose ancestors obeyed the Hebraic law have lately given up their allegiance to live without religion, agnostically and detached...
...The function of the religious teacher in our time is chiefly to manifest, in himself and the institution to which he belongs, the presence of virtues which arouse the awe and allegiance of others...
...In the realm of workaday religious faith, it means abhorrence of any malignant gossip about others and endeavor to see that unfairness of every kind is rooted out...
...If discussions of this character are to do much good, they must be made to seem not out-of-theway meetings attended by a few curious people but "community enterprises" of general interest...
...To begin with, the publicity work was admirably handled...
...We think it was in the case of the recent seminar held in St...
...The debate differed in several important particulars from that witnessed at previous seminars...
...This seems to us a little extreme...
...willingness to admit that religious societies dwelling side by side in the same community must not trespass on ground lawfully occupied by others...
...At all events this seems definitely one of the most interesting meetings of the kind yet held...
...None of these virtues is now more highly respected than upright charity...
...Reinhold Niebuhr's address was, perhaps, the most distinguished single event, rivaling in sanity and breadth the memorable remarks delivered by President Lowell, of Harvard, at the Boston Calvert Round Table meeting...
...On the one hand there exists a tendency to consider the educational map of the United States as fixed and sacrosanct—and to regard the public school as the world's greatest recipe for Utopia...
...This view is understandable enough in its proponent, but it is a little difficult to see how anybody else can have been expected to swallow it...
...The St...
...What it means is insight into the wholeness of life—of one's own slight individual merit, of the mystery of God's purpose in the world as a whole, and of the inviolability of other men's spiritual experiences...
...Mutual respect and friendliness are especially difficult where religious separations exist...
...Nobody stresses the circumstance that educational methods are necessarily always experiments—that nobody knows how America will finally decide to train its youth for manhood...
...It may be that conferences recently held to discuss 122 THE COMMONWEAL June 4, 1930 religious prejudices prevalent among Catholics, Protestants and Jews have been actuated by less exalted views than these...
Vol. 12 • June 1930 • No. 5
