Dear Editor
DEAR EDITOR SECTARIANS Reinhold Niebuhr argues against liberal anti-Catholicism (NL, May 9) as follows: "On the highest level, it is an example of deductive rather than inductive reasoning....
...The way to protect our freedom against a piecemeal sell-out is to stand firm on a sound principle designed to protect it, i.e., to close the door of all public offices to totalitarian sectarians...
...The next Catholic candidate may not...
...But empirical evidence runs counter to this conclusion...
...A California East-Indian was elected to Congress from a district where East Indians are a tiny minority...
...Starting with the premise that the Catholic church is authoritarian, deductive logic draws the inevitable conclusion that Catholic candidates follow the Pope's politics on every issue...
...Kennedy may be impervious to this whole totalitarian apparatus...
...Its hierarchy is infallible on all questions of morals, and here again the faithful owe the duty of absolute obedience...
...We are probably right in thinking that Kennedy is a liberal man, but we may be wrong about the next Catholic candidate who comes down the path priest-ridden, and Kennedy may be liberal now and a year from now crumble to ecclesiastical pressure...
...Senator Humphrey, on principle, made no appeal to anti-Catholic bias, but others did...
...Would Niebuhr accept it in the case of a Communist candidate...
...Right now I want to warn my fellow THE NEW LEADER welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words...
...I do not have to remind Niebuhr that any question of politics can be turned into a question of morals, since they all involve the question of how we should act with regard to our fellow men...
...New York City FRANK R. CROSSWAITH Chairman, Negro Labor Committee RUSSELL-HOOK Would it not be the better part of mercy— mercy to Bertram Russell—and a service to all concerned that you declare the debate between Russell and Sidney Hook ended...
...Even in regard to race, prejudice is declining...
...The reason for the existence of this principle is the same as for any other principle: namely it is too difficult, confusing and dangerous to judge each individual case anew on its merits...
...The church is not as monolithic as it is supposed to be and, in any case, the ethos of a nation does much to erode the church's authority, even when it attempts to sway political opinion...
...Washington, D. C. STANLEY K. HORNBECK...
...The reason is that we must draw a firm line against totalitarian sectarians as a matter of principle...
...It has a systematic social and political philosophy with strong bearing on all of the problems of politics to which the faithful must be absolutely and uncritically obedient...
...If not, let him skip it...
...I will not comment on Niebuhr's idea of "deductive logic" beyond hoping that no one is sufficiently without skill in logic to be deceived, But what about the inductive argument...
...And., as between the two, I agree with Karl Barth that it is the Catholic church that has the stronger domination over the minds of its victims...
...The Catholic church is totalitarian in its theory, its internal practice and its external ambitions...
...In Connecticut a Negro was elected to the State legislature from Hartford, which has only about a 10 per cent Negro population...
...Charles C. Diggs, a Negro, was elected to Congress in Michigan from a district that did not have a majority of Negro voters...
...Kennedy won in a state where there are very few Catholics against an opponent who is also a true liberal...
...Negroes not to fall for the anti-Semitism, and even the anti-Christian and anti-white bias, with which the so-called Muslims among us are trying to poison our minds...
...One Baptist woman was reported to have said, "The Constitution says there shall be no religious test for holding office and that is good enough for me, whatever my preacher says...
...Finally, it is a good and sufficient reason for voting against any Catholic candidate that we protest intransigently against that Egyptian superstition to which he has given at least ostensible allegiance, whose unaltered theory and whose practice only altered under necessity has an unrivalled history of obscurantism, tyranny and murder...
...It is too difficult and dangerous to try to distinguish between the Communist or Catholic who is independent-minded and the Communist or Catholic who is subservient to his political or ecclesiastical masters...
...As one who has devoted his life to combatting racial and religious prejudice, chiefly but not wholly in the ranks of labor, I welcome these indications of political maturity among our voters...
...The danger with respect to totalitarian affiliates is too great, and why should we run the risk when there are so many available candidates of equal stature without these debilities...
...I would like to say it is a downright lie and Niebuhr knows it, if the editor will print this parenthesis...
...Philadelphia FELIX ALBERT BIAS IN POLITICS The resounding victory of Senator Kennedy in the Democratic primary in West Virginia is welcome evidence that religious prejudice is waning among United States voters...
...I daresay he would not, and if we find a good reason for not accepting it in the case of a Communist candidate, we shall have the reason why liberal anti-Catholicism is right...
...Niebuhr's statement that the issue of Catholicism is irrelevant to the Presidential election is downright irresponsible...
...Added to the election of Governor Abraham Ribicoff in Connecticut who won by the largest majority ever given to a Governor in that state, the election of Eugene McCarthy as Senator from Minnesota—a state whose voters are overwhelmingly Protestant—and of other Catholic Governors and Senators in states that do not have a Catholic majority, the West Virginia result is heartening evidence that religious bias has lost its power...
Vol. 43 • June 1960 • No. 23
