Communism and the Churches

...They were Communists in affiliation only, seldom abandoning their traditional religious beliefs and practices...

...This section is the final chapter of his book, summarizing his conclusions on Communism's relation to the churches and pointing the way to future developments...

...urged his Protestant listeners to insist that their local parishes repudiate the National Council of Churches...

...Of the small group of clergymen who did join the party, the evidence suggests that the majority may have been Negroes...

...Those who oppose integration are a thousand times more numerous in American churches than are Communists or Communist sympathizers...

...It is true that some Protestants will disagree with one or another of the policy pronouncements of the General Board of the National Council—such as its resolutions of 1952 and 1957 encouraging desegregation, its resolution of 1954 endorsing technical assistance to underdeveloped nations or its resolution of 1956 urging the release of all Japanese war criminals still held in prison...

...They hoped to influence the churches, and especially the Protestant churches, toward what they believed to be a more Christian position...

...The efforts of these few Communist sympathizers among the clergy have severely injured the cause of social action in American churches...

...These critics have never investigated the facts...

...The party did not always encourage friendly clergymen to join...

...Others at times have used dubious methods...

...It is possible that the course of events will revitalize the American Communist party...

...It may be wise at this point to be even more precise to avoid the possibility of any misunderstanding...

...Their involvement can only be understood if an honest effort is made to reconstruct the atmosphere and circumstances of the past...

...A few of these clergymen were genuinely pro-Communist, but the overwhelming majority were not...

...They were wooed by the party because as clergymen, in a community where religion was important, they were viewed by the Communists as useful...

...One has been characterized by the Christian Century as the, "dupe-potential" still latent among Americans...

...The first period came to an abrupt end with the announcement of the Hitler-Stalin pact...

...This has two main facets, but one common denominator —an alarming failure to understand the vast chasm that has divided genuine democrats from Communists and Communist sympathizers...

...It specifically charged that 30 of the 95 persons who translated the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, sponsored by the National Council of Churches, were "affiliated with pro-Communist fronts, projects, and publications...

...their supreme loyalty was to the party and its program...

...Hargis sent him two pamphlets he had written —The National Council of Churches Indicts Itself on 50 Counts of Treason to God and Country...

...In the first paragraph appeared the initial assertion of wide Communist influence in the churches...

...At times some have exploited the friendship and humanitarianism of fellow clergymen and lured them into groups and activities secretly organized by Communists and geared to Communist objectives...

...Others welcomed the debate as a new opportunity to sow seeds of distrust of America's Protestant church leadership...

...some of them had at times voiced healthy independent political views, but none of them, the manual's flamboyant charge to the contrary, had ever been pro-Communist...

...Another paragraph falsely described Harry F. Ward as "long a recognized leader in the National Council of Churches" (Ward has never served the National Council in any capacity whatsoever) . The two final paragraphs listed the books of Louis F. Budenz and quoted a sensational charge of Communist infiltration of the churches made by Herbert Philbrick before a meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution...

...There is no credible evidence that such men as Harry F. Ward and William B. Spofford Sr.—enamored with the Soviet Union for more than a quarter-century and often accused of party membership—became Communists...

...Nearly every Protestant denomination has had to face such charges, and the National Council of Churches has been a favorite target of the accusers since its creation in 1950...

...Some always have been forthright and honest in espousing their views...

...This confusion has led, throughout the years, to two serious perils...

...Many, of course, were tricked by clever Communist strategy...

...Night after night, radio commentator Fulton Lewis Jr...

...The lessons of the 20th Congress and the mass defections from party ranks—combined with a thaw in the cold war —had created a state of instability on the Communist left...

...The McCarthy era had not yet left its impress...

...They are confident that Khrushchev has corrected the errors made under Stalin, that Russia is leading the forces of world progress, and that the United States is no less controlled by Wall Street than in years past...

...In some cases they have shown an irresponsibility in handling the facts...

...Its principal author turned out to be Homer H. Hyde, a civilian and an active member of a Baptist church in Texas...

...It did not have adequate support or funds to operate its former many-sided front apparatus...

...It all seemed honorable, above board, even righteous...

...Others felt that the churches were too conservative, too respectable, too homogeneous, too aloof from the "masses": they welcomed the opportunity to rub shoulders with the persons of diverse political, religious and economic backgrounds who were active in the fronts...

...Despite the Air Force's prompt action, a sharp nationwide debate ensued...

...Francis E. Walter, Chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee, supported it also...

...The Depression had made them wary of unfettered capitalism...

...Among them was Senator John F. Kennedy, who called the manual "shocking" and an "unwarranted slur on the Protestant ministry in general and the National Council in particular...

...Among these translators were most of the leading Biblical scholars of the nation...

...That his ideas may be open to legitimate criticism is obvious...

...In a number of cases they felt almost compelled to lend their names when an old friend—or a distinguished colleague—asked them to...

...John Gates, editor of the Daily Worker, left the party...

...Oklahoma, and head of The Christian Crusade...

...On the floor of Congress, Donald L. Jackson of California, probably still brooding over his humiliation at the hands of Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam in 1953, arose to defend the manual...

...Illustrative of the complexities of this matter is the recent case of Willard Uphaus, a Methodist layman, who was jailed by the state of New Hampshire in 1959...

...But ministers were not able to compete with Communists in this realm...

...Communist party, possibly as few as 50, perhaps as many as 200...

...Eleven paragraphs—covering two of the manual's 24 pages—were included under the heading, "Communism and Religion...

...In other instances, a number of their clergymen approved of, and actively cooperated with, carefully deceptive Communist strategies...

...In contrast, the Communists were well-disciplined and single minded...

...Intelligent citizens will refuse to be misled by such false accusations...

...Many critics linked the controversial publication to other "helpful instructions" in some of the Air Force's 500-odd manuals: how to set a table, how to hold a hammer, how bachelors could get dates and even how to estimate the number of drinks consumed at cocktail parties...

...This one had been prepared and distributed by the Circuit Riders, Inc., an equally unreliable group, which had originally focused its attention upon Methodists, and later had branched out to attack clergy of other denominations as well...

...Hyde made no attempt to check any of the extreme charges in the pamphlets, but simply put some of them into the manual...

...Howard Fast...

...They are effective only among the gullible and the uninformed...

...Another section of the manual, discussing the persecution of religion in Communist China and North Korea, included a flagrant attack upon the distinguished Presbyterian leader John A. Mackay...

...2. Only a small number of clergymen over the past 40 years ever joined the...

...their energies were not generally as diffused...

...Still, their enthusiasm for the USSR, while diminished, has remained high...

...It is ironic that with all the deceit and arrogance and rigidity and slavishness of the Communist party, it helped to bring to the American scene an exciting and contagious, though indeed devious, passion for justice...

...The Communists did not abandon their ideological antagonism toward religion, but in later years they assumed a new attitude of benevolence toward the churches...

...in any case, ministers did not have the time, the resources, nor the inclination to keep dossiers on '"non-Communist" and "Communist" individuals and groups seeking their help...

...Max Gordon, Doxey Wilkerson, Joseph Clark and thousands of greater and lesser stature were driven out by their disappointment and by a sense that they had somehow been betrayed...

...unfortunately, however, some decent, sincere churchmen are still easily aroused by tall tales of Communist intrigue among the clergy...

...Air Force is very good at flying airplanes and setting off missiles...

...WHAT ARE THE prospects for the future with regard to Communism and the churches...

...It threatens the freedom of speech and the freedom of association by punishing one who has been charged with little more than encouraging both of them...

...Negro comrades were allowed to cling to unsophisticated religious forms, and there were instances in which Negro ministers delivered prayers at Communist meetings...

...Only an occasional picket, petition and public-protest meeting served as a reminder of the elaborate American Communist party strategy of the previous four decades...

...The Communists and their sympathizers have consistently lost ground among clergymen since World War II...

...Ignorance or naivete on both extremes—among those who see Communists everywhere and among those who contend that anti-Communism rests wholly upon a myth—succeeds only in injuring the cause of religion in America...

...they could be valuable when they could honestly deny party membership...

...they could be infiltrated, the Communists thought, with no more likelihood of success than could the American Legion or the National Association of Manufacturers...

...In collecting material for the manual he had apparently first approached his own minister, who recommended that he contact Billy James Hargis, an evangelist in Tulsa...

...A host of Protestant church bodies, backed by the major Jewish religious groups, condemned the manual...

...Nevertheless, his imprisonment for refusal to reveal the names of the guests at his summer camp has been one of the shameful episodes in recent years...

...In such a situation as this, it is not surprising that many liberals and even some pacifists—though later revealed as mistaken—were impressed by Russia and open to Communist blandishments...

...This is not necessarily an indictment of the churches...

...Reinhold Niebuhr, Kirby Page, Stephen S. Wise and others—were striving to strengthen the social consciousness in the churches...

...The current urgent integration efforts provide the most significant example of this...

...Americans must never mistake dissent for conspiracy, nor be fearful of different, even revolutionary, ideas, nor attempt to stifle freedom of debate, however objectionable some opinions may be...

...Uphaus entered the pro-Soviet periphery in the '50s and provided a platform for some persons with similar views at a summer camp he directed...

...THERE ARE A NUMBER of other complex problems that merit a special word...

...Most objectives for which these individuals and groups claimed to be fighting—peace, racial equality, higher wages, public housing, better schools and others" —had a broad and legitimate appeal...

...Those who sought to counter this trend were deemed naive: they were confronted by an impressive array of "facts...

...The situation among the few consistent fellow travelers in the clergy became equally confused...

...Hundreds of newspapers voiced disgust, among them the New York Times, which warned that "something is wrong in our defense organization when this kind of venomous nonsense can be put out at Government expense...

...The next five paragraphs tried to cast doubt upon the loyalty of the translators of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible...

...Not much was asked—seldom more than the "privilege of adding your name to a list of prominent sponsors...

...MOST OF THE FEW NEGRO ministers who joined the Communist party knew nothing about Marx and little more about the Soviet Union...

...Melish, McMichael and Stephen H. Fritchman specifically expressed their disapproval of Soviet repression in Hungary...

...The cultural climate was another factor...

...This hostility toward the Vatican and the Roman Catholic hierarchy reached its peak, especially among liberals, at the time of the Spanish Civil War, but it has been a factor at all times...

...They are not seriously interested in understanding the complexities of history, any more than they are in grasping those of ideology...

...Second, part of the success of Communist fronts in times past may be traced to the fact that thousands of people, among them some well-meaning clergymen, have continued to cling to the fiction that all imputations of "pro-Communism" are equally false...

...He who, in hot and steamy weather, Once sauntered in the altogether And felt the breeze upon his skin And saw a stream and jumped right in, Now sweats beneath an outfit that Consists of trousers, shirt and hat, A pair of shoes not broken in yet, Some shorts in which he left a pin yet, Besides a tie and tightish collar On which he spent his bottom dollar...

...Serious American bungling or poor judgment in international affairs might have the same effect...

...THE CONTROVERSY over the Air Force manual tended to underscore the main fallacy in the argument of those who raise the alarming cry of "Communism in the Churches...

...The notion that America's churches and religious leaders are significantly influenced by Communists or Communist sympathizers is absurd...

...Many Americans still were isolationists...

...Their declared purposes were admirable...

...They now are wiser, less dogmatic, more reluctant to trust unwaveringly in the Soviet Union...

...Another problem involves civil liberties...

...FOUR GENERAL CONCLUSIONS on the relation of the Communist movement to the American churches can be made: 1. The Communist party in America never did undertake a full-scale campaign to infiltrate the churches...

...In 1956 the Communist movement in the United States reached the lowest ebb in its history...

...Why have the names of several thousand clergymen appeared on front-group literature over the past three decades...

...for Communists were notoriously well-schooled...

...4. Today Communist influence within the American churches is near the zero mark...

...The nation desperately needs clergy and laymen who, from democratic motives and by democratic means, will strive to convert the prophetic ideals of their Judeo-Christian heritage into reality...

...Associate General Secretary of the National Council, protested immediately to the Secretary of Defense, Thomas S. Gates Jr., that the manual was "an example of irresponsibility at its worst...

...Only the Soviet Union, whose government was now recognized by the United States, seemed to some observers to be genuinely interested in peace, and yet firm in its opposition to Fascism...

...Time magazine's news story on the subject began with these words: "When it comes to writing manuals, the U.S...

...A free and vigorous exchange of ideas and opinions within the churches is healthy—and certainly neither the National Council of Churches nor the policy making bodies of the various denominations are above intelligent and constructive criticism...

...The letterheads that invited participation usually carried the names of distinguished fellow clergy...

...First, it has enabled professional malcontents to spread distrust of church leadership—a distrust that is far more widespread across America than is sometimes recognized...

...Less tangible and more personal factors also influenced some to support front groups...

...Of course, just as the right of dissent must be zealously preserved, so also must be the right to criticize the dissenters...

...In more cases, they reached them by the skillful manipulation of the race issue or by the use of flattery...

...At the same time, however, the Communists—in a curious de facto alliance with extremist elements of the right wing—have dealt a severe blow to legitimate social concern and protest in the United States...

...Some exploit the issue for prestige, some for money, still others out of envy...

...WHAT CAN BE SAID about the ministers who were not tricked by Communist fronts, but who supported them anyway...

...Millions of Americans do not yet appreciate the basic differences between the intelligent, independent thinking of the Oxnams and the Mackays, on the one hand, over and against the consistent pro-Soviet views of the Wards and the Spoffords on the other...

...They reached their zenith during two periods: from 1936 to 1939...

...Had the churches been more zealous in their social concern, Communists would have had less success in appealing to those clergymen who desired to give expression to their deep humanitarian impulses...

...In this comprehensive study, Roy deals with such issues as the influence of the Communist party on Negro ministers, the role of the clergy in Communist fronts and the changing attitude of churchmen in the postwar period...

...A depression could quickly recreate a militant Communist movement...

...The Communist label has become to them merely a convenient and indiscriminate weapon for use against church leadership...

...They seem to be incapable of distinguishing between different political positions—between liberalism, pacifism, socialism and Communism...

...Nevertheless, no plans to capture organized religion—like the plans to capture organized labor—were ever drawn up in Communist party circles...

...A third danger is that forces far more influential in the churches than Communism will continuously exploit the Communist issue to delay social advance...

...Professional anti-churchmen Carl McIntire (who has described Brotherhood Week as a "gross perversion of scriptural teachings") and Edgar C. Bunday, for example, wrote and spoke widely on the "Communists" in the churches and called for a "complete investigation...

...The "party line" was not as precise as before...

...In order "to belong" it was necessary to praise what seemed to be the social progress and vitality of Russia and to belittle what many considered the stale capitalist status quo of the United States...

...The Communists on the one hand romanticized these ministers, and on the other showed evidence of condescension toward them...

...Indeed, to some, the National Council of Churches and the major Protestant denominations seem far too cautious and conservative...

...The second period closed more gradually under the gathering momentum of the cold war and a growing awareness of the true nature and objectives of Soviet Communism...

...They had to put their many-sided spiritual and parish responsibilities before any "extracurricular" activities...

...But to give serious consideration to the charge that such policy pronouncements are pro-Communist, or even to hint that a single outstanding Protestant leader in the United States today is a Communist sympathizer, is to close one's eyes to the obvious truth...

...3. The main device used by the Communists among churchmen was the front group, designed to lure non-Communists into Communist-oriented organizations...

...Their ardent admiration for the Russia of Stalin had met a bitter fate: doubtless they found it painful, in some cases impossible, to concede the hollowness of the illusions of earlier years...

...for a few years in the decade of the '30s and in the years immediately after World War II, pro-Communism was part of what appeared to be the sophisticated and liberal milieu...

...So he can be attested As free as us, and not arrested...

...and Apostate Clergymen Battle for God-Hating Communist China...

...The Khrushchev speech against Stalin, the acknowledgments of Soviet anti-Semitism and the Hungarian revolt cut party membership from an estimated 20.000 in late 1955 to 3,000 in late 1957...

...Many eminent religious spokesmen—Oxnam...

...The impact was obvious among the small group of pro-Soviet sympathizers in or near the churches...

...Despite these and other concessions, however, Negroes generally were a bitter disappointment to the Communists, for they failed to respond with any enthusiasm to the party's recruitment drives...

...The party could not exercise the rigid discipline of earlier years...

...There were official and unofficial church social-action agencies, to be sure, but they did not have the spark, flexibility, funds and support available to the principal fronts...

...And why...

...Sometimes these organizations were run by the party, either directly or through key officers: in other instances, as in the American League for Peace and Democracy, the Communists allowed dependable non-party people a considerable measure of freedom...

...A few among the young, normally rebellious and untutored in the political lessons of the past years may find Communist utopianism appealing— as some of their parents and grandparents did before them...

...The Western allies, especially England and France, protested, but signed the Munich agreement with Hitler...

...The names of most fronts seemed innocent enough, with their use of highly cherished words like "peace" and "democracy...

...The United States has a rich tradition of nonconformity and has nourished a wide variety of bizarre religious cults and INDEPENDENCE Now that Nigeria has gained its independence, natives will be required to wear clothes.—News item...

...Roy, who has served in several New York churches and was assistant minister of the Metropolitan Community Methodist Church in Harlem from 1957 to 1960, now teaches religion at Mills College of Education...

...From its earliest history, the American Communist party gave special attention to Negroes, and by the early '30s it had learned that it was both possible and desirable to recruit among the thousands of Negro ministers...

...By the late '50s, the situation appeared confused...

...Harry F. Ward, their principal "spiritual father," was disturbed by the "terrible violations" of Soviet justice under Stalin...

...But at the present time the churches are faced with the more serious and pressing problems of apathy and complacency and a disquieting lack of social zeal...

...Gradually the full story of how the manual was written unfolded...

...Some clergymen found satisfaction and even a sense of accomplishment in having their names on imposing letter-heads...

...Included among these ministers are some whose professional lives have suffered considerably because they have stood by their political convictions— men like William Howard Melish, Jack R. McMichael and Dryden L. Phelps...

...Within a few days Gates had apologized, and Dudley C. Sharp, Secretary of the Air Force, ordered the manual withdrawn...

...Many ministers, inspired by the social gospel, were hoping for a better social order...

...IN EARLY 1960 THE United States Air Force released a training manual that contained this accusation: ". . . there appears to be overwhelming evidence of Communist anti-religious activity in the United States through the infiltration of fellow-travelers into churches and educational institutions...

...Overnight the Communist press would transform an unsung pastor of a small congregation into "a brilliant leader of the Negro people...

...Richard Armour unorthodox political movements...

...Meanwhile, in Europe and the Far East, Fascism and militarism were on the rampage...

...To the Communists, of course, they are incurably "reactionary...

...Two paragraphs of the manual then proceeded to quote the noted missionary, E. Stanley Jones, out of context so as to distort his actual views on Communism and the Soviet Union...

...at the height of the united-front movement: and from 1943 to 1946, during the war and during the immediate postwar afterglow...

...Communism and the Churches By Ralph Lord Roy In his new book, Communism and the Churches (to be published by Harcourt, Brace on November 7), Ralph Lord Hoy undertakes an extensive examination of the role of Communism in American religion and analyzes the charges of Communist infiltration which have so often been leveled at American churches in recent years...

...Few Negroes who actually joined, including the handful of ministers, remained members for very long...

...He depended greatly upon yet another pamphlet, 30 of the 95 Men Who Gave Us the Revised Standard Version of the Bible...

...The New York Herald Tribune also spoke bluntly: "We think the Air Force has the duty to make known which one of its birdbrains is writing its manuals these days...

...Far more important, the Wards and Spoffords thought of themselves not as Communists at all, but as loyal followers of Jesus and the prophets...

...But many more in Congress sided with the churches...

...James W. Wine...

...In scattered instances Communists won pastors by careful infiltration into their churches...

...between religious social concern and international conspiracy...

...The manual's discussion of the churches displayed such astounding incompetence that to analyze it line by line would be to give an inane document too much serious consideration...

...Many factors would account for this...

...Added to these considerations was a widespread fear of the power and the role of the Roman Catholic church in both international and domestic affairs...

...Indeed, the success of many front groups was helped by the fact that they seemed to be more vigorous in promoting worthy goals than the churches...

...In the '20s and early '30s, the churches were considered part and parcel of the capitalist system...

...The period of the '30s is illustrative...

...Many clergymen abhorred the popular stereotype of the pious, other-worldly minister, and their eagerness to associate with radicals of all camps stemmed in part from a rebellion against this stereotype...

...AN ADDITIONAL WORD should be added regarding the small group of persistent fellow travelers among the clergy who have worked with the Communists over the years and have willingly been used by the Communists as camouflage...

...Yet, as they are forced to retreat year after year, some will become more and more reckless in their attempts to depict their antagonists as Communists...