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WHAT THEY WERE SAYING 40 YEARS AGO | ECHOES FROM A DECADE INDEX
Echoes from the 1950's
"(Chinese authorities) have already acquired Protestant schools, hospitals and
other institutions as 'patriotic gifts.' As a result, it is not so much a
persecuted church as it is a captive church."
Dr. Wallace C. Merwin, executive secretary of the NCC China Committee,
describing fundamental changes that were thought at the time to permanently
cripple Chinese Protestantism.
"Big or little, a building program is a religious act which deeply affects
the whole life of a congregation for generations."
The Rev. Edward S. Frey, chair of the NCC Department of Church Building, announcing the annual National Church Architecture Conference.
"If anybody wants to help my people who are refugees, I urge them to send
their gifts to the Tibetan Refugee Emergency Fund of Church World Service,
215 Fourth Avenue, New York 3, New York."
Thubten J. Norbu, eldest brother of the Dalai Lama, as Tibetans fled their homeland in large numbers, particularly to India.
"Surely we need more of this in our American cities if they are to be redeemed
from the grey fog of impersonalism, repression and conformity that seems to be
settling down on them ... and perhaps nowhere is this vitality more needed than
in our Protestant churches."
Dr. David Barry, executive director, New York City Mission Society, at an NCC sponsored Conference of Urban Leaders on "New Puerto Rican Residents."
"During the past 18 months, United Church Women has conducted some 40 human
relations workshops in various parts of the country. These have almost
universally resulted in better feeling in the community in the handling of
minority group problems. [For example] the Charleston [S.C.] City Council
followed the UCW recommendations and introduced an ordinance making it unlawful
for Charleston hotels and restaurants to refuse to serve anyone because of the
color of his skin."
Mrs. W. Murdoch MacLeod, UCW general director, on the increasing effectiveness of women in bringing about change.
"Fewer 'cheesecloth angels,' better costuming, better staging, and better plays
describe church drama today."
The Rev. A. Argyle Knight of the Methodist Board
of Education, who directed the NCC's summer religious drama workshop.
"Membership for all faiths in 1958 was 109,557,741. This is 63 percent of the
nation's estimated population of 173,374,000, the highest ratio of church
membership to population in American history."
From an NCC news story reporting on the soon-to-be-released edition of the Yearbook of American Churches.
"Something very definite must be done about this situation, which has been
getting worse during the past six months."
George A. Heimrich, director of the West Coast Office of the NCC Broadcasting and Film Commission, on the increasing portrayal of sex and violence in American motion pictures.
"Your gifts of sheep are the thing most needed by the Bedouins who are still
suffering from last year's drought and crop failure."
A 24-year-old King Hussein of Jordan in an interview in Amman with Dr. Russell Stevenson, Director of the Overseas Program of Church World Service.
"Why do women work? What changes does the increasing employment of women have
on marriage? Do working women continue to support the churches?"
Questions for a year-long study to be launched during Church and Economic Life Week, also to focus on nuclear energy, inflation, farmers, and the churches' own economic practices.
"On this Labor Sunday it is important for our churches and their members to see
not only the instances of corruption in labor but also to recognize the essential
function and permanent contribution of organized labor."
From an NCC Labor Sunday message in a year that saw a crippling steel strike and an ongoing investigation of labor leader Jimmy R. Hoffa.
And, finally, the thoughtful and eminently quotable Rev. Dr. Edwin T. Dahlberg, NCC President, had this to say among many statements:
"If (Jesus) had confined himself to little Mickey Mouse morals, he would never have been heard of." Defending the right and duty of the church to speak, following a national furor over the ecumenical Fifth World Order Study Conference that advocated recognition of "mainland China." Many asked how the churches dared to weigh in on this great foreign policy issue of the day.
"Such an expansion of the American Union calls for an expansion of the American soul." On the impending statehood of Alaska and Hawaii.
"It is a sin and a disgrace to us all that we should permit a materialistic, God-denying Communist like Nikita Khrushchev to grab the ball and run away with it—going down the field of history with great words such as universal disarmament, world friendship, reconciliation and good will. Those are our words, Christian words." In a Christmas message during the year that Soviet Premier Khrushchev made his historic visit to the U.S.
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