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WHAT THEY WERE SAYING 20 YEARS AGO | ECHOES FROM A DECADE INDEX
Echoes from the 1970's
"Still more terrible weapons are being developed which can only lead to greater fear
and suspicion and thus to a still more feverish arms race. Against this we say with
one voice-No. In the name of God-No."
Joint statement of religious leaders from the U.S. and USSR urging approval of the
SALT II accords.
"The first responsibility of all of us as American Christians in this situation is to
do some thorough homework on Islam."
J. Richard Butler, NCC Middle East director, on the departure of the Shah and the
revolution in Iran.
"This accident makes us again ask whether fallible human beings, who inevitably make
mistakes, should be trying to use nuclear energy, where there is so little room for
mistakes."
NCC energy policy specialists Chris Cowap, Katherine Seelman and Joel Thompson,
after the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident.
"They were saying that as you engage in mission, your starting point must be the
struggle of the poor for their own liberation."
Jim Cogswell, summing up an Agricultural Missions conference that he chaired, which
called for missionaries to set aside North American middle class notions of development.
"As of the end of November, CWS' Immigration and Refugee Program had placed 15,000
refugees in this country, most of them from Indochina. The total figure for
[the previous year] was 4,864."
From an NCC news brief.
"These are boat people as much as those from Vietnam."
Nancy Nicalo, the NCC's director of immigration and refugees, as NCC attorneys
challenged the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service over the rights of
Haitian refugees in the U.S.
"I don't think any film should be banned."
William F. Fore, NCC assistant general secretary for communication, reaffirming
the NCC stand against censorship, as controversy raged over Monty Python's
"Life of Brian," a parody of the life of Christ.
"I guess ecumenical life is always more vulnerable than denominational life. We
always have to be growing or we lose support."
Arleon Kelley, assistant general secretary for operations, who for the previous
two years had staffed the Panel on Ecumenical Commitment and NCC Purposes.
"Joint worship is a new animal which is an addition to and not a replacement for
the way we regularly pray."
Cynthia Bronson, NCC coordinator for Christian-Jewish relations, on the release of
an unprecedented set of guidelines for Christian-Jewish worship services.
"Clearly, disappearance is tidier than torture."
NCC Human Rights Director William Wipfler in congressional testimony warning
that disappearances had become the new weapon of repressive regimes around the world.
"It became quite obvious as we made our rounds from ministry to ministry that they
all have an enormous psychological need to talk about the tragedies that have
befallen them, to try to make us understand the pain and anguish they have suffered.
I've never done so much weeping in my life."
Kirk Alliman, Church World Service Southern Asia director, describing visits with
Cambodian officials less than a year after Vietnamese forces toppled the Pol
Pot regime.
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