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University Daily Kansan
Monday. May 9, 1960
Churches and Issues
There is a continuing hassle between "liberal" and "conservative" elements in U.S. Protestant churches over the propriety of religious leaders speaking out on public issues.
We believe that religious groups should make their views known, through statements by their leaders. But a church leader should not use his position to pass off his personal views as those of the group he represents. (This also holds for university student body presidents.)
Certainly there are religious leaders, as well as leaders in other fields, whose personal opinions should be known.
A CHURCH GROUP has every right to make public its stand on issues such as segregation, slum clearance, nuclear testing and birth control. We don't accept the view of the "conservatives," that the mission of the church is to save individual souls and not to reform society.
The Chamber of Commerce never hesitates to speak out in favor of whatever may benefit its members. Numerous Washington lobbyists spread propaganda for the groups which pay them. Thousands of organizations are busy supporting what they consider to be honorable ends.
Why shouldn't the churches back the principles on which they are founded?
J. Howard Pew, Philadelphia industrialist and a spokesman for the "conservatives," recently pointed out a basic problem.
HE SAID that wealthy business and professional men are withholding financial support from their churches because they are opposed to the "statements and pronouncements on social issues" which church leaders have made.
This may be true, but we weren't aware that the churches were altering policies on the basis of monetary gifts. Church groups and their leaders must let their beliefs be known, defend them, and apply them to the practical problems of society. If the churches remain silent, the principles of Christianity are weakened.
The Rev. Dr. James E. Wagner, president of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, has noted a possible result of efforts to prevent ministers from giving opinions on public issues.
HE BELIEVES that the real danger from such influence is that ministers may "play it safe by preaching always on nice, quiet, pious, devotional themes, never touching on controversial issues, never supporting any organized efforts against social wrongs and injustices, and thus assuring that they will never get into trouble with anybody."
We certainly cannot afford to have our churches playing a timid, passive role in this time of international and domestic crisis. The churches must speak up. Their support is sorely needed in many areas.
Jack Harrison
Who Says?
Editor:
Who says sit-down strikes violate the "true principle of civil rights?" And what right has one President to express the opinion, unasked, of more than seven thousand students?
Sheila Lemon.
Sheila Lemon. Birmingham, England graduate student
.. ..
Ask for Dalby
It was quite disconcerting to note that the representative of the KU student body to the Big Eight Student Body President's Conference took what appears to us to be a segregationist position with regard to the recent so-called "sit-down strikes" occurring in the south. To recognize the value of civil rights while disapprovving of social and political action in their behalf is a point of view we cannot fully appreciate or understand, especially in the absence of any positive statement from the Big Eight student body presidents concerning just what action or position, if any, they do take with regard to the plight of many of their fellow students in the south.
WE WOULD LIKE to indicate our strong support for the National Student Association in their efforts to promote student participation in this form of social action which has been so effective in the past in achieving equal rights for minority groups. We also hope that this action by the Big Eight student body
presidents will in no way discourage or hamper the struggle for civil rights now being carried on by many Negro students in the south. Some action, such as ensure of Mr. Dalby by the ASC, seems called for in order to make it clear that many students of this University do not wish to be identified with a pro-segregationist position regarding Negro students in the south.
Jane Murdock
Jane Murcock
Joplin, Mo., graduate student
Gerald Goldstein
New York N.Y. graduate student
***
Editor:
"It Is One Wav"
Usually, we go along in our routine activities and never realize what is occurring in the rest of the world around us. Sure, we read the papers and pick up news from other sources, but very few of us ever find the time to delve very deeply into the situation of our society and the attitudes of our brothers.
During the past several days, we have witnessed multi-reaction to the movement of a group of individuals peacefully crusading for a basic right. This is good, I believe, for all concerned.
THE MAJORITY of KU students has, at last, been exposed to the sit-in movement occurring now in many cities in the United States. They have also seen and heard the pro and con attitudes toward the movement and its sympathizers.
Now, we should think and act sensibly — never forgetting the
Dailu Hansan UNIVERSITÉ
University of Kansas student newspaper
basic principles involved. We must not limit our attention to the controversial sit-in movement. After all, this is merely a way and not the best way.
So they sit peacefully at a lunch counter — in protest. What happens? By March third of this year, an estimated 300 southern students — white and Negro — has been arrested on such charges as disturbing the peace.
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912.
Telephone VIkng 3-2700
Extension 376, news room
Extension 376, business office
Telephone VIking 3-2700
SIT-IN pressures are a method that the Negroes are using, at present, to point out one of the greatest American misfortunes — racial discrimination. The sitters-in and their supporters probably feel, for example, that a Negro who can purchase an entire set of dinnerware in a Woolworth's store, should be served and be able to use one of the cups at a Woolworth's luncheon counter. They cannot do so in many Southern cities for there seems to be a warped distinction there between a human life and a human curse — the dollar.
Extension 711, news room
SOME believe that the rights of the luncheon owners are infringed upon during such movements. This is true, perhaps, but mustn't we consider the relative justification of the principles involved. One principle has to do with the economic rights of a few. A flexible one, by the way, for chain stores' principles seems to vary directly with the locale in the nation. The other principle encompasses the basic desire for a RACE of men to compete, as equals, in the race of MAN. Personally if a choice of the principle_to support is absolutely necessary — I will choose the latter.
Member Inland Daily Press Association. Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50th St., New York 22, N.Y. News service: United Press International. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $5 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the university year except Saturdays and Sundays, University holidays, and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Managing Editor
Jack Mortor
Ray Miller, Carol Heller, George DeBord and Carolyn Frailey, Assistant Managing Editors; Jane Boyd, City Editor; Ralph (Gabby) Wilson and Warren Haskins, Sports Editors; Carrie Edwards and Priscilla Burton, Society Editors.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Douglas Yocom and Jack Harrison ... Co-Editorial Editors
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
What we all must do however, is consider the sit-in movement as one means. A means leading directly to a justified and humane end — equality and human dignity.
The rights, beliefs and emotions of the Caucasian and Negro must be considered. We have to remember that to some the idea of integration is a violation of their basic moral code.
Bruce Lewellyn ... Business Manager
INBRED prejudices must be recognized!
With these factors in mind, appropriate peaceful action will eventually follow. Sit-in pressure is an action. Not the most effective or the most beneficial, granted, but it is one way.
"We must open our eyes, Americal"
We must find other and better ways.
It Looks This Way...
Ed McMullan
Student body vice president
Long Beach, N. Y., junior
The political situation is a mess. You just never know what's going on, with the politicians talking in eliches, bromides, euphemisms and stereotypes.
By Jack Harrison
WE WOULD like to bare the issues for you and explain what all the talk is really about.
The voter has choices to make. Perhaps we should throw the rascals out. Or maybe it is bad to change horses in midstream. At any rate we all want a chicken.
in every pot and two cars in every garage.
We are a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world, but we stand four-square for free enterprise and rugged individualism. We must have a return to normalcy to combat this creeping inflation.
In this world of transition our own enlightened self-interest leads us to our manifest destiny.
Peace and prosperity are the real issues of the campaign. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. That is, if we stick to open covenants openly arrived at.
THE ANSWER to all our problems is dynamic conservatism, but rugged individualism and a New Internationalism will help a lot.
We must beware of Rum, Romanism and Rebellion. We must make the world safe for democracy, and if need be, fight the war to end all wars. We must carry a big stick, resort to police action if necessary, and perhaps even launch massive retaliation.
It's time for a change, and we need some jobs for the boys. We'll have none of this socialism, but perhaps the welfare state is the only humanitarian approach to the problems of our elder citizens and less fortunate neighbors.
WE MUST never forget the four freedoms. America first, you know! A vote for the man is a vote against witch hunters and court packing and McCarthyism. We don't want another 20 years of treason. We must do things the American Way.
There, we've explained the political situation. Simple, isn't it? But before this whole thing is finalized, we may find that Joe Smith is the best man for the job.
"Higher education is a creature of our society, but it cannot escape its obligations to transcend it. We live in a dangerously easeful time. There is a lack of roughage in our national diet. Shouldn't our colleges and universities provide a countervailing tendency to the fat, sleek materialism of American life? Shouldn't they provide something hard and lean and spiritually purposeful? The press of students at our college gates may give us just the opportunity we need. In the past, our fear of the idea of the superior few pushed us into shoddiness and hypocrisy. We are now in position to try the leap for excellence. We have the students; we even have the teachers. All we need is the will." (From "American Colleges: What Their Catalogues Never Tell You," by David Boroff, from Harper's Magazine, April 1960.)
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS By Dick Bibles