Monday, March 6, 1961
Rev. John Patton and Prof. Charles Landesman
Church Criticized By Two at Forum
A Presbyterian minister and a philosopher criticized the church severely at Friday's Current Events Forum.
The Rev. John H. Patton, professor of religion, agreed with Charles Landesman, assistant professor of philosophy, the other forum speaker, on these four types of "corruption" within the church:
- The tendency for the church to become subject to local conditions
- The tendency to rely more on dogma than on insight as the church develops.
- The growing stress on peripheral features.
- The beginning of a repressive influence on morals and actions.
Prof. Landesman said the first fault was a tendency for the church to become subject to local conditions. But he added that the more rigid a church organization is, the less it has to yield to local conditions.
"THEIS IS ILLUSTRATED by the fact that in the South, Protestant churches have tended to go along with segregation, while the Catholic Church has been against it."
Prof. Landesman said:
He added that on a practical level, even the Catholic church had not
ATO-Pi Phi Skit Tops Rock Chalk
Too honors in the annual Rock Chalk Revue Saturday night went to Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and Pi Beta pi sorority for their skit, "When in Rome."
Chi Omega and Phi Kappa Psi took second place with "Check-mate." Kappa Kappa Gamma and Delta Upsilon won third place with "The Decline and Fall of Almost Nobody," and Alpha Chi Omega and Phi Delta Theta were awarded honorable mention with "Dark at the Top of the Stairs."
Allen Crafton, professor of speech made the presentations after the Saturday night performances.
Judging was conducted by two groups of three judges each, both Friday and Saturday night. The skits were judged on the script content, use of stage settings, performance quality, audience reaction, and songs and dances.
(See editorial Review, page 2)
Weather
Daily hansan
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Partial clearing this afternoon. Partly cloudy tonight. Mostly cloudy and warmer Tuesday with scattered afternoon showers. High today in the middle 40s. Low tonight 28-32.
Prof. Landesman said the second corruption of the church was a tendency to rely more on dogma than on insight over the years.
He noted that the church could survive as a worldly institution only by creating followers.
He listed prohibition in Kansas as one example. He said the use of liquor had no relation to religious insight and man's ultimate fate.
The fourth type of corruption Prof. Landesman gave was the beginning of a repressive influence on morals and actions. He said it is absurd to attempt to apply old rules and dogmas to modern conditions. The fundamental insight behind the
"A person who indoctrinates others is not trying to learn or understand but to create belief in others," he said.
been able to achieve integration in the South.
THE THIRD TYPE OF corruption Prof. Landesman discussed was the church's growing stress on peripheral features as it developed.
(Continued on page 8)
58th Year, No.96
Chicago Hotel Blazes
KU Students Flee Fire
Bv Barbara Howell
The walls of their room were scorched and a lamp shade was burned. The intensity of the heat warned their luggage.
Six KU students escaped from a fire that swept three floors of the Pick-Congress Hotel in Chicago late Saturday morning.
The students are: Harley Russell, Topeka; Duane Steinhour, Hoxie; David Dykes, Goddard; Ed Zimmerman, Troy; and George and Jacque Kramer, Ottawa. All are seniors.
Russell said that he and his roommate, Duane Steinshouer, woke up at 10:20 when they smelled smoke. They dressed and ran out into the hall.
Thirty-one members on the annual pharmacy trip to major pharmaceutical firms, were staying on the 11th floor of the hotel. Most of the students were not in the hotel at the time of the fire.
"The hall was so filled with smoke we couldn't even see the walls." Russell said. "We were unable to reach the fire escape so we felt our way along the walls back to our room. Luckily the door hadn't locked when we ran out.
"We stuffed towels under the door to keep out the smoke and then called the switchboard. The operator thought we were kidding. Then we heard a woman screaming and running down the hall toward our room. She was one of the hotel maids. We followed her down some back stairs we hadn't known were there."
George and Jacque Kramer were awakened by the screams of a woman in the room below. They dressed and started to leave the room but were forced back by the heat and smoke. Firemen had to break into the room and help them reach safety.
The fire which started on the 10th floor killed one man. Others were rescued and fled their rooms as the fire swept the hotel. One woman was rescued by firemen from the ledge outside her room.
Ten rooms on the 10th floor and the halls on the 11th floor were gutted. Heavy damage was caused on the 12th floor by heat and smoke. The loss due to the fire was estimated to be 510,000.
Spectators who watched from nearby buildings said flames and smoke were streaming from tenth
floor windows when the first firemen arrived.
The KU group last left Monday for their trip to visit major pharmaceutical companies. They arrived in Chicago Thursday after spending the first part of the week in Kalamazoo, Mich. They left Chicago Saturday afternoon to return to KU.
Students Called on to Aid Africa, Serve God
The director of a Cameroun, Africa, college called for young Americans to work at their advanced and specialized vocations on the once-termed dark continent to develop Africa and to serve God.
Robert N. Peirce, director of the Cameroun Christian College, Libamba, Cameroun, told KU Presbyterian students last night that Africans are more and more needing teachers with masters degrees in sciences, engineering and leaders in journalism, medicine and nearly all fields as Africa extends its frontier. Mr. Peirce spoke at the Sunday Evening Fellowship meeting at the United Presbyterian Center.
"WOMEN STUDENTS in nursing are unable to get adequate training in their countries to qualify them for the level of a registered nurse. The general educational background offered in what the Africans call colleges is too limited in this case, not to mention the many other fields.
"The six years of grammar school, four of high school and three of college there takes students only to bachelor degrees. Most students who continue their studies go to France. But many can't afford to do this."
"Probably for many years to come—until enough outstanding teachers go to meet Africa's needs—Africans will continue to ask the U.S. government and churches to send over qualified nurses who have had the education and specialized training in the states."
MR. PEIRCE said demands for leaders comes from other African fields, especially in technological management, advanced science education and in the church.
"This calling for specialists in the church represents a bid for a whole new status for the American missionary and for American thinking in general.
"Autonomous churches need fraternal workers with the education to answer involved questions and to help in churches.
THE COLLEGE director said even some churches able to pay their own staff need U.S. aid for buildings and for starting and extending schools. But Africans realize Americans can often do better in Christian leadership as well as in some technical, literary, and educational fields, he said.
In the field of journalism too, Mr. Feirce pointed out downfalls in Africa and the need for young leaders.
Walking Pacifists Visit KU Campus
A pacifist took time out from a 3,500 mile journey to Moscow to talk to KU students today.
Jerry Lehmman, a Quaker and a graduate of Oberlin College, is participating in a 15 member "peace walk" to Moscow to dramatize direct action of a non-violent nature as an alternate to the arms race.
Mr. Lehmann spoke at a class on current American foreign policy at 1 oam, and at a class on international relations at 11 a.m.
In his talk to the 9 a.m. class, Mr. Lehmann called for the abandonment of the massive retaliation concept, the use of non-violent resistance as a means of national defense, unilateral disarmament and a program of massive assistance to underdeveloped countries.
Mr. Lehmann said he could not approve of the use of force. In answer to a question about whether non-violent resistance would work with the Communists, he said:
"If the alternatives are to be exterminated or to exterminate, I would rather be killed than kill another person."
Mr. Lehmann suggested that the people should refuse to serve in the armed forces, to pay taxes supporting military programs or to work in defense plants to help accomplish this program of non-violent resistance.
Another member of the San Francisco to Moscow walk, John Beecher, professor of English at Arizona State College at Tempe, spoke at the Plymouth Congregational Church.
Mr. Beecher said he thought the Russian government would welcome a chance to disarm, because in the last analysis, the Communist government has to have the support of the people. They can't keep them lined up as soldiers and secret police indefinitely."
Prof. Beecher offered an example:
Prot. Beccer offered an example. "During the time of the Hungarian revolution the Russian students were outraged. This was evident when Khrushchev made an appearance at Moscow University. The students started applauding and they wouldn't stop, and Khruschev was finally forced to leave.
"We (the walkers) are counseling a high form of resistance for the defense of freedom. We think that freedom can be defended through moral means a lot better than immoral means and it will end by vanquishing the enemy completely and converting the enemy into a friend," said Prof. Beecher.
Two members of the walk will be interviewed on WHB's Night Beat program tonight.
Upon arrival at New York, the group will take a ship to London then stroll across England with its "Walk for Peace" placards.
At the channel, the marchers will catch another vessel and start walking across Europe.
Of the present 15, only eight started from San Francisco. The others dropped out and their places were filled by volunteers along the way.
Prof. and Mrs. John Beecher