’TWAS THE NIGHT …
’Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the church
Not a creature was stirring
to halt my research.
As I sat in my study,
my sermon half done,
The electronic chimes struck
the hour of one,
When out in the narthex
there came such a clatter
I rushed through the nave
to see what was the matter.
As I dashed down the aisle it
began to be clear
That a crisis of major
proportions was here,
For out of the darkness
and down toward the choir
Came Santa Claus running,
his whiskers on fire.
With a presence of mind that
I blush to recall,
I seized the extinguisher
there on the wall,
And, directing the foam with
an aim sure and quick,
In the wink of an eye I
had put out St. Nick.
Over coffee and pie in
the kitchen downstairs
I tried to catch up with
the state of affairs,
While Santa was drying
the coat of his suit
And emptying foam frosting
out of his boot.
“Just how did it happen?”
I ventured to say,
“And why did you not throw
your whiskers away?
You’ll pardon my finding
this incident droll:
You nearly were carried
away with your role!”
But Santa replied with
a quizzical gaze,
While feeling the fringe that
remained from the blaze,
“Your little jest isn’t
without its appeal,
But what makes you think that
my beard is not real?”
Then laying his finger
aside of his nose,
He winked and was gone—to
his job, I suppose.
One must not prejudge
even foliage lush;
The alarm isn’t false when
there’s fire in the brush.
Don’t condemn all the holiday
sham equally, since
The flaming-haired beauty
may not use a rinse.
EUGENE IVY
VATICAN AND WHITE HOUSE
I fear November 8, 1960 was the U. S. A.’s darkest hour to date when a Roman Catholic became President of our beloved country. Not the man himself but the fact that we are now under the power of a foreign state (the Vatican) and as a result are, in reality, under totalitarian rule. Where are the great men in our generation, that our pilgrim fathers and the statesmen of Washington’s day could claim to be?… Our clergymen have proved weak and spineless and the golden opportunity missed by both Roman Catholic and Protestant clerics alike, to voice what they stood for, will only spell defeat for both.
The handful of brave Protestant clergy, who weren’t afraid to speak out like … yourselves with the best article I’ve read anywhere “Bigotry or Smear?” (Feb. 1 issue) will, in the end, come out on top, for courage is secretly admired by all mankind.…
MRS. E. W. CORNELL
Mamaroneck, N. Y.
One can understand, if not appreciate, that a majority of Catholics voted for the new President-elect. It is, however, most disheartening to note that he was also just as certainly placed in office by a majority of un thinking, undedicated Protestants (as well as the uncommitted, religiously and politically). Except for the minority, the former great evangelical witness of Protestantism in our land is apparently but a fading memory.
VERDUN LACHANCE
Lucerne Valley, Calif.
Protestants in the south have demonstrated that for the office of President of the United States they impose no religious test—an example for Catholics that they impose no religious test for the office of mayor in the big cities.
Methodist Parish
Hartford, S. Dak.
HENRY RATLIFF
I wonder if Americans now are not in a position a bit similar to the one Israel was in during the reign of Rehoboam. Taxes on Americans have been burdensome to the point of confiscation or legalized robbery. Now a leader (?) has been able to obtain the position of the Presidency, who is advised by men who propose more taxes and debts.… It may even be in harmony with Lenin’s plan for bankrupting Uncle Sam.…
Rehoboam was about the age of this nation’s choice of future leadership. During his reign Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which were above all that their fathers had done, for they built high places and standing images … and there were sodomites in the land; and they did all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.…
Rehoboam’s decision to trust advice of young men proposing higher taxes (higher usury rates probably also) in my Bible is called foolish.
O. L. WILLSON
Monmouth, Ill.
This is a request for earnest prayer—in meetings and individually—that the President-elect might personally know the full meaning of redeeming grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Lord might use this means to win many Catholic souls to Christ.
VIRGINIA SCOTT
Seattle, Wash.
If the Protestant view of Church and State is to survive, the average church member must be given an articulate understanding of our position.
Catholics teach their people their view through the civics and history courses in the parochial schools. Our children get most of their instruction along this line from the secular courses offered in the public schools.… Our young people … cannot hold their own in the face of secularism or Catholicism.
… Denominational and independent publishing houses should produce graded courses on the Protestant view of Church and State.
… Church libraries should be stocked with some authentic Catholic civics texts and some of the books on Communism recently recommended in CHRISTIANITY TODAY.
OLIVER W. PRICE
Oklahoma City, Okla.
During Senator Kennedy’s campaign a little group of people in Chicago tittered with laughter on hearing the quip: “Worship in the church of your choice now—while there is still time!”
One of the group did not laugh. When asked why, he quietly but impressively replied, “I have just come back from a year in Catholic Spain.”
H. H. LIPPINCOTT
Morristown, N. J.
THE DIALOGUE
I particularly wish to thank you and Mr. Lowell for his very fine article, “The Protestant-Catholic Dialogue” (Oct. 24 issue). With the many distortions that have come to this question in recent months, it surely is helpful to see such an article bringing things back into focus.
FRANK J. VOTH
Bethel Baptist
Greeley, Colo.
It is to be regretted … that he should apparently ignore the fact that the Luther-Eck debate was possible in the 16th century because there was a common community of the church, whereas today there is no common community to support a debate. This is why any realistic conversation must begin with rather awkward and tentative dialogues in order to discover a basis for continuing the conversation.
W. THOMAS APPLEBEE
Community Congregational Church
Manchester, Iowa
The writer says that I favor “state subsidies to church schools.” This is quite erroneous. My most recent published statement on the subject appears in Religion and the Schools, a symposium sponsored by the Fund for the Republic.
I do favor the inclusion of parochial school children among the recipients of so-called “fringe benefits”—for example, free bus transportation—the constitutionality of which the U. S. Supreme Court has explicitly upheld. But I do not advocate subsidies to parochial schools and would not personally support such a proposal.
F. ERNEST JOHNSON
New York, N. Y.
Why is it that you refer to the Church of the Pope as “catholic” and not either Roman Catholic, or—as it should be called since the Lateran Treaty between the Pope and Mussolini, both dead—Vatican Catholic? For almost two years I have in vain looked for accuracy in describing the international Church of Popes by its proper name.… As yet—to my understanding, that is—there is not in existence a visible true Catholic Church for which our Saviour prayed before His death. The numerous and rich and influential Church of Popes is but a branch of Christianity and is one of the main obstacles of true unity among and of Christians.
ANTONI M. TURKIEWICZ
Miami, Fla.
CHRIST AND MARX
You should mail reprints of J. Edgar Hoover’s second article entitled “Communist Propaganda and the Christian Pulpit” (Oct. 24 issue) to every preacher in the United States.
CURTIS H. WILLEY
Terre Haute, Ind.
• Reprints of the entire series are available at ten cents per copy or $4 per hundred.
—ED.
The purpose of the Church’s ministers does not include condemnation of the Communist ideology (or for that matter, of praising a materialistic American style of life) but rather, it is the privileged duty of the Church’s ministers to proclaim the Gospel, the good news that Jesus is the Christ and all persons (not just America and her allies) can be saved through him.
A national culture whose claims of freedom and equality under the law are refuted by religious bigotry (even in a Presidential election where neither of the candidates have, by their actions, revealed that they are Christians), segregation of races, business dishonesty excused by the term “shrewdness,” unscrupulous advertising which is justified by the resulting sales, political lies which are described as “diplomatic necessities,” and a host of other atrocities—has no right to point to the log in his brother’s eye when the speck in his own has, through a loss of Judaic-Christian values, also become a log.
ROBERT M. HENDRICKSON
Chicago, Ill.
In 1945–1946 the United States was the strongest nation on earth. She had unprecedented prestige. If at that time we had used good judgment our nation would now be prosperous, free of debt, stable, secure, and at peace.
We did not use good judgment.… We felt insecure and fearful.…
In 1946 we made a series of far-reaching concessions to Russia. We were asked to believe these concessions were necessary to induce Russia to become a member of United Nations. They were not necessary. Russia was eager to become a member. She could use United Nations to further the cause of Communism-Atheism.
We all knew the nature of Communism-Atheism. We all knew Russia was Communistic-Atheistic. In our right minds we would not have accepted Russia as a member of United Nations. It was madness. With Russia as a member and with the far-reaching concessions we had made to her, United Nations can never fulfill the purposes for which it was created. United Nations will inevitably become a Communist-Atheist dominated organization.
In the autumn of 1946 I wrote: “This is the greatest folly in human history. The immorality of it is appalling. Never before has a people so knowingly chosen the wrong course. We are forsaking In God We Trust. We are saying In The Honor of Communist-Atheist Russia We Trust. This may well be the beginning of the end of our nation. We are planting a very malignant cancer deep in its vitals.”
LEE A. SOMERS
Champaign, Ill.
NUMERALS IN REVERSE
I am puzzled by … references to the Episcopalians in the October 10 issue.… On page 28 you say that only 97 per cent of Episcopal clergy believe that the Bible is the authoritative rule of faith and life …, a rather overwhelming percentage.…
An Episcopal ordinand must “subscribe and make in the presence of the Bishop a declaration that he believes the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God and to contain all things necessary to salvation.”
JAMES L. JENKINS
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Virginia, Minn.
• The report on “The American Clergy and the Basic Truths” included a proofreading error involving the figure corrected below:
“Episcopalian ministers also showed up most poorly with respect to the Bible as the authoritative rule of faith and life. Baptists and Lutherans supported the doctrine’s importance for church unity by 97 per cent; Methodists and Presbyterians by 95 per cent; Episcopalians by only 79 per cent.”
—ED.
