Tensions

As its name implies, the National Conference of Jews & Christians is dedicated to tolerance. Last week the N. C. J. C., alarmed because "legitimate differences of opinion as to political events or policies abroad are creating mutual suspicions among religious groups here," urged "Americans of all races and creeds to abjure attempts to arouse one group of the population against another and to reject all propaganda directed against the reputation of any group." The Rev. Dr. Everett Ross Clinchy, a tactful, affable Presbyterian who is N. C. J.C.'s director, reported: "Jewish leaders are considerably worried over the emergence of anti-Semitism among Catholics. Jews are being increasingly attacked in the Catholic press and in Catholic meetings as Communists, in part because of the sympathy of some Jews with the Loyalist side in Spain. . . . Tension between Protestants and Catholics has increased, largely because of differences of opinion over the war in Spain, but also because of dissension over the question of Federal and State aid to parochial schools."

That this was no overstatement of inter-church friction there is many an example to show:

Spanish War, Catholic publicists maintain that only by a Rightist victory can Christianity be saved in Spain, but thoughtful Catholics have been irritated by the hecklings of Protestant ministers and ecclesiastics who addressed a protest on Franco's bombings, not to Franco, but to the U. S. Catholic hierarchy.

Brooklyn. Last fortnight the Jewish Examiner nominated for "Jew-Baiter No. 1" Dr. Patrick Scanlan, managing editor of the Brooklyn Tablet, Catholic diocesan organ whose letter columns have lately been full of discussions of "Jewish Bolshevism." Dr. Scanlan has particularly incurred Jewish displeasure by recommending that Dr. Albert Einstein be sent back to Germany, "where persecution might again impress him with its heinousness"--because Dr. Einstein joined Princeton professors in an appeal for lifting the arms embargo on Spain.

Schools, As taxpayers, contributing money to State and local school systems, many Catholics believe that they should get aid for their parochial schools. Many Protestants, however, hold that if Catholics do not choose to put their children in public schools, that is their lookout. In Ohio, where State aid for parochial schools has been fought in the Legislature for five years, religious bitterness has hampered the work of the N. C. J. C.

Bias. When America, able Jesuit weekly, announced a contest to discover anti-Catholic bias in the U. S. press (TIME, March 7), the Christian Register (Unitarian) snapped: "The Roman Catholic Church represents the most powerful organization of bias anywhere to be found." Said Christian Century, liberal Protestant weekly, "There is something very dangerous about the doctrine that only the truth has a right to be heard." Said the Churchman (Episcopal): "A large section of the American press is having a bad case of jitters over the attitude of the Roman Church. ... It is a pitiful exhibition. . . ."

Jersey City. The Jersey City Jewish Community Center recently ousted from its building a Jewish congregation headed by an anti-Hague rabbi, Benjamin Plotkin. Some local Jews called him a Communist. Said the American Hebrew last week: "For Jersey Jews deliberately to fan the flame which may ultimately consume them seems the most reckless kind of communal suicide." Similarly, Jesuit America has warned Jersey City Catholics against allying themselves with Boss Frank Hague, a Roman Catholic, on the grounds that Hague tactics may be used elsewhere against Catholics (a warning, however, not heeded by numerous Jersey City priests and Catholic War veterans). Said Zions Herald (Methodist) : "Jersey City has become essentially a Fascist cell. . . . The danger is that the Roman Catholic Church . . . shall through the misguided zeal or intolerance of some of its followers be subjected to the suspicion that in the 20th Century it endorses coercion over the minds of men. . . ."

N. C. J. C.'s Dr. Clinchy last week laid down a five-point program to combat religious intolerance: i) Maintain the U. S. separation of Church & State. 2) Maintain the fact of the sovereignty of God over the State. 3) Watch lest the churches become too rich. 4) Develop the conference idea among religious citizens. 5) "Religious people, before all others, should be aware that the best guard against Nazi, Communist and Fascist propaganda is to produce an American social order better than these can promise."

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