"Light Of The World"

Manhattan's Union Theological Seminary is full of brilliant minds. One of them is Dr. James Moffatt, tall, thin, shy, 60-year-old Scot. Officially retired, Dr. Moffatt still teaches a course in church history. A scholar of many interests, he has written as many as five books a year; his specialty is the Bible. The Moffatt Translation, like the recent Goodspeed-Smith "American" Bible, is much more colloquial than the Revised Version of 1901, now being re-revised by a committee Under Dr. Moffatt. Last week this Presbyterian pundit had a new job: program consultant for a commercial radio program. His employer: General Mills, Inc. (Wheaties, Corn Kix, Gold Medal Flour, etc.).

For seven years, General Mills' program has been a housewives' serial called "Betty & Bob." This couple have about exhausted the possibilities of broadcastable domestic experience. Last week Betty & Bob laid plans to move to the country, after listening to a religious radio program called "Light of the World." This, curiously, was General Mills' new Monday-to-Friday quarter-hour*--Bible stories, beginning with Adam & Eve. Mindful of the holy row churchmen kicked up the last time Adam & Eve were on the air--as performed by Don Ameche and Mae West--the sponsors hired not only Protestant Moffatt as supervisor, but also a Jesuit and a rabbi--the Rev. John La Farge, S. J. and Dr. Robert Gordis.

Dr. Moffatt, who believes that "the more the Bible is human, the more its divinity is evidenced," let General Mills' Adam & Eve sound as human as Betty & Bob. Living, after the Fall, in a "nice, comfortable hut" which Adam has built, Eve recalls the birth of Cain: "The pain lasted all that night . . . and I lay there in the cave . . . listening to the wind. . . . Finally ... I cried out to you. ... I said I couldn't bear the pain any longer . . . and . . . you ran outside. I thought I'd never see you again. ..."

Adam: (mutters) "I couldn't stay there and watch you suffer. It was worse for me than it was for you!"

Eve: (laughs) "Yes . . . that's what you said, early the next morning. . . . (softly) Our first son! . . . God has been kinder to us than we deserved."

Adam: "Than we deserved! It was your. . . ."

Eve: (interrupting) "Yes, I know. It was all my fault. You remind me of it often enough. It's my fault that we're here now instead of in the Garden of Eden. But ... it hasn't been so bad, has it, Adam? We've had some happiness, haven't we?"

Adam: "Depends on what you call happiness."

Eve: (softly) "We have each other, Adam."

Come-on for the next program: Shall Eve tell Cain and Abel of their parents' past? "Does she fear that the revelation of her guilt will cause her sons to lose their love and respect for her?" (Organ music.)

* NBC Red network, 2 p.m. E.S.T.

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