Are Episcopalians Smug?

Outsiders sometimes charge that the Protestant Episcopal Church is more snobbish than religious. Last week a few insiders made the same charge. In the Episcopal weekly, The Living Church, 100 Episcopal chaplains who have been working with servicemen complained that almost no group in the armed forces is as lacking in real religion as Episcopalians. Specifically, the chaplains reported:

"We . . . are appalled at the indifference [and] ignorance of Christianity's basic teachings about God and man. . . . We are alarmed at the degree to which the young [people] in our own church . . . are uninstructed in the faith and unaware of its devotional, moral and social implications. For this deplorable situation we believe that we of the clergy are largely responsible."

In an accompanying article, one of the signers of this blast, Chaplain Albert J. Dubois, 38, detailed the reasons for the statement: "It is a great privilege to be sent in the name of Christ to minister to men of all faiths--and of none." But when an Episcopal chaplain turns to the men who belong to his own church, "he finds less cause for joy. . . . The pathetic weakness of much of our religious education is now most glaringly apparent. . . . We have turned out too many people who are more like the Pharisee than the Publican--members of the Episcopal Church who look around and say, 'Thank God I am not as other men are.' It has all contributed to the smug complacency that makes so many Episcopalians readily and proudly admit that they are Churchmen, but makes them as readily admit that they 'don't go to church much. . . .'"

Chaplain Dubois warned his church that it must mend its educational ways, for returning servicemen will have "little patience with half measures or compromises. . . . They will be ... men who have learned discipline and know sacrifice. To those who return, religion will be all or nothing. . . . [But] if [their] zeal and enthusiasm ... is properly directed, they will be the finest group of men the church has ever had as leaders."

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