When four of a small town's leading citizens are either thrown into prison or heavily fined for breaking a federal law, the town's preachers and the rest of its' residents must inevitably make some jarring moral adjustments. Just that happened early this year in Pittsfield, Mass., when executives of General Electric (Pittsfield's biggest employer) were convicted of violating the antitrust laws (TIME, Feb. 17). In Christian Century, the Rev. Raymond E. Gibson, who then was pastor of Pittsfield's South Congregational Church, describes the resulting shock. It passed through several waves.
Right after the...