Unitarians pride themselves on being the left-wingers of religion. Strictly avoiding a strict doctrine, Unitarians are far too independent to follow anybody's party line. Last week, the American Unitarian Association was relieved to rid itself of what seemed to be an embarrassing exception: the Rev. Stephen Hole Fritchman.
Bearlike, big-shouldered Steve Fritchman, 45, editor of the 126-year-old monthly Christian Register since 1943, held one of the key jobs in the tiny Unitarian hierarchy. He also held membership in a list of alleged Party-line organizations as long as his left arm; he contributed to the Communist weekly New Masses and was a sponsor of the pseudo-pacifist, Communist-front "Yanks Are Not Coming Committee." Then, when Russia was attacked, he turned into what he called "a fighting liberal." After the war, as U.S.Soviet friendship cooled, some Unitarians thought that the Christian Register was flying on Moscow's beam.
Last October the Committee on Un-American Activities called Editor Fritchman to Washington for a quizzing. Meanwhile the Unitarian Association conducted its own investigation, exonerated Fritchman of using his position for "proselyting in behalf of the Communist Party cause." But a four-man group of top Unitarian executives was appointed to "cooperate" with Fritchman in editing the magazine.
Last month Fritchman took off for a speaking trip in Oklahoma without getting the advisory board's approval on an editorial attacking U.S. military aid to Greece and Turkey. From then on, it was just a question of whether Editor Fritchman would be fired before he quit. He offered a postdated resignation one day; was fired outright the next.