(3 of 4)
I believe that we have taken an enormous step backward in bringing "into reality the sisterhood of women." Either we should live up to our aims or we should make no pretenses of having them. Perhaps we have been lacking in "a clear vision of life" and "an appreciation of real merit and worth. . . ."
It seems to me that we have been lacking in courage, have been less than gracious, and for at least some of us there is little peace in our hearts.
AN ALPHA Xi DELTA
(Name Withheld)
St. Louis
A Liberal Finds a Church
Sirs:
May I thank you? Due to your sincere and intelligent discussion of Unitarianism in the Jan. 21 and May 6 issues, I decided to look in on the small Unitarian Church of San Antonio, to see for myself if there really could be such a liberal church in this world of ignorance, prejudice and hate. Attendance at one service convinced me that at last I have found the church about which I have always dreamed! So—thanks, TIME, thanks.
FRANCES LANIER SMITH
San Antonio, Tex.
Thought, Anyhow Sirs:
. . . "Doggedly Unitarian about the nature of God" [TIME, May 6] may describe the inherited doctrinal condition of modern Unitarianism, but it ignores the fact that in the past few centuries most of the moderately liberal Christian churches have silently come round to the Unitarian view of Servetus on the oneness of God, and thus it has ceased to be a live issue. Meanwhile, during the period in which orthodoxy was catching up with liberal thought, the liberals were advancing onward to new and sharper issues, and today the crucial issue about which they speak and think is that of supernaturalism v. naturalism, the issue of two worlds v. one, and, as you would expect, the Unitarian stress is again on the scientific outlook. . . .
When reporting on Unitarians, you must remember that the principle of the free mind in religion is paramount to all particular beliefs and dogmas. . . . We are not unanimous, for we insist on thinking for ourselves, without the aid or hindrance of revealed "truth" or official church pronouncements. Our motto can be well stated: "Here not all think alike, but all alike think."
PETER H. SAMSON
Minister
First Unitarian Church
San Diego
Hysterical Reuben
Sirs:
. . . TIME [May 6], in an article concerning the recently emasculated OPA bill . . . stated: "The voice of Reuben, slightly hysterical as it was, had its effect." I resent your allegation that the average American citizen is a Rube and that he is hysterical.
It's about time Americans showed an unrepresentative House of Representatives that the average citizen is for the OPA. That "hysterical voice of Reuben" has been the backbone of our nation since its beginnings. ... I only hope that "hysterical voice" is heard more often.
MARK P. KITE
Clarkston, Wash.
¶ TIME never dreamed of suggesting that Reuben suffers from chronic hysteria, but thinks his voice is more effective in the lower register.—ED.
Reconverted Louis Budenz
Sirs:
If Louis Budenz is a fair sample of Fulton J. Sheen's converts [TIME, May 6], then it is very easy to see how he does it.