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Stones's excellent reasons for holding out, said Foreman, were 1) that a confession would have been a lie; 2) the Communists would "take that confession and hang it round the neck of every Chinese Christian who had ever had anything to do with him." Most shocking of all to Missionary Foreman was Stockwell's admission that he participated in the brainwashing of another prisoner.
The Need of Prayer. In the same issue of the Christian Century, Missionary Stockwell made his answer. "First, I stuck strictly to the truth for 14 months of solitary imprisonment, the same way that Vernon Stones . . . did. During those months when I denied all charges as completely false, the government tried my case in the papers, blackened my name and the name of the church before the public, publicly executed Wesley Hung . . . with [whom] I had been associated, and were holding my Chinese secretary in jail as an accomplice in my 'spy ring.' My honesty had not protected any Chinese Christians . . .
"It seemed to me at the time that I took the Christian way out. I do not know. I do know that the whole experience has made me much more sympathetic toward all those . . . who have had to live out their Christian faith in a very un-Christian society. I, like them, continue to stand in the need of prayer."
"Gravely Immoral"
Much of New York City's myriad welfare and charity work is streamlined by a body known as the Welfare and Health Council. Of the 391 agencies represented on the council, 53 are affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. Last week all 53 of the Catholic agencies were planning to pull out. Reason for the secession: birth control.
When the Planned Parenthood Com mittee applied for council membership in behalf of its Mothers' Health Centers, council directors turned the committee down, candidly explained that the Catholic agencies objected. But last week, after a long and bitter debate, an opposition slate of directors pledged to admit Planned Parenthood was elected 317 to 259. The 53 Catholic agencies duly announced that they will resign if Planned Parenthood is actually admitted. Said a Catholic spokesman: "The primary reason for the existence and a substantial part of the program of the Planned Parenthood group are to promote the gravely immoral practice of artificial birth control." The Catholic agencies would cooperate with the other 338, they said—but outside the council.