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Marriage & Punishment
Sir:
I read, with repugnance, the March 10 account of the Italian couple who were declared "public sinners" and, in effect, were deprived of their economic livelihood by their Catholic bishop because they contracted a civil marriage. I do not believe the founder of Christianity established any church for this purpose (slander and coercion).
WM. ROTHEBY Devon, Pa.
Sir:
The case of Bellandi v. Bishop Fiordelli exposes the age-old intolerance of the Catholic Church. How much longer will people realize that there is no more freedom for dissenters behind the scarlet curtain (Italy, Spain, Colombia, etc.) than there is behind the Iron Curtain?
H. R. HILLS Pana, Ill.
Sir:
I would like to see what would happen in this country if such a case occurred. While millions of Roman Catholics in the U.S. have no choice but to go along with the Pope's indignation, it is a good argument against an R.C. for President.
CLYDE BURROUGHS San Diego
Unitarians, Unite!
Sir:
As a Unitarian minister, my gratitude to TIME, March 10, for "Unitarians, Come Out!" The article may serve to awaken some of our denominational leadership to the great tragedy which is taking place within Unitarianism at the present time. There still are many of us who do not consider ourselves above Christianity.
(THE REV.) EDWIN C. BROOME The Flatbush Unitarian Church Brooklyn
Sir:
The Rev. Ralph Stutzman, clothed in clerical robe and ego, wants to "come out" of Christianity, presents to earth and heaven the ludicrous spectacle of a man, facing the rock of ages, destruction-bent with peashooter in hand.
MARGUERITE BALLOU San Bernardino, Calif.
Sir:
While Protestantism and particularly Catholicism are for the weak and ignorant, Unitarianism offers genuine intellectual freedom for those strong enough to bear it.
RITCHIE D. MIKESELL Champaign, Ill.
In a Pig's Eye
Sir:
According to my dictionary, the first meaning of the word "sow" is the "full-grown female of the swine." Therefore, I question the type of "priestly inauguration" held in Jerusalem between 73 and 63 B.C. that served "oysters" (no scales or fins) and "mussels" (no scales or fins) and "sow's udder" (Thou shalt not eat the flesh of any animal that doth not chew the cud nor have a cloven hoof). Will you please explain what type of "priest" was inaugurated at the "sumptuous repast" referred to by Author O'Brien in The Bible Cookbook [March 10] ?
JAMES STERN Atlanta
¶TIME had the right menu but the wrong restaurant. The binge was a Roman feast probably served, says Author O'Brien, for Caesar.—ED.
The Major & the Slicky Boy
Sir:
I, a former military police officer returned from Korea, would like to voice a loud "hurrah," not only for Major Thomas James, but for your tactful story on a Korean "Slicky Boy" [March 10]. If anything, your article understated the plague which confronts our armed forces in Korea and the almost complete lack of anything but token cooperation from Korean civil and military authorities.