Quaker Thought and Life Today
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Quaker Thought and Life Today VOLUME 7 FEBRUARY 1, 1961 NUMBER 3 IN THIS ISSUE Albert Camus and Creative Leadership ~ be>t things a<e nea' • • • . • by T. Noel Stern est: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, duties at your hand, the path of God before you. Then do not Friends Schools and Integration grasp at the stars, but do life's • • . • by J. Theodore Peters plain, common work, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things of life. Awards in Friends Schools -ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON .. • • by James A. Tempest Fugitive Thoughts on Quaker Education • • . by Ira De A. Reid TWENTY CENTS Do High School Seniors Believe in God? $5.00 A YEAR 46 FRIENDS JOURNA L February 1, 1961 FRIENDS JOURNAL Do High School Seniors Believe in God? OR four semesters I taught a class in Quakerism at F Oakwood School, Poughkeepsie, New York. The class met twice a week. There were six questions on the final examination, of which students had to answer three. One of these questions was: "Write an essay on 'This I Believe.'" Over 75 per cent of the students answered this optional question. Only one student declared he was an atheist. All the others believed in God. The tone Published semimonthly, on the first and fifteenth of each month, at 1616 Cherry Street, Philadelphia 2, Pennsylvania of the answers is serious. Many other beliefs are ex (LO 8-7669) by Friends Publishin~ Corporation pressed in the papers. WILLIAM HUBBEN Editor Some beliefs in God, in the words of the students, MILDRED A. PURNELL BUSH CLINTON follow: Assistant Editor Business Mana~er MYRTLE M. WALLEN SADIE TEIR (1) ·• ... about God I have for the present a fairly Advertisements Subscriptions sure belief." CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENTS (2) "I do believe in God. I believe in God, not RICHARD R. WOOD, Philadelphia Africa .................. ..... __... Maurice Webb, Durban because someone tells me I should, but rather because I En~land .. .. ... .. ..... ...... Horace B. Pointin~. London Joan Hewitt, London believe that all people need to have a strong belief in France .. ............ .. .. ........ ... Wolf Mend!, Paris German:v ............................ Anni Halle, Berlin something or someone." India ... .. ..................... Benjamin Polk, Calcutta Japan .......... ...... .. _... .. ... .. Paul M. Seki:va, Tok:vo (3) "I believe in God as the guiding light and as the Lebanon ........ Calvin W. and Gwendol:vn Schwabe, Beirut Scandinavia . ... _...... .. ... Ole Olden, Stavanger, Norwa:v one who determines my ultimate destiny and that of the Switzerland. ....... .............. (To be appointed) Turkey . .. ..... _....... .... William L. Nute, Jr., Ankara human race. God knows our innermost thoughts Midwest (Five Years) .... Errol T. Elliott, Indianapolis, Ind. West Coast ..... ... .... .. Ferner Nnhn, Claremont, Calif. and will provide what he sees fit." BOARD OF MANAGERS (4) "I believe in God. I know, through experience of 1968-1961: Carol P. Brainerd, Arthur M. Dewees, Miriam my own, that there is a Divine Spirit to give guidance E. Jones, Daniel D. Test, Jr., Anne Wood, Mildred B. Young, 1969-1962; Howard H. Brinton, Sarah P. Brock, and aid to those who need it spiritually." Bliss Forbush, Lawrence McK. Miller, Jr., Philip Stoughton, Carl F. Wise. 1960-1968: Mary C. Calhoun, Eleanor S. Some definitions of God, in the words of the students, Clarke, James Frorer, Emily Cooper Johnson, Elizabeth H. Kirk, Elizabeth Wells. follow: THE JOURNAL ASSOCIATES are friends who add five dollars or more to their subscriptions annually to help (I) "God represents an ultimate truth concerning all meet the over-all cost of publication. Make cheeks pay able to Friends Publishing Corporation. Contributions phases of life. God, I feel, is the symbol of what is are tax-exempt. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States, possessions, Can· true for every age, a sort of timeless truth." ada, and Mexico: $5.00 a year, $2.76 for six months. Foreign countries: $5.50 a year. Single copies: twent:v (2) "God is anything that I believe in as a trust." cents, unless otherwise noted. Cheeks should be made pa:vable to Friends Journal. Sample copies sent on request. (3) "The God I believe in is abstract and could be Second Class Postage Paid at Philadelphia, Pa. called Faith. The Faith that I believe in could be the inner conscience of a person." (4) "I believe in God and man and consider God as the miracle of life that has given so much potential to Contents Page man." Do High School Seniors Believe in God?- ]. Curtis N ewlin .. ......................... ....... 46 (5) "When I teach someone how to do some particu Editorial Comments . 47 lar thing that I know something about and that person Albert Camus and Creative Leadership-T. Noel Stern 48 is appreciative of my work, I get immense satisfaction Reluctant Seer (poem)-Euell Gibbons . 49 out of teaching him. I can't name this thing or force Friends Schools and Integration- ]. Theodore Peters 50 exactly, but if there is a God, to me this is it." Annual Survival (poem)- Alice M. Swaim .......... 51 (6) "It is the aggregate of 'that of God' in every man that is God himself. He is that conscience that guides us The Courier Awards in Friends Schools--james A. T empest .. 52 to action in the ways which benefit mankind." Fugitive Thoughts on Quaker Education-Ira De (7) "God to me is something very ascetic. God is A. Reid ................ ...... ........... 54 something who guides me and watches over me. God Book Review . 56 loves me and wants to make me and the rest of his people Virginia Beach Friends School-B. M. Bucklin ... .. 56 models by which the world can benefit." Friends and Their Friends . 56 (Continued on page 51) FRIENDS JOURNAL Successor to THE FRIEND (1827-1955) and FRIENDS INTELLIGENCER (184~1955) ESTABLISHED 1955 PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY 1, 1961 VOL. 7-No. 3 Editorial Comments Gratitude precarious position, and he must be prepared for seem ISITORS to Albert Schweitzer's hospital in Lam ingly unwarranted reactions. Confucius once asked, "I Vbarene have revealed that the natives do not always never gave you anything, so why do you hate me?" receive the splendid work of the great doctor with appre The gospel illustrates in a few instances how unfore ciation. One can hear naive remarks like "The doctor seen can be human reactions. Once when Jesus had hurts us," or, "He puts people on a table, kills them, healed a sick man from an evil spirit, the people "began and then resurrects them." These are the reactions of to beg Jesus to depart from their neighborhood" (Mark the uneducated. They point, nevertheless, to the peculiar 5:17). Should we not expect that they would shower him fact that not all good deeds are received in the spirit in with invitations to visit more mental patients? But the which they are offered. In giving or serving there is logic of the people who had witnessed the healing was always a gap of ignorance or social prejudice to be different: one who had the power to make evil spirits bridged which the most generous donations cannot re leave might also order them to enter well people. Trans move. Even relief projects in emergency situations have lated into modern relief situations, this attitude may at times been misinterpreted. Such experiences cause sur mean that he who brings food and medicine may also prise in the donor because he is certain of his good inten withhold it at other times, as, for example, in a hunger tions. Yet all parents and teachers know of similar ex blockade. The individual or small group undertaking periences. The wise teacher, in particular, has learned the healing of wounds, physical or moral, is likely to be not to expect gratitude on the part of all students. That taken as representing the entire white race, or an entire is not to say that gratitude does not exist in education nation, or an entire social or intellectual group, much or relief work; we have ample proof of it. But many, as such honor and responsibility might be disavowed. especially the young, are slow to express it. Our reward Mistrust or fear are emotional facts never to be ignored. consists in the work itself and occasional, indirect signs Early in Jesus' ministry he visited his "own country," of appreciation, on which we must never count. The one where everybody knew him and his family. So strong who is on dry land must not take pride in throwing a was the climate of mistrust among those who knew him rope to those in need of help. that "he could do no mighty work there," meaning he Whenever we experience coldness and seeming rejec could perform no miracle. Significantly, the gospel does tion from the ones we have served, we should remember not say that he would not do a mighty deed; it states the chasms of misunderstanding between social classes, that he could not do it. between the educated and the less informed, and the Gratitude is like dessert after a meal. It is sweet but gross differences in national psychology that may inter not always good for the health. The satisfaction we take fere. Working with foreigners adds to the difficulty of in giving or serving is a standing temptation. Perhaps communication. Knowing a foreign language not only the sobering experiences touched upon are meant to give means that we can convey what we feel or think, and us an unending apprenticeship for thinking in terms of understand what others want to convey; it also means our neighbor. It is, indeed, desirable that the left hand that we can "hear" unspoken sentiments. Only he who not know what the right hand is doing.