Quaker Thought and Life Today VOLUME 8 APRIL 15, 1962 NUMBER 8 IN THIS ISSUE Friend or Quaker • by Howard H. Brinton X who do" not ca" when hearing the name of God, while feeling at the same time that here the meaning of his life is being asked, de­ The Quaker Way of Life fies his true humanity. by Alison Davis -PAUL TILLICH In Quest of Peace • • • by Roscoe Giffin Richard Humphreys and Cheyney State College . by Arthur E. James THIRTY CENTS $5.00 A YEAR Poetry 162 FRIENDS JOURNAL April 15, 1962 Edward Hicks FRIENDS JOURNAL By FRANK .ANKENBRAND, JR. The lion and the Lamb are brothers under the Roar and golden fleece. They will lie down in The garden side by side. Christ will be their keeper; Published semimonthly, on the first and fifteenth of each But Peace will be their month, at 1616 Cherry Street, Philadelphia 2, Pennsylvania (LO 8-7669) by Friends Publiahin.r Corporation Bride. Eden will be the garden­ WILLIAM HUBBEN Editor Oh, Paradise! MILDRED A. PURNELL BUSH CLINTON Aaaoelata Editor Business Mana.rer MYRTLE M. WALLEN TACY H. BROWNBACK Edward, Edward Hicks, Advertisements Subscriptions Quick find your prophetic brush. CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENTS RICHARD R. WOOD, Philadelphia Canvas, become alive. Eqland ....................Horace B. Pointln.r, London .Joan Hewitt, London France ............................... Wolf Mend!, Parle Germany .............. ........... .. Ann! Halle, Berlin India ........................... Benjamin Polk, Calcutta My Friendly Persuasion .Japan ............................ Paul M. Sekiya, Tok)'o Lebanon ........ Calvin W. and Gwendolyn Schwabe, Beirut KATHY WHEATON Seandinavla .............. Ole Olden, Stavan.rer, Norway By Southern Rhodeala ............... Maurice Webb, Bulawayo Midweat (Five Yeara) .. Errol T. Elliott, Indianapolis, Ind. HE large, dimly lit room was quiet. People sat in West Cout ... ...........Ferner Nuhn, Claremont, Calif. BOARD OF MANAGERS Tchairs arranged around the edge of the room, and 1969-1962: Howard H. Brinton, Sarah P. Brock, BUss everyone had his head bowed in prayer. Through the Forbush, Lawrence McK. Miller, .Jr., Philip Stou.rhton, Carl F. Wise. 1960.1963: Mar:v R. Calhoun, Eleanor S. open doors I could catch glimpses of a Roman-style court­ Clarke, James Frorer, Francis Hortenstine, Emily Cooper Johnson, Elizabeth H. Kirk, Elizabeth Wells. 1961-1964 : yard with its delicate arches and bright stucco. The only Carol P. Brainerd, Arthur M. Dewees, Miriam E. Jones, Daniel D. Teat, Jr., Anne Wood, Mildred B. Youn.r. sounds were those of a fountain playing and an occasional THE JOURNAL ASSOCIATES are friends who add five dollara or more to their aubscriptioDS annually to help bird call. meet the over-all coat of publication. Make cheeks pay­ able to Friends Publishin.r Corporation. ContrlbutioD8 This was my first Friends meeting. I had become are tax-exempt. tired of the complex organization, pomp, and show of SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States, pesseaaions : $6.00 a year, $2.76 for six months. Foreilru countriea, lncludin.r my former church. I felt that these things were acting Canada and Mexico: $5.50 a year. Sin.rle copies: twenty cents, unless otherwlae noted. Cheeks should be made as barriers to me. During the meeting I could sense that payable to Friends JournaL Sample coplea sent on requeat. Second Claaa Poata.re Paid at Philadelphia, PL the barriers were no longer there. What could be less organized and pompous than a simple gathering of friends for the purpose of prayer? In the other church we had read choral prayers to produce a feeling of unity; Contents yet never had I felt such a strong sense of unification with Page others as I did with those silent people sitting around me. Edward Hicks (poem)-Frank Ankenbrand, ]r. 162 During the hour two or three people spoke, giving My Friendly Persuasion-Kathy Wheaton . 162 simple prayers or thoughts. They spoke because they felt Editorial Comments . 163 compelled to, not because it was their Sunday-morning Friend or Quaker-Howard H. Brinton ..... ........... 164 job. The time passed very quickly. When the meeting In. Quest of Peace-Roscoe Giffin .......... ..... ........ 165 was over, everyone went out into the sunny courtyard The Quaker Way of Life-Alison Davis ....... .. ........ 167 to talk and visit in pleasant, happy voices. Jet at Midnight (poem)-]ean Putnam .. ... ...... .. 168 Gifts to the U.N. as a Witness for Peace-Robert H. Cory, ]r. 168 I felt different that Sunday morning than I had on Sonnet for Easter (poem)-Madge H. Donner . 169 other Sunday mornings. I had discovered that elaborate I Wonder (poem)-Daniel Gordon ..... -· ......... ..... 169 surroundirigs and complex organization somehow stood Richard Humphreys and Cheyney State College-Arthur E. in my way. The utter simplicity of the Friends meeting ]ames ...... .. .... ........... ................. 170 left the path to fellowship with man and God open and For Our Children: Ahmed's Empty Toolbox-Mary Esther unobstructed. McWhirter . ............ .................. ...... ... 172 Books ........ ........... .. ......................... 17!1 "My Friendly Persuasion" is a school theme written on an Friends and Their Friends . ........ .... ... ......... 174 optional subject by 15-year-old Kathy Wheaton, who is a student Letters to the Editor ... .. .. .. ............ ......... 175 in the public schools of Claremont, Calif. FRIENDS · JOURNAL Successor to THE FRIEND (1827-19H) and FRIENDS INTELLIGENCER (1844-19H) ESTABLISHED 1955 PHILADELPHIA, APRIL 15, 1962 VOL. 8-No. 8 Editorial Comments The Churches of the Disinherited Challenge of the Sects by Horton Davis (Westminster RICHARD NIEBUHR of Yale University once Press, Philadelphia; paperback, $1.45) is a sound and H • called the new sects and denominations which' understanding study of this problem. It will arouse our are so successfully sprouting everywhere the "Churches interest in these religious seekers, who in a different of the Disinherited." The term implies that the older mental climate or in other countries might well have Churches and denominations have lost their early fervor fallen under the spell of political radicalism. and are becoming strongholds of the respectable and cir­ Pathological Thinking in Matters of Peace cumspect middle class. In contrast the new sects are the and War refuge of the poor. They are the result of the "unpaid The distortions of reality which the abnormal mind bills of the Churches," which became white, middle-class creates have frequently been employed to characterize institutions and neglected to fulfill their promise to treat entire nations. The "mood swings" of the Russians from everyone alike in the presence of our divine Father. the easy-going magnanimity of many individuals to mor­ Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Pentecostal­ bid depression, for example, has caused some observers ists, and others preach a heaven that appeals especially to designate the entire nation of Russians as manic-de­ to men and women who have experienced unemploy­ pressive. Such amateurish diagnoses may have a sem­ ment or have spent a life in cramped quarters. Their blance of justification, but the psychology of a nation (in God is lauded as the "God of the Helpless," whereas our itself a most complex term) is usually too complicated well-established Churches teach that God "helps those to permit such labels. Erich Fromm, eminent psycho­ who help themselves." Sects looking forward to Arma­ analyst and author of May Man Prevail7 (Doubleday geddon and Christ's rule of a thousand years expect Anchor Book, New York, 1961; 252 pages; 95 cents), the ultimate vindication of their "saints," whereas the applies a psychiatric category with more justification to middle-class Churches talk about religion as a way of our OWn thinking for the purpose of illustrating our life that will eliminate social tension and promote broth­ present frame of mind. Most Americans, he says, .thin}t erhood. In the belief of the sectarians, God will wreak about Russia in a paranoid fashion. Reality for the terrible vengeance upon the worldlings who relish their paranoid is based on that which is possible but not prob­ possessions, but He will be gracious to His elect. The lllble. His contact with reality is minimal and insecure. established denominations believe in an indwelling deity He therefore withdraws into the only reality in which whose will is gradually fulfilled in nature and society; he feels at home, namely, his own thinking. It excludes they quietly pass over our social inequalities. Members probabilities and exclusively centers on possibilities. of the established Churches channel their emotions into When feeling persecuted, he considers it possible that art and social or cultural recreation outside reli~on . his family, his friends, colleagues, and neighbors are plot­ But sectarians are still capable of religious enthusiasm ting to kill him. Such a conspiracy is possible but most and unabashed emotionalism. The established faiths unlikely. He is inaccessible to reasoning. Emotions con­ appear cool, if not cold, noncommittal, and conventional. trol his "thinking." Sectarians are spontaneous, fervent, and emotional. They Paranoic thinking is hard to recognize when millions are also inclined to be dogmatic and self-righteous, share it and the authorities who lead them support it. whereas the average churchman is tolerant or indifferent. Our contacts with the political realities of Russia are The mental naivete of many sectarians repels most extremely small and based mainly on what the authori­ of us. Their theological limitations are all too obvious. ties permit us to know. It is entirely possible that But their sincerity and devotion as well as their astonish­ Khrushchev wants to conquer and destroy us. But the ing growth are, indeed, a challenge and known to us realities of the international situation are such tha:t for chiefly in our early history. Sectarian missionaries have many cogent reasons the .attempt to annihilate us is knocked at the doors of most of our homes. The expan­ most unlikely. In addition-or in support .of our mis­ sion of their Churches supplies a jarring note to our taken idea-we are unrealistic in projecting our own pride in the growth of the ecumenical movement.