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James O. Henry, M .A ., Editor Associate prof, of History, Biola Bible College
B estau ran t F ea tu res Christian A tm o sph e r e A new restaurant in Springfield, 111., that features a Christian atmos phere and five-cent coffee, may lead casual Springfield diners-out toward a deeper Christian life. The new grill is sponsored by three Protestant ministers. Although no attempt is made to evangelize the diners, a large picture of Christ hangs over the main service counter. Plaques with Biblical quotations are displayed about the walls, tracts, are on the tables, and the juke box plays only religious recordings. Staff members are always ready to discuss religion with any patron who wishes to do so. Community reaction has been very favorable with several customers confiding that they came to the grill because they felt the need of spir itual consolation. The state of California collected $1,640,716 during one month in 1954 on sales of alcoholic beverages, the State Board of Equalization an nounced. It was an increase of ten percent over the same month in 1953. The sales of table, dessert and sparkling wines, beer and distilled spirits showed an increase of eleven percent over August a year before. Beer sales totaled 17,338,000 gallons, seven percent over, August 1953. .V eir C on fessiona l Panel Designed According to a recent report com ing out of Rome it was announced that an Italian company has devel oped an “Air Tight Amplifying Pan el” to replace the traditional grating in the confessional booth, shielding priests from infectious disease. The Vatican newspaper Observatore Romano published an advertisement for the device indicating the Roman Catholic Church has no serious ob jection to the idea. According to our Bible our Priest needs neither an am plifying system nor a germ-free booth, for He is seated at the right hand of the Father. 20 S tate L iquor Tax B ea ch es A ll-T im e High
drinking is not the general rule it’s a shame to see some representatives of our country in a very pickled con dition.” H em isph ere H ole of Church Hevieuced In the Colombia University Bi-cen tennial Conference recently held to discuss “ Responsible Freedom in the Americas” a discussion of the role that the Church plays in the West ern Hemisphere was touched off by two formal papers that were pre sented. In widely differing terms, George Manach, Cuban writer, and Prof. William S. Stokes of the Uni versity of Wisconsin presented a gen erally similar conclusion: “ That the Church in Latin America tended to collaborate more with authoritarian than with democratic government and was to that extent in itself an obstacle to hemisphere democracy.” “ In Latin America the acquiescence and even the collaboration of the Church with Fascist or reactionary regimes has been very apparent,” Manach said. “ From both the re ligious and political standpoint this today constitutes a grave threat to liberty in Spanish America where in recent years governments of force, almost all with a military base, have multiplied.” Prof. Stokes set down as his hy pothesis that “ The Roman Catholic Church in Latin America is hierarch ical, authoritarian and anti-demo cratic in both organization and pro cedure.” It therefore “ conditions the individual more frequently toward development of an authoritarian per sonality than toward a democratic one,” he added. Prof. Stokes’ original 39-page text was all but conciliatory. For exam ple, he spoke bluntly on the “ appar ent relationship between the illegiti macy figures in Latin America and exhorbitant church fees for the mar riage service.” This was linked with his contention that “ even in the moral and ethical fields, Latin Ameri can Catholicism tends more to form than to content.” THE KING'S BUSINESS
Iran Fights Communism As part of the drive to discredit the Communist movement in Iran the authorities are making it easy for wives of arrested Tudah (Commun ist) Party men to obtain divorces by proxy, says a Teheran dispatch pub lished in the Burman of Rangoon. Such a move marks a startling switch from normal Moslem custom. General Teymour Bakhtier, the military governor of Teheran, intro duced a general unwritten rule en abling wives to get a legal separation from men who remain avowed com munists. T o yn b e e W a rn s W e s t on E r r o r Doctor Arnold J. Toynbee, perhaps the world’s greatest historian, sug gested recently that the West put primary stress on spiritual rather than material factors in the psycho logical warfare phase of the cold war. He said “ the West’s individual freedom should be emphasized more than its high standard of living.” Doctor Toynbee cited the interest of the United States in religion. He expressed the view that reports of a growing interest in religion in the United States was a good omen for the world. This appears to mean that the American people are more concerned with an inner spiritual sense of security than they were after the first World War. M isb eha v io r A b road The London Daily Mail reported recently that United States Ambassa dor to Italy, Clare Boothe Luce, has issued stem orders to her staff to watch their behavior at social func tions. The dispatch, said Mrs. Luce, particularly warned “ embassy wives” and female employees not to indulge in drinking and parties. It said the American Mission in Rome has been embarrassed by reports that embassy girls had been drinking heavily. It said the Rome newspaper American News had reprimanded drinkers, de claring “ in a country where excessive
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