Trend To Secularization P ULITZER PRIZE winner Robert Sherwood last week made television news by signing a contract to write nine plays for TV during the next three years. The poor writing on video being a major problem, many serious viewers will welcome the news that a man of such recognized abilities is devoting him self so thoroughly to this medium. How ever, even greater elation will probably result from the unique fact that the sponsors will have no control of the plays. Most advertisers are notorious for thwarting writers and producers by placing rigid demands and limitations upon them. After signing this contract with Sher wood, a network executive proclaimed that the time is arriving when great artists can have, in broadcasting, the freedom which is necessary for creation of great art. Sherwood’s comments in dicate that this artistic freedom was a major factor in his acceptance. There does happen to be one incidental item in Sherwood’s contract which does impose a limitation: he can use no re ligious material in that it might cause controversy. Imagine Shakespeare, Ibsen, or Shaw being told that they could not be allowed to initiate controversy by dealing with religious themes! Imagine them not even feeling that their artistic freedom was at all impaired by such a restriction! When they demanded “ ar tistic freedom,” it covered all realms. Apparently times have changed. Lest Christians minimize the aggressive secularizing movement exemplified here simply because this incident happens to be in dramatic art (one of the arts which is of little interest to many evangeli cals), consider another recent occurrence. Last week Simon and Shuster published This I Believe, a compilation of five- minute broadcasts from the radio series by the same name. Contributors are famous persons from all walks of life, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Pearl Buck, and Elmer Davis. They were asked to state the faiths they live by—but one requirement was that the statements had to be entirely “ non-religious.” To state the faith one lives by and yet in no way mention a religious view point must be impossible for anyone ex cept the most thoroughly secularized in dividual. Yet, of those asked, only a few (such as writer Kathleen Norris) re fused on the grounds that the making of such a statement was too difficult. More and more we see aggressive secu larization permeating not only college, business, and industry, but also the arts, the entertainment field, broadcasting and publishing. Christians should be much in prayer and decide whether they are willing to allow our nation to become thoroughly secularized in every realm. For many years a secularization has been creeping into American life because of apathetic attitudes. Now many lead ers are fostering it by strong pressures and even actual enforcement. — W il l ia m C . L a n t z
“ Time Marches O n !” O NE of the oldest portions of Scrip ture is the 90th Psalm, beautiful for its depth and grandeur of thought. The first petition in the Psalm reads: “ So teach us to number our days, That we may get us a heart of wisdom.” (12, A.R.V.) Men have learned to count in the millions and more, but still they cannot count the years in their own lives. This is not a mathematical numbering, but a moral one. It is to estimate the human life by God’s purpose for it; by the eternity for which it is to prepare us. This petition is made for three rea sons. First, it is necessary because of the shortness of time. Some half dozen times is this thought set forth in this psalm. Paul said, “ Time is short.” If God does not teach us His divine arith metic and method of counting, life shall be past ere we are aware of it. Life is so short that it should be wisely spent; we dare not squander it, not even a moment of it. Secondly, the petition is made because of the sacredness of time. Time is sacred because it is from God. God created time just as He created the worlds. It is sacred because it is a trust from Him. He has deposited a certain amount of it with each of us. Redeem the time, for time is really a part of eternity. Queen Elizabeth of England on her death-bed cried out, “Millions of money for an inch of time!” Some waste more than a half century, and still long for more time. Lastly, we must be taught to number our days because of the serv ice of time. Time can be made to serve the ends for which God meant it. The character of eternity for us depends upon our use of time. Time can be so employed as to prepare us for eternity. It can serve us for God’s intended pur poses. In it we can turn to Christ as Saviour, live a life pleasing to Him, and serve Him with all our energies. Let us so utilize time that it will serve its God- intended ends. — C h arles L . F ein berg
Sunday School Instruction W E aré accustomed to hearing church members accuse colleges and universities of not providing courses in Bible, but when we hear college pro fessors condemning Sunday schools for not furnishing an adequate knowledge of the Bible, we are startled. Conducting a simple test in a South Carolina women’s college last year, Pro fessor Hampton M. Jarrell discovered that none of the thirty-four class mem bers could identify even vaguely any of the following Biblical characters: Ben jamin, Abraham, Potiphar, Haman, Jonathan, Saul, Simon the Zealot, Pon tius Pilate, Lazarus and Lot. While some of the readers might assert that the students were not reared under the influence of the Sunday school, it should be noted that this test was administered in the “ Bible Belt” of the United States. Prior to the tests made by Professor Jarrell, the writer made similar sur veys. One group tested consisted of stu dents .who were just entering seminary. All had been Sunday school pupils for a number of years. The results were almost identical with the case of the South Carolinians, although none of the young people missed all of the Biblical characters. Another group tested con sisted of twenty-four first-year Seminary students. Over half were unable to identify such familiar figures as Saul. David and Solomon beyond the vague statement that they were kings of Israel. All attempts at chronology were stark failures and the students were shocked to think they were expected to know Biblical personalities and to place them historically. There are many fine Sunday school teachers, but at the same time the above facts indicate that some are not doing their work well and are not taking God- given responsibilities seriously. The proper perpetuation of Christianity de mands an intelligent laity, the educa tion of which rests largely in the hands of the Sunday school teachers. — J a m e s H . C h r is t ia n
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