Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 15
March 5, 1964
NUMBER 43, PAGE 8

Churches Promote "Civil Disobedience"

Thurman Sensing

(Editor's Note: This shocking expose of the action of "liberal" denominational churches in promoting lawlessness was written by Thurman Sensing, Executive Vice President of the Southern States Industrial Council, and has been widely circulated among Southern journals. The "civil rights marches" have all too often enlisted the participation of children, both white and negro, who were encouraged to join the demonstrators in spite of the absolute commandment of their parents that they NOT participate. The seeds of lawlessness and defiance of authority, implanted in young and impressionable hearts, are likely to bring a harvest of violence to our nation far beyond any possible "good" that the promoters could hope to gain in the present.)

In the fight to preserve constitutional government and the free enterprise system, nothing is more important than guarding the institution of the family.

In American life, the family is the basic unit in which a child learns the religious, national and personal values by which a person ought to live. Moreover, as a family is a collection of individuals, cooperating freely and relying on traditional truths, it is a teaching experience that prepares youths for the ethical existence and for a useful place in our capitalist society.

This is worth mentioning because totalitarians always seek to undermine the family and subject children to outside disciplines and to the thought reform and control that is called "brainwashing." Indeed, it is lamentably true that even in the free United States there are attempts being made to damage parental authority.

One such effort was made in mid-January when the Youth Ministry Consultation on Race, sponsored by the Emergency Commission on Religion and Race of the National Council of Churches, was held at the Methodist General Board of Education building in Nashville, Tennessee.

In a shocking display of contempt for law and order and for the right of parents to educate their children in their own values, the meeting openly proclaimed ways and means by which parental authority could be subverted. One adult editor of a "youth" magazine said that youths should be "blooded" in demonstrations, that "the kids owe it to the church to march, to picket...." She pointed out that "all over the nation parents have restrictive influences. Summer camp (church) is the first time for the youth to get away, free to do as they like." Another speaker said: "Parents in the North would get as mad at seeing their kids in a labor picket line as in a civil rights line....We need to get the kids politically involved." Indeed speaker after speaker urged that youths be encouraged to get in conflict with the law.

The Nashville Banner, in a strong comment on this National Council of Churches-sponsored conference, said:

"These are, Mr. and Mrs. America, YOUR children this "Emergency Commission" panel is talking about — and the parental authority it proposes to subvert is yours. The teenager it seeks to attract for its own scofflaw use is right out of your home, school and church. The ideological manipulators are now picking them young."

Good churches undoubtedly are shocked to find that an organization that describes itself as religious in character should be urging youngsters to get out from under parental influence and join street demonstrators in violation of the law of the communities in which they live.

There are many things that are outrageous about such efforts. But the worst of all is how it violates the precepts of the Christian religion. "Honor thy father and mother," says the commandment. But the NCC's commission would have the youngsters honor a commitment to civil disobedience rather than parental injunctions to be law-abiding members of their communities.

Thus the damage done by such adult advice is not simply to the communities that might be plunged into strife but to the children themselves. To urge children to break the law and to engage in what amounts to social revolutionary activity is to damage a child's development. For Christians, this is shocking beyond words, for Jesus Christ specifically condemned anyone who would harm a child in any way. He said it were better that they have a millstone tied around their necks and to be cast into the sea than to harm a little one.

And what kind of citizens would these children be who accepted indoctrination by the NCC Commission instead of heeding the lawful authority of parents and community? Would they he law-abiding adults after having been lawbreakers in their youth? What the NCC Commission suggested is that one can choose the laws one wishes to obey. Such a suggestion is unworthy of belief.