Memories of te Embryonic Americans United on celebration of its 50th anniversary

LIVING ALONG TIME has its compensations, especially if the memory can bring back pleasant experiences. My qualifications enter both categories. And one of the pleasant recollections is the role THE CHURCHMAN-the parent of The Human Quest, founded in 1804 by Episcopalians-has played, either by spontaneous reaction or innate interest in the basic democratic tenet, the separation of church and state.

My contemporaries would be as proud as I am to help celebrate Americans United's fiftieth anniversary. To have this great principle become a vital force in our Jeffersonian society brings heartfelt gratitude. Glenn Archer the first executive director, met with pioneer-spirited men and women in the New York offices of THE CHURCHMAN over many months before the Washington, D.C. office became the seat of this great and vital movement in 1947.

The offices of THE CHURCHMAN were a focal point for rugged Americanism; we seemed to inspire the fighting spirit of the Ameri can Revolution itself. We were alive with the patriotic spirit.

Our New York offices were huge. We had room for meetings of persons interested in worthwhile causes. In fact, our inner office was taken over by the early Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, headed by the Rev. Bob Rich. The new, pioneer organization served as a stimulant to visitors who may have come for reasons other than church and state separation. Our relationship was warm. We complemented each other. Many members had been writing for TE CHURCHMAN for several years because they had the foresight to recognize the problems a-budding on this fundamentaly democratic arm of the country.

The informative magazine, Church & State, for November, 1997, published a photograph of early Americans United leaders. Several of them were regular writers for THE CHURCHMAN during the forties. Examples abound, but to list a few: Dr. Joseph M. Dawson, Executive Secretary of the Joint Baptist Committee, Washington, D.C. wrote incisively on the subject in THE CHURCHMAN in 1948 and 1949.Dr. Glenn Archer wrote nine pertinent articles for TIE CHURCHMAN from 1949 to 1970. The Rev. Dr. Ellis H. Dana wrote fifteen vital articles betweeen 1948 and 1973, all against parochialism in public schools. The Rev. Dr. Edwin Dahlberg, who then lived in Phoenix, Arizona, wrote five articles between 1958 and 1966 on freedom and the spirit of independence. The Rev. Dr. Edwin McNeill Poteat, then president of the Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, Rochester, N.Y., began writing for THE CHURCHMAN in 1948 on the subjects of "Our Reformation Freedom" and "Why Protestants United." Dr. Frank Yost wrote on "Romanizing our Public School" in May, 1956. And Elmer Rogers of the Scottish Rite Masonic order in Washington, DC spent many hours in the company of those in our offices who enjoyed talking about the necessity of the coming organization.

There were many others whose passion was American freedom and education toward true democracy. Among these were The Rev. Edward Peet, head of a Methodist Church in Mill Valley, California, and Dr. W. Sianley Rycroft, Presbyterian missionary in Latin America whose stimulating and scholarly articles appeared in almost every issue of THE CHURCHMAN beginning in 1944 until his death in January, 1993. His 112 articles written for THE CHURCHMAN, on church-state fusion in his Latin American years of nondemocratic observations, would make a fine book for study in all churches.

Methodist Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, fighter for freedom, recalled bitter experience in a book titled I Protest (Harper) when many prominent Protestant leaders were maligned for their stance on democracy based on the Reformation and Jeffersonian democracy. Oxnam's experience was outlined in a book by Harvey Matuso titled False Witness, recalling Matuso's false witness fiction he concocted about Oxnam's patriotism. Such blatent attempts to discredit such men of high integrity was the incidental chicanery of the McCarthy days of false accusation. It has not left us entirely.

In a letter dated April 6, 1953, Bishop Oxnam wrote to his friend, Guy Emery Shipler, editor of THE CHURCHMAN and fighter for democratic freedoms: "Thank you for your editorial. This situation is more serious than I thought. It is really vicious. This [Un-American Activities] Committee is continuing to release on its official letterhead, flasehoods, cleverly selected misrepresentations... Any man's reputation can be damaged, in fact ruined, by this procedure."

These great men of history, whose staunch battles for true democracy should never be forgotten. Instead monuments should be erected to their memory because of their valiant efforts to maintain the keystone of our country's freedom principle, separation of church and state. *

Edna Ruth Johnson is Editor of The Human Quest.

Copyright The Human Quest Mar/Apr 1998
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