Episcopal Press and News

Bishop of Kentucky Defends Crisis Program

Diocesan Press Service. June 5, 1968 [66-14]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A defense of the Episcopal Church's nine-million-dollar national program to help alleviate poverty was a highlight of the Bishop of Kentucky's address to Diocesan Convention when it met here recently.

The Rt. Rev. C. Gresham Marmion declared:

"There has been a great deal of misunderstanding of the program and some opposition to it. It is not a program for subsidizing revolution against the United States government, nor for stimulating riots in our cities, but it is a program for helping the needy, the frustrated and the desperate to help themselves.

"It seeks to remove the causes of riots in our cities by non-violent means. The Church rejects violence, whether it be armed revolt in the street or the subtle violence which denies opportunity and strips men of their dignity. "

The Bishop said that the most urgent need was for "a change of heart because the vast majority of us, if we will admit it, have been guilty of racism and of unconcern for the poor."