Episcopal Press and News

Christianity on Trial

Diocesan Press Service. June 5, 1963 [XI-8]

NEW YORK --- "Christianity is on trial among American Negroes," the Rev. Arthur E. Walmsley declared at a convention of the National Council of Catholic Men in Atlantic City in April.

Fr. Walmsley, chairman of the follow-up committee for the first National Conference on Religion and Race that was held in Chicago in January, said that "Christianity is under growing attack as a 'white man's religion' because" the religious leadership of America has almost totally abdicated in the struggle for human rights.

"Government action, economic change, the increasing militancy of the Negro masses and not Christian leadership have brought about change in racial patterns," he charged.

Fr. Walmsley was one of three non-Roman religious leaders taking part in the Catholic laymen's conference.

In discussing the necessity of local follow-up to the National Conference on Religion and Race, he pointed to the increasing Negro nationalism-- "as exemplified in, but by no means limited to, the Black Muslim movement"--which, he said, is "driving Christians to an agonizing re-appraisal of our situation."

The Black Muslim movement, he continued, "is matched overseas by the renascense of Buddhism, Hinduism, and a missionary Islam."

Fr. Walmsley, who heads National Council's Division of Christian Citizenship, also cited the Church's irrelevance among American Indians.