The Northwest Enterprise

CHURCHES
OBSERVE
BILL OF RIGHTS
REGARDLESS OF RACE CLASS—OR CREED

GOD HAVE MERCY ON US AMERICANS BECAUSE OF OUR INJUSTICE. WHILE WE BOAST OF OUR SENSE OF JUSTICE—ATTORNEY GENERAL FRANCIS BIDDLE

Although today, Wednesday, is the anniversary of the Bill of Rights, many Seattle churches began its observation Sunday.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were stressed by the Rev. Perry E. Gresham of the University Christian Church.

The Rev. Carl H. Sandgren of the Gethsemane Lutheran Church said:

"We thank God for the blessings the Bill of Rights has conferred on our nation. We pray God humbly for forgiveness that for some of our citizens it is still a national myth.

"We have not extended its full provisions to the Negro, who, in some states, is barred from voting because of the poll tax.

DENIED TO SOME

"We had granted it to every American citizen of whatever creed, race or color. We have since denied it to some without the constitutional procedure that Bill of Rights guarantees to every citizen.

Attorney General Francis Biddle testified before the Dies Committee last Thursday that he had the 'gravest doubts' of the constitutionality of removing American citizens from their homes because of race. God have mercy on us Americans because of our injustices while we boast of our sense of justice.

"Our prayer is that the enduring Word of God in which Christ says, 'If the Son shall set you free, ye shall be free indeed,' shall be both a comfort and an encouragement to those we have enslaved and a guiding beacon to our land in correcting its abuses."

LAUREL PRESBYTERIAN

The Rev. Honor L. Wilhelm, supply pastor of Laurel Presbyterian Church, called his congregation's attention to the fact that the United States has recognized the sovereignty of God as attested by the inscription, "In God We Trust," on every coin.

"To make it clear and specific," he said, "after the adoption of the Constitution we adopted the Bill of Rights, the most sacred national guarantee of liberty and freedom which the American people possess.

"When we fight, as we are now fighting, against the most insidious foe ever known to man,

we are striving to maintain and protect our very foundation of the right and privilege to live, which embraces the true worship of God, righteous activities in our personal life, peaceful associations and fellowship with all others and the unrestrained possession and use of our property, with the opportunity unrestrained to think and speak as we choose under the guidance and protection of the Almighty and Eternal True God. Therefore, I wish to bring to your attention the 'Birth of a World,' while we are now striving for its rebirth and salvation from the devil and destroyer as never before."

CIVIL LIBERTIES URGED

The Rev. Arthur S. Morton told the congregation at the Grace

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BILL OF RIGHTS IS OBSERVED
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Methodist Church that the Allied Nations are fighting primarily for the civil liberties of man as expressed in the Bill of Rights.
"Regardless of race, creed or class we must strive to protect the rights of all of our citizens. particularly in wartime when those rights are in jeopardy."
The Rev. Dr. Clinton E. Ostrander, pastor of the University Congregational Church, said in his morning sermon:
"On the rim of the Liberty Bell at Philadelphia are inscribed these words: 'Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof!'
These are words of Scripture.
Upon this religious principle our nation was founded. The church has a vital stake in the principle of liberty as proclaimed in the Bill of Rights. They are fundamentally religious.
"Today, as the nations of the world look to America for leadership, we must strengthen the liberties contained in the Bill of Rights through national unity, co-operation, faith, sacrifice and prayer."
While he did not deliver a Bill of Rights sermon, the Rev. Allan Lorimer of Plymouth Congregational Church discussed the subject in his column In the church bulletin,
Pointing out that the American people are comparatively free from government restraint in the field of religion. he expressed the belief that the test of civil liberties in this generation will be exercised relative to racial rather than religious minorities.
"Gradually America is acquiring a super-race myth," he warned.
"It is the Nordic, preferably Anglo-Saxon, myth. Recent riots-anti-Negro, anti-Jewish, anti-Mexican-should concern every intelligent citizen,
Well may we ask, having defeated Nazism, are we to become Nazis in our race hatreds?
The whole thrust of the Bill of Rights is toward equality of men, irrespective of color. Our generation will decide whether such a conviction is to be preserved."