"How Dare We?"

The Federal Council of Churches, most sonorous mouthpiece of U. S. Protestantism, is fond of giving its constituent churches prayers, litanies, orders of worship, to enrich evangelical services, which are often stereotyped and colorless. Lately the Federal Council's Committee on Worship urged Evangelicals to observe the feasts of the Christian Year more fully, to try out a new season called Kingdom-tide (after Trinity Sunday), representing the concept of the Church in action. Last fortnight the Federal Council's Department of Race Relations issued a "prayer of penitence" for churches to employ when they feel conscious of "the national sin of lynching." Excerpts:

O God, how dare we lift our eyes to Thee, for we are guilty, as a nation, of tolerating the practice of vile mob murder of men.

Make us to know the awful judgment of God which rests upon those having any personal part in lynching, and upon every community and State, and upon our people as a whole until we shall repent and turn away from this taking of human life.

O God, forgive us! Create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us. Help us, we beseech Thee, to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance that we may be redeemed from the joul clutches of this national evil, and may order all our ways in the fear and love of God. Amen.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.