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All these expressions have been repeated over and over again to emphasize the equality before God of all of His children and the obligation that rests upon the children of the common father, God, to behave in a brotherly manner each toward the other. Over and above the texts themselves, the Christian faith immortalizes those historic figures who exemplify in their persons the Religion of the Christ. 2. Science In recent decades science has agreed with religion and has established as objective fact that which the Christian religion affirmed as subjective truth centuries ago-that God hath made all men of one blood. The common ancestry of man is no longer doubted by intelligent minds. Racism is a modern concept. Efforts have been made through the years to connect it with a divine origin. Reference has been made to Bible history and to the Noachian curse on Ham. Subsequent study has demonstrated the fallacy of such views. Neither the ancient world nor the Middle Ages knew of races as the modern age visualizes them. Writes James Bryce, "Before the French Revolution, however much men of different races may have striven with one another, it was seldom any sense of racial opposition that caused their strife. They fought for land. They plundered one another. They sought glory by conquest. In none of these cases did the thought of racial distinction come to the front." Recent studies in Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Biology, History, and other social sciences reveal no support for the doctrine of racism and no support for the doctrine of a "superior" or "inferior" race. We quote in substantiation of this point of view an able anthropologist, Franz Boas: "If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be represented." Every argument previously advanced to prove the inferiority of the Negro, as a Negro, as well as that of other races, has had to be abolished in the light of the findings of modern science. Such arguments as that the Negro is inferior because "his head is long", because "his hair is kinky", because "his lips are thick", because "his brain is light", because "he shows up poorly on intelligence tests", because "he is incapable of mastering the upper branches of knowledge", because "he is physically and morally weak"-all these arguments-have been proved false by modern science. No reputable scientist today would use any of these arguments to establish the inherent inferiority of a people. Science has long since proved 6 [[end page]] [[start page]] that there is no correlation between the shape of one's head, the texture of one's hair, the size of one's lips and intelligence-none between intelligence and the weight of one's brain. The heaviest brain on record is that of an imbecile. In intelligence tests, we measure not only what a man comes into the world with, but we measure also what he acquires after he gets here. The intelligence tests of World War I prove the point. Negroes on the whole made lower scores than whites. But the tests also showed that northerners, black and white, made higher scores than southerners, black and white. The more privileged Negroes of New York, Illinois, and Ohio made better scores than the less privileged whites of Mississippi, Kentucky, and Arkansas. 3. American Democracy The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Federal Constitution rest upon the principles enunciated in the Christian Religion and in Science. Our Federal Constitution specifically forbids discrimination on the grounds of color, creed, or race. Standing therefore on the solid rock of Christianity, Science, and Democracy, Negro churchmen speak to white churchmen. The Road to Travel Now and In The Post-War World 1. A Church for All the People In the post-war world, as now, the Church of Christ will be judged largely by its ability or its inability to be in the world but not wholly of the world. To be true to its real mission, the Church necessarily creates tension between itself and the world. Without such the Church loses its effectiveness. It becomes dominated either by the state or secular society. On the issues of race relations today, the Churches are weak in most sections of America. They are weak partly because they all too frequently deny fellowship across racial lines. Too often our churches are not churches of God but churches of men, of custom, of tradition, and of the mores. It should be that when a member of any racial group crosses the threshold of the House of God, he is subject only to the law of God. Freedom of worship, if it means anything, means freedom to worship God across racial lines and freedom for a man or woman to join the church of his or her choice irrespective of race. Segregated churches fall short of the requirements of the Christ- 7
