No Christian

"There is not today and never has been any harmony between the teachings of Jesus and the position of historical Christianity. All through its history, historical Christianity has been consistent; it has consistently opposed application of the teachings of Jesus. . . . Paul, not Jesus, was the founder of historical Christianity; the founder of what today passes as Christianity and ever has so passed. . . . I hate the things which historical Christianity has and does defend: superstition, intolerance, slavery, war, degradation of womanhood, and placing of property rights above human rights. Therefore, with this service I conclude my relation with the church--but not with the ministry. I expect to minister to a larger number than would be possible in any church, and to be perfectly free to present the gospel of Jesus, the Carpenter, the working man of Nazareth."

In the Universalist Church in Lansing. Mich, two Sundays ago, Rev. Henry Clay Ledyard preached calmly, quietly in this vein to a congregation which had come to hear his valedictory sermon on Why I Am Not a Christian. Universalist Ledyard, 57, had held the Lansing pulpit since 1935, had espoused the cause of the Automobile Workers last spring,* had been the one Lansing preacher who accepted their invitation to preach in the Reo factory during their sitdown. Mr. Ledyard's congregation rebelled. Resigning as of last week, the young-looking minister made ready to become organization director of the Quarry Workers' International Union, with headquarters at Barre, Vt. For him this was not a new field. Universalist Ledyard, Michigan-born and a Spanish-American War veteran, held a pastorate in Northfield, Vt. for five years, did some field work among quarry workers before becoming an Americanization teacher for Mexicans, a homesteader in Oregon and, in 1924, returning to the historical church in Kansas where he shocked people by sermonizing in a golf club to men who would not go to church.

*President Homer Martin of U. A. W. is a onetime Baptist preacher.

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