Methodist Crusade

The Methodist Church last week took the first step in a big project. From the Church's Manhattan headquarters went copies of a poster (see cut) painted by famed artist Howard Chandler Christy (Artist Christy is a Christian Scientist; his wife is a Methodist), which will eventually go up in the 42,000 U.S. Methodist churches. The poster summons members to participate in the Methodist Church's forthcoming Crusade for a New World

Order, designed to make Methodists think hard about a just and durable peace. No other church has done anything comparable to it.

The Crusade will open in January, with huge mass meetings in some 100 cities from coast to coast. The meetings will be all-day affairs. Says the Crusade handbook: "Special attention will be given to music and singing and maintaining a high spiritual atmosphere during the entire program." At each meeting everyone will be given a postcard reproduction of the Christy painting. Then & there Methodists will take out their pens, address the cards to men in the armed forces, telling them that the people at home stand for a new world order, that religion must dominate the peace table.

The next phase of the Crusade will last from Jan. 30 to Feb. 6. During that week, wherever there is a Methodist parish, Methodists will go in groups of two and call on members of the church. They will leave Crusade literature, and the request that everyone in the household write ("at least once a month") to some Government or military official who may have something to say about the peace.

Says the Crusade handbook: "Do not argue or criticize--express your opinion. Do not get up petitions--write personal letters. Do not mention the Crusade--it is not necessary to mention The Methodist Church; we are not organizing another 'pressure group' but expressing the convictions of Christian citizens. Above all, do not copy anything from the Crusade literature--do not use the Crusade phrases-- avoid trite phrases and Biblical, 'pious,' poetic, figurative and similar expressions. . . . Stick to the simple propositions: we are against isolationism; we favor collaboration; we want a fair, just, righteous and lasting peace."

If enough of the U.S.'s 7,813,891 Methodists send enough letters to Government and military leaders, the Council of Bishops hopes to see the Crusade's slogan achieved: "The Peace May Be Won with a Three-Cent Stamp."

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