An Oath for an Editor

As editor of the leading U.S. Protestant magazine, Dr. Paul Hutchinson, 62, of the 69-year-old Christian Century (circ. 37,000) was understandably surprised at the letter that came in from Daingerfield, Texas. Said the letter: "I am so impressed with this single copy that I would like to receive the publication for a 13-week trial. My check for $1 is enclosed ... It has long been [my] inviolate rule ... to refuse to subscribe to any magazine . . . unless the editor can and will sign and return to me the pledge appearing below."

Attached to the letter was a form that said: "I, the undersigned, as editor of the Christian Century, hereby pledge on my sacred word of honor that I am not and have never been a member of the Communist Party . . . that I am not in sympathy with [it] and further that... no employee of this organization is . . ."

Editor Hutchinson printed the letter and asked Century readers how to answer it. More than 275 letters told him not to sign the oath, compared to about 70 that said he should. Said one letter: "Return [his] dollar. He is not ready for the 20th century, let alone the Christian Century."

This week in the Century, Editor Hutchinson himself answered. Wrote he: "We feel a sense of humiliation that anybody could ask us to sign such a pledge . . . Anybody can examine our record . . . in a series of annual volumes reaching back for many years . . . Our understanding of what it means to be a Christian makes it impossible for us to be a Communist . . .

"Would an oath establish credibility? ... Of course not . . . How silly can this stupidity become . . . Communists, whom it is allegedly the purpose of the oath-demanders to trap, do not hesitate to lie if it serves the . . . party line. Honest men and women, and journals which have built their reputation on their search for truth, refuse to believe that integrity and openness of conduct count for nothing . . . We shall not sign the pledge which he has concocted . . ."

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