Ministers' Wifemanship

Sir:

At the risk of sounding like a nut in Pollyannaland, I'd like to clarify a few points about ministers' wives [April 25]. Moneywise, if she has a small family and large church, her problems may be negligible; if the situation is reversed, she has financial rough sledding.

It is true some services are gratis, but most aren't. And why should they be? The parsonage system, ministerial discounts, etc. are perhaps more bane than boon. Two laymen discussing their minister's salary illustrate my point. "Maybe we should give him a raise." "What! He gets $4,000 now and the parsonage. That's as good as $8,000."

In every area of her life, the M.W. is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't. This has been so since the days of Moses, when God smote Miriam for murmuring. If she's retiring, she's "backward"; if she's a leader, she's got her "nose in everything." If she is devoted to her family, she's ''making idols of her children"; if she's immersed in church work, she's "sacrificing her children."

There are rewards, true. But I'm impatient with any talk that it's all milk and honey in the ministry. Such talk is secularly unrealistic (viz., the large number of deadbeat ministers) and theologically unsound (viz., the Bible).

MRS. MARVEN BOWMAN JR.

Calcutta United Presbyterian Church

East Liverpool, Ohio

Sir:

Heaven help us if we in the ministry expect to find, among our "unique and abundant" satisfactions, the rare privilege of obtaining free professional services. As long as the minister and his wife expect and receive this sort of handout from the community around them, they will continue to be regarded as some sort of unique creatures, living abnormal and insulated lives. And what man living a normal life, with all its joy and pain, will listen with expectancy when an abnormal man tries to preach?

JOHN D. KING

New Haven, Conn.

Pregnancy in the Pulpit

Sir:

As a happy nonfeminist woman in the ministry, I would like to point out that the fear of a pregnant woman in the pulpit is by no means universal [April 25]. My son is still dressed almost entirely by the loving gifts of my former parishioners, and my present parishioners decided to call me to this charge less than two months before he was born. My husband and I hope to have a large family, and so far as I know, no one--in either parish--has been horrified at the prospect.

(THE REV.) JAN VANDERBURGH

The Second Congregational Church

West Cornwall, Conn.

Behind the Champion

Sir:

Re your May 2 cover story on Arnold Palmer: it was a splendid account of Arnold's life. But you did the most important person in Arnold's life, up until his marriage to Winnie, a great injustice by not mentioning her and the great part she played in molding Arnold's character and personality.

True, Arnold's father made him the golfer he is today, but his mother made him the champion and wonderful all-round guy. I might mention at this point that she is my mother also and that I grew up under her guidance just as Arnold did.

MRS. RONALD TILLEY

Woodbridge, Va.

Capital in the Wilderness

Sir:

I think your April 25 picture story on Brasilia was a colorful photographic achievement. As always, your reporting was excellent and conclusive.

WILLIAM H. SCHERPING

Elmont, N.Y.

Sir:

I have followed and approved the development of the design of Brasilia from Novacap's bureau in Rio, and I think the carrying out of the original idea proved better than expected.

I do not go there for two reasons: first, because I wish to leave the whole credit of architectural expression and actual building of the town to Niemeyer and Pinheiro; second, because my wife Leleta would have loved to be there, and I rather prefer to share the impediment.

LUCIO COSTA

Rio de Janeiro

P: Architect Costa's wife was killed in an auto accident in 1954. As a result, in Brasilia, he tried to minimize traffic hazards, designed an elaborate system of 58 overpasses and cloverleafs.--ED.

A Second Look at the Record

Sir:

Your April 18 article about Al Smith was very interesting, but [in saying he was the first Roman Catholic presidential candidate from a major party] it contained one error unworthy of TIME. Let us look at the record, as the Happy Warrior would say.

If you go back to the 1856 election, the records will show that the nominee for President on the Republican ticket was General John C. Fremont, a Roman Catholic.

HAROLD C. RANDALL

Litchfield, Conn.

P: Let Reader Randall look again. Fremont's foes circulated a rumor that he was a Catholic, but he was in fact an Episcopalian.--ED.

Yes & No

Sir:

I have many friends who are Roman Catholics, but I would not vote to put a Roman Catholic in the White House because I fear the Roman Catholic hierarchy as I fear the Kremlin, and for the same reasons. Is this bigotry?

ETHEL R. MIRICK

Princeton, Mass.

Sir:

Reader O'Connor [April 25] has no reason to worry about the Pope's coming to America. It makes as much sense as for Catholics to worry about Bishop Pike's moving into the White House to influence Eisenhower on the subject of birth control for all Americans.

MARGENE BETTS

Elmira, N.Y.

Lyndon & Adlai?

Sir:

Congratulations for your fine cover story on Senator Lyndon B. Johnson [April 25]. I doubt if some of the people in America ever realized what an important role the Senate majority leader holds in Congress.

JOHNNY R. KOLENDA

Hartford, Conn.

Sir:

Humphrey and Symington are good men, as far as presidential candidates go, but they haven't quite the stature to represent our nation. Senator Kennedy is both good and "cute"--but he is too young. Adlai Stevenson is the "brains" of the party--along with L.B.J. Put the two of them together, and you have a winning team, with Adlai in second place, probably.

MARY M. PORTER

Clearfield, Utah

Take a Bow, Stalzer

Sir:

In the reference to Project Hydra which appeared in your May 2 issue, credit should be given to Lieut. Charles E. Stalzer, U.S. Navy, my associate on this project. In addition to working with me on the basic concept of Hydra, Lieut. Stalzer actually designed the test missile pictured.

JOHN E. DRAIM

Lieutenant Commander, U.S.N.

Oxnard, Calif.

Letters from the Editors

Sir:

I am astonished to note in your April 25 issue that, in describing the attitude of the Richmond Times-Dispatch toward the South African interracial crisis, you say that we "took refuge in the obvious," and your sole quotation from our editorial is the first sentence, namely: "The attempted assassination of Prime Minister Verwoerd emphasizes once again the explosive nature of South Africa's dilemma."

You fail to mention that the last paragraph of the editorial reads:

"As Prime Minister Macmillan noted in his Cape Town speech: 'The winds of change' are not stopped by political boundaries--nor can they be indefinitely ignored. Unless the Verwoerd government modifies its extreme policies, the situation will move from bad to worse."

VIRGINIUS DABNEY

Editor

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Richmond

Sir:

In "The Bowles Boomlet" [May 2], it is stated that Chester Bowles "won a Page One endorsement from the New Republic."

The article to which you refer reported the effort being made in Bowles's behalf and sympathetically presented the case made by his partisans. But the New Republic as of this date has made no endorsement.

GILBERT A. HARRISON

Editor and Publisher

The New Republic

Washington, D.C.

More Than Conquerors

Sir:

The April 18 issue with your outstanding article "More than Conquerors" reached me in Jerusalem. In the past ten weeks I have visited some of the mission fields of the world and I cannot but react most favorably to your carefully documented article. I saw some of the missionaries you described at work and I am more convinced now than ever that these consecrated men and women constitute one of the strongest groups to be found in the world anywhere. They go far in offsetting the influence of our "Ugly Americans"--those who so often thoughtlessly give America a bad name in so many parts of the world.

FRANK F. WARREN

President

Whitworth College

Spokane, Wash.

Sir:

I appreciate your emphasis on the Lord's servant, the Apostle Paul, rather than on us, who are only attempting to do a part of the great missionary work for which Christ chose Paul.

(THE REV.) L. E. LOOCK JR.

Obot Idim-Uyo

Nigeria, West Africa

Sir:

Not long ago I heard one of my colleagues say that if missionaries read their Bibles as avidly and thoroughly as they do TIME there would be no dearth of Biblical knowledge and scholarship among us. We not only thank you but also salute you for giving such generous space to the Christian church around the world.

JAMES N. DWIGHT

Institute Ponte Nova

Itacira, Bahia, Brazil

Sir:

May I express my admiration for the very beautiful set of pictures showing mission work throughout the world.

I was surprised, however, that a picture representing the work of the Roman Catholic Church should be the only one shown of work among our Eskimos, since 82 1/2% of the Eskimos in Canada are Anglican.

DONALD B. MARSH

Bishop of the Arctic (Anglican)

Toronto

Sir:

Your cover story gave me new faith in my calling.

MARK G. MAXEY

Kyushu Christian Mission

Kanoya, Kagoshima, Japan

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