A Modest Proposal

"It is common to hear the lament that the poor, who can least afford chil dren, have the greatest number," said the Rev. Eldon Durham, 53, pastor for the past 15 years of St. Mark's Presbyterian Church in the city of Lomita in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. "Repeatedly, the Pope is held responsible for encouraging large families among Roman Catholics. It is 'said that the Chinese and the people of India ought to put the lid on their burgeoning populations." Then Durham, the father of four, preached a modest proposal for Presbyterians.

"I set forth this proposition," he said, "that as Presbyterians we cease to have children of our own and begin to con- stitute families by means of adopting the unwanted, the disinherited, the dis possessed and the rejected children, to whom the ways for knowing who they are are largely denied. I am simply proposing that Presbyterians do something that is within their reach. Surely sex is for pleasure as well as procreation."

Pastor Durham's sermon was dutifully reported by the Los Angeles Times, and his telephone soon began to ring, he said, with "overwhelmingly positive" reactions. He was somewhat surprised at all the fuss. "I guess I am a little naive," he said. "Sex is the most important subject going."

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