Religion: Halt the Harmonium

All over the Far East, 19th century Christian missionaries tried to win the heathen with the hymn-huffing harmonium. Now from West German Protestant Theologian Ernst Benz comes an attack on the meek little organ as an instrument of "tyranny and dictatorship" that smothers rather than kindles the spread of Christian music in Asia. Some rebellious young Americans are using the phonograph, Dr. Benz reports, but this "increases the dangerous identification of Christian religion with Western technology." The real need is encouragement of native musicians using native instruments to perform the finest Christian music in their own way. "Freedom fighters must arise," says Dr. Benz, to sweep away the shibboleth that "a hall without a harmonium is a hall, but a hall with a harmonium is a church."