Religion: Christian Politics

When the social reformers were tall in the saddle back in 1934, the U.S. Congregationalists set up a Council for Social Action. Its aim was to help make "the Christian gospel more effective in society," and its membership was drawn heavily from the ranks of those who feared many things more than creeping socialism. Among the causes the council plugged: the consumer cooperative movement, compulsory health insurance, federal aid to education. By last year, such council gospel had drawn so much Congregational counterfire (TIME, March 17, 1952) that a nine-man committee was set...