Religion: Iron Curtain Churchmen

The State Department announced that it had granted visas to eleven churchmen from behind the Iron Curtain—Czechoslovakia and Hungary—to attend the second Assembly of the World Council of Churches Aug. 15-31 in Evanston, Ill. To Michigan's Republican Representative Alvin M. Bentley (now recovered from the shooting by Puerto Rican terrorists, TIME, March 8), the admission of "these servants of world Communism" seemed "naive"—and headline-worthy as well. He announced that the House subcommittee to investigate the communization of Russia's European satellites would begin hearings during the Evanston conference. Said Congregationalist Bentley: "I will spare no opportunity to reveal all information available to me on [the delegates'] background and false pretenses of freedom of religion in Hungary."

For the World Council, Dr. O. Frederick Nolde, director of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, replied: "The decision . . . will make a healthy impression in other countries .. ." Best answer to Representative Bentley's alarms (which found little echo in the U.S.) was the State Department's statement that "this small group" was not going to subvert America, while a look at U.S. life might actually inspire them to take a stiffer stand against "ruthless pressure" from Communism at home.