Religion: High on the Air

Religion by radio is usually a routine medley of sermons, prayers, hymns, sacred music by soloists and choristers. Occasionally it is colorful, as when a Eucharistic Congress or the dedication of a cathedral is broadcast. Religious talks, like those of Los Angeles’ Rev. Robert Pierce (“Bob”) Shuler and Detroit’s Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, are often embarrassing and distasteful to churchmen. Last fortnight, for the second time, religion went on the air purely & simply as news. When National Broadcasting Co. decided to build up a “Lowell Thomas of Religion,” it went straight to young Dr. Stanley Hoflund High, journalist and preacher. Since piloting in the U. S. Air Service during the War, he has toured Europe five times, visited Russia, the East and Africa. Never ordained, Dr. High is now the pastor of Stamford’s large First Congregational Church. For several months in 1930 Stanley High had a program of comment on religious happenings. Last fortnight his voice went out once more over the air in a program called “The World of Religion,”* with a musical accompaniment. It started out easily, simply: “This broadcast . . . isn’t a sermon. I don’t have to start out with a text, divide my 15 minutes into points: one, two and three; or work myself and you up to a concluding climax. . . . I’m to be a reporter, not an editorial writer. And the commodity we’re putting on the air is not religious counsel and advice, but religious news. To which somebody will probably reply: ‘There isn’t any,’ or ‘If there is any, it doesn’t matter.’ Apparently that’s a rather general idea. Religion, we’re told, belongs in the archives, but not on the front page; it’s all right for the shelf, but not for the table. . . . “I’m not ready to admit that religion, though it may have moved down a bit, has moved out. Far from it. Meanwhile, you might take a look at the world on your own account. Get the file of last week’s newspapers and thumb your way through them as I have done. . . .” Thus introduced, Stanley High’s first broadcast went along to deal chiefly with the religious background of the proposed India Legislature (TIME, Aug. 29), and Adolf Hitler’s antiSemitism. Stanley High discovers many a religious angle to non-religious news items. In last week’s broadcast he spoke of the Children’s Bureau in Washington, of the low position of children in Rome in the 2nd Century, of Sunday School as a “depression-proof institution.” Pope Pius XI’s plans to build more churches in Rome led Dr. High to consider the Pope’s achievements, the Vatican art collection, U. S. S. R.’s treatment of religious art.

*Sundays, 5 to 5:30 p. m. E. D. S. T.