Religion: Christian Soldiers

“After all this talk about helping the veteran find himself, it’s about time somebody rehabilitated the folks back home. We think there is quite a lot of fighting still to be done before we and our children can have a future which measures up to our yardstick. We think a church with fewer members AWOL offers a solution. We know that while the church may not have all the answers, it has some of them.”

This militant mouthful was spoken by ex-Captain Charles Killian Woltz, 32, on behalf of a team of 50 Lutheran war veterans in Richmond, Va. It all began in a veterans’ Sunday-school class, which soon turned into a weekly bull session on the state of the world judged by Christian standards. Like most honest men, the ex-G.I.s found the world’s state parlous. They decided to do something about it. Church attendance was poor—an average 280 per service out of a confirmed membership of almost 1,000. The veterans’ plan: to jog their neighbors back to churchgoing.

Divided into 25 pairs, equipped with orange-&-black arm bands labeled “G.I. Lutheran Team,” they spent three weeks last month calling on each of the 600 families represented in the congregation. They pointed out to AWOL church members that though times are dark, if more people went to church, things might get brighter. Most Sunday stay-at-homes promised to mend their ways; only one family gave the G.I.s a complete brushoff.

This month, to check results, church ushers began passing out attendance cards for members of the congregation to sign. The first Sunday showed notable improvement: a congregation of 510—70% above the average. Last Sunday’s tally stood at 545. In the next month, those who are still AWOL will receive another call from the Lutheran G.I.s.

Amiable, soft-spoken Chairman Woltz, who was onetime editor of the University of Virginia’s famed Law Review, and commanded a Negro antiaircraft battery in the Pacific, is also campaigning to reform Richmond’s antiquated city government. Said he last week: “We are determined not to be just another Sunday-school class. We definitely want some action and are going to keep doing something.”