I cannot find a starting or ending date for these broadcasts, but in the 1950s and 1960s, our ministers participated in a series of programs on radio station WILL called “Student Churches.”

Today’s Archives article is from an exchange of letters between Rev. Arnold F. Westwood (our minister from 1948 to 1959) and an individual who identified himself as “An Orthodox Clergyman in HIS Royal Service.” The orthodox fellow was responding to a Student Churches program that Rev. Westwood gave on September 16, 1955, which was a repeat of his talk at that year’s University of Illinois Freshman Week convocation. The introduction accompanying the letters stated that Rev. Westwood had “advised the students not to be disturbed at a revolt against religion which very probably would take place sometime during their college days. He related this revolt to the students’ continuing self-separation from parental authority. Speaking for all clergymen who minister to students, Mr. Westwood declared that he and his colleagues welcome these changes in students’ religious attitudes,  because the ministers want young people to approach their religions from a mature viewpoint.”

First, here are excerpts from the orthodox clergyman’s responsive letter to Rev. Westwood. He begins by saying that he listens to WBAA and WILL when he wants “really good music,” having no taste for “popular frothy jazz music.” He was impressed, he said, by Rev. Westwood, believing him to be a “cultured, well-educated, competent, and religiously minded sort of fellow with an ‘engaging’ personality; the result I assume of a Unitarian parentage and background. So I do not blame you.” 

That last sentence sets us up pretty well for his next paragraph. “Nevertheless, what an unutterably sad situation is this! To see a man who denies all the great fundamental doctrines of our holy and revealed religion, in such a strategic position of leadership. You wield as dangerous and as subtle an influence against our crucified, risen, ascended, ever-living and coming again Savior and Lord, as a Communist 5th Columnist might wield in Washington. Think of the eternal consequences on the minds and morals of 4000 students!!”

It goes on for several more paragraphs, laden with terms and phrases such as “heresies,” “blasphemously notorious,” “more harm than drunkards and gamblers,” and “undermining of our Christian convictions.” As he gets close to the end, this orthodox preacher wonders, “Whoever heard of a tobacco using, liquor drinking Unitarian ever becoming a great missionary or a great evangelist??”

Wrapping it up, he said he was sending Rev. Westwood a book: The Blight of Unitarianism. He hopes our minister will read it with an “open heart (not mind)” Because … “Talent such as you have we covet for our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – the World’s Coming Ruler and King.” And also, he’s praying for Rev. Westwood’s conversion. He signed the letter with Christian Love, but not with his name.

Then it was Rev. Westwood’s turn. He thanked his orthodox colleague and said he was flattered by his concern and prayers. He said he believed they both wanted “our young people to have an adult appreciation of our religions.” Perhaps by way of reassuring the orthodox clergyman, Rev. Westwood suggested that “my total effect upon the student body is nearly nil. Only a very, very small percentage of the students finds its way to the Unitarian Church, and of it, only a small percentage remains to be infected by our heresies.” 

Like other Unitarian and Universalist ministers I’ve studied, Rev. Westwood manages to de-fang a challenging opponent while graciously turning, if not the other cheek, at least the argument on its head. His main theme in the rest of his response is to refute the notion of Unitarianism “weakening [the] moral and spiritual fiber of our younger generation.” He stated that our Unitarian-Universalist young people have “strong fiber” and that “the weakness they confront is not in themselves but in the indifference and impotence of the generation older than their own. I see here at Illinois dedicated youth hurt by the inertia of an imperturbable generation of adult Christians.”

Rev. Westwood then called out the “piety which fills Christians with such a feeling of righteousness that they no longer feel a sense of responsibility for the direction of the real world. People who sit in their churches each Sunday, saying ‘Lord, Lord’ but never feel called upon to take even an infinitesimal step during the week against segregation or the denial of civil liberties.”