Letters: Apr. 28, 1967

(4 of 5)

The membership figure of 2,600,000 includes several thousand "defectors" like myself and family who chose another religion and requested that our names be removed from the rolls. We were informed that to have our names removed from the church membership, we would have to appear before a "bishop's court" for heresy charges. Thus Mormon Church membership figures are as accurate as Billy Graham's pledge-card tally.

KENNETH N. TAYLOR Lake Hopatcong, N.J.

Fellowship of Seekers

Sir: I thought your article on the survey of Unitarians [April 14] was fair and accurate—as far as it went. The trouble is, too many people know what Unitarians don't believe in (the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth, etc.), and too few know what we do believe in.

For Unitarians, the emphasis is on deeds rather than creeds. We believe that morality has more to do with the human use of human beings than with ecclesiastical laws supposedly handed down on Mount Sinai. Unitarianism accommodates a range of viewpoints, from the mysticism of a Ralph Waldo Emerson to the profound humanism of an Adlai Stevenson, because Unitarians recognize the tentative nature of all human knowledge. We refuse to straitjacket ourselves with fixed creeds because we want to be open to new truth as it unfolds—and therein lies our faith: we're a fellowship of seekers rather than of people who presume to know.

R. EUGENE BULLOCK First Unitarian Society of West Newton Newtonville, Mass.

The Right to Fly

Sir: It is distressing that the Navy has suggested a moratorium on airline hiring of military pilots [April 14]. Consider the feelings of a Navy pilot who has returned to the U.S. after having flown 200 combat missions over North Viet Nam. He has completed his 5½ year obligated service, and is now looking forward to entering the civilian community. Is he to find that if his choice of employment is with an airline, he is being discriminated against because of his former job? Has he risked his life to help preserve one basic freedom, that of self-determination, in another country only to discover that in so doing he has deprived himself of another basic freedom in his own country?

JOAN MILES White Plains, N.Y.

Crabs Over Lobsters

Sir: Your survey of services in the skies [April 14] opened my eyes to the absurdities of competition as conspicuous consumption. Does the passenger really exist who will, all essentials being equal, forsake Airline X's wide-screen movies for Airline Y's unpronounceable desserts? He would more likely, offered the choice, forsake miniskirts for mini-fares, secure in the knowledge that the stewardess is more adept at use of emergency equipment and exits than at a quick change for dinner. Scuttling the seven entrees might even give her the leisure to furnish the aspirin someone requested ten minutes ago.

Competing airlines won't win us with luxury but with actual service. They will win us when getting to the airport isn't half the trip, when they eliminate the ten-minute baggage check and the 20-minute walk to the gate, when they depart and arrive on schedule, when they no longer sacrifice safety for speed, size and splendor, when they subtract the gold tassels and lobster thermidor from the cost of our fare.