To the Editor:

As a Protestant Christian who has often had occasion to appreciate COMMENTARY, may I give a special word of thanks for Will Herberg’s review of Blanshard’s American Freedom and Catholic Power. So acute and fair a review made me somewhat ashamed of most of the Protestant statements I have seen about the book. Too many people have welcomed Blanshard’s work without thinking through its implications, as a politician might rush to shake the hand of anyone voting his ticket, for whatever reason.

Some of the political objectives of Rome are disturbing to believers in democracy. Blanshard has presented some of the well known facts and has dug out many less known ones; it is right that we should be made aware of these facts, and for such a service we may thank Blanshard. But Herberg is right in pointing out so clearly how Blanshard’s facts are mingled with a set of interpretations which are quite dubious. Indeed, if respect for rights of conscience and appreciation for a diversity of religious viewpoints are part of democracy, Blanshard has assumptions as undemocratic as those he attacks. We may be wary of doctrinaire claims to possess the truth, whether they come from ecclesiastics or secularists.

Roger L. Shinn
Heidelberg College
Tiffin, Ohio

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