Rev. Bonnell Attacks University as Godless in Sermon at N.Y. Church

Harvard's religious policies came in for vehement criticism by the Rev. Dr. John S. Bonnell in his sermon Sunday at New York's Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Dr. Bonnell specifically lashed out at the General Education Report of 1945 which he claimed started a "secularist trend" in American colleges because of its refusal to propose religious instruction in the curriculum.

Comparing the founding of the University to its present status, Dr. Bonnell found it hard to reconcile the original motto, "In Christ and in the Church," with today's absence of a college program in religion.

The GE committee justified itself for not including religious training by declaring that there were too many different faiths in America to allow the teaching of any one. Dr. Bonnell charged that such a stand was inconsistent with the offering of philosophy and political science courses.

He added: "if they were consistent, they would have excluded philosophy and political courses. After all, there are many conflicting schools of philosophical thought and many different political divisions."