Firth Leads Mem Church Protest; Members of Clergy Attack Fasting

Roderick Firth, Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity, attacked U.S. involvement in Vietnam before an audience of 175 students and Faculty members in Memorial Church yesterday.

Firth emphasized that the war is a moral issue. He summed up his argument with an excerpt from The Gospel According To St. Matthew: "Whatsoever [harms] the least of my brethren [harms] me."

The noon prayer meeting was the first of three arranged by Charles P. Price, Preacher to the University, as an interdenominational protest against the war.

Harvard clergy greeted the participation of religious leaders in protest action with a great deal of enthusiasm. "The Church has been identified with do-nothingness for years," Reverend James R. Blanning, Congregational Chaplain at Harvard, said.

While members of the United Ministry agreed on protest in principle, they divided sharply over strategy. Blanning attacked the fast in an interview yesterday, as "a sanctimonious act which takes the focus off serious re-eximination of our Vietnam policy."

Clergymen have expressed concern that the Church is in danger of divorcing itself from political realities by adopting a black-and-white attitude to the war. Blanning warned that viewing the war as a purely moral issue would cut the Church off from responsible liberal protest.

Criticizing the argument that morality is uncompromisable, Blanning said: "Morality has always had to be compromised.

"I'm sure the men in the Pentagon are devout Christians," Blanning continued. "They are not helped by people fasting and running around with black armbands."