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Communist prison life in China, after 1953.
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- speakerGood evening at this time we present by transcription the weekly program "Religion Makes News."
- speakerReligion makes news is designed to keep you informed about the
- speakeractivities and services of the Protestant churches in this community. This evening we
- speakerpresent an interview with Dr. John D. Hayes missionary to China from the National
- speakerPresbyterian Church. Before hearing from Dr. Hayes, we
- speakerpresent Eugene Ellison with some church news. A week from this coming
- speakerFriday evening, September the 18th, the young adults of the National Presbyterian Church 18th,
- speakerand M streets, will leave for a week end fall retreat at Orkneys
- speakerSprings in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Come and be one of the
- speaker150 attending. The program includes time for religious inspiration
- speakerrecreation and social good time. If you are interested call National
- speaker8 5 9. 5 9.
- speakerDo you want to become a Christian leader? Do you want to know how the church can serve the community better?
- speakerThe Methodist Youth Fellowship at the Mount Vernon place Methodist Church will be having classes on these bible
- speakersubject beginning next Sunday evening at September 13th at 7:50PM. Weekday
- speakerClasses will begin at 7 o'clock p.m. on
- speakerSaturday September 19th at 2:30 p.m.. There will
- speakerbe a picnic in group number 30 23 Rock Creek Park.
- speakerThis will be the concluding feature of the week program closing with a Communion service conducted by the
- speakerpastor Dr. Alfred P. Shirky. All young people between the ages of
- speaker16 and 24 are cordially invited. Registration will close this Sunday
- speakerevening. The church is located at 900 Massachusetts Avenue
- speakerNorthwest and may be reached by taking buses on the F-2 , F-4 , U-2 or X-2 lines. you two or x two lines.
- speakerSee you at the Fall fellowship. This is T. Nelson and I
- speakerturn the program over to Neil Chism. Thank you.
- speakerDuring the hostilities in Korea many servicemen were taken prisoners
- speakerby the communist while in the P.O.W. Camps. These fellows were
- speakerexposed to not only mistreatment and forced confessions but
- speakeralso to communist propaganda and doctrine. Several
- speakerquestions foremost in people's minds today are what effect has
- speakerthis had on our prisoners of war. And if any have turned communist. Just what
- speakercan we do about it. And more especially. What can we as Christians do about it.
- speakerTonight we have with us Dr. John D. Hayes a man
- speakerwhom we feel is capable of bringing to us some time thinking on these questions.
- speakerHe himself as a missionary in China was imprisoned by the Communists and
- speakerknows at first hand how it feels to return to his homeland after such an
- speakerordeal. Dr. Hayes without any further ado
- speakerWhat effect do you think the imprisonment of our servicemen has had
- speakerupon their lives and their thinking.
- speakerI think I realized at first that as far as
- speakerthe communists are concerned, the Geneva convention really only
- speakerapplies to those who signed it. Those are the backward nations that
- speakerhaven't come as far forward in social progress as that of Russian
- speakerand Communist China. And to that a lot of questions in my
- speakerown mind I'm sure that most if not all of our form or
- speakeranother of indoctrination especially those that they wish to use.
- speakerThis is a glorious opportunity of having these Americans in their hands and presenting to
- speakerthem the communist idea of a simple life, the brotherhood of the worker, the
- speakerdictatorship of the masses. And they would then
- speakertry and get the American to see it. I remember my own judge saying
- speakerto me one time, "You Americans all dress differently. And, of course, you enjoy that
- speakerway of doing. But for me I enjoy dressing in
- speakerthe simple garb of a Communist Party member
- speakerand others do the same. And you see we're all dressed in either gray or green or
- speakerblue and representing different factions. And we have a certain joy
- speakerin simple life but they don't stop there, unfortunately. They
- speakerhave the idea that only by cracking our morale,
- speakerbreaking down our sense of loyalty will we ever be able to accept the
- speakerideals that they wish to give. And so they
- speakertry various methods either by cruelty or
- speakertorture or by long hours of questioning or
- speakerby a subtle suggestion or the withholding of food or whatever it may be, bringing the mind
- speakerdown to a certain level where they feel they can and that they can impress
- speakeron it their ideal. Well Dr. Hayes.
- speakerWhat does the communists hope to gain by this propaganda? They hope to
- speakergain the man's mind completely under their control. They
- speakersay one must give up this idea of individual freedom. They say individual
- speakerfreedom doesn't exist in the working world anyway. And this idea of conscience, that's all hooey.
- speakerThat's the thing that really counts. It's what they call group Liberty. And one thing that views
- speakergroup Liberty then that means that the actions of the
- speakervarious members are all controlled by the party member in charge of that group.
- speakerDr. Hayes last night on a televison show I saw a
- speakerstory about a returning P.O.W. And, it seems that his
- speakerwife tried to explain to him that she understood
- speakerwhat he had gone through, that she was trying to understand what he had
- speakergone through.
- speakerAnd she in turn wanted to help him readjust himself.
- speakerShe had told of the waiting times that were waiting for his letters and all the rest of
- speakerthat. No. Just what can an American do? What an average American do to help the P.O.W. readjust himself to his community life again?
- speakerFirst of all I don't think we can quite understand what they have gone through, to be quite
- speakerfrank. And, asking them questions
- speakerabout their prison experience is for those who have suffered any
- speakertorture of mind and spirit, it's actually physical pain.
- speakerYou just can't stand it. It was months before I could stand people asking me
- speakerquestions about my prison experience, And, what these men went through is
- speakerfar worse than that. So that one must wait for these wounds
- speakerof the Spirit to heal over a bit and then they'll start talking.
- speakerAnd here comes the test. They'll be indoctrinated in some ways and they'll
- speakerbegin speaking in ways that will seem strange to us because when you
- speakerrealize for two or three years, they've just been hearing one line of argument put
- speakerup to them and one kind of thinking and the calmness of acting out their
- speakeridea that a man's mind is a creation of his environment. And, they
- speakerprovide the environment. Well it's obvious that a man when he reply that first
- speakerhe's going to talk with some of that jargon. Now. It's absolutely essential
- speakerthat one pays attention with respect and takes it all in because what we are
- speakertrying to get is to get that man back on his feet to get that man with a certain
- speakersense of assurance and self-confidence because
- speakerby so doing we're able to get his own real judgment starting again.
- speakerAnd that isn't a simple matter. What has helped me has been the
- speakerfriendship of longstanding friends that have helped
- speakerrecapture for me and memories of other earlier days and the spirit of early
- speakerdays of the spirit of one's environment. And so it's essential that we forget
- speakerabout a man's deeds and that sort of thing, and treat him as a friend, and begin to help him to
- speakerrecapture his own spirit. And then comes the most interesting part of all. These
- speakermen are really mines of valuable information. And, they're the only
- speakerones that can begin to speak on it. And when they start speaking when
- speakerthey start to review their own experiences once they've once they get poised then they'll
- speakerreveal to us the methods used and the real
- speakerform of psychological warfare and understanding with methods and objectives and the way
- speakerperhaps we haven't yet got fully in mind. And when they do
- speakerthat. It can only be done by a certain sense of expectancy in our part we expect them to come
- speakeracross it and as they do it they'll feel the mind of getting clear and getting
- speakerfree and getting a load off their conscience and off their chest that will
- speakerreally help them once more to orient themselves in our life and thought. Thank You. Well there one thing
- speakerthat sort of concerns me and that is
- speakerthe question of communism. Is there any way at all that these
- speakerthese fellows in coming back? Is there any way that they can help now
- speakerto to help us as Americans understand communism
- speakerand to and how we can overcome it? I think
- speakerthey're the ones having been through the mill in part are
- speakerthe ones that will give us an understanding of the method that
- speakercommunism uses to attain its end. The
- speakerideals of communism we can read in books, but we
- speakerhardly realize how much a part of actual physical
- speakerforce and cruelty and misrepresentation of truth
- speakerplay a part in their system and that these men will give us an
- speakerunderstanding of that and they will then help us to see
- speakerhow we can meet it and how we in helping them to
- speakerreorient themselves back into life, we will be will be given
- speakerthe method of approach not only to these men that are returning but also
- speakerinto lines as to how to reach those who live behind the behind the Iron
- speakerCurtain. So to my mind they're very valuable indeed and we should regard them as
- speakersuch and let them feel that they come back as esteemed members of
- speakerour community. And then watch the result. That's the way the communist
- speakerthemselves. Curiously enough at treat their own prisoners. Once
- speakeryou come out of a communist jail you're regarded as an
- speakerhonored member of the community because you have now purged yourself of
- speakerany of the old practices that sort of thing. And that teacher honored. Well in
- speakersomewhat similar way we can treat these men came back out of these prison
- speakercamps in Korea. But in a in a deeper sense
- speakerbecause they'll be bringing to us information that we cannot get to any other way.
- speakerAnd when they read that realize that they're valuable to this extent that will give them a great
- speakerthrill to go forward and help us to meet this menace of communism.
- speakerNow Dr. Hayes. Since we're in the interest of religion here how can
- speakerthe Christian church serve to help these returning service men with their
- speakerproblems or their ideals? I
- speakerthink it can help greatly because a matter of fact
- speakercommunism isn't really a social political or
- speakereconomic order so much as a religious faith. That's
- speakerwhy the the communists, both in Russia and in China,
- speakerthey're afraid of the Christian church. They rule God out
- speakerand these men coming back have seen what a materialistic
- speakerorder can be like in its very worse analysis.
- speakerIt'll be a revelation to them of what life would be
- speakerwithout the Christian faith. We accept our Constitution as being found in the Christian faith
- speakerand we revel in the freedom we have little
- speakerrealizing that all these have been founded on a Christian faith. And so these men come
- speakerback they'll be particularly open to this line of approach
- speakerto see that the traditions of America that our founding our ideals our freedom
- speakerall date back to the faith of our fathers carried on by
- speakerthe church even down to the present day. And then with
- speakerthis in mind they'll see that these communist countries need this above all.
- speakerOne thing that has attracted me greatly about our Voice of America program recently is the release
- speakerof religious programs over into Communist countries, but we don't
- speakerknow how to go about this yet. We haven't got sufficient personnel who have become acquainted
- speakerwith the practices of communist China or other nations who really understand the
- speakermovement of thought out there in order to give voice to a faith like that of real love and
- speakerunderstanding. Thank you. Dr. Hayes I think that you've certainly clarified a
- speakerlot of thoughts for us. Thank you.
- speakerYou have just heard an interview with Dr. John D. Hayes missionary to China
- speakerfrom the National Presbyterian church of Washington conducting the interview with Neil Chisholm of
- speakerthe National Presbyterian Church and Eugene Ellison of Mount Vernon Place Methodist church.
- speakerReligion makes news a transcribed program is presented by the Washington Federation of
- speakerchurches. This is Earl Harbaugh speaking, inviting you to join us again next week at this same
- speakertime
