 Words at War Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. The National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with the Council on Books and Wartime presents another of the most widely discussed programs in America, Words at War, dramatizing the most representative books to come out of this great world conflict. Tonight's Words at War program is a Christmas story based on two books, Kenneth Gould's Scapegoats in History and History of Bigotry in the United States by Gustavus Myers. For today's sermon, our text is the Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 2, verse 16. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wrath and set forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not. Is there a man among us who does not in this Christmas season of goodwill and brotherhood among men condemn this slaughter of innocent children by a ruthless king? Now I am confident that Herod's crime against humanity will wrinkle in the hearts and minds of just men forever. And yet the slaughter of the innocents was not the first such act of persecution or has it been the last? There have always been scapegoats among us, hated, distrusted, persecuted. It is of these that I wish to speak to you today, scapegoats in history. The original scapegoat described in the book of Leviticus was an animal called Azazel. Come on, move, move, you stubborn old beast, you're keeping the high priest waiting. Place him on the altar. Yes, sire. Witness, oh Lord, that we are gathered in holy convocation on this day of atonement. In the tenth day of the seventh month, and with penitence and sorrow, we confess the iniquities and sins of the people, and transfer those sins and iniquities to the beast Azazel. Amen. The Azazel was a goat, and the ritual was common among the people of Israel, the Babylonians and the Hittites. Years later, distorted religious sentiment produced the human scapegoat. Out with hunger, and in with health. No, please, have mercy, I have done nothing, I am an old man, I will die. Die, you must, it is ordained by the gods. Out with hunger, in with health, out with hunger, in with health. That was a ceremony performed annually by the ancient Greeks and called the expulsion of hunger. When the custom became refined, the Lucadians once a year hurled a criminal into the sea as a public sacrifice to Apollo. In Marseille, a poor man was dressed in holy garments and stoned to death to avert the plague. In Rome and Sparta, the sacrificial offerings were beautiful young virgins. All this was done for a well-recognized purpose, to benefit the community, to drive out famine and disease, to prevent the loss of crops or cattle, to atone for sin, with the community's scapegoat taking the rap. The practice grew un- molested, and rulers soon found it to their advantage to let popular prejudices concentrate on unpopular groups, the minorities. You know what I heard today? It was told to me by a very high official of the Senate. It's the foreigners who are responsible for the flood, the Phoenicians. They are? The sooner we get rid of them, the better. There's no food and people are starving, and all because of them, because of their magic. Then they should be driven out. Or better still, sacrificed to the gods. Yes, sacrificed to the gods. Why wait? Let's go to the high priests, spread the news throughout the city, and tell the people of a crime of the Phoenicians. It is done, sir. The news is spreading throughout the city like wildfire. By tonight, there won't be a Phoenician left alive. Good work, Delenius. You have done your job well. This is your reward. By such means it was easy to distract the attention of the public from the real shortcomings of the group in power. Or to cause the masses to forget their own miseries. It was also easy to arouse fear and hatred and suspicion of those who differed from the rank and file. Shrewd manipulators of mob psychology stimulated this fear and hatred by means of subtle propaganda, and by creating scapegoats. The mob is getting restless, pilot. Very well, any decision they shall have. I wash my hands of the whole business, announce that I release Barabbas, and deliver Jesus unto them to be crucified. It was after the death of Jesus that the word scapegoat began to have a broader meaning. Organized persecution of races, groups, minorities and creeds spread throughout the world, took root in every continent, festered in the hearts and souls of the people. This is the long history of man's inhumanity to man, a history of bloody terror, of oppression, of bigotry, which has come to us through the ages. Listen then, listen to these scapegoats cry out from their martyred graves. In the early days of the Roman Empire, the Christians were the scapegoats. In 64 AD Rome was destroyed by a great fire. Citizens of Rome, listen to the words of Emperor Nero. The fire which consumed Rome was started by members of the upstart groups calling themselves Christians. For this outrageous crime against the people of Rome, all Christians will be arrested and the guilty persons executed. In 112 AD there was an earthquake. It has been discovered that the earthquake was brought about by the Christians. For this outrageous crime against the people of Rome, all Christians will be arrested and the guilty persons executed. Two years later the Empire suffered from famine and pestilence. If the Christians who are responsible for this outrageous crime against the people of Rome, feed them to the liars. The climax of the long and fiery ordeal came in the reign of Diocletian in 284 AD. Fire! They are the ones who are responsible. They are the ones who started the fire. But we have no proof, Sire. Proof? Since when is it necessary to have proof against the Christians? I say they started the fire. It was a conspiracy against the Empire myself. And they shall pay for this conspiracy. They shall pay for it with their blood. A terrible persecution that began that day spread throughout the Empire. Christians were imprisoned, tortured, and in some towns the entire population massacred. This anti-Christian campaign lasted until 311 AD. Twelve years later Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire and the persecution of the Christians stopped. Human nature, unfortunately, is slow to learn from its own experience. Minority groups sometimes escape from their prison of prejudice and increase in number and influence. In such changing circumstances they in turn become intolerant of other groups and treat them as scapegoats for their own ills. And so it was with the early Christian church when it fell prey to the poison of power. This Christmas season the voice of history rings out in accusation. These are the crimes the Christian church perpetrated in the Dark Ages when the heretic was the scapegoat because he was believed to be in league with the devil and the traffic of a black magic. Listen well, for the list is long and bloody and the names are well known to you. It includes the imprisonment, torture or execution of such men as Galileo, Roger Bacon, John Huss, the Spanish Inquisition, the murder of Joan of Arc, the massacre of St. Pytholomew, the burning of Ridley, Latimer and Prandmer at the stake in the days of bloody fear. These are the dark stains upon the pages of a glorious history. Stains which spread and multiplied as new religious groups, sects and denominations won first toleration and then control in the countries of Europe and America. First the Protestants took their turn, the Calvinists and the Puritans, fleeing from religious intolerance themselves yet not believing that others were entitled to freedom in the worship of God. Hear ye, for insolent and contemptuous behavior against authority and for publicly insinuating opinions and heterodoxies that transgress Puritan laws, Roger Williams is hereby expelled from the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Hear ye, Anne Hutchinson is hereby expelled from the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Mary Dyer, a Quaker, is to be hanged on Boston Common. It were Christian acts, promulgated by Christian ministers of God, ministers who held powers so complete that church and state were practically identified as one. In the year 1692, the hectic hysteria flamed up in Salem. In that year in Salem, there was a West Indian Negro servant called Tituba who both terrified and enchanted her big-eyed listeners with the voodoo spells of her ancestors. So the medicine man gave her this potion I'm making up now. And what do you think happened? She became the most beautiful girl in the world. And the men, they all came to see her from far and wide. And pretty soon the prince came too. And the prince, he said to her, I've been in love with you all my life. Will you marry me? It's thrilling. Thus Tituba entertained her friends. And although the potions never did anybody any good, neither did they do anybody any harm. Still one day when those voodoo stories of Tituba came to the attention of Cotton Mather, a minister of God who immediately brought the case to the attention of Governor Sir William Phipps, a representative of the people. Witchcraft, that's what they say Governor Phipps. The woman is a witch possessed of the devil. She's a minister to our community, a minister to the people and the Puritan church. What do you want me to do, Reverend Mather? Hang her. If thy right, I offend thee and cause thee to stumble, pluck it out, cast it from thee. Unless you hang that witch, she will spread the disease of a witchcraft throughout Salem. She will infect the entire community. Very well. I shall appoint a special court to try her with instructions to carry out the execution. And so Tituba was hanged. No! No! And then there came others, young girls and old women. No! No! All tried by a special court, all declared to be possessed of the devil and executed for the welfare of the community. Before this flame of insanity burnt itself out, 19 innocent persons had been hanged and one pressed death. Yes, even to America, it was carried the hate and prejudiced fear that was born thousands of years ago in the jungles of Africa and the rituals of the primitive races and the warped mind of King Herod. And as we began to grow as a nation, so did the scapegoats multiply. In the 17th century, the hatred was directed against the Catholics. There is no room in the colonies for the Pope and the Romish church. Popory and Christianity are as dissimilar as day and night, as foreign as Christ and antichrist, as contradictory as God and the devil. So thundered the Puritan Popits and the cry was echoed throughout America. Down with the Phoebe! Down with the Catholics! Down with the Phoebe! Down with the... Except Rhode Island. Could a Catholic vote or enjoy civil and religious rights? In New York, an act was passed, confiscating property of Jesuits and other Catholic priests. And during the French and Indian War, Catholics were charged with fomenting Negro-Indian uprising against the colonial governments. This wave of anti-Catholic sentiment died down with the Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution with its guarantee of freedom of worship. Yet hate and prejudice did not die. It burned and festered in the hearts of men. And in the middle of the 19th century, it was directed against the Irish. This is an Irish invasion. They brought with them nothing but populism, slums, corruption and crime. Responsible for our unemployment and panics, depriving Native Americans like yourselves of jobs. They've been responsible for lowering the wage scale. This weren't enough. Most of the Irish who come here are clannish, unassimilable and... This was the beginning of the many nativist, nationalist and anti-foreign movements that have periodically marked and plagued American life. The resentment soon became linked with religious bigotry. Bigotry turned to hate and another anti-Catholic crusade was underway. The Catholic publications in society sprang up to keep the country safe for Protestant Americanism. Among them, the Order of United American. The United American Mechanics. The Order of the Star-Spangled Banner. The propaganda of these organizations soon inflamed Native Americans to direct action. Come back where you can from, you dirty Irish Catholics! In 1829, mobs attacked the homes of Boston Catholics and stoned them for three days. The Irish section of Charleston, Massachusetts was devastated. In 1834, an Ursuline convent was burned to the ground and in the years 1835 to 1845, violent riots broke out in Philadelphia and New York. Get those dirty Irish out of here! Send them all back to Ireland! Later, they followed the know-nothing party with their war cry of rum, Romanism and rebellion and the American Protective Association, all serving but one purpose, to spread hate, fear and distrust among the people of America. In 1867, shortly after the Civil War, there appeared another organization using different methods but producing the same results. Kill the Negroes! Burn their... This clan standing for white Anglo-Saxon Protestant supremacy, standing also for murder and pillage and terror. Created at first to combat the carpet bag governments of newly freed Negroes, broadening its field of hate and persecution later to include foreigners as well as native-born Jews, Catholics, labor, radicals, liberals. Existing even now, this Christmas season, as I speak to you, waiting to go into action again when conditions for mass hate are ripe and the blind among us willing to follow their program. Let us examine now the scapegoats in our midst. Let us ask ourselves this question. What does it mean to be a Negro in the United States today? I can answer that question. I am a Negro, born in America, lived in America all my life. It's a good country too, created by God and by man so that people can live together in peace and freedom. I figure, according to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, it belongs to me as well as to anybody. But sometimes I wonder. Sometimes I wonder about a lot of things which make me an outcast in the country where I was born. I wonder why in many states I can't vote like the white people do. I wonder why I have to live in the slum areas and pay exorbitant rents for fire traps. I wonder why I have to go to different schools, sit in designated sections of buses and trains, go to different hotels and restaurants. I wonder why I can't get a job at wage rates comparable to those of other Americans. Why I can't get into certain unions? Why many defense industries won't hire me? I wonder why in time of war a German prisoner is more respected by some white men than myself? And why in time of war the Army and the Navy have to have special Negro units? I wonder about justice different for the black man and the white and about lynchings created to strike terror in our hearts and keep us where we belong on the bottom rung of the social and economic ladder. Yes, I wonder about a lot of things in this land of mine, in this country which gave me life and won't let me live to enjoy it. Sometimes I get mad. I get mad because I am a human being the same as you, the same as everybody. I have the same blood flowing through my veins. I feel the same pain when I'm sick and a rope around my neck produces the same burning flesh as it would to you. Only my skin is different and that I have not created. Why then haven't I got a right to live in peace and freedom? Why have you chosen to persecute me? Who among us can answer this man? Who among us can justify his burden or contradict his cry for justice? We can say that he is wrong and those who are responsible for his condition right. Those of us who can, let us step forward and take our place in our exalted company with Herod, Pontius Pilate, Caligula, Nero, Ivan the Terrible, Torquemada and Hitler. We come now to the second group of scapegoats in our midst. They're the ones who own all the land, grab all the money, cause all the trouble, kill them I say. This is an incident that has occurred and re-cured a thousand times in the last thousand years. Listen now to the list of crimes perpetrated by the people of the world against the world's favorite scapegoat. Listen to the words of the wandering Jew. In 70 AD, we were evicted from our homeland by the Romans. In the Middle Ages, we were forbidden to own land and assigned to ghettos. The enclosures kept locked at night. In 1290, we were expelled from England. In 1350, we were accused of responsibility for the bubonic plague. In the day of the Russian czars, the armies incited outbreaks against the Jews known as pogroms, systematic house-to-house searches, beatings and massacres. And with the advent of national socialism in Germany, we were subjected to a degree of cruelty unmatched in human misery. Why? What reason was there for this persecution? What reason exists today? If you know the answer, step forward and speak and tell us what truth existed in the accusation. The Jews were responsible for the bubonic plague. What financial and economic proof backed up the accusation. The Jews were responsible for the depression that followed the Napoleonic Wars. America was ever given to substantiate the charge. The Jews perform ritual murders. What logic exists behind the statement? America is controlled by Jewish international bankers. What reason is there for this hate? What purpose does it serve? What has it accomplished? Who has reaped the benefits? And why? What answer shall we give this man? Shall we tell him that these charges were against our deliberate falsehoods invented by purveyors of hate to suit their ends? Shall we tell him that his persecution and the persecution of his race was inspired by these purveyors of hate to give the gullible and the bigoted among us a scapegoat for our economic and social ills? Shall we tell him that the babe in the manger was a Jew himself? And when we persecute the Jews, we also persecute him. We come to worship tonight. But this man knows all that. He has known that for over a thousand years. Now, we cannot answer him. Or can we answer those many others who have felt the whip of bigotry from us, the Italians looked down upon in many cities, and the Negroes and the Catholics and the Mexicans and the Chinese and the millions of other scapegoats standing even now with the tribunals of bigotry we have erected for them. We can only hope and pray for a day when the truth will prevail, when the people of the world will learn that bigotry and persecution were the very things Jesus died to destroy. I have no advice to add. No plea to make. For tolerance and justice and compassion for truth and a spirit of brotherhood must come to each man from his heart, from his own understanding of the facts. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Tonight on Words at War, we've brought you a play in the Christmas Spirit based on Kenneth Gould's pamphlet, Scapegoats in History and the History of Bigotry in the United States by Gustavus Myers and featuring Bernard Lenro as the narrator. The music was arranged and played by William Meader and the production was under the direction of Garnet Garrison. This is the National Broadcasting Company.