Movement for “christian” Amendment of Constitution Revived

A proposal that “the authority and law of Jesus Christ” be expressly proclaimed in an amendment to the United States Constitution has been revived and will soon be re-introduced in Congress. This was made known today by the Rev. A. J. McFarland of Pittsburgh, Pa., executive secretary of the “Christian Amendment Movement.”

Activity is under way here to line up a group of sponsors in the House of Representatives. The proposed amendment may be simultaneously reintroduced in the Senate. Leading the sponsoring group is Rep. Robert D. Harrison. Nebraska Republican who introduced it in the last Congressional session as a companion bill to a similar measure sponsored in the Senate by Son, Ralph Flanders, Vermont Republican.

A Senate subcommittee held hearings last year on the Flanders resolution. Jewish groups strongly objected to the proposed legislation, expressing belief that it would violate American principles regarding separation of church and state and would create, in effect, a class of “second class citizens.” The subcommittee voted to table the bill and did not report it to the Senate floor. Sen. Flanders said that he would not reintroduce it.

Rev. McFarland an ordained minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, has spent 13 years leading the movement to amend the Constitution. He maintains that the amendment would “remedy a d### in the Constitution” because he feels the Constitution should state that this nation “devoutly recognizes the law and authority of Jesus Christ, Saviour and ruler of nations through whom are bestowed the blessings of Almighty God.”