Dear Mr. Editor: 

Will you please place this as a contribution in the next issue of The Standard Bearer. 

Just as the noose of trade unions tightens itself around the American economy by forcing Congress to repeal the “Right To Work” section of the Taft-Hartley Bill (Section 14-b), there is a tiny indication of possible relief from this tyranny for our Protestant Reformed wage earners and for other Christians across the country who have refused to yield to this yoke. 

This comes in the form of a proposed amendment to the Taft-Hartley Act which would exempt religious objectors from compulsory union membership in the United States. Congresswoman Green (D., Oregon) had introduced this same bill earlier in the day as an amendment to the House of Representatives bill to repeal the right to work law. When this was voted down by the House Labor Committee, she immediately set about to make her bill an amendment to the original Taft-Hartley Bill, the dominant guide today in employer union relations. 

We do not know what motivates the congresswoman to work this diligently on what is certainly an unpopular bill at this time. We can only recognize that the hearts of our rulers are guided by Jehovah, and that He often uses diverse and mysterious means to benefit His people. 

In the past our various ecclesiastical bodies, and I’m certain many of our members, have expressed themselves on the union question to their various elected congressmen. At that time it seemed to be of no avail, but perhaps it was very really “bread cast on the waters.” 

Now is the time to write again! Not only to your own congressmen, urging their support on the “Green Amendment to the Taft-Hartley Act” (allowing exemption for religious objectors), but also to Congresswoman Green to encourage her in what must be a lonely stand. Congressmen are there because their constituents voted for them. By and large they want to please their constituents to insure a re-election, but they are not mind readers. They are, however, letter and telegram readers because this indicates what “the folks back home” want them to do. 

Here is an opportunity for our small, but distinctive witness to be heard in the land. A thousand letters and telegrams to our respective Congressmen and to Congresswoman Green, urging their continued support of this amendment, could result in a witness to the country that there are Christians who oppose the ungodly tactics of many unions. By divine counsel, it could not only result in the exemption of our men from union membership, but also be a constant and thorny witness to union members and officials across the land who would be forced to allow conscientiously objecting Christians to work unmolested in heretofore closed shops! 

God works through means, even in the guiding of our rulers. One of these means could be the one thousand letters our individuals, families, consistories, classes, and synod, could produce to make our witness felt in Washington. 

—Charles H. Westra