rance that is at the heart of American thought at the present time an ignorance based upon the idea that America can do no wrong (which has been fostered by decades of irresponsible freedom propaganda accompanied by much flag-waving) and which encourages an almost savage intellectual campaign against any group or nation which America, in her selfrighteousness, has defeated.

Simone Weil, in her remarkable book The Need for Roots, warned the French people in exile in England in 1942 that they must not campaign too vigorously against Nazism, for that in itself could easily become a kind of Nazism. This plea, this clear insight, ought well to be heeded in America. at the present time. But it is not being heeded. Everywhere the arrogance of Americanism is being pushed forward more determinedly. The campaign of verbiage about our freedoms. and our civil rights is becoming louder and more insistent. And this empty prattle is being accompanied by the shabby behavior of the police and of legislative investigating committees, and by a growing intolerance toward all who are not conventional thinkers.

Hitler persecuted the Jews as scapegoats. It cannot be said that the government of the United States treats the Jews in such a manner. Oh, no! In America we persecute not Jews, but homosexuals. In the growing Nazification of thought in this nation homosexuals are finding themselves in much the same position as that of the Jews at the beginning of the Nazi era in Germany. They are despised for being liberal in thought as well as for living what is considered by many to be a reprehensible form of existence. Further, and more important, they have no allies.

The Church, for example, is no more inclined toward the protection of homosexuals in this nation than it was disposed toward the protection of Jews under the Nazi regime in Ger-

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many. Certainly the Church disapproved of the Nazi regime, but not at first. The Nazi propaganda that National Socialism would save the nation from "Godless Communism" flattered the ecclesiastics into giving it a passive acceptance; and while the Church may not have been a staunch ally of National Socialism, still it did not oppose it until a later date when the horrible persecution of the Jews forced the Christian Church to oppose the State on a matter of principle. But by that time it was too late and opposition was of no use.

Similarly, the Church in the United States is, by its attitude, encouraging the Nazification going on at the present time. While local governments become little police states and while the F.B.I. and national government cry continually about the high crime rate, the same spiel is echoed from pulpits all across the land. The danger is that most priests and ministers are inclined to support the police because, out of ignorance, they think the police are interested in the public welfare. And, as anyone knows, the Church has always been Rightist in outlook.

What is the attitude of the Church toward homosexuality? Most churches have not taken a definite stand on the issue (Catholic Church excepted), but if homosexuals were to be persecuted more severely than they are at present, would the Church do anything to help them? It is doubtful. The Church might preach against persecution on general principles, but it is unlikely that it would take any active opposition.

The social position of the homosexual in America is in many ways worse even than that of the Negro. The homosexual is frequently discriminated against, is bait for the police, and is in danger of losing what few civil rights he may be said to possess. Unlike the Negro, he has no allies who will campaign for him the way many