Meet Some Baptists in Washington - Page 4

Abstract

Article profiling Brooks Hays and other prominent Baptists in Washington, D.C. in Ambassador Life magazine ; He started his foreign activities as a missionary, teaching in Judson College, an American Baptist school at Rangoon. He got trapped there during World War II and joined forces with Dr. Gordon Seagrave, the famed Burma surgeon, assisting in care of the wounded, as General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell led masses of American and Burmese troops from behind enemy lines to safety. Geren told about those experiences in a memorable book of high spiritual insight, Burma Diary. Much of the initial success of the Peace Corps is due to Geren, for he was its first deputy director, working side by side with Director Sargent Shriver in the corps' first months of testing. "Fishbait" the Doorkeeper A fellow they call "Fishbait" came to Washington in 1933 from Pascagoula, Mississippi. His real name is William M. Miller, and he's the Doorkeeper of the House of Representatives. Unofficially he's the man who knows everybody on Capitol Hill and a man who'll talk of his Baptist faith to friend and stranger alike. He got his nickname because he weighed only 75 pounds when he was 15, and his Mississippi cronies compared him with the small fish they used for bait. As Doorkeeper of the House- which sounds at first like a menial job-he commands approximately 300 employees, including the boys who work as pages, the barbers, snack room clerks, and everybody else employed for the comfort and accommodation of members of the House of Representatives. One of the Doorkeeper's chores is to announce the arrival of distinguished visitors to the House. This includes joint sessions of Congress, which always meet in the House chambers. You'll see him next time you watch the telecast of a joint session-he's the chubby fellow who walks down the aisle, pulls in his stomach, puffs out his chest, and chants: "Mister Speaker -the President of the United States." Of course, it could be the president of Pakistan, the Prime Minister of India, or Premier Khrushchev of Russia. But none of these fellows, despite their importance, gets into the Congress chamber until "Fishbait" cries out the announcement. "Fishbait" often talks with youthful pages about their religious faith, their church membership, and the frequency of their letters home to mother. He is superintendent of the Sunday School at Memorial Baptist Church in Arlington across the Potomac River from Washington. There are many other Baptists in government, including 48 representatives, 12 senators, and hundreds of clerks, secretaries, and lesser officials who hold unspectacular but necessary jobs. Most of them never get their names in the papers, but the government could not get along without them. A few of them are, as could be expected, no more than average in their Christian witness. But many of them take their faith to work with them every day. Their influence may be nothing more than a smile or perhaps a disapproving comment when a morally questionable proposal is being considered by their bosses-but even such a little thing as that may tip the scales for good on a debated issue. Bill Moyers, the clergyman of the crowd, believes the Lord called him into politics just as truly as other men are called to the pulpit or mission fields. He would invite more and more Christians to look to government service as a vocation. Politics is no dirtier than the men who participate in it-and good deeds can replace scandals when God-fearing, Christ-loving men are in office. for AUGUST 1964