The Mail 'RELIGIOUS SENSIBILITIES'

To the Editors of the CRIMSON':

We are writing to comment on a review of The Greatest Musical Ever' Sung which appeared in your paper on November 19th. Quite simply, we found the review to be in had taste. To judge by reviewer Martin Kaplan, the Dunster House production itself was an affront to the religious sensibilities of many members of the Harvard community. Our first impulse was to ignore the whole matter, but we found so many people who have felt offended by it that we wish to speak publicly.

The recent history of Harvard has been notable for the progress made toward an appreciative understanding of the various communities of belief represented here. People have come to see more clearly the values contained in the traditions not their own. It is arrogance to scorn what others hold sacred.

Our conviction is that the spirit behind both the musical and the CRIMSON review is a violation of the tact and generosity required if those of various traditions are to live together as members of the same community. We reject the pseudo-sophistication which ridicules deeply-held convictions of our brothers and sisters.

[My apologies to any members of the community who felt their values scorned or ridiculed by my review. However, I had hoped that people would understand the distinction between an assault on personal religious belief-which my review was not-and an appreciation of a play which I (and apparently 1200 others) found to be very funny. The spirit of my review was satire and not scorn; humor, and the binding warmth of group amusement, was what I took to be the spirit of the play.]