Brooks Hays Honored by NCCJ at Premiere of Film on Life

              RELIGIOUS NEWS SERVICE     -6-     THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1980     BROOKS HAYS HONORED BY NCCJ AT PREMIERE OF FILM ON LIFE     By Religious News Service (10-30-80)    NEW YORK (RNS) — Former Arkansas Congressman Brooks Hays was honored here at the premiere of a film on his public career by the National Conference of Christians and Jews.  In a related development, Mr. Hays, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, released a statement disassociating himself from current SBC president Bailey Smith's well-publicized remark that "God almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew."  To believe that God hears only the prayers of Christians invoking the name of Christ, Mr. Hays declared, "would be to shut out from God's love and care the largest part of the world's population, and to abrogate to ourselves alone his mercy and favor, something Jesus never intended."  Mr. Hays' statement, citing Jesus' endorsement of the Jewish Publican's prayer in the Temple and the fact that Jesus' model prayer “made no mention of himself,” goes on to state that "there is no basis for claiming that Jesus' name must be mentioned like an open sesame to God's attention."  The statement concludes by declaring that because the purpose of prayer "is worship and the desire to learn the divine will, the way to God should be, and is, open to everyone, saint and sinner, Jew, Moslem and Christian."  The film on Mr. Hays' career, "Return to Little Rock," was sponsored by the Arkansas chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, which helped to produce it with funding from various foundations, including the Arkansas Council on the Humanities.  Dr. David Hyatt, NCCJ president, presented a mass media award to the film's producer, David Solomon. The free lance film maker said that he had been long impressed with Mr. Hays' ability to reach out and influence young people to engage in politics for constructive social change, a fact emphasized in the half-hour motion picture.  Focusing on Mr. Hays' conciliatory role in the Little Rock school desegregation crisis in 1957, the movie portrays the former congressman as a statesman committed to human and civil rights.  The film recalls Mr. Hays' efforts as a conciliator between Arkansas Gov. Orvil [sic] Faubus, a staunch segregationist, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who ordered federal troops to integrate Little Rock's Central High School in compliance with a court order.     (more)     PAGE -6-