The orthodox Jews are similarly opposed to the marriage of their members with the Gentiles. So far as the writer has learned, they do not require signed promises. They are uncompromising in such matters and ostracize any one of their members who marries an outsider.
The usual explanation of the need of such a ban or check on interfaith marriages is that if the parents are of different faiths the children will be lost to the Church. Whatever the explanation or justification of the Church opposition to interfaith marriages, it often applies to immigrants and makes for their continued separation from America.
IMMIGRANT PASTORS
Very often the priests and pastors of the immigrant churches are freshly arrived immigrants themselves. They scarcely speak English and know little about America. Consequently they are not able to educate the members of their congregations in American ways. On the contrary, they tend to criticize America and favor their old country in their sermons, public addresses, and activities. During recent years quite a number of such church heads have been prosecuted in the courts for their seditious utterances and activities.
Testimony given at the hearing before the state Americanization Committee in Lincoln, Nebraska, showed how many of the ministers know little of the English language and little of America:
Joseph G. Votava of Omaha, representing the Bohemians, Roman Catholic, stated:
A great many of the ministers have come from foreign churches and countries, and if you gentlemen were forced to listen to them making English sermons, I don't know whether you would go to church very often or not.
Rev. F. E. Pomp, Omaha, representing the Swedish Evangelical Mission Association of Nebraska, said:
A great many of the ministers in our denomination were born in Sweden; some preach very well in English, but the majority, perhaps, of those born in Sweden cannot preach in the English language.
The statement of Rev. Matt W. Nemec, Wahoo, Nebraska, Bohemian Roman Catholic, was: