Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 14, 1909

The New Program

THE action of the recent Federal Council of Churches in defining its attitude toward the labor question, and in other ways indicating the attitude of the churches toward the various social problems, has attracted public attention, and called forth varied comment. Thus the Outlook declares:—

Credit no less is due to the whole body of delegates for their statesmanlike seizure of this opportunity, the very first that has been offered, to express with dignity and courage the church’s sense of its own shortcomings, and also its great ideals and clear determination in relation to the application of the religion of Christ to the social life of to-day.

A daily paper, in an editorial upon the question, notes the fact that American Protestantism has now thrown the influence of the churches on the side of social and industrial reform, and that the Roman Catholic Church has already taken the same position. After mentioning the estrangement between the working classes and the church, this interpretation of the situation follows:—

The friendly attitude of the churches toward labor is therefore apparently altruistic on the one hand and self-interested on the other. The instinct of self-preservation is combined with a sense of moral duty. However this may be, the influence of the churches over the course of social development is bound to become more and more important, just as their influence in political affairs on the moral side is being increasingly felt.

These quotations indicate in some measure how far the church is departing from the work enjoined upon it in the great commission. Political and social questions are becoming the chief concern of the professed church of Christ, while the people are perishing for a lack of the preaching of the gospel of salvation from sin. The spectacle is a sad one.