“IS THE CHURCH CHRISTIAN?”
The National Christian Citizenship League recently sent to a number of persons the following questions:— “Is the church Christian? Does she stand for the things for which Jesus stood, and teach the truths he taught?” Among the replies received was the following from the Rev. Dr. R. Heber Newton, rector of All-Souls Church, New York City:— “In answer to your question, Is the church Christian? I can at present give only a word. If by this is meant, Are there earnest Christian souls in the church, and hosts of them, seeking to follow the Master according to their light, no one can fail to answer Yes. If by the question, however, is meant, Is the church, as an organization, Christly, possessed of the spirit of Christ, and organized upon the principles of Christ? then, I am afraid, the answer must be No. The teachings of the church, for the most part, are far from following the teachings of Jesus; nay, they are far from recognizing what those teachings are. The organization of the church is planned and patterned upon a policy which is the very antithesis of a true society of Jesus. Commercialism dominates the organization, and conventionally tyrannizes the pulpit. The law of the market, rather than the law of the mount, is accepted by the church at large. Our Protestant churches are composed, for the most part, of a constituency drawn from the well-to-do classes, and they see nothing essentially unsound or unethical in the economic system of the day. The pulpit, therefore, is rarely free to deliver its soul, if it has one, upon the burning questions of our generation. Blind leaders of the blind—both seem hastening to fall into the ditch which lies before our civilization! And yet, within the Christian church is the very ideal that the world hungers for, the very law that it needs to apply to its economic problems. Infinitely pathetic the situation!”