The Church and the Theater
There is now organized in the city of New York what is known as the Actors’ Church Alliance. This alliance and a committee of clergymen are to determine what theatrical plays are fit for religious men and women to see and for children to know about. The committee of clergymen will collect information concerning new plays and send it to the pastors of churches in every city in the country. “Moral plays” and those which treat holy things with reverence will be recommended. But the committee hopes to do a good work by inducing the members of the churches in all the country to refrain from attendance at the theaters which present objectionable plays. While not questioning the motives of the gentlemen who have organized this work, it is certain that this movement will result in the greatest harvest for the theaters that they have ever experienced, and will be the means of thousands attending the theater who otherwise might never have become infatuated with the play. It is bound to work as an advertisement for the theater—a veritable theatrical billboard in the house of worship. Another fact in this connection is that the exposure of the immoral plays will not result in decreasing the attendance at the theaters where they are produced. It has been proved over and over that the plays which pander to depraved moral appetites are the plays which draw the crowds. The very condemnation of a play on these grounds has come to be the most telling advertisement for it. So the churches, through this movement, are to become theatrical posters, free advertising media, for the good and the bad alike. It were far better if both pastors and church members left the ways of the world to the worldling, and kept themselves to the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the world for service, but not of it nor in its pleasures, should be the attitude of every one who professes the name of Christ and hopes for a part with Him in the eternal world.