Easy Church Membership: Attendance as Admission
We have long been aware that it was a very easy matter to become a member of any of the popular churches of the land. The conditions are very broad, the tests very slight. We were hardly prepared, however, for so liberal a proposition as set forth in the following paragraph, which we clip from a late daily. Simply to attend a church it seems, is getting to be, in the minds of some, sufficient for membership. The next step will probably be to vote the world Christians, and consider the millennium here. The Liberal Christian proposes a new and simple form of admission to the Church as follows: The old distinction between society and church had a meaning and a justification so long as only those belonging to the church were considered elect, or Christians. It has no meaning, no justification, in our liberal faith. We do not believe that the few who belong to the church and partake of the communion are saints, while the majority of the parish, who own the church edifice, call and pay the minister, and bear all the burdens of the enterprise, are reprobates. We all know that many of the very best men and women in the parishes do not belong to what is called “the church.” The distinction between church and society among us is a practical hindrance to the religious success of a minister. The sooner we get rid of this dead organization we have inherited from Calvinistic ancestors, or imported from foreign systems of faith, and build up our churches according to our own simple, beautiful, Christian idea, the sooner we shall get rid of a great encumbrance and prepare the way for a religious growth and our own proper religious influence. Let us have one organization, religious and financial, the Christian Church, counting whoever attends its services a member of it, and welcome him and his to all helping offices, activities and influence.