home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
500 MB Nyheder Direkte fra Internet 6
/
500 MB nyheder direkte fra internet CD 6.iso
/
start
/
progs
/
text
/
dreiser.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-02-28
|
70KB
|
1,299 lines
20 page printout
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
This disk, its printout, or copies of either
are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
**** ****
TRAGIC AMERICA
by Theodore Dreiser
1931
This is chapter 14 of 'Tragic America,' a philosophical
statement of Theodore Dreiser's observations of the United States
in his time. Mr. Dreiser's observations on religion, and the great
fraud that they represent, is most timely today, 1992, as the evils
he reports; great tax-exempt wealth, huge contributions, political
meddling, etc. are still in force today, except that the wealth
involved is many thousand times greater now than was even dreamed
of then. EFF
CHAPTER XIV
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
I decry the power of the Church and its use of that power, in
America in particular! Throughout the world, as all know, the
churches are so organized as to have the wealth, size and formation
of a great corporation, a government, or an army. And in America,
the wealthy individuals who rule in corporate affairs appear to be
attracted to the church by reason of its hold not only on the mind
but the actions of its adherents. Politically, socially and
otherwise, they count on its power and influence as of use to them.
And not without reason, since especially among the ignorant and
poor, its revealed wisdom counsels resignation and orders faith in
a totally inscrutable hereafter. In short, it makes for ignorance
and submission in the working class, And what more could a
corporation-minded government or financial group, looking toward
complete control of everything for a few, desire?
And besides, the wealth of the Church elevates it to an
unsurpassed prestige. The contributions of the congregations of
twenty-five denominations in the United States for 1928 was
$402,682,961.82. Can the Standard Oil of New Jersey show anything
like that? Not even the greatest of our financial corporations can
boast either the financial or social or political prestige of
either the Catholic, Methodist or Episcopal churches here. Thus,
the gifts from the living as well as income on permanent funds and
legacies controlled by these twenty-five church denominations in
America totaled in 1928 $532,368,714.80. The Methodist Episcopals
alone, one little subsidiary of this great group, received in 1928,
$98,758,030. The Presbyterians had $75,054,538 to spend. The
Methodist Episcopals in the South, a separate group, collected
$42,837,679; the Protestant Episcopals $46,088,274, and the
Baptists, in the South only, $40,038,259. Obviously this is why the
Church (speaking of all denominations collectively) is able to
organize tremendous lobbies, and, as I will show, does; also to
exercise a preponderance of influence affecting education. And not
only that, but to enter upon -- and for purposes of social and
mental control always -- a score of activities which include
asylums, hospitals, orphanages, protectories graveyards, and what
not else, all truly functions of government and functions which
should never in any way be dominated by either the leaders or
adherents of these ignorant and dogmatic religious institutions.
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
1
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
Yet the Church, realizing the power of wealth as well as
mentally-controlled numbers, seeks to gather to itself all it can.
Each year in America we see its influence grow, the political and
"educational" activities of the Catholic Church in particular being
everywhere apparent. Thus, the phenomenon of a religious adherent
such as Al Smith, seeking from a people whose political as well as
mental independence is not acknowledged by his Church, the official
(in the sense that an American President has that) control of the
same. And not only that, but the spectacle of many of the most
grasping commercial magnates in America being elevated to
leadership in the Church. The late Haley Fiske, life insurance
president, who told his policyholders to denounce Government
ownership because their life insurance funds were invested in
private utility companies, was prominent in the Catholic movement
of the Angelican Church. S.S. Kresge, of 5 and 10 cent store fame,
and a Methodist, joined with his denomination in its assiduous
fight for prohibition and religious control of public morality.
Thomas F. Ryan was not only an adherent but a helpful donor to the
Catholic Church. The list is much too long to append here, Yet men
of this mental bent not only command the policies of corporate
power in America but are evidently, from what I can disclose, an
important factor in shaping church pursuits.
That the Church has the money to make itself felt is shown by
the table given below:
Church Valuations in 1926
Baptist ................ $469,835,000
Congregational ......... 164,212,000
Jewish ................. 100,890,000
Methodist .............. 654,736,000
Presbyterian ........... 443,572,000
Protestant Episcopal ... 314,596,000
But the Roman Catholic Church property alone in America is valued
at $837,271,000! The biggest and the worst. But what makes these
organizations all the more dominating and far-reaching is that
actually, in the large, they offer one and the same interpretation
of life. It is the creation of a Ruler, whose intentions, purposes
and rules have been revealed to them. More, as I have said, the
guiding wish or mood of that Creator is resignation. Hence they are
obviously advocates of things as they are. To pry or seek to know
or change, as in science, sociology, government, is wrong. The God
of each particular denomination knows all, directs all. Resignation
to His will, as interpreted by them, is all. Hence they do not, as
a rule, advocate the necessity, let alone the value, of change. And
since heaven is for all, and the chief business of all is to
achieve the hereafter or "sweet bye and bye," why the urge for
anything difficult, let alone revolutionary, here? And that is why
wealth and government always look upon religion as, if not their
handmaiden, at least their "side kick" in these, their earthly
adventurings.
Worse, the growing commercialism of America has made it all
the more possible for the churches to increase their wealth.
Between 1916 and 1926, the value of church buildings rose
$2,160,000,000; that is, an increase of one hundred and twenty-nine
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
2
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
per cent. The most striking example in America, probably, of this
land values is Trinity Church (Episcopal) at the head of Wall
Street. It owns about $15,000,000 in real estate, with an income
from that alone of $1,460,000, and it has a surplus of $14,000,000.
And all from property practically given to it, and more, in so far
as concerns portions of it which can be listed as of service to
religion, tax exempt.
That the laws of this or any country should permit any such
sums to fall into organizational hands, and especially such
organizational hands as set up such claims and commands as those of
our religionists, is obviously wrong. More, it is economically
unsound, since most of it is untaxed, and permits the rise and
support of a privileged class which does little, if anything, more
than befog the human mind, For as any one can see for himself,
religious doctrines are based on so-called revelation, not reality.
And worse, with such wealth to direct, what political, and worse,
mental, harm cannot be done! The unlimited use of propaganda! The
millions spent on foolish campaigns designed to shape or change
public opinion in regard to this or that: divorce, birth control,
the falseness of the Darwinian theory, or almost anything in
connection with science and history! The blather about saints and
cures and bringing all to Jesus, the while taxes are evaded and the
scummy politicians whom they endorse, or even nominate and elect to
office, proceed to rob the public in favor of the corporations and
churches whom they serve! No wonder ignorance, no wonder illusion,
when those with power in the religious field knowingly delude and
mislead the masses! The things told them! That it is important to
vote for this or that crook; uphold religion; it is good for the
people to go to war, to put religion in the schools, to give into
the hands of these mental bandits the care and education of all
children, so that they may be properly enslaved by religion! (A
slave, in my opinion, is the man who does not think for himself. A
man with knowledge is not powerless.) But always with suave and
polished words. For it is not men who are talking, as they assert,
but God through them! and so through the mouths of tricksters and
social prestidigitators, and no more and no less, comes all this
hooey in regard to the hereafter! No wonder then that Russia swept
religion away! And it should so be done here! Men should be
educated concerning the data of this world and the value to men of
a properly organized social life, and the how of that organization,
so that they may really live better and be better mentally and
physically. But, no! Whisper! God has told me, and I will tell you,
and you shall follow and sustain me as my servant who am the
servant of God!
these enormous Church holdings, as I have said, goes not one
cent of taxes on noncommercial property. But there are tricks by
which certain denominations, by laying the foundation of a church
or school and then resting, can and do hold property for years
until, its value having greatly increased, it becomes advisable to
sell for an enormously enhanced price, and then, of course, it is
so sold. One would think from that that the Churches were a branch
of the Government, a public institution, whereas they are only
semipublic, being under the control of a special group of patrons,
and as such should be taxed and made to pay the same as any other
self-aggrandizing corporation.
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
3
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
More, I believe that all of the pursuits in which the Church
engages in this country (except aesthetics, which they portray so
meagerly, awkwardly, grossly, and unbeautifully) are actually
functions of government. And if so, they should be a part of
government and not of the functionings of a special and separate,
if not private, group of theorists, or worse, political men of
affairs seeking, via theory, and worse, revelation, to function as
government. I refer to such things as hospitals, protectories,
orphan asylums, schools, colleges, homes for the aged and infirm,
graveyards, and industries of whatsoever nature.
To show some of the dangers, let me point out how the Church
takes advantage of its property holdings, and how practically it
profits by the same. Thus, when the Madison Avenue Methodist Church
in New York City sold its site for an apartment building and moved
to another plot of land nearby, it made a profit of $650,000. But
I ask, why should religion be a profiteer? If the State permits
them to go tax free, it should at least, should it not? enjoy and
participate in any money-making of this nature, which is certainly
no legitimate function of religion. Next, in 1926, the Temple
Emanu-El likewise made more than $6,000,000 in this same manner.
Its property on Fifth Avenue at Forty-third Street, New York,
increased in value five hundred per cent between 1900 and 1929. All
it had to do in order to garner this increment was to move up Fifth
Avenue to Sixty-fifth Street, where it could buy cheaper. A like
action in connection with St. Patrick's Cathedral would yield the
Catholic Church about $10,000,000. And considering how practical
that Church is, it is a wonder it is not so moved. In Brooklyn and
the Bronx, the Catholic Church owns several plots of land on which
are erected only one-story buildings. What will these be, and what
eventually will they be sold for?
But what is worse in connection with this untaxed architecture
and the land on which it stands is this. By the overwhelming power
of it as mass, if not art, in the eyes of the persuaded followers
of any faith, both at once assume spiritual and even mystic
significance, thus magnetizing to the organizations controlling
them the faith as well as the money of those so mentally led. For
it is not only doctrine but doctrine-joined-up-with-material-
appearance that so intrigues and deceives the average mind. And in
America, as well as Europe, how often the elegance of the town
takes its inspiration from its principal religious edifice: in
Europe, the Roman Catholic Church; in America, the Methodist,
Episcopal and Catholic Churches The new Methodist Church in
Worcester, Massachusetts, is valued at $1,000,000, entailing, in
these days of strikes and unemployment, quite an obligation to
society, I would say.
Well now, church buildings alone in America, without
parsonages, investments, securities, schools, orphanages, hospitals
and monasteries, are valued at $3,800,000,000; the personages
alone, and apart from the above, are reported to be worth
$500,000,000. Furthermore, an estimate in the Literary Digest
concludes that $7,000,000,000, at least, constitutes the total
securities and property of the churches in America. A more definite
figure is the actual expenditure of the churches in 1926. This
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
4
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
totaled $817,000,000. Well, this is the equivalent of six per cent
on more than a $13,500,000,000 investment is it not? And all for
the purposes of the most inane, unprogressive, and often scheming
as well as ignorant, social parasites, their crack-brained theories
and certainly mentally destructive aims! That they may lead and
lord it over fools, or to put it more truthfully, that fools may
lead fools!
But mere billions do not in any way indicate the scope of the
church -- its influence. Much more important is the total
membership. In all, fifty-five per cent of America's entire
population are claimed as church members. Over one-half! And of
these the Roman Catholic Church claims thirty per cent. In 1926,
54,576,000 persons belonged to the various denominations, or
claimed to. If this is really true, such an organization can and
should mold the mind of the whole populace. But does it? Whether
the answer is yes or no, the Catholics, the most reactionary and
mind-stultifying of all, seem to be the most efficient. At least
they are the most forward in their efforts to direct, politically,
educationally, legally and in every way. And as for concentration
of effort, well, in 1926, there were 183,505 white Protestant
churches for 23,515,000 members -- an average of 128 to a church --
and 16,615 Roman Catholic churches -- for 18,104,800 adherents --
an average of 1,089 per church.
So this is what the system has to work with. Yet despite this
the country to-day is suffering from a lack of faith, recognized
everywhere, but the depths of which may not yet be ascertained.
Personally I believe it to be due not only to ignorance but to the
dominance in churchly undertakings of economics and its related
activities over spiritual development. The Church itself, as much
as anything, has made the spiritual life unfashionable, and hence
has degraded it. Against the sole hope and inspiration of Christ,
it has given way to commercial standards of corporations and just
when people need a simple aesthetic and mental haven to escape from
corporate speed and complexity. All in all, it has sought to become
a moving factor in national life, and by so doing has defeated its
purpose of spiritual nourishment. And certainly, the seeking human
hearts, so lost from the Church, are something to be reckoned with.
Thousands who have followed it from childhood have wakened to find
it an intellectual (which includes aesthetes, of course) loss.
But let us see how the Church seeks to influence
sociologically, economically and politically, and, of course, seize
power via numbers and the control of the same through faith.
Orphanages, for one thing; schools, for another; Sunday schools for
still another; and then hospitals, protectories, and the like. I
want to speak particularly, however, of Sunday schools, schools,
and homes for the aged run by churches. For first, the doctrine-
flavored educational factor of the Sunday school is shockingly wide
in its appeal. In 1926, 212 denominations here had 185,000 Sunday
schools, with 21,000,000 pupils -- only 3,700,000 less than the
total enrollment of all the public schools in the United States!
But what is taught in them? An aesthetic appreciation of beauty?
Yes? A suggestion of the complicated nature of the organized
society in which we find ourselves and the proper understanding of
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
5
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
its functions and their value -- one's benefits from as well as
duties to it as one of its beneficiaries? Never! That would be
putting life above death, reality above mysticism, the here and now
through which we really live and suffer over and above a mythical
and unsubstantiated hereafter in which we are to be rewarded for
what we suffer here. Rather a deadly indifference to the correction
of those same ills here and now, all reality denounced, feared,
buried, the while prayer, the only thing taught in the church which
might be turned to aesthetic value, is dominated by a silly, narrow
code of sins, confessions and selfish yearnings or needs,
pathetically doomed to unfulfillment. In short, every worth-while
phase of a proper knowledge of life evaded, the while the
antithesis, dogmas relative to a mystical hierarchy which Christ
never contemplated, is insisted upon. Indeed, his worded peace,
order and unselfishness is almost totally ignored. Or if not, then
united with dogma and rules never contemplated by him, and
calculated by the Church, particularly the Catholic Church, to give
it such power as to chain its adherents to slavish ignorance and
obedience throughout their life here. Yet obviously, such power
cannot be for the good of the individual here on earth or his
government. It is against his mind. And when that is suborned or
darkened, by whatever process, what else of value can remain?
From 1906 to 1926, while the percentage of pupils in our
American public schools increased only fifty per cent, the total
number of pupils in Roman Catholic parochial schools rose one
hundred per cent -- schools that belie science, deny the powers and
plans of any earthly government not profoundly submissive to the
mythical heavenly government which they proclaim and administer,
and which boldly, and in the main successfully, seek to block all
forms of education not wholly harmonious with their antiquated,
false and mentally subversive data as to how life is organized and
what its proper rewards as well as functions should be. And yet
America propagandized abroad as progressive; the people of this
country touted as being better equipped educationally as well as in
every other way than those of any other part of the world! Only I
believe that America is actually becoming weaker mentally, not
stronger. And yet, all the rest of the world called upon to bow to
the actions as well as the wisdom of this country as of the best,
the ideals of the United States Government as mentally, morally and
in every other way the highest! Yet Catholics and Jews alike
demanding control of the education of their children, for this, for
that and the other silly reason: morality, the salvation of their
souls, etc., but in the latter sense, most certainly detrimental,
since it can only be misshaping the wondering, formative mind of
the child. And so, instead of joining with the American school
system to make it truly constructive mentally, insisting on
snatching their children from it either entirely or on any and
every day or days they so desire, and for the purpose of having
them celebrate this or that dogmatic event, observe this or that
holy day, or the life of some fantastic saint whose worship or
honor could only be destructive to any worth-while prosecution of
education anywhere!
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
6
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
And all this without the least protest as yet on the part of
our American educators or our citizens generally. Rather --
whisper! -- the Catholics, the Jews, the this, the that, have power
and can cast you from office or cause you trouble! And since all is
for office or job or money in America, the idea of doing anything
for a worth-while ideal, educationally or in any other way, is
beyond anybody. Whisper! In a corporation and priest-ridden world
it isn't a good thing for the rank and file to know too much,
anyhow! It may make them restless! Hence -- whisper! -- don't say
anything! Let it go! It may not be good for business! And so, an
ever-increasing number of children in Catholic and other sectarian
schools, and all actually being drilled in mental as well as social
misvalues. Yet it is known, and can be proved, of course, that
these religionists, with their nostrums and their demands,
constitute open rebellion against the fundamental principle of
nonsectarian education in America. But does that matter? Will it
before the education orientation of the nation is totally
disarranged?
The following was given out in the fall of 1930 by the
National Catholic Welfare Conference:
Pupils in 7,811 Catholic elementary schools ......... 2,283,000
" " 2,235 " high schools ................. 228,000
" " 171 " colleges ..................... 102,000
" " 77 " normal schools ................. 9,000
" " 187 " seminaries .................... 18,000
And relatively the same proportions holding for other denominations
in America.
But more, the leaders of these sectarian schools, like Dr.
Edmund P. Soper, President of Ohio Wesleyan College, arise to say
that it is the right and duty of the sectarian educational
representatives of America to control what the schools and their
professors and teachers teach. And this gentleman gives as his
reason that learning should follow Christian principles. But this,
according to the present standards of these sectarians, means the
acceptance and following of not only dogma as laid down by the
religionists, and hence the ignoring of all science, but, and also,
the inculcation of the present unrestrained individualism of
Americans as represented now by the money-mad leaders who are
dictating not only the economics but the philosophy of the country
and using the religionists to help them. And if that is not so,
count the ministers and churches now contemplating the state of the
tramping masses in America who have one word (as opposed to the
word of Capitalism and its present money-madness) to say in their
favor. Count them and let us see who and where they are and what
the nature of their economic and sociologic programs are!
Dr. Soper also states that his standards would and should be
effected by choosing reactionary men and that these same should
then be allowed to teach with freedom, yet as Christians -- which
means restraint. More, states Dr. Soper: in case they learn more
and change their ideas, the professors must leave! In other words,
when they are no longer ignorant enough for the ideals of the
sectarian school, they must depart!
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
7
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
Well, in the United, States there are 624 four-year colleges
and universities, and of these 376 are religious colleges: 75
Methodist, 55 Presbyterian, 46 Baptist, etc. And assuming Dr.
Soper's rule to apply, one can see not only what is happening but
what is going to happen to true learning in these institutions.
Science? History? Learning? Out! Let us have ignorant slave
following ignorant master, as in so many of the past periods of
recorded history. For what else can come?
But let us return to another of these energies of religion in
America which border on and really are functions of government.
Homes for the aged, obviously one phase of the business of
government, now bring, instead, power to the churches, via the
carefully cultivated goodwill and hence, in the main, adherence of
thousands of inmates and their relatives -- and this regardless of
the false educational principles in complete control of such places
-- false in the sense that they present the sectarian church and
its dogmas in the light of truth, its efforts and labors in every
field as noble, charitable, etc. -- whereas in reality the truth is
that these so-called labors and charities are quite always on a
paying basis and should not be permitted to usurp the mantle of
charity, let alone a proper function of government. They open to
sectarian illusion and dogma too wide a door, and that door should
be closed.
To make clear what I mean: the median rates per month for
residents in quite any of these homes is $30, and the median per
capita cost of operation is just about the same. More, in 182 of
these homes for the aged, Catholic and others, the old folks work.
Thus, one home, at the time of this writing, has 1,100 acres of
corn, 25,500 strawberry plants, two acres of raspberries, etc. Last
year the old people picked 5,000 quarts of strawberries, 1,000
quarts of raspberries, etc., which the organization marketed. Yet
this same is pictured as a Christian charity, the while it makes
for Christian adherents of the sect which operates it.
Not only that, but many of these homes have extensive
properties which enjoy a natural increment which can but redound to
the financial prosperity of the religion or sect operating them.
Thus, one I have in mind is located on a 704-acre farm, with
numerous timber lots, one of which is 84 acres in extent. Again, a
Methodist home of which I know has 125 acres, another 858 acres,
and one Episcopal home, 500 acres. These homes also frequently have
extensive buildings. Several are valued at $1,000,000 each, and one
at $2,000,000.
But to generalize a bit in connection with these homes, let me
add that forty-four Methodist homes in America are now valued at
$6,639,132 and more, exalt themselves under endowments totaling
$3,863,761. Yet for all these investments and gifts, the people in
them in many cases live like trusted prisoners. Also, according to
the rules in some instances, residents may not leave the grounds,
wash clothes, etc., without permission. Furthermore, obedience to
these rules is insured, since on entering. these old people are
compelled to assign to the institution such possessions as they may
have -- money, land, what you will -- which naturally makes them
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
8
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
from then on utterly dependent upon said institution until death.
In each such institution, a house committee dictates what each
inmate may have in his or her room and how the furniture is to be
arranged. In addition to that, and regardless whether they desire
it or not, religion is forced on these residents. For pay or no
pay, it is good for their souls! And should you doubt the strength
of my word "forced," explain, if you can, the existence of the
following rule: "... reverent attention during worship is
obligatory." And religion, to that extent at least, and in that
manner, is administered to the inmates of the following homes:
Homes for the Aged in the United States
Roman Catholic ................ 156
Baptist ....................... 20
Lutheran ...................... 47
Methodist ..................... 45
Presbyterian .................. 20
Episcopal ..................... 39
Miscellaneous denominations ... 148
Quite an influence, don't you think: 475 homes with 27,298
residents?
More than that, our churches have already caught the corporate
merger idea and are following their mentors in that field. Thus, in
1906 there was 1 church for 270 population, in 1916 there was 1
church for 300 population, in 1926 there was 1 church for 344
population. But although the number of churches, according to
population, is decreasing, the membership rate remains the same.
In addition to this, though, numerous inclusive organizations
for specific purposes are bringing about a united effort on the
part of the Church as strong as that of any holding company: the
A.T.&T., for instance. Thus, already the United Church of Canada
has been formed, combining the Methodists, Presbyterians and
Congregationalists. And there have been proposals of extensive
mergers among others.
That the leaders of this assumed Christianity are themselves
bringing to the Church the psychology of our commercial enterprise
and order is not only already plain but daily becoming more so. And
presumably to strengthen their several positions. Thus, Dr. Harry
Emerson Fosdick, for one, at the opening of the Riverside
Cathedral, said: "If we were to put an electric sign in front of
this church, I know where we would get it. I would steal it from
one of the great electric utility companies: 'Public Service, Light
and Power' the sign would read." More, the constant use which
ministers make of the term "profit," "power house" and other
industrial terms, shows that they are accepting as ideals the
commercial standards of the day. But contrast, if you will, quite
all of Christ's comments on "profits" and "prosperity" and
accumulations of wealth in general!
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
9
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
Now one of the movements resulting from Church wealth and
prestige in the past everywhere was missionary work. And let us
grant that this truly had a Christ-like beginning. For it is a
fact, of course, that in the early days of the Church, men did go
out and risk their lives and sacrifice comforts for a "spiritual"
good which they imagined they contemplated and that decidedly they
wished to share with others. And in the early days of the United
States, that was true of the missionaries here. Yet listen to an
American missionary writing to-day of his work: "Although the
sacrificial life of the mission field has been lauded to our paying
church members ... all of these are based on more or less false
assumptions." And the reason for this comment could only be that at
the present time the Church has drawn such wealth to itself that
the day of any form of sacrifice for the missionary is over. He is
usually reported as more or less of a lord as well as leader in his
various fields of operation. At any rate, certain it is that 15
denominations now contribute $26,000,000 annually to mission work.
(Yet for 1900, the figure was only $5,250,000.) And now our
missionaries are frequently housed in splendor. Naturally, this has
accentuated, and quite reasonably, some prejudice in some of the
foreign lands to which these missionaries proceed. For instead of
fulfilling the lowly role of helpful worker cooperating with those
not able to do much for themselves, we find our plethoric
missionaries of to-day, and particularly those from America, living
richly and acting like lords among the foreign peoples upon whom
they choose to bestow their service and whom they stigmatize as
benighted. The Chinese, for instance, or the Hindoos! More, an
American missionary to India has written that he could testify that
"to-day the life of the foreigner there, be he missionary or
government official, is the most lordly life on earth."
But what are the aims and methods of procedure of these
missionaries who proceed from America into China, India, Siam, and
elsewhere? These are interesting, for, as you will see, they have
their roots in something very peculiar here. In China, for
instance, our missionaries -- those of the Protestant persuasion,
at least -- work with the government there just as closely as do
the corporations that have their origin in this land. And with the
corporations there also. And are frequently as much the emissaries
of American trade as of religion, and even more so. For whereas
formerly the missionaries used to go to convey a spiritual message,
to-day at least one very important phase of their purpose is to
effect as well as share material or economic "blessings" for the
natives, such blessings, for instance, as our 'Very material
corporations manufacture and seek to distribute as widely as
possible; bathtubs, sewing machines, electric lights, or,
refrigerators, or in other words, anything and everything that our
modern corporations make. In other words again, "Make 'em modern!"
That means more business for home corporations, doesn't it? And I
am not talking wildly, for only read, as I have done, the writings
of our very up-to-date missionaries of this hour. And furthermore,
most missionaries now believe that they should be protected with
gunboats -- they who supposedly represent that Jesus who taught
peace! And to show the growth of our missions, the American Baptist
Missionary Union, which was organized in 1846 and had nothing to go
On, in 1893 had an income of $485,000. And now ....!
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
10
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
Well, before I go on as to this, though, I want to speak about
John D. Rockefeller and his interest in the matter. Rockefeller, as
you know, has always shown an extraordinary interest in the Church.
He has been the most conspicuous, I am sure, of all our American
capitalists who have exalted the Church with material dignity. In
fact, in the early eighties it was that Rockefeller became a vice-
president of the Baptist Theological Union of Chicago. And his
first interest in the University of Chicago, to which he
subsequently gave $35,000,000, related to its then proposed Baptist
Union Theological Seminary, to which in 1889 he pledged $600,000.
This school was to train men for missionary work abroad as well as
the ministry here and soon occupied a social, economic and
political position which I will discuss.
As I have related in my chapter titled "Is America Dominant?"
to which you will come a little later, Rockefeller in the early
part of this century had a big kerosene business in China. He was
so powerful (wealthy and protected by American tariffs which aided
him in his high prices here) that he was able to undersell the
Royal Dutch Shell, thus causing it to lose many millions in China,
the field which he was invading. But now in connection with this
money given to this Chicago Seminary for the training of
missionaries, it is significant to note (and I believe I am
treating the matter fairly) that probably it was given with a view
to material or financial return for Standard Oil. For as he himself
wrote: "According as you put something in, the greater will be your
dividends of salvation."
At any rate, as his various public statements show, he well
knew the value of religion not only as a sedative in connection
with troublesome economic conditions everywhere, but also the great
value of missionaries in connection with foreign trade. In fact, I
myself have read articles in such papers as the Review of Renews,
the Literary Digest, and others indicating how the oil-can followed
the missionary. At any rate, Rockefeller started his missionary
support by an early gift of $400,000 to this Baptist Missionary
Union. Now this organization pivots from ten fields, one in each of
the following sections: East China, West China, South China, Japan,
Philippines, Burma, Assam, South India, and the Belgian Congo. And
in these fields missionaries work from 127 stations and 3,237 out-
stations. Conceive what that means to American business and then
cogitate Rockefeller's cleverness and his charity which has won him
so many laurels. They operate 6 colleges, 35 theological
seminaries, and 2,608 schools. And their equipment includes 3
printing presses. In this connection it may also be stated that the
Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York, which Rockefeller supported
and finally established as the Riverside Cathedral, is in the
Northern Baptist Convention, which has 3,000 missionaries in China,
Japan, Philippines, Burma and the Belgian Congo. And certainly in
those fields the Standard Oil Company has flourished. But
disregarding the import of this seemingly direct connection,
whatever the material results, they could not mentally be less
harmful than Baptist or other dogma, and is it not plain that what
has been said here certainly illustrates the tendency towards the
commercialization of church effort previously referred to?
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
11
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
Unfortunately I cannot, in this connection, discuss all
denominations. The Methodists, however, have 893,881 in the mission
fields (conceive that!) functioning most extensively in China and
India. And an army of Catholic missionaries numbering 163,615
strong prey on foreign peoples from their 95 jurisdictions in
China, 44 in India and Burma, 14 in Siam and Indo-China, 30 in
South Africa, and 33 in South America. In fact, the Catholics claim
6,000,000 members in Asia and 3,500,000 in Africa. Management of
these Roman Catholic mission branches is under the Catholic Sacred
Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. The personnel for
this project is trained in 5 universities, 309 seminaries, 1,117
superior schools, and 836 professional schools. Also, the Catholic
Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith uses 164
printing shops. Is it any wonder then that the world is being
overrun with this Catholic inanity? Or that America, so interested
in trade from whatever source, should aid in the great work?
Now in this connection, it may be explained that universality
has always been the goal of the Roman Catholic Church, whose
missionaries have always begun where imperialistic armies left off.
And while it is true that there are millions of non-Christians in
many countries unexploited by capitalism, still where money is
invested, it is always noticeable that the missionaries turn. And
there are 500 American corporations in China. Yet when the
missionaries come, Catholic or other, it is supposedly to claim a
land for Christ. But in the light of the Rockefeller view of it,
the capitalistic patronizing of the Chinese movement as a whole is
quite explicable. And so, no wonder that China has been found such
a stirring field for a new kind of missionary enthusiasm! In
America, however, owing to the number of missionaries that issue
therefrom, it might reasonably be considered to be Christianized
and hence a pleasant place.
But now for a change consider the attitude of the Church
toward the economic and social ills of the individual at this time.
His unemployment, his abuse when he is employed, the immense class
and individual injustices, which go unscathed save for wild words
here and there, by the immense organizations which set themselves
up as not only the teachers but the practicers of the teachings of
Christ! You have seen (since I have shown where and how) the Negro
disfranchised and burned in the South and rarely wanted in any
white church. Also the capital and labor wars in which the minor
individual has during decades past, and more so now than ever, been
denounced, underpaid, starved and beaten, the while the Church in
all its phases and under whatsoever sectarian banners it marches
has stood by and done nothing, studied neither the economics, the
sociology nor the government of the all too real world in which
these laborers are compelled to live, nor how and why they are so
compelled to live. Not the Church! For it is not the poor who build
the magnificent church edifices of this day or pay the largest
salaries, though as usual the Church, whenever it approaches the
little man, and regardless of his inability to pay much, does so
with a tin cup. More, when be comes to the church for anything, if
he comes at all, he pays, and plenty! So much for a marriage, so
many dollars; so much for a baptism; so much for a funeral service;
so much for a mass or special prayers; so much for a plot in a
carefully conducted -- financially speaking-religious graveyard; so
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
12
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
much for a bed in a charity hospital; so much for a bed in a home
for the aged, or no bed; so much for the poor-box; so much for the
"shrine of the little flower"; so much for his children's education
in a sectarian school; so much for membership in the "Catholic Boy
Scouts"; so much for the favor of any saint in the immense and
entire roster of saints, although disguised as an offering! And
tickets, tickets, tickets, for this, that, and the other, and which
the faithful must invariably buy! But as for help for the faithful
in their great struggles, well, that is, in the main, the business
of the general public, non-Catholic as well as Catholic, is it not?
Or the State? Or the Government? Yet all of whom in their turn do
as little as possible, or, in other words, pass the buck!
Yet when it comes to rounding up the faithful or "selling" the
idea of religion to the masses regardless of its benefits, note the
new and quite up-to-date, also corporate, methods of handling this
great problem. It is none other than our old and effective friend
propaganda, vitalized by the use of money for publicity and
directed by the best of our American publicity agents who cook up
the same "hot dope" on the churches as do the professionals
laboring for the great railroad and manufacturing systems in this
country. These publicity agents, as things go now, take any sermon
anywhere and, regardless of its dullness and inanity, proceed to
give it a snappy head and lead, whereupon it is sent to the local
or metropolitan newspapers. Thus, Edward L. Wertheim, one of New
York's well-known religious publicity agents (the Church must have
them as well as the circus!) rewrites news for the Greater New York
federation of Churches, the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church,
Calvary Church, Grace Episcopal Church, Manhattan Congregational
Church, etc. The H.S. Howland Advertising Agency publicizes for the
Church of the Intercession; Walter Irving Clark, of Philadelphia,
manages publicity for the Presbyterian Church of the United States
of America; Herbert D. Rugg is editorial secretary of the National
Council of Congregational Churches; Dr. Steele reports and
propagandizes for the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in
America, etc.
These publicity experts write feature stories which must bring
wide popularity and acclaim to the ministers represented, or there
will be no publicity agent or at least no pay for his work. For as
in other practical fields, his labors must bring results. Yet
contemplate this in connection with the mental refinement and
method of Jesus, who said: "Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be
abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted." Many
churches or groups of churches now employ such "go getter"
publicity agents. Some of them, unfortunately, are trained
according to the standards of New York's second-rate newspapers, so
that to-day editors are not infrequently in receipt of word that
the sermon the following Sunday in this or that big church is to be
so striking (and it is given a shocking but meaningless title to
arrest popular interest) that a special reporter is sought by the
church to cover it.
But the church brings its moral significance to bear just how?
I do not see how any one can do otherwise than indict the various
organizations carrying on the following petty and foolish
regulation campaigns when the world is so full of such severe
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
13
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
psychologic as well as economic ills as have here in this volume
been shown. Contemplate, for instance, the platform of the Lord's
Day Alliance Movement in America, drawn as it has been and fought
for by Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists,
Episcopalians, etc. By disseminating endless syndicated stories and
sponsoring bills to the end that a thoroughly "blue Sunday" may be
universal, it seeks to prohibit the following on Sunday: concerts,
plays, movies, debates, skating, dancing, rail and water
excursions, baseball (even amateur), garage repairing, and all
entertainment, as well as the sale of candy, delicatessen
merchandise, etc. But considering the real ills of the world, and
those of America in particular -- the state of the little man here
-- what an annoying and profitless interference with private life!
You are to be good or religious whether you want to be or not! But
such petty ways of being good -- sitting idle and folding your
hands! And this backed up by the Lord's Day Alliance speakers all
over the country! Indeed, the business of bawling "Sin!" in
connection with nearly every amiable interest, recreation, or
weakness of the living men and women of the world is typical of
almost every phase of our present-day American religions. And the
result has been to make it all so shallow and hollow as to suggest
-- and that presently and without external interference or
opposition of any kind -- a complete and final internal collapse.
But to consider further for a moment this business of this
Lord's Day Alliance in making America better, religiously at least.
For one thing, merchants doing business on Sunday were recently
arrested in New Jersey. South Carolina arrests Sunday golfers, etc.
You cannot buy gasoline on a Sunday morning in Georgia, nor go
anywhere in your shirtsleeves. So it is with this minute dictation
of personal life by all church factions. Rules are handed out to be
followed to the letter, whether they are for the betterment of the
individual or not, and frequently backed up by the argument that
they are divine law -- an argument carrying no more weight than any
other idea or interpretation of life by any earthly being. Thus,
the Roman Catholic Church widely denounces birth control as against
divine law. Well, in one sense one can understand this when one
remembers its great need of the child from whatsoever source in
order to turn it, before six or at least by twelve years of age,
into a Catholic. But why the rest of America or any other
government should decry something so temperamentally and
economically valuable as this to human beings at this time is more
than I can understand. Certainly those held closest to this anti-
birth-control position are among the most degraded representatives
of society to-day, the poorest and most unfit.
True, some Protestant denominations state that they favor
birth control, but they beleaguer its use with so many reservations
as to make it taboo to all save the diseased and poverty stricken.
And yet consider, if you will, some of the problems to which
the American Church, if it would (had the heart, brains,
initiative) could turn. There is child labor. And humanly the
Church might battle against that! But does it? Or there are the
thousands of men and women who are compelled by the New York
subways and elevated roads, the bus lines, railroads, etc., to work
eight, ten and twelve hours on Sundays. And to work in addition
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
14
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
seven days a week. Couldn't the churches and the Lord's Day
Alliance do something about that, especially since by so doing they
would give work to so many of the present-day unemployed and
prevent them from desecrating the Sabbath by so working? And will
it? Well, wait and see! More, there is unemployment insurance. And
what does the Church do about that? Or old age pensions? Or our
inhuman prison conditions? Or peonage in the South? Or forced and
inhuman labor anywhere? Pah!
But the churches do not -- and more, cannot -- so wisely or
tenderly act, because it is against the Interests of the
capitalists, and the capitalists, being the opulent subscribers to
the Church, cannot be repelled by having the Church go against
them. Who does not know that? Thus, our capitalists, or our
corporations or both, and all such so minded, control the Church in
America to-day. Yet in order to keep the minds of churchgoers off
the essential truth of this, the priests and ministers and all of
their sinister, if silly, organizations and societies are busy over
"issues" and "doing good," all of which are not good at all. In
short, the congregations of the various sects, as well as the under
dog of any or no sect, are to be kept ignorant in order that they
may be dominated.
More, I decry the ignorance of American ministers who so
viciously direct millions of lives and whose seminary-filtered
knowledge has absolutely nothing to do with the reality of to-day.
And in this connection, consider, if you will, the silly,
unspiritual emanations of our great pulpits, and at this time. The
sawdust or confetti sprinkled upon our assembled American dunces!
"Getting over the Blues"; "Being a Good Sport"; Seeing it Through";
"You Can!" -- fitting themes for individuals hired to make bad
times seem good times, or the unbearable ills of mankind bearable,
but hardly laudable from a pulpit voicing the communism of Christ!
And these from some of our best pulpits the land over! The trouble
is that neither science, politics, economics, sociology, history,
taxation, government are truly, if at all, taught these creatures
who are later to lead the masses to Christ. They would prove too
disarming. Nor does it help that three out of every eight ministers
in eighteen white denominations and more than three out of every
four ministers in the three largest Negro religious organizations;
that is, forty-one per cent of, the Protestant ministers and 6.6
per cent of Catholic priests, and one minister out of five in the
cities and one out of two in the country, are not graduated from
any college or seminary. For even so, before they enter upon any
sectarian church, must they not be adherents of that faith and talk
whatever "revealed" nonsense is ordained by said faith? And should
they talk otherwise, is not the corporation-financed American world
certain to blacklist, denounce and pursue them? The absence of any
minister or priest of any standing uttering a single worthwhile
economic thought in connection with the present immense social
crisis should tell the story, should it not? Either they have not
the brains or they have no conscience!
But to return to Church mentality, to say nothing of
liberality in any sense. Thus, so great a conference as that of
Lambeth in the Anglican Communion in 1930, and one lauded at the
time as being liberal and even radical and thus marking a turning
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
15
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
point in church history, busied itself with such folderol as
denouncing divorce and proclaiming that "Sex is holy, and therefore
the relations of man and wife are holy," and added that "Trial
marriage destroys the reverence and discipline for both body and
mind on which the happiness of married life so signally depends."
Also, birth control was given quite a setback by a statement that
desire for children should govern sexual intercourse. And such
little rules and narrow dicta as: the Protestant Episcopal minister
can marry divorcees only by civil ceremony; the Catholics cannot
marry them at all; and more, a civil marriage, to that
organization, is neither legal nor binding. In other words, it is
not that Church that owes allegiance to any State but rather every
State owes allegiance to that faith, and is looked upon in that
light by that faith; i.e., as a subject state, to be led and guided
by that wholly political organization which has now dominated the
minds of the masses to their confusion and ill for nearly two
thousand years!
Yet with all this quite fantastic lack of mental
understanding, and with all its irritating and at times devastating
potency of numbers, the Church plunges headlong into politics and
economics. For instance, the National Catholic Welfare Conference
in America, endorsed by the Pope, functions exactly as any other
lobby, although the Catholics will not admit that it is a lobby.
This lobby seeks to and does influence education, immigration,
marriage, divorce, eugenics, censorship, what should or should not
go through the United States mails, control and sterilization of
the incompetent, etc. More, it has several methods of leverage.
Firstly, in so far as it can without treading on the ground of
stronger powers, it sees that laws governing these restrictions are
not violated. Next, it furnishes all manner of aid to the Roman
Catholic broadcasting stations, which work night and day in its
noble behalf. Lastly, the "Catholic Conference" also has a news
organization which sends "canned" editorials to the Catholic papers
all over America, and likewise news items under the supervision of
a former Hearst newspaperman.
And the quite terrorized awe with which Americans of all walks
of life and belief or non-belief touch upon anything relating to
the Catholic Church! Its rumored power and machinations, and the
definite reality of the same! While other countries -- Spain,
Mexico, Italy, France -- retain the courage to denounce and even
regulate the Roman Catholic Church (in 1915 a separation agreement
was drawn up between the Roman Catholic Church and the Government
of Chile; Mussolini in Rome is dosing Catholic clubs and
playgrounds and dissolving the Catholic Action, etc., etc.) America
stands in either ridiculous fear or reverence. Whisper ... no one
must say anything about it here! That is the attitude. No one dare
even justly attack its policies or their meaning, or its mental and
social effrontery. Is it overawing in politics? Silence! Is it
working secretly in the American labor unions to control labor?
Silence! Is it doing its best to undermine the mental freedom of
the American school? Silence! Beware! No one dare say a word, for
if one does, the Church will pursue that person and do him up!
Imagine! Consider only the whispering campaign against Al Smith,
nominee of Tammany Hall and the Catholic Church for the Presidency
of the United States in 1928! Did any one dare say openly he was
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
16
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
just that, or that once in office he might favor those wretchedly
practical and wholly power-seeking organizations? Hush, hush!
Attack Catholicism? Silence! Vote but don't talk! It's too
powerful! It'll do you harm! And so, Al Smith defeated, but by an
enormous silent vote. And to this hour, whisper, whisper, or
silence! But just why, in this connection, have the American people
lost their courage to say out loud what they think? Are we so weak,
so characterless, or socially meaningless, that we dare not discuss
with this Church what its policies, and more, its political and
social intentions, are? And since when?)
The Lord's Day Alliance which, as I have said, is an
interdenominational organization, keeps lobbyists in legislatures
all over the country, trying to get this, that and the other inane
law passed. Numerically, if not mentally, weighty, and the ballot
being a weapon which it can use, a group like this is able to and
does at times bear down on the helpless individual quite as does a
trust. As an example of the bills sponsored by it, I offer the New
York State Jenks Bill, outlawing Sunday baseball (including even
playing "catch") before 2 p.m. More, this Lord's Day Alliance lobby
defeats on an average of forty State bills per year. Recently their
lobbyists in New Jersey defeated thirty-nine commercial bills which
they believed would interfere with Sunday reverence. Yet it is this
form of visionless and trivial pettiness which makes of America the
asinine, nonintellectual specimen that it is to-day.
But now for the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and
Morals. The wealth of this particular institution may indicate
something of the means at its command to carry out its propaganda.
To begin with, it is housed in a luxurious building of marble and
limestone very near the Government buildings in Washington. More,
here fine apartments are rented to senators and representatives --
perhaps of the right persuasion. Next, this Board was created and
is now dominated by one Dr. Wilson, formerly a soap-box and
platform orator on local option in the Northwest. Wilson got
himself into the good graces of the Methodists, and later headed
their simple little society out in Topeka, Kansas. Within a short
time thereafter, though, he had reached the above described
proportions. And to his organization and its buildings now come
subscriptions from all over the country and from all sources,
financial as well as religious, It has even been charged that its
subscribers include not only our corporations anxious to take the
minds of voters off the trust movement and government ownership
issues, but also bootleggers who, finding that this war against
liquor serves them in their trade and its profits, are ready also
to contribute. I include the idea for what it is worth. Certain it
is, though, and as any one with half an eye can see, that if those
who are of influence in America to-day really wanted Prohibition as
a benefit to the people, it would be enforced. But is it? Our
futile churches talk and collect money, but in New York City alone
are thousands of speakeasies, and the number for the United States
must be colossal. Yet to what political dimensions has the above
organization reached! It functions, and there is liquor for
everybody!
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
17
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
Yet the following other church organizations have also fought
for Prohibition, and collected money so to do; the Southern
Methodists, under Bishop Cannon; the Presbyterians, the Disciples,
and semiofficial, the Catholic Father Matthew Society and the
Association of Catholics. The Methodist Board of Temperance,
Prohibition and Morals sends out about 2,000,000 columns of news
annually. Its platform includes compulsory teaching of the Bible in
public schools, uniform marriage and divorce laws (I suppose all to
be as stiff as New York State's); no cartoons, jokes or songs that
are immodest, and in this category, according to their avowed
principles, goes European art; no professional or collegiate
boxing, no tobacco, etc.
In sum, in America as elsewhere, the Church -- speaking of all
sects and creeds as one -- has consistently expounded views
calculated to make the underdog content with his wretched lot, and
in all crises which have meant hunger, abuse, and even death, as in
our great labor wars, has left him to do as best he may. More, the
Church, and particularly the Roman Catholic Church, is more
concerned with a system of sins, confessions, judgment, punishment
and rewards relating to the hereafter than it is with the world of
to-day, its economics, polities, sociology and government; that is,
in any honest or helpful way. More, it leaves, as it always has,
the underdog to suffer as he may here, the while it seeks to turn
his eye on supposed grace hereafter. So true is this that from an
American Federation of Labor symposium on religion, influenced, of
course, by the current religious attitude of Americans and their
churches in general, I gather that its chief philosophy is that the
poor should help the poor, since the rich will not, neither their
trusts, banks nor government, and that in doing so they will bring
about a Christlike contentment, if not better wages. And more than
that, questioning a religionist voicing such views on a street
corner a few years ago, I found from his own confession that he was
then and there being paid by a certain religious organization to
preach such views. But who was financing the religious
organization? I have often since wondered!
But to further illustrate what I mean, let me add that when
four strikers were shot down by sheriffs and their deputies (maybe
private police) during the recent great textile strike in North
Carolina, James Myers, industrial secretary of the Federal Council
of Churches, down there to help the workers, was invited to make
the funeral address. As usual with our present-hour religionists,
who if not consciously are still subconsciously corporation-minded,
he made this his opportunity to advise strikers, who were out
against indecent conditions, to fight no longer and choose the way
of love! Not only that, but I personally can name scores of cases
where ministers have refused to do anything for strikers, or where
ministers who have aided strikers have been attacked by
capitalistic representatives.
Yet the Church goes in for politics in a big way in
legislative elections for Congress and State assemblies. Religious
participation in economic issues pervades all political life. Many
of the great denominations have economic research bureaus which
outline reforms. The following sweeping issues have been made their
business: support of the World Court, the League of Nations, lower
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
18
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
tariffs, reduction of armaments, regulation of school curricula,
subversion of the Monroe Doctrine, etc. Our churches have also
meddled in Government investigations, sought to have Japanese
admitted to this country, and have asked pardon for convicts, etc.
And in 1926, under the leadership of ex-Ambassador Gerard, Bishop
Manning had ten Episcopal bishops protest the United States
proposed Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey, because Turkey was non-
Christian. Yet the beneficiaries of this action, if you please,
were British oil interests!
And more, economic as well as spiritual pronouncements are
alike heightened by a supposedly divine authority. The claim of the
Roman Catholic Church is that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ and
the Vice-Regent of God over men under divine authority. And
accordingly, everything possible is done, even to this day, to make
this seem true. Will some one kindly page Mr. Einstein or Charles
Darwin? Indeed, Pope Leo XIII, in his Encyclicals published in New
York in 1903, stated: "... over this mighty multitude God has
placed rulers" (the Roman Catholic bishops) "with power to govern,
and He has willed that one of them should be the head of all." The
Catholics, likewise, are great on show and mystery, honoring men by
making them "Knights of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre
in the United States," "Officers of the Militia of Christ," and
this and that!
But all too often, this religious interference in economic
issues takes the form of being in no true sense leadership but
merely the making of excuses for capitalistic actions. Thus, the
Committee on the War and Religious Outlook merely excused the war,
because obviously denunciation of the same as unchristian would
have been opposed to the sentiments of their great material
patrons. In amelioration of their peculiar attitude, they added
that one set of standards existed for the State and another for the
individual. This was the verdict of a committee of professors and
ministers, which under the chairmanship of the Very Reverend Harry
Emerson Fosdick sat to pronounce on this matter in 1914.
And of course, and long since (always, in fact, I judge),
politicians enlisted the spell and domination of the Church as a
means of finding favor with the people. By this method, and under
the leadership of President Harding and Secretary Hughes, the
Washington Treaties relating to the Great War became very popular.
And S. Parkes Cadmiln, a very popular if not any too well-informed,
and maybe (I do not know) too sincere, Englishman functioning as a
minister in the United States, has expressed the highly ideal
economic view (an epitome of that of hundreds of ministers in
America and elsewhere to-day, I think) that the Golden Rule is at
this hour in practice because millionaires give to charity! Well,
that makes this dear United States of ours a Utopia, doesn't it?
And this book a joke! Just the same, though, if at another time
this same Cadman had called the Communistic theory of Marx a very
powerful economic analysis -- which he did -- how would he
reconcile our present corporate economic state with that or with
the Golden Rule? And if he could not, should not that cost him his
present American religious prestige? I hope so!
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
19
THE CHURCH AND WEALTH IN AMERICA
P.S. I have tried here, by facts, to show the subtle relation
of money and economic policy to religion and capital, also that
capital has changed religion into a far different thing from the
teachings of Jesus Christ. In conclusion now I offer the conviction
that in due time this particular alliance of Church and capital is
quite certain to result in the downfall of religion in its present
secretarian and dogmatic form. And, may I add, good riddance!
**** ****
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
The Bank of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful,
scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of
suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the
Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our
nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and
religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to
the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so
that America can again become what its Founders intended --
The Free Market-Place of Ideas.
The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books, magazines, pamphlets,
newspapers, etc. that contain needed facts and information for
today. If you have such books please contact us with the condition
and price desired, we need to give them back to America.
BANK of WISDOM
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
20
