A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
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A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 THE STORY OF A MINISTER'S EXPERIENCE 
 
 WHICH LED HIM FROM THE CHURCH 
 
 MILITANT TO THE CHURCH 
 
 DEMOCRATIC 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY E. JACKSON 
 
 SPECIAL AGENT IN COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 
 UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 1919 
 
Vi 
 
 COFVRIOHT, 1919, BY HENRY E. JACKSON 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 MAIN LFBRARV AHR CU^TUI:? 
 
 c ncp^. 
 
 S/?i <^. s^Ucx, 
 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO ALL MEN AND WOMEN 
 
 BOTH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE CHURCHES 
 
 WHO HAVE DISCOVERED THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION 
 
 ACCORDING TO JESUS 
 
 WHO ARE SINCERELY DEVOTED TO 
 
 THE CAUSE OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 AND WHO EARNESTLY DESIRE THE CHURCHES 
 
 TO BECOME MORE EFFECTIVE INSTRUMENTS 
 
 IN ITS BEHALF 
 
 428G79 
 
^'He goes seeking liberty, which is so dear, 
 Ashe knows who for her refuses life,'' 
 
 Dante's Motto 
 
PREFACE 
 
 At one of the forum meetings of a community 
 center conducted in a public school building of 
 Rochester, New York, there occurred a few 
 years ago a dramatic incident which embodied 
 a significant challenge to all thoughtful and 
 patriotic citizens. During the progress of the 
 address and the discussion which followed it, a 
 young man sat in the rear of the auditorium, 
 apparently indifferent to all that was going on 
 and lost in his own thoughts. Near the close of 
 the meeting he arose, as if aroused from a dream, 
 with living fire in his eyes and his face illumined 
 by a sudden inspiration. The following in sub- 
 stance is what he said : 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, I do not know the subject 
 under consideration, but I request the privi- 
 lege of announcing a discovery I have made to- 
 night concerning the community center move- 
 ment of which this forum is a part." His request 
 was granted, and he continued: **I am a Rus- 
 sian immigrant and have been in this country 
 for ten years. Before I left my native land, I in- 
 quired of my friends concerning the kind of na- 
 tional church existing in America. They all 
 answered, 'America has no national church.' 
 
 ix 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I said to myself, These people do not know the 
 facts, for I have never heard of a nation with- 
 out a national church.* 
 
 **0n my journey to America I visited Eng- 
 land. I asked the same question of many English 
 friends, thinking that because they spoke the 
 same language, they would be better informed 
 about America than were my Russian friends. 
 But they all made the same answer, * America 
 has no national church. The state has no con- 
 nection with any church in America.* After I 
 arrived in this country I found that my friends 
 in Russia and England were correct in the in- 
 formation they had given me, but I was un- 
 satisfied, for I felt that a country with ideals 
 like yours ought to have some kind of a national 
 church. 
 
 *' During these ten years, therefore, I have 
 been searching for the American church. Every- 
 where I went I saw many buildings and I kept 
 asking, ' What is that? * * A Presbyterian church,* 
 they answered. 'What is that?* 'A Methodist 
 church.* 'What is that?* *A Roman church.* 
 But nowhere did I find an American church. 
 To-night I have discovered it. This is it and you 
 never knew it. The real American national 
 church is your Free Public School, built and 
 maintained by all the people and destined to be 
 used for the instruction of adults and youths as 
 well as children, on all questions which concern 
 
 X 
 
PREFACE 
 
 their common welfare, their moral, social, and 
 economic, as well as their intellectual, welfare.*' 
 
 James Bryce in his American Commonwealth 
 shows that he was equally impressed with the 
 uniqueness of the fact that an established 
 church in the United States *' glares by its ab- 
 sence'*; but this Russian immigrant had dis- 
 covered a movement which was just beginning 
 when Mr. Bryce left America. 
 
 The purpose of this book is to attempt a 
 careful examination of the discovery which our 
 young Russian friend thinks he has made and 
 with whom many of the devoted leaders of the 
 community center movement heartily agree. 
 
 It is written for the large and rapidly in- 
 creasing number of thoughtful people who have 
 grown dissatisfied with our sectarian and pro- 
 vincial churches, most of which are importa- 
 tions from Europe, all of which are privately 
 controlled institutions, working with selected 
 groups of people, and none of which is in a posi- 
 tion at present to appeal to the community as 
 a whole. 
 
 The book contains the story of a common and 
 typical experience, which reveals the reason 
 why one minister declines to remain in the 
 church as it is now organized; which exhibits 
 the church's present problem together with a 
 suggested solution for it; which portrays the 
 
 xi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 process of evolution through which the church 
 is passing ; which demonstrates what it must do 
 to itself to become a useful social institution; 
 which shows how one minister solved for him- 
 self the problem, with which the war challenges 
 the churches, and which indicates to the 
 churches their way out into a new freedom, on 
 the basis of which they may continue to be 
 alive honorably. 
 
 For the fruitful discussion of disturbing ques- 
 tions like these, one thing and one alone is 
 needful. It is open-mindedness. Its value is 
 beyond calculation. Every great leader of the 
 world's thought and action has insisted on its 
 indispensable importance. Confucius expressed 
 it in the golden phrase, '* Mental hospitality.'' 
 Socrates used a phrase out of which was coined 
 the word ** philosopher." He said, **I am not a 
 wise man — I am a * lover of wisdom,' a seeker 
 after new ideas." Jesus called it the ''spirit of 
 truth." So highly did He regard it that He 
 called it a holy spirit. In his judgment a closed 
 mind is the unpardonable sin. The reason why 
 these masterful leaders of men so prized the 
 habit of being open-minded is because they un- 
 derstood that without mental hospitality no 
 progress in any line is possible. 
 
 A Folk High School of Denmark includes in 
 its curriculum a regular course of study under 
 the picturesque title, '' A Window in the West." 
 
 xii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Its purpose is to discover and transport new 
 ideas from England and America, that Denmark 
 may use them for its own improvement. To in- 
 augurate such a course in every public school 
 and in every church would mean new life and 
 power for both institutions. The writer believes 
 that the lack of an open mind is the chief cause 
 of the failure of the church in the past, and that 
 the acquirement of it is the chief need in any 
 attempt to Christianize the church and equip it 
 to seize the golden opportunity now confront- 
 ing it. 
 
 If there be any not equipped with an open 
 mind who chance upon this book, the author 
 warns them of the risk they run in reading it, 
 and he suggests that they do not venture be- 
 yond the preface. But inasmuch as the tragedy 
 of this great and terrible war has revealed the 
 lack of an open mind to be little short of crim- 
 inal, the writer is encouraged to believe that 
 there are few who are not awakened and ready 
 to show mental hospitality to any suggestion 
 which even promises possible aid in the task of 
 reconstructing a better sort of world. This task 
 is the present urgent challenge to all men and 
 women of good will. To such this book is ad- 
 dressed in the hope that they will help to put a 
 new window in every church. 
 
 The manuscript of the book was written 
 almost three years ago. Its publication has been 
 
 xiii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 postponed because the writer felt that the pub- 
 lic was not prepared to receive it. He now 
 thinks it is. His reason for thinking so is a re- 
 cent experience which reveals a significant 
 change in public opinion. The writer was de- 
 livering a series of lectures on ** The Community 
 Center*' at the Chautauqua Assembly. There 
 he was consulted by a committee of ministers 
 from the Presbytery of Buffalo. 
 
 Three of their churches, they said, had already 
 left the Presbytery and had become independ- 
 ent community churches. The Presbytery had 
 raised ten thousand dollars for the purpose of 
 establishing a Presbyterian church in a new sec- 
 tion of the city, but the people were unwilling 
 to have it so and demanded that it be made a 
 community church. The committee wanted to 
 know what, in these circumstances, the Pres- 
 bytery ought to do and how it could adjust it- 
 self to the community movement. 
 
 The writer answered their questions by de- 
 scribing the constructive plan stated in this 
 book. He was asked to return to Chautauqua 
 and state it in a public lecture. He confesses 
 that he approached the lecture with much con- 
 cern lest the people would resent it. To his sur- 
 prise and delight they not only approved and 
 applauded it, but demanded a second hour for 
 the purpose of asking questions. During this 
 hour the people evidenced not only their deep 
 
 xiv 
 
PREFACE 
 
 interest, but also their profound conviction 
 that the churches faced the urgent necessity to 
 reconstruct themselves. 
 
 The writer was asked to repeat the lecture 
 before the Presbytery of Buffalo. To his sur- 
 prise again the position he took received a unan- 
 imous vote of approval. It is highly gratifying 
 to discover that the reform which this book was 
 written to stimulate has already begun to hap- 
 pen. It has begun, where all reforms must begin, 
 in a changed state of mind and a new social 
 consciousness. 
 
 In a new section of the city of Buffalo, New 
 York, there has been organized a community 
 church which in several fundamental respects 
 approaches the type suggested in this book. 
 It does not use the term ** community'* as 
 camouflage, but is an honest community church. 
 It was organized by a group of thoughtful and 
 progressive laymen without consultation with 
 ministers or presbyteries. This is what the 
 people would do frequently, if they were un- 
 trammeled by ecclesiastical machinery. On the 
 other hand, a New York church is now recon- 
 structing itself into a community type of insti- 
 tution under the leadership of its progressive 
 and unecclesiastical minister. It is highly sig- 
 nificant that the Buffalo church, in its search 
 for a minister, took particular pains to find a 
 man who had left a sectarian church for the 
 
 XV 
 
PREFACE 
 
 same reasons which induced the writer to leave 
 his. How refreshing! A rejected stone has be- 
 come a corner-stone. Rebellion against tyran- 
 nies in the church is beginning to be recognized 
 as obedience to God. 
 
 The cooperating cause of this rapid reversal 
 of public opinion is the War. It has made three 
 facts about the church disturbingly clear: 
 First, the exceeding great need of the world for 
 the contribution which the Christian religion is 
 designed to make to it; second, the exceeding 
 great failure of the churches to supply what the 
 world most needs ; third, that if it hopes to make 
 a contribution of real value, the church must be 
 organized democratically. The first two proposi- 
 tions are assumed to be self-evident facts; and 
 the writer addresses himself to the third as the 
 next step in the emancipation of the Christian 
 religion from the fetters which hitherto have 
 caused its failure. 
 
 The divine-right delusion as applied to the 
 state has almost been destroyed. It must like- 
 wise be banished from the church. Time was 
 when the king business was most useful. There 
 is a reason why the people cried, *' Long live the 
 king," for it was he who led Europe out of feu- 
 dal anarchy into the consolidated modern state. 
 Likewise an autocratic church, as the lesser of 
 two evils, once rendered a real service to civili- 
 zation in Europe. But the divine-right idea in 
 
 xvi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 both church and state was used as a bulwark 
 for special privilege and paved the way for its 
 own destruction. God is tired of autocracy in 
 either church or state, and so are the people. 
 They are now sufficiently intelligent to get 
 along very well without deluding themselves 
 with a fiction, from which they have suffered 
 untold damage. The church, which ought to 
 have led the way to freedom, will now be com- 
 pelled to follow the exarnple of the state and or- 
 ganize itself democratically. 
 
 For these reasons the writer is convinced 
 that the time has come when the publication of 
 his story will be most productive of good. It 
 will not now fall on unprepared soil. 
 
 The author speaks in no wise for the Bureau 
 of Education, but only for himself, and he takes 
 sole and full responsibility for all opinions ex- 
 pressed in it. Theoretically the United States 
 Bureau of Education can make no connection 
 with a sectarian church, although during the 
 War, and after, several departments of the gov- 
 ernment made direct appeals to the churches 
 for their service. Nevertheless, in the course of 
 my work as the Bureau's representative of the 
 community center movement, I am frequently 
 asked by the churches what they can do to help 
 the movement. These questions deserve an hon- 
 est answer. This book, therefore, may be re- 
 garded as my answer to these questions. But it 
 
 xvii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IS much more. It is my contribution, as an indi- 
 vidual, to a cause in which I am deeply inter- 
 ested, the cause of organizing social activities in 
 behalf of the common welfare. The churches are 
 social institutions capable of becoming either 
 very helpful or very harmful to the nation. To 
 assume toward them an attitude of moral neu- 
 trality is an impossibility. Nor is it desirable 
 when, as at present, they express the desire to 
 serve the common good and ask to be shown 
 how they can do it. This is the day of golden 
 opportunity for the cause of democracy. The 
 new day upon which we have entered has set 
 before the churches an open door which no man 
 can shut. The time to go through an open door 
 is when the door is open. 
 
 Washington, D,C. 
 Oct. I, 1919. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction xxi 
 
 I. Can a Minister be an Honest Man? i 
 
 IL The Church and Intellectual Free- 
 dom 47 
 
 III. The Church and Financial Freedom 91 
 
 IV. The Church and Denominational 
 
 Freedom 125 
 
 V. The Church of To-morrow: A Com- 
 munity Church 157 
 
 VI. The Community Church : An American 
 
 Product 195 
 
 VII. The American Church: A Community 
 
 Center 233 
 
 VIII. A Community Center and a Commu- 
 nity Church 267 
 
 IX. The Religion of Democracy 315 
 
 Appendices: 
 
 A. What is a Community Church? 355 
 
 B. How TO Promote Community 
 
 Churches 362 
 
 C. How TO Organize a Community 
 
 Church 370 
 
 1. Certificate of Incx)rporation 370 
 
 2. The Constitution 372 
 
 3. The By-laws 375 
 
 Afterword 379 
 
 List of References 380 
 
 Index 385 
 
INTRODUCTION - 
 
 This book is primarily the autobiography of 
 an idea. Incidentally it contains the story of the 
 author's personal experience in a particular 
 church and a statement of the conclusions 
 which his experience illustrates and enforces. 
 The name of the church is suppressed to save it 
 needless embarrassment, because the author 
 loves it. Many facts of the story also are sup- 
 pressed, and only those experiences narrated 
 which he believes to be typical of a general con- 
 dition in the churches, because only such ex- 
 periences have practical value for others. 
 
 It is with great reluctance that I narrate my 
 own experience, but to be of real value the story 
 must be frankly personal. Truth embodied in 
 the concrete form of a story is far more effec- 
 tive than the same truth stated in the abstract 
 form of general propositions. In all questions of 
 metaphysics it is a safe guiding principle that 
 ^* egotism is the truest modesty.'* Although I 
 diligently sought it, I could find no reason 
 which my conscience would accept to justify 
 me in escaping the performance of a difficult 
 but obvious duty. Whenever a man discovers 
 an important truth, or thinks he has, he be- 
 
 xxi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 comes a traitor to that truth unless he is willing 
 to pass it on to others. 
 
 One cannot avoid the conviction that the 
 permanent welfare of the church at large is 
 more important than the temporary comfort 
 of a few individuals. A small group in the 
 church of which I speak will doubtless be dis- 
 turbed by my book. But knowing as I do that 
 the large majority of its members heartily agree 
 with the ideals here expressed, I feel assured 
 that they will rejoice that our mutual experi- 
 ence may be used to render service to other 
 churches in effecting needed reforms. This hope 
 at least will be some compensation to them, 
 and to me, for the burden we bore together, 
 and may go far in turning our mutual sorrow 
 into joy. 
 
 I have consented with myself to be frankly 
 personal in my story, not only to furnish help 
 to other churches, but also to inspire other 
 ministers. I have found the way out. I have 
 discovered an ample and satisfying solution 
 for my personal problem. This fact may be a 
 comfort to the large number of ministers who 
 are seriously puzzled and often permanently 
 crippled by the same kind of an experience, 
 whose usual end is chiefly sorrow. My story 
 may open for them a door of opportunity into 
 a larger service for the Kingdom of God, from 
 which the church has shut them out, and for 
 
 xxii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 which their painful experience has been an in- 
 dispensable preparation and a blessing in dis- 
 guise. 
 
 If the experience here narrated seems incred- 
 ible to any who have not had a like one, I 
 would say to them that I have purposely un- 
 derstated rather than overstated it. It is my 
 conviction that it is not at all uncommon. The 
 frequent confessions, made to me in all parts of 
 the country, have abundantly confirmed this 
 conviction. I have heard directly from the lips 
 of many ministers substantially the same story 
 as that narrated by Harold Bell Wright in 
 his novel, '*The Calling of Dean Matthews." 
 An awakened conscience among ministers is 
 sure to make it increasingly frequent in the 
 near future. The common tendency to put 
 loyalty to the church above loyalty to the 
 truth, and the average minister's lack of finan- 
 cial independence, cause these facts usually to 
 be concealed, but they exist. Even when the 
 facts are compromised and covered up before 
 they reach the stage of crisis, their frequency 
 reveals a general condition among churches to- 
 day which is blighting their moral and spiritual 
 life and destroying their usefulness. This fact 
 is a matter of such common knowledge that it 
 only needs to be stated to be generally ac- 
 cepted as true. 
 
 My own experience has been in all essential 
 xxiii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 respects, and in a deeper sense, the same as 
 that embodied in Winston Churchiirs novel 
 '*The Inside of the Cup,*' a book which I de- 
 nied myself the pleasure of reading until after 
 my own experience had been completed, my 
 own conclusions from it drawn, and my course 
 of action determined. After making due allow- 
 ance for certain dramatic combinations and 
 exaggerations in Mr. Churchill's book, which 
 he obviously uses for well-known artistic pur- 
 poses in order to make his facts impressive, my 
 own experience, and a fairly wide observation 
 during twenty years, have convinced me that 
 as a whole it is a correct report of the facts as 
 they are. At least I for one found it to be so. 
 Mr. Churchiirs book is a challenge to the 
 church to correct the evils which he vividly de- 
 scribes. As a public teacher of the church, I ac- 
 cepted the challenge, brought to me not by the 
 book, but by the facts themselves at first hand. 
 The following pages describe what happens, 
 when such a challenge is accepted. The result 
 is well worth study. 
 
 Mr. Churchiirs book is a diagnosis of the dis- 
 ease from which churches are suffering, but he 
 offers no constructive suggestion as to the rem- 
 edy for it. Diagnosis, we all agree, is highly im- 
 portant and indeed indispensable. All true 
 friends of the church are under obligation to 
 Mr. Churchill. Neither he nor any one else, 
 xxiv 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 however, believes in diagnosis for the sake of 
 diagnosis, any more than he beHeves in ** am- 
 putation for amputation's sake." Its only use is 
 to reveal the disease and to point the way to a 
 remedy. We must begin with diagnosis, but we 
 ought never to end with it. If we do, the work 
 of diagnosis is labor lost. It has been my 
 life-long habit never to criticize an existing 
 order of things unless I had, or believed I 
 had, something better to suggest. The only 
 effective way to get rid of an evil is to put 
 something better in its place. Only he can re- 
 form who can replace. I have consented with 
 myself to reveal certain unpleasant facts only 
 for the sake of pointing the way out of the diffi- 
 culty. It is quite possible to make a positive 
 use of negative facts. 
 
 After I had finished my book, I read also 
 Herbert Quick's ''The Broken Lance," which 
 in my judgment is a far stronger book than Mr. 
 Churchill's, and richly deserves to be better 
 known than it is. It more nearly represents my 
 own experience; that is, it shows the questions 
 at issue to be far more fundamental than Mr. 
 Churchill represents them to be. The questions 
 which disturbed the hero of Mr. Churchill's 
 book, while serious enough, are more superfi- 
 cial than those which disturbed Mr. Quick's 
 hero. It is possible that the difficulties raised in 
 Mr. Churchill's book could be patched up with 
 
 XXV 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 an average church of to-day; those raised in 
 Mr. Quick's book cannot. It has confirmed in 
 me the conviction that the conflict between 
 Christianity according to Jesus and the Chris- 
 tianity of to-day, is an irrepressible conflict. 
 Mr. Quick is true to the logic of the Christian 
 position.^ The life of his hero is logical as the 
 life of Jesus is. His story is pathetic and soul- 
 disturbing like the story of Jesus, touching 
 emotional depths deeper than tears. 
 
 My question is, What are such men as those 
 described by Mr. Quick and Mr. Churchill, to 
 do when the church expels them, as it expelled 
 Jesus? Of course, they can always do what 
 Jesus did, work as individuals for the Kingdom 
 of God among the people in the highways and 
 open fields. But is there no institution through 
 which they can work for democracy in order to 
 gain the advantage which comes through or- 
 ganized cooperation? It may be true that a man 
 who stands for the principles of Jesus will still 
 be martyred as He was. I am sure he will be, if 
 he stays in the church, or unless and until the 
 church becomes Christian. But I am an "in- 
 veterate optimist," and I believe that the re- 
 ligion of democracy has to such a degree ceased 
 to be an alien to our world, and has produced a 
 sufficient number of people who are open- 
 minded and sweet-spirited, as to make such an 
 institution now possible. It may or may not be, 
 xxvi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 but I cannot bring myself to believe that the 
 monotonous story of intolerance and persecu- 
 tion is to have no ending. At any rate, my 
 present comfort comes from doing all I can to 
 stop its repetition. To describe this new type of 
 institution, through which to operate the re- 
 ligion of democracy, is the aim of my book. 
 
 The book attempts to make an honest an- 
 swer to some of the questions which are being 
 asked to-day with increased frequency by sin- 
 cere people both inside and outside the 
 churches: such questions as these: Why is it 
 that the large majority of citizens of the 
 United States are not connected with any 
 church organization? Why are young men in 
 alarming numbers, and young men of the best 
 type, refusing to enter the Christian ministry 
 of the church? Why do so many large groups of 
 people even hate the church? How can the 
 church's declining influence for good be re- 
 stored and increased? Does it need radical re- 
 forms? If so, what are they? What is the next 
 step in the development of the church, which 
 her internal defects and the manifest needs of 
 human life indicate that she ought to take? Is 
 the Free Public School used as a community 
 center our American church? Do we need any 
 other? If so, what type of church ought it to 
 be? If we need both, how can they cooperate in 
 the process of making good citizens for the 
 xxvii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Republic, which obviously is one of the chief, 
 if not the chief, aim of both institutions? 
 
 The author, of course, does not admit even 
 to himself that he can hope to have made a full 
 and final answer to questions as profound and 
 far-reaching as these questions are. But he has 
 made a discovery for himself which he believes 
 will furnish a satisfactory answer to them. Said 
 the wise Goethe, "We are not born to solve the 
 problem of the world, but to find out where the 
 problem begins and then to keep within the 
 limits of what we can grasp." The author be- 
 lieves that all the above questions begin and 
 center in the problem of democracy. He also 
 believes that the schoolhouse used as the com- 
 munity capitol is the key to a solution of the 
 problem and a clue to a correct answer to our 
 questions. The answer he here makes has been 
 patiently formulated during a thoughtful ex- 
 perience of twenty years, and clarified by an 
 illuminating sorrow. As testimony based upon 
 actual facts, therefore, it is admissible evidence 
 in the trial of the case and ought to have a sig- 
 nificant value for those who sincerely seek a 
 solution of the complex and difficult problem, 
 which churches at present are facing. 
 
 However much or little value the answer may 
 
 have, it is at least an honest and constructive 
 
 contribution from one man's experience. My 
 
 own hope is that the united contributions from 
 
 xxviii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 the increasing number of men who to-day are 
 having similar experiences, will serve to demon- 
 strate in the not distant future that the mani- 
 fest tendency of to-day toward the community 
 use of the schoolhouse points the way to the 
 most effective method of procedure, on which 
 all sincere friends of progress can agree to act, 
 and by means of which they can mobilize their 
 forces in behalf of the common welfare. Be- 
 lieving that it IS never enough to know what 
 ought to be done, but that it is vitally impor- 
 tant to know how to do it, the writer can only 
 say that the correctness of the answer he has 
 made to the churches problem seems to him to 
 be so clearly confirmed both by the manifest 
 failures of the past and the obvious needs of the 
 future, that he is willing to venture to live his 
 own life upon it and to test it in operation. 
 
 Guided by my fixed habit of never making a 
 destructive criticism without also making a 
 constructive suggestion, I have refrained from 
 using for my book a negative or sensational 
 title, and have chosen one which not only sug- 
 gests a remedy, but states a present and signifi- 
 cant fact. The movement from the church to 
 the schoolhouse is now under way. This title is 
 used not only because it states the evolution of 
 my own progress up from the church militant 
 to the church democratic, but in order to em- 
 phasize the fact that my experience is typical 
 xxix 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 of a general movement to-day away from sec- 
 tarian churches toward the type of organiza- 
 tion embodied in the schoolhouse community 
 center. It is used also to suggest the necessity of 
 devising a working agreement between the 
 community center and a community church, 
 so that they may cooperate as allies rather 
 than compete as rivals. There is here no slight- 
 est suggestion of any union of church and state, 
 which usually has never meant anything more 
 than a partnership between two pieces of ma- 
 chinery, ecclesiastical and governmental, and 
 almost invariably a calamity to both. The sug- 
 gestion here is rather a union of religion and 
 the nation, a union already in operation to an 
 encouraging degree and certain to be so in- 
 creasingly as citizens discover that at the heart 
 of every political problem is the question of re- 
 ligion as well as that of economics. The book's 
 title contains the same challenge which this 
 fact makes to all thoughtful friends of the com- 
 mon good. 
 
 My book begins where *'The Broken Lance" 
 and "The Inside of the Cup" end. It attempts 
 to make a contribution toward an answer to 
 the questions which they raise. The question at 
 issue is as old as the New Testament and as 
 universal as human nature. My book is just a 
 new chapter in an old story. To the church 
 which suffers from this ancient evil, it offers a 
 
 XXX 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 remedy. To the church not yet afflicted with 
 it, if there be any such churches, it offers a 
 method of prevention. The student of history 
 understands that fresh safeguards against this 
 insidious danger have been a constantly recur- 
 ring necessity. This necessity has become acute 
 in our day. The only way in which a man, who 
 is optimist enough to look at the facts in the 
 church's life as they are^ can hope to retain his 
 optimism, is to do something to help change 
 the facts. I am an optimist both by nature and 
 by conviction. To know the facts as they are, 
 but to believe, nevertheless, that there is al- 
 ways a best thing to be done — this I take it is 
 true optimism. To do what is best to be done is 
 wisdom. But to know the facts and to do noth- 
 ing is intolerable. Hence this book. To write it 
 has been a life-saving process for myself. 
 
 The discovery which the book describes has 
 thrown open to me the gates of a new life, a 
 new gladness, a renewal of the spirit of youth. 
 Whether it will mean to others what it has 
 meant to me depends upon the reader. Person- 
 ally I have now passed beyond the need of it. 
 When I finished the last page of the manu- 
 script and looked back over it, I became con- 
 scious of the interesting fact that it would be 
 impossible for me to write it now. I have left 
 behind the experience which it narrates and 
 entered into a new world of freedom. But to 
 xxxi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 those for whom this experience lies in the pres- 
 ent or the future, my book, I trust, will be help- 
 ful in pointing the way out. 
 
 To those afflicted with the disease of old age 
 in body or in mind, who have lost the capacity 
 to accept new ideas, who cannot distinguish 
 between the form and substance of truth, whose 
 only comfort is found in existing forms, who 
 are satisfied with things as they are and who 
 prize peace above all else — to such my book 
 has nothing to say. It would be a cause of deep 
 regret if I thought I had needlessly disturbed 
 their quiet, and I beg them to remember that it 
 is not I but the truth which is disturbing. I 
 have tried merely to report the facts as I found 
 them to be. 
 
 But to all those who still retain the spirit of 
 youth, who are disposed to extend mental hos- 
 pitality to new ideas, who are optimistic enough 
 to face facts, who find imperfect conditions an 
 inspiration to high endeavor, who have courage 
 enough to trust God without guarantees, and 
 who have a sufficient sense of humor to per- 
 ceive relative moral values — to all such my 
 book has a meaning and a message. To them 
 its message is a call to volunteer for service in 
 the cause of fundamental democracy under 
 the leadership of the bravest democrat of his- 
 tory, the Prophet of Nazareth, and to pay the 
 price which such service entails. 
 xxxii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Its message is like that expressed by Gareth, 
 when his young heart was stirred with an am- 
 bition to do knightly service under King Ar- 
 thur. His mother pleaded with him to remain 
 at home in the castle, live a self-indulgent life 
 and follow the deer. With no desire to be un- 
 gentle to his mother, but with the fine touch of 
 scorn, which the temptation she oflFered him 
 justly deserved, he answered: 
 
 "Man I am grown; a man's work must I do. 
 Follow the deer? Follow the Christ, the King, 
 Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King, 
 Else wherefore born?" 
 
 The purpose of my book is to help the youth- 
 ful Gareths, not to hurt their aged mothers. To 
 all young men and women whose hearts, like 
 that of Gareth have been thrilled with the 
 spirit of chivalric loyalty to the cause of de- 
 mocracy, my book aims to point out the way 
 by which they may put their contagious ideals 
 into effective operation. It sets before them an 
 open door of opportunity. 
 
 Henry E. Jackson 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 I 
 
 CAN A MINISTER BE AN HONEST MAN? 
 
He who begins by loving Christianity better 
 than truths will proceed by loving his own 
 sect or church better than Christianity and 
 end by loving himself better than all. 
 
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge 
 

 A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 I 
 
 CAN A MINISTER 'BE AN HONEST MAN? 
 
 In his notes for a law lecture to young men, 
 Lincoln once wrote, "If in your judgment you 
 cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be hon- 
 est without being a lawyer.'* The popular belief 
 concerning lawyers makes this advice seem 
 pertinent with reference to them. But is it not 
 wholesome advice with reference to any other 
 man, particularly to the minister.^ For is he not 
 a public teacher of the truth as he sees it? Is 
 not a dishonest teacher of the truth an obvious 
 contradiction in terms? To what extent minis- 
 ters have confronted the difficulty of trying to 
 be ministers and to be honest at the same time, 
 I do not undertake to say. I only know that 
 such a difficulty is now confronting me, and I 
 suspect that, in this respect, I am typical of a 
 large number. 
 
 I have been in the Christian ministry for 
 twenty years and in no other line of work. I 
 have had charge of two churches : a Presbyterian 
 church located in one of the finest and most 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 Jntelkci:ual :sut3iifbs of Philadelphia, and a 
 Congregational church located In what Is con- 
 sidered to be one of the finest and most beau- 
 tiful suburbs of New York. Speaking in cus- 
 tomary terms, I have had a success far above 
 the average. Two handsome church buildings, 
 for example, were built in each parish under 
 my leadership. Judged by any standards at all, 
 I have experienced exceptional happiness in my 
 ministry. In the work of preaching I take great 
 joy, which I may indicate by saying that I would 
 rather preach than play tennis, which is my 
 athletic hobby. I have always been fond of the 
 personal side of my profession, for I am an en- 
 thusiastic lover of my fellow men. While I am 
 still young, I have had sufficient experience and 
 have acquired sufficient mental furnishing so 
 that it can with truth be said that I have ar- 
 rived at the point when I can begin to feel that 
 I am able to preach with some degree of power. 
 Nevertheless, I am now leaving the Christian 
 ministry; that is to say, the office of minister in 
 a sectarian church. I am leaving it just at the 
 time when, through study, experience, and spir- 
 itual insight, I am equipped to do far more 
 effective work than at any previous time in 
 my life. Whether or not I shall return to it is 
 an open question. I left my New York suburban 
 church because I could not remain in it and 
 retain my moral and intellectual integrity. 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 Whether I can with honesty permit myself to 
 accept another church is the question I am now 
 debating with myself. In this debate I ask my 
 readers to think their way with me through a 
 question profoundly important to every friend 
 of the Christian religion. One proposition, I 
 take it, we are agreed on at the start — that if it 
 should appear that it is impossible for a man 
 to be a minister and to be honest also, one of 
 two things must take place: either he must be 
 honest never mind being a minister or else the 
 church ought to be so reorganized as to permit 
 him to be an honest one. 
 
 There are four things, said wise King Solo- 
 mon, which are beyond my power to under- 
 stand: "the way of an eagle in the air; the way 
 of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in 
 the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with 
 a maiden." Had Solomon lived after the time of 
 the German Reformation, it is highly probable 
 that he would have added at least one more to 
 his list of practical puzzles, namely, "the way 
 of a church with a minister." While the church 
 is to be classified as a puzzle and presents a 
 problem which baffles one's understanding, yet 
 it is a puzzle which we find it impossible to let 
 alone. The church belongs to the class of neces- 
 sary evils. We cannot get along with it and we 
 cannot get along without it. We may not hope 
 to sc4ve its problem, but we must look the 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 puzzle squarely in the face, for we are compelled 
 to acquire a working attitude toward it. To 
 ignore it is a most decided attitude, acquired 
 only after careful thought and sometimes a 
 painful experience. That the church to-day is a 
 problem not only to multitudes outside its walls, 
 but also to itself, is a fact too obvious to need 
 proof. It is my purpose to look the problem 
 squarely in the face, with the hope of helping in 
 a task very painful to multitudes of men, and a 
 task common to all friends of the institution. 
 
 After I had gone to my New York suburban 
 church, I learned that my predecessor had left 
 it after an experience most humiliating both to 
 himself and to the church itself. I also learned 
 that it was the common belief of the community 
 that this had been more or less true of all its 
 ministers. As a matter of fact, every one of the 
 seven ministers of the church, when he left it, 
 also left the ministry. Some went into business 
 and some into educational work. Two became 
 college presidents. To what extent their expe- 
 rience with the church is responsible for their 
 leaving the ministry, I do not myself, of course, 
 undertake to say, because I do not know the 
 facts at first hand. True, some of them had 
 other reasons for leaving the church; but the 
 common belief is that difficulties with the church 
 were sufficient to cause all of them to abandon 
 the ministry, quite apart from any other rea- 
 
 6 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 sons. I can well believe that this common opin- 
 ion is correct, for it is a natural law that what 
 occurs uniformly during a long period generally 
 has a uniform cause. Of this uniform cause I 
 once had a little glimpse. One of the two or three 
 men most responsible for disturbing my own 
 relation with the church, speaking of my most 
 popular predecessor, took particular pains to 
 tell me that, if he had not left when he did, there 
 would have been an open outbreak in the church, 
 as there had already been a private outbreak. I 
 did not understand this at the time, but now I 
 know it was a warning to me not to become as 
 progressive as he was, under penalty of the same 
 fate which threatened him. 
 
 The difficulty which my predecessors had en- 
 countered, while it disturbed me, did not greatly 
 distress me. For I felt toward it as all young 
 people feel toward death. They know it is a 
 common experience, but they cannot conceive 
 of it ever happening to them. Likewise I could 
 not bring myself to think that this would ever 
 happen to me. Why should it? I had entered the 
 ministry as a young knight joined the crusades 
 with high hope and courage; I was a born lover 
 of my fellow men, and I gave myself to my work 
 with unstinted enthusiasm and unremitting toil. 
 I loved the members of my church; why should 
 they not love me ? I expected them to. True, the 
 only church I had ever had before was one I had 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 started myself, and I never before was the 
 pastor of an old church with inherited divisions 
 and ancient animosities; therefore I had not 
 become a conventional minister, who treats the 
 pastorate as a game to be played, and I never 
 shall. 
 
 Hence I little expected that the trouble which 
 had so often occurred in the past history of the 
 church would ever occur to me, but it did. Two 
 years before I left the church, a preconcerted 
 and systematic outburst of criticism broke over 
 me totally unexpected and without warning. 
 The form which this criticism took was so 
 trivial and unworthy of Christian gentlemen 
 that I do not care to describe it. I will save the 
 church this humiliation. Of course, to every sin- 
 cere lover of his fellow men, such an experience 
 is tragically painful. But it did not confuse me, 
 and after the first shock was over I became 
 much interested in it. Some of the criticism was 
 true, much of it false, and most of it foolish. 
 This made me suspicious, for I knew that when 
 men hide their real purpose and need to invent 
 reasons for their actions, they naturally twist 
 and falsify facts to such an extent as to be ridicu- 
 lous. If these critics had wanted some real faults 
 %o criticize, I could have given them many 
 which they never mentioned, and my wife could 
 have given them nxany more than I could, only, 
 of CQurse, she would nat have done so. Love 
 
 9 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 does not regard it as a duty to search out 
 faults. 
 
 I never made any answer to the criticisms, 
 either in public or private, for I was not willing 
 to transact any church business on a moral 
 plane so low and trivial. Besides, the criticisms 
 were so ridiculous that I knew they would fall 
 to the ground of their own weight. I confess that 
 to suffer a gross and cruel injustice, but to 
 remain silent under it and to return good for 
 evil is a task most difficult to perform. But the 
 task was laid upon me by considerations im- 
 possible to resist. The men who conducted the 
 campaign of criticism had so crippled the 
 church's moral influence in the community, and 
 especially so injured the Christian ideals of the 
 young people in the church, — an injury from 
 which they never will recover fully, — that the 
 necessity was laid on me to show the commu- 
 nity a different standard of Christian conduct. 
 I do not deserve any special credit for this, 
 because, even apart from any high moral mo- 
 tives, I should have pursued the same course 
 from ordinary motives of self-respect and com- 
 mon sense. I remembered that "all honor's 
 wounds are self-inflicted"; that no man can be 
 dishonored by another man who tries to injure 
 him; that a man's honor can be tarnished only 
 by his own conduct in the presence of such at- 
 tempted injury. Even if I had desired merely to 
 
 9 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 get the best of my critics, I should have adopted 
 the same methods, for, as Marcus Aurelius 
 sagely remarks, "The best way to avenge thy- 
 self is not to become as the wrong-doer." I 
 found great comfort in a modern equivalent of 
 this sentiment by Edwin Markham, which he 
 calls "Outwitted": 
 
 "He drew a circle that shut me out 
 Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. 
 But Love and I had the wit to win, 
 We drew a circle that took him in." 
 
 I quote this for the comfort of any of my 
 fellow ministers who may be called to face a 
 similar situation. A man does not need moral 
 motives to show him that Christian conduct is 
 wisest. At its lowest estimate, the method of 
 love is the smart policy to pursue. But now a 
 curious thing happened which greatly puzzled 
 me. The method of love which I employed pro- 
 duced exactly the opposite effect to what I had 
 expected. On honest men it always produces a 
 good effect. But the more I returned good for 
 evil, the more angry my critics became. This 
 puzzled me until I found an explanation in the 
 remark of Seneca, who said, "It is a law of 
 human nature to hate those we have injured." 
 Now I understood it. The anger of these men 
 was a species of self-defense for a wrong they 
 were committing. It was , the rage of a guilty 
 
 10 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 conscience trying to deaden itself to a knowledge 
 of the wrong it was supporting. They had to do 
 one of two things, either abandon the wrong or 
 stimulate their anger as a pretense of justifica- 
 tion. Since they were determined not to abandon 
 their course, they were compelled to cherish 
 their anger. It was the only defense they had. 
 I remembered also, what has frequently been 
 exhibited in history, that a certain type of man 
 becomes violently indignant in the presence of 
 something he does not understand — a stand for 
 conscience or the cause of freedom puzzles him 
 and arouses his anger. But why should they not 
 abandon their course which the whole commu- 
 nity was condemning? The reason will appear 
 presently — and the process of discovering it is 
 highly interesting. At this point I had discov- 
 ered a curious psychological fact of human 
 nature, which illuminated the difficulty and 
 determined my course of action. 
 
 I saw clearly, of course, that what my critics 
 wanted was my resignation, but I had not the 
 slightest intention of resigning, for the people 
 were up in arms over the criticism and I felt sure 
 I knew the reason for it. I understand perfectly 
 well that a church has a right to ask its minister 
 to resign, if it wishes to do so. A church may nat- 
 urally come to feel a need for the inspiration of 
 a new voice, as a minister often does for a new 
 church. My wife and I are extremely sensitive 
 
 II 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 on this point. When we started in the ministry, 
 we adopted the principle that we should leave 
 any church just as soon as it made an intimation 
 to this effect. Whenever such a time arrives in a 
 church, there are many decent and courteous 
 ways in which Christian gentlemen can arrange 
 for a change to the satisfaction of both church 
 and minister. But this unexpected and precon- 
 certed outburst of false and trivial criticism, ac- 
 companied as it was by anger and also by dis- 
 honesty and hypocrisy, on the part of a handful 
 of men, looked to me to be very suspicious. 
 "You are angry, therefore you are wrong," said 
 a wise old philosopher. When men get mad, 
 without being able or willing to state the reason 
 for it, it is a sure sign that there is something 
 wrong and dishonest about their anger. I be- 
 came greatly interested in this curious phenom- 
 enon. For eighteen years my ministry had been 
 one constant joy and success, and it would be a 
 shameful thing, indeed, if I could not look this 
 first real difficulty squarely in the face. More- 
 over, I was sure it contained a rich meaning for 
 me and for the church at large. Since it is a com- 
 mon experience among churches, and certain to 
 be, as I believe, increasingly common in the 
 future unless preventive measures are taken, I 
 regarded it as my duty to go to the heart of it 
 and report what I found. Friends have sought 
 to comfort me by the remark that such ugly 
 
 12 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 exhibitions are very common experiences in 
 churches. Wherein is the comfort? The fact that 
 an evil is common does not relieve its ugliness; 
 it increases it. The more frequently it occurs, 
 the greater the failure of the church. 
 
 Although feeling confident from the first that 
 I knew its inner meaning, yet, because I was per- 
 sonally involved in it, I needed to make as sure 
 as may be that no personal consideration influ- 
 enced my judgment. I therefore tested it by a 
 rigid examination, as if I were an outside third 
 party. I speak the sober truth when I say that 
 I should have been happy and greatly com- 
 forted, if I could have discovered anything I 
 had done to justify this outbreak, which was 
 doing the church so much moral damage. For 
 in that case the solution of the problem would 
 have been easy, and the proper course of action 
 clear. When in the face of any wrong which in- 
 volves others, one can honestly say, "I am the 
 man — I am responsible for the difficulty and 
 am willing to take the responsibility for it, and 
 to undo it," that moment is one of the happiest 
 of his life and cuts the knot of his trouble at one 
 stroke. I have known such moments. I began 
 now to search in myself for some cause sufficient 
 to account for the trouble, but I found it not. 
 
 I naturally began with personal traits of char- 
 acter and conduct. The personal criticisms were 
 so exactly the opposite of what was true that it 
 
 13 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 seemed to me they could not possibly account 
 for the outbreak. But perhaps I am not a good 
 judge of myself and I will not rely on myself. A 
 little later, at a large public testimonial dinner 
 given me by the Civic Association of my town, 
 I was highly amused to note that the very traits 
 of character which my little group of church 
 critics said did not exist were the very traits se- 
 lected by the speakers at the dinner for special 
 praise. Even granting, however, that all the 
 critics said was true, it has no bearing on the 
 point at issue. For I was the same man before 
 the criticisms as after they broke out. What we 
 are wanting to know is why these men, who had 
 loved and honored me before, so suddenly were 
 turned into critics; why they discovered cer- 
 tain faults which they never saw before; and 
 why they felt a sudden pious compulsion to 
 canvass the town on Sunday afternoons to make 
 known their new discovery to their neighbors. 
 There must be a reason for such a radical change 
 of attitude. There is, but it doth not yet appear. 
 Next I examined the record of my work; for 
 every man ought to be perfectly willing to have 
 his work judged by the one really legitimate 
 test, that is, by its fruits. I remembered that 
 when I came to the church its moral standing in 
 the community was very low, due to a disgrace- 
 ful disturbance with my immediate predecessor 
 about which I had almost no information until 
 
 14 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 after I came. I proceeded to restore the church's 
 moral standing. As a consequence of this condi- 
 tion, I had to tone up Its spiritual life. I found 
 almost all its departments needed to be reorgan- 
 ized. The young people's work was in such a 
 condition that parents kept their children away 
 from its meetings, so that it was too far gone for 
 reform, and had to be entirely reconstructed. 
 After a little it became one of the largest and 
 most efficient in the state and my great joy and 
 comfort. I was also enabled to solve the problem 
 of the church's finances, which were in as bad 
 condition as they well could be. Judged even by 
 the bare mechanical standard of figures, I no- 
 ticed that during my eight years of service the 
 number of members received was 194 by letter 
 and 147 by confession, a total of 341, or a yearly 
 average of 42; that is, one for each working 
 week of the entire time, I noticed that during 
 the eight years the amount of money raised for 
 new buildings was $52,000; for current expenses 
 $85,949.23; and for benevolences $38,989.25; a 
 total of $176,938.49, or a yearly average of 
 $22,117.31. These facts and figures need no 
 comment. The impression they made on my 
 mind was that there must be some extraordinary 
 reason, far deeper than any little temporary dif- 
 ferences, that would lead men to forget the 
 immense service I had been permitted to render 
 the church, and induce them to put their per- 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 sonal interests above those of the church and 
 disturb a pastorate that was so pleasant and so 
 fruitful. There must be such a reason. What is it? 
 
 Then I wondered whether the quality of my 
 preaching was responsible for the criticism. On 
 this question I could not, of course, pronounce 
 a correct judgment. For, however much or little 
 my sermons might satisfy myself, they might 
 not please others. But it did not seem probable 
 that the sermons were responsible for the out- 
 break, when I noticed how frequently the lead- 
 ing men of the church had requested their pub- 
 lication. I turned to one of these published ser- 
 mons and found an introductory note by one of 
 the most highly respected men in the commu- 
 nity and one of the heads of an old and promi- 
 nent book publishing firm of New York. In it he 
 makes the following statement: "I have heard 
 many of the greatest preachers of the nineteenth 
 century, including Beecher, Storrs, Spurgeon, 
 Farrar, and others, and after this opportunity 
 of knowing what good preaching is, I can say 
 with confidence that Mr. Jackson is an unusu- 
 ally able and forceful preacher." I inquired 
 whether this was more or less the general senti- 
 ment of the people and found that it was. The 
 significant thing is that it was the publicly ex- 
 pressed opinion of most of my critics. What, 
 then, can be the reason for the outbreak ? 
 
 It is most embarrassing but most interesting 
 i6 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 to analyze one's self in a situation like this. No 
 balanced man could be driven to it unless a pro- 
 found issue was at stake. It sounds egotistical, 
 I know, but as a matter of fact it is exactly the 
 opposite of egotism, for I never could have done 
 it had I not completely lost myself in devotion 
 to the principle at issue. I hope my readers will 
 likewise forget the person and think only of 
 the principle, for it is vitally important for the 
 church at large. 
 
 Thus, by a long process of examination and 
 elimination, I was compelled to conclude that 
 the reason for the disturbance was just what I 
 believed at the beginning it must be. It is this: 
 I differed fundamentally with two small but 
 influential groups of men in the church on two 
 big questions, dogma and money. These groups 
 may be most briefly and accurately described 
 by saying that they are Sadducees and Phari- 
 sees. The Sadducees'have vested interests in 
 money; the Pharisees vested interests in the- 
 ology. It was these two groups that Jesus had 
 his quarrel with. Neither class wanted the vital 
 and practical religion which Jesus brought to 
 them and they combined to kill him for preach- 
 ing it. They have existed in the church through- 
 out almost its entire history. It is not at all 
 strange that they exist in it to-day. They are 
 not bad men — there are many things about 
 them which are very good; but the dominant 
 
 17 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 trait about them which makes them a menace 
 to the church is this : the Sadducee type of man 
 is one who thinks of life in material terms, 
 chiefly, of course, in terms of money, and he 
 applies this principle to the church, frankly 
 maintaining that the church ought to reward 
 him for his gifts of money by the right to domi- 
 nate it; the Pharisee type of man is one who has 
 a closed mind and a fixed theological belief, and 
 thinks that religion is endangered if its conven- 
 tional phraseology is changed. 
 
 I want to make it clear that I am not opposed 
 to any rich man as such. I honor no man for his 
 money nor for the lack of it. I am not the friend 
 of the rich man nor the friend of the poor man, 
 but only the friend of man. I base my respect 
 for any man solely on the ground of his charac- 
 ter and intelligence. I count many very rich 
 men among my warm and congenial friends. 
 They are assets of the highest value to the King- 
 dom of God. One such friend is one of the two or 
 three richest men of my town. He is a trustee in 
 a church, but seldom attends the meetings lest 
 his great wealth might embarrass his fellow 
 trustees. Another such friend is one of the best 
 and richest men in New York City, a man whose 
 character is a national asset. He has resigned 
 not only from all the ofiices he held in his own 
 church and the church at large, but resigned 
 also his membership, as a protest against the 
 
 i8 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 very evils which caused the trouble in my own 
 church. I state these facts because when later 
 in my story I make some radical statements 
 concerning money and the church, I want no 
 one to think I am making any sweeping asser- 
 tion about all rich men. That would be mani- 
 festly unjust. 
 
 Fairness leads me to say one other thing 
 about these groups of men. With the exception 
 of an occasional social climber, who does not 
 hesitate to stoop to any meanness and hypocrisy 
 to gain his ends, and with the exception of the 
 kind of man afflicted with the disease of ego- 
 tism, who demands personal attention and seeks 
 the limelight and finds it painful to serve on a 
 committee without being its chairman — with 
 the exception of men of this type, who, I sup- 
 pose, are to be found everywhere, but who 
 fortunately are not numerous, it is my convic- 
 tion that all the other Sadducees and Pharisees 
 in my church are entirely sincere in the attitude 
 they take. So, I believe, were the Pharisees of 
 Jesus' day, entirely sincere. It takes something 
 more than sincerity to make a Christian. It 
 takes character and intelligence. The Sadducee 
 is the conventional rich man who puts money 
 above character; the Pharisee is the conven- 
 tional pious man who puts creed above religion. 
 They are sincere, but they suffer from the 
 blight of arrogance which slavery to money 
 
 19 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 always inflicts, and the blight of a closed mind 
 which slavery to dogma always inflicts. The 
 blight is so subtle that the men who suffer from 
 it are not conscious of it. That is part of its 
 penalty. If they could only be made conscious 
 of it, they could be saved; but I fear it must be 
 said of them as it was said of men of their class, 
 when they returned to power after the French 
 Revolution, "They learn nothing and they 
 forget nothing." I use the terms "Sadducee" 
 and "Pharisee" to describe these men, not with 
 the slightest desire to do them any injury, but 
 rather to do them a service, and especially in 
 order to make clear the exact cause of the dif- 
 ficulty in the church, a difficulty repeated so 
 frequently in its past history and certain to be 
 repeated in the future, as it has been in multi- 
 tudes of other churches, unless something is 
 done to remove its cause. 
 
 The reason thus becomes apparent why the 
 Sadducees and Pharisees, who on the surface 
 seem to have so little in common, have always 
 joined forces under certain conditions. They 
 joined forces against Jesus. They joined forces 
 for the same reason in my own church. The 
 reason is that they are conservative and auto- 
 cratic and opposed to all change. One class seeks 
 to control the church through the power of 
 money; the other through the power of dogma. 
 The great body of my congregation was demo 
 
 20 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 cratic and progressive. Two small groups were 
 conservative and autocratic. This is the root 
 cause of the trouble. No church can remain 
 peaceful, if it is half-democratic and half-auto- 
 cratic. Bring together in the same church a con- 
 servative man who believes in autocratic meth- 
 ods and a progressive man who believes in 
 democratic methods and you have a conflict 
 coming. No minister can satisfy both groups, 
 unless he skillfully tries to dodge trouble by 
 preaching platitudes; but such a policy is fatal 
 to the spiritual life of the church and ruinous 
 to his own moral integrity. 
 
 These two ideals are irreconcilable, and I 
 ought to have known that a conflict between 
 them was irrepressible, as the past history of 
 my church abundantly demonstrated. I did 
 know it, but I was hoping against hope. It is the 
 settled policy of my life to accentuate the resem- 
 blances and not the differences among men; 
 otherwise it would have been obviously im- 
 possible for me to hold together for twenty 
 years two such churches as I had. Acting on this 
 principle I tried patiently for several years, by 
 teaching, by example, and by private sugges- 
 tion, to lead these two groups in my church to 
 abandon ideals which I regarded as unchristian, 
 morally wrong, and hurtful to the cause for 
 which the church stood. When the ideals for 
 which I was standing became embarrassing to 
 
 21 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 these men, and it was evident that they must 
 either accept them or oppose them, they did 
 just what I was praying they would not do, they 
 decided to reject them and took the initiative in 
 making a disturbance. But they did not do it 
 openly and honestly, but indirectly and cow- 
 ardly. They persistently refused to talk over 
 what everybody knew was the issue at stake, 
 and never mentioned it. They were well aware 
 that the overwhelming sentiment of the church 
 and community was against them. They did 
 what is usually done in such cases : they tried to 
 divert attention from their own untenable 
 position by making a mean and cowardly attack 
 on the minister, as a means of self-defense. 
 
 The greatest tragedy in any public teacher's 
 life occurs when he attempts and ardently de- 
 sires to give to his fellow men something better 
 than they are able or willing to receive. The 
 tragedy is accentuated when they not only 
 refuse it, but violently oppose it. Such an oc- 
 currence is "worse than a crime, it is a blunder." 
 The pathetic lament of Jesus, "O Jerusalem, 
 how often would I have gathered thy children 
 together," reveals an experience familiar to 
 public teachers throughout history. My own 
 experience has illuminated with a new radiance 
 the life of Jesus. It is to me no longer mere 
 knowledge. It is now a felt knowledge, which Is 
 a very different and a more beautiful thing. 
 
 22 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 That a small group of church officers could re- 
 pudiate ideals so obviously Christian and so 
 heartily approved by the people, and that they 
 could use cruel and dishonorable means to 
 defeat them, seemed to me at the time impossi- 
 ble to conceive. Even now I can with difficulty 
 believe that it has occurred, although I know it 
 to be a fact. - 
 
 The issue at stake, as I was saying, which 
 was never mentioned, centered on questions 
 concerning money and dogma. These questions 
 will be fully explained in later chapters of my 
 story, where I treat them constructively. It is 
 sufficient for my present purpose to state the 
 nature of the principle that caused the trouble 
 and the amusing way in which the men opposed 
 to it acted, which I can do most briefly by an 
 illustration. For the situation is not new, and 
 it is so common that I would not add one more 
 to the list if I did not have what I think is a 
 remedy to suggest. My experience was similar 
 to that of John Frederic Oberlin, pastor of the 
 church in Ban-de-la-Roche, Alsace. Beard, in 
 his "Life" of Oberlin, describes how the church 
 was astonished when their pastor proposed that 
 they do such practical things for the commu- 
 nity's welfare as build a schoolhouse and a road, 
 which were both sorely needed. Instead of dis- 
 cussing the question itself with open minds and 
 good spirits, they tried to defeat the plans by 
 
 23 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 making a personal attack on the minister. 
 "The unruly spirits in the Ban were exceedingly 
 active, and there are always unruly spirits 
 everywhere if they can get half a chance to 
 make trouble. Now they had their opportunity 
 with Oberlin and they used it. They had already 
 begun to criticize his preaching. He was too 
 direct. He was too much in earnest. He was too 
 radical. He was forever suggesting changes, 
 and they protested against his innovations. The 
 more headstrong decided to attack him per- 
 sonally. *Our pastor is too fiery,' they said; 'we 
 will cool him off. We will put him under the 
 spout when he passes by.' Oberlin heard of the 
 threat and lost no time in going to the head- 
 quarters of the opposers. 'Why, friends, if you 
 expect to wet me, you do not know my horse. 
 But if you really wish to do it, to make the 
 thing easier for you, I will leave my horse at 
 home, and go on foot, after this, to give you a 
 chance.' After this interview they hesitated, 
 and decided to rest with the threat. Oberlin 
 had no intention of resigning. He felt that he 
 was needed whether wanted or not. The people 
 saw with unspeakable astonishment their pas- 
 tor, bright and early Monday morning, with a 
 pick on his shoulder, accompanied by three or 
 four who were loyal to him, passing through the 
 village to begin the road-making. Their wonder 
 grew when they saw him at work, picking and 
 
 24 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 digging and shoveling away stones that he could 
 not lift with his hands. There was manhood 
 enough among his people to assert itself after 
 such an appeal as this. It was an illustration of 
 applied Christianity altogether new to them, 
 and it was immediately followed by a great 
 revival of practical religion in the village. The 
 next day, a score were working with him, the 
 next day following, fifty, until by the time they 
 had reached the stream there were no doubters; 
 all believed in good roads, and always had. 
 Probably the last man to join the majority 
 went home and told his wife that the original 
 idea was his own, and that he would have pro- 
 posed it to Oberlin but for the conviction that 
 ministers ought to confine themselves to the 
 gospel and let the labor question alone. If so, 
 it may be that the trusting soul believed him. 
 I find no record of this hypothetical man, but 
 he must have been there — he always is — and 
 there could scarcely have been an exception in 
 this case to the ordinary experience of late com- 
 ers in successful reforms." 
 
 Like Oberlin I had no Intention of resigning. 
 When the men responsible for the disturbance 
 saw that their attack was deeply resented by the 
 people and had no apparent effect on me, then 
 they decided to use other methods. Almost all 
 the trustees resigned in a body and some of 
 them withdrew their contributions, thus using 
 
 25 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 money as a club to compel the congregation, to 
 yield to their wishes. I was greatly interested to 
 see what the congregation would do. I kept on 
 preaching as if nothing had happened, never 
 referred to the disturbance from the pulpit and 
 treated every one with the same courtesy as 
 usual. The people elected new trustees, who 
 represented ideals more in accord with their 
 own and who conducted the financial work of 
 the church with new, democratic, and efficient 
 methods. What is still more important, they 
 showed to the old trustees a Christian spirit and 
 a patience, under constant nagging criticism, 
 that was most beautiful. Their self-control under 
 trying circumstances the people will always 
 remember with gratitude and pleasure. It was a 
 real triumph for the Christian cause. 
 
 It was my hope that the congregation would 
 stand firm in its new freedom and proceed pa- 
 tiently and courteously to achieve the reforms 
 for which during many years it had felt the 
 need. It faced the biggest opportunity of its 
 history. My hopes were dashed to pieces when 
 the new officers made it clear that they wanted 
 to compromise with the old trustees and asked 
 me to do likewise. This I could not do. I agreed 
 with them that it was right to show these men 
 Christian courtesy, and I had never ceased to 
 do so, but to surrender to their ideals seemed to 
 me to be not Christian kindness, but thebe- 
 
 26 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 trayal of a cause and of the people. I understand 
 why these men wanted to surrender. For one 
 thing they felt that the church could not be 
 maintained without the money of the men who 
 had withdrawn. I think they were mistaken in 
 this opinion, but this was one of the chief among 
 a complicated series of motives that influenced 
 them. But with me it was different. I do not 
 know what any other man's duty is ; I know only 
 what is my own. As a public teacher, what was 
 my duty? I could have appealed to the people 
 in an open contest and won by a handsome 
 majority, and while I am essentially gentle by 
 nature, I do not in the least object to a contest 
 over anything that is big enough to fight about. 
 But the motives that led the new officers to 
 surrender to ideals, which I knew they did not 
 believe in, made me suspicious and sowed a 
 doubt in my mind, a doubt which later was 
 abundantly justified. For the congregation 
 likewise permitted the very men who had 
 brought shame and dishonor on the church, and 
 owed it a public apology, to get themselves 
 elected on important committees and to prom- 
 inent offices, as trustees and as superintendents 
 of the Sunday-school. 
 
 But by an appeal to public opinion I could 
 have easily won. No man had a better cause 
 or a finer chance to win success for it. But how 
 about the Christian cause? My major loyalty 
 
 27 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 is to the Christian cause, not to a particular 
 church. Which is greater, the temporary good 
 of one church or the permanent damage to 
 Christian ideals, which a public contest neces- 
 sarily involves? The question is by no means 
 easy to decide, for nothing would give me 
 keener remorse than the memory that I had 
 failed to lead the people in a contest for a moral 
 principle, whenever there was an opportunity 
 to win a triumph for it. Some of the noblest 
 members of the church, who often before had 
 felt the same deep humiliation over many 
 similar and previous outbreaks in the church, 
 counseled me, "Ephraim is joined to his idols, 
 let him alone." Had I believed that an open 
 contest would have destroyed the idols that were 
 blighting the church's spiritual life and soiling 
 its good name, I certainly would have con- 
 ducted it. But I came to feel that there was a 
 better way. The severest contests in human life 
 are those waged on the unseen battle-fields of 
 human hearts between conflicting loyalties. 
 After such a secret battle in my own heart, I 
 decided that for the sake of the Christian reli- 
 gion, I would make no open contest. I continued 
 to return good for evil, and show the church 
 every courtesy, but I resigned as a protest 
 against ideals which I believed were morally 
 wrong. While I found the church disorganized 
 and discouraged, I left it, to all outside appear- 
 
 28 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 ances, strong and united and very prosperous. 
 But I left it with an ache in its heart and the 
 memory of a gross injustice to be a burden for 
 all time to come on all its right-minded mem- 
 bers. For them I shall always have the ten- 
 derest sympathy. The reasons which led me to 
 this conclusion are so significant for the church 
 at large, that they will be fully stated in a later 
 chapter of the story. 
 
 But why all this discussion? I wonder, after 
 all, whether there is any vital issue at stake. 
 Having never before seen such an exhibition of 
 ugliness in a church, do I not take the Christian 
 religion too seriously? It is a common occur- 
 rence, I am told. Is it not merely a case of a 
 little sand getting into the running-gear of the 
 church, which can be removed by a little di- 
 plomacy? If there is no vital cause at issue, all 
 I desire to say is that I would have to give up a 
 large degree of respect for my fellow men. I 
 have more respect for sincere badness than for 
 smallness. I can patiently bear almost anything 
 except smallness, for in its presence all hope 
 must be abandoned. Now it is an unescapable 
 principle that whenever you have large effects, 
 you must always have a cause large enough to 
 account for them. If there is no vital issue at 
 stake, why these frequent and profound dis- 
 turbances in the churches ? Are adult Christian 
 men so weak and cowardly as to be defeated by 
 
 29 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 a little sand in the running-gears ? In such cases 
 the common-sense procedure is not to break 
 or discard the machine, but remove the sand, 
 which is not a difficult operation. I have more 
 respect even for the men who make the dis- 
 turbances than to suppose they would injure a 
 whole church, sow seeds of cruel dissension in 
 a community, run the risk of doing a lifelong 
 damage to the religious ideals of boys and girls, 
 and bring upon themselves the resentment and 
 disrespect of their neighbors, all for the sake of 
 trifling differences of opinion. It is not possible 
 to believe. 
 
 Logic compels one to suppose that there must 
 be an adequate cause to account for these dis- 
 turbances, and he very soon discovers that his 
 logic is amply supported by the actual facts 
 in such a case. It is highly significant, to begin 
 with, that the trifling explanations, which do 
 not explain, are always advanced by men who 
 cause the trouble, and by their friends who lack 
 the courage to face the issue. Moreover, they 
 make a particular effort to persuade others to 
 accept their explanations. Why this anxiety.'^ 
 Are they fearful that the real truth will be dis- 
 covered? Every one except themselves under- 
 stands perfectly well the real reasons for the 
 disturbance, and they do also. But wanting to 
 hide the real reasons, and being compelled to 
 invent false ones, they go to foolish extremes, 
 
 30 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 as men always do in like circumstances. I could 
 write an amusing chapter in my own experi- 
 ence, setting forth the silly extremes to which 
 able business men went in their effort to escape 
 embarrassment and carry out their personal 
 ambitions. But our problem is too serious to 
 dwell on them here. 
 
 I shall state two such typical reasons of the 
 more serious sort, one characteristic of the Phar- 
 isees, the other of the Sadducees, — reasons 
 which show to what false extremes they usually 
 go, but reasons which at the same time clearly 
 indicate the great issue at stake, showing how 
 impossible it is to escape it, however far afield 
 they travel in the attempt to do so. 
 
 The Pharisees of my church said they opposed 
 me because I was not "spiritual." At the first 
 this greatly distressed me, because that is the 
 very thing that I thought I was. Indeed, it was 
 the very complaint I had in my mind against 
 them, but I did not say so. In the presence of 
 this apparent puzzle, I found illumination in 
 history. I remembered that, in all like conflicts, 
 the critics usually said the very opposite of what 
 was afterward found to be true. For example, 
 Socrates is now universally regarded not only 
 as the greatest, but as the most virtuous and 
 the most spiritual, man of his age and country. 
 Yet his accusers judicially condemned him to 
 death on the charge of impiety and immorality. 
 
 31 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 That is, his critics mistook him for the exact 
 opposite of what he was. Again, to take an 
 example which John Stuart Mill says is the only 
 one that can be named after that of Socrates 
 without being an anti-climax, the same thing is 
 true in the case of Jesus. He, who for all later 
 centuries and for all nations has become the 
 great moral and spiritual leader of men, was 
 judicially condemned as a blasphemer, as an 
 unspiritual man. His critics likewise mistook 
 him for the exact opposite of what He was. If 
 it did not now seem to us so tragic and so con- 
 temptible, there would be something extremely 
 amusing in the sight of the pious priest, Annas, 
 rending his robes lest he be defiled by the "un- 
 spiritual" remarks of Jesus. The men responsi- 
 ble for these two judicial iniquities were no 
 doubt sincere, and orthodox Christians of to-day 
 would have done just as they did, had they 
 been in their place. 
 
 The problem before the church to-day is the 
 same problem which all past centuries have had 
 to face. The Pharisees in my church, who said 
 I was not spiritual, are entirely sincere. They 
 stand for the spirituality of the conventional 
 pious dogmatists, while the spiritual ideals 
 which I preached were based on the type of 
 spirituality embodied in Jesus. The two types 
 must conflict. Thus it becomes clear that while 
 the objection raised by my conventionally pious 
 
 32 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 critics seemed to them to be removed to a safe 
 distance from the cause of the disturbance, 
 which centered in money and dogma, after all 
 it touches very near the heart of the trouble. 
 For one of the deepest needs of the church 
 to-day is that it should acquire a new concep- 
 tion of what a true "saint" is according to the 
 ideals of Jesus, as I think we shall see later in 
 the story. The artificial, and to me false, con- 
 ception of "sainthood" entertained to-day by 
 many Christian leaders is what is keeping mul- 
 titudes of good men out of the church or out of 
 active participation in it. 
 
 The other criticism, the one made by the Sad- 
 ducees, was that I lacked "tact." This at the 
 first did not disturb me so much as it puzzled 
 me. For it is one of the chief things I prided 
 myself on possessing. I acquired it at a great 
 price. I had for years made a careful study of 
 the "subjunctive-mode" method of handling 
 my fellow men, so as to avoid the "indicative- 
 mode" method. I have all my life been con- 
 stantly used to settle all kinds of private and 
 public quarrels, which required extraordinary 
 tact. In order to show that this criticism has 
 no meaning when applied to me, I am tempted 
 to be very personal. Only three months before 
 this criticism was made, I headed a committee 
 of twenty-one men in my town to settle a com- 
 plicated dispute between the Mayor and the 
 
 33 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 Board of Education. This fact made the men 
 who made the criticism look either stupid or 
 willfully perverse. And now, during the week 
 while I am writing this chapter, a group of the 
 leading men of my old Pennsylvania church 
 have asked me to preach in the church for a few 
 months in order to heal bitter dissensions caused 
 by the same problem that disturbed my New 
 Jersey church, alleging that, because of my 
 "tact" and kindly spirit, I can render them this 
 service. 
 
 I am thus frank, because I want to make em- 
 phatic my conviction that this question of 
 "tact," always made so much of in all such dis- 
 putes, is a snare and a delusion. 
 
 "Tact" is the long suit of the conventionally 
 rich man. He talks more about it than any other 
 one thing at the time of a church disturbance. 
 He cares very little about the theology of a new 
 candidate, but he must have "tact." Every 
 time a minister or a college professor has a fun- 
 damental disagreement with his trustees, we are 
 deluged by an avalanche of editorials on the 
 beauty and importance of "tact." They are so 
 uniform in tenor as to make one feel they are 
 "inspired," and so they are. 
 
 Now all of us understand the beauty of 
 "tact." We admit it. We all know the type of 
 man who prides himself on calling "a spade 
 a spade," and who usually means that he calls 
 
 34 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 "a spade a damned shovel." We freely admit 
 the indispensable importance of courtesy in all 
 human relationships, but tact and courtesy, are 
 they the same? By no means. Tact has little if 
 any bearing on the problem we are discussing. 
 It has been so often used as a blind to divert 
 attention from moral issues that the word has ac- 
 quired a new and different meaning, so much so 
 that an honest man finds it difficult to use, 
 unless he explains what he means by it. It has 
 come to mean diplomacy, subterfuge, compro- 
 mise, the clever side-stepping of moral issues. 
 As applied to ministers, it has come to mean the 
 ability to preach the principles of Jesus in such 
 softened and diluted form as not to arouse any 
 one's conscience, or disturb any vested interests. 
 I do not object to tact; I practice it to the limit. 
 What I object to is the confusion of tact with 
 moral loyalty, which is a totally different ques- 
 tion. Does any man for a moment imagine that 
 any amount of tact which Jesus might have 
 used — and He was an expert in its use — would 
 have enabled him to live in peace with the 
 Pharisees of his day? Certainly not. Nothing 
 could have done so except the surrender of his 
 principles, and that would have meant spiritual 
 suicide and the failure of his life. ^^ 
 
 The conventionally rich men of my church 
 made a lavish use of the question of *'tact," 
 with which they tried to bury the cause of the 
 
 35 
 
' A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 trouble, and no doubt thought they had suc- 
 cessfully buried it; and yet their insistence on 
 the use of tact pointedly suggests the very 
 question at issue. It constitutes, indeed, my 
 chief complaint against the church. Its only 
 policy is tact, compromise, "safety first." 
 Whenever a new plan of work is proposed, 
 church officers usually consider first of all, not 
 the reasons why it should be done, but the rea- 
 sons why it should not be done. Believing, as I 
 do, that there can be no such thing as moral 
 neutrality, I tried to persuade my church to 
 adopt moral loyalty as its policy. Because it 
 refused to do so, I resigned. It is not what a 
 church wants to do or what is pleasant to do, 
 but what it ought to do; that is its true guiding 
 principle. Whenever any church reduces its 
 policy to a game of diplomacy, it banishes duty 
 from its programme and betrays its own cause. 
 It is my conviction that the first and greatest 
 need of the churches in general, both in their 
 ideals and practices, is to distinguish between 
 **tact" and moral loyalty and then courageously 
 to act on this distinction. 
 
 Thus it seems to me to be clear that the 
 question at issue is not only not the question of 
 "tact," but that "tact" is deliberately used as 
 a blind to conceal the real question at issue. At 
 any rate, if a lack of tact is the cause of the 
 frequent disturbances in churches, it is idle to 
 
 36 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 talk about it. It is merely a question of individ- 
 ual ministers cultivating the art of tact, which 
 is a private matter and not for public discus- 
 sion. The problem of church disturbances at 
 once becomes a very simple one and the remedy- 
 quite obvious, however disagreeable it may be 
 to take or to administer. It is the remedy that 
 the men responsible for the disturbance always 
 apply. The remedy is just to change the minis- 
 ter, to treat him like any other hired man in our 
 cruelly selfish industrial age, utilize him for all 
 that can be made out of him, and then scrap him 
 like a piece of old machinery or a pair of old 
 shoes. 
 
 All this is perfectly simple and also perfectly 
 hopeless. The attempt to cure the disease by 
 changing ministers is worse than a foolish waste 
 of time. It is like the attempt to mend a watch 
 by changing the hands on the dial, when its 
 mainspring is broken. To expect the church's 
 machinery to run right without a new main- 
 spring — that is, a new heart — is stupidity it- 
 self. To use one minister after another as a 
 victim to personal interests and ambitions, may 
 seem the easy way of escape from the perform- 
 ance of an unpleasant duty, but in the long run 
 it is the hard way, besides being the wrong way. 
 "It is worse than a crime, it is a blunder." It is 
 to-day causing the church to commit slow sui- 
 cide. It is not wisdom or economy or kindness to 
 
 37 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 use a poultice, when it is obvious that a knife is 
 necessary". 
 
 The truth is that the situation is not hopeless 
 at all, because the causes of these disturbances, 
 while not simple but profound, are curable, if 
 we apply the right remedy. They are perfectly 
 well understood by every one, except by those 
 who cause the disturbances, and they do not 
 want to understand the causes or to acknowledge 
 it, if they did understand them. After I resigned 
 from my church, many of its noblest members 
 begged me to state to them the cause and the 
 remedy for these frequent disturbances in our 
 church. I induced them to answer their own 
 questions out of their own knowledge, for I was 
 sure they already knew. Most all of us under- 
 stand clearly what the trouble is, only we have 
 not had the courage to say so. 
 
 Come, let us muster up the courage to be 
 honest. I grant that it is most disturbing to a 
 minister or a church honestly to face the issue 
 and what it involves. What is it? It is my 
 maturely formed and settled conviction that the 
 root causes of the church's present difficulty are 
 lack of intellectual honesty, lack of moral cour- 
 age, and lack of a social gospel. To put it posi- 
 tively, I would say that the three things which 
 now blight the church's life are the domination 
 of the church by dogma, by money, and by de- 
 nominationalism. If we desire to group the 
 
 38 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 causes of the church's trouble under a single 
 principle, we would say, it is a lack of democracy 
 in its religious convictions, in its conception of 
 money, and in its treatment of people. In this 
 chapter the aim has been to make clear, through 
 an actual experience, that the disturbances in 
 churches are of such a nature that they neces- 
 sitate fundamental causes to account for them. 
 I have stated what I think are those fundamen- 
 tal defects. They will be treated fully and 
 constructively in the chapters which follow. ^: 
 I need only add to this statement that the sin- 
 cerity of my belief that these are the causes of 
 the church's present perplexity is sufficiently in- 
 dicated by the fact that on their account I was 
 willing to surrender a $5000 income, $4000 in 
 money and a beautiful parsonage, the rental 
 value of which is more than $1000. What a fool 
 I am to sacrifice a comfortable income and an 
 exceptionally beautiful house, all because I 
 would not compromise my moral convictions, 
 says the man of conventional standards. Cer- 
 tainly; but then my moral and intellectual in- 
 tegrity is not for sale at ^5000 a year. If I were 
 to sell my manhood for money, I would want a 
 far larger sum than this. In fact, it is not for 
 sale at all. When a man's self-respect and in- 
 tegrity are gone, life is not worth living at any 
 price. I have thus dwelt at length on the process 
 by which I have come to my conclusions con- 
 
 . 39 
 
i A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 cerning the causes of the church's difficulty, be- 
 cause these conclusions will be vigorously com- 
 bated by those responsible for the difficulty. It 
 is to their personal interest to minimize the dif- 
 ficulties. In their effort to do so, they have often 
 gone to the height of the ridiculous, by using 
 every conceivable and inconceivable explanation 
 excepting the true one. Their aim is to conceal 
 the main question by raising a cloud of dust over 
 side issues. It is an old and familiar trick, and 
 ought not to confuse any man who is able or will- 
 ing to think clearly. Although clear thinking is 
 hard labor, and therefore rare, nevertheless this 
 trick has become so apparent that it has ceased 
 to deceive the people. 
 
 The serious nature of the discussion which 
 lies before us is clearly indicated In the question 
 which heads this chapter — "Can a minister be 
 an honest man?" Resigning my pastorate for 
 the reasons which I have stated, it is natural to 
 suppose that it was not merely the question of 
 leaving a particular church that confronted me, 
 but a problem far more profoundly significant. 
 I saw clearly that, if I left my church for these 
 reasons, my action necessarily involved the pos- 
 sibility of refusing to accept any church. The 
 large majority in my church are progressive and 
 forward-looking, very much more so than in the 
 average church. If, then, such a church was de- 
 feated by a small group in its effort to adopt 
 
 40 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 modern ideals and methods, how much hope 
 would there be in the average church? I could 
 easily get a call from another church by skill- 
 fully concealing my ideals, as is very frequently 
 done. But this kind of diplomacy, to give it a 
 very euphemistic name, is ruinous to a man's 
 moral character, and besides it is futile. If I 
 should accept a church on these conditions and 
 then attempt to lead it up to modern ideals, 
 would not the effort naturally produce the same 
 results already experienced in my own church? 
 Personally the very thought of repeating such a 
 petty and ignoble experience was extremely dis- 
 tasteful. It was likewise unchivalrous to ask my 
 wife to do so, although her heroism is equal to it. 
 But what is more important, how far is it the 
 duty of a grown, able-bodied man, who earnestly 
 desires to render a real service to the Kingdom 
 of God, to spend his time just trying to preserve 
 peace in a church, so that it can succeed in the 
 glorious task of holding its own? As a friend of 
 mine in New York, who is now doing a con- 
 structive work of international importance, told 
 me, he left the ministry because he did not feel 
 it was his duty any longer to spend his time in 
 preventing "the saints" from devouring each 
 other. ^ I 
 
 If, then, I could not consent to remain with 
 my own church on these terms, how could I ac- 
 cept any other church on like terms? This was 
 
 41 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 the real problem I was facing. It very soon 
 presented itself in concrete form. During the 
 two-year period of disturbance in my church I 
 received overtures from four churches, two of 
 them as large and important as my own. Two 
 of them asked me to preach as a candidate and 
 two requested me to permit my name to be 
 presented. I could not persuade myself to do 
 either, although, before I reached this con- 
 clusion, I did preach in one of the four churches 
 in order to discover its condition. The reason 
 why I could not consider any one of these 
 churches is because exactly the same condition 
 existed in all of them which existed in my own, 
 and on account of which I was leaving it. 
 
 One of these churches was my old church in 
 Pennsylvania. Some of its leading men urged me 
 to be willing to consider a call. A little later the 
 following petition, signed by over a hundred 
 young people of the community, was presented 
 to the officers of the church: "Wishing to express 
 our desire to have Rev. Henry E. Jackson as our 
 pastor, we young people of the Presbyte- 
 rian church respectfully recommend that the ses- 
 sion earnestly consider the matter of his accept- 
 ance of the pastorate of this church. Dr. Jackson 
 has been away from us for over nine years, yet 
 his Christian spirit and influence still remain. 
 Having known and loved him in our earlier 
 years and knowing of his work since, we feel 
 
 42 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 that his influence and personality would be a 
 great blessing to our church and to our town." 
 
 All this, of course, made a strong appeal. This 
 being my first church and I being its first pastor, 
 the memories and the idealism of my youth made 
 it very dear to me. The happy relationship ex- 
 isting between the church and myself made me 
 hesitate to upset them, for even under these ex- 
 ceptionally favorable conditions, I knew that 
 my convictions as to the nature of the Christian 
 religion and the function of the church would 
 bring me into conflict with certain groups in the 
 church. My successor had just left the church 
 broken-hearted and the congregation was dis- 
 turbed by contentions. While the cause of the 
 trouble is very complex, yet it originated in the 
 Board of Trustees and I knew I would face 
 the same difficulty, which existed in my New 
 Jersey church. Therefore, I stated to the men 
 who urged me to come to the church, certain of 
 my present convictions about needed changes 
 in the church, and I preached a sermon in the 
 college chapel in the town, where the church is 
 located, in order to test them. I suspected it 
 would prevent the call from being extended to 
 me, and it did. 
 
 Is it possible, I wonder, for me to remain an 
 honest minister and accept a call from any 
 average church? In answering this question our 
 best method is to consider what are those de- 
 
 43 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 fects, in the present organization of the church,^ 
 which are doing damage to any minister's moral 
 and intellectual integrity. We can thus see the 
 problem which I believe confronts hundreds of 
 ministers already in the ministry, and prevents 
 other hundreds of the best young men from 
 entering it. In this way we can best discover and 
 state constructively those radical and funda- 
 mental reforms which I believe the church must 
 be willing to accept, if it is not to defeat its own 
 aims and betray the cause in which it has en- 
 listed. What these reforms are will be consid- 
 ered in the succeeding chapters of the story. To 
 persuade the churches to accept them is my 
 purpose in writing. I tell the story In personal 
 terms in order to make it concrete and as forci- 
 ble as I may. 
 
 [ In starting on the quest for an answer to our 
 question, I desire to make emphatic the state- 
 ment that I have not the slightest feeling of 
 personal resentment toward the men who made 
 the disturbance in my New Jersey church. The 
 issue involved is too big for that. My humilia- 
 tion over the breakdown of the Christian religion 
 among the officers of my church prevents me from 
 indulging in the expensive luxury of personal 
 anger. I am absorbed In the fate of the principle 
 at stake. The men whom a Christian minister 
 has once loved and served he can never hate, how- 
 ever much he may desire to do so. There is no 
 
CAN A MINISTER BE HONEST? 
 
 finality in friendship. I have no personal enemy 
 whom I recognize as such. I radically disagree 
 with the moral and religious ideals of these gen- 
 tlemen and would oppose them on all possible 
 occasions, but I bear them no ill-will. Indeed, the 
 poverty of their spiritual outlook on life made a 
 strong appeal to my sympathies. If they had only 
 been conscious of their poverty, I could have 
 helped them and very gladly would have done so. 
 Moreover, to be perfectly fair I am compelled 
 to say that I owe them a debt of gratitude. I 
 can say of them what Joseph said of his breth- 
 ren: "They meant it for evil, but God meant it 
 for good." By their opposition to my ideals, they 
 removed from me the stigma and curse which 
 Jesus pronounced upon the "safe and sane" 
 negatives of whom all men speak well, the type 
 of Christian who is never loyal enough to his 
 ideals to arouse any opposition to them or to 
 himself. By their opposition they awakened my 
 devotion to the greatest of all causes, in which 
 I have now enlisted for the remainder of my 
 life. By their opposition they enabled me to 
 make an invaluable discovery. I had known ~ 
 what is a commonplace in human history — that 
 anything new and good has always encountered 
 opposition just because it was new and because 
 it was good. But I had not realized that I had 
 any contribution to make to my fellow men 
 which was good enough to be worthy of oppo- 
 
 / 45 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 sition. Now I suspected that I had. It was a 
 thrilling discovery. During the twenty years of 
 my ministry, the two-year period of disturbance 
 yielded me more joy and ecstasy than any pre- 
 vious period had. I began to see that the real 
 value of a man's contribution to any moral re- 
 form is frequently to be measured by the amount 
 of opposition it meets, as Jesus' experience 
 abundantly demonstrates. Unexpected comfort 
 came to me at this point of my experience when 
 I learned that Edward Rowland Sill had made 
 the same discovery. His friend Professor Royce 
 reports that he often used the distressing fact 
 of opposition and defeat as a sort of test of the 
 spirituality of things. "Were they good," he 
 said, "willfulness would assail them the more 
 surely." Once, when he was a little weary because 
 of the hatred that he had met with during some 
 of his undertakings in a very good cause, Royce 
 said to him, by way of a sort of conventional 
 comfort and of friendly admonition at once: 
 "Why do you work so hard as you do for the 
 good of people who only misunderstand you, 
 after all? They don't deserve the good things 
 that you offer, for they are people who won't 
 and can't appreciate your trouble. Why cast 
 pearls before swine? They only turn and rend 
 you." "Ah, Royce," replied Sill, "but one 
 does n't quite surely know that they are pearls, 
 that he casts, until he feels the tusks." 
 
 46 
 
II 
 
 THE CHURCH AND INTELLECTUAL 
 FREEDOM 
 
When the philosophic minds of the world 
 can no longer believe its religion, or can only 
 believe it with modifications amounting to 
 an essential change of its character, a transi- 
 tional period commences, of weak convic- 
 tions, paralyzed intellects, and growing 
 iaxity of principle, which cannot terminate 
 until a renovation has been effected in the 
 basis of their belief leading to the evolution 
 [of some faith, whether religious or merely 
 human, which they can readily believe, and 
 when things are in this state, all thinking or 
 writing which does not tend to produce such 
 a renovation, is of very little value beyond 
 the moment. 
 
 John Stuart Mill 
 
II 
 
 THE CHURCH AND INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 Wendell Phillips, an elegant patrician, a re- 
 fined scholar, a welcomed member of cultured 
 society, was well started in a professional career 
 which promised abundant honors and financial 
 rewards. One October day, looking out of his 
 office windows he saw Lloyd Garrison, the 
 abolitionist, assailed, kicked, dragged to jail by 
 a mob for daring to say that a man's right to 
 liberty was inalienable. "With the setting of 
 that October sun vanished forever the career of 
 prosperous ease, the gratification of ordinary 
 ambition." That day he acquired a cause which 
 became a public passion for life. Years of con- 
 flict followed, then a noble triumph. 
 
 What the episode of the Garrison mob did 
 for Wendell Phillips, the experience with my 
 church, narrated in the preceding chapter, did 
 for me. It awakened me to ideals of which I had 
 long been only partially conscious. It equipped 
 me with a cause and vitalized my devotion to it. 
 Principal Cairn's last message to his students 
 was this: "Tell them that the chief thing is to 
 forget self utterly in the service of a great cause.'* 
 
 49 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 Through a Gethsemane experience I have dis- 
 covered my "great cause," big enough to com- 
 mand the undivided allegiance of my life. The 
 cause in which I have consciously and definitely 
 enlisted for life is the oldest and the newest of 
 causes: it is the cause oj freedom^ stated in terms of 
 intellectual honesty in the attempt to discover God 
 as a reality and freedom stated in terms of moral 
 courage in the attempt to apply the principles of 
 Jesus to all human needs. To achieve freedom in 
 some form has been the chief goal of man's 
 endeavor throughout human history. But it be- 
 comes a new and strangely vital fact, when a 
 man makes this cause his own. Then for him it 
 comes to be not mere knowledge, but felt knowl- 
 edge, a very different thing. Then he not merely 
 gets a cause, but the cause gets him. It is the 
 kind of cause which produces a motor reaction. 
 He must do something about it or lose his self- 
 respect. 
 
 My twenty "years' experience in the church 
 makes it clear to me that the church now suffers 
 from three fundamental blights, from which she 
 must free herself if she wants to avoid moral 
 and spiritual shipwreck, and if she desires to be 
 largely useful to the Kingdom of God. These 
 three blights are the domination of dogma, the 
 domination of money, and the domination of 
 sectarianism. A chapter will be devoted to the 
 discussion of each of these tyrannies, in the 
 
 SO 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 terms of my own experience with a view to ar- 
 riving at certain constructive conclusions, to 
 which the facts, I think, must lead any fair and 
 open-minded man. 
 
 The subject of the present chapter is intellec- 
 tual freedom. With the exception of a few brief 
 periods in its history, the church as an organiza- 
 tion has uniformly been the enemy of freedom, 
 while the Christian religion itself has been free- 
 dom's best friend. There is something tragically 
 humorous in the fact that the church has al- 
 ways persecuted the prophets of liberty and then 
 has tried to regain influence with the people by 
 building monuments to their memory. The 
 church's avowed guide-book is largely composed 
 of the achievements and failures of the devotees 
 of freedom, almost every one of whom was per- 
 secuted and most of whom suffered martyrdom 
 in its behalf. And yet out of their writings the 
 church has composed her Bible apparently 
 without the slightest consciousness of the humor 
 of her act. If the church can only acquire a sense 
 of humor, she could be saved. It would give her 
 a sense of moral values. If the church once dis- 
 covered the meaning of the Bible, it could not 
 continue to be the enemy of freedom. The Bible 
 is the only book I know of which has no title. 
 The word "Bible" is the Greek word for book. 
 It is like saying this book is a book, which is 
 sufficiently obvious without saying so. If we 
 
 SI 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 should give to the Bible a short descriptive title, 
 I think the title which most accurately describes 
 Its subject, covers its contents, and states its 
 purpose is the word "Freedom." It is a fascinat- 
 ing body of literature whose dominant purpose 
 is to point the way td freedom — intellectual, 
 spiritual, economic freedom. If the church once 
 discovered the Bible, it could not continue to 
 oppose the chief idea for which its guide-book 
 stands, without stultifying itself. 
 
 All my life I have regarded it as every man's 
 moral duty to be intellectually honest, especially 
 a man who attempted to be a teacher of the 
 Christian religion. For twenty-five years I have 
 been a special and close student of the Bible, 
 and during that time I have become increasingly 
 enamoured with its insistence on the moral value 
 of freedom. I assumed, therefore, that the 
 church would naturally accept the chief prin- 
 ciple of its own professed guide-book. To my 
 amazement I found just the opposite to be true. 
 The leaders of my church did not want the Bible 
 to be taught; they wanted their own interpre- 
 tation of it to be taught, which I regarded as a 
 misinterpretation. I understand that men may 
 honestly differ widely in their interpretations, 
 and my own principle of freedom leads me to 
 grant freely to every other man entire liberty in 
 forming and stating his own views. I did not ask 
 them to accept any opinions of mine. The only 
 
 52 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 thing I asked them to do was to think, to submit 
 all interpretations to open discussion. The point 
 I am making is that my officers refused to allow 
 any candid and honest examination of the Bible 
 at all. After I had finished two large building 
 enterprises in my New Jersey church, I pro- 
 ceeded to do what I was waiting for the oppor- 
 tunity to do, start a men's Bible class for the 
 candid study of the life of Jesus. The spiritual 
 condition of my church was such that I believed 
 its greatest need was to know the person and 
 teaching of Jesus. I believe this is the greatest 
 need of all men the world over. It is especially 
 the need of men inside the church, because for 
 them the person and teaching of Jesus have been 
 covered up by layer after layer of dogmatic mis- 
 interpretation, and obscured by the false senti- 
 mentality of popular church hymns. It would 
 be nothing else than a thrilling discovery, if 
 church members once saw the person and teach- 
 ing of Jesus as they are presented in the New 
 Testament, and such a vision would regenerate 
 the church. This, of course, is the object I had 
 in view. 
 
 For eighteen months I begged my officers to 
 start such a class, and I offered to teach it, for 
 this was the chief specialty of my ministry, and 
 my officers knew it when they called me to the 
 church. But I insisted that the subject ought to 
 be the life of Jesus, and that the method ought 
 
 S3 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 to be an honest examination and open discus- 
 sion of the facts. Finally they reluctantly con- 
 sented to start such a class. But they started in 
 on exactly the opposite policy and they refused 
 me the opportunity to teach it. They did this 
 in an indirect way. They appointed a committee 
 to draft a plan. They investigated several men's 
 classes in the neighborhood, most of which had 
 proved failures, and many of which had to be 
 abandoned, and our committee adopted the 
 same plan; that is, a presentation, by a different 
 speaker each Sunday, of a harmless and inno- 
 cent commonplace with no free discussion. The 
 president, who is the manager of a magazine 
 published in New York City, took the position 
 that a study of the life of Jesus is too disturbing 
 for a men's class. He did not say so openly, 
 but to the members of his committee, and per- 
 suaded them to agree with him. I knew the class 
 was dead before it started, and frankly warned 
 the committee of the danger involved. But see- 
 ing they were determined, I felt the best thing to 
 do was to surrender for the sake of peace and 
 let the committee learn from experience, during 
 which experiment I showed the officers every 
 courtesy, attending the class myself as often as 
 possible, and always taking whatever part in 
 it the committee asked me to take. 
 
 The class started with about thirty men, but 
 the number gradually began to dwindle, al- 
 
 54 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 though every effort was made to maintain it, by 
 advertisement, weekly post-card notices, and 
 personal invitations. After the lack of interest 
 became apparent, a little group of members, 
 without any slightest hint from me, brought 
 pressure on the president to arrange for some 
 studies in the life of Christ as the one thing that 
 would build up the class. Under this pressure 
 from the men, the president secured a man out- 
 side of the church to give four addresses on the 
 life of Christ. These were not honest, inductive 
 studies of the facts of Christ's life in any sense. 
 They were theological lectures in which the con- 
 clusions were all determined before the exami- 
 nation began. The jury was "fixed" before the 
 case was tried. Any study which is not inductive 
 in its method is certain to be non-progressive. 
 Then the men began an open discussion and 
 objected to the conclusions presented. They did 
 It courteously, for the lecturer was a sweet- 
 spirited and attractive man personally. They 
 just disagreed with him so fundamentally that 
 the lectures were not continued. 
 
 The president was panic-stricken. With some 
 of his committee he came to me to ask whether 
 he ought to ask him to continue the lectures. I 
 answered that it would be safe to ask him back, 
 provided an opportunity for open discussion 
 were given and provided he would ask some 
 man to present the question from the opposite 
 
 SS 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 standpoint. Otherwise it would be fatal to the 
 success of the class to ask him. "If the men feel 
 that you are trying to force on them a precon- 
 ceived dogmatic position, they will resent it as 
 they have already done. Unless the leader shows 
 intellectual honesty, the class is doomed. I dis- 
 agree with him fundamentally, but that is why 
 I want to hear what he has to say. It is like my 
 attitude when I went to Princeton Theological 
 Seminary. Before I went, I saw it was very 
 probable that I should differ radically from the 
 Princeton position, but I chose to go there in 
 order that the so-called orthodox position could 
 be stated to me by its friends. I want to be 
 fair to it.'* 
 
 But the open discussion which I regarded as 
 fruitful of much good and much growth in spir- 
 itual life was the very thing the president feared. 
 He did not invite the lecturer back, but returned 
 to his old method. He tried to make the men, 
 who had started the open discussion, feel as if 
 they were heretics for expressing an honest 
 doubt. This, of course, means death to any influ- 
 ence the church might have over the large body 
 of self-respecting men who are already estranged 
 from the church. The class lingered on for a few 
 months more until the attendance dropped to 
 four or five, and was then finally abandoned. 
 
 When the ofiicers of the class saw that it was 
 a flat failure, I hoped that they would be manly 
 
 56 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 and honest enough to say so, and at the least 
 give me a chance to conduct one on the lines I 
 had urged upon them, and which the men obvi- 
 ously desired. Then I received my second shock. 
 The officers did nothing of the kind. The presi- 
 dent, to save his own face, did all he could in 
 the most dishonorable ways to make trouble be- 
 tween the minister and the church, thus adding 
 to his moral cowardice a great moral wrong and 
 personal injustice, although he acted the part 
 of one of the most pious and orthodox deacons 
 in the church. 
 
 This experience was one of the deepest dis- 
 appointments of my life, not on my own ac- 
 count, because I had many other avenues for 
 service, but for the sake of the church itself. It 
 missed one of the biggest of opportunities. It 
 could have had a class of at least a hundred men 
 engaged in a sincere study of the life of Jesus. 
 This would have enlisted a large number of men 
 who are now outside the church and it would 
 have meant new life and inspiration for the 
 church. J 
 
 While my church's lost opportunity was the 
 source of profoundest regret to myself and to 
 the best men in the church, its significance for 
 others lies in the general principles it embodies. 
 What conclusions does it compel us to draw.? 
 Does it mean that a minister to-day has no 
 opportunity to make an honest study of the life 
 
 57 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 of Jesus in his own church? That there is an 
 impassable gulf fixed between the pious leaders 
 in the church and the good men outside? That 
 the leaders of the church are s ambitious for 
 power that their guiding principle is rule or 
 ruin? That the leaders of the church have not 
 yet learned the primary principle of Christian 
 freedom, namely, to differ in opinion with their 
 fellow Christians without differing in feeling? 
 That the leaders of the church seem totally 
 ignorant of the fact that there is no subject in 
 which the average man, both inside and outside 
 the church, is more interested than religion, and 
 no study he would rather engage in than the life 
 of Jesus, provided it is an honest, inductive 
 study? 
 
 The experience I have narrated means all this 
 and more. It means that the average man, in 
 the church and community, is eager to know the 
 principles of Jesus as stated in his memorabilia, 
 but that the men in control of the church refuse 
 to give them this knowledge. They are willing 
 to give only an outgrown, impractical, theologi- 
 cal interpretation of the life of Jesus, and they 
 employ men who will teach this and nothing 
 else. It means that the traditional blindness of 
 the church has gone to such stupid extremes 
 that men outside the church will force her to 
 discover the book she has adopted as her own 
 guide-book and pretends to follow. In view of 
 
 58 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 these facts I thank God for the printing-press. 
 We now have the right at least to read the Bible, 
 although there is still danger that the Sermon 
 on the Mount may be censored in war-times as 
 a dangerous document. 
 
 These conclusions I think the facts would 
 compel any fair-minded man to make. These are 
 not only my own conclusions, but my settled 
 convictions after a large experience of twenty 
 years. I could give many pointed illustrations to 
 support and demonstrate each of them. These 
 conclusions, it ought to be carefully noted, do 
 not constitute a charge against the membership 
 of the church as a whole. For one group of men, 
 inside and outside the church, clearly revealed 
 their attitude by refusing to attend the class, 
 by requesting the life of Jesus to be presented, 
 and then by forsaking the class when they saw 
 the cowardly and shut-minded policy pursued 
 by the officers. I admired the men for taking this 
 stand. The above conclusions constitute a charge 
 against the leaders of the church. 
 
 The night the committee finally rejected the 
 plan that I urged upon it and adopted the plan 
 that was put into operation, a member of the 
 committee who agreed with my ideals, but who 
 voted against my plan, attempted to give me 
 comfort by saying that the reason why he voted 
 against the plan was that he did not want to see 
 me conduct an honest study of the life of Jesus 
 
 59 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 because it would hurt my standing and influence 
 in the church. He meant, of course, that I would 
 lose my influence with two small groups, some 
 of the deacons and some of the trustees, for my 
 ideals were popular with every one else, as the 
 subsequent history of the class demonstrated. 
 
 This man meant well. He believed in "safety 
 first." He did not want me to lose my job. I 
 appreciated his kindly thought for my welfare. 
 But that night I paced my study most of the 
 night. "My God!" I said, "has it come to this 
 pass in the Christian church ? Cannot a minister 
 conduct an honest study of the life of Christ 
 without losing his influence in his own church.'*" 
 I think the man was entirely correct as to the 
 fact, for later I did lose my job because of the 
 very reason he stated; but I believed that a few 
 men in the church ought to be disturbed rather 
 than not preach honestly the principles of the 
 New Testament, for this was my particular 
 business in the world. This is what I entered the 
 ministry to do. 
 
 The moral and spiritual struggle of that night 
 will long live in my memory. It was the parting 
 of the ways for me as a man and as a minister. 
 The issue I faced was clear-cut and vital. 
 Thomas Rain in his study of Browning states it 
 accurately. Speaking of the advantage a poet 
 has over a professional minister because of his 
 greater freedom, he says: "His mind is free to 
 
 60 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 take its own way and come to its own conclu- 
 sion without fear of consequences. With the 
 clergy it is not so; there is one particular con- 
 clusion they must come to or suffer; they must 
 obey orders or be cast out. So they refrain from 
 inquiry altogether, missing the fine fascination 
 of it; or, Hke Renan's country priest, they in- 
 quire and keep silent. And what a silence ! What 
 a price it costs them ! They go about with firm, 
 closed lips, half dazed, miserably devouring their 
 hearts. In all the world could there be a heavier 
 cross-bearing than this, than having live thought 
 shut up in your mind as in a prison? Always 
 shut up, beat as it may at the bars for utter- 
 ance. It is one of the things that ruin men." It 
 was this issue which I faced and could not 
 flinch. I felt that to do so would mean not only 
 spiritual ruin for myself, but disloyalty to the 
 cause in which I had enlisted. I decided to face 
 it and take the consequences. 
 
 But I do not believe in doing anything im- 
 portant in a hurry. I wanted to be perfectly fair 
 and discover the exact facts as they are. I 
 wanted to demonstrate to myself whether a man 
 could be a Christian minister and retain his 
 moral and intellectual integrity. I agree with 
 President Hadley of Yale that leadership is not 
 worth having, if it has to be secured by the 
 sacrifice of intellectual straightforwardness. I 
 therefore planned a test for my church as a 
 
 6i 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 whole by preaching a course of sermons from 
 the pulpit. I gave an entire winter to it from 
 October to June. In order to be as considerate 
 as possible, I chose a subject which I thought 
 at the time would be a fairly mild and conserva- 
 tive test, but pointed enough to be a real and 
 honest one. I chose the two outstanding docu- 
 ments of the Christian religion, "The Ten 
 Commandments" and "The Beatitudes," which 
 I thought the Christian church ought to stand 
 for, if it could stand for anything. I resolved to 
 be strictly honest in my handling of the sub- 
 ject. I realized that it is a dangerous and radical 
 thing to be honest, but I had already counted 
 the full probable cost of such a course and was 
 willing to pay the price. "It 's cheap at half the 
 price." I repeatedly insisted that I asked no one 
 to agree with my interpretations or conclusions. 
 I asked only that my message be given a respect- 
 ful hearing. My guiding principle was Plato's 
 motto, "Let us follow the argument wherever 
 it leads." I thought no honest church could ob- 
 ject to Plato's principle. 
 
 The results of this test were startling and 
 ought to be profoundly significant to those in- 
 terested in the present condition of the Chris- 
 tian church. To begin with, I had one glorious 
 year of freedom in preaching. I never had such 
 a happy experience before. The consciousness of 
 the vital importance of the message I was 
 
 62 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 preaching and the consciousness of sincerity and 
 honesty in stating it gave a strange new sense 
 of joy and power. It was like a rebirth into a 
 new world. It was like the coming of springtime 
 to my mind and heart. 
 
 After I had started this course I discovered 
 that the test was far more acid than I had 
 thought or planned it to be. But having decided 
 to follow "where the argument leads," I could 
 not, of course, turn back. Besides, I should 
 have been too ashamed to harbor the suggestion 
 that the Ten Commandments and the Beati- 
 tudes could not be preached in a Christian 
 church. I discovered, for example, that the Ten 
 Commandments had been wholly treated as 
 rules of private morality, but that they were 
 not intended to be such. They were intended 
 to be laws of public morality; that is, they were, 
 as a matter of fact, the constitution of an 
 actual nation. They treat, moreover, the prac- 
 tical, political, and economic questions which 
 concern a nation's life. To treat them honestly, 
 therefore, I had to interpret them with reference 
 to the ideals and practices of the Hebrew Repub- 
 lic. The church has lacked the moral courage to 
 treat the Commandments for what they ac- 
 tually are, and to save its self-respect it has 
 obscured and compromised their true meaning 
 and finally given them a decent burial by using 
 them for decorative purposes in the church 
 
 63 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 ritual. To such an extent has the true meaning 
 of the Ten Commandments been lost that no 
 book has yet been written on them treating 
 them for what the Old Testament clearly shows 
 them to be, the constitution of a living nation. 
 After my course of sermons treating them in 
 this way, I can well understand why the church 
 has produced no such book. It would be too 
 disturbing to a dogmatic religion and to vested 
 interests. I discovered likewise that the Beati- 
 tudes were still more pointed and searching 
 than the Commandments, in their treatment of 
 vital and disturbing questions. 
 
 The effect produced on the church by these 
 two courses of sermons is highly significant. 
 From a certain group of deacons and trustees 
 they met opposition and constant criticism. 
 Strenuous objection was made even to the pres- 
 entation of some of the subjects. For example, 
 to the seventh Commandment, "Thou shalt not 
 commit adultery," and to the seventh Beati- 
 tude, "Blessed are the pacifists." This group 
 of officers ventured occasionally to come, but 
 after a little they refused to listen to the ser- 
 mons. They were literally preached out of the 
 church. Two months before the course was 
 over, a curious thing happened. Two trustees, 
 who agreed heartily with my ideals, but whose 
 leading principle was compromise, came to me 
 and suggested that I needed a vacation, and if 
 
 64 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 I would go to the seashore and do no more 
 preaching for that year, they would see that all 
 my expenses were paid. I would not say that this 
 suggestion was not sincerely made, for I never 
 question any man's motives until something 
 more than his word compels me to do so. But 
 the suggestion seemed to me to be suspicious 
 and humorous. I was perfectly well so far as I 
 knew, and I was having the time of my life in 
 the pulpit. Most of the officers were absent and 
 I had the cordial support of the people. No 
 officers had shown the slightest solicitude about 
 my health before. Why should they at this par- 
 ticular time, especially since they knew that 
 within the short period of two months I was to 
 have a long summer vacation.'* It looked as if 
 these men feared that the sermons were digging 
 between the officers and the people a deep gulf, 
 which would be hard to bridge over, and wanted 
 them discontinued. If this was their motive, 
 their fear was well founded, for this is the effect 
 the sermons were producing, although the aim 
 of the sermons was quite the contrary. They 
 were designed as a test both to people and offi- 
 cers, to furnish the officers a programme big 
 enough to lead them to forget their petty dif- 
 ferences and personal ambitions, and to lead 
 both officers and people to better ways of think- 
 ing and living. 
 The pathetic fact about this experiment was 
 
 6s 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 that this group of deacons and trustees not 
 only failed to respond to this appeal, but were 
 made worse by it. This result did not at all 
 surprise me, but I had hoped against hope for 
 something better. The outstanding result of 
 this trial, which is most significant for the future 
 welfare of the Christian cause, was the enthu- 
 siastic response of the people. For twenty years 
 my preaching had never met such response 
 before. The spiritual and mental life of the 
 people grew by leaps and bounds. I received 
 between twenty and thirty separate requests to 
 publish these two courses in book form, so that 
 the people could study them carefully in private. 
 These requests were repeated frequently during 
 the winter and have been repeated since I left 
 the church. ; .. j 
 
 This experience is significant of much which 
 I believe is typical of churches in general. What 
 does it mean.** I discovered that the ideals of 
 the people and the ideals of their intrenched 
 officers are as far apart as the poles. I discov- 
 ered that when the Christian religion is honestly 
 preached, the people will respond to it. I dis- 
 covered that a Christian minister cannot pre- 
 sent the Ten Commandments and the Beati- 
 tudes as they are, without losing his position as 
 a consequence. I resigned my position one year 
 before it was to take effect. This gave me added 
 freedom to make the experiment under the 
 '66 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 most favorable conditions, for if the minister is 
 to leave so soon, there is more probability that 
 the officers will endure his message without 
 making trouble for him. If I had not intended 
 to leave the church before this course of ser- 
 mons, it is clear to me that I should have been 
 compelled to do so after they were delivered. 
 
 I cannot, of course, say that this result would 
 follow in all other churches. But my own ex- 
 perience and my own observation and wide ac- 
 quaintance with other churches, and the fact 
 that my own church is far more progressive 
 than the average church, all lead me to the con- 
 viction that in at least ninety per cent, of the 
 churches, if the Ten Commandments and the 
 Beatitudes were honestly preached, a group of 
 deacons and trustees would combine and take 
 steps, either openly or by subterfuge, to remove 
 the minister. I realize that this is a startling 
 statement to make, but I do not see how the 
 facts warrant any other conclusion. If any 
 minister doubts its truth, all he needs to do is 
 to try the experiment. But if he has a wife and 
 children depending upon him for support, I 
 warn him beforehand of the danger he runs in 
 the attempt. 
 
 What does this mean? What is the root cause 
 of the difficulty? What ails the church, that 
 experiences like mine are repeated to-day so 
 frequently in churches of almost all denomina- 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 tions? The first cause, although not the only 
 cause of this condition of things, is the obvious 
 fact that the church as an organization is not 
 intellectually honest. It is not intellectually 
 honest because it is a slave to dogmatic creeds, 
 either openly expressed or privately assumed. 
 
 I am not here discussing the content or worth 
 of any particular creed. I am discussing the 
 question of intellectual honesty, which is a 
 moral question. It is the custom in Congrega- 
 tional churches for a minister, before he is or- 
 dained or installed, to make to a council and to 
 his church a full statement of his religious ex- 
 perience and his views. Dr. Amory H. Bradford 
 urged me to take this exercise seriously in the 
 preparation of my statement. This I gladly did 
 and made a full and honest statement of my 
 convictions. Dr. Bradford and others requested 
 that it be put into print. It was afterward 
 published by Revell & Co. of New York in a 
 booklet under the title "The Message of the 
 Modern Minister," and widely distributed in 
 my church. So the members of my church fully 
 knew what my convictions were before they 
 accepted me. But they never told me what theirs 
 were. The transaction was not honest. I know 
 now that certain leaders of the church radically 
 disagreed with my views. If so, why did they not 
 say so, before the relationship was established .f* 
 No doubt they assumed that I did not mean 
 
 68 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 what I said, and that I should be a conventional 
 minister, compromising my convictions for the 
 sake of peace. 
 
 The difficulty is that I thought it was right 
 for a Christian minister to be honest and mean 
 what he said. So after I had completed two large 
 building enterprises, I began to put into prac- 
 tice the principles I had expressed in my inau- 
 gural statement. Then my trouble with the 
 officers began. In order to be perfectly fair, I 
 ought to say that while all I tried to put into 
 practice was clearly stated in my inaugural ad- 
 dress, which was printed and in the people's 
 hands, yet in the process of their application I 
 made what was nothing short of a fresh dis- 
 covery of the Four Gospels. I admit that if I 
 had not discovered the New Testament, or if I 
 had kept the discovery a secret, I might have 
 escaped trouble in my church and still have re- 
 tained my position. 
 
 But this leads us to the very point at issue. Is 
 there no room for intellectual and spiritual 
 growth in the church f It is obvious that a young 
 minister fresh from the schools, who has had 
 little opportunity to do independent thinking or 
 to verify his conclusions by experience, will have 
 much to learn and ought to be expected to grow. 
 In view of this obvious fact, would it not be the 
 wise and natural thing for a church to say to its 
 minister something like this: *^You are a spe- 
 
 69 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH ' 
 
 cialist in the religious life; you make a special 
 study of the Bible and are engaged to investi- 
 gate the relation of spiritual principles to human 
 needs; it must be that in the course of your 
 study and experience, you will discover many 
 new facts in the Bible and enjoy many new vis- 
 ions of spiritual truth helpful to human life; 
 we want you not only to feel free to bring your 
 discoveries to us in the pulpit, but we think it is 
 your duty to do so; we will not, of course, prom- 
 ise to agree with all your conclusions, but we 
 want you to share them with us, so that we can 
 enjoy them with you, and grow as you grow." 
 If any church should make a sincere attempt to 
 discover what the truth is rather than to de- 
 fend only the amount and kind of truth it is 
 willing to accept, it would naturally make this 
 statement to every minister it called. If any 
 church would say this to its minister, it would 
 get from him twice as much information and in- 
 spiration as it now receives, and which he is 
 eager to give, but does not feel free to give. This 
 is the deepest sorrow of the minister's life, that 
 as a public teacher he has a wealth of good 
 things to give which his church is not willing to 
 receive. On the part of the church it is amazing 
 to me that business men will invest so much 
 money in it, and be content with so little return 
 from it as they now receive. I have never known 
 but one church to grant such freedom to its 
 
 70 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 minister. On the contrary, it is the common 
 practice for the churches to put every obstacle 
 in the way of the minister's freedom. This is 
 sufficient reason for the profoundly disturbing 
 fact that so large a number of young men and so 
 large a number of the right type of young men 
 are to-day refusing to enter the Christian min- 
 istry. No self-respecting young man wants to 
 sacrifice his moral integrity and intellectual 
 honesty for the sake of serving his fellow men 
 inside the church when he can do it in so many 
 better ways outside and still retain his moral 
 manhood. 
 
 This also is the sufficient explanation of the 
 confused lack of knowledge and of spiritual 
 enthusiasm among the laymen of the church. I 
 shall never forget a little experience which made 
 this fact impressive to me. After I had decided 
 to give up my church, but before I had left it, 
 the committee in charge of the Princeton work 
 in Peking, China, invited me to give a course of 
 lectures in Peking and Tokio, on the essentials 
 of the Christian religion, and put them into book 
 form for the use of Chinese students. While I 
 was formulating the line of thought the lectures 
 ought to take, I asked a group of about twenty 
 men to spend several evenings with me in con- 
 ference on the subject. They were men from 
 several different churches as well as my own. 
 They were all leading business men of New York 
 
 71 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 City, editors of magazines, publishers of books, 
 men of large affairs, and men of a very high 
 order of intelligence. I stated the subject of the 
 conference and said : " It's a long way to Peking, 
 and the man who takes the time and money 
 necessary to go there ought to feel that he has 
 something to say which he deems very im- 
 portant indeed for his fellow men to know. You 
 men have all been members of the church for 
 many years. You represent as high an average 
 of thoughtful laymen as can be found in Amer- 
 ica. It would be both interesting and helpful to 
 me if you would tell me frankly what you think 
 the Christian religion is about, what it aims to 
 do and how it proposes to do it, what are some 
 of its essentials which you think I ought to tell 
 the Chinese students who sincerely desire to 
 know about them." I did nothing but help guide 
 and clarify the discussion by asking questions. 
 I wish now I had arranged for a shorthand 
 report of these meetings. It would be most 
 interesting as well as very disturbing. I was sur- 
 prised and shocked by the discussion. The one 
 abiding impression made on me was the con- 
 fusion of thought exhibited and the utter lack of 
 any clear understanding of the meaning of the 
 Christian religion. I felt that the Christian men 
 of America needed a series of lectures almost as 
 much as the non-Christian students of China. 
 There was only one man in this group who had 
 
 72 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 any clear idea, or at least was willing to express 
 what he thought the Christian religion was 
 about. He had been a superintendent of a 
 Presbyterian Sunday-school, then a member of 
 a Congregational church, and is now a leader in 
 the Unitarian Church. Moreover, he resigned a 
 fine business position because he believed the 
 methods of the business world were morally 
 wrong. Thus he had thought his own way 
 through to definite convictions, had suffered on 
 their behalf, and hence was enthusiastic over 
 them. To him the Christian religion is a definite 
 and inspiring reality. I have many times since 
 tried to explain to myself the confusion of 
 thought on the part of these intelligent men. I 
 have concluded that one of the chief reasons for 
 it is the fact that they have received no clear 
 instruction from the pulpit. The reason why 
 they have not is because ministers are not free 
 to give it, even if they were able to do so. 
 
 The above experiences are sufficient to indi- 
 cate that intellectual dishonesty is one of the 
 chief blights which to-day is disintegrating the 
 church's moral integrity, preventing its spiritual 
 growth, and undermining its influence with self- 
 respecting men. What is the way out of this 
 intolerable condition } The first step in the way 
 out seems to me to be obvious. It is for the 
 church to banish every dogmatic creed of what- 
 ever sort. A dogmatic creed is morally vicious 
 
 73 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 in its influence on intellectual integrity and 
 spiritual growth. It padlocks the minister's 
 mind. The Christian religion is not a dogmatic 
 but a factual religion. The inductive method 
 of examining the facts and of drawing one's 
 own conclusions is the only method any man 
 can honestly use, unless he deliberately abdi- 
 cates his right to intellectual freedom. 
 
 If the jury's verdict is quite fixed and deter- 
 mined before the case is examined, what's the 
 use of trying the case at all ? " It is not so much," 
 says Bertrand Russell, "that the creed of the 
 church is a wrong one; what is amiss is the mere 
 existence of a creed. As soon as income, position, 
 and power are dependent upon acceptance of 
 no matter what creed, intellectual honesty is 
 imperiled. Men will tell themselves that a 
 formal assent is justified by the good which it 
 will enable them to do. They fail to realize that 
 in those whose mental life has any vigor, loss 
 of complete intellectual integrity puts an end 
 to the power of doing good, by producing grad- 
 ually in all directions an inability to see truth 
 simply." 
 
 When I say that I think the church ought to 
 have no dogmatic creed at all, I do not mean 
 that it ought to have no convictions. I mean 
 just the contrary. The complaint I make 
 against the church is that it has no courage, no 
 conscience, and no convictions. What I am 
 
 74 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 pleading for is that the church substitute con- 
 victions for dogmas, that it adopt a working 
 programme, make a declaration of principles in 
 which it can really believe, acquire some vital 
 beliefs which it can get enthusiastic about and 
 make them a requirement of membership. It is 
 the church's unbelief and doubt concerning the 
 Christian religion which is the fruitful source of 
 its weakness to-day. 
 
 My own church, for example, had no such 
 statement of principles and was not willing to 
 make any such statement. I once wrote for my 
 church a manual containing a short history of 
 the church, of its departments of work, and 
 general information concerning its operations. 
 The manual was to be put into the hands of 
 new members for their guidance. I urged the 
 committee, appointed to have charge of this 
 publication, to allow me to include in it a state- 
 ment of the church's religious convictions. 
 Years before, the church had adopted a "Con- 
 fession of Faith," but it had become a dead 
 letter. No member was asked to accept it. I 
 asked the committee to make a new and vital 
 one; not only because honesty required it, but 
 because many in the community did not know 
 what the church's position was and refused to 
 join it on that account. When the people asked 
 me for a statement of the church's beliefs, I had 
 none to give them. They said, "We know from 
 
 75 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 your sermons what your convictions are and 
 agree with them, but the church is run by a 
 small group, whose position is quite different." 
 Their request to know what the church stood 
 for was entirely honest, and I admired them 
 for refusing to join it under these conditions. In 
 spite of these facts the committee voted to 
 retain the old Confession, but attached to it a 
 footnote, saying that no member of the church 
 was asked to accept it. That is, they publicly 
 acknowledged it to be a corpse, and yet they 
 printed it. The old was dead and the new was 
 powerless to be born. Why retain a corpse? 
 
 The reason is that the men who do so, while 
 they know the people will not accept it, yet 
 wish to dominate the church through the influ- 
 ence of dead dogma. These men, at least some 
 of them, no doubt still sincerely believe in it. 
 The point I raise is not the question of their 
 personal beliefs, their merit or demerit, but the 
 intellectual dishonesty of the method employed. 
 The church is so anxious for members and 
 money, that it is willing to be practically dis- 
 loyal to the creed which it officially professes. 
 It is the method of Jesuitism. If there is one 
 document which the religious leaders of the 
 church need especially to read and ponder, it 
 is Carlyle's essay on "Jesuitism," in which he 
 shows the untold damage it has done to the 
 moral and spiritual life of the church. I can 
 
 76 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 admire any church which openly stands by its 
 convictions, however widely they differ from 
 my own, but I have no respect for a church 
 which is not honest enough to say what its real 
 convictions are. 
 
 The moral cowardice and intellectual dis- 
 honesty of my own church, which this experi- 
 ence reveals, is typical of churches in general. 
 The Presbyterian church, for example, officially 
 holds a well-known dogmatic creed, but it 
 does not require any one of its members to 
 accept it. Any man will be accepted by a Pres- 
 byterian church, even if he rejects nine tenths 
 of the Westminster Confession. Only its minis- 
 ters are required to accept it. It is quite apart 
 from the mark for men to attempt to justify 
 this action, as some of them do, by saying that 
 ministers and not laymen are required to accept 
 it, just as the President of the United States, 
 because he is a public officer, takes an oath of 
 allegiance to the Constitution, but a private 
 citizen does not. The difficulty with this state- 
 ment is that it is not true. The oath a man 
 takes when he becomes President is an oath 
 that he will be loyal, not to the Constitution, 
 but to the administration of his office. Every 
 citizen is expected to believe in the Constitu- 
 tion and obey it just as much as the President 
 is. If any man violates it, something happens. 
 Every alien, before he becomes a citizen, takes 
 
 77 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 an oath of allegiance to the Constitution. What 
 impression would he get if we said, "This is the 
 Constitution of our country which states our 
 principles, but you can become a citizen 
 whether you believe in it or not." Yet this is 
 exactly what the church says — "This is the 
 creed of our church, but we do not require any 
 member to accept it." 
 
 i I hold that no church can be honest which 
 professes a creed it is unwilling to operate. A 
 creed which we have so little faith in as to be 
 afraid to submit it to the people for their ac- 
 ceptance or rejection is not worthy of respect. 
 This procedure violates every principle of de- 
 mocracy. It is the survival of an autocratic 
 method by which a few men attempt by subter- 
 fuge to dominate the church, by imposing their 
 dogmas on the people. The church of the future, 
 to be effective and morally useful, must first of 
 all be intellectually honest. 
 
 If, then, a Christian church should be honest 
 enough to abandon a dogmatic creed in which 
 it no longer believed, and should adopt in its 
 stead a declaration of principles as a working 
 programme, I think it would be made up of a 
 few simple axioms. Most dogmatic creeds deal 
 largely with matters about which we know 
 nothing and about which it is impossible for us 
 to know anything, and are of very little impor- 
 tance, even if they could be known. But an 
 
 78 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 axiom is a self-evident truth which does not 
 admit of argument. It is like this: William J. 
 Bryan once began a lecture with this statement, 
 "If you say to a man, *Thou shalt not steal,' 
 and he answers, *I am not so sure about that; 
 I would like to argue that proposition with you,' 
 don't argue with him, search him." When the 
 application of an axiom becomes morally dis- 
 turbing, men find it more comfortable to take to 
 argument and creed-making. "We are so accus- 
 tomed," said Trevelyan, "to look for creeds, 
 for short cuts to contentment by some other 
 route than our own conduct and courage, that 
 we will not believe that a man can teach us to 
 live healthy lives, unless he has some patent 
 medicine in his pocket." This explains why 
 dogma and patent medicine are popular with 
 those who want results without any effort on 
 their part. Men stop trying to get something for 
 nothing, just in proportion as they become 
 moral and intelligent. 
 
 The axioms of the spiritual life are formative 
 principles of both thought and conduct. It is 
 like this — these axioms are to theology what 
 the stars are to astronomy. They are the solid 
 reliable facts. However important theology and 
 astronomy may be — and they are important — 
 nevertheless they necessarily consist in chang- 
 ing theories and widely differing opinions. When 
 these opinions reach the stage when they can 
 
 79 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 be formulated in a creed, they are already dead. 
 My point is that they ought never to be in- 
 cluded in a church's declaration of principles, 
 for they are not axioms but theories. By desert- 
 ing the solid moral realities of experience for 
 the fictions and theories of an irreverent imag- 
 ination, it was a perfectly natural consequence 
 that the church should have persecuted Galileo 
 for expressing the new idea that the earth moved 
 round the sun. From the time when Christianity 
 was captured by Greek theological speculation 
 until now, the church has always so acted. It is 
 doing the same thing to-day in some form or 
 another. It will continue to do so until it breaks 
 the crust which impedes its progress, and offi- 
 cially abandons a dogmatic creed altogether, 
 as a sin against moral and spiritual growth. 
 The essence of religion is not a creed, but an 
 attitude to life. 
 
 If I were asked to name some of the axioms 
 that ought to constitute a worthy declaration of 
 principles for a church, and express for it the 
 Christian attitude to life, I think the statement 
 ought to read somewhat as follows : 
 
 'The First Community Church of 
 
 recognizes religion as a universal human fact, as 
 an attitude to life instead of a dogma, as the 
 basic common denominator among men, and as 
 an indispensable common need like love and 
 sunshine. It aims to unite all citizens of this 
 
 80' 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 community for mutual aid in self-development 
 through the discovery and practice of universal 
 spiritual ideals as embodied in the real religion 
 of Jesus and other teachers. It imposes on its 
 members no confession of faith, but stimulates 
 them to form their own personal and carefully 
 considered convictions through untrammeled 
 investigation and public discussion. It sets for 
 itself the task of creating a social order more in 
 harmony with the manifest purposes of God and 
 with the conscience and intelligence of the 
 people. It regards the community as the field of 
 its labor and itself as a society of friends to be 
 used as a force for the common welfare. It 
 treats religion not as a separate business set up 
 apart from life, but as a divine spirit pervading 
 every activity of life. Its message is a challenge, 
 not a truce; its ultimate authority in religion is 
 the Inner Light; its only sanction in religion is 
 the universal conscience; its working motto is 
 each for all and all for each. ' 
 
 It will be noticed that the formative idea on 
 which this declaration is written is that, aside 
 from the essential axioms, entire freedom is 
 granted for each man to form his own conclu- 
 sions. For example, the only requirement Jesus 
 ever made of the first men who joined his com- 
 pany was, " Follow me." Personal practical loy- 
 alty admitted them to membership. Beyond 
 that, all other questions were left for each man 
 
 8i 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 to consider and settle for himself. For example, 
 whether Jesus was divine or not, in what sense 
 He was divine, whether his divinity rests on 
 physical facts or on his moral and spiritual char- 
 acter — all questions of this kind are left for 
 each man's honest consideration. It is like this : 
 The most popular poem on the spiritual life ever 
 written is the Hebrew hymn "The Lord is My 
 Shepherd." It contains no word concerning 
 theories of the shepherd's claims as to his posi- 
 tion in the order of being. Aside from its artistic 
 merit, the secret of its popularity lies in its use 
 of the word "My." In this short poem of only 
 six sentences, the personal pronoun occurs 
 seventeen times. Until a man can spell the 
 word "My" with a capital "M," he does not 
 hold the key to its meaning. Speculative theories 
 about the shepherd will lead him astray and 
 may do him serious damage. Personally expe- 
 rienced loyalty, with its consequent effect on 
 character and conduct, is the subject of the 
 poem. Jesus had enough faith in himself and in 
 his teaching to believe that, if an honest normal 
 man came into intimate contact with his person 
 and teaching, he would naturally fall in love 
 with both, and enlist in his cause. He believed 
 that only volunteers were of any value to his 
 cause. He did not believe in drafting men 
 through the compulsion of dogma or money or 
 the sword. It is a vastly different thing for a 
 
 82 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 man to hold the abstract philosophical opinion 
 that God, as a theological entity, is Jesus, than 
 for him to act on the conviction that Jesus is his 
 God; that is, the supreme director of his thought 
 and conduct. Without practical loyalty, all 
 theological speculative opinions are an im- 
 pertinence not only, but a positive damage to 
 the moral character. It is only a natural conse- 
 quence that they have produced in the churches 
 some very unattractive types of character, 
 whose prevailing northeastern exposures have 
 kept so many good men out of them. Blessed 
 are the pious people with whom it is pleasant to 
 live. 
 
 In addition to the above declaration of prin- 
 ciples, such as Jesus made the condition for 
 membership among his followers, I think the 
 church's working platform^ ought to include the 
 Ten Commandments as a statement of its spirit- 
 ual and moral standards, and also the Beati- 
 tudes as the statement of its spiritual and moral 
 ideals. It might be disturbing, but would it not 
 be refreshing and inspiring to see some church 
 embody the Ten Commandments and Beati- 
 tudes in its working platform? The Beatitudes 
 constitute Jesus' statement of his own working 
 programme; are they not good enough for his 
 church? Is it not surprising that no church has 
 
 'A suggested constitution for a community church will be 
 found in Appendix C. 
 
 83 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 ever included in its creed the Ten Command- 
 ments and the Beatitudes ? The reason for this 
 omission is, of course, not far to seek. They are 
 too elevated and too disturbing to self-interest. 
 It is so much easier and also safer to debate 
 questions like the virgin birth, the immaculate 
 conception, predestination, theories of the 
 Trinity, future punishment of infants. Apostolic 
 succession, modes of baptism, — questions which 
 Jesus himself never once talked about, — than 
 it is to consider ways and means by which the 
 Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes can be 
 put into effective operation. 
 
 And yet, to put Jesus' teaching into operation 
 is the avowed end and aim of the church. I am 
 fully persuaded that one of the indispensable 
 conditions of making any real progress toward 
 fulfilling its professed mission is for the church 
 to acquire intellectual freedom. To make this 
 necessity apparent is the purpose of this chapter. 
 I have tried to show from experience that even 
 a church like my own, which is very much more 
 forward-looking than the average church, has 
 not yet acquired such freedom. 
 
 When a man has reached the radical conclu- 
 sion that he will be honest with himself, as I 
 have, and when he has discovered the spiritual 
 and practical value of a sane and wise freedom, 
 as I have, he feels a sense of shame in discussing 
 the question as to whether the church ought to 
 
 84 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 permit its teachers and members to exercise in- 
 tellectual freedom. It is so axiomatic. It does not 
 admit of argument. It is so obviously essential 
 to mental health and moral integrity that it 
 seems unthinkable that any Christian church 
 would refuse to foster its growth. 
 
 But the average church to-day neither per- 
 mits it nor fosters it. By so doing the church is 
 violating the first principle of all spiritual prog- 
 ress and every other kind of progress as well. 
 An open mind is the gateway to truth and free- 
 dom. It is so indispensable that every one of the 
 world's great teachers has dwelt on it with re- 
 iterated emphasis. Confucius called it by the 
 beautiful name, "Mental hospitality." He 
 dwells on it repeatedly. "The superior man," 
 he said, "does not set his mind either for any- 
 thing or against anything; what is right, he will 
 follow." Socrates clearly saw the same need. 
 He called open-mindedness "a love of wisdom." 
 "I am not a sophist, a wise man," he said, as 
 many in Athens professed to be. "I am a lover 
 of wisdom." Out of this remark the term "philos- 
 opher" was born, for literally this is what the 
 term means: "I am a lover of wisdom," a 
 searcher after the truth. 
 
 What Confucius and Socrates saw so clearly, 
 Jesus saw even more clearly; at least He stated 
 it more vigorously, even drastically. I wonder 
 why? Was it because He felt that men suffered 
 
 8s 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 more from shut-mindedness in religious matters 
 than in any other line of activity? His experience 
 with the Pharisees of his day justified him in 
 thinking so. He called mental honesty "The 
 Spirit of Truth." He regarded it as so important 
 that He called it a holy and divine spirit. He 
 went so far as to say that a closed mind was an 
 unpardonable sin. All my life I have heard re- 
 ligious people talk about "the unpardonable 
 sin," but I never met any one who could tell me 
 definitely what it was, although the church had 
 often used it as a means of scaring people, and 
 great numbers of women have been driven in- 
 sane by it. One day I got an impulse to see 
 whether Jesus Himself said what it was, for I 
 had already begun to see that the Four Gospels 
 throw a flood of light on theology. I turned to 
 the passage in which He treats it. I was thrilled 
 to discover that He makes it as clear as the sun- 
 shine, at least so it seems to me. 'I have many 
 things to say unto you,' He said to his disciples, 
 *but you cannot receive them now, but when 
 the spirit of truth takes possession of your minds 
 and hearts he will guide you into all truth, one 
 new truth after another and so help you to grow 
 spiritually. You may say any ugly thing against 
 me and it will be forgiven, but if you shut your 
 minds against the spirit of truth itself, that can- 
 not be forgiven.' That is to say, the unpardon- 
 able sin is nothing more or less than a closed 
 
 86 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 mind. It is a sin against the law of life. It pre- 
 vents all growth. It is unpardonable for the very 
 obvious reason that a man who deliberately 
 refuses to grow, does n't grow. In order to make 
 this fact still more clear, I will state it in the 
 form of a parable, by quoting a descriptive poem 
 by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, called *'The 
 Butterfly," which seems to me to embody ex- 
 actly what Jesus meant by a closed mind and 
 the damage it does to growth and progress. 
 
 "The garden bed I wandered by- 
 One bright and cheerful morn. 
 When I found a new-fledged butterfly 
 A-sitting on a thorn, 
 A black and crimson butterfly" 
 All doleful and forlorn. 
 
 **I thought that life could have no sting 
 To infant butterflies. 
 So I gazed on this unhappy thing 
 With wonder and surprise, 
 While sadly with his waving wing 
 He wiped his weeping eyes. 
 
 "Said I, *What can the matter be? 
 Why weepest thou so sore 
 With garden fair and sunlight free 
 And flowers in goodly store?' 
 But he only turned away from me 
 And burst into a roar. 
 
 ** Cried he, *My legs are thin and few 
 Where once I had a swarm, 
 Soft fuzzy fur a joy to view 
 Once kept my body warm, 
 Before these flapping wing things grew 
 To hamper and deform.* 
 
 87 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 "At that outrageous bug I shot 
 The fury of mine eye. 
 Said I, in scorn all burning hot. 
 In rage and anger high, 
 *You ignominious idiot 
 Those wings are made to fly.' 
 
 ***I do not want to fly,' said he 
 *I only want to squirm.' 
 And he dropped his wings dejectedly 
 But still his voice was firm; 
 *I do not want to be a fly 
 I want to be a worm.' 
 
 **0 yesterday of unknown lack. 
 To-day of unknown bliss; 
 I left my fool in red and black: 
 The last I saw was this, 
 The creature madly climbing back 
 Into his chrysalis." 
 
 If we had the courage to be honest we should 
 be compelled to say that the church through its 
 intellectual dishonesty is committing the un- 
 pardonable sin. This explains its lack of spiritual 
 growth. It also explains why the church to-day 
 is losing its influence over a rapidly increasing 
 number of good and honest men both in Europe 
 and America. One of the first essential reforms 
 which needs to be made in the church is to help 
 it achieve intellectual honesty, to liberate it 
 from dead chrysalis creedal forms, so that it 
 may use its wings to fly into the free air and 
 sunshine of a vital and joyous experience. 
 Until this is done, we are only playing about 
 
 88 
 
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 
 
 the fringes of the church's problem, which every 
 day grows more acute. But if the large majority 
 of the members of my own church were open- 
 minded and desired to escape from their 
 chrysalis forms, as I found them to be through 
 the experience narrated in this chapter, and if 
 the great body of the people in other churches 
 honestly desire to know the way out of the 
 church's present difficulty, why should such a 
 reform be difficult to effect? The reason why 
 I could not achieve this reform in my own 
 church and the reason why I think it is difficult, 
 if not impossible, to achieve, as the church is at 
 present organized, is the subject of the next 
 chapter. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE CHURCH AND FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
When an institution is young it possesses 
 abounding vitality ^ it has hope and faith, it 
 is more or less oblivious to material expres- 
 sion or to material comfort. But when the 
 institution grows old and fearful, begins to 
 lose its confident hold upon life, instinctively 
 it seeks to replace its failing vigor with ma- 
 terial proofs of its greatness and power. As 
 the spirit dies down, stone buildings rise up. 
 Ray ' Stannard Baker 
 
Ill 
 
 THE CHURCH AND FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 If the majority of church members were asked 
 the question, "What one subject did Jesus talk 
 about more than any other, as indicated by 
 his private and public teaching reported in the 
 only record we have of it, that is, the four 
 biographies of the New Testament?" — what 
 would they say it was? If they based their 
 answer not on a careful examination of these 
 records, but on the impression that lies in their 
 minds and which they have received from the 
 pulpit of the church, what would their answer 
 be? For our present purpose this is the kind of 
 answer we need. And it is a fair method of 
 procedure, because we ought to be able to 
 assume that a Christian minister would natu- 
 rally emphasize most in his preaching the thing 
 which Jesus emphasized most; otherwise he 
 would give a false impression of his Master's 
 teaching. In order to make this test, I suggest 
 that my readers stop at this point in their 
 reading, and formulate their own answers to 
 this question. 
 
 If you do so, I venture to say that your 
 
 93 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 answers will be along this line — "The sermons 
 we have heard lead us to think that Jesus as a 
 religious teacher must have talked most about 
 such subjects as sin and guilt and belief and 
 future punishment." If this is your answer, you 
 will be no little shocked to turn to the New 
 Testament and discover for yourself that He 
 does nothing of the kind. What He talks most 
 about is the use and misuse of moneys the insid- 
 ious blight which money brings to every thing 
 that makes life worth while, when it becomes a 
 master rather than a servant of man. He makes 
 this clear by his deeds, as in the case of the 
 money traffickers in the church of his day; by 
 pointed parables, as in those about Dives and 
 the Prodigal Son; by private conversation, as 
 that with the rich young ruler; and by frequent 
 direct teaching. My experience with life in gen- 
 eral, and particularly my experience with the 
 church, convinces me that Jesus' convictions 
 concerning money are entirely correct and are 
 justified by obvious facts. I agree with him that 
 an ethical view of money, with all that this 
 view implies, is the profoundest need of our 
 world both from a religious as well as from a 
 social and economic point of view. Why is it 
 that we get one impression from the records of 
 Jesus' teaching and a very contrary impression 
 from the pulpits of churches to-day? There's a 
 reason. When I had discovered for myself that 
 
 94 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 Jesus stressed the use of money most in his 
 teaching, and announced a sermon on it for the 
 following Sunday, I received a telephone mes- 
 sage on Saturday evening from one of my 
 officers begging me not to preach the sermon, 
 because it would disturb a certain group of men 
 in the church. The church's great problem is 
 not the problem of poverty, but the problem of 
 wealth, of dishonest privilege, and the injustice 
 which always accompanies special privilege. 
 
 In the preceding chapter of this story, I tried 
 to show that the church does not possess in- 
 tellectual freedom. The reason why it does not, 
 is because it does not possess financial freedom. 
 The one is fundamentally dependent on£the 
 other. Slavery to money means slavery to 
 dogma. It is the foster-father of moral coward- 
 ice. How completely intellectual freedom de- 
 pends on financial freedom can be made 
 apparent by describing a personal experience. 
 One Sunday I preached a sermon on "The 
 Religion of the Deed." It was the simplest 
 application of Christian teaching to present 
 human needs. In the course of the sermon I 
 used, as an illustration, a prayer which was at 
 that time being offered daily by girls employed 
 by a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, but who were 
 on a strike. It seemed to me that the prayer 
 naturally would have wrung a cry of sympathy 
 from a heart of stone. One petition of it, for 
 
 95 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 example, is as follows: "O Lord, who knowest 
 the sparrow's fall, won't you help us to resist 
 when the modern devil, who has charge of our 
 work, takes advantage of our poverty to lead 
 us astray? Sometimes, O Lord, it is hard. Hunger 
 and cold are terrible things, and they make us 
 weak. We want to do right. Help us to be 
 strong." 
 
 After the service was over, one man, who at 
 that time was president of our board of trustees, 
 and who was a large part-owner of woolen mills 
 in New England, remained for a private inter- 
 view. He said he remained to register his pro- 
 test against the sermon. He regarded it as wrong 
 in fact, and harmful in influence, and he wanted 
 me to know how he felt about it. I answered 
 that, if he would sit down for a few minutes, I 
 would guarantee to prove to him that he agreed 
 with every principle stated in the sermon, 
 provided he accepted the teaching of the New 
 Testament, and that if I did not prove it, I 
 would promise to buy him a new hat. He then 
 said that he did not want to listen to any dis- 
 cussion of the subject, for he did not want to 
 have his religion mixed with his economics. I 
 answered that, of course, if his mind was closed 
 on the subject, it would not be worth while to 
 waste his time and mine in discussing it. With 
 this remark the interview ended. 
 
 The next night this man attended a meeting 
 
 96 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 of the board of trustees and vigorously de- 
 nounced the sermon, saying that it was danger- 
 ous preaching and vicious doctrine, that it 
 would do great damage to the church and also 
 decrease the income of the trustees. It will be 
 noticed that he made no argument of the ques- 
 tion itself, — just contenting himself with the 
 use of such words as "dangerous," and at the 
 last he skillfully laid his finger on the sensitive 
 and efficient secret of influence with the other 
 members of the board, by saying, "it would 
 decrease the income of the trustees," thus im- 
 plying that he would withdraw his own con- 
 tribution. 
 
 By this time my interest was thoroughly 
 aroused. I knew this man very well and I had a 
 high regard for his ability. But I felt that he was 
 not true to himself. I was so sure that he agreed 
 with the principles of the sermon that I took 
 steps to find out. The next Sunday I laid a trap 
 for him into which he fell. It is contrary to my 
 habit to address a sermon to any particular 
 individual, but I wanted to discover a fact, 
 which I deemed of great value for the guidance 
 of the church as a whole. The next Sunday I 
 gave an exposition of exactly the same prin- 
 ciples treated by the sermon of the previous 
 Sunday, to which he had so strenuously ob- 
 jected. But this time the setting for them was 
 laid in a situation many centuries old, and they 
 
 97 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 were applied to Jeroboam, King of Israel. I 
 soundly berated this ancient king for violating 
 these very principles. I purposely made my 
 invective against him most severe, in order to 
 make the test more conclusive. The following 
 day I received from this gentleman a long three- 
 page typewritten letter, sent from his office in 
 New York, in which he enthusiastically praised 
 the sermon on Jeroboam. He dwelt on its merits 
 in detail and covered them with extravagant 
 compliments. He said this is the kind of preach- 
 ing our church needs, and he urged me to con- 
 tinue it. 
 
 This, of course, is highly interesting comedy, 
 but it is tragedy also. The experiment disclosed, 
 what I had suspected, that it is not to the 
 Christian principles that men of this type object. 
 What they object to'^^is their application. It is 
 typical of those church officials who are always 
 expressing their anxious devotion for the 
 "simple Gospel," by which is meant a plan to 
 insure a man's escape from punishment in the 
 next world, but which "tactfully" avoids any 
 serious application of the principles of Jesus to 
 the moral and social needs of human life in this 
 present world. My experiment discloses the 
 further fact that the opposition of these men 
 to intellectual honesty on the part of the min- 
 ister in treating Christian principles, inspired as 
 it is by selfish motives, leads them to use un- 
 
 98 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 worthy and autocratic methods to gain their 
 ends. They refuse to enter Into any open 
 discussion on the merits of the question at 
 issue; they merely withdraw their financial 
 support. To add this "practical" argument to 
 personal abuse is the efficient way to produce 
 results. 
 
 This episode is significant of much. It leads 
 us at once into the secret of the church's moral 
 weakness and lack of success as an institution. 
 One of the chief keys to a true understanding 
 of both the moral and material weakness of the 
 church lies in Its board of trustees. During the 
 twenty years of my ministry, the board of trus- 
 tees has been by far the most troublesome factor 
 with which I have had to deal. It is the storm 
 center in the work of the church. The amount of 
 my time and strength consumed in trying to 
 prevent Injury to the church through the 
 blunders of the trustees, or In undoing the in- 
 jury they had already done to it, I should be 
 ashamed to state. I am not unmindful of the 
 many noble trustees in both my churches, who 
 have rendered most faithful and efficient ser- 
 vice. I am speaking of the system itself. The 
 Protestant church Is the most lamely managed 
 of all modern institutions. The two fundamental 
 weaknesses which have resulted from the organ- 
 ization of trustees as a separate board are prac- 
 tical Inefficiency In the work of the church, and 
 
 99 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 moral damage to its spiritual influence. I 
 realize that these are both drastic indictments to 
 make, but my experience of twenty years con- 
 vinces me that they are not only true, but 
 obviously true. To make them apparent I will 
 state the facts of my experience which led me to 
 these conclusions, facts which at the same time 
 will point the clear way out of the difficulty. 
 For the sake of the fundamental principle 
 involved, I shall be compelled to be more 
 personal than my sense of good taste would 
 ordinarily permit me to be. 
 
 When I took charge of my Pennsylvania 
 church I knew very little about the adminis- 
 tration side of my work. The Theological Sem- 
 inary does not seem to regard it as any part of 
 its duty to equip a minister for his practical 
 work. Its aim is to make scholars. For the first 
 five years my church had a yearly deficit in its 
 income. Each year I was asked to raise it by 
 making an appeal from the pulpit, which I did. 
 Then I refused to do it any longer. I took this 
 stand because it was unfair to ask those in the 
 congregation, who had already done their share, 
 to make up a deficit which was due to a lack of 
 business methods. I did it also out of justice to 
 myself. Whenever any church does not succeed 
 financially, the minister gets the blame for it, 
 whether he is responsible for it or not. But the 
 law of the church does not permit him to be a 
 
 100 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM ; . 
 
 member of the board of trustees or have any 
 connection with its finances. To hold a minister 
 responsible for the results of poor business 
 methods, in which he is permitted to have no 
 part, is manifest injustice. No business man 
 would consent to take charge of any concern 
 and be responsible for producing results, unless 
 he was also given some degree of freedom in the 
 management of it. Where there is no freedom, 
 there can be no responsibility. And yet almost 
 all churches are so organized as to violate this 
 simple moral principle. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of raising the yearly de- 
 ficit from the pulpit as the trustees had asked 
 me to do, I asked to be made chairman of a 
 committee of trustees to manage the church 
 finances for one year. It was a violation of the 
 church law for me to do so, but for the good of 
 the church it was important that I find out 
 the real cause of its financial condition. This 
 was a month before the church's fiscal year 
 began. In two weeks we had received sub- 
 scriptions enough to pay that year's deficit and 
 more than enough to provide for the following 
 year's budget. It was seventeen hundred dollars 
 in excess of the church's income for any pre- 
 vious year. The methods used were the simplest 
 methods of ordinary scientific management 
 adapted to church needs. To make the test 
 more accurate, the name of the trustees and 
 
 lOI 
 
,: ;;;' / ' , A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 not my own name was signed to all communi- 
 cations so that my personal influence might 
 not be a factor in the result. 
 
 Then I made my first discovery about church 
 finances, which it took me five years to make 
 and the truth of which, since then, has been 
 abundantly confirmed. It is this: that the aver- 
 age church trustee does not know how to con- 
 duct church finances, neither the methods to be 
 employed nor the spirit in which to employ 
 them. I do not blame him for not knowing. It 
 is unnatural to expect him to know. If I desired 
 to know about insurance, I should go to a man 
 who had made a life study of it. If I desired to 
 learn how to publish a magazine, I should 
 consult a man who was engaged in that busi- 
 ness. Likewise, if I wanted to know how to 
 administer a church, it is natural to consult 
 the man who is devoting his entire time to this 
 one pursuit, that is, the minister. If he does 
 not know how to guide the institution of which 
 he is the head, then he ought not to be in that 
 position. The test of democracy both in and 
 out of the church is its willingness to trust a 
 leader. A boss is intolerable; a leader is indis- 
 pensable. I do not blame the trustees for not 
 knowing; I blame them for their unwillingness 
 to learn from a man who does know. The 
 average trustee does not know that the driving 
 methods he uses iq his factory or business, in 
 
 I02 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 which he has the power to discharge any em- 
 ployee who does not carry out his plans, when 
 employed with several hundred people in a 
 voluntary organization like the church, will not 
 only not work, but will do actual damage. His 
 trouble is that he forgets human nature. The 
 situation is quite different from that to which 
 he is accustomed in his business. 
 
 Acting on this discovery, I thought at that 
 time that all the church needed to do in order 
 to solve its financial problems was to perfect 
 its business methods. Then for several years I 
 entered with real zest into the work of perform- 
 ing this task. I invented and had patented a 
 double pocket or duplex envelope, so that both 
 the church support and benevolences could be 
 provided for at one stroke and neither would 
 suffer on account of the other. I made a series 
 of letter forms to be used for different groups 
 of church adherents; I devised a card ledger, 
 quarterly statements, and all other devices that 
 a good business house would naturally use. The 
 whole plan was based on simple democratic and 
 scientific principles. I then wrote a long booklet, 
 called "The Individual System of Church 
 Support," describing in detail the method to be 
 used, explaining the principle on which it is 
 based, and demonstrating from experience the 
 larger results it would produce. Five years later 
 this method was taken up by the missionary 
 
 103 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 boards of the churches and is the method now 
 earnestly urged on the churches of the country 
 by the agencies and conventions of almost all 
 the denominations. 
 
 I say all this for the sake of saying what I am 
 now about to say. I say it to lend weight to my 
 statement that it is my present conviction that 
 the question of method is not the solution of 
 the church's financial trouble. Of course, I still 
 believe in the value of efficient methods, and 
 I am glad to have been one of the pioneers in 
 the field of scientific management for the church, 
 and to have made a contribution to it, which is 
 increasingly meeting with general acceptance; 
 but I place far less value on it now than I once 
 did and I regret that I expended so much of 
 my time and thought upon it. For, after all, the 
 question of method is only a detail, however 
 important a detail it may be. It seems now 
 somewhat pathetic to me to notice that so many 
 religious leaders are offering to churches a more 
 efficient method of raising funds as a solution of 
 the church's financial difficulties, as a check to 
 the church's declining influence with the people, 
 and as the remedy for the failure to give ade- 
 quate support to its missionary enterprises. It is 
 like trying to defend the outposts when the 
 citadel itself is in danger. It cannot prevent 
 ultimate defeat. The church can never be saved 
 by improving a detail. The remedy must go 
 
 104 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 deeper, because the disease is far more funda- 
 mental. 
 
 What the heart of the difficulty is, will be 
 made clear, I think, by the following experience. 
 When I took charge of my New Jersey church, 
 I found that the methods of conducting its 
 finances were so bad that if a bank or any com- 
 mercial concern employed them it could not 
 continue in business for six months. The meth- 
 ods used not only produced a big yearly deficit, 
 which seriously disturbed other departments of 
 church work, but they constantly drove people 
 out of the church so that the deficit naturally 
 grew bigger. I said nothing about it for a year. 
 Then the condition became so bad that the 
 trustees themselves asked for my help. I did 
 not tell them that their methods were the 
 worst I had ever seen, but I took the more gen- 
 tle way of cooperating with them and showing 
 them a better way. The result was that this 
 was the first year in its history when the church 
 did not have a deficit. Moreover, — and this is 
 still more important, — the result was achieved 
 without any appeal from the pulpit and without 
 hurting any one's feelings or driving him from 
 the church. The question of money was rele- 
 gated from the foreground to the background of 
 the church's thought. Thinking that one year's 
 demonstration ought to be sufficient, I withdrew 
 from all connection with the trustees, but that 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 year the old deficit returned. It amounted to 
 $600. This deficit, coupled with their failure to 
 provide for the next year's budget, led the trus- 
 tees to ask my assistance again. By our coop- 
 eration and the use of the newer methods, whose 
 two chief characteristics were their business 
 efficiency and their democratic spirit, the budget 
 for the following year was not only easily raised, 
 but a sufficient surplus to pay the previous 
 year's deficit as well, and all without any public 
 appeals. . 
 
 Then a puzzling thing happened. In the face 
 of these facts and without the courtesy of one 
 word to me about it, the trustees deliberately 
 threw into the waste-basket the plan, whose suc- 
 cess had been twice demonstrated in their own 
 experience, and adopted the old plan which they 
 knew to have been a failure during the church's 
 entire previous history, with the result that the 
 deficit that year was ^1500. Then, instead of 
 having the honesty and manliness to accept 
 responsibility for their blunder, they went to 
 the extreme limit of trying to sever the relation 
 between the minister and the church. 
 
 Then I made my second discovery about the 
 church's relation to money. I was reluctantly 
 forced to a conclusion, which exposes such an 
 ugly fact in the church's life that I tried every 
 other explanation before accepting the true one. 
 I thought at first that it could be explained by 
 
 106 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 the natural reluctance to accept anything new. 
 I know the human mind has a marvelous capac- 
 ity to resist the introduction of a new idea. An 
 American engineer, who went to Mexico to as- 
 sist in the construction of a new railroad, in the 
 course of his work was engaged in directing some 
 natives in the excavation of a cut. The method 
 used by the natives was to carry the dirt in small 
 buckets on their shoulders. The engineer was dis- 
 tressed by the slowness of the process, so he went 
 to New York for a hundred wheelbarrows. He 
 installed the new method carefully, explaining 
 how to use wheelbarrows, and showed the na- 
 tives how much more efficient this method would 
 be. He had occasion to leave them for ten days 
 to visit another part of the construction work, 
 and on his return he found that all the wheel- 
 barrows had been dumped into the scrap heap, 
 and that the natives had returned to their old 
 method of carrying the dirt in small buckets. 
 The report does not narrate what language the 
 engineer used when he discovered the reaction of 
 these hopeless stand-patters. 
 
 This is exactly what my trustees had done. 
 They are not ignorant Mexican laborers, how- 
 ever, but leading business men of New York 
 City. I credit them with enough intelligence not 
 to commit such a stupid blunder without hav- 
 ing a real reason for it. I thought that they might 
 be disturbed by the discovery that they, being 
 
 107 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 business men, could not successfully conduct the 
 church finances. But I was not quite willing to 
 believe that these gentlemen were so small, and 
 so lacking in devotion to the welfare of the 
 church, that they were unwilling to see it suc- 
 ceed unless the success came through them 
 alone. Thus, by a process of elimination, I was 
 forced to accept the only explanation which ex- 
 plains. It is this: A group of trustees for their 
 own purposes want to dominate the teaching 
 and policies of the church. The most efficient 
 method of control is through money. For this 
 reason it is necessary to keep the control of the 
 finances in their own hands. This is the plain 
 fact. After I had accepted this conclusion I saw 
 that its truth was abundantly confirmed by 
 other evidences. It has been the common 
 custom of a group of my trustees not to sub- 
 scribe what they could give to the church, as all 
 the other people did, but only half what they ex- 
 pected to give. Then, when the expected de- 
 ficit occurred, they made it up by special gifts. 
 This gave the impression that the church was 
 under special obligation to them as benefactors, 
 whereas the truth is that their subscription and 
 special gift together made an amount which at the 
 least was five times less than what the average 
 members gave in proportion to their ability. But 
 the deficit is a convenient means of securing 
 control over the church. These gentlemen were 
 
 io8 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 commonly known in the community as "the big 
 four." 
 
 At one time a group of these gentlemen with- 
 drew their contributions to the extent of $2000, 
 in order to use money as a club to compel the 
 church to yield to their wishes. So effective was 
 this club that they were able to reintrench them- 
 selves at a church meeting, which called a new 
 minister of their own choice, although only a 
 trifle over ten per cent, of the resident members 
 of the church would consent to attend it or have 
 any part in it. The deciding factor, which de- 
 termined the action, was not the desire of the 
 people, but the power of money. 
 
 I heard one of these gentlemen at a meeting 
 of the church officers bitterly resent a suggestion 
 from one of his fellow officers, that it would be 
 helpful to the church if he resigned as a trustee. 
 The reason he frankly gave for his resentment 
 was the fact that he had given large sums of 
 money to the church, and hence had earned the 
 right to occupy its offices and control its policies. 
 This is typical of this class of men. They regard 
 the church as a business corporation in which 
 the man who holds the most stock has the most 
 votes. It never has dawned on them that the 
 church is a radically different kind of institution, 
 in which the shares of stock do not consist of 
 money, but of character and intelligence; that a 
 commercial corporation is a private business for 
 
 109 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 private gain, but a church is a public enterprise 
 for public service, in which the aim is to see, not 
 how much a man can get for himself, but how 
 much he can give to others. 
 
 Sometimes the people quietly show their re- 
 sentment against these autocratic methods, by 
 using the same kind of measures. They with- 
 hold their own contributions for which they are 
 severely criticized by the men who themselves 
 do the same thing. But the people reason that, 
 if these men insist on dominating the church by 
 means of money, then they ought to be willing 
 to pay for the privilege. I see no flaw in this 
 reasoning. Sometimes the people openly rebel, as 
 I have seen them do on two occasions. Then 
 these gentlemen try to win their way back into 
 public favor by making large gifts, such as 
 money for a new parsonage or a new organ. It 's 
 a futile game to play, for these men ought to 
 know that the genuine respect of their fellows 
 can be secured only through character and in- 
 telligence, never bought with money. The people 
 publicly accept what they privately resent. It 's 
 also a harmful game for the church, for in this 
 way many churches have burdened themselves 
 with expensive plants. They are handicapped by 
 architecture. By this process they sell still more 
 of their freedom. They then discover that they 
 cannot maintain the plant without relying on 
 large gifts from the same few men. This is why 
 
 no 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 they cannot make a public stand for their con- 
 victions. The colleges are going through the 
 same process. Whenever a church or college 
 burdens itself with buildings for the support of 
 which it must depend on large gifts from a few 
 men, it forfeits its moral and spiritual freedom. 
 If a church had the courage to dare to be poorer 
 than it is and depend on the small gifts of the 
 many, its influence for good would be immeas- 
 urably increased. It would then be free to stand 
 for Christian ideals. 
 
 The plain fact is that the church as an in- 
 stitution has sold its soul for money. In Prot- 
 estant churches, the sale is negotiated through 
 the board of trustees. The price is too high. As 
 a result of the sale, the church has lost its in- 
 tellectual honesty and moral integrity, and con- 
 sequently its influence to-day counts for nothing 
 at all with large masses of people, and is count- 
 ing less and less with an increasing number of 
 honest men. Personally I have concluded that 
 I can no longer be a party to this sale. The 
 masses of the people outside the church have the 
 impression that the church cannot take any 
 stand for vital moral issues which concern their 
 welfare, because it is dominated by financial 
 interests. In order not to make any general un- 
 supported statement, I have gone into con- 
 siderable detail so that my statement might be 
 based on actual facts from the inside, when I 
 
 III 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 say that I believe this impression on the part of 
 the people is for the most part quite correct. 
 The critical trouble with churches, as with the 
 colleges, is the fact that most ministers in 
 churches and professors in colleges are Phari- 
 sees. I say this with no desire to be unkind, but 
 merely for the purpose of being accurate in 
 my description. A Pharisee is a man who has 
 made a complete divorce between his theory 
 and his practice. This is his distinguishing 
 characteristic. The reason why so many min- 
 isters and teachers have become Pharisees is 
 because they have lost their freedom. They are 
 not free men, because the institutions they 
 serve are controlled by money. If they dared to 
 connect their ideals with the practice of them 
 they would lose their positions. If there be any 
 who doubt it let them apply the acid test and 
 try the experiment. It is idle for ministers to 
 hope that they ever can become free men so 
 long as churches are organized as they now are. 
 The issue before the church seems to me to be 
 obvious. It is the contest between democracy 
 and plutocracy, between character and money. It 
 is the same issue which obtains in the colleges, 
 in politics, in industry. It is the issue which 
 Jesus talked about more than any other. How 
 can the church represent his teaching and be a 
 leader in the cause of democracy, when it has al- 
 ready sold itself to the arch-enemy of this cause? 
 
 112 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 What is the way of escape out of the church's 
 moral dilemma and betrayal of its own cause? 
 If the citadel of the church's control by money 
 is the board of trustees, as I have tried to de- 
 monstrate that it is, and the truth of which I 
 have never heard questioned by any minister, 
 then the first step in the way out is obvious. It 
 is to destroy the citadel, to abolish the board of 
 trustees as a separate board. This is not the only 
 thing needed, but unless this is done, nothing 
 else will be of much value. It is the first indis- 
 pensable step in the process. Incorporate the 
 church as a church and not as a business cor- 
 poration. Put it in charge of one board of man- 
 agers instead of two, as it is at present. Put the 
 finances in charge, not of an independent board 
 of trustees, but of a small sub-committee of the 
 single board of managers, under whose direc- 
 tion they will operate and to whom they are 
 responsible. This is the first step to take, if we 
 would relegate money from the foreground to 
 the background of the church's life, where it 
 belongs. 
 
 This reform is a simple one to effect, and can 
 easily be done by any church which wants to do 
 it. The law of no state, so far as I know, needs 
 to be amended in order to permit it. If it did, 
 there would be no difficulty in securing it. 
 Charters for corporations designed not for profit, 
 such as - churches, hospitals, and benevolent 
 
 113 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 or literary concerns, are granted by county 
 courts and not by the commonwealth through 
 the secretary of state, as other charters are. All 
 that the law requires is that there shall be a 
 local board of laymen, who shall act as trustees 
 for the property. The law recognizes no other 
 board. There is no reason, therefore, why a 
 church could not elect the same board of men, 
 who act as trustees, to have charge also of all 
 its other activities, so that the one board of 
 managers would act both as trustees and dea- 
 cons and have charge both of its temporal and 
 spiritual affairs. The law with respect to 
 churches is intentionally framed so as to keep 
 the control of church property in the hands of 
 the lay members of local congregations and 
 prevent undue ecclesiastical control over it by 
 any religious denomination. This, of course, is 
 highly important in a democratic form of gov- 
 ernment, which fears the influence of a powerful 
 church over state aff'airs. But in avoiding undue 
 ecclesiastical influence, the church has run 
 squarely into the danger of undue financial 
 influence. In running away from Scylla, it ran 
 into Charybdis. The remedy is to unite the spir- 
 itual and temporal functions in the same board 
 of managers and thus avoid the dangers of both 
 influences. 
 
 If a normal man approached this question in 
 a natural way, uninfluenced by custom, preju- 
 
 114 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 dice, or self-interest, he would never think of 
 organizing a church in any other way. He would 
 organize it for just what it is; that is, a church. 
 The only explanation I ever heard for dividing 
 the church into two separate compartments is 
 that one is sacred and the other is secular. No 
 doubt there are many who believe in this dis- 
 tinction, but my conviction is that it is wholly 
 false, that it has no existence in fact, and is 
 quite contrary to the teaching of Jesus. It is 
 harmful as well as false. Indeed, I know of no 
 other dogma which has done more injury to the 
 Christian religion than this false distinction 
 between the secular and sacred. I hope to make 
 this clear in a later chapter of my story. The 
 point I am here making is that this dogma has 
 been a most useful ally to those gentlemen, who 
 desire to control through the power of money 
 the preaching and policy of the church. For 
 their purpose it is essential that the people be 
 led to believe that money is a very secular thing 
 and ought to be left in the hands of business men 
 to manage. 
 
 To merge the two boards of the church into 
 one board of managers is sufficiently justified on 
 the ground of efficiency alone. The two sides of 
 church work are vitally connected and consti- 
 tute one piece of goods. Neither can be done 
 independently without damage to both. Church 
 finances can never be conducted in a Chris- 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 tian spirit, if they are treated as a question of 
 finances alone. The minister is the only man 
 who knows all the people and their circum- 
 stances. Without a knowledge of the human 
 factors involved, the trustees cannot do their 
 work without making foolish blunders and very 
 often cruel blunders. The minister ought to be a 
 regular member of the single board of mangers. 
 He ought never to be burdened with detail proc- 
 esses, but without his guidance the work cannot 
 be properly done. It is just as useless and harm- 
 ful for a church to have two separate controlling 
 boards, as it would be for a bank to have two 
 boards of directors. What would happen if two 
 separate boards attempted to run the same bank 
 is obvious enough. If two men are trying to ride 
 the same horse at the same time, and each one 
 is trying to ride in front, the peace and progress 
 of their journey are sure to suffer injury. This is 
 the chronic condition of the church. The loss of 
 time, misunderstanding, and friction, which 
 must result from the attempt of two separate 
 groups of men trying to do the same piece of 
 work, has always amazed me and made me 
 wonder why intelligent people will stand for it. 
 During the twenty years of my ministry, it 
 has caused me more unnecessary trouble than 
 any other single factor. It frequently spoils 
 the spiritual tone of an entire church; it fre- 
 quently causes a minister to leave his church 
 
 ii6 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 when he is doing the best kind of work, and it 
 frequently does irreparable injury to his life- 
 work. 
 
 But my chief objection to the separation of 
 church officers into two independent boards is 
 not its inefficiency — my chief objection to it is 
 that it is morally wrong. It ceases to be a ques- 
 tion of detail and becomes a fundamental moral 
 issue. It has robbed the church of its intellectual 
 honesty and moral integrity. By this means the 
 church has put money above principle and sold 
 its spiritual freedom. This is made evident by a 
 simple, well-known fact. In the "free" churches, 
 the rule of the church is that its board of trus- 
 tees may be composed of men, from one fourth 
 to one half of whom do not need to be members 
 of the church; do not need to be Christian men 
 at all; and may have little knowledge of the 
 church's ideals or sympathy with them. Why is 
 this done.^ Is it a plan by which the church can 
 secure service from a group of outside poor men 
 of exceptionally fine character, who for consci- 
 entious reasons are not church members ? What 
 an absurd suggestion ! Oh, no, it is done so that 
 the church can get money from a little group of 
 rich men, who, in return for it, demand the right 
 to control the church's policies and who usually 
 exercise the right which the church itself has 
 given them. These are the gentlemen who dic- 
 tate to the minister what he must not preach. 
 
 117 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 His tenure of office likewise depends on their 
 personal wishes. 
 
 How completely they dominate the church 
 can be seen by a very easy test which any church 
 can apply to itself. Let us suppose that a group 
 of three or four poor men in my New Jersey 
 church, instead of a like number of rich trustees, 
 had attempted to disturb my relationship to it. 
 Of course, it is an impossible supposition, for the 
 poor do not generally act this way, and I beg 
 their pardon for suggesting it; but if we imag- 
 ine that they did, can there be the slightest 
 doubt what would have happened to them? 
 They would have been driven from the church 
 within a month. If the trustees, who did end my 
 tenure of office, had relied for their power, not on 
 money, but on their character and intelligence 
 alone, their influence would have been a negli- 
 gible quantity. The church has sold itself into 
 bondage to money through its trustees. 
 
 I do not mean to suggest that some of these 
 men outside the membership of the church are 
 not good men. My experience convinces me that 
 there are large numbers of these "outside 
 saints," who are far better men than the pious 
 deacons of the church. Indeed, it is these very 
 men who object most to conditions existing in 
 the church, and on account of which they refuse 
 to join it. But I am speaking of the general rule, 
 not of a few exceptions. The church has deliber- 
 
 ii8 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 ately surrendered the control of its own affairs 
 into the hands of a small group of rich men both 
 members and non-members. It is so eager for 
 money that it is willing to go so far as to pro- 
 vide by its constitutional law that a large 
 proportion of its trustees do not need to be 
 Christians at all. In my New Jersey church the 
 proportion is four out of nine. The chief quali- 
 fication for the office is not character and intelli- 
 gence, but the possession of money. But a church 
 ceases to be Christian when it puts money above 
 principle. A man who does not sufficiently rep- 
 resent the aims of the church, as to be regarded 
 fit to manage its spiritual affairs, ought never to 
 be permitted to manage its property affairs. 
 In permitting it, the church stultifies itself. 
 
 The results of this sale are natural enough. 
 The board of deacons, nominally the chief board, 
 has been degraded to second place, and the 
 trustees have been elevated to first place. The 
 cart has been put before the horse: the tail is 
 wagging the dog. The board of deacons has no 
 freedom and no courage. In the whole eight 
 years of my New Jersey pastorate, my deacons 
 never inaugurated any piece of work unless 
 they knew the trustees approved it, excepting 
 once. And then, after this work had proceeded 
 for two months, producing splendid results, the 
 deacons squarely reversed themselves and 
 stopped the work when the trustees demanded 
 
 119 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 it. When I went to my Pennsylvania church, the 
 president of the board of trustees was a rich 
 man, who was not a member of any church, and 
 whose spirit was anything but Christian. He 
 dominated the church with a high hand. He 
 went to the extent on one occasion, by resign- 
 ing, of attempting to bully the other officers 
 over a ridiculously small matter. They had the 
 good sense to accept the resignation. But it was 
 only by a fortunate accident that the church es- 
 caped an influence that was blighting its moral 
 life, and then only for a short period, because 
 the same kind of influence has returned to domi- 
 nate the church. The same condition I met in 
 this church, I met in my New Jersey church, 
 only on a larger scale and much more deeply 
 intrenched. 
 
 The same is true of the great majority of 
 churches. If any church happens to be an ex- 
 ception and this is not true of it to-day, it may 
 be true of it to-morrow. For the church itself 
 has opened the door wide for it to occur. The 
 first step in the liberation of the church is to 
 abolish the board of trustees as a separate board. 
 
 This is not the only thing to be done, as I 
 hope to show in a later chapter of this story. 
 No plan of reform will run itself unless it is 
 running downhill. I realize that the reform I am 
 proposing is a question of organization. Now, 
 organization, of course, is not the main question 
 
 1 20 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 in any institution, but it is indispensable. It is 
 obvious that the shell is not the egg. It is equally 
 obvious that the shell is highly important, if we 
 desire to handle eggs with any success or com- 
 fort. A government organized in the form of a 
 democracy does not produce the spirit of de- 
 mocracy, but it makes democracy possible. 
 
 The church must first of all be organized 
 democratically. It is the first essential step, 
 not only to make democracy possible, but the 
 point I am trying to make clear is that the 
 church IS to-day so organized as to insure its 
 own defeat. The division of church ofiicers into 
 two boards is, therefore, not a question of detail 
 in organization; it is the deliberate betrayal of a 
 moral cause. By this plan the church permits a 
 small group of men to subsidize it. Their chief 
 desire is that the social order shall remain as it 
 is. If the minister attempts to preach the 
 Christian religion according to Jesus, the finan- 
 cial power of these men over the church is such 
 that they can stop this gospel from being 
 preached; or, if the minister's conscience does 
 not permit him to misrepresent the Christian 
 religion, they can drive him from his pulpit, 
 whatever the people of the church may think 
 or say. The kind of organization which permits 
 a procedure like this is unfair both to the people 
 and to the subsidizers. It brings a moral blight 
 on the people; it brings an even worse moral 
 
 121 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 blight on the small group of men who are re- 
 sponsible for It. The church has sold its soul 
 for money, and it is paying the price in moral 
 debility, in the sacrifice of intellectual honesty, 
 in the alienation of great masses of the class of 
 people among whom Christianity first started, 
 and also in the loss of respect on the part of 
 educated men. Its only way out is to cancel the 
 contract of sale. The first step in the process is 
 to abolish the board of trustees as a separate 
 board. 
 
 I fully realize that the reform I am proposing 
 is a radical one. It is intended to be. The dis- 
 ease is so deep-seated and so dangerous that 
 only an operation will save the patient. To re- 
 organize the church, as a church, with one board 
 of managers, would constitute the church's 
 declaration of independence from the domina- 
 tion of money. Its declaration will not be ac- 
 cepted as sincere by the people unless it thus 
 assumes the form of a deed. Such an act would 
 at one stroke shear a group of trustees of their 
 power to subsidize the church by money. This 
 is only the beginning of the process of achieving 
 Its freedom, as we shall see, but its importance 
 cannot be overstated, because it makes all addi- 
 tional steps possible. 
 
 The effect on the people of such a declaration 
 of independence would be like this: A few 
 years ago I was arranging to give a series of 
 
 122 
 
FINANCIAL FREEDOM 
 
 lectures to my young men and women on the 
 undiscovered teaching of Jesus concerning 
 such subjects as — work, love, money, joy, 
 democracy. My method of treatment was to 
 give an exposition of a first-class constructive 
 poem, which dealt with each of these subjects 
 in a luminous and powerful way. I had no dif- 
 ficulty in finding such a poem for each of these 
 subjects, excepting one. I could not find any 
 poem on money. This at first surprised me, inas- 
 much as the desire for money is rather common. 
 But I gave up my search for it, when It occurred 
 to me that it was not possible to write such a 
 poem on money, for money Is not a real thing 
 like work or love or courage; it is only a me- 
 chanical symbol. No constructive poem can 
 ever be written on money until we acquire an 
 ethical view of it; and even then the poem will 
 not be on money, but on its proper use for some- 
 thing outside of itself. In making out the card 
 of announcements for the lectures, I printed the 
 subject and poem for each night, including 
 money, but left a blank in place of the poem. 
 I starred this blank with a footnote to this 
 effect — "Poems on money glare by their 
 absence." The point I am making is, that in 
 the past the domination of the church by money 
 has so glared by its presence that it is of para- 
 mount importance now to make it glare by its 
 absence. I know of no way to accomplish this 
 
 123 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 result except to abolish the board of trustees as 
 an independent board and substitute for it a 
 small subordinate committee of a board of 
 managers, who will thus acquire the power to 
 put first things first and second things second in 
 the work of the church. 
 
 Undoubtedly, this reform will be strenuously 
 opposed. Vested interests have never yet been 
 known to give up their special privileges with 
 any degree of cheerfulness. They will oppose it 
 with every possible and impossible pretext, and 
 in their opposition they will be aided and 
 abetted by the pious and orthodox leaders of 
 the church, just as they have always been in the 
 past. Let no one think that the reform will be 
 easy to accomplish. Certain gentlemen, finding 
 no honest argument to defeat it, will, of course, 
 withdraw their contributions rather than sur- 
 render their power to dictate the church's 
 policies. 
 
 The process which I think will make the re- 
 form not only possible, but financially success- 
 ful, is the subject of the 'next chapter. . 
 
IV 
 
 THE CHURCH AND DENOMINATIONAL 
 FREEDOM 
 
A church ceases to he a church and becomes 
 a sect just in so far as it lays down any 
 qualification for memberships which excludes 
 any one except by his own fault. It becomes 
 a sect when it acquiesces in being the church 
 of a social class ^ or the church of a specific 
 temperament^ or the church of a certain in- 
 tellectual grade or character ^ or an organiza- 
 tion to lay undue stress on some one idea to 
 the destruction of the right perspective of 
 Christian teaching, 
 
 Robert Ellis Thompson 
 
IV 
 
 THE CHURCH AND DENOMINATIONAL 
 FREEDOM 
 
 During many years I have earnestly desired to 
 be the minister of the kind of church which 
 Abraham Lincoln could have joined. Lincoln 
 was a sincere Christian and doubtless the most 
 conspicuous ideal Christian in history, but he 
 was not a member of any church, because he 
 found no church of which he could conscien- 
 tiously become a member. There is no mistaking 
 the exact nature of his position. He did not fail 
 to unite with a church because of indifference; 
 he deliberately refused to join a church because 
 of his convictions. He said, "Whenever any 
 church will inscribe over its altar, as the quali- 
 fication for its membership, the Saviour's state- 
 ment of the substance of both law and gospel, 
 *Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart and with all thy soul and with all 
 thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that 
 church will I join with all my heart and with 
 all my soul." He never found any such church 
 and therefore did not join any. 
 
 Would Lincoln find to-day in America any 
 church which he could conscientiously join? I 
 
 127 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 doubt it. One of the reasons why he could not 
 is the subject of this chapter. The two reasons, 
 which he states in the words of Jesus, and which 
 he distinctly says prevented him from joining 
 any church in his day, are the limitation which 
 churches place upon his intellect, and the limi- 
 tation upon his neighborly feeling. To these two 
 reasons, Lincoln would undoubtedly have added 
 a third, if he were living to-day. He would add 
 the limitation which the church places on a 
 man's self-respect through its slavery to money. 
 These are the three reasons which now compel 
 me to leave the church : its dogmatism, its com- 
 mercialism, and its sectarianism. The first two 
 have been treated in previous chapters; the 
 third is the subject of this one. What Lincoln 
 saw by looking at the church from the outside, 
 I have come to see after a long experience on the 
 inside of the church. 
 
 It seems like a shocking thing to say, but I 
 believe it is accurately true that Lincoln was 
 too good a Christian to be a member of a secta- 
 rian church. A man of his large human sympa- 
 thy could not endure the limitation which sec- 
 tarianism places upon it. He believed that sec- 
 tarianism is un-American, undemocratic, and 
 un-Christian. The number of good men to-day 
 who share Lincoln's feeling is large and rapidly 
 growing. It is a highly significant fact that the 
 problem, of which churches are now becoming 
 
 128 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 conscious, Is not how to persuade bad men to 
 join them, but how they can induce good men 
 to join them. This fact compels us to inquire 
 what ails the church, that good men, for con- 
 scientious reasons, feel they cannot join it. One 
 of the chief reasons for this attitude on the part 
 of good men, I believe, is the sectarianism of the 
 church. They feel that denominationalism, 
 which they have outgrown, is not only a serious 
 handicap on the usefulness of Christian men, 
 but is also a positive moral damage to human 
 life. I agree with them. 
 
 I first became awakened to the real evils of 
 sectarianism in my own experience through the 
 practical limitations it put on my work as a 
 minister of the church. I have always believed 
 that, as a minister, my field of work was not the 
 church, but the community and that the church 
 was a force to be used in behalf of the commu- 
 nity's welfare. When I looked over my field I 
 noticed that there was no Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association in the ward in which my church 
 was located and that no work at all was being 
 done for boys by anybody. I felt there was 
 special need for such work, not only because of 
 the requests for it, which came to me from indi- 
 vidual mothers, but because of the nature of 
 our community. It is an elegant suburb of New 
 York. The boys are separated from normal 
 human activities. The danger of a rich suburb 
 
 129 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 is that it develops the sensory type of boy, in- 
 stead of the motor type. That is, he is a boy 
 whose senses are largely developed. He comes 
 to demand exciting pleasures. He is given in 
 miniature many of the things which belong to 
 adult life. He, therefore, becomes a man too 
 soon; he becomes a small man. This process 
 weakens his motor powers. He does not know 
 how to use his will. He will sit in the grandstand, 
 but he will not play ball himself. He wants to 
 be operated upon, but he himself will not oper- 
 ate. He is the type of boy who, by and by, will 
 shun the responsibilities of adult life. They are 
 too heavy for him. He has not been accustomed 
 to bear responsibilities. He has been accus- 
 tomed to have things done for him. Educators 
 in schools and colleges are becoming distressed 
 over this type of boy. They are produced 
 chiefly in the suburbs. 
 
 It was this real need which I set myself to 
 meet. When, therefore, we began to enlarge our 
 church plant for Sunday-school work, I was 
 delighted to have the opportunity of receiving 
 a gift of twelve thousand dollars for a special 
 building to make possible this work with boys. 
 I had our architect include the building in our 
 other plans. It provided a workshop for manual- 
 training activities, and also a swimming-pool. 
 These two forms of work and play we could 
 manage most economically in a small space. 
 
 130 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 We had in the community a young man who 
 was a genius in electrical work. He was writing 
 a series of books on wireless telegraphy and 
 other apparatus. He offered to instruct the boys 
 in working out the models and instruments 
 which he needed for his books. I kept the special 
 gift of money in the background, for unless I 
 could persuade our men to undertake the work 
 for its own sake, it would not be a success. I 
 laid the scheme and the plans of the building 
 before a group of men. On the night I did so, 
 I received from a member of the church, who 
 was absent in a Western city, a telegram saying 
 that, if this work was undertaken, he would give 
 one thousand dollars to it. I could easily have 
 secured enough money for it aside from the 
 special gift which had been tendered me for the 
 whole enterprise. It was a rare opportunity. 
 My disappointment may be imagined when my 
 board of trustees voted to abandon the whole 
 plan. This building for boys' work was accord- 
 ingly eliminated from our plans and we pro- 
 ceeded with the other buildings. They took this 
 action because, they said, they did not consider 
 this work with boys the proper kind of work 
 for a church to undertake. 
 
 This decision raised issues which profoundly 
 affected my future conduct. Here was a vital 
 and pressing human need in the community. I 
 had the desire to meet it. I was equipped to 
 
 131 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 r 
 
 meet it. We had the money, and yet the trus- 
 tees defeated it and then proceeded to build 
 buildings which are used less than twenty-five 
 per cent, of the time. It has an expensive audi- 
 torium used a trifle over one hour a week, and 
 its other rooms are used only a little more. It 
 pays its minister a large salary and then pre- 
 vents him from earning it. This incident is 
 typical of many more of the same kind. For 
 example, my work with young people, which 
 was my specialty, convinced me that one of our 
 obvious duties to them is to equip them with 
 certain facts of life, and a right attitude of mind 
 to them, that they may be safeguarded from 
 fatal dangers and be prepared for the high task 
 of parenthood. This need so appealed to my 
 heart that I started a movement to meet it, 
 which I called "The New Chivalry." Before I 
 made any attempt to treat it from the pulpit, 
 two of my ofiicers, fearing that I might, urged 
 me not to do so, on the ground that it would 
 disturb some in the congregation. It became 
 clear that I should have to go outside of my 
 church to do this piece of work, which I accord- 
 ingly did. I started the movement in the State 
 of New Jersey and I wrote a book for its use. 
 
 Thus, in one experience after another, I found 
 my hands and feet tied in attempts to meet 
 what seemed to me to be obvious needs of the 
 community. It became apparent that, in order 
 
 132 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 to do any constructive work for the community 
 or even to talk about it, it was necessary for me 
 to go outside of the church. Therefore, in order to 
 leave the church undisturbed I tried this policy. 
 I permitted myself to be elected the president 
 of the civic association of the town. I became 
 active in this association, that I might help the 
 community deal with such problems as child 
 welfare, for a recent survey made by our Board 
 of Health in cooperation with the Federal 
 Children's Bureau revealed conditions in one 
 of our wards which were most disturbing; with 
 the question of education, for we were facing 
 the necessity of building a new high school, the 
 feeling over which became so aroused as to 
 threaten to divide the town, not only geographi- 
 cally, but to do permanent harm to its com- 
 munity spirit; with the question of better hous- 
 ing, not only for the poor, but for our young 
 men and women in general. On account of land 
 speculation and false social pride, very many of 
 our better class of young people, when they 
 married, had to leave the town because they 
 could not afford to live in it. Whenever the pos- 
 session of money, rather than of character and 
 intelligence, becomes a necessary qualification 
 for residence in any town, that town is sowing 
 the seeds of serious future trouble for itself. It 
 was not only a poetic sentiment or a radical 
 social opinion, but an unescapable moral law, 
 
 133 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 which Oliver Goldsmith expressed, when he 
 said: 
 
 "111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates, and men decay." 
 
 I had not been long at work on these and 
 similar questions in the civic association, when 
 the trustees of my church registered their pro- 
 test against my having any connection at all 
 with the civic association, and they did it in 
 such a way as to make it apparent that serious 
 trouble awaited me if I continued to do so. It 
 became clear to me that my way was blocked 
 for doing work for the community through the 
 church, and that I was also prevented from 
 doing it outside the church while I remained its 
 minister. It is an impossible position for any 
 man, who wants to be an honest teacher of the 
 Four Gospels and loyal to the cause in which 
 he has enlisted. I began to feel very much as 
 did the little farmer boy to whom a stranger 
 addressed this question, "Boy, how much do 
 you get for all the hard work you are doing on 
 this farm, from sunrise to sunset, day after 
 day?" "Get, mister, get?" answered the boy. 
 "Why, nothing if I do, and hell if I don't." 
 
 In this bemuddled situation I was comforted 
 to notice that the more my church officers con- 
 demned my work for the community, the more 
 the community itself appreciated and approved 
 
 134 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 it. This fact was at once gratifying and disturb- 
 ing. For it compelled me to inquire of myself 
 whether my proper place was not outside rather 
 than inside the church, if I wanted to work for 
 the Kingdom of God rather than for a private 
 sectarian group. If questions like the welfare of 
 children, providing homes for future families, and 
 public education are not the proper questions 
 with which a minister ought to busy himself, 
 I felt that there must be something radically 
 and morally wrong with the church's conception 
 of the function of a Christian minister. 
 
 Shortly after this, the subject at the weekly 
 prayer meetings was "The Church and the 
 Community." I took occasion to say that it was 
 my conviction that the church was not an end, 
 but a means to an end; that I regarded the com- 
 munity as my field and the church as a force to 
 be used in this field; that I conceived the essen- 
 tial function of the church to be missionary in 
 spirit and function, — not missionary in the com- 
 monly accepted sense, in that a church will 
 entertain itself by hearing interesting addresses 
 on work done in far-distant lands, and by raising 
 money for such work, to secure a better stand- 
 ing in its denomination or to make a reputation 
 for its minister; but missionary in the sense that 
 it is the function of a church in America to do in 
 its own community the same kind of work which 
 our great missionaries, like Carey and Living- 
 
 135 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 stone and Stewart of Lovedale, did in foreign 
 lands; that is, real constructive community 
 service. There is something extremely humorous 
 in the fact that a church will applaud an address 
 on the work of Livingstone, and then, when its 
 minister tries to persuade it to do the same kind 
 of work in its own community, it will strenu- 
 ously oppose the suggestion. It is perfectly safe 
 in Africa, but obviously dangerous at home. Of 
 course, I realize that Livingstone was severely 
 criticized by the "pious" people at home for 
 being "unspiritual," and that the men, who to- 
 day are doing the same kind of work, are criti- 
 cized by the same class of people and for the 
 same reason. I am here referring to their treat- 
 ment after they are dead. To be criticized and 
 persecuted while living, to be praised and hon- 
 ored when dead, is the common fate of such 
 pioneers of God. 
 
 At the meeting where I had expressed these 
 sentiments, one of my leading trustees, who was 
 also regarded as very "pious" and "orthodox," 
 made a speech, obviously for my benefit, in 
 which he said, speaking both for himself and 
 the other officers, that "he did not think the 
 community expected anything of the church and 
 that the church's best policy was to work for its 
 own welfare." The issue was clearly drawn and 
 well understood by all. I do not deny the right 
 of these men to have any kind of a church they 
 
 136 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 want, if they will pay for it and the people will 
 agree to it. If they want to employ a minister 
 who will be a harmless mouthpiece and obedient 
 clerk of the board of trustees, that is their priv- 
 ilege, and they will have no difficulty in finding 
 this type of minister. I am only saying that, if 
 they intend to make of it an exclusive social 
 club, they have no moral right to masquerade 
 under the name of a Christian church. I am only 
 saying that, entirely apart from considerations 
 of human welfare, and looking at the question 
 from the standpoint of self-preservation, the 
 policy of my officers is suicidal for the church. 
 "He that seeketh to save his life shall lose it," 
 applies with scientific accuracy to a church as 
 well as to an individual. It ought to be self- 
 evident that a church which takes no interest in 
 the affairs of a community can hardly expect the 
 community to take an interest in it. I am only 
 saying that when a minister is called, the officers 
 ought to be honorable enough to tell him what 
 kind of a church they want, so that he may not 
 be deceived by subterfuges and dishonest con- 
 cealments, as he usually is, but may have a fair 
 chance to discover whether he can conscien- 
 tiously accept their call. I am only trying to 
 make clear that my officers' ideals and mine 
 concerning the nature of Christianity and the 
 function of the church were radically and 
 irreconcilably at variance. 
 
 137 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 I could narrate several more experiences 
 which portray the nature of this radical dif- 
 ference in our ideals. But the experience con- 
 cerning the building for work with boys is 
 typical, and is quite sufficient to make clear the 
 principle now under discussion. They objected 
 to this building because they said it was not the 
 proper kind of work in which a church ought to 
 engage. They meant that it was too secular. The 
 explanation of their objection was the existence 
 in their minds of a distinction between the 
 sacred and the secular. This is highly significant. 
 It constitutes one of the chief obstacles in the 
 path of the church's usefulness, which must be 
 squarely faced at the very beginning of any 
 attempt on the part of the church to adjust her- 
 self to modern human needs. 
 
 The only honest way to meet this difficulty, so 
 far as I know, is to realize and frankly say that 
 the distinction, commonly made by the church, 
 between sacred and secular, is wholly false. It 
 exists nowhere in fact, but only in one's imagina- 
 tion. What Is commonly meant by the secular is 
 the thing we do when God is not looking. But it 
 is the Christian position, and no doubt true to 
 the facts, to say that there is nothing we do 
 when God is not looking. This is God's world 
 and to him it is all sacred. Moreover, any man 
 who thinks about it seriously must perceive that 
 God is a democrat. For him to make a distinc- 
 
 138 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 tion among the things He has made and among 
 people and their activities, labeling some sacred 
 and some secular, would be like a father dis- 
 owning his own child, who nevertheless still re- 
 mains his child. The true character of a thing is 
 never altered by the label we choose to place 
 upon it. To label a thing secular does not make 
 it so; it merely deceives the labeler and perhaps 
 his readers. Theological doctrines have done 
 frightful damage to human life, and caused the 
 crudest of wars to be fought, but among all the 
 doctrines, I know of few which have been more 
 harmful than this false distinction between the 
 sacred and the secular. The destruction of this 
 distinction is so essential to any reform of the 
 church and to the cause of democracy, that I 
 shall consider it at greater length in a later 
 chapter. I mention it here to indicate its bear- 
 ing on the church's attempt to do community 
 work. 
 
 The alleged secular character of our proposed 
 work for boys was the only objection which the 
 trustees brought against it, but it was sufficient 
 to kill the enterprise. It is possible, though not 
 probable, that this false idea of the sacred and 
 secular may, in the dim future, be dislodged from 
 their minds by the gentle art of preaching. I 
 tried it for eight years, and although I changed 
 the mental point of view of most in the congre- 
 gation, the effect on the leaders was not enough 
 
 139 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 so that you could notice it. Yet such a change is 
 conceivable. There was another obstacle to our 
 proposed enterprise for boys, which was never 
 mentioned by the trustees, but which weighed 
 heavily on my own mind. It was equally fun- 
 damental, because it involved, not only the task 
 of changing the minds of the trustees, but ne- 
 cessitated a radical reform in the organization of 
 the church. I refer to denominationalism. 
 
 My church was a sectarian church. It faced a 
 big human community need. It had the money 
 to meet it. But assuming that the trustees could 
 have been persuaded that the work was not too 
 "secular" for the church to undertake, the fact 
 that my church bore a sectarian label would in 
 all probability have defeated the enterprise. 
 There were five other sectarian churches in the 
 same ward of the town. For one sect to under- 
 take a work designed to include all the boys, and 
 needing all the boys in order to succeed, would 
 be unfair to the other sects and would naturally 
 create in them a spirit of jealousy and lead to 
 competitive enterprises, all equally weak be- 
 cause divided. Sectarianism Is suicidal competi- 
 tion. This experience typifies the central fact 
 which I am seeking to make clear, the church's 
 slavery to denominationalism and the need to 
 achieve freedom from the limitations which this 
 slavery imposes. By repeated attempts to render 
 civic services, I discovered that I was handi- 
 
 140 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 capped and defeated by the sectarian circle 
 which my own church built around me as a fence. 
 My hands and feet were tied. I felt as if I were 
 in a cage. The attempt to be a citizen of the 
 community and also a minister of a sectarian 
 church produced an irreconcilable conflict which 
 I was compelled to face and could not evade. 
 
 It is not my purpose here to consider the im- 
 mense moral damage done to human life by sec- 
 tarianism; the damage, for example, to educa- 
 tion. Sectarianism is causing the Bible to be in- 
 creasingly an unknown book. The sects refuse 
 to allow the teaching of it through other agen- 
 cies than their own, fearing that the teaching 
 may not be dominated by their own particular 
 interpretation. They are responsible for the 
 strange and absurd contradiction that the book, 
 which by common consent is our greatest piece 
 of literature, and which has contributed the best 
 elements of our civilization, making us what we 
 are, that this book is not permitted by law to 
 be taught, or, in some states, even read, in the 
 greatest of our educational institutions, the 
 public school. The moral and intellectual injury 
 to the Nation thus caused is beyond compute. 
 
 I am not here treating the damage which 
 sectarianism does to democracy. Worship has 
 been described as "the consciousness of kind." 
 It is the expression of the awareness of re- 
 semblances. But it is also the expression of the 
 
 141 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 awareness of differences. It expresses the re- 
 semblances of a small group, but also the differ- 
 ences between this group and all other groups. 
 So that while religion, if it is given any real con- 
 tent and means something more than mere 
 forms and ceremonies, is the greatest integrat- 
 ing force in human life, yet the sects are among 
 the greatest disintegrating forces in human life. 
 They foster prejudice, group antagonisms, and 
 have caused the bitterest wars in human history. 
 They constitute one of the greatest practical 
 obstacles to community cooperation. They con- 
 tradict the basic Christian principle of human 
 sympathy and democracy. 
 
 I am not here considering the damage which 
 sectarianism does to the economic freedom of 
 the people. It is obvious that the division of 
 Christian men and women into small sectarian 
 groups so divides their financial resources as to 
 reduce them to a state of dependence on the 
 large gifts of a few rich men. They are thus 
 robbed, not only of their financial freedom, but 
 of their moral and intellectual freedom as well. 
 If they were mobilized in larger numbers, they 
 could retain their self-respect through self- 
 support. Moreover, the building of expensive 
 church edifices to gratify denominational pride 
 vastly increases the overhead charges of the 
 community and puts on the people a heavy 
 financial burden. My own church plant was 
 
 142 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 valued at one hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
 lars. A neighboring church recently invested 
 in its building two hundred thousand. These 
 buildings are used only a small fraction of the 
 time. I regard such a use of money as morally 
 wrong. The moral wrongness becomes glaringly 
 apparent, when one becomes aware of the suf- 
 fering due to poverty often existing under the 
 very shadow of such palatial buildings. 
 
 I do not dwell on these aspects of the evil of 
 sectarianism, although they constitute serious 
 indictments against it, indictments easy to 
 sustain if the case were tried in the court of 
 reason and common sense. I do not dwell on 
 them, because I want to look at the question 
 from a wholly constructive point of view. The 
 point I seek to make clear is the limitation which 
 a sectarian label imposes on a church, assuming 
 that it has a desire to render a large human 
 service. This fact was brought home to me with 
 particular force when, during this period of my 
 mental evolution, I was requested by the Fed- 
 eral Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Houston, to 
 write a paper for him on the organization of a 
 country commtinity. For this paper I prepared 
 a diagram to represent the problem to the eye. 
 I used the figure of a community wheel. In it I 
 let the people be represented by the rim and 
 all the social institutions and activities by the 
 spokes. It became apparent that the key to the 
 
 143 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 problem of community organization is to dis- 
 cover the best instrument to act as the hub of 
 the wheel, an organizing agency which will 
 coordinate its. activities, economize its expendi- 
 tures of time and money, harness its unused 
 resources of men and institutions, and create 
 a real community spirit as the dynamic power 
 of its social and business life. The need of such 
 a hub is obvious; what shall constitute the hub 
 of this wheel has hitherto been regarded as an 
 unsolved social puzzle. 
 
 In my first diagram I put the church in the 
 hub. A man naturally loves the institution to 
 which he is giving his life, and he takes pride in 
 his own profession. He wants to see it perform 
 a real function in human life. Moreover, coop- 
 eration is first of all a state of mind, and I felt 
 that one of the obvious duties of the church is 
 to create this state of mind, and help organize 
 society on the basis of friendship. But very 
 soon I was compelled to take the church out of 
 the hub and make a new diagram, because the 
 church's sectarian character manifestly dis- 
 qualifies it for any such function, however much 
 we may be devoted to it. I imagined myself 
 going into a country community to do what 
 sorely needs to be done for such communities, 
 as I have often desired to do, because the social 
 and economic salvation of country life I regard 
 as one of our chief and most profound national 
 
 144 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 needs from whatever point of view it is regarded. 
 But in making this effort, if I should permit 
 myself to become the minister of a sectarian 
 church, I should at once defeat my own pur- 
 pose. By building a sectarian fence about 
 myself, I should voluntarily shut myself off 
 from the very thing I came to reach; that is, the 
 community as a whole. I should become a dis- 
 integrating instead of an integrating force. 
 
 The institution, which is adapted to be the 
 hub of a community wheel, will be treated in a 
 later chapter, but at this stage of our discussion 
 the essential thing to see is that the church is 
 incapacitated for this function either in the 
 country or city, and to see further that the 
 reason is that the church has degenerated into 
 a sect and has thus voluntarily defeated its 
 avowed purpose. . 
 
 I need not have gone so far afield to discover 
 this fact, for my own church exhibited it in 
 striking fashion. We have in our section of the 
 town a very flourishing woman's club, reaching 
 the women of the whole community, managed 
 by remarkably able women, and doing a spirit- 
 ual and educational work of the highest value 
 for human welfare. But they have no clubhouse 
 and have been using unsatisfactory rented 
 quarters. They are now planning, in connection 
 with another club, a fifty-thousand-dollar build- 
 ing, thus increasing the community's overhead 
 
 145 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 charges, which are already much too high. And 
 yet our church is a handsome structure with 
 every facility adapted for the social and educa- 
 tional activities of the club. But there it stands 
 idle most of the time. It is just what the 
 woman's club needs, and yet it can't use it. 
 Moreover, there is in our ward a beautiful 
 public school auditorium, so that when the new 
 clubhouse is built, we shall have, within five 
 minutes' walk of each other, three handsome 
 and expensive auditoriums all used and paid 
 for by the same people. What a pointed illus- 
 tration of the utter lack of any intelligent coop- 
 eration. And yet the people of this community 
 are highly intelligent; but they seem to have 
 more money than they know how to spend 
 wisely. It is typical of a general condition. Such 
 a condition exists only because we are either 
 stone-blind to what ought to be obvious facts, 
 or else we are not honest or courageous enough 
 to face them; probably both. 
 
 The obvious fact which concerns us here, and 
 which we have not been honest or courageous 
 enough to face, is this : The only obstacle worthy 
 of mention which stands between my church 
 equipment and its use by the woman's club is a 
 sectarian label. If a little label is responsible 
 for a big financial burden, both the original 
 cost and the yearly maintenance of such a 
 building, and if, as I believe, the financial 
 
 146 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 damage is the least part of the injury done by 
 this label, why not remove it? Well, why not? 
 I can see no valid reason why it should not be 
 abolished and a dozen valid reasons why it 
 should. It is not a federation of sects that we 
 need; it is the abolition of them. The church 
 must achieve freedom from denominational pro- 
 vincialism, if it ever hopes to restore its waning 
 influence and regain the respect of large and 
 increasing numbers of intelligent men. 
 
 I appreciate the fact that the sects had their 
 origin in honest attempts to emphasize and 
 Stand for particular elements in the Christian 
 theory of life, which were in special need of 
 emphasis. But the distinctive truth which each 
 sect volunteered to sponsor has now become 
 the common possession of all Christians. What- 
 ever need may have existed to justify their 
 original division into sects no longer exists to 
 justify their continued separation. 
 
 I appreciate the fact that the vested interests 
 and missionary enterprises now conducted by 
 the sects would, if they decided to abolish their 
 sectarian' labels, constitute complex problems, 
 which would need to be adjusted with the ut- 
 most courtesy and justice. But such adjustment 
 is quite possible, if there is sufficient desire for 
 it. Whenever the will to do a thing is present, 
 the way to do it is usually discovered. A possible 
 plan of adjustment will be found in proportion 
 
 147 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 as the sects discover that by a coordination and 
 mobilization of their moral and material re- 
 sources, they will not only relieve themselves 
 of a needless burden and vastly increase their 
 influence for good, but also, as I believe, greatly 
 increase rather than decrease their present 
 financial resources. However this may be, the 
 adjustment of vested interests is a detail. A 
 highly important detail, it is true, but still a 
 detail. The main thing is to see clearly that 
 sectarian labels are now doing immense moral 
 damage to human life, and whether or not it 
 pays financially, they ought to be abolished. 
 
 I appreciate the fact that historically the 
 sects were born as the result of the operation 
 of a principle of supreme value, the principle of 
 the freedom of thought and the exercise of 
 private judgment, a principle established by the 
 Italian Renaissance and the German Reforma- 
 tion, a principle productive of everything of 
 most spiritual value in our modern world. But 
 the best things are always capable of most 
 abuse. The multiplication of sects is a striking 
 exhibit of such abuse. What was good in prin- 
 ciple became bad in practice. Vice of almost 
 every sort is just the excess of virtue. The chief 
 sects were importations from Europe and have 
 perpetuated Old-World theological disputes, 
 which ought to have been forgotten. But in the 
 free atmosphere of America, our excessive indi- 
 
 148 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 vidualism has added to their number to an 
 alarming extent. According to the last census 
 there were i86 distinct sects or denominations. 
 However valuable are the contributions made 
 by the sects to human thought, as they un- 
 doubtedly have been, and however natural 
 were their growth in the evolution of the mod- 
 ern world, yet it is becoming increasingly clear 
 to intelligent men that our present excessive 
 sectarianism is now a menace to human welfare. 
 The important inquiry, therefore, is not how the 
 sects arose or what their past service may have 
 been, but rather how are we to stop their multi- 
 plication and liberate them from the limitations 
 they impose on their public usefulness? For we 
 are coming to believe that they are un-Ameri- 
 can, un-Christian, and undemocratic. 
 
 The abolition of sectarian labels, one would 
 suppose, ought not to be difficult, when one 
 examines the labels themselves. Such an exam- 
 ination compels the conviction that by losing 
 these labels we should lose nothing worthy of 
 preservation. "The adjective," said Voltaire, 
 "is the enemy of the noun." These sectarian 
 labels are enemies of the church and place a 
 limitation upon its good influence. The terms 
 "Presbyterian," "Methodist," "Baptist," 
 "Catholic," "Protestant," "Unitarian," "Trin- 
 itarian," are all too small. They are a source of 
 weakness and separation. The term "Catholic" 
 
 149 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 seems large, but it no longer describes a fact, 
 but only expresses a constantly decreasing hope. 
 The term "Protestant" suggests weakness it- 
 self. It is a negative attitude. No church ought 
 to exist just to be against something. It ought 
 to be for something. Almost all of these sec- 
 tarian labels are based on unimportant details 
 of doctrine or of church government. Think of 
 basing the church's name on the mode of apply- 
 ing water as a symbol rather than on the thing 
 the water symbolizes; or on the method of 
 regulating one's religious life rather than on 
 the kind of life he ought to lead; or on the age 
 of the church officers rather than on their char- 
 acter and intelligence, as the names "Baptist," 
 "Methodist," and "Presbyterian" do. The only 
 sect, so far as I know, which bears a name that 
 even remotely suggests the ideal and function 
 of the Christian church is the "Society of 
 Friends." To form men into societies of friends 
 was indeed one of Jesus' chief objects. It is a 
 beautiful name and yet the common name by 
 which they are called, the "Quakers," arose 
 out of a trifling incident of no consequence. Our 
 sectarian divisions have disintegrated our so- 
 ciety and spoiled our friendship. To this separa- 
 tion among Christians, the Friends have con- 
 tributed their full share in spite of their splendid 
 exhibition of the Christian spirit in other respects 
 and their heroic service to moral progress. 
 
 ISO 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 Almost none of these labels say anything of 
 any importance. This fact has been dulled for 
 us by familiarity, but it becomes amusingly 
 apparent when the labels are transplanted to a 
 foreign soil. The Chinese word for "Baptist" is 
 the "big wash church"; for "Presbyterian," it 
 is "the church of the ruling old men"; for the 
 Protestant Episcopal, it is "the church of the 
 kicking overseers." The difference in doctrine 
 among the sects fares no better than their 
 names. The Chinese, with keen insight, say that 
 the difference between the Methodist and Pres- 
 byterian is that "the Methodist is sure he has 
 it, but is afraid he will lose it; the Presbyterian 
 is sure he will not lose it, but is afraid he has n't 
 got it." It is the difference between tweedledum 
 and tweedledee. In the presence of profound 
 human need, it is of small consequence whether 
 a man gets a big or a little wash. Our discovery 
 of the basic quality and importance of the true 
 Christian principles makes it seem almost as 
 absurd to apply sectarian adjectives to the 
 noun "Christian" as to say there is such a 
 thing as a Baptist, Methodist, or Presbyterian 
 multiplication table, or a Baptist, Methodist, 
 or Presbyterian version of the Ten Command- 
 ments. The absurdity becomes even something 
 Worse, if we should dare to inquire whether 
 Jesus was a Baptist, a Methodist, or a Presby- 
 terian. The very suggestion is an insult to his 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 intelligence and an inconceivable limitation 
 upon his human sympathies. 
 
 The significant fact for us to recognize is that 
 the day of denominationalism is done. It is 
 highly suggestive that the Greek word for 
 "sect" is the root of our word "heresy." Of all 
 heresies the practical heresy of sectarianism has 
 done perhaps more damage to spiritual and 
 intellectual welfare than any other. We are 
 beginning to see that sectarian labels must be 
 abolished, not only for the sake of moral prog- 
 ress, but to save the church itself from commit- 
 ting suicide. A few years ago there was, in the 
 Central Park zoological garden of New York 
 City, a snake that was unable to shed its old 
 skin. The new skin seemed well formed. Re- 
 peated attempts were made to assist the snake, 
 but for some unaccountable reason it could not 
 shed the old skin. The result, of course, was 
 inevitable; the snake died. Sectarian labels with 
 all that they imply are, like a last year's skin, 
 not only a useless handicap, but will be the 
 means of strangling its life unless they are shed. 
 
 If the sects have ever received a sufiicient 
 shock to stimulate them to shed their old 
 skins, renew their life, and mobilize their moral 
 forces, that shock has been administered by the 
 Great War in Europe. It has revealed their 
 humiliating moral failure, especially in the 
 land where the German Reformation first saw 
 
 IS2 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 the light. I say humiliating, because, while the 
 Socialists of Germany have been severely 
 blamed for their failure to prevent this crime 
 against civilization, it has occurred to no one 
 to blame the sects for not preventing it. No one 
 expected enough from them to blame them for 
 not doing it. We only blame that in which we 
 believe. The most damaging indictment against 
 the church is that no one believed in its vitality 
 enough to blame it for having no formative 
 effect on the Nation's ideals. The Great War 
 has not injured the ideals of Galilee; it has 
 dramatically demonstrated the need of them. 
 But it has revealed the bankruptcy of organized 
 Christianity. 
 
 In the glaring light of this revelation, serious 
 men are keenly feeling, as they have never 
 before felt, that while brute force, commercial 
 greed, and racial hatred are made to be popular 
 gods, and that when men through the worship 
 of such gods are committing national and race 
 suicide, when, in short, there is a death struggle 
 going on between the ideals of Corsica and the 
 ideals of Galilee, it is a stupid and frivolous 
 waste of time to discuss pin-point sectarian dif- 
 ferences. It insults a right-minded man's intel- 
 ligence and betokens a lack of human sympathy 
 and moral sanity. With the impact of this reve- 
 lation upon the conscience, one feels humiliated 
 to enter into any debate at all concerning sec- 
 
 IS3 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 tarian labels, which, even if they have any real 
 significance, are trifling and unimportant in 
 comparison. 
 
 The silver lining to this dark cloud is the 
 fact, that even before the war ended, the reve- 
 lation of the church's moral bankruptcy inaugu- 
 rated a movement in England among the sects 
 to regain their sense of relative values and to 
 mobilize their moral forces. To what extent this 
 awakened impulse to abolish sectarian differ- 
 ences will be able to release the unused resources 
 of the sects, no one can venture to predict. It 
 remains to be seen. The success of the attempt 
 depends fundamentally on one thing, the ability 
 of men to differ in opinion without differing in 
 feeling. 
 
 There Is a popular old story, whose long his- 
 tory Charles Sumner once wrote for the 
 "Atlantic Monthly," which exhibits at once 
 both the cause and cure of sectarianism. The 
 story Is that "when Abraham sat at his tent 
 door according to his custom waiting for 
 strangers to entertain, he espied an old man 
 stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with 
 age and travel, coming towards him, who was 
 an hundred years old. He received him kindly, 
 washed his feet, provided supper, caused him to 
 sit down, but observing that the old man ate 
 and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on 
 his meat, he asked him why he did not worship 
 
 . IS4 
 
DENOMINATIONAL FREEDOM 
 
 the God of heaven. The old man told him that 
 he worshiped the fire only and acknowledged no 
 other God, at which answer Abraham grew so 
 zealously angry that he thrust the old man out 
 of his tent and exposed him to all the evils of 
 the night and an unguarded condition. When the 
 old man was gone, God called to Abraham and 
 asked him where the stranger was. He replied, 
 *I thrust him away because he did not worship 
 thee.' God answered him, *I have suffered him 
 these hundred years, although he dishonored me, 
 and couldst thou not endure him one night?'" 
 
 The ancient and inveterate inability of man 
 to differ in opinion without differing in feeling, 
 which Abraham is represented as displaying, is 
 the real cause of all sectarianism and the chief 
 obstacle in the way of its abolition. But the 
 story itself condemns the sectarianism which it 
 portrays. That's why it was written. Our ground 
 of hope is the fact that this condemnation is the 
 secret of the story's wide popularity and the 
 reason why men admire it. Man's admiration 
 for that which is higher than he at present 
 possesses is the tap-root of all progress. We 
 grow like that which we admire. If, then, we as- 
 sume that men's admiration for freedom from 
 sectarian limitation has grown strong enough to 
 cause a motor reaction and to seek its abolition, 
 how shall it be achieved? The answer to this 
 question is the subject of the next chapter. 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW: 'A COM- 
 MUNITY CHURCH ' 
 
The faith that lies unuttered in the soul of 
 the nation is not a sectarian religion. And 
 the course of contemporary history in Eng- 
 land, in France, in Spain, and Portugal, 
 and throughout the world fortifies us in the 
 persuasion that professional religion of 
 whatever kind is doomed to die. But does 
 this mean that the real faith of men is weak- 
 ening, that idealism is passing as a dream 
 and that the universal heart is growing cold? 
 No! The fact is that the ecclesiastical estab- 
 lishments are not religious enough to con- 
 tain the man of the modern spirit, 
 
 Charles Ferguson 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW: A COMMUNITY 
 CHURCH 
 
 "Christianity," says Woodrow Wilson, "has 
 been accepted by a large part of the world for 
 several centuries, but we have never yet quite 
 discovered the organization that makes it 
 work." The truth of this statement is dramati- 
 cally exhibited by the failure of the organized 
 church of Europe, which the Great War has 
 revealed, and by the similar failure of the 
 American church to direct, in any constructive 
 fashion, the social conscience. Because an ideal 
 is difficult to realize is no sufficient reason to 
 abandon the attempt to realize it. On the con- 
 trary, it is the very reason why the attempt 
 ought repeatedly to be renewed. All worth- 
 while ideals are difficult. Their difficulty con- 
 stitutes not only their value, but also their 
 fascination. To surrender before a difficult task 
 is cowardice, which is an unthinkable attitude 
 for any man of spirit. 
 
 I resigned from my church because it refused 
 to permit itself to be used as an organization 
 through which to operate the Christian religion, 
 
 IS9 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 and therefore I could not remain its minister 
 on honorable terms. I faced the alternative of 
 Wordsworth's "Happy Warrior": 
 
 **Who, if he rise to station of command, 
 Rises by open means; and there will stand 
 On honorable terms or else retire. 
 And in himself possess his own desire." 
 
 The fact that I discovered that the church, 
 as at present organized, is an instrument so 
 defective that the democratic ideals of the 
 Christian religion cannot be operated through 
 it, did not lead me to conclude that it was use- 
 less to try to operate them. Rather it laid on 
 me the obligation of searching for the instru- 
 ment that would best serve these ideals, either 
 mending the instrument we have or making a 
 new one. When Socrates was once asked, "How 
 does one arrive at Mount Olympus?" he an- 
 swered, "By doing all your walking in that di- 
 rection." When I left my church, I only renewed 
 my resolve to do all my walking toward the 
 Christian ideals. The fight for democracy in 
 the past has never been lost, only delayed a 
 little by the failure of the church. The present 
 failure of the church as an instrument of de- 
 mocracy is a challenge, not a truce. Therefore, 
 the question which presents itself at this point 
 of my story is this — "Can we discover a type 
 of organization for the church, which will make 
 
 i6o 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 Christianity work, or work better than it has 
 hitherto?" 
 
 After I had decided to resign from my church, 
 but before I had pubHcly announced my de- 
 termination, the board of directors of the 
 Princeton work in Peking issued me a call to 
 deliver in Peking and Tokio a series of lectures 
 "designed to set forth a vital, modern, and 
 constructive interpretation of the Christian re- 
 ligion," and to publish them in book form for 
 the use of Chinese students. The call was ap- 
 proved by the International Committee of the 
 Young Men's Christian Association and I ac- 
 cepted it. I have prepared the lectures and it is 
 my purpose to deliver them in China and Japan 
 as soon as my other engagements will permit. 
 
 The Princeton Committee did not ask me to 
 lecture on the church, but on the Christian 
 ideals, and yet it is highly probable that, after 
 the lectures are delivered, the Chinese students 
 will say something like this: 'We have been in 
 contact with Western modes of scientific 
 thought and therefore your statement of the 
 Christian religion in modern terms is what we 
 wanted to hear, whether or not we agree with all 
 your conclusions. For the most part we have 
 no difficulty in accepting the Christian ideals 
 as you state them. The operation of them is 
 the difficult task. We need some form of organ- 
 ization through which to attempt to work them. 
 
 i6i 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 We know very little about the sectarian divi- 
 sions of the church in European history and 
 care less. What form of church organization 
 have you in America, which you regard as the 
 most effective instrument through which to 
 operate the Christian religion and which you 
 could enthusiastically recommend us to estab- 
 lish here in the new and constructive period of 
 our history?' It is not only probable, it is a 
 certainty, that I shall have to face this inquiry. 
 The question is entirely legitimate. For after 
 you tell men what to do, the next natural step 
 is, how are they to do it? Some Chinese students 
 in Columbia University, to whom I gave a 
 course of lectures, have already asked me this 
 embarrassing question. I suggest that my 
 readers at this point attempt to formulate their 
 own answers to it. According to the census of 
 1906, there were in the United States 186 
 separate denominations. There are probably 
 200 now. Which one of these would you recom- 
 mend to China? 
 
 An evasive answer is not only wrong, but 
 futile. The leader of a group of fifty Chinese 
 students at the Northfield Summer Conference, 
 to whom I gave a course of lectures, in a private 
 interview before the lectures began, begged me 
 not to refer to the condition of the church in 
 America. He asked me to describe it not as it is, 
 but as it ought to be. Because, said he, — and 
 
 162 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 this is the humiliating fact, — large numbers of 
 thoughtful and influential Christian students, 
 who are expected to become leaders and ofiicers 
 of the church after they return to China, refuse 
 to have anything to do with the church, on 
 account of the impression which the churches 
 in America have made upon them. President 
 Wilson once attended a Conference on Foreign 
 Missions called for the purpose of erasing the 
 line between Christian churches in foreign 
 lands. He said at this meeting that "while he 
 sympathized with the purpose of the confer- 
 ence, he hoped that those who were converted 
 in foreign fields would not come and look at 
 us." But they have come and looked at us, and 
 the result of their observation is what I have 
 stated it to be. What an absurd situation! The 
 churches in America destroy the respect of 
 Chinese students who come here, and then 
 spend money to send missionaries to China in 
 the futile attempt to win back their lost con- 
 fidence. My lectures were not designed to treat 
 the question of the church, but the leader of 
 the students feared that I might do so, and 
 since he intended to become a minister, he 
 thought the best policy was to hide the facts. 
 In due time he will learn that hiding the facts 
 can never deceive these keen and open-minded 
 students, and that the only way the church can 
 gain their respect is by making itself worthy of it. 
 
 163, 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 In view of the obvious facts, which these 
 students see for themselves, in view of my 
 inside knowledge of the American churches and 
 my discovery that they deliberately prevent the 
 teaching of fundamental Christian ideals, and 
 in view of the church's failure revealed by the 
 European War and the consequent movement 
 already begun to reconstruct it, what ought my 
 answer to this question to be, if we assume it 
 ought to be either honest or helpful? It seems 
 evident to me that it can be only one thing. 
 I shall answer the question by saying that there 
 is no form of the church at present in America 
 that I can honestly recommend to China. How 
 can I recommend any one of our American 
 sects, for which an increasing number of our 
 best men are losing their respect, and when I 
 believe that the day of sectarianism is done.^ 
 I shall do my best to persuade Chinese students 
 to make the Kingdom of God their major 
 loyalty, but I can recommend none of the 
 sects, because they have become too much of a 
 liability to the Kingdom of God. It has come to 
 pass that a sectarian label is a libel. It misrep- 
 resents the mental attitude of the members of 
 the church which bears it. It denies more than 
 it affirms. It therefore does more harm than 
 good to the cause it pretends to serve. 
 • While I could not honestly recommend to 
 China the form of any of our sectarian churches, 
 
 164 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 which I believe are destined to pass away, — a 
 process which has already begun, — I can heart- 
 ily recommend a form of the organized church, 
 which I believe is destined to be the new and 
 dominant church of the future, signs of which 
 are now appearing on every hand. While China 
 is in the process of building a Christian church, 
 it would be not only bad business, but morally 
 wrong to recommend a form of the church which 
 we believe has begun to pass away. The only 
 kind of a church which I can urge China to 
 build is a community church. Such a suggestion 
 will cause little shock in China, because the 
 remarkable growth in the spirit of unity among 
 Christian leaders in non-Christian lands makes, 
 it the only fitting suggestion. A cooperative 
 committee of the missionary boards of Protes- 
 tant churches has established churches for the 
 Anglo-American communities in Peking, Tokio, 
 Yokohama, Kobe, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, 
 and Colombo. But no one of them is a sectarian 
 church. They are all union churches. The situa- 
 tion permitted no other kind. They may not 
 be community churches in the real sense of that 
 term, but they are approximations to it. 
 
 The Chinese students, with their sound prac- 
 tical good sense, are now writing papers and 
 debating the question as to whether they need 
 both a church and a Young Men's Christian 
 Association. I hold no brief for the Young Men's 
 
 I6S 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 Christian Association. It has many of the faults 
 which the church has, and some which the 
 church does not have. But it has at least the 
 elements of real power. It has an efficient busi- 
 ness organization; it is to a degree non-sectarian; 
 and it has bridged the chasm between the sec- 
 ular and sacred, on account of which it is able 
 to meet practical human needs. These elements 
 ally it to the community movement and explain 
 its remarkable success in a country like China 
 and in other countries as well. One of America's 
 leading Christian business men, who has trav- 
 eled extensively in China, told me recently that 
 he believed the future of Christianity in China 
 was in the hands of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association, and although he was a devoted mem- 
 ber ofthe Baptist church, he would give no 
 money to propagate his own sect there, but he 
 had given the money to build and equip one 
 Young Men's Christian Association building 
 and one hospital. In view of facts like these, to 
 suggest any other than a community type of 
 church would be deliberate blindness to the 
 manifest signs of the times. 
 
 Not the least valuable of the returns which 
 have come from the attempt to propagate sec- 
 tarian churches in foreign lands has been the 
 recent discovery that they cannot be propa- 
 gated with permanent success. The necessity of 
 Christian unity is a humiliating but most valu- 
 
 i66 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 able contribution, which the so-called non- 
 Christian East has made to the so-called Chris- 
 tian West. During the last decade, America has 
 shown some appreciation of this contribution 
 and has begun to make a motor reaction to it. 
 But the churches in America have been chal- 
 lenged not only by the Christian spirit in the 
 Far East, but also by certain disturbing facts 
 at home. The wide and rapidly growing indif- 
 ference to the churches, the persistent refusal 
 of young men to enter the ministry, the in- 
 creasing performance of the church's natural 
 functions by independent community agencies, 
 have begun to shock the churches into a realiza- 
 tion that they are being left high and dry on 
 the hillside while the great moral enterprises of 
 the Kingdom of God are passing them indiffer- 
 ently by. 
 
 The general indifference to the church is not 
 a thing to be wondered at; the only cause for 
 wonder is that it is not greater than it is. Here 
 is a typical township in Pennsylvania : The pop- 
 ulation is twelve hundred representative Ameri- 
 can citizens. There are three post-offices, seven 
 schoolhouses, one bank, and one saloon. The 
 church figures are as follows: number of de- 
 nominations, lo; church buildings, lo; con- 
 gregations, 14; money invested in church prop- 
 erty, $3 0,000; ^amount annually raised, ^4,000; 
 contributed by home mission boards, ^500; 
 
 I167 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 total church members, 405; average church 
 membership, 29; average Sunday attendance, 
 40; number of ministers, 10; maximum salary, 
 ?7So; one has college and theological training; 
 seven little more than a high-school course. 
 Does the fact that over sixty-three per cent, of 
 the people of the township are not members of 
 any church require any further explanation? 
 
 The same general conditions are revealed by 
 surveys made in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri; 
 by a wide survey of Vermont and New York and 
 by a forthcoming survey made of the entire 
 State of Ohio. A similar condition exists in our 
 villages and small towns. Here is a typical man- 
 ufacturing town, Factoryville: There are about 
 seven thousand inhabitants. Of these about six 
 thousand are immigrants employed in the fac- 
 tories. There are about one thousand native 
 Americans. A Roman Catholic church ministers 
 to possibly one thousand of the foreigners; a 
 German Lutheran church ministers to about 
 one hundred of the Protestants. The other four 
 Protestant churches minister almost exclusively 
 to the native American population. 
 
 The same lack of efficiency and Christian 
 spirit exists among city churches and to a 
 greater extent. In one of our Eastern cities there 
 are to-day three beautiful expensive churches 
 of the same denomination in the same neighbor- 
 hood; two of them have each an endowment of 
 
 168 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 $120,000, the other an endowment of $50,000. 
 The yearly budgets of the three churches are 
 $12,500, $12,500, and $15,000. The three pieces 
 of ground on which they stand are worth 
 $100,000, $50,000, and $40,000. The buildings 
 and equipment cost at least fifty per cent, more 
 than the land. We have, then, an investment of 
 $475,000, an endowment of $290,000, and an 
 annual operating expense of $40,000, and yet 
 the Sunday morning attendance at a very gen- 
 erous estimate averages not over two hundred 
 and fifty persons. The evening audiences are too 
 small and irregular to count. Moreover, these 
 buildings are used very little more than one day 
 in seven. To say nothing of the unneighborly 
 spirit thus exhibited, if the same frightful waste 
 of money took place in any other business, it 
 would not only be declared bankrupt in six 
 months, but the men responsible for it would 
 be regarded as incapable of handling their own 
 affairs. 
 
 In a new suburban section of another of our 
 Eastern cities within the last ten years, five 
 hundred thousand dollars hav^ been spent in 
 excess of the church needs of the community, 
 because of a mad scramble on the part of the 
 various sects to get a foothold in the commu- 
 nity for the sake of sectarian pride. The nervous 
 strain of the process is indicated by the fact 
 that one fine minister broke down and died as 
 
 169 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 a result of it. In other words, the people of the 
 city would have benefited physically, socially, 
 economically, and spiritually, if this vast 
 amount had not been spent at all. How can a 
 man of ordinary intelligence respect an institu- 
 tion which exhibits so little common sense and 
 Christian spirit? It is my conviction that the 
 majority of the people who have grown indif- 
 ferent to it are quite justified in their attitude. 
 It is highly significant that the problem of the 
 church to-day is not how to win evil men, as it 
 once was, but how to hold good men. Twenty 
 years ago John Burroughs wrote: "The relig- 
 ious skeptics of to-day are a very large class, 
 larger than ever before, and they are among the 
 most helpful, intelligent, patriotic, upright, and 
 wisely conservative of our citizens. Probably 
 four fifths of our literary men are such; a large 
 proportion of journalists and editors; half the 
 lawyers; more than half the doctors; a large 
 percentage of the teachers; a larger percentage 
 of the business men; almost all the scientific 
 men." If this was true then, it is still more true 
 now. 
 
 I have stated a few facts concerning the con- 
 dition of the churches, not for the purpose of 
 dwelling on them, for they are already well 
 known, but in order to avoid indefinite general 
 statements. We need waste no time in discuss- 
 ing how the church came into its present con- 
 
 170 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 dition or in fixing the blame for it. It is the con- 
 dition and not the theory which confronts us. 
 Although a knowledge of the facts is essential, 
 I am far more interested in the remedy for the 
 difficulty. The question before us is whether we 
 can discover an organization which will make 
 Christianity work better than the organization 
 we now have, a discovery which President 
 Wilson says we have not yet made. I attended 
 the recent church and country life convention 
 in Columbus, Ohio, for the express purpose of 
 seeing how far along the leaders of the church 
 had gotten toward such a discovery. From the 
 delegates of thirty-eight states there was ample 
 testimony as to the deplorable condition of the 
 church, and from the leaders there were most 
 inspiring suggestions and approximations to- 
 ward a remedy, but no constructive programme, 
 fundamental enough to meet the need. General 
 cooperation among denominations is very good 
 indeed so far as it goes, but it does not get very 
 far. The plan has the essential weakness of 
 working from the top down instead of from the 
 bottom up. It never touches the roots of the 
 disease. If you have a working plan among 
 independent sects, you still have sectarianism 
 which is the ,very thing which needs to be 
 destroyed. 
 
 In a recent book, the editors of the "Homi- 
 letic Review," Scott and Gilmore, have gath- 
 
 171 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 ered a large amount of data from leaders of the 
 church in Europe and America, analyzed and 
 classified it. One of the chief results of the in- 
 vestigation is that there is general agreement 
 only as to the fact of wide indifference to the 
 church, but disagreement as to its cause and 
 no suggestion of a remedy. The upshot of it all 
 is that the church is still in the woods; that it 
 is becoming conscious it ought not to be there, 
 but that it has not found the way out. We have 
 had enough surveys. We know the facts suf- 
 ficiently well. What is the way out of the woods 
 is the urgent question. At the Columbus con- 
 vention I had a feeling that many of the leaders 
 had a clear conviction as to the remedy, but 
 lacked the courage to say what it was. 
 
 With the facts of the church's condition in 
 America, Europe, and the Far East, clearly 
 before us, and in our hearts a desire to be help- 
 ful and the courage to be honest, what is the 
 needed remedy? It seems to me clearly to be 
 this : We must replace all sectarian churches by 
 a new and fundamentally different type of 
 church. What that type ought to be, the pro- 
 nounced signs of the times abundantly indicate. 
 It is a community church. The only way to 
 reform the present church is to replace it with 
 a better one. The church of to-morrow is the 
 community church. I realize that a constructive 
 criticism is always tjie most radical kind of 
 
 172 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 criticism, because it necessitates the removal of 
 so much dead lumber. It seems to me idle to 
 proceed with our problem unless we first of all 
 see clearly that what the church needs is not 
 mere improvement, but a revolution. It needs 
 complete reorganization. To use a few poul- 
 tices is a waste of time. Only an operation can 
 save its life, because the disease is deep-seated. 
 To make a few improvements to the church 
 instead of a radical moral reformation is like 
 the attempt to purify the water In a well by 
 painting the pump. 
 
 .. What, then, is a community church in the 
 real meaning of this term? To substitute the 
 term "community" for a sectarian label is, of 
 course, no remedy. The church I left, because it 
 failed to stand for Christian ideals, had in its 
 official title an abundance of beautiful words, 
 such as "Christian" and "union" and "con- 
 gregational." But in fact it was not "union" in 
 its treatment of its members, nor "congrega- 
 tional" in its government, nor "Christian" in 
 its spirit. We must change the church's nature 
 as well as its name. I do not condemn the church 
 as at present organized because it is imperfect; 
 I condemn it because I believe it is morally and 
 officially wrong in its ideals and its methods, 
 and because it deliberately closes its mind to 
 any proposed change for the better. It is not so 
 much what the church does, but what it sanc- 
 
 173 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 tions which fixes its moral status. Christianity 
 does not condemn a man for doing wrong; it 
 condemns him for not doing right, which is 
 quite a different thing. If, then, we are to put 
 a real content into the term "community," 
 what ought that content to be? ^ 
 
 A community church, first of all, is one which 
 is organized democratically. It must be demo- 
 cratic intellectually, financially, and socially. 
 The problem of the modern church is its atti- 
 tude toward democracy. Speaking generally the 
 churches to-day are deliberately organized in 
 such a way as to put dogma above intelligence, 
 money above character, and sectarianism above 
 brotherhood. Whether done consciously or un- 
 consciously, such is the fact. For myself I have 
 got so far as this, that never again shall I con- 
 sent to be the pastor of any church which in 
 theory and practice prefers dogma to intelli- 
 gence; money to character; and sectarian ex- 
 clusiveness to human brotherhood. I regard 
 these three attitudes as morally wrong and un- 
 christian. But they are the official attitudes of 
 over ninety per cent, of the churches to-day. 
 These are the three great blights upon the 
 church and account for its present troubles. 
 Any attempt, therefore, to solve the church's 
 
 «A statement and brief interpretation of what the author 
 believes to be the seven cardinal virtues of a community church 
 will be found in Appendix A. 
 
 174 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 problem, which fails to remove these blights, is 
 merely playing with the fringes of the problem. 
 The last three chapters of my story treated 
 these three fundamental difficulties of the 
 church, and indicated the way to remove them. 
 When they are removed, the foundations of a 
 community church will be laid and not before. 
 It is not possible for a church to be democratic 
 so long as it is dominated by dogma, money, 
 and sectarianism. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the remedies I 
 have proposed for these three blights will 
 guarantee that any church will remain demo- 
 cratic. I mean to say that they will make it 
 possible for it to be democratic and difficult 
 for it to be autocratic. But however democrati- 
 cally a church may be organized, it is essential 
 to remember that "eternal vigilance is the 
 price of liberty"; because men ambitious for 
 power will always seek to dominate the church 
 for their selfish purposes. How can a church be 
 kept democratic ? I know of but one way. After 
 having reorganized it democratically, we ought 
 to adopt, as part of its regular method of pro- 
 cedure, the initiative, referendum, recall, and 
 preferential ballot, both as regards its officers 
 and its policies, so that the people may have 
 the machinery through which they can express 
 their will. But to-day the churches are neither 
 organized democratically nor is there anywhere 
 
 I7S 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 in operation the machinery by which they can 
 be kept democratic. Until church govern- 
 ment becomes government by all its mem- 
 bers, it lacks the first elements of the Christian 
 spirit. 
 
 Inasmuch as the most subtle and sinister of 
 these three dangers is the worship of money, 
 a community church cannot afford to deal with 
 it softly nor compromise with it in any par- 
 ticular. Especially since the general impression 
 is that the churches are worshipers of money, 
 the subject needs to be treated heroically. In 
 order that the community church may not com- 
 promise its freedom through dependence on a 
 few big givers to pay the chronic church deficit, 
 its minister ought not to receive a fixed salary. 
 His contract with the church ought to stipulate 
 only a minimum and a maximum salary. This 
 would help to guarantee the freedom of both 
 church and minister, and the minister would 
 receive an amount proportionate to the people's 
 ability and to the worth of his own services. 
 Such an arrangement is agreeable to any man 
 of spirit and honor. Speaking for myself, I have 
 seen the church suffer so much injury on account 
 of its yearly deficit that I would never again 
 be willing to receive a fixed salary from any 
 church. 
 
 For the same reason it ought to be the fixed 
 policy of the community church to set a definite 
 
 176 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 limit on the size of the annual subscription 
 from any single individual. In the kind of 
 churches to which I have been accustomed, I 
 would make the limit two hundred dollars. It 
 is true that in my church there were at least a 
 half-dozen men whose yearly subscriptions 
 ought to have been one thousand dollars, if 
 they wanted them to be even one third as much 
 in proportion as the average gifts of the poorer 
 people. But then it is customary both for them 
 and the people to regard gifts of money in the 
 light of their absolute size instead of their rela- 
 tive value. This baleful influence and tempta- 
 tion to pauperize the church can be removed 
 only by fixing such a limitation. I think it 
 would be a satisfaction to the rich men them- 
 selves to know that there was at least one insti- 
 tution in which they are treated as men rather 
 than as money-bags and where they were re- 
 spected for their character and intelligence and 
 not for the money the people expected to get 
 out of them. 
 
 For the same reason, also, it ought to be the 
 policy of the community church to pay taxes 
 on its property like any other private institu- 
 tion, in order that it may be just. Up to the 
 present, all church buildings and almost all 
 church property have been exempt from taxa- 
 tion. I know of no valid reason why churches 
 now should not pay taxes and many reasons 
 
 177 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH ^ 
 
 why they should. To exempt churches from 
 taxation violates one of the Nation's constitu- 
 tional ideals. The United States stands for the 
 absolute separation of church and state. But by 
 relieving the church of taxes, the state is helping 
 to support the church and subsidizes it to that 
 extent. Moreover, the amount of taxes not paid 
 by the church has to be paid by somebody else, 
 and inasmuch as the church now includes in its 
 membership a large majority of the rich, and 
 has alienated the masses, the church's failure 
 to pay taxes is an imposition of the rich upon 
 the poor. This is unjust and un-Christian. At 
 a time when almost the whole population was 
 included in church membership, the injustice 
 was so small as to be negligible. For almost all 
 public revenue then came from the same people 
 in their status either as citizens or churchmen, 
 and it made little difference whether it was paid 
 out of one pocket or another. But now, accord- 
 ing to the church's own figures, its membership 
 is only forty per cent, of the population. More- 
 over, we who are on the inside know that the 
 church lists are padded and dishonest. In addi- 
 tion to this, even after the actual membership 
 is honestly reported, there is a large percentage 
 of members who are merely nominal and take 
 no real part in the church. By a very generous 
 estimate I should say that not over thirty per 
 cent, of the population is in the church in any 
 
 178 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 real sense. Why, then, should a large majority 
 of the people, made up largely of the poor, be 
 compelled by taxation to contribute to the 
 minority, made up largely of the rich. In the 
 support of private institutions In which they 
 do not believe ? To say that the people ought to 
 be compelled to believe In them, and forced by 
 taxation to support them. Is to restore the meth- 
 ods of the Inquisition and to violate the first 
 principle of democracy for which America 
 stands. 
 
 The community church will ask for the priv- 
 ilege of paying taxes on Its property. If It can 
 establish this public policy, It will not only cor- 
 rect a manifest social Injustice, but will also 
 render a large service to the churches themselves. 
 For the taxation of all church property will help 
 to prevent the needless multiplication of small 
 sectarian churches, and It will decrease the over- 
 indulgence In expensive church plants, which Is 
 a burdensome and growing evil. I emphasize 
 the need of radical monetary reforms, because 
 there Is no way In which the church can regain 
 the confidence of the people more speedily than 
 by becoming just and honorable In Its attitude 
 to money. Mere statements will avail nothing. 
 The people have lost confidence in the honesty 
 of the church's creedal statements to such an 
 extent that they will trust It only when Its fine 
 words are translated into deeds. I emphasize 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH i 
 
 this need, also, because it is only by achieving 
 freedom from financial domination that the 
 church can hope to free itself from the domina- 
 tion of its other two enemies, dogma and 
 sectarianism. 
 
 I said that when we achieved freedom from 
 dogma, money, and sectarianism we had only 
 laid the foundations of a community church. 
 That is to say, that by freeing it from this handi- 
 cap, we put it in a condition in which it is free to 
 do its work. It is important to see clearly that 
 freedom is only a negative condition. After one 
 has achieved freedom, the chief questions re- 
 main to be asked, What is he going to do with 
 it? How is he going to use it? Freedom is of 
 little value till it is filled with a positive purpose. 
 It would be a real gain to moral and political 
 welfare if we dropped the phrase "free from" 
 and substituted for it "free to." We free our- 
 selves from tyrannies in order that we may be 
 able to do the thing we ought to do. A com- 
 munity church, therefore, after having been 
 organized democratically, is one which stands for 
 a dynamic^ not a static religion. The life of the 
 churches to-day is crystallized in creeds, in 
 ritual, in tradition, and in architecture. A 
 crystal is a dead thing, not a living form. My 
 complaint against the churches is that they are 
 negative, not positive. They have no courage, 
 no conscience, and no convictions. They are 
 
 i8o 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 not leaders, but followers of public opinion. 
 They come to the help of great moral reforms 
 only after the pioneer period of danger is 
 past and when their help is no longer needed. 
 They are moral neutrals, and a moral neutral 
 is a deserter, for moral neutrality is an impos- 
 sibility. This fact, I believe, sufficiently ex- 
 plains why so many of the leaders of the great 
 moral causes of God have lost faith in the 
 church. What they think of the church may be 
 accurately expressed in a paraphrase of Brown- 
 ing's words: 
 
 ^. **Just for a handful of silver *it' left us, 
 Just for a riband to stick in *its' coat — 
 *It' alone breaks from the van and the freemen, 
 *It' alone sinks to the rear and the slaves! 
 We shall march prospering — not through 'its' presence; 
 Songs may inspirit us — not from *its' lyre; 
 Deeds will be done, — while *it' boasts *its' quiescence, 
 Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire." 
 
 I desire to be entirely fair to the church. I 
 love it in spite of its failure and want to render 
 it a service. I believe that the great mass of 
 church members mean well, and I still believe it 
 is possible to convert the church to Christianity. 
 But it is no kindness to let a friend freeze to 
 death in the snow, because he feels comfortable. 
 It requires hard blows to make him realize his 
 danger. Any attempt to help the church out of 
 
 i8i 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 its present condition is futile unless we have the 
 courage to face the facts as they are. The fact 
 is that a small group of Pharisees and Sadducees 
 have, by subtle and devious ways, persuaded 
 the church to sell its soul for money, until as a 
 result of this sale the great moral causes of de- 
 mocracy are winning their victories to-day, not 
 only without the help of the church, but fre- 
 quently in thejace of its pronounced opposition. 
 Church history has repeated itself so often in 
 this respect that the repetition has become 
 monotonous. When Whittier was asked about 
 the progress of the big moral issue of his day, he 
 replied, "Anti-slavery is going on well in spite 
 of mobs, Andover Theological Seminary, and 
 rum." Once after a mob had done its work at 
 Newburyport, where the speakers were pelted 
 with all sorts of unsavory missiles and the meet- 
 ing was broken up, Whittier turned to an 
 Orthodox minister, one of the few of that day 
 who stood by the cause, and said: "I am sur- 
 prised that we should be disturbed in a quiet 
 Puritan city like Newburyport. I have lived near 
 it for years and always thought it was a pious 
 city." The aged minister, laying his hand on 
 Whittier's shoulder, answered, "Young man, 
 when you are as old as I am, you will understand 
 that it is easier to be pious than it is to be good." 
 The stupid blunder of the church has been that 
 it is content to be pious and lacks the courage to 
 
 182 
 
THE CHURCH OF TOMORROW 
 
 be good. It is to-day reaping the natural fruits 
 of its cowardice. 
 
 A community church is one that will stand for 
 the things which Jesus stood for. That and 
 nothing else. Is not this the obvious function of 
 a Christian church? And yet the churches to- 
 day not only do not stand for the things Jesus 
 stands for, but they do not even know what they 
 are. The survey, to which I have referred, made 
 by Scott and Gilmore, reveals the fact that 
 among the church leaders in Europe and Amer- 
 ica there is "an irreconcilable disagreement as to 
 what the church stands for." This is not to be 
 wondered at. The curious and surprising fact is 
 that the churches manifest a decided unwilling- 
 ness to learn what Jesus stands for. This is the 
 discovery I made in my own experience and is 
 the reason why I left my church. I believe the 
 attitude of my own church is typical. If any 
 church officer is inclined to doubt it, he may dis- 
 cover whether or not it is a fact by a very simple 
 experiment. When the pulpit of his church be- 
 comes vacant and a committee is appointed to 
 secure a new minister, let him recommend to 
 the committee a candidate, who is an ex- 
 perienced and well-equipped minister, but who 
 says he is willing to accept a call from the 
 church only on the condition that he be granted 
 entire freedom to preach the Christian religion 
 as it is stated in the New Testament and as he 
 
 183 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 is given to understand it by the "Spirit of 
 Truth," which Jesus said is his only authorita- 
 tive guide. What would such a committee do? 
 One naturally supposes that a Christian church 
 would make a special effort to secure this type 
 of minister. It does nothing of the kind. What 
 would happen in the committee meeting is this. 
 One or two of the pious and orthodox members 
 and one or two of the rich members of it would 
 unite in saying: * Your candidate may be a very 
 good and able man, but such preaching would 
 disturb the church and we must do nothing to 
 hinder the success of cmr plant. The fact that he 
 attaches such a condition to his acceptance of a 
 call shows he has no tact. It is out of the 
 question to consider him.' That is to say, the 
 preaching of Christian ideals will disturb some 
 pious people and cause the church to lose the 
 contributions of a few rich men, and the leaders 
 on the committee are more devoted to the 
 physical welfare of the church than to the 
 spiritual interests of the Kingdom of God. The 
 other members of the committee tamely submit 
 to this policy either because of cowardice or be- 
 cause they have less money, for it is the pro- 
 fession of orthodoxy and the possession of 
 money rather than the possession of character 
 that determines a man's influence with church 
 committees. 
 
 This state of affairs is so well and generally 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 known that no minister ever conditions his ac- 
 ceptance of a call by any such statement as I 
 have supposed. What" he does is skillfully to 
 conceal his real convictions as best he may. For 
 the sake of demonstrating what would happen 
 if a minister made freedom to be honest a con- 
 dition of his acceptance of a call, I am tempted 
 to lend the use of my name to any forward-look- 
 ing man who doubts it and who is willing to 
 make the experiment. I do hereby grant him 
 permission to present my name with the above- 
 named condition to the committee of his church 
 seeking to secure a new minister. The only re- 
 quest I make is that he report to me the result 
 of his experiment. I know beforehand what the 
 result will be, because the result, as I have 
 stated it, has already happened to me three 
 times. My name was presented by my friends 
 without any knowledge on my part, and there- 
 fore I had no opportunity to state the condition 
 of my acceptance. The committees in each case 
 merely suspected that I would preach such ideals 
 and this suspicion was sufficient to frighten 
 them. I was quite satisfied with their action; 
 for I had already resolved never to accept any 
 church which would not permit me to preach the 
 Christian ideals of the New Testament. It seems 
 well-nigh unbelievable that a minister's desire 
 to preach these ideals insures his defeat as a 
 candidate for a church, and that if he dares to 
 
 185 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 preach them, the loss of his pulpit is a foregone 
 conclusion. But it is strictly true. If Jesus should 
 now come to America and preach as He did in 
 Palestine, the pulpit of the average church is the 
 last place that would give him a hearing. But 
 the "common" people would hear him gladly 
 now, as they did then. The reason for the grow- 
 ing indifference to the church seems to me as 
 clear as sunlight to all except those who refuse 
 to see. 
 
 The sufficient reason why the community 
 type of church ought to be organized is that 
 the Christianity of Jesus needs to be made 
 known. Recently we have begun to realize that 
 centuries ago Christianity was captured. The 
 historic movements which made the speedy 
 spread of Christianity possible were the career 
 of Alexander the Great, the rise of the Roman 
 Empire, and the dispersion of the Jews, espe- 
 cially the achievements of Alexander. In the 
 contest with her rivals, with which the spread 
 of Alexander's conquests brought her into con- 
 flict, Christianity won the victory. But the 
 price she paid for it was too high. She captured 
 them, but in the process she herself was in turn 
 captured by them. Christianity's three chief 
 captors were, first, Greek speculation and theo- 
 logical dogma, which covered up and distorted 
 her simple democratic message; second, the 
 cults of Isis, Mithra, and Gnosticism, which 
 
 i86 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 imported into Christianity such alien elements 
 as the idea that the physical world is the seat 
 of evil, the idea of fate, the idea of sacrifice as a 
 bribe, and the idea of sorcery and superstitious 
 ritual; third, the sale of the church as an organ- 
 ization to the disreputable Emperor Con- 
 stantine. After Diocletian discovered that the 
 church could not be destroyed, Constantine 
 conceived the clever idea that it could be made 
 useful. It was a masterly stroke of selfish poli- 
 tics. He offered to the church money, respect- 
 ability, and imperial favor. The church accepted 
 the offer. By this bargain the church sold its 
 soul, forfeited its freedom, and became a cap- 
 tive. It is the saddest tragedy of history, a 
 tragedy well described by Arthur C. Benson, 
 who said: "If ever there was a divine attempt 
 made in the world to shake religion free from 
 its wrappings, it was the preaching of Jesus. 
 Never was there a message which cast so much 
 hope abroad in rich handfuls to the world. 
 The bright and beautiful spirit made its way 
 like a stream of clear water, refreshing thirsty 
 places, till at last the world itself, in the middle 
 of its luxuries and pomp, became aware that 
 here was a mighty force abroad which must be 
 reckoned with; and then the world itself deter- 
 mined upon the capture of Christianity; and 
 how sadly it succeeded can be read in the pages 
 of history; until at last the pure creature, like 
 
 187 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 a barbarian captive, bright with youth and 
 beauty, was bound with golden chains and 
 bidden, bewildered and amazed, to grace the 
 triumph and ride in the very chariot of its 
 conqueror." 
 
 For a thousand years the church was such 
 that Jesus could not have returned to the insti- 
 tution built in his memory, without endangering 
 his life. What kind of a reception would it give 
 him now, I wonder? Four hundred years ago 
 the rising tide of democracy, manifesting itself 
 in the Renaissance and Reformation, produced 
 an attempt to liberate captured Christianity. 
 Luther led a revolt against despotic government 
 and financial oppression in the church. But it 
 would be a stupid mistake to suppose that he 
 succeeded in liberating Christianity. He was a 
 panic-stricken progressive. He deserted his own 
 principle. He substituted a paper pope for a 
 flesh-and-blood pope. Luther was not a demo- 
 crat, as the cowardly part he played in siding 
 with the nobles against the peasants emphat- 
 ically shows, and the meaning of the Kingdom 
 of God, to which Jesus gave his life, never once 
 dawned on his mind. It is the chief task and 
 dominant aim of the community church to make 
 known the Christian religion as it is stated in 
 the memorabilia of Jesus. All too long have we 
 been content with Christianity according to 
 Luther, according to Paul, according to Augus- 
 
 i88 
 
^, THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 tine. Our present urgent need is for Christianity 
 according to Jesus. The dominant desire of the 
 community church will be for intelligence 
 enough to discover it and courage enough to 
 make it known. I am not contending for any- 
 thing so radical as the practice of the Christian 
 principles. I am only contending that they 
 ought to be made known. 
 • It is not fair, however, to condemn Luther 
 for his failure to understand what is even now 
 only dimly perceived. But it is necessary after 
 four hundred years to state the facts as they 
 are, while we freely acknowledge our debt of 
 gratitude for the service he rendered in the slow 
 and painful progress of democracy. He rendered 
 a service of the highest value In the struggle to 
 secure the individual's liberty to think and in 
 behalf of free education. We are, of course, 
 agreed that freedom of inquiry, freedom of 
 thought, freedom of speech, freedom of every 
 sort, both spiritual and economic, is the chief 
 goal of history. It is the condition without 
 which no progress of any kind is possible. But 
 the best things are always capable of most 
 abuse. Freedom to think, partially secured by 
 the German Reformation, if carried to excess 
 is a disintegrating force. For four hundred years 
 it has led to individualism carried to wild ex- 
 tremes, and it is responsible for the laissez-faire 
 policy in the church as well as in industry. It 
 
 189 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 has divided the church into an incredible num- 
 ber of rival sects and subjected it to weakness 
 and ridicule. "Competition is put forth as the 
 law of life. I have got so far as this," said 
 Frederick D. Maurice, "I know that is a lie. 
 Cooperation is the law of life." 
 
 Our present urgent business is to take the 
 next step in Luther's unfinished work, to 
 achieve what was begun, but never completed 
 by him. In performing this task, ought we to go 
 backward or forward? For over a thousand 
 years the church had unity without liberty. 
 For four hundred years it has had liberty with- 
 out unity. What is the next step.^ It is axiomati- 
 cally true that it is neither possible nor desirable 
 to go backward, for the obvious reason that, 
 as Emerson says, our eyes are in our foreheads 
 and not in our hindheads. Moreover, the remedy 
 for the abuse of a thing is not to give up its 
 use altogether, but to make the right use of it. 
 Undoubtedly the church has abused the prin- 
 ciple of freedom, but to give it up is "to throw 
 out the baby with the bath." The fact is that 
 the unity of which the church boasted for a 
 thousand years was not unity at all; it was uni- 
 formity; and uniformity is both impracticable 
 and morally wrong. It has to be maintained by 
 force, and therefore cannot last, even if secured, 
 and it is contrary to the laws of God's world. 
 Variety_in unity and unity in variety are every- 
 
 190 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 where the law of nature. It is not uniformity, 
 but unity that we seek. It is clear that the abuse 
 of freedom can be corrected only by going for- 
 ward. The cure for democracy is not less but 
 more democracy; that is, a democracy made 
 mature by intelligence and self-control. 
 
 For a long period, therefore, the church had 
 uniformity without liberty. Then followed a 
 period in which it had liberty without uniform- 
 ity. The time has now come when the growing 
 spirit of intelligence and the spirit of good will 
 are leading us to demand a church organized on 
 the principles of liberty and unity. When we say 
 this, we express the demand for a community 
 church. A community church, then, is one 
 which stands for unity and liberty. It secures 
 unity and liberty by making its working plat- 
 form brief and stating it only in general prin- 
 ciples. It limits its platform to general state- 
 ments, not because it desires to limit the scope 
 of its belief, but for exactly the opposite reason, 
 because it refuses to limit the scope of its belief. 
 Coleridge wisely says, "Make any spiritual 
 truth too definite and you make it too small." 
 One of the saddest as well as most humorous 
 blunders of the past is the fact that creeds have 
 been so definite and detailed that the sects 
 became so absorbed In fighting each other over 
 differences of detail, which were quite unim- 
 portant even if true, that they forgot the great 
 
 191 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 causes which it was their mission to serve and 
 on which they could have united. The com- 
 munity church will avoid this blunder, by unit- 
 ing its members on their common goal, which is 
 not diiRcult, and by making no attempt to 
 unite them on any detailed statement of their 
 starting-point or the methods of attaining the 
 goal, which is not possible. It is, of course, 
 obvious that there must be a clear statement of 
 its fundamental ideals and purposes.^ As to 
 what these fundamentals should be, the prin- 
 ciple of selection for any institution is that there 
 must be agreement on those principles, the 
 denial of which would destroy the institution 
 itself. In everything except those axiomatic 
 principles, agreement on which is necessary to 
 constitute it a church, the community church 
 not only permits but encourages freedom of 
 thought. The principle of unity and liberty, 
 which is the formative principle of the com- 
 munity church, furnishes the key to its organ- 
 ization. This principle anticipates and answers 
 the question, "Is not the community church 
 just another new sect?" If it is, we ought to 
 pray that it be still-born. But it is out of the 
 weakness of sectarianism that the community 
 church is being born, and its avowed and dom- 
 inant aim is to decrease the number of sects. 
 
 *A suggested constitution for a community church will be 
 found in Appendix C. 
 
 192 
 
THE CHURCH OF TO-MORROW 
 
 It will accomplish this desired end by a process 
 of absorption and welding. Those sects which 
 refuse to be absorbed, it will weld into a real 
 union. How it proposes to achieve this result 
 is the subject of the next chapter. 
 
VI 
 
 THE COMMUNITY CHURCH: AN AMERICAN 
 PRODUCT 
 
In examining the National government and 
 the State governments, we have never once 
 had occasion to advert to any ecclesiastical 
 body or question, because with such matters 
 government has in the United States abso- 
 lutely nothing to do. Of all the differences 
 between the Old World and the New this is 
 perhaps the most salient. Half the wars of 
 Europe, half the internal troubles that have 
 vexed European States, have arisen from 
 theological differences or from the rival claims 
 of Church and State. This whole vast 
 chapter of debate and strife has remained 
 virtually unopened in the United States. 
 There is no Established Church. 
 
 James Bryce 
 
VI 
 
 THE COMMUNITY CHURCH: AN AMERICAN - 
 PRODUCT 
 
 The outstanding characteristic of the American 
 Republic, which is unHke any other in the world, 
 is that it is a double government, a double 
 allegiance. It is a "Republic of Republics.'* 
 James Bryce, in his "American Common- 
 wealth," accurately describes its unique char- 
 acter. He says: 
 
 When within a large political community smaller 
 communities are found existing, the relation of the 
 smaller to the larger usually appears in one or other 
 of the two following forms. One form is that of a 
 league, in which a number of political bodies, be they 
 monarchies or republics, are bound together so as to 
 constitute, for certain purposes, and especially for 
 the purpose of common defense, a single body. The 
 members of such a composite body or league are not 
 individual men, but communities. It exists only as 
 an aggregate of communities, and .will therefore vanish 
 so soon as the communities which compose it separate 
 themselves from one another. Moreover, it deals 
 with and acts upon these communities only. With 
 the individual citizen it has nothing to do, no right 
 of taxing hIm,or judging him, or making laws for him, 
 for in all these matters It Is to his own community 
 that the allegiance of the citizen Is due. A familiar 
 instance of this form Is to be found in the Germanic 
 Confederation as it existed from 1815 till 1866. 
 
 197 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 . In the second form, the smaller communities are 
 mere sub-divisions of that greater one which we call 
 the Nation. They have been created, or at any rate 
 they exist, for administrative purposes only. Such 
 powers as they possess are powers delegated by the 
 Nation, and can be overridden by its will. The Nation 
 acts directly by its own officers, not merely on the 
 communities, but upon every single citizen; and the 
 Nation, because it is independent of these commu- 
 nities, would continue to exist were they all to dis- 
 appear. Examples of such minor communities may 
 be found in the departments of modern France and 
 the counties of modern England. 
 
 The American Federal Republic corresponds to 
 neither of these two forms, but may be said to stand 
 between them. Its central or National Government 
 is not a mere league, for it does not wholly depend 
 on the component communities which we call the 
 States. It is itself a commonwealth as well as a union 
 of commonwealths, because it claims directly the 
 obedience of every citizen, and acts immediately 
 upon him through its courts and executive officers. 
 Still less are its minor communities, the States, mere 
 subdivisions of the Union, mere creatures of the 
 National Government, like the counties of England 
 or the departments of France. They have over their 
 citizens an authority which is their own, and not del- 
 egated by the central government. They have not 
 been called into being by that government. They — 
 that is, the older ones among them — existed before 
 it. They could exist without it. 
 
 It will thus be seen that every American citi- 
 zen lives in concentric circles. He feels two 
 loyalties, one to his state and the other to his 
 
 198 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 nation. Likewise the members of the commu- 
 nity church may, so far as they desire to do so, 
 cherish two loyalties, one to the community 
 church and one to their sectarian group. If a 
 Christian desires to retain his connection with 
 a small sectarian circle, because of old associa- 
 tions, and because it is especially congenial to 
 him, that is no reason why he should not at the 
 same time be a member of a larger circle in 
 which he unites with his fellow Christians for 
 purposes common to all. Our problem Is how to 
 secure concerted action as the whole, while 
 preserving freedom in the parts. The relation 
 of the community church to its departments is 
 like the relation of the hand to its fingers. The 
 fingers have individual freedom, but they are 
 mobilized in the hand, which becomes one for 
 concerted^action. The union is not mechanical, 
 but vital. A community church represents the 
 army and its sectarian departments the regi- 
 ments. It ought not to be difficult to persuade a 
 man to put the name of the army first, and the 
 name of his regiment second, unless he cares 
 more for the private interests of his regiment 
 than for the success of the army. It is probably 
 true that we shall experience some difficulty in 
 adjusting the relationship between the com- 
 munity church and its departments, just as in 
 our American experiment in democracy we ex- 
 perienced the same kind of difficulty in adjust- 
 
 199 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 ing the relationship between the National Gov- 
 ernment and the freedom of the states. But we 
 have successfuUy^made that adjustment in the 
 nation. What we ourselves have already had 
 enough common sense and good will to do as 
 citizens in our political life, is it not reasonable 
 to hope that we shall have enough common 
 sense and good will to do as Christians in our 
 spiritual life? Ought It not to be done with far 
 less difficulty? What has been done once can 
 not only be done again, but be done more easily. 
 The churches will be compelled to follow the 
 example of the nation. 
 
 Thus a community church built on the 
 pattern of the nation is not a new sect, but 
 a new type of church. It is a departmental 
 church. It bears the same relation to the sects 
 which the National Government bears to the 
 several States of the Union. When the Republic 
 of the United States was created, it was not 
 a new state that was formed, but a new nation. 
 In a similar manner the community church 
 will weld together the various sectarian groups 
 as departments, without any suggestion of 
 superiority or inferiority among them, but 
 giving to each a status of equality like that 
 which exists among the States of the Union. In 
 addition to the sectarian groups the community 
 church will include a group of persons, who 
 desire no other label than the term "commu- 
 
 200 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 nity," and will show to them the same courtesy 
 which it shows to the sectarian groups. All these 
 groups will unite in holding as many meetings 
 and will conduct as many enterprises as repre- 
 sent their common interests. In addition to 
 these, each group can hold as many meetings 
 as it chooses. Each sectarian department can 
 contribute its own money to the missionary en- 
 terprises of its own sect, just as well by being a 
 department of a community church as it can 
 by being a separate sect. If a sectarian group 
 desired to have the Christian ideals presented 
 from its own viewpoint, this could be done by 
 an exchange of pulpits with a minister repre- 
 senting its sect. Such a policy would effect a 
 reform needed on other grounds than fairness 
 to the various points of view represented in the 
 community church. If its pulpit were supplied 
 as college pulpits now are, by a variety of able 
 ministers, its own pastor preaching not more 
 than one or two Sundays a month, the people 
 would get a much higher order of preaching. 
 With his hands filled with administrative work 
 and community activities, no minister can con- 
 tinuously preach twice every Sunday and make 
 his pulpit product such as he wants to make it, 
 and such as the people deserve to receive. Even 
 if the minister have exceptional ability, the 
 people get only one man's point of view. 
 
 Many practical details such as these will need 
 
 201 
 
/A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 to be adjusted. There will be little difficulty In 
 making the adjustment, provided there is the 
 will to make it. What chiefly concerns us here 
 is to see clearly what a community church is; 
 to see that it is not only desirable, and to see 
 that it is not a new sect, but a new kind of 
 church demanded by the needs and the better 
 spirit of our day. To understand what a com- 
 munity church is, it is essential to see that it is 
 not a federation of sects. We have now a federa- 
 tion of sects through their representatives. The 
 American colonies had their period of federa- 
 tion, but discovered its weakness and then pro- 
 ceeded to create a real nation. Likewise we are 
 beginning to see that the federation of the sects, 
 however good the work it is doing, and how- 
 ever necessary for the church to pass through 
 this period of evolution, is nevertheless a con- 
 dition weak and temporary in character. What 
 we need Is not a formal federation among the 
 sects through their representatives, but an 
 organized cooperation among the people them- 
 selves in every community. 
 
 The time has come for the churches to do 
 what the American colonies did when they dis- 
 covered the weakness of federation. Just as we 
 replaced a group of isolated and rival colonies 
 with a real nation, so we must replace a group 
 of Isolated and rival sects with a real church, 
 that is, a community church. To understand 
 
 202 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 clearly the essential nature of a community 
 church, one needs only to remember that the 
 American National Government furnishes the 
 exact model on which it should be organized. 
 
 The present condition of the churches is such 
 that we are agreed that something needs to be 
 done, and public opinion is sufficiently enlight- 
 ened as to perceive what it is that needs to be 
 done. We see clearly that we cannot go back to 
 strictly sectarian churches, and that we cannot 
 stand still. We must go forward to a community 
 type of church. We see what needs to be done. 
 How to do it is the difficult thing. The chief 
 difficulty encountered by any good movement 
 is not theoretical, but practical. The shrewd 
 Portia said to the winsome Nerissa, "If to do 
 were as easy as to know what were good to do, 
 chapels had been churches and poor men's 
 cottages princes' palaces." Nevertheless, we 
 usually can get what we want if we want it 
 enough. The thing of first importance is to see 
 clearly where we want to go. The next thing is 
 to do all our walking in that direction. Difficulty 
 does not baffle a normal man, it inspires him. 
 If a problem is especially difficult the only suc- 
 cessful way to handle it is with boldness. 
 
 **Tender-handed stroke a nettle, 
 And it stings you for your pains: 
 Grasp it like a man of mettle. 
 And it soft as silk remains." 
 
 203 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 This fact of experience leads me to think that 
 the only way to start a community church is to 
 start it. Sectarian lines are erased by the feet 
 of those who cross them. There are two methods 
 by which to proceed : either transform sectarian 
 churches into community churches, or organize 
 community churches as new enterprises. 
 . If we want to get anywhere, we ought to start 
 from where we are. It is always wise to start 
 with the church as it is, and at least give it the 
 chance to accept moral reform. If it will accept 
 it, there is great gain in time and money. 
 Speaking by and large, I think it is idle to hope 
 that the churches will now accept moral reform. 
 But even so we ought to give them the oppor- 
 tunity. I acted on this policy with reference to 
 my own church. In attempting to lead it toward 
 community ideals, I exercised infinite courtesy 
 and patience. I never went so far as to propose 
 any plans of reorganization. I merely preached 
 the Christian ideals. The reaction my church 
 made is highly significant. Some of the pious 
 people spread trivial and ugly slander. Some of 
 the rich men used the only weapon they have 
 much faith in; they withdrew their financial 
 support. A large number of men believed in the 
 new ideals, but were afraid to stand by them, 
 and were bribed to forsake them. One pro- 
 nounced supporter of the new ideals was ap- 
 proached by a rich trustee, and off'ered a loan 
 
 204 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 of twenty thousand dollars with which to build 
 a house. Another man of the same type was told 
 by the president of the board of trustees, who 
 was also president of the bank, that he could 
 get from the bank all the money he needed to 
 use in his business. To use a bank's credit for 
 private purposes is not at all an unusual occur- 
 rence. One of the most liberal-minded officers 
 of the church was involved in large financial 
 operations with the president of the board of 
 trustees, and had received large favors from 
 him. What could these men do? While express- 
 ing to me in private their sincere devotion to the 
 ideals for which I stood, they confessed they 
 were tied hands and feet and could do nothing 
 to help realize the reforms. One man said that 
 if he did, the treatment he would receive from 
 a small group in the church would be so ugly 
 that he would be compelled to sell his house and 
 leave the town. The result was that the group 
 of "pious" and "respectable" gentlemen who 
 had for so long injured the church by their 
 domination of it through the power of dogma, 
 money, and sectarianism, and who had been 
 dislodged from ofiice to the secret delight of the 
 people, were permitted by the people to get 
 themselves reelected to office and to reinstall 
 the same injurious policies. The attempt at 
 reform failed through lack of courage. 
 
 For the same reason the average minister can 
 
 20S 
 
^ A COMMUNITY CHURCH ^ 
 
 be just as little relied upon as a leader in the 
 moral reform of the church. The minister is 
 both a product and a cause of the church's 
 condition. His point of view is first of all formed 
 by the church and he in turn helps to per- 
 petuate it. He does not so much deserve censure 
 as he needs liberation. He has given hostages 
 to fortune. He has a wife and children and only 
 a small daily wage. If he were a young, unmar- 
 ried man, he might make the venture of faith. 
 But to risk losing the means of supporting wife 
 and child seriously conflicts with his obligations 
 of chivalry. The average minister and layman 
 would heartily welcome reforms, but they will 
 not risk the attempt to achieve them. The 
 reason why men in the church can be bought 
 with offers of social and financial benefits is 
 because men in the church, as everywhere else, 
 are for sale. I am not blaming the men who are 
 unable or unwilling to pay the price which 
 moral leadership demands. I sympathize with 
 them. I am merely stating the facts as they are, 
 to indicate that the attempt to reform the 
 church from the inside is futile. I have tried it. 
 Of course, I am basing my conclusion chiefly 
 on my own experience, but I think I very much 
 understate the case when I say that this is 
 typical of what would happen in the average 
 church, because my church is far more liberal 
 than the average church. "Uncle Henry" Wal- 
 
 206 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 lace once said to me that he believed he could 
 split his sect from top to bottom, if he would 
 go to its General Assembly and propose to 
 change just four words in its creed — any four. 
 If a minister wanted to start a community 
 type of church in order the better to serve the 
 interests of the Kingdom of God, and should 
 propose to the three or four sectarian churches 
 of his community that they change their creeds 
 and constitutions to make possible this result, 
 there is little doubt but that he would have on 
 his hands a discussion and an ugly contest, 
 which would cripple his own and 'the commu- 
 nity's spiritual life for many years to come. The 
 churches are so enslaved by old traditions and 
 by vested interests, and so blighted by pro- 
 fessionalism, that the attempt to reform them 
 from the inside is futile. If any other minister 
 desires to try it as I have done, all I can say 
 is that I wish him joy in the attempt. 
 
 There is a more excellent way. It is my con- 
 viction that the churches will ultimately evolve 
 from sectarian into community churches. They 
 will do it when they are compelled to, and not 
 before. The compelling force will be the pres- 
 sure of public opinion from the outside. There- 
 fore, I conclude that the effective way to bring 
 this pressure to bear is to organize community 
 churches as new enterprises. It is the testimony 
 of history that the churches have almost never 
 
 207 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 been reformed from the inside, but only by 
 pressure from the outside. Jesus attempted 
 moral reforms inside the church of his day until 
 it expelled him. Then He went outside to work 
 for the Kingdom of God, and out of his work was 
 born a new church. He stated the philosophical 
 justification for his policy in words which ele- 
 vate it to a universal principle. He said: ^No 
 one tears a piece from a new garment to mend 
 an old one. Otherwise he would not only spoil 
 the new, but the patch put on would tear away 
 from it — the new from the old — and a worse 
 hole would be made. Nor does any one pour new 
 wine into old wine skins. Otherwise the new 
 wine would burst the skins, the wine itself 
 would be spilt, and the skins be destroyed. 
 New wine needs fresh skins.' 
 
 The slow and painful evolution of the church 
 is marked by three formative and decisive ideals 
 of its mission. The first is the theological-indi- 
 vidual conception, a plan to save the individual 
 out of the world and secure safety for him in 
 the next by means of theological beliefs or ritu- 
 alistic performances. The second is the moral- 
 individual conception, according to which it is 
 maintained that, while the aim is to save the 
 individual, this is to be achieved not on theo- 
 logical but on moral grounds, and that educa- 
 tion for moral character is the chief fact to be 
 stressed. The third is the moral-social concep- 
 
 208 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 tion, the conviction not only that salvation is 
 character, but that character is a by-product of 
 service, that the business of the church is to 
 work for social justice, for the establishment of 
 the kingdom of God, the normal order of human 
 society, and that the individual's character and 
 happiness in this world and his safety in any 
 other are determined by the part he plays in this 
 enterprise, or in the words of such a prophet of 
 the new order as Whittier, who said, "Heaven's 
 gate is closed to him who comes alone." 
 
 It will be observed that while the transition 
 from the first to the second of these positions 
 marks a real and important advance, yet the 
 third position, into which we have only recently 
 begun to enter, is marked off from the first two 
 by a radical and constructive difference. It 
 ushers in a new order of things, so that Dr. 
 John Haynes Holmes is justified in saying, as 
 he does in a recent article that: 
 
 " It is the extension of * applied religion ' from 
 charity for the individual to justice in the social 
 order that constitutes the great spiritual dis- 
 covery of our time. The churches now see the 
 social implications of their task; and their re- 
 sponse marks the opening of a new period of 
 Christian history." 
 
 The new wine manifestly calls for new bot- 
 tles. Unescapable is the necessity that the 
 churches be reorganized on the new basis de- 
 
 209 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 manded by the new formative idea dominant 
 to-day. The new type of church required by 
 the new idea is none other than a community 
 church. 
 
 The justification for applying this principle of 
 Jesus to the church of to-day, of course, rests 
 on two assumptions: first, that the church is 
 an old wine skin; second, that we possess a new 
 wine too vital to be contained in the old skins. 
 These two assumptions I believe to be facts. 
 The new wine is the religion of democracy, 
 which is the religion of Jesus newly discovered. 
 That the churches are old wine skins which the 
 new wine would burst, may be readily dis- 
 covered by any minister, if he will venture to 
 preach the religion of democracy. Most of them 
 who have made the attempt have split the 
 church, or left it, or given up the task as hopeless 
 and adopted "safety first" as their policy. I 
 have no objection to the destruction of old wine 
 skins. What distresses me is the prospect of 
 losing the new wine which is most precious. 
 
 For this reason I believe the better way is for 
 the men and women, who have discovered the 
 religion of democracy, to leave the churches as 
 soon as they discover them to be old skins. One 
 of the strongest members of President Wilson's 
 Cabinet, speaking out of a long and wide experi- 
 ence, told me recently that when he was through 
 with his present position, the thing he wanted 
 
 2IO 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 most of all to do was to form an association of 
 men who would agree to leave the churches 
 until they acquired enough common sense to 
 serve the common welfare and justify their 
 existence. I replied that, while his plan would 
 undoubtedly render a public service, he did not 
 need so much to persuade men to leave the 
 churches, because that is what they are already 
 doing in large numbers; and that it would be 
 far more helpful if he would persuade those who 
 had left the church to exhibit courage enough 
 to say why they had done so. "Let the redeemed 
 of the Lord say so." The success of every good 
 cause has always depended on the willingness of 
 its friends to express their loyalty to it. If men 
 would not just quietly leave the church, but 
 would be honest with it and give expression to 
 their convictions, the moral reform of the 
 church would be more speedily accomplished. 
 This is why I am now writing the story of my 
 experience with the church. The pressure of 
 public opinion is the most effective weapon of 
 all moral reform. The cure for moral diseases, 
 as of many physical ones, is exposure to the 
 fresh air and sunshine. 
 
 But a normal man cannot be content to re- 
 main in the negative attitude of protest and 
 destructive criticism. Only he can reform who 
 can replace. Therefore, it is not enough to leave 
 the church and not enough to say why he does 
 
 211 
 
A COMMUNITY. CHURCH 
 
 so. He must have something better to propose 
 in the place of that which he criticizes. The 
 new and better type of church which he ought 
 to assist in starting is the community church. 
 It is usually lonely and dangerous business to 
 start anything new. That is why most men 
 hesitate to try it. But the sentiment for a better 
 type of church is to-day so general that if a 
 few forceful men and women almost anywhere 
 would start a community church, they would 
 doubtless discover that "there were seven 
 thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee 
 to Baal." And yet bigness is not greatness and 
 numbers do not make a strong church. They 
 frequently weaken it just as Gideon's army was 
 weakened by numbers. The churches to-day 
 would undoubtedly be a bigger asset to the 
 Kingdom of God if they had fewer members 
 than they now have. 
 
 It is far better that a small group of forward- 
 looking people should start a community church 
 in a private house. The certificate of incor- 
 poration is a simple matter and easy to secure.* 
 If such a group would organize and set itself 
 the task of discovering what the Christian 
 religion is, what Jesus stands for, it would be 
 undertaking the first business of any Christian, 
 — a business so fascinating that it would attract 
 
 * A suggested model of such a certificate, which can be se- 
 cured in any state, will be found in Appendix C. 
 
 212 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 new members as fast as the church could care 
 for them. The two classes of people who will 
 respond most readily to the ideals of a com- 
 munity church are the literary people and the 
 working-people. The literary man is not handi- 
 capped by vested interests, and his culture 
 makes him cosmopolitan in his outlook. The 
 workingman likewise is not blinded by vested 
 interests, and his moral sanity is preserved by 
 first-hand contact with the concrete facts of 
 life. It is not difficult to understand why Car- 
 lyle said it was these two classes of men whom 
 he most honored; one furnished food for the 
 body, the other food for the spirit. And yet it 
 is these two classes which are most estranged 
 from the church to-day. 
 
 If for no other reason, it is necessary to start 
 a community church as a new enterprise to reach 
 the large groups of people now outside of all 
 churches. Unless the sectarian churches de- 
 liberately take the dog-in-the-manger attitude, 
 they ought to rejoice in any plan which aims to 
 reach the people, whom they have failed to 
 reach. To organize it as an independent enter- 
 prise would thus avoid a needless conflict. It is 
 highly probable that an attempt to convert a 
 sectarian into a community church would oc- 
 casion an ugly display of temper, especially on 
 the part of the "pious" people, which would 
 seriously injure the reform at the start. This is 
 
 213 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 one of the chief things it must shun, for a com- 
 munity church aims to represent the Christian 
 spirit of brotherhood and good will. It contra- 
 dicts itself, if it begins its career with a sec- 
 tarian church fight, which is notorious for bit- 
 terness. Moreover, in a country like ours the 
 Pharisees and Sadducees also have rights. If 
 these men desire the church to remain forever 
 as it is, and are willing to pay for it, that is their 
 privilege. But there is no law now in America to 
 compel a man either to attend or to support a 
 church whose policies he believes to be morally 
 wrong. The better way is for the forward-look- 
 ing people to withdraw and form a community 
 church, thus avoiding a useless conflict and 
 showing courtesy even to the Pharisees. Thus 
 the old type of church will be led to follow suit 
 and accept reforms which it would resist if 
 direct force were used. No argument is so con- 
 vincing as a fact. While we ought strenuously to 
 fight the man whose opposition to reform is due 
 to his selfish interests, we ought to deal pa- 
 tiently with the man who sincerely finds it dif- 
 ficult to understand or accept new ideas. 
 
 It seems like a needless waste if a community 
 church does not use a church building we al- 
 ready have. It is. But it needs to be remembered 
 that it is not only rival sectarian prejudices 
 which make the use of these buildings difiicult. 
 Many of these buildings are too expensive to 
 
 214 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 maintain, and would thus not only absorb and 
 waste the people's energies, which ought to be 
 given to better things, but also rob the church 
 of intellectual honesty in its teaching, which it 
 now is forced to sell in exchange for income. The 
 very sin which the community church seeks to 
 avoid is the sacrifice of the things of the spirit 
 to material luxuries. The real success of a com- 
 munity church will depend on its ability to 
 practice the principle stated by Epictetus when 
 he said: "Neither is a horse elated nor proud of 
 his manger and trappings and coverings, nor a 
 bird of his little shreds of cloth or his nest; but 
 both of them are proud of their swiftness; one 
 proud of the swiftness of the feet and the other 
 of the wings. Do you also, then, not be greatly 
 proud of your food and dress, and in short 
 of any external things, but be proud of your 
 integrity and good deeds." 
 
 If a community church can keep itself free 
 from the greed for big buildings, big incomes, 
 big audiences; if it has the courage to believe 
 that the strength of an army is not in its uni- 
 form or brass bands, but in the quality of its 
 soldiers; if it will set its heart not on any ex- 
 ternal trappings, but on character and intelli- 
 gence, — then the value of its contribution to 
 the Kingdom of God will be assured. Blessed, 
 indeed, is that church which dares to be poor. It 
 is safe to depend on the judgment of Jesus. The 
 
 2IS 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 great contributions to the worid's art, music, 
 science, and literature have almost invariably 
 come from poor men. The same is true of 
 churches, and for the same reason. Then, too, 
 many of the church buildings misrepresent the 
 religion of democracy. They are gloomy and 
 forbidding, as if a dominant note of the Chris- 
 tian religion were sadness, whereas it is quite the 
 contrary. In the Sermon on the Mount, which 
 contains the great statement of his ideals, Jesus 
 placed the Beatitudes first. The first word in 
 each Beatitude is the word "happy." Jesus put 
 joy in the forefront of his teaching; the church 
 has put it into the background. In few respects 
 has the church more signally misrepresented the 
 Christian religion, and church buildings largely 
 embody this misrepresentation. 
 
 Moreover, the typical church building of to- 
 day is unfitted and unequipped to do the kind of 
 work which needs to be done for a community. 
 It is not only the number and arrangement of 
 rooms, but the type of them, and the use to 
 which they are put. The difference between the 
 typical church building, which is destined to 
 pass, and the new community type of building, 
 is like the difference between the old-fashioned 
 parlor and the modern living-room in our homes: 
 the old-fashioned parlor, with its musty atmos- 
 phere; its blinds drawn lest God's sunlight 
 might fade the flowers in the Brussels carpet; the 
 
 216 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 haircloth furniture including six straight-backed, 
 uncomfortable chairs all arranged in deadly pre- 
 cision; the marble-topped center table, on 
 which rested the photograph album and the 
 fifty-pound family Bible with gilt hasps, "de- 
 signed to withhold the unsearchable riches from 
 the unworthy"; a room too nice to use except 
 on state occasions, such as funerals, or when the 
 minister remained overnight and conducted 
 "family worship" around the big Bible before 
 breakfast. This room has almost passed away, 
 replaced by the modern living-room, spacious, 
 sunlit, ventilated, with its furniture arranged 
 both for use and beauty; and above all, with its 
 open fireplace, the comforter and companion of 
 man, the altar of the family circle whose mystic 
 voices speak wise and beautiful words, — a room 
 for the free laughter of girls and boys, a place of 
 tender memories, cheerful faces, joyous daily 
 activities. The evolution from the old-fashioned 
 parlor to the modern living-room is the kind of 
 transformation which must be effected in the 
 church building, in its type, its spirit, and its 
 uses. New wine needs fresh wine skins. The re- 
 ligion of democracy requires a new type of 
 architecture. The community church will pro- 
 duce a democratic building. 
 
 To whatever extent it may be possible to 
 use or improve sectarian churches in the process 
 of transforming them into community churches, 
 
 217 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 nevertheless, it will be necessary everywhere to 
 start community churches as independent enter- 
 prises in order to fix the standard and exhibit 
 the type as it ought to be.' In any attempt to 
 make improvements in sectarian churches as 
 they are, the chief danger is that the religion of 
 democracy will be so compromised and de- 
 vitalized that it will emerge from the process a 
 harmless and useless thing. Unless the com- 
 munity church is radically different and radi- 
 cally better than the typical sectarian church, 
 it will hardly be worth while to waste time in 
 organizing it. 'Unless your righteousness,' said 
 Jesus, in reference to a similar situation, 'greatly 
 surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you 
 will certainly not find entrance into the King- 
 dom of Heaven'; that is, into normal human 
 society. In other words, unless it is radically 
 better, it will not be the religion of democracy 
 at all. This is the chief difficulty in the way of 
 reform in the churches, because their main 
 policy of procedure is compromise. Charles 
 Ferguson says there are pious politicians who 
 would trade off the law of gravitation for the 
 sake of getting everybody to agree. Out of a 
 large experience, I warn any man who attempts 
 the reform of the church to beware of this danger. 
 It is not only its negative character, but the 
 
 'A suggested statement to be used in the promotion of 
 community churches will be found in Appendix B. 
 
 2l8 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 sinister motives back of the policy. These pious 
 gentlemen will pretend to agree with the religion 
 of democracy and then by subtle means proceed 
 to sap it of its vitality. If a minister preaches the 
 religion of democracy, these gentlemen do not 
 dare to attack him on the merits of the question. 
 They attack him personally. They do not even 
 make this attack directly. They are too clever 
 to make such a blunder. They call a meeting 
 of the church officers to consider the spiritual 
 welfare of the church, over which they are 
 piously concerned. The only consolation to be 
 found in this contemptible process is its humor. 
 The pious solemnity of these men is rich comedy 
 in the dishonest and hypocritical game they 
 play. It is like the dramatic comedy of the 
 High Priest Annas, when he tore his priestly 
 robe to show how much he had been contami- 
 nated by the words of Jesus, while at the same 
 time, contrary to the law, he was gathering 
 data to be used against him in his forthcoming 
 judicial murder. It is the same game of humor- 
 ous hypocrisy which is played wherever vested 
 interests are at stake. William G. Sumner calls 
 attention to the fact that "interests dominate 
 modern politics, but always more or less 
 secretly, because It Is not admitted to be right 
 that they should dominate. Hence another 
 pretext must be put forward to cover the In- 
 terest. The best pretext is always an abstruse 
 
 219 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 doctrine in the theory of public welfare. A pro-, 
 tective tariff is never advocated because it will 
 enable some citizens to win wealth by taxing 
 others; it is always advocated as a prosperity 
 policy for the country. Henry C. Carey elevated 
 a protective tariff to a philosophy of society. 
 When the New York courts held a law to be 
 valid which forbade a saloon to be licensed with- 
 in two hundred feet of a schoolhouse, the saloon- 
 keepers attacked the schools as a nuisance det- 
 rimental to property." It is for this reason that 
 the churches have everywhere yielded to soft 
 compromises, and compromise is the big ob- 
 stacle to moral reforms in the churches. The 
 present condition of the churches is clearly in- 
 dicated by the story of the man who had a 
 chameleon for a pet. He would put the little 
 reptile on a piece of yellow cloth and it would 
 turn yellow; on a piece of red cloth and it would 
 turn red; on a piece of green cloth and it would 
 turn green. In an unfortunate moment some- 
 body suggested putting the versatile little 
 creature on a piece of Scotch plaid. The result 
 was that the chameleon burst all to pieces try- 
 ing to make good. Likewise the church, in its 
 attempt to accommodate itself to all kinds of 
 opinions and no opinions at all, has so softened, 
 distorted, and compromised the Christian re- 
 ligion that the church has lost its life and sold 
 its soul for material prosperity. 
 
 220 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 I emphasize this fact not only because it ex- 
 plains why the churches are failing to appeal to 
 large numbers of sincere and thoughtful men 
 and women, but also because it is the peculiar 
 weakness in the attempts now being made to 
 cure sectarianism by plans for the formal federa- 
 tion of the churches. It has been truly said that 
 "the attempt to unify the churches by soft 
 diplomacies and compromises, the search for a 
 minimum creed to meet the requirements of the 
 most attenuated mind, the letting go of the 
 fact, by which the people must live or die, for 
 the sake of sociability — all this is one of the 
 pitifulest spectacles that these times present." 
 
 It is this negative suicidal policy which the 
 type of community church such as I am here pro- 
 posing seeks primarily to avoid. Its policy is 
 quite the contrary. It aims to discover, not how 
 little it can believe, but how much. It does not 
 seek to please all by agreeing with them, but 
 seeks to please them by being honest, open- 
 minded, and sweet-spirited. It pays human 
 nature the compliment of supposing that the 
 majority of men and women admire honesty. It 
 does not desire uniformity, but unity. Its chief 
 formative principle is that it is organized, not 
 on the basis of agreement, but on the basis of 
 difference, the liberty of difference. It assumes 
 that Christian men ought to be gentlemen 
 enough to differ in opinion without differing in 
 
 221 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH , 
 
 feeling and intelligent enough to want to learn 
 from those who differ from them. It removes 
 from its members the temptation to persecute 
 each other, hy affording to all the opportunity 
 to express their own convictions. It does not 
 believe that, in order to be tolerant, a man must 
 have no convictions. On the contrary, it believes 
 that tolerance has no meaning apart from strong 
 convictions, for otherwise there would be 
 nothing to be tolerant about. But Its attitude is 
 far more Christian than that of tolerance, which 
 contains a spirit of condescension. Its attitude is 
 that of appreciation. The members of a family 
 do not tolerate each other. Love leads them to 
 appreciate each other, to respect each other's 
 personality, and to grant liberty of opinion and 
 liberty in its expression. 
 
 By making these principles the basis of its 
 organization, the community church opens the 
 door for the operation of a positive constructive 
 policy. It provides the way by which it can even 
 dare to discuss and preach the ideals of Jesus. It 
 is free to address itself to the great moral needs 
 and religious issues of our day, such as In- 
 dustrial Democracy, International Peace, and a 
 Scientific Religion; that is, one which has a 
 reverence and passion for the material and 
 spiritual facts of life as God made them. Because 
 the community church is organized democrati- 
 cally. It will be free to deal with social evils from 
 
 222 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 a statesmanlike point of view. Its method will 
 be prevention rather than cure. It believes in 
 Red Cross work and will do its share; but it will 
 never be content with Red Cross work alone, 
 because there is something better than Red 
 Cross work. Rather than bind up the after- 
 battle wounds and mend men so that they may 
 be wounded again, it is better and saner to work 
 for the prevention of the battles which cause 
 the wounds and make Red Cross work neces- 
 sary. The test of sanity used in some asylums is 
 to lead a patient to a trough partially filled with 
 water and into which an open spigot is pouring 
 new supplies. The patient is asked to bail the 
 water out of the trough with a tin vessel. If he 
 attempts to do so without first turning off the 
 flow, he is judged to be insane, and the judgment 
 is no doubt correct. Likewise in dealing with 
 such evils as the two greatest scourges of our 
 time, war and poverty, the community church 
 believes that moral sanity demands that it shall 
 attempt to remove the causes of these evils 
 rather than content itself with ameliorating 
 their effects. Its method of work is to turn off 
 the spigot. The community church believes that 
 it is not possible to purify the water in a well by 
 painting the pump. The reason why so many 
 ministers feel a distressing lack of reality in their 
 work is because so much of their energy has been 
 spent in painting the pump. 
 
 223 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 By adopting an honest, aggressive, construc- 
 tive policy, the community church seeks to ac- 
 centuate the resemblances among men, and not 
 their differences, and thus secure unity of feeling 
 and concert of action. The great moral blunder 
 of sectarian churches is their accentuation of the 
 differences among men. To make this blunder, 
 they necessarily had to accentuate unimportant 
 details; they had to fish up side streams. The 
 principles peculiar to any sect are not the 
 principles of importance. The things which 
 separate the sects are the things of least impor- 
 tance; they are details. There can be no real 
 unity among Christians unless we broaden the 
 basis of unity to include the resemblances. If we 
 inquire what these are, we are brought face to 
 face with those fundamental economic, social, 
 and spiritual needs which are common to men 
 just because they are men, not because they be- 
 long to any sect. We shall likewise discover that 
 these needs are the Christian ideals which Jesus 
 presented in his inaugural address. If, then, we 
 seek to unite men on the basis of their re- 
 semblances, our method must be not to de- 
 crease the things we believe, but to increase 
 them; not to adopt a weak, negative programme, 
 but a strong, positive one; not to minimize the 
 differences, but to magnify the resemblances ; for 
 the essence of religion is to regard big things as 
 big and little things as little, and to act on this 
 
 224 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 principle. This is what the community church 
 aims to do. Our mistake has been that we have 
 been attempting to unite the sects as such. It is 
 an impossible task, and hardly worth while even 
 if accomplished. What is both possible and de- 
 sirable is to unite individuals on the basis of 
 their needs and aspirations, because they are 
 uniting on something really worth while. If 
 men agree on the big things they ought to fight 
 for, it is relatively unimportant that they should 
 agree as to the kind of uniform they wear, even 
 if you could persuade them to agree, which is 
 highly improbable. 
 
 There are two railroads which operate pas- 
 senger trains between the beautiful Union 
 Station at Washington, D.C., and New York 
 City. It would be both comic and tragic folly if 
 these trains were held up so that the conductors 
 from the back platforms could harangue the 
 people on the relative merits of their respective 
 trains, while the people endeavored to entice 
 and persuade each other to leave one train for 
 another, each group exalting the merits of its 
 chosen train by depreciating and slandering its 
 rival. The decisive fact to keep clearly in mind,' 
 the thing about which it is essential that all 
 should agree, is that either of the two trains' 
 would carry them safely to New York. Men can 
 agree on their goal, but not on their starting- 
 point. It is a question of taste as to which train a 
 
 225 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 man takes; but this fact did not prevent the 
 railroads from using wisdom enough to build 
 the Union Station, thus saving money and 
 energy both for themselves and the people, and 
 all enjoying a common service which no one of 
 them alone could have afforded. Its working 
 principle is unity in essentials, in non-essentials 
 liberty. 
 
 It is commonly asserted that just as the choice 
 of a train is a matter of taste, so is the choice of a 
 sect, and therefore that it is a deeper question 
 than intellectual agreement, and that this con- 
 stitutes ^the chief obstacle to any vital unity 
 among the sects, because "with tastes there is 
 no argument." This is unfortunately true, and 
 it is the most serious indictment which lies 
 against the churches. The sects have reduced 
 religion to a mere matter of taste, whereas re- 
 ligion is a matter of life or death; it is universal 
 as the sunshine and quite as essential to human 
 well-being. Details are a matter of taste, but 
 religion is not; it is a matter of universal ne- 
 cessity like the air and sunshine. The sects have 
 blighted religion with professionalism, the es- 
 sence of which is to care more for the manner in 
 which a thing is done than for the thing itself. 
 The psychology used to support the position 
 that religion is a matter of taste is false to the 
 facts of life. The sectarian churches may be cor- 
 rectly classified into three general types: the 
 
 226 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 Intellectual, the emotional, and the aesthetic — • 
 those which make their dominant religious apn 
 peal to the Intellect or to the emotions or to the 
 love of beautiful forms. Which type of church a 
 man chooses, It Is said, depends on whether he 
 wishes to make his religious expression through 
 the intellect or emotions or love of beauty. This 
 division of man into separate compartments Is 
 superficial and mechanical psychology and has 
 no basis in fact. It is merely an academic pro- 
 cess for convenience in discussion. In every 
 important act of a man's life, the intellect, 
 emotions, and will are intermingled. These 
 terms serve only to Indicate a distinction In 
 function, but In practice they are a unity. They 
 are riveted together. What God has joined to- 
 gether the sects ought not to put asunder. 
 
 It is precisely this injury to human welfare 
 which the community church aims to prevent. 
 I refuse to be dissected. I require a church which 
 ministers to all three sides of my nature; not to 
 a piece of me, but to the whole of me. Every 
 normal man has a desire for knowledge, is con- 
 trolled by his emotions, and has a hunger for 
 beauty. The community church aims chiefly to 
 meet such universal needs and to minister to a 
 whole man. Its central idea is expressed in the 
 Greek word " logos," balance, proportion, a term 
 which came to designate the incarnate Word of 
 Religion and has furnished modern languages 
 
 227 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 with "logic," the name for the Science of 
 Reason. It is the word for a rational life. We 
 shall one day understand that a community 
 church is the only rational type of church to 
 represent a religion whose founder is best de- 
 scribed by the term "logos" — a balanced pro- 
 portion. The method of the community church 
 is like the method used in taking a composite 
 photograph. It aims only at fundamental agree- 
 ments. A composite picture can be made only 
 through agreements. Every feature which does 
 not agree with the other features leaves so slight 
 an impression on the plate that it cannot be 
 seen. But every feature which is common to 
 many faces will be clear and positive. This 
 means that a composite picture is more ideal 
 than any single face that has gone into the mak- 
 ing of it. The community church aims to make 
 a composite picture of the sects, combining the 
 finest traits in each, preserving their fundamen- 
 tal agreements, that they may be made to stand 
 out clear and positive, and their impression on 
 the community be made inspiring. 
 
 This, then, is a community church as I con- 
 ceive it ought to be; a church organized demo- 
 cratically, free from the domination of dogma, 
 money, and sectarianism, aiming to decrease the 
 number of sects by the process of absorption 
 and welding; a church which stands for a dy- 
 namic, not a static religion; which represents the 
 
 228 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 things Jesus stood for and nothing else; which 
 believes there can be no such thing as moral 
 neutrality; which aims to win and hold men, 
 not by decreasing the content of faith, but by 
 increasing it; which believes it is unnecessary 
 to compromise and soften down the sunshine to 
 make it more acceptable; which is organized on 
 the liberty of difference and on agreement only 
 as regards purposes, not methods; which be- 
 lieves that the intellect divides men, but that 
 the heart unites them; which recognizes no dif- 
 ference between the secular and the sacred; 
 which believes that Christianity has been cap- 
 tured and needs to be liberated; which accentu- 
 ates the resemblances among men by enlarging 
 the basis of unity; which works for prevention 
 rather than cure; which believes that apprecia- 
 tion is better than tolerance; which believes in 
 organized cooperation in behalf of the religion of 
 democracy. Its fitting symbol is the sun-dial. 
 If a sun-dial could talk, Charles Lamb said it 
 would say, "I count only those hours which 
 are serene"; that is, it can work only when the 
 sun shines. Its method of marking time is a 
 parable in action, which suggests the wisdom 
 of looking on the bright, not the dark, side of 
 things; of being positive, not negative; of ac- 
 centuating the resemblances, not the differ- 
 ences; of cultivating our admirations, not our 
 disgusts. For the sake of this parable I once per- 
 
 229 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 suaded some young people to erect a beautiful 
 spherical sun-dial on the lawn of my church. 
 But a sun-dial on the lawn of a sectarian 
 church is a contradiction, which will be removed 
 only when it ceases to be a sectarian and be- 
 comes a community church. 
 
 When the churches will respond to this ideal 
 I do not know. That they will respond to it, in 
 the near future, is my firmest conviction. It 
 usually takes at least the period of a generation 
 to effect a fundamental reform. When Moses 
 became the leader of an industrial revolution 
 and led a race of working-men out into freedom, 
 why was it that he consumed forty years in 
 making a journey which he could easily have 
 made in three weeks? The reason is obvious, 
 and is clearly stated in the record of the move- 
 ment. He had to give all the old people a chance 
 to die. The youth responded to the new ideals, 
 and out of them he created the Hebrew Repub- 
 lic. But to-day in America so many of us have 
 discovered that youth is a state of mind, and 
 cooperation is so universally practiced, that I 
 judge we shall not have to wait for a generation 
 for this reform. In a multitude of social, civic, 
 and philanthropic activities, people of all classes 
 are working side by side, coming to know and 
 therefore to like each other. In the colleges the 
 youth work and worship together, and receive 
 a distinct shock when they return to the narrow 
 
 230 
 
AN AMERICAN PRODUCT 
 
 sectarian churches of their home town. The 
 children of all sects, over twenty million of 
 them, cooperate in the greatest of our institu- 
 tions, the public school. Indeed, the spirit of 
 democracy has become so dominant that many 
 men and women now feel that they not only 
 ought not to apologize for absenting themselves 
 from the churches, but that they are doing 
 wrong to attend them and shut themselves off 
 from their neighbors by sectarian barriers. For 
 these reasons, the time has come when it will 
 not be possible much longer to resist the logic 
 of the question; since we are now cooperating 
 as neighbors and friends in almost all other 
 lines of social activities, why should we not do 
 so in church activities? The golden age of the 
 church lies before and not behind it, if it will 
 honestly answer this repeated and persistent 
 question. I believe the community church is the 
 only worth-while answer. 
 
 But is not the term "church" too limited to 
 represent our growing democratic ideals? Does 
 not the term "a community church" contain a 
 contradiction and anticHmax? The churches 
 themselves are already beginning to apologize 
 for their name. When a church advertises itself 
 as "the/nVmf/y church," does it mean that the 
 term "church" has acquired such a bad flavor 
 as no longer to suggest the idea of friendliness, 
 and that this particular church, contrary to 
 
 231 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 What you might expect, is indeed friendly? Is 
 there any other institution which can better 
 serve the religion of democracy? The considera- 
 tion of this question is the subject of the next 
 chapter. 
 
VII 
 
 THE AMERICAN CHURCH: A COMMUNITY 
 CENTER 
 
The American people have a certain passion 
 as strong as their mastery of materials^ and 
 the 'Hittle red schoolhouse" has stood in our 
 imagination, not so much a thing of utilita- 
 rian value as a thing of spiritual significance 
 — a homely, thrilling symbol of the conquest 
 of matter by mind^ the victorious march of 
 the creative spirit of man across the deserts 
 and wildernesses of the world. The school- 
 house has served as the church of the religion 
 of democracy, the shrine of our secret but 
 sincere devotion, . . • And there is not a 
 schoolhouse in the republic but is destined to 
 become a university of the people, 
 
 Charles Ferguson 
 
VII 
 
 THE AMERICAN CHURCH: A COMMUNITY 
 CENTER 
 
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who had planned 
 to lead an ideal community to the banks of the 
 Susquehanna in President Washington's second 
 administration, said in 1833, concerning Amer- 
 ica's experiment in democracy; "The Union will 
 be shaken almost to dislocation whenever any 
 serious question between the States arises. The 
 American Union has no center, and it is impos- 
 sible now to make one. The more they extend 
 their borders into the Indian's land, the weaker 
 will the national cohesion be. But I look upon 
 the States as splendid masses, to be used by and 
 by in the composition of two or three great 
 governments." All lovers of democracy, when 
 they remember how brief has been the life of 
 republics, and in view of the fact that ours has 
 existed less than one hundred and fifty years, 
 may well share Coleridge's feeling of anxiety for 
 its future. 
 
 In the not distant past it was the noticeable 
 habit of Americans to indulge in unseemly boast- 
 ing about their country, especially about its 
 
 23s 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 size. This spirit of boyish levity may easily be 
 misinterpreted by those who do not understand 
 the quahty of American humor. The American 
 so heartily believes in his country and its future 
 that he is not ashamed to say so, and in saying 
 so he feels that he can afford to be light-hearted 
 about it. This is the philosophy of his fun. It is 
 a sign, not that his love of country is shallow, 
 but just the opposite. It is so profound that he 
 permits himself to play only about its surface, 
 but deep down in his heart there is a proud, 
 passionate conviction that his country has un- 
 dertaken the most significant enterprise in 
 history and is trying a great democratic experi- 
 ment, the outcome of which is the deepest con- 
 cern to mankind. "Pick," said Kipling, "an 
 American of the second generation anywhere 
 you please, from the cab-rank, the porter's 
 room, or the plow-tail, especially the plow-tail, 
 and that man will make you understand in five 
 minutes that he understands what manner of 
 thing the Republic is." 
 
 In view of the characteristic American habit 
 to brush aside danger with a laugh and to touch 
 with a light hand his serious convictions, it 
 becomes highly significant to notice that re- 
 cently he has abandoned his confident, playful 
 tone and grown serious about his country's wel- 
 fare. And while it is true that most Americans 
 would be willing to admit that their country 
 
 236 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 contains elements about which they are justi- 
 fied in boasting, they have for the most part 
 ceased to boast about its size. The very bigness 
 about which he once boasted became a source 
 of anxiety. He came to see not only that bigness 
 is not greatness, but also that it may be an 
 element of weakness. And yet the real ground 
 of his anxiety is not the ground on which Cole- 
 ridge based his reluctant prophecy. For that 
 problem has been largely solved. Indeed, before 
 Coleridge's anxiety found utterance, certain 
 physical inventions were made which removed 
 the danger of which he spoke. Robert Fulton's 
 steamboat, the Clermont, in 1807, was the first 
 success of the kind after a century of experi- 
 ments. The steamboat converted the rivers and 
 lakes of America into highways for cheap and 
 rapid transit. It brought the country physically 
 together. Then followed Robert Stephenson's 
 locomotive the Rocket, in 1830, which in Amer- 
 ica immediately superseded all other modes of 
 land travel, bound ocean to ocean, and enabled 
 the Government to make its authority tangible 
 in every section of the country. In 1844, Samuel 
 Morse's electric telegraph became a success after 
 many experiments. This invention brought 
 every center of population into almost immedi- 
 ate communication with the seat of government, 
 making it possible to follow the course of events 
 as closely as in the streets of Washington. 
 
 237 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH , 
 
 To-day two other inventions, until very re- 
 cently regarded as playthings, the wireless and 
 the flying machine, are bringing not only dis- 
 tant sections of the country physically close 
 together, but all parts of the world as well. 
 
 These inventions have solved the problem of 
 maintaining a government over an area of three 
 millions of square miles. The physical unity of 
 the country has been achieved. The real cause 
 of the thoughtful American's present anxiety is 
 his realization that it is possible to have physical 
 unity and at the same time to have spiritual 
 disunity. Neighborhood may be a menace, un- 
 less we are assured of the desirable character 
 of the neighbors. It is a risky thing to be close 
 to people unless we know the kind of people we 
 are close to. Two men may live on the same 
 street and yet be miles apart in their ideals and 
 purposes. What disturbs us is the fact that 
 everywhere men and women are divided into 
 classes according to their personal tastes or 
 self-interest. There are social clubs, sectarian 
 divisions, partisan groups. There are women's 
 clubs, labor unions, capitalistic federations. 
 There are racial antagonisms, class hatreds, 
 deep social cleavages and misunderstandings, 
 dissimilarities of mind and purpose. It is this 
 condition, this lack of public-mindedness, this 
 lack of social sympathy and mutual under- 
 standing, which we have come to regard as a 
 
 238 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 serious menace to our experiment in democracy 
 and which will guarantee its failure if unchecked. 
 Our present urgent task is to discover some 
 means of welding citizens together in social and 
 economic sympathy, of transforming America 
 into a community. For, as Professor Giddings 
 says, "the primary purpose of the State is to 
 perfect social integration." Social integration 
 can be achieved not by physical but by spirit- 
 ual means, for a nation is the will to be one 
 people. "The Kingdom of Heaven is within 
 you." So is the American Republic. A nation is 
 a state of mind. How shall this welding process 
 be effected? 
 
 Just as the need for an instrument to weld 
 the country into a spiritual unity has become 
 acutely felt, a discovery has been made to meet 
 the need. We have discovered that we had, 
 ready made to our hand, one instrument fitted 
 to our purpose, and one instrument alone. It is 
 the Free Public School system. Like all great 
 discoveries the community use of the school- 
 house grew out of a conscious and profound 
 need. Rauschenbusch calls the appropriation of 
 the schoolhouse for more varied purposes a 
 master-stroke of the new democracy. It is the 
 only democratic institution existing in America, 
 non-sectarian, non-partisan, and non-exclusive. 
 It furnishes the only platform on which all thq 
 people can meet. It is our foremost industry 
 
 239 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH, 
 
 from whatever standpoint it is regarded, with 
 its 22,000,000 girls and boys, 600,000 school 
 teachers, 277,000 school buildings, $1,347,000,- 
 000 invested in property, and $750,000,000 
 annually spent for its support. It is the most 
 American institution, the greatest American 
 invention, and the most successful social enter- 
 prise yet undertaken by any nation. 
 
 Nevertheless, its golden age lies before it, 
 not behind it. It is now entering upon a new 
 era in its already notable history, an era which 
 will witness its vastly increased usefulness to 
 our experiment in democracy, an experiment 
 which depends for its success more on the free 
 public school than upon any other single factor. 
 Hitherto it has been used chiefly for children; 
 it has been used less than half-time; it has 
 yielded an inadequate return on our investment; 
 it has been used eight or nine months of the 
 year instead of twelve, five days of the week 
 instead of seven, five hours a day instead of 
 ten. Our discovery is not merely that we ought 
 to be getting the worth of our money invested 
 in these buildings, which belong to all the people 
 and not to the school boards, but what is far 
 more important, that they ought to be used by 
 three classes of people and not only by one class. 
 They ought to be used by adults and youths as 
 well as by children. They ought to be the 
 people's clubhouses, a people's university. "Our 
 
 240 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 greatest national need," says David Starr 
 Jordan, "is a national university for the train- 
 ing of grown men and women." The public 
 school used as a community center is the answer 
 to this national need. 
 
 If this need is to be met, the first necessity is 
 that men and women shall be assisted to dis- 
 cover the schoolhouse; I mean to discover its 
 new uses and possibilities as an agency for or- 
 ganized self-help and organized community 
 cooperation. It^is not an easy discovery to make. 
 The acceptance of new ideas often requires a 
 surgical operation and sometimes even such an 
 operation is unavailing. In Victor Hugo's great 
 novel, "Les Miserables," an officer of the law is 
 described, who once encountered a new prin- 
 ciple which conflicted with his previous and 
 fixed theory of life. When he could not adjust 
 himself to the new discovery, he committed 
 suicide, which event illustrates a fact of com- 
 mon knowledge, namely, that a few first-class 
 funerals in every community once in so often 
 are an essential condition of progress. The world 
 must depend on funerals for its progress until 
 we find some method of preserving the spirit of 
 youth, the essence of which is hospitality to new 
 ideas. 
 
 To accept a new idea is at the best a painful 
 process, but the discovery of the new uses of 
 the schoolhouse is made doubly difliicult because 
 
 241 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 of our familiarity with it. For we are most blind 
 to the real significance of the commonplace. It 
 is with the schoolhouse as it is with "Robinson 
 Crusoe." If any group of average men were 
 asked whether they knew "Robinson Crusoe," 
 each one would indignantly answer, "Why, of 
 course; did I not read it when I was a boy?" 
 This answer is the best evidence that the ques- 
 tion is pertinent. For the man who has not read 
 "Robinson Crusoe" since he was a boy does not 
 know it. As a boy he only read the first part and 
 that was an edition expurgated of all its philos- 
 ophy. He has the impression that it is a story 
 written for boys, whereas it was written not for 
 boys, but for men, and it is one of the most 
 serious and philosophical books in print. As our 
 familiarity with "Crusoe" when children has 
 blinded us to its real significance, so our famil- 
 iarity with the schoolhouse as children makes it 
 difl[icult for us to discover its community use 
 by adults. 
 
 u It is possible to look at a thing twenty times 
 without seeing it, and on the twenty-first look 
 really to see it for the first time. There is a sure 
 test by which one may know whether he has 
 seen the schoolhouse in its new light. When he 
 once sees it, he must make to it a motor reac- 
 tion. He must do something about it. It is not 
 mere knowledge which he acquires; it is felt 
 knowledge, which is a very different thing. It 
 
 242 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 IS like the experience of a certain little girl 
 whose brother had set a trap for birds. When she 
 protested to her mother, the mother asked her 
 whether she had done anything in regard to it. 
 "Yes," she replied; "I prayed that the trap 
 would not work." "That is well," said the 
 mother; "did you do anything else?" "Yes; 
 I prayed that God would keep the birds out of 
 the trap." "That is well; did you do anything 
 else?" "Yes," said the girl; "then I kicked the 
 trap all to pieces." This is a motor response due 
 to her intensity of feeling on the subject. Such 
 felt knowledge concerning the new use of the 
 schoolhouse is now being acquired by forward- 
 looking people, and it is seen to be so sane, so 
 practicable, and also so necessary if our democ- 
 racy is not to suffer shipwreck, that it is only a 
 question of time when, in spite of strenuous 
 opposition by certain classes of people and from 
 vested interests, the schoolhouse will become the 
 capital building in every community. 
 
 During the last part of the last century, under 
 the influence of the Herbartian conception of 
 education, psychology was the dominant inter- 
 est among educators. It was self-centered, intro- 
 spective. Questions of method bulked large. 
 Character-building was accepted as the aim of 
 education. Since the beginning of the century, 
 under the influence of an awakened social con- 
 science, we have begun to see that character is 
 
 243 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH ^ 
 
 a by-product of service; that the school ought 
 to teach not subjects, but children; that the aim 
 of education is to fit girls and boys to play their 
 part in human relationship. The revolution 
 which has taken place in our thought is that we 
 have begun to regard the schoolhouse, not as a 
 mediaeval type of house with the court on the 
 inside, but as a modern type of house with the 
 veranda on the outside in full view of the high- 
 way where the race of men go by, whose needs 
 it is the school's high calling and privilege to 
 meet. The logic of this new ideal is irresistible. 
 It is only a step from it to the conception of 
 education as a life process, and, in this process, 
 to the conception of the schoolhouse as the 
 people's university. 
 
 What does the community use of the school- 
 house mean? In attempting to state in brief 
 a subject so big, one must needs have what 
 the poet Keats calls "negative capabilities." 
 He must know what to leave in the inkstand, 
 what to leave unsaid. A bird's-eye view of the 
 facts may be had if we group them under the 
 use of the schoolhouse as a community capitol, 
 a community forum, and a neighborhood club. 
 
 The schoolhouse as the community capitol 
 obviously means that it shall be used as the 
 polling-place. It ought to be so used for eco- 
 nomic reasons alone. Why should we rent 
 special buildings, when we already own school- 
 
 244 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 houses conveniently located In every district? 
 If voting precincts, so far as possible, were made 
 identical with school districts, if the school- 
 houses were used as polling-places, if the elec- 
 tion machinery were simplified, and if school 
 teachers were employed as election officers, 
 because they have the required intelligence and 
 are already public officials, every state in the 
 Union would save many thousands of dollars 
 annually. But we ought to use the schoolhouse 
 as the polling-place, not only for economic 
 reasons, which is of the least importance, but 
 especially for the sake of the ideal which the 
 ballot-box represents. It is the symbol of our 
 membership in America. It Is a sacred symbol. 
 During the last campaign candidate Hughes 
 voted In a laundry In New York City, and Presi- 
 dent Wilson voted in a fire house in Princeton. 
 Barber shops, livery stables, any old place, is 
 regarded as good enough for voting purposes. Is 
 such a place fitting In which to exercise the high- 
 est duty and function of American citizenship ? 
 The ballot-box is our Ark of the Covenant, and 
 just as the Ark of the Covenant, which was the 
 symbol of the Hebrew Republic, was given a 
 place in the Holy of Holies in the national tem- 
 ple, so our ballot-box ought to be given a place 
 befitting its Importance. The one fitting place 
 for it is the public school, which is the temple 
 of our democracy. 
 
 24S 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 The ballot-box and voting-booth ought to 
 be made decorative and kept permanently in 
 the schoolhouse, because of the permanent 
 ideal which they embody. It would help to 
 make vivid the function of the school. "The 
 walls of Sparta are built of Spartans," sang an 
 old poet. The walls of America are built of 
 Americans, and the public school is the factory 
 in which they are produced. The public school's 
 function is to make, not merely good men and 
 women, but good citizens for the Republic. 
 The great need of our American democracy is 
 that in every school district the public school 
 should be developed into a worthy university 
 of the people, which shall confer citizenship 
 as a degree upon those who in this school shall 
 have made themselves fit to receive it. As soon 
 as we put this fact in the foreground, we set in 
 operation a formative principle whose effect on 
 the school will be reforming and vitalizing; 
 because we shall be compelled to ask the further 
 questions — What kind of studies ought the 
 curriculum to contain ? What kind of studies are 
 most worth while in the process of making citi- 
 zens.^ The three unsettled questions which the 
 schools are always debating are the content of 
 the curriculum, the method of teaching, and 
 business management. The new question con- 
 cerning the use of the schoolhouse as the com- 
 munity capitol will ^hed more illumination on 
 
 246 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 these three problems than anything else has yet 
 done. It will insure a wise solution of them. It 
 will wed the processes of the school to patriotism 
 and to practical human needs. It will save the 
 school from the blight of professionalism, which 
 is its most deadly enemy. This fact can best be 
 stated in brief by employing an illustration. 
 
 It has ever afforded much interesting specu- 
 lation and much amusement to ask and discuss 
 the question, What would modern educational 
 experts have made of Lincoln, if, as a baby, he 
 had been put in their care? "They would have 
 started him on sterilized milk, clothed him in 
 disinfected garments, sent him to kindergarten, 
 where he would have learned to weave straw 
 mats and sing about the 'Bluebird on the 
 Branch.' Then the dentist would have straight- 
 ened his teeth, the oculist would have fitted 
 him with glasses, and in the primary grades he 
 would have been taught by pictures and dia- 
 grams the difference between a cow and a pig, 
 and through nature study he would have learned 
 that the catbird did not lay kittens. By the time 
 he was eight he would have become a 'young 
 gentleman' ; at ten, he would have known more 
 than the old folks at home; at twelve or four- 
 teen, he would have taken up manual training, 
 and within two years have made a rolling-pin 
 and tied it with a blue ribbon. In the high school 
 at sixteen, where he would have learned in four 
 
 247 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 years that Mars was the reputed son of Juno, 
 and to recite a stanza from the 'Lady of the 
 Lake.' Then to college, where he would have 
 joined the glee club and a Greek letter frater- 
 nity, smoked cigarettes and graduated, and never 
 have done anybody any harm! Well, perhaps 
 we don't know, and can't tell what might have 
 been, but we can't help feeling thankful that 
 Lincoln's training and education were left to 
 Nancy Hanks — and God." 
 
 To give the ballot-box an honored place in 
 the school as the symbol of its chief function, 
 to wed the school to patriotism, will keep its 
 processes sane, and in turn will help to purify 
 politics. Our purpose is not to bring politics 
 into the schools, but to bring the schools into 
 politics, and give to them the commanding 
 influence in public affairs they were designed to 
 exercise. 
 
 The use of the schoolhouse as a forum is the 
 next logical step to take after it has been made 
 the community capitol. In every state consti- 
 tution provision has been made for a capitol 
 building, in which the representatives of the 
 people can meet to debate public questions and 
 vote on public policies, but the only place they 
 provide, in which the people themselves may 
 meet, is "in a peaceable manner." The humor 
 of this omission would be refreshing, if it were 
 not so serious. "A popular government without 
 
 248 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 popular information or the means of acquiring 
 it," said Madison, "Is but a prologue to a farce 
 or a tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will 
 forever govern Ignorance; and a people who 
 mean to be their own governors must arm them- 
 selves with the power which knowledge gives." 
 We have adopted universal manhood suffrage 
 in America. This may have been a blunder or 
 It may not. At any rate, it is a fact, and nothing 
 is so convincing as a fact. Inasmuch as there has 
 been placed in the hands of average men, and 
 many average women, the ballot through which 
 public policies are determined and public offi- 
 cials elected, it is of primary importance that 
 a means be provided for the discussion of public 
 questions so that men may educate themselves 
 by going to school to one another and equip 
 themselves to vote Intelligently. "For no man 
 has a right to take part in governing others who 
 has not the intelligence or moral capacity to 
 govern himself." This Is the practical and philo- 
 sophical ground on which the necessity for a 
 community forum rests. It is an open meeting 
 conducted by citizens themselves for the dis- 
 cussion of social, political, economic, or any 
 other questions, which concern the common 
 welfare. 
 
 "There are two ways to govern a commu- 
 nity," said Lord Macaulay in the British Parlia- 
 ment; "one is by the sword, the other is by 
 
 249 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 public opinion." Ours is a government by public 
 opinion. It is obvious that the welfare of a de- 
 mocracy requires that public opinion be in- 
 formed and educated. The greatest danger to a 
 democracy is that the forces which control pub- 
 lic opinion should be corrupted at their source. 
 The pulpit and press are m6ulders of public 
 opinion, but they are no longer dependable. We 
 must establish public free forums undominated 
 by private interests. If it is right for the state 
 to spend money to provide polling-places, it is 
 just as right, and even more necessary for the 
 state to spend money for forums in which citi- 
 zens may fit themselves to vote intelligently. 
 In his remarkable book "Physics and Politics," 
 Walter Bagehot devotes a chapter to "Govern- 
 ment by Discussion," in which he convincingly 
 demonstrates its essential value to all free gov- 
 ernments. 
 
 This being the nature and purpose of the 
 forum, it follows that its basic principle must be 
 freedom of thought and freedom in its expres- 
 sion. The forum is organized on the basis of dif- 
 ference, not agreement. It aims not at uniform- 
 ity, but at unity. It is not only a stupid world, 
 where all think alike, but there can be little or 
 no progress if we listen only to those with whom 
 we agree. It is significant that our word "mis- 
 understanding" has become a synonym for 
 quarrel, whereas most of our quarrels would be 
 
 250 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 found to involve not a fundamental difference, 
 but just a failure to understand each other. 
 
 Inasmuch as men who do not agree with each 
 other have to work with each other in life's 
 activities, it is obviously important that they 
 should try to understand each other. The Chris- 
 tian ought to understand the agnostic and the 
 agnostic the Christian; the Roman Catholic the 
 Protestant, and the Protestant the Roman 
 Catholic; the Democrat the Republican, and 
 the Republican the Democrat; the capitalist the 
 laborer, and the laborer the capitalist. These 
 classes usually associate only with members of 
 their own class, and read only their sectarian 
 or partisan newspapers. They are provincial- 
 minded. We are, of course, under no obligation 
 to agree with each other, but as members of 
 America it is our moral and patriotic duty to 
 understand each other. For there is no hope of 
 peace and cooperation in a democracy unless 
 men have the right to think for themselves, 
 unless they agree to disagree agreeably, and 
 unless they try to understand each other. 
 
 The forum furnishes the means for mutual 
 understanding. It aims to create public-mind- 
 edness. Its success depends on our ability to 
 differ in opinion without differing in feeling. 
 There is no way of acquiring this habit except 
 through practice. The forum invites us to have 
 the courage to be honest, the courtesy to be 
 
 2SI 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 gentlemen, and to say to our neighbors, just 
 because they are our neighbors, what Paul said 
 to the Christians of the first century, "There- 
 fore, putting aside lying, let us speak truth 
 every man with his neighbor, for we are mem- 
 bers one of another." 
 
 Undoubtedly, where freedom of speech is per- 
 mitted, there is constant danger that erroneous 
 opinions will be expressed. It is one of the risks 
 which the exercise of liberty necessarily in- 
 volves. But then it is more dangerous for them 
 not to find expression. Exposure to fresh air is 
 the best cure for mental as well as physical dis- 
 eases. This freedom furnishes its own antidote 
 to this danger — Jefferson well stated it when 
 he said, "Error of opinion may be tolerated 
 when reason is free to combat it." It is highly 
 important to understand that the right to 
 preach truth is in danger whenever the right to 
 preach error is denied. It ought to be obvious 
 that the right of free speech cannot be main- 
 tained, and indeed does not exist, unless we 
 agree to grant complete freedom of speech with- 
 out any censorship whatever and place our de- 
 pendence on the operation of Jefferson's prin- 
 ciple as the civilized method of overcoming 
 error. The truth needs no apologist and no 
 defender; it needs only a free field and no favors. 
 The man who rejects Jefferson's principle is a 
 coward and an atheist. He manifestly does not 
 
 252 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 believe in the power of the very truth he seeks 
 to defend by force; he has no confidence in the 
 God of Truth. 
 
 It may frequently happen that the free dis- 
 cussion of vital questions will lead to disturb- 
 ance. In an open forum, held on a certain Sun- 
 day many centuries ago in the village of Naza- 
 reth, where laymen were permitted to speak, a 
 young carpenter made some remarks on social 
 and economic justice. The speech caused a dis- 
 turbance; indeed, the meeting became a mob 
 and this workingman almost lost his life. But 
 there is no man who is acquainted with history, 
 and certainly no Christian, who regrets that 
 the synagogue was organized as a forum and 
 that this particular speech was made on this 
 particular occasion. For the speaker's name was 
 Jesus, and the speech was his inaugural address 
 in a public career more helpful to the world than 
 that of any other man. If there are any who do 
 not wish disturbance, there is only one place, so 
 far as I know, where they can be assured of quiet. 
 It is the graveyard. Wherever there is life, 
 there is growth, and growth means disturbance; 
 especially if it is growth toward democracy and 
 toward a saner and juster social order. 
 
 When the people have learned, through the 
 use of the schoolhouse as a polling-place and as 
 a forum, that it belongs to them and not to the 
 school board, they are then prepared to inaugu- 
 
 2S3 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 rate its use as a neighborhood club. It cannot 
 be too carefully noted that the community 
 center is not charity work nor an uplift move- 
 ment nor a social settlement. It is organized 
 self-help. It is not a patronizing effort to give 
 people what you think they need. Nor is it the 
 cowardly attempt to give people what they 
 want. It is the neighborly desire to assist people 
 to choose what they ought to want. Democracy 
 is the organization of society on the basis of 
 friendship and this is the key to the community 
 center ideal. 
 
 When the community use of the schoolhouse 
 has been organized democratically, then we are 
 prepared to undertake all sorts of activities. 
 Some of these activities may be described as 
 social, such as community dinners, musical 
 festivals, folk-singing, especially singing, which is 
 the most democratic and most spiritual of all the 
 arts. The object of these activities is to promote 
 a better acquaintance and the spirit of good 
 will. A friend said to Charles Lamb, "Come 
 here, I want to introduce you to Mr. A." Lamb 
 replied, with his characteristic stammer, "No, 
 thank you." "Why not?" "I don't like him." 
 "Don't like him.^^ But you don't know him!" 
 "That's the reason I don't like him." The com- 
 munity center operates on the conviction that 
 antagonisms among men are destroyed by 
 better acquaintance. 
 
 2S4 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 Some of its activities may be described as 
 re-creational, such as dances, games, motion 
 pictures, community dramas, especially the 
 drama, which is "the ritual of the religion of 
 democracy." The object of these activities is to 
 meet the need for play and the hunger for joy, 
 a need every day more keenly felt under the 
 monotonous grind of our machine age. Aside 
 from the necessary relief which play brings, its 
 moral and educational value is as great as that 
 of work, and sometimes greater. The commu- 
 nity center proceeds on the assumption that 
 the playground is as important as the school- 
 room; that play is re-creation as well as recre- 
 ation; that it is needed by all alike; and that 
 the leisure problem is as urgent as the labor 
 problem. 
 
 Some of these activities may be described as 
 educational^ such as courses of lectures on scien- 
 tific and literary subjects, the Americanization 
 of immigrants, a branch library, a savings bank. 
 The object of these activities is mutual aid in 
 self-development, which is one of President 
 Wilson's definitions of democracy. The com- 
 munity center is guided by the principle that 
 education is a life process; that it can be secured 
 only through self-activity; and that it ought to 
 be acquired, not apart from, but through, one's 
 daily vocation. When the people of any com- 
 munity perceive the formative principle that the 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 schoolhouse belongs to them and that educa- 
 tion is not limited to book learning, then the 
 way is at once opened to the community use of 
 the schoolhouse for any kind of cooperative 
 enterprise designed to meet human needs, pro- 
 vided it is never for profit, but for the common 
 welfare. It is my conviction that the time is 
 not far distant when the schools everywhere 
 will be used, not only to inspire cooperation in 
 buying and selling the necessities of life, but also 
 to direct and operate such enterprises, just as 
 the public schools are now being used in Alaska, 
 under the guidance of the United States Bureau 
 of Education, with patriotic and economic 
 results which are highly gratifying. To use the 
 schoolhouse as a polling-place, a community 
 forum, and a neighborhood club will establish 
 it as the community capitol. These are the three 
 chief activities which this movement aims to 
 promote. I have stated them in their logical 
 order, but this may not always be the chrono- 
 logical order. In our world human processes do 
 not move along logical lines, but along lines of 
 least resistance. Therefore community center 
 work frequently begins with some simple social 
 activity and from this evolves into larger activi- 
 ties. To learn to play together is sometimes a 
 wise preparation for more constructive forms 
 of cooperation. 
 
 I may indicate something of the large signi- 
 256 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 ficance of the community center movement by- 
 three illustrations drawn from three concrete 
 experiences in places where I am now doing some 
 work for the United States Bureau of Educa- 
 tion, each of which is typical of an important 
 phase of the work. One is a farm village in New 
 York State. It has completed a community 
 house which I discovered when I went to give 
 the dedication address. The origin of this build- 
 ing is significant of much. Some women in the 
 village church gave a simple amateur play, to 
 satisfy the young people's desire for pleasure and 
 to raise money for the church. When the money 
 was presented to the church officers, they re- 
 fused it on the ground that it was tainted 
 money. Thus was realized the necessity for 
 a building to meet the obvious needs of the 
 community, which the church refused to meet. 
 Such a building has been built and dedicated 
 free of debt. It conducts dances, games, socials, 
 a library, and provides preaching on Sundays. 
 The community spirit created by it is so fine 
 that the building has been partly endowed. 
 This movement grew out of the church, and is 
 moving toward the school so that it may be 
 under public auspices and have its work prop- 
 erly directed. The issue here is the need to 
 broaden the scope and deepen the content of the 
 term "religion." 
 The next place is a beautiful suburb of Phila- 
 257 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 delphia where there is no church, no school, and 
 no town government, on account of which 
 happy condition of freedom I have told the 
 people they are to be congratulated, because 
 there are so many things they will not have to 
 unlearn and so much dead lumber they will not 
 have to remove. I am trying to persuade this 
 community to build a community school, which 
 will perform all three functions for the people, 
 and especially to make the town government 
 and the school administration one and the same 
 thing, to make the same man both the city 
 manager and the school principal. The issue 
 involved here is the need to redeem the term 
 "politics"; to make it mean not partisan ad- 
 vantage, but social service. The chief means to 
 this end is to wed politics and education. 
 
 The third place is a school in the city of Bal- 
 timore, Maryland. The principal of this school 
 belongs to the type described in Herbert 
 Quick's "The Brown Mouse," and is doing a 
 fine constructive work. She has a system by 
 which she knows each day why absent students 
 are absent. A common cause was discovered to 
 be the lack of shoes suitable to wear on stormy 
 days. She removed this cause by having the 
 shoes mended by boys in the manual-training 
 department of the school and lending the chil- 
 dren shoes while their own were being mended. 
 The boys did this work so well that they were 
 
 258 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 asked to mend shoes for people outside the 
 school. For this work they received pay, which 
 they needed in order to be able to remain in 
 school, instead of leaving school in order to 
 help support the family. Thus was born a cob- 
 bling shop. Then the principal realized that it 
 would be unwise for some of the boys to take 
 home the money they earned because it would 
 be spent by unworthy parents in the saloon. 
 She therefore started a savings bank to safe- 
 guard these earnings. Thus there originated two 
 economic enterprises, a bank and a cobbling 
 shop. On one of my visits I bought a pair of 
 these little dilapidated shoes, for the sake of 
 the parable they embodied. Their owner was a 
 little girl. The health of this potential mother 
 of future American citizens was in danger. Her 
 education was interrupted; she was debarred 
 from the school equipment, the expense of which 
 went on whether she was present or absent. 
 The principal attempted to meet these obvious 
 human needs, and yet she was called before the 
 school board and required to explain and de- 
 fend her unusual audacity. But that is another 
 story. The issue here raised is the extent to 
 which a school can be used to meet economic, 
 needs, which involve the moral and spiritual 
 welfare of the community. 
 
 These are three small illustrations of three 
 big ideas. They typify the three most vital and 
 
 259 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 interesting of all questions, religion, politics, 
 and economics. Using these words in their true 
 and original meaning, they are the questions 
 with which the community center proposes to 
 deal. They are, of course, complex and difficult 
 problems. But as soon as we look at our prob- 
 lems in terms of opportunity they cease to be 
 problems, and become new and strangely fasci- 
 nating enterprises. Over fifty per cent, of the 
 girls and boys in America never finish the gram- 
 mar grade of school. This condition is unwise, 
 un-American, and involves waste and danger to 
 the Republic. If a community center in a district 
 like the one in Baltimore, where this condition 
 is even worse, should adopt as its programme a 
 consideration of this fact, it would be facing the 
 obvious duty of adults organized on the basis 
 of their responsibility for children, and yet they 
 would at once be involved in these complex 
 questions of economics. If they inquired into the 
 causes which compelled children to drop out of 
 school, it would lead them into the home and its 
 condition; lead them into the factory to dis- 
 cover the amount of wage received; lead them 
 into the saloon to discover what proportion of 
 the wage was wasted there; lead them into the 
 school to discover whether the studies were such 
 as to hold the interest of children or to equip 
 them for their work in life. If the adults should 
 attempt to remove the causes they found to be 
 
 260 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 operating against the welfare of children, they 
 would discover at once that it is not possible 
 to purify the water in a well by painting the 
 pump. They would need to go to the bottom of 
 things and deal with economic conditions. The 
 particular merit of the community center is 
 that it is not a charity organization and is not 
 content to paint the pump. So much of our social 
 activity is spent in the unsatisfactory business 
 of painting the pump, but the programme of 
 the community center is fundamental democ- 
 racy. The community center with an honest 
 forum as its heart is the efficient instrument 
 for effecting any needed social, political, or 
 economic reform. For the key to such re- 
 form is education, as Lincoln clearly under- 
 stood when he said: "With public sentiment 
 nothing can fail, without it nothing can win. 
 He who moulds public sentiment does a more 
 important work than he who makes a law or 
 issues a decree, for he makes these possible of 
 enactment." 
 
 This, then, is a bird's-eye view of the nature 
 and meaning of the community center move- 
 ment. Speaking in agricultural terms, its aim 
 may be said to be to make the schoolhouse the 
 hub of the country-life wheel; in social terms, 
 the community clubhouse; in educational terms, 
 the people's university; in political terms, 
 the community capitol; in economic terms, the 
 
 261 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 cooperative exchange; in religious terms, the 
 meeting-house for a society of friends. President 
 Wilson spoke accurately and profoundly when 
 he said of it, "What I see in this movement is 
 the recovery of the constructive and creative 
 genius of the American people." It is my pur- 
 pose to write a book describing in detail a com- 
 munity center in operation.' My present aim 
 18 merely to assist others to discover the use of 
 the schoolhouse as I have discovered it for 
 myself. When I left my church, because it would 
 not permit me either to preach the ideals of the 
 Christian religion or to engage in community 
 service to meet obvious human needs, I began 
 a search for a better instrument through which 
 I could render service to the cause of democ- 
 racy. In my search for such an instrument, this 
 is what I found — the schoolhouse used as a 
 community center. It is the answer to my prob- 
 lem, the goal of my search which was begun 
 twenty years ago, and from which Robert 
 Browning switched me off, through the em- 
 phasis he placed on the value of work with 
 individuals. I feel now that I have arrived. I 
 have, therefore, gone from the church to the 
 schoolhouse. I have left the church in order to 
 enter the Christian ministry. I have ceased to 
 
 » Since this chapter was prepared, the author has written a 
 little book called A Community Center; What It Is and How to 
 Organize It. It is published by The Macmillan Company, New 
 York. 
 
 ^62 
 
" A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 be a minister of a sectarian church and become 
 a minister of education, which I regard as a 
 step upward in the Kingdom of God. It is like 
 a step up from aristocracy to democracy. The 
 community center is the American church, the 
 only national church which America has. 
 
 Ruskin says that great nations write their 
 autobiographies in three languages, the book of 
 their words, the book of their deeds, and the 
 book of their art. Of these three, the only quite 
 trustworthy one is the last. What men seek to 
 embody in material form, what they invest 
 large sums of money in, what they lovingly 
 seek to beautify, is a sure index of the value 
 they place upon it. The record of the value 
 which America has begun to place on the dis- 
 covery of the new use of the schoolhouse is to 
 be clearly read in the handsome school build- 
 ings now being erected in large numbers from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific. The new discovery 
 calls for a new type of architecture, a demo- 
 cratic type of building. It will be highly inter- 
 esting to note the new type or types of buildings 
 which America will produce as characteristic of 
 her new ideals. When one visits one of these 
 handsome new buildings with its beautiful 
 auditorium and its pipe organ, one is at a loss to 
 determine whether he is in a church or a school. 
 Personally I think it is both. We have begun to 
 feel the same love and reverence for these build- 
 
 263 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 ings which we once felt toward church buildings, 
 because we have broadened the scope and deep- 
 ened the content of the term "education" and 
 subscribed under it much that was most worth 
 while in the term "religion." The sure sign that 
 we have discovered the religion of democracy- 
 is the obvious fact stated by Fletcher B. Dress- 
 ier, when he says: "This is the age of schools 
 and schoolhouses as characteristically as the 
 later part of the Middle Ages was the period of 
 churches and great church buildings. In each 
 case the faith and fervor of the people can be 
 read and fairly understood through a critical 
 study of these objective results and the ideals 
 for which they stand. It will not miss the mark 
 very far\o say that our ideals and feelings as- 
 sociated with the notion of popular education 
 are becoming suffused with a glow and zeal 
 heretofore only found associated directly or 
 indirectly with religious faith and religious 
 propaganda. And something of the same spirit 
 that once wrought to build a tabernacle or a 
 cathedral worthy of the dwelling place of the 
 Most High, is seeking expression in furnishing 
 to the youth of our land nobler temples in which 
 their hearts, minds, and bodies may better 
 adjust themselves to the demands of a practical 
 civic brotherhood. Whoever, then, undertakes 
 to build a schoolhouse to meet and foster these 
 ideals ought to approach his task with holy 
 
 264 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 hands and a consciousness of the devotion which 
 it is to typify." 
 
 If then the community center is a real church, 
 do we need any other? The answer to this ques- 
 tion is the subject of the next chapter. 
 
VIII 
 
 A COMMUNITY CENTER AND A 
 COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
The Church is not to he identified with any 
 ecclesiastical system that has as yet appeared; 
 yet it reaches ever forward to embody itself 
 in solid and structural forms. The Protes- 
 tants are rights and the Catholics are also 
 right; the kingdom of heaven is a spiritual 
 kingdom, whose throne is in the private 
 heart, and yet it can never rest until it has 
 become a territorial institution, commanding 
 the forum and the market-place with visible 
 and unquestionable sway, 
 
 Charles Ferguson 
 
VIII 
 
 A COMMUNITY CENTER AND A 
 COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 America has no national church which she has 
 yet discovered and recognized as such. Mr. 
 Bryce, in his "American Commonwealth," 
 dwells on the uniqueness and significance of this 
 fact and has helped Americans to appreciate its 
 meaning. But while America has no church which 
 she recognizes as her national church, neverthe- 
 less she has one. It only remains to be discovered. 
 And as it required a visitor from Europe to make 
 us realize that a state church in America 
 "glared by its absence," so it will require visi- 
 tors from Europe to help us discover that, never- 
 theless, there does exist here a characteristic 
 church of the American people, which has 
 welded the nation together, which is its real 
 bond of union, and which in its developed form 
 will be recognized, not as the official, but the 
 true, national church of America. The United 
 States has no established church and under its 
 Constitution never can have one, but it has a 
 national church. 
 Among the Europeans who come to make our 
 269 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 country their home there are some who, when 
 they have seen the community organized as a 
 little democracy around the public school as its 
 center and capitol, have written back to their 
 friends in Europe that it embodied what they 
 had dreamed America was like before they came 
 here. To them it means applied democracy, 
 America's ideals in operation. The time is near 
 when it will be consciously recognized as a real 
 church of the religion of democracy. This fact 
 constitutes it our national church. Increasingly 
 it will perform more of the functions now per- 
 formed by the conventional churches, just as 
 many of these functions have already been taken 
 over by the state. The very excess of sectarian- 
 ism is unconsciously furnishing its own cure. 
 The community center will coordinate social 
 activities now carried on with waste and ex- 
 travagance. It is destined largely to replace the 
 churches in the affection and loyalty of the 
 people. In the community center, America will 
 find herself, and through it she will apply the 
 principles of her Declaration of Independence 
 to a new "bill of particulars" and put them into 
 effective operation. 
 
 It may no doubt be true that, by all the laws 
 of logic and literary art, my story ought to have 
 ended at the close of the previous chapter. Up 
 to this point I have described my progress from 
 the church to the schoolhouse and in the pre- 
 
 270 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 vious chapter I arrived at the goal. Why not end 
 the story there? It is because my story is not 
 written for the sake of logic and literary art, but 
 for life's sake. Life does not move along the lines 
 of logic. It is too complex. Society is not like a 
 botanical garden where all the flowers are ar- 
 ranged in systematic and isolated rows, but like 
 a forest where every kind of plant grows inter- 
 mingled together. 
 
 Fairness to the complex character of our social 
 institutions requires us to consider a further 
 question. To indicate that it is a concrete ques- 
 tion rather than a theory, I state it in the form 
 of a letter recently received from a thoughtful 
 student of community problems, who is puzzled 
 by it. His letter is as follows : 
 
 Your book on the Community Center is immensely 
 suggestive, and has proved of great value to many 
 who are studying problems of community organiza- 
 tion. 
 
 Your omission of any attempt to include the relig- 
 ious organization in the community set-up is one of 
 the most noteworthy features of the book. This is 
 the more noticeable in that the whole reveals a deep 
 religious spirit and purpose. Your own religious sen- 
 sibilities are manifestly very keen. To my mind the 
 very fact that one of your temper must omit so 
 important a discussion is a serious indictment of the 
 sectarian order which we still allow to prevail in the 
 religious field. An increasing number are interested 
 in the organization of religion on the community 
 basis. From your point of view, is there no hope of 
 
 271 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 realizing this? Numerous sectarian organizations are 
 already seeking to camouflage their purpose and 
 organization under claims of community standing, 
 but none is willing to commit to the community the 
 control of the institution. 
 
 Will the organization as you outline it be able 
 permanently and in the largest efiiciency to function 
 without a definite recognition of religion? If it is 
 maintained that the manifold service of the common 
 good contemplated by the community organization, 
 is religion, and that of the truest and sincerest type, 
 what shall be said of the divided religious allegiance 
 which the maintenance of the sectarian order in full 
 flower involves? 
 
 I am seeking to give such question searching con- 
 sideration, and am in touch with others who are 
 doing the same. I should appreciate an opportunity 
 to get and keep in touch with you as you think and 
 work farther into this field of community organiza- 
 tion. Long service under the sectarian system has 
 fully convinced me that a new order is necessary, 
 and the study of community organization makes me 
 feel that the movement for the better community 
 programme cannot omit religion and democratic 
 control of its institutions. 
 
 The question raised in this letter is certain to 
 become increasingly important in the near 
 future. It is a serious present problem to many. 
 It deserves an answer. 
 
 In previous chapters of this story I have at- 
 tempted to show that a church dominated by 
 dogma is hostile to intellectual liberty; a church 
 dominated by money is hostile to social justice; 
 
 272 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 a church dominated by sectarianism is hostile to 
 democracy; and that these are the three blights 
 now spoiling the life of the churches and defeat- 
 ing their avowed purpose. These three moral de- 
 fects constitute the reason why I could not re- 
 main with my church on honorable terms. The 
 reason why I regard the community center as a 
 better instrument to be used in behalf of the 
 Kingdom of God is because it is free from these 
 three blights which make the churches morally 
 ineffective. The community center is free from 
 the domination of dogma, money, and sectarian- 
 ism. Such freedom constitutes it a fit instrument 
 capable of being used in the service of the re- 
 ligion of democracy. 
 
 Moreover, it is the nearest approach to the 
 Christian ideal of a church which has yet been 
 made, because the public school is the only in- 
 stitution in America primarily devoted to the 
 welfare of the child. Centuries ago a great states- 
 man and philosopher said that the key to any 
 right solution of our religious, political, and 
 economic problems was to be found by setting 
 *'a child in the midst" of them. He regarded the 
 child as the model citizen in the Kingdom of 
 God, which was his term for democracy. The 
 child is still the most respectable citizen we have. 
 It is my settled conviction that Jesus was pro- 
 foundly right in this position, which John Fiske 
 has shown to be abundantly supported by the 
 
 273 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 biological history of the race. The prolonged 
 infancy of the human baby is the factor which 
 developed motherhood and all our altruistic 
 sentiments. And it will be by keeping the child 
 in the midst of our thought, by giving the child 
 the right of way in our economics, by making the 
 child's welfare the formative principle in our 
 social and civic activities, that we will usher in 
 the Kingdom of God. If the world is to be saved 
 at all, "it will be saved by the laughter of school 
 children." 
 
 Now the distinctive and significant feature 
 about the community center is that it is an as- 
 sembly of adult citizens organized primarily on 
 the basis of their responsibility for the child. Is 
 not the community center, therefore, a church in 
 the true sense of the term? And if so, do we need 
 any other? To some it will no doubt be some- 
 what startling to hear the community center 
 called a church. What we most need at this point 
 is a little clear thinking. If one indulges in clear 
 thinking, I feel sure it can lead him to only one 
 answer. He will see that the community center 
 is not only a real church, but is the kind of 
 church which Jesus would most heartily ap- 
 prove. Sectarian churches have no monopoly on 
 the Kingdom of God and are not identical with 
 it. Indeed, it is not only historically false, but 
 also morally hurtful to identify the church with 
 any form of ecclesiastical institution. 
 
 274 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 The first fact to be kept in the foreground Is 
 that Jesus founded no church at all In the ac- 
 cepted sense of that term. At least no evidence 
 to this effect has yet been discovered, and much 
 evidence exists to show that He did not. In the 
 four biographies of Jesus in the New Testament, 
 the word "church" occurs only twice, and one 
 of these references is an Incidental reference, 
 while the phrase "the Kingdom of God," or its 
 equivalent, occurs one hundred and seven times. 
 This may serve as a fairly accurate indication of 
 the relative value which Jesus attached to the 
 two ideas. In the church He appeared to be 
 little interested, but in the Kingdom of God He 
 was supremely interested. It was the object not 
 only of his major loyalty, but his sole loyalty, 
 and in its behalf He died a martyr. 
 
 Not only so, but In the memorabilia of Jesus, 
 the chief place which the church of his day oc- 
 cupies is as the object of his attack. It was the 
 church which secured his judicial murder. Jesus, 
 therefore, did not work for the church of his day, 
 but against it. What He did work for was the 
 Kingdom of God, the rule of spiritual and dem- 
 ocratic principles in human society. He be- 
 lieved that the worth of any institution Is to be 
 tested by its value to the Kingdom of God. He 
 would use any agency which had such value. 
 Therefore, He tried to persuade the church to 
 become such an agency. When it indignantly re- 
 
 275 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 jected his advice and expelled him with violence, 
 He did his work out of doors with the people and 
 set in operation principles which created a new 
 and better type of church. It is quite possible to 
 conceive it to be the duty of a Christian to fol- 
 low the example of Jesus. It is a dangerous thing 
 to do, but it may be the right thing to do. 
 
 The experience of Jesus with the church of his 
 day suggests an obvious conclusion, and this is 
 the second fact to be kept in the foreground of 
 our thought, namely, that the church is strictly 
 a human invention and has all the defects of any 
 other human product; that it is a mere tool to 
 be used, a means to an end, not an end in itself; 
 that there is a constant necessity to mend it; 
 that it is to be mended or replaced or dispensed 
 with altogether if the interests of democracy 
 require it; that there is nothing sacred about the 
 stone and sand in a church building, but some- 
 thing very sacred indeed about a man or woman 
 or child. What Jesus did was to organize little 
 groups or societies or assemblies of men and 
 women, which were neither ethnic nor military, 
 which transcended all national, racial, and 
 creedal boundaries, societies of men and women 
 devoted to his ideal of democracy. His own little 
 society numbered twelve. George Matheson 
 called it "the league of pity." Wherever, there- 
 fore, there exists a similar society of men and 
 women devoted to the same ideals, whether they 
 
 276 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 meet in a schoolhouse, in the caves of the earth, 
 or out in the open fields, it is just as truly a 
 church, according to the standard of Jesus, as 
 any ecclesiastical establishment, and in point of 
 fact it may be and often is, more so. "There is a 
 true church," said Ruskin, "wherever one hand 
 meets another helpfully." 
 
 According to the standard of Jesus, then, the 
 community center is a real church. Do we need 
 any other? Certainly not, provided it can per- 
 form all the service that such an institution 
 ought to render. Can the community center 
 perform this complete service for human life? I 
 assume that we agree that religion is a universal 
 necessity, and this is the third fact to be kept 
 clearly in the foreground. So long as there is a 
 star in the sky and love in the heart, and so long 
 as life is full of absurdities and injustices, so long 
 will religion be indispensable, by whatever name 
 we may call it. I realize that the term "religion" 
 has been so degraded that its meaning is ob- 
 scured. What I mean is that, in view of the im- 
 mature stage of human development, and in 
 view of the cruelty and loneliness of life, it is 
 necessary for man to seek comfort and inspira- 
 tion in an ideal world, which contains the ele- 
 ments of beauty, justice, and rationality. I have 
 in mind the same thing which led Professor 
 Valdemar Bennike to say, in an address on the 
 Danish Folk High School, that "the main ob- 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 ject of this school is not to impart to our 
 students a mass of useful information — that is 
 only a secondary aim. The principal aim is to 
 impart to them a spiritual view of life, so that 
 they may see there is some sense in their ex- 
 istence,''^ "Religion," says Ira W. Howerth, "is 
 the effective desire to be in right relation to the 
 power manifesting itself in the universe." Con- 
 sidered, then, in its essential nature, religion 
 performs for man the same service which music 
 does and both grow out of the same need.^ Re- 
 garded not as a dogma or a ritual, but as an 
 attitude to life, there is no man without a religion. 
 At least I have never met such a man, and it is 
 my belief that no such man anywhere exists. 
 
 If, then, we are agreed that this universal need 
 of man must be met, our question is whether it 
 can be sufficiently satisfied through the com- 
 munity center, and whether any other kind of 
 church is necessary. It is obvious that the com- 
 munity center will perform for adults very many 
 functions which a church is designed to perform, 
 just as the public school is now performing them 
 for children. It is teaching moral and religious 
 ideals indirectly through all its studies and ac- 
 tivities, through the personal influence of its 
 teachers and through the social life of the school 
 
 * In my little book, The Legend of the Christmas Rose, I en- 
 deavored to show the nature and universality of this need, by 
 explaining why music is the characteristic art of both Christian- 
 ity and Pessimism. 
 
 278 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 I believe the position which George Herbert 
 Palmer maintains in his monograph, "Ethical 
 and Moral Instruction in Schools," is correct, 
 that the indirect method is the wise method. 
 For character is a by-product of service and can- 
 not be sought directly with much success. Re- 
 ligion makes friends, but does not take pupils. 
 It spreads by contagion. The Chinese word is 
 the same for religion and education. It is made 
 up of two root words meaning literature and 
 piety. Their word "piety" means something to- 
 tally different from our word. It refers to ideals 
 of human relationship in social and civic life: 
 that is, they regard both religion and education 
 as consisting of spiritual ideals, acquired through 
 human association. Both of these functions are 
 now performed by the public school, one by its 
 associational life, the other through its teaching 
 of history and literature. For if the school treats 
 history and literature as culture, and not merely 
 to present facts or to illustrate the rules of 
 grammar, it cannot avoid teaching moral and 
 religious ideals. 
 
 In like manner the community center will 
 perform the same two services for the religious 
 life of adults. In its forum it is not possible to dis- 
 cuss economic and political questions in any 
 adequate fashion without treating religious 
 ideals, for these questions are all moral questions 
 at bottom. And in the community activities it 
 
 279 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 necessarily promotes the highest religious spirit. 
 For a man's religious life goes no higher up on 
 the perpendicular — that is, toward God — 
 than it goes out on the horizontal — that is, 
 toward one's fellow men. It was irresistible logic 
 which led the disciple John to ask, ' If you can- 
 not love your fellow men, whom you have seen, 
 how can you love God, whom you have not 
 seen?' The answer to the question is so obvious 
 that it does not need to be stated. 
 
 If, then, the community center is a real 
 church, performing many of the functions which 
 the church once performed and is in a position 
 to perform them more effectively, our question 
 is. Do we still need a private community church 
 to supplement the work of the public community 
 center church ? I think we do. I am aware of the 
 fact that a large and increasing number of 
 thoughtful men and women of the highest 
 character do not think so, but regard the com- 
 munity center as an all-sufficient church. I 
 agree with this position to the extent that I 
 believe the time is coming when the community 
 center will be the only church needed anywhere, 
 and even now I give to it the chief place in my 
 affections. But nevertheless, I believe that for 
 the present a private or volunteer church is 
 needed to do what the community center is not 
 yet able to do. My reason for so thinking is that 
 the copimunity center is a geographical institu- 
 
 ^80 ^' 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 tion. It belongs to all the people of its district. 
 This constitutes its great strength, but it has 
 the weakness of its strength. Its liberty is 
 limited; that is, the nature and number of its 
 activities are determined by the lowest common 
 denominator, in case the district contains many 
 who are unprogressive and unenlightened. Only 
 those enterprises can be undertaken which are 
 agreed upon by the majority. It is our high task 
 and opportunity to raise this low common de- 
 nominator through education. But it is not high 
 enough now to permit those things to be done 
 which most need to be done. Hence the need of 
 a private church, which, because it is a volunteer 
 organization, is free to do them. Moreover, such 
 a volunteer institution is our best agency for 
 educating public opinion to undertake commu- 
 nity activities. New enterprises usually need to 
 be initiated, and during their pioneer period 
 to be supported by private groups, if they are 
 to make any headway at all. 
 
 While I believe that the community center is 
 destined to perform all the functions of a true 
 church, it cannot do so now, because the 
 lowest common denominator, on the basis of 
 which all public organizations must conduct 
 their activities, will not permit it. Therefore, I 
 believe that some form of volunteer community 
 church is a present practical necessity. Another 
 fundamental reason for this position is that for 
 
 281 ~ 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 the practice of democracy it is not sufficient to 
 have truth stated in intellectual terms alone: it 
 must be stated also in terms of emotion. For the 
 conduct of men is determined more by senti- 
 ment than by any intellectual consideration. A 
 man thinks mostly with his heart. I do not mean 
 to suggest that the schools exclude the element 
 of emotion in their teaching. They cannot if 
 they would. As a matter of fact, educators are 
 more and more stressing the function of motive 
 in education. They are coming to believe, with 
 Lyman Abbott, that "the object of education is 
 not to pour a certain amount of learning into an 
 empty mind, but to develop a certain amount of 
 muscle in an undeveloped mind. Power, not 
 knowledge, is the end of education." Knowledge, 
 to become power, must be felt knowledge; it 
 must be charged with emotion. Ray Stannard 
 Baker says, "The one essential purpose of edu- 
 cation is to get an individual going from within 
 so that he will run himself." A man runs him- 
 self aright only when his interior purpose or 
 motive or emotion, which controls conduct, is 
 rectified and in operation. But when we deal 
 with the ideals of the heart we are dealing with 
 religion. And while the schools have begun to 
 appreciate this fact in theory, they have not 
 yet given it the central place in practice which 
 it deserves. Until it is given such a central po- 
 sition in the school and in the community center, 
 
 282 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 a volunteer church will be needed to do what the 
 community center is not yet prepared to do. 
 
 One concrete illustration will make my mean- 
 ing clear and pointed: neither the school for 
 children nor the community center for adults is 
 as yet in a position to teach the Bible. I agree 
 with Professor Huxley in thinking that the 
 Bible is an indispensable aid in the process of 
 cultivating the religious feeling as a guide to 
 conduct. In his essay entitled "The School 
 Board," he says : '^ 
 
 My belief is that no human being, and no society 
 composed of human beings, ever did, or ever will, 
 come to much unless their conduct is governed and 
 guided by the love of some ethical ideals. ... I have 
 always been strongly in favor of secular education 
 in the sense of education without theology; but I 
 must confess I have been no less seriously perplexed 
 to know by what practical measures the religious 
 feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct, was 
 to be kept up in the present utterly chaotic state of 
 opinion on these matters, without the use of the 
 Bible. . . . For three centuries this book has been 
 woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in 
 English history; it has become the national epic of 
 Britain; it is written in the noblest and purest Eng- 
 lish, and abounds in exquisite beauties of mere lit- 
 erary form; and, finally, it forbids the veriest hind, 
 who never left his village, to be ignorant of the exist- 
 ence of other countries and other civilizations, and 
 of a great past, stretching back to the furthest limits 
 of the oldest nations in the world. By the study of 
 what other book could children be so much human- 
 
 283 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 ized and made to feel that each figure in that vast 
 historical procession fills, like themselves, but a 
 momentary space in the interval between two eter- 
 nities, and earns the blessings or the curses of all 
 time, according to its effort to do good and hate evil, 
 even as they also are earning their payment for their 
 work? 
 
 The quaint law passed November ii, 1647, 
 by the General Court of the Massachusetts 
 Plantation, and the first one to be met with in 
 American history, expressly states that the chief 
 object in founding the free public school was to 
 give the citizens a knowledge of the Bible. To- 
 day for the most part it is illegal to teach the 
 Bible in the public schools. This striking change 
 of attitude is highly significant. The sufficient 
 reason for it Is sectarianism. The law passed by 
 the Illinois Legislature, to exclude the Bible 
 from the public schools, was sustained by the 
 supreme court of the state, on the ground that 
 the Bible is a sectarian book. The supreme court 
 of Wisconsin has shut it out of the schools of 
 that state on the same ground. These judges 
 are no doubt learned and well-meaning men, but 
 they ought to have known that the Bible Is In 
 no sense a sectarian book. As President Bascom 
 says: "The Bible is related to sectarian teach- 
 ing as water to all other fluids. It Is the basis of 
 all, but has the specific qualities of none." It was 
 not only written before any sectarian churches 
 
 284 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 existed, but It is a body of "eternal literature"; 
 it contains spiritual and political ideals, univer- 
 sally valid. The sects have done the book a 
 serious injury. They have misrepresented it. 
 They have prevented it from becoming either 
 accurately or widely known. Sectarianism has 
 injured the Bible to such an extent that both its 
 admirers and critics unite to oppose its intro- 
 duction as a text-book in the public school. 
 
 The widespread ignorance of this book is a 
 serious national loss. The study of it ought to be 
 in the curriculum of every school, because what 
 knowledge of it our girls and boys receive, they 
 get from the home and the sectarian Sunday- 
 school, both of which are performing their task 
 very poorly indeed. Moreover, to divorce a 
 study of the Bible from the study of science, 
 history, and literature, leads a boy to identify 
 the highest ideals of life with Sunday, churches, 
 and Sunday-schools. It gives him a false and 
 departmental idea of religion and a false and 
 secular conception of the state. This is one of 
 the chief dangers in a democracy, as I hope to 
 show in the next chapter. The point I am here 
 making is that a system of popular education 
 ought to include instruction in spiritual and 
 political ideals such as the Bible contains. Our 
 girls and boys "are permitted to know Homer, 
 but not Job; the Institutes of Justinian, but not 
 the Ten Commandments; the Jupiter of the 
 
 28s 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 Romans, but not the Jehovah of the Hebrews." 
 We think it important for them to know about 
 the Athenian Republic, but it is just as interest- 
 ing and far more important for American girls 
 and boys to know about the Hebrew Republic. 
 The American people have banished sectarian 
 theology from the schools, which is wise, but in 
 doing so they have banished the unsectarian 
 Bible, which is unwise. It is like burning up the 
 ship to get rid of the cockroaches. It is like 
 throwing out the baby with the bath. Two re- 
 cent experiments have been initiated in North 
 Dakota and in Colorado to cure this defect and 
 make a connection between a study of the Bible 
 and the public schools. It is a hopeful sign of the 
 beginning of a saner public policy, but it is only 
 a slight beginning. When we have sloughed oS 
 our sectarian prejudices and provincialism, we 
 shall discover the Bible and recognize it as the 
 nation's best guide-book. It is not only history 
 and literature of a high order, but the most vital 
 and challenging statement of democracy to be 
 found anywhere. As the Bible is excluded for the 
 present from the public school, so it must be ex- 
 cluded from the community center. 
 
 I dwell on this illustration not only to make 
 clear my conviction that a community center 
 ought, and I believe some day will, perform for 
 human life all the services which a true church 
 ought to perform, but also to make clear my 
 
 286 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 conviction that, until such a day arrives, a 
 private church of some sort is needed to do what 
 a community center cannot now do. What kind 
 of a church ought this to be? If a sectarian 
 church is controlled by unprogressive and un- 
 enlightened people, it has, as Professor Carver 
 says, all the disadvantages of a community 
 center and none of its advantages. It is there- 
 fore of little use. It is obvious that a church 
 which is either able or willing to perform only 
 those functions unperformed by a community 
 center must be a community-minded church 
 such as was described in a previous chapter. It 
 will waste none of its strength in sectarian 
 rivalry. It will regard itself as an ally, not a rival 
 of the community center. Its relation to it will 
 be in no sense official, but it will be vital. Its 
 definite policy will be to undertake no activity 
 which can be better conducted by the community 
 center, and to hand over to the community cen- 
 ter any activity already inaugurated when the 
 general welfare requires it. It will give the com- 
 munity center first place and itself second place. 
 It needs to be kept clearly in mind, that it is 
 not a theory but a condition we are here discuss- 
 ing. The stimulating fact is that the thing has 
 begun to happen. Here is a concrete challenge 
 presented to me in the course of my work for the 
 Government by a community in Tennessee. I 
 could parallel it by a large number of similar 
 
 287, 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 experiences in all parts of the country. This 
 community is in the open country. In it there is 
 a fine consolidated school with a principal and 
 eleven teachers. The principal is a woman, who 
 is a social engineer as well as a teacher. She is 
 conducting very successfully several community 
 enterprises for the adult citizens, social, edu- 
 cational, and economic. The most serious and 
 complex difficulty in her work, she told me, is 
 due to two churches, which belong to two 
 branches of the same sect. They are constantly 
 competing and quarreling. Frequently some of 
 her community enterprises had been brought to 
 the verge of wreck by these disputes and jeal- 
 ousies. At this point of her story I exclaimed, 
 "Blessed are the good with whom it is pleasant 
 to live!" 
 
 Now, she said, what am I to do with these 
 churches.^ They are constantly hurting my work 
 and disintegrating the community spirit. We 
 have ready our plans for erecting an additional 
 building on the school grounds, costing $25,000, 
 and containing an auditorium and other facil- 
 ities for community activities. I have delayed 
 this enterprise for several months to see what 
 the churches were going to do and to give them 
 a chance to mend their ways. I feel that we 
 ought not to wait longer. What do you advise 
 us to do? I wonder what my readers think would 
 be the best course for her to pursue. 
 
 288 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 After making the essential facts of the situa- 
 tion stand out clearly by careful questioning, I 
 answered that there are several possible things 
 that a person in your position might do. I will 
 state them in the ascending order of their value 
 to the community's welfare. 
 
 1. Do nothing and let the churches keep on 
 contending with each other, in which case the 
 community's experiment in democracy and 
 its spiritual life will suffer damage. 
 
 2. Try to unite the two churches formally, 
 in which case you would probably have a de- 
 bate on your hands for the next ten years, and 
 in the end still have a sectarian church, even 
 if your attempt succeeded. 
 
 3. Start an independent community church 
 to be an ally and not a rival of the community 
 center and meet those needs which the com- 
 munity center may not now be able to meet. 
 
 4. Build your new school auditorium, or- 
 ganize a community church, and let it use 
 your auditorium, in which case you would 
 violate the constitution of the United States 
 and the American tradition of separation of 
 church and State, which is not infrequently 
 done. 
 
 5. Build your new building, and conduct 
 an open forum on Sunday, at which you will 
 have good music and addresses on all kinds 
 of subjects including morals and religion, in 
 
 289 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 which case you will meet the moral and relig- 
 ious needs of the people along with other 
 needs, show the churches a more excellent 
 way, and cause them to die a slow and pain- 
 less death, replacing them with a new and 
 better type of institution. 
 In the presence of a complex situation it is 
 solid comfort to discover a formative principle, 
 which will cut a clear path through the confus- 
 ing details. Your guiding principle is this; — 
 while in America there can be no official con- 
 nection between the State and church, there 
 ought to be a vital connection between the State 
 and religion. Your community center activities 
 are in fact religious in their nature, and will be 
 more effectively conducted by a conscious rec- 
 ognition of this fact. This principle clearly indi- 
 cates that the fifth on the list of the five possi- 
 ble courses is the best. I trust your community 
 has the courage to undertake this pioneer piece 
 of work. But whether you take the fifth or third 
 course depends on the present state of develop- 
 ment among your people. If they are equal to 
 it, I think you ought to take the fifth course. 
 If they are not yet educated up to it, then take 
 the third course as a stepping-stone toward the 
 goal. Your duty to your country, I believe, 
 limits you either to the fifth or the third of 
 these courses. The law of accommodation to the 
 people's present capacity will determine your 
 
 290 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 choice between them. It may be that more com- 
 munities than I realize are ready to take the 
 fifth course, but my present feeling is that the 
 large majority of them are not prepared to go 
 beyond the third. You ought to be ahead of 
 your community, but not so far ahead as to 
 prevent its growth. If the lead of a pencil 
 will not stand long shoulders, it is wiser to 
 sharpen it with short shoulders than to make it 
 useless. 
 
 Is it, then, the destiny of a private church to 
 decrease as the community center increases? 
 Precisely so. It is not only its manifest destiny, 
 but its rare opportunity. In a group of Chinese 
 students at Columbia University to whom I was 
 giving a course of lectures, there was a young 
 woman, who took the highest academic honors 
 ever given to a Chinese woman, and who is now 
 at the head of an important educational insti- 
 tution in China. At the close of one of the lect- 
 ures she asked whether I thought any church at 
 all was needed. She perhaps had been reading 
 Professor Royce. I frankly admitted that, if we 
 regarded things as they ought to be, not as they 
 are, we should need no church. That is the ideal 
 condition, and what a relief it would be, to be 
 sure! It is also the Christian position. Jesus 
 founded no church, and his disciple John, who 
 in Revelation gives a picture of the new Jerusa- 
 lem, — that is, the ideal society, — states that 
 
 291 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 one of the chief characteristics of it is that there 
 shall be no church in it. He says: "I saw no 
 sanctuary in the city, for the Lord God, the 
 Ruler of all, is its sanctuary. The glory of God 
 has shone upon it. The nations will live their 
 lives by its light." 
 
 The Christian ideal of the church is that its 
 function is to make itself useless as speedily as 
 possible; that is, when its aims are realized it 
 ceases to be needed, its use decreases in propor- 
 tion as society itself becomes Christianized. 
 Until such time comes, we shall need some kind 
 of organization whose aim it is to foster Chris- 
 tian ideals, to write them into law, and with 
 them construct a new social order. In view of 
 the Christian conception of a church's function, 
 is it not reasonable to expect that it ought un- 
 selfishly to become an ally and servant of the 
 community center, through which the whole of 
 society can be served and integrated? If a 
 private church should thus serve a community 
 center, then the triumph of the community 
 center can be regarded as its own triumph. The 
 Christian spirit, that should guide it, finds fit- 
 ting expression in Whittier's poem, "My 
 Triumph": 
 
 "Let the thick curtain fall; 
 I better know than all 
 How little I have gained, 
 How vast the unattained. 
 
 292 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER. 
 
 "Others shall sing the song, 
 Others shall right the wrong, — 
 Finish what I begin, 
 And all I fail of win. 
 
 **What matter, I or they? , 
 Mine or another's day. 
 So the right word be said 
 And life the sweeter made? 
 
 **Ring, bells in unreared steeples, 
 The joy of unborn peoples! 
 Sound, trumpets far off blown, 
 Your triumph is my own!" 
 
 Its golden age lies before any private church 
 which is clear-sighted enough to accept the 
 Christian view of its functions, to perceive the 
 signs of the times, and to serve the cause of the 
 Kingdom of God rather than itself. The time 
 was when the church was a real community 
 center. The mediaeval church was a great social 
 and political organization. Its cathedrals were 
 not merely places of worship: they were the 
 inns, the hospitals, the banks of the times; 
 they were public schools, guild-halls, and court- 
 houses; they were the centers of industry and 
 art. It Is obvious that it Is impossible for the 
 churches of to-day, because of their wasteful 
 divisions and sectarian rivalries, to perform the 
 functions of a true Christian church, and that 
 this function can be performed only by the 
 community center. The free public school Is the 
 
 293 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 democratic cathedral of the religion of democ- 
 racy. The sectarian church can oppose the com- 
 munity center for doing what the church once 
 did, only for the same reason that they are 
 opposed, as Rauschenbusch says, "by amuse- 
 ment caterers, who want people to come to them 
 and spend money; by the old-line politicians, 
 who shiver when the people begin to think for 
 themselves on political questions; and by some 
 priests of the Roman Catholic Church, who set 
 their church above all public interests and hope 
 to quarantine their people against the public 
 school and the common spirit of the nation." 
 The reason for the opposition is vested interest. 
 If any sectarian church displays such a dog-in- 
 the-manger spirit, it will discover its opposition 
 to be a boomerang. It can save its life only by 
 becoming an ally of the community center. 
 It is futile to fight against God and the people. 
 Steadily during a long period certain vital 
 activities like education, the care of the sick, and 
 municipal government, once conducted by the 
 church, have one by one been taken over from 
 the church and become community functions. 
 To transfer additional functions from the church 
 to the public school is just another similar step 
 in the evolution of the progress of the Kingdom 
 of God. If the churches were really interested 
 in the Kingdom of God rather than in their own 
 corporate welfare, they would rejoice in this 
 
 294 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 process, not only because these activities will 
 be more economically administered, but because 
 of the spiritual good that will result from the 
 removal of the divisions, which needlessly sepa- 
 rate men. 
 
 It is true that through the loss of these prac- 
 tical activities, the church has become more 
 and more like a disembodied spirit and her 
 ministers feel a keen sense of unreality in their 
 work. She is now wistfully looking for points 
 of contact with the practical concerns of human 
 life. The community center furnishes her just 
 such a point of contact as she needs. It sets 
 before her an open door of opportunity which no 
 man can shut. If the church would cease to 
 substitute herself for the Kingdom of God, 
 would recognize the hand of God in human 
 history, would put the Kingdom of God first 
 and herself second, would take on herself the 
 form of a servant, would make a connection 
 not between herself as an ecclesiastical institu- 
 tion and the community center, but between 
 her members as individuals and the community 
 center, she would begin her golden age. She 
 would hasten the triumph of democracy, and 
 save herself as a by-product of the process. Her 
 own past experience ought to teach her the 
 wisdom of such a policy. "Her history," says 
 Rauschenbusch, "is the story of how she fell 
 by rising and rose by falling. No one who loves 
 
 295 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 her can serve her better than by bringing home 
 to her that by seeking her life she loses it, and 
 that when she loses her life to serve the King- 
 dom of God, she will gain it." 
 
 The community center is the development of 
 the public school into a people's university. 
 The church was the mother of popular educa- 
 tion. We owe a real debt to Martin Luther for 
 his service in its behalf, and for his insistence 
 that the church should have no control what- 
 ever over popular education. The church was 
 the mother of the free public school in America. 
 The minister and school-teacher were both 
 employed by the same town meeting in the 
 Massachusetts Plantation, where the citizens 
 and the members of the church were one and 
 the same group of people. Since, therefore, the 
 church is the mother and creator of the free 
 public school, shall the mother disown her 
 daughter, when the daughter grows big and 
 becomes a people's university.? Or shall the 
 church, like a true mother, very gladly spend 
 and be spent herself, that her daughter may 
 have a more abundant life? 
 
 The attitude of the church to the community 
 center may or may not be paralleled by the 
 attitude of the Hebrew nation to a similar 
 movement which Jesus inaugurated. In that 
 case the Hebrew church proved to be what 
 George Matheson calls "a blind lamplighter." 
 
 296 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 Very beautifully he describes the sad and puz- 
 zling tragedy: 
 
 The nation has rejected the fulfillment of her own 
 dream. She has given a king to the world, and she 
 has refused to crown him. I have read in one of 
 George Macdonald's novels of a born-blind lamp-» 
 lighter. He illuminated the city at night; but he had 
 no sense of what he was doing. So has it been with 
 this land. She has presented the portrait to the gal- 
 lery; she has heard the plaudits of the spectators: 
 and she has refused to join in them. In all history 
 there is nothing so unique. It is the enemies of this 
 land that have crowned her world-king; it is the 
 Gentiles that have come to His light. The lamp- 
 lighter has been blind to the beauty of that throne 
 which she has illuminated. Palestine has lit up the 
 scene; she has listened to the crowd shouting their 
 applause; and she has wondered why. She has been 
 like a deaf-mute in a concert room. She has struck by 
 accident the notes of a harp, and by accident they 
 have burst into music. The audience has cheered the 
 performance to the echo; but the performer knows 
 not her triumph. 
 
 Whether or not the church of to-day will 
 repeat this tragic blunder remains to be seen. 
 The fact that she has already repeated it so 
 frequently in the past gives one little hope that 
 she will do otherwise now. All the national 
 churches of Europe have opposed the progress of 
 democracy. The Protestant state churches of 
 Germany have for years insisted on loyalty to 
 the monarchy as an essential part of the Chris- 
 
 297 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 tian life and are the enemies of both political 
 and social democracy. The Church of England 
 is Tory in its sympathies and influence. ''Noth- 
 ing in the history of the nineteenth century," 
 says Rauschenbusch, "is more thrilling than 
 the passionate longing of Italian patriots for 
 the freedom and unity of Italy. Yet the ancient 
 church of Italy, whose secular dominion had 
 been the chief obstacle to Italian unity, not 
 only resisted the final achievement of that 
 desire, but forty years later still stood aside 
 while Italy was celebrating the jubilee of its 
 union." 
 
 The churches in the United States have had 
 a more unfettered life and freer chance to serve 
 the Kingdom of God than the churches of any 
 other country, and would do so now if they had 
 not substituted the tyranny of money for other 
 ancient forms of tyranny. It is true that the 
 churches in America show some uneasiness over 
 their present conditions. A woman once ex- 
 claimed to Mark Twain, "How God must love 
 you!" After she had left, he turned to his secre- 
 tary with the remark, " She has not heard of our 
 strained relations." The fact that the churches 
 are dimly conscious that their relations to God 
 are somewhat strained is ground for a little 
 hope, but not much. Their attitude to the com- 
 munity center movement is a simple and search- 
 ing test of their wisdom. I have no desire to 
 
 298 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 prejudge what they will do, but I have very 
 little hope that they will seize their golden 
 opportunity to save their life by losing it in 
 devotion to a cause outside themselves. The 
 controlling motive of the churches is selfishness 
 and sectarian rivalry; they are in bondage to 
 vested interests; they have sold their souls for 
 money. I fear that "Ephraim is joined to his 
 idols" and that we had better "let him alone." 
 It is a disturbing but significant fact that when 
 Lincoln was leading the cause for freedom, in 
 his first campaign for the presidency, twenty 
 out of twenty-three ministers in his town were 
 against him. "These men well know," he said, 
 "that I am for freedom, and yet with this book" 
 — indicating the New Testament — "in their 
 hands, in the light of which human bondage 
 cannot live a moment, they are going to vote 
 against me. I do not understand it at all." 
 
 There are periods in history when the welfare 
 of the Kingdom of God makes it the clear duty 
 of a progressive and enlightened Christian man 
 to treat the church as Jesus treated the church 
 of his day. How is that.f* He will withdraw from 
 all active interest in'it, just as Jesus did. He will 
 make known the moral reasons for his act, just 
 as Jesus did. He will make a constructive effort 
 to replace it with something better, just as Jesus 
 did. The first of these steps has already been 
 taken in our day by large numbers of people. 
 
 299 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 The second step has been taken as yet only by 
 a few. The third step will be taken as soon as 
 we discover that the community center is the 
 real church for which our quest has been made. 
 Whether a man believes that a sectarian church 
 is worth preserving, or whether he believes, as I 
 do, that it ought to be transformed into a com- 
 munity church, the best way to accomplish either 
 result is to withdraw from it and to work for 
 the community center. For the chief reason why 
 the inadequacy of sectarian churches has become 
 apparent is because the community at large has 
 become seriously Christian in its ideals and as- 
 pirations. If, then, we desire to elevate the 
 moral ideals of the church up to the level of the 
 moral standards of the community, our best 
 method, at once considerate and effective, is not 
 to attach the church directly, but to set a 
 standard, to which they must either conform 
 or die. The community center furnishes such a 
 standard. The pride of men prevents them 
 from making a point-blank acknowledgment of 
 their previous errors. The method here suggested 
 is the application of pressure through the law 
 of necessity, only the law is applied indirectly 
 rather than directly. Not that I would hesitate 
 in the least to apply it directly, but it is less 
 efficient in securing the result. The subjunctive 
 mode method rather than the indicative mode 
 method is both kinder and more effective. Dr. 
 
 300 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 Joseph H. Odell had this method in mind when 
 he said: "I believe that if the denominations did 
 not freely subsidize men, there would be a 
 clerical famine twenty years from now. And 
 furthermore, I believe that would be one of the 
 very best things which could possibly happen 
 to the Christian church in America, because it 
 would compel us to close several thousand 
 starving churches in small towns and bring 
 about union as a matter of necessity." This is 
 the operation of natural law, and it is now oper- 
 ating to produce such a famine in spite of the 
 artificial attempt to stop it through subsidiz- 
 ing. It is wiser to let it operate, for nothing is 
 so convincing as a fact. 
 
 The best service, then, we can render a sec- 
 tarian church is to forsake it and go to the com- 
 munity center; for only he can reform a defec- 
 tive thing, who can replace it with something 
 better. I did not realize it at the beginning, but 
 I have now come to see that my own action in 
 going from the church to the schoolhouse is 
 typical of a wide and I believe a growing move- 
 ment of to-day. It is typical of a large number of 
 ministers, whose awakened conscience is com- 
 pelling them to leave the ministry of sectarian 
 churches, and is preventing a still larger number 
 of young men from entering it. To such men this 
 reluctant conclusion is a real and sometimes a 
 tragic sorrow. For the reason why they have 
 
 301 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 reached this decision is not because they lack 
 the heroic and unselfish desire to render public 
 service, but precisely the opposite reason. The 
 best young men are refusing to enter the ser- 
 vice of sectarian churches, not because their 
 sense of chivalry is low, but because it is high. 
 What is the way out for those men who cannot 
 enter or remain in the church, but who still de- 
 sire to be Christian ministers ? The message of 
 hope which I particularly desire to bring to such 
 men is that my own experience is typical not 
 only of their problem, but typical also of its 
 solution. 
 
 The community center is their door of op- 
 portunity. Through it they can continue to be 
 Christian ministers. True, they cease to be 
 ministers of an ecclesiastical institution, but 
 they become ministers of education. If we 
 broaden the scope and deepen the content of the 
 term "education," as the community center 
 does, then they will be Christian ministers in a 
 truer sense than ever before. Their ministry will 
 be like that of Jesus. The favorite name applied 
 to him by his contemporaries was "Teacher." 
 He was a real community center worker. There 
 is no evidence that He made any effort to be- 
 come the successor of the High Priest Caiaphas. 
 The mere suggestion of seeing him occupy such 
 a position seems to us not only a bit of humor, 
 but also a dishonor to his memory. If we take 
 
 302 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 as our standard the spirit and method of Jesus, 
 a minister to-day ought to go from the church to 
 the schoolhouse and regard it as the best in- 
 strument for his ministry. 
 
 It is a highly significant fact that the majority 
 of the leaders in the notable reform movements 
 of North Dakota carried on by the "Non-Par- 
 tisan League" are ministers who left the church 
 because it was a hopelessly inefficient instru- 
 ment of the Kingdom of God. The training 
 which ministers receive, defective as it is, still 
 seems to be best fitted to prepare men for com- 
 munity service. Theological seminaries like 
 Union of New York and those at Harvard, Yale, 
 and the University of Chicago are non-sectarian 
 in fact and in spirit. Yet they send their grad- 
 uates into sectarian churches. To send modern- 
 minded young men, who think in community 
 terms, into sectarian churches that do not want 
 them, is a waste of good material, and it insures 
 trouble both for the churches and for the men. 
 The Presbyterian denomination has been fight- 
 ing Union Seminary for a generation. The agree- 
 ment of armed neutrality, made in 191 6 between 
 them, was a humorous, dishonest, and cowardly 
 compromise. Such a peace-at-any-price policy 
 arrives nowhere and insures nothing except 
 damage to the moral integrity of both parties to 
 the pact. If these seminaries would honestly rec- 
 ognize the facts as they are, they would cease to 
 
 303 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 pretend to be what they are not. If they had the 
 statesmanship to see the hand of God in history, 
 they would openly begin to train their men, 
 without apologies and with new enthusiasm, for 
 service in community churches and community 
 centers. They would also carry on a definite 
 campaign to organize these two institutions in 
 order to meet the needs of our day and to pre- 
 pare a type of institution which fitted the type 
 of men they are already graduating. I expect to 
 see the day when they will adopt such a policy 
 because they will be compelled to do so if they 
 hope to secure young men to teach. 
 
 One denomination has undertaken a propa- 
 ganda among high-school boys to secure can- 
 didates for the thinning lines of its ministry. 
 This is effort spent on the wrong and the 
 dwindling end of the problem. Every profession, 
 if it is to maintain itself, ought to have more 
 candidates than it can accept, so that it could 
 make a selection of the best material and thus 
 maintain a high standard. It ought to be obvious 
 that the only lure to secure such a condition is 
 to make the office worthy of the respect of 
 young men. There will be no lack of volunteers 
 for community centers and community churches 
 when such institutions are organized. Furnish 
 the right kind of work and the right kind of 
 young men will be ready to undertake it. One 
 hopeful step in this direction is the fact that 
 
 304 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 Yale has abandoned the term, "the theological 
 seminary," and substituted for it the term, "a 
 school of religion." The next logical step is to 
 call the graduate from "a school of religion," by 
 the title, "a minister of education,''^ And the log- 
 ical place for a minister of education is in the 
 public school community center. 
 
 The director of community center activities 
 Is called "the community secretary," the 
 "keeper of secrets." It lays no claim to moral 
 superiority and puts no barrier between him and 
 his fellow men. It aims to embody the new dem- 
 ocratic standard of greatness which Jesus 
 dramatically illustrated on a certain memorable 
 occasion, and explained it by saying: *The kings 
 of the Gentiles are their masters and those who 
 exercise authority over them are called bene- 
 factors. With you it is not so; but let the greatest 
 among you be as the younger, and the leader be 
 like him who serves.' The office of community 
 secretary Is a new profession, but it is destined 
 to become one of the most useful and honored 
 positions in America. As a public official a com- 
 munity secretary could not be a pastor of a 
 community church, but while occupying such a 
 position he could, in his capacity as private 
 citizen, help to organize a community church to 
 do what the community center cannot yet do, 
 and to be Its ally. The office of community sec- 
 retary Is the logical agency through which the 
 
 30s 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 greatest service can be rendered to the cause of 
 fundamental democracy, which is the cause of 
 the Christian religion. 
 
 The reason why the best way to serve the 
 churches is to serve the community center is the 
 well-established fact that conventionalized in- 
 stitutions are never reformed from the inside. 
 Political parties are not reformed by politicians, 
 nor churches by ministers, nor courts of law by 
 lawyers, nor agriculture by farmers. They are 
 reformed by pressure applied from the outside. 
 Of all institutions the church is the most con- 
 servative. The fact that the Russian church and 
 the Roman church each perform their ritual in a 
 language that was living when each church was 
 young, but which has now been unintelligible to 
 the people for many centuries, indicates its in- 
 ability to adapt itself to changing needs. It is 
 endowed with a special capacity to resist the in- 
 troduction of new ideas. A typical illustration of 
 its resistance to new ideas is narrated by 
 Thomas E. Watson, in his "History of France," 
 an incident which gave Robespierre his start in 
 life: 
 
 Franklin's lightning-rod had been adopted by a 
 rich landowner in the neighbourhood of Arras, and 
 the good folks who see wickedness in all new things 
 raised a clamor against these rods. "What! Shouldn't 
 God have the right to strike a house with lightning, 
 if he pleased?" Such was the wail of the orthodox. 
 Priests clamored, the people clamored; and the 
 
 306 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 municipal authority actually ordered Vissery, the 
 landowner, to pull down the rods. The municipality 
 was of the opinion that there was impiety in the 
 erection of conductors whose avowed purpose was to 
 make God's lightnings miss a house which they 
 otherwise would have hit. Vissery, strange to say, 
 was not cowed by this outcry. He employed Robes- 
 pierre to defend him in his right to use the rods, and 
 won his case. Even in France, human reason was 
 beginning to rebel against the absurdities of ortho- 
 doxy. 
 
 I do not urge a man to go from the church to 
 the schoolhouse because he would find the school 
 much more hospitable to new ideas than the 
 church. It suffers from the disease of pro- 
 fessionalism just as the church does, though not 
 to the same extent. Colonel Parker, writing on 
 the progress of the nineteenth century, speaks 
 from first-hand knowledge when he says: 
 
 One thing is worth mentioning, that every pro- 
 gressive step in education has been taken in the 
 teeth of the so-called "leading educators." When a 
 new idea appeared, the "rabbis" hurled at it all 
 their logic, of which the effect might have been 
 annihilating, had not the new idea been stronger 
 than their logic. In 1879 ^ leading educator of the 
 United States warned the teachers of Massachusetts, 
 in their state convention, to use " nature study very 
 sparingly." It was impossible for them at that time 
 to use the subject more "sparingly" than they were 
 using it; indeed, there was hardly a bit of it in New 
 England. The kindergarten had its battles and its 
 victories. Manual training was born in a perfect 
 
 307 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 cyclone of Illogical and violent attacks. Never to be 
 forgotten is the National Superintendents' meeting 
 at Washington, to which the best educational talent 
 in the country had been summoned to stamp out the 
 new "fad," manual training. The order has been 
 something like this: first, zealous and unremitting 
 attacks; secondly, a little thought, which admitted 
 manual training into the high schools; then some 
 more thoughtsome demonstrations of the benefit of 
 manual training — and it crept slowly down into the 
 grammar, and even into the primary school, where 
 it is most needed. It Is well to preserve this bit of 
 history, for it is now difficult to find in America any 
 educator who is not an earnest advocate of manual 
 training, or perchance, the originator of the "fad." 
 Child study has come in to reinforce the pedagogy of 
 manual training. 
 
 It is impossible to tell how all these wonderful 
 changes have come about — not, surely, through one 
 man or one group of men. Like all progress, the move- 
 ment ahead In education has been a zigzag. It is 
 curious to note that suggestions of reform came 
 generally from intelligent laymen who saw clearly 
 the defects in the existing state of things. As the 
 problem of self-government grew, it was felt that the 
 schools did not keep pace with it. The needs of the 
 masses brought the question of common education 
 close to the hearts of thoughtful patriots. 
 
 The hopeful and humorous item in Colonel 
 Parker's indictment of the schools is that the 
 enemies of new ideas become so convinced of 
 their mistake that they desire to pose as the orig- 
 inators of them. But the really significant item 
 
 308 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 in his indictment lies in the fact that reforms 
 usually come from the masses of the people. It 
 is just as wholesome for an institution as for an 
 individual to take a frequent bath in the com- 
 mon people. Neither the church nor school is 
 friendly to new ideas, but the community center 
 will furnish the balance wheel for both institu- 
 tions. 
 
 While the community center is at once both 
 a church and a school, it is a new type. It is 
 organized, not on the basis of any creed, either 
 theological or scholastic, or of any personal 
 taste or self-interest, but on the basis of our 
 common responsibility. This means a new and 
 fundamental structure. It is not directed by 
 professionals, either clerical or scholastic, but 
 by the people themselves. It is a parliamentary 
 organization. The characteristic features which 
 will safeguard it against the blight of profession- 
 alism are these: it is wedded to patriotism; it 
 is committed to open discussion; It Is an assem- 
 bly of citizen-friends. But the pole-star of Its 
 life is the fact that it Is organized on the basis 
 of our common responsibility. It Is this fact 
 which creates its spirit, controls Its purpose, 
 and coordinates its activity, and the greatest of 
 these is its spirit. 
 
 The community center, whose aim Is to 
 secure organized cooperation, proceeds on the 
 assumption that there can be no cooperation 
 
 309 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 without the spirit of cooperation. For coopera- 
 tion is first of all a state of mind. Therefore, it 
 takes the word "sympathy," which is the 
 master-word of the Four Gospels, and puts into 
 it the rich content it has in these documents. 
 Such a content is suggested by John Dewey 
 when he said: "The chief constituent of social 
 efficiency is intelligent sympathy or good will. 
 For sympathy as a desirable quality is some- 
 thing more than mere feeling. It is cultivated 
 imagination for whatever men have in common 
 and a rebellion at whatever unnecessarily di- 
 vides them." The spirit of the community- 
 center is clearly indicated in a profound state- 
 ment, which might appropriately be taken for 
 its motto, made by a negro bishop of Kansas 
 when he asked and answered the question: 
 "When is a man lost? A man is never lost 
 when he does n't know where he is, because he 
 always knows where he is, wherever he is. A 
 man is lost when he does n't know where the 
 other folks are." 
 
 The chief work of the community secretary 
 and the spirit which inspires all his activities 
 are accurately described in one of David Gray- 
 son's "Adventures in Friendship." When David 
 Grayson sat at dinner with a factory owner, Mr. 
 Vedder, and was helping him to settle a strike 
 then in operation, Mr. Vedder asked him what 
 kind of social philosopher he called himself. 
 
 310 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 "*I do not call myself by any name,' said 
 Grayson, *but if I chose a name, do you know 
 the name I would like to have applied to me?' 
 *I cannot imagine,' was the answer. 'Well, I 
 would like to be called "an introducer." "My 
 friend, Mr. Blacksmith, let me introduce you to 
 my friend, Mr. Plutocrat. I could almost swear 
 that you are brothers, so near alike you are. 
 You will find each other wonderfully interest- 
 ing, once you get over the awkwardness of the 
 introduction.'" *It is a good name,' said Mr. 
 Vedder, laughing. 'It's a wonderful name,' said 
 Grayson, 'and it's about the biggest and finest 
 work in the world — to know human beings 
 just as they are and to make them acquainted 
 with one another just as they are. Why, it's the 
 foundation of all the democracy there is or ever 
 will be. Sometimes I think that friendliness is 
 the only achievement of life worth while, and 
 unfriendliness the only tragedy.'" The com- 
 munity center is a factory for the manufacture 
 of friendship, and the chief business of a com- 
 munity secretary is to be "an introducer." 
 
 This, then, is the nature and meaning of the 
 community center and the need in American 
 life which it is designed to meet. When a man 
 discovers the true function which the free public 
 school is designed to perform in the unification 
 and development of community life; when he 
 discovers that it is the appropriate place for the 
 
 311 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 untrammeled exercise of the sacred duty of 
 manhood suffrage in a republic; when he dis- 
 covers that it furnishes the ideal platform for a 
 community forum, where citizens may go to 
 school to one another and freely discuss all 
 social and economic questions in order to fit 
 themselves for the responsibilities of citizen- 
 ship; when he discovers that the school is the 
 logical social center for all enterprises which 
 concern the common welfare, promoting organ- 
 ized cooperation and preventing needless waste 
 of time and money through burdensome over- 
 head community charges and through duplica- 
 tion of social activities — when he discovers 
 these things, he has made a profound discovery 
 of incalculable value to American ideals and 
 to human welfare. He has discovered not only 
 that the American public school is now the most 
 successful social enterprise yet undertaken by 
 any nation, but also that it is designed to become 
 the people's university; that it is the chief 
 hope of the American Experiment in democracy; 
 that it is the one typical democratic institution 
 which America has produced, non-partisan, 
 non-sectarian, and non-exclusive; he discovers, 
 in brief, that the public school community 
 center is the American church of the religion of 
 democracy and that as such it is worthy to 
 command the major loyalty of all patriotic 
 citizens. 
 
 312 
 
A COMMUNITY CENTER 
 
 The essential idea to keep in the foreground, 
 if the community center and the community 
 church are to become allies, and to fulfill their 
 designed function and answer the one clear 
 call in American life to-day, is the subject of 
 the next and last chapter of this story. 
 
IX 
 
 THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
Democracy is a spirit which, in so far as a 
 spirit can he embodied in a creed, may be ex- 
 pressed by the statement that not only gov- 
 ernmentj hut wealth, education, art, literature, 
 religion, — in a single word, life, — is, in the 
 divine order, intended for the people, and, in 
 the ultimate state of society, will be controlled 
 and administered by the people for the benefit 
 of all. Thus defined, democracy is not only a 
 political opinion it is also a religious faith. 
 
 Lyman Abbott 
 
IX 
 
 THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY' 
 
 Mark Twain's story "A Connecticut Yankee 
 in King Arthur's Court" is at once humorous 
 and philosophical. The serious purpose of the 
 book is nowhere better exhibited than in the 
 Yankee's way of dealing with a certain anchor- 
 ite. This religious zealot had condemned him- 
 self to the treadmill practice of bending and 
 unbending his body — bowing and rising — all 
 day long, day after day, and year after year. 
 That was his religion — his whole religion as 
 he conceived it — and by its practice he had 
 won for himself a reputation for transcendent 
 piety. But to the hard-headed, practical Yankee 
 this looked like a waste of energy, and he began 
 to study how to utilize it and turn it to some 
 good purpose. Accordingly he arranged a 
 device by which the old ascetic was hitched to 
 a sewing-machine, and as he continued to 
 
 ' This book deals with the kind of institution which the Relig- 
 ion of Democracy requires for its successful operation. The kind 
 of message which the Religion of Democracy requires would oc- 
 cupy a separate volume by itself. Such a book stating the nature 
 and contents of the message expected of a community church will 
 be needed in the immediate future. 
 
 317 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 practice his religion he was made to turn the 
 machine, and thus his piety was turned to some 
 account. It would have been un-Yankee-like, 
 if the inventor of this device had not labeled 
 the goods, thus produced, "The Saint Stylites 
 Brand," and so commanded a higher price for 
 them. And I assume this is what he did. 
 
 Mark Twain's humor is usually an effective 
 weapon and he never used it in behalf of a 
 nobler cause than when he turned it against 
 mediaeval asceticism. For the distinction be- 
 tween sacred and secular, which is the root 
 cause of all asceticism, ancient and modern, 
 has always been the most damaging handicap 
 of the church, is to-day the arch-enemy of the 
 religion of democracy, and constitutes the chief 
 delusion through which men have been "^ per- 
 suaded to endure religious, political, and eco- 
 nomic tyranny. Unless we can banish this dis- 
 tinction from our minds, all discussion of the 
 religion of democracy will be meaningless, and 
 no such thing as a community church or com- 
 munity center is possible. 
 
 I call it a delusion, because it has no existence 
 in fact. It is solely a fiction of the imagination, 
 born out of fear, cowardice, selfishness, or ig- 
 norance. What we usually mean by ''secular" 
 is the thing we do when God is not looking, but 
 the Christian position is that there is no thing 
 we do when God is not looking. There can be 
 
 318 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 no escape from this position unless we assume 
 that God is either asleep or dead. The Christian 
 idea is that God is not only not dead, but that 
 He is a democrat and has not withdrawn 
 himself in selfish isolation from any living 
 thing, for whose existence He is responsible 
 and in whose welfare He is obliged to be inter- 
 ested. 
 
 While the distinction between the sacred and 
 secular is not a fact but a fiction, yet it has been 
 a powerful agency for doing damage. It is curi- 
 ous that the things which have done almost as 
 much damage to human life as any other are 
 those things which have no existence in fact. 
 Of all such delusions I think this is the worst, 
 and the responsibility for it rests upon the 
 church. There is almost no important activity of 
 life on which the false distinction of secular and 
 sacred has not laid its^blighting touch; religion, 
 education, politics, economics. It began with the 
 most precious institution existing, the family, 
 which is older than the church or state and more 
 important than either. This institution, which 
 more than any other deserves to be called 
 "sacred," is called "secular," thus reversing 
 the standard of values by which God intended 
 it to be estimated. It invented the vicious doc- 
 trine of the "immaculate conception," which 
 degraded the idea of love, and contradicts the 
 obvious facts of nature, that the birth of every 
 
 319 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 child conceived in love is immaculate. This doc- 
 trine is an insult to the pure-minded mother of 
 every man, and likewise an insult to God, who 
 made the world as it is and doubtless thinks it 
 was a good piece of work. This same delusion 
 originated the custom of the celibacy of the 
 clergy, which is a very good thing for the selfish 
 prosperity of the church as an institution, but 
 a very bad thing for the Kingdom of God. It 
 put a stigma on family life and stimulated the 
 impression that it is a lower order of life, whereas 
 the family is the only organic institution we 
 have; that is, the only one not invented by man, 
 the only one of which God may be said to be 
 the author. If there could have been devised a 
 better method by which to give to men and 
 women moral and spiritual development, and to 
 introduce them to the joy and beauty of life, 
 than by giving them the honor of becoming the 
 parents of a little child, I have not discovered 
 what it is. 
 
 This same delusion caused the best men and 
 women to withdraw from family life and shut 
 themselves up in monasteries and nunneries. 
 The withdrawal of men and women from family 
 life not only caused the utmost cruelty and in- 
 gratitude, but the voluntary virginity of monks, 
 nuns, and priests was an irreparable damage to 
 the moral progress of the race. It prevented the 
 morally capable and permitted the morally in- 
 
 320 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 capable to propagate their kind. The French 
 Arnaulds, for example, all but one embraced the 
 monastic state, so that all later Arnaulds are 
 his descendants and he a scapegrace. It is an 
 efficient plan for the survival of the morally 
 unfittest. The type of goodness that makes the 
 "best" men and women childless is a misnomer 
 and ought to be called treason to society. 
 
 The damage which the false distinction of 
 "sacred" and "secular" has done to family life 
 is typical of the damage it has done and is doing 
 to other social relationships. It not only di- 
 vorced idealism from love and honor from fam- 
 ily life, but it has divorced religion from politics, 
 science from theology, education from daily 
 vocations, dignity from labor, moral values 
 from economics, art from life, and joy from 
 religion. It has, in short, given us a depart- 
 mental religion and a departmental God. It 
 largely accounts for the whole mass of theolog- 
 ical superstition which has blinded the church 
 to its true mission. It explains why the church 
 has used the cross of Christ as the symbol of a 
 dogma to guarantee safety in a future world 
 rather than as the battle-flag of the cause of 
 democracy. The same impulse which led Chris- 
 tian men and women to withdraw themselves 
 from the world and shut themselves up in mon- 
 asteries and nunneries in the Dark Ages, and 
 thereby make them darker, is the same impulse 
 
 321 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 which now leads the sectarian churches to stand 
 aloof from the activities of human life. 
 
 It is true that some church officers have pre- 
 vented the churches from applying religion to 
 questions of social justice because it would in- 
 terfere with their vested interests, and to ac- 
 complish their purpose they have utilized the 
 delusion of the "sacred" and the "secular" as 
 a convenient and effective weapon. I hate to 
 think that human nature can be so mean as 
 this, and yet my experience with such men 
 compels me to draw this conclusion. But the 
 great majority of men who desire to keep the 
 church aloof from life do so because they feel 
 keenly the sordidness of political and commer- 
 cial life and want to preserve the church from 
 contamination, so that they may use it as a 
 peaceful refuge. This explains why sensible, 
 clear-thinking business men in every other 
 respect will nevertheless accept any kind of 
 mystic doctrine or theological superstition 
 which the church gives them, however absurd 
 it may be. This is the reason why some of the 
 leading men in my church objected to the ap- 
 plication of Christian principles to social ques- 
 tions. The president of my board of trustees 
 accurately stated the position of such men when 
 he said 'he did not want his religion mixed 
 with economics.' During the period of conflict 
 with my church I tested this tendency by an 
 
 322 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 experiment. I preached a short series of sermons 
 on such questions as "heaven," "the beatific 
 vision," "our desired haven in the next world." 
 The man who did not want his religion mixed 
 with his economics was perfectly delighted with 
 them and took pains to tell me so. He was 
 entirely willing that I should lead him any- 
 where I pleased, so long as I led him as far away 
 as possible from the world in which we are now 
 living. The issue is clear-cut. The conflict 
 between a departmental religion and the relig- 
 ion of democracy is an irreconcilable conflict. 
 
 The withdrawal of many thousands of the 
 best men and women of the mediaeval period 
 from the world to monastic religious activities 
 was a confession of weakness, a frank acknowl- 
 edgment that the world was too strong for 
 them, an obvious display of cowardice, an open 
 confession of their belief that the world was 
 bound for hell, and that the best thing for them 
 to do, however selfish It might seem, was to 
 devise a plan for saving themselves. The with- 
 drawal of the church to-day from politics and 
 economics Is precisely the same sort of cow- 
 ardice. It may be that the world Is going to 
 hell, although I believe nothing of the kind, but 
 even if it is going to hell, It is our business to 
 go with It. If a ship with precious souls on board 
 is sinking, it Is the business of the officers to 
 stay by to the end and if need be go down with 
 
 323 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 the ship. If the world is evil, that is no suffi- 
 cient reason for leaving it, but quite the con- 
 trary, it is the reason why we should stay with 
 it. Ascetic Christianity called the world evil and 
 left it. The religion of democracy even more 
 keenly perceives that the world is evil, but it 
 attempts to change it. It is the difference be- 
 tween cowardice and courage. 
 
 I am convinced that the religious issue of the 
 immediate future will not be between conserva- 
 tive and liberal opinion, but between conserva- 
 tive and progressive action. Many theological 
 problems of the past are unsettled. They will 
 remain so, because they have been outgrown. 
 Men are no longer sufficiently interested in 
 them to discuss them. They are unimportant, 
 even if true. The issue is now drawn between 
 the men on one side, who regard the Christian 
 religion as a guarantee of safety in a future 
 world and a polite ornament in this one, and 
 the men on the other side, who honestly desire 
 to apply the principles of Jesus and establish 
 democracy in this world. The real conflict is 
 between the Bunyan conception of Christian, 
 who flees from the wicked city to save himself, 
 and the New Testament conception of Chris- 
 tian, who remains in the city to help save others. 
 It is a repetition of the ancient and oft-repeated 
 conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus. A 
 democrat who takes Jesus for his model will 
 
 324 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 make no attempt to organize a religious society 
 apart from the secular order. His aim is to 
 organize the secular order on a religious basis. 
 This is the issue with which the religion of 
 democracy challenges us. If any one wishes to 
 see this issue embodied in living form, let him 
 read Ward's "Life and Letters of Cardinal 
 Newman" and Trevelyan's "Life of John 
 Bright," which have recently appeared. These 
 two men lived in the same century, in the same 
 country, and for a portion of the time were 
 identified with the same city. They were both 
 Christians, both men of genius, both national 
 leaders, and yet the circle of their interests and 
 activities never intersected. While Bright, with 
 his brilliant and consecrated eloquence, was 
 leading the agitation for the repeal of the Corn 
 Laws, Newman was writing in his journal, "The 
 simple question is, can I be saved in the Eng- 
 lish Church? Am I in safety were I to die to- 
 night?" These men lived in two different 
 worlds. In Bright's biography no single refer- 
 ence is made to Newman; and in Newman's 
 biography there is no reference to Bright, al- 
 though he was the most eloquent champion of 
 social justice in the century. Newman's motto 
 was, "Thy will be done." Bright's was, "Trust 
 God and fear not." One was devoted to the 
 development of his own character; the other 
 was devoted to the common welfare. These men 
 
 32s 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 ought to have been enlisted as comrades in a 
 common cause, and it is the false distinction of 
 the "sacred" and the "secular" that dug the 
 gulf between the two worlds in which they 
 lived. If I were asked which of these two men 
 were the more Christian, and if the New Tes- 
 tament were taken as the standard of judgment, 
 I would unhesitatingly say, John Bright. With 
 his beautiful young wife lying dead in his home, 
 himself stricken with grief, a grief out of which 
 was born the vision of thousands of homes all 
 over England under the shadow of similar sor- 
 rows because of insufficient food, and then, 
 with the sacred memory of his wife in his heart, 
 consecrating himself to the common welfare 
 and entering upon his public career to do heroic 
 service for the poor and oppressed, is it not 
 obvious that John Bright did what Jesus would 
 have done under like circumstances ? 
 
 But did not Bright enter the sphere of 
 politics.^ Certainly. Why not? The fact that it is 
 difficult for us to associate politics with the 
 highest religious service only demonstrates the 
 necessity of doing the thing I am now insisting 
 upon; that is, to banish from our minds the 
 distinction between the "sacred" and the 
 "secular." Unless we can do so once and for all, 
 there is no hope of understanding the A B C of 
 the religion of democracy. An open mind does 
 not mean one which extends hospitality only to 
 
 326 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 new ideas, but to true ideas. It means an un- 
 corrupted mind, one that sees life as it is, a mind 
 freed from delusions. No one can see life as it is, 
 no one can be a democrat, until he frees his mind 
 of the delusion of the "sacred" and the "sec- 
 ular." This is the hardest of all delusions to 
 banish, but the most essential to free ourselves 
 of, if we hope to acquire the spirit of democracy. 
 The supreme aim of the religion of democracy 
 is the achievement of freedom. This is likewise 
 the goal of all endeavor in human history, and 
 the one subject on which the entire' Bible is 
 written. In the process of achieving freedom, 
 the place to begin is with the mind. For freedom 
 is first of all a state of mind. No one can give it 
 to another. Moses did not free a race of slaves in 
 Egypt. He gave them a chance to free them- 
 selves, and most of them failed to take it. Free- 
 dom is not a dower, but an achievement. If, 
 then, we acquire free minds, the first thing we 
 shall discover is that this world is one piece of 
 goods; that it is all sacred; that it belongs to 
 God; that all of life's activities are concerned 
 with human welfare; that politics, economics, 
 labor are moral and religious questions; that 
 they are worthy spheres for the religious man 
 to enter; that if an institution calling itself a 
 church does not enter them, it is not a true 
 church, but disloyal to the Kingdom of God, 
 which covers the whole of life and not a part of 
 
 327 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 it. When a man has become a free man — that 
 is, when he has got so far as to free his mind of 
 the ancient delusion of "sacred" and "secular" 
 — he will see that politics and economics ought 
 to be labeled "sacred," if they are labeled any- 
 thing at all, and he will see that it is his first 
 duty as a democrat to liberate religion, politics, 
 and economics from the stigma which this an- 
 cient delusion has put upon them, just as we 
 have already freed the family from the stigma 
 which the church put upon it. Not only so, but 
 he will discover that he must actively engage in 
 politics, if he hopes to retain his freedom or help 
 other men to acquire it. 
 
 Socrates, who discovered the principle of 
 human liberty, began with a study of the mind 
 and took for his motto, "Know thyself." He 
 had the courage to carry out thought to its 
 implications. When men in general do the same, 
 then thought will have an authority binding 
 upon all alike and it will replace the authority 
 of the old external gods. This principle of free- 
 dom was hostile to the ancient state, and there- 
 fore Socrates was put to death as an atheist, 
 although he was the most sincerely religious 
 man in Athens. The experience of Socrates, 
 which was paralleled by that of Jesus and a 
 multitude more, is sufficient to show that if 
 there is to exist freedom of thought and espe- 
 cially freedom in its expression, there must exist 
 
 328 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 also a degree of political liberty. Either to secure 
 or retain it, therefore, all friends of freedom must 
 engage actively in the field of politics. Why 
 should a thing so obvious need discussion.^ Why 
 should it shock so many men to-day to name 
 politics and religion as allies.'* Why should 
 one denomination of Christians go so far as 
 to make it an article of its creed that their 
 members shall not even vote in a state election f 
 It is because the delusion about "sacred" and 
 "secular" has corrupted the word "politics," 
 and, what is worse, the thing for which it stands. 
 So that large numbers of people to-day have the 
 same attitude of selfish aloofness to it that a 
 certain woman in Philadelphia expressed in a 
 letter written on July 5, 1776, the day after the 
 Declaration of Independence was adopted. She 
 wrote, "Yesterday at the State House they 
 passed what is called a Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, but I was not there, for I believe no 
 respectable people were present." Indeed! Jef- 
 ferson, Franklin, and Madison not respectable! 
 It would be highly interesting to know what she 
 meant by "respectable," if it could not be ap- 
 plied to the men who with the religious passion 
 of crusaders were engaged in the business of 
 politics for the sake of achieving human liberty. 
 The word "politics" is a Dr.-Jekyll-and-Mr.- 
 Hyde word. Its true meaning has been lost and 
 must be recovered. Its original meaning is 
 
 329 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 public-mindedness, public business. It is the 
 art of so directing society as to produce the 
 greatest good for mankind. We have traveled a 
 long distance from this conception of Plato and 
 Aristotle, who agreed in thinking that it is the 
 highest art man can aspire to possess. Politics 
 has come to be a synonym for partisanship, a 
 scramble for offices, a selfish use of public re- 
 sources. We can no longer use the word "poli- 
 tics" without attaching to it a qualifying ad- 
 jective to indicate what we mean. We have an 
 adjective which describes its present meaning, 
 namely, "partisan," which means prejudice, 
 selfishness, antagonism, a closed mind. But if 
 we search for an adjective the opposite of 
 "partisan," we shall search in vain. No such 
 word has yet been coined. We have only got so 
 far as to use the negative expression "non- 
 partisan politics." It is like the stage before the 
 term "automobile" was invented, when all we 
 could say was the "horseless carriage." To ex- 
 press the contrast between the false and true 
 idea of politics, the best we can do is to use such 
 phrases as "private-minded politics" and "pub- 
 lic-minded politics," or "partisan politics" and 
 "community politics." 
 
 But rather than waste time in trying to coin a 
 suitable adjective, which ought to be unneces- 
 sary, it is better to redeem the word "politics," 
 and make it carry its own true meaning. Per- 
 
 330 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 haps the use of the adjective "social" before it 
 will help to redeem it, but the only way in which 
 it can be made a term of honor is by redeeming 
 the thing for which it stands. This can be done 
 only by the enlistment of a larger number of 
 honorable men in the public service. So shall we 
 make politics mean what it meant to the 
 prophet-statesmen of the Hebrew Republic, who 
 maintained that its root principle is righteous- 
 ness. So shall we make it mean what it meant to 
 our Puritan forefathers, who put their concep- 
 tion of it in the freeman's oath of 1634: "I do 
 solemnly bind myself that I will caste my vote 
 as I shall judge In mine own conscience may 
 best conduce to the public weal, so help me 
 God." So shall we make it mean what it meant 
 to Pericles who said to the young men of Athens : 
 "We regard a man who takes no interest in 
 public affairs, not as a harmless, but as a useless 
 character." From the standpoint of the religion 
 of democracy, politics and religion are insep- 
 arable. The state needs to be wedded to re- 
 ligion to save its soul, and religion needs to be 
 wedded to the state to save its sanity. Politics 
 is not a trade, but a duty. A fundamental obli- 
 gation rests on every man to make politics one 
 of his major interests, not only that he may 
 serve the common welfare, but because spiritual 
 freedom rests on political freedom. 
 As soon as he acquires a slight experience in 
 
 331 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 politics, he will discover that very little political 
 freedom is possible, unless there is also economic 
 freedom. Therefore economics must be made his 
 next major interest. Whenever one group of men 
 acquires great wealth and becomes economically 
 strong, and another group becomes economically 
 weak, the strong group will always control the 
 machinery of government and dictate laws to 
 protect their own interests. Oliver Cromwell 
 once wrote to parliament, *If there be any one 
 that makes many poor to make a few rich, that 
 suits not a commonwealth.' It not only does not 
 suit a commonwealth, but it makes a common- 
 wealth in any true sense impossible. In 1890, one 
 per^cent. of the families of the country owned 
 one^half of the aggregate wealth of the country 
 — more than all the rest of the nation put to- 
 gether! It is idle to suppose that this group of 
 one per cent, will be content with one per cent, 
 of the political power. As a matter of fact, they 
 have not been. They have bought and sold 
 legislation as they would cotton cloth. 
 * When an effort was made to have enacted 
 in Albany the Mercantile Inspection Law, a 
 humane law to provide seats and sanitary 
 accommodations for female clerks in New York 
 department stores, the bill was defeated for 
 several years by a lobby of merchants. During 
 that period many articles against it appeared 
 in a certain New York newspaper, and orders 
 
 332 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 were sent down from the counting-room of 
 this same newspaper to permit no article in 
 its favor to appear, and such articles were 
 therefore rejected. Thomas Jefferson well said 
 that 'when newspapers are controlled by money, 
 then they are a most dangerous factor in a 
 Republic' When this bill was finally passed in 
 spite of opposition, its same enemies so thwarted 
 its administration that it speedily became 
 a dead letter. Whenever selfish special inter- 
 ests dominate the making of laws, thwart 
 their administration, and distort intelligent 
 public opinion, the political democracy ceases 
 to exist. 
 
 The illustration of this fact used by Rauschen- 
 busch is the interference of President Roosevelt 
 in the great coal strike a few years ago, which 
 was hailed as a demonstration that the people 
 are still supreme, but which he thinks rather 
 demonstrated that the supremacy of the people 
 is almost gone. The country was on the verge 
 of a vast public calamity. A sudden cold snap 
 would have sent Death through our Eastern 
 cities, not with his old-fashioned scythe, but 
 with a modern reaper. The President merely 
 undertook to advise and persuade, and was met 
 with an almost insolent rejoinder. Jacob A. 
 Riis said that the President, when he concluded 
 to interfere, set his face grimly, and said: 'Yes, 
 I will do it. I suppose that ends me; but it is 
 
 333 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 right and I will do it.' The Governor of Massa- 
 chusetts afterward sent him 'the thanks of 
 every man, woman, and child in the country.' 
 The President replied; *Yes, we have put it 
 through. But heavens and earth! It has been a 
 struggle.' What is this sinister power whose 
 selfish interests can take precedence of the 
 safety of the people, so that a common-sense 
 action by the first officer of the nation is likely 
 to bring upon him political ruin? Is there an 
 invisible government back of the government 
 at Washington, which can prevent it from doing 
 public service.^ It is clear that economic in- 
 equalities naturally produce political inequali- 
 ties. There can be no real political democracy 
 so long as patriotic sentiments are replaced by 
 selfish economic interests. A political democracy 
 can exist only where there is either approximate 
 economic equality or else where economic in- 
 equality is regulated by a stronger, nobler spirit 
 than self-interest. That stronger, nobler spirit 
 is industrial democracy. To achieve industrial 
 democracy is the next pressing problem and 
 the inspiring opportunity which the religion of 
 democracy faces. 
 
 It was a fundamental definition which Walt 
 Whitman expressed when he said; "I speak the 
 pass-word primeval. I give the sign of democ- 
 racy. By God! I will accept nothing which all 
 cannot have their counterpart of on the same 
 
 334 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 terms," Is this the language of religion or the 
 language of economics? It is not possible to 
 say that it is either one or the other. It is both, 
 and they are one and the same thing. In the 
 center of Copenhagen's chief thoroughfare 
 stands a plain obelisk called "Friheds Stotte," 
 the liberty monument. It was erected to com- 
 memorate the freeing of the serfs in 1788. On 
 one side of the monument is the inscription: 
 "The King saw that Civic Freedom fixed in 
 righteous law gives Love of Country, Courage 
 for its Defence, Desire for Knowledge, Longing 
 for Industry, Hope of Prosperity." On the other 
 side of the monument is the inscription: "The 
 King bade that Serfdom should cease, that to 
 the Land Laws should be given Order and 
 Might; that the free peasant may become brave 
 and enlightened, industrious and good, an 
 honorable citizen in happiness." So far as these 
 two inscriptions can be classified, we may say 
 that one is the expression of religion, the other 
 the expression of politics and economics. It 
 would be truer to say that each of the inscrip- 
 tions is the expression of all three elements. 
 Democracy is a rope, a life-line, a binding cord, 
 woven of three strands, religion, politics, and 
 economics. They are interwoven and must not 
 be separated, if we ever expect to succeed in 
 binding human society together on the basis of 
 friendship. It is precisely because these strands 
 
 335 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 have been torn apart by the delusion of 
 "sacred" and ''secular," that a society on the 
 basis of friendship, that is, a democracy, has 
 not yet been created. 
 
 Mazzini said that "the man who discovers 
 the religion of democracy will save the world.'' 
 What does Mazzini mean by "discover"? 
 Obviously he does not use it in the sense of 
 invent or originate. For he clearly understood 
 that the religion of democracy was born nine- 
 teen centuries ago. Jesus was the first true 
 democrat, as Dekker said He was the first true 
 gentleman. The world was almost eighteen 
 hundred years in arriving at the idea of democ- 
 racy embodied in that notable document of 
 human wisdom, the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence, but a true picture of democracy was long 
 ago exhibited to the world when the most in- 
 fluential democrat of history was born in a 
 cave, cradled in a manger, and visited by 
 workingmen. 
 
 Jesus drew in the sentiments of democracy 
 with his mother's milk. We have preserved for 
 us one of the songs with which his mother 
 nourished his mind as a child: 
 
 "My soul doth magnify the Lord; 
 My spirit has rejoiced in God, my Saviour; 
 He hath put down princes from their throne. 
 And hath exalted them of low degree. 
 The hungry he hath filled with good things; 
 And the rich he hath sent empty away." 
 
 33^ 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 This democratic song anticipates the day when 
 the proud shall be put down and the lowly shall 
 be exalted, and all unjust sufferers shall come to 
 their own. It is the expression of the hope for a 
 reversal of human values and the revival of a 
 new standard of greatness. King Robert of 
 Sicily recognized the revolutionary ring in 
 Mary's song, and thought it well that the 
 "Magnificat" should be sung only in Latin, so 
 that its real meaning might be kept concealed 
 from the people. 
 
 With his mind nourished by such sentiments, 
 it is easy to understand why Jesus as a man 
 expelled the traders from the Temple in Jeru- 
 salem. His act was a protest against graft and 
 financial oppression. With his heart touched, as 
 any man of fine feeling would be touched by the 
 anxious economies of the poor, He struck a 
 blow at the cruel avarice of the Pharisees who 
 made millions by cornering the market on the 
 Temple supplies and laid heavy burdens on 
 shoulders least able to bear them. 
 
 Jesus' democracy is accurately stated in the 
 announcement of his programme in his inaugu- 
 ral address: 
 
 *The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
 Because He has anointed me to proclaim good 
 
 news to the poor; 
 He has sent me to announce release to the prison- 
 ers of war 
 
 337 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 And recovery of sight to the blind : 
 
 To send away free those whom tyranny has 
 
 crushed, 
 To proclaim the year of acceptance with the Lord.' 
 
 Who are these captives and poor and blind and 
 bruised ? It is true that a man is a captive who is 
 a slave to his own sin. But this cannot possibly 
 exhaust the meaning or limit the application of 
 Jesus' programme. For there are countless cap- 
 tive and bruised men whose bruises and slavery 
 are not due to their own wrongdoing. How and 
 where is Jesus' democracy to be applied to-day? 
 It seems clear that if any man makes an honest 
 attempt to apply it he must include, among the 
 bruised and captive, the coal miners who live 
 away from the light of the sun, the men who 
 work in iron mills, the women and children in 
 cotton and woolen mills, the toilers everywhere 
 whose bodies and souls alike are bruised and 
 whose lives are prematurely shortened by their 
 toil. If the religion of Jesus is to be applied at 
 all, it must touch the daily problem of our work- 
 a-day world. Salt has very little value if kept in 
 barrels; it must be applied to the thing that 
 needs it most. 
 
 The word "discover" literally means to un- 
 cover. If Mazzini meant that the religion of 
 democracy as stated by Jesus needs to be un- 
 covered, needs to have removed from it the 
 layers of misinterpretation which have hidden 
 
 338 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 it from the people, I heartily agree with him. 
 For I believe the memorabilia of Jesus are the 
 least-known documents now in print. But I 
 think He meant something more than this. The 
 significant word in his statement is not only the 
 word "discover," but also the word "religion.'* 
 He meant that what is needed to save the world 
 is to charge democracy with religious insight 
 and religious passion; that is, to make democ- 
 racy to be a religion, so that it may have suf- 
 ficient dynamic to be put into operation. This 
 would make religion to be not an appendix to 
 life, as it is now generally regarded, but an 
 organic part of life, or, more accurately still, 
 the whole of life. It would at once remove the 
 chief obstacle to the progress of democracy, the 
 delusive distinction between "secular" and 
 "sacred." 
 
 There is no more widespread or more stupid 
 blunder than to suppose that because democ- 
 racy concerns itself so deeply with economics 
 and politics, it therefore neglects the higher 
 spiritual interests of man. Quite the contrary 
 is the fact. It is a significant fact that Newman, 
 who was a religious egotist, depended for guid- 
 ance in spiritual matters upon external auto- 
 cratic authority, while Bright, who lost himself 
 in devotion to the social and economic welfare 
 of the people, depended for guidance upon the 
 Inner Light. He was a mystic in the true sense. 
 
 339 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 Bright is typical of all democrats. A democrat is 
 both a mystic and a secularist, as were Moses 
 and Mazzini. Their mysticism was not an 
 artificial pious exercise, but the ability to recog- 
 nize life's real spiritual values. The religion of 
 democracy is not a separate, airtight compart- 
 ment, but a divine spirit that pervades all of 
 life's activities. This is a vital distinction. The 
 real secularist is not the man who is willing to 
 suffer to secure higher wages, that there may be 
 some margin for the education of his children; 
 the real secularist is the man who thinks that 
 the question of wages involves only the law of 
 supply and demand. It is stupid blindness to 
 facts to suppose that the demand made by 
 industrial workers is only a demand for higher 
 wages or shorter hours. It is a demand for con- 
 ditions in which human life can be made worth 
 living. The issue at stake is moral. 
 
 The basic principle, then, of the religion of 
 democracy is this: that democracy is a religion; 
 that religion, politics, and economics are one 
 piece of goods; that every big question between 
 men is at once both a religious and an economic 
 question; that it is no more possible to divorce 
 politics and morals and expect them to be what 
 they ought to be than it is to separate oxygen 
 and hydrogen and still have water; that, as 
 Henry George expresses it, "the true law of 
 social life is the law of love, the law of liberty, 
 
 340 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 the law of each for all and all for each; that the 
 golden rule of morals Is also the golden rule of 
 the science of wealth; that the highest expres- 
 sions of religious truth include the widest 
 generalizations of political economy." Whoever 
 sees this sees the heart of the religion of democ- 
 racy, as Mazzini saw it and gave his life in its 
 behalf. 
 
 But democracy is not only a religion, an ideal, 
 a spirit, a cry for justice, a passion for brother- 
 hood. It is also a method of procedure. It is not 
 only a feeling for men, but a method of govern- 
 ment. I have dwelt at length on the goal of the 
 religion of democracy because, as Henderson 
 truly says, "If one does not know where one 
 wants to go, there is little chance of success in 
 devising a process for getting there." It is 
 equally true that, after one decides where he 
 wants to go, there is little chance of success in 
 getting there unless he can discover or devise 
 a process adapted to his purpose. If the religion 
 of democracy is to be put into effective opera- 
 tion, the two indispensable requirements are 
 education and organization. It was the practical 
 statesmanship of Havelock Ellis which led him 
 to say, "If democracy means a state in which 
 every man shall be a freeman, neither in eco- 
 nomic, nor intellectual, nor moral subjection, 
 two processes are at least necessary to render 
 democracy possible — on the one hand, a large 
 
 341 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 and many-sided education; on the other, the 
 reasonable organization of life." There is a fun- 
 damental sense in which it may with truth be 
 said that the religion of democracy is educa- 
 tion. The goal of democracy is the achievement 
 of freedom from every sort of tyranny, outward 
 and inward. The pathway to this achievement 
 is knowledge. Knowledge is acquired through 
 education. Education in its true sense means 
 not only the ability to organize knowledge, 
 making it available for use, but also to vitalize 
 knowledge with a moral motive power so that 
 it becomes felt knowledge, the wisdom and 
 courage to apply it to human uses. Centuries 
 ago the greatest of statesmen and greatest of 
 democrats said, *Ye shall know the truth and 
 the truth will make you free.' In the judgment 
 of Jesus the guarantee of freedom is knowledge. 
 The same conviction was repeatedly expressed 
 and emphasized by the founders of the Ameri- 
 can Republic: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, 
 Madison, and Franklin. Lowell expressed their 
 sentiments when he said, "The opening of the 
 first grammar school was the opening of the 
 first trench against monopoly in church and 
 state; the first row of trammels and pothooks, 
 which the little Shearjashubs and Elkanahs 
 blotted and blubbered across their copy-books, 
 was the preamble to the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence." 
 
 342 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 It goes without saying that public opinion, 
 when educated, in order to be effective, must 
 be organized. One man can chase a thousand, 
 but two men can chase not twice one thousand, 
 as arithmetic figures it, but ten thousand men, 
 as experience demonstrates it. In the slow evo- 
 lution of the story of government, five forms 
 have in turn held sway. Imperialism, the rule 
 of the master over the slave; feudalism, the rule 
 of the lord over the vassal; paternalism, the 
 rule of the king by divine ( ?) right over his sub- 
 jects; aristocracy, the rule of the privileged 
 few over the unprivileged many; democracy, 
 the rule of brother citizens over themselves. 
 The fact of which we are now becoming con- 
 scious is that there can be no such thing as the 
 rule of brother men over themselves without 
 education and organization^ We have discov- 
 ered that our greatest need from a moral, eco- 
 nomic, and political standpoint is organized 
 community cooperation; that such coopera- 
 tion can be achieved only through popular 
 education; and that education is a life-process 
 of self-help to be pursued, not apart from, but 
 through, daily vocations; not an appendix of 
 life, but an organic part of it. 
 
 The two outstanding needs of democracy, 
 then, are education and organization. How shall 
 these needs be met.^ Among the many challeng- 
 ing and revolutionary facts which this criminal 
 
 343 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 World War has revealed in lurid light, the two 
 which have prime importance are, first, the 
 world's tragic need of the religion of democracy; 
 second, the church's tragic failure to meet this 
 need. In view of these facts the fundamental 
 necessity in every country in the world is to 
 discover or invent an instrument through which 
 it can make the religion of democracy operate, 
 since the church has demonstrated its ineffi- 
 ciency and revealed its disloyalty to its avowed 
 purpose. I mourn its failure. I am willing to 
 do all I can to help it become an ally of democ- 
 racy. I would wish to see the church perform 
 again its natural and virile functions such as 
 it performed during the rise of the Dutch Re- 
 public and the planting of the New England 
 colonies, when it made its bond of union the 
 bond of fellow citizenship, and out of secular 
 society created a new political order. But the 
 church is now so dominated by money, dogma, 
 and sectarianism that I have no hope that it 
 will perceive its opportunity or that it has the 
 courage to meet it if it does see it. While taking 
 the most sympathetic attitude to any effort 
 the church may make, where shall we find an 
 instrument which we can be sure is suited to 
 our purpose.^ Fortunately, through the guiding 
 Providence of God in human history, the United 
 States has ready to its hand an instrument 
 perfectly designed to meet democracy's needs. 
 
 344 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 It is the free American common school, the 
 most democratic institution ever organized in 
 any age or nation. It was not imported from 
 Europe, but created by America for the express 
 purpose of bringing to a successful issue her 
 great experiment in democracy. The two fun- 
 damental needs, education and organizatioTiy 
 will be met when the free public school takes 
 the next logical step in the development of its 
 own purpose and becomes a people^ s university 
 and a community capitoL 
 
 For this reason I have left the service of a 
 sectarian church and expect to devote my life 
 to the task of helping the public school to 
 become the church of the religion of democracy, 
 to make the schoolhouse the power-house, the 
 nerve center of a.:genuine community, bound 
 together by an organic common purpose, to 
 develop every school district into what Profes- 
 sor Royce calls "a beloved community," and 
 which he rightly maintains is the supreme task 
 of Christianity, and the chief need of human 
 life. I believe that my action in going from the 
 church to the schoolhouse is typical of the 
 present evolutionary movement in the progress 
 of the Kingdom of God. I believe it is much 
 wiser to work for the religion of democracy 
 through the community center than to attempt 
 to convert the church to Christianity, just as 
 the Greeks, when they became better than their 
 
 34S ■ - 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 gods, preferred to worship Jesus rather than 
 undertake to convert Zeus. I have, therefore, 
 accepted a position in the United States Bureau 
 of Education, as special agent in community 
 organization, to assist in the development of 
 the public schools of America into community 
 Capitols. It is a particular satisfaction to be a 
 pioneer in such a project. It has not only solved 
 my personal problem, but it has given me a 
 pulpit such as I had never expected to have. 
 The opportunity it affords to serve the cause 
 of democracy is limited only by my strength 
 and ability. My parish is the United States. My 
 cause is democracy. My opportunity for service 
 is boundless. 
 
 The call to enter a service of this high order 
 is a call not to the leaders alone, but to all. 
 Because it ought to be carefully noted that the 
 religion of democracy is a laymen's religion, 
 just as the Christian religion was originally 
 designed to be, and in fact continued to be 
 until It was captured by alien forces. The 
 twelve assistants whom Jesus chose were all 
 laymen, not a priest among them, and most of 
 them workingmen. The descriptive title He 
 gave them was "apostle," literally meaning 
 "one that is sent." It occurs over fifty times in 
 the New Testament. The Greek word was taken 
 bodily into the English language and with one 
 exception has never been translated. The Eng- 
 
 346 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 lish word for it is "missionary." If this title 
 were to be translated, it would reveal at once 
 the democratic nature of the Christian relig- 
 ion. We should read, for example, "Jesus chose 
 twelve whom He named missionaries." The true 
 apostolic succession, therefore, is a succession, 
 not of ecclesiastical dignitaries, but of laymen 
 who have a missionary passion for democracy. 
 This is one of the most constructive and dis- 
 tinctive features in the religion of democracy. 
 Professor Shaler, of Harvard, might well remark 
 that "if Aristotle were to wake up in the twen- 
 tieth century, what he would be most amazed 
 at would not be our free government — the 
 germs of that were in his own; nor our discov- 
 eries in science — these had been foreshadowed 
 by the philosophers of his own day; nor our 
 wonderful inventions — these have depended 
 on the development of a few general principles. 
 What would astound him most would be a 
 missionary; the idea of devotion and self- 
 sacrifice for the people of another nation would 
 be entirely new to the ancients, whose sym- 
 pathy stopped with their own country." A mis- 
 sionary of the religion of democracy extends his 
 sympathy not only to other nations than his 
 own, but, what is a far more difficult thing, 
 he extends it to other sects and classes and 
 races in his own nation. The success of democ- 
 racy depends upon every friend of it becoming 
 
 347 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 in his own community a missionary in its 
 behalf. 
 
 To be a missionary of democracy is very dif- 
 ficult business, indeed. The ideal of democracy 
 is the hardest of all ideals to operate, just be- 
 cause it is the highest of all ideals. If it were not 
 difficult, it would not be interesting or worth 
 while. But a man, especially if he has a wife and 
 babies dependent on him, ought to understand 
 the difficulty of the task, and the extraordinary 
 courage it requires to face it, and also the rare 
 ecstasy of joy in store for him, if he does. With 
 keen insight and a fine sense of humor Charles 
 Ferguson remarks, "SzV transit gloria mundi; 
 seeing that the world is so badly governed, what 
 is left for a man of spirit but to believe in God 
 and to be honest.^" To believe in God and to be 
 honest are radical and dangerous things to do, 
 but they are high adventures of the spirit, which 
 appeal to all true men. 
 
 To promote the religion of democracy is 
 dangerous business. It is certain to invite the 
 determined hostility of vested interests. There is 
 an irreconcilable conflict between it and them. 
 The man who enlists in the cause must be willing 
 to pay the price. To be half-hearted is futile; 
 to be whole-hearted is dangerous. 
 
 "The proverb old still runs its course; 
 Bend willingly to greater force! 
 If you are bold, and face the strife, 
 Stake house and home and then — your life!" 
 
 348 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 There are two ways of being independent of fear; 
 one is by being independently rich, the other by 
 being independently poor. If a man is willing to 
 be independently poor, then he is partly pre- 
 pared to be a soldier of the common good. He is 
 altogether prepared, if, in addition, he is willing 
 to trust in God. Trust in God is another name for 
 courage. Trust in God is necessary not only to 
 supply him with courage, but to solace his- lone- 
 liness, for almost all the **best" people will be 
 against him and will take pains to let him know 
 it. Gladstone, whose long and honorable public 
 service makes his testimony highly significant, 
 said: 
 
 In almost every one, if not in every one, of the 
 greatest political controversies of the last fifty years, 
 whether they affected the franchise, whether they 
 afi"ected commerce, whether they affected religion, 
 whether they affected the bad and abominable 
 institution of slavery, or whatever subject they 
 touched, these leisure classes, these educated classes, 
 these titled classes, have been in the wrong. 
 
 To oppose these powerful and intrenched 
 classes in behalf of the poor, the oppressed, the 
 enslaved, the broken-hearted, usually means for 
 the man who undertakes it, what it meant for 
 Jesus: hardship, loneliness, persecution, and the 
 loss of a position, as I have discovered in my own 
 experience. I have also discovered that it means 
 an ecstasy of joy not otherwise obtainable. 
 
 349 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 A democrat is on good terms with God. In 
 periods of apparent failure for the cause in be- 
 half of which he labors, he says, as Lowell did 
 in a similar experience: "I have great comfort 
 in God. I think he is considerably amused 
 sometimes, but on the whole loves us and would 
 not let us get at the match-box, if he did not 
 know that the frame of the universe was fire- 
 proof." He knows that the principles on which 
 the world is built are fireproof; that ultimately 
 they are irresistible; that the stars in their 
 courses are fighting in behalf of democracy. 
 However tragic has been the story of liberty, 
 he knows the story of the fight has been a di- 
 vine comedy. It has had a good ending. If some- 
 times the way of freedom seemed like a tunnel, 
 we perceive that it has been for the most part a 
 tunnel with an up grade. The pioneers who to- 
 day attempt to add a new chapter to this in- 
 spiring story are gladdened by the consciousness 
 that there never has been a period in human 
 history nor a country in the world in which the 
 prospects for the triumph of freedom were 
 brighter than they are to-day in America, a 
 prospect intensely brightened by the glaring 
 need for democracy revealed by the World War 
 and which is the conspicuous silver lining to the 
 war's black clouds. The prospect of meeting this 
 world-need is bright in America, because the 
 national religion of the United States is the re- 
 
 3 SO 
 
THE RELIGION OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 ligion of democracy, its temple is the free 
 public school, its emblem is the flag. 
 
 The spirit of America is the dominant desire 
 to be democratic; to be public-minded; to show 
 mental hospitality to new ideas; to differ in 
 opinion without differing in feeling; to accen- 
 tuate the resemblances, not the differences, 
 among men; to play fair in politics and in- 
 dustry; to exhibit true sportsmanship; to be 
 victor without arrogance, a loser without re- 
 sentment; to demand no special privileges; to 
 accept nothing which all other men may not 
 have on the same terms; to honor honest work; 
 to recognize no superiority except that of in- 
 telligence and character; to give to all a fair 
 chance in the race of life, a chance to achieve 
 freedom. It is the spirit of the hive, the spirit of 
 cooperation, the community spirit. It is this 
 spirit of which we are attempting to make the 
 flag an emblem. To express our hope we have 
 christened it "Old Glory," to suggest the cause 
 which is as old as the glory of God, the religion 
 of democracy. The unfinished business of Amer- 
 ica is to put into operation the religion of de- 
 mocracy, as it is expressed in her Declaration of 
 Independence and in the Sermon on the Mount. 
 For those who ardently desire the success of her 
 experiment, it is good news of great joy that she 
 IS now in the process of discovering the school- 
 house as the most efficient instrument through 
 
A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 which to operate the religion of democracy and 
 make it a constructive force for freedom. When 
 the schoolhouse becomes the people's university 
 and the community capitol, America's dream 
 will be nearer fulfillment than it has ever been 
 before in any age or nation. That the cause of 
 the religion of democracy will ultimately 
 triumph is not open to doubt in the mind of any 
 man familiar with the story of liberty written in 
 human history by the hand of God. The per- 
 sonal problem for every American is what part 
 he will have in the triumph. The enterprise is 
 such that it compels every man to take sides, to 
 make his life either a challenge or a truce. 
 
 **Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou 
 shalt stand, 
 Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust 
 
 against our land? 
 Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet *t is Truth alone is 
 
 strong. 
 And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her 
 
 throng 
 .Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all 
 
 wrong." 
 
 THE END 
 
APPENDICES 
 k. WHAT IS A COMMUNITY CHURCH? 
 
 B. HOW TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY 
 CHURCHES 
 
 a HOW TO ORGANIZE A COMMUNITY 
 CHURCH 
 
 I. Certificate of Incorporation 
 
 II. Constitution 
 
 III. By-Laws 
 
^^ There is a true church wherever 
 One hand meets another helpfully. ^^ 
 
 John Ruskin 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 WHAT IS A COMMUNITY CHURCH? 
 
 From the author's point of view the seven cardinal 
 virtues or distinguishing characteristics of a com- 
 munity church are as follows: 
 
 I. Freedom from the Domination of Dogma, 
 
 SUBSTITUTING INTELLIGENCE FOR IT. 
 
 The community church, believing that an open 
 mind is the basic condition of progress, abolishes 
 all creeds. It believes a creed is morally wrong, be- 
 cause it puts a padlock on the intellect and prevents 
 spiritual growth. It, therefore, frees itself from the 
 limitation of creeds that it may acquire larger and 
 firmer convictions. In the place of a creed it will sub- 
 stitute a declaration of principles, which states not 
 its position but its purpose. It realizes the fact that 
 men and women can agree on their goal, but never 
 on their starting-point or on any one road leading 
 to the goal. It, therefore, unites them on a working 
 declaration of principles and recognizes the right of 
 the individual to form his own convictions. 
 
 II. Freedom from the Domination of Money, 
 
 SUBSTITUTING CHARACTER FOR IT. 
 
 This means that in a community church a man's 
 standing must not be determined by his contribu- 
 
 3SS 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 tion of money, but by character and intelligence. 
 This principle has been openly violated so frequently 
 by social institutions that the community church is 
 under the necessity of making its position clear in 
 pointed and practical fashion. It will not, therefore, 
 dignify the place of money in its life by putting the 
 control of it in a separate board of officers created 
 for this special purpose. It will incorporate as a 
 church and not as a business corporation. It will 
 have one board of managers instead of two, and put 
 its money affairs in the hands of a sub-committee 
 of its board of managers. It does this, not only for 
 the sake of efficiency, but in order to put first things 
 first and second things second. It regards this, not 
 as a detail in its organization, but as a fundamental 
 principle among its ideals. It believes that unless it 
 deliberately organizes itself in such a way as to put 
 money in the background and keep it there, it can- 
 not hope to succeed nor does it deserve to. 
 
 III. Freedom from the Domination of Secta- 
 rianism, SUBSTITUTING BROTHERHOOD FOR IT. 
 
 It is impossible for a sectarian church to be at 
 the same time a community church. They are a 
 contradiction in terms and it is morally wrong to 
 use the term "community" as camouflage. The com- 
 munity church has no connection with any denom- 
 ination and its minister is not a member of any 
 sectarian organization. Sectarian labels are libels. 
 They misrepresent the people who wear them. They 
 have not only ceased to be true, but are unimportant 
 even if true. But because men outgrow traditions 
 slowly, and out of respect for personal associations 
 and missionary interests, those members of a com- 
 
 3S6 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 munity church who wish it may, in addition to their 
 membership in the community church, be members 
 of a sectarian department of the church. As such 
 they may hold special meetings and designate what 
 missionary enterprise they wish their money to 
 support. In the atmosphere of the community 
 church, and as missionary agencies learn to coop- 
 erate, these sectarian departments will decline. It is 
 wiser to give the people the chance to outgrow them 
 than use any pressure which is sure to defeat its own 
 purpose. The majority in most communities now do 
 not wish any other label except "community." 
 Those who do are merely asked, when they join 
 the community church, to put the name of the army 
 first and the name of the regiment second. This 
 temporary compromise with present conditions is 
 made because the shortest distance between two 
 points is to pass through the intermediate points. 
 
 IV. Freedom to liberate and make known the 
 Religion of Jesus, recognizing it whether 
 
 LABELED BY HiS NaME OR NOT. 
 
 Believing that religion is not a dogma, but an 
 attitude to life, and that therefore it is a universal 
 fact, the community church holds that its first and 
 chief task is to be an interpreter of the meaning of 
 life, to assist all people to acquire and maintain a 
 normally right attitude to life, and to seek the 
 removal of all causes which make such an attitude 
 impossible. It seeks to accomplish its purpose by 
 making known the religion of democracy as set 
 forth in such documents as the Ten Commandments, 
 the Beatitudes, and the Lord's Prayer. Its ideals are 
 conveniently described by the general term " Chris- 
 
 3S7 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 tian," although it clearly distinguishes the term 
 "Christian" from the teachings of Jesus. It recog- 
 nizes the fact that Jesus is the acknowledged leader 
 of those forces in the Occident working for a better 
 sort of world, and that He is the biggest asset of the 
 religion of democracy. 
 
 Since it uses the name of Jesus, as He wished it 
 to be used, only for the sake of the ideals in behalf 
 of which He died a martyr, the community church 
 eagerly recognizes other men as representatives of 
 these ideals, such as Lincoln, Francis of Assisi, 
 Moses, Socrates, Thomas Jefferson, William Penn, 
 Confucius, Joseph Mazzini, John Ruskin, Steven- 
 son, Livingstone, and John Bright, and a host of 
 other "outside saints" who never heard the name 
 of Jesus, but who are his allies, not his rivals. While 
 more devoted to the religion of democracy than to 
 any one of its representative men, it realizes that it 
 is the exhibition of this religion in operation which 
 makes it effective and contagious. 
 
 It realizes that while, as regards denominational 
 sects, the term "Christian" is not a sectarian term, 
 as regards other historic religions it is a sectarian 
 term and is a limitation on the term "community." 
 But it considers that its first duty is to abolish a 
 few of the denominational sects within the Christian 
 religion before it can sincerely attempt a larger 
 task. Even within this limited field it entertains 
 little hope that the undemocratically organized sects 
 will respond to its appeal. If members of the "free 
 churches," and those outside the churches, respond 
 to this ideal, it is all that is humanly possible to 
 expect at the present time. It is frankly admitted 
 that the only accurate and honest use of the term 
 "community," as applied to an organization, is its 
 
 358 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 use by a public school community center, but we 
 believe the approximation to this ideal in the pro- 
 posed community church is of such value to the com- 
 mon welfare as to justify its use. Since it is not a 
 social club to furnish pleasure to any one class of 
 people, but a church to meet the universal needs of 
 all classes, it is hoped that the community church, 
 by its future development, will add a richer and 
 truer meaning to its name. 
 
 V. Freedom to serve the Community rather 
 
 THAN ITSELF, LOSING ITS LiFE AS AN ORGANIZA- 
 TION, IF Need be, for the Sake of its Cause. 
 
 This principle seeks to apply to a church as well 
 as to an individual the statement of Jesus, that 
 **he that loseth his own life for my sake and the 
 gospel's will save it." The community church, there- 
 fore, seeks first the interests of the community rather 
 than its own. It realizes that this principle is easy 
 to accept in theory and that the acid test of its sin- 
 cerity is its willingness to apply it. The community 
 church accepts this test. It will endeavor to stimulate 
 the organization of community centers in the public 
 schools. It adopts the policy that it will undertake 
 no activity which can be conducted more efficiently 
 by the community center. It will carry on such activi- 
 ties only when and so long as the community is 
 unable or unwilling to undertake the task. While 
 the community church realizes that its membership 
 is not all-inclusive as in the community center, yet 
 it has set for itself aims which are universal. On the 
 basis of its policy to put the welfare of the nation 
 above its own, it merits the support of all unselfish 
 and patriotic citizens who are asked to serve it as a 
 means to an end and not as an end in itself. 
 
 3S9 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 VI. Freedom to organize democratically with 
 THE Right of Self-Determination, each 
 Member having one Vote. 
 
 The community church is based honestly on the 
 right of self-determination. This means that its 
 authority to organize is not derived from bishop, 
 priest, or presbytery. It means that it has the right 
 to incorporate, hold title to its own property, adopt 
 its own constitution, fix its own standards, and 
 direct its own activities as in its judgment may best 
 serve the common welfare. It means that eccle- 
 siastical machinery is made for the people, not the 
 people for ecclesiastical machinery. The commu- 
 nity churches, when formed, will therefore league 
 themselves together, not for the purpose of creating 
 an autocratic machine to exercise authority over 
 them, but for the sole purpose of pooling their expe- 
 riences, stimulating each other, and securing con- 
 certed action for moral ends. The individual com- 
 munity church adopts the policy of one member, 
 one vote, and in all other ways its members show 
 respect for the personalities of each other. Guided 
 by the primary principle of the value and welfare 
 of the individual, it is organized and operated from 
 the bottom up, not from the top down. 
 
 VII. Freedom to work for whatever concerns 
 Human Welfare, abolishing the Distinc- 
 tion BETWEEN "Secular" and "Sacred." 
 
 The community church regards the distinction 
 between "secular" and "sacred" as a mental illu- 
 sion which has no existence in fact. It believes that 
 God is not dead, and that religion is not a separate 
 business set up apart from life, but a divine spirit 
 
 360 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 pervading all of its activities. It maintains, there- 
 fore, that no subject which concerns human welfare 
 is foreign to religion, and that all such subjects are 
 not only proper to be treated in its public teaching, 
 but that it is its obvious duty to wed religion to life. 
 For the same reason it maintains that men and 
 women are more sacred than buildings of stone and 
 wood, and that failure to use its buildings for any 
 activity which the people's welfare requires is an 
 economic waste which is morally wrong. It main- 
 tains that the spiritual and material welfare of the 
 people are riveted together as one piece of goods and 
 it places both its teaching and its practical activities 
 at the service of the nation in its local community. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 HOW TO PROMOTE COMMUNITY CHURCHES 
 
 (A SUGGESTED Statement for the use of national, 
 state, and local committees in the work of promoting 
 community churches, based on the conclusions of a 
 preliminary committee now at work on this enter- 
 prise.) 
 
 ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF 
 COMMUNITY CHURCHES 
 
 DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES 
 The Aim. 
 
 The aim of the community church movement is 
 to apply the democratic principle to organized relig- 
 ion and to give religion a recognized place in demo- 
 cratic enterprises; to enfranchise the individual and 
 to create a social order more in harmony with the 
 conscience and intelligence of the average man and 
 with the principles of Jesus; and to this end it seeks 
 to give expression to the religion of democracy exist- 
 ing in the common consciousness; to abolish the dis- 
 tinction between secular and sacred; to elevate pub- 
 lic above private interests; to put into effective 
 operation the ideals of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence and the Sermon on the Mount; and to 
 associate all individuals in mutual aid for the com- 
 mon welfare. 
 
 362 
 
APPENDIX 
 The Agency. 
 
 The Instrument for achieving the above aim is 
 distinguished by characteristics in keeping with its 
 purpose. 
 
 As stated by one member of the committee the 
 characteristics of a community church are as follows: 
 
 {a) The community church is undenominational. It 
 eliminates affiliation with any sectarian body what- 
 soever, in favor of identification with the com-, 
 munity in which it is placed. 
 
 (b) The community church is public. It accepts the uni- 
 versality of the religious instinct, and welcomes all 
 men, regardless of sect, class, nation, or race, on a 
 basis of membership identical with that of citizen- 
 ship in the community. 
 
 (c) The community church is free. It recognizes no 
 creed, or statement of faith, but leaves all matters of 
 theological belief to the unfettered thought and con- 
 viction of the individual. 
 
 {d) The community church is social. It interprets re- 
 ligion in terms of social service, and dedicates its 
 members to the fulfillment of social idealism. / 
 
 (e) The community church is democratic. It is organ- 
 ized on a basis of self-determination; recognizes a 
 single constituency of members who are voters; and 
 places its affairs in the hands of a board of managers 
 responsible in all things to the congregation. 
 
 (/) The community church is the community function- 
 ing spiritually. It emphasizes the community, and 
 not the church, as the source of religious life, and it- 
 self as a free agent for the expression, not the control, 
 of this life. 
 
 363 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 As stated by another member of the committee, a 
 community church seeks: 
 
 1. To express the common religious consciousness. It 
 recognizes that all are religious by virtue of their be- 
 ing human, and all have the right and duty to ex- 
 press their religious nature sincerely. It is universal. 
 
 2. To insure liberty of thought and speech. It recognizes 
 that questions of doctrine and of personal religious 
 experience are properly matters of individual con- 
 cern to be socially tested only by their social pro- 
 duct. It is free. 
 
 3. To enlist all in the' service of the common good. It 
 recognizes the universal individual obligation in 
 social welfare, and seeks to point out an avenue of 
 usefulness to each member of the community. It is (a 
 moral) dynamic. 
 
 4. To effect a religious organization amenable to the will 
 of the community. However initiated or maintained 
 it recognizes that each person must have a share In 
 the organization untrammeled by aught but his own 
 desire, that the ultimate control properly belongs to 
 the entire population unit concerned and not to a 
 selective group. It is democratic. 
 
 As stated by another member the seven cardinal 
 virtues or distinguishing characteristics of a com- 
 munity church are as follows : 
 
 I. Freedom from the domination of dogma, substitut- 
 ing intelligence for it. 
 
 II. Freedom from the domination of money, substitut- 
 ing character for it. 
 
 364 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 III. Freedom from the domination of sectarianism, sub- 
 stituting brotherhood for it. 
 
 IV. Freedom to liberate and make known the religion of 
 Jesus, recognizing it whether labeled by his name 
 or not. 
 
 V. Freedom to serve the community rather than itself, 
 losing its life as an organization, if need be, for the 
 sake of its cause. 
 
 VI. Freedom to organize democratically with the right 
 of self-determination, each member having one vote. 
 
 VII. Freedom to work for whatever concerns human wel- 
 fare, abolishing the distinction between secular and 
 sacred. 
 
 Two Parallel Agencies. 
 
 It is highly significant that all the characteristics 
 of a community church as thus stated are likewise 
 descriptive of the community center. The only dif- 
 ference is a question of emphasis in one respect. 
 That is with reference to religion. The activities of 
 the community center exhibit religion in operation. 
 A community church, in addition to such activities, 
 would consciously organize the moral and religious 
 motive. The aims of both are the same; one calls it 
 the practice of democracy; the other, the establish- 
 ment of the Kingdom of God. Both strenuously 
 oppose any union of church and state, but both 
 eagerly seek to wed religion and the nation. 
 
 These two agencies, therefore, are not rivals but 
 allies; approaching the same task from different 
 angles, each makes its distinctive contribution and 
 
 36s 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 IS in a position to do what the other cannot do. 
 One is a public organization based on citizenship 
 alone; the other is a volunteer organization based on 
 membership. A public organization must necessarily 
 operate on the basis of the lowest common denomi- 
 nator; it can only undertake what public opinion 
 approves. But a volunteer organization can do pio- 
 neer work and stimulate new enterprises. A com- 
 munity church will seek to raise the common de- 
 nominator of community action and will undertake 
 no activity which can be better done through a public 
 agency, but it will carry on such activities as a gov- 
 ernmental agency cannot conduct and it will promote 
 new progressive enterprises. 
 
 Agreement upon the Goal. 
 
 It is essential that there be a clear conception of 
 the goal aimed at, because unless we know where it 
 is we want to go, it is useless to take steps for getting 
 there. We may assume that we are agreed on three 
 things as to our goal: 
 
 (a) Organized self-help on the basis of citizenship, which 
 is the distinguishing characteristic of the community 
 center. 
 
 {b) The conscious recognition of the religious motive in 
 all concerted action for the common welfare, which 
 is the distinguishing characteristic of a community 
 church. 
 
 {c) That these two organizations should move as nearly 
 as possible along parallel lines and be allies in the 
 common effort to supplement each other's work. 
 
 366 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Freedom for Growth. 
 
 While a clear goal is essential, a generous freedom 
 as to the roads used in reaching it is equally essential. 
 Neither the community center nor a community 
 church is a finished stereotyped organism, but a liv- 
 ing movement. Both are in the process of formation 
 and both are still on trial. They will be what the 
 people make them. They must be indigenous to the 
 soil, otherwise they will be difficult to organize and 
 impossible to keep organized after they are started. 
 For this reason, this statement is merely suggestive. 
 It represents the point of view of a few, who desire 
 to promote the movement. All others interested in 
 the movement should feel equally free to make con- 
 structive suggestions. Freedom for growth should be 
 the avowed and settled policy of the movement, if 
 it is to meet the varying needs of different com- 
 munities. 
 
 To exhibit the policy of freedom in operation, three 
 separate descriptions of a community church are 
 included in this statement. No attempt is made at 
 their reconciliation, because the movement should 
 be encouraged to be a natural growth instead of an 
 artificial creation. The three statements differ most 
 interestingly in emphasis, but show remarkable 
 agreement on essential principles and ultimate aims. 
 The capacity to differ in opinion without differing 
 in feeling is indispensable for successful community 
 work. The two guarantees of success for the move- 
 ment are an open mind and a friendly spirit. 
 
 A G01.DEN Opportunity. 
 
 It ought to be clearly understood that a commu- 
 nity church is not a new denomination, but a new 
 
 367 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 church. It IS not a federation or union of sects. Such 
 a plan accentuates by recognition the very thing it 
 seeks to abolish, and therefore fails just as the con- 
 federation of the American colonies failed in its 
 purpose. A community church aims rather to weld 
 various groups of Christians and individuals with- 
 out any religious labels in such a way as to create a 
 new kind of church, just as the union of the Ameri- 
 can colonies under the Constitution was more than 
 a union of states; it was also the creation of a new 
 nation. 
 
 The pronounced but unorganized sentiment in 
 favor of the creation of this new type of church pre- 
 sents a golden opportunity to all those who labor 
 for the success of America's experiment in democ- 
 racy. Sectarian churches are now facing a problem 
 more serious than any which has yet confronted 
 them. They are also facing a golden opportunity. 
 To think of their problem in terms of opportunity 
 will transform their impending defeat into a pro- 
 gressive triumph. 
 
 We feel that it is not an exaggeration to say, as 
 one member of our committee expresses it, that the 
 community church is the great spiritual discovery 
 of our age. It marks an epoch in the history of 
 Christianity not dissimilar in character and impor- 
 tance to the Reformation. It moves from the indi- 
 vidual to society as the center of religious life. It 
 accepts the community in place of the denomina- 
 tion as the unit of spiritual integration. The com- 
 munity church liberates religion from the bondage 
 of creeds. It delivers religion from the body of eccle- 
 siastical death. It emancipates religion from the 
 power of money. It makes the church at last a free 
 agent of ethical and spiritual idealism. 
 
 368 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 All who believe in the principles of the movement, 
 as thus stated, are invited to associate themselves 
 together for the purpose of putting them into oper- 
 ation. 
 
 To THE Officers: 
 
 President Secretary.. 
 
 Vice-President Treasurer 
 
 I approve the above Declaration of Principles and 
 accept membership in the Association. 
 
 Name 
 
 Date Address. 
 
 Enclosed please find one dollar ($i.oo) for dues as 
 a subscribing member for the present calendar year. 
 
 Name 
 
 Address 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 HOW TO ORGANIZE A COMMUNITY CHURCH 
 
 I. ' The Certificate of Incorporation. 
 
 The undersigned, all being citizens of the United 
 States, of full age, and a majority of whom are citi- 
 zens of the of , 
 
 State of , desiring that they, 
 
 their associates and successors, shall become a body 
 politic, incorporated under the code of laws section 
 
 , providing for the incorporating of 
 
 societies formed "for mutual improvement and for 
 benevolent, religious, and educational purposes," do 
 hereby certify as follows: 
 
 First, that the name of such body corporate shall 
 
 be The Community Church of , 
 
 and that the term for which it is organized shall be 
 perpetual. 
 
 Second, that the object of said incorporation shall 
 be to decrease the number of sects by absorbing 
 them as departments in a community church, to 
 prevent waste through the needless multiplication 
 and rivalry of sectarian activities, to become worthy 
 of the respect and loyalty of the large class of able 
 and honest men now estranged from sectarian 
 churches; to be a church more representative of the 
 conscience and intelligence of Christian men and 
 women, a church organized democratically, organ- 
 ized on the liberty of difference, and organized to 
 
 370 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 secure its freedom from the domination of dogma, 
 money, and sectarianism; a church whose aim is to 
 give Christianity according to Jesus a chance to be 
 heard, to accentuate the resemblances among men 
 by enlarging the basis of unity, to work for the pre- 
 vention rather than the cure of social injustice, to 
 mobilize forward-looking men and women through 
 organized cooperation in behalf of the religion of 
 democracy. 
 
 Third, that for the promotion of such object, the 
 said corporation shall have the power to use a com- 
 mon seal and to change and alter the same at its 
 pleasure; to hold property by bequest, gift, lease, or 
 purchase, either absolutely or in trust for any of 
 its purposes, that it may engage in any activities 
 which it deems to be for the common welfare, pro- 
 vided that such activities shall not be for profit, but 
 solely for common benefit. 
 
 Fourth, that the number of incorporators shall not 
 be less than five, and that, when this certificate is 
 signed and filed by them, they shall then have the 
 power to organize, to elect officers, and to make a 
 constitution and by-laws not inconsistent with this 
 certificate of incorporation. 
 
 In witness whereof, the undersigned have made 
 and signed the foregoing certificate of incorporation 
 this day of , 19 
 
 371 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 I 
 
 II. The Constitution. 
 
 (Each community church is urged to draft its own 
 constitution. This one is merely suggested by the 
 author to indicate certain fundamental principles 
 which he thinks should be embodied in such a docu- 
 ment. He would be glad to receive copies of consti- 
 tutions from community churches as they are formed 
 and pass them on as suggestions to others.) 
 
 DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES 
 
 The First Community Church of 
 
 recognizes religion as a universal human fact, as an 
 attitude to life instead of a dogma, as the basic com- 
 mon denominator among men, and as an indispen- 
 sable common need like love and sunshine. It aims 
 to unite all citizens of this community for mutual 
 aid in self-development through the discovery and 
 practice of universal spiritual ideals as embodied in 
 the real religion of Jesus and other teachers. It im- 
 poses on its members no confession of faith, but 
 Stimulates them to form their own personal and care- 
 fully considered convictions through untrammeled 
 investigation: and public discussion. It sets for itself 
 the task of creating a social order more in harmony 
 with the manifest purposes of God and with the 
 conscience and intelligence of the people. It regards 
 the community as the field of its labor and itself as 
 a society of friends to be used as a force for the com- 
 mon welfare. It treats religion not as a separate 
 business set up apart from life, but as a divine spirit 
 pervading every activity of life. Its message is a 
 challenge, not a truce; its ultimate authority in 
 religion is the Inner Light; its only sanction in relig- 
 ion is the universal conscience; its working motto is 
 each for all and all for each. 
 
APPENDIX 
 II 
 
 SPIRITUAL AND MORAL STANDARDS— 
 THE DECALOGUE 
 
 (a) Moral principles, 
 
 1. A useful knowledge of God. 
 
 "Thou shalt have no other gods before 
 Me." 
 
 2. A common-sense treatment of God. 
 
 "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven 
 image," 
 
 3. Practicing what we profess. 
 
 "Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah 
 in vain." 
 
 4. Leisure for personal growth. 
 
 " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
 holy." 
 
 (b) A hill 0} particulars, 
 
 5. Respect for parenthood. 
 
 "Honor thy father and thy mother." 
 
 6. Regard for the rights of person. 
 
 "Thou shalt do no murder." 
 
 7. Regard for the rights of family. 
 
 "Neither shalt thou commit adultery." 
 
 8. Regard for the rights of property. 
 
 "Thou shalt not steal." 
 
 9. Regard for the rights of reputation. 
 
 "Thou shalt not bear false witness." 
 
 (f) The NatiorCs safeguard, 
 
 10. Enjoyment without possession. 
 
 "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's 
 house." 
 
 373 
 
APPENDIX 
 III 
 
 SPIRITUAL AND MORAL IDEALS — 
 THE BEATITUDES 
 
 (a) Personal qualities. 
 
 1. Mental hospitality. 
 
 , "Happy the poor in spirit! 
 
 For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 2. Internal resources. 
 
 "Happy the meek! 
 For they shall inherit the earth." 
 
 3. Self-control. 
 
 "Happy they who mourn! 
 For they shall be comforted." 
 
 4. Healthy dissatisfaction. 
 
 "Happy they who hunger and thirst for 
 righteousness ! 
 For they shall be satisfied." 
 
 (b) Social qualities, 
 
 5. Intelligent sympathy. 
 
 "Happy the merciful! 
 For they shall obtain mercy." 
 
 6. Respect for persons. 
 
 "Happy the pure in heart! 
 For they shall see God." 
 
 7. Capacity for cooperation. 
 
 "Happy the peacemakers! 
 For they shall be called the sons of God." 
 
 8. Public-mindedness. 
 
 "Happy they who have been persecuted on 
 account of righteousness! 
 For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 374 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 9. A passion for justice. 
 
 "Happier they who give than they who 
 receive! 
 For their Father in Heaven shall recom- 
 pense them." 
 
 IV 
 THE CONDITION OF MEMBERSHIP 
 
 "I do solemnly affirm that it is my purpose to 
 exercise the courage necessary to help put into 
 effective operation the Kingdom of God, and that to 
 the best of my ability I will strive to understand 
 and practice, to teach and defend the Constitution 
 of this church." 
 
 III. The By-laws. 
 
 Article I. Members 
 
 Section i. Members become such by signing 
 the constitution at a public meeting of the church. 
 
 Section 2. The membership of the church shall 
 
 be limited to in number, in order to preserve 
 
 its homelike character, its democratic spirit, and its 
 working efficiency. 
 
 Article II. Meetings 
 
 Section i. The annual meeting shall be held on 
 the to elect officers, hear reports from all com- 
 mittees and departments of work, and transact such 
 other business as may be necessary. 
 
 Section 2. In all elections the Preferential Bal- 
 lot shall be used, and with reference both to officers 
 and policies the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall 
 shall be employed in such manner as the church 
 itself may determine. 
 
 375 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Article III. Officers 
 
 Section i. The church is incorporated as a 
 church, not as a society, and all its business shall be 
 conducted by a single Board of Managers, who shall 
 also be the Trustees of its property. 
 
 Section 2. The members of the Board of Man- 
 agers may be women as well as men, and shall be 
 not less than five nor more than fifteen in number. 
 The minister and heads of departments shall, by 
 virtue of their position, be members of the Board. 
 
 Section 3. The managers shall hold office for 
 three years except that the original officers shall be 
 divided numerically, as nearly as may be, into three 
 classes; the first class to hold office for one year, the 
 second class for two years, and the third class for 
 three years. In every case they shall hold office until 
 their successors shall be chosen. 
 
 Section 4. As soon after the annual meeting 
 as may be convenient the managers shall meet to 
 organize and shall elect from their own number a 
 President, Vice-President, a Secretary, and a Treas- 
 urer, who shall perform the duties usually performed 
 by such officers. 
 
 Article IV. Finances 
 
 Section i. This church volunteers to pay taxes 
 like any other private institution, in order to do no 
 injustice to the majority of citizens who are not 
 connected with any church. 
 
 Section 2. It is the policy of this church that 
 no yearly contribution exceeding three hundred 
 dollars shall be accepted from any one member, in 
 order that a member's standing may be determined 
 not by money, but by his character and intelligence. 
 
 376 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Section 3. It is the policy of the church that 
 the salary it offers its minister shall not be a defi- 
 nitely stated amount, but that a minimum and 
 maximum wage be stipulated, so that the salary the 
 minister receives shall be proportionate to the 
 people's ability and the worth of his own services, 
 and in order that there may be no annual deficit to 
 compromise his own or the church's freedom. 
 
 Article V. Tenure of Office 
 
 Section i. It is the policy 9f this church that 
 the minister's tenure of office shall rest on a depend- 
 able foundation rather than on the personal wishes 
 of a few persons, and to this end it adopts the prin- 
 ciple embodied in the civil service laws of the Federal 
 Government, and it agrees that the minister shall 
 not be dismissed unless the complaints against him 
 are put into writing and that he be given the op- 
 portunity to answer them before an open meeting of 
 the church, if he so desires. 
 
 Section 2. This church grants to its minister 
 complete freedom to teach the principles and ideals 
 of the Kingdom of God as he is given the light to 
 interpret them, in order that the church may enjoy 
 with him the new discoveries into which Jesus said 
 the Spirit of Truth would guide his friends, and 
 because it believes that teachers of a free people 
 must themselves be free. 
 
 Article VL Cooperation 
 
 Section i. Members of the church belonging 
 to various sects may, if they so desire, retain their 
 sectarian formation and be regarded as departments 
 of the church, without any suggestion of inferiority 
 
 377 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 or superiority among them, and may make separate 
 contributions to their own missionary enterprises. 
 
 Section 2. The relation of this church to the 
 public school community center is in no sense official, 
 but it is vital. It shall be the policy of the church to 
 undertake no activity which can be conducted more 
 efficiently by the community center. In order to 
 prevent waste through duplication and to serve a 
 larger number of people, the church will turn over 
 to the school any activity it may have inaugurated 
 as soon as the community association of citizens is 
 ready to assume responsibility for it. 
 
 Article VIL Amendments 
 
 This Constitution and these By-laws may be 
 amended by a two-thirds vote of the members pres- 
 ent at any meeting called for the purpose. 
 
AFTERWORD 
 
 A COMMITTEE IS now at work on the formation of a 
 National Association for the Promotion of Com- 
 munity Churches. Other members of the committee 
 also have in preparation books on the subject. They 
 are John Haynes Holmes, New York; Joseph Ernest 
 McAfee, New York; and Harold Marshall, Boston. 
 Until the proposed Association is formed and pre- 
 pared to render service to those desiring it, the 
 author of this book will be glad to receive letters 
 from any who are interested, and to refer such com- 
 munications to the Association as soon as it is 
 organized. 
 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
 
 Ames, Edward Scribner, The New Orthodoxy, 
 
 Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 191 8. 
 Baker, Ray Stannard, The Spiritual Unrest, New 
 
 York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1909. 
 Bancroft, George, History of the United States; 
 
 chapter, "The People called Quakers." New 
 
 York: D. Appleton & Co. 
 Butler, Samuel, Erewhon; chapter, "The Musical 
 
 Banks." New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 
 
 1872-1917. 
 Carver, Thomas Nixon, The Religion Worth Having. 
 
 Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 191 2. 
 Churchill, Winston, The Inside of the Cup, New 
 
 York: The Macmillan Company, 191 3. 
 Coleman, George, Democracy in the Making, Boston: 
 
 Little, Brown & Co., 1915. 
 Crapsey, Algernon Sidney, The Rise of the Working 
 
 Class; chapter, "Working Class Religion." New 
 
 York: The Century Company, 19 14. 
 Crooker, Joseph Henry, The Church of Tomorrow, 
 
 Boston: Universalist Publishing House, 191 1. 
 Figgis, John Neville, Churches in the Modern State, 
 
 London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1914. 
 Follett, M. P., The New State, New York: Longmans, 
 
 Green & Co., 191 8. 
 Gladden, Washington, The Church and Modern Life, 
 
 Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908. 
 
 381 
 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
 
 Hunter, Robert, Why We Fail as Christians, New 
 
 York: The Macmillan Company, 191 9. 
 Jackson, Henry F.., A Community Center; What It 
 
 Is and How to Organize It, New York: The 
 
 Macmillan Company, 191 8. 
 Jenkins, Burns A.,The Protestant. Chicago: Christian 
 
 Century Press, 191 8. 
 Lansbury, George, Your Part in Poverty. New 
 
 York: B. W. Huebsch, 1916. 
 Maciver, R. M. Community. New York: The Mac- 
 millan Company. 
 Mazzini, Joseph, Essays; chapter, "Lamennais." 
 
 London: Walter Scott, Ltd., 1839. 
 Mazzini, Joseph, Essays; chapter, " From the Pope to 
 
 the Council." London : Walter Scott, Ltd., 1850. 
 Mazzini, Joseph, The Duties of Man; chapter, " From 
 
 the Council to God." New York: E. P. Button 
 '" & Co., 1870. 
 McAfee, Joseph Ernest, Religion and the New 
 
 American Democracy. Privately printed, 191 8. 
 MacDonald, George, Thomas Wingfold, Curate. 
 
 '■ Philadelphia: David McKay. 
 Quick, Herbert, The Broken Lance. Indianapolis: 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1907. 
 Rauschenbusch, Walter, Christianity and the Social 
 
 Crisis, 1907. Christianizing the Social Order, 
 
 1912. New York: The Macmillan Company. 
 Roberts, Richard, The Church in the Commonwealth. 
 
 New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. 
 Royce, Josiah, The Problem of Christianity. New 
 
 York: The Macmillan Company, 191 3. 
 Rutherford, Mark, Autobiography and Deliverance. 
 
 New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1899. 
 Shaw, Anna Howard, The Story of a Pioneer. New 
 
 York: Harper & Bros., 191 5. 
 
 382 
 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
 
 Sinclair, Upton, The Profits of Religion, Pasadena, 
 
 Cal.: Published by the author, 1918. 
 Thompson, Robert Ellis, The Divine Order of Human 
 
 Society. Philadelphia; John D. Wattles, 1891. 
 Ward, C. Osborne, The Ancient Lowly. Chicago: 
 
 Charles H. Kerr & Co., Vol. I., 1889, Vol. II., 
 
 1900. 
 Ward, Edward J., The Social Center. New York: 
 
 D. Appleton & Co., 191 5. 
 Ward, Julius H., The Church in Modern Society, 
 
 Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1889. 
 Wilson, Woodrow, The Minister and the Community, 
 
 New York: Association Press, 191 2. 
 Wright, Harold Bell, The Calling of Dan Matthews, 
 
 New York: A. L. Burt Company, 1909. 
 Zueblin, Charles, The Religion of a Democrat. New 
 
 York: B. W. Huebsch, 1908. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbott, Lyman, 282, 316. 
 Abraham, popular short story 
 
 of, 154. 
 America, national church of, 
 
 ix; spirit of, 351. 
 Anger, a means of self-defense, 
 
 10. 
 Aristotle, Politics ^ 330; what 
 
 would amaze him most in 
 
 life of to-day, 347. 
 Aurelius, Marcus, quoted, 10. 
 
 Bagehot, Walter, 250. 
 
 Baker, Ray Stannard, 92, 282. 
 
 Benson, Arthur C, quoted, 
 187. 
 
 Bible, the, has no title, 51; an 
 undiscovered book, 52-58; 
 injury it suffers from secta- 
 rianism, 141, 284; Huxley 
 on the study of, 283. 
 
 Bradford, Amory H., 68. 
 
 Bright, John, contrasted with 
 Newman, 325; a typical 
 democrat, 326. 
 
 Browning, Robert, 181, 262. 
 
 Bryce, James, xi, 196, 197. 
 
 Burroughs, John, 170. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 213. 
 
 Christian religion, ignorance 
 of, 71. 
 
 Christianity, the capture of, 
 186. 
 
 Church, the awakening of, 
 xiv; failure of, revealed by 
 war, xvi; disturbing ques- 
 tions about, xxvii; a puz- 
 zling problem, 5; root cause 
 of its trouble, 17, 38; its ir- 
 reconcilable conflict, 21; its 
 
 lack of intellectual freedom, 
 49; its lack of conviction, 
 74; a working platform, 80; 
 its lack of financial freedom, 
 93, 204; reason for its yearly 
 deficits, 99; refuses to do 
 pioneer social work, 129; 
 still in the woods, 171 ; a fol- 
 lower of public opinion, 181 ; 
 does not know its goal, 183; 
 three stages in its evolution, 
 191, 208; why it cannot re- 
 form itself, 204; three types 
 of, 227; do we need any at 
 all, 291; once a community 
 center, 293; how to elevate 
 its moral standard, 300. 
 
 Churchill, Winston, his book. 
 The Inside of the Cup, xxiv. 
 
 Classes, danger of, 238. 
 
 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 2, 
 191,235. 
 
 Community, the, search after 
 a hub for its activities, 143. 
 
 Community center, a, 235; 
 characteristics of, 261; is it 
 a real church, 273; do we 
 need any other type of 
 church, 280; the relation of 
 a community church to, 
 287; how injured by sects, 
 288. 
 
 Community church, a, 157; a 
 necessity, 165; what it is, 
 175; limits gifts for Its sup- 
 port, 177; pays taxes, 177; 
 exhibits unity and liberty, 
 191; an American product, 
 200; not a federation of 
 sects, 202 ; how to start one, 
 212; needs new type of 
 
 387 
 
INDEX 
 
 architecture, 216; its policy 
 a prevention rather than a 
 cure, 223; brief description 
 of, 228; seven cardinal vir- 
 tues of, 355; how to pro- 
 mote, 362 ; suggested certif- 
 icate of incorporation for, 
 370; suggested constitution 
 for, 372. 
 
 Community secretary, the, a 
 new profession, 305. 
 
 Compromise, danger of, 218. 
 
 Confucius, xii. 
 
 Copenhagen, its liberty mon- 
 ument, 335. 
 
 Creeds, morally wrong, 73. 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 332. 
 
 Death, a help to progress, 241. 
 
 Democracy, religion of, 317; 
 challenge of, 325; Whit- 
 man's definition of, 334; the 
 three elements of, 335; dis- 
 covery of, 336; more than a 
 religion, 341; two essential 
 needs of, 343; a layman's 
 religion, 346; missionaries 
 of, 347; dangerous to advo- 
 cate, 348; representatives 
 of, 358. 
 
 Denmark, Folk High School, 
 xii, 277. 
 
 Dewey, John, 310. 
 
 Economics, and politics, 332. 
 Education, new conception of, 
 
 243; what it is, 342. 
 Ellis, Havelock, 341. 
 Epictetus, 215. 
 
 Ferguson, Charles, 158, 235, 
 
 268, 348. 
 Four Gospels, the, discovery 
 
 of, 69. 
 Freedom, goal of history, 50; 
 
 use of, 180; abuse of, 189; 
 
 an achievement, not a 
 
 dower, 327. 
 
 Fulton, Robert, steamboat, 
 237. 
 
 Gareth, xxxiii. 
 George, Henry, 340. 
 Gladstone, W. E., 349. 
 Goethe, xxviii. 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 134. 
 Government, five historic 
 
 forms of, 343. 
 Grayson, David, 310. 
 
 Holmes, John Haynes, 209. 
 Humor, American, distinctive 
 
 quality of, 236. 
 Huxley, Thomas, on the use 
 
 of the Bible, 283. 
 
 Independence, DeclcU'ation of, 
 329, 336, 344. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 252, 333. 
 
 Jeroboam, why it is safe to 
 talk about him, 98. 
 
 Jesus, why he could not reform 
 the church of his day, 208; 
 would he get a call from 
 a church to-day, 186; his 
 inaugural address, 253; his 
 attitude to children, 273; 
 founded no church, 275; the 
 songs of his childhood, 336. 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 229, 254. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 3; 
 why he did not join the 
 church, 127; what educa- 
 tional experts would have 
 made of him, 247; on public 
 opinion, 261; opposed by 
 ministers, 299.^ 
 
 Livingstone, David, 136. 
 
 Lowell, James Russell, 342, 
 
 350, 352. . . . , 
 
 Luther, Martm, a panic-strick- 
 en progressive, 188; his ser- 
 vice to education, 296. 
 
 388 
 
INDEX 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 249. 
 
 Madison, James, 249. 
 
 Markham, Edwin, 10. 
 
 Mark Twain, 298; his Con- 
 necticut Yankee in King 
 Arthur's Court, 317. 
 
 Matheson, George, 276, 296. 
 
 Maurice, F. D., 190. 
 
 McAfee, Joseph Ernest, letter 
 of, quoted, 271. 
 
 "Mental hospitality," 85, 241 ; 
 church's lack of, 306; the 
 school's lack of, 307. 
 
 Mill, John Stuart, 48. 
 
 Ministers, can they be honest, 
 3; their way of escape, 302. 
 
 Money, why Jesus talked 
 about it so much, 93; why 
 no constructive poem has 
 been written on, 123. 
 
 Morse's electric telegraph, 237. 
 
 Moses, why he took forty 
 years to go a three weeks' 
 journey, 230. 
 
 National church, does Amer- 
 ica have a, 269. 
 Nazareth, open forum held in, 
 
 253- 
 New Chivalry Movement, the, 
 
 132. 
 
 Oberlin, John Frederic, 23. 
 Old-age, disease of, xxxii. 
 Open-mindedness, xii, 221. 
 Opposition, a test of merit, 46. 
 
 Palmer, George Herbert, on 
 
 teaching morals, 279. 
 Pericles, 331. 
 Pharisees, what they are, 18, 
 
 112. 
 Phillips, Wendell, 49. 
 Plato, 62. 
 Poets, have more freedom than 
 
 ministers, 60. 
 Politics, and religion, 326; 
 
 why the term has been cor- 
 
 rupted, 329; how to redeem 
 
 it, 331. 
 
 Poor, the, advantages of, 215. 
 
 Public school, discovery of, 
 239, 241; its golden age 
 lies ahead, 240; its use as 
 a polling-place, ^244; as a 
 Forum, 248; as a neighbor- 
 hood club, 254; three illus- 
 trations of its use, 257; an 
 instrument of democracy, 
 344. 
 
 Quick, Herbert, his book, The 
 Broken Lance, xxv; The 
 Brown Mouse, 258. 
 
 Rauschenbusch, Walter, 239, 
 294, 298, 333.. 
 
 Religion, a universal neces- 
 sity, 277; Chinese word for, 
 279. 
 
 Robinson Crusoe, why not bet- 
 ter known, 242. 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, 333. 
 
 Royce, Josiah, 46, 345. 
 
 Ruskin, John, 263, 277. 
 
 Russell, Bertrand, 74. 
 
 "Sacred" and "secular," false 
 distinction between, 138; 
 has no existence, 318; ac- 
 counts for superstition, 322 ; 
 stimulates cowardice, 323. 
 
 Schoolhouse, the, this the age 
 of, 264. 
 
 Sects, the, abolition of, 147; 
 harmful influence of, 148; 
 trifling names, 149; reason 
 for, 155; can any be recom- 
 mended, 161; a waste of, 
 167. 
 
 "Secular" and "sacred," false 
 distinction between, 138. 
 
 Seminaries, theological, 303. 
 
 Shepherd Psalm, the, secret 
 of its popularity, 82. 
 
 Sill, Edward Rowland, 46. 
 
 389 
 
INDEX 
 
 Sin, the unpardonable, what 
 
 it is, 86. 
 Socrates, 31, 160, 328. 
 Spiritual, meaning of, 31. 
 Stetson, Charlotte Perkins, 
 
 poem by, quoted, 87. 
 Stevenson's locomotive, 237. 
 Suburbs, danger of living in, 
 
 129. 
 Sun-dial, a, Charles Lamb on, 
 
 229. 
 Sympathy, intelligent, 310. 
 
 Tact, meaning of, 33. 
 
 Taxation, why exemption of 
 the churches from, is un- 
 just, 178. 
 
 Ten Commandments, the, too 
 disturbing for the church, 
 62; why neglected by the 
 church, 83. 
 
 Thompson, Robert Ellis, 
 quoted, 126. 
 
 Tolerance, something better 
 than, 222. 
 
 Transportation, modern meth- 
 ods of, 237. 
 
 Trustees, Board of, why they 
 should be abolished in the 
 church, 113. 
 
 United States, the, unique 
 character of, 197. 
 
 Whitman, Walt, 334. 
 Whittier, John Greenleaf, 182, 
 
 209; poem by, quoted, 292. 
 Wilson, Woodrow, 159, 163, 
 
 262. 
 Wordsworth, William, 160. 
 
 Youth, spirit of, xxxii. 
 
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
 U . S . A 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 Fine 
 
 NOV 12 1947 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY