THE BASIS FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE
The past few years have witnessed a marked widening of the concept of
the functioning of the church. But there is still considerable
question concerning the basis for the program of church work that now
bids fair to become conventional. Not long ago the writer attended a
convention of a state social welfare association. Over three hundred
and fifty persons were in attendance representing the leading agencies
for the advance of social welfare in the entire commonwealth, both
urban and rural. Careful inquiry revealed the fact that but one
minister had registered, and he was on the program. On the other hand,
it is the rare occurrence for those professionally interested in
social service to be present at a convention of representatives of
religious orders. In practice there is still a clean-cut dividing line
between those interested in social progress and those engaged in
so-called religious work. The social workers are not irreligious; many
of them believe their service to be of the highest type of religious
expression. The representatives of the church are welcomed by social
workers into their councils, but it is feared that often these
representatives are not taken seriously because for so long they have
had a program that affected social welfare in but an indirect way. The
time has come when representatives of the church should accept their
rightful position as leaders in all movements that tend to make human
existence more Christ-like and to make the kingdom of heaven on earth
more of a reality.
The reason for the attitude of both ministers and people toward the
church has been the emphasis placed upon individual regeneration as
the sole and all-important method of advancing the Kingdom. The
"conversion" of the individual would lead him into right conduct. When
all individuals were converted then the kingdom of heaven would indeed
be at hand.
But the advance of social science has made clear the fact that the
individual is very largely the expression of the group in which he
lives. Custom, convention, fashion, public opinion, and other group
influences go far to determine what individual thought and action will
be in any given group. The Tennessee mountaineer has a different
standard of what constitutes true religion from that of the New
England Unitarian. The code of race relationships in Mississippi is
not the same as that in Wisconsin. The standards of the boy's "gang"
determine largely the dress, the ideals, and habits not only of youth
but of the coming man. Even in the life of the individual different
standards exist suitable to the several groups in which he carries on
his habitual activities. The capitalist who corrupts Legislatures with
impunity in business or who prevents child-labor legislation may be a
model Christian gentleman in his home and church life.
It is admitted that in the last analysis the group mind can have its
existence only in the individual minds that compose it. But it is also
true that when we consider the minds of individuals working in groups
with the consciousness of what the reactions of others are, the
results are different from what they are when the individual acts
alone. Moreover, individuals as a class react in much the same way to
stimuli that affect all of the members of the group at a given time.
If the price of milk is raised so that there is suspicion of
profiteering, common resentment appears. If the leadership of a
political party is threatened, the politician, even though he loses
leadership, rarely bolts his group. Instead he finds some excuse for
standing by the party organization. It is not necessary to alter the
minds of all individuals by "conversion" in the conventional manner
either to change public opinion, alter physical conditions, or change
the form of social organization. When these changes are effected in
the minds of the controlling elements of the group, then the entire
public mind and social organization are altered and the social process
goes on stimulated in newer and, it is hoped, better directions.
One or two illustrations should make this point clearer. Several years
ago it was the custom to use common drinking cups on railways. When
first legislation was passed to prevent such use, considerable public
opinion opposed it as foolish. Now, it is difficult to get any one to
touch a common drinking cup even in the home. Before the elimination
of the saloon powerful and sometimes very respectable forces were
lined up in favor of its continuance. But as soon as the fight against
the saloon had been carried to the point of its legal elimination many
of those who once supported the barroom because of the profit to them
became its opponents. Formerly the saloon was a center for the
corruption of many if not most of the youth in the community. Now,
most communities are bringing up a far higher grade of young people
morally than they once were because it is no longer necessary to fight
against this center of immoral infection.
The lesson these illustrations should teach is this: that the
conventional method used by the churches during the past half century
of depending almost entirely upon individual regeneration through
personal appeal as a means of salvation of the race has handicapped
the church and limited its effectiveness. When it is once understood
that the mind and the character of the individual can be influenced in
as many ways as there are social contacts, and when the means of
approach through all these contacts is understood, then the
effectiveness of the church will be immeasurably increased. Social
life must be saved not only through individual regeneration but also
through the establishment of a right attitude on the part of the
individual and as many individuals as possible. On the other hand,
individual attitudes can be established in large part by bringing
about, through means now fairly well understood, good economic
conditions and social organization.
The sad part about the traditional limited method of approach to
improvement of group life has been that in probably the majority of
cases impulses were aroused by personal appeal to do good and then
through ignorance of objectives in group advance those impulses were
allowed to die. The "backslider" is an excellent illustration of the
results of periodic renewal of impulse to right living. In most other
cases the impulses thus aroused have found their expression in a
hypersensitiveness in regard to certain phases of personal conduct.
Emphasis upon personal moral conduct to the exclusion of effective
interest in social progress characterized much of the product of the
personal evangelistic campaigns carried on periodically during the
past two or three generations, while the real work of making the world
better has been directed by men and women not particularly subject to
these periodical waves of religious impulses but imbued with a steady
abiding faith in the worth of social action. They have had the good
impulses, but these impulses have been steadied and rendered
permanently valuable because faith based on knowledge of objectives
was available.
If the serious errors of the past are to be avoided it will be
necessary for those intrusted with responsibilities of church
leadership to vastly increase their knowledge of problems of group
life and of methods of control of group life. The following pages are
designed to aid the prospective religious leader, either professional
or lay, as far as possible in understanding some of the problems that
must be dealt with in making human life what Christianity hopes for.
Results already have been achieved sufficient to place beyond question
the principle that the church must approach life from every possible
angle. The effort to produce right attitudes in the individual must be
continued, but the methods used must be varied and multiplied.
Furthermore, before the sound point of view with reference to the
method of approach to the problems of the church can be obtained it
will be necessary to have a clear understanding as to the place of the
child in the moral order. Those who derive their theology by reading
and interpreting isolated passages of the Scriptures sometimes arrive
at unexpected, and, from the point of view of rational living,
eccentric and positively harmful conclusions. Some devoted readers
find in the writings of Paul something about "Whereas in Adam all die,
in Christ all are made alive"; and in Christ's words the utterance to
Nicodemus, "Except a man be born again he shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven." They have drawn from these doctrines that all men are born
with sin inherent in their natures and that there is no good in the
soul until "conversion" has taken place. So long as these doctrines
find a place in the preaching and practice of churches the method of
world salvation will be radically different from that for which the
writer is contending.
In brief, if the words of Christ are taken at their face value when he
said "Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the
kingdom of heaven," we have an entirely different basis of approach to
our problem than if we assume that all are lost except those upon whom
the mystical influence of "conversion" in the traditional sense has
operated. If the assumption that children are born good is accepted,
then we are brought to the question, "How may these innocents be kept
so?" The answer is, By training them to control their natural
impulses, good in themselves but likely to lead into wrong if not
properly directed; and by cultivating the natural tendencies to good
that find expression in every normal child. They must also be brought
to an understanding of what Christ means to them as their Saviour and
Guide. Then this must be supplemented as rapidly as possible by the
organization of group life, in such a way that evil influences will be
eliminated.
The saloon was not many years ago the center of corruption of
thousands--yes, millions--of the growing youth of this country. The
elimination of the saloon has made possible the development of
millions of young people free from the particular type of sinfulness
for which the saloon was responsible. In like manner, the elimination
of commercialized vice has rendered our cities incomparably safer for
our young men and women than they once were. The substitution of
wholesome amusement for young folks in good environment for the
unregulated commercialized amusements once the sole source of
recreation has exerted a moral influence too far-reaching to be
estimated. The introduction of cooperation in industry has eliminated
the sin accompanying the fights between capital and labor in those
industries where it has been introduced. These illustrations show how
it is possible, by continuing the improvement of social and economic
conditions to create such an environment as will destroy the sources
of individual corruption and degeneration and will make the growth of
the child a continuous succession of stages of spiritual improvement
and growth. "Conversion" can thus conceivably become a conscious
personal acceptance of Christ and of the principles of Christianity as
the normal basis for right living without a noticeable break in the
course or direction of life rather than the intense emotional
cataclysm that so often characterized the change in hardened sinners.
When children good by nature are brought up in an environment physical
and spiritual that has been brought into harmony with the laws of God,
then the problems of evil will be reduced to those arising out of
natural causes over which man has not achieved control; and children
will be looked upon as the natural and rightful members of the church
instead of being kept out of the church until they reach the age of
accountability. The burden of getting out of the church should be put
on the child instead of the usual responsibility of deciding to come
into it.
It is customary for leaders of the church to assume credit for
practically all the good things going on in the direction of human
improvement by assuming that, though the church does not have a large
membership, comparatively speaking, its influence has inspired the
good work being done in social progress. It is well to face frankly
the fact that, whatever may have been the situation in the past, at
the present it is questionable whether the church has been the source
of even the larger portion of this inspiration. The public schools,
including the higher institutions of learning, have been socializing
the future leaders in social progress so that their inspiration has
been drawn from a concrete knowledge of social problems and from the
belief that humanity can, by proper effort, control conditions of
living. Then pragmatic results have furthered this belief until
inspiration has come from the achievement of results themselves rather
than from any recognition of Christian influence in social life. The
Christian religion is doubtless responsible for those things most
worth while in modern life, but other sources of inspiration have
developed for which Christianity does not get the credit.
The conclusion of the whole matter is that in the past two or three
generations two marked divisions have grown up, the one a section or
wing inside the church which has placed sole emphasis upon individual
regeneration as the method of social progress; the other largely
outside the church, with emphasis upon social reform as the method of
advance. What is needed is a widening of the field so that the methods
of social improvement proved to be of value by social workers will be
adopted as valid methods of bringing about the kingdom of God. On the
other hand, social workers must give more attention to the
regeneration of the individual. When each of these groups recognizes
the value of the program of the other, then it will be difficult to
distinguish longer between churchmen and social workers. The two
groups will, in fact, join hands, and by unifying and coordinating
efforts will work more effectively in attaining a common aim. The
basis, then, for the program for the church which will touch all
phases of human interest in a vital way is that every human interest
has its effect on the welfare of the soul. And a program that fails to
take into account every approach to the individual can at least be but
partial.
Again, it will be necessary to revise popular impression as to just
what is spiritual. The farmer who after having a most unusual
"spiritual experience" at a revival service angrily opposed a local
movement for consolidation of schools because such a move would
increase taxes had an idea of religion that was strictly personal--and
anti-social. The church leader who feared that the encouragement of
social-center activities by the church would ultimately result in a
condition in which the social activities of the church would
overshadow the "spiritual," had in mind a distinction that must be met
and understood if the church is to broaden its program without losing
its identity as a religious institution. The minister who, while
praising a community-club movement which had brought to the community
many improvements and a better moral condition, stated that it was
injuring the "church," either saw a real conflict between "spiritual"
and "social" welfare or had a misconception as to what is spiritual.
The problem seems to arise out of a tendency which has crept into
theological thought to limit "spiritual" things to mystical personal
experiences. With this definition of spiritual things there seems to
have come a tendency to look upon any type of activity that was of a
practical nature, such as providing for the recreational needs of the
community, organizing a campaign for better reading facilities for
country people, or for better farming, as not spiritual, and
consequently be sedulously avoided by the church. Perhaps there is no
thought in American rural life to-day that causes more trouble to the
aggressive rural minister of the modern type than this. His young men
and women want to broaden the scope of the church, but the trustees,
and those whose word counts toward the selection of pastors and their
removal, often oppose anything being done by the church which is not
customary and accordingly, as they think, not spiritual.
Christ said "I am come that ye might have life, and have it more
abundantly." If this statement is accepted at its face value, then we
have the foundation for judging every activity in which the church may
partake. Does the activity tend to increase the material and spiritual
welfare of the community, so that the influences that tend to the
extermination of the group are less? If so, then it conforms to the
purposes of the coming of the Christ. On the other hand, if the
activity does positively lessen the resistance of the community,
reducing it ultimately to a lower scale of living characterized by
those things that are recognized as harmful, then it is not a
legitimate part of church work. It also follows that if such harmful
conditions exist in the community without a protest on the part of the
church or without some definite effort to eliminate them, then the
church is not living up to the high calling expected of it by the
Master. The term "spiritual" is, accordingly, much more inclusive than
has been popularly supposed, and one of the great contributions of
social science during the past few decades has been to bring to the
public mind the knowledge that man and his spirituality cannot be
dealt with individually but must be included in all those
relationships that affect the soul of the individual.
While the succeeding pages have to do with the social aspects of the
spiritual life of man, it must never be forgotten that the
regeneration or the quickening of the individual is at least half of
the task in community progress. The life of the honest, upright man,
whose soul has been set on fire by contact with the flame of divine
love, whose heart has been brought into harmony with the divine will
of God, becomes in itself a point for the radiation of impulses for
right living. And when these impulses are directed into useful
channels through a broadened understanding of sound objectives in
social progress, then real advance is possible.
There are many other phases of thought that act as a hindrance to the
advance of the spiritual kingdom in rural America, but these
illustrations will be sufficient to show what must be cleared away
before the broad program of the modern rural church can be
whole-heartedly accepted. In fairness to the writer it should be kept
in mind, as stated in the definitions given at the opening, that this
text has nothing to do with those vital elements of religious
organization and service which are intended to keep alive man's belief
in a divinity and in immortality except in so far as these beliefs
affect community relationships. The discussion of these subjects
falls, rather, into the realm of theology. It is hoped that at least
the principles underlying the movement toward broadening the program
of the rural church have been clearly, if briefly, stated, and that
the movement toward a larger concept of the religious forces as a
factor in rural progress will continue to spread at an accelerating
speed.