THE CHURCH AND RURAL PUBLIC THOUGHT
Many city pastors, and some rural ones too, lament the fact that
people do not come to listen to them preach. This condition is in
marked contrast to the good old New England days, when the whole
neighborhood would turn out and listen to sermons four hours long. It
is a question whether such intellectual giants as Jonathan Edwards
built up such congregations or whether such congregations brought out
the best in Jonathan Edwards.
People to-day go to church for a variety of reasons. But the dominant
motives that should prevail are those of worship and for instruction.
All Christians should attend religious services for worship regardless
of the quality of the sermon or the personal attitude of the people
toward the minister. The message from the pulpit should be such that
it too would attract for its own sake. It is the exceptional city
minister that can fill the pews from week to week and from year to
year because of the type of message given. The daily papers and the
many other agencies for discussion of live topics have become so
numerous that the pulpit has lost much of its original importance as
an agency for instruction. But in the village and the open country the
pulpit still has a large field for service in this respect and thus
becomes an especial challenge to the one who wants to develop as a
leader of thought. The village minister has an opportunity unique in
American life in this respect. Some of the greatest leaders of thought
ever produced were the product of the village churches of England and
Scotland. There is no reason why the village church of America should
not become the seedbed for the best contributions to religious,
philosophical, and literary thought of the present day.
It will be impossible to give more than a few illustrations of present
needs and opportunities for service in this respect in the smaller
communities. One of the first tasks of the church is the introduction
of correct thought in regard to religious beliefs. It is almost
unbelievable the amount of actual superstition and positively harmful
beliefs that prevail under the guise of religion not only in rural but
in urban communities. An example of this is the widespread belief in
the second coming of Christ at an early date. Educational institutions
of national note are continuously laboring to extend this form of
belief. The question as to whether Christ will ever come again is one
that does not appear to have any immediate social significance other
than it may have some influence on conduct as to the method of
preparation for his coming. Those who believe in such coming may
either believe that all efforts at social improvement now are
fruitless, because the ultimate inauguration of the Kingdom will
result from the sweeping away of everything that now exists and in the
inauguration of a new social order out of the ruins of the old. Or
they may believe that the efforts of the churches and other agencies
now are preparing the way for such coming, and the inauguration of the
Kingdom will be but the next step in an orderly process of social
progress. There is reason to believe that many of those who are
teaching the second coming are inclined to the former point of view;
and wherever they gain a hearing their influence practically nullifies
all efforts to enlist their followers in any program of social
improvement.
The effect of a belief in an immediate coming of Christ as indicated
by present world conditions interpreted in the light of Old and New
Testament prophecy is to paralyze all motive for social action. Such
action, if this belief is correct, is useless. The devotee is driven
to the position of finding his sole religious duty that of getting
himself and those in whom he is interested ready to enter the new
kingdom through the observance of the personal elements in religious
life.
Another belief that in some sections has a limited influence is that
of observance of Saturday instead of Sunday as the day set apart by
biblical authority as the Sabbath. Without commenting on the rightness
or the wrong of the contention, it should be remembered that this
belief has resulted in some sections in practically the breakdown of
observance of the Sabbath by rural communities, without a
corresponding gain in Saturday observance. Community solidarity for
either social or religious purposes is thus broken up. From the social
point of view this is distinctly unfortunate.
Again, in some sections religion has taken an extreme form of
antagonism to anything of a practical type. The extremes to which the
emotional expression of religion has gone have been such that these
groups have become popularly known as "Holy Rollers." Wherever this
type of religious expression breaks out in a rural community it
severely handicaps all efforts at making the church function as an
agency for rural progress. The energies of such devotees are so
exhausted in their services that they lack the energy, even if they
had the inspiration, to link their efforts to any program of community
betterment. This group is usually found not only opposing progressive
measures in the church but also opposing other progressive activities
in the community, such as better schools, road improvement, etc.
In isolated sections of rural America all over the country may be
found groups of Latter Day Saints. These groups are not yet of
sufficient strength to be of great importance outside of Utah and a
few other Western States. But the existence of an organized group
anywhere, particularly if it is of a missionary character, is likely
to spread and ultimately become a factor of considerable importance.
Anyone visiting the Mormon Temple at Salt Lake and reading on the
monuments to Joseph and Hiram Smith the testimony in letters of stone
to the effect that Joseph discovered the message of the Book of Mormon
on gold plates, and that Hiram was the witness thereof, will realize
how easy it is to spread almost any belief under the guise of religion
if the children are taught such doctrines during their youth.
It will be unnecessary to go through the whole catalogue of beliefs
finding expression in the dogma of practically all religious
organizations, and in times past dividing the followers of
Christianity into denominational groups. The most serious problems of
adjustment of religious institutions for community service grow out of
these differences in belief on points of dogma.
The solution of the problem of clearing the field of unwholesome and
injurious belief lies not in writing polemics against them but in
filling the minds of the people with unquestioned truth. As the rural
mind is directed to the consideration of topics of vital importance
these things that have crept in and disturbed social order and
dissipated precious energies in fruitless discussion will disappear
through lack of attention. On the other hand, persecution will attract
attention to and arouse the fanatical support of them and distract the
attention of the group from matters of more vital importance.
In addition to preaching those sermons which keep alive in community
consciousness the sense of man's obligations to his Maker, the
significance and solemnity of death and those other epochal events in
the course of human existence, and the hope given to man of a fuller
life through the coming of Christ, the minister has certain great
moral ideals that he should instill into the minds of his people.
The matter of honesty in dealing with both the farmer and his
neighbors both near and distant has already been mentioned.
The right attitude toward wealth accumulation must also be preached
not only for the safety of the rural community but also for the
entire nation. By the very nature of the business the vast majority of
people living in small communities and on the farms must remain
indefinitely people of modest means. The possibilities of large wealth
accumulation are limited because the farm must continue to be a small
scale industry. It can be improved so as to afford adequate leisure.
But farm life does not promise large enjoyment to those of an
epicurean turn of mind. The ideal of the farm must be that of
producing wealth so that the modest comforts of life may be insured.
But the minister must exalt the appreciation of those things that may
be obtained without lavish expenditure of money, such as local
entertainment produced by the community itself, literature, music, and
art; and the simple pleasures that come from democratic association
with intimate acquaintances.
It is believed that with all the material progress of this country, it
has had to sacrifice many things that are worth far more than the
types of enjoyment obtained by slavish imitation of the extremely
wealthy leisure class in the cities. The exhortation to preach the
values of the simple pleasures possible in smaller communities is not
for the purpose of keeping people contented with a lot that cannot be
improved, but because it is believed that the smaller communities
to-day contain within themselves and their ideals the seed of
rejuvenation of all life, and that a greater contribution can be made
by rural communities to civilization by adhering to their ideals than
by being diverted from them by the money-seeking, materialistic ideals
of the urban centers. The best in rural ideals must ultimately become
the ideals of the city if we are to avoid the degeneration that will
inevitably follow a too materialistic urban civilization.
The pastor should be able to bring to his people from time to time the
interpretation of national and world events in terms of their relation
to the advance of religious progress. This obligation will require
constant and wide reading about the social movements of the time. In
the more progressive communities many of the farmers and their
families will have access to literature that will enable them to form
their own conclusions to a large degree. But not many of them, even
though they be college graduates, will have the time to read as
widely as they would like on any of the great changes taking place;
and they will welcome an intelligent interpretation of these by the
one who has the larger opportunities for such service.
Finally, the preacher must be a prophet. He must have caught the
vision of tendencies in human life and be able to bring to his people
the evidences of the hand of God working out the course of the human
race in the infinite stream of human history. He must believe, with
Tennyson, in a "far off divine event, toward which the whole creation
moves," or with Shakespeare when he said "There's a divinity that
shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will." If he can bring his
people to see that, even though they may be living in some obscure
corner of the earth, they have a part in the great movements going on,
and that they can render a service by doing what they are able in
supporting the programs for which the church stands, he will be
contributing his share to the wholesome attitude needed in our rural
communities.