Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/32

 l8 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

active members of the socialist party should warmly support the fellowship was incomprehensible.

Equally strange was the fact that the Christian socialists did not begin a propaganda to christianize the socialists, but con- fined themselves to doing socialist propaganda among the Chris- tians — not the propaganda of a diluted socialism, but the same straight, uncompromising socialism for which the socialist party stood. Filled with hatred and distrust of Christian socialism, many went to the lectures and meetings arranged by the fellow- ship, expecting to detect the cloven hoof of their devil. They were dumbfounded to discover that, except for some devotional exercises, and the use of a somewhat strange theological jargon, the meetings were just like those arranged by the party. Often there were the same speakers — prominent socialists of undoubted integrity, not Christians, often, indeed, Jews! The burden of the speeches was the same : men were urged to support the social- ist party; the "class struggle" was clearly enunciated; sometimes the red flag was much in evidence. Christian ministers preached openly in support of the socialist party, and urged their hearers to vote for Mr, Debs, the socialist-party candidate!

Here was a miracle: an inexplicable thing. The socialists of Europe heard of it and read about it and were staggered by the new phenomenon. Professor Ragaz, a theological professor of Zurich, himself a socialist, declares that there was intense astonishment on the part of the social democrats of Europe at the socialist orthodoxy displayed at the Christian-socialist con- ferences held in various American cities. They could not under- stand the union of Christian belief with the most uncompromis- ing adherence to the Marxian philosophy. "How can that sort of regular party doctrine come from Christians?" they asked. One of the most prominent social democrats in Freiburg, Ger- many, exclaimed with amazement: "Why, good straight party members, who have worked for socialism for years, have left here to go to America, and we hear after a while that he or she actually goes to church, and one has even joined a church. What kind of a church, and what kind of a socialist movement have you got over there, anyhow ?"

In fact the fellowship is not a Christian-socialist organization