Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/643

WORKINGMAN-S ALIENATION FROM THE CHURCH 623 dark .... and the effort of the church to reconcile the commercial morals of modern industrialism with the revelation of human law and life in Christ is treason to the kingdom of God in the eyes of most of my associates.

The church does not treat living issues:

Mr. Casson. — The church must base its right to existence on present usefulness, on character, and on living issues, and not on a past revelation and a future life. This we have done in our labor church, and have no trouble in reaching the masses.

The church frowns upon trade unions:

Mr. Gompers. — The means and methods which my associates have, by experience, learned to be particularly successful in maintaining their rights and securing improved conditions — i. e., organization of the trade unions — have been generally frowned down upon with contempt, treated indifferently, or openly antagonized by the ministers and the apparently staunch supporters of the church.

Pew rents are an objection:

Mr. Casson. — They cannot pay for a front pew, and are too self-respecting to take a back one.

Church services are stale and uninteresting:

Mr. Paige. — I don't find the average sermon preached in the churches interesting to the union workingmen. They are interested in a shorter working day, more pay for their labor, better homes to live in, and better conditions for their families and children in this world, which the church ignores.

Mr. Casson. — Church services are stale and uninteresting to practical or hungry men.

For these evils, four remedies are suggested:

The ministry must show their sympathy with the great struggling mass of workingmen. Mr. Gompers thinks that there is an honorable exception to the ministers of whom he has previously spoken in

The men who preach from their pulpits and breathe with every word their sympathy with the great struggling masses of humanity;. . . . these ministers you will find always interesting, and not only interesting, but the churches filled with the workers who go to hear them.

Mr. Lennon testifies that he himself is a churchgoer, and continues:

I believe the church will fill with workers and their families as soon as the church makes manifest its intention to help the masses to secure a better and more comfortable daily life.