Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/645

 WORKINGMAN'S ALIENATION FROM THE CHURCH 625

as in its membership. In other words, the apparently inconsistent lives of those who profess to love the church is an excuse most difficult to meet.

Indifference :

No real reason ; they are more ready to bluff me when I invite them than to suggest any genuine reason for absence from the church.

The remedies proposed are :

More spiritual life and personal effort for non-churchgoers. Writes one correspondent :

Christians should be more spiritual in heart and life, and so be better fitted for personal effort with all classes.

Show that the church cares for the welfare of the working- man, not as a workingman, but as a man :

There is not much sympathy now between employers and employes ; each is seeking to get the better of the other, and there is an impression that the church does not, as a body, care for workingmen, as distinguished from salaried men. I think if I were preaching I would not say much about classes, but of the pressing need of all men to seek salvation through Christ.

True living by Christians :

We must be sure and serve our earthly employers faithfully, not as eye- servants, but as honest Christians.

We next corrie to the most interesting and important evi- dence of all. Here we have neither the possible " professional bias" of the labor representative, nor the different point of view of the workingman within the church, but the alienated workman speaking for himself. We should here, if anywhere, strike the root of the matter.

In the replies received from this class, five causes of aliena- tion appear :

Loss of faith :

Men have grown hard under bitter conditions, and think of God as unjust and unkind, if there be any God.

Childhood training. A bookbinder replies :

Men do not go to church because they had so little training at home when they were children. If the Bible be not taught them at home and in Sunday school, they will not be found in church in later years.

Using Sunday for rest and recreation :

It is the disposition of many to make Sunday a day of recreation.