Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/840

 820 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

promote healthful sociability and fellowship ; narrow attitude of the church, engendering division in society by cultivating piety as an isolated thing and by emphasizing creed above character and social welfare.

Another influence, which is not perhaps so potent in disor- ganizing rural life, yet which blunts and kills its finer qualities, is the ugliness of human habitations in the country. The fol- lowing testimony of two rural oracles is undoubtedly true:

Slatternliness in and around the house repels from their homes many youths who otherwise might be bound by the strongest ties to their firesides.

A village which is down at the heels, whose streets are unkempt, whose houses are unsightly, whose citizens are in a condition of chronic slouchiness, cannot hope to attract to it those who would add to its material or moral wel- fare.

It would seem that a village, with its many church-spires pointing to the sky, would be the center of growing civic and religious life. On the contrary, the ethical and religious condi- tion of the rural community seems to be very low. Idleness, vulgarity, and drunkenness seem to be on the increase, while the churches appear to be gradually dying for lack of commu- nity interest. The causes leading to this sad condition are many.

Migration has deprived the church of its best element. Immigration has brought into the farming districts a class of people not friendly to the church of Puritan ideals. Denomina- tionalism has subdivided the small community into organizations too weak to do anything but barely to live ; while its fierce strife and contentions have created a feeling of disgust and reli- gious indifference. Irregular and inefficient ministers, narrow in theology and weak in personality, have added to the growing indifference. A lack of means to carry on the work has put the church in a begging attitude, depriving it of its spiritual aggres- siveness. The preaching of dogma and the emphasis of creed above character have deprived the church of the sympathy of the people. An undue worship of cherished ecclesiastical tradi- tions compels the use of a polity inefficient and untimely. An illogical application of successful urban methods to rural prob-