Is the Church Christian?
Dr. Newton Answers Question in the Negative
A prominent Episcopal clergyman argues the institutional church of 1900 has abandoned the teachings of Jesus in favor of commercialism and the comfort of the well-to-do, a sharp bit of turn-of-the-century religious self-criticism.
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Mesa Free Press · June 1, 1900 · Page 1
2 min readThe Christian Citizenship League recently sent to a number of representative women and men of advanced thought this question. "Is the church Christian? Does she stand for things for which Jesus stood and teach the truths He taught?"
Among the replies received was one from Dr. R. Heber Newton of All Souls' Church.
"In answer to your [question]," he said, "I can only at present give a word.
"If by this question, however, is meant, 'Is the church, as an organization, Christly, possessed of the spirit of Christ and following the teachings of Christ and organized upon the principles of Christ,' then I am afraid the answer must be 'No.'
"The teachings of the church for the most part are far from following the teachings of Jesus. Nay, they are far from recognizing what those teachings are. The [organization] of the church is planned and patterned upon a policy which is the very antithesis of a true society of Jesus.
"Commercialism dominates the organization and conventionality tyrannizes the pulpit. The law of the market, rather than the law of the mount, is accepted by the church at large.
"Our Protestant churches are composed, for the most part, of a constituency drawn from the well-to-do classes, and they see nothing essentially unsound or unethical in the economic system of the day. The pulpit, therefore, is really free to deliver its soul, if it has one, upon the burning questions of our generation.
"Blind leaders of the blind, both seem hastening to fall into the ditch which lies before our civilization. And yet, within the Christian church is the very ideal that the world hungers for, the very law that it needs to apply to its economic problems, the very power to solve these problems. Pathetic is the situation."
The Rev. W. D. Bliss, in a lecture at the Aurora Grata Cathedral, Brooklyn, yesterday, declared the church is not Christian and that the working people are leaving it because they are religious.
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