Some aspects of the race problem in the social gospel

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Content SOME ASPECTS OF THE RACE PROBLEM
IE THE SOCIAL GOSPEL
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the School of Religion
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Theology
by
Hamilton T. Boswell
May 1943
UMI Number: EP65125
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This thesis, written by
t
..........HAii/lXLXaîi..X-...BaS.ïiELL..................
under the direction of his.. Faculty Committee, s \
and approved by a ll its members, has been
presented to and accepted by the Faculty of the
School of Religion in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF THEOLOGY
Faculty Committee
Chairman
FOREWORD
The social gospel is a fact, and a fact of tremen
dous importance. If we will be sincere with historical
ChrisLlaiilty, the aims and visions of the great prophets,
and the challenging New Testament characters we cannot but
accept the implications of its social principles. We have
before us the prophetic religion of the Old Testament and
in the aims of Jesus Christ the reconstruction of the whole
of human life in accordance with the will of God and under
the motive power of religion as the ruling purpose.
In consideration of the subject studied in this
thesis, that motive power of religion can best be expressed
as an aggressive opposition against the social wrong of
human exploitation. The vicious form of human exploitation
which is seen in racial segregation and discrimination in
this day of global war must become the major concern of
social reform. In the United States the denial of complete
social, political, and economic equality to the Negro,
Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, and other racial minorities
jeopardizes not only the war effort but any hope of durable
peace after the war.
Other organizations such as the Committee for
Industrial Organizations, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, the International Labor
Defense, and the Socialist party have organized programs
Ill
for the reforming of racial exploitation.
It is not enough for the Church to adopt statements
on the racial situation. The Church must begin a program
which will incorporate the social message of historical
Christianity with the techniques of modern social reform.
What this program will be, will depend upon those leaders
qualified in the workings of the social gospel.
A very hopeful expression of increasing church inter
est in racial exploitation came from the Fellowship of
Southern Churchmen, meeting at Black Mountain, North Caro
lina, in January, 1943. The churchmen called upon all
followers of Democracy and Christianity to become "color
blind"; and asked for complete social, political, and econ
omic emancipation for the Negro in a world that is seeking
true democracy. The statement declared that so long as we
perpetuate an attitude of race superiority in.this country,
"we crucify the hope of men everywhere for a sane and
decent world." It continued:
We who deny and defy the boastful claim of racial
superiority by the dictators must stop asserting this
claim by word or by deed amongst ourselves, but we in
America:.sanction its continuance thru our Irresponsible
and callous indifference to the legitimate claims of
our own.
We cannot with clean hearts struggle for the Four
Freedoms . . . unless we begin the practice of them
in our own land now.^
1
People ^ 8 Voice, January 2, 1943.» citing report
given at the meeting of the Southern Churchmen, Black Moun
tain, North Carolina, January, 1943.
Iv
Such a statement coming from a Southern organization is
encouraging because of the intensity of the racial situation
in the South.
This might well be the beginning of a new commit
ment by the Church in the interest of oppressed humanity.
From the cotton fields of the South, the tobacco fields of
the Atlantic Seaboard, the slums of New York City, Chicago,
Dallas, Atlanta, and Los Angeles millions of black folk,
shackled by the bonds of racial exploitation, are struggling
and anxiously awaiting a second emancipation from the social,
political, and economic slavery of American democracy.
In all awareness of the handicaps of the Church in
a society of power politics and its dependence upon
capitalistic society, the Church can within its own insti
tutions emancipate minority groups by scrapping its color
line. Is it too much to ask of the Church who claims as
its Christ, a son of Jewish culture, the recognition of
his people and. kindred races? If Negro, Jew, Mexican, and
other races can walk the same streets, attend the same
schools, why cannot they attend the same churches? If a
Negro, Mexican, or Chinese minister meets the. same qualifi
cations for the ministry as a white minister, why cannot he
pastor the same churches? In these questions is found that
which the Church can do and must do. If the asking for
racial equality in the Church is not too much, why then can
V
we not work toward that end? The future of the Church, its
power, and influence for a new era depends upon that which
is done now. Today, therefore, must be a day of action,
positive action, a day that demands that we act in the con
sciousness that we are right, and that time and numbers are
on our side.
TABLE OP CONTENTS
CHAPTER PACE
I. THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITION OF TERMS USED .... 1
The problem . ............ 1
Statement of the problem ................... 1
Importance of the study . 2
Definition of terms used . 3
Social gospel .............................. 3
The race problem • 4
Organization of remainder of thesis ........... 6
II. THE RISE OF SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY............... 10
. Historical beginnings of the social gospel . 10
Social Christianity ignored .......... 23
Social Christianity returns ............... 30
Application of social Christianity to
certain social problems ................. 33
The philosophy for overcoming human
exploitation .............................. 37
III. THE RACE PROBLEM AN ASPECT OF HUMAN EXPLOITA-
TION.......................................... 42
The historical aspects of the race problem . 42
The race problem in the United States . . . 49
The Negro problem in the United States . . . 51
IV. SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY ATTACKS THE RACE PROBLEM . . 63
vil
CHAPTER PAGE
The color line in the Church................ 64
Handicaps of the Church in combating basic
social issues ................... 7I
Social pronouncements, a church technique for
exerting influence .................... 73
Social pronouncements on economic conditions
and industrial relations ................. 76
Pronouncements on the race problem.......... 88
The approach to the race problem of church
related inter-racial agencies ........ . 104
Summary.................................... II6
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.......................... 119
Summary.................................... 119
Conclusions................................ 124
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................... 126
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM AND DEFINITION OF TERMS USED
Social •Christianity arose to prominence in the United
States as the result of the impact of modern industrial
society and scientific thought upon the Church. American
Protestantism found itself in the midst of this social
change and recognized the need of a new approach and appli
cation of Christian principles to the growing problems of
the day. The Social Gospel is this new application of the
teachings of Jesus not only to individuals, but also to
social institutions and to the economic way of life. It
calls for social salvation as well as individual salvation.
The Social Gospel has formulated a progressive theology
interwoven with a social philosophy for the total redemption
of man and society.
I. THE PROBLEM
Statement of the problem. It is the purpose of this
study (l) to show that the social gospel is a product of
historical Christianity; (2) to examine the economic
dimensions of the Negro problem in the United States; (3)
to review the stand of the Chruch and related agencies at
work, inspired by social Christianity, on the social evil of
human exploitation.
2
Importance of the study. Christianity is in the midst
of a great social crisis. Now, as never before, her voice
must be heard, and her energies used in the interest of social
justice. AntiChristian forces are becoming bolder and
stronger, attempting to destroy those principles forged from
the sufferings and sacrifices of Jesus. The task of
Christianity is to confront these forces in whatever form
they may come.
It is important and necessary that the problem of
human exploitation disguised as a problem of cultural and
racial inferiorities be met and defeated. The full realiza
tion of Christianity cannot be so long as these differences
exist. Much time and thought has been given to perpetuating
theological dogmas and creeds, but only too little has been
exerted in combatting the problem of human exploitation.
There are some studies of the social gospel relating to
capital, labor, economics, poverty, housing, industry
urbanization, war, pacifism, and other social problems. It
is, therefore, important that a study of racial exploitation
be made from the records of social Christianity, its insti
tutions, clergy, related agencies and those who share in its
tradition.
Many questions confronted the writer as the attempt
was made to analyze the aspects.of the race problem in the
social gospel. (l) Why was social Christianity left out of
3
the teachings and doctrines of the early Church? (2) What
happenings in the nineteenth century caused American Protes
tantism to revive the social message? (3) How much of the
social gospel has been applied to the race problem? (4)
What has the Church done with the race problem? (5) What
can be expected of the Church? (6) What can social Chris
tianity contribute to the solution of human exploitation?
II. DEFINITION OF TERMS USED
Social gospel. The social gospel is an American con
cept of social Christianity. The name grew out of the colon
ization of the Christian Commonwealth Colony in Georgia, one
of the most unique communistic experiments in American
history.^ This concept became the name of the official
publication of this society. Shailer Mathews^ introduced it
into, scholastic circles as the title for his work on the
social teachings of Jesus and their modern application.
The social gospel was organized into a system of
social Christianity by Walter Rauschenbush who defined it
as "the old message of salvation, but enlarged and intensi-
^ C. H. Hopkins, The Rise of the Social Gospel in
American Protestantism (New Haven: Yale University Press;
London;:’ Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1940),
p. 195.
^ Shailer Mathews, The Social Gospel (Philadelphia
The Griffith and Rowland Press, 1910), lob pp.
4
fied."^ In his book, A Theology for the Social Gospel, he
clearly explains that the social gospel has its interest in
the problems of this world, within the social relations of
the life that is now. Because of this, it has none or
little interest in the more speculative doctrines. It is
concerned with the eradication of sin and the fulfillment of
the mission of redemption. The duty of the social gospel
is to convince mankind that despite human weakness we can
make this world a much better world in which to live, and
that it is our bounden duty to God to work toward that end.
The race problem. The race problem, for the purpose
of this study, is considered from some of its social rela
tionships with other social forces in society. The theory
of human exploitation as the major cause of the problem is
the foundation of an approach for its solution. The race
problem on the basis of physiological differences is not
sufficient to be the one cause which is held by the racial
philosophies to justify racial discrimination and segrega
tion. There are too many exceptions to the theories of
racialism which disprove, father than prove, racial superi
orities. These physiological differences have been used as
alibis to cover hidden motives of greed and economic exploi
tation which prove to be destructive to humanity in general
5 Walter Rauschenbush, A Theology for the Social
Gospel, p. 196.
rather than to so-called Inferior races.
Most men would agree that our present problem of
problems was not the color problem, but what we call
Labor, the problem of allocating work and income in
the tremendous and increasingly intricate world em
bracing industrial machine that our civilization has
built.^
The Negro problem is used in particular in this study
because it represents America's largest minority racial
group. The history of the American Negro from slavery to
his present status proves him to have been one of the most
segregated, discriminated and oppressed groups in American
democracy. These conditions present a large task on which
the social gospel must work, if it continues to be in keep
ing with its name.
The concept race is used in this study to denote the
major diivisions of mankind--black, brown, yellow, and white.
The basic racial stocks of the American Negro came from the
Negroid peoples of Africa; however, political and legal
forces in western civilization have defined the concept
Negro as being any person containing any amount of Negro
blood. Despite this questionable definition of the term
"Negro," it is nevertheless used in this study to determine
the areas of the Negro race in the United States.
In this Study the investigator is aware of other
approaches to the race problem, although the approach in
^ Alain Locke, The New Negro (New York: Albert &
Charles Boni, 1925)^ p« 36l.
6
this study views the Negro as an exploited worker. Sociologi
cal, anthropological, genetical, environmental, cultural,
and other distinguishing factors are important in confronting
the problem of race. But there is much evidence to show
that among the myriad of factors involved, the factor of
human exploitation as a basic cause of the race problem has
received not too much attention.
III. ORGANIZATION OF REMAINDER OF THESIS
It is the opinion of the investigator that in such a
study the historical background of the subject must be in
cluded in the work in order to uphold the findings of the
study. Especially is this true in religious studies because
of the varieties of religious ideologies. The attitude of
"other-worldliness" is yet a very respectable approach to
religion in many religious denominations in American Protes
tantism, and adherents are found in large numbers, who are
active opponents of the social gospel. An analysis of
Christianity clearly shows the individual as well as the
social approach to salvation. Despite this, however, the
Church labors under the burden of the extremists of both
points of view.
The Gospel of Christ clearly relates the individual
to eternity and his preparation for the life to come, but it
also demands righteousness of the individual and society
7
here and now. We have social as well as individual respon
sibilities; we cannot succeed in one without succeeding in
the other. They are concomitants.
Because of this dual approach, the historical begin
nings of social Christianity are included. The prophets of
the Old Testament challenged their people to righteousness,
justice, and love in the social order. Jesus of Nazareth
was aware of social injustice and taught men to love their
neighbors as they loved themselves. Despite this, however,
the institutionalism of the Church failed to emphasize the
social message. The Church fathers devoted themselves to
speculations on the nature of Christ and the development of
elaborate doctrines; and, as a result, the social approach
was neglected.
The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century
caused the Church to face the increasing injustice and
misery which accompanied the new order. Theologians redis
covered the social message and began applying it to rising
social injustices. The abolition of slavery was greatly
accelerated as a result of this new social consciousness.
The Church became interested in the world surrounding it.
Labor, capital, housing, working conditions, child labor,
and many other problems of the day were reconsidered.
Scholars of social Christianity appropriated the
theory of evolution, and developed social philosophies on
8
the premise of the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of
man, the immanence of God, and the solidaristic view of
society.
Social Christianity fortified with the restored
social message has made outstanding progress in the attempt
to establish the Kingdom of God. A study of the race
problem becomes increasingly important as an aspect of the
restored social message. America fails to discover the
realization of democracy by the barriers of racial segrega
tion, discrimination, prejudice, persecution, and exploita
tion. The American Negro has been the Number One victim of
these practices. The Negro's case has been isolated and
interpreted mostly as a conflict of racial differences.
Concealed in the shadows, however, are factors of economic
strife which appear consistently in the struggle. The
popular justifications' are found in superstitious and un
scientific attitudes concerning the Negro and these beliefs
result in determining his social and economic status.
The correction of any social injustice to some extent
improves the position of the Negro. The question remains
whether these corrections have been followed through to in
sure their application on all groups in society? Better
working conditions, wages, housing, the right of collective
bargaining, the right to organize, and other social gains
have been made, but the problem remains of applying them
9
consistently as social gains for all groups?
The main chapter of the thesis studies social Chris
tianity and its methods of dealing with the race question
in light of the theory of human exploitation. The Church,
has a race problem, and has endeavored to ease the tension
in many ways. There have been innumerable pronouncements by
many denominations. These are compared with pronouncements
on other social problems. The methods and techniques of
Church related inter-racial societies are likewise examined.
The concluding chapter summarizes the study and its
findings, and presents the tremendous opportunity which
awaits the Church, if it will apply in full its founder's
message of social and individual salvation.
CHAPTER II
THE RISE OP SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY
Social Christianity is not modern in origin, but had
its inception in the beginnings of Christianity. The social
impulse which is outstanding in the teachings of Jesus was
his inheritance from the religion of the prophets.
Historical beginnings of the social gospel. The
message of the social gospel had its beginnings in the re
ligion of the Hebrew prophets. These men throughout the
history of the Hebrews were dominant influences on the
social life of their people. They represented the social
conscience of Israel and Judah. In every crisis they came
forth demanding righteousness on the part of rulers and
populace alike. Conceptions of God were not permitted to
become stagnant and ineffective, but were kept fresh and
pure by their constant exhortations and rebukings of organ
ized religion. As a result, the conception of God was
changed from that of a tribal primitive god, a god among
many, to a God of the Universe, who wanted His people to
love justice and walk humbly in His sight.1
During the formative centuries of the prophetic
^ MiGah vi. 8.
11
tradition many fundamental social principles were worked out
in practical experience, formulated by Israel's prophets and
lawgivers, and enforced by popular action. The main princi
ple of the prophetic social idealism is that the state is
made to promote the welfare of the people. No ruler has the
right to act for personal interest against the poorest or
humblest person in that society. When rulers fail to pro
mote the common welfare the citizens have the right to
depose them and to take such steps necessary to protect the
public interest. In other words, the ultimate source of all
political authority rests with the people, and the safe
guarding of their welfare and interests is the primary aim
of all government.2
The warm passion for justice and righteousness which
is found in the works of the prophets does not end in the
pages of the Old Testament.- These social conceptions lived
through many generations and became powerful factors in the
social and political idealism of Christianity. The highest
ideals of human relations and social conduct can be traced
to the social visions of those God-fearing prophets. In
order to have a comprehension of the spirit of Jesus and
Christianity it is essential to have an understanding of
^0. P. Kent, The Social Teachings of the Prophets
and Jesus (New York: Scribners, 1917), p.
12
the prophets* ethical teachings and purposes.
For the purpose of this study it is not necessary to
present the prophets in their historical sequence, but only
to bare those factors which prove that a social emphasis of
Christianity is not a novelty. Christianity is but a word,
a meaningless combination of symbols, if it does not utilize
its passion for social justice, which is a large portion of
its heritage. It must of necessity rediscover its message
of social justice.
The message of the prophets was righteousness, that
God demands righteousness in their lives, not in the form of
a creed, but in action. The total religious life of the in
dividual and society, was to be a life of righteousness.
There were to be no substitutes or compromises. The per
forming of ritual and outward participation in religious
worship wm's not to be confused with living a life of right
eousness. "I desire goodness and not sacrifice," cried
Hosea,^ as he taught his people a greater conception of .God's
love. The religious degeneration of the people caused these
men to rebuke society in the name of Jehovah. They were
advocates of righteousness, and delivered its message in the
market square, in the royal court, at the festivals, and any
where else where there was evidence of unrighteousness.'^
^ Hosea vi. 6.
^ Amos iii. 8, 9, 10.
13
The true prophet did not compromise with the status
quo, but his message came from what the prophets believed to
be the inspiration of God. This is illustrated by the ac
tions of the prophet Micaiah who was called before Ahab and
Jehoshaphat. He was informed by the court messenger sent
to call him as to what he was to say in order to please the
king. But Micaiah answered, "as Yahweh lives, whatever
Yahweh tells me I will say. With this conviction the
prophets faced the social conditions around them.
The prophetic approach was ethical, and therefore
social. They were aware of the danger which made religious
worship purely a ceremonial affair.^ The primitive habit of
worship appealed to God by the use of bribes. If a man
offended his brother, the smell of burning flesh was thought
to be what God required as a means of repentance.? Rauschen-
busch properly sums up the prophetic ethical condemnation of
such practises:
Against this current conception of religion the
prophets insisted on a right life as the true worship
of God. Morality to them was not merely a prerequisite
of effective ceremonial worship. They brushed sacri
ficial ritual aside altogether as trifling compared
with righteousness, nay, as a harmful substitute and a
5 Kings, xxii. 15-23*
^ Mlcah Hi. 5-7.
7 Mlcah vi. 6-7-
14
hindrance for ethical religion.^
Ethical implications are found throughout the book of
Isaiah. The nation was experiencing disastrous times ; the
armies of Assyria, were becoming an increasing danger. The
priests were working frantically trying to appease the wrath
of Yehweh. Isaiah saw their efforts to be futile and ex
horted them to God's true demand.
Your hands are full of blood. Wash you.' Make
you clean.' Put away the evil of your doing from before
mine eyes I Cease to do evil î Learn to do right.'
Seek justice ! Relieve the oppressed.' Secure justice
for the orphaned and plead for the widow.9
The prophets were of the conviction that religion
and ethics are inseparable and that the best way to be re
ligious in its rightful meaning, is to have good ethical
conduct. Good ethical conduct could only be realized in the
total relationship of the individual and society. It de
manded that morality extend further than the private life
of the individual into social relationships. Here was the
biggest demand--that of national morality. The prophets saw
their people as an organic whole which committed injustice
as a group and should seek justice as a group. Rauschenbush
says in contrasting this with Christian civilization:
^ Walter Rauschenbush, Christianity and the Social
Crisis (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1907)^ p. 5-
9 Isaiah 1. 10-17.
15
The religious ideal of Israel was the theocracy.
But the theocracy meant the complete penetration of
the national life by religious morality. It meant
politics in the name of God. Thâ; line by which we
tacitly separate the domain of public affairs and
the domain of Christian life was unknown to them.
The belief in ethical religion and the solidaristic
view of society served as a foundation for criticism of the
social order. Within the Hebrew community there was much
injustice. The burden of support for the luxury of the
court and its parasites was upon the backs of the people.
Taxation was grossly out of proportion to the average income.
The market places seethed with cheating and overcharging.
Redress for such grievances was only won by those in court
favor. The prophets saw the conditions and dared to rebuke
those responsible.?^ Amos perhaps more than others dealt
with this exploitation of the poor by the rich. Kent, writ
ing of Amos, says, "With the remarkable thoroughness which
characterized all his thinking, Amos traced the cruel exploi
tation of the defenseless masses back to its ultimate
source.
It was likewise Amos who broke the bonds of provin
cialism and presented God as the universal God who judged
Walter Rauschenbush, Christianity and the Social
Crisis (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1924), p. BT
?? Zephaniah iii. 5-7* Jerimiah xxii. 13-19*
Jerimiah v. 30-31-
?2 Charles P. Kent, The Social Teachings of the
Prophets and Jesus (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1917),
F. 46.
16
all men alike. This perhaps was the first organized expres
sion of the universality of God:
Are ye not to me as the Cushites,
0 Israel? Is the oracle of Jehovah?
Did I not bring up Israel out of the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans
from Kir?13
The interests of the Prophets were more social than
individual in building the religious life. All injustice
against man was injustice toward God. The prophets visioned
a better world, a world of Godly realization, pervaded with
righteousness.
Despite the lusty, violent, and militaristic spirit
of their fiery tongues, they never lost faith in the possi
bilities of men to realize the righteousness of God.
The connecting link between the prophets and Jesus
Christ was John the Baptist. "The Law and the prophets were
until John; from that time the Gospel of the Kingdom of God
is preached and every man entereth violently into it.
The teachings of John the Baptist were the same pro
phetic plea for social righteousness. Seeing in Jesus the
stamina for the continuation of the cause of social right
eousness, he fervently endorsed the ministry of Jesus to
continue the social message of salvation and redemption.
Amos ix. 7*
Matthew xi. 2-19- Luke vii. 18-35*
17
John was believed by the people to be a rebirth of
the prophetic spirit. He wore the rugged garb; he spoke
fearlessly, and shared their consciousness of an inward
spiritual motivation. With this dynamic source of inspira
tion Jesus of Hazareth began his history-making career.
The social aim of Jesus was the rediscovery of the
entire social order on principles of righteousness, justice,
and brotherly love. Jesus defined the Kingdom of God as
being his fatherland, in which his spirit lived with God on
earth. This, however, did not imply a change from earth to
heaven, but a realization here and now.^5 A clearer state
ment of this meaning is found in Rauschenbush, "He never
transferred the kingdom hope from earth to heaven, nor did
he ever spiritualize the vitality out of it, as the Church
has so constantly done.”
Jesus saw the hypocrisy of the religious life of his
day and in the Sermon on the Mount illustrates his conception
of ethical and religious life, in contrast from those then
current.17
The man who wanted righteousness, yet fell short of
Luke xi. 2. Luke xvii. 20, 21. Luke vi. 20.
Matthew xiii. 24-30.
Walter Rauschenbush, The Social Principles of Jesus
(New York: Association Press,
Matthew v. 3-12.
18
it because of opposition was given encouragement to suffer
for it despite the public persecution and resistance.18
The public leaders and rich were too engrossed in the
selfishness and greed of the status quo; therefore, Jesus
sought his leaders from the poorer classes— the fishermen
and peasants--and created a new leadership.
When in the synagogue at Nazareth, he read from the
book of Isaiah and paraphrased his program of social redemp
tion. It meant good news to the poor; release to the cap
tives; sight to the blind; and liberty to the bruised and
frustrated life.19
The basic principles of Jesus’ social teachings can
be summed up in three statements. They are (l) the sacred
ness of human personality, (2) the interdependence of men,
and (3) the obligation of the strong to protect the weak.
All three principles are ungirded with his awareness of an
immanent God of love and justice.
Jesus saw the right to respect in the face of all
men whom he met. Because he saw God as the father of human
ity, that kinship in every individual of the human race is
due respect. Men are all children of God and even the lowest
are high. As a reflector reflects light cast upon it, thus
John viii. 22. Matthew v. 10.
Luke iv. l-l8.
19
Jesus reflected the light of God upon the multitudes of men.
To deny anyone his recognition as a worth-while per
son by bodily or spiritual injury, was held by Jesus to be
a sin against not only the person but God.^O Jesus not only
helped those who came to him with their injuries, but he
went out after them. Rauschenbush says of Jesus, "No human
being should go to pieces if he could help it.^^l
According to the current social gospel, modern civili
zation can only reflect the spirit of Christianity as we
approach all men with the knowledge that down beneath the
sordid, commonplace, wretched bodies there are capacities
for love, loyalty, heroism, aspiration, or repentance which
prove the divine kinship of man.
The second of Jesus’ principles establishes the basis
of society. Men belong together and cannot realize the
fullness of life except they live together. Jesus believed
in the solidarity of the human family. Love is the social
instinct which binds man and man together and makes them in
dispensable to one another. Jesus felt this solidarity of
the community groups in Galilee with whom he mingled, and
treated them as composite personalities jointly responsible
Mark ix. 40.
Walter Rauschenbush, The Social Principles of Jesus
(New York: Association Press, 1917)^ P* 5»
20
for their moral decisions. His love and respect was real
and genuine.
Because social unity was so important to Jesus, for
giveness was imperative. In the Lord’s Prayer'he makes full
fellowship with man, a condition for full fellowship with
God. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."^2
A world-wide civilization must have a world-wide faith which
is unitive and not divisive. The tenets of Christianity
have within its power the solidaristic view of all mankind,
but the failure of men to overcome prejudice has frustrated
its realization.
In the midst of a world of diverse selfishness,
prejudice, and war we as Christians are expected by the
social gospel to accept the brotherhood of man as the ruling
principle of our lives and undertake to put it into practice
in our private and public activities.
The third fundamental principle is the obligation of
the strong to stand up for the weak. This was the third
plank in the platform of Christ’s program. Everywhere he
saw the plight of the weak, the oppressed and handicapped.
Thus he announced his cause from Isaiah as bringing relief
and aid to the poor, blind, brokenhearted, and bruised.
Social and religious emancipation are woven together in
PP
Matthew vi. 12.
21
these phrases. Plainly, Jesus felt his mission in raising
to free and full life, those whom life had bound and held
captive. He loved people, felt their worth, trusted their
latent capacities, and promised them the Kingdom of God.^^
The God of Jesus is good and gracious and merciful. It is
not his will that any should perish; he goes out seeking
that which is lost and rejoices over it when it is found.'
His goodness extends even to the wicked and unthankful, and
it is just in this unmerited kindness that his perfectness
consists, a perfectness men ought to make their o w n . 24
Rauschenbush believes the organization of the disci
ples to have been for the purpose of relieving suffering
among the people who were as sheep after the wolves had
ravished the flock. "The selection of the twelve, their
grouping by two’s and their employment as independent mes
sengers, was the most important organizing act of Jesus out
of which ultimately grew the Christian Church."25
Wherever any group has developed real solidarity, its
best attention is always given to those who are most in need,
and in recent centuries the vast forces of social evolution
Luke iv. l-l8.
24 Arthur C. McGiffert, The God of the Early Chris
tians (New York; Scribners, 1925)> P* 5«
^5 Walter Rauschenbush, The Social Principles of
Jesus (New York; Association Press, 1917), P* 33•
22
seem to have set in the direction toward which Jesus faced.
The gospel' of Christ is a gospel built on the social
relations between men and with God. His ministry clearly
illustrates his warm passion for.the disinherited and least
in society. An analysis of his life, works, and teaching
reveals the social message of salvation which still cries
across the centuries. Out of the heritage of Judaism, nine
teen hundred years ago, there came a man and a message. And
through the channel of that event the course of civilization
has been redirected. Yet strange as it may seem, this re
directing force lived only by name until his rediscovery by
a French skeptic in the middle of the nineteenth century,
who wrote, "Vie da Jesu,”26 the first major writing on the
social message of the historical Christ. Thus many centur
ies had passed without the uncovering of the social concern
which Jesus had for society. The Church setting itself as
the center of Christianity had ignored the life and social
message of its founder. For nineteen hundred years the
gospel for which Jesus lived and died had been a lost gospel;
that which had meant the courage to suffer and sacrifice had
meant nothing to the Church.
The Kingdom of God [writes Booth] lingered on in
Christianity, and when and then as in Augustine’s
Ernest Renan, Life of Jesus (Hew York; Carleton,
1866), 376 pp.
23
theology, found expression in Christian literature, it
had been stripped of all the rich meaning which Jesus
invested it. And ultimately even the phrase vanished
from the vocabulary of the Church, from its commentar
ies, liturgies, creeds, hymns. Strangely enough, that
which was the central concept of Jesus’ mind was re
manded by the Church to the periphery of its thought,27
Social Christianity ignored. Primitive Christianity
composed of a proletarian constituency struggled to build
the Christian Church upon the social message of Christ.
There is no doubt that the gospel with its love of the poor
and down-trodden did attract the masses with its democratic
spirit. They were impressed by the promises of an ultimate
social justice and equality and gave vent to their heart
felt enthusiasm. Jesus was their champion and the good
news of the message drew them into accepting its disciple-
ship.
The spirit of the masses is found in the most radical
books of the New Testament. The Epistle of James flowers in
the zeal for equality and fair play by its scathing denuncia
tions of the rich and power-drunk world. It exalts the
riches of the spirit and the virtue of simplicity.
Hearken, my beloved brethren [writes the author]
did not God choose them that are poor as to the world
to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he
promises to them that love him?28
H. K . Booth, The Great Galilean Returns (New York
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1938), P- viii.
28 James ii. 5.
24
In this epistle the labor practices of that day are
criticized in no compromising terms.
Behold the hire of the laborers who mow your fields,
which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and
the cries of them that reaped have entered into the
ears of the Lord.29
Such a book as this reveals without question that
the early Church had an intense social fervor in following
the message of Christ. Booth, writing on the decline of the
social message in the early Church, says:
But our New Testament is a book of broadening
horizons and Christianity did not long remain Judaic;
for it records the speedy transition of the religion
of Jesus from the narrow confines of Palestine to the
great empire that Rome had created around the Mediter
ranean S e a .30
As much as Paul contributed to the growth of Chris
tianity, nevertheless, through him much of the transition
from the gospel of Jesus to a gospel about Jesus was incur
red. Paul lifted Jesus into a cathedral and placed him over
its high altars amid clouds of incense, to be worshipped
from afar by his fearing followers. Booth writes:
So the process of change, by which the original
gospel of Jesus lost its power and fervor, began when
Paul sought to interpret it to the Mediterranean world.
. . .31
James v. 5-
H. K. Booth, The Great Galilean Returns (New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936), P- 77*
31 Ernest Troeltsch, The Social Teachings of the
Christian Churches (New York; Macmillan, 193lJ, P- 69.
25
The Pauline theology conquered the Mediterranean
world even the powerful city of Rome, but in so doing it
lost,the message of Christ on social issues and so Christ
himself.
The Roman Empire, though tolerant of most religions,
persecuted the early Church because of its refusal of
emperor worship, its universalism, and its secretiveness.
Despite this, however, the Church increased yearly and en
trenched itself, despite persecution, into the framework of
Roman life. It endured its conflict with rival religions
and rose in victory with the new order over the declining
pagan empire. At the end of the four centuries the
Caesars fell before Constantine and the Cross. Of course
this was no religious transformation but the beginning of
political Christianity, the triumph of the Church and the
continued concealment of the social message of Jesus.
The Church seemingly anticipated this great change
and had established its administration on the pattern of
the state. The bishops had established authority in all
matters covering the life of its people. They took over
money and land and had created and controlled diverse forms
of organized effort for human welfare. When the Church and
State became one, the power of the bishop expanded over
civil affairs and later over the whole of society. Troeltsch
explains the transition of temporal power to the Church in
26
the following;
The incorporation of social life into the Church was
responsible for sovereignty of the Church over the
State. The bishops had begun to take a large share in
political and social activity, and in civic and penal
legislation. The bishops and the clergy possessed
certain rights in the administration of public affairs,
and during political upheavals they developed social
welfare work, inorder to meet the needs of their
dioceses. . . . The State h'ope.d to include the Church
among its supporters, and it found itself confronted
with the sovereign authority of a purely spiritual
power.32
By the time of the medieval period all culture and
civilization bowed before her stately form. Her priests
held the religious beliefs securely in their hands; no one
could seek Christ except by her permission and conditions.
When medieval Christianity made the Church and the
Kingdom synonymous and identical the result was to empty
Jesus’ religion of all real content. For the Church
became corrupt, avarice, immoral, proud, oppressive.
She made no change in the worldly life about her; for
her constant battles with the civil powers were fought
not for the welfare of humanity, but for her own
selfish ends.33
The Church could no longer champion the poor because
of her enormous riches and alliance with feudalism. As
itself the chief landowner, its cathedrals and cloisters
full of wealth, it could no longer refrain from sin and
reached the zenith of human exploitation. Such an institu
tion could not claim the simplicity of Christ, but only
Troeltsch, op. cit♦, p. 226.
33 H. K. Booth, The Great Galilean Returns (New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936), p. 109-
27
forge ahead on its road to ruin and decline. Given such an
opportunity as she had never had in all history to realize
on earth the Kingdom of justice and brotherhood, the Church
built on the standards of the world, a triumphant Church, -
but not the triumph in Christ.
With the aid of ecclesiasticism which overshadowed
the life of Christ with its gigantic organization, power,
and wealth, an asceticism which turned all eyes toward the
sky and reduced the social ideal to individual piety and
mediaevalism interpreted the gospel of Christ.
In the fourteenth century the powerful structure of
the mediaeval Church began to collapse. The temporal power
of the popes declined as a result of the tragic crusades and
other unsuccessful attempts to buoy up the declining Church.
The temporal kings seeing the fallacy of an Invincible
Church began a fight for the restoration of the state. The
so-called "Babylonish captivity" in which the French king
forcibly moved the Papal See to Avignon in France was a
defeat of its temporal prestige from which the Church never
recovered.^4
Thus the age of the Renaissance, a revival of learn
ing which the Church had denied, began to flourish. The
Arthur W. Nagler, The Church in History (New York:
Abingdon Press, 1929), pp. 117-38.
28
cry for freedom, so long denied the masses manifested itself
in many ways. Prance, Spain, Germany, and England broke
away from the Roman See and established their own national
ist or state church. The burgher class who had been sup
pressed by the Church defied the hypocrisy of the Church
which had denounced them in the name of God while it contin
ued its own shameful graft. The peasants, the victims of
the feudal state, demanded the abolition of the hierarchy of
priests because it was part of the whole iniquitous system
under which they suffered. All throughout the first half
of the fifteenth century these uprisings of the masses con
tinued— in the Hussite insurrection in Bohemia, the
Wycliffite movement in England, and the Peasants’ Revolt in
Germany.35 Then, as never before, the common man revolted
against wealth and authority.
By the sixteenth century the stage had been cleared
for the Reformation. The success of Luther, however, only
created a new paradox in respect to the social message of
Jesus. The new movement feared the very thing for which it
had fought, f r e e d o m . 36 The common people had taken Luther
at his word; and the Peasants’ Revolt that followed both
Solomon Reinach, A Short History of Christianity
(London: Heinemann, 1922), ppl 76-82.
36
Max Weber, The F
Scribners, 1930), p. 292.
36
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic (New York:
29
angered and frightened him. His only recourse then was to
clamp down on freedom and establish a new authority. Through
the use of dogmatism, ecclesiasticism, and asceticism an
even worse tyrant then mediaevalism raised its despotic
rule over the masses and further eclipsed the simple message
of Jesus.37
The most important factor in this change of affairs
was the rise of the burgher class and a new economic phil
osophy which we know in the modern world as capitalism.
At the dawn of the nineteenth century the new capital
ism accelerated its growth and power by the discovery of the
machine. The machine caused a complete upheaval in the
social life. Labor was further enslaved by its labor-saving
devices. It came as a monster influenced in some instances
by a selfish profit-seeking group who evaluated life in
terms of profit instead of service.
With the machine came factories and with factories
came increased exploitation and human suffering. The people
were changed rapidly from agrarianism to industrialism.
Cities grew up around factories with the sole intent of
"being near the job." As a result, the sanitary and living
conditions were infernos of disease and poverty.
R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
(New York; Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1926), pi 811
30
All along the Church had prospered. Her cathedrals
towered high, her institutions were heavily endowed. But
largely unaware, it had taken on the color of its surround
ings, and had adopted the outlook and practices of the
world.
Social Christianity returns. This marked the turning
point and out of these despicable conditions the Church
began to stir from its stupor, its long sleep broken by the
cry of humanity and its own chains of bondage which the new
order had imposed upon it. Perhaps one factor which stirred
the Church from its long sleep and urged it to reclaim the
social message of Christ was the spirit of science which
came forth in the nineteenth century, torch in hand, to
light up long-darkened areas of thought.38
The spirit of science approached the traditions of
the day and with its passion for truth re-evaluated all
regardless of the robe of sacredness or the dogma of
authority.
The first beginning of the returning social message
of Jesus was the active participation of isolated churches
in the movement for the abolition of slavery. It is not to
be implied that the Church was not divided. Many churches
38
^ H. E. Barnes, Social Thought from Lore to Science
(New York: D. C. Heath, 193Ü), P- 9^6.
31
joined wholeheartedly the antislavery movement and worked
strenuously, cooperating with political and social forces
for the defeat of slavery. Barnes lauds the antislavery
movement in the following:
Throughout the later agitation, from the forties to
the sixties, the doctrine of antislavery host thus
continued in the moral tenets of the original anti-
slavery creed. In this crusading spirit their support
of men and measures was consistently maintained until
i860, when county by county the antislavery areas gave
Lincoln the votes which made him president.39
Much of orthodox Christianity, however, had
appealed to the Bible for justification of the denial of
human freedom. But out of this conflict in which the whole
nation was involved, fragmentary evidences of the social
gospel are to be seen. These serve as a beginning, the
first foothold of social Christianity attacking the evils
of human exploitation. The abolition of slavery was the
springboard from which social Christianity reclaimed its
rightful position as the first cause of Christ. Edward
Beecher, an outstanding clergyman of the day, put it this
way: "Now that God has smitten slavery unto death, he has
opened the way for the redemption and sanctification of our
whole'social system."4o
Q. H. Barnes, The Antislavery Impulse (New York:
Appleton-Century, 1933), P* 197*
C. H. Hopkins, The Rise of the Social Gospel in
American Protestantism (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1940), p."61
32
After the Civil War, great alarm was aroused over the
postwar moral reaction of the reconstruction period. Cor
ruption in high places was widespread. Scandals occurred in
local, state, and national government; and,business reached
an all time high in ruthless treatment of competitors and
workers. The panic of 1873 caused the working class to
realize that something had to be done in order to curb
wholesale unemployment and desperate poverty. Although the
country was rapidly gaining in wealth, breadlines were many
in the larger urban cities. Despite this the lords of
industry paid little attention to the conditions surrounding
them.
This unprecedented situation in the economic struc
ture of the country, caused individual Protestant clergymen
to come forth with scathing denunciations of the social
conditions. The very framework of Christianity was contra
dicted by these practises of the new order. 0. H. Hopkins
says ;
Their attempt to reorient the historic faith of
America to an industrial society comprised the social
gospel. But the forces that gradually effected the
new social viewpoint in American Christianity did not
all come from without. Within the religious community
itself liberalizing ferments had long been at work.
. . . About the middle of the century a noticeable
change in the religious climate had definitely fostered
this worldly interest, and as these subtle factors
slowly permeated the religious mind, its reaction to
the stimulus of a new industrial, urban, and scientific
33
environment produced what has come to he known as the
social gospel.4l
These pioneers of the social message were outstanding
pulpiteers, pastors of large churches, and men who occupied
chairs in theological seminaries. Their influence was
evidenced by the many adherents among the successive genera
tions of ministers.
Among the more outstanding were Washington Gladden,
Lyman Abbott, Charles Stelze, Francis Peabody, Graham Taylor,
Richard Ely, and Walter Rauschenbush, undoubtedly the most
influential.
Application of social Christianity to certain social
problems. The big concern of the day of these social
gospelers was the application of Christianity to the labor
question. The advent of the social gospel on the social
horizon found a vast separation between labor and the Church.
It is hardly necessary to state that there is a gulf between
the Church and the workingman. A study of Church membership
and the attitude of the workingman toward the Church will
itself be convincing that such a gulf exists. Stelzle
writes in The Workingman and Social Problems ; "As social and
industrial life become more and more intense, the gulf be-
Ibid., p. 12.
34
tween the Church and the workingman becomes d e e p e r . "42
According to Mr. Stelzle, only three per cent of the working
men in cities were church members in the year I880 to the
year 1900.43
The complaint of the labor against the Church was
summed up as follows; (l) The Church supports the ruling
class; (2) The Church is hostile toward labor’s efforts to
uplift humanity; (3) The Church tolerates grave inconsist
encies in the lives of leading wealthy church members; (4)
The Church condemns violence, but has a history red with
violence; and (5) The Church offers relief instead of
j u s t i c e . 44 Not only was labor antagonistic toward the
Church, but with the entire social order which stood in the
path of social reform. As industry increased on a larger
scale the individual workman could no longer make his own
contract for his labor, but was hired in groups or by
"group contact," and by some representative of his employer.
Each step in industrial progress reduced the independence of
the worker. The insecurity against unemployment due to
42 c. Stelzle, The Workingman and Social Problems
(New York; P. H. Renell, 1903;, p. iFf^
Ibid., p . 8 7 .
A. H. Bolton,"The Church and the Workingman,"
(unpublished Master’s thesis. The University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, 1919), P* 13-
35
shut-downs or seasonal work was a constant problem to the
worker. Bolton sums up the persistent role of labor exploi
tation as a stimulus to the social gospel as follows: (l)
Unemployment, while many suffered because of lack of employ
ment others suffered because of overemployment; (2) Child
labor, in the sixties some two million children under six
teen years of age were employed; (3) Exploitation of woman
hood; (4) Unfair distribution of fruits of labor; and (5)
Wholesale partiality on the part of the Civil and Criminal
Courts wherein labor contends with capitalism. In addition
to these complaints, a myriad of conditions occurred.
Strikes and lockouts virtually unknown before the Civil War
occurred frequently. The labor shortages of industry had
brought millions of workers from farms and from the old
country. The use of machinery had created a greater division
between workers and owners. Huge absentee-owned corporations
removed the personal relationship which had existed between
owner and employees in the factories. Between I87O and I88O
the average income declined from $400 to $300, which at the
48
former was far out of proportion to the national income.
These and other scandalous acts of exploitation confronted
social Christianity as it went out to meet the modern
"Goliath."
Ibid., p. 79-
36
Washington Gladden made a detailed study of the exist
ing conditions and calculated that the real annual wages of
labor were little, if any, higher in 1886 than they had
been in i860, whereas during that same period the national
wealth increased from sixteen to forty-three billion dollars
and the value of manufactured goods trebled. So, he con
cluded, when the workers are thus denied their just share
of the product of their labors, naturally they "complain
and rebel" and can see no alternative to organization "for
mutual protection and d e f e n s e . " 4 6
Back of every social, political, or religious move
ment there is a philosophy. It is in the philosophy that the
direction of the movement is determined. A school of
philosophy is always the beginning of ideas which can be
interpreted to promote or demote the welfare of mankind.
Thus the scholars and philosophers of social Christianity
were called upon to furnish the new movement with a philosophy
to uphold the social teachings of Jesus. This supreme ser
vice to the restoration of the philosophy of love and brother
hood was not accomplished without opposition from popular
orthodox opponents who sought every means to dethrone their
efforts. The status quo had made big use of the dogmas of
the reformation in supporting the rights of individualism
46
Ibid., p. 8l.
37
and the spirit of "Laissez Faire." The possibilities for
social progress were taken out of the hands of men and, if
it was to be, could only be, by the injection of Grace by
an intervening God. The goal of Christian character was
the pietistic achievement of life and the medieval belief
in the present existence as a period of testing.
With these and many more anti-social conceptions
interwoven into the attitudes of the day, orthodoxy felt
itself secure.
The philosophy for overcoming human exploitation.
With the acceptance of the Darwinian theory of evolution by
progressive American theologians in the nineties a philosoph
ical basis for social Christianity was established.
The consequent accommodation of liberal religion to
the leading scientific concept of the century.[writes
Hopkins] produced three clearly related ideas that
together constituted a logical and unified frame of
reference for social Christianity. These were the
immanence of God, the organic or solidaristic view of
society, and the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven on
earth.4?
Such a premise showed that the Protestant leaders had
availed themselves of the latest scientific methods. The
ethical side of the historic gospel was more in evidence.
Then, too, its conception of progress gave it company with
the popular romantic movement of achievement and idealism.
^ Ibid., p. 125.
38
The new doctrine of the immanence of God presented a
different attitude in regard to the world. This became
God’s world, and if it is such, everything in it is of God.
The traditional distinction of secular and•sacred becomes
more and more obsolete. God is evident in a history of
sociology and biology just as he is in a history of philoso
phy and religion. This oneness in all cannot but show a
unity in the relationships of men as in nature. Gladden,
Abbott, Moxom, Pike, and Hunger wrote prolifically support
ing the idea of "God everywhere." These works were neither
pantheistic nor deistic but of a theistic nature which up
held God at work in human institutions. Moxom, an outstand
ing Baptist clergyman,declared in his work The Religion of
Hope that there is no sacredness about the Church that ought
not be attached to the Chamber of Commerce.48 The doctrine
of the immanence of God tore down the conception of ortho
dox theologians and caused men to see that God expects good
ness everywhere.
The second supporting doctrine was the organic view
of society. If God is present in human institution as also
in nature he, therefore, is an integral part of society.
Since society is made up of the individuals who constitute
it in an interdependent manner, then God is already seen in
Ibid., p. 125.
39
each member of that society. This being true, there is an
organic relationship which exists through us of which every
person is a part. In every part then, if we love God, we
are of necessity compelled to love our brothers. Man is
dependent upon other men for the social equipment which the
individual must have in order to become a social being. We
are not individuals, distinct and Isolated, but persons de
pendant upon other persons for meaning. This, therefore,
establishes our social responsibilities. No longer can we
look to God as individuals isolated from the group, but as a
part of that group, responsible in some degree for their
actions. This type of sociological rationalization estab
lishes the basis of the social gospel principle of the
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. On this basis
social Christianity converts social and economic situations
into moral and humanitarian concerns, because it refuses to
regard men as independents, but as interdependents having
responsibilities, obligations, and privileges under the
watchful eye of a common Father.
The third premise of the new philosophy is the reali
zation of the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus in teaching
his disciples to pray illustrates the will of God to be done
on earth as it is in the heavens. It is his conviction that
the Kingdom is both present and future. Much literature has
been written in the support of the Kingdom of God with
40
dynamic statements which challenged the prevailing attitudes
toward man and his social relations. Among the outstanding
men of this era were such prolific writers as Josiah Strong,
Henry Moxom, George A. Gordon, Lyman Abbott, and Newman
Smyth. The inclusive religious social goal toward which
their works all pointed was the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
In the process of evolution the Kingdom of Heaven would
come. God in history slowly, but surely, would manifest
His will on earth along with the cooperation of man.
"Evolution," says Rauschenbush, "has prepared us for under
standing the idea of a Reign of God toward which all crea
tion is moving."49
The social gospel has had an interesting history.
In consciousness of its struggles in society for full ex
pression as a religious social concept, it may be referred
to as "the light that will not go out." The centuries of
eclipse failed to extinguish it although its activity was
impaired by the asceticism and temporal rule of a despotic
church. As men have always appealed to something higher
than man to release them from suffering and distress, which
is yet an ever present threat, so the social gospel will
continue to come forth.
The forthcoming chapter, "The Race Problem, An
49 Walter Rauschenbush, Christianizing the Social Order
(New York: Association Press, 1912), p. 90.
41
Aspect of Human Exploitation," will review the ill-affects
of the economic and social exploitation of a segment of
humanity by the undemocratic and unchristian practises of
segregation, discrimination, and oppression* The injustices
to be found in the treatment of minority racial groups in
the United States presents to the social gospel another cry
of suffering humanity.
CHAPTER I I I
THE RACE PROBLEM AN ASPECT OF HUMAN EXPLOITATION
The returned social.message of Christianity, con
fronted with the confusion of social relationships in modern
society is compelled to face the element of human exploita
tion as a major factor which permeates every social problem.
The history of human exploitation begins with the history of
civilization and appears persistently on the horizon of every
great crisis in the formative periods, up until the present.
Men have exploited their brothers in an effort to
attain luxury, wealth, power, and comfort. Yet equally as
long as exploitation has occurred, equally has it failed to
bring a permanent stability to society; Despite this, how-
every.every generation has participated in this violation of
human rights.
The historical aspects of the race problem. The
element of race as a technique of human exploitation is
comparatively new in the history of civilization. But the
intensity and far reaching influences of its contamination
has spread throughout the social organism. Today civiliza
tion is in the midst of a great struggle precipitated in no
small degree by racial antagonisms as far back as the year
1915* Lord Bryce in his lectures on "Race Sentiment as a
43
Factor in History" has made clear this fact from the stand
point of a dispassionate historian.
Down till the days of the French Revolution there
had been very little in any country or at any time of
self conscious race feeling. . . . However much men of
different races may have striven with one another, it
was seldom any sense of racial opposition that caused
their strife. They fought for land. They plundered
one another. They sought glory by conquest. They tried
to force their religion on one another. . . . But strong
as patriotism and national feeling might be, they did
not think of themselves in terms of ethnology. . . . In
none of such cases did the thought racial distinction
come to the front.^
In order to approach the rise of race sentiment as a factor
in history, it is necessary in some degree to outline group
consciousness in other patterns which are its predecessors.
Primitive men were grouped by the "Tribal Pattern"
which is composed of those tendencies such as languages,
customs, and religious practices. The tribal society which
represents the beginning of social organization was created
for protection against similar groups. Conflict, however,
was just as intense between tribes of the same social group
as it was between different racial stocks. Kinship and
loyalty to the chieftain, rather than racial Identity were
the ties of the group. Locality is another important factor
in social organization which is more of a determinative
^ Viscount Bryce, 0. M., Race Sentiment as a Factor
in History (London: University of London Press, 1915), P* 25
44
cause of social organization than that of racial relation
ships. Goldenweiser affirms the position of locality as a
basis of society by naming it as the first factor in primi
tive life upon which the different forms of social organiza
tion were built.
If there is a social organization, there must be a
basis on which it rests. . . . Whatever later trans
formations may have occurred in society and politics,
they were rooted in these basic forms--some of which
are as old as man, or older. What then were the
factors in primitive life upon which the different forms
of social organization were built? The first is
locality. Man has always lived somewhere.2
History is filled with tribal conflicts between members
of the same racial stock but of different allegiances. One
sees this in the bitter Grecian wars, especially between
Sparta and Athens. In the colonial era the success of the
American pioneers in the early colonization of North America
was due largely to tribal conflicts among the aborigines.
The element of nationality belonging to a later
social age is another factor of human grouping. Men have
always been brought together by similar beliefs, common
interests, and common traditions. It is more likely that
men of the same racial stock will have these communities of
interests, but the question at hand is the part which race
has played in this grouping. An American Negro having the
^ Alexander Goldenweiser, Anthropology (New York:
F. 8. Crofts, 1937), p. 296.
45
customs and habits of America is not likely to have an easy
time in welding a group spirit with African Negroes solely
because of racial identity.
The feeling of nationality is especially seen in the
days of the Roman Empire. Bryce writes that among the great
Roman poets only Lucretius was Roman born. Despite the in
vasions of Rome by the Pranks, Goths, and Lombards--Bryce
says, "In the writers of the time one finds few, if any
suggestions of a natural opposition, much less an enmity,
between Teutonic and Latin peoples."3
In the Dark and Middle ages we find a new world in
which the determining sentiments are those of religion and
church polity, and there is even less evidence of blood
differences than that found in the Hellenic or Roman periods.
This striking evidence leads directly to that era of
eighteenth century history wherein the issue of racial dif
ferences was increasingly used as a technique of human ex
ploitation.
With the rise of capitalism and the progress of
industrial science, the larger nations began to spread out
their trade and colonize the newly-discovered lands. The
competition already existing in the old world caused in
creased rivalry in the new world, especially in the realm
of manufacture and world commerce. Territory, colonies, and
^ Bryce, op. cit., p. 11.
46
markets were sought for the fabulous wealth they might bring
the mother country. Before the overthrow of feudalism, the
rivalry existed mostly between the greedy ambitions of the
kings and notables. But the. new freedom which accompanied
the new reign of the burgher class transferred to the
peoples striving in the vaster arena of the world a new
sense of struggle which made them more conscious of them
selves and their kind.
In order to feed the growing monster of universal
economic exploitation and to effect a national solidarity
for its protection, a new philosophy of racial inferiorities
was introduced. While claiming to be a new era of scientific
content, yet this wholly unscientific attitude was intro
duced into the social realm.
The racial philosophers gave to the ruling class
created by the industrial revolution a new justification
for wholesale exploitation of the human race. The con
tinents of the world became the victims of European economic
conquest under the guise of the "divine rights of superior
races."
Such unscientific conclusions as the following by
Nietzsche^ soothed the conscience of the exploiters along
with its acceptance as a God-given truth. "Society should
^ Charles A. Ellwood, A History of Social Philosophy
(New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 193^), P* 300.
47
be organized so as to make possible the exploitation of the
inferior by the superior." This superior group, according
to Nietsche, would definitely be a tall, acquiline-featured
blond, -which shows his philosophy to be a vicious expression
of Nordicism.
Arthur de Gobineau, a French politician and diplomat
further sanctioned the colonial exploitations of the ruling
class by unscientifically presenting a philosophy of his
tory in terms of race that would explain the rise and fall
of nations and civilizations. He finds the explanation in
what he calls "a kind of historical chemistry," the chemistry
of races. He writes in the dedication of his book that, as
he pursued his studies, he was gradually penetrated by the
conviction that the racial question overshadows all other
problems of history, that it holds the key to them all, and
that the inequality of the races from whose fusion a people
is formed is enough to explain the whole course of its des
tiny. 5
There is little need to refute Gobineau, Chamberlain,
and others who created the philosophy which definitely re
jects the Christian ethic of the brotherhood of man and
justifies the exploitation of races, a wholly unsound
^ Arthur de Gobineau, The Inequality of Human Races.
Translated by Adrian Collins (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1915),
p. 1.
48
doctrine. The racialists, however, continue to write and
speak to further a cause ; they labor to enhance race and
national pride. In their eyes, race and national pride are
excellences justifying any method available. And so, while
ethnologists and anthropologists are at work trying as best
they can to find out how to define races, the propagandists
easily assume solutions to baffling problems and spread them
far and wide. As a result we have so-called race feeling
heightened and the sickening dangers of race clashes upon
us. These.glib writers and speakers have simply fooled the
common man. They have stuffed him with a content of
doctrines and dogmas which correspond to his prejudices.
Behind it all is the vicious attempt to conceal the
exploitation of human labor relationships which are seen not
only in the exploitation of one race by another, but by
members of the same race exploiting one another.
Race.- [writes Seligman] is the trojan horse for the
power groups who would dominate the world. On the
strength of this word and the ideas it conveys,
national boundaries have been changed; populations
have been shifted like cattle, but with none of the
humane care prescribed even for animals on their way
to slaughter; civilization destroying war has been
threatened; and millions of, human beings have been
wretched and desperate.6
Thus as the above quotation implies many degenerate and
Herbert J. Seligman, Race Against Man (New York:
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1939), p. 38".'
49
infamous happenings have occurred as a result of the intro
duction of racial differences into the standards of occiden
tal civilization.
The race problem in the United States. While in some
degree the United States has evidenced closer unity among
the white peoples, it has made a history.red with the blood
of those who have felt the stinging blows of its racial
oppression and prejudice. The molding of the American
nation through the mixture of diverse European nationalities,
the presence of the Negro, Indian, Chinese, Japanese,
Mexicans, and other racial groups has caused a complex
myriad of problems until the race problem, as it is so
termed, is one of the major problems of the day. At least
this is the surface picture which is seen by the masses who
are led to think in terms of race and race prejudices. The
innermost stuff of which the problem is made is found in the
economic competition between people who are more easily
controlled when divided over such superficialities as racial
differences.
Recognition has been made in Chapter One of this
thesis in the statement of the problem, of the existence of
other problems which heighten racial solidarity, which in
many respects are protected by the exclusion of other racial
groups. The cultural differences between racial groups are
50
causes of distinction between races.
The factor of traditions, customs, and mores which
are the products of racial groups support racial unity.
Religion is another powerful cause which in some situations
such as the Jewish culture is a mark of racial group ties.
There are many other factors to which discrimination,
segregation, and exclusion can be attributed; but the great
est of these, in viewing the exploitation of the Negro in
the United States, is basically the economic greed for a
cheap labor market.
The American race problem began when British immi
grants first flocked to the Atlantic Coast of North America.
They found a new continent inhabited by Indians. It was not
long before the Indian population began to thin out before
the influx of the more numerous Europeans. The Dutch
settled in the Hudson River area, the Germans in Pennsylvania,
the Spanish, who laid the foundations of our modern state, in
the Southwest, and the French settled in the Mississippi
Basin and the regions of the Great Lakes. These racial
groups underwent the normal process of amalgamation with
only minor disturbances influenced by the mother countries
or minor conflicts between their traditions and customs.
As these groups consolidated and became a part of the vested
classes, huge immigrations of Italians, the various Slavic
peoples of Austria, Russia, and the Balkan Peninsula,
51
Hungarians, Roumanians, East European Hebrews, and numerous
other nationalities arrived enticed to the new world to
meet the ever increasing labor shortages. As vast as these*
Influxes were yet the problem of labor was ever present.
After a few years of hire, these people became land owners
and manufacturers. In the South this turnover system
especially failed to satisfy the desire for a cheap labor
in the plantation economy.
Thus, as economic demand due to the shortage of
labor, slavery became a growing Institution, the conscience
of the slaver being "well-oiled" by the philosophy of racial
inferiorities.
The Negro problem in the United States. Thus began
the mass introduction of the Negro into American life, and
that which laid the foundation for the. strife which accel
erated the Civil War and the Reconstruction Period. It
issues into the present as the gravest inconsistency of
American democracy and a challenge to social Christianity
in its effort to remake a troubled society into the Kingdom
of God. It is not necessary to give a detailed background
of the Negro in American life, because in a review of the
present struggle the past is reflected in the present as an
outgrowth of those attitudes responsible for his compulsory
appearance on the American horizon.
52
The so-called Negro problem Is America’s number one
race problem because the Negro is the largest minority of a
distinct racial type. Alain Locke expresses its importance
in the following:
The Negro question has moved around from a back
yard domestic issue to a front porch exposure for all
the world to see. . . . Here in the United States, in
i860, fate caste the Negro in the role of a test
case of the basic human right of freedom, of the
integrity of the Constitution. Today the Negro is
cast in an international role involving on a world
scale pretty much the same issues of political
morality. The Negro’s cause becomes the fulcrum of
this extension of democracy a world hostage to its
prospective fulfillment.7
Because of this focal position, the Negro also becomes an
easier target for the race mongers. Perhaps an even
greater reason than a minority status is his burden of a
decadent plantation economy to which he is chained. This
is evidenced by the fact that racial oppression of Negroes
is the highest in the South. They are held in subjection by
fear, coercion, ignorance, and barbarous insults. These
conditions being wrought upon them because of supposedly
inferior racial traits.
The Negro problem is isolated to a level of inherent
racial traits which supposedly makes them inferior to other
races. These rigid superstitions although not logically
^ Alain Locke, "Unfinished Business of Democracy,
Survey Graphic, 31:455, November, 1942.
53
founded are enforced stubbornly. The Southern white man
puts these questions beyond the bounds of discussion. If
questions are pressed many Southern whites will fight rather
than argue. The acceptance of such attitudes and beliefs
unified and harmonized in the person which holds them is
more than a problem of illogicality.
Unfortunately for the South,[writes Seligman] as
well as for the nation, the consequences of the typical
attitude toward race relations is not merely an effect
of illogicality upon the observer. The effect is the
continuance in the South of a state of feeling closely
akin to hysteria which swept the rest of the nation
in the time of the World War.8
The mere thought of the liberation of the Negro
people in America causes fear of economic upheaval, the
breaking up of economic priveleges and its social concomit
ants. The present status of the Negro is in keeping with
the balance of power which means economic subjection through
the use of social restraints on the ground of racial inferi
ority. But the Negro, where he acquires economic power,
farms, oil wells, theaters, education, medical, and legal
training constantly rejects the status interposed between
himself and common humanity. It becomes increasingly dif
ficult to show that the man is not a human being who can
administer large farms, who can represent the United Stated
® Herbert G. Seligman, The Negro Faces America (New
York: Clarence S. Nathan, Inc., 19243, pi
54
as consul— with diplomatic responsibilities ; who can perform
delicate surgical operations; who can write poetry and
music and compete in other avenues of American life.
Despite the attempt to isolate the Negro problem on a
racial basis, it is evident that the Negro problem is
essentially of the same nature as that of retarded and
oppressed peoples in Europe or in the colonies.9 Like these
people the Negro has been retarded in his social development
by American exploitation. Like them, the Negro has been
oppressed by a more powerful group and has been purposefully
prevented from emerging as a free people on equal footing
with the other peoples of the world. Like many of them the
Negro is retarded by capitalistic forms of exploitation. A
large sector of American Negroes are still bound by a semi
feudalism in the South. Like other oppressed peoples, the
Negro--not as a class nor a caste, but as a whole people--
suffer from social and political oppression and from inequal
ities of all kinds. In addition to the problems of the
various classes of Negroes among the Negro people--problems
which are shared with corresponding classes among other
groups--the Negro people as a whole still face the problem
of emancipation, of freedom, and the right to be a part of
that which they have helped to build.
^ James S. Allen, The Negro Question in the United
States (New York: International Publishers, 1936*77 P- 157.
55
The Negro problem as it is fallaciously termed is,
therefore, not a problem of race but of economic relation
ships which guarantees the advantages for the ruling class.
The race aspect is simply an offshoot, a derivative of basic
economic and social phenomena which if pursued as such leads
into a maze of blind alleys. The race aspect is purely
functional to the super-exploitation of the Negro. The fact
of skin, color, together with the other very few biological
characteristics which accompany it, have been used to delimib
and set apart a whole section of the American population as
a socially outcast group subject to the domination of chau
vinistic imperialism. In his book. Human Exploitation,
Norman Thomas touches upon the pivotal point of the economic
exploitation of the Negro.
At the end of the Civil War the Negro was freed
without tools or land. Two things inevitably happened.
In the first place, by all his past experience and
present poverty, he was made to order for the tenant
or sharecropper system. . . . Because it was so diffi
cult for him to escape that system, he held large
numbers of the white farmers to it. In the second
place, as industrialism advanced both in the North and
South, his race furnished a reservoir of labor material
ready to the employers’ hand. The amazing thing is,
considering all the circumstances, that the Negro has
done as well as he has, and the capitalist exploita
tion of racial differences has not produced an even
worse situation in America.10
Although the Negro was emancipated from the status
Norman Thomas, Human Exploitation in the United
States (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1934), p. 26l.
56
of property as a result of the Civil War that emancipation
as yet is not complete in the larger sense of the term. For
we find the Negro today a victim of economic slavery which
has failed to alter to any appreciable extent the masses of
Negros who fare little better today than in the days of
slavery. The struggle for Negro liberation cannot be won
until the economic and social remnants of chattel slavery
are uprooted. The proper tasks of the Civil War efforts
have not been completed. The Civil War decade was in
reality the historical prologue to the present day struggle
for Negro liberation. The prime issues which were on the
order of the day in the South in the Civil War period have
been handed down to the present era for solution, on a
higher plane of social development, in a changed social
milieu.
It cannot be said that an overwhelming majority of
Negroes are exploited agricultural workers, little better
than serfs, but a large number are in this category, enough
to reveal the motives behind the tenant farming and share-
cropping system so prevalent in the South. This condition
among American-born citizens can leave political and social
America no grounds for pride.
Throughout the South are found sections similar to
Macon County, an area studied by Professor Charles S.
Johnson in his illuminating study Shadow of the Plantation.
57
Professor Johnson uncovers the sordid conditions under which
Negros eke out an existence. That county is overwhelmingly
an area of Negro sharecroppers and tenant farmers, living in
dilap!tated shacks unfit for human shelter. Mr. Johnson
says :
Few of these families handle any cash money. They
get their food and a few clothes from the commissary
store, where advances are made. . . . The actual cash
handled hy the majority of families is from $70 to $90
normally in the form of advances, or loans out of which
comes payment for a portion of food; for clothing; for
health; for education; for church, lodge and insurance
dues and some for amusement.il
In the days when the cotton fields of the South were
prosperous, the Negros’ share was far below income standards,
but now that cotton has declined, the Negro farmer is in a
worse condition. Ira Reid’s In a Minor Key suggests in con
tent the Negros’ decline to an almost hopeless peasantry.
Says Reid;
In 1930 there were about 700,000 Negro tenant
families in the South alone. These represent nearly
3,000,000 individual Negroes who have been affected
by this change. So low is the estate of the cotton
farmer that when the Farm Laborers and Cotton Field
Worker’s Union No. 20471 held a farm wage conference
in Alabama in 1936, the full union wage scale was set
for a ten hour day as follows; Chopping cotton $1.50
a day; picking cotton, $1.25 a hundred pounds.1^
Charles S. Johnson, Shadow of the Plantation
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934)," pi 137•
Ira De A. Reid, to a Minor Key (Washington, D. C
American Council on Education, 194'0), p. 45*
58
Such figures illustrate a goal set by a union, but even
these low rates have not been won.
Statistics on the average family incomes in the
United States clearly reveals the low economic status of
the Negro. In the North Central cities with populations
lOOJOOO and over, the average family income for white
families was $1720 per year. In the same cities the average
family income forNegrooes was $1095 per year. The Southern
rural communities show a greater difference between the in
come for whites was $1100 whereas the average family income
for Negros was $480.^^
It is not the purpose of this study to present in
detail an analysis of the economic plight of the Negro, but
to have only those evidences which are- barriers to the
social aims of the social gospel. The Negro is an exploited
worker whose exploitation is more intense due to the color
of skin. He is no different from any other group, but due
to his background in this country his condition is made
worse. Norman Thomas writing on the Negro as an exploited
worker says;
He [Negro] suffers not because he is in a different
economic system from the rest of us, but because on the
average, he is the farthest down in it. He has been
Pictograph Corporation, "The South," Survey Graphic,
31:484, November, 1942.
59
systematically used on the land, in the mind and
factory^ to depress income standards and living condi
tions.
The role forced upon the Negro in .American economic
life does not present a pleasant enough picture to hang in
the Hall of Fame of American democracy. The effects have
been far reaching and influential. The numerous injustices
have long been a challenge to social reformers.
It is interesting to note that after the Civil War
and its emancipation of the Negro from legal slavery, very
little had been done in a social and economic way to assure
the Negro of his new status until after the World War. The
modern prophets of the social gospel advocating the brother
hood of man, the sacredness of human personality, the rights
of labor and other Christian principles failed to include
the oppression of the Negro as a minority group. In prin
ciple their message included the whole of humanity, but
in practice it came no further than the majority group. To
reform an unfair practice against labor does not insure the
reform for Negro labor, no more than the rights which
accompany citizenship apply to the Negro riding in a Jim-
crow car in Mississippi. Social reform in the name of
Christianity must be followed up to insure application in
all of the different corners of society.
Norman Thomas, op. cit., p. 275-
60
The Negro in the South today who depends upon the
plantation economy for his livelihood, especially as a
tenant farmer, sharecropper, or agricultural laborer is
practically no better off today, economically, than during
the era of chattel slavery. Slavery was evicted as a legal
institution, but the substitution of economic depravity
upon the Negro has made him still a victim of the vicious
exploitation of the plantation economy. Allen, recognizing
the continuance of the attributes of slavery, says:
The plantation has shaped the area of Negro majority,
maintained it with little change. . . . The persistence
of the plantation in a modified form after the overthrow
of the chattel slave system was accompanied by the
persistence of forms of labor which were but modifica
tions of slavery.15
The following questions naturally evolve from the above
finding. (1) Was the social gospel blind to the Negro
Problem or was it indifferent? (2) Was the question of the
Negro believed to have been solved with the abolition of
slavery? (3) Was it believed that the philanthropy of the
Church and individuals to Negro education had been a suffi
cient solution?
In answer to the first question, an analysis of the
social gospel literature before the year 1922 reveals
practically no mention of the Negro problem. In all fairness
J. S. Allen, The Negro Question in the United States
(New York: International, 1936), p. 32.
61
to the social gospelers, it might be explained that these
men were Northerners and the Negro played very little part
in the early problems of urbanization. In answer to the
second question, this fact of geographical location might
well be the answer, although it infers a shortcoming of the
movement as being provincial rather than national. In
answer to the third question, the answer is definitely:
yes. Although misguided in emphasis, the program of Negro
education in the South attracted nationwide attention.
Schools and colleges were built and financed by churches
and individuals. Thousands of noble men and women gave up
security and wealth and faced, in many cases, social
ostracism in order to educate the Negro people. Industrial
schools as advocated by Booker T. Washington were establish
ed throughout the South. Liberal Arts colleges in defiance
of the attitude concerning Negro mentality were built and
made a definite contribution to the intellectual growth of
the Negro. Northern philanthropy was definitely creative in
its objective, but for what was the Negro educated? Was it
sufficient to educate the Negro in the arts, sciences, and
industrial sciences, and leave him politically, economically,
and socially bankrupt? The answer is no. The conservative
theory of education for Negros, has produced many outstanding
Negro individuals, who have raised the estimate of the Negro
people, but they live as individuals and have contributed
62
very little toward the liberation of the Negro masses.
It was not until a later era, that the political,
economic, and social problems of the Negro were reconsider
ed, and then only because of pressure from a national
emergency.
The forthcoming chapter reviews the Church and re
lated agencies at work on the race issue, and their prob
lems today. The latest of social pronouncements by Church
groups on social conditions, industrial relations, and race
relations have been studied in matter of place and importance
given to the race issue as an aspect of human exploitation.
CHAPTER IV
SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY ATTACKS THE RACE PROBLEM
The responsibility of this chapter is to survey the
problem of race as it has been interpreted and practiced by
the Church and related agencies.
The Protestant churches embrace the majority of
Negro people in the United States. A majority of Negroes
are organized into separate Negro denominations, and others
are within the folds of predominantly white denominations.
The relations between the two racial groups are continually
causing reconsiderations of prevailing attitudes. The prin
ciples of social Christianity discover the dominant race
attitudes within and without the Church as being undesir
able and unfounded. The influence of the prophetic message
of the social gospel has caused the Church to declare its
position, attitude, and intent with respect to basic social
issues. These social pronouncements have been surveyed in
two groups, economic conditions and industrial relations
and race relations. The two classes have been reviewed so
as to discover the awareness of the churches to the basic
problem of human exploitation in race relations. The ques
tion arises as to the validity of a statement on economic
conditions and industrial relations, unless it is applicable
to a situation wherein racial discrimination might be con-
64
cerned, also the validity or value of a statement on racial
discrimination without affecting economic conditions and
industrial relations.
Consideration has also been given with respect to
the handicaps with which the Church is burdened, and which
limits the Church in fulfilling its social responsibilities.
The rise of social Christianity in the Protestant
Churches of the United States has made the Church aware of
the problems of society. This social awareness has too
often been underestimated by the non-religious world, who
scorn Church efforts, but fail properly to recognize the
handicaps with which the Church is confronted.
This chapter presents the handicaps of the bi-racial
pattern of society and its reflection in Church organization,
the status of the Church in respect to membership, the
financial status of the Church, and the limitations imposed
by a society of power politics. It presents the Church’s
technique of exerting influence, the social pronouncements,
and an analysis of the pronouncements of representative
Protestant denominations. It also reviews the approach to
race relations made by Church related inter-racial agencies.
The color line in the Church. The social gospel is
definitely confronted with the "problem of race." Despite
the underlying fallacy of such a phrase which is to some
65
extent the surface expression of the more basic problem of
human exploitation, the Church in most situations has
approached the race problem as though the problem of race
was mostly an issue of racial differences. At least this
is the prevailing approach despite some ecclesiastical
pronouncement to the contrary. The Church has repeatedly '
drawn the color line in practice if not in theory. The
question might well be asked, has the institutionalized
church sought favor with the classes which thrive on the
racial prejudices of society, or has society sought the
favor of the Church for condoning its practice? Regardless
of which way the question might be confronted, the facts of
our total social life reveal an obvious accommodation on
the part of the Church to the status quo.
The institutionalized church has also drawn a line
with respect to dogmas, doctrines, and creeds ; but these
divisions have been supported by theological and philosophi
cal rationalizations. The banner of religious freedom and
the rights of the individual to worship God in light of his
own beliefs have ever been raised to foster separations.
Although these schisms have weakened the effectiveness of
the Church, still they offer plausible causes of division.
But the wholesale acceptance of racial divisions, except
for language accommodation has been accepted without pre-
M
66
tentions of any sort. Niebuhr explaining this cause says:
But, on the whole, sufficient reason for the
frankness, with which the color line has been drawn
in the Church is the fact that race discrimination is
so respectable ah attitude in America that it could
be accepted by the Church without subterfuge of any
sort.1
The color line as viewed from the social principles
of Social Christianity is a direct rejection of the
brotherhood of man and a formidable barrier to the realiza
tion of the Kingdom of God. The entrenchment of the racial
pattern within the realm of religious respectability greatly
handicaps the progress of the Church.
The cause of the color line is not difficult to de
termine. Nor can it be confused with theological or politi
cal schisms. The obvious source of this separation is
social; it demonstrates clearly the inroad of social caste
into the Church, a reflection of the economic and political
privileges of the majority and the accompanying reaction on
the part of a non-privileged minority.
Negroes have apparently taken the initiative in
organizing separate churches, but not on racial grounds as
such, but as defense mechanisms against the denial of equal
participation in church life. The dominant group even in
the Church has enforced the false assumption of superiority
^ H. Richard Niebuhr, The Social Sources of Denomina-
tionalism (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1929T, P* 236.
67
so much as to become unbearable for Christians accepting
the equality of man as a literal truth.
Niebuhr affirms in content the above paragraph when
he writes:
Their unquestioned assumption of superior privileges,
their complacent acceptance of the morality of the
world as fitting for the Church, have once more divided
the body of Christ along the lines of social class.
. . . In such situations it was but natural that the
Negro should interpret every action, even though it
was directed against an individual quite irrespective
of his color, as an example of race discrimination.2
As a result of the distrust and discrimination by the white
churches and a desire for racial self-expression, the Negro
Church has gorwn and continues to grow as an expression of
bi-racialism, forced upon it by society.
Of the 5,660,618 Negroes belonging to churches of all
denominations, nearly 90 per cent are members of Negro
denominations. In contrast, less than 650,000 Negro Chris
tians are members of churches of a mixed racial character.3
Furthermore, most of the Negroes who are members of denomina
tions in which the white race predominates are separated
into special conferences or districts while almost all of
them are segregated into racial local churches.
^ Ibl^., p. 260.
3 Census of Religious Bodies, 1936, Volume I (Wash
ington, D. C.: United States Government Printing Office),
p. 850.
#
68
Prior to the Civil War, especially in the South,
Negroea and whites worshipped together in the same churches.
This association, however, was not on the level of social
equality, hut was a tool for social control. Religion was
enlisted to preserve the civil relationship between master
and slave. It was a good method of strengthening the re
lationship of masters and slaves, because there was brought
into action the highest and holiest feelings of man’s com
mon nature. Likewise, there would be less danger of in
humanity on the one side, or of insubordination on the other.
White and black worshipped together and sought to realize
the Pauline exposition of the Brotherhood of Man. Not only
did it serve as a method of social control, it relieved the
slaveowners of the fear of slave self-expression which
might produce rebellion. Niebuhr, aware of this fact, says:
In many instances the Negro was tolerated in the
Masters’ church merely because such toleration was the
less of two evils. The desirable good was the preven
tion of all contact with the cultural influences of
Christianity. The greater evil was the segregation of
slaves into independent and uncontrolled organizations.^
Hence the association of white and black Christians in
various churches before the Civil War cannot be illustrated
as acts of brotherhood and equality. On the contrary, the
sacredness of religious consciousness was exploited in order
^ Niebuhr, op. cit., p. 248.
69
to enforce slavery, the antithesis of equality.
Despite the decline of such pretense and hypocrisy,
the bi-racial church has not in purpose been the solution
or the answer to the Christian principle of the brotherhood
of man and the Fatherhood of God. Despite the progress in
#
a limited sense, it has been but another division in the
body of Christ. Its presence is but a re-alignment of
social patterns in a more entrenched racialism.
James J. Madigan, a Jesuit priest, recently published
a pamphlet on the Roman Catholic Church and the Negro. The
opening pages are prolific in denouncing of racial injustice
and intolerance. The author moves positively in bringing
forth the findings of anthropologists on race. But, the
startling factor of the article is the solution offered
for the problem. Following in the accepted social racial
pattern of bi-racialism he concludes, after apologizing
for the prejudices of society:
If we do not want to admit the Negro to our schools
and seminaries, here is a proposal. . . . Why not build
for the Negroes more Catholic schools and seminaries
like those conducted by the Fathers of the divine word?
After all God gives priestly vocations to Negroes as well
as to white men. In this way we will in a short time
have educated Negro priests and laymen to give needed
care to their own.5
3 James J. Madigan, The Catholic Church and the Negro
(St. Louis, Mo.: The Queen’s Work, 19?l), P• ^4.
70
If the Negro, scientifically analyzed, has been found
to be a human in all respects, and shares a common culture,
language, country, and flag in America, why then is a bi-
racial society enforced, and especially segregated church?
The obvious answer is found in that relationship with Ameri
can society that caused his arrival on the American horizon,
and which,.as anti-Christian as the institution of slavery
itself, is yet enforced, not logically, but superstitiously,
to accommodate the wealth and power of an unchristian society
But of all the institutions of society dedicated to
the propagation of liberty, freedom, and equality, the
Church is the most obligated because of its basic presuppo
sitions of God and man, and a society built upon these con
ceptions .
The question naturally follows as to why the Church
makes such little positive action against human exploita
tion. There is but one plausible answer and unfortunately
that answer reveals the institutionalized church as a cap
tive of Mammon. George Coe approaching the problem says:
Ask leaders of industry who hold that its principles
are inviolate whether the churches are allies of the
system or makers of trouble for it. The answer that
you will receive is that, though individual ministers
are breeders of discontent, the churches^as a whole are
an asset to the system of industrialism.°
^ George A. Coe, The Motives of Man (New York;
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 192b), p. 60.
71
This accusation has resounded throughout the world with a
none too advantageous result for the Church. Struggling
groups within our national life have looked at the Church
in disgust because of this ungodly alliance. Coe, mindful
of the international implications of this distrust, says:
The anti-Christian movement in China bases itself
to a considerable extent upon the proposition that the
Christian Churches of the Occident are in alliance,
conscious or unconscious, with the forces of industri
alism that exploit weaker peoples and disrupts the
world.7
The social pattern of bi-racialism which is enacted
today in all social life with little exception is a tool of
industrialism. The separation and segregation of races
today is not in itself biological, religious, or social; it
is rather an exploiting economic device. The economic advent
of the forces of capitalism upon the world horizon has
brought with it this divisive machinery with which to insure
its power.
Handicaps of the Church in combating basic social
issues. Page after page has been written in an era of social
gospel literature enumerating and detecting the entrenchment
of industrialism and its patterns in the Church. But the
interesting question is--what can the Church do, granted that
laity as well as clergy were agreed upon the implications at
7 Ibid., p. 6l.
72
hand.
The Church as an organization is a minority group
within continental United States of America. Of a total
population of 131,669,275, aa recorded by the 1940 census,6
the various churches of all denominations and religions re
ported to the 1936 Census of Religious Bodies,9 a total
membership of 55,807,366. Although the population census
reports four years later, it is not likely that within four
years the membership increase of the churches has offset in
any large way its proportion with the population. Added to
the minority status is the great division which exists be
tween Catholics and Protestants, and the greater divisions
between Protestant groups, and also the division between
Christian and other religious faiths.
The fact of disunity within the Church weakens its
effectiveness in its struggle with outer forces. In every
great crisis a divided church, divided in position struggles
against itself, cloistered around the divided social issues.
In the Civil War the Southern Church was just as prolific in
the support of slavery as the Northern Church was .in seeking
The Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940,
Population "(Washington, D. C.: United States Government
Printing Office), p. 2.
^ Census of Religious Bodies, 1936, Volume I (Wash
ington, D. C.: United States Government Printing Office,
1941), p. 86.
73
its abolition.
Not only is the Church a minority and divided into
factions, it is further handicapped by its lack of finances.
The total expenditures for 1936 for all churches regardless
of faith, was $126,907,155•This is less than one per
cent of the total earning power of the United States.Of
the total church income, it spends $5*87 for maintenance
for every dollar spent in outside w o r k . 12 Thus it is evi
dent that the Church with such a financial status does not
have the proper finances so necessary for the support of a
challenging social program of reconstruction. It is further
handicapped in that church support is voluntary and not
compulsory. It being a charitable institution, it is
limited to the sense of obligation in the consciences of its
supporting membership. But the power of the Church does not
stop here.
Social pronouncements, £ church technique for exert
ing influence. The potential creative power of the Church
is apparent in the tremendous influence which it can assert
when stirred into action. The Church wields a considerable
1^ Ibid., p. 116.
11 Ibid., p. 116.
1^ Ibid., p. Il6.
74
amount of influence despite an accommodated status in a
society of power politics. This type of influence is best
shown in the stubborn resistance being put up by the church
es in the occupied countries in Europe. In Norway the
strength of the country is symbolized by the strength of its
church. The Council of Bishops of the Norwegian Church in
flat denial of the Quisling’s Minister of Church and Educa
tion issued statements to its clergy affirming its original
policies. The result of this courageous stand lent a
greater sense of meaning and hope to the people.13
The influence of the Church is dynamic in its pro
nouncements. Much attention is given by prevailing powers
on society when the Church commits itself concerning basic
issues.
Not only Norway, but also in Germany and England, the
government notes the direction of Church thinking. The
Malvern Conference of the Anglican Church under the leader
ship of the then Archbishop of York declared that the Church
must call for the establishment of a new order of society.
This pronouncement is yet to be fully disseminated in the
speeches, articles, and other periodical literature of the
day. The direction has been given by the Church, and the
13 Charles Clayton Morrison, "Editorial,Christian
Century, 58:276, February 26, 1941.
75
power of such Influence is evident in the almost immediate
response.
The influence of the Church through its pronounce
ments on social issues while not in themselves to he in
terpreted as the chief dynamic sought in Christianizing
society, is nonetheless, considering its problems and rela
tions with society, its most effective technique of exert
ing influence upon society.
The Church has long realized the value of utilizing
public opinion and creating attitudes in support of its
program. Most established churches have given increasing
concern to social problems by the use of pronouncements
especially since 1922.
With the advent of the social gospel, the pronounce
ments on social issues increased abundantly. As a result,
the Church gave support to the rising tide of social reform.
In keeping with the subject of the thesis, "Some Aspects of
the Race Problem in the Social Gospel," an analysis of the
content of social pronouncements of six representative
Protestant Churches has been made with a view to the consid
eration given the race problem as such and as an expression
of human exploitation.
Social Christianity has generally made the race
problem in the United States a separate item for considera
tion and has not consistently explored its interdependence
76
with human exploitation. A survey of pronouncements shows
this disjointed approach.
Social pronouncements on economic conditions and
industrial relations. The Protestant churches have been
consciously aware of the tremendous conflict resulting from
economic and industrial relations, despite the charge of the
non-religious world to the contrary. The Federal Council of
Churches of Christ in America, representing a majority of
Protestant denominations, has been acutely active in cham
pioning the cause of social justice. This Council was the
coming together of denominational groups not necessarily
organized theologically, but having in common a strong
social impulse. In the "Social Ideals for the Churches" as
revised in 1932, the Council presents a statement of ideals
in respect to economic relationships. Rather than quote
the entire social creed, the most significant statements
are quoted which bear directly upon economic relationships.
1. Practical application of the Christian principle
of social well-being to the acquisition and use of
wealth, subordination of speculation and the profit
motive to the creative and co-operative spirit.
8. The right of employees and employers alike to
organize for collective bargaining and social action;
protection of both in the exercise of this right ; the
obligation of both to work for the public good; en
couragement of co-operatives and other organizations
among farmers and other groups.
9- Abolition of child labor; adequate provision
for the protection, education, spiritual nurture and
77
wholesome recreation of every child.
The general items of reconsideration in the Social
Greed are as follows: Acquisition and distribution of wealth;
subordination of the profit motive to the creative spirit;
social planning; control of credit and monetary system;
economic processes for the common good; rights of all for
the opportunity for self maintenance; just share for the
workers in the products of industry and agriculture; social
insurance and social security.
Likewise on industrial relations the Federal Council
expresses itself in a similar way on the following:
Safeguarding of all workers against occupational
injury, harmful labor, disease; social insurance
against accident; reduction of the hours of labor; re
lease from employment at least one day in seven; a
shorter working week; special conditions regulating
women’s work and the abolition of child labor.^5
The Social Ideals of the Churches, especially the re
vised edition indicates an ever increasing awareness of the
complex problems of the economic and industrial situation.
Rapid strides are being made with the machinery which has
been set up on a national basis, to obtain information and
situations at first hand.
1 i i
Social Ideals of the Churches as revised in 1932
(Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, 1934),
pp. 3, 4.
Ibid., pp. 3, 4.
78
Individual denominations likewise have issued state
ments concerning the economic and industrial chaos in con
temporary life. The Church of the United Brethren in Christ
has not been as profuse as some other groups in pronounce
ments on social issues. However, they have consistently re
iterated the basic position of the Federal Council. They
say concerning economic and industrial relationships:
4. We advocate the abolition of child labor.
5. We advocate such regulation of the conditions
of toil as shall safeguard the physical and moral
health of individuals and of the community.
6. We advocate such distribution of the products
of industry as shall eliminate extreme poverty and
extreme wealth.
9. We advocate old age pensions.
12. We advocate such economic justice to the farmer
as will provide for farm families and communities
security and cultural opportunity.
13. We advocate the right of employees and employers
alike to organize for conciliation and arbitration in
industrial disputes.
14. We advocate a release from employment to every
person alike of at least one day in seven; and for the
gradual reduction of the hours and days of labor to the
lowest practicable point; and that wage and leisure
for all which is a condition of the highest human life.lb
This denomination has made these basic pronouncements with
Discipline of the Church of United Brethren in
Christ, 1937"1941 (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing
House, 1941), p. 85.
79
little alteration from 1929 until 1941. The alterations as
such are negligible as to the original content, A plausible
reason, perhaps, for the lack of more statements is the
disciplinarian limit of not more than one hundred dollars
per year for the Commission on Moral and Social Advance,17
the commission appointed for moral and social problems.
The Protestant Episcopal Church has been one of the
foremost groups to develop definite social attitudes. Its
social position is of long standing and significant in the
growth of the social gospel in the United States.1^ The
following items are those principles by which the Protestant
Episcopal Convention believes that industry must govern it
self;
Human rights must take precedence over property
right.
A minimum wage for workers such as provides proper
living conditions must be a first charge in industry.
Service should be the motive of industry both for
employers and those employed, and co-operation in order
to render the best service replace competition in the
interest of private advantage or personal greed. This
service must be practiced, not simply because it pays,
but because it is right.
We hold it as a truth verified in experience that
labor must organize effectively not only to protect
Ib^., p. 91 -
Charles Howard Hopkins, The Rise of the Social
Gospel in American Protestantism, 1863-1913 (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1940), pp. 150-31•
80
its own rights but what is equally or even more import
ant, to better understand its own duties and respon
sibilities and so guard against and prevent conditions
which end in ruinous strikes. Labor well and intelli
gently organized is one of the surest safeguards against
false theories of government contrary to our American
institution--such as have brought disaster in other
parts of the world.
It is observed that while the Protestant Episcopal
Church pioneered in the formation of the social gospel, in
the last ten years there has not been any outstanding posi
tion on social issues to come from the General Convention.
An analysis of the Journal of the General Convention held in
1940 finds only vague statements on social i s s u e s . 20
The Presbyterian Church in the United States of
America since 1930 has shown more interest in social prob
lems than in the past. It made several important pronounce
ments on economic and industrial relations in the year 1922,
but did nothing more than repeat the same statements up to
the year 1930. The committee on Social Education and
Action successfully passed the following statements, in
part, at the General Assembly held in St. Louis, Missouri,
in the year 1941.
Within the area of economic relationships the
democratic way of life should be vigorously applied.
Social Service at the General Convention of 1925
(New York: The National Council^, pp. 3l 41
20 Journal of the General Convention of the Protes
tant Episcopal Church%Kansas City, Missouri: 194O']
81
We have achieved a measure of political democracy, but
we have not learned to share, in a fundamentally just
and brotherly way, economic privileges and abundance.
. . . . The improvement of industrial relations is a
joint responsibility of capital and labor. The Chris
tian basis for such improvement calls not only for the
spirit of partnership between these groups, but also
integrity and unselfishness on the part of their
leaders. . . . Both capital and labor must be subject
to the law.21
These statements, made in addition to other pronouncements
on economic conditions and industrial relations in the past,
are in consideration of changing economic and industrial
conditions seemingly out of range with new developments
accentuated by the present crisis.
The Congregational Church was another pioneer in the
social gospel. The denomination has been represented by
many outstanding ministers who have blazed the trail for the
prophetic social message. They have consistently voiced
their attitudes concerning economic and industrial rela
tions. ^2 the General Council of the Congregational
Christian Churches in the year 1942, more statements were
adopted concerning economic and industrial relations. They
are in part as follows :
In conformity with New Testament principles of the
2^ Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States of America, 1941, p. 167-
22 p. Ernest Johnson, The Social Work of the Churches
(New York: The Federal Council of Churches in America, 1930),
p. 125.
82
priority of human values over institutional interests,
we affirm that economic systems are made for men and
not men for economic systems.
In a Christian society the economic system will he
judged by the success with which it combines efficient
and humane production'and distribution of goods to
services with the development of personality and
realization of fellowship.
All property will be held as a trust to be admin
istered for the common welfare. The form of ownership,
whether private or public, corporate or co-operate,
will be tested by its contribution to the freedom and
dignity of all persons affected by it. This considera
tion will involve a reconstruction of agriculture, in
which dependent farm tenancy is transformed into
autonomous farm ownership, in which labor enjoys the
basic social securities, and in which the resources of
the earth are conserved with due regard for future
generations.23
The Committee on Social Action was urged to make a study of
war industries within their confines employing women. The
following statement was adopted in this respect.
Whereas, an ever increasing number of women are
entering war industries and.
Whereas, we are concerned for the hours, working
conditions and safety under which such women work and.
Whereas, the care of young children of such working
mothers is our vital concern.
Therefore, be it resolved, that the Social Action
Committee make a study of those war industries within
their confines employing women in order that they may
co-operate with the authorities in eliminating unde
sirable working c o n d i t i o n s .24
23 Minutes of the General Council of the Congrega
tional Christian Churches! 1942, p. 70.
24
Ibid., p. 43.
83
The General Council adopted the following resolution on the
Church and Labor:
Recognizing that for an inclusive human fellowship,
the Christian Church must foster association between
persons of all economic, racial and cultural groups,
and that the churches generally failed to win and main
tain the confidence, respect or participation of
workers and their families; we therefore commend in
vestigation and initiation of steps to further the
adaptation of our churches to population changes and
bring our churches generally into a closer fellowship
with working men and women across the country.25
The above material is evidence of an alertness and aware
ness on the part of the Congregational Church to the rapidly
changing economic and industrial crisis.
The Northern Baptist Convention of Baptist Churches
has consistently reiterated and declared Itself on economic
conditions and industrial relations especially since the
year 1922. It has long pointed out the forces of material
ism which exist in the present system of industrialism.26
The Northern Baptist Convention made the following
resolution on Labor while convening in Cleveland, Ohio, in
the year 1942.
Whereas, we believe that the spirit of Jesus Christ
must be made an increasingly important force in all
^5 Ibid., p. 44".
Raymond H. Hinkel, Basic Social Pronouncements of
Representative Protestant Churches in the United States
(unpub1ished Master’s thesis. The University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, 1935), pp. 75-77.
84
areas of human life, and that this is especially true
of the relat'onshlp of labor and industry; therefore
be it
Resolved, (l) that this period of national emergency
be made an occasion on the part of the churches for an
active interest in, and a sympathetic approach to the
labor question, and (2) that bur churches co-operate
both with industry and with organized labor in the
interest of Industrial democracy in ways which will be
suggested upon consideration with leaders both in the
ranks of the employers and employees.27
The Methodist Church will not convene in general
conference until the year 1944; therefore, the latest
statements which are officially representative of the
Methodist Church are those adopted by the United Church in
the year 1940. The Methodist Church, composed of the three
united bodies, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Protestant
Methodist Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
is technically a new denomination, having been in existence
since the uniting conference in the year 1939 - From a stand
point of "pronouncement history" the Methodist Episcopal
Church had a long and brilliant record. The Social Creed of
the Methodist Episcopal Church served as a pattern for the
Social Ideals of the Federal Council.28 The Methodist
27 Year Book of the Northern Baptist Convention, 1942
(New York: American Baptist Publication Society, 1942),
p. 266. ■
28 Ernest Johnson, The Social Work of the Churches
(New York : The Federal Council of Churches in America, 1930),
p. 162.
85
Church adopted the following statements on economic and
industrial relations as a part of its social creed in the
year 1940.
We stand for reasonable hours of labor, for just
wages, for a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage,
for fair working conditions, for periods of leisure
for those who work, and for an equitable division of
the products of industry.
We stand for some form of security for old age,
for insurance against injury to the worker, and for
increased protection against those preventable condi
tions which produce want.
We stand for the right of employees and employers
alike to organize for collective bargaining and social
action; protection of both in the exercise of their
rights; the obligation of both to work for the public
good.
We stand for the safeguarding of the farmer and his
family, and for the preservation of all the values of
rural life.
We stand for all workers having at least one day
of rest in seven.
We oppose all forms of social, economic and moral
waste. We urge the protection of the worker from
dangerous machinery, from unsafe and unsanitary work
ing conditions, and from occupational diseases.29
Other statements of the Social Creed in respect to economic
and industrial relations are as follows; Training and em
ployment for youth; the abatement of poverty; proper-regula
tion of working conditions for women; abolition of child
labor; Christian stewardship and the subordination of the
29 Doctrine and Discipline of the Methodist Church,
1940 (New York: The Methodist Publishing Ëous'ë! 1940), p.
766.
86
profit motive to the creative and co-operative spirit- The
above statements were made under the disadvantages of the
situation and handicap of the first general conference of
the uniting church. It is expected by social gospelors
that the vagueness and diplomatic tone so evident in these
statements will be replaced by more vigorous statements as
the following which were adopted by the Southern California-
Arizona Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in June of
the year 1942, on the menace of war to recent social gains.
The conduct of war places in jeopardy many of the
social gains which have been made since the Social
Creed was first adopted in the Church. In the desire
for efficiency in the war machine, the special privilege
power groups are exerting tremendous pressure on the
legislatures and on the Congress to lower the standards
of social living. Much of this pressure is reactionary
in intention. Church groups must resist the attack
upon child labor laws, laws protecting women in industry
and office, anti-labor laws, laws seeking further to
disenfranchise minority groups and laws which in effect
destroy the Bill of Rights. . . . We must replace by a
new economic spirit and procedure the lust for profit
which impels these attacks on society. This conference
goes on record as opposed to the use of this emergency
and crisis that has come the way of the nation for
abnormal and unearned profits or wages by any group.30
Protestant churches in the United States are aware of
the economic and industrial crisis with which the country is
faced- This awareness of the crisis is evidenced by the
above social pronouncements of the Federal Council and six
30 Journal of the Southern California-Arizona Annua1
Conference, The Methodist Church, June 25-July 1, 1942,
nl l6ï.
87
representative Protestant denominations. It is evident that
the churches are sensitive to the present emergency and its
introduction of new phases of economic conditions and in
dustrial relations. A considerable doubt arises, however,
concerning the approach to the problems. There is observed
a tendency to recognize the issue at hand, but to remain
vague, indefinite and non-committal as to the specific or
immediate solution of the problems considered. The above
pronouncements on economic conditions and industrial rela
tions indicate an awareness on the part of Protestant
churches of the fundamental problem of human exploitation.
It appears, however, to be an awareness of certain limited
aspects of the problem. IJhile recognizing tacitly the whole
of the problem, the application is loosely extended to cer
tain parts or aspects of the whole. In other words, the
statements quoted above do not necessarily cover other
aspects of human exploitation. Racial groups who are re
stricted by discrimination and segregation may not enjoy
the rights of labor without first having the pressure and
effects of discrimination lifted. The current struggle of
the Negro to acquire the right to participate in national
defense industries is a fight against discrimination which
impairs his right to work on the high standards which the
above statements declare are proper and right. It is there
fore concluded that the ethical demand of racial equality in
88
labor opportunities has been politely evaded in many in
stances .
The underlying basis of social problems is the same,
the problem of human exploitation. It therefore becomes
important to survey social pronouncements of the churches on
the problem of race, in order to discover the approach of
the churches in viewing the problem of race.
Pronouncements on the race problem. It is evident
that only a small portion of social pronouncements have
applied to the problem of race. The question still remains
as to the importance the Church recognizes in the race prob
lem as an issue of human exploitation. The records show
that church groups only became increasingly aware of racial
exploitation at the close of the first World War. Before
that period of acute racial antagonism accentuated by post
war conditions, most pronouncements concerning race were
accommodative to current attitudes of racial differences.
The foregoing survey of racial pronouncements are considered
in terms of the awareness of the element of human exploita
tion in light of the findings of Chapter Three of this thesis
which discovers the problem of race to be not so much a
problem of racial differences as it is a problem of human
exploitation. The problem of race is undergirded with human
exploitation as are the problems of economic conditions and
89
industrial relations.
At its meeting on June 19, of the year 1942, the
Executive Committee of the Federal Council of Churches of
Christ in America issued a message to the churches in the
Council on the question of race discrimination and injustice
The text follows in part:
The inter-racial tensions in our nation during this
war emergency, jeopardizing national unity and welfare,
bringing into focus conditions that have long existed
as a threat to our democracy and a reproach to our
churches. Millions of our people, especially Negroes,
are subjected to grievous discrimination and unequal
treatment in opportunities for employment, even in
war industries, in education, in housing, in transpor
tation and in other ways. We oppose such discrimina
tion.
In our church life we face the fact that while we
think of ourselves as an all embracing fellowship, our
congregations for the most part are made up along racial
lines. If our communities are to be led into a fellow
ship like the Kingdom of God, that fellowship should
continue to grow in our churches. Racial discrimina
tion against Negroes and other minority groups has
persisted in our communities partly because it has not
been eliminated from our churches. The achievement
of the Christian ideal of democracy falls short because
of the lack of clearer demonstration in our churches.31
The above statement to the churches by the Federal Council
of Churches is illustrative of the direct, to-the-point, fac
ing the facts for what they are method which the ethical
implications of Social Christianity demands of its followers.
The above pronouncement confronts the problem of human ex
ploitation totally. It embraces the socio-economic aspect
Federal Council Bulletin, Vol. XXV, 7, September,
1942.
90
as well as the racial aspect. In It is the clear prophetic
voice which shouts alarm at the straying Christian church
and calls out its danger and the urgency of refinding its
original principles. The underhand practises of discrimina
tion, a tool of Negro exploiters, is challenged not only in
political society but in the Church. The Church of the
United Brethren has the following to say concerning race
relations :
Christianity is a universal Gospel. God made "of
one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the
face of the earth." We, therefore shall not rest
satisfied with the condemnation of racial discrimina
tion, but shall commit ourselves to the cultivation of
proper attitudes toward and relations between various
racial groups. We respect the human personality in
herent in every race, and voice our protest against
any social, economic or political discrimination based
on racial differences.32
The implications of the above statement are of such a
nature as to imply a comprehension of the problem of human
exploitation on the part of the United Brethren Church.
The protest of discrimination in social, economic, and
political areas on the basis of race is a rejection of pre
vailing racial attitudes which definitely deny equality of
race in the social, economic, and political areas of American
society. The exploitation of racial groups is acute in the
social, economic, and political areas. To oppose discrimina-
32 Discipline of the Church of United Brethren in
Christ, 1937-1941, p. 86T"
91
tion as a technique of human exploitation.
Further consideration of the above statement on race
relations by the United Brethren Church indicates, however,
an insufficiency in that the Church statement remains static,
and has not been applied to rising issues of racial pre
judice and discrimination.
The Protestant Episcopal Church has not of recent
years declared itself concerning race relations in the
General Convention. An analysis of the minutes of the
General Convention reveals only scant mention of the problem
of race. In the year 1940, a year of mounting racial discri
mination in economic situations, no direct statement is to
be found on discrimination in the social, economic, and
political areas of American society. The one resolution on
any form of racial discrimination voiced the protest of dis
crimination against .Negroes in hotels and other public accom
modations which served the delegates and representatives to
the General Convention.33 There is no intention to make
light of this resolution, as it is important, but in itself
it is inadequate to meet the tremendous problem of human ex
ploitation which confronts all of society as well as the
General Convention sessions. In a pamphlet published by
the Protestant Episcopal Church, an article entitled "Bi-
Journal of the General Convention of the Protestant
Episcopal Church "[Kansas City, Missouri: 1940), P• 343•
92
racial Effort Brings Success” indicates an admitted accom
modation to the racial attitudes of society; it says in part
Negro men and women are devoting their lives to in
creasing Christianity among Negroes throughout the
nation. But the effectiveness would be diminished
without the help and active co-operation of equally
devoted white people. The bi-racial aspect of the
American Church Institute for Negroes has contributed
in measure ably to its success.
The purpose in quoting the above statement was not to criti-
zice the Protestant Episcopal Church alone for such bi-
racial practices, as this policy prevails among most Pro
testant Churches. The purpose for quoting it was that it
openly expresses and praises bi-racialism in the Church,
which is a denial of the principles of social Christianity.
An awareness of the effect of racial discrimination
in economic conditions and industrial relations is found in
a resolution adopted by the Annual Convention of the Diocese
of Los Angeles in January of the year 1942.
Whereas, the national unity is a major objective
for the safety and welfare of today; and.
Whereas, the loyal contributions of every segment
of our country is vital, if not a guarantee, to that
objective; and.
In view of the demands of the President of the
United States, and the Bill of the California Legisla
ture, that our national defense be not hindered or
impaired by racial discrimination;
Be it resolved.
The Church Marches On, p. 86.
93
That this convention place itself on record as
opposing any actual or contemplated discrimination in
defense activities because of race or otherwise;
That it, by adoption of these.resolutions, especially
express its confidence in the Negro people of America,
and recognize their valuable contributions to American
ideals and life through their bravery in battles for
American liberties, and their unswerving loyalty to
American principles; it, therefore, calls upon the
American people, for the cause of national unity, to
encourage the efforts of Negro people in Jobs and
other opportunities made necessary by our current
international crisis in which our country is so in
extricably involved.35
The awareness of economic discrimination in national de
fense industries in the above resolution is vitally important
to the hypothesis of human exploitation as a determiner of
racial discrimination, but it ignores the more fundamental
issues at hand. The basis of its economic Justice is on the
loyalty and bravery of the Negro people in the past; it also
limits its consideration to the national emergency and the
international crisis. Equality of opportunity is a demand
of the principles of social Christianity, not because of
loyalty or bravery, but because of the innate sacredness of
human personality.
The Presbyterian Church in the United States of
America in the General..Assembly, convening in St. Louis,
Missouri, in May of the year 1941, adopted important state-
Jo^3?nal of the Forty-seventh Annual Convention of
the Church of the Diocese of Los Angeles, 1942^ p5 Bl.
94
merits on racial discrimination. The following is an excerpt
taken from the report of the Committee for Social Education
and Action.
We urge that our.churches seek to foster in their
communities the spirit that puts first our oneness as
Children of God, surmounting the differences between
Jew and Gentile, black and white, occidental and orien
tal, foreign and American-born. We rejoice in the
recent decision of the Supreme Court that guarantees
Negroes traveling accommodations equal to those afforded
white people. We deplore the fact that federal legis
lation in regard to lynching still awaits enactment,
and that barriers such as the poll tax disfranchise
a host of our fellow citizens. We oppose any discrim
ination against the Negro in the military services and
in opportunities for employment in, and training for,
the defense industries.36 •
In the above statement is found a direct affront to racial
discrimination in its injustice to racial groups in social,
economic, and political situations. It embraces the whole
of human exploitation which inevitably produces concomitant
injustices in social, economic, and political areas of life.
This attitude voiced by the Presbyterians shows an awareness
of the immediate issues of racial discrimination.
The Commission on Missionary Operation included the
following statement in the report to the General Assembly:
We should take particular satisfaction in the efforts
being made to combat racial prejudices of every type
and form. The increase in America of anti-Semitism,
the frequent exclusion of Negroes from opportunities for
profitable employment as well as from other rights to
which they are entitled, the discrimination against
3B Minutes of the General Assembly, 1941, p. 164.
95
Japanese nationals in America are instances of attitudes
and practices which are repugnant both to Christianity
and to democracy. The General Assembly reasserts the
opposition of our Church to racial prejudices, persecu
tion or discrimination in any form, and urge all our
churches to support the efforts of the Board to break
down racial barriers and to assure equality of opportun
ity for all people.37
The implications of this statement indicates a keen aware
ness of the total area of racial discrimination in respect
to all racial groups who acutely feel the injustices of
racial discrimination.
Another statement by the Committee of Social Educa
tion and Action is of great importance.
Racial discrimination results in a loss which the
oppressor shares with the oppressed, for it submerges
the contribution which each race and culture has to
bring to the enrichment of all. Inadequate income
that handicaps a large number in the population im
poverishes the human resources of the nation as a
whole.38
The Congregational Church has an unusual record for
consideration of social problems. As shown by pronounce
ments on economic conditions and industrial relations its
interpretation of social problems is decidedly from the view
point of social Christianity. The social insight of the
Congregational Church recognizes the factor of human exploi
tation as a first cause. This is apparent from a statement
37 Ibid., p. 150.
58 Ibid., p. 164.
96
of Social Ideals on Race Relations adopted at the General
Council, convening in Durham, North Carolina, in the year
1942.
Differences of race within our one humanity contri
bute to the enrichment of the common life. Assertions
by any race of intrinsic superiority are false in fact,
and the arrogation to itself by any race of rights of
special honor, power or privilege is a denial of the
Fatherhood of God. A Christian society will oppose
every discrimination against racial groups and will
seek a fellowship of respect and co-operation among
all races.39
Voicing a positive protest to the effect of racial
discrimination in its exploiting of racial minorities, the
Congregational Church declares:
Be it resolved: that the Congregational Christian
Churches solemnly recommit themselves to the eradica
tion of favoritism among God’s children, in our country,
when for too long we have neglected and often forgotten
such significant groups as the rural dwellers of our
mountain highland, cotton fields, barren plains, and
the folk of our city, slum; and where caste has placed
its blighting hand upon Mexicans, Indians, Negroes,
Japanese, Chinese, and other racial minorities--and
further, that our churches and people rededicate
themselves to the proposition that of these children
of America, without reference to class, race, or creed,
shall have the unrestricted privilege of attaining the
full rights of citizenship with its corresponding
responsibility, opportunity, and human dignity; and by
their deeds purge themselves of national sin and remove
the mockery of empty words.40
The Japanese evacuation aroused considerable protest
Minutes of the General Council of the Congrega
tional Christian Churches" 1942, p. 70.
*^0 Ibid., p. 39.
97
at the General Council. A strong resolution on the situa
tion was adopted by the body; it reads in part:
Every time a majority deprives a minority of its
civil rights it undermines its own liberties, and the
unity and world wide Influence of the nation.
Be it resolved: That while nationad security justified
the evacuation of Japanese residing in vital military
areas on the west coast, we deplore the fact that all
persons with any Japanese blood, citizens as well as
aliens, were subjected to evacuation without hearing
or other means of determining loyalty.
That we condemn all attempts to disenfranchise
citizens because of their Japanese ancestry, as
being contrary to sound public policy.
That we decry the agitation to debar all evacuees
from returning after the war to their former homes as
being contrary to those principles of justice and
freedom for which the nation stands.4l
The full implications of the present world crisis
are seen emanating from the selfish motives of mankind in
wholesale exploitation of the human race. This is evidenced
in a statement on the relations of the Church and war:
The present tragic situation is really a world-wide
civil war and revolutionary upheaval, due to human
blindness, apathy, and selfishness, not only in other
nations, but also in our own. Racial and national
arrogance, economic exploitation and failure to provide
and use adequate machinery for international co-operation
and adjustment have combined to bring this disaster upon
mankind.
However complex the causes and issues of the present
struggles may be, the Church must boldly take her stand
for justice, human rights, and spiritual freedom. The
Church recoils with horror from and most ceaselessly
Ibid., p. 40.
98
protest against the unjust treatment of minority groups
and races everywhere.42
The above statement expresses the passion of social Chris
tianity to reclaim humanity from its greeds and blind
passions which are responsible for the present crisis of
disruption. In it is seen the far reaching aspects of
economic greed and exploitation of world markets which have
been justified by false assumptions of superior and inferior
races. This is chaos, but despite the condition the first
duty of the Church must be performed, to reclaim men and
reconstruct society.
The Baptist Church of the Northern Baptist Convention,
convening in Cleveland, Ohio, in the year 1942, adopted the
following resolution on race relations:
We are contending against the theory of race
superiority as expressed by the axis powers through
their leaders. This theory is discredited by the find
ing of science and is contrary to the tenets of our
religion. We reaffirm our fundamental belief in the
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and that
we call upon our churches, our industries, and the
government to be impartial in the granting of liberty
and opportunity to all, regardless of race or culture.
We call the attention of our constituency to the fact
that scientific - men state that there is no difference
in the blood plasma of different racial stocks and .
that we deplore the practice of segregation of blood
plasma on any racial basis.43
The Baptist Church here affirms the social principle of
Ibid., p. 35-
Year Book of the Korthern Baptist Convention, 1942,
p . 268.
99
social Christianity, the Fatherhood of God, and the
brotherhood of man. It is, however, vague in making a defin
ite application to the social, economic, and political -
realm, but nevertheless is important, for’the resolution as
quoted indicates an awareness of the present effects of
racial discrimination, and asserts two important factors in
scientific discovery, the equality of human races, and the
indivisibility of human blood. By reiterating the equality
of the human race, it rejects prevalent superstitions of
race which are pseudo-justifications of human exploitation.
The Northern Baptist Convention continued to attack
human exploitation by declaring six vital points for realiza
tion in the post-war world.
1. Political justice and liberty for every person
in the world.
2. Economic and social justice for every person in
the world.
3. Equality of opportunity to develop his own
skill and abilities for every person in the world.
4. Freedom of speech and freedom of worship for
every person in the world.
‘ 5' Equitable access to the raw materials of the
earth for all groups in the world.
6. Substitution of collective responsibility for
national ownership of colonies and mandated areas,
and the administration of this responsibility primarily
in the interest of the underprivileged or so-called
backward p e o p l e .44
Ibid., p. 270.
100
The Methodist Church makes the following statement
in the Social Creed, which was adopted by the Uniting Con
ference in the year 1939 -
We stand for the rights of racial groups, and insist
that the above social, economic, and spiritual princi
ples apply to all races alike.45
The economic and industrial relations pronouncements
of the Social Creed of the Methodist Church have already
been quoted, in part, in this chapter.It is recognized
that the Social Creed of the Methodist Church is the basis
of the social attitudes of that church, and are principles
of social attitudes. But the implication of the above
statement on attitudes of racial discrimination are some
what vague and evasive as to the problems of racial minori
ties. There is question as to the all-inclusiveness of the
social, economic, and spiritual principles of the Social
Creed, so as to cover social and economic problems peculiar
to different racial groups. The problem of exploitation is
the same for all groups, majority, minority, racial and
otherwise, but an adaptation is necessary in order to insure
equality for all groups irrespective of color, creed, or
culture.
A favorable sentiment in keeping with the spirit of
Doctrine and Discipline of the Methodist Church,
1940, p. 769:
46 Supra., pp. 85-86.
101
social Christianity is voiced by the Methodists in a reso
lution adopted by the Southern California-Arizona Annual
Conference in June of the year 1942 on the rights of minor
ity groups.
One of the great danger signals of our social life
is the growing racial tension of the present. Because
of unjust discrimination in the Army, in the Navy, in
the Air Corps, in war industries, in technical schools,
in general employment, in housing projects--as well as
the more chronic injustices of pre-war days which are
still with us--the Negro faces one of the gravest
crises since his emancipation. He looks to the Church
to champion him in his distress and to speak an un
equivocal word of true community and fellowship. The
local Church should make itself a proving ground of
full freedom for all persons.47
The resolution continues, voicing the protest of the Church
in the ill-treatment afforded the Japanese citizens:
The all-inclusive fellowship of the Church embraces
with profound sympathy the Japanese who have been
uprooted by the evacuation orders. We are not un
mindful that powerful interests, popular war hysteria,
provincialism, and vigilantism, as well as military
precaution enter into the situation. We do not join
in the wholesale suspicion of disloyalty on the part
of the Japanese of any generation. We deeply regret
that the citizenship rights of many have been violated.
We urge our church people to join in a positive
movement to protect these persons from threats of
permanent loss of civil and economic rights. We seek
^with them for a neW' birth of f r e e d o m .48
The above resolution clearly illustrates the necessity of
directing protests at problems which are in their implica-
47 journal of the Southern California-Arizona Annual
Conference, The Methodist Church, 1942, pp. l6l, 162.
48
Ibid., p. 162.
102
tions peculiar to separate racial groups. In this manner
the aspects of each reflection of exploitation is not allow
ed to go unchallenged.
The social impulse of the Methodist Church is not
properly interpreted without some mention of the Methodist
Federation for Social Service. This group is an unofficial
body, but nevertheless is of considerable influence in
shaping the social attitudes of Methodism. The purpose of
the organization is explained on the letterhead of the
"Social Question Bulletin":
The Methodist Federation for Social Service
(unofficial) is an organization which rejects the method
of struggle for profit as the economic base for
society; which seeks to replace it with social-economic
planning in order to develop a society without distinc
tions and privileges.49
This is one of the few church organizations to approach
social problems on the theory of the economic struggle with
proper rejections of its exploiting consequences. At the
thirty-fifth anniversary, convening in Cleveland, Ohio, in
June of the year 1942, the Federation made the following
recommendations on racial discrimination. It reads in part:
We recommend that:
(2) The Methodist Church endeavor to act in this
country and abroad on matters affecting racial groups
49 The Social Question Bulletin, Letterhead.
103
In harmony with its teaching of the supreme worth of
personality.
(4) The Board of Temperance of the Methodist Church,
owner of the Methodist Building in Washington, D . C-,
request the Dining Room, Inc., a restaurant on the
first floor of the Methodist Building, to revise its
policy of discouraging the patronage of Negroes un
accompanied by white people, and to serve Negroes
without discrimination.
(5.) Inasmuch as many employers are not granting
employment to Negroes in skilled and semi-skilled
jobs, we use every influence at our command to stop
this discrimination; that we request all employers who
hire semi-skilled and skilled workers to engage properly
qualified Negroes; and that we bring all concrete
cases of known discrimination to the attention of the
President’s Committee on Fair Employment Practice.
(7) The Oriental Exclusion Act be repealed.^0
The March edition of the "Social Question Bulletin"
recommends support of the Anti-lynch Bill.
Write Rep. H. W. Summers, Chairman, House Committee
on the Judiciary, in support of H. R. 971^ the Anti-
lynching Bill introduced by Rep. Joseph G-avagan of
New York:
Under its privisions, the Federal Department of
Justice shall cause an investigation to be made when
ever any state or government agency fails to protect
victims from a lynch mob.51
An important statement of the increasing racial ten-
p. 2.
The Social Question Bulletin, June, 1942, Vol. 32,
Ibid., March, 1942, p. 4.
104
sion accentuated by the rising world conflict is made in the
following news item in the bulletin.
It is manifest that with the decline of the capital
ist economy and the approach of war of which that de
cline is the underlying cause, there is an increase
among us of race discrimination and the growth of race
hatred. Anti-Semitism is now flourishing where it had
no roots, from the fields of Kansas to the streets of
New York, from the rural poverty of the Bible belt to
the genteel, highbrow atmosphere of New England. Anti-
Negro manifestations appear in the training camps;
racial discrimination, despite the Presidential order
against it, is rampant in defense industry employment.
Unless these symptoms are checked, this Fascist disease
will destroy the democratic community--which today must
be inter-racial and postpone indefinitely the hope for
that City of God upon the earth whose gates are ever
open to every kindred and tongue.52
Undoubtedly, the Methodist Federation for Social
Service is rendering a great service not only to the
Methodist Church as an information service, but to the
underprivileged and victims of the present economic system.
An anadysis of the contents of the above quotations clearly
illustrates the social awareness of the Federation and its
knowledge of and protest against the human exploitation so
apparent in current American society.
The approach to the race problem of church related
inter-racial agencies. The national inter-racial agencies
have together a concern for the relations which exist between
the racial groups in American society. From different back™
Ibid., October, 1941, p. 3-
105
grounds of experience, philosophies, and purposes these
agencies labor to establish orderly conduct between people
in inter-racial contact. The differences in philosophies
concerning race relations are evidently responsible for the
approaches made by the respective groups.
The inter-racial movement in its inception was a
Church movement, and is so used in this study as a related
agency of the Church. Social Christianity and the increas
ing interest in social problems by the Church and other
institutions gave rise to the interest in race relations.
The hope of harmonious race relations, to minimize
racial strife and establish proper attitudes of good will
and understanding in view of a basic racial equality, is
the result of the impact of social Christianity on American
society. As a result of this influence, the inter-racial
movement came into being, but not always on the above prin
ciple of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man,
but rather for the advantages of a harmonious relationship
between the privileged and the non-privileged.
The Commission on Race Relations of the Federal
Council of Churches of Christ in America was organized in
the year 1921. It operates to promote the cause of better
race relations in those denominations represented in the
Federal Council. The organization works with local church
federation groups and denominational bodies by encouraging
106
programs for better race relations. Important phases of the
work are (l) artistic achievements of the Negro as expressed
by the Harmon Awards, (2) an interest in lynchings which
occur in the Northern section of the country, and (3) an
interest in the economic life of the Negro. This agency
along with the Society of Friends and the Fellowship of
Reconciliation publishes "The Inter-racial News Letter."
The publication reviews the activities of race relations
during the month, outlines achievements of Negroes, glaring
examples of racial discrimination, injustice, segregation,
and so forth. The Commission explains its purpose regarding
the publication on each issue with the following words;
The materials of the News Service are given for
information and are not to be construed as declara
tions of official attitudes or policies of the
Commission on Race Relations or of the Federal-
Council of Churches.53
The organization has three basic principles (l) to remove
old evils to be found in the inter-racial situation in
America, (2) to prevent new evils from developing, and (3)
to integrate the Negro into American life.
The organization has worked in and through the
churches to educate public opinion on race questions and"
has sought to build better race attitudes in the mind of the
average citizen.
53 The Inter-racial News Service, Letterhead.
107
The Council appeals to the Christian ideal as to the
motive to inspire more satisfactory relations. It stresses
the idea that in Christ there is no Jew nor Gentile, no
Greek nop harharian, no bond, no free, and that therefore
all who truly accept the Christian ideal will eliminate from
their minds all concepts of race difference. The Commission
is at work where the Negro is discriminated against, is
'segregated, or otherwise repressed. It seeks to break
down prejudice, injustice, and intolerance, and to establish
goodwill.54
The Commission uses extensively the educational
method in an effort to establish better race relations. In
getting its program before the churches it works through
local and inter-racial committees and denominational boards.
For the purpose of educating the public about the race
situation, the Commission inaugurated "Race Relations Sun-
(day," and publicly displays outstanding achievements of
Negroes.
Baker makes the following statement concerning the
Commissions’work in conflict situations:
In recent years the Commission has been dealing more
and more with conflict situations. At the time Negro
children were segregated in Gary, Indiana, Dr. Haynes
spent two days conferring with Gary officials in an
effort to prevent such a move being made by the school
board. At Youngstown, Ohio, the.Secretary of the
54 Paul E. Baker, Negro-White Adjustment (New York:
Association Press, 1934), pp. 26-27.
108
Commission protested against the segregation program
of the Young Men’s Christian Association. In Toledo,
he sought educational privileges for those retarded
Negro children who had just come from the South. The
Commission has made a beginning on the difficult
problem of dissolving the emotions of prejudice,
hatred and ill will which arise in conflict situations.55
The Inter-racial Department of the National Council
of the Young Men’s Christian Association is an organization
which mainly supervises the Negro work and endeavors to
adjust friendly relations between the two racial groups.
Baker sums up the principles of the department as follows:
1. The National Council seeks to manifest a spirit
that would make it seem an obligation on the part of
local associations to foster good race relations.
2. The National Council honors and broadcasts good
examples of race improvement or co-operation.
3. The National Council tries to practice the best
type of race relations. The Young Men’s Christian
Association will not hold its annual conference at a
hotel unless it opens all its privileges to the Negro
delegates just as it does to the white delegates.
4. The National Council helps local leaders to be
resourceful in meeting inter-racial situations.
Publicity is given to the way local organizations meet
and solve race problems.
5* Local units are urged not to make issues of race
practices unless it seems absolutely necessary. The
Council takes it for granted that race contacts are
valid as long as the parties concerned are agreeable.
If we made an issue of every new race development, we
would not be nearly so far along as we a r e .56
55 Ibid., p. 27.
58 Ibid., p. 30.
109
The Young Men’s Christian Association has been a
pioneer in inter-racial efforts. As early as the year I869,
Negro Chapters had been instituted in different cities. The
above principles, however, are such as to accommodate cur
rent and local racial attitudes. The autonomy of the local
organizations, in a large degree, hinders a more effective
effort in race relations.
The methods used by the agency are social and per
sonal contacts. Through discussion groups, forums, con
ferences, and study classes, it brings before men and boys
the facts about the Negro race and the records of achieve
ments. It also publishes literature and articles dealing
with the American Negro-white situation in its magazines.
A limited amount of research is being done in the field of
race relations by the organization. Some surveys are being
conducted by local associations. Contacts are made with
Negroes through colored speakers, inter-racial banquets
forum groups, council meetings, conferences, and camps. The
contacts in such set-up are often ephemeral and hence not
vital, since they are unrelated to the "ordinary normal com
munity relations.
The inter-racial work of the Young Women’s Christian
Association is similar to the work of the Young Men’s Chris
tian Association. The plan of the organization is definitely
bi-racial. Since the year I906 the Association has offered
110
Negro women and girls a separate program and equipment. For
direct inter-racial activity the Young Women’s Christian
Association is organized as follows:
1, The National Students Council has an Inter- *
racial Committee which meets monthly to talk over
plans and methods of work along inter-racial lines
in the Association. This committee is composed of
women members of both races.
2. The Council of Christian Association has a
national inter-racial committee which meets monthly
and talks over the larger problems of race adjustment
as they concern the two associations.
3- One of the subcommittees of the Christian
World Education Committee is a committee on inter
racial relations.57
The convention policy of the Young Women’s Christian
Association is one of equality in respect to hotels, cafe
terias, and other public accommodations. This organization
refused to hold its national convention in cities or in
stitutions which would not grant equal treatment of Negroes
at the conferences.
The Young Women’s Association labors for complete
mutuality. The chief aim is to eliminate all racial dis
tinctions within the organization. The Young Women’s
Christian Association labors under the handicap that affects
religious Institutions which must depend upon philanthropy
for their support. The Southern influence and general
state of prejudice evidently are responsible for the obvious
57 Ibid., p. 33.
Ill
compromises in inter-racial work.
The methods of the Young Women’s Christian Associa
tion are the same as the Young Men’s Christian Association.
The organization encourages the contact of the two races in
order to break down prejudices and to build friendly rela
tions, but it only indirectly attacks the fundamental politi
cal, economic, and social problems of the race situation.
Its program is evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
The Society of Friends has throughout its history
been liberal in its attitudes toward all races. They have
fought for the rights of the Negro ever since the intro
duction of the first slave in America. The "underground
railway" was largely a tool of the Quarkers for assisting
Negroes to escape into Canada. After the Civil War, many
of the Negro schools were financed by wealthy Quakers who
sought to give the Negro intellectual, social, and political
emancipation. During and after the World War there has been
a resurgence of interest in the Negro and his situation.
The Society of Friends has four committees which
deal with inter-racial activities. The first is known as
the Committee on Race Relations of the Society of Friends.
The second is the Race Relations Section of the Friends
Service Committee and the third is the Race Relations Com
mittee of the Friends’ General Conference. The fourth is
the Race Relations Committee of the American Inter-racial
112
Peace Committee. The Friends have four main planks in
their inter-racial work. These are as follows:
1. In order to build friendship between members
of the two races by personal contact, the Friends
promote inter-racial gatherings.-
2. The promotion of educational programs and meet
ings which disseminate information about the race situ
ation in America.
3- The championing of the rights of Negroes where
there is evidence of injustice, discrimination or
segregation.
4. The promotion of issues to open new opportuni
ties for Negroes in economic, educational, social
and political areas of American Society.5°
The method used by the Quakers is largely an in
direct informative procedure. Their philosophy allies
them with the evolutionary process of inter-racial develop
ment. They use all the best educational techniques, such
as research, personal contact, the seminar, conference,
publications, and committee work. However, they support
organizations which do use the direct method, as, for ex
ample, the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People.
The Friends work on the assumption that every privi
lege open to white people should be open to Negroes. There
are, however, many Quakers who fall short, and it is only
the more liberal who actually practice this basic philosophy.
58
Ibid., p. 37.
113
Nonetheless, the influence of the Friends has been felt
strongly in the inter-racial movement.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation was introduced in
the United States in the year 1917, just as the United
States was beginning its participation in the World War.
In the early stages of the movement a member of the organi
zation had to be an absolute pacifist and an avowed Chris
tian. In recent years, however, the requirements have been
modified so as to embrace members of other religious faiths
who are in accord with the general purpose of the agency,
and also all who are willing to pledge to work against the
use of force as a method of settling the problems of the
social order. In one of its published pamphlets, the
Fellowship outlines its objectives for which its members
are striving:
They refuse to participate in any war, or to sanc
tion military preparation; they work to abolish war
and to foster goodwill among nations, races and classes.
They strive to build a social order which will
suffer no individual or group to be exploited for
profit or pleasure of another, and which will assure
to all the means for realizing the best possibilities
of life.
They advocate such ways of dealing with offenders
against society as shall transform the wrong doer
rather than inflict retributive punishment.
They endeavor to show reverence for personality in
home, in the education of children, in.-association
with those of other classes, nationalities, and races.59
59 statement of Purpose, Vol. XVI, p. 6.
114
The Fellowship has been active in racial situations
in the South. In race relations they endeavor to interpret
the Negro to the whites, and the whites to the Negro. The
Fellowship publishes literature which sets forth its prin
ciples and program. It participates in conventions, demon
strations, conferences, discussion groups and other gather
ings where the aim is goodwill and unswerving love. The
organization adopts any method that helps to realize the
Christian way of life in social, political, industrial, or
international affairs.
The Fellowship has sponsored numerous inter-racial
conferences in the South. The more liberal Negroes and
whites are in attendance, functioning throughout the con
ference period on a basis of equality. Baker, referring
to the work of the Fellowship’s conference program,says :
Wherever the Fellowship secretaries go in the South,
they seek to get the Negro and white groups together
on an inter-racial basis. They take a radical stand
on political, economic, and international issues as
well as on the race question. At times their passive
stand, seems to prevent their being as militant and
aggressive as their cause would demand. However, the
program of the Fellowship of Reconciliation for the
South has made a definite advance in the field of
race relations, and comparatively speaking, is using
methods that are effective". BO
The Student Christian Movement is an organization
among students in the various schools, institutions, and
Baker, op. cit., p. 195-
115
colleges. It labors to build Christian attitudes among
students with respect to inter-racial goodwill and coopera
tion. Its methods are joint meetings, conferences, and
organized programs. They, too, utilize the exchange- of
speakers, lecturers, singers, and other contributors which
through their art and contributions foster better race re
lations .
The Commission on Inter-racial Cooperation in the
Southern States, while not being a church related agency,
is nonetheless an organization which has enlisted the Church
and its organizations in doing a great work of race relations
in the areas of intense racial strife.
The Commission on Inter-racial Cooperation was
organized in the year 1919 because of acute racial tension
which resulted when Negro soldiers returned from France. Its
inception was temporary, but the scope of its work proved so
valuable that the commission was organized on a permanent
basis. Its work is varied but extensive. It concerns its
work with problems of Negro health, education, economic
conditions, and the prevention of lynchings and other race
frictions.
The Commission on Inter-racial Cooperation has
worked effectively with the churches through the women’s
organizations. The various denominations having churches in
the South have encouraged the cooperation of the women’s
116
societies with the commission. Interdenominational programs
were organized and leaflets, welfare clubs, and Bible
classes were enlisted to pursue the advancement of inter
racial cooperation. In many local situations the religious
locals of the commission have prevented lynchings and other
brutalities.
Summary. Social Christianity has made itself felt in
the racial situation in the United States. Despite numerous
handicaps which exist within and without the Protestant
Church, some effort has been made ; attention has been given;
and ways considered for the solution of the grave tension
which exists between racial groups. It can in no way be
said that the Protestant Church is united as to the solu
tion for the racial situation. The narrow practice of the
color line in the Church is evidence of the immaturity of
the Church on the problem of race. The average Protestant
Church accepts the accommodative position in its organiza
tion with respect to current racial attitudes. The pro
phetic and liberal clergy and laity are in a small minority
and are rendered helpless in most situations by the opposi
tion of the prejudiced majority.
The Church has, however, made itself felt by stating
its position on vital social issues. A survey of the pro
nouncements on economic conditions and industrial relations
117
finds an awareness of the element of human exploitation as
a basic underlying factor in social issues. An awareness,
however, that is hopeful, and is in the direction of the
principle of the social gospel.. A survey of pronouncements
on race relations suggests that an effort has been made by
the Church to fathom the Intricacies of race relations.
Despite the outstanding efforts of some denominations to
reveal the exploitative basis of the race problem, others
are inconsiderate and blind to the basic implications of
racial discrimination. The inter-racial agencies related
to the Church, while varying in method, philosophy, and
organisation are incompetent to cope with the racial prob
lem.
The sum total of church statements on economic con
ditions, industrial relations, and race presents a none too
clear picture of the enthusiasm, passion, interest, and
sincerity of the institutionalized church for the social
principles of the social gospel. While in some instances
individual churches were particularly prolific in denouncing
social injustice, other groups were passive. All top often,
the pronouncements introduced and adopted by the denomina
tions did not represent the attitude of the people, but an
isolated committee. Likewise, in most instances, there has
not been an educational program suggested as a follow up to
insure the church position not only in the official records
118
of the Church but in the daily lives of its membership.
The conclusions derived from the above study of the
state of the Church, its attempt to redirect social injus
tices by the official commitment of church attitudes, the
method, philosophy, and work of church related inter-racial
agencies are (l) that the Church is woefully outside of the
original social principles of Christianity, and (2) that the
rising tide of social upheaval on the international and
national level gives the Church no other alternative but to
attack the social injustices in which all society, the Church
included, is so involved.
The issue at hand to a large degree is a matter of
economic privilege and power. Those excelling in this
costly luxury do so at the expense of the common man. The
element of human exploitation, therefore, becomes an in
creasingly important concern. Even yet millions of ex
ploited people look to the Church for an answer to the suf
ferings of this hour. The Church, if it will prove itself
eternal, must not fail.
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Summary. Social Christianity is not a novelty which
has been imposed upon the Christian tradition. ^ The consid
eration of the social problems which arise in human society
is not a new theory or emphasis which has been introduced at
some later period into the message of Christianity. Neither
is it an Interpretation of the teachings and principles of
the Hebrew prophets and Jesus. It is rather, a legitimate
factor in the origin and growth of historical Christianity.
The Hebrew prophets demanded righteousness and justice in
the social life of Israel and Judah. The main contributions
of the prophets to religion were made through the parts they
played in the social crises of their day. The prophets were
public figures who rebuked, exhorted, prophesied, and de
nounced, not in private or secret corners, but in open
public commitments in the name of Yahweh who spoke to the
people through their courageous messages. The prophets saw
society as an organic whole, who sinned as one, and who
should seek repentance as one.
This was the heritage of Jesus Christ who, while not
overlooking the individual relationship with God, definitely
taught by example and precept the interdependence of human
ity on the basis of equality among men and the supreme value
120
of human personality. The dominant experiences of Jesus
were those social experiences in which he sets the example
for proper human relationships which must exist between men
irrespective of color, creed, or culture. To this end he
braved persecution and denunciation because the reality of
brotherhood was a supreme value to him, even above his own
physical well-being.
The primitive church labored to further the cause of
the individual and social message of Jesus. Theirs was a
fellowship of belief, persons, and property--all integrated
for the needs and welfare of those following the Christian
movement.
The beginning of the eclipse of the social message
of Christianity began with the extreme individualization of
the gospel by Paul, the apostle. The climax came with the
political triumph of Christianity through the alliance with
Constantine. The triumph of the organized Church ensued to
obliterate the social teachings of historical Christianity.
But despite the rejection or denial of the social message
of Christianity, it successfully withstood its entombment,
to come back, and face a confused world which had fared so
wretchedly without it.
The changing social, economic, and political condi
tions interposed by the advent of the industrial revolution
of the nineteenth century increased the agonizing cries and
121
pains of wretched humanity.
Out of this social upheaval, an awakening Protestant
ministry in the United States reclaimed the centuries-lost
social message with which to rechannel the prevailing
social chaos.
The enlightened Protestant clergy, inspired with the
message of social salvation, with prophetic conviction, and
awareness, pled the cause of the downtrodden. Co-operating
with the rising tide of social reform instituted by secular
movements, many social gains were achieved. The rights of
labor, solution of problems of urbanization, the curbing
of child labor practices, social legislation, governmental
intercession in business practices, civil service, and
numerous other social problems were successfully turned
toward social betterment. Much progress was made, and the
hope of a more Christian social order filled the hearts of
millions.
There is, however, an area of social concern which
perhaps has not been properly included in the program of
the social gospel. The problems of race and the racial prac
tices of the social order in the United States are the
gravest inconsistencies of American democracy.
American Negroes, the descendants of American slaves,
are still the victims of the exploiting techniques of the
institution of slavery. Under the guise of alleged racial
122
Inferiority, and alleged subhuman traits which the findings
of science reject, the Negro has been intimidated, dis
criminated against, segregated, and denied the full rights
of citizenship.
That this unscientific attitude of racial inferi
ority is not accidental in its usage is evidenced by the
concomitant, economic, social, educational, and political
inferiorities to which Negroes are subjected. An analysis
of the position of the Negro in American society discovers
him to be an exploited worker, still in need of emancipation.
Many of the rights won in the interest of labor and the
underprivileged, still are not enjoyed by the Negro. The
injustices of chattel slavery are still in action, thwarting
the proper growth of millions of Negro agricultural serfs,
still in the clutches of the vicious plantation economy.
The Protestant church has likewise drawn the color
line within its fellowship. The prevailing church practice
of ministering to the Negro is one of segregation. Even
within the folds of the Church, the Negro cannot escape the
world which coerces him to the role of *%ewer of wood^’ ^and
at the same time scorns him at the sordid task.
The Church, however, in reflecting the racial atti
tudes of American society reveals its own submission to the
the prevailing culture pattern. The Church is financially
dependent upon the philanthropy of industrial and agricul
123
tural society. It likewise is a minority movement embrac
ing less than one half of the population. Because of its
financial limitations, it is difficult to support social
programs properly. But despite these tremendous handicaps
the Church has power, more power perhaps than is realized.
This power is evidenced in the statements and ex
pressions of Church positions on various social issues. No
one can rightfully deny the moral influence of the Church
as a positive factor in a history of social progress.
The Church has repeatedly declared itself with re
spect to social conditions and industrial relations. There
is to be seen an awareness of the bondage of millions in
lives of poverty and want in its pronouncements. The Church
is aware of the element of human exploitation in the present
system of power politics. It is more aware of the exploit
ing tendencies in social conditions and industrial relations
than in the racial situation. This is heeded despite the
keen awareness of some denominations who have protested
profusely the exploitative implications of racial discrim
ination and segregation.
The Church and its related agencies have attacked
the problem of race, but not in view of solution, but
solely for the prevention of conflict. The ever-darkening
clouds of racial antagonisms on the world horizon today are
evidences of the need of a more courageous stand.
124
Conclusions. The history of the Church proves it to
be at its best when in the middle of some crisis, which
threatens its existence. There is no tenacity or will to
live any stronger than the faith of Christianity when stirred
into action. The leadership of nationalism and capitalism
has been felt more than the leadership of the Christian
Church in western civilization, but when conflict and dis
aster destroy the state and economic structure, it is the
Church that remains as a last defiance of the enemy. In
such times of crises, a civilization is no stronger than
its religious faith. Therefore, the Church must become
aware of the fact that every hour of life is an hour of
crisis, an immediate crisis, upon which depends the future.
In light of this, the purpose of the Church is made clear.
Its purpose, therefore, is not the foundation of an
ecclesiastical institution or the proclamation of a meta
physical creed, although it seeks the formation of a divine
society and presupposes the metaphysics of a Christllke God.
Its supreme purpose is the revelation to men of their
potential childhood to the Father and their possible
brotherhood with each other.
The findings of this survey are as follows: (l) that
the social gospel is historically a part of the teachings
of Jesus ; (2) that there is a need for a more positive
application of the social principles of Christianity to the
125
social problems of American society, particularly the race
problem as an aspect of human exploitation; (3) that the
institutionalized Church is limited as an agent of social
reform, but, nevertheless, an influence exerting power
through pronouncements of its social attitudes; and (4)
that the related agencies of inter-racial good will though
aware of race situations are too compromising with the
present order.
In view of the above findings along with the social
ideals of Christianity and the present upheaval throughout
the world, it becomes imperative for a revitalized effort
on the part of the Church, to act without compromise in the
name of Jesus Christ. The Church must not ask men to follow
the example of Christ, if- they will, but rather demonstrate
this character of ultimate reality which they can ignore
only at the cost of their soUls.
It is concluded, therefore, that social Christianity
must become less compromising with prevailing social atti
tudes. . The Church must in full awareness of the crisis at
hand be willing to champion the cause of the downtrodden,
despite financial, political, loss; or opposition. ' It is the
responsibility of the Church to set the example in the race
question by first breaking its own barriers. It is impera
tive that the Protestant Church utilize a new dynamic with
which to discharge an effective program of social reform.
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Asset Metadata

Creator Boswell, H. T. (author)

Core Title Some aspects of the race problem in the social gospel

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Master of Theology

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,philosophy, religion and theology,Social Sciences

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