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The Church and Socialism
a Socialistic state, but they are vividly conscious of their hatred against existing institutions which they hold respon sible for the present social inequalities and wrongs. Christian teachers, therefore, do well to meet fairly and generously the attacks which Socialists are making upon the Church, and they should explain to Socialists their misconceptions and the obvious defects of their creed. m Popular Socialism is mistaken in identifying the Chris tian Church with “capital” and in regarding the Church as re sponsible for the present social order. It is commonly asserted that the Church is the “rich man’s club” ; that Christian min isters are controlled by men of wealth and afraid to rebuke social evils, that the Gospel is preached with the purpose of making poor men content with their present conditions and of preventing them from rising to assert their rights. As a mat ter of fact the Church is committed to no one social order. It has flourished under imperial rule as it has in great repub lics, but it is opposed to the wrongs and injustice of every sys tem. Instead of being “the rich man’s club” the great propor tion of its members are wage earners, and a very small pro portion are rich. For instance, of the 36,000,000 Church mem bers in the United States only a few could be classed as capi talists. On the other hand, very many capitalists, unfor tunately, are not professed Christians nor actively interested in the Church. As to the ministry, it is rarely recruited from the ranks of the wealthy, and its representatives are usually fearless in their rebuke of social sins. It is the glory of the Church that it welcomes to its services and blesses by its offices both rich and poor alike, and does more to obliterate class distinctions than any other agency in the world. 2. Popular Socialism unjustly places all capitalists under suspicion of dishonesty and selfishness. It is true that the more intelligent advocates of Socialism, as an economic pro posal, discriminate between the responsibilities of individuals
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