The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-16
THE PRESS AND THE PULPIT.
Some Reasons Why the Clergy Object to
Sunday Newspapers.


Sunday Newspapers.
The Sunday newspaper is denounced, we are
persuaded more because it is thought to be in
part responsible for the diminishing number of
church attendants than for any sound objection
to what it contains
Five years ago the Herald undertook to find
out 'Why People Don't Go to Church" The
question had been discussed threadbare in
church conventions and ministers meetings, and
no satisfactory conclusions reached. With the
newspaper habit of going to the bottom and the
root of things, the Herald sought the reasons
where they could be most surely found. namely,
among tAe people who constituted the absentees.
Hundreds of typical and representative individ-
uals were interviewed and their reasons for non
attendance given The showing was not fatter-
ing to the average preaching or to the
ordinary church management; but. though
unpalatable, it true. 1t was found
that much Of the absenteeism was due to the in
herent exclusiveness of the system upon which
the large and wealthy churches are organized and
conducted. The fine churches are dying of
caste, or, if having name to live, they exist
under the operation of influences that give a
cutting edge to the satire of those who contras {
their magnifcence, their fashion and their for
malism with the teaching and the habits of the
meek and lowly Jesus Some of them maintain
a few free pews in a corner or gallery; but the
people of moderate means whose absence is la
mented will not occupy what one of them Bit
terly called "a potters field for The living"
Neither will the deserving poor" of the intelli
gent class flock to that ecclesiastical free soup
house. the mission church" The educated and
thinking native citizens, it was found, were tired
oShearng the same old 'stencilplate dogmas'
that embody the juiceess theology of bygone
age They went from church to church seeking
for message that should meet the wants of
human nature in its everyday needs and COM
mon experiences, but it was seldom that they
heard it. They found excellent ministers who
knew books and systems, but who did not know
men and women; who had dreamed so much of
heaven, and specuated so much concerning hell,
that they had learned little OF practical value in
relation to the world in which they lived. And
that these and kindred reasons still have force
in continuing a state of things which the clergy
do not know how to remedy is proved by the
empty pews one side and the ''unchurched
masses" on the other.
The Sunday newspapers have not produced
this condition of affairs. What they have done
Is to supply want which the pulpit did not
meet, and to supplement-, for those who do at
tend church, the instruction and help which they
find there. The modern newspaper mirrors the
world. 1t deals no more with crime than the
pulpit deals with sin. Whatever is no.
BILE, and generous, and just in society
finds its reflection in the columns of the PRESS
and it carries its indictments to virtue and good
ness, where too few modern clergymen are
found-in the abodes of poverty, and sin, and
suffering. People who are too poor to go to
church are not too poor to buy newspaper; and
they can winnow the wheat from the chaff in
chairs we'll they could in
pews. The papers ought, no doubt,
to be better than they are; and they
are growing better as fast as they can make their
readers better. They give the churches lesson
in studying the wants of the people as we'll as
their needs. They visit all classes. They do
not attempt to instruct or to help men at long
range, or from a pedestal raised above their
heads. With the essential truths of religion-the
religion that is good and worthy life, not mar
row and debatable credible press of America is
in full sympathy. Its impulse and it's interest
are to make men better, not worse And while
it asks no favors and expects little help from
theclergymen who attempt either to patronize,
to ignore or to oppose it. it sees on it's part, no
reason for antagonism between them There
are room and work for both, and the press, with
its face set toward the future. will straight
on, doing its own work in its own way.