The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-05-13
CHURCHES ARE n. G.
General William Thurston Brown
Makes Discovery.
AND LEAVES THE MINISTRY
His Hope for the Future OF the Race
Lies in Industrial De-
mOcrncy.
AND LEAVES THE MINISTRY
sesg York su,, sseeya5 Services.

Rochester, N. Y, May 13.-Rev. William
Thurston Brown of the Plymouth Congre-
sational church, the minister VINO per-
formed the marriage ceremony of DR..
George D. Heron and Miss Carrie Rand In
New York year ago, has resigned from
his parish and in a letter to his congrega-
ton he denounced churches in toto. He
says ~
.'Religious creeds and social conven
lions stultify and strange manhood. 1t Is
no better to live a lie than it is to teach
one. It is no better to conform to i'm
moral and artificial standards in ones
living than it is to conform to false stan
dardS in ones thinking.
when | made choice of what Is called
the Christian ministry it was not be-
cause felt that men and women were IN
danger of a future hell. but because I was
convinced that the chief end of human
life was the establishment of the king
dom of heaven Or happiness on the earth,
and it seemed to me then that the church
was the most natural and suitable agency
for that purpose. I assumed that an In
stitution that took Jesus as it's head could
have no other aim.
"Of course, discovered my mistake. 1
found not only that the church as an in
program. but that it does not possess in
its equipment, whether material or intel
lectual, any of the agencies that can real
ize such a result. l heard much talk of
the brotherhood of man and the father
hood of God, but I saw that these phra SEES
meant nothing and were taken to mean
nothing in mems social and industrial re-
lationS.
cat first, like many other clergymen,
my mind dulled and stupefied by the
teachings l had received. 1 was inclined
to blame individuals for those social con-
dlttons which make all our talk of
brotherhood and 'fatherhood' a species
of hypocrisy that completely discounts
anything that 'scribes and pharisees' of
Palestine could show. But have discov-
cred my error and am convinced that men
Of all classes are about as good as their
environments will permit them to be. And
/ understand that mems social and indus
trial relations are determined by forces
over which either religion or the church
has no more influence than they have over
the motions Of the planets.
accepting the ideas of origin and de-
velopment as enunciated by Darwin and
Others my whole thought of social prob
lens and personal duty has radically
changed. To my mind the whole philos-
ophy of religious and so-called philan-
thropic activity is mistaken and the
CHURCH ana CnarltaDle institutions are
simply manifestations of misdirected en-
ergy.
my hope, of moral progress lies in the
direction of enlightenment and Of the de-
Velopment of such sense of personal
and class interests as will make the peo-
pie the masters of their own destiny I
have long ceased to believe that any out
side being or force is going to help men
In either their personal or social life.
The forces which are to solve our prob
lens and bring us emancipation from all
kinds OF slavery are within and about our
selves. -. -:
'Believing thus, look forward with
nope to the advent of industrial democ-
racy as giving promise of larger free
dom and better life for all.
But the most imperative reason for the
action which take relates to the question
OF personal morality No man can con-
tlnue to think Worthily who does not
square his deeds with his words We can
know only in proportion as we do. A
mans life is his creed, and if his per.
sonal action does not reflect the ethics Of
MS teachings or his convictions, he is
bound soon or late to crystalize into 2
nypocr1te. In our modern world confor.