The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-12-03
Death IN THE DANCE
TIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
CONDEMNED BY PREACHERS.
Swedish Lutheran Minister Puts a Ban
on Such Frivolities, Sunday Base
ball Is Bad for Morals of the
Young; Too Many Socials Are
Now Held in the Churches; the
Wholesale Roast.

| Wholesale Roast.
Minneapolis, Nov. 3O.-Dangers that
beset young people was the general
sub ect discussed at the twelfth annual
state convention of the Young Peoples
societies of the Swedish Lutheran
church of Minnesota, held at ST. Paul's
Swedish Lutheran church, Fifteenth
avenue and Twenty eighth street south.
Theatres, dance halls, liquor and
many other similar institutions and
conditions are most destructive to the
young people, and drag them from the
church to lives of SIM" said Rev. G.
O. Swan of the Swedish Emanuel Luz
theran church of st. Paul. Theatre
| performances are destructive to the
moral senses of the young people.
Dance halls result in the acquaintance
of bad company and sometimes in
death"
The Rev. Mr.. Swan told of young
| woman of his acquaintance who ac-
companied her fiance to dance, against
she was exhausted; this resulting in a
cold which caused her death.
Drink One of Worst Evils.
Drink is one of the worst evls,'
he continued "Drink results in crime,
arrests and hundreds of other disgrace
full acts. How heartless a parent must
| be, when he sends his children to sa-
Icons to buy liquor.
'There are young people in every
congregation that fall on their knees
at the altar one night and the next
night they are out partaking in festiv-
tiles which the day before they had
condemned.
| "Other events in which young peo-
pie should not participate are baseball
games and other sports INDUCED in on
Sunday.
Too Many Socials Also.
| "There are too many socials, too
many coffee and cake festivals in the
hcurch at present. If these events
were lessened more interest would be
shown in religious services. 1t is the
duty of pastors and church to see that
young people take more interest in
church work"
The annual election of officers was
held and resulted as follows: Rev. A.
IT. Seashore was chosen president; A.
Noren of st. Paul, vice president;
Edith johnson of Merriam Park, sec
rotary; Theodore Anderson, cores
ponding secretary, and Miss Henzina
Franzen, treasurer. Resolutions rec
ommending that district conventions
be held were adopted.
Relation of Church to Community.
at is the duty of the church to pro-
fduce righteous men with high ideals,
not to assume the lead in political and
social movements" said Rev. E. G.
Chinlund of Redwing at the closing
session of the Swedish Young Peoples
State society.
He drew sharp distinction between
personal and civic righteousness and
deprecated the activity of the church
on various public questions.
''The church is not called upon to
become the aggressive agent of re-
form,' declared Mr.. Chinlund. cts
mission is not to lay hold of the reins
lof government and inaugurate repres-
sive legislation. Christ, neither by
word nor deed, sanctioned such meth
DDS of church work.
i Need of a Change.
eve do not deny that there is great
need of a change for the better in
| sc ,p+r 10 al
, tenn; that the rum traffic is baneful in
its influence upon the manhood and
womanhood of today; that the indus
trial and commercial system are
fraught with great dangers to our ma
tional welfare, and are in sore need of
"a sane reform; that the moral tone of
many communities is low in the scale,
land that the haunts of vice are shell
tered instead of being raided and
cleaned out. We cannot be blind to the
fact that our cities are not governed
as they should be; that our municipal
affairs need reform. Nor do the state
legislatures and our, national congress
come up to the ideal of our constitu-
ton.
But. despite all OF these cofinlCiois'
we hold that the church is not aealled
upon to become the leader in the eTe-
form movement.
"The church is called upon not to
legislate, but to preach the gospel,
which is the power of God unto saliva
ton. The salvation of our American
republic does not, in the first place,
depend upon the character of the men
who hold public office, but upon the
character of the men who put them
there. If the voting population is con-
trolled by high ideals, by fearless de-
Tense of righteousness, it will see to
it that only such men are intrusted
with responsibility who have keen
sense of right and wrong. and who
dare to enforce the law without regard
to person.
'To produce men of such caliber is
the great work of the church, and this
can be done only through the faithful
preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ
"It is clear that he church cannot
be Indifferent toward the moral tone
in the community, nor toward the need