Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-07-09
Revolutionary Results of
RadicaliSn In Religion

ness IN our land can not De disguised
or concealed. And this restlessness
arises about material things at a time
of great prosperity. Our country
has not suffered from famine or pes
thence; our fields have yielded bounti-
fully and our commerce has been
most profitable; no nation was ever
so rich pinching poverty was never
so nearly excluded from any other
land. Nevertheless we are restless to
the point of revolution, and the
source of our discomfort and social
strife is found in the struggle of all
classes over earthly goods. In the
discussion of the distribution of
wealth many throw all settled princi-
pies of government to the wind, and
ares ready to adopt and advocate any
sort of social devices as substitutes
for the established institutions of our
civil organization.
Who is responsible for this state of
things? All of us in some measure.
Maurice said in his day, II wish to
confess the sins of the time as my
own, and each of us will do we'll
to cultivate a like spirit of penitence;
for all of us have had some part in
bringing to pass the prevalent under
Ndludl4On VI pEllClpico anu ONNA -NoANa-
ton of things. But some have done
more than others to produce these
evil conditions.
A certain type of preachers and
preachings has contributed much to
the revolutionary tendencies that are
current today in the social and polit-
ical world. Radicalism in religion can
not fail to produce radicalism in every
part of the social system.
The deepest fact in a nations life
is its religious belief. When that
foundation is unsettled all else in the
life of the people will be disturbed.
Even the infidel Rousseau perceived
this, and said. Never was state
founded that did not have religion for
its basis. Certainly our republic rose
upon such a foundation. NJ. de
Tocoueville remarked most truly, RE-
Hgion gave birth to Anglo-American
society. The moral forces of faith
made possible the triumphs of Wash
ington and his comrades in the field
and the achievements of the fathers
of the republic in legislative halls.
And since the beginning, the power
of our national life has been meas
ured exactly by the strength of our
religious faith.
These things being true, radical
teachings in religion must inevitably
result in revolutionary consequences
in the social and political life of the
people. And for about twenty-five
years past many pulpits in the Unit
ed States have been given up to rad
ical utterances. The most funda-
mental truths of religion have been
disputed in these pulpits, on the
ground of alleged scientific discov-
cries. in the name of the historical
critics, and on the general claim OF
a vast progress. These utterances
have been made in the hearing Of
popular audiences trained to accept
the words of a preacher with conf
dence, and who had no means or
testing the soundness of the state
ments uttered. Orthodox churches
have been denounced as narrow,
and heterodoxy has been glorthed as
the only broad-minded thing in re-
ligion. These pert pulpiteers have
quietly assumed that they alone had
all the sincerity, all intellectual hon
esty, and all the moral courage to
be found among the preachers of the
country, and that for one to dis
agree with them was a proof posi-
tive of ignorance, or insincerity, or
cowardice, or of all three combirFd.
All the while they have been riAg-
ing the changes on such phrases as
advanced thought, progress, and
the like.
Such methods could not fail to en-
gender revolt against settled truth
as extensive as the influence of these
men; and hence we see the present
output of radicalism among our peo-
pie, AS matter of fact, there has
not been an essential truth of relig-
ion affected by all the scientific dis
coveries of our times, even when the
largest confidence is given to scien-
tific theories Of the most liberalistic