The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1914-10-26
SAYS CHURCH
IS SUPPORTED
FROM PROFITS
Late Bishop Of Utah's Last
Sermon Arraignment
Of Rich
WAGES DO NOT
MAINTAIN RELIGION
Plumber Of Exploiters Makes up
Much of Sacred
Fund

SALT LAkE CITY, Utan, Oct. zf.-
Wages do not support religion. Every
cent the rich contribute 70 religious
palaces II ground out OF the laboring
classes who are clamorfng for bread,
The rich discuss prayers and hymns
I'm their upholstered pews and forget
or refuse TO recognize that there are
millions whose hearts are too heavy
to sing and whose faith 10 too weak
to pray!
We watch bishops and priests In
holy vestments and forget the mil
lions who have only rags TO wear!
These charges were hurled into the
teeth Of q "swelP New York congrega-
ton q short time before his death by
the late Bishop Spalding, Of Utah. who
was killed In . motor accident near
this city.
Bishop Spalding denounced the sys-
TEN contributing to the support OF the
modern church In . sermon entitled
Democracy and the church."
He said:
Human society IL stratined and the
various strata are 90 insulated that Il
is very difncult for any man. to cross
cut this social stratifcation. II he
thinks he has succeeded In undertak-
ing the thoughts and longings OF the
men In one social layer. II ID desper-
ately hard for him to interpret them
convincingly to those in another.
II IL probably safe to say that each
one OF the lay deputies TO this gem
eral convention has at least ten times
a. much income ~ the workingmen Of
the country. That means that your
incomes average from $500 TO $1,000
year. How would you like to live on
just one-tenth Of what you spend to-
day? Put It this way. All good church
men, OF course, give one-tenth Of their
income to the Lord. Now, how would
you. lay deputies TO the general con-
vention. like to be compelled this COM
ing year to provide for all your neces-
stiles and all your luxuries and all
your pleasures, all you spend on your
friends. all your clothes. all your
books, all your recreations, on what
you give last year to the .Lord?'
When the wage scale Ia worked out.
II In worked out on the basis OF the
bare necessities OF life Now. except
/ In cases 80 rare that they may be
neglected. religion h not reckoned al
one OF LIES necessities. Therefore
wages do not support religion.
II religion Ii supported. II 10 support
ed out OF profits. not out Of wages.
II In therefore, In the Judgment Of the
class conscious workers . gift Of the
rich made possible through plundering
the workers. II the church IL endow-
ed It Is supported by past plunderings.
Therefore, selfrespect requires the
class conscious worker to repudiate
lorganized Christianity 40 q charity
which that same self-respect forces
him to despise. II has no connection
with the justice for which he longs,
but which he knows he must struggle
for himself.
My friends, we hope ourselves into
false satisfaction. We come to gen.
eral conventions of capitalists and the
church seems to be wonderfully pros
porous. We worship In great church
like this, and Il makes us forget the
slums just over the way. We watch
bishops and priests In holy vestments
and we forget the millions who have
only toiling workers who are pleading
for q living wage. We discuss hymns
are tens Of thousands whose hearts
are too heavy to sing and whose faith
| IL too weak to pray.
| Surely there can be no doubt on
which side of the church Jesus Christ
ought to stand when the hsue IL be-
tween dollars and men Shall not
the church set her face against q com
petitive system or industry. which In
i evitably involves the exploitation Of
men, women and little children7
She must surely stand for . social
system in which production shall be
for use and not for profit, In which the