Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-10-16
Why This ScnSclCss Scream?

IMg and novelist Of the second class, says
b L. he has quit going to church"
In fact, he shouts to the public, through
a popular magazine as sort of meGaphone,
that he has quit going to church."
But why should he make such an ado
about it? He is surely taking himself and
what he does, and what he has ceased to do,
far too seriously.
And some good people are taking too serf-
ously the fact that Mr.. Rupert Hughes has
"quit going to church"
While for Mr.. Hughes it is. unfortunate
that he has committed the folly Of ceasing
to attend the services of the church. his
foolish course will not seriously affect the
church, nor seriously diminish the stock of
religion in the country.
Indeed, one would gather from his article
that he quit going to church some time ago
Yet nobody knew it until he went screaming
about it through the pages of the magazine
in which he proclaims with pride his church
less habit.
If he were judged by the ignorance and
profanity which peryade his article it would
appear that he had never attended church
services much, and thai his associations on
Sundays had been with goddess groups of
men of the same sorry sort.
In some Of the propositions he affrms, he
seems to think that the truth and value Of
Christianity be determined by majority
vote, saying:
'Staying away from church puts me with
SuCn an enormous majority UndC II carries
no distinction. Nowhere does the increase
of Christianity keep anything like pace with
the population.
''The God of the Christians never has
been believed in by as much as tenth of
the worlds population. Two three other
religions have today far more followers.
Even in this country great many mil
lions less than half of the population are
even affiliated with any of the churches
Only about forty per cent of the population
is affiliated with any of the churches
Well, why does not Mr.. Rupert Hughes
take up his abode in the lands in which the
heather religions prevail whose adherents
so greatly outnumber the Christians in the
world? Why is it so much better to live in
a Christian land than to dwell in any Of the
populOus countries Of pagansm? Why is it
that the map of the highest type Of civiliza-
ton in the earth exactly comedies with the
area of Christianity?
Mr.. Hughes says a minority of the people
in our country are affiliated with any Of the
churches. But how is it that the influence
of this minority is the saving salt which
makes the moral life of the nation pure and
wholesome?
Suppose all the people should quit going
to church, and the needless structures for
worship should be pulled down, or turned
into playhouses for the exhibition of the the
atric wares of Mr.. Rupert Hughes and 9th
ers Of his craft. What kind of a country
ton? Could Mr. Rupert Hughes himself EN-
dure living in such goddess churchless
land? Would life liberty and property be
secure in it? In short, if all the people were
Rupert Hugheses could they stand one an
other for one day even?
Mr.. Hughes says: II am of such poor
moral fiber that 1 do not believe in telling
lies even for the glory" 1t is to be hoped
he spoke truly about his belief in this re-
spect. Yet at every turn in his flppant and
foolish article he ISLANDERS the ministers of
the gospel and maligns multiplied thousands
of Christian men and women as the veriest
hypocrites in protesting the faith which they
hold. For example, he says 'I am tempt
ed to say rudely that anybody who says he
believes the Bible to be all 4rue either lies
Or is ignorant Of what he says" To this
temptation to speak falsely Of millions Of
good people he yields completely at several
other points in his piece
Perhaps Mr.. Rupert Hughes speaks truly
when he says: 81 do not believe in telling
lies even for the glory of God" But if such
is his real belief, for whose glory does he
tell lies at so many points in his article, to
say nothing Of the lies he may be telling
daily elsewhere? Does he imagine he is
promoting his own glory?
In all his article Mr.. Hughes does not ad-
vance one single objection to the Bible that
has more force than the common talk of