The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1931-10-01
Negroes Own 81
OF Church Property
Continued from page II
Debts

sixty-one churches had debts amount
ing to $40, 642,007. This is higher
than that for all churches which was
twenty and nine-tenths per cent or
little more than fifth.
Z A Heaven
The habit of plunging into debt
for unnecessary large churches is Of
ten alarming, but the reason for
having these costly edifices, as one
good brother once said is to have "a
heaven to go to heaven in"
In Northern city four churches
alone recently assumed mortgages
aggregating more than a million
dollars to buy or build large edifices,
all parts of which are seldom filled.
At the same time the colored people
in that city had practically no bust
ness at all-no banks, no insurance
companies, and no large factories to
give employment to these people
who, during the next generation,
must pay off these obligations with
nickels and dimes. This community,
moreover, had not provided a much
needed hospital to care for the sick
about whom the pastors talk much
but do little.
Out of Proportion
The amount which we spend on
churches may not be enormous, but
it is out of proportion when COM
pared with our contributions to 9TH
er urgent needs which the churches
with their large support have failed
to meet. The poor classes of people,
to which most colored people belong,
have only few cents to spare for
charity, benevolence, or investment
after they pay their living expenses.
Some of them are so hard pressed
that they have to spend what they
make before they receive it.
Extravagance
Defenders of this extravaganza
dishonesty try to make it appear
that certain critics object to the
church itself and would deny it all
support. The point made here, how
ever, is that the colored people would
have just as much religion in small
church edifices which they can COM
fortably fill as they would in many
of the large ones which afford so
many empty benches.
And it might be possible to have
even more religion under the modest
circumstances, for to pay these enor-
nous church debts the body of Chris.
tian workers often degenerates into
questionable money getting ma.
chine which hardly resembles the
blouse of the Lord" Some of the
schemes to which churches resort are
downright gambling.
Expenses
The data on expenses are further
enlightening. Thirty-nine thousand
two hundred and forty-five colored
churches spent in 1926 the amount
of $45,024,259 or five and three
tenths per cent of the total for the
United States. Of this amount lit
tie more than a million expended
could not be classified. The report
shows, too, that $35,749,951 went
for current expenses and improve
ments and $6,152,905 to missions
and benevolences. This means that
$1.00 was contributed to the larger
interests of the churches for each
1881 devoted to maintenance of the
individual church itself. The ratio is
different from that for all churches
which showed $4.37 for local self
support to every $1.00 for benevo-
lences.
No Extension
1t appears then, that because Of
their large number, the colored
churches are so hard pressed that
they cannot provide for the extern
sion of Christian influence through
charity and benevolence, or that the
individual churches live too much for
themselves and their pastors. The
strain in keeping w large church
edifices, in paying their pastors high
salaries, in giving them fine clothes
and expensive automobiles may ac-
count for the local absorption of this
revenue.
Methodists
In the Methodist churches these
things are determined somewhat by
supervision from without, but the re-
suit in that quarter does not show
much difference when they have to
take care of the regular expenses
and supply the demands of the pre-
siding elders and bishops.
Free Hand Baptists
In the Baptist church a free hand
is given. A Baptist church may do
almost anything it desires to do with
its funds; and investigations of such
accounts have proved to be embar-
RAISING in showing actual graft
where no system of accounting has
been introduced. Both pastors and
officers have been known to object
to any such system because of the
possible exposure in the case of re-
ferring to the record. 1t is difficult
then, to find out exactly how much
money such churches receive.
Communion Racket
Some of these instances are in
teresting. In a Baptist church in q
community in which | once lived, q
good deacon realized on their ardent
desire for close communion. Having
charge of the Lords Table" he
made a dollar or so every month by
buying the wine for rs cents a quart
and charging the congregation twice
that amount.
A distinguished Baptist minister
tells me that it is very difficult for
him to prevent his officers from
stealing. They use the envelope sys.
TEN, but when the amounts written
on the envelopes total, for example
$125, it is seldom that they turr
over to the church much more thar
500.
Church Treasurers
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