The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-07-23
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

MOT a lew enlightened observers OF OuE Gull
L temporary social perplexities believe that
economic and political programs will need to
be supplemented by the moral pressure exerted
by enlightened religion. Certainly, intelligent
self-interest seems quite incapable of asserting
itself among those in control Of our economic
affairs. For this reason we may welcome the in
teresting and courageous book by Prof. John c.
Bennett on Social Salvation: A Religious APP
proach to the Problems Of Social Change
(ScribnerS so.
The author is no closet theologian. He has
taken a lead in the effort to bring some meas
ure of social and economic enlightenment 10
the community in which he lives. His book is
a resolute effort to bring Christianity to grips
with the realities of the present social and eco
nomjc crisis. 1t is crushing challenge to those
suave and facile preachers in rich and SNUG
metropolitan churches who contend that they
have done their job when they turn the thoughts
of their plutocratic congregations HeavenWard.
Prof. Bennett lists the following major
causes of the present social crisis:
1.-The sins of the present generation.
1.-THE CONCEALED results of the sins OF the past
generations.
Inertia in ideas and institutions.
Marrow loyalties-loyalties to nation or
class.
Honest rationalizations of evil policies.
Premature satisfaction of the conscience.
1.-THE completely and vastneSS OF social forces.
Ignorance, which results fror restricted OPP
portunities.
stupidity which has physiological basis.
Lack of imagination with its roots which
overlap with other factors
DROF BENNETT rebukes those reactionary,
L cowardly or evasive ministers who claim
that social reconstruction is in no sens a Ques-
ton with which the church must grapple.
"To claim that the transformation OF social
conditions is not important for the spiritual life
is to assume the point OF view OF the strong ana
developed person and to forget that even MS
strength and development might have been
blocked by social conditions, by undernourish-
ment, and narrow environment during the most
formative years.
Such a claim is usually made from the per-
spective of relative economic privilege even
though it may not be recognized as such. 1t may
be the relative advantage of hard agricultural
life as compared with the most hopeless city
poverty. This claim resembles the satisfaction
with which the 'selfmade man surveys Amer
lea as a land of equal opportunity. What he
fo1getS is that while there may be equal Oppor-
tJnty for the strong TO rise to the top. there is
neither equal opportunity for all to become
strong nor for those who do not rise to live an
abundant life"
Along with this goes the related truth that
it is quite futile to concentrate upon transform
LlS uIQ1N4UudlS 81 dS C14C 4dIVCA oAC ~ uo-
trated by inequalities, injustices and stupidities
in their social environment. The Improvement
of the individual must go hand-in-hand with
just and desirable changes in our social nstitu-
tionS.
DERHAPS the most courageous paragraph in
l. Prof Benefits challenging book is his
statement that the man who casts the glamour
of Christian responsibility over the economic
injustices of our age is more of a menace to
the community than the overt pirate and rob
Der baron:
Such man is greater obstacle to economic
change than the economic buccaneer. His pres
ence within the system and his approval of it
create a false confidence in the system and his
paternalistic reforms produce in the victims of
the system a spirit of complacent dependence.
The most challenging fact Of all is that it is
that kind of man whom the churches have been
trying to develop for generations and by whom
they are most generously supported"
In his Ghosts Of Yesterday (Appleton-
Century. so, Ezra Brudne assails what he con-
ceiveS 10 be the obstructive influence Of anti
quated religious and moral standards Of con-
duct The shady borderline between religious
mysticism and pseudo-Science is surveyed by
Cyril Scott in his Outline of Modern Occultism"
(Dutton, $3.50. The revolutionary developments
in the foundations of modern science, which
have been sc disruptive of religious and scien-
tif1c dogmatlsm alike, is described by one Of
the leaders of the new physics, Erwin Schrod-
niger, in his Science and the Human Tempera-
ment" Morton $3.50.
Money in Demand in Paris" reads 3