The Indianapolis times., 1935-12-28
Religion Points
Path-Dr. Grose
WILBUR d. GROSE

Minister, Fifty-First Street Methodist
Episcopal Church
Every thoughtful person will seek
to evaluate the experiences of the
year that is now drawing to a close
with the hope that he may be able
to achieve a more abundant and
useful life in the days to come. He
will try to discover the reason for
his failures and his successes.
And, if he is wise, he will rethink
his objectives and ideals in the
light of the existing world situation.
For the time has passed when any
individual can consider his life
apart from the whole social frame
work.
No one who has eyes to see and
ears to hear can fail to realize the
seriousness of the present world
crisis. Cynicism, fear and despair
hold multitudes in their grip. The
vast host of the dispossessed and
the jobless are not able to find a
place in the scheme of things. Those
who do have regular income are
finding it more difficult to make
ends meet since living costs are in
creasing.
Needed: More Independence
War and rumorS of war are keep
ing the nations in a state of jitters.
And the mad race for armamentS
goes on, adding to the already
crushing burden of taxation and
bringing the nations nearer and
nearer the catastrophe of another
world war.
What will the New Year require
of us if we are to help find a way
out of the present confusion and
chaos? First, we must learn to culti-
vate a more independent attitude of
mind. In spite of the suffering of
the last five years it is amazing how
few have learned to think for them
selves. A distinguished American
philosopher has recently said, I'm
the end nothing can save human
beings the pain of thinking" When
we are willing to suffer the pain of
thinking we shall begin to make
headway toward the solution of our
acute problems.
Second, we must rediscover some
moral landmarks to guide us. Our
generation has sown the wind of
moral laXity and we are now reap
ing the whirlwind. kidnapping, hold
ups, excess profits, enactment of
state laws legalizing gambling, in
crease of divorce are all symptoms
of our moral breakdown. When we
awaken to the fact that fundamen-
tai moral principles, such as hon.
esty, purity and justice, can not be
violated without dire results, we
shall begin to make progress.
Work for Changes
Third, it is essential that we work
for such changes in the social order
as will remove the causes of our
present ills. The Well-being of peo-
pie, rather than bigger dividends,
must become the goal of our eco
nomic life. Somehow we must find
the way to organize our industrial
life around the principle of CO.
operation instead of competition.
But where is one to find the mo-
tivation necessary to sustain the
idealism and the creative effort
which seeks the good of all? 1t is
my deep conviction that religion can
and does furnish that driving power.
Of course, do not mean formal,
conventional religion. I do mean
the dynamic religion of the Hebrew
prophets and of Jesus Christ.
With religion of this kind the
colossal difficulties of the present
are but challenges to use the best
within us for the sake of all. Thus
undergirded with sense of the
Divine, who works with us in all
that enriches human life, we may
enter the New Year determined to
make 1886 year of marked prog
ress toward more righteous, a
more just, and a more brotherly
world.