The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-05-24
CLAIMS CHURCH
HAS RIGHT TO
POLITICAL ROLE
Clergy Can Aid in Shaping
Destiny OF Nation, Is
Assertion.
RY DIR. REINHoLD NIEBUHR
Professor q Applied Christianity al Jnion
Theological seminary. New York

By DIX. hEiNFOLD NALD~hN
Profs,sor ef Applied Christianity At Union
Theological seminary. NsE York
fw-.t.er fs9 The Indianapolis Timesl
In a recent address by a Jewish
rabbi quoted in the New York Times
the religious teacher said. The
svuapog and the church can have no
trafac with political and economic
doctrines Their true function Is 70
inspire people with ideals that I'VE
forever our social chaos is not
primarily cue 20 a wrong economic
and political organization That IS
the mere machinery Of CIVILIZATION
subject TO the mastery Of man S VIII.
l. is here IN the viii, IN the soul
that the canker lies
The sentiments Of this address
have been duplicated in hundreds Of
Christian pulpits. They explain one
Of the fatal weaknesses OF conlen-
porarv religion and suggest why the
members Of churches may fan easy
prey 70 fascist politics and
economies.
Eternal ideals" are separated
from the mechanics Of social life IN
which ideals must finally be incar-
mated. Il is perfectly true, Of course
that religious institutions can not
deal In a detailed way with the me
chanics of politics and economics.
Preach Ideals in Vacuum
But neither can they. with impun-
ity. preach ideals IN vacuum vague
ideals OF social justice, not imple-
mented by the kind Of mechanics
which will offer some guarantee Of
Justice in a technical age. can easily
become the soil in which Fascist
politics grows.
Senator Long and Father Cough
lin are not conscious Fascists. They
even disavow faScistic designs. New
ertheless their political program
consists Of precisely the kind OF
sentiments and vague policies which
made for fascism IN Europe.
Il Is designed to express the re-
sentiments Of the lower middle
classes and for that reason it is crit
ical of both the plutOCracy and OF
radicalism. But there IS enough
political intelligence in 1t TO know
what sort of social control makes Tor
Justice and what kind accentuates
ancient evils. Consequently It adds
confusion TO our social chaos.
Religion and Politics
1t happens to be true, of course,
that ultimately the "canker" Of So
cial evil lies in the selfishness of the
human heart. But the ministers
and rabbis speak as if the task OF
eliminating that selfishness were
one which obviated the necessity OF
a right political and economic pro-
gram they give themselves to TO
mantle illusions. No matter how
much unSelfiShneSs a genuine and
vital religion can create in the
hearts Of individuals, politics must
always proceed upon the assumption
that men are selfish in their col
lective behavior. The first buSl-
ness Of politics is not to change the
hearts OF men but to set up checks
against sel6Shness and to create the
kind of a society IN which social i'm
pulse may be maximized.
The primary root of our present
social chaos lies in human selfish
ness. But for the moment the sec
ondary root is more important than
the primary one. The secondary
root is an economic system in which
economic power is so dispropOrtiOn-
ate as automatically to make for
injustice. To construct an economic
system in which there is a basic
guarantee of justice is no simple
task. Efforts 10 do so Will be re-
sisted by many good men who inn
agine themselves under the diSci-
pline Of the religious ideal Of unset
fiShneSS.
They will resist e partly because
their ideals of justice are naturally
colOred by their interests and partly
because there is in even the best Of
us a dishonest resistance to social
changes which imperil our own in