The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1937-02-04
By ROSS w. sANDERsON
Effect of Divided Professionalism

Effect of Divided Professionalism
Likewise, there is something rather
ridiculous in the preachments Of a di-
vided Professionalism to the nations
that straddle the Rhine or the China
Sea. If Methodists and Presbyterians
cannot get together, how expect the
Teuton and Celt, the Slav and the
Mediterranean peoples? If and when
northern and southern Protestants in
three great communions prove that
they can dwell together in administra-
tive unity in spite of a regrettable
civil war, then we shall be able to
invoke the spirit of goodwill among
nations that have fought across mil
lenial boundaries. Perhaps not till
then.
Likewise, just what can a divided
church say to the conflicting races?
Only as these lesser lines Of difference
can be crossed within an institution
everywhere labeled Christian will it
be able to talk very convincingly to
the great masses of mankind strug-
Cling to find their places in the sun.
"Jangle of DiscOrdant Voices"
In economics the wonder is not that
the voice of the church is so little
heard but that it is heard at all. Labor
and capital are seeking to find some
new and more stable equilibrium in
their relation to each other. Each re-
allies that if that new equilibrium
cannot be found within the present
economic order there is serious danger
that another, perhaps less satisfac-
tory one, may supplant it. Church, like
state, seeks to be a mediating infu-
ence. But everywhere the state is one
and the church is all too often jan
gle of discordant voices, without au-
thority because possessing no inte-
grated soul of its own, mo close-knit
self.
Suppose the Mayor, or the superin-
tendent of schools, or the Sunpapers,
wish to know quickly and authorita-
lively what the churches of the city
really think about any important mat
ter, even in the fields Of agreement.
Suppose the schools or the courts
wish to help the character building
process. To whom can they turn? Must
all these non-ecclesiastical bodies mas
ter the niceties and intricacies of Pro-
testant ecclesiasticism with its as
founding ramifcatons
Points To Better Way
There is a better way. It is for the
churches, retaining their differences
as fully and as permanently as they
wish, to build at least working unity
in the field of action, of fellowship, of
communication. 1t is this that has been
in process for long time in America.
A generation ago it got under way in
earnest. There are still too many over
heads, but the cooperators also are
beginning to cooperate. The educators
and the missionaries and the ecclesi-
asts and the women are all beginning
to build streamline chariot for swift
er and smoother locomotion.
The church has been developing it's
rolling faster than the adequacy of
its roadbed and the competency of its
operating departments. While indi-
vidual-seat coaches and streamlined
locomotives electric, Diesel or steam)
have been perfected, the ballast and
the rails have been left entirely too
light for the handling of modern pro-
grams. They just can't carry the traf-
fic. Maintenance of way departments
need no more overhauling than do the
operating stats. American Protest
ism was built on UNCONVENTIONAL pat
tern. Modern issues can't be faced de-
nominationally. The devils best tactic
is to divide his opponents. In the case
Of his supposedly most vigorous enc
my, Satan doesn't even need to waste
his time on splitting the opposition.
History has already done it for him.
organized religionists are beginning
to modernize their machinery and their
organizational relationships. Peace,
prosperity and goodwill are not even
Protestant issues, but profoundly and
broadly religious. Protestant, Catholic
and Jew, ceasing merely to tolerate one
another, are getting together for great
social ends. All three can lend a hand
to heal some of the open sores of the
world. If the universe is really built
on the principle of the survival of the
friendly, it's about time churchmen
began to work on their common enc
mics, not with lethal gases, but with
invincible goodwill.
-O-