The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1940-08-16
Good Neighbors

in the world today. There is a
very serious cause for each of
them, which is seldom mentioned
by anyone. I mean to say even
those in high offices of the nation,
and the church have failed to ex-
plain to the people of the earth
the real cause of this, the greatest
catastrophe the world has ever
seen.
If you will allow me just a
few minutes of your time, I shall
relate to you some of the causes,
as I see them, you read in the
goth chapter of Exodus and the
first three verses:
"And God spake all these words
saying, 1 am the Lord they God
which have brought thee out of
the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other Gods
before me-" This command was
given through the Jews to all the
people of the earth, and for all
time, which really includes the ma
tons of the earth today, who a
mong us are free fro mserving
some earthly or man made God ?
We are all guilty of serving an
Idol of some kind, at some time,
during our life time. I shall leave
it to you, the readers of this col
umn, to reflect, and be reminded
of that one earthly thing that
caused you to put God aside, while
you faithfully served your Idol.
David in the Psalms tells us
that all nations that forget God
shall perish from the earth. Now
let's see about some of the Idols
set up by both leaders in church
and state. The church has compro-
missed with the state and ex-
changed its Great Spiritual power
for that of financial gain, and
leadership in the fields of denom-
national prestige. Church leaders
today on every hand are demand
ing that their subordinate officers
and la ymembers make every pos
sible sacrifice for the expansion
of their church properties, and
liberal salaries for their leaders.
This sad mistake has caused the
ministers of Gods word to spend
three-fourths of the church SER
vice collecting finance for the up
keep of churches and church lead
ers. Hence, we are neglecting
Gods command to have no other
Gods before him, because we are
spending the most precious time
God has given us to serve him in
striving to secure finance with
which to build churches too fine
for Gods own sons and daughters
to attend and serve him. There
are thousands of churches in this
world which do not welcome the
presence of Negro in their pews.
I speak from experience, and I
go further by saying that we have
them here in Seattle, as I have
had the experience of visiting sew
eral of the large churches here on
different occasions. And more
than once in more than two chur-
ches I have seen the members of
these churches at Sunday services
move from their pews to others
across the church when I sat be-
side them. I didn't read this in a
book, neither is it hearsay. This
really happened in the flesh, in
one of Seattle's largest white
churches.
Therefore, must say that in
my opinion God is not pleased
wit hthe sacrifices made by his
people to build churches too good
for their own Brothers and Sisters
to attend. Christ had no church.
We have no account of his collect
ing finance at any of his gather
ings. We have no account of his
having to spend years in some
college to be able to tell the world
what his father would have us do.
So I shall not bite my tongue in
trying to bring you the truth a.
bout our awful plight in the So
called modern world of today. We
have allowed finance and denom-
national pride and ceremony to
drive the power of God from our
church bodies. And it is now a
case of pay up or get out, or how
can I arrange to manage my
church program so as to influence
large numbers to attend my own
services, that my finances may be
increased. No, God is not pleased
with this commercial church pro-