The Southland advocate., 1950-04-15
What's Right With The Ministry
BY Alison j. SMITH

While in theological seminary,
/ was privileged to hear old DIR.
Ben Reitman. the last surviving
members of the Haymarket an
archists, make a speech. The ven
cradle WarhOrSe. who had no use
for religion or the church, con-
trOlled himself pretty well during
the prepared address which he
was delivering before the semin-
AIRY forum, but afterward, during
Il question period. he blew up. We
young theOlogues were preparing
series of profound statements
on Chicago's civic morality (this
was during Big Bill Thompson's
administration. and Ben was ask
ed to whom we should address our
memoranda. His mustaches quiv
ering derisively. he thundered:
You young preachers, you fools!
Don't you know yet that nobody
gives a damn what you say?"
1t was good for us to hear that,
for the theological student doesn't
realize the general disrepute in
which his profession is held. Old
Ben was right-not many people
actually do give a damn what the
preacher says. 1t is always open
season on preachers. and a good
deal Of the heaviest firing is done
by ex-preachers. preachers. and
preachers kids, who are presumed
to know from experience what
they are talking about. The maga-
zines these days are full of clergy
men crying me& culpa, and editors
are besieged by emancipated Pks
preachers kids) trying to hawk
their memoirs of frustrated child
hood in parsonage. manse. or rec
tory. Typical of such cauterwaul-
ing is this judgement of Phillip
Wylie's, himself a PIX who, when
not failing the hide off Nom with
a verbal cat o'nine tails, works
off excess energy by padding
preachers: ''The ministry" he
cries contemporary, "is a refuge
for bookish weaklings!"
The psychologist might have
something interesting to say about
the guilt-compleX of Il generation
which takes such delight in cas-
tigating it's spiritual leaders, but
that is somebody else's article -
not mine. have done my share
of telling the world what's wrong
with the ministry; and when some
BODY says in print that the min
istry is full OF hypOcrites. "booK-
ish weaklings. thwarted thes-
pians, facist Cor Communlst) ran
ble-rousers, arrogant and stupid
bishops, aggressive politicians ana
administrative bureaucrats with
no more of the spirit of God in
them than can be found IN the
back room of any bar, L can only
agree. When one alleges that the
ministry is poorly paid. poorly
housed. etc, and that the preacher
is little more than glorifled civil
servant to the community l can
only nod assent. And no one can
live in a parsonage and be supJec'
tn +he whims of local church OIL
cial boards and trustees on the
one hand, and go to annual con-
ference and be subject TO the
whims of bishops and district su-
perintendents on the other WIN
ont often being assailed by the
wild surmise that in some way ne
has Dlaced his destiny IN the
and fools.
Phillips Brooks once said: on
how sorry 1 am for the fellows
who aren't preachers The above
is all true and yet 1 can agree
whole-heartedly with the great
rector of Boston's Trinity Church
the fellows who aren't preach-
ers are missing something. If they
are not plumbing the depths, nell
ther are they scaling the helghts'
The ministry, with all the hypo-
crisy, pseudo-morality, poverty
and disrepute that are admltteuly
connected with it, is today WHAT
if has always been-a protessloli
which admits a man to the inner
most sanctum of the human per-
sonality and brings him deep ana
moving moments of moral grand
eur that are denied TO most men.
These moments are perhaps Few
and far between, but when they
come they redeem the whole pro-
fession from tedium, from power
ty. from disrepute. Only to some
doctors, perhaps, comes the op-
portunity that comes to all prea-