A Protestant (Philosophical) Worldview
News reports of the last religious census contained some
significant, if not encouraging, information. On the whole, the
increase in church membership did not keep pace with the
increase of population; but the Lutherans showed the greatest
proportional increase among all Protestant denominations, and
the Romanists showed the largest proportional increase of all
religious organizations.
In view of Romanism’s superstitions and
idolatrous practices, repugnant to an enlightened age; in view
of the dark history of Romanism with its persecutions and
massacres, repugnant to human sympathy; and in view of
allegiance to a foreign pontiff who claims spiritual and
temporal power, repugnant to historic Americanism; it might
prove profitable to speculate on the causes of Romanism’s
increasing strength in these United States of America.
One will make no mistake in looking for a
variety of causes. The mere force of numbers-the momentum of
geometrical progression, so to speak-undoubtedly produces
considerable effect. There is a power in a crowd that draws a
larger crowd, and when throngs pour in and out of a great
cathedral, people are more inclined to follow the crowd than to
generate the necessary stamina to attend a small congregation.
There is political power with the crowds; there is money to be
spent where it will do the most good; and in Romanism there is
also a rather efficient organization for consciously giving
direction to this power. Two items testify to the truth of this:
First, according to a three-month survey of fifty-six leading
daily papers, Romanism got 26.8 percent of the newspaper space
devoted to religious news, and the next highest percentage, that
of Methodism, was 9.7 percent. And second, the president of the
United States, violating a fundamental principle of the nation,
appointed an ambassador to the pope.
For very obvious reasons, such
denominations as the Orthodox Presbyterian Church will long be
unable to gain Machiavellian wisdom by imitating the procedures
suggested. But organization and the power of numbers, while they
are elements of the situation and elements not to be despised,
are not the only factors. They do not, for example, adequately
account for the conversion to Romanism of a number of
well-educated people.
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