The Minister and the Boy: A Handbook for Churchmen Engaged in Boys' Work

by Allan Hoben

When a Greek youth took the oath of citizenship, he stood in the temple of Aglauros overlooking the city of Athens and the country beyond and said: "I will never disgrace these sacred arms nor desert my companions in the ranks. I will fight for temples and public property, both alone and with many. I will transmit my fatherland not only not less but greater and better than it was transmitted to me. I will obey the magistrates who may at any time be in power. I will observe both the existing laws and those which the people may unanimously hereafter make. And if any person seek to annul the laws or set them at naught, I will do my best to prevent him and will defend them both alone and with many. I will honor the religion of my fathers, and I call to witness Aglauros, Enyalios, Ares, Zeus, Thallo, Auxo, and Hegemone."

Now, the minister may think that no great part of the improved training for citizenship falls to him. He may be content to instill motives of individual piety, but upon reflection he must know that on nearly every hand there exist today great and insuperable barriers to his personal gospel. Behind the walls which imprison them are millions who cannot hear his message and those walls will not go down except by the creation of public sentiment which organizes itself and functions as law and government. The minister's exercise of citizenship should not be reserved for heaven, where it will not be needed, but should rather get into action here and now.

This means a pulpit policy which recognizes the great dimensions of the Kingdom of God, and seeks a moral alignment of church and state that will draw out the religious energy to vital and immediate issues, and will necessitate within the church herself clean-cut moral reactions to existing vital conditions. When the pulpit becomes sufficiently intelligent and bold to lay bare such issues the youth and manhood of the country will not in so large measure neglect the pew. Wherever real issues are drawn men and boys tend to assemble.

In the intricate social life of today a ministry devoted exclusively to plucking a few brands from the burning is somewhat archaic. The individual soul in its majestic value is not discounted, but it cannot be disentangled from the mass as easily as was once the case, or as easily as was once supposed. It was not so necessary to preach civic righteousness when "the gospel" was deemed sufficient so to transform the individual that all external limitations, ungodly conditions, and social injustices would yield to the regal ability of the child of God.

To recognize the environmental phase of salvation and to undertake this broader task in addition to the "cure of souls" may be to expose the minister to the cross-fire of economic sharp-shooters and a fusillade of sociological field guns. Besides, some of the supporters of the church will object and many will assert that the minister cannot qualify to speak with first-rate intelligence and authority upon the complex social problems of the day. Indeed, by endeavoring to utter a message of immediate significance in this field, he will discredit his more important mission as a "spiritual" leader. Again, if he should speak to the point on social issues no heed would be paid to his deliverances, and he has plenty to do in routine pastoral work.

The strength of these objections must be granted, and more especially so in the case of weak men, men of unripe judgment, of hasty and extravagant utterance, and of inferior training. For undoubtedly present-day problems of social welfare and such as affect religious living do lead back, not only into economic considerations, but also into questions of legislation and government.

But even so, will the minister consent to be without voice or program in the shaping of social ethics? Will he follow meekly and at a safe distance in the wake of the modern movement for economic justice and humane living conditions? Will he allow people to think for a moment that his job is to coddle a few of the elect and to solace a few of the victims of preventable hardship and injustice?

Suppose that, with the exception of denouncing the saloon and praising charity, he omits from his pulpit policy the creation of civic ideals and the drawing of moral issues in behalf of the higher life of all the people, will not the male population consider him rather too much engrossed with the little comforts, sentiments, and futilities of a religious club?

The entire precedent of the pulpit, both in biblical days and since, is wholly against such silence. If it is not the minister's business to know the problems of social ethics, so as to speak confidently to the situation from the standpoint of Jesus, whose province is it? Must he dodge the greatest moral problems of the day, all of which are collective? Has he not time and training so to master his own field that he will be second to none of his hearers in the possession of the relevant facts; and does he not presumably know the mind of Christ?