Ways in which you can participate in making your community more beautiful.
RELIGIOUS LIFE AND AGENCIES
GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION
In some countries church and state are inseparably bound together. Before the recent war the Russian Czar was also the head of the Russian church. In our own country in colonial times, no citizen was permitted to vote in the New England town meeting who did not belong to the Puritan church of the community. This religious qualification for participation in government was in the course of time dispensed with, and one of the fundamental principles of our democracy is that every citizen shall have complete liberty of religious belief. Our government exercises no control over the religious life of the people other than to guarantee this liberty. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" (United States Constitution, Amendment I). State constitutions contain similar guarantees. To prevent government interference with religion, religious institutions are exempt from taxation.
RELIGION A MEANS OF CONTROL
On the other hand, the church and other religious institutions are an important means of community control. They do not exercise this control through government, but through the influence of their own beliefs and organization upon the conduct of their members. If everybody should live in accordance with the Golden Rule, there would be no need for government as a means of repression, but only as a means of performing service.
RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES AN OBSTACLE TO TEAM WORK
One of the unfortunate things about the church has been the fact that more or less important differences in religious belief have tended to break up the community into numerous religious groups, or churches. This may be necessary in purely religious matters, but it has too often happened that the people have allowed their religious differences to prevent united action in other matters of common interest to the entire community. In some cases communities have been broken up into rival, or even hostile, factions because of this. There is, however, a growing tolerance of one religious sect or denomination by others, which is in accord with the Christian spirit, and is necessary if community life is to be well developed. It often happens that there are more churches of the same denomination in a community than it can support. In such cases, at least, there is need for church consolidation similar to the consolidation of schools, and for the same reason.
SOCIAL SERVICE OF THE CHURCH
The church may be, and often is, an important agency in the community for the performance of services other than that of ministering to the religious wants of the people. Or, to speak more correctly, it has realized more or less fully that the religious wants of the people are closely bound up with their other wants, and seeks to minister to these other wants as a part of its religious duty. Thus, we find the church growing more active in looking after the health interests, educational interests, and social and recreational interests of its members and others.