A Plea for Orthodoxy in Action
By Ralph Lynn
[Dr. Ralph Lynn is retired professor of history at Baylor University.]
At the moment, it seems that we are living through still another of our periodic "returns to religion."
From history and from seventy years of adult observation, I must say that they all have something in common. They emphasize evangelism and the growth of church membership but they demand no change in the philosophy, or understanding of the promoters nor, in any basic way, in our society.
Just after World War II we lived through one of these religious spasms. Tens of thousands of military people were returning to civilian life, all desiring to savor once more their fond memories. All of us felt profound gratitude for the safe return of loved ones and for the defeat of Fascist barbarism.
No doubt many individuals and their families began-and continued-new lives devoted to traditional religious and family values. These developments must be respected.
Similarly, our current return to religion will leave permanent values for many. But, once more, no really basic changes are envisaged either for the promoters of this return nor for the world about us.
Between World War II and our present religious binge, we had a return to religion in the mid-fifties. At that time, in response to a request from my university`s student newspaper, I wrote an editorial in which I called for the basic changes which seem to be missing from our periodic returns-all the way back through our history.
Here are some quotations from that 1955 editorial:
"Perhaps the idea of looking backward for models of religion is not altogether good. Unquestionably, we should return to the philosophy of Jesus. But probably we should move forward to some new, more adequate and more accurate interpretation of that philosophy for guidance in our cruelly complicated world.
"It seems to me that the crux of the problems presented by the current (mid-fifties), return to religion is the relationship between religion, on the one hand, and the social, economic, and political order on the other. The state always wants religion to be its servant; religion is always tempted, on the most favorable terms obtainable, to submit to this pressure."
Here, some connecting remarks are omitted-then):
"Roger W. Babson, major prophet of the integration of the spiritual and the strictly business world, measures the spiritual growth in this return to religion by the increasing church budgets. In the Amarillo Daily News of December 17, 1954, he argues that these modern fundraisers can, with their disciples, the church budget canvassers, be the guarantors of continued business prosperity; they may even-he argues-bring about a new Spiritual Renaissance.
"This, obviously is the crassest sort of nonsense. Perhaps true Christianity is and must be not only dynamic but permanently revolutionary. What shape would a more adequate and accurate interpretation of the philosophy of Jesus take for our time?
"Barbara Ward, one of the most thoughtful analysts of our current problems, put it well in the New York Times of December 19, 1954. After rejecting the current revival as ill-conceived, superficial, and useless, she offers the following:
"But a religious revival which sent Western material plenty to relieve want in the world at large, which restored charity and trust among citizens, which taught the nations to place the building of a common human society above the pretensions of absolute sovereignty-such a religious revival would, before long, leave the pressure of Communism as no more than a fading memory in the mind of man."
Just now in the new century, with pressure upon South Carolinians to remove the Confederate flag from their Capitol and with pressure upon all of us to bring order and efficiency out of our health care chaos, such a religion revival might do much more.
It might enable the churches to make more converts and increase church membership.
