The Evolution of the Country Community: A Study in Religious SociologyWilson, Warren H. (Warren Hugh)
Religion
The Evolution of the Country Community: A Study in Religious Sociology
Wilson, Warren H. (Warren Hugh)
Christian sociology; Country life
To summarize this chapter, the acute problem in many communities today
is the merging of the life of newcomers in the community into the
organized social life which is older and more settled. This task belongs
above all to the country church. Many of the detailed applications are
for the school to follow out, but the business of the church is to see
and to inspire. If the church is not democratic, the community will be
hopelessly divided. If the church welcomes the newcomer and finds him a
place, the community will be inspired with a democratic spirit. The task
of the church is indicated in the new prosperity of the country which
tends from the first to remove from the community those who prosper. The
church's business is to win to the community all who come into it and to
release from its hold as few as possible.
In a discussion of country life in a Tennessee college town the question
was asked of a professor of agriculture who was speaking about farm
tenantry, "What should the church do for the tenant farmer?" "Borrow
money for him and help him to buy land," said the professor.
Such a solution might be the church's task, but the example of England's
policy for Ireland shows that the professor commended a governmental
rather than a religious service. For it is found that the Irish
farmer--a tenant on land whereon his ancestors have for centuries been
tenants--when he secures the land in fee through the new policies of the
British Government, frequently deserts the country community, selling
his land to a neighbor. Some sections of Ireland are said to have a new
kind of small tenantry and a new sort of small landlord. The task of the
country community begins where the task of government leaves off. It is
to inspire the resident in the country with a vision, and to lay upon
him the imperative, of building up the country community out of the
newcomers, who enter it by birth or by migration.
FOOTNOTE:
[Footnote 31: "The Agrarian Changes in the Middle West," by J. B. Ross.]
X
CO-OPERATION
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account