The Immigrant Tide, Its Ebb and FlowSteiner, Edward Alfred
History
The Immigrant Tide, Its Ebb and Flow
Steiner, Edward Alfred
United States -- Emigration and immigration
So long as these people are within the sphere of Foreign Missions, in
"Greenland's Icy Mountains," or some other remote and romantic place,
they are the subjects of prayer and the recipients of gifts of men and
money; but when drawn into the radius of one's immediate neighbourhood,
they become a peril which threatens everything, from the price of real
estate to the foundation upon which the church rests. There is no
question that in many cases the Protestant church is facing this
problem in an admirable spirit; although very often expressing it in a
way calculated to alienate rather than to attract. On the whole there is
a growing desire to serve this new host of men, to help them adjust
themselves more easily to their new environment and to make of them
conscious human beings, consecrated Christians and efficient citizens.
There are to-day increasing numbers of Protestant Christians who have
broken away from the old prejudice against the Roman Catholic church. It
is not their desire to alienate faithful communicants from the church in
which their individual and national life has root and being; but they
recognize certain facts.
First, that in this new influx of immigrants there is an appreciably
large number of men who have fallen heir to Protestant traditions,
without fully realizing their spiritual inheritance and their moral
obligations. To these, the American Protestant churches owe the duty of
interpreting their common faith in its practical terms.
Second, the church realizes that numbers of men, more than are commonly
supposed, among Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Jews, are lost to
their respective churches. Many of them revert to infidelity and
Paganism, and the Protestant church is under obligations to interpret
its faith in rational terms to these, who have been touched by the
rationalism of our times.
One cannot believe that it is good for such men to be left under the
influences of these reactions which may become dangerous to the
well-being of the individual and of the State.
Third, the church finds itself surrounded by large masses of men,
ignorant of our language, of the laws of health and of the land. They
come from countries in which neither Church nor State has attempted to
lift them out of ignorance and its attendant superstition; and whenever
the churches in whose bosoms these people have starved in the Old World
do not make amends here in the New, the Protestant church is called upon
to lift them into a better knowledge of the nature of religion and into
a better conception of human relations, both for her own sake and for
the sake of the communities which she wishes to serve.
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