The Profits of Religion, Fifth EditionSinclair, Upton
Religion
The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition
Sinclair, Upton
Christianity -- Controversial literature
The Chancellor knows the masters of our Profit System, those
"consummate geniuses of manufacture and trade by which the earth has
yielded up her infinite treasures." And having been at the same time
in intimate daily communion with the Almighty, he can tell us the
Almighty's attitude towards these prodigies. "God has made the rich of
this world to serve Him.... He has shown them a way to have this
world's goods and to be rich towards God....God wants the rich men....
Christ's doctrines have made the world rich, and provide adequate uses
for its riches." Also the Chancellor knows our great corporations, and
gives us the Almighty's views about them; they mean that "the forces
with which God built the universe have been put into the hands of
man." Likewise by divine authority we learn that "the sympathy given
to Socialism is appalling. It is insanity." We learn that the income
tax is "a doctrine suited to the dark ages, only no age ever has been
dark enough." Somebody raises the issue of "tainted money", and the
Chancellor disposes of this matter also. As a Deputy of Divinity, he
settles it by Holy Writ: "Paul permitted meat offered to idols to be
eaten in the fear of God." And then, to make assurance doubly sure, he
settles it with plain human logic; and you are astonished to see how
simple, under his handling, the complex problem becomes--how clear and
clean-cut is the distinction he draws for you:
Every boy knows that one cannot take stolen goods without
being a partaker with the thief. But the proceeds of
recognized business are quite a different thing.
#Holy Oil#
And here is Billy Sunday, most conspicuous phenomenon of Protestant
Christianity at the beginning of the twentieth century. For the
benefit of posterity I explain that "Billy" is a baseball player
turned Evangelist, who has brought to the cause of God the crowds and
uproar of the diamond; also the commercial spirit of America's most
popular institution. He travels like a circus, with all the
press-agent work and newspaper hurrah; he conducts what are called
"revivals", in an enormous "tabernacle" built especially for him in
each city. I cannot better describe the Billy Sunday circus than in
the words of a certain Sidney C. Tapp, who brought suit against the
evangelist for $100,000 damages for the theft of the ideas of a book.
Says Mr. Tapp in his complaint:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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