The Social Principles of JesusRauschenbusch, Walter
Religion
The Social Principles of Jesus
Rauschenbusch, Walter
Christian ethics; Christian sociology; Jesus Christ -- Teachings
The leadership of service validates its rightness by its intellectual
results. Predatory and parasitic classes become intellectually sterile and
ignorant of real life. A man who wants to serve men, must get close to
them. If we carry a load uphill, we have to choose our footing, and will
perforce become intimately acquainted with the law of gravitation. Nothing
develops the intellect like heading a just cause and fighting for it.
Here, then, we have another social principle of Jesus. The ambition of the
strong must be yoked to the service of society. Power and honor must be
earned by distinguished and costly service. Progress along this direction
marks the progress of the Kingdom of God. Extortionate and domineering
leadership must be superseded where the Kingdom of God moves forward.
V
Does the life of our colleges and universities square with this principle?
College men and women crave honor from their fellows, or their
fraternities crave it for them vicariously. How do the “big men” in
college win it? Do they win it by raising the standards of intellectual
work for all? By making fun clean and honorable through the power of a
clean public opinion? By creating a college spirit which will put manhood
into every generation of Freshmen that plunges into it? Or do they win
honor by organizing parties, by intoxicating themselves and others with
frothy “social” successes, by acting for the gallery to see and applaud,
and by wasting the dynamics of youth on shooting rockets that look like
stars and come down like sticks? Such men are essentially selfish; even
their service is self-seeking and deserves no honor from others. The more
talented and attractive they are, the more damage do they do. They
perpetuate their kind. If fraternities or honorary societies honor and
reward that sort of leadership, they force individuals into futility, and
reenforce the natural temptation to shallow work and display by the
powerful pressure of socialized public opinion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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