USA > Pennsylvania > Change and challenge: a history of the Church of the Brethren in the southern district of Pennsylvania, 1940-1972 > Part 2
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A survey of The Gospel Messenger pages in the decades between 1920 and 1940 shows an increasing concern for the preservation of rural life for Brethren. In the minds of many persons, the Brethren style of life was identified with rural life. This concern was created in part by the increased use of the automobile. The Annual Conference of 1909 advised the membership "not to purchase nor use (automobiles) at all as our property under the present conditions". Only six years earlier some congregations had given their members the privilege of using surreys.7 The chief objection to the purchase of an automobile was the excessive cost. By the 1920s, however, the automobile and improved roads made rural isolation a thing of the past. An accelerated migration to the cities was a sign of the times.
A Rural Life Movement was organized in the nation in 1908 when Theodore Roosevelt appointed a Country Life Commission. Some leaders of the Church of the Brethren identified themselves with this movement. M. R. Zigler, Dan West, I. W. Moomaw and others were pioneers in the development of Town and Country Convocations. Edward K. Ziegler
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became a spokesman for "Country Altars" and the preservation of the farm family. These Brethren were alarmed that members of the denomin- ation were moving to the city at a rate twice that of the entire population of the United States. 8
The increasing industrialization and improved transportation facili- ties of the society produced a highly mobile population. The result has been a vast dislocation of the population. Such social instability stands in sharp contrast to the stability of earlier decades. Jesse D. Reber com- mented that such mobility "has made it increasingly difficult for a sectar- ian church to follow its members".9 In the 1930s, the abandoned church edifice became a familiar sight. A query appeared before the Annual Conference asking for help for decaying churches.10 The 1925 Annual Conference acknowledged that some churches were weakened through the shifting conditions of the people.
The Southern District felt the impact of shifting populations. A per- sonal letter of 1940 from the Boiling Springs congregation said in part: . .. you know that we have suffered greatly from the movement of people away from the community". Even till this day, congregational directories carry the names of many members under a non-resident listing. A hurried survey of some district church directories reveals such exotic and unusual addresses as Blacksburg, Virginia; Issaquah, Wash- ington; Scarboro, Maine and San German, Puerto Rico. The mobility of modern populations has created an unstable Brethren population in many areas of the district. Some churches have profited from the mobility and others have suffered.
Such mobility has not been simply spatial but it has also been social. There is an increasing mobility within the class systems of America. Once it was customary - almost obligatory - to marry within one's own religious faith and one's own class. This condition broke down so that it was not unusual for people to marry both outside of their class and their religion. This resulted in one more step toward the weakening of the controls exercised by religion over the life of the people. It also resulted in the breakdown of sectarian forms of religion and the develop- ment of more ecumenical views of religious life.
Many people within the denomination regarded the city as a threat to civilization for many years. Some recalled that the Book of Genesis declared the first city was begun by the first murderer (Gen. 4:17b). Some historians have traced the tensions of the 1920s to the conflicts in feelings between the older, rural, Anglo-Saxon Protestant America and the newer, urban-oriented America. 11
The Church of the Brethren gradually made its entrance into cities. The Germantown Church (1723) and the Philadelphia First Church (1813) were forerunners of city congregations within the denomination. It was Wilbur B. Stover, born in Southern Pennsylvania, who began to work as a missionary in Philadelphia and Germantown (1892-1893).12 He regarded this work as essential preparation for his career in foreign missions.
Within the Southern District, the Waynesboro Church (1871), the York First Church (1895) and the Hanover Church (1899) were begun before the turn of the century. The vision of early district leaders in selecting cities as opportunities for work has often been commended. It must be remembered, however, in each instance the church was established about a nucleus of Brethren who had moved to the community. It was an instance of the church following the people and not primarily a case of the church seeking to evangelize the city.
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If the Southern District of Pennsylvania has had difficulties with church extension into urban areas in recent decades, part of this difficulty stems from the urban-rural tensions. The city requires a ministry which must be creative and resourceful as it seeks to minister to people whose life-style is geared to machines, clocks and deadlines. The nature of the ministry must change from a part-time work to a continuous, daily service. The Church of the Brethren has shown some reluctance in under- taking the problems of the city ministry. The rural ethics of the Brethren have led them more easily and naturally into a concern for conservation of the soil or the feeding of people. When Civilian Public Service began, the Church of the Brethren turned to such agrarian interests.
THE QUALITY OF LIFE
Members of the Church of the Brethren are committed to a faith which has been deeply personal. The denomination's background in pietism and the rich evangelical traditions caused Brethren to be concern- ed with the inner spiritual experiences of many. Personal piety and purity of life have been keystones of the good life. In many ways this goodness of life has received practical expression in service to one another. The quality of such individual life has been reinforced and encouraged by personal prayer, intensive Bible study, the development of well-established convictions and a day-to-day loyalty to the person of Christ.
The Brethren ideal has been a perfectionist ethic. For many years the denomination has accepted the ideal of Christ, "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). This perfectionism has been explicit in such ideals as peaceful human relations, love for one's enemy, compassion for all human needs, temperate living and the simple life. One modern theologian surveyed the traditions of the Church of the Brethren and defined such qualities as humaneness, humanness and peace as basic to Brethren practice. 13
There has always been a sense of urgency about making this faith relevant to the age. One senses this urgency when Vernon F. Schwalm advised the delegates of the 1953 Annual Conference: "The doctrine of the simplicity of life needs a modern interpretation for our day".14 In this same year the conference itself went on record:
"we become so obsessed in our generation with the problems of men and of nations that we tend to obscure the personal element in the Christian religion."
Brethren, like other church people, sense the threat which modern society makes against a way of life which remained moderately stable for generations.
During the 1900s, America changed from a community-centered society to an urban-centered one. As the rural Protestant made his way to the metropolis, he began to sense an incongruity between the older Protestant ethic and the changing social order. Complaints were fre- quently expressed by members of the district's Standing Committee mem- bers concerning the breakdown of the family. The ideal of cooperation was replaced by a hardheaded competition in an evolving business economy. A relatively stable life was becoming rootless and many of the old land- marks were beginning to disappear. The older ideal of self-reliance, so useful in a pioneering era, gave way to reliance on group conformity and authority. The personal encounters of the small town were superseded by a faceless society in which the meetings were frequently impersonal and inconsequential.
The Christian Church has not been able to resist acculturation com- pletely. In far too many ways it reflects the age in which it lives. On
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the other hand, there are facets of the Christian faith which must be maintained against the drift of any age. One of these features is the con- viction that the individual is important in himself. The church has rightly protested the developing paper identity so familiar in an age which reduces the individual to a number on a card or a picture on a badge. The tend- ency to reduce everything to a monotonous sameness violates the right of every individual to his own uniqueness. Faced with the pressures of a contradictory society, the layman is forced to find ways to make his religion more meaningful. The older Christian ideal of a person who lives by the spirit of Christ clashes with the more dominant social ideal of a person as a congenial, sociable, adjusted person who tries to please everyone. The older educational ideal among the Brethren that a person must discover a sense of values and a perspective for life as well as skills for work clashes with the more recent trend to train for a job alone. The older social work concept which viewed every person as one for whom we must show concern clashes with the later ideal which regards the poor and the unfortunate in terms of case studies only. In all such in- stances there is a loss of the sense of integrity among men.
Fortunately there has been a revival of the lay ministry. The Chris- tian church has begun to discover the lay ministry as an essential work of the church. The World Council of Churches reported in 1954:
"one of the greatest tasks of the church today is to grasp clearly the significance of the lay ministry in the world."
As early as 1942, the Laymen's Movement For a Christian World was urg- mg lay people to pledge themselves to exert their strength in building Christianity into the everyday life of the world.
The recent emphasis in the Christian church on lay renascence is not really new to the Quakers or to the Brethren. Students of these denominations long recognized that laymen have played significant roles within the life of the denomination. The Anabaptist heritage emphasized the voluntary community similar to the New Testament community. In the early church, the laity (laos) were the whole people of God and the clergy (kleros) were the whole church of God. There were no distinc- tions of rank in the very early church. Among early Brethren there were also no distinctions of rank. The Reformation principle of the priesthood of believers denoted the equality of all men in the Christian community, clergy and laity alike. Lay responsibility has always been strong with those who follow the Anabaptist tradition.
The Changing Conception of the Church
The Church of the Brethren had its origins in the independent sect movement of the German Enlightenment. It took its rise at a moment when there was a new emphasis upon reason in religion. The theologians of the Enlightenment began to give a practical turn to religion. This was a period in church history in which church leaders and philosophers were separating themselves from the past and were encouraging men to think for themselves. The Church of the Brethren was born at a time when Pietism stressed the emotions and the Enlightenment accented reason.
For many years the Church of the Brethren identified with the "with- drawing sects" and tried to keep itself separate from the world. One Lutheran authority traces the word "sect" (secare) to its Latin meaning of "to cut" or "to be separated".15 Some sectarian groups have been con- tent to remain quietists and to keep aloof from political associations. Other Anabaptist sectarians, however, wished to see change in the social order as well as in the church. The Church of the Brethren belongs to the latter group of Anabaptists who wished to carry the Reformation to its logical conclusion: to effect change in society.
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As the denomination moved from Germany to America, it began to borrow heavily from many evangelical traditions. Its sermons and exposi- tory preaching stood in the Methodist tradition. Its prayer meetings and house meetings were influenced by early Pietist practices. Its emphasis upon the experience of the believer is Congregational and Calvinistic in origin. Its peculiar stress on membership stands in the Anabaptist and Baptist traditions.
The German-speaking membership of the church settled in com- munities of believers in America and remained isolated from the main currents of political and social life. As late as 1852 it was necessary to conduct Annual Meetings with a bilingual clerk. Many congregations of the Southern District conducted their worship services in the German language until the turn of the twentieth century. The peculiar practices, beliefs and language of the Brethren set them apart as sectarians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
No doubt, on a numerical basis, the German immigrant has had more to do with the multiplication of denominations than any other people. This may be related to the fact that the German waves of immi- gration extended over several centuries. The ethnic and cultural differ- ences of these people, and their tendency to create their own commu- nities, became a source of the dividedness of American Protestantism. One historian claims that the "plain sects" who came to Pennsylvania could remain intact only by withdrawing. In doing so, they tended to draw more attention to themselves than did the Lutherans or the Reformed Germans who entered into the affairs of state.16.
The earliest stages of church government among the Brethren wit- nessed the strong leader type of influence. Most Brethren continue to remember charismatic leaders of earlier periods. Reuel B. Pritchett once reported that a survey showed the denomination's heroes for the eighteenth century included Alexander Mack Sr., Peter Becker, Christopher Sauer Sr. and John Naas. Brethren heroes of the nineteenth century were James Quinter, D. L. Miller, Henry Kurtz and John Kline. For the first half of the twentieth century, those best remembered among Brethren were D. W. Kurtz, Otho Winger, Henry C. Early and Wilbur B. Stover.17
As a sectarian group, the Brethren found compelling warmth and communion in their associations with one another. They continued to maintain their sectarian characteristics by preserving a pacifist stance in a war-like world. Most Annual Conference resolutions begin by recall- ing the historic peace position of the denomination. On other occasions, the sectarian qualities have been preserved by maintaining agrarian in- terests in a developing urban culture. For many years the denomination has been able to maintain its separation from society by distinctive prac- tices, an exclusive membership policy and an insistence on conformity to its own heritage.
The church of former years, like other denominations, was content to offer its services to those who belonged to its fellowship. Whenever Brethren spoke of "the Church", they meant "the Church of the Brethren". Much of this attitude has persisted among some members to the present time. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the "dress question" continued to be an issue for some Brethren of the district. About three decades ago, a letter to one of our District Executives requested a pastor with this qualification: ". .. we want our little church to stay as plain and as separate from the world as we can".18
Kermit Eby noted in 1962 that the Church of the Brethren was losing its designation as a sectarian group.19 The Pietism, which held to an opti- mistic view of man, made the Brethren very tolerant and open to accul- turation. Others saw the Church of the Brethren as continuing some of its sectarian qualities in the face of a militaristic society.20
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If the Church of the Brethren retained some sectarian characteristics, it has also viewed itself as part of the universal church. The North Man- chester Conference on "The Nature and Function of the Church", warned:
"We must change our communities or they may change us . . we must more fully Christianize them or they may de-Christianize us".21
At one time the various denominations regarded themselves as com- petitors. This competition may even have encouraged some denominational growth. However, in more recent decades, the denominations have seen the need for Christian cooperation. A speaker at the Annual Conference expressed this need in this manner:
"To be in the body of Christ is to be in fellowship with all whom he has accepted . . We must congregate to become the congregation of his people."22
Such cooperation has become a witness to the words of Jesus: "You are my disciples if you have love for one another."23
The moderator of the Brethren Church, meeting in a conference in Linwood, Maryland, made this observation about the Christian Church to his own denomination:
"Distinctive faith and practice, independence and freedom of action certainly cannot and will not be hindered by the honest prac- tice of brotherly good-will and cooperation."24
The church of recent decades has been engaged in a struggle to re- define its mission. It has sincerely tried to avoid the over-emphasis of the sectarian, individualistic definitions of earlier decades. Leaders have begun to say that it is not enough simply to add names to the church membership rolls in order to preserve the institution. The church must become involved in all of man's relationships. The church must become concerned about the world whom God has chosen to reconcile to himself in Christ.25 The emphasis has turned toward an inclusive church with a universal appeal. The conversation has changed from the church as a gathered fellowship to the church as a scattered congregation.
In the past thirty years the Church of the Brethren has changed its emphasis. In a sense, the denomination prior to 1940 was offering a pro- test witness. Other Protestant denominations conducted a similar pro- phetic criticism of the world around them. The sectarian quality of the Brethren led them to protest against developing militarism, the growing complexity of life and the erosion of moral life. One writer of the 1940s described the church as timid and generally unmilitant.26 It was not forthright in its dealings with the social injustices and the disorders of society. The church generally felt too little responsibility for the char- acter of the social order.
With the explosion of World War II, the Church of the Brethren was compelled to take a more positive witness for its principles than it had done in the past. It began to work in cooperation with others in order to maintain the very principles it held sacred. The emphasis turned from sheer protest to social action in the form of Brethren Service and Com- munity Rehabilitation. Many of the Peace Churches led the way for other denominations to become more deeply concerned about an activist faith in the face of mounting world needs.
Low Religious Vitality
The Christian church in America showed strong numerical growth following World War I. Between 1926 and 1944, church membership showed more than a thirty-two percent increase. The rate of increase was considerably greater than that of the U. S. population.27 A chart of
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the growth of the Church of the Brethren in the United States indicates how it showed reasonably healthy growth until 1940:
Average Gain Per Year
Year
Membership
Gain
1900
73,795
458
1906
76,547
2,752
2,855
1916
105,102
28,555
2,329
1926
128,392
23,290
3,222
1934
154,169
25,777
3,789
1940
176,908
22,739
929
1950
186,201
9,293
1960
200,217
14,016
1,401
1970
182,614
-17,603
-1,760
Statistics of themselves do not always give a complete or accurate picture of the state of affairs within the Church. However, the Hershey Annual Conference (1927) recognized that there was a "lethargy of many people in our nation in recognizing the Lordship of Jesus". The confer- ence encouraged every congregation to establish evangelism as a special aim for the year 1927-1928.
The Church of the Brethren was finding itself in a new world. A new generation was turning to the philosophers and economists for answers to their problems. John Dewey and his fellow-philosophers were preaching a heady trial-and-error pragmatism, science was on the upswing in the nation and there was a gradual dissolution of traditional and dependable ways. The "Great Farm Exodus" since 1940 may well have exceeded in influence the great migratory waves of earlier human history. People with rural-orientation were compelled to confront other values.
The older Protestant values were confronted with values associated with the Catholic and the Jewish faiths. In the earlier part of the twent- ieth century, one of the largest immigration waves of American history struck the nation. Between 1900 and 1915, 14,500,000 people, mostly from Southern Europe, entered America. In 1910, one-seventh of the total U.S. population had been born abroad. The homogeneity of the American population began to break down.
The American Catholic community for many years lived apart from the mainstream of American life. This aloofness was based partly on the hostility directed toward the Catholic and partly on the tendency of the immigrants to cling to their Old World customs. The "immigrant invas- ion" and the appeal of industry brought Catholics and other ethnic groups to positions of strength in the American society. The growth of cities and the rise of industry converted the society into a pluralistic one. So long as society was dominated by Protestants, the insularity of the Protestant life was not so apparent. When new groups began to assert their strength, Protestants found life was changed for them. The American society was rapidly growing secular, urban and pluralistic.
These changing conditions of American life produced a period of intense intolerance. The reemergence of the Klu Klux Klan, chiefly in small communities, became the symbol of the age's bigotry. The Scopes' Trial in Tennessee was the culmination of the Fundamentalists' attempts to protect religion from the incursions of science.
At the same time, a religious bias against peoples from Southern Europe formed the grounds for restrictive immigration laws. In 1923, President Coolidge noted in his State of the Union address: "America must be kept American." He meant the nation must be kept Anglo-Saxon, white and Protestant. The United States Immigration Commission in 1911 created a detailed report of forty-two volumes to "prove" that the
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new immigrants from the Mediterranean and Slavic lands were inferior to the old Nordic stock.
The Twenties in American social and religious history have long been recognized for their laxity of manners and morals. Some historians explain this by claiming the people were reacting to the restrictions and the self-sacrifices of the war years (1914-1918) and to the reform move- ments which accompanied the Progressive Movement of earlier years.28 Years of self-denial were followed by years of self-expression. One may catch a glimpse of the problem as it affected the Church of the Brethren. Laxity in church discipline was one of the items of business before the 1935 Annual Conference.
There was a temptation in the church and in society to resort to stricter legal pressures to enforce conformity in thought and behavior. "Blue Law" advocates were pressing their demands before many state leg- islatures in 1921. Some church members began to look for "authoritative statements" on various issues, including war and peace. In 1926, a request came from the Southern District of Pennsylvania seeking a reaffirmation of the fundamentals of the Church of the Brethren.29 The query before the Annual Conference was inspired by "a general neglect and discarding of daily prayer and the wearing of the prayer veil".30 The same query complained about the practice of receiving members into the church fellow- ship while they continued to be members of secret organizations. The social custom of kneeling for prayer was being abandoned; sisters bobbed their hair and wore jewelry; and the holy kiss was in danger of passing as a form of salutation.
When Martin Grove Brumbaugh, a member of the Church of the Brethren, became Governor of the Commonwealth, he wielded his veto power right and left. He objected to 211 bills in the first session of the General Assembly and 198 in the second session during his tenure of office (1915-1919). In his Inaugural Address, Governor Brumbaugh made it clear he felt there were already too many laws on the statute books. He insisted that legislation is not the way to cure the social, economic and political ills of a society.31
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