Can Protestantism Win?

The hard-hitting owner-editor of the Christian Century had a lot on his mind. Charles Clayton Morrison decided to write a series of articles on the challenging theme, "Can Protestantism Win America?"* This week, in the second installment, came a startling if partial answer: "Protestantism has given no convincing evidence that, in its present state, it is able to . . . awaken a vital response to the realities of the Christian gospel."

In terms of sheer nose-counting, the Protestant churches still show a slight percentage gain over population increase. But, says Churchman Morrison, "numerical growth is not the only criterion. . . . We must look also at the whole cultural, political, and economic scene within which Protestantism lives. Our question will then be: Is Protestantism growing in influence and spiritual power faster than these forces and interests external to itself . . .?"

Simple v. Complex. In horse & buggy days, Protestantism's position was reinforced in every phase of U.S. life: church was the natural center for social gatherings, ministers were the cultural leaders of the community, Bible reading was a family habit. Today, changed conditions confront Protestantism "with a task for which the simple and direct methods appropriate to an age of simple and unorganized individualism are no longer adequate."

To describe these changed conditions, Morrison adopts the term "secularism": "an outlook . . . limited to this world only." Secularism, says he, is the enemy, and its threat is greater than that of Catholic rivalry, for it affects "wide ranges of the common life," and "it exists either in outright negation of Christianity or in indifference to it."

"Secularism has been growing much faster in American culture than Protestantism. There are many factors which explain this growth. . . . The most obvious ones . . . are: 1) our secularized system of education; 2) our preoccupation with science; and 3) our organized and commercialized entertainment. . . . They represent vast concentrations of social preoccupation against whose tough grain Protestantism in our time has to make its way."

Preacher-Editor. Dr. Morrison is a fighting editor of the old school who has made the Christian Century the most vigorous and intelligent Protestant weekly in the U.S. Pastor Morrison (of the Disciples of Christ) became Journalist Morrison when he bought the Christian Century in 1908 and made it interdenominational. The Century's "editorial we" has stood for Morrison ever since. Says he of his job and his magazine: "As an editor I am still a preacher. It is a journal of opinion, not news."

Like most present-day preachers, fiery, 71-year-old Dr. Morrison does not confine his preaching to theological or strictly religious concerns. In 1930 he tub-thumped in the Century for Prohibition, in 1940 he came out against a Roosevelt third term. Before Pearl Harbor, the Century was "non-interventionist," afterward "supported the U.S. in the war, but not the war."

Morrison has long been rated one of Protestantism's top opinion molders, and his present series should rouse considerable comment. "I expect," says he, ". . . a good deal of resentment and critical reaction."

* Last year the Century widened complacent Protestant eyes with field editor Harold E. Fey's frank series: "Can Catholicism Win America?"

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