THE WORLD MENACE

NZ Truth, Issue 935, 27 October 1923, Page 7

THE WORLD MENACE

ENCROACHMENr_£ THE WOWSER "Putting It Across" AND SftLlNfili CHURCH

(By Randolph Bedford.)

NEW YORK. The churches of the U.S,A. — commercialised to the dollar -habit— have borrowed the language of the coinmercjal traveller. When the salesman for "Katz and Blumstene Cloaks lirid Skirts" or "Isidore Granslark suppers aqd Shoes" or "Pflrick arid Glumsclorf Woollens," take an order from ShorBtein and Glass they do not say that thijy have sold to S. and G., but that S. and G. have been "sold." Which may be quite true m both senses of the word. A group of clergymen m Hoboken has formed the Church Advertising Association. Its advertising campaign includes sales-letters, newspaper advertising, radio broad-casting and sales talks. Says the General Manager of the association:-— "The Church as an institution is a saleable proposition. This is the indifferent age. Slowly but surely we are witnessing the disintegration of the material forms of Christianity with/ deserted . churches and empty pews. . . . we must sell ' .the church by. modeirri .and highpowered' psychology ,of a4vertising, follpwihjs the same advertising methodß , employed m selling commodities." So "Sales talks, to put church across" is as much a work of, the press -asrent. as the theatre-filling tricks of Broadway. And the churches do things for publicity that the theatres cannot. "Churches"— this on the authority of Dr. Stratton — rector of; Calvary Baptist .Church, NeW; York4-"employ jazz {bands; m wnich women . were dressed like men, to play at a church dance and run philanthropic prize fights attended by w.omen t church , members." St. Mark's Church, m th>. Bowery, employs girls to dance "classic dances" m the church as part, of the Sunday evening services, ana recently advertised that Isadora Duncan (the dancer) w.ould preach , from; the pulpit' at a Sunday service on "Tlm moral effect of dancing on /.the .humtifir. soul," but: a .shocked bishop interye'ned jri time to prevent it. The; Wftll Street. Journal $hus advertises Trinity .cChurcjj»r*itfi(9lf a vast holder, of -city property, which the ia.w has had to force it to keep m habitable repair: — - . . ' TRINITY CHURCH. NEW YORK. BROADWAY AT? WALL STREET. TUESDAY, AT 5 O'CLOCK, APRIL IX\ GOD'S METHOD OF REDEMPTION. Tel. Bowling Green 6208. The . ''Christian Herald" announces that the churches have united to "produce and distribute moving pictures for, Protestant congregations," and that the scheme will have unlimited financial backing. The first picture to be shown is an Italian production of 53 reels, Of the 17Q.000 Protestant churches In the U.S.A., 10.0Q0 are equipped with motion picture machines, and m the next flvayears we will have 100,000 equipped. The President of the non-theatrical motion pictures company, which is to distribute to the churches, Is Mr. Harry Levy; and the Government Is to be asked hot to collect entertainment tax. The new activity to secure church attendances produces quaint proposals and performances. Dr, Forman Horton proposes to fine all persons who do riot attend church on the basis of the existent law of Edward VI., and Colonial Acts to enforce church attendance. But as such fine would produce not church attendants, but money, one wonders whether the desire is for worshippers or entrance fee. The Rev. Horton estimates that fines would produce 400 million dollars a year, whivh hints at the existence of quite a number of I.W.W. Christians. Contests between Bible classes of Methodist churches- at Sarance Lake and at Platt (N.Y.). for highest church attendance recorded the incident of a Bible class student seizing and roping a man and dragging him to church — ah act quite m the best style of the Ku Klux Klan. x At intervals Dr. Stratton— who loves publicity for its own sake — preaches a sermon threatening the woman smoker of cigarettes that "she will smoke m Hell hereafter," and promising the same unpleasant ending for "bleached blondes." But all publicity agents cannot sing the same tune, so Dr. Radea — Evangelist and President of the Christian Missionary . Alliances-says, "Flappers are doing good work by disgusting young men and driving them Into the Missions. Better for these young men a hungry heathen with a club than a thirsty flapper with a lipstick." *'„,. It Is apparently a hunger for publicity—if it is not a form of sex-mania — that has made a olergyman of lowa resign his church and become a hangman. Recently at Fort Madison, lowa, he hanged Engell Weeks, and after the execution prayed for the deaa. Great is publicity. The Rev. Hy. Miller, Methodist minister, of Brooklyn, was expelled from his church because he danced, attended psychological lectures, opposed prohibition, and permitted his wife to bob her hair; and immediately he announced himself aa President of a "Psychological" concern, which is the usual "million dollar corporation." Whether threatened by the Ku Klux, which is very powerful m Oklahoma, or merely phasing publicity, the Rev. W E. Sunth. of Calister (Oklahoma), prefaced his sermon by placing a loaded gun ready at his hand In. the pulpit. jW Bishop became prominent for a day by sensibly proposing to alter the service for the Visitation of the Sick by deleting the hymn. "Hark from the Tomb a Mournful Sound"— which is certainly not calculated to make the sick cheerful enough to recover. The same dignitary further objects to pray over a child suffering from infantite naralysis. or an adult about to undergo an operation, m the authorised manner, which runs: "Sanctify this Thy Fatherly correction or else give grace so to take Thy visitation, so that after this nainful life Is ended. ..." The latest organised effort to "sell the church" and "put it across" is the formation of "Lonesome Clubs"~already common as private enterprises. The secular "Lonesome Clubs" are merely neonoies to introduce men and woTncn tf euch other. They advertlao laVKOly. and have a membership, not only Of Stranrers, but pf permanent vAuiHfnt* m their localltleH. X Union Methodist Episcopal Church of Fifth Avenue. New lork has started a "National Lonesome Club" to ttimulate match-making: the lay m charge of the club stating that the business of match-making, for longer or shorter periods, should not be In the hands of the devil." Sessions are hold every Sunday evening In the Union Church m West 48th Street and the aim of the club is to put the devil out of business as ft match-maker. The

principal object of the olub is to bring together lonely men and women, whether they be old or young, married or single.

"Many of the members are not candidates for majximony," Miss Salem said, "but simply desire companionship. Some are staid business women arid men, who prefer to remain single; others are married persons whoße mates are not m the city, and who have become lonely."

i A more ambitious, because more wholesale, society, had a short and unmerry life at Newark, New Jersey. A few citizens joined the Lovers' Cooperative Union, and advertised a Cupid's Court to be opened. The people replying to the advertisements were sent quGStionaires, and the answers were considered' by the "Coi^rt," which on. that evidence fixed marriages for people who Had never seen each other. The names of the male "soul-mates" wore put m one lottery barrel, and the names of the female "soul-mates'! m another, and the ;J'soul -mates". wkre drawn. In: pairs, T^iis is jnaking .marriage a, pottery indeed, ( .■" ':■■ •-.■■'., • The : ju<Sges were a:' local; editor arid a local cigar salesman, who asserted that m their own town, there w,ere enough widows for" all the- widowers—- each of them neglecting a chance to get 250Q dollars exemption from Income tax. On the slackest days the replies were a dozen barrow loads a day. After the drawing of "soul -mates" a six months' courtship by letter was stlpulated-r-the pairing being made "according to religion, age, health, condition of personal habits, -financial standing, and whether they- deßlred children or not."

One New York widow, applying to Cupid's Court for an award, wrote:-" "Please, don't call them mates. It reminds me tqo much of birds. My first husband was a bird, and he looked for a new mate every week." And a girl wrote that "She didn't want the kind of husband she'd have to support. She had noticed that most married mien either don't live with their wives or don't work."

Cppid's Court eat a.nd «vw&jr4ed hugbands and wives, and then the married women who were associated with the Co-operative Lovers' Union retired, because the newspapers stated that all the officials of Cupid's Court were after husbands for themselves. The President of the Court had already awarded himself a "beautiful Kentucky girl," aged 18, who wrote that she "yearned for a man among men, a brilliant coh-versa-LlohaUst, a broad-shouldered, deep -thinking, clean-souled man."

The President had no doubt. "I am he," said he, modestly, and the ridiculous court awarded itself the pride of Kentucky. ; And. then Cupid's Court went out of business, the newspaper corresponding President having made some dollars by peddling the publicity of the Lovers' Co-operative Union.

But the National Lonesome Club is on a sounder and more permanent basis — it is helping to "aell the church" and "put it across."