Labor's View of the Function of the Church

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

IT is my purpose in this article to try to state what the more radical and aggressive groups of workers in this country think about the Church and the function it fulfills and might fulfill in society. There is no doubt that among these groups one may find some positive hostility and bitterness toward the churches. Particularly among foreignspeaking workers in large industrial centers there is frequently a very definite line drawn between what are called church people and radicals or enlightened ones. The latter never expect any support from the former in labor-union work, and the former regard unions or radical political parties as agencies of the devil. If one seeks to analyze somewhat more closely the grounds for the feeling of hostility to the Church among some of the more aggressive workers, two considerations may be mentioned. In the first place, these workers hold that social institutions are primarily the product of the economic system and exist to support it. Our economic system is the system of capitalism, under which the ownership of the means of production is concentrated in the hands of a few, while workers own nothing but their labor-power which they have to sell like a commodity in a bitterly competitive market. The modern churches are a part of this system. They depend directly or indirectly upon the privileged classes for their financial support and social prestige. Consequently, whenever conflict arises between the masters and the workers, the churches will be found throwing the weight of their great moral influence in the community into the scale against labor. They are bound in a crisis to be reactionary. They are the natural foes of labor, and labor should look upon them as such. So runs the familiar indictment.