The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1917, Page 83

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The Lutheran Pioneer. g 83

The American Negro and the Lutheran
Church.

We have chosen the above title for several reasons,
chief of which is the fact that the Lutheran Church
is this year more than ever taking a survey of her
great and vast responsibility toward the world and
the nations of the world because of the possessions
entrusted to her care by the Lord through the Refor-
mation of the year 1517, Athd since we believe this
responsibility to include our duty toward the Negro,
we did not hesitate to combine the two under one
head. That the Lutheran Church has possessions,
great possessions, will hardly be denied, but that
these possessions involye a duty toward the black
man. will not so readily be accepted. Because of
this we find that not a few people boast of the treas-
ures of the Lutheran Church, and still are not in
favor of Negro Mission. We would here like to
emphasize that as great as are her possessions, so
great is her responsibility toward the Colored man.

There are in this country approximately twelve
million Negroes, constituting about 10.7 per cent. of
our entire cosmopolitan population. The Negro be-
longs to a rising race. The Negro race has made,
and is making, wonderful progress. If we think of
the conditions of this people in the past, and com-
pare them with the conditions and the people of the
present, we can only agree that as the world has
advanced, so the Negro race has advanced with it.
And at the same time we wonder whether any other
people under like conditions would have done as
well. It is true, and no one will deny the fact,
that there is still room for improvement. But when
we stop and consider, we can but say they have
done well. A little over fifty years ago this same
people was still in bondage, a condition under which
development was circumscribed. And to-day this
race has advanced to a degree which causes even
the most skeptical to admire and applaud. Reli-
giously, morally, intellectually, physically, and so-
cially the Negro has progressed. The religion, which
many years ago was a mixture of Voodooism and
emotionalism, and which to a very great extent
divided faith and life, has to-day been replaced by
a desire to worship God in spirit and in truth. The
religion of feelings has largely been done away with,
and in its place has come the conviction that better
results are obtained by reaching the heart through
the intellect. ‘That there should have evolved out
of ignorance concerning God’s will a low standard
of morality is only natural. But as their religion

has changed, so their morality. The statement that
there exists no moral Negro, man or woman, ex-
presses not merely a mistaken idea, but is a de-
eidedly unintelligent remark. There are many
Negro men and women who are not only pure
themselves, but who are pained when they hear of
any member of their race being guilty of immorality.
The doctrine that the Negro intellectually can never
reach a very high standard has been discredited by
the thousands of Colored men and women who are
represented in every profession, and who are recog-
nized as experts by men who are in a position to
judge. Men like Frederick Douglass, Booker T.
Washington, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Burghardt
Du Bois, F. J. Grimke, C. E. Bently, R. H. Terrell,
Charles Young, have demonstrated to the world the
intellectual capacity and ability of the Negro. Negro
illiteracy during the last decade has decreased from
90 to 30 per cent.

When we compare the death rate among Negroes,
we are startled at the large percentdge of infant mor-
tality. And one is tempted to ask whether it is not
true that the Negro is a physical inferiority. How-
ever, as one acquaints himself with the unsanitary
and unhealthy conditions surrounding the Negro
home, one is not at all surprised to learn that of
the 225,000 deaths of Negroes annually, 100,000
are preventable, and that these 100,000 are due to
existing conditions. And we might add that steps
for an improvement of these conditions are being
taken which will result in greatly decreasing Negro
mortality.

The Negro socially is very much changed to-day
from what he was thirty or forty years ago. The
Negro drunkards, renegades, and criminals are
looked upon by some as examples by which the
whole race can be judged. This is not only unjust,
but it does not harmonize with the facts. As we
write this, we are thinking of Negro homes which
in points of morality, cleanliness, culture, and in-
telligence can be favorably Compared with any
home. We have personal knowledge of not a few
homes that are model homes in every respect. The
housewife performs her duties faithfully, which is
evidenced by the order and cleanliness in the house
and in the yard, as well as with regard to the chil-

dren, who are well fed and decently clothed. The »

husband is the breadwinner, as well as the head of
the house. Thus a change in the social conditions,
which is creating a growing sentiment for better
housing, better economic and sanitary conditions, is
fast taking place in every part of the country.