The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1924, Page 70

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

70

The Lutheran Pioneer.

carefully and thoughtfully read it and then make
comparisons. Let our Colored readers ask them-
selves the question and honestly answer it, “Do
I give more than two cents of every dollar that
I earn to the church?” And may our white readers
also ask themselves whether they are giving five
times as much for amusement, much of it possibly
unwholesome and harmful, as they are giving for
the support of God’s kingdom.

Only recently we read that the people of our
country are annually spending almost fourteen
billion dollars for luxuries, things they can do with-
out, while the home church gets only four hundred
million dollars and foreign’ missions about thirty
millions. The statement above concerning the

Rev. Andrew Schulze,
Our New Missionary in Springfield, Ill.

annual expenditures for luxuries is based on
United States Treasury figures. If these figures
are correct, and the writer has every reason to be-
lieve thaf they are quite exact, it would mean that
for $14 the average person spends for luxuries he
gives 43 cents to the Church! Almost thirty-three
times as much for luxuries as for God’s kingdom!
But read the article from the Christian Recorder:
* “Occasionally we hear people talking about
spending too much for the Church. ‘The best cal-
culation shows that the Negroes are spending about
$40,000,000 per year for their churches. Some
may think this a bit exaggerated, but we prefer to
accept the maximum figure. It is also estimated
that the Negroes make about $2,000,000,000 a year

in wages. That is to say that the Negroes give

$2 out of every $100 they make to their church,

or 2 cents out of every dollar. That is, the Negro
gives 49 times as much to other things as he does
to his church.

“Take the 2 cents paid for the church, we have
98 cents left, and you will be convinced, if you
study, that the Negro makes good account of this
money. If we should judge from Philadelphia, the
Negro uses about 30 cents for housing, about
45 cents for food, about 12 cents for clothing, and
about 10 cents for amusements and other things.

“Rather than receive criticism for the way it
uses the 2 cents, we think the Church ought to be
complimented. ‘The Negro has done more propor-
tionately with this 2 cents than with any other
money it has spent. Let us see what the 2 cents
have done. The Negro owns $100,000,000 worth
of church property, acquired out of the 2 cents
given the Church. He pays fifty thousand preachers
a year out of the 2 cents, and they support 200,000
members of their families. The 2 cents certainly
have had real constructive results.

“Now, the Negro spends more money for amuse-
ments than he gives the Church. With the money
he has spent for so-called amusements he has built
thousands of saloons for white people, he has sup-
ported thousands of dance-halls and theaters, but
very few of these for himself. ‘The Negro spends
a great deal of money for clothing and shoes, much
more than for his Church; but where are the shoe
factories and great clothing manufacturing places?

“In other words, those who look for results see
that the biggest results the Negroes have are in
their churches, and they imagine all the Negro’s
money is given to the Church. What we ought to
do is to use the same forethought and method of
organization in other endeavors as we have in
churches. We have taken the 2 cents and built
tens of thousands of churches, and we should take
the 10 cents and build wholesome recreation that
our people control. We should take the 30 cents
for housing and build our real estate holdings, etc.”
: F.J.L.

What? When? Where?

WHAT should every pastor and member of
every congregation in the Synodical Conference
know about?

The work of the Synodical Conference for the
Negro. :

WHEN should I know about this great work?

All the year round, but especially at this time