The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Page 71

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

71

The City’s Greatest Missionary Problem.

But the greatest urban problem is the utter
materialism which is being woven more and more
into the life of the people. Humanity and per-
sonality are being ever more submerged in crass
materialism. his materialism shows itself in keen
and unmerciful business competition, in outspoken
and unashamed selfishness, and in a tireless chase
after amusement, riches, and other things that the
sinful flesh craves and lusts after. In the large city
more than elsewhere the carnal mind of man is most
apparent. The large city’s “overwhelming magni-
tude, its seething multitudes, the maddening craze
for amusements, the perpetual motion of the swirl-
ing mass, the deadening monotony of its work, the
cold-blooded materialism of its thinking, the
maelstrom of its loneliness, its every known
variety of humanity, the multifamily dwell-
ings, money lure, and ‘working papers,’ and
finally the class cleavages, these are some of
the conditions of the city that try men’s
souls.”

Materialism results in class  distinc-
tions, misunderstandings, bitterness, con-
gested housing, poverty, exhausting toil, and
spiritual indifference. And all these evils
only help to make the work of the Church in
the large industrial centers increasingly
difficult.

In New York City the unchurched out-
number those affiliated with a church three
to one; in Chicago the proportion is five
to two; in Detroit the ratio is two to one; in San
Francisco there are three times more people outside
of than in church; while in Baltimore conditions
are about the same as in Chicago. F. J. 1.

The Frontier in Missions.

The Western Frontier.

The old romantic Western frontier is no more,
but there still remains a fringe of unchurched and
unreached territory in our country to which we
should not be indifferent.

In Florida there are not a few communities and
rural settlements that have not been reached by the
Church. Many of the 600,000 “tin-can tourists”
who went to Florida last winter were staying in
these unchurched communities. ;

In West eras there is a rapidly developing
region with a truly pioneer character. While many
of the new communities in this territory are being

First Parsonage along the Moffat Railroad in Colorado.

taken care of, there are great expanses for which
little is being done.

In Colorado there are several communities num-
bering thousands that are not regularly served by
the Church. The Star Valley in Lincoln County,
Wyoming, has a population of 2,000, but is without
the ministry of the Church. In Utah there are
whole counties in which no Christian church is to
be found. The population of Idaho is only 12 per
cent. nominally Christian. Of the remainder,
24 per cent. are Mormons, and the remaining
64 per cent. are wholly unchurched. Of 573 com-

munities in Western Washington, with a population
of less than 1,000, 379 were found to be entirely
without churches.

The four southeastern counties of Oregon are
described as a spiritual wilderness. With an area
equal to that of all India, these four counties have
a population of only 35,000. In other words, there
is not one person on an average to a square mile.
The largest town in this large territory has less than
2,500 inhabitants. Outside of four other towns of
about 1,000 the population is practically rural. The
people are by no means poverty-stricken. Dairy-
farming, grazing, and logging are the chief occupa-
tions. The region is very isolated, and the facilities
for travel are very poor. The few missionaries that
come into this territory reach only a small fraction
of the people. The youth is practically growing up
in heathenism.

While the larger towns of Nevada are provided”
for, the needs of the rural communities are prac-
tically unmet. The greater part of the rural neigh-
borhood is almost destitute of church services.
From one neighborhood a girl eighteen years of
age wrote: “I have never seen a preacher, priest, or