Christ Unpopular?

A dozen able divinity students of assorted Protestant denominations, summer-schooling at Chicago, last week came to an astounding conclusion: that Christ is growing increasingly unpopular in the U. S., not simply the sufferer of public apathy but the subject of downright disfavor.

The dozen assembled for a dinner in the parish house of St. Chrysostom's Protestant Episcopal Church, at present Chicago's most fashionable. Host was John Crippen Evans, 40, assistant rector of St. Chrysostom's and religious editor of the Chicago Tribune. He had invited them to his cenacle in an "attempt to feel the pulse of young theological students."

None of the guests was over 25. Their youth makes their ideas susceptible to a criticism of jejunity. On the other hand, their present ability premises future leadership in their denominations. They may portend the end of a phase of U. S. Protestantism which (vide Bruce Barton) has adapted Christ to contemporary ideals and mores.

Of all the Evans guests, only one was shocked by anything the other said. He was J. S. Thaddeus of the South India United Church. Said he, after the others had spoken: "Is it possible that any theological students do not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ?" The others excused his naivete by his brief residence in the U. S.

M. A. Vollmer, General Theological Seminary, Manhattan, denounced "disgustingly inefficient methods the churches are using, the effeminate piety generally observed among clergy."

All: "Religious life in America is reaping the harvest of the incompetency of the ministry of the immediate past."

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