CARPING CLERICS

Condemning the present age as a "wicked and adulterous generation," which "makes no reckoning of the disasters and misfortunes which inevitably attend its evil and lustful ways," the Episcopal Bishops appeal to the nation to return to the "good old days." Like medieval monks whose panorama of life was limited by the four walls of a monastery cell, they despaired of current America as a disillusioned and distracted land of sin.

There is no place in the modern world for a church which clings resolutely to a point of view so typically medieval. Indeed, the current experience in Russia proves conclusively that unless the church does perform a definitely progressive function in contemporary society, its continued existence is extremely precarious. When the bishops of one of the leading American sects fail to appreciate the moral fortitude which has characterized the attitude of the people during the last five tragic years, when they allow Hollywood and Reno to blind them to the beneficial social legislation which has been written on the law books of the country during the past decade, they are giving evidence of a narrow and bigoted point of view which has no place in the nation today. No organization which takes such a gloomy view of the current situation can ever hope to inspire a despondent people with spiritual zeal. No church which keeps its eyes riveted on the doubtful virtues of a past generation can be of material assistance in mitigating any contemporary moral depreciation.

If the church is to continue as a vital force in American life, it must extract the virtues from existing institutions and build a better future on them. Only by forgetting the dubious idealism of a bigoted theocracy can it hope to guide the American people into a new era of spiritual regeneration.