Not at Home in Christendom

In answer to the question, “What would happen if Christ appeared among us today?” cleric Ralph W. Sockman, Christ Church, New York city, said: “The public wants a more comfortable religion than Christ came to give. Jesus was no salesman offering a way to pleasant social adjustment and financial success. Sensation-seeking crowds and superficial-minded churchgoers would find Jesus disappointing and cease to listen.

“What judgment would Christ pass on our civilization? He would say what he said to his own capital city of Jerusalem: that we do not know and practice the things that make for our true peace. He would condemn our excessive materialism which blinds us to the things that are invisible and eternal. He would scathingly denounce our narrow nationalism, our social castes, and our racial barriers. Christ would not feel at home in many of the churches erected in his name, because they have allowed ecclesiasticism and worldliness to destroy the simplicity and sincerity of his original gospel.”—Cosmopolitan, December, 1958.