Religion: Power of Passion

In the small but ardent group of U. S. churchmen whose social thoughts and social utterances consistently veer leftward, few are more forthright than the Methodists. And few Methodists are more radically articulate than Bishop Edgar Blake of Detroit. Last week in Indianapolis Bishop Blake told a Conference on Preaching:

“Americans have lost the power of moral passion and indignation and have become a nation of ‘yes’ men.* Lukewarmness is one of the curses of America. We have no convictions. We express no opinions. We have no independence of our own. We are fast becoming a nation of pussyfooters, side-steppers, wobblers, invertebrates. We are shifty, hesitant, evasive, fearful. In the midst of the most appalling calamity of the century we haven’t a first class mind to face it.”

* Headlined in the New York Herald Tribune: POWER OF INDIGESTION LOST