The Negro's church,.

The Message of the Minister

93

to come in which justice would hold complete sway came
more conspicuously to the front.
The other-worldly idea therefore finds fertile soil among
the people who fare worst in this world; and it grows dimmer ->
and dimmer as they get a strong social, economic and political
foothold. It is pointed out in Middletown that "it is in matters of belief that the churches apparently retain their most
complete dominance over the lives of their members in certain groups of the working class, who on the one hand, have
less opportunity for other approaches to problems than the
business class, and, on the other, have fewer enjoyments in
this life and more urgent needs," that "it will be made up to us
in Heaven." 1
With the Negro, it could hardly have been otherwise. His
244 years of slavery, and the continuous proscriptions inflicted
upon him since his emancipation, have been all conducive to
developing an other-worldly view in which the righteousness
of God would be vindicated and this suffering people delivered. Seeing little or no hope in this world, the Negro has
done what other people have done, he has projected his hopes
in a heaven above.
There are no available historical data on this subject with
which the findings of this study can be compared. One can
surmise, though, from experience and observation, that the
emphasis on the other world among Negroes is becoming
less and less pronounced. The educational and cultural levels
of the Negro are being rapidly raised; he is getting a firmer
economic hold; and there is some reason to believe that the
restrictions in the environment are being slightly relinquished.
Future studies bearing on this point will probably show an
increasing number of Negro ministers who seek primarily to
relate religion to life in this world.
1 Lynd, Robt. S., and Helen Morrell, Middletown (New York: Harcourt,
Brace & Company, 1929), p. 405.