Article December 4, 1909 Issue

To what cause may be attributed the growing tendency...

Percey B. Sovey

Aberdeen (Wash.) World

To what cause may be attributed the growing tendency of men to neglect the church? Why is it that men do not go to church? It was once the case that men manifested much interest in religious work, but now that manifestation is almost exclusively feminine. What's the matter with the men—or the church?

They are trying to find the answer to these questions here in Kansas City, and investigators are not numerically small. Interest in the subject follows the late visit of a noted divine who undertook to discuss the problem, and thereby started a discussion that seems unlikely to end for some time. The investigators concede at the outset that men do not attend church. Of course, conditions are not identical the country over. In some communities one will see many men at church. Generally speaking, however, the average present-day congregation is made up largely of women. Not only is the church relying now on the support of women, but even the theaters, music, art, letters, and philanthropy are actually dependent upon the interest of the gentler sex.

It is not to be denied that the moral condition of men is steadily improving. Drunkenness, for instance, is on the decline. The percentage of criminals is decreasing. Conditions have improved even in the slums. In this city of nearly half a million people the spectacle of a drunken man is indeed uncommon. Drunkards cannot obtain employment! no one has any use for them, and the drunkard is also a loafer. Again, the liquor interests are discouraging drunkenness, which, contrary to orthodox belief, is bad for the saloon. Nowadays a drunken man cannot buy liquor at so-called first-class bars.

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