Arthur Herzog III

The Church Trap Arthur Herzog III

Churches today are caught in a sociological trap. Parishioners want to keep comfortable status quo organization. Churchmen feel the pressure to modernize, to "get where the action is." This book is a provocative and zesty analysis of the problem.

Dishonest to God? The churches have followed corporations in emphasizing fat figures and solid annual growth. If religion were sold like stocks you would have the "high fliers" like the booming Southern Baptists and the Roman Catholics, the "blue chip" denominations-Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians-and then those with small growth potential like the Jews.

The "sick" clergy. Most clergymen of the various faiths, needless to say, are not alcoholic or homosexual. On the other hand enough clergymen have these problems to cause concern, and beyond the slippery labels of neuroses there are enough inward tortured people in the clergy to make church authorities wonder what in heaven is wrong.

The future. One of the basic models for churchly change is ecumenism, but although ecumenism may look good on the drawing board, it has some very formidable hurdles before it . There is no sign in the heavens that the organized religion in America will be granted a resurrection.