Such an appeal to the general phenomena of
popular church attendance and church membership may be
sufficiently convincing for the proposition here advanced. But it
will still be to the purpose to trace in some detail the course
of events and the particular forces which have wrought this
change in the spiritual attitude of the more advanced industrial
communities of today. It will serve to illustrate the manner in
which economic causes work towards a secularization of men's
habits of thought. In this respect the American community should
afford an exceptionally convincing illustration, since this
community has been the least trammelled by external circumstances
of any equally important industrial aggregate.
After making due allowance for exceptions and sporadic departures
from the normal, the situation here at the present time may be
summarized quite briefly. As a general rule the classes that are
low in economic efficiency, or in intelligence, or both, are
peculiarly devout -- as, for instance, the Negro population of
the South, much of the lower-class foreign
population, much of the rural population, especially in those
sections which are backward in education, in the stage of
development of their industry, or in respect of their industrial
contact with the rest of the community.
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