The rise of urban poverty, for instance, precipitated a crisis in the Protestant conscience. During the latter decades of the nineteenth century the prevailing convictions about self-help and laissez-faire economics, together with considerable distrust or dislike of the new American working classes and their unions, stood in the way of dealing with the problems at their roots. So when one reads from the prominent church paper The Congregationalist in 1886 that in response to labor riots in Chicago “a Gatling gun or two, swiftling brought into position and well served, offers, on the whole, the most merciful remedy,” it might appear that the quality of Protestant mercy is a bit strained. (p. 27-28)
…I’ve come to appreciate George’s sense of humor, The Congregationalist would fit nicely with some of the X commentary you get from conservative U.S. culture warriors today.
