The Great Depression

Volunteers of America Soup Kitchen, By Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Public Health Nursing, By Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Destitute Man, Vacant Store, By Dorothea Lange [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

“Penniless… a while without food I can live; but it breaks my heart to know I cannot give. Penniless… I can share my rags, but I cannot bear to hear starved children cry.”

– from “Songs of the Slums” by Kagawa (Inasmuch, p81.)

Even before the Great Depression, the 1920s-30s saw a decline in church attendance everywhere, and rural American was in serious economic depression throughout the 1920s, which significantly affected the predominantly rural Disciples of Christ. At the same time, denominationalism experienced strong resurgence, and local suspicion of liberal national leadership grew in all denominations, along with a decline in financial support. (Inasmuch, p76.)

“The emergency had no precedent in United States history: millions stood in bread lines and armies of homeless youth roamed the streets. Relief agencies ran out of money and stood helplessly by while thousands suffered… For national church organizations, the Great Depression simply exacerbated an economic disaster that had begun almost a decade earlier… Americans after World War I developed a militant disinterest in others and an active distrust of any leaders who called them to wider participation in the world… For NBA, still less than 50 years old, the problems seemed impossible.” (Inasmuch, p81.)