What do you think of the Progressive Era?

[farouk]

So historically, in the 1890s until 1930s, a period known as the Progressive Era, there were all sorts of issues - related and unrelated - which were regarded as worthy of promoting.

Prohibition
Woman suffrage
birth control and eugenics (which basically meant stopping black people from having 'too many' children)
'Purifying' the race, 'purifying' the electorate;
making the economy more efficient.
Even arresting women for smoking.

All lumped together under the 'Progressive' banner.

Some of the issues were presented as being 'Christian'.

Then came the Roaring Twenties and the Depression, when just surviving seemed to replace other considerations.

Comments? What lessons can be learned?

 

[jasoncran]

some of those were hardly Christian.ie eugenics. that gave rise to the likes of hitler whom was supported by the kennedies and bushes, and Ford et all.

 

[farouk]

some of those were hardly Christian.ie eugenics. that gave rise to the likes of hitler whom was supported by the kennedies and bushes, and Ford et all.

I agree.

Yet so much was presented under the aura of what was supposedly 'progressive' and 'Christian'.

I think it's good to look long and hard at new ideas before they are simply promoted for being fashionable. Kind of a conservative sentiment, I guess.

Some of those 'Progressive' issues cited amounted to sheer busybodying.

 

[jasoncran]

im going to immerse my grandson in the history of the holocaust for that reason., and also the history of isreal for that reason.if the jews go we all go.

1) abortion is akin to the shoah
2) euthanasia or the right to die laws is akin to the shoah

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Lots of things were either justified or condemned because of the Christian faith. Prohibition was one of those promoted as a Christian undertaking, and while it did call attention to the problem of alcoholism, and eventually did make more people aware of the health hazards of excessive drinking, the methods used by the Women's Temperance Union (most notably Carrie Nation) were practically terrorist in nature. The fact of the matter is, Prohibition worked. It proves that the general war on drugs today is right in attitude, just occasionally wrong in execution. The end to Prohibition was inspired mostly by economics rather than the practicality of an alcohol ban. There were 600,000 brewery workers put out of work when Prohibition was enacted. It was necessary, to the politicians' way of thinking, to put those people back to work when, 13 years later, in the throes of the Depression, the workers were a drag on the economy and a bigger contributor to crime than alcohol ever was.

Christianity was also used as an excuse to withhold the vote from women, on the grounds that they were "inferior" to men as "proven" by the Bible. The reality was, that reasoning was 100% faulty. In the Bible, women are treated with equality and respect. The Jewish women of the Old Testament, and the Christian women of the New, were the most liberated and productive women of their time, and subjugating them 2,000 years later based on gross misinterpretation of the Bible was sinful.

The rest were just plain stupid and unreasoning. FDR's efforts to "revive" the economy through social welfare and government work programs was not the success it is credited as being, but was in fact a monumental failure. When FDR took office, unemployment was at 17.4%. The day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, it was 17.4%. This pretender took credit for recovery that did not occur and was chided by his opponents for much of the same criticisms with which we now criticize the current pretender, who also takes credit for "recovery" that is non-existent.

 

[childeye]

Sounds to me like the progressive era was an agenda being pushed by people who thought they were better than others but proving they were not.

 

[Obadiah]

Sounds to me like the progressive era was an agenda being pushed by people who thought they were better than others but proving they were not.

Gee, kinda sounds like today, eh?

 

[childeye]

Gee, kinda sounds like today, eh?

The same spirit that has existed and in my view, crucified the Christ. The Christ came lowly and as a perfect servant.

 

[Mike S]

I agree.

Yet so much was presented under the aura of what was supposedly 'progressive' and 'Christian'.

I think it's good to look long and hard at new ideas before they are simply promoted for being fashionable. Kind of a conservative sentiment, I guess.

Some of those 'Progressive' issues cited amounted to sheer busybodying.

I think most of the issues amounted to busybodying. I'm sensitive to the subject of progressivism because my own denomination - the United Methodist Church, which during that time period was the Methodist Episcopal Church - supported and adopted many of the goals of progressivism. I think it was a badly misguided policy of believing government can be an instrument for defending Christian principles and carrying out Christian responsibilities. It can't be, and never will be. Government will always work to increase it's scope and power, and Christianity will inevitably be seen by government as a competitor for shaping and controlling moral culture that cannot be tolerated. Ultimately, the church MUST be co-opted or destroyed.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Sounds to me like the progressive era was an agenda being pushed by people who thought they were better than others but proving they were not.