476                 A. M. E. REVIEW.

  There has always been opposition to the denominational
college, but this antagonism has manifested itself in a more
positive form within the last decade, and the Church has
been startled by the reversal of position on this subject on
the part of men who had formerly been prominent in their
defense of Church ownership and control. The officers of
several colleges and universities which were founded and
nourished by the Christian Church, and which have become
strong by virtue of that relationship, have suddenly discov-
ered that Church ownership and control are contrary to the
best interests of the institution; and we have been told that
the time has come when the Church should say to her col-
leges, as the parent says to his grown sons, that they have
reached the age when they are free from the control and gov-
ernment of the Church, and that only with such freedom
can there be the proper advance or growth in these insti-
tutions.
  This denial of the right of the Church to own and control
her colleges through her governing bodies comes, in some
cases, from men connected with our own colleges as presi-
dents, professors, or trustees.  These men have suddenly
discovered that a denominational college is narrow, that its
sphere of usefulness is restricted, that the college can never
become an institution of national influence as long as it is
hampered by denominational ties, and especially that it can-
not secure certain advantages which it could secure if it were
a civic, a state, or a private institution.
  It is a matter of profound significance that in nearly if
not in every case, where the restiveness at denominational
control has been manifested, there has been a financial con-
sideration involved, and the plea has been made that the
larger, fuller life of the institution demands gifts which
could be secured only by the elimination of all Church own-
ership and control.  Without impunging the sincerity of
those men in holding their present views, it is certainly true
that the Church never understood the position of these men




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 1

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  01
Date:  07/1911