Josiah Strong
Josiah Strong
Josiah Strongwas an American Protestant clergyman, organizer, editor and author. He was a leader of the Social Gospel movement, calling for social justice and combating social evils. He supported missionary work so that all races could be improved and uplifted and thereby brought to Christ. He is controversial, however, due to his beliefs about race and methods of converting people to Christianity. In his 1885 book Our Country, Strong argued that Anglo Saxons are a superior race who must "Christianize...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionClergyman
CountryUnited States of America
The city has become a serious menace to our civilization... It has a peculiar attraction for the immigrant.
Every one is free to become whatever he can make of himself; free to transform himself from a rail splitter or a tanner or a canal-boy, into the nation's President. Our aristocracy, unlike that of Europe, is open to all comers. Wealth, position, influence, are prizes offered for energy; and every farmer's boy, every apprentice and clerk, every friendless and penniless immigrant, is free to enter the lists.
America is to have the great preponderance of numbers and of wealth, and by the logic of events will follow the scepter of controlling influence.
Furthermore, it is significant that the marked characteristics of this race are being here emphasized most.