Save our public journals from low standards touching morals and government. Deliver them from sensationalism, untruthfulness, malice, dishonest political measures, personal attacks and the parade of the details of crime and vice. Make them the instruments of good and the defenders of justice, mercy and truth. May they respect morality and honor religion, so that wisdom and knowledge may become the stability of our times. Amen.'" Chaplain J.F. Sexton's prayer for the press before the Connecticut Senate in 1911 I Introduction t the American Congress of Churches in May 1885, an ecumer cal gathering intended to promote discussion of "the great re gious, moral, and social questions of the time,"' the topic of tl Tuesday evening session was "The Attitude of the Secular Pre in America Toward Religion." Speakers included the writer, ec tor, and Episcopal clergyman the Rev. Julius H. Ward of Bostc and U.S. Senator Joseph Hawley, a life-long e d i t~r .~ But the mc prominent was the Rev. Washington Gladden, who attracted a "great audienc to listen to him. Indeed, the Christian Union observed, Gladden was a renowni preacher with "long and intimate association with the press," which "made hi an intelligent interpreter of editorial ~p i n i o n . "~ The New York Times described Gladden's paper as "a close, careful revie of the attitude of the press generally, criticizing it sharply at time^."^ Gladdc later recalled that he joined in the chorus of praise for the press, citing religior indebtedness to newspapers for their aid. But, too, his remarks diverted fro those of the other speakers in also being critical of the press. And it was that cr icism, he noted, that had sparked some editorializing that ranged from disse and resentment to outright contempt. Only a handful of papers actually adm ted some truth to his criticism. "This fact is itself significant. Is the secul press, then, infallible, or does it think itself infallible?" he asked. Gladden notc his critical remarks involved two topics. One was the often ill-informed discu sion in the newspapers about matters of religion. But, Gladden recalled, h other topic of criticism "touched a much more sensitive spot." It included dj approval of "the domination of the counting-room over the sanctum" and "tl subjection of the teaching function to the business of money-making," both which seemed to him statements of common knowledge hardly worth all tl editorial clamor they had engendered. In fact, Gladden observed, many of tl leading papers in the country were owned by corporations or stock compani that did so for a profit. "The doctrines, political or moral or religious, taught 1 their journal concern them less than the annual balance sheet. ...
