Churches and Automobiles

As part of what drew me to this car project, I wanted to know how church folks responded to the new technology of the automobile.  In previous research I had noted ministerial associations posting resolutions and notices about how car racing brought unwanted, often presumed immoral, characters into their communities.  I expected to find an early rejection of the automobile by churches and their leaders.  What has become apparent is that the technology of the car itself did not bother anyone, but the use of the car outside of prescribed functions did bother church folks.

In 1931 the Macon Telegraph reported that auto racing promoters petitioned the city of Macon to hold a car race on a stated date.  One of the aldermen inquired as to whether said date fell on a Sunday.  The paper reported that the aldermen concluded that the date was indeed on a Sunday and the petitioners were denied access to the track at Central City park.  Fourteen years earlier in Atlanta, a Baptist church raised a similar concern but placed the emphasis on pleasure riding on "the Sabbath."  The good folks at Jones Creek Baptist Church were upset enough in May 1917 to send a resolution to the Christian Index, Georgia Baptists' newspaper.  In direct terms, the resolution condemned material progress and consumption when it interferes with Sunday religious obligations.  They called the "use of automobiles for pleasure and profit" both "unchristian" and "illegal."  The resolution called on Christians to be examples against this "evil."  Oddly enough in the same issue, the Christian Index ran an ad for the Ballard & Ballard Co., a flour company in Louisville, Kentucky, offering a free automobile to a pastor.  "Ford Car FREE" the headline read, which was followed by a bold claim about the power of the car.  The ad continued, "Think what that will mean, not only as a help to your pastor in his work, but as a stimulus to the Church itself.  Churches all over the country have been buying cars for their pastors, and here we offer to give you one free." The readers were encouraged to send their name and address to the flour company to receive more information about the program. The interesting point to the advertisement involved the emphasis the company placed on the automobile's status value.   In this case the automobile can help the status of the church: "A man who gets a car feels that he has advanced his standing in the community.  It is the same way with the church."

The problem for churches was that pastors often adopted the automobile faster than others in the community.  The car could elevate a person's status but it could also help carry out important work within churches.  Like most innovations, the positives have negatives and racing became an outlet for car enthusiasts.  Their congregating on Sunday was a direct challenge to churches everywhere.

Southern-style Car Culture

I have toyed with the idea long enough, so now I am taking a leap of faith.  Here is a new blog dedicated to my current car project.  In the coming weeks and months, I hope to post logs detailing some aspect of a research project I am calling "All The Horses Had Four Wheels."  Since the American South, as a region, has remained attached to notions of "place," the power of a technology that moved individuals and groups from one location to another quickly posed a significant threat to the centrality of place.  Our highly mobile society means that we are more likely to be detached from any one place than connected to it.  This quick adoption also meant that southerners did not fully anticipate the changes the car would make on the region.  Though I am aware that the car culture is a national reality, there has been very little scholarship on the subject in the South.  More importantly, there has been very little documentation of the cars southerners have owned beyond registration lists.  I want to begin a process where we start collecting stories about the cars themselves and our relationship with them.  If you follow this blog, I encourage you to share your own stories about your first car or a parent's first car.