The Failure of Religion

1930s Hope MissionWaiting For Nothing really encapsulates all of the themes we have been exploring so far this semester. He is a writer on the bum, hitch hiking or riding the rails, searching for food or a flop wherever he can. I enjoyed this novel better than any of the others so far, and I think that has a lot to do with Kromer’s incredibly direct and honest writing style. One of the things that really stuck with me from this novel, however, is the recurring account of life in missions.

Kromer’s description of mission existence is bleak at best. He really gets at the heart of what I see to be one of the biggest issues we have encountered thus far: the inability or lack or willingness from organized religion to help those affected by the Depression. Guthrie touched on the same theme in his autobiography, but Kromer really makes it an integral part of his narrative.

The primary place where the narrator receives a bed to sleep in or slops to eat is at religious missions. Some of these places he describes as having forty beds in a room; in another he claims there are thousands. The missions he visits put out rotten stew and stale bread for their patrons. While it may seem that they have enough space to provide shelter, they will only give a bed to those who attend church services and accept the doctrine being preached. In the final chapter Kromer is staying in one of the larger missions. Of the men outside, he says, “There will be no flop in this joint for them tonight. They are too late. There are plenty of beds left in here, but they are too late. You have to come early and listen to the sermon if you want a flop in this joint” (Kromer, 123). Although this may be a good tactic to accrue converts and churchgoers, the men who attend these services are smart; they only attend for the promised bed at the end. For most of them, it seems, the religion has nothing to do with it. The churches in question may or may not be wise to this scheme. However, one of the most essential tenets of Christian faith is mercy, and these missions, if showing any mercy at all, are doing so in a totally hypocritical way. In another example, Kromer says of the mission soup lines, “They keep us standing out in the cold for advertisement. If they let us in and fed us, where would the advertisement be? There wouldn’t be any. They know that. So they keep us out in the cold so these people on the curb can have their show” (Kromer, 87).

If these missions had the capability to feed and house all these men, why couldn’t they do so out of the kindness of their hearts? After all, they were probably gaining very little from preaching to these bums; maybe a convert here or there but certainly not any monetary gain. In times of need, it is a comfort to many to know that their faith will always be there for them. That may be true, but their religious institution will not.