Shawn Ritenour’s blog “Foundations of Economics” had a post several weeks ago on Machen’s view of what the Church should do during economic hard times. Machen had contributed to a 1932 American Academy of Political and Social Sciences symposium on the Great Depression, and in that paper he rejected the “materialistic paternalism” of an expansive State. As Prof. Ritenour put it, “Machen’s address to social scientists was also remarkable for its call for the Church to be the Church, meaning the Church was not to be a political lobby or primarily a society for social work. The mission of the Church is what it has been since it was ordained: to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The March 2011 issue of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church journal New Horizons has an article by William Hobbs on Machen’s address: “The Church and Economic Recovery.”
The Machen Seminar 