The ideal of a "peaceable kingdom" has held men's imaginations for centuries. Many efforts have been made to create this perfect utopia. How will it come—by human effort or by the power of God?
by Darris McNeely
In the 1880s an English author and social reformer named Thomas Hughes came to the woods of eastern Tennessee in America and founded an experimental colony called Rugby. Rugby was to be a place where Hughes' ideas of a just and equitable society could be realized. There would be no class or social distinctions such as those of England. In Rugby, through agricultural endeavors and support of various crafts, men and women could realize their potential in a planned and structured community.
Buildings went up. An inn was built. Hundreds of believers from England and America were attracted to the growing site. A small bit of England, without the class distinctions, was carved out of the Tennessee wilderness. For a time a thriving community attracted worldwide attention to the ideal that a planned community could produce a small utopian world. Rugby was even called a "New Jerusalem."
Unfortunately, Rugby did not endure. Typhoid struck one year, killing several. In time the financial backers pulled out, the economy changed and severe winters took their toll on the enthusiasm of the people. The inn burned and was not rebuilt. Gradually the money, the zeal and the people disappeared, leaving behind only a few to hold to the dream.
You can visit Rugby today, as I did a few years ago, and see a historic remnant of another noble quest to found a community on social ideals. It is one of many such communities across America and the world. Such communities were founded with the goal of making social changes that would produce "utopia"—a place where justice and peace would reign.
The problem with all of these efforts is they did not succeed. Eventually they had to conform to the reality of the world to survive. Go to Shaker Village in Kentucky or the Amana Colony in Iowa and you will see the same. The real world is cruel and unbending in its treatment of such efforts. Noble as they are, they have never worked. This is not to disparage any effort to bring about peace or justice, but the stark reality of history shows man's inability to create "the peaceable kingdom."
