CHEERFUL CHRISTIANITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 132, 5 June 1923, Page 3

CHEERFUL CHRISTIANITY.

(To the Editor.} 0 gj r> _At the recent Church Congress in Christchurch I was asked to speak at a J public meeting for young women. Ever since my arrival in New Zealand I have been struck by the prevalence here in certain religious circles of a narrowness of outlook and readiness to condemn c everyone who failed to live up to a ° certain puritanical standard of life. Ihe \ word used to designate these good people c ."wowser" —was a new one to mc, but s I soon discovered how seriously the "wowser -, idea of religion had affected 1 New Zealand, and how terribly it was i influencing our young people against , religion. In Auckland recently there have been many public assertions of the ; "wowser" attitude as being the only true , Christian standard and I therefore determined to use part of the time allotted to mc at Congress to upliold what I consider to be the true Christian standard, and to combat thi* prevalent erroneous teaching, ! and to convince my bearers that it was not necessary to be long-faced, gloomy, sanctimonious or hypercritical to be a true Christian. In my opening remarks 1 defended certain popular amusements and recreations from the charge of being essentially sinful, and, by so doing, I I have called down upon mc the wrath and public criticism of the Rev. Joseph Kemp. It is unnecessary for mc to deiend myKulf—Mr. Kemp has already convicted himself at the bar of Christian common sense-and, if I reply to his criticisms, it is but to renew the attack upon "wowser" ideas and opinions. Jlr. Kemp's whole attitude is an offence against Christian charity. S. Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 5, applies a test against which he cannot stand. "Charity .... thinketh no evil; yet Mr Kemp condemns as evil cardplaying, dancing and theatre-going— things in which the majority of Christian people take part with pleasure and profit He condemns, by implication, all who use these things. After readin<» your report of his remarks I could not help thinking of the many people of my acquaintance, dignitaries of the church among them, who enjoy a game of bridge, and who are frequent visitors to the theatre—of the hundreds of young people among whom I have worked and to whom , dancing was a recreation and a delight. The idea that they are not thorough, out- | and-out Christians is simply ludicrous.. When Mr. Kemp was preaching his ' course of sermons on this subject some | months ago, one wondered where he I would end. It was suggested to mc that | we should soon have a tirade against I "tiddly-winks" and a warning against i the possible perilous pitfalls of "pingpong." That Mr. Kemp is able to point to disasters through the use of these things is not wonderful. No human occupation is without the possibility of wrong. Opponents of religion frequently make charges against the Christian churrhen on the score of the hypocrisy, double-dealing, censoriousness and lack of charity on the part of professing Christians—in fact one of the greatest hindrances to religion in the failure of so many of us to show forth Christ in our lives—but it is manifestly unfair to blame the church as such for the failures of some of her members. And it is <H|ually uiifiiir to dewy certain amusements and recreations because some ' people use them as an occasion of sin. j "Abusum non tollit usum"—" The abuse of a thing does not take away its usefulness." But the real danger and harm of ■Mr. Kemp's attitude is that it tends to alienate many from religion altogether— it leads people to think of us Christians as people who cannot " see straight" on moral questions. If w<> denounced the • real sins of humanity—and they are . many and terrible—we shall have some ', chance of touching the consciences of people, and of winning them, by Hod's . grace, to lake part with US in combating j ■ them To turn our main attack upon | ■ things which are plainly innocent in j themselves, and to profess to find evil I where none- exists, is to put ourselves j ■ "out of court" with' right-thinking | people and to endanger our whole ta Lpt Mr. Kemp and .his friends denounce real evils—the excessive love of pleasure, the indifference to God and the things of God, the sexual immor- j ality of all sorts which is weakening and undermining "our whole civilisation, drunkenness (not, again, drink in itI self). gambling, and such like—and I shall.be with him every time; in fact, it is against these things which I. by the grace of God, am trying constantly to fight; but it is with a type of Christianity which is positive, virile, charitable, kindly towards failings, and m.mi- ', festly ''common sense"—not negative,! uncharitable ai:d narrow.—l am. etc., <.;. GORDOX BELL. |