"PIE-IN-THE-SKY"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 281, 27 November 1941, Page 8

"PIE-IN-THE-SKY"

CHURCHMAN'S ATTACK

CHRISTIANITY AND SLUMS (0.C.) SYDNEY. November 25. Last .Sunday — Industrial Sunday in the Anglican churches in this State —was marked hv a bitter attack on the "pie-in-the-sky" attitude to social problems. The attack ■was made by Rev. C. Stuart Watts, former editor of the Church Standard and now acting rector at Casino. '•It is much easier to fleece people if vou keep them thinking that thev ll get pie in the sky when they die." he declared. 'it is a stunt which for years has worked successfully in the Church, bul the toiling masses are beginning to ree through it. I shall never forget the fight I had a few years ago to make certain church leaders clean up their slum properties. There was a loud protest at a recent church assemblage when I urged protest against literarv censorship, maximum medical aid to the Soviet and reform of the divorce laws. Speakers asserted that the Church should mind its own bu.;iless amt Jeave political questions idone. "Of what use is it to prate about the love of Jesus when we tolerate conditions which amount to nothing less than a perpetual crucifixion of Christ? Slum clearance, child welfare. prison reform, education for marriage—these are some of the things which should occupy most of the time of church synods and conferences. Instead, time is wasted on paltry parochial things that don't matter twopence. We have the hardy annuals of drink, gambling, Sunday sport and women's dress, which evoke the usual torrent of holy humbug and pious platitudes. "The world is fed up with talk about Christianity. It demands action—action that will strike at the roots of all existing social disorders. Why is it that ' godless ' Russia has abolished the middleman tr. industry and the prostitution of women—to mention only two evils which have flourished in our Christian civilisaI tion throughout the ages? Hasn't j there been a terrible betrayal of Christ somewhere? There is enough I dynamite in His teachings to blow I sky-high every citadel of ignorance and injustice.''