HOTELS VISITED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25205, 9 June 1947, Page 8

HOTELS VISITED

VIEWS ON RELIGION SOUGHT SALVATION ARMY AT WELLINGTON (PA) WELLINGTON, June 8. To find out what the ordinary man thinks about Christianity and the Church to-day, more than 100 Salvation Army men and women “raided 25 Wellington hotels late on Saturday afternoon. They marched into public bars soon after 4 o’clock. The hotels were more than normally filled with patrons, most of whom would have been watching sports if the weather had been fine. Far from resenting the Salvationists or questioning their right to approach 6 roups or individuals standing at the ars. drinkers everywhere apoeared to welcome the raiders. Each “commando” unit had its musical support, with accordions and cornets, and songs and hymns were sung in the bars. Shyness disappeared when the bar patrons .discovered that the Salvationists had not come to preach but to ask: “ What is you’ attitude to Christianity, to the Church, and tu religion in general?” Hundreds of bar patrons talked freely, and with as little embarrassment as if the topic was politics or sport Reasons given foi non-at-tendance at church were as varied as the types questioned They ranged over the stock replies familiar to every minister of religion, “Too much religion when I was a kid—Many of the ministers are insincere—You can be a Christian without going to churcn— There’s better people outside the churches than in them.” More honest were the replies: “I don’t go because I get so drunk on Saturdays. I’m too ‘crook’ on Sundays—l don’t go because I’ve got out of the habit—On Sundays I prefer golf. I ought to go to Church. I suppose.” Summing up, a Salvation Army captain said: “This was not a stunt like the commando raids in which the Christian Churches combined together and went into the pubs of Londoi in April. It was an exploratory excursion We want information on what the ordinary men are thinking and saying. People are not going to their churches as they used to. and we wan to why.” The Salvation Army that Afternoon, said the captain, would go back to headquarters with a mass of useful information. The soldiers had been going into hotels for years and had talked to the people there, but never before to his knowledge hau so many men at one time opened their hearts and intellects so frankly courteously and sincerely on religion as thev had done on Saturday afternoon

“There’s real hunger fo religion,” he said “Make no mistake about that. They are interested in Christianity, but they are bewildered It comes out plainly that a very large oari of the community has losl faith in the organised churches We have lost our hold on 99 per cent, of the hundreds we Questioned. They admitted belief in God. and thought the Christian gospel was the answer tn what is wrong with the world now. but they did not like the way it was presented. We have got to find a new approach—that is the problem now.”