Dr MacLeod Decries "Dull Church People"

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28169, 7 January 1957, Page 6

Dr MacLeod Decries "Dull Church People"

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, January 6. Church people today are “the dullest people in the world,” the Rev. Dr. G. F. MacLeod, leader of the lona community and Mod-erator-designate of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said on his arrival in Dunedin yesterday. Dr. MacLeod said he believed church people to be dull because they took no interest in political and international affairs. In his latest book Dr. MacLeod makes a strenuous plea for the Church and the individual Christians to become involved in the political and social struggles of our time. This did not necessarily mean that Christians should belong to any particular political party, he said. Two major issues for Christian people today were feeding the people of South-east Asia and keeping peace in the world. Under the first heading the “White Australia” and New Zealand immigration policies could be examined, he said.

“I am a pacifist, as I think a proper Christian has to be,” said Dr. MacLeod. “Unwise” Action

Dr. MacLeod said he believed Britain had acted unwisely in intervening in the Suez canal. Sir Anthony Eden acted under national self-interest so he would hardly blame Colonel Nasser and Archbishop Makarios for doing the same.

Of Hungary, Dr. MacLeod said Russia was apparently acting out of her own national interests and taking it too far. Britain had done the same in Suez but had then pulled out. “Sabbatarianism, drink and sex are not the most important issues before the church,” said Dr. MacLeod. “Everybody talks about these topics to stop thinking of th? H-bomb.”

Religion today was besoming “too spiritual instead of coursing

through the body politic.” He was not against Sunday sport, so long as it did not inconvenience others. In the Isle of Skye—probably the most Sabbatarian place in the world—the inhabitants had ruled that there should be no bus trips on a Sunday and the ferry from the mainland was stopped on that day so that nobody could visit the island. Nevertheless, another ferry brought the Sunday papers to the island for the inhabitants to read behind closed shutters. This was certainly hypocrisy.