CHRISTIAN DIVISION

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32395, 7 September 1970, Page 3

CHRISTIAN DIVISION

‘Need To Think Clearly’

The most serious division among Christians today was between those whose dominant desire was to preserve the sheltered circumstances previously enjoyed, and the so-called troublemakers who were utterly dedicated to change, the general-secretary of the National Council of Churches (the Rev. D. M. Taylor) said in an address to the council's annual meeting in Christchurch. “It is this division I believe we all need to think clearly about,” he said. Mr Taylor said that one of the criticisms which arose when the council took a stand on some issue was that it was leftist. What the critics meant by this term varied according to where they themselves stood. Stands taken by the council and described as leftist by critics, included attempts to support black people against white misrule in Southern Africa, attempts to preserve civil liberties in New Zealand and attempts to lessen the colossal problems of peoples in Nigeria and Indo-China. If the word “leftist” had come to be a word by which men described those who really cared about the starving, the unjustly imprisoned, the millions who existed in poverty and those who were exploited, then he hoped that the council would always be called leftist and be proud to be so.

Mr Taylor urged members of the council not to be timid. “By all means let individuals reconsider any question any time, but let no one be frightened into silence by accusations made against this council,” he said.