THE NEW THEOLOGY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 23, 27 July 1914, Page 10

THE NEW THEOLOGY

TO 111 EDITOR. Sir,—We who opposo the policy of the. .Bible-in-S6hools League _have been taunted that we cannot pray that God's Word be kept from the children. Wo do pray that" God's Word, -which breathes love and justice, will never be allowed to cover a scheme for injustice to many lovers of the Bible; to cover denial of conscience; or to cover the degradation ,of the Bible below the level of ail ordinary secular book. We do pray that its Author, Avho is Justice personified, will jprotcct even a minority, and that justice •will ever be regarded in New Zealand as superior to a count of heads. No doubt our ideas of the Bible and of prayer and of preaching are out of date. We read, "When ye pray, pray in secret." The above league, however, on a recent Sunday organised prayers of thanksgiving —organised pTayer —'for political purposes. Prayers that many devout people sent Heavenwards were wired on Sunday night to appear in Wellington as an impressive array to the league's secondary deity, the Parliament. We do noti&o understand prayer and must confess we cannot so use prayer. Again, our ideas of the Bible are no doubt contrary to the new theology which the new Minister of Divinity is to embody in the new State edition of "Selected Scripture Lessons." We shudder at seeing a clergyman using "selected" hot and fiery texts as pieces of road-metal to hurl at hia opponents, who are "pagans" because they oppose injustice and resent premature cremation Further, we have not yet attained to the new theology conc&p-. tion of the pulpit. We are pained to see a clergyman mount a pulpit in a cathedral, when Christians are met for Divine worship, and there, in place of a sermon, deal out his end of a personal controversy with the Editor of The Post. If the league had its way, the children ci New Zealand would one day no doubt rise to these higher conceptions of Teligion as set up by the apostles of the StsUe-Religious-lristruc-tion League. We benighted pagans, 'however,: muistf be; pardoned for, gtir

darkness by the ecclesiastical politicians or political ecclesiastics. We really cannot send our prayers to Wellington to impress Parliament. ' We grieve to see fire and brimstone texts hurled at political opponents. We pity those worshippers who, instead of learning in tliß catnedral about the Sermon on the Mount, had a sermon on The Post. The calm complacency with which the Denial ,of Conscience and Majority Religion and Sectarian Dogmas in State Schools League assumes that it is under Divine guidance is only another illustration of the historical fact that Saul and Laud and the Established Church thought they were doing God's work when they were inflicting injustice on Early Christians, or Puritans or Quakers, or Covenanters. The misguided persecutors would no doubt tell those they oppressed that they were fighting against C4od and the Bible. We are irresistibly reminded when we hear the taunt at first referred to, of a saying which, slightly adapted would ■express the attitude of our taunters, "I thank Thee that I am not as other men are or even as these pagans."—l am, etc., JOHN CAUGHLEY. Christchurch,' '■ ■ ' ' : 20th July, 1914.