THE CLERGY AND WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 68, 18 September 1917, Page 2

THE CLERGY AND WAR

10 THE EDITOR.

Sir, —I sac that one or two pro-cleric-exqinptionists have been bestowing some "harmless" attention upon me! Though they are not men enough to ply their mud-squirts openly, I, do not complain. This is no time for wasting powder and shot on critics or traducers of that order! I challenge any of them —or of the ilk— to furnish any vestige of proof that I ever said anything, publicly or privately, in disparagement of any honestly-enter-tained religious convictions —Catholic * or Protestant. It is true,. I hold myself absolutely free to give frank and honest expression to my feelings and my convictions regarding many actions and activities of Catholics and of Protestants, who would make claims and demands on the community of a wholly preposterous and unreasonable character. I have said, and I say it again, that it is little short of criminal, on the part of any church, or religious communion, to talk, under the present circumstances, of building chu. .lies or cathedrals, when so many of our. fallow-Christians are starving all over Europe, arid when the Government of this Dominion i» relying to. so large an extent on charity and on the charitablydisposed to provide for the needs of such as have been permanently invalided in their country's service, and for fhose of the dependents of th» invalided and fallen. Religion consists not in building cathedrals o? chapels, but. rather in ministering to the necessities of (hp widow ,«nd the orphans. Those who can afford to spend £5 on cathedrals or chapels, at this critical juncture in our history as an Empire, should be made to pay at least £100 to the revenue of the State for service rendered by our gallant volunteerand conscript soldiers. - '' . I hold no brief for Unitarianism; if it fails to do its duty to the State and the Empire, I am done with it for ever. One thing I can say that the irony of fate could scarcely have ordered things more grotesquely than that, in a single Bill, the Government of this country should combine the extraordinarily incompatible proposals of conscripting.lads —mere school-boys—and exempting 'ablebodied young men, whose profession it is to teach the Gospel of self-sacrifice, and also ,to convince the world that death is but promotion to a higher and better sphere—if only the world would learn of them. I do solemnly and emphatically protest against the Parliament of a; democratic country like this imposing upon the people of the Dominion the dogjna of "the divine right of Priests" (Trinitarian or Unitarian). We have long ago completely discredited the idea of "a divine right of Kings"; and I rejoice to think that the gallant young sons of His Majesty, King George, are fighting for the cause of the Empire and of humanity ; and surely the Parliament of this Dominion is not going to exempt young able-bodied unmarried ecclesiastics, and thus as good as establish the monstrous superstition of a "divine right of priests" in this, so far, "re; ligiously free and fortunate community." If the Government think the community will stand it, I feel convinced the National Government's "day of reckoning" is not far off.

I know that the Government's courage lias failed it at the last moment, and it has decided not to conscript but to invite the nineteeners, by good old moral suasion, to (I presume) take the place (vicariously) of young ecclesiastical "privilegees,", who.will stay at home to comfort the mothers of the gallant young nineteeners, i whose parents are fools, enough (under the particular circumstances) to consent to their enlisting. A lad ;of mine ("nineteen years of age) recently (without opposition on my part) volunteered, but was told ho could not be accepted until he was 20. If the Bill exempting.. young able-bodied unmarried ecclesiastics passes into law, he will see 40 before he secures my "written permission" to volunteer. —I am, otc., . HUGH MACKENZIE. 17th September. TO 188 BDIIOII. Sir,—lt should be made quite clear to the public mind that the Protestant churches are not the. instigators of Sir James Allen's Bill which gives exemption to the clergy from active service. The Methodist Clmrch does not approve of the Bill, and, moreover, it objects to its Minister)* being treated as a "privileged class." The last Methodist Conference raised its voice most emphatically against j an appeal being made for exemption on behalf of any of its unmarried ministers, home missionaries, and students. No Church has sent a larger percentage of its ministers. to the front in proportion to its membership than the Methodist Church. The returns from the Defence Department showing the religious persuasion of our soldiers are unreliable and misleading. Many Methodists are listed as Church of England and some as Pres- i byterians. One. of our ministers, a combatant . wounded at Gallrp°li, was returned as Church of England. As far as married ministers are concerned we ask for no privileges which other married men of military age do not possess.—l am, etc., • J. G. CHAPMAN. 17fch September.