THE CHURCH AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 8, 9 July 1935, Page 17

THE CHURCH AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM

(To the Editor.)

! Sir,—l" must confess I was very disappointed with Bishop Sprott's address at, the Wellington Synod reported in Thursday's "Post" as it undoubtedly presented the Church's viewpoint on this most'vital'problem: I am one of the many who are frequently asking—What is the Church going to do about it? And by Church used in that sense, I mean, as do probably the majority who use the term in that sense, our spiritual leaders and teachers. And the answer seems to be nothing, but give periodic discourses which may ■ lead only to the gradual undermining of the Church's influence or 'to its eventual elimination as was the case : in Russia. The basic source of all our greatest troubles today is lack of plasticmlndfed leadership in a rapidly;changing age. It is useless for the Church' to"' teach' great spiritual truths effectively until the ground is adequately' prepared for' their reception. iAnd'can any-.spir.itual leader declare Way that-the ground is-adequately ■prepared? ! "The" Church teaches its great truths ,on one'day of theweek. 'For the other :six days,; those who heard them, and: ;the' increasing majority who .didn't, are .forced,'in order-not necessarily to live ,but 'merely to exist, to .worship at the Mtars of one of the. oldest, the most powerful of all heathen gods—Mammon —a god which after nearly two thousand years of Christianity seems to exercise a far greater power than Christ. The dire-necessity to worship at such altars for ages has been the cause of at least- 95 per cent, of all the wars, crime, suffering, to which humanity has been subjected. _ The majority have never really lived— they have merely existed. Few have unnecessary abundance, a greater number enough, by far the greatest majority inadequate supplies for efficient life in comparison with the abundance produced and the still greater abundance capable of being produced 'under1 an efficient system -based on Christian ideals. i What; is the Church .going to do about it?' Is it merely going to be content to teach truths to increasingly disinterested ears? Or is it going to fight for an economic system based on the divine Christian ideal of service to humanity instead of service to Mammon; for a system that will benefit all instead of the few; for a system • that will help to put Christ where He ought to be —in the hearts of all?—I am, etc.,

JACK BERRICK. [This letter has been abridged.—Ed.]