WORLD BAPTIST ALLIANCE

Evening Star, Issue 19942, 11 August 1928, Page 16

WORLD BAPTIST ALLIANCE

“ WORLD ISSUES " DISCUSSED VANCOUVER, July 11. : Three separate meetings devoted to consideration of what were termed ‘f world issues ” featured one of the sessions of the Baptist World Alliance which assembled i n vast numbers in Toronto. Of the three problems, racialist!!, industrialism, and militarism, meeting on racialism attracted the largest crowd, but militarism provoked the liveliest discussion. Most of the speakers at the racialism mee£ ing were coloured folk, who pleaded for better treatment from the white. After Rev. Frederick C. Spurr, of Birmingham, England, had opened the discussion with a review of interracial relations, which was by no means flattering to white men, a number of coloured pastors spoke on the aspirations of the negro to brotherhood in Christ with the white man. The audience, largely composed of whites, most of whom were from the South, applauded again and again. ■ But Antonio Merito, of New York, introduced a note of scepticism when he said he doubted if even all the delegates present would carry into effect the sentiments of Christian brotherhood they had been listening to when ■they returned home. Some of them, if they found that “foreigners” had moved into their neighbourhood, would be thinking of moving out. tie declared the negroes were not the only people in the United States who suffered from racial prejudice, and gave several instances of the intolerance of Americans to Italians who were nativeborn Americans.

i Concluding the discussion, Dr Spurr pointed out that if all the world were Christian there would be no racial problem, and that if all men in positions of trust and power were Christians the problem would be considerably lessened. Fie advocated ceaseless propaganda on the part of Baptists to see that high political offices were filled by Christians.

At the meeting on industrialism Rev. D. M. M'Guiro, of Chicago, was the chief speaker. He argued for extensive State action in economic affairs. “ All private property rights,” he said, “ must yield to the right of the State to prosecute experiments in the interests of social justice and economic improvement, which may extend from absolute private ownership to sheer Communism.”

Asked what lines of experiment he would suggest, Dr M'Guire replied that a study of the dominion of Canada would help in solving some industrial problems. The handling of the power and light problem in Ontario, and that of the railway problem in Canada, he said, were great experiments. “ Some of us,” ho added, “ are a little annoyed when we learn that the Canadian Government owns some thousands of miles of railway in United States territory.”

HIGHLIGHTS ON “MILITARISM.” The solution of the problem of militarism offered by Rev. R. K. Hales, of Columbia, South Carolina, was for everyone to refuse to fight under any circuiustances, even when his country was at war. “ Until we get that spirit into every person it is impossible to stop war,” ho said. “ I wonder what we English and Americans would do if our statesmen and our leaders failed to agree on some trifling matter and ordered us at each other’s throats. I, for one, would not obey.” Rev. W. A. White, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, the only coloured chaplain engaged in the World War, said he would be willing to go to war again, for there were some things he vajued more than his life. He amused his hearers with an experience of his own as a student at a Noya Scotia college. He was a good, football player, and a team had come from another town to play against his college. When they learned there was a coloured man in the team they refused to play. Later, as a pastor in the town of the rival team, he had learned that all the. men who objected to playing against him were really good fellows. " If you want to kill the spirit of militarism,” ho concluded. “ you must stop looking for the black spots in everything.” Rev. F. Isler, of Peyton, Colorado, said the Knights of Columbus were trying to stir up a war between the United States and Mexico. They were conducting a strenuous campaign, and wanted to persuade the United States to invade Mexico. “ We in the Protestant Churches,” he added, “ought to spread the gospel of peace, combat the Knights of Columbus, and counteract their infamous campaign.” Europe, too, was on the verge of another war. The Treaty of Versailles itself contained the germs of another combat. He urged that Great Britain and the United States stand shoulder to shoulder in preventing war. No nation could set itself against their combined power. “ Ninety-nine per irnl. of the executive of the World Alliance was in favour of having the next conference in Washington/’ said Lieutenantcolonel J. H. MacDonald, a member of the executive stated, “ but in the interest of the peace of the world it was felt that Berlin was the place for it. 'J his is omy a gesture by the church to shew the unanimity of the church aud the nations represented in their desire to deal a death blow to militarism.” WHERE CHRISTIANITY FAILS. United States investments and industrial methods were working havoc and hardship on the peoples of the countries about the Caribbean Sea, declared Rev. C. S. Detweiler, of Tarrytown, New York, secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Attracted by cheap labour large American corporations were establishing themselves there. They were buying up land, and the people were becoming a landless peasantry. In such circumstances there was little hope of establishing self-support-ing churches in those countries. Some were being established, but continued support from American Baptists would still be required. . The speaker thought United States political influence was an excellent thing for the Latin-American coun-tri-'S. The presence of the United States marines gave protection to Protestant missionaries and enabled them to work unhampered. “Once you have a native constabulary established,” he said, “ officered by trained American marines, there can be no limit to the activity of the missionvVhii* the extreme religious laws of the Mexican constitution were hampering Baptist missionaries, Dr Detweiler thought that the absence of the Catholic clergy and the fact that no Catholic services were being held, gave the Baptists a clear field. He predicted that out of the present deadlock between Church and State a great change would develop in Mexico. Just as Henry VIII., although no Protestant, by his quarrel with the church had paved the wmy for a Protestant England, so the present Mexican Government. anti-Christian as it was, was opening an avenue for Protestantism. The speaker described the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico as

the Mediterranean of America. “ Just , as the Roman Empire by its power | imposed peace and spread culture 1 among the people of the Mediter- ■ ranean,” he said, “ so in our time the i enlightened United States is imposing j order and peace among the Latin peoples, and opening a great opportunity for the preaching of the Gospel.” | Owing to what he termed the decay of Catholicism in Brazil, great opportunities for Baptist missionary work existed there, said Rev. A. B. Lang- | ton, of Rio de Janeiro. Brazilians I were turning away from the Catholic Church, and Baptists ought to step ; in and prevent them from becoming atheists and positivists, i “ Latin America is the one part ! of the world in which Christianity has failed,” said Rev. H. E. Wintemute, ’ of Bolivia, who presented a sordid picture of barbarism, superstition, and I ignoranto in Bolivia. It was for Bap- ! tssta to step in and save the country. “ Christ can never save Bolivians until j Baptists save Christ,” he said. “ BapI tists ought to resurrect Christianity I in order that it might resurrect Latin America.” Rev. 0. A. Brooks, of Chicago, spoke of “ non-Christians in the homeland,” saying the greatest home mission in the United States was in the industrial cities. AH the non-Christi-ans were not foreign immigrants. United States industrial and social 1 methods, and the personality-destroy-ing influence of _ large cities, were making for paganiioa.