METHODISTS AND MARRIAGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 September 1938, Page 4

METHODISTS AND MARRIAGE

DANGER OF SEX FRANKNESS.

LONDON, July 21. The Methodist Conference, at its final session at. Hull yesterday, decided to refer back to committee for further consideration and report to the next conference a 16-page declaration on the “Christian View of Marriage and the Family.” The declaration was placed before the conference by the Temperance and Social Welfare Department. Explaining it, Rev. E. C. Urwin, London, secretary of the department, said it was the work of 18 people for over two | years. “The immediate future of marriage is not easy to foretell,” said Mr. Urwin. “There are new tendencies at work; new standards; a claim to sexual freedom that is positively revolting in some quarters. “There is a new frankness which may not easily be put on one side, which wants to be guided in the right way, and a new interest in sex which, while it is healthy at first, may easily become an. obsession and an influence in the wrong way.”

There was a call to Methodism to (stand on its own, and declare its conj viclions with courage before the world. They had decided that they must start with a positive view on what marriage implied. “That is why we have declared that scx itself is not to be regarded as an evil thing, but a gift of God,” he continued. “There are far too many unhappy marriages, and one of the reasons for them is that they are taken wrongly. People have inadequate knowledge sometimes with low ideals, and are altogether unprepared for that adjustment of personality which marriage must inevitably involve. That is why we have laid so much stress upon elementary school education.”

BIRTH CONTROL. If they had said nothing about birth control they would have taken the coward’s way. What in effect they had said was that outside of marriage contraception was wrong. The judgment of the Roman Church was that it was also wrong within marriage. But there were certain considerations which might make it, legitimate to the Christian conscience—l hose considerations being physical and. mental health, and the spiritual relationship of men and women within marriage. Rev. C. Ensor Walters, London, said: “1 do not hesitate to say that I believe. all birth control is against, the laws of God. You talk about the Roman Church—but it is the one Church to-day that is not being decimated by lots of its people.” There were cries of “No.”

Rev. Noel F. Hutchcroft (Birmingham) moved a resolution, which was carried, urging the Government Io restrict advertising methods designed to encourage the sale of contraceptive appliances to young people. Dr. E. G. Bryant, of Birmingham, seconding said that advertisements and supplies were being sent regularly to secondary schools and to boys of .15 and 1.6.