BAPTIST UNION’S VIEWS ON CURRENT TOPICS

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 November 1947, Page 6

BAPTIST UNION’S VIEWS ON CURRENT TOPICS

The following resolutions were passed at the annual Baptist Assembly: 1. Betting and gambling: That we deplore the increase in betting and gambling in our community; that we re-affirm our conviction that all forms of betting and gambling are anti-Christian, anti-social and a menace to the moral life of our land; and that we urge all members of our churches to consider it their bounden Christian duty to combat this evil with all means within their power. 2. Censorship of literature: That we, as Christians, are gravely concerned at the'increasing number of indecent and demoralising periodicals of a supposedly humourous type, many of which are printed and published in New Zealand, that are to be found on sale in the bookshops of our country, and we urge the Government to exercise a stricter censorship in the matter of all such literature. 3. Sectarian education: That this Assembly records its unqualified opposition on principle to the expenditure of public money on sectarian, primary and secondary schools, especially in such matters as the use of scholarship money for sectarian education, the subsidising of public transport to carry children past schools erected out of public money to sectarian schools, or in any other way which would encourage attendance at such schools in preference to schools provided by the State. 4. Food shortage: That in view of the world food shortage, this Assembly calls upon all sections of our community to increase the production and facilitate the distribution of food, to avoid strictly all wastefulness and extravagance, and to foster the fine spirit of brotherliness already being displayed in the despatching of food parcels overseas. 5. Use of grain, for alcohol: That this 65th Assembly of the Baptist Union of New Zealand., views with considerable alarm the growing increase of the use of valuable foodstuffs—sugar and barley—in the manufacture of alcoholic drinks, particularly when a large proportion of the world’s population is living oh a very low foodstuff, and New Zealand . has been called upon for sacrifices.