CHRISTIAN ORDER

Grey River Argus, 23 May 1942, Page 6

CHRISTIAN ORDER

SIR STAFFORD CRIPPS' ENDORSEMENT

WELLINGTON, May 22. The N.Z. National Council of Churches, which is conducting a campaign for a Christian Order, reports :—

The now'-famous programme of “Christian Revolution” adopted by the Mdlvern and reflected to a large extent in the present Campaign for Christian Order in New Zealand) has just been endorsed by Sir Stafford Cripps, leader of the House of Commons. He.is the first top-ranking British statesman to have done so. Last month, in an article in the British “Methodist Record”, Sir Stafford said that if the churches will adopt the Malvern resolutions and really implement them, they will be playing an enormous part in the post-war world.

Sir Stafford is himself a devout member of the Ghurch of England (his Christianity and his vegetarianism have caused him to be nicknamed “Christ-and-Carrots Cripps” by the irreverent). Previously he made the statement that one reason; for the successful Russian resistance was that Russia had “a seven-day-a-week religion based on idealism and not a one-day-a-week one like so many nominally Christian countries.” In his “Methodist Record” article he suggested that the democracies should infuse religion into their social and political life, and that “there must be a new intention and determination to carrv into the activities of our, daily life the fundamental teachings of the New Testament.”

That the rich man suffers as much under the present economic system <"s the poor man, was the view put forward recentlv by Dr. Blunt, Bishop of Bradford in an address to his clergy. He said: “If this private profit motive is the danger, it is not only our right to say so, 'but also our duty, even if we give offence. We are not abusing the men who are making profit under the present system —at the moment it is the only wav they can conduct their business.

“What we are saying, and it is difficult to vet the rich man to realise It, is that he is just as much a victim of the present system as the noor man. The rich man has to manage his business with regard to profit tor himself and his shareholders; the poor man is ground under that system as an unsuccessful victim. The rich are more poisoned bv this system, because the poison goes deeper.”