THE CHURCH BAZAAR.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 149, 25 June 1908, Page 2

THE CHURCH BAZAAR.

The current number of the monthly magazine of the Burton Woods Parish Church, Lancashire," of which the Rev. A. M. Mitchell, M.A., is the vicar, contains a bitter attack on bazaars under the heading: "A Religious Swindle." Appended are extracts from, the article.:—r-"A swindle is a cheating or a fraud. No truer and better definition can'we have; of bazaars and fancy fairs for religious objects. What are these if not religious swindles? They rob God and swindle man. The promoters of bazaars, world's fairs. Church marts, and so forth will, of course, resent, and strongly, the sin laid to their charge.v But the sin is theirs notwithstanding, and on their own confession, too. The suggestion that stallholders, and fancy fair acolytes should ' fleece the public' is still freely made at bazaar openings, and has on occasions even come from. Church dignitaries—jovial but silly clergy. Such suggestion is always relished as a good ■■.:joke, evoking hearty # laughter and loud applause. Occasionally a bazaar opener proves tb be epigramamtic, like J;he gentleman 'who said of the intended victims: ' They come to be cheated a little; they deserve to be cheated much.' Bazaars are thus tacitly recognised as places where cheating is approved and commended, and swindling is blessed; andsanctified. Great energy follows the decision (to have a, bazaar). Workers, male and female, set-to with a will, and for the next iew months nothing is talked about but the forthcoming bazaar, and Church life is transformed and degraded into a number of comniittees for the provision of .concert halls, card rooms, kitchens, cafes chantants, and entertainment bureaux. Alljs under the ever-ready patronage of Bacchus, Cupid, and the Goddess of Revels. What wonder if the Church repels the very men it seeks to win—the thoughtful and deeply earnest! Real living interest in religion is not quickened by such doings; it is killed. The Church is not strengthened but enfeebled by such worldly and silly antics, these respectable frauds, these religious swindles. Bazaar promoting. .. is rightly accused of taking the bread out of other people's mouths, and it has been asserted that many of the goods sent to bazaars are procured by begging from or blackmailing shopkeepers." - • ■