AGAINST THE CHURCH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3864, 30 October 1928, Page 1

AGAINST THE CHURCH.

THE EVIL INFLUENCE OF PROHIBITION. (By the Rev. Frederick J. Melville). The Rev. Mr. Melville is the Pastor of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church of White Plains, New York. He wrote an article for the magazine “Plain Talk” entitled “Prohibition v. The Church,” in w'hicu he- expresses the belief that if the Churches continue to sustain prohibition their doors are in grave danger of being banged shut. In the course of the article, which appeared in the May issue or. the magazine named, ho asks, “Why are thousands of Church pews minty? If the Church wants to make an honest confession it will nave to admit that among various causes for decreased church attendance and lake-warm interest in t lnirch affairs, the preaching of prohibition! in the pulpits of the churches takes the lead as the outstanding cause for the condition. It is not only that thousands of. church members have been deprived of what they consider to be an honourable means of livelihood, nm is it that they resent any sermons that arc delivered against the Demon Rum, but that they, like the majority of our American people, arc enemies of what is the outstanding sin in our country , to-day—-hypocrisy. They are not easily fooled. They have seen Elmer Gantry in the pulpit and his deacons in the pews. They have heard prohibition espoused by ranting mountebanks in the pulpits. Honesty and self-respect keep them out of the church where is it_ preached that drinking is sinful. Having been forced out of the church of their fathers, they hesitate to join another, thinking that all churches are alike and all ministers and deacons are hypocrites. PROHIBITION IS SACRILEGE TO THE NATION. It is injurious to the well-being of the individual and of the nation. It is abnormal in concept as well as in practice. It is the most unintelligent, un-American, un-Chris-tian, unreasonable thing that has ever been injected into the life of this nation. The church —that is, the sections of the church that have laboured so long and fanatically to make this country liquorless —still seems unwilling to admit that it has brought about a condition which is worse than any that existed in preProhibition days. Furthermore, it realises ( that the cause is not a popular one any more. Can it ever be said that the adherents of prohibition are still enthusiastic about it? If anything, they are gloomy, disappointed and afraid. Yet they hold on. They plead for support. They condemn, in language unbecoming followers of Jesus Christ, men and women who give expression to their honest opinions concerning prohibition. THE MISTAKES OF THE CHURCH.

The Christian church has made many mistakes, as history so clearly tells us. Many of its doctrines have been formulated by the overthrowing of false doctrines. It is possible that some of the fundamental doctrines adhered to by the Christian church in our times will meet with the same fate. Thousands of oiir Christian .ministers who have given thought to the prohibition question are convinced of the mistake that the church has made in allying itself, as great sections of it have done, with the political prohibition proponents. But the greatest mistake that the church has made is the fact that prohibition has been allowed to usurp the place of the Christian gospel of peace and goodwill toward men. And right here is the answer to the question why the church has lost ground during' the past decade. That it certainly has, every honest minister and church-goer will admit.”- —Advt. 3.