The Church and Politics

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 42, 19 February 1938, Page 3

The Church and Politics

N.Z. Methodist President’s View MONETARY REFORM NEEDED (Special to “Times”) WELLINGTON, Feb. 17. An indication that he took no narrow view of the Church’s task was given by this year’s president of the Methodist Church in New Zealand, the Rev. Percy Paris, Wellington, in his remarks in the course of his inaugural address to the Dominion conference of his church. “While as a Church we can have nothing to do with party politics, I want to say that politics is part of my religion. My Christianity includes the whole of life in all its relationships. I believe that if we ‘keep politics out of religion,’ as we are often urged to do, we shall soon discover that, we have kept religion out of politics, and have built the City of Destruction instead of the City of God. Politics is the science of living together and like every other science should be the servant of God and His children,” he said. “The building of houses for the people; the eradication of slums; the provision of playgrounds, sport fields, and bathing beaches become religious questions. As we see Jesus sitting at the feet of the rabbi in the little village school, repeating His prayers and Scriptures after him. we know that religion must be the basis of any true and satisfactory system of education. As we watch the Son of God toiling in the carpenter’s shop, we know that such things as wages, hours of work, conditions of labour, holidays, leisure, the distribution of manufactured goods, prices and profits, are very sacred things upon which God must have a very definite will.” The Money Question. Mr. Paris also spoke on the need foi monetary reform. “It seems to me,” he said, “that the organisation of society depends on two fundamental principles the law oi ethics, which compels us to ask whether a thing is right or wrong, and the Jaw of economics, which makes us ask whether a thing is possible or impossible. “Often we find these two fundamental principles of human life and society brought into sharp antithesis to each other. In the prayer which Jesus taught us to say, the cry for bread comes before the cry for forgiveness In this life we cannot live without food, clothing and shelter; and as society is constituted we cannot obtain these without money for purchasing power. It is amazing how much Jesus says in the gospels about money. I believe thal there is an ethical, moral or religious side, use whichever adjective you prefer, to every problem of human life and society. But as far as social problems go there is nearly always an economic factor also. “The Christian must believe that if a thing is right it is possible. If a thing is right ethically, it must be possible and practicable economically. In a world where the different countries are now so closely linked together and where machinery has so multiplied production, manufacture and transport, there is no valid excuse for poverty amid plenty. “It is our fault that we will not make possible the distribution of what God provides; that we will not make available sufficient money for people to obtain what God gives and they need. The problem to-day is not, as in the past, one of scarcity. There is no scarcity, but rather an embarrassment of plenty. There is no problem of production, but only of distribution. True Wealth. “Money is not wealth. Life, the abundant life which Christ came to make possible for all, is the real wealth. And money is just the ticket or token system which should make possible the distribution of services and goods for the enrichment and development of life. Wot only are we dependent upon money for the acquirement of the material things of life, but also for its spiritual olessings, as the retrenchment of our overseas missions during the depression so clearly proved. “The Gospel may be free; but we nave to pay for its delivery. Money as at present created, issued and applied ; fails to function. We believe that as it is God’s will that it should function and deliver the goods, we can find a new money system, a new mechanism which ! will bring His gifts to all His children. What is physically possible is finan- 1 rially possible. “Why should any man’s wife wear my . wife’s old clothes? Why should any : man’s children wear my children’s discarded clothes and play with their broken toys and torn books? The day of justice and equity is almost here. ! The man in the street is sick of our J Church talk of social service and benevolent work, of our clothes drives and ] jumble sales. He regards it all as an i insult. He wants social justice. i

“Professor Clay, the economist, says that if we have money out of account, there is obviously no theoretical impossibility in employing men, who are at present idol, at any useful work within their capacity, and for which the materials are available. We must displace the gold standard of Mammon, and set up the man standard of Christ.”