WHAT YOUTH DEMANDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 26 November 1936, Page 9

WHAT YOUTH DEMANDS

BEAUTY, AUTHORITY, , SINCERITY

(Special : to ■ “The Mail’ 1 )

CHRISTCHURCH, 25th November. “As I observe young people I find many who are undisciplined 'and unrestrained, the product of- cultural pagan homes,” said Dr. J. D. Salmond, Professor of Religious Education of O*aeo. introducing the Youth of the Church report in the Presbyterian Assembly in Christchurch. “Yet there are others who are very earnest and sincere. They are demanding a totalitarian Christianity—a religion that claims the whole of life and allows no bia+us between theory and practice. Young people,are quick to sense insincerity and this demand for the union of theory and practice accounts for the radicalism of our young people.”

j Dr. Salmond noted that young people to-day are more aesthetic in their approach to life than older folks are. The cold formalism of our older worship will not satisfy them. Some of the Bible class worship services were very fine indeed. Young people are also asking for a note of authority from the church. If, as has been said, the Roman Catholics demand everything and explain nothing, while Protestants explain ■ everything and demand nothing, it was the former attitude that was more appealing to modern youth. “We live in a lotus land,” said Dr. Salmond. “We are a wonderfully privileged people. We should not worry that we are exporting /our brains and character—Rhodes Scholars and others. It is merely our duty to do so. How can a sense of mission be developed among our young people? I believe a-great future lies before our young land, and the church must play a decisive part in shaping the future.”