CHURCH AND POLITICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20882, 26 May 1931, Page 9

CHURCH AND POLITICS.

"NOT DUTY TO KEEP CLEAR." AUSTRALIAN n BISHOP'S VIEW. [from our own correspondent.] SYDNEY, May 14. "Is Marxian Communism going to stand hero in Australia and rob Australians of that vision of God, those sweet fidelities of home, that freedom to work, to have, to keep and to live, while the Church of tho Lord Christ stands feebly by, busily pouncing on bare legs and ankles or some equally 'pressing* public danger, and lets tho big things that are really killing us go by?" This is the opinion expressed by Bishop Crotty, the "fighting bishop" of Bathurst, when asked his view of the duty of the Church in tho present crisis. He challenged the assertion so often made that it was the duty of the Church to keep clear of politics. When moral issues were at stake, as was the case to-day, it was absurd to suggest that the Church should stand idly by and not battle for the cause it was hero to defend. With characteristic terseness Bishop Crotty went on to develop his theme. "Tho Church will not bo content with that subsidiary function in our common lifo that certain interested people would like to give her," he "said. "Christians, after all, are not just amiable people who guarantee to keep their eyes on the heavens while certain able people acquire (he earth. They expect us to stand feebly by while truth is done to death among us and honour is welling before our eyes and Australian unities are outraged by this group or that in modern politics — this is strange counsel surely to, the Church of God."

Bishop Crotty added vigorously that if the Church accepted such counsel it would rightly recede into an utterly impotent place in public affairs. Tho Church was not an ambulance waggon rumbling along in the wake of the new armies picking up somewhat wistfully (he breakdowns and tho cripples. Tho Church was itself an army bent on attacking the futilities and infidelities that were threatening Australia. Asked for his views in general on politics and politicians, the bishop said that the wholesale denunciation of politicians as a class was stupid and unjust. "There are many quite good, earnest men in public life in this country who have made real sacrifices and borne real with mighty little support from public opinion, from people who are self-centred, indifferent and dumb save wliero their own pockets are threatened," he said. It was public opinion, tho bishop went on, that needed bracing and lifting up into a new and living Australian patriotism before we could escapo from that morass in which to-day wo floundered ignominiously in tho face of the whole world. "Working class psychology cannot bo blamed for all our woes. The political indifference of the privileged class has much to answer for," he said. "We must all begin afresh, stop calling each other names, bury our past mistakes and pull together on the one task that matters—that oi setting Australia on her feet again."