CHURCHMEN AND WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23545, 4 January 1940, Page 11

CHURCHMEN AND WAR

Sir, —The resolutions published on Wednesday passed at the annual convention of the Methodist Young Men's Bible Class Movement, while not unexpected, cover a multitude of Methodists besides myself with shame and confusion. Militarism and jingoistic nationalism have ever been alien from my nature. 1 do appreciate the attitude of a really sincere conscientious objector, and will do all in my power to protect him. But the recommendation that all service under military control, even the non-combatant service to the sick and wounded, be refused is, to say the least, unworthy. Since at the places where the sick and wounded most need help no really efficient aid can be rendered without some form of such control, the recommendation, in actual practice, is tantamount to a refusal to render any service at all. And this supposedlv in tho name of Jesus Christ !

Fortunately, such views, while those of a very active number of young people, are not those of the great body of Methodists in tho Dominion. And th ese are, it is not pharisaical to say, no less clear-minded to the spirit and teaching of Christ and no less devotedly committed to its practical applications, than are the extreme pacifists. 1. do not intend to enter into a controversy, but only to utter a protest in the name of a great company of adherents of the Methodist Church who are grieved by these recommendations. 8.1.40. H. Ranstox.

Sir,—As a member of the Methodist Church and as one profoundly convinced of the honest desire of our Empire leaders for world peace, I was shocked to see the resolutions of the Young Men's Methodist Bible Class Convention as reported in Wednesday's Herald. Few will question the courage or the honesty prompting these resolutions, but it should be stated that they do not express the mind of the Methodist Church as a whole, nor the mind of the majority of Methodist youth. No one in his senses regards war, especially modern war. as the way of settling international disputes, but cold facts must be fared. Passively to stand by and allow ruthless brutality to have a free hand, to see destroyed before our eyes the patient work of centuries, to permit the cynical and cokl-blooded de-

struction of weaker nations simply because they cherish ideals incompatible with the mania for world dominence, far from expressing the spirit of Christ are aiding and abetting the forces of ruthlessness. These young men, rushing into print with their half-formed, immature conclusions, are victims of mental perversion due to an unbalanced study of a problem_bigger than they realise. Their lack of judgment, their. I hope unconscious, denial of the Spirit of Christ whose name they invoke to support their resolutions, is seen in their refusal even to render assistance to the wounded because it would involve them in the war machine. To what lengths will stubborn opinion go! As individuals, they have a perfect right to their opinions. To speak on behalf of the Church to which" they belong, however, they have no manner of right: and the fact that scores of Methodist young men, impelled by just as high a sense of Christian duty as theirs, have enlisted and will shortly be on active service, proves that their opinion is only sectional. As one who saw years of service in the last war, I know something of its horrors; but. even though it involves another war, the defence of the weak, the staying of the hand of the destroyer, is a plain duty to humanity. E. T. Olds.