THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 12

THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH

It is probably a mere matter of chance that, with the parliamentary session concluded and political news reduced in content in the daily press, the voice of organised religion should be heard more loudly in the land. Churchmen do not, like parliamentarians, observe a close season. Spiritual 'exhortation is a constant and a necessary feature of our common life, which is perhaps more than need be said of political rhetoric. But whatever the reason, it seems from the columns of the newspapers that the churches have selected this week for a special manifestation of their presence as an active and living force in the community. Nor is the substance of discourse of that somewhat soporific sort that an older generation expected of its clerics. The church news permeating our columns this week has been as truly news as any account of a foreign war or a domestic railway catastrophe. It has had originality, drive and variety. From London there was reiteration by a bishop of his conviction that a little persecution, forwarded by the extermination of a few parsons and one or two prelates, would have a salutary effect in arousing church people’tb a more militant interest in religion. From the Methodist Synod in Christchurch there came a denunciation of the increase in gambling, as exemplified in totalisator returns, which was ascribed. to the higher wages being paid to the working man. It was from Christchurch, too, that there issued a warning to young people of the moral danger of another frivolous form of recreation, ballroom dancing, a “subtle evil,” and a report of a discussion on the liquor traffic of a peculiarly revealing character, following which the synod’s vote for the abolition of the traffic was' impressive in its solidarity. By the Auckland Methodist Synod the perplexing problem of wine at wedding breakfasts has been courageously dealt with. Still sterner problems—divorce, birth control, sterilisation, and euthanasia —have had the attention of the Presbyterian General Assembly. Then in a message from Invercargill, surely an inappropriate place for such a statement, we have had the views of a churchman upon the secret ritual that surrounds drinking in hotels. This speaker had a suggestion to make for discouraging liquor consumption, namely that bar rooms should be exposed to the view of passers-by, so that patrons would have to conduct in public the solemn rite of slaking an interminable thirst. It is an ingenious if not entirely novel proposal, which might, if adopted, add to the interest of the good wife’s Friday afternoon shopping expedition, but it is perhaps of incalculable effect. The power of deplorable example to influence the sober habit of the people has frequently been stressed by the clergy, and possibly the opening of bar rooms to the passing gaze would produce in spectators a reaction other than the Invercargill reformer anticipates. In London, where most public-house interiors are visible from without, and in Paris, where the cafe is open to the boulevard, it must be remarked that the repulsive effect of public ingurgitation is negligible. These matters, however, and all others relating to what their conviction tells them are of relevance to the moral and spiritual well-being of the people, form a permissible field for ecclesiastical inquiry and statement. And .from the purely material viewpoint, that in the modern world it is necessary to advertise in order to attract attention, it is fitting that the examination should be conducted in a manner that demands notice. The churches will find a receptive public if they relate questions of spiritual belief to the topical preoccupations of the community, and express their views forcefully and plainly. Another observation in the budget of religious intelligence, that the churches have been “ slow to capture a fair share of the radio for Christ,” with a proposal that Protestantism should consider purchasing' its own broadcasting stations, suggests a method by which religious dogma may be brought to the attention of those who rarely darken a church’s portals.