FEAR ENGENDERED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27569, 11 December 1950, Page 4

FEAR ENGENDERED

Aggressive Communism At Work When he left Britain, she was rearming, and when he reached New Zealand he found the Dominion was rearming, too, said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr G. F. Fisher, in a broadcast address last night. This was not because another world war was inevitable. War was not inevitable, but the fear of it brooded over the face of the earth, and if it came it would come from one quarter alone—from the actions of Imperialist Communism, aggressive and atheist, which was seeking by every means-to absorb other nations into its own system. The first necessary step was to be fully prepared to resist aggression and so render it less likely. War of Social Ideas

“ But that is not all,” Dr Fisher said. “Though there be, as we pray, no open war, there is a warfare of social ideas which must be fought out. From this turbulent period of stress will emerge a new direction of history, to last perhaps for centuries, determined by the belief about life and its living which wins the day in this generation. Communism believes in a rigid and ruthless control of men’s lives and thoughts as the most efficient way of dividing material goods among men fairly. Fanatically held, it claims the world for itself and is ready to blast away every opposing force: being crudely materialist rand atheist, it is restrained by no moral or religious laws, and can use any cruelty or falsity to promote its ends. This creed has, oddly enough, an appeal to some unbalanced idealists who, impressed by the promises of a social Utopia and blind to the false principles and tyrannical practices of Communism, really think this latest imperialism is paving the way to the Kingdom of God. More understandably, this creed appeals to peoples which have through the ages known nothing but poverty, semi-starvation and hardship, and see here a promise of deliverance and hope. One of the necessary defences against Communism is to bring rapid help to such peoples and to raise their standards of living. The British Commonwealth is taking a most valuable lead in securing joint action to this end, and New Zealand will have an important part to play. “ But is that our only answer? ” Dr Fisher asked. “Do we believe, like Communism, that man has a body and no soul, is a physical being and nothing else? Let us be frank. Our own civilisation, with all its rich spiritual heritage, is riddled with a practical materialism, which discounts if it does not directly deny the existence or the relevance of God. If this conflict is between two different brands of materialism, our own more refined form and the coarser form held by Communism, the coarser will in the long run, win. Our' heritage is a spiritual heritage, created by beliefs about man mhich were derived from beliefs about God. It will be lost, this our heritage of spiritual values, unless we hold our beliefs in them so firmly now that they shape the course of history in these turbulent years, proving themselves to the poor and powerless races to be the most helpful and uplifting, and becoming again the accepted beliefs of the generation to come. Whether that happens depends on us and the faith that is in us. Quite apart from the political menace of Communism, there is the subtler menace of materialism, infecting the air we breathe, thereatening to rob man of the will, even the power, to walk by the spirit, to see God and live. Values of Commonwealth “ Let us consider the spiritual values of the British Commonwealth: freedom, not any kind of freedom, but the freedom of responsible men regarding the public good more than their own and governed by a keen sense of duty; law, not mob or necessarily majority law, but law which in making the laws is itself lawful, preserving impartiality and justice and therefore claiming the obedience of all; toleration, not because nothing matters but because every man has his own worth and conscience which every other man must respect and not coerce, and because no one is ever always right; and truth, as a moral absolute, a standard which we do not make and cannot change, by whicfr we are all inexorably judged, by which we stand or fall. “ The British Commonwealth has an immense part to play in' making future history,” Dr Fisher said. “We have so much to offer—-a good judgment, decency, a sense of duty, a great tradition of freedom, law, toleration and moral truth. But our heritage was won by men of religious conviction; and that heritage cannot be maintained without the strength of religious conviction. I believe we shall not be unworthy of our great inheritance. But it demands of everyone an honest return to the rock whence we were hewn, to Christian doctrine as revealed in the Scriptures, to Christian conviction and to the sincere practice of the Christian faith. J do not believe that anything less than that will do.”