RACE SUICIDE

Otago Witness, Issue 2902, 27 October 1909, Page 26

RACE SUICIDE

PROTEST BY THE CHURCHES,. POSITION IN NEW SOUTH WALES. SYDNEY, October 22. The Congregational Union has resolved to fall in line with other churches in earnestly appealing to the manhood and womanhood of the State against the repudiation of parenthood. | The Rev. Mr Campbell declared that , there was definite information that as regards raoe suicide the State of New South Wales was pretty well as bad as decaying France. At the meeting of the Presbyterian General Assembly in Melbourne at the end 1 of last month protest wa3 again made i against the use of patent medicines and , other means adopted by many to sap and ( destroy the best interests of our national j life, and it was resolved to issue a pasj toral letter to bo read in all the churches, and to urge upon ministers and officebearers the duty of using every favourable opportunity of impressing upon the minds ' of those under thsir care a due sense o the value of pure family life in the interests of national life, as well as tho spiritual life of the individual and wellbeing of the Church of Christ. The pastoral letter was as follows: — " At the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia held in Adelaide in 1907 it was ordered that c pastoral letter should be issued to all ministers to be read in their congregations, calling attention to the spread of lax and un- ! Christian opinions with regard to the greatevil of race suicide, a crime that is spreading in all civilised countries. It is not an | easy subject on wheh to address congregaj tions, but it would be a betrayal of the , best interests of the community and an. abdication of the functions -of the Church as the highest conscience of our people to ■ permit scruples of delicacy to close our mouths. From the recent report of the commission in regard to patent medicines 1 it appears that in this new country, where , the conditions of life are easier than elsc- | where, the vice which the drugs subserve iis most lamentably common. Evidently large sections of the population deliberately enter upon marriage, and then, in defiance of both Gcd and nature, refuse the burden of parenthood. This has led to at least grave laxity of opinion, even in the churches, on this matter, and if the practice of Christian people is not so lax as the opinion is, the danger is that • might soon become so, if the evil be not counteracted. Legislation may do much, and that ought not merely to be supported by, but it ought to be demanded by, Wie churches. But. the pressure of public opinion, especially among women, will do more to guide you in forming a right and Christian opinion. We, in common with the Church in all a^es, wish to denounce this cowardly and selfish refusal of parenthood as a crime against both humanity and against God. The callous selfishness of such a course is in itself shocking, but when we sec, as we must do, that a conij nuance- and spread of it will bring about the decay and ultimately the ruin of our race and nation, the call, not only to all Christian men and women, but to all men and women who are loyal to our civilisation, and who respect thonisolvos, to abhor and protest asain=-t this evil bocomos most urgent. If the higher and Christianised race-s of the world take and keep this path, j then inevitably the non-Christian races will displace them. If the frugal and thrfity and educated among our popula- ; tion allow the fear of poverty to pervert j their lives in this fashion, then the con- j tinua-nce of our race must tk-pend upon the thriftless, the reckless, and the un- j

educated. When these things have had their perfect work, the crime {against humanity involved in race suicide will stand out in all its blackness in the> national and racial ruin it has brought. All Christian men ajid women, therefore, are exhorted to stand by the Word of God. by the highest principles of ancient Christian morality, and by the voice- of nature in this rnatfcor, to deal with laxity of thought in regard to itr as intolerable, and to sternly separate themselves from all who defend or practise such evil things. [So only can this plague which threatens the very foundations pf our Christian civilisation be stayed. Such things should not be even mentioned among the fok lowers of Christ, and it is witii deep sor« row of heart we find that the state of public opinion demands that our Church 1 , like others, should warn and exhort the faithful "to abhor " in this matter " that which is evil and to cleave unto that which' is good."