CAMPAIGN AGAINST GOD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17951, 1 December 1932, Page 12

CAMPAIGN AGAINST GOD

BRITAIN’S COUNTER V EFFORT REV. LIONEL FLETCHER’S WORK LONDON, October 13. Mr. A. Lindsay Clegg, chairman of the executive council.of .the Mildmay Conference, has given a luncheon .of welcome to the Rev. Lionel Fletcher, late of Auckland. The AttorneyGeneral, Sir Thomas Inskip, presided. Sir Thomas said that the youth'of our land was waiting, he believed, for a fresh message and fresh direction. There was nothing more tragic than to think of the youth of a nation growing up without hope. "We all of us deplore what is called the anti-God campaign in Russia," he continued. "I am told on very good authority that there are indications of that campaign being transferred or begun even in this country. I could give particulars to which my attention has lately been drawn of places in which a very active and determined campaign has been begun of actual hostility to religion in any shape or form, but particularly to the Christian religion. "We deplore that. It is deplored by almost all the political parties in the State. But to meet such activities by mere protest is a very ineffective method. Tho best antidote to such efforts, if they are being made—as Ibelieve they are—is a definite campaign of evangelisation." Sir Thomas said Kb did not think, that anyone who was a fairly regular churchgoer would dispute that this note of evangelisation had been hushes*— a little in our churches during the. Inst .15 or 20 years. Tho world had been occupied with clearing up the mess it had made of its own affairs.. They had been engaged in the work of reconstruction, and it might be that the time had come when the nation was ready for a fresh message ofj hope and inspiration. Mr. Lindsay Clegg said that Mt* Fletcher had given up a great church in New Zealand and given up his home to come back to England to begin this work. I