MORAL LAXITY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19315, 4 May 1937, Page 12

MORAL LAXITY

.MENACE TO DOMINION EVILS OP ABORTION BISHOP SPEAKS OUT NEW STANDARDS URGED {Per Press Association.) MASTE'RTON, last night. "The steep decline in the moral standards of the average life to-day was one of the most serious, aspects that had to be considered, and one which forced itself more upon us." stated the Bishop of Wellington, the- Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland, in ah address in Masterton to-night.

It was possible,' said the bishop, to estimate the force, of religion in a country by the moral standards prevailing. When he arrived in New Zealand he had been told that there had been more v or less a cyclonic disturbance of the whole moral life of the country. A pew type of morality seemed to have clawed into the fibre of the nations,, forcing out the old Christian view of life and morals. They would have to fight this new menace, he declared.

Referring" to the recent Government report on abortion in the Dominion, His Lordship 'described' abortion as a festering sore in the life of the nation, and said that it constituted the biggest challenge to the church that it could possibly have had. The appalling revelations of the conditions existing in the country had to be heeded. ' When he questioned what was . wrong with the moral standards of- the -nation, lie realised that there might be [a lot in the stories of the moral evils of dances, of excessive drinking in cars during dances, and of the general lack of moral ideals of sex and of the Christian ideal of parenthood.

The position was a ringing challenge to the churches, which were the one body that could stop the spread of the malady in the country. The only cure was the religious cure. The churches should try to insist on a higher standard:, j; n r .: . : Importance of Churches "We have been given a direct challenge, 71 <cbntiriue.d His Lordship. "What are we going to do about it? What good cap come of holding public meetings and passing. pious resolutions? We might just as well play a set of tennis or a game of bridge. It is a job for the Christian citizens of New Zealand. Leave it to the parsons and I am afraid that very little will be done. We arc too. limited in our actions. Our views are always suspect because, 1 think, it is our job. If we speak against ideas of pre-nuptial intercourse they say that it is just parson 'clap-trap' and that our ideas are contrary to the new ideas of the nation's mannood. His Lordship said that we should try to consider how the churches as a whole could improve the standards of the couptry's morals and how they could combat, the false philosophies of life.

"It is the growing 'generation that 1 am "frightened of," remarked the bishop, "if they are brought up'on free love." Pnce sex morality went, that was the end of the nation, ...

It was the first time he had spoken on the subject as he felt he should pot do so until the Government report was published. The position, however, made him very sad, and it seemed to him that the need for raising the moral standards was a challenge to us all—a challenge to all that was the finest • and best in ideals of Christianity and manhood. It was the man outside the influence of the church they wanted, and (lie urged: "Let's go.out. and get him. You can do that, if you have concern, and true concern means love."