THE CHURCH AND POLITICS

Southland Times, Issue 23437, 18 February 1938, Page 7

THE CHURCH AND POLITICS

VIEWS OF METHODIST PRESIDENT

REFERENCE TO MONETARY REFORM

(Special to The Times) WELLINGTON, February 17. An indication that he took no narrow view of the Church’s task was given by this year’s president of the Methodist Church in New Zealand, the Rev. Percy Paris, of Wellington, in his remarks in the course of his inaugural address to the Dominion conference of his church today. “While as a Church we can have nothing to do with party politics, I want to say that politics is part of my religion,” he said. “My Christianity meludes the whole of life in. all its relationships. I believe that if we keep politics out of religion,’ as we are often urged to do, we shall soon discover that we have kept religion out of politics, and have built the City of Destruction instead of the City of God. Politics is the science of living together and like every other science should be the servant of God and His children. . “So I may venture from the chair of this conference to commend the Government for the sincerity and tireless energy of its efforts to improve the economic status and social welfare of the people of this Dominion.

“The building of houses for the people; the eradication of slums; the provision of playgrounds, sport fields, and bathing beaches become religious questions. As we see Jesus sitting at the feet of the rabbi in the little village school, repeating His prayers and Scripture after him, we know that religion must be the basis of any true and satisfactory system of education. As we watch the Son of God toiling in the carpenter’s shop, we know that such things as wages, hours of work, conditions of labour, holidays, leisure, the distribution of manufactured goods, prices and profits, are very sacred things upon which God must have a very definite will.” THE MONEY QUESTION Mr Paris also spoke on the need for monetary reform. “It seems to me,” he said, “that the organization of society depends on two fundamental principles: the law of ethics, which compels us to ask whether a thing is right or wrong, and the law of economics, which makes us ask whether a tiling is possible or impossible.

“Often we find these two fundamental principles of human life and society brought into sharp antithesis to each other. There are people, they are mostly good Christians, who say that economics do not matter, for right or wrong settles everything. Man cannot live by bread alone; but if he is to live he must eat In the prayer which Jesus taught us to say, the cry for bread comes before the cry for forgiveness. In this life we cannot live without food, clothing and shelter; and as society is constituted we cannot obtain these without money or purchasing power. It is amazing how much Jesus says in the gospels about money. I’ believe that there is an ethical, moral or religious side, use whichever adjective you prefer, to every problem of human life and society. But as far as social problems go there is nearly always an economic factor also. “The Christian must believe that if a thing is right it is possible. If a thing is right ethically, it must be possible and practicable economically. In a world where the different countries are now so closely linked together and where machinery has so multiplied production, manufacture and transport, there is no valid excuse for poverty amid plenty. “It is our fault that we will not make possible the distribution of what God provides; that we will not make available sufficient money for people to obtain what God gives and they need. The problem today is, not, as in the past, one of scarcity. There is no scarcity, but rather an embarrassment of plenty. There is no problem of production, but only of distribution. TRUE WEALTH “Money is not wealth,” said Mr Paris. “Life, the abundant life which Christ came to make possible for all, is the real wealth. And money is just the ticket or token system which should make possible the distribution of services and goods for the enrichment and development of life. Not only are we dependent upon money for the acquirement of the material things of life, but also for its spiritual blessings, as the retrenchment of our overseas missions during the depression so clearly proved. “The Gospel may be free; but we have to pay for its delivery. Money as at present created, issued and applied fails to function. We believe that as it is God’s will that it should function and deliver the goods, we can find a new money system, a new mechanism which will bring His gifts to all His children. What is physically possible is financially possible. “Why should any man’s wife wear my wife’s old clothes? Why should any man’s children wear my children’s discarded clothes and play with their broken toys and torn books, The day of justice and equity is almost here. The man in the street is sick of our Church talk of social service and benevolent work, of our clothes drives and jumble sales. He regards it all as an insult. He wants social justice. “Professor Clay, the economist, says that if we leave money out of account, there is obviously no theoretical impossibility in employing men,- who are at present idle, at any useful work within their capacity, and for which the materials are available. We must displace the gold standard of Mammon, and set up the man standard of Christ.”