THE NEW ORDER

Southland Times, Issue 24861, 29 September 1942, Page 6

THE NEW ORDER

Sir, —Your correspondent. “P.M.,” whose letter on the Church’s campaign for Christian Order was printed on September 26, makes a prophetic statement when be says: “Until the Church makes some conscious effort to cancel the divorce between theology and present day economics, we can have no Christian Order in this or any other country.” The majority of the people of this country at the commencement of this campaign by the Churches, felt that at last the great weight of organized religion was to be used to right the economic evils that are the direct cause of most of our social evils today; that the Church was at last going to attack the root of the trouble, was at last going to deal with the cause instead of the effects. Already many people have lost confidence in this campaign, for in spite of mass meetings, huge sums spent in Press advertising, and national hook-ups on the radio, what have we learned? That the Church is only concerned with effects, the sale of liquor, contraceptives, and so on. Why does the Church not attack the cause of these evils? Would the sale of contraceptives be so great if babies were an economic blessing, instead of a burden? Would the sale of liquor be so great if the people were economically secure and trained in the best ways of spending their leisure? Could not marriage be made an economic advantage to young people instead of a problem? What is wanted is not so much a campaign for Christian Order by the Churches, as a campaign for Christian Order in the Churches. Give us a New Zealand Pastor Niemoller, fearless and unafraid, who will expose the economic system that breeds these social evils about which the present Church is so concerned.

How can a man praise God today, whose avenue of employment has been closed because a machine can do his work more efficiently and economically? What is there for the farmer to praise God for, when a bumper harvest means a glut on the market, with the result that he cannot get a sufficient price for his products to recoup his outlay? Surely the Church will agree that there is something wrong with a system that demands that God’s bounty should be thrown in His face. R. J. HENDERSON. Invercargill, September 26, 1942.