NEW STAR HAS ARISEN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5597, 26 March 1943, Page 3

NEW STAR HAS ARISEN

“ARGOSY” WRITES TO EDITOR Sir,—[lt seems that a new star has arisen in the columns of the Courier called “Son of the right hand, Well Beloved,” and in the modern radio manner he has “to be continued.” Well, sir, he may be a new star and modern, but his subject matter is neither new or modem, for he simply repeats to boredom, the old discredited tale that we have listened to from our school days. Here we have a fundamentalist, pure and simple, and before he has finished (and here I risk a prophesy) we will no doubt find that he has some pet theory to support, where only he and those who agree with him, will claim to interpret the Bible in the only true manner, and all the other brands of Christians will be wrong. But we have another type of writer in the Courier who gives us what he calls “Sunday Reading,” and this writer is a cross between a fundamentalist and a free-thinker, or in other words, a rail-sitter. He has really no fixed opinions, or if he has he hides them pretty well. He quotes Chesterton, Ruskin, and President Roosevelt, and seems to agree with them all. President Roosevelt, of course, has very definite opinions, but we cannot return to the principals of the Sermon on the Mount, because there never was a time in our history when we followed these principles. This writer speaks of farmer and painter, optimist and pessimist, Calvinist and Modernist, Evolution and God, heredity and environment, parents and ancestors, and our reactions to them, but during his discourse, with such a wonderful array of good things t<s choose from, he gives nothing definite for us to lay hold on. All is stale and flat. He proceeds on the theory that it is quite possible to say a lot without convincing and offending anyone, suggesting at the same time he could say a mouthful if he threw discretion to the winds, but he is nothing if not discreet. His discourse reminds me very much of a graveyard where peace and harmony reigns, all is still and quiet, no life there.