The Daily News TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1928. “CIVIC MORALS.”

Taranaki Daily News, 26 June 1928, Page 8

The Daily News TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 1928. “CIVIC MORALS.”

In the eyes o£ the Council of Christian Churches, New Zealand not only “leads the world in crime, lunacy, and immorality,’’ but the people are appallingly conceited, while the country is in the greatest danger from the fault of complacency. In thus passing judgment on the Dominion and its people, the members of this estimable body, who are presumably the exponents of a charity that covers a multitude of sins, as well as the other Christian mandate to judge not lest they also be judged, appear to have risen in righteous wrath against these sins of omission and commission. Such a sweeping condemnation is certainly unique in the history of this highly favoured country That there are criminals, lunatics and moral perverts among the community no one tries to conceal, but in that respect the Dominion is like all other countries. If the Council of Christian Churches finds that the people of the country in which the members live exhibit such folly as to throw dust in their eyes and pretend that New Zealand is a moral paradise, then there appears nothing for it but for them to get together in earnest to combat the glaring evils which they condemm Surely it should have occurred to tliem that the churches have a responsibility in this matter. History records that in the first half of the sth century of the Christian era there existed a class of Christian saints, who, by way of penance, passed a great part of their lives on the top of columns. It was St. Simeon Stylites who set this eccentric fashion of living on a three feet column some forty cubits high, though he must have descended sometimes as, amongst other things, lie took part in political quarrels. Possibly one of the speakers at the denunciatory meeting had these Stylites in mind when he asserted that the difficulty.in the Domiir’on was to obtain suitable men. for Parliament, adding that our present men are second-rate a.id he would not even rate them that high in point of character. What our legislators may have to say to this indictment is a matter of indifference, except that it lays the clergy open to the obvious jibe of “tu quoque.” Assuming there are people in this country so foolish As to shut their eyes to facts and statistics and to claim that, as compared with other countries, New Zealand is an earthly paradise, and are guilty of the criminal folly of throwing dust in the eyes of the clergy and the world, what object have they to gain thereby? Instead of fulminating serious indictments against the people, might it not be more useful for those responsible for the inculcation of religious and moral conduct to come down from their lofty pinnacles and mix with the people, take part in their daily life and recreations, and by precept and practice raise the moral and religious tone of those who are said to be making the Dominion a sink of iniquity? To call the people fools and almost everything that is bad is not a way to bring about a change for the better, while there is nothing worse than to make exaggerated statements which only create a passing sensation and do more harm than good. The world consists of all classes of people, and even the best of them have their faults, as probably the clergy will admit. If there is one place where the conditions of life favour the bringing out of .all that is best in mankind it is New Zealand, so that it seems to be a grievous error on the part of the Council of Christian Churches to throw mud on the many because I the few are not as they should be. | The fact is that the sweeping condemnation which has gone forth ■ tc the world, if it means anything, certainly implies that the Christ- | i;,n Churches are not doing their duty.