LACK OF LEADERSHIP

Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1933, Page 5

LACK OF LEADERSHIP

THE WORLD SITUATION.

DUTY OF THE CHURCH.

“The cause of the world’s economic troubles to-day is a,break-down in our organisation and co-ordination. A root cause of that disaster is individual, community, and national selfishness, and it is the plain duty of the church to call attention to this fact, and to plead for a reversal of policy,” declared the Rev. A. J. Seamer last evening in the course of his inaugural address as newly-elected President of the New Zealand Methodist Church Conference, now deliberating in Auckland. “We live,” said Mr. Seamer, “in ?. glorious age of life and movement. Indeed, the progress made during the last century in scientific knowledge, invention and production has' been too rapid for co-ordination. Our greatest intellects have concentrated on too narrow a range of subjects. Too many potential leaders and statesmen have become experts, mere specialists, 1 and have joined the ranks of those who ‘know more and more about less and less.’- Hence, for lack of leaders possessing a balanced philosophy of social economy, the drftised world finds itself in a maze of difficulty and. distress.” ‘ V The problem confronting- them, the President continued, was not a single one merely, or even a series of separate and distinct problems that might be solved by the experts in their particular subjects, but- it was a combination of inter-related problems arising from a faulty perception of -basic principles, and rooted in questions of personal and community relationships. These inter-related problems, including reparations, war debts, disarmament, tariffs, exchange,

currency, unemployment and industrial principles, were an aggravation, on ,a world-wide scale, of the momentous problem of distribution. Admitting that some of the sufferings of the time were but growing pains in the process of human development, it must at the same time be emphasised that others were the result of artificial and irrational conditions. The cause of 90 per cent of life’s failures was lack of co-ordination—lack of organisation in harmony with God’s immutable laws, and His greatest law was love. The oldtheory that we do the best for others when we do the best for ourselves must go, and nations as well as individuals must learn that it is only as we do our best for others, that.we do the, best for ourselves. If human relationships were organised on Christian lines, and the motives of sharing, service, and brotherhood substituted for the motives of selfinterest, self-advancement, and an atmosphere would be created in which the world might approach within measurable distance of a solution of its economic problems. Emphasising the contrast between the world’s potential wealth and sufficiency, and the dire need of thousands of their fellow-creatures, the speaker observed that while it was not necessarily the church’s duty to originate or support .any one political policy, or system of economics or exchange or currency, it was undoubtedly her duty to insist that measures be taken to provide for all men certain fundamental rights—the right of every man and woman to employment,, to a living wage, and, during periods of. unavoidable unemployment, to provision by the Government, and not by charitable organisations, for essential personal and family needs, and that this provision ■be made in such a way as not to rob the recipient of self-respect, for that was the’ greatest price that a person or a community could pay for the right to live. These basic Christian principles had been so largely ignored by modem civilisation that to-day situations existed which not only caused unnecessary suffering, but were actually destructive of personality, and the church dare not be silent in the matter. For some considerable time splendid leadership in relief work had been given by church social service and kindred relief organisations. It was indeed to be feared that the very fact that this work relieved the more acute features of the situation had tended to disguise the urgency for the solution of the real problem. For the relief method was but a palliative after all, and left the root causes untouched. The Conference would be discussing the problem and would arrive at some very definite -decisions concerning it “Let us lift up our hearts,” the President appealed, “and refuse to be cast down because material disaster, the effects of which are shared by the Church, has overtaken us. Let us only fear that we, by not bearing our full share of the sacrifice of re-adjustment, may prove ourselves unworthy of our name. The central fact in Christianity was a tragedy, but it became history’s greatest triumph because the Man of Galilee willingly bent His neck to the yoke. Was not the Church ‘cradled in adversity, and suckled on pain,’ and must not Christian civilisation approximate to the same experience ere it become worthy of its name?”