SECTARIAN POLITICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16906, 4 December 1922, Page 6

SECTARIAN POLITICS.

We do not think that the Reform candidates who were named by the Rev Howard Elliott will thank the P.P.A. organiser for the free advertisement he gave them. One of them at least is seriously annoyed, and he lias taken an early opportunity of exposing his annoyance. We ore against sectarianism in politics, no

matter from what quarter it comes. Th< fact that a man is a Protestant does not make him any more capable to serve the people, and neither is a man disqualified if he should belong to the Roman Catholic faith. The great majority of people in this country consider that a man’s religious beliefs are bis own affair, and they have no tience with the agitator or sectarian who tries to loose the mad dog of religious hatred. The organisation of religious sects for political purposes is a bad and dangerous thing. It is opposed to the British spirit of t;on, and it leads to exhibitions of narrow feeling snd thinking which could very well b© wiped out- of our experience. It is unfortunate for the Reform candidates that, apparently without their consent, they have been linked with an organisation which has done its best to stir up religious hatreds and import them int-o political conflicts.