MANY “QUEER” RELIGIONS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18643, 21 December 1928, Page 9

MANY “QUEER” RELIGIONS IN NEW ZEALAND.

IS CHRISTCHURCH THE CITY OF CRANKS? “ The City of Cranks ” is the name visitors have, at times, given to Christchurch when they have seen the number and variety of religious beliefs in this town. But it can be safely said that Christchurch has no monopoly of “ queer ” beliefs, as the analysis of the 1926 census, just published, shows. New Zealand supports sixty-four major religions, including Conditional Immortalists, Conlucians, Bahais, Agnostics and Socialists; but there are also 140 odd minor religious professions. So says the census. Some of these denominations are census-born —the humorous attempts of paper-fillers. Such are:—Church of Any Land, Citizen of the World, Cristo-thumpian, Free Lance, Horse, Irregular and Materist Monist. It is difficult to tell if some of these attempts are genuine. Who would care to pronounce a verdict on these? • —Augrist, Authroposophist, Celestial, Holy Order of Restful Souls (this order has the numerous following of one), Kallizoist, Orthodox Christianity in its various forms has a strong hold, but the influence of the Bible extends beyond their precincts, as may be seen in the following sects:—Baptised Believers (two of them), Christian Brother, Christian Disciple, Christian Evolutionist, Christian Free Thinker, Christian Guided by Conscience and Christian Occultist (all one each). Faith and a certain independence seems to grace the following labels:—Following in Ills Footsteps, Household of Faith, Life in Christ Only, and Witness: while the joy of salvation inspires sucH as Saved by Grace Alone (only two of them) and Sinner Saved by Grace. Some of the answers are specificenough, but a little puzzling to a generation whose theological education is a little neglected. The casual student is stumped before titles like Pantheistic Pelagian, Zwinglian, Lateral Eclectic, Epicurean or Esoteric Ethical Philosopher. Hybridism might be suspected of Lutheran Catholics, Methodist Episcopals and Theosophic Tolstoyans; and there is a goodly leavening of the East provided by the Gardwaras, Parsees, Shintoist. Sunworshippers, Vedics and Zoroastrians.

If any city deserves to be called the home of cranks, then Christchurch must be dethroned in favour of Wellington, which contains, on the average, more adherents to “ queer ” religions than any other.