Religion in Action.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 279, 24 November 1931, Page 8

Religion in Action.

To the Editor. Dear Sir, —I am not of opinion that the days of religious persecution are over, as “ Reader II.” asserts, but what there is is more or less underground and local in its effects. If organised religion set out to prevent the teaching in our schools of established scientific facts, because those facts ran counter to Bible teaching, then there would be good reason for using the “good shot and shell in the sceptks’ armoury.” But because a man marvelled at the great character transformation following conversion, why trot out the misdeeds of religious fanatics who were in a position to impose their peculiar ideas upon the people ? It is impossible to eliminate religious prejudice in the ordinary walks of life. An atheist might be unlucky enough to find he is working for a very religious man who would not be human if he did not request his employee to keep his, to him, heathen ideas to himself. Possibly “ Reader II.” has good reason, perhaps through personal experience, for thinking that religious persecution is as strong as ever. “ Reader II.” seems to imply that the Salvation Army is a purely money-grabbing business undertaking. I don’t believe it, and I doubt whether your correspondent could find men to work as they do, at the wage they receive. Although one may not like their style, it is undeniable that they are a great force for good in the life and development of the community. They strike a personal contact with the wayward .and the distressed which no other religious body has ever been able to do, and, it might be added, even wanted to. I have no doubt that the Army here could multiply Mr Speirs’s examples a thousand-fold. Has “ Reader II.” read the works of the late Harold Begbie dealing with the influence of the Army in the life of the individual and the community?—l am, etc., READER.