POLITICS FROM THE PULPIT

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1786, 24 July 1926, Page 6

POLITICS FROM THE PULPIT

“Must a parson always bie on the lookout in case he says anything which one party or another in our frequent disputes might not like? Must he confine himself to the utterances of harmless platitudes which everyone will agree with and/ nobody will act upon. If so a parson’s job, so far as the pulpit is concerned, is a washout. If the parson must preach with his hands tied behind him, so to speak, so that he can never hit out, then lam going to give up preaching. But that is all Bunkum. The point is that the parson has got to speak out whether people like it or not,” writes the Rev. G. A. Studdert Kennedy in the Forum. Where does “Politics’ begin and where does it end? I have been a slum parson. and have known what it is to go around trying to pick up men and women, boys and girls, out of the filthy conditions that make life well-nigh impossible for a decent lad or girl. Well, supposing the grieed. of builders’ ‘ring,’ or the selfishness of unions, or the dirty work on municipal contracts, holds up the building of decent houses, as they are holding it up to-day in England; is the parson to keep mum because he might be talking politics in' the pulpit and might offend the head of the Bricklayers’ Union or some contractor who was a member of my congregation? Is he to say to himself: ‘I must be careful what I say, because Mr Jerry Builder might cut down his subscription to the curate’s stipend, or the people might give less to the freewill offering scheme?’ I know parsons who do think like that. I known them tell me to be careful what I said because there were so-and-so in the congregation, and they could not afford to offend him. or that it would empty their church if they preached about certain subjects. But against that, parsons, bishops, deans, vicars, curates, all the job lot of us have got to stand firm, or we might as well shut up shop and take to minding babies. The parson must understand that the will of God is for man, and he must blaze it out as he sees. Once he has done that, the responsibility rests with those who listen; they must choose whether they will forbear. But you cannot have it both ways.”