The Church and Freethought.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1754, 2 November 1885, Page 2

The Church and Freethought.

To the Editor of the Standard. Sib,—" Senex ” has stood fortb as the champion of the Church, and has replied to my letter on Bernals and Freethought. He first wants to know what a Freethinker is, and in answer I cannot do better than quote what the Hon Bobert Stout said the other day, at Dunedin. He said “It seemed to him that the term “ Freethinker ” was generally misunderstood. He was looked upon as a person whose sole object in life was to attack other people. Bow, lor every one attack made by Freethinkers, there were ten made sgaist them. The Freethinker believed it to be his duty, as the citizen of a free country, to think about what might be termed the deeper questions of life. There was a continuous struggle going on in the world against liberty ; they were bound to maintain liberty and absolute freedom of speech and thought.”

“ Senex ” mast know that for centuries the strife between the Church and Freethought has been severe, and until a late period the Church, being in power, used the sword, the thumbscrew, the rack, the gibbet, and the stake to enforce its claims. There is the same bitterness of spirit in the Church at the present day, but thanks to the progress of the age she lacks the power to punish those who differ from her. It is not many months ago here in Masterton that a Christian man who had made a will in favour of a nephew, altered it to the tune of several hundreds of pounds, because he had learned that the nephew did not endorse all the teachings of the Bible; and there are many so-called Freethinkers who can testify to the cold shoulder and social ostracism they have experienced because they dared to differ from the Church teachings. It is the Church that has always shown “ bitter hatred.” “ Senex ” boasts that Hospitals and other Institutions “ have been established and supported mainly by the loving kindness and tender pity and sympathy of persons who deem it a privilege to call themselves Christians.” Then why in the name of goodness do they not “ deem it a privilege ”to support their own churches with something more than three-penny bits? On every hand the churches are heavily in debt, and in some cases the builders have to whoop for their money. “ Senex ” need not go beyond his own little Greytown to learn the truth of this. And why do not those persons who “ deem it a privilege, " Ac., pay the parsons, instead of letting their salaries run in arrear until they have to seek fresh fields and pastures new ? “ Senex ” knows well that *• the relief and well being of the sick and suffering throughout the world ” is not relieved by Christians alone. In the cases he has quoted it was not all Christian money by a very long way, and his defence is a very lame one. When the Church does raise money it is often by questionable dodges, notably bazaars, or as they are now commonly called, " Church Swindles the clergyman himself arranging lotteries with a coolness that would put a promoter of a racing sweep to the blnsh. I still contend that the Church has neither head nor heait. If there was more iutelli geuco on the pulpit there would be more ucurt in the people. It is painful to stroll into a dissenting church on a prayer meeting night and see the empty pews. A few sicklylooking souls are there and their prayers are nothing but a confession of want of heart and asking the Lord to stir them up to greater zeal in his work. Isn’t this true, ” Senex ?” and isn’t it true that on Sunday the majority of church members go to ohu>ob more for the music and because it is respectable than anything else. And these are the people who deem it a "privilege to call themselves Christians.”

1 shall be glad to hear from " Senes ” again, and 1 can assure him that be will find uo bitterness in me. He is wrong in charging me with a bitter hatred against Christianity. I have not said a disparaging word about it, but I have tried to expose the wretched condition of the Church of the present day, and that condition is doing more than all the attacks of Freethinkers to hasten the doom of Christianity, I am, Ac., g|EXS», Maiterton, Noy., l»