Cast off Theology.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 1, 5 July 1911, Page 54

Cast off Theology.

A highly-educated Chinaman now resident in London has issued an appeal to the “Bibliolatrous missionaries” to withdraw from China, and to leave her people to themselves. Otherwise, he says, the day may come' when there will be a terrible reaction resulting in the expulsion from China of all Western religions. Mr. Lin Shao-Yang, the Chinaman in question, couches his appeal in the form of a bland inquiry. lie wants to know many things, but so far there is no eager competition to reply to him. He asks if white men who are not earnest Christians have been found to lead worse lives than those who are. He asks if the missionaries really believe that the people of China—that is to say half the population of the world—have been

doomed to eternal damnation. . If they do not believe this, then why do they preach it? If they do believe it, then why do they believe it ? He asks the missionaries to explain in terms of ordinary intelligence why they think their religion to be better than Buddhism of Confucianism which do not condemn half the human race, or, indeed any one, to eternal dariination. Finally, he asks why missionaries preaqh quite a different kind of Christianity to Chinamen than to white men, and why antiquated and repulsive dogmas are taught abroad and not at home, (tijna, be snya, Joes not want A “yasit-orf theology,” por does it want the “absurd, contemptible, and demoralizing inedley that forma the stock in trade 6f missionaries.** ' •