CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 36, Issue 6, 1 September 1945, Page 14

CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE.

The Obstacle of Ignorance.

The main business of the Church after the war must be evangelisation, said the Archbishop of York, addressing the Christian Evidence Society at Westminster. But it was not sufficient merely to proclaim the good news, Dr. Garbett continued. Among the . critics of Christianity was a large number of people who, though they would like to believe, experienced intellectual difficulties, and needed to be convinced of its truth. . . . , . There was widespread recognition that materialism' had failed to avert the war or to bring-peace and prosperity to mankind. Atheism, too, was out of date, but a vague belief m God was very different from belief m the living God who was actively concerned with the doings both of individuals and of nations. Christian propaganda must be expressed m simple, direct terms which could be understood by the man m the street. The Chaplain of the Fleet expressed the deep appreciation of the chaplains' branch of- the Royal Navy to the society both for its literature and for gifts of portable altars, vestments and furnishings for ships' chapels. He declared that crass ignorance; and not hostility, was the great obstacle m the way of Christianity. "I have been appalled m interviewing young recruits," he said, "to find how many of them do not know the first thing about religion."