Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 14, 6 October 1944, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Whakatr

THE CHRISTIAN DYNAMIC IN INDUSTRY John Coatman in "The Listener" writes of the need for Christian principles in the foundations of national life. Tn a crowded meeting in Manchester ; a resolution was proposed and accepted unanimously. Tt said that in the great tasks 'which lay ahead of us ; we should build on moral and spiritual foundations. We should also acknowledge the principles of the Christian religion as the mainspring both of our private action and of our actions as a nation and as the, touchstone for judging one policy against another. Of course, you have heard this sort of thing before but this resolution was meant to be something different. It was meant, for a plan of action I know that is in the minds of many of you. The resolution is too vague. It is in general terms.. It says nothing about the many practical problems which face us : housing, for example social justice war and disarmament, and so on. That -is« true but. this resolution insists that all the great problems of our own private lives, and of national and international policy must be tested against the principles of Christ)anity and solved in accordance with them. Every problem, I repeat, must be brought to the touchstone of Christian principles. A criticism of the resolution came from a distinguished American scholar who said: "Why do you talk about Christian principles Why don't you just say democratic principles?" My answer is clear. I know of no definition of democracy, ancient, or modern, which does not show it to be first and foremost a spiritual ideal. De,mocracy is not a form «,of govern-i ment. It is an ideal which we enlarge and improve even while we are striving to attain it—that is, if we do .strive to attain it. Then it becomes .a way of living in which the highest qualities of the human spirit find expression. What do you and I want from democracy? All the food we can eat? Motor cars? Cinema tickets? Money? No! A Nazi or Fascist government could give us all these. When we think of democracy we think first and foremost of freedom; freedom to live, and speak and worship, and think in the way we believe will give us happiness and welfare. But these freedoms are spiritual things, and so the moment we talk about democracy we go straight into the field of the spirit. The. kind of lile we want, the tiling we are fighting .is essentially a set of spiritual values. We simply cannot solve any of our great, problems unless we put man's spirit, its needs and its satisfactions, right in the foreground of our thinking and planning. Shirking The Real Issue But democracy also means certain material good things' as wc.ll as spiritual. What is the good of talk.ing about democracy to men living I under the constant shadow of unemployment and the fear of war or smarting under a sense of injustice? These are problems which have ; troubled us for many years, < and now 6 we want, we. to solve i them in a better world after the ;

ne Ministers' Association).

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

Herbert Agar, in his book, "A Time for Greatness,'' saj-s: "One of the disheartening facts that modern man has to face is that in spite of generations, of economic progress the Avorkl has not grown better.' Tn terms of goods, and services and population, and standards of living, the Avorld Avent forAvard. But the good societj-' did not come to pass. What came, to pass Avas Avorld Avar bitterness'and triA^iality." Later he says: "An economic reform must, start from the tAvo-fold foundation of technical necessity and of moral or religious purpose.'' 1 his reflection, by the way arose out of his experiences as a membei of a Ne.Av York Committee Avhich met to study the subject of Avorld democracy. You see. the hard-head-ed men of New York agree with the men of Manchester.

The days are at hand Avlien wo shall have to take decisions as. fateful as any ever taken in the Avhole history of mankind. Everything that has happened in this Avar has proA T ed beyond the shadoAv of a doubt that the spiritual element in man is the element that controls his destiny. And for the. guidance of this element we have laws that are eternal and unalterable, because they are eternally right—the principles of Christianity. Why then should Ave fear anything that lies ahead of us?

yrar. Here T beg 3*oll to ponder very deeply the question I am now asking. Do any of 11s now believe that we. qui have this better world with all its wonderful promises without a change of outlook and of heart? We. cannot, believe it. But how are we to get this new outlook? How

are we to experience a change of heart? The answer is that we must set our hearts and minds on things which will call out. the, very best of our qualities, things for which we can strive without. . shame or fear: in short, the true welfare and happiness of and the growth of friendship between the.m. Wealth power, politics—these things will always turn against us in the end unless we learn how to use them for this supreme purpose, of ensuring the welfare of all men.

That is, where we have failed so far. All over the world—not only here —men and nations have, thought first of their own interests and for

happiness they looked to material things. Consider what happened between the last war and this. We drifted. We had no fixed body of moral principles to steer by as the successive economic, political and international crises arose. So we tried this or that expedient. In the search for our own material comfort and safety, Ave shirked the real which were always at bottom moral and spiritual. In 1939 there came an issue Ave could not shirk. And if there is one thing in this Avar beyond all dispute, it is that Ave owe our coining Aictory to the spiritual qualities which the peoples of this and other lands of the United Nations ha\ r e displayed. So noAv we knoAv for certain that if Ave put material things first and seek personal or national salvation through them, Ave shall fail because Ave are trying to do something impossible. W T e are ignoring a mighty element in human nature, the, spiritual element, and Avhile we do that there never can be happiness or peace in the, world.