Christian Frontier Discusses Attitude Towards Communism

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 7, 16 December 1947, Page 6

Christian Frontier Discusses Attitude Towards Communism

The opinion that the modern world is chaotic and blundering because the masses everywhere lack faith in life as vital and purposeful, was expressed in the course of a paper presented to a recent meeting of a discussion group organised by the Christian Frontier Movement in Tauranga. The statement continued:

“We have compelling ideologests; but democracy as a gospel is vague and negative. Herein lies the danger of Communism, with its sharply defined philosophy, its denial of Christian ethics, its iron discipline, its burning faith, issuing in absolute obedience and striking self-sacrifice. Herein is the challenge to the Christian Church; to our complacency, our ignorance of the Faith, our lukewarmness, our spiritual shallowness, our indifferent practice. “Christians must study and strive to understand Communism. They must learn to recognise and isolate from the rest the elements of economic and social truth which it embodies, to give credit where credit is due. But they must test Communism, both in its theory and its practice, at the bar of Christian judgment. We must not be swept away or influenced by fear of popular anti-communist emotion. We have to combine an attitude of patience and forbearance with an atttiude of insistence upon Christian truth and the Christian way of life. Communism will be bettered only by an equally intense faith and devotion, reflected in personal and community life, derived from God as our helper. Our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees.”