RELIGION AND THE POOR

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21417, 8 March 1935, Page 15

RELIGION AND THE POOR

PROBLEMS IN NEW ZEALAND CONGREGATIONAL UNION ADDRESS f "In war time organisations such as the Young Men's Christian Association did much great work for the soldiers, bu'; to-day, being peace time, we let men lie in relief camps—l almost said let them rot—without any such help," said the Rev. F. J. Shaw in an address at the assembly of the Congregational Union of New Zealand last evening. Mr' Shaw, whose address was announced as "What are the social implications of a living church in society?" was discussing the problem of the church in facing the problem of unemployment. One work that the church could do, said Mr Shaw, in helping to cope with the blight of unemployment, was to send to the relief camps consecrated men, "unofficial missionaries" who could bring to the men a knowledge of religion and of culture. The three principles on which the church of God was based were as follows:—First, that all men and women were of eternal value in the sight of God; second, that all the children of God were one big family of God, and should co-operate for the common good and not work for private or sectional gain; and third, that the Father trusted His children, and made them individually responsible to Him, not only for themselves but for other people. When these three principles were carried into practice, said Mr Shaw, no man or woman could be regarded merely as a profit-making machine, with no personality. It was the duty of Christians never to ignore the personality of those with whom they came in contact.

Carried into effect, these principles were a complete answer to those who described religion as a "dope" for the people, and to those people again who thought Christians were those whose ideal it was to go through Hell on earth in order to obtain a mansion in Heaven. Injustice in the World No amount of economic reconstruction, said Mr Shaw, could put right the world completely while the evil heart of man had some control. True, some readjustment was necessary, but it was not the readjustment itself that mattered. That there was need of such readjustment was the trouble. The real hurt in the lack of possessions amongst the poor was not the actual lack of goods, but the injustice that such a lack should exist. There was an urgent necessity for Christians, with the strength and the ability, to preach to the world the Kingdom of God. It was the duty of the Church to preach the gospel of peace and of grace. False values, held by rich and poor alike, had been responsible for landing the world in its present plight, and the Church had now to combat avarice with Christian principles, and members had a duty to go out and share the life oi the poor. New Zealand had its own evils, and amongst them its own particular form of "sweating," said the speaker. In agricultural and domestic work, he said, there had come to be known, the evils of farm hands and maids working for such wages as 2s 6d a week and keep. There were inevitably evils in New Zealand arising from the liquor traffic and from gambling, and it was a fault in New Zealanders to look with too much complacency on their own virtues. In the small towns of New Zealand, and in the cities to nearly the same extent were rampant the sins of "respectability"—indifference, arrogance, lack of purposeful living, and complacency. Reforms could best be initiated from the Church —from the pulpit, and there was much social constructive work which the Church could do, and which should be done. Not so much by pronouncements should the work be done, but by the making of this earth a province of the Kingdom of God. "The Church has the supreme privilege of purveying to the world the spiritual and external beliefs which it needs," the speaker concluded. .