Dean On N.Z. Politics

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31107, 9 July 1966, Page 16

Dean On N.Z. Politics

The Christian should be able to bring Christian insights, or moral judgments, into party politics—a person should ask where he or she could find a party which advocated a policy that provided for the care, concern, and responsibility of one’s fellow men, said the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. W. A. Pyatt) when he addressed members of the Student Christian Movement on “Politics and Christianity” last evening. It had been said by some religious groups that the church should not get involved in party politics, said Dean Pyatt. Yet through the Incarnation, God got involved with man, politics and the world.

There were suggestions from some quarters that as in France and Germany the church should run a political party of its own. However, there were dangers in this, said Dean Pyatt. “The church might claim her laws were the act of God. It might lose its prophetic function and perhaps take on airs above its station.” How then was the Christian to participate in politics? he asked. “For some it should be more than just voting. It might mean getting involved in the party structure or offering oneself as a candidate. But in many cases it

is simply a matter of attending party meetings and paying one’s subscription,” said Dean Pyatt. In New Zealand, because it was considered satisfactory, most people regarded the two-party system as normal, said Dean Pyatt. Yet he considered that the oneparty system might be too easily criticised. “I suspect we are very close to a one-party system in New Zealand. The squabbling between National and Labour goes within very limited areas. Both parties take a middle-of-the-road attitude and we seem to have reached a concensus beyond which we seemingly don’t want the parties to go,” Dean Pyatt said. “So the policies of the two appear blurred and come election time they try to attract our vote on things other than policy. “I often wish they would move more apart on issues and produce some quite definite political philosophies, something let us say that people can believe in and perhaps die for. But honestly I cannot say I would willingly die for the policies expounded by Messrs Kirk and Holyoake.

“I have voted Socialist all my life because it was the party which ■ to me framed the policies intended to help my fellow men. This is what I meant by advocacy of a policy for the care, concern and responsibility of our fellow men,” he said. Dean Pyatt was the first

speaker in a series organised by the Student Christian Movement. Future speakers will include Mr N. Kirk, the Leader of the Opposition; Mr Kinsella, the Minister of Education; Mr W. E. Rowling, member for Buller; and the Minister of Defence (Mr Eyre).