DECLINE IN MORALS

Southland Times, Issue 24824, 17 August 1942, Page 5

DECLINE IN MORALS

ALARM SOUNDED BY CHURCHES (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 17. An attack on war-time moral decadence by the heads of seven Protestant churches in Sydney has again directed attention to , “the very serious condition of affairs that threatens the moral stability of the nation.” Liquor, lack of parental control, the “brownout” and the new freedom given to youth in the war effort have been blamed for the present laxity. The published protest makes six points. (1) The drink evil has attained alarming proportions. (2) Young girls are falling victims to intemperance and through it yield to immoral desires.

(3) Preventatives are an official issue to soldiers going on leave. (4) The advertising and the sale of contraceptives to the civilian population has become a large trade. (5) Erotic stimulation is being caused by suggestive pictures in magazines and advertisements, by the lewd scenes in some plays now being produced, and by purveying through the post of pornographic literature. (6) The Government has introduced a Bill granting pensions to so-called “de facto” widows, thus placing a further premium on the disregard of the sacred obligations of marriage. The statement is signed Dr H. S. Mowll, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, the Rt. Rev. C. F. Macalpine, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the Rev. T. M. Taylor, president of file Methodist Church of Australia, the Rev. R. C. Turner, chairman of the Congregational Union, the Rev. J. M. Crawford, president of the Baptist Union, Pastor S. Stevens, president of the Churches of Christ, and E. J. Harewood, commissioner of the Salvation Army. The protest is widely supported. The seriousness of the falling birth-rate and the rising incidence of social disease are stressed by civil as well as by Church leaders.