Elmer Gantry

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 400, 14 July 1928, Page 8

Elmer Gantry

THE QUIET CORNER.

(Written for THE SUN by the Rev. Charles Chandler, Assistant City Missioner.) Every clergyman should read “Elmer Gantry.’’ It is the most impudently clever and almost blasphemously smart book I have ever read. It is comprised of a series of daring tilts at commercialised religion, and its author runs the rule of merciless criticism over the Sundays and the Biederwolfs of our modern-day evangelism. His “Sharon Falconer ” is Ms Annie MacPherson, and this lady has reduced wholesale soul-saving to a fine art. “Dr. Zechlin,” the atheist lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis at the Mizpah Theological Seminary, says that “Jesus has been turned into a monster that hates youth and laughter ” by those who claim to be the best informed. The pitfalls of the popular parson; the cheapjack stunting methods of the down-town preachers; the canting humbug of the purely emotional religionist; the pettiness of mere denominationalism ; and the tragedy of the unconverted pastor, all pass under revieio in kaleidoscopic fashion. One can read “Elmer Gantry ” without becoming a scrap more religious, but one cannot read it without yearning for a deep sincerity at all costs. nothing that is real and vital in our faith can suffer through the pen of a thousand Sinclair Lewises; but much that is purely effervescent, unmeaning, and without depth can be exposed for the good of all that is best in.the Church. Next Week: The Curate’s Egg.