REORGANISED CHURCH

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1047, 11 August 1930, Page 14

REORGANISED CHURCH

MORE MATERIAL HELP FOR THE PEOPLE URGED ECONOMICS AND ETHICS t The need for a closer study of the material side of Christianity was advanced by Dr. D. Belshaw, Professor of Economics at the Auckland University College, in a talk on “Economics and the Christian Ethic” at the Mount Albert Methodist Church Men’s Guild yesterday. He held that Christianity could be' more effective if the clergy had a fuller knowledge of what was known as the “social sciences.” “I do not wish to belittle individual effort, but the old idea that the saving of individual souls means that one does not need to bother about social change must be discarded,” said Dr. Belshaw. "Individual charity is a case in point. Such charity can be made demoralising by the manner in which it is administered, and an even worse effect is that it can divert attention from the root causes of distress concentrating oil a mere palliative.” It was unfortunate that the material aide was not stressed more fully, since the happiness of the people, their moral tone, their love of beauty and their capacity for creating beauty were all a Christian concern, dependent in a large extent on environment. The basic cause of the world’s trouble could not be cured by the mere act of everyone becoming a passive Christian. A federation of churches to deal with social questions was advocated by Mr. W. J. Iloldsworth, speaking on "The Church and Unemployment” at a later service. He considered that a scheme of “rationalisation” such as had been adopted in industry was essential if the Church was to gain the respect of the people. She must show a more definite interest in their material welfare. Nothing could strike religion a harder blow than the knowledge that an English archbishop had left an estate of £40,000 when thousands were living from hand to mouth after months out of work.