Can Churches Save The World?

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 29, 30 December 1938, Page 24

Can Churches Save The World?

On Which Side Does The Church Stand? .. . Thanks For "a Positive Article"... Some More Views on Jazz and Crooning ... Radio and the Manners of the Masses

J read with interest your thought provoking article on the question ‘‘Can the Churches Save the World?"? and while I cannot entirely agree with some of the opinions expressed, you certainly deserve credit for giving publicity to a matter which is concerning and worrying most thoughtful people today. { have no dogmatic views one way or the other, but I would like to add a couple of comments. First, until there is a spiritual regeneration within the Church itself, there cannot be spiritual regeneration throughout the world. The Chureh has still to prove that it is not the same politicallyminded worldly body that it has been throughout the centuries, Second, there is indeed evidence of a great spiritual movement among the peoples of the world, and it is wp to the Church to do its bit. The Church should lead, not follow. The struggle is essentially one between sane democracy and totalitarianism. On which side does the Church stand? R ATIONALIST (Huntly):

"Positive Article"'

Dorothy

Robins

(Kelburn):

I want to tell you how much I appreciated your article in this week’s ‘‘Reecord’’ entitled ‘‘Gan the Churches Save the World."? I think it was splendid to make it the front-page article. The world is simply crying out for the answer to its problems, and it is only through morai and spiritual rearmament that the answer is to be found. Thank you for tlis positive article. I hope there will be more like it. Chaos

Swing

Mataura ,

It have

been a veader of the ‘‘Record’s’’?’ Home Forum for quite a while, and there has never been a time when there has not been a letter in from some person about the amount of janz

and crooning that comes over tie air. In answer to S.K.M. and Old Ted, I challenge them to prove their claim that the programmes of today are cluttered up with jazz and crooning, S.K.M. says his bile

rises at breakfast: time when he listens to the tunes of the day. What does he think ours does when. we sit down to our tea after a day’s work, and have to listen to the dinner music? Stuff that has no rhythm, no tune, no nothing, Tust a jumble of instruments making a chaos of sound. One has only to: look at the programmes of the wee in the "Radio Record" to see what the average man has to digest. "Tripe"’

X

(Wellington) :

Your paper

of December 16 contains no fewer than four letters complain‘ing strongly of the vulgar and silly stuff that is dished up to listeners on the radio. The writers, like myself, are no doubt expressing. the | opinions of others with whom they jhave spoken, It is honed New Zea‘and radio officials read your pub'Jieation, es the programmes ore at | tines quiie unsatisfactory in com- ' pilation. In a reeent issue of the "Radio Record" some one asked what had become of the records of Chostiakoff, the Russian tenor? To him I ‘would add Giali, Crooks, Pinza, Caruso, Butt, Widdop, Galli Curei, and De Luca. I am not forgetting that we heard a few of these last week, and in the Iatest programme we are promised some more. We can stand the repetition. , Manners of Masses "583" (Dunedin): The radio is a very powerful medium for good or ill. Its influence goes far beyond: the written word, With a proper use ot radio it would be possible

to raise the taste of the masses, and bring the more pliable of them to something approaching a cultural level. While the present Government is fully awake to the tower of broadcasting as a means toward achieving political ends, and while it does’ not hesitate to use the ether to play on the sentiments of the working class, it appears to lack understanding as regards the use.to which radio might be put to improve the manners of the masses. Mr. Savage is always prating about improving the standard of living for the New Zealander. The majority, especially the young males, stand in need of some preparation to fit them for the beiter standard of. living that is coming by way of Socialistic effort. At the present time the average male under 35 years of age is decidedly. inferior in physique, manners and speech to his specimen of a generation ago. He stands as 2 living example of the stage to which democracy has brought us, and he is a finger post toward the future-a future that needs no indicating. And yet much could be done. What is the cause? The young male of this generation has been poisoned by the output of the American printing press, and, further, by the tin-pan dance music, the crude pictures and the sticky songs that pollute the ether. School children, too, are being fed upon ‘this poison, which finds its way into classroom as well as the home. And there is another aspect, aside from the actual damage done to the masses by depraved broad-ecasting-the fact that those of refined. taste rmuect suifer trash and

sickly’. rubbish io win a few moments’ pleasure from suitable music. The conmercial announcer adopts a tone that is most offensive to those of refinement. He does not further the interests of the advertiser-indeed, he probably creates an impression opposite in effect to that honed for. These announcers are devoid of all sense of restraint. They forget that there is a dignified section to whom it would pay the advertisers to appeal, The advertisers themselves should realise that the same quiet dignity that characterised Press advertising would serve also through the radio, The time has come to make a determined effort for revisjon of programuires. Anti-Semitism

L.

K.

(Herne Bay):

May I

thank Liber ("Record," December, 16) for his reply to my letter. \T was, however, speaking of antiSemitism generaily, and I did not mention any particular ccantry. However, in mentioning Germany as Liber does, then one must deaidirectly with anti-Semitism in. Germany. Liber draws attention to the wealth of the Jews by statistics. It would be interesting to know from what source he drew his figures. In the case of wealth; would not that be a case against capitalism rather than Jewry? Ii because of economic reasons anti Semitics feel justified, why not decide the issues on an economic basis? Is it necessary to persecute artists, poets and singers, and others not connected with wealth? The real aim in Germany is the separation of the two peoples. The racial policy of Germany today is well known. Liber mentions that the Jews are prominent in art, and

music, but they are also prominent in science (Albert Einstein left the country), medicine and physics. They have contributed much to the culture of Germany. The fact that the Jews in Germany are prominent in these things shows that they have been prominent in the national life of the country. Unfortunately, the Jews are people without a country-they have been used as an excuse for many of the mistakes of various governments. In the Middle Ages the Jews were not allowed to own land, to move out of the ghettoes or to trade without special permits. Money-lending was not objected to because it was a non-Jewish habit to borrow money from Jews and not be very particular about paying it back. The solution of the Jewish problem is not to persecute them, History records how persecution strengthens theJews. What, then, is the solution? It is true that the Jews adopt the country of their birth as their own, and usually are very loyal, but prejudice against foreigners makes it very difficult for them. It would seem that the solution of. the Jewish problem is a Jewish homeland for them %t work out their own destiny. The recent suggestion in London to give to the Jews a portion of Northern Rhodesia seems very sound, because there unhampered they can work together and trade with the countries of the world. ~ The solution of the Jewish problem | and anti-Semitism will not, aud cannot be found if the Jewish : people have not a homeland of their own,

Carols "Tired (Auckiand): When I first read a letter in the Home Forum of the "Record" complaining about too many Christmas carols I just thought, "Here’s an

old spdil-sport. Just because he doesn’t enjoy carols, he thinks nobedy else shouid be allowed to enjoy them." But after hearing the number of carois I have heard during the past day or two, 1 am in: clined to agree with your correspondent. Carols are all very well, but enough is as good as a feast. I hope there will be an improvement next Christmas-that is if Hitler hasn’t prociaimed Father Christmas non-Aryan and done away with him,