It was reported last month that the South African Government were introducing an Act called the “Immorality Act” which forbids white people and non-whites to marry. Archbishop Dr. Jost de Blank of Cape Town, of the Anglican Church, described this Act as “a monstrous piece of legislation,” and rightly said: “The only apartheid the Church recognises in marriage is the warning that Christians are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” It is indeed a terrible state of affairs when such as are of a different colour of skin are prohibited by a man-made law to enter into marriage with one another, although that which is lawful according to Scripture may not always be expedient. Yet in the case of Moses: “Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married . . . and the anger of the Lord was kindled against them” (see Numbers, chap. 12). Those in power today in the Union of South Africa are being carried into future trouble by their extreme and unscripturable racial laws.
Archbishop supports Betting Bill.
The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Fisher told a Church Conference that the new Betting Bill should be supported in general in the hope that it might be improved in detail before it became law. But then he added that people should understand that thus the Church is not saying that betting and gaming are good things. He said: “They are not. They are part of a grave social evil.” Later he declared: “The Church has never declared that betting and gambling are ecclesiastical crimes.” What confusion and uncertainty in the pronouncements of the head of such a large Church as the Church of England! Gambling is a grave social evil, but members in the Church of England who indulge in this evil are not disciplined or deprived of Church privileges. Blind leaders of the blind!