Floods in East Pakistan
We are being constantly reminded by solemn events in providence that the judgments of the Lord are abroad in the earth. The floods in East Pakistan in which thousands perished reminds us anew of the nearness of eternity and of the danger to which sinners are exposed if the Lord comes out against them in judgment. If the Lord so visits in His wrath the heathen who have never known His Name, how exposed to such visitations as these must a nation like ours be, which has in so large measure turned its back upon the living and true God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pornography
A disturbing aspect of the permissive society in which we live is the torrent of filthy literature which is pouring from the press of this country or entering the country from the press of the U.S.A. The law which in the past was applied to such obscene material, whether in written or pictorial form, defined the ground of condemnation as its tendency to deprave or corrupt. In Denmark, all restrictions on the sale of pornography have been removed for the reason that no such tendency can be discerned. There are those in our own country who would like to follow the same example. Councils such as the Arts Council and other public bodies advocate the removal of all restrictions. Recently, President Nixon dealt in summary fashion with an 800 page Report of a Commission appointed by the President, which denied that there was any evidence of open sexual material in pictures of literature causing any social or individual harm, by dismissing the Report with the remark that “ten minutes of common sense” was all that was required to decide the matter. He went on to give the assurance to the nation that there would be no relaxation of the national effort to control and eliminate smut while he was President.
The Board of Social Responsibility of the Church of England have recently published a review of the whole subject of Pornography, in which some true and apposite strictures on the production and sale of obscene material which is flooding the country are made. There should be no difficulty, the Report says, in recognising filth. Tons had already been seized and destroyed in the past year. The Customs had no difficulty in seizing nearly 800,000 magazines containing such filth, nor the Post Office in seizing 6,000 packages of a similar nature in the previous year. To allow such filth to circulate freely would pollute the social atmosphere and encourage a taste for sexual perversity. The Board rightly concludes that pornography should be completely prohibited.
Of course, the liberal minded theologians such as Bishop John Robinson of Woolwich, now of Cambridge, can claim that the erotic can be ‘positively good’; and Mr John Calder, the publisher, can speak of pornography as an ‘escapist literature’ very much in the same class as novels, and quite as harmless. The tragic feature about this subject is referred to in the Board’s Report that the chief consumers of pornographic and obscene publications are the middle-aged and elderly. The whole matter was summed up adequately in the words of an American publisher, a Mr K. S. Giniger, who runs a salon for writers in New York, when he said at a meeting of the Scottish P.E.N., the literary body of poets, essayists and novelists, in Edinburgh recently: “I think that this tide of filth — and it cannot be described as anything else — will submerge much that is good. I think that as publishers and writers we must make efforts to clean our own stables.”
C.
R.C. Cardinal at Aberdeen
Cardinal Gray of St. Andrews, the first Roman Catholic Cardinal to be appointed to Scotland since the Reformation, preached to a capacity congregation of 500 in King’s Chapel, Aberdeen, on a recent Sabbath. He was welcomed by Rev. Alan Main, chaplain to Aberdeen University, who, so far from being ashamed at this betrayal of his own church, evidently considered it a great honour that for the first time in the 400 years since the Reformation, a papal priest should be received with open arms into a Protestant chapel. The occasion was used by this papal dignitary to press some very subtle papal propaganda upon his hearers in this Protestant place of worship. He had much to say about the Church, and on this subject he waxed eloquent — “rich, many faceted, many splendoured reality” — and complained that as she was presented on television in “the services of the different traditions of worship or ecumenical songs of praise”, the Church was a mere caricature of her real self. Here she was seen as the Church at prayer, withdrawn within herself, isolated and living in her own private world. To be complete, she must come out of her isolation, and join in the ecumenical movement, and he went on to suggest that a wide area in which the various religious bodies could join might be in the services of suffering humanity, race relations, development of under-privileged peoples, relief for the victims of disaster. This co-operation in the ecumenical movement would show the Church in action. Needless to say, there was no attempt made to define the church he had in mind, but it goes without saying that the papal church is meant. When the separated brethren were gathered within the papal fold, then we might see the completed church. He spoke of the liturgy as being the main-spring and inspiration of the Church’s action; needless to say again, there could be only one liturgy so commended by this Roman apologist — the liturgy of Rome. Let any deluded Protestant enter a modest plea that a small place be found for Protestant liturgy, and the intolerance of Rome is roused, and the charge heard that this is an attempt to disrupt the smooth course of ecumenical progress. He described the “immense potential” of ecumenical co-operation, but Rome knows only one form of ecumenical action — that dictated by her leaders and ruthlessly imposed upon all who resign themselves to her tender mercies. It suits Rome’s purpose to deal in the hazy, misleading language of innuendo and insinuation, which is calculated to mislead thoughtless Protestants. These are the methods used by the Roman Catholic Church in our country today to regain her ancient privileges and power, and they are proving successful. While our people are asleep to their peril, Rome is sleepless in advancing her influence throughout the country, and she finds her most devoted and infatuated agents, as ready-made tools for her work in the so-called religious leaders of the Protestant Church.
C.
Dr Graham and Ireland
The latest well known figure to take an interest in the affairs of Northern Ireland is the world famous evangelist Dr Billy Graham. In London he has just stated his intention of paying a visit to the country some time in 1972, in response to invitations from Protestant leaders in N. Ireland, and his visit will be in the nature of a healing mission. He anticipates opposition, however, for he mentions the fact that Dr Ian Paisley, the Presbyterian minister and M.P. for Bann Side, has named him as “an emissary of the pope”.
Whatever purpose may take this evangelist to Northern Ireland, his visit can bring little joy to true Presbyterians in N. Ireland, if the record of Graham’s relations with the papacy and related religious bodies is any guide to go by. Dr Graham has long since renounced the term “fundamentalist” as defining his doctrinal position, and prefers the term “constructionist”, as he sees his work as lying mainly in healing the breaches dividing the Church throughout the world. His relations with the Roman Catholic Church are anything but satisfactory. On the occasion of accepting an honorary degree from Belmont Abbey, N. Carolina, a Roman Catholic institution, he is reported to have said, “The Gospel that founded this college is the same Gospel which I preach today”. And this spirit of friendship on the part of the papal authorities is returned. During the Second Boston Crusade, Dr Graham sought and was granted an interview with Cardinal Cushing, who blessed his work in the words: “No Catholic can do anything but become a better Catholic on hearing Graham”. When intimating his intention of visiting N. Ireland, Dr Graham recalled his meeting with the notorious Dr Ramsay, Archbishop of Canterbury, who once declared his belief that he would meet present day atheists in heaven, at Lambeth Palace. “I remember he took me aside and said: ‘I pray for you every day. I pray that God will bless all you do right and God will overrule all that you do wrong’. I replied: “Your Grace, that is going to be my prayer for you from now on.” These incidents do not inspire confidence in Dr Graham. A religious leader who has adapted his message to the Ecumenical Gospel, compromised himself and his public work by associating with notorious modernists and heretics, given full support to Evanston and New Delhi, and besides has in all his campaigns adopted the highly censurable practice of sending his “converts” back to their liberal Churches or to their Roman Catholic priests with no word of warning, is not a religious leader who is likely to bring healing to the nation’s sores in that distracted land.
C.