Industrial Strife
The miner’s strike, which has continued for many weeks, has caused considerable disruption in many sections of the mining industry and has led to conflict among the miners themselves, some of whom do not support the strike. Perhaps the most serious aspect of the strike is the confrontation to which it has led with the forces of law and order. The police have had to face a difficult task in preserving law and order where pickets have massed together to try to prevent coal deliveries to the steel industry and also to try to intimidate, by their presence, miners who have continued working. The conflict is undoubtedly a political one, with the intention, if possible, of bringing down the Government, or at least of forcing the Government to radically alter its policy so far as the coal industry is concerned.
While the present high rate of unemployment is a justifiable cause of concern to men and women in many professions and industries today, yet the methods used by some of the miners in order to remedy the situation, seem only destined to exacerbate it. The miner’s leaders tend to be on the far left of the political spectrum and it is well known that communist policy is to generate a situation that would provoke revolt and secure the overthrow of truly democratic institutions so that they could be replaced with the tyrannical despotism of the godless communistic system. We pray that all efforts towards this end may be frustrated and that the leaders of the nation may address themselves in a reasonable and dignified way — and with due regard to biblical principles — to the pressing question of the mass unemployment which the nation is now facing. It is a situation which must be faced and only the Scriptures of truth can give the light and teaching and guidance which the nation so sorely needs at this hour.
Swearing
Mr Stanley Bailey, Chief Constable of Northumbria, has stated that the use of obscenities is on the increase, especially among youngsters. He calls it a regrettable drop in standards, reflecting changing attitudes in society. He blames parents, teachers, television, radio, films, newspapers and other publications for this state of affairs. He pledged that his officers would continue to restrict the use of obscene language in public by every means open to them.
It is gratifying to hear a Chief Constable drawing attention in a public way to this plague which has come in to defile the land. There is little doubt that in many instances it begins in the home where the example of parents is readily followed by the young. Sad to say, many of the young when they go to school use profane language and do not even know that it is profane until it is pointed out to them by teachers. What is found in many homes in this way is reinforced by the disregard shown by the media of what is in good taste, far less what is required by the divine law. We hope that the Chief Constable’s warning may be heeded and obscene language abandoned by young and old, not only as that which is self-demeaning and obnoxious to many people, but also as that which the law of God forbids.
Euro-candidate
A Church of Scotland minister, Rev Jack MacArthur of Broadford, Skye was the Labour candidate in the Highlands and Islands for the European elections. In defending his right to stand for the European Parliament he said: “As a minister I would not claim my calling was worthy of the name if I did not identify with the problems of my congregation and the effect which Government policies have on their lives.” He claimed that he was answerable to God as a minister, as a father and as a local councillor and when he was asked to contest the election he agreed to do it, even supposing all he could do was to raise the threshold of support to a respectable degree where the Labour Party could take off and a caring community can begin fighting for the future.
While it is true that on specific occasions and particularly in times of crisis, the leaders of the Church of Scotland were pressed into service in the political arena, yet this was more often in an advisory capacity and only rarely did it involve taking up the reins of Government. Even then it was temporary and ministers of the gospel who were truly such were glad to relinquish such duties and return to that work to which they were specifically called. The ministry of the Gospel is a high work and calls for the highest talents and devotion. The forsaking of it, in effect “to serve tables,” cannot be expected to produce the high anticipations of those who follow such a course. “Give thyself wholly to them,” was the Apostle’s direction to Timothy and it was a divine direction — and that is what the Lord will honour. We need have little doubt that if ministers will be faithful in their calling that the Lord, through their ministry, will raise up men fitted for Christian service in the government of the nation.
The Pope and Papua New Guinea
The Pope visited Papua New Guinea early in May. While there he blessed the country’s great rivers, high mountains and deep valleys and prayed that peace would descend on the region’s feared volcanoes. He prayed also for world peace. Travelling the world, the Pope poses as a man of peace, while all the time he has assumed to himself the claims of the divine Redeemer and shows by this that he is an enemy of the true Prince of life and glory. What the pope will yet learn is the truth of that solemn declaration of God’s Word: “There is no peace, saith my God, unto the wicked,” for he is that Wicked, “whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.”