CHRISTIANITY AND RACE
SIR,—Many will be grateful to Hugh Montefiore for his article on the above subject, and especially for his summarising of Christian teaching on the race question. His indictment of the sincerely held conviction of members of the Dutch Reformed Church. that because God has made them so, and through no particular merits of their own, they are superior to the blacks, will no doubt commend itself to many Christians in other branches of the Christian Church. The `Baaskap' mentality, when it finds its way into a Church, deservedly demands criticism and censure.
At least two other considerations should, however, be allowed to temper our criticism. One is, and it should be axiomatic for Christians, that we cannot speak profitably to others about their sins unless we show ourselves capable of appreciating their virtues, It is not necessary to condone another's sin in order to do this.
Secondly, when reading Fr. Huddleston's book Nought For Your Comfort, there were times when he was criticising this admittedly un-Christian `superior' attitude of the Dutch Reformed Church, when I had to pinch myself and say, no, he is not writing about the attitude of some Anglicans to members of the Free Churches in this country. Possibly thirty years in the ministry of one of these Free Churches, spent in towns and cities in the north, south, cast and west of England, and as a 'chaplain in the Forces,'may have soured me! I could never indict a whole Church. I number some of my best friends as being in the Anglican Church, and I 'passionately desire the union as well as the unity of the Christian Churches. This same `Baaskap atti- tude has, however, frequently made itself manifest. It marred the Coronation ceremony for many Free Churchmen. On the local level it is tacitly under- Stood that the vicar should 'preside,' and the Free Churchman may, to preserve a 'balance,' be asked to read the Lesson. 1 love most of what I find in the Anglican Church. but this attitude of some Anglicans to other denominations does call for a more enlightened relationship, If Anglicans, or Roman Catholics for that matter, are 'superior' to Free Churchmen, they as Christians would never know it, and least of all would they attempt to impose this false distinction upon others. The story of the young Joseph and his dream of his brethren's sheaves doing obeisance to his sheaf is naturally and psycologically explicable, but it is not Christian, and should not he emulated by any branch of the Christian Church.—Yours faithfully, C. RAYMOND SCOTT Mount Pleasant Methodist Church, Exeter
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