Where Are The Leaders? (Question Box)

J.W. Deenick. Trowel & Sword. May 1963

Preamble: One of the benefits of Trowel and Sword, particularly in the early years, was that readers were able to send in questions and/or opinions to the editors about matters that were of concern to them. As a young denomination, made up mostly of immigrants from the Netherlands, the tendency was to compare the activities of the new denomination with what they had been used to in the motherland. Questions were mostly answered in a single article, although, as was the case here, a longer question combining a number of involved issues resulted in a series of articles each tackling a particular aspect of the original question. Bill Deenick was in his element in this situation treating each question with respect and giving carefully considered answers. In this article his focus is on the question asked, promising to carefully consider his answers before giving them over the next few issues.

Where Are The Leaders?

A New South Wales reader, perturbed about the present trend in Reformed circles, asks a few challenging questions.

Here they are, freely edited:
“Our Churches’ calling in Australia is that we are to introduce in this country a sound understanding of those Reformation principles which in other parts of the world induced Reformed Christians to establish Christian schools, to organise Christian political parties and trade unions, to publish Christian daily and weekly papers and magazines. Should not each member of a Reformed church look forward to the day that these aims are achieved also in Australia? Of course, it is impossible to obtain our objectives in a short period of time, but it is now eleven years since we established Reformed churches here and what has been done about it? We hardly made a start with even only one of these aims. On the contrary, it seems to me that in our circles the real interest in these principles is diminishing rapidly. Even our ministers and professors seem to be too busy explaining the doctrines which every communicant member should know anyhow. There does not seem to be time left for real action. Besides, our ministers and professors have neglected to give real leadership with regard to the questions around naturalisation. This has confused many of our people. We were always taught that the only political movement we could support were the Christian political parties. We were told to elect trustworthy Christian politicians for Parliament. We were in the position to do so because of the election system of proportional representation in Parliament. Out here they practice the district system in which the candidate has to gain the majority in his district in order to be elected for Parliament. This is the reason why many Reformed people hesitate to become naturalised Australians, seeing that no consistent Calvinist could conscientiously support one of the Australian political parties, materialistic and secular as they are.
These – my correspondent writes – are facts that cannot be denied. In contradiction to the will of God the Australian government profits from gambling and condones uncontrolled monopolism as also many other evils, which should be enough for every one of us – and especially for our Church leaders – to lodge a strong protest. Should we not think twice before we naturalise? I believe that in the circumstances we should decline to do so. I fully recognise the difficulties that we have to face, but I am convinced that there are ways and means to make our anxieties known to the government and to awaken our christian brothers and sisters in this land. Could we not petition the government for a change in the present election system and request the introduction of a proportional representation in Parliament so that the Christians in this country could be represented by their own man, politicians with Christian “back-bone” who could stand for Christian principles and so be of tremendous influence to the common good of the nation”.

So far our reader in New South Wales.

I do not know how other readers feel about it, but I like this question. I like it very much. I like its spirit and its scope. I like this appeal to the “leaders”, and the frankness with which they are called to task.

This brother is apparently happy and thankful that we have Reformed Churches, but he is not content with merely having the Church. He does not express himself in the “higher” language of the theologians, but what he means is this: I have always understood that the Church ought not to seek its purpose in itself. The Church is not there for the sake of the Church. The Church ought to be an army for a battle. And our battle is, in the first place, evangelism; but, in the second place, it is also the Christianisation of the national life. We must teach the nation to do all that Christ the King has commanded. What are we doing about it? What action do we take?

And the leaders? They have become Australian citizens and do not seem to be worried at all about sending their children to the public school, supporting the Liberal Party, reading the “Sydney Morning Herald” or the “Evening Star” and seem to be just as happy with the A.B.C. as they were with the Christian Broadcasting Corporation on the other side of the world. In the Netherlands we would have been just about disciplined by the Church had we dared to send our children to a public school, and we would have been certainly questioned by the elders about reading a secular paper. How then is it possible that here in Australia we seem to have forgotten about this? Were the principles to which we held not so valid after all? Or, if they were valid, why do we not live up to them?

I like this question. I would like to have asked it myself.

But now the problem is that I have to answer it. I would like some time to think about it, and I hope that the readers will do this with me.

The first question that I believe we should answer is whether these principles to which we referred were valid or not and how they are related to our being naturalised as Australian citizens.

(Stay tuned for the next instalment).

J.W. DEENICK

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