Against the Tide: Social, Moral and Political Questions in the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand 1840 - 1970

Abstract

The Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, from its establishment in 1840, considered that it was entitled to impose its puritanical moral standards on New Zealand society. The fact that as early as 1871 census figures showed only one-third of the population attended church did not inhibit the Church from expecting the government to listen to them and agree to Presbyterian standards being imposed by legislation. Because the leading voices within the Presbyterian Church were of the intelligentsia and were firmly middle class, its government was oligarchic. Lesser educated working class people were not attracted, to the Church and those who were members had little chance of understanding the erudite reports issued by the General Assembly. The upper middle class values of Presbyterian Church leaders and the nature of the Church government contributed heavily not only to a loss of influence on New Zealand society but also to a loss of interest from its own membership. This thesis investigates the effect that the tide of secularisation had on the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand and the way in which this affected certain public issues dealt with by the Church. The issues have been divided into three sections; four questions which relate to the application of the Ten Commandments, three which can be classified as sexual issues and two social issues. Each issue is dealt with in historical order (1848 - 1970) and the response of the Church in its interaction with the government has been documented. It has been shown that with the impact of secularisation the Presbyterian Church lost its influence on society and was out of touch with reality. As religious commitment became less important church membership and attendance declined and the influence the Church was able to exert on public issues receded. In most of the areas covered by this thesis the Church was out of step with society. In a very few cases it changed its outlook dramatically. Surprisingly sexual issues come into this category. The implication of this examination is that a tremendous amount of work in researching and preparing reports has been done by a few people at different times in the history of the Presbyterian Church with so little effect on the social and moral development of the country and so little impact on its own members and adherents. This result is very different from the intention and expectations of the Church leadership.