The 77

It is a fact that puzzles or annoys many a Marxist: that British Socialists seem to get more inspiration from the New Testament than from Das Kapital. The founder of Britain's Labor Party, the late Keir Hardie, was a serious Christian who denounced class warfare. Last week, 77 Labor members of Parliament proved that Hardie's tradition is still very much alive. Calling themselves the "Parliamentary Socialist Christian Group," the 77 published a plain-speaking pamphlet. Its theme: Christians should be in politics, and Labor should be their party.

The pamphlet, In This Faith We Live, has a foreword by Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Stafford Cripps and the signatures of a good cross-section of government M.P.s. Early in 1947 members of the new group began to meet informally to discuss ways & means of injecting more practical Christianity into politics. Last November they sent a letter to the Times which drew such a response that they decided to publish the present twelve-page statement of faith.

Worship is a Christian's most important activity, says the statement, but social action comes second; and politics is social action's effective form. But the Christian is not aiming at a mere Marxian dream of material welfare; he desires "the maximum opportunity for the development of individual personalities."

Citing their party's record on Matthew 25: 34-40 (". . . I was an hungred and ye gave me meat"), the Socialist Christians state baldly that "the Labor Party has a good claim to be considered the Christian Party." They admit the existence of "probably a small minority" in the British Labor movement who, as Victorian rationalists or Marxian materialists, "reject the Christian idea of God." But the Labor

Party offers Britons "the opportunity to share in a great common purpose, sought with a sense of universal comradeship, in contrast with the Conservative aim of competitive striving for personal gain."

Before planning for the future, the new group is waiting to see how much interest this first tract stirs up. If last week's spate of newspaper comment and requests for copies was any indication, Parliament's 77 Socialist Christians would have plenty to do.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.