"LAISSER-FAIRE" FOR RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE. To THE EDITOR OF THE "
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Sur,—In your article on "Religious Indifference in East London," you ask how it is that the population in those parts
never show any appetite for such a thing as religion at all ? "How is it that they are not hungry ?" you inquire, after re- viewing various suggestions that have been offered for supply- ing a want which does not appear to be felt. And you put aside various answers that might be suggested, without so much as suggesting one that you think even plausible yourself. Yet it seems to me the true answer is tolerably obvious, and the mode in which you put the question ought to have led you to it. People will not be hungry, if they are continually fed, and per- haps over-fed, with dainties. The very correspondence on which you comment shows that it is the opinion of many West-End Christians that it is by all means their duty to get as much religion as they can down East-End people's throats. Does this process tend to recommend Christianity to the East-Enders ? I should think, in the nature of things, it might be expected to have the contrary effect. Religion has been put in a false light to these people, by the very agencies intended to promote it. The very missions and organisations which some are so anxious to increase, the very desire for a more efficient clergy, (as if clergy could make an appetite !) the very eagerness to pro- mote visiting and gospel-reading among the poor,—it is these very things that do the mischief. The poor are more than half-inclined to think it is for the interests of the upper classes, and. not of themselves, that they should be religious, for it is the upper classes who are so anxious to make them so. Why cannot we let the indifferent alone ? Let the dead bury their dead. Let those who are not hungry wait till they find an appetite. It is worse than useless to go forcing food upon their acceptance, and making them think it a favour to us if it is not declined. Rather let us tell them that if they do not go to church and use the ministrations of the clergyman, it is their own loss. If they find any need of help, divine or human, in the midst of their struggles—or desire any better recognition of the fact that they have a common humanity with us—they will be anxious, for their own sakes, to vindicate their place in the great Christian brotherhood, which embraces rich and poor alike. But let them clearly understand that, so far as we are concerned, they are at liberty to do as they please.—I am,
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