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"Student" Features Dissolution Bill

"Student" is the Journal of the new New Zealand Student Christian Movement and claims to be "a journal for those who desire to understand the Christian Message and live the Christian Faith." It is not a magazine which has retreated within itself and been satised to record the activities or preserve the beliefs of the S.C.M., but rather has attempted to enter wholeheartedly into the issues and problems with which any student is confronted.

"Student" believes that all these issues and problems of student life can only be satisfactorily resolved by applying Christian principles to them; and this it tries to do. Its judgments are based on the moral values of Christ, which may result in a radical or a moderate point of view; but whatever the results are, the values are basically Christian; the radicalness is sanctioned by the pursuit of Christian ideals. So that we do not look to "Student" merely as another exponent of our favourite creed.

The first edition for 1951, for example contains an article from the Australian S.C.M. recommending that the Communist Party dissolution Bill and similar legislation should be condemned. The reasons for this conclusion are not merely that support for this legislation by the very nature of democracy, is logically invalid, but that it is opposed to the Christian ideals of the worth of human nature and of certain inherent rights of individual freedom.

The subject matter in "Student" ranges from devotional studies to articles on life in China under the present Government. "Student" is concerned to deal with the whole of life, or as much of it as can be written about in 32 pages; there is an attempted integration of a student's interest. The reason why it is not simply a political or devotional journel is, of course, to be found in the totality of the Christian faith. "Student" would condemn the belief that we can take a valuable part in discussing and participating in the wider and more impersonal activities of life, while disregarding the condition of our private, personal life. To this end we find alongside one another comments on foreign affairs and a study of our relationship with God.

But Student is not intended only for the confessed Christian. It is for students generally. The S.C.M. is an active group in the University and Training College and has no desire whatever to close its ranks to those who do not acknowledge themselves Christians. Student is trying to enter in on the ground floor of student life, to present a challenge to student belief. All students who see life seriously can get value from reading and cotributing to it.

Students need not fear that they will be offended by any narrowness of outlook or creed; the S.C.M. is an oecumenical movement and its journal has a cathlocicity of appeal which should excite the interest of any real student. As one of the most responsible and stimulating organs of student opinion in N.Z., it should play an important role in helping to set the intellectual climate of the University and in provoking an awareness of the challenge it contains.

Orders for "Student" may be given to Chris. Harvie or Dick Fowler via the common letter racks.