Dudley F. Turner's Letter to the Advertiser

Dudley Turner and my mum, Edna Gowland
on their wedding day.

In 1949, when he was 36 years old and a father of three, Dudley Turner wrote a letter to The Advertiser on the subject of the current mining strike, naming materialism, selfishness and greed as the cause of  the strike, and Christian spirituality as its remedy. In the process he misquoted and offended a prominent fellow Christian.

  At the time this was written, July 1949, my family was living in a tent on an unimproved block at Eden Hills. They still lived there when I was born 3 years later. Perhaps this explains my father's stance against materialism. My mother, Edna (nee Gowland) was materialistic enough to buy a Housing Trust house (in her own name) when I was about 3 or 4 years old. Our home was curiously furnished with camping items like a coolgardie safe and primus stove that burned methylated spirit.

Anyway, here's Dudley espousing his firm belief that the Gospel was the cure for everything, followed by the Rev. Brown's rebuttal.

Responsibility Of Strikers

 

To the Editor

Sir—A visiting evangelist (Rev. G. R. Brown). who has had many years' experience of special evangelistic work and is a pioneer of industrial evangelism in this State, has a unique message for the working:

man which he believes would solve the present dispute on the coalfields.

He believes that the worker who is always discontented has a diseased mind—a materialistic attitude towards life and a belief that work breeds selfishness and greed. The strike is more than a dispute over wages and conditions It. has a moral and spiritual significance.

The worker is not just a mechanical instrument like the machine he controls but a social individual with a responsiblity toward God and his fellows. When his attitude to God is adjusted he automatically

becomes tolerant towards his boss and his mate.

The employer can give hismen consideration and make their working conditions congenial, but he cannot control the workers' unsettled mind.

Mr. Brown advocates a moral and spiritual regeneration. He can see the impact and good effect that the Christian Gospel has upon the ordinary working man. This is not just superficial. Following his special

meetings in factories, workers have seen for themselves the benefical results. Materialism, scepticism and Communism break down under the influence of the New Testament Gospel.

The coalminer needs just that—a cure for his boredom.

DUDLEY F. TURNER, Eden Hills.

 Responsibility Of Strikers (1949, July 6). The Advertiser p. 4. 

'Utterly stupid and untrue'

Rev George R. Brown responded two days later in the same newspaper (in part):

Sir — The statement by Dudley F. Turner (6/7/49) that I believe 'that the worker who is always discontented has a diseased mind — a materialistic attitude towards life and a belief that work breeds selfishness and greed' is utterly stupid and untrue and does not in any way make sense. In fact, nothing could be fur

ther from the truth. Fortunately, those who know, my association over the past' 25 years with the Industrial Christian Fellowship Movement of Australasia, will not attribute such a spurious statement to me.