Flexi-work is slavery

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I FULLY support the views of the Reverend Earl Thames concerning flexi-work. I go further and describe flexi-work as slavery with a good-sounding caption. Dr William Temple, late Archbishop of Canterbury, expressed it profoundly in his address, 'The Education of Citizens'.

"The appointed task of modern civilisation is to devise some method of organising the community in such a way as to dispense with the institution of slavery.

"For the science of politics, at any rate, the essence of slavery is this, that men are regarded as a means of production, and not as ends in themselves; that their economic value as productive agents is considered, and that their welfare as spiritual beings is not."

William Temple also said:

"There is, in fact, only one safe course for democracy, and that is that it should recognise its source in Christianity and allow Christian principles at all points to govern it. This will, of course, involve a great tenderness towards anything that can fairly be represented as a point of conscience ... for it is the recognition that the real meaning of society is to be found in the true spiritual freedom of its citizens."

Human beings are not isolated individuals. We are beings in community. Anything which will attack and weaken family life and corporate worship will devalue human beings and should be avoided at all cost.

Rev Everard G. Allen

Brown's Town Baptist Church