FIFTY YEARS AGO Thursday February 24, 1972
End this filth say churches
Campbeltown churchgoers, in common with other congregations throughout the country, are being asked to sign petition forms calling for an end to public filth in television and literature.
Already many people, including non-churchgoers, have appended their names to the forms which are also in several businesses in the town.
The forms are headed: ‘Petition for public decency.’
It states: ‘Being concerned about the effect on society – particularly on the young – and of the increasing exploitation of sex, the public portrayal of intimate or unnatural sexual behaviour and violence and brutality, we the undersigned call upon Her Majesty’s government:
(1) to note the concern of the public about this matter.
(2) to ensure that the law as regards of sanity stops this public affront and is so designed as to be an effective instrument for the maintenance of public decency.
Some church congregations in the town have already begun signing the petition and others planned to follow suit in the near future.
All of Campbeltown’s ministers are in agreement that the obscenities on television and in literature are going too far, and hope that the petition has the desired effect.
The Reverend James W Hood, of Lorne Street Church, commented yesterday: ‘I think it is perfectly right that the church should be given the opportunity of speaking its mind.’