OCR Text |
Show 11! DIVORCES ! BAPTISTS m Nearly Every Film Contains: Evil Suggestion, Convention j Report Says i WASHINGTON, May 17. Moving, pictures, lax laws and Intemperance! arc blamed for the numerous divorces j in the United States by the committee; of temperance and social service in its report to the southern Baptist con-j ventlon today. Enactment of a uni-! form code of marriage and divorce) laws recommended as a remedy. j Quoting from government statistics on tho number of divorces obtained an-j uually in the country, the report shows! that in 1916, when the last rigures were gathered, there were 112,036 divorces, di-vorces, f Movie Denounced. As a primary cause of "this sad condition," con-dition," the report denounces tho motion mo-tion picture as now produced, declaring declar-ing that "nearly every film put on the screen contains somowhero some evil suggestion. Many of the films aro based on the 'eternal triangle' and the suggestion of disregard, if not an open breach of tho marital relation." Physical Examination. The report recommends among nfli or flilnrra ( Vi niihl r-n t Inn nf tho marriage bans for at least thirty days; before the rite can be ceiebrated; physical examination of each party by a physician and the establishment of a uniform codo which as nearly as possible "should corno to tho basis of Biblo teaching concerning the ground of divorce with the right of marriage and that in all other cades when divorce be granted It be without the right of re-marriage." A proposal to appoint a committee to study the advisability of establishing establish-ing a Baptist newspaper was made the occasion for an attack by Dr. Ben Cox, of Memphis, Tenn., against the American Ameri-can newspapers In general, and the The Associated Press in particular. Seventy-five per cont of the "blue pencils pen-cils of American newspaper offices," he charged, wero in Roman Catholic hands. Frank E. Burkhalter, of Nashville, Tenn., and tho Rev. Alox W. Bealer, of Georgia, both resented tho attack and declared that the Baptists had always al-ways received tho fairest treatment froin The Associated Press. rr |