The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1934. CHURCH AND STATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 25, 30 January 1934, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1934. CHURCH AND STATE.

yor the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance. And the good that ice can do

A struggle between Church and State that will be Avatched with keen interest by the world is developing in Germany. In the effort to establish Nazi control of the Protestant Churches, Bishop Mueller has promulgated a decree making himself dictator, and he claims to have completely crushed opposition. He desires to have a united Church, and this Church is to have no power of self-govern-ment, but is to be completely dominated by himself, with the aid of General Goering. He is to be to the Church what Hitler is to the State. German Protestants are divided into Lutherans and Calvinists, and they differ on the vital question of the nature of the Communion service. The Lutherans hold to the doctrine of Consubstantiation, while the Calvinists hold that the service is merely commemorative. A previous attempt to unite the two views in a State Church merely resulted in further cleavage.

In the end Hitler may find the forces of religion too strong for him. There are many in Germany who abhor Hitler's selfdeification, and who regard it as the antithesis of the freedom in Christ for which the Gospel stands. Spiritual freedom is necessary if the Churches are to be true to their mission. Eeligion can never influence politics in a healthy way if men confuse their political ambitions with the higher aims of religion. For the function of religion is to raise the whole standard of political life. It does this in two directions. It gives a loftier aim to life and allows high principles to prevail. It also creates a high sense of public duty and political honour. The Churches are preachers of righteousness, not partisans of any political creed. They must, as the Archbishop of Canterbury says, be left free to give their own unhindered witness and to influence national life. The whole essence of the Church's message is to emphasise the truth that in every department of life the spiritual is higher and truer than the material. In England the State exercises a measure of control over the Church, but it is seldom used for political ends. The present Archbishop of York, who is officially a member of the Labour Party, was appointed to his office by a Conservative Prime Minister. Fitness for office is the only qualification considered. This control is very different from that which Hitler proposes.