FAITH MOVEMENT MARRIAGES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22431, 18 June 1938, Page 16

FAITH MOVEMENT MARRIAGES

TEUTONIC SYMBOLISM IN GERMANY

CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS REPLACED

“Marriage ceremonies in which Christian elements have been replaced by Teutonic symbolism have been devised and published by the German Faith Movement, which purposes to transmute faith in Christ into faith in the Fatherland,” states the "New Zealand Methodist Times.” “According to one ritual, the bridal couple come into the room to the accompaniment of secular music. They take their places before a fire, a pagan - substitute for the altar of the church. Torchbearers light the fire, as verses of a poem, ‘Earth Creates Anew,’ are recited. “A bridesmaid takes off the bride’s garland of flowers, throws it into the ‘sacred’ fire, and crowns the bride with a chaplet of evergreen leaves. A section of Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra,’ dealing with the responsibilities of marriage, is read. Two German national anthems are sung. In the midst of another ritual may be found these lines: ‘United in National Socialist Weltanschauung (outlook on life), you have found your way to each other. Your German blood not be still until it recognised Christianity as a foreign doctrine. . . The ties of blood bind more tightly than the blessing of the priest—our kingdom is of this world.’ “In all the services that are held indoors, a picture or a bust of Hitler is the centre of interest, and ‘sacrificial’ fire burns before it. In outdoor services the ‘divine revelation’ that is Der Fuhrer is represented by a tree, symbol of life and vitality. The hooked cross everywhere replaces the Cross of Christ. The new marriage ceremonies, in spite of propaganda in their favour, are not expected to be popular. The cult of paganism has a strong following in Mecklenburg and Wurtemberg and elsewhere among the Blackshirt disciples of the late General Ludendorff.

“What a sad travesty on Christianity it ail is,” the “Times” states, “And to think that all this is taking place in the land we always associate with the Protestant Reformation. It is enough to make the ghost of Martin Luther rise from his grave—paganism is uncomfortably in evidence in Germany to-day.”