SOVIET AND RELIGION

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 24

SOVIET AND RELIGION

LIVELY DISCUSSION

TWO POINTS OF VIEW

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, March 21. j Soviet Russia fin it its anti-religious campaign was a subject which caused n heated controversy at tlic annual assembly of the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches at Sheffield. Tho president-elect, the Rev. J. H. Rushbrookc, spoke of the "menacingl shadow of Communism in Europe." They must wake, up, lie said, to the religious repression going on in Russia. "Remember Russia," lie said, should be inscribed on every Christian heart. "The anti-religious forces," lie said, "are unresting, unsleeping. They maintain their inhuman pressure ■continually. The Communist party which control's the Soviet Union never loses sight of its goal—the final eradication of religion. The religious communities, arc hampered, fettered, crippled. Their witness is silenced, their case unheard. They are deprived of new recruits. All the authority and influence of the Stale under Communist party control are applied to the capture of the oncoming generation for Atheism. Do you realise this, that no person connected with any religious body—Christian or Jewish, Mohammedan or Buddhist, or even Confucian—could be a member of tho Communist party? That party, j which has tho monopoly of political j power, both central and local, in Kussia, is, to tho very last man and j woman, an anti-God party." BAPTISTS AND QUAKERS. ! When Dr. -Bushbrookc was making the point that preachers had been harassed in Russia, Dr. Salter, M.P. for Bermondsey, who was on the platform, called out, "It is not true." A lively scene followed when Dr. Salter, using at the close of Dr. Rushbrooke's speech, said, "I cannot remain silent after that address. I am sure nothing could be more unhelpful to tho Christians of Russia than such an attack as. has been delivered from this platform. (Cries of "No, no.") I hold no brief for the Soviet Government. It is an autocracy and a tyranny in common with many other autocracies and tyrannies in Europe today, but I say emphatically that Russian Baptists and Russian Quakers have told me that i today in Russia they possess infinitely moro religious liberty than they did iv the days of Tsardom. (Cries of "Nonsense" and "Give names.") GREAT SPIRITUAL REVIVAL. "I spent six weeks there last year and took great interest in ascertaining the present position in Russia in regard to tne drink problem, and the religious problem. I made it my business to talk to a great many people representing the Orthodox Greek Church and representatives of the Baptist, Quaker, and Nonconformist communities, and whatever Dr. Rushbrooke Tuay or may not say, I tell you there are hundreds, if not thousands, of such communities up and down Russia." Dr. Saltor said that while tho Soviets and Communists were definitely and specifically. anti-God • and meant _to eradicate religion if they could—(cries of "Yes, yes")—they had just as much right to that policy as Christians had to eradicate Atheism. "What I have to tell you is that tho opposition to 'religion is creating a condition of mind in the people- which docs not exist in this country —and I wish it did. Tho greatest enemy of Christian propaganda in this country is indifference. Antireligious propaganda in Russia is creating an intensive Christian re* ligion. I should not bo surprised if Russia leads the world in a great spiritual revival before- many years are over." - ' Dr. Rushbrooke, in reply, said ho would like to ask where were the Quakers in Russia;of whom Dr. Salter talked1? Our Quakers had a mission in Moscow, but they had been obliged to give it up. Dr. Salter had confirmed his own case, proving the anti-religious teaching in Russia, said Dr. Rushbrooke, who added: "I am grateful for the testimony of an unwilling witness."