GERMAN HEATHENISM

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 March 1935, Page 5

GERMAN HEATHENISM

CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS REJECTED A new “Catechism of Heathenism” published under the title “The ABC of the Gefriian Heathen,” has just been published, and is regarded here as an important propaganda move in the campaign, now being conducted, against Christianity in Germany. “The word ‘heathen’ is not regarded by us as a term of reproach,” says the compiler, Herr Busso Lowe, “but as an honoured name. We are proud of our German belief and of our Nordic heathenism.” \ Though all forms of Christianity are rejected by the leaders of the new movement they .welcome the conception of the “old German God.” The following points taken from the complete catechism of 25 questions and answers show the trend of the new “faith.” , , We .believe that God has revealed himself to us in our German blood and German conscience, in our German home and German history, that is, dur German people, and on that account we call ourselves “German heathens.” . Everyone can experience God m the natural reality of things if he is a real German heathen. We reject traditional creeds because we believe in Germany. Our Holy Land is no longer Rome or Palestine, but Germany alone. I As we have driven the Jews out of politics, economic life and law, we can no longer take our religion from them. We cannot recognise any interna-, tional religion of humanity, because nations and races are different. V, e do not believe in the Holy Ghost; we believe in the holiness of blood ties. In the Evangelical Church Jews and semi-Jews are no longer allowed. Consequently, nowadays, neither Pdul nor Christ himself would be allowed to be pastors, or even beadles in their own church. The three great things for which we five are fighting, working, and loving 'These are sanctified by Nature, and we thank God for them. They represent for us both duty and joy. It is not true* that fighting is one of the evils in the world. We refuse to wait for the time when the wolf and the lamb shall lie down together. Wc love fighting; it is the first law of life and father of all things. If there were no fighting in the world life would not be worth living. For Germans work is a holy thing. It is anti-Semitic, through and through and in the Christian Heaven it does not exist. A sacred and divine power reposes in womankind. Modern German youth sees its culture not in the Bible, but in its knowledge of heredity, and race and in its belief in Geimany. Does the German heathen believe in a future life? Future life is an instinct not a dogma. There is a Gelman sense of eternity. We will abolish Christian festivals and celebrate Yuletide, Eastertide, Whitsuntide, the summer solstice, harvestide, the gathering of the clan, and the day of mourning for the dead.