“RITA’S” ARTICLE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17263, 2 September 1916, Page 7

“RITA’S” ARTICLE.

GERMANY AND CHRISTIANITY. TO TEX EDITOR. Sir,—The rather hysterically written article from the pen of “ Rita,” which appears in your issue of August Oi, sets forth this war as being the worst of wars, and as proof of the poweilessness of Christianity to influence the moral life of a nation, etc. Has “Rita” read no history? Does she' know nothing of e.g. the doings of Lilly and Aloa, not to mention Attiia.y Genghis Khan and Tamerlan©. the facts concerning the atrocities ot tho famous William tho. Conqueror, when quelling the rebellion or the Northern Counties, unknown, to her? I regard with horror the horrible doings' 5 of the Germans before the war and during it, but that is no excuse foi writing overdrawn perversions of InstoHas “Rita” not known of the antiChristian tendencies of modern Germany? Of the revival' of paganism under various guises and the open denial, even in least expected quarters, of the Bible? Despite a formal public recognition of religion, liy rulers and officials, and an adherence to the Bible upon the part of a faithful few*, eveiy intelligent student of German literature, art, social lifio and morals knows that during the last fifty years the ideals dominating their sphere of uatidnal life : have become mcreasinglv anti-Christian. To. write of tlie “ failure ” of Christianity in a nation which has, as a whole, discarded that faith and the book containing the facts upon which it is based, is as fair as to attribute bodily sickness to *n medicine we have refused to use, or have used in a very imperfect way. “Rita’s” article is another example of the sweeping generalisations and dogmatism so noticeable in . certain modern women writers. Readers of her article' should also read Smith’s fino work “ The Soul of Germany.” The writer spent seven .years in Germany and knows His subject.—l am, etc., • •" p.S,—The present war does, not represent the failure, in Germany, or any other country, of Christianity, but the failure, or natural result, of that modern “ civilisation ” which “Rita” glorifies. For though. Germany .was guilty of precipitating the war, she was not alone as regards tendencies which, by their materialistic, anti-Christian nature, helped to produco a bad international condition. r-X*