Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1929. FLAUNTING RELIGION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 102, 30 March 1929, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1929. FLAUNTING RELIGION.

It is not'pleasant to reflect that, at the most sacred seasons of the year to the Christian world, the Government of a country aspiring to bring about a world revolution should be flagrantly flauntting the crude atheism it is endeavoruing to force upon a great nation in the face of a devout people, and proclaiming to the world its belief that. there is no God; that Christianity is a myth, and that all forms of religion are merely devised to bolster up socalled Capitalism and the Capitalistic State. The godless activities and blasphemous outbursts of the Communists dominating the political and social life of Soviet Russia are being repeated this Eastertide in a further ’crusade against Christianity and the churches, 354 of which, according to Izvestia, were closed by the Soviet authorities in 1928, together with 38 monasteries, 59 synagogues, 38 mosques and 63 other religious establishments. “Eastertide” (according to Madame Lenin, the widow of the man who will live in history as the greatest traitor to humanity of his day, if not of all time) “must be made the occasion of a great anti-God campaign,” and she further says: “Greater efforts must be made to fight religious bodies, which are regaining more and more ground among the masses.” This is quoted approvingly by Izvestia, which follows it up with the statement that “great preparations are being made, especially on Easter Eve, when at the theatres, cinemas, and Soviet clubs special antiGod shows will be given in order to attract the masses from midnight services in the Orthodox Church.” Lenin warred not upon humanity alone, but _ upon God. It was by his direction that on the red wall of the Town Hall at Moscow an inscription was placed declaring that “religion is the opium of the people,” and the Soviets' followed up their materialistic propaganda by inscribing on the walls of the churches: “Down with God”; “Death, to God”; “The Church Intoxicates the People”; “Neither God Nor Devil.” In two year (1918 to 1920) twenty-six archbishops and bishops and 1200 priests were done to death in Soviet Russia with Lenin’s approval, if not, by his direct orders. At Christmas, 1922, a blasphemous carnival was organised, and. the Communist youth formed a long procession. This sort of thing was regarded

by many people simply as a craze that would have its day. and then die out, as somewhat similar demonstrations against religion did during the French Devolution of the eighteenth century. But, year by year, as Christmas comes round the anti-Christian demonstrations organised by the Communists continue, and now we have the record of the “antiGod” Easter campaign. But, surprising to relate (surprising that is from the Communist standpoint), Madame Lenin’s appeal carries with it the despairing note that “the religious bodies are regaining more and more ground among the masses.” Lenin has gone; Trotsky is in exile; other Soviet leaders who figured in the earlier days of the Soviet Administration, including Lounatcharsky, who preached hatred of the Christians, because “Christian love curbs the development of the revolution,” and, in an address at a Soviet Conference on “why one must not believe in God, cried : “Down with love of one’s neighbour. That which we must have is hate. We must know how to hate; in that case we can conquer the universe”—all these apparently are back numbers. But Stalin remains, and he and his colleagues must be held responsible for the continuance of these organised demonstrations against religion. It is not only against the Orthodox Church that the Communists wage war. The Roman Catholic and Protestant churches have been persecuted with the same deadly animosity; Lutheran clergymen were imprisoned and treated with the utmost barbarity, and _ even the harmless and inoffensive Salvation Army lasses, who, when they were forbidden to preach, engaged in the humanitarian work of caring for and feeding the starving thousands of Petrograd, were thrown into gaol and treated with merciless severity. To mould the rising generation in accordance with its will, the Soviet Government bans all religious teaching for the youth of the nation, and the attendance at.church of young people under eighteen years of age is made a penal offence. What possible trust or dependence can be placed in the Government of a cohntry with such a tragic record, and governing on principles and lines that are so utterly opposed to all the best and purifying influences that make for peace, happiness, pros- f perity and goodwill? Yet there are many people again grasp, in friendship the hands of these men who have done their best to destroy all that is- good, noble, and beautiful in ndankind, and who have debauched, with their infamous doctrines and'practices, a ’ nation in which (if Madame Lenin is to be believed) “the religious bodies are regaining more and more ground among the masses.” That admission on the part of one of the leaders of the “anti-God campaign” is a practical confession that, in Russia to-day, there is a wonderful resurrection of the Christian faith, and an indication that there is no need to despair of Russia’s future, clouded as it may appear in the light of the actions of her present-day rulers.