FALSE PHILOSOPHY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18920, 23 January 1936, Page 2

FALSE PHILOSOPHY

GERMANY'S NEW GOD BISHOP'S COMM ENTS The Christian people of New Zealand were urged by Bishop Listen in Tauranga nu Sunday t£> hold fast to the Christian outlook. In opening the new presbytery erected by parishioners at Tauranga, Bishop Listen referred to the religious upheaval which had taken place in Germany under the Nazis. Recently His Lordship passed through Germany during his European tour. in expressing the hope that. New Zealanders would always keep :i Christian outlook, His Lordship said there were other countries where that outlook was being thrown aside—Germany, for instance.

"The German people, of some 60,000.000," said the Bishop, "are a very lino race, cultured, noble, resourceful and energetic, but in recent years they have got into the hands of leaders whose who\e outlook isl a. menace to our Christian civilisation. The present leader of the German people is a man of tremendous energy and really great personal power. I doubt if there is another ruler in the world to-day who exercises anything like the same influence as does the present ruler of Germany. He has invented a new religion for his people. Last, year he convinced them he had had a revelation that he had been appointed a saviour and prophet, and bis regime is to be for Germany. Germany has a new Godnot our' Christian One, but a. new one, and that God is 'Germany.' "You and I believe that we are immortal, that our life will go on after the present one, and for us that is supremely important. In this new religion there is no such thing. The only thing that is to remain immortal Is the German race. The national idea is that this religion shall find expression in work for the German nation and in service for that only. You and I believe in such things as right laws, honesty, uprightness, fair dealing and the Ten Commandments, but. under the new regime these things do not count. Right is simply what suits the German people one thing to-day, another to-morrow. "At first many looked at this as the crazy invention' of some half-ignorant people, but now it has taken bold of a large section of the German population. I mention that to show what dangers there are in the world, and also to impress upon all New Zealanders as far as my voice can reach that we must ever guard against such false philosophy and outlook on life."