THE CHRISTIAN DILEMMA.
.“I THINK pacifism is wrong, and I think non-pacifism is wrong, too. If I gave this sermon a title it would be The Christian Dilemma,’ and it is -he nature of a dilemma in logic that you cannot escape from it, for jieither way will work—that is what ‘ dilemma ’ means,” said the Rev. Leslie D. Weatherhead, preaching in the City Temple, London. “ Twenty-five years ago it was’ said that war would end the intolerable domination of one State over another. Wie said it would end Prussianism. We cut off one head of the hydra only to find that another head is raised from the same place. War cannot be called right. But, to my mind, the alternative cannot be called right. WJould it have been right when our country was committed to that brave little country, called Poland to have withheld from Poland the only thing she would have regarded as assistance ? I am indebted to some words of the Dean of St. Paul’s (Dr Matthews) for an illustration from the life of Socrates. When Socrates was face to face with the cup of hemlock and death, he had a dream, and in his dream there came to him a symbolical figure which he recognised as his country’s laws and his country’s liberties. When he was tempted to run away this figure re-
ibuked him for even being tempted to disobey the appeal of his country when it would have been easier to have labelled her action wrong and thus escape its consequences. I hope that is clear to you; it means a very great deal to me. I am absolutely certain that you cannot honourably escape implication in the activities of the State to which you belong. You cannot take the bread and the privileges—and they are very many—and the liberties of the State which has fostered you and nourished you and nursed you and from whom you have taken more than you know, some of you, and then when the country is in peril, when the country is in need, when the country asks for youi- help, say, ‘ I will take no part in this.’ ”
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Bibliographic details
Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4229, 10 January 1940, Page 6
Word Count
360THE CHRISTIAN DILEMMA. Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4229, 10 January 1940, Page 6
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