CHRISTIAN OR PAGAN?

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

CHRISTIAN OR PAGAN?

THE QUESTION FOR GERMANY. VIOLENT HANDS ON CHURCH. It was a melancholy Sunday when the bells in hundreds of the churches of Germany ceased to ring out their joyous summons to prayer and praise, silent in protest against the high-handed action of the Nazis in sending Evangelical pastors to a concentration camp, says the Children’s Newspaper. Though matters quietened down for a while with the resignation of Dr. Jaeger and Herr Hitler’s' promise last October that there should be no more State interference in the church conflict, there has now been a renewal of the trouble. In addition to the resentment at Dr. Mueller still retaining his position as Reichbishop, there is a strong feeling among religious people in Germany, both Protestants and Catholics, against the claim of the State to .control the' whole of Germany’s youth, body and soul. The Hitler Youth Movement has absorbed by compulsion the youth organisations previously associated with the churches, and some of the ideas being instilled into the minds of Germany’s young people are distinctly pagan. The man responsible for the training of all German youth is Herr Rosenberg, who has written a book saturated with the pagan spirit. The leaders of the Confessional Movement, therefore, drew up a manifesto, to be read from the pulpit on March 19, which stated that the new religion made a god out of race and usurped the- faith in the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ; While recognising' the authority of a State founded and limited by the Word of God, the church could not incline toward those new claims of the German State to bind the conscience, a power which belonged to Christ alone. “Even in the face of force,” concluded this courageous manifesto, “the „ church will ndt cease to preach the Gospel.” For their share in drawing up this document four pastors of Hesse were arrested and -Sent to a concentration camp at Dachau. Prayers of intercession were said in the Evangelical churches for these men, with the result that other pastors were arrested, including Bishop Marahrens of Hanover and Dr. Breit, the adviser of Bishop Meiser of Bavaria, who was arrested last year but reinstated later. •

The pastors have been forbidden to mention the names of their arrested colleagues, but Dr. Niemoeller, the submarine commander in the war who refused to give up his ship to the Allies, and now the leader of the Evangelicals, has continued to armounce to his large congregation in Dahlem what is happening in this fight for'conscience.

The little body of Free Reformed congregations led by Karl ■ Barth, the professor of theology who was dismissed from Bonn University, decided to form a university college of its own entirely fiee from State control, and here, it is hoped, the teaching of Christianity will be possible without Nazi influence. On the other hand, there is a definite movement in Nazi circles toward intervention by the State which would place the churches under one of the Government departments. It is the old idea which started the struggle, and it is not yet dead. It remains to be seen whether the spirit of paganism which is inherent in the Nazi movement will conquer Christianity under Hitlerism.