BACK TO PAGANISM

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

BACK TO PAGANISM

NAZI GERMANY CHOOSING WAY. TRIBAL GOD FOR 70 MILLIONS. Nazi Germany has proceeded from the persecution of Jews to the persecution of Christians, says the Children’s Newspaper. It is impossible to resist the evidence that the Aryan myth is being exalted into a gospel of German supremacy, with H’tler for its prophet. Europe thus faces a danger which goes beyond war even while it is instinct with war. Persecution is naturally the daughter of the new paganism. Christian priests are being sent to join Jews in prison and concentration camps. A report comes to the Times from Basle that a party of German Roman Catholics, returning from the Eastei' celebrations at Rome, were seized by Nazis at the German frontier, stripped, thrust into garments of humiliation and led by ropes to a concentration camp. This seems hard to believe, but at Berlin a number of Christians who attended a meeting of what is called the German Faith Movement were brutally handled by Nazis. What is this German Faith, now elevated as a religion? It preaches German race supremacy. The Germans, it proclaims, are the ordained leaders of the world! The Germans made civilisation. Every great man of history, from Alexander to Michael Angelo, was of German blood! The Swastika, emblem of the Aryan race, if. the True Cross; the Cross of Christ is a mere emblem of slavery. “The fighting spirit of the ancient Norse gods is ours,” declares one of the new Pagan prophets. General Ludendorff is all fdr Wotan against Christ. Marie, Princess of Lippe, says the Bible should be banned, and children should be nurtured in the “old Nordic faith.”

The publicity resources of Germany are being placed freely at the disposal of the Pagans, while Christian propaganda is made difficult.

Instinct with the spirit of war, this pagan teaching is a new menace to peace. Even Mohammed drew his sword only against unbelievers. The German Pagans reject the Christian faith and set aside a religion of unity, of humanity, for one of Germany over all. In Italy Mussolini and his followers are tolerant in religion, following the Roman ideal. No man has been persecuted under Fascism for his religion. The German attack on Christianity may be expected to drive another wedge between the Nazi and the Fascist, between Germany and Italy. As fdr the world at large, Germany appears to be bent on isolating herself. It was foolish to persecute Jewry; it is mad folly to attack Christianity. Yet madmen are to be feared.