The Padre’s Column

Observation Post, Volume 1, Issue 28, 27 November 1942, Page 2

The Padre’s Column

CHRISTIANITY AND WAR This week I am writing about a question that is perplexing a number of | people. It is one that has caused me a | good deal of concern myself, and I do not claim to 7 have . found the final answer even yet. So now I am ‘ ‘ thinking on paper’’ .as it were in the hope that my thoughts may help others to think the question through for themselves. Not long ago I heard of a soldier who said that he was convinced that his duty was to take his place in the army. It was the only thing he could do with I a clear conscience, but at the same . time he could not square the idea of fighting with the teaching of Jesus| aoout love for one’s fellow men, even one’s enemies. So he had come to the. conclusion, very reluctantly, that he would have to let his religion go, for the duration. There are a numoer of men who feel very much the same way and that is my reason for , writing on the subject. WAR In the first place it needs to be said that the whole ideal of war is abhorant to anyone who has the slightest understanding of the waste involved, and of the intense misery it causes both to our own people and to our enemies. Think of the waste of money. According to a League of Nations report the last war cost £10,000,000,000 in materials, equipment and wages. This time it is far greater—all used for destruction. What a waste of resources of the world! And what great blessings for all people could have been accomplished had tne money been spent on constructive purposes. But when all is said and done, the waste of material things is insignificant compared with the waste of human lives and with the harvest of suffering and misery reaped by the soldiers destined to endure life-long pain, or blindness, or insanity —to say nothing of the anguish caused to mothers and fathers, to wives and children. When we compare these things with the tender sympathy of Jesus for all who suffered, we must admit that war is a devilish thing, and all for which it stands cuts right across the Master’s teaching. Anyone who in these days can glory in the thought of war lacks two thingsa heart to feel the intense anguish of those who suffer by it, and an apprecia-

overthrown in the end only at the cost of a far more difficult and bloody conflict than war to-day. The alternative which confronted the nation in 1939 was not war or peace, but war or passive submission to tyranny and to a philosophy of life that denies all that we hold dear and sacred. One of the great principles of Christ was that in God’s sight every human soul was of infinite worth. It mattered not a bit if a man’s skin was white or black, brown or yellow, he was precious to the Heavenly Father, The Nazi doctrine of the superiority of the i Aryian over the others is diametrically i opposed to all that Jesus taught. That [ any person or nation should have the ! right to be the final voice of authority lover all God’s other children would make God’s care for all a monstrous lie. I That a man highest loyalty was to the | State and not to God, would make the I Christian Faith meaningless. All these evils are basic principles underlying the Nazi Creed; and over and above their inhumanity is their opposition to God and His will for mankind. Under the circumstances which confront us, we must either fight or let the whole world be given over to tyranny. There, is no doubt in my mind as to which of these two great evils is more in accordance with God’s purpose for the world. If there were a third alternative the choice may have been different, but we are in a situation where we can do one of only two things, and in such a position the only thing we can do is choose the lesser evil. It comes to this— let us say it in all humility, admitting that we ourselves are very far from perfect, acknowledging that we ourselves must share part of the responsibility for the ' fact that Hitler ever got control of Germanyit comes to this that God has called our Empire and our Allies to be ’ His instruments in preventing the enslavement of the world and in prepar- ’ ing for a new and better world order. ; THE GOAL >i iodWhUt is, • however, one thing that

must be remembered at all times if our action is to measure up to Christian standards. Our purpose in fighting is not to save our own skins, or to preserve our old ways of life. Least of all is it to keep on top ,ourselves, to dominate Others, and to impose our wills on them. If it is Christian in any sense, it is to enable all people, including those of our enemies/ to oe tree from oppression of body, mind and soul; to uphold the principles of truth, and justice for all; to preserve the conditions whereby each man or woman of whatever race or creed may know God and worship Him. All this will not be accomplished when the last shot is fired. That day when it comes, will mark the beginning of a new and extremely difficult phase in the ordering of higher and nobler ways of life for all men. The job for to-day is only the preliminary to the establishment of truly Christian relationships between people and nations. It is a necessary preliminary, so let us do our part, as far as we are able to in the Spirit of Christ — without bitterness or malice or hatred, but with the ultimate goal of mutual understanding and respect between all nations ever before us, so that when war is over they and we may work together under the guidance and in the strength of our God, to achieve a peace that will endure and in which all may live in harmony and goodwill.