CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY
S1R,—I write in protest against the unwarranted assumption that the present war is being fought so that "Christian principles must be made to permeate public opinion." That is unfair on all the thousands, nay millions, of freethinkers, Jews, Mohammedans and others who are fighting tooth and nail for the United Nations so that they may have freedom of conscience, not so that they may live in a democracy dominated by Christian theology. "Christian Principles" is a term seldom par- ticularly defined—but if it means self-sacrifice and the general exercise of good conduct, to use the term " Christian " is misleading. Such qualities are not specifically Christian at all, they are possessed by atheist and theist alike.
It is only of recent years that so much emphasis has been placed on the ethical side of Christianity—that is probably because more and more men and women have ceased to believe in its dognia. But without the dogma their Christianity is nothing, and of course the " advanced " social policy now advocated by some members of the Church is simply an ingenious way by which it is hoped men and women will accept the Church with its endowments and privileges. Social progress will come if we work for it, but it will be only genuine if brought about by secular agency—that is by the State.—Yours, &c.,
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