T h e Churches

One Called Smug

FURLONG.

By MONICA stablished Religion where he would meet with

o fl,e Give-No-Offence, one M ind-Thine-Own- -'alvatio

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Christian falls in with the Archbishop of Canter- bury bCa sprightly old gentleman in gaiters') who egan instruct him the way to the town of pRiski, the avant-garde magazine of the Anglican young angries, recently published remarkable spoof of TI,' Pilgrim's Progress.. In

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smug, n, one Politic-Silence and one called as Do you see yonder great crowd?' Christian The old man looked and saw a great crowd of People on one side of the City of Destruction. And some were hungry, some ill, some dying, some black, some white, some yellow, and all wretched. ,,,;These,' said Christian, 'testify against me. These are those that hungered and I fed them 1.101. These are those that were oppressed and I spoke not, These are those that die and I hold rhY Peace.' 'Truly,' said the old man, 'was it expedient that you should speak? I see indeed that these suffer . • it is written that we must all sufferuer • . but Governments are sometimes in a flm 'cult position. We must hear both sides. I lweostuld not have you silent, but shout not too loud the last state of these be worse than the first.' 1 do not know,' said Christian, 'what I ought to do: 111NOvy this is a harsh parody of Geoffrey Fisher's w`incner (I believe myself that he is driven more r,lairmindedness than by diplomacy), but the en:er makes her point, which is that, it is not eve ugh to be patient and gentle, conciliatory or Slifer Persecution. while around one others starve or nib4 Persecution. The recent statements of Otto hishehl-ls underline the great danger of the Arch- Lutis°P's attitude. For Dr. Dibelius, following the cn,",erah precept of strict obedience to the State, oeci"nued to busy himself with the chores of his ho esiastical household while the State he served itunded millions of Jews to death. To this day ;d: • appears that he is haunted by his sins of otitis- I1, aso .n • No doubt it would be easier for him to forget, 1)). Church Would be easier for us to excuse the Lutheran tr:rch of the Hitler era, had there not been Ger- i:et sin11 Christians who refused to acquiesce in the 4 s Of the State, and who suffered accordingly.

u r. . , isher himself lost an excellent oppor-

n . pit„ , „,„ , to condemn injustice (and he has steadily `gteeted it ever since) when he visited Africa 1:955. There was no doubt that he was aware of ,,, he Plight of black South Africa, but as he htr "tad e clear in conversation with the embattled , ■-atk ‘yr "er Huddleston at the time, he felt it was th°ng for Christians to use political weapons, and ke Huddleston had been wrong to cry out to Jarjt • .rato and America for 'a spiritual boycott.' 1.01 ishis kind of mildness--it is almost ndivete- W 'hia 'ePressingly prevalent on the top shelf of the whrrehY, and it was hard to suppress a smile "eu, at the recent Convocations, the Anglican

Upper Sixth issued a pompous statement making it clear that they were not in favour of anti- Semitism. (But who, in Jehovah's name, ever sup- posed they were?) The only thing that surprised me was that some charming old Canon did not rise to oppose the motion on the ground that it might be distressing to the feelings of repentant Nazis. As it was, believe it or not, the President could not resist expressing feelings of sympathy with Dr. Adenauer's Government. If, as seems reasonable, Convocation had got so bored with revising canon law that it craved relief, wouldn't it have been better to have made a clear statement of their beliefs about South Africa? At least, un- like their Semitic stand, it would not have come twenty-five years too late.

Presumably they know about South Africa. If not. they need look no farther than they can throw their own Communion cup to find out what is going on. The Church is being crucified. The company of the illuminati, the family which was meant to be the showcase of love (`There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female : for all are one in Christ Jesus'), is being slowly torn and destroyed. Under the new Church Clause black and white Christians may no longer pray together under penalty, among other sanctions, of flogging. It seems but a short step from this to a State in which all Christians are permitted to do is die together.

But still the established Church of this country, though it has released an astonishing streain of Christian witnesses into South Africa in the past ten years, is not lifting up its great voice to trumpet its grief and horror to the world. It has turned its face away, as the Lutheran Church did in the Thirties, whimpering over public morality, while it acquiesces in supreme immorality. Condemna- tion and crusading is left to the courage of un- official spokesmen, to firebrands like Trevor Huddleston and to cranks like Canon Collins.

There is, of course, reason in the minds of the Give-No-Offence party, as well as any number of texts for them to hang up on their bedroom walls. Romans and Timothy, Peter and Titus, not to mention the hearing of Jesus before Pilate and the image of Isaiah's Suffering Servant, form a powerful argument against the hotheads among us, bringing us sharply to heel with reminders about submissiveness. That there is a positive side to dog-like obedience to the State was once argued skilfully, though remarkably tediously, by Dr. Karl Barth. (Why do German theologians always make the Queen of Sciences such a dull girl?) All States, according to Dr. Barth, are shadows of the real State, the heavenly city, in which Christians have their citizenship already. All States deserve absolute obedience and respect from Christians because 'every State, even the worst and most per- verse, possesses its imperishable destiny in the fact that it will one day contribute to the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem.' It is an interesting point of view, anyhow for those who can take their eschatology or leave it alone.

What is much more to the point, though, is that the whole training and discipline of Christians runs flat contrary to bitterness and the fiercer passions. If a man believes with St. Paul that the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long- suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, it is clear that he must think at least twice before burgeoning out into a manifesto or a boycott, let alone a blazing row or a bloody riot. Any Christian would much prefer love to do the trick, and there is no doubt that, pursued to its hard conclusion, it does it with astonishing fre- quency. One thinks patiicularly of a case like that of Dr. Leonard Wilson, the present Bishop of Birmingham, who, as Bishop of Singapore after the war, confirmed a Japanese who had helped to torture him during his imprisonment. I do not look to see Dr. Verwoerd kneeling before black Africa and asking its blessing; but that may he only my lack of faith. I notice in the South African

publication Cape to Zambesi that black and

White Christians are :praying 'for Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, Prime Minister of the Union, that he may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with his God.' Touchingly they add, 'we are not help- less before his calamitous policies if the influence of prayer can be brought to bear on him.'

What, then, is Christian to do in Africa or any- where else? Is he really forbidden to raise his voice in a shout against injustice? There have been too many Christians in the past who have done so with a grace and courage it would be impossible to condemn. But isn't there a terrible danger that if Christian tangles with authority he may lose himself in a thicket of hatred and contempt? There certainly is, which is perhaps one reason why the Community of the Resurrection feel the need to call their alumni home to Mirfield before the African sun dries up their charity.

Luckily the dilemma is not as sharp as it seems, if only because Christianity is largely an empirical religion. It is based not on any rigid code of ethics but on a relationship, and it is the relationship which dictates conduct, as it is the relationship which produces the fruits of the Spirit. Those who are far advanced in the relationship are liable at any time to do something unexpected— to speak when they shoffid be silent, to be silent when authority bids them to speak.

Some ten years ago I was fortunate enough to have, as my parish priest, a man who exhibited precisely this quality of unexpectedness. He had a great capacity for seeing and saying the obvious thing that the rest of us were too clever to say, and an even greater capacity for grasping a point that the rest of us were too stupid to see. He used to hold his mind ajar so long that everyone else's mind ached in sympathy, but when he made up his mind he did it with an absolute finality. Napoleonic, we used to call him (as well as a lot of far ruder adjectives). He' trod with great skill the mined pathway between submissiveness and righteous anger, but it is perhaps not difficult to guess which way he toppled when he talked to Mr. Macmillan at a Cape Town garden-party the other week. In the agony of South Africa, it is oddly comforting to remember that this naaa is now Archbishop of Cape Town.