YOUTH AND THE CHURCHES
SIR,—May I be permitted to add illustration to the current argument, as one who, in the words of a recent letter, has the faith but cannot accept the form? I believe I am representative of a large number of students who called up at the beginning of the war, and having survived it all, are seeking desperately for some spiritual Point in Life—but cannot find it by confirmation in the presenf church.
Last Sunday by divisional order all our church services became volun- tary. Infantry battalions are a thousand strong and are unemployed on Sunday, but I don't suppose you could have found over thirty in any congregation ; of these half were composed of officers who considered it their military duty to attend. Does the Church realise that it has abso- lutely no meaning in the army? As one of these officers I was returning from my service when our small party encountered the entire German population pouring out of their churches. It is the same tale all over Germany and has been throughout the war. Yet is one to believe in .consequence that German youth is pure while ours is incomparably corrupt? The battalion padre, who is above the average, still has his compulsory hour once a week when everything but religion is discussed ; but the average clergyman (as verified by any padre) is an effeminate trying verily to apologise for his religion. It certainly needs some apology for they have made of christianity not a religion but a cult. Cults may be accepted by backward peoples and Fascist states, but a free democracy is their enemy. They cannot survive question or criticism.
I am afraid that I am guilty of generalisation and over-simplification, but space is short. Surely True Religion is a Way of Life. The Way of God, the Good Way, if you like it better, practised by an individual? "Go and do thou Likewise! " That was how It was taught by Lao-Tse, Buddha, Mahomet and Jesus Christ. It was only through time and the Priests that religion became a cult. Cults may still have spiritual value 'but one cannot honestly pretend that to more than one in every hundred of the youth of Britain, America and Russia, they mean anything at all. It is scarcely an over-simplification to notice that -throughout history the _ great prophets from Isaiah to John Wesley have risen as reactionaries against the hypocrisy of the established church. I would venture that at the present time such a reaction is only natural, and that the returning tide will bring a fuller realisation of spiritual values. The Church is completely out of touch with everyday life, so out of touch that I do not believe reform can ever come from within its walls. Theology has no appeal to modern youth, nor can the returning soldier feel Religion in such an atmosphere. When the fighting ended last May we had a service of 'thanksgiving in the local German church. The Germans trooped out after their
• worship and we trooped in. The official prayers of thanksgiving were read: "We thank Thee 0 Lord for the success of our landings, for our swift advances . . "but I did not listen very hard, nor did the crowd :of weatherbeaten veterans from N. Africa, Italy and the plains of France, --I could only hear the genius of Burns— Ye hypocrites! Are these your pranks—
To murder men and give God thanks?
Desist for shame ; proceed no further : * God won't' accept your thanks for murder.
—I found more religion in Burns, whom some were against burying in a churchyard.—! am, Sir, yours faithfully, OFFIC:ER, B.A.O.R.
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