The German Church Struggle A new chapter in the German
Church dispute seems to be opening. It was marked first of all by the spirited manifesto read from many pulpits in Gertnany last Sunday (and to be read in more next Sunday) against the paganism of the Deutsche Glaubensbewegung, or German Faith Movement, with its exaltation of racial tradition into a myth. The manifesto was forbidden at the last moment by Dr. Frick, the Minister of the Interior, but read in many cases in spite of that, and the prohibition will again be widely disregarded on March 17th. Apparently as a first retaliatory move, the Church Tax, on which the churches depend for their maintenance, is to be reduced by one-fifth, and the fact that the announcement to that effect wa.s made by Herr Rust, the Minister for Education, confirms the belief that in exchange for the disappearance of Reichs- bishop Muller, who has become a negligible figure, the Churches are to be placed under the jurisdiction of a secular Minister of State. All the evidence is that the Confessional Movement is stronger than ever, and that as a reaction against the mytholatry of the German Faith Movement the Confessional Churches are teaching increasingly a pure and spiritual Christianity.
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