CHRISTIANITY AND THE TOTALITARIAN STATE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—The Bishop of Durham in your issue for July isth contributes a discussion on " the Christian Church and the German State." According to this the Nazi system is a " portentous blend " of mediaevalism with the modern con- ception of civilisation and involves a definitely " materialistic
atheism " by which the " open enmity of Moscow may be reconciled with " the partially veiled hostility of Berlin." But what are the facts ? Hitler is Moscow's greatest enemy because as a once Roman and now Lutheran Christian he is the avowed opponent of a " godless " State. Now that is to Hitler's credit, for before his time (as Lord Acton has reminded us) Berlin was the most church-less city in Europe. And from Berlin came the Adam 'Weishaupt Illuminati, that is atheist Freemason Jews, who were directly responsible for the recent Russian Revolution as their ancestors were for the French Revolution of 1789 ! So strongly is Hitler Christian that he has sent 6,000 Germans to help Franco in Spain. And Franco is both " totalitarian " and Christian. I quote the latest Press comment :
" The new army of General Franco's making . . . has put forward Totalitarian claims. . . . A distinctive feature of General Franco's State is its profound Catholicism. (Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, July-16th, page to.)" Totalitarianism may become atheist. It was under Frederick the Great. It was anti-Catholic under Bismarck. But Germany has never loved parliaments and from the days of Tacitus preferred autocratic rulers. And her present Totali- tarian State is avowedly, if not intelligibly or consistently,
Christian ! Yet the Bishop does not hesitate to sum up his argument as follows :
" The whole force of the Totalitarian State is being directed to the complete de-Christianising of the young. . . . An irrecon- cilable conflict with Christianity is implicit in the notion of the Totalitarian State." (The Spectator, July 16th, page 95.)" Now let me turn the very same style of argument against the Bishop- himself. If Hitler replied to the Bishop, he could easily do so in the same terms of misconstruction amounting
to misrepresentation. The Bishop admits that
" At the root of everything lies Religion. Christendom appears to be in process of repudiating Christianity (A)."
Precisely. I will take the English Church as chief offender. Parliament chooses her bishops, rejects her „revised Prayer Book, regards the King " in all causes, ecclesiastical as well as civil, as supreme," and by her Articles forbids the validity of any General Council called except with the will and consent of Princes. Elisabeth's Settlement of the reformed English
Church is by Act of Parliament based on the first Four General Councils of Christendom, which were certainly called by Princes who were not Christian at the time (Act i, Elis., cap. 3). Nor is the Church herself more apparently Christian than the Parliament. The Royal Commission on Doctrine allows the clergy to secretly doubt the very fundamental articles of the Creeds recited in Church. The Bampton Lectures of Dr.
R. H. Lightfoot dispute the facts of the Gospel narratives.
The three chief Bible Dictionaries and Commentaries of Oxford and Cambridge, subscribed to by Bishop Gore, Bishop Ryle and Dr. Driver, dispute the historical accuracy of the facts contained in that English Bible, whose quarter-centenary was celebrated in June. Is it a wonder that by three Acts of Parliament the English Church is to lose some £r,000,000 a year ? And in September a meeting in London is arranged for the Anti-God Conference, which has an avowed sympathy with Moscow's persecution of Jews and Christians. Hitler could easily (though unfairly) quote against the Bishop his own phrase that " Christendom " (and in particular English Christendom) . appears to be in process of repudiating Christianity." The Bishop is too able not to admit that the whole issue is more complex than to be summed up in so misleading a sentence as that Totalitarianism implicitly involves
an " irreconcilable conflict " with Christianity. But for Hitler and Mussolini and Franco there would be no " Christian " reply, adequate or not, to the avowed atheism of Moscow.—
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