The German Church Dispute The past week has once more
demonstrated the vitality and independence of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Herr Hitler may well envy his fellow-dictators the ease with which they have disposed of the religious problem. In Soviet Russia, the Orthodox Church has been slowly strangled without striking a single effective blow. In Italy, Signor Mussolini made the Vatican his faithful ally by the nominal cession of a few acres of Roman soil. In Germany, the totalitarian State is still at grips with the so-called Confessional Movement, which stoutly refuses to make the Lutheran Church the obedient hand- maid of the National Socialist Party. The sham nature of the compromise represented by the recent appointment of a Reich Church Committee is shown by the promptitude with which that Committee has made its peace with the " German " Christians. The Reich Church Ministry has now formally ordered the Confessional Administra- tion to renounce its claim to be the central authority of the German Evangelical Church. The Administration has refused to comply. It will be interesting to watch what happens next. Herr Hitler will hardly want, on the eve of the Olympic Games, to provoke a recrudescence of religious strife, or to add to the number of bishops and pastors already suffering various forms of imprisonment Without trial.
Previous page
