ft C^n'iinGi« • A D i T O t k k A Christian Layman Affirms His Faith by William Ashley Anderson A Christian Layman Affirms His Faith By William Ashley Anderson OUR SUNDAY VISITOR LIBRARY HUNTINGTON, INDIANA Our Sunday Visitor Press Huntington, Indiana Nihil Obstat REV. T . E. DILLON Censor Librorum Imprimatur: , • i«JOHN FRANCIS NOLL, D.D. Bishop of Fort Wayne Deacidifled Says 'Civilization Paganism' Is Doing Great Harm In World COME time between the two World Wars, in the pages of one of the most widely cir- culated American magazines, Rupert Hughes, a popular author, told the world that Christianity is "unbearably bestial" and that he could "break down and sob with pity for the poor dear people" it "tormented slowly into their graves." He said a minister had recently got up in his pulpit and asked his congregation if there were any present who really believed in the Apostles' Creed, and no one rose! He said he did not believe that pro- fessed Christians themselves believe one-fourth of their own creeds. Later this author, who also enjoyed wide acceptance as a popular historian, made a con- siderable stir with some candid comments on George Washington which have historic justifica- tion. Yet those comments brought forth howls. No howls sounded when he advanced evidence to demonstrate "the utter falsity and absurdity" of the Bible and denounced Christianity as a filthy thing. His whole article on "Why I Quit Going to Church" was a challenge to both Christians and Jews. Clergymen were precluded from answer- ing it, because those who occupy the viewpoint of writers such as he see nothing but a hypocrite in a cleric's robe. Merely to be a minister or nun 4 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH or priest or rabbi is deemed prima facie evidence of hypocrisy! Well, the article got under my skin for a variety of reasons. I am not a clergyman, and I have no doubt that clergymen have at times pointed me out as a poor example of Christian. Certainly I have been ticked off for lapses. But I profess a belief in Christianity. And when 1 de- clare my faith I'm willing to back it up. No man can tell me that my Christian belief is bestial stupidity, etc., etc. and have me sit by twiddling my thumbs, with pursed lips and nothing more than a look of hurt innocence on my dumb coun- tenance. Furthermore no man can convince me that religion is merely a polemical topic of in- terest only to the ladies of sacristy societies. I know religion obviously lives and that without enlightened religion civilized society can only go on in a state of confusion. I have seen the effect of religion on races and individuals, in times of prosperity and in times of widespread calamity and death, all around the world. So I wrote an answer to the author's diatribe. I am competent to judge an article, since I have written many of them for excellent magazines; I know that my answer embarassed the editor. He couldn't use it because at that time he had con- tracted to publish a series of Hughes' stories and he felt it might injure the author with his audience. I took it then to the editor of another magazine, who was equally embarrassed because his firm published Hughes' books. I thereupoft 'CIVILIZATION PAGANISM' IS DOING HARM p handed .the article to a religious publication which seemed glad to publish it. That was before World War II. I might have forgotten the matter if it were not for the many extraordinary stories I have heard of the effect of my rejoinder upon many distressed people pf all religious denominations. Apparently Hughes had given expression to widespread skepticism based on superficial knowledge and distorted facts and false impressions. I have no desire to single out Rupert Hughes, but it does happen that he has an aptitude for dramatizing popular misconceptions and fal- lacies; and his article expressed so fully the often heard arguments of popular skeptics that he may well be accepted as their symbol and champion. In one person or another, you have met him many times. His party seems, in fact, to be growing as confusion grows in this world—" and there appear no clear objectives in our designs for living. So I will continue to use him and his arguments as convenient patterns of popular skepticism. Atomic Bomb Has Increased Skepticism The bursting of the atomic bomb over Hiro- shima has increased this skepticism and led to more chaotic thinking and a sort of despair among people of wavering faith. Even Dr. Smyth in his wonderful and thrilling report upon the development of the bomb wrote sardonically that perhaps it provides mankind with a means of committing suicide. Ay " a IS Special I] . Collections ? Vis Z&7 6 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH In the meantime, however, don't be .discour- aged. You will live on and the greatest problems you will ever face must continue to be purely per- sonal ones. Whether your end comes from a world explosion or an infected toenail will make little difference. But you may profitably learn this from the bomb, since knowledge of this immutable fact was the foundation upon which atomic energy was discovered and the bomb itself finally manufactured: Matter never dies, it merely changes form; and matter and energy are both the same thing in varying proportions. What you are, and what makes you tick, will never cease, though our human senses may not be able .to take your measure in the other forms. Now, getting back to this world and the in- dividual, our author, Hughes, said he was hap- pier than any Christian he knew, as if this were justification complete for his attacks on the be- liefs of others. Whether or not he still enjoys this happiness I cannot say. But for my part I am not happier than most pagans I know. I have seen too much of this world and all its sufferings to renounce the Christian principle of universal brotherhood and mutual responsibility. How can anyone blandly dissociate himself from the suf- fering about us? As I write this I can recall vividly naked chil- dren with bellies bloated with water, running beside my junk in China, wailing for food. How many Americans realize, even now with so much 'CIVILIZATION PAGANISM' IS DOING HARM p pictorial evidence before us, that the vast major- ity of human beings are always hungry? If you %ive a copper to a child in Peking, say, will he run and get a piece of candy or bubble gum? No. He'll run and buy a scrap of food to help satisfy the perpetual gnawing within his empty stomach. I recall a man slowly strangled to death at a way station of the Pukow Railway because he picked up a basketful of coal shaken from a freight car. I recall a leper with a face like Camembert cheese tinkling her bell in the market-place of Addis-Ababa, calling out- "Un- clean ! Unclean!"—just as the lepers whom Christ cleansed must have done. I recall untidy camps on the edges of African wildernesses, sur- rounded by litters of human bones where the hyenas moaned at night. I recall the cells of Yoshiwara where girls sold themselves into de- bauchery and disease by the thousands to pay off the debts of their parents. I recall heaps of naked human bodies fed upon by crows that had no understanding of pestilence. I recall beggars at Chang-Chia-K'ou, squatting in the sun, eating lice off their own bodies. A Plea For More Practical Christianity These personal recollections are important be- cause they happened at times when there was "peace" in the world. Who today is unaware of the wide-flung and indescribable misery in a world at war and emerging from war? Who can close his eyes to the pain and horror? What respect, then can I have for the opinions of one 8 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH whose philosophy is summed up in the fatuous statement that he "is happier than any Chris- tian"? Certainly it is no valid indictment of Christianity. It is rather a plea for more and more practical Christianity. I have touched mud and I do not offer myself as any fine example for social behavior; there's something deeply, humanly comforting in the thought that Christ gathered about Him a gang of hard-working fishermen—cheese-eaters, wine- drinkers, with fish-scales in their beards often enough, whose faith and example changed the face of the world against all the unceasing powers of evil. This is a fact that cannot be controverted, though it may be ignorantly and maliciously distorted. One of my companions in the campaign in German East Africa acquired a body-servant who soon attracted the attention of the other officers. They started a game which consisted in offering this boy money to procure native women for them. This kind of thing was regarded by the other boys as a joke—or an opportunity. But the new boy resented it angrily. It was this unusual attitude that seemed so funny. Other- wise the boy was quiet, efficient, hard-working, decent and self-effacing. More than a month passed before the white men found out he was a Christian from the Belgian .Congo, and shame ended their game. But who was the Christian ?— the cynical white man or that good black man? I have met Mongol horsemen in the Gobi 'CIVILIZATION PAGANISM' IS DOING HARM p Desert who were good Christian men. My cook, a Goanese, in Aden, Arabia, used to appear be- fore me in person only twice a week; on Mondays to take, the orders for the week, as he was duty bound/and on Sunday mornings, entirely on his own responsibility, to remind me with much em- barassment that it was time for me to go to church. Stewart Edward White spoke of the ex- traordinarily fine character of a Christian Cana- dian Indian whom he encountered in the wilder- ness far out of touch with any civilized commun- ity. I learned from such as they, the universal nature of the Christian belief and spirit. Returning to our own United States, when Mr. Hughes pointed out the fact that paganism is on the increase here and that he belongs to the majority who are not Christians, it was per- fectly timely for me to point out that though Christianity may not be keeping pace with the increase in population, crime and disregard of law were indeed keeping pace and traveling faster. Wfyen I first wrote this, not many years ago, it referred mainly to the increase of crime among adults. Today it is extended frighteningly to juveniles. The appalling increase in juvenile crime has been amply attested by our highly efficient FBI. There can be little doubt that much of this is directly traceable to the "unfettering of the human conscience"; for all the young pagan has to fear today, if the Christian concept of morals is derided, is getting caught. Those who have reported for us on conditions in Nazi Germany and Japan were astonished at the lack 10 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH of a sense of shame or responsibility for war crimes. Among pagans it seems to me that that is perfectly understandable and logical; but cer- tainly it is shocking to find the same attitude among the youth of a nation such as ours which claims to be most civilized of all. Crime And Immorality Rise As Belief In God Wanes DECENTLY I read the "Heptameron." I had read it secretly when somewhat younger for the forbidden thrills it contained. I find it a vastly different book from what I had recalled. Since there were no daily newspapers in Marg- aret of Navarre's day, no current record of each day's surprising events, she collected all the amazing and terrible and scandalous topics, not of a single day and city, but of an entire country and an entire lifetime. But, the material sold fresh every day on our newsstands makes the "Heptameron" look like a wordy Pollyanna's diary! Condensed in almost any daily newspaper today is a record of crime and immorality that couldn't be equalled in a year of Margaret's time. The easiest thing in the world to assail and the "smartest" to attack is the Bible and Chris- tian morals because such an attack is sure to shock someone. That's good sales publicity as our disgusted literary critics are now pointing out. "The Devil can cite Scripture for his pur- pose," said Mr. Shakespeare three hundred years ago; and Mr. Kipling considerably later told of the jackal born in the fall who said the spring freshets were the greatest floods in his- tory. Each new generation delights in redis- covering old scandals—especially scandals and interpretations that help justify licentious be- 12 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH havior. We really need something more than personal impressions and prejudice in order to appreciate the truth of the Bible. Belief Summed Up In Creed If we honestly crave the truth I believe in looking for the truth, not for the picayune quib- bles that blind and confuse us. If we are to throw away the Bible and erase from our minds and the records every impression it has made either directly or through our laws, literature, art and tradition, what work of man can ever fill the gap? Despite what Hughes has said, my Christian belief is easily summed up in the Apostles' Creed. Let's look at it calmly. 1 believe in God. A Supreme Being or the Primal Force or Elementary Principle or even Atomic Energy—no matter how He or It is called, the Supreme Power that created and governs the universe remains the same, immu- table, universal, eternal and infinite. Man didn't invent it. It always was. It is. It always must be. Any other conclusion is impossible in logic, because we doubt our intelligence if we doubt this, and that is an absurdity, since the act of doubting is an act of intelligence. "God" is a word which we use to express something infinite. How else express the infinite? Of course we can duck our heads and pretend to ignore it—except for the flicker of an eye when a pictorial maga- zine reports the sudden arrival of light waves CRIME AND IMMORALITY RISE 13 notifying us of the explosion of a star "one thousand years ago. God is Infinite. Who can measure God even in terms of thousands or millions of light-years? As for the Trinity—God the Father joined with the Son and the Holy Ghost—why not? Christ compared to any other man was certainly Godlike in human terms. Even the bitterest contemporary enemies of what He represented could find no fault in Him. Hughes can go care- fully through all the pages of his histories once more and he'll not find a man who ever came anywhere near measuring up to Him, despite the pious efforts of the saints to emulate His con- duct. It seems reasonable to me for the Infinite to manifest Himself to mankind by means of translation through a human, understandable, manly and lovable form which observed limi-. tations. If you want a plan for a perfect world, there certainly is a pattern for behavior! As for the Holy Ghost, that is as good a Name as any other—there are others, of course—for whatever the inexplicable force is which en- lightens us by revelation. We all recognize in- spiration as an intellectual force. We speak of an inspired army—an inspired people. With due recognition of the limitations of our five puny senses (Do you wear glasses? Or hearing aids? How do you smell if you have a eold?) it is not hard to imagine the existence of a Divine Imr pulse that may exert a special impulse upon u§, 14 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH Women Elevated Because Of Mary In this age when chastity seems to be losing much of its importance, the Virgin Birth ap- pears to be the subject of the most general in- credulity. Now, of course, our attitude on this comes from personal experience and understand- ing. Everyone feels competent to discuss this familiar subject, and every medical student is a cynical expert. Nevertheless, the Immaculate Conception is certainly in the realm of Infinite Power and most of those who deny it to Mary, believe in it in relation to themselves. It is just as well for women' to remember that the ex- ample of the Blessed Virgin has been the great- est factor in all history towards lifting them from degradation. For this alone, perhaps, her immaculateness, befitting Christ's Mother, was worth while. I am aware of course that many hold that woman owes her high place to the regard which the ancient Teutons always seemed to hold for womanhood. The fact is, as Taine pointed out, that the whole hope of a woman in the times when the Teutonic races were in the ascendancy and as yet had been untamed by Christian teach- ing, was to escape ravishment. It may be true enough to state that the women were loyal to their mates, but it is more nearly correct to say they clung with desperation to them as protec- tors. Conquered woman had no hope In the slave market near where now stands the city of 'CRIME AND IMMORALITY RISE 15 Bristol, England, girls were sold in batches by the conquering Teutons. Was that only because of the depravity of an- cient uncivilized people? Well, who will say that the scientific modern pagans who seized control of Germany in our own time have respected the chastity of womanhood? The existence of breed- ing camps in many parts of Germany has not only been discovered, it was openly proclaimed as an expression of revived paganism. A per- tinent commentary on this is that the two hun- dred orphans in the Nazi breeding camp near Ebersberg were recently taken for adoption by the Catholic Caritas organization of Munich to be raised according to Christian principles. Hughes may feel that it is "bestial" to take these children from their pagan background into a Christian environment. The American Army of Occupation was all for it. And so am I. Events Historically Established The trial and crucifixion of Christ have been satisfactorily established historically. Even if it were true that His resurrection rests chiefly on faith, if the premise is correct that He was God- and man, it follows logically that the power was in Him to dispose of the body in whatever way might be most edifying to mankind. What the Apostles saw they saw with Apostles' eyes, not - with mine. But they witnessed a kind of Trans- figuration that obviously strengthened their faith. It must have been convincing. 16 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH As for the anthropomorphic conceptions of God, educated Christians do not imagine God to consist of head, limbs, torso and viscera. The form of God cannot be imagined because of course it is formless, since He is a spirit without a body. We simply symbolize Him in as majestic a manner as we can conceive, the intention being to* excite in our minds a better appreciation of His attributes, especially as the Father and source of all being. I learned in my catechism when I was about eight years old that the human likeness to God rs chiefly in the soul—not a physical family resemblance. At the same time I learned that the chief torment of the hell which Hughes scoffs at is not in its terrible physical affliction, but in the de- privation of the sight of God for all eternity. This satisfies me. It is possible to deprive my- self of the physical sight of all I love in this world by simply closing my eyes and putting a bullet in my head. Why is it not equally possible to kill the soul, so to speak, and thus deprive myself forever of a sight (or comprehension) of the mysterious and appalling power that rules the universe, forever? Isn't it a reasonable aspiration to wish with an overwhelming desire to comprehend at last the mysteries of life, death and eternity?—to know what it is all about? Wouldn't you like (as an earthly parallel!) to comprehend all there is to know about the atomic force which caused a wheelbarrowful of metal to destroy an entire CRIME AND IMMORALITY RISE 17 city and most of its inhabitants, and which can move a great ship around the world on a hand- ful of matter? Wouldn't you like to understand this clearly without having to acquire the terri- fically complex knowledge of Messrs. Einstein, Bohr and Fermi? All will be comprehended in eternity. Layman Asks: 'Is Man More Creative Than God?' COME years ago I ran across the tribe of Watin- dige somewhere near Oldeani, the great game refuge in the heart of Africa which has been thoroughly photographed from the sky with in-credibly keen mechanical eyes in an incredible giant mechanical bird, since I skirted it on foot in pursuit of German askaris. Those people talk with clicking sounds like monkeys. They sleep where night finds them, pulling leaves and bushes together for a nest. They are entirely naked. They believe the stars in the sky are lights just overhead almost within jumping distance. The confines of the world as they understand it with their limited knowledge (not limited capacity) can be traversed by a bicycle between dawn and sunset, by an automobile in an hour, by an air-plane in minutes; and I have actually passed through their heaven, which is Mt. Mabuguru over which the sun rises. Would any reasonable man expect a missionary endeavoring to enlight-en these people, to talk to them of the joys of heaven and the pains of hell in terms of meta-physics? On the other hand, does Hughes serious-ly believe that an educated Christian means an actual ukelele if he talks of harps m heaven? No man can reasonably scoff at belief in the existence of a soul and its continuance after death, because it is an instinctive aspiration. 'IS MAN MORE CREATIVE THAN GOD?' 19 We don't fear death because it hurts. As a rule r^from what I have seen of it—it doesn't hurt. Often it is a great release from pain. We fear it because it implies extinction. This fear in-creases as disbelief in a spiritual survival in-creases. Don't tell me atheists have less fear of death than true Christians! Old age and dis-ease bring with them a sort of anaesthesia that makes a sufferer, no matter' what his belief, contemplate death with indifference. But this is not the same superiority to death that the martyrs felt as they simmered in oil. Hughes may call this indifference to suffering merely self-hypnosis—but if faith can produce such, hypnosis, it sound's good to me. Part Of A Divine Plan I am satisfied to leave the mystery of the Resurrection of the body to God. But if Hughes has seen, as I have seen many times, how indus-trial chemists bring the dead world to life in mass quantities for the benefit of human society, I cannot see how he or anyone else can find reason to doubt that the infinite power of God can be applied alohg similar lines. Let us take, for instance, a piece of coal. Now, what is a piece of coal? It looks to an un-educated child like a meaningless piece of black stone; but we know it is the remains of pre-historic jungles, crushed and compressed by great geological forces. Now let your informed 'imagination look at those jungles. They once teemed with life. The lush luxuriant vegetation 20 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH included foliage, fruit, nuts, flowers—with all the range of fragrance, flavor, color that you can imagine. All that was in those jungles was crushed into black stone—all that fecund, rich and varied life became dead as a stone, black as death! And what do the chemists do with that black stone today? From it by intricate processes they derive an amazing variety of perfumes, flavors, colors—the perfume your wives and sweethearts and daughters buy in little bottles, the flavors you so often enjoy and identify by name in the foods you eat, the whole wide range of beautiful colors you see in fabrics, paintings and wall coverings. How few pause to reflect— even among the chemists themselves—that these are not new creations, but rather the unfolding once more of the fragrance of authentic flowers and herbs, the flavor of authentic fruits and nuts and spices, the colors of authentic foliage in a steaming jungle that flourished perhaps a mil-lion years ago—and died and were buried. If chemists can accomplish this physical revival for nothing more than a salary—I have no doubt infinite God can make a better job of it as part of a divine plan. Over a generation ago Dr. Alexis Carrel took a speck of the heart of an unhatched chick and began to feed it scientifically in order to study the growth of cells. Those cells are still growing. At the Rockefeller Institute recently they be-came embarrassed at the magnitude of the growth and had to dispose of some of it. The personality of the chick is missing, but the cells 'IS MAN MORE CREATIVE THAN GOD?' 21 rise daily and might continue so until the end of time though it hardly seems worth while. Blind Critics Of The Bible There are several things about critics of the Bible that always puzzle me. One is insistence that a Christian must believe in the verbal in-spiration of the Old Testament. Another is that a Christian fixes his entire belief on the words of the New Testament. Must the human brain be so circumscribed that it cannot accept anything beyond a printed account? Do you believe all you read in the newspapers—in the advertisements? I must state positively that I do not believe, in a strictly literal sense, every-thing contained in the Old Testament. As for the New Testament, I believe it covers only a comparatively small part of Christian belief— and that imperfectly. It is a report sketchily covering only about three years of a life of thirty-three years. Nevertheless, of course, that report is the bulwark of Christian faith. The form that criticism takes of these two great monuments to social progress is often so inept that I cannot understand why people take the trouble to express it seriously—or if they feel compelled to express it, why they do not first investigate what they intend to criticize. And why, above all, do they so frenziedly go out of their way to assail those who see the obvious good in them? Hughes, for instance, casts derision on the Biblical story of Genesis, As a man who read 22 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH a lot of history books when he was younger, it is fair to demand of him that he point out in the records of any other race than the Semite an outline of creation that comes nearer to the theory of modern geologists and biologists than this first book of the Bible. It recounts that out of chaos came light; that the stars and planets were set in the heavens; that out of the vapors and waters that covered the earth, lard emerged, and out of the emerging slime came biological life, finally the ancestors of man, the two sexes in one body, and all creatures in separate species/ A rather good account for desert nomads without even a pair of spectacles to help them—and that over six thousands years ago, according to that Old Testament chronology. Need you be reminded that wo have just missed being conquered by a modern highly civilized, but pagan, people who believed that their bespectacled and sub-normal monarch was God Himself? These are highly literate scientific people capable of great industrial progress— capable even of manufacturing a death ray! In this connection, Hughes professed amaze- ment that anyone could be so stupid as to de- clare there was light before the sun had yet been created. Now, really, isn't that intellectual- ly archaic! Of course his observation was made before there was popular information on what is confined within the atom. But even at that time he might have asked himself: How is a fire started ? And answered: Combustible mate- rial is set alight. But where is the light before 'IS MAN MORE CREATIVE THAN GOD?' 23 you strike the match? What is it that lights the little lantern of the hunting fish in the darkness two thousand fathoms below the surface of the sea? What is in the spark that flies from a piece of flint?—or an abrasive wheel? What is it that shines from an electric bulb? Light : And with-out a sun! Light, in fact, is a vibration that may be entirely independent of the sun—often imper-ceptible to human eyes or too powerful for human eyes to stand. When we speak intelli-gently of the Creator we speak of the Infinite— not merely of a tribal god of a planetary sys-tem; for not only did He create our sun but other suns and suns whose multitudes are but motes of cosmic dust against infinity—less to Him than electrons are to us in their solar sys-tems within the atom. Coming Down To Earth! The sanitary laws of Hebrews are derided. This is really coming down to earth and is quite unimportant. It shouldn't be necessary to re-mind Hughes that these early people about whom he speaks were nomads who survived long years in the deserts of Sahara and Arabia. I have lived in the desert, and have led fairly large numbers of men through desert wildernesses; and I can state with conviction—sustained by the United States Army and the Marine Corps —that the hygienic laws of the old Jews were usually excellent. If Hughes ate domestic pig in any part of Northeast Africa or Southwest Asia, all his intellectual vigor wouldn't rid him 24 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH of the worms that would soon be eating of his body from the inside out. Why even savages know this and regularly (I almost said religious-ly) take taeniacides to purge themselves. I might add lots of disgusting information on the wis-dom of other hygienic laws that would be illumi-nating, but should be unnecessary. This I may add, though present day conformance in civilized communities to these excellent old laws may not be a necessity it is worthy of respect as an ad-mirable symbol of loyal adherence to a great social tradition. What seemed most to upset Hughes was the number of personal interviews man had with God in a world still primitive. I can assure him there are millions of people of Semitic origin who are this very day and hour talking to Him in the language of the Bible. As a literary man, I should think he might have supported the use of metaphor and even of hyperbole more gen-erously. Has he never read without comment sentences such as these: "His conscience told him it was wrong"; "Something whispered it is false" ̂ "His duty directed him otherwise"; "Honor said no"; "Justice spoke in no uncertain terms"; "Love bade him linger"; and so on? The Arab and other nomads of northeast Africa and Asia Minor express themselves today in similar fashion, only ascribing most things di-rectly to God. This is so common and obvious a custom that it is almost impossibly to write an account or story of these people without fairly frequent use of the name of Allah. Do those who 'IS MAN MORE CREATIVE THAN GOD?' 25 learn only from their reading suppose this is merely an affectation of adventure story writers? The fact is that an Arab or a Somali Muslim says quiet sincerely, "God appeared to me in a dream last night and directed me to do thus and so"; "I continued as far as the tall grass which was ablaze, and God told me to turn oack"; "God saved me from the foolishness"; "We prayed and God led us safely out." You will note that these phrases do not refer to local gods out to Allah! The events recorded in the Bible occurred to just such people. I know a lady whc heard her electric iron sing a popular song; it came from a defective radio and was a purely physical ex-perience. But Hughes himself cannot adequately explain the voices that speak from our ".sub-conscious" or the origin of impulses that sudden-ly sway communities and peoples. . Hughes declared that his whole object in deriding. the Bible was to seek the truth. I don't know the historic research he did as a young man, but there must have been a deal of pedantry in it; for while he scathingly denounces a literal acceptance of the Bible he denounces it precisely because of his own too literal inter-pretations! Why pick out in such a work only the apparent discrepancies and inconsistencies ? What gain is there in quibbling over the dialect in which God and Moses discussed the Ten Com-mandments? Behold the Ten Commandments— in any language! ' Moderns Have 'Faith' In Everyone Except Gnd "THE great value, of the Old Testament seems to me to lie in the fact that it records the de- velopment of a faith that for the first and only time in history combined ethics and religion. It clears the darkness and confusion of the varying faiths through which man has sought to reach God much as Darwin's theory cleared the dark- ness and confusion that distorted biology only a few years ago. The New Testament is usually criticized by casual skeptics as if it were supposed to have been written by Christ Himself—as if He took pen in hand, and wrote an autobiography. A moment's reflection is enough to remind us that every recorded word of Christ is a quoted word, and often enough it is a word quoted at second or third hand. One and a half thousand years and more passed before they appeared in print. The length of time that passed between the cru- cifixion and the appearance of the portions of the New Testament as Christians now accept them—though the original writings were of the first century—was roughly about as long as from the birth of George Washington until the present time and Mr. Hughes is witness to the fact that we have not had a completely authent ic report of the life of George Washington despite volumi- nous records. Yet Mr. Hughes is contemptuous 'FAITH' IN EVERYONE EXCEPT GOD 27 because the exact hour of events in the life of Christ is not Correctly stated! The Writings we have which constitute the New Testament were made by men on the run or in prison or in immi- nent danger of death. Paul's account of his vicis- situdes is sufficiently illuminating. It appears to me amazing that we have any clearness in the record at all; and yet it is so clear that the mere writing of it is an accepted prose classic. Julius Caesar, a near contemporary, employed seven secretaries; he is considered to have been an especially sharp observer and accurate commen- tator, and we have ample record in Latin of his life and time. His colleagues were intelligent men. Why, then, do we consider him deserving of this reputation when he made such asinine observations as those concerning the unicorn, and yet discredit the writings of the New Testament because of an alleged error of a matter of hours or even of years? The favorite modern skeptics reply to all this is that we should not believe anything except what is revealed in. the pure light of modern science. But what is the pure light of modern science? Before it fully reveals one truth, it must hedge upon the revelation and proceed to another. Scientific progress is no doubt the wonder of the age; and. scientists merit all the credit and encouragement we can give them; but where do they point to absolute truth? They have not found truth., of course. They simply be- lieve and search. Christians believe and hope. 28 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH But the comprehension of absolute truth must necessarily be beyond reach of our five puny senses. I agree with the late William J. Bryan, who was so freely derided for his opposition to the teachings of evolution in public schools, to this extent: Most of the developments of modern science should not be taught to children by a lot of badly educated boys and girls who have only the foggiest idea of what it is all about. That kind of teaching is not enlightenment; it's be- wilderment. Scientists understand the symbols they themselves employ, and unconsciously they differentiate in their minds among hypotheses, theories, laws; but most normal school grad- uates with two years training most certainly do not. A questionnaire was passed among students of a normal school in Wisconsin about the time I first wrote these comments. It contained a list of names which were at that time prominent in the news. The students were asked to explain the meaning of the words. The answers turned in were enlightening to the examiners, but gave small hope of enlightenment for the children these scholars would be teaching within a year. Mussolini became a province; de Valera a Mexi- can bandit; Dawes an extinct bird; Bohr a vil- lage in Normandy; Babe Ruth a movie star—and a lot more were defined with equal absurdity. Yet these same girls a year or so later were tq 'FAITH' IN EVERYONE EXCEPT GOD 29 be among those who resented being told they were insufficiently equipped to teach science. In my way I also am a seeker after truth, though not exactly along Hughes' lines. I have had a number of conversations with scientists of repute. They are usually specialists, rather irri- tated at anything that tends to upset their pri- vate theories. The relatively few genuine phil- osophers among them are men of great breadth of vision and-tolerant of fresh opinions. They are always learning. But the lesser ones seem to pin their faith to diplomas. One branch of "modern science" has particu- larly interested me—criminology. I find that even in this crowded and familiar, neighborhood science is embarrassed. There is no strictly scientific definition for crime, because what is crime here is not crime there. A Somali ser- geant came to me for leave of absence for the not unusual purpose of going back to Somali- land to kill a man. A Massai brave wants no greater honor than to wear a fringe about his face because to earn that right he must have killed eleven men. In the Danakil country rela- tive values were set upon murders; credit was given for men killed, but it was worth more to kill an elephant since men are such easy prey. Selling spirituous liquors was recently a crime in the United States for which one unfortunate woman in Michigan was sentenced to life in prison. In Europe it is an honorable trade for which titles of nobility have been granted. Mur- 30 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH der has the cachet of society in many parts of Africa; it is condoned in America; and it is atrocious in England. Peculation in public office is considered a serious crime in America; it is an ingrained habit in the Orient. Violent sex- ual crimes considered bestial now, were joyful rewards of victory in the days of our unregener- ate ancestors. So it would appear there is no scientific basis for good conduct. For the Christian, however, there is clear definition. He has a moral code which he be- lieves himself obliged to obey to the utmost of his poor weak will even though there are no police to enforce it. Hughes presented an excellent example of the fallacious statements upon which critics of Christianity base their seemingly plausible argu- ments in the paragraph wherein he said: "Nobody honestly believes that Church members are less likely to embezzle, flirt or be brutal than non-church members; or that Christians are more honest, than Chinamen. Life is as safe in the African jungle as it is in most Christian cities. This I can state on the testimony of the missionaries them- selves. Everybody knows that a man's creed has nothing whatever to do with his character or his conduct. To deny this is to deny everyday experience." The honesty of Chinese has become proverbial 'FAITH' IN EVERYONE EXCEPT GOD 31 only because it has shone in contrast with the unscrupülousness of early foreign traders (de- cidedly not Christian, though they sailed under American and European flags) and the pecula- tion of a class of Japanese who at that time were looked upon with scorn by the Japanese them- selves. The basis of Chinese mercantile morals is that honesty in the long run is the best busi- ness policy. When it is not necessary to be honest Chinese may be wonderfully dishonest. This is so notoriously the case that one of the great difficulties in the establishment of government is that officials will not trust one another with public funds. Under thè recent old regime public office was bought and the purchaser wrung the price from the people in exorbitant taxes. This attitude towards other people's money extends right down to servants who take a cut on every purchase, no matter how small, made for their employers. Squeeze, extortion, blackmail are common practices. Christian influence has done more for China in modern times than any other moral force. It is a common enough thing to sneer at the "mission boy" in China; but for absolute fidel- ity to a cause you will find few finer examples than the defense of the Pei-Yang cathedral in Peking during .the Boxer War by Chinese Chris- tians, armed only with pikes supporting the forty Italian marines who had been sent as a guard before the siege of the Legations had com- menced. From the Legation quarter, defended 32 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH by the military, most of the pagan Chinese van- ished; but in the cathedral compound, hopelessly isolated at the other side of the city, the Chris- tian Chinese did not renounce their loyalty in order to save their skins. On the contrary, they withstood a terrible and incessant siege and were still fighting two days after the Legations had been relieved by the Allied Army. They had re- sisted every assault and every seduction the Boxers could bring against them, and in the final days were so weak from starvation the men had to be supported, tottering to the walls, by. their slightly better nourished wives and sisters and daughters. At that time Hughes might have found shelter in the safety of a city such as Paotingfu, which is the capitol of a province. Unfortunately the Christians there were marched out under a solemn promise of safe conduct, after giving up their weapons, and then they were all beheaded with variations—children first in the presence of their parents; then wives in the presence of their husbands; then the husbands. Christianity is against that sort of thing. Hughes, on the other hand, might have offered pagan Japan as a fine country in which to find better than Christian treatment—but he was at that time writing in California, where the idea might not have been sympathetically received. But if he had, what a nice state of confusion he would now be in trying to justify such conduct as the rape of Nanking and the burning of Ame- 'FAITH' IN EVERYONE EXCEPT GOD 33 rican prisoners and Philippine Christians on Luzon. • He spoke with a convincing air of authority about savage Africa, saying it was as safe as most Christian cities. Now what does he mean by a Christian city? If he means some great American city, his own testimony might contra- dict him, for he has already said the majority are not Christians. Church-goers, even, are in a minority and of this minority there is a still smaller minority who may truly claim to be Christian. But we might fairly take such a com- munity as Oberammergau, even in Germany, to compare to .savage Africa. Oberammergau, you may remember, is where they used to hold the Passion Play. By contrast, let's look at savage Africa. Cruelty Practiced In Spite Of Christianity DEFORE the coming of the white man and the white man's law—which is based upon the Bible—before such men as David Livingstone, for instance—almost every part of Africa was the scene of tribal warfare, the most unspeak- able tortures, degradation hard to describe, and in many places cannibalism of a.n appalling sort. The late Mr. Seabrook describes cannibalism of only a few years ago. But even better testimony is in Santie Sabalala's In Kaffir Kraals, sketches written by a contemporary Fingo-Kaffir and ap- pearing in American and British publications. Apparently Hughes never heard of the "mas- sacre of the Laager," where about two thousand Boers, old men, women and children—who were trapped away from their men—were literally torn to pieces and subjected to the most abomin- able brutality by the Zulus. He probably does not know that prisoners of the cannibals were actually kept in pefis for fattening, their limbs broken and submerged in water for several days before being killed, in order that the flesh might be more tender for eating". I have myself heard the natives singing an old song of a cannibal cult with the happy refrain: "This night is your night to bring your son." The son was to be the meal! What changed all this? The coming of Christian law. I might also paraphrase Hughes CRUELTY IN SPITE OP CHRISTIANITY 35 and say, "It is safer today for a man alone in Africa wherever Christian law prevails than in a great American city where pagans defy the law!" As a Christian I might resent Hughes' state- ment that it is "the plain indisputable fact that no other religion ever approached or attempted to approach the unbearable beastliness of Chris- tianity. It almost destroys me to think of it. I could break down and sob with pity for the poor dear people that were caught in those traps of theology," etc. But it is such sophomoric non- sense as an argument.against Christianity. We can be thankful Hughes has distinguished himself more as a writer for the movies than as an historian. Writers who take this tone have a way of im- plying that all Europe from the time of St. Peter's arrival in Rome, shortly after the death of Christ, was immediately and thenceforth com- pletely Christian. Every social upheaval, every political catastrophe, perhaps the great plagues and every other abomination that occurred from that time to Napoleon Bonaparte may justifiably be held against Christians and the Christian Church! When this is too obviously unjust it is flung in the face of Spain—because Spain does not speak our language, and therefore answereth not! How many people realize that the inhabitants of the northern and western part of Europe at the time of St. Peter's appearance in Rome were 36 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH not merely barbarians, but were virtually sav- ages? Their religion was druidical and their priests tore the reeking hearts from human sac- rifices under the oaks in vast impenetrable for- ests. They lived in mud hovels, roughly thatched. Caeser's soldiers were horrified and almost broke ranks in terror at sight of the giants who came out of the German forests. In the wolf-infested wilderness, these blond giants built rough lodges of mud and stones and timber, and there they drank themselves into drunken rages—went beserk with the blood lust. Teuton, Gaul, Celt, Pict, Briton—in a dark world of gnarled drip- ping forests, gray wintry skies and storm-swept seas—they tore at each other's throats like pre- datory animals. No economic necessity forced them to war. They gloried in slaughter! The Roman legions tried desperately to tame them until Varus' legions were annihilated in the Ger- man wilderness and the bloody flood overflowed across the Alps. With the Roman civilization penetrating in thin streams went the first few Christians, walk- ing in sandals and bare feet. But Rome's efforts were smashed in the confusion among these bar- barians. Into this confusion of European bar- barism came the ravenous rush of Turks and of Huns and Mongols. Race piled on race, slashing and conquering, observing no enduring law but the law of might. None survived but the strong. Imagine the hates, the prejudices, the insatiable passions of these people! Imagine the social CRUELTY IN SPITE OP CHRISTIANITY 37 chaos when all social problems were resolved by the cross-bow, the .broad-sword and the torch! Christianity prayed for order and for peace. What did pagan barbarians reply? At Scar- borough one Jute, single-handed, slew eighty un- armed monks. This was regarded as a tremen- dous jest. But consider what struggling Chris- tianity was up against! The Dark Ages rolled over it. For some incomprehensible reason the Dark Ages or the Middle Ages are often referred to as evidence of the corruption and weakness and superstition of the Christian church, when, of course, the reverse is the case; for the Dark Ages passed because something mysterious had happened to barbarism. Christianity had not been murdered; instead it had actually tamed the murderers of Roman civilization! Professor Hut- chins, of Chicago University, believes that our modern age must look to the Dark Ages to re- ceive the light it now needs. Turning to the other side of the world, Hughes refers to the writings of Las Casas for evidence of this "beastliness" of Christianity in the New World. As it happens, this is an example in still another land excellently illustrating my point. Las Casas wrote extensively of the cruelties imposed upon the Indians by the early Spaniards. He himself came to Hispaniola not long after Columbus. He was ordained prifest in' San Do- mingo; and, conceiving a great horror of the cruelty of Indian slavery, he returned to Spain 38 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH to intercede with the king on the Indians' be- half. The king having died, the regents, Card- inals Ximenes and Hadrian approved of what he asked and created the office of Protector of the Indians for him. It is impossible to follow his career here in detail; but years later he actually succeeded in getting drastic laws drawn in favor of the Indians. The outcry against them was so loud that the Viceroy in Mexico did not dare en- force them and they caused Pizarro to rebel against them in Peru! Las Casas nevertheless was, in the end, made Bishop of Chiapas. Per- haps he exaggerated in his reports because he was doing his best to arouse horror against cruelty to the Indians. Hughes would give the impression that the horrors were imposed by Christian teaching, that Christianity was re- i sponsible for it, when his mere statement of the case proves that the true Christian was opposing un-Christian. conduct with the utmost ardor, actually supported by Cardinals in Spain!. Any- one with sense knows that the natives of Span- ish-America were exploited for gold. It was a land colonized largely by ruthless adventurers. You will look fa r in Mexico before you find a statute glorifying Cortez! But because few of us read Spanish, we are narrow-minded enough to accept the' writings and traditions of English- men, at a period when all England hated Spain t with an enduring hatred, as presenting the facts of the case. Nevertheless, the arrival of the Spaniards, in- CRUELTY IN SPITE OP CHRISTIANITY 39 evitably bringing with them Christian mission- aries, broke up the Aztec and Tolete civilizations and religions—"those poor dear people" who offered up yearly—according to Prescott, an his- torian somewhat more highly regarded than Hughes—twenty thousand human sacrifices You may see the sacrificial stones when you take a tour in your car to Mexico. The blood in them speaks. Anyone with imagination may picture how the victims were pressed back in a bow, their hearts cut out with obsidian knives, their bodies flung down the scarp, the hearts retained to be eaten, while the carved stope channels of the high places flowed with human gore. Christianity changed that. Christianity has, in fact, changed the whole face of the world, and for the better, in the unending struggle against injustice and evil. I'm for it. I've looked along the deep perspectives of history; I've walked and talked with men of every breed, with kings in- deed and crawling beggars; I have lived in war and famine, pestilence and prosperity; I'm fa- miliar with the petty arrogance of bureaucrats, the unhappy querulousness of labor, the silly pride of unmerited wealth, the cruel wanton hatred of stupidity. And recently here in Wash- ington I have been in a veritable Sargasso Sea of better plans for better living—which is won- derful because it makes so clear that there never has been conceived by man a better plan than this simple Christian -precept: "Love your neighbor as yourself . . . 40 C A LAYMAN AFFIRMS HIS FAITH And God above all things.' The United Press, reporting from Nuremberg, March 20th, 1946, said that Rudolf Hoess, con- fessed killer of 2,500,000 persons, was respon- sible for the deaths of another 2,000,000 Nazi victims after he left the German horror camp at Auschwitz in southern Poland. "With 4,500,000 deaths to his 'credit,' Hoess is probably history's outstanding murderer," said the report. "Asked if he believed in God, the former Auschwitz commandant said, 'Most em- phatically no!" ' To a Christian the question seems superfluous. y-.