Friday, September 15, 1944

VAN PAASSEN

(Continued from Page 12)

a s! Is it the princes of the
Church of Christ? Is it the syn-
od, the council, the most prom-
inent preachers, the bearers of
the golden croziers, the hooded,
gowned and mitred theologians?
Not at all. They are not hated.
peo ple go out of their way to
meet them with a smile and they
smile back in the most friendly,
amiable fashion. No hatred
there! Nothing but good will!
In fact the more prominent a
Christian the more, it seems, he
is not hated, but admired by
everybody. He takes good care
not to be hated. Controversy,
strife, struggle he eschews as a
pestilence. In fact he never en-
gages in controversy except in
parlor games of make-belief.
Zeal, which he calls hysteria-
mongering or fantacism, he dep-
recates, as all passion and en-
thusiasm. He stands in the very
middle in the "via media" in
every realm, social, economic, po-
litical and religious. He is for
peace at all times and does not
even want to run the risk of be-
ing frowned at, let alone be hat-
ed. He proclaims himself objec-
tive therefore, and readily as-
serts that there are two sides

r--

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

to every question, two sides to
a lie and two sides to truth! If
he is a Christian preacher he
usually chooses his words well
and oils them well with unction
and urbanity and banality so
that they slip easily into one ear
and out the next without touch-
ing anything in passing. He
wants tranquility and peace of
mind and to be at ease in Zion,
and how! He is for social peace,
for national unity, for tolerance,
for democracy, for the right kind
of labor relations, for Russian
relief, for keeping the Jew in hi:;
place—quite charitably of course
—and the Negro where he be-
longs. Tn one word he is for the
status quo. He doesn't want to
disturb anything or anybody.
Leave well enough alone, is his
watchword. Don't disturb sleep-
ing lions. Let us have peace, let
us be loved by all men.
Out there in the battle of life,
out there in the arena, where it
smells of sweat and unmention-
able things, where dirt flies and
where blood flows, where men
snarl with hatred and disillusion
and pent-up wrath, where the
struggle for man, for the King-
dom of God rages with more and
more bitterness as the issue's grow
sharper and the ideologies more
accentuated, there you seldom see
him, except perhaps as an "im-
**

partial" spectator or as an in- and with determination that it is viled! You will be hated!
terpreter of the other side of the an evil and must end--that the
Say it for once that the Red
question. It is quite true, of Negro, the black child of God, Army is saving Western civiliza-
course, that you do encounter is treated in our Christian Amer- tion, that is to say Christen-
an occasional Christian individual ica as if he were a vile beast, dom, by its self-sacrifice, by the
in the roaring, social turmoil, and see how you will be re- rivers of its blood and its high,
but when do we see the Church ceived. See what denunciations incomparable idealism, and see
of Christ collectively, fighting will pile upon your head from what your reward is: Interna-
there as a unit, as a phalanx, as the side of the good and the tionalist, alien, go back where
a "militia Christi"? When?
respectable and the safe and the you came from, you un-Amer-
"What did modern labor ex- sound ! Negro-lover ! Harlem- ican . . .! You will be execrated!
pect from the Church of Christ?" goer! . . . You will be reviled!
You will be hated!
asked a famous German church-
Say it for once that the arti-
Say it for once that the West-
man at the beginning of the cen- ficially-stimulated Jew-hatred in ern imperialism are as cynically
tury. And he answered: "Every- our midst is but an instrument tyrannous in India and Malaya
thing!"
in the hour of inevitable mass- and China and Indonesia and
"What did labor receive from frustration which is soon to strike Africa as Germany is in Europe.
the Church of Christ?" he asked to foist fascism on the nation and listen to the echo of your
next. And the answer was: and see how nice and respect- words. You have gone "the lim-
"Nothing!"
able Christian people will turn it" in opposing the war effort,
It is the same today. The offi- their backs on you. Jew-love•! you are rocking the boat, you
cial churches always play safe How much Jew-money did you get are unpatriotic, a traitor to all
when issues become acute and in for that one? . . . You will be that's decent. Men will speak
the case of present-day America, reviled! You will be hated!
evil of you, falsely! You will be
where, as nearly everyone rea-
Say it for once that our so- hated!
lizes, profound, earth - shaking ciety should be ordered cooper-
Say it for once that Pope Pius
events stand before the door, atively and not competitively, XII played the fascist game again
where millions of men ad wom- that the goods of this world with his last-minute appeal be-
en will presently cry out their should be at the disposal of all fore the capture of Rome, for a
disillusion and disappointment and not used merely for the ag- negotiated peace, that is to say
and frustation, where either the grandizement of class or nation, before the Red Army goes on
social fabric is to be revolution- and see what you get. Commu-
ized from top to bottom, social- nist, red, free-lover, wife-beate•, the march to Berlin to extermi-
ized and collectivized, or where drunkard .. .! You will be re- See VAN PAASSEN—Page 15
war is to become the permanent
state of affairs. What has that
great influential body, the Church
of Christ—not this or that indi-
vidual social-minded minister—
to say about race hatred, about
Jew-baiting, about Jim Crowism,
about the coming peace, about
the right of collective bargain-
ing, about the right to strike,
about a planned economy, about
academic freedom, about share-
New Year's Greetings
croppers, the public school and
fascism? It utters pompous plat-
itudes. It sets up pillars of peace
To Our Friends and Entire
that look like soft pillows to
sleep upon for imperialists and
Jewish Community
monopolists. It gives ambiguous
answers. It evades, it hems and
haws, or it takes a cowardly
refuge behind some mistranslated
text or wrongly phrased transla-
tion of Jesus' words about his
kingdom being not of this world.
* * *
And yet we are not discour-
aged! Not in the least! Every-
thing is as it should be! We know
that Jesus did not commit an
error of judgment or of prog-
nostication. His words, recorded
in the 10th chapter of Matthew,
are as true today as the day
they were uttered. His emblem
may be upon the breasts of mil-
lions. His temples may rear their
spires into the highest heavens
and dominate the landscape as
monuments of conquest and dom-
ination. His name may be in-
voked and uttered with the ut-
most reverence, with awe, with
bated breath, under the spell of
music, almost celestial, and on
bended knee by vast multitudes.
His cause, his business, that
for which he came into the
Men's Wear
world: "That men may have life
and have it more abundantly,"
materially and spiritually, the
SIX SEVENTEEN WOODWARD
Kingdom of God on Earth, that
cause is as much hated as ever it
was. It is hated more than ever!
It is execrated, reviled, lied
about, spat upon, denounced,
sabotaged, trodden underfoot .. .
and ofttimes in his, in Jesus'
Rosh Hashonah Greetings
very name. His passion con-
tinues. He is daily, hourly being
And may the New Year bring you an abun-
crucified anew. He is still in
dance of Good Health and Happiness!
agony.
Say it for once—but earnestly

5705

1944

•

•

May this year bring the realization of all
our hopes, redemption to our people and
a new deal to afflicted humanity.

We extend sincere good wishes for a
New Year filled with happiness and
blessed with full measure of prosperity
and may these wishes continue to find
fulfillment into the many years beyond.

1/4

•

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General Manager

WHALING'S

DETROIT-LELAND `}MOTEL

DETROIT, MICHIGAN

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