THE ARMY & RELIGION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 48, 20 November 1919, Page 2

THE ARMY & RELIGION

A REMARKABLE SYMPOSIUM' BUT A DEPRESSING RESULT [From nearly' 301) memoranda, resting on the evidence-of many hundred witnesses of all .ranks—generals down to privates, chaplains, doctors, nurses, hut leaders, and workers—a remarkable book, "Tho Army and Religion," . Jlins • been compiled, and its advent in circulatidri has created a deep impression upon public opinion. The book is the result of un inquiry into tho meaning of what was revealed under war conditions us to tho religious life of. the naOion. Tho Inquiry Committee -consisted of tbe Bishop of Winchester ,and Dr. David Cairns, of Aberdeen, joint -conveners, -tllie headmaster of Rugby, Rev. Dr. A. E. Garvie, Dr. John Oman, Dr.- W. P. l'aterson, Professor A. S. Pealte, Rev. Dr. )V. U. Sclbic, Canon Streeter, ltev. Tissington Tatlow, and others. Not only does tho report givo the facts, but one half of the book is devoted-to the spiritual meaning of the situation which it discloses, and till©. question as to how it may bo retrieved. Appended are a, number of extracts from the' memoranda of witnesses:—] ...... , "What are tho-men thinking Generally speaking, ajid hero I find everyone agrees with me, they are not thinking at all.. They are 1 just carrying on."— (A distinguished chaplain, since fallen.) "The Scotsmen I met were as a rule better' educated than tho English, and, more than that; they were three-parta self-educated. Yet they had just as much, or'more, tendency to hypocrisy as tho English.''—(R.A.M.C.'sergeant.) ■ "Education-is largely to blame for the unsatisfactory state of morals. . The conception, of education as a preparation for material success and- the consequent endeavour to pack - the • mind with morally, colourless facts .have done untold damage: • Mentality without morality is false "—{Scottish chaplain.) • "How shocked 1 huTC been at the re;, relation of what British education has done.for tho Tommy and for tho officers. -It has made- excellent clerk.?, engineers and doctors—all of them skilled mechanics, the more .skilled, the mora materialist often. Geography has been oHicientlv taught, but none of those won-derful-things called Ideas has been imijlahted.. The 'Word' has never been made fleshJoi' them; and so their view of the. worlH in which they live is very crude and materialistic."—(A Major of Artillery.)

"It is melancholy'to have to: record that the decided weight of testimony supports, the view that the general moral .level-of the.moil in the Army has sunk.'" "How' poorly equipped the men wore, spiritually and intellectually, for so sudden and terrible a crisis. Church anol nation ought to have done better by thflin. The war has come crashing into tlih confused world of thinking of the multitude, into the . .formal and-conven-tional religion'of others, into tile shallow .philosophies and enlts' of others stillr'--and they had no adequate• categories with., which to explain it." "To ignore the darker side in the presentment of the facts would be w lis falsn to the- main purpose of this inquiry. . . . A chaplain writes: 'A baa! result of' the'spirit of "wangle."' Tho head of a large wholesale house in London (Himself a lieutenant) told me that on account, of- this spirit of 'wangle' ho foresaw almost a complete breakdown of the confidence' which previously existed between tmnloyers and workers and fellow workers."

"Swearing is a very common sin in the Armv. The men who do not swear are a small minority. The majority indulge in foul, immoral, blasphemous ' InnV irtiage.- The Holy Name is mixed with pverv foul expression."—(Private in R A.M-C.)

"They curse with all the so-called profanity conceivable," says on officer of tho Field". Artillery. "Bad language is very common, more so than an outsider can. have any concention of." says N a noncom, officer in the R.A.M.C.

"The* language of fornication—the characteristic of the whole' Army .so.far , n<! I .know—seems.,to me to strike too close to the. heart of things, too lightly at the most serious battle every healthy man has to fight to escape eondonement. Filthy language to me represents a moral descent."—(Officer in New Zealand regiment.) "It. is perfectly clear that, the excessive us? of drink is one of the chief eatises of -that which is by far the darkest stain—the prevalence of sexual immoralit.v, . There in probably n-.ore about it in our 1 papers than about all the other evils 1 put together. The line was a. very much cleaner place than the ■base.'" "As to the question of puritv, I have verv sod impressions," says a West Scotland chauloin. "Thev that sexual induleenc® is natural and therefore legitimate. Their minds are pretty filthy. Thev have never been schooled io the battle for chastity and ' their talk is prettv often disgusting." "Tn fact wp have not yet learnt the wav in whifch to train our voimg men in nurity. arid. it is time we fyced tho fact. Moreover. I do not think thai there is anything to nick and* choose between tho classes in this matt°r. 'Varsity men so"'" to me nuite as bad as labourers. "There will 'be difficulties for society an'sin? out of the almost universal decline of miblic opinion with rewH-'Mo sexual moral-. Impurity, 1 I should almost be impelled to say, especially with regard to lilcraturc. art, and conversation,' is the' rule in the Army; purity tho execution."—(Scottish officer.) "Have the men any clear idea of what the Christian relH'ion is? Xo, amazinglv no! Has the Church? Has the overage divini tv student or young minister. -V lJi "hhWr chaplain.) "The preatlv prevailing drift of the evidence is that the'.men, as a whole, have a material vic-w of life. . . • J"o maioritv of thorn harms been brought up' to work hard for their living ami that seem* to be their chief anxiety. (A'" nurse.)' . ~ . ~ L ■ "To inv mind the only difticulty is that the majority have not the fepest ■notion of what Christianity w all about; Mien opposition to it is eHiotumal stiivctive, not reasoned. —(Ilighlaiid ofliCo; '4hc general idea of Christianity is till at it: consists of a number of negative commandments. Ins is "}{W nidqd/by military discipline. -(Corpor.il "I nni convinced that the attitude of these men before tho war was pagan without even those elements .of dignity and beauty winch are associated with paganism in certain of Thev took life as it came, life consisting nf sire'ehes of monotonous labour, broken bv" intervals . of relief and, recreation. These men never interpreted lite into spiritual terms/-(Second lieutenant.) "These men as a whole believe that the churches, a,re out of touch with reality and' out of touch with ordinary humanity." • find the churches lacking in the spirit nf reality. The > doctrinal message 'is unintelligible. They do lioti know what it, is all about." . '.'They have a haunting suspicion that the Church itself is not sure about its own creeds ami about the Hiblo, and .ttiat there is, therefore, something, .insincere about its testimony."