A "Righteous" War

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 187, 4 May 1940, Page 15

A "Righteous" War

“I cannot use the phrase ‘a holy war.’ For war in its own nature is always an expression of the sin of man; but without hesitation I speak of this as for us a righteous war. It is, indeed, in a real sense a war for Christian civilization. The systems of thought and life in the German State today and in its ambiguous associate —the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—are systems intrinsically hostile to the Christian doctrine. “Even though parts of their aims were pages torn from the book of Christianity, as one serious student has described them, yet, as he justly insists, the tearing out of the pages has essentially altered their meaning, while the other parts of Christianity are by those systems actively repudiated. “It is not right to attempt to extend by force the propagation of the Gospel; for it is of the essence of the Gospel that response to it must be free, and to propose its forcible extension is to betray its spirit. But •when a civilization has grown up, in some measure permeated by the principles of the Gospel and fully allowing that the Word of God may have free course and be glorified, it may be a duty to resist by force the forcible suppression of that civilization. “We are resisting an enemy whose triumph would mean extended persecution of the Church, vastly increased obstacles to the winning of the next generation for Christ, and a repudiation of the only authority under which a stable moral order can be established or maintained. We are fighting for Christian civilization.”—The Archbishop of York, Dr. Temple.