Christianity and Communism

Lake County Mail, Issue 33, 21 January 1948, Page 6

Christianity and Communism

“ The Mission of the Church.” “Devotion is impatient; faith Avait’s upon God’s time—devotion must not think and, therefore, is unteachable; faith must think Avitli every critical faculty of the mind alert. An animal is capable of devotion but not of faith, for faith demands both freedom and the use of reason. Devotion gives recklessly Avithout counting the cost; the disciple of faith must forsake all that he hath, but he is expressly told that he must first count the cost. Devotion can be giA r en to an idol, a myth, a legend, a fantasy. Titania can be enamoured of an ass. Faith demands history, reality, eA r ent, truth, trust in a person, in a presence.” The last is the vital distinction. To the Christian nothing is of more importance than his personal relationship to his Lord, not even the service of the cause. To the Communist nothing must be alloAved to come before his devotion to the cause. To the Christian, God comes first; individuals come second; and all else on Avhich AA r e rightly spend time is subsidiary to these. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” The order of these tAvo things is important. It is because Ave as Christians are liable to forget this order, that avc are failing to give to the Avorld, that Avhich Ave alone can give. That is, the assurance, Avorked out by all Christians every day, that people matter, that they matter one at a time and their signficance is hot to be measured by the “ importance ” of the group to which they belong, that they matter only less than God Himself, and that after worship, their service is more important than anything else Christians can ever do. Christianity is opposed to Communism in this fundamental affirmation that we are required to live by faith in a person rather than by devotion to a cause. To forget it is to forfeit all hope of finding serenity in this tempestuous Avorld, and to deny to the world the salt which Christianity alone can give. Salt that has lost its savour is no use to anyone, a* Christian avlio has lost this belief is also valueless. PHILIP C. WILLIAMS.