WHITHER DEMOCRACY?

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 169, 14 April 1939, Page 4

WHITHER DEMOCRACY?

i< . (Contributed.) Wliat isitheXFate that lies ahead o±' ; Democracy? Have Hitler and Mussolini between them sounded her deathknell? . Hitler, for the time being has got alt he wants, and will be content to sit' down and consolidate his gains. l't[; is now Mussolini’s turn, and he lias quietly appropriated • the key to til© Adriatic. With that in his pocket, he can just as quietly move northward and then eastward, 'making a nice little overland tour to Palestine and the ; Suez..,. Why not? During the preliminary! part of his tour Spain will recover herself, and aljow Hitler to place all his ’ -.machinery in readiness to blow Gibraltar into the sea; and what is the use of Malta without Gibraltar? And. once Hitler has .got his machinery .for., the removal of Gibraltar ready, Spain will begin a iiittle dour along, the southern ‘ shores of the Mediterranean. And too, by that time Hitler will be. quite ready to take Poland under his protecting

wing. , y What can England and France do 1 The keys of the situation are already well and truly in Hitler and Mussolini’s pockets. When France won out in Spain, England lost Gibraltar! Gibraltar and the Suez are mere weaknesses"" in England’s armour to-day. And, in any case, War meanes the .encP- of Democracy..

For such a,,, war as , will make the worlcl safe for Democracy; is bound to kill Democracy fox-{ever. It is totally impossible, to/conceive anything even resembling , Democracy arising out of the ashes, of ■ a war. We may groan and) lament about the Rights of Individuals as much as we like, but we may as well regard them as foi-feited already. After all, what aye the Rights of Individuals? The world never heard very much about them until the beginning of the Christian Era. It was- Christ and His Cliux-ch that first put the , idea .into the heads of the “Masses” that they had rights. And it took about eighteen hundred! years, for thci idea to sink intpi the world’s- head. Then it set its slaves , free'as far as possible. Now the slavesVhavc decided That the Person who-/taught them that they had Rights is just a old woman who does not know what, she is talking alibut. “ .w-Iv

A Certain brainy individuals, who sometimes link themselves to .wijat ai*e '-known as /Rationalists, and soinetimesfdoi" the/r-Bolslievists, but never 7 ydth Christiariity, have gbne about proving beyond a doubt, that the Biblical language of the Church. is out of date, quite- as out of .elate as. that of Shakespeare, which they also, cannot understand! because’’ it is so, put of date. They have taken a -delight 'yi proving that Parables are not facts.

V,Others have been so puffed up with prMe; atiftnding that they could understand. Parables, and have been so sure diiatvthey *w er e the only people in the I \ **

world who 4could understand them, that they, have formed themselves into secret societies., which perform alt sorts of wonderful ceremonies behind closed doors" add? made it their business, and their Teligion, to keep the meaning of the few Parables they do understand, as secret as possible.

The result of it all is that Democracy has- been .delivered over into the hands, of the- Masses; wisdom is' trampled underfoot, the Church, which is thei Body of Christ, is despised and rejected. The Holy Days which she has given to the people are turned into days of sensual pleasure; Christianity and) all religion has become a mere farce; something for old women and children, and the little children are taught by their parents to disregard it. This all means that Democracy can live no longer. It is dead, for it has delivered Christ to „bei crucified; and He< isolate. Dpinocfacy began to . decay and die when it made Intellectualism its "(jojd), and set out toi use its intellect''to ‘ sedate wealth and ' power in this ..world. '

B&t 'thb‘?Word of God is not dead. On /Good 'Friday every year, the Church coVnme'morates;.! -the once in History that,men nailed' the Word of God toi a, Gross, and went on its way to the feast. Ipyery Blaster Day the Church commemorates the rising again.of the Word of God, triumphant btbr 'death. ' The Word of God still Jives, and still gives the- same challenge. to the world. Whom will you serve 'Will ?you serve Hitler, or Mussolini, or Stalin, or Nationalism, or the Labour Party ? Will, you serve -the Watersiders, or the Freezing 'Workers, or the Capitalists, or Christ? They are all names, but there is a Name which is exalted above every other name-, and it is the Name of God in Man, uniting all men with God, and in One. In His Name we serve all men, and God; and triumph over death itself. And! in His service a- • lone is tliere any freedom for the Rfglits of. the Individual; for the Individual lias no Rights at all other than jthose to serve God, that. God made 1 manifest in Him whom we call Christ.