"AWAY FROM THE CHURCH" IN GERMANY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10031, 29 April 1910, Page 7

"AWAY FROM THE CHURCH" IN GERMANY.

"The number of those who in recent times have officially and legally severed their connection with the Protestant churches in Germany has grown at"such an alarming proporton that the Church authorities, synods, and conferences are seriously discussing this burning problem." says the New York "Independant.' "Inßerliti alone the daily average of thuse breaking away from the church in three hundred, and in the "Cultus Minsterium" five extra clerks had to be engaged to attend to this new business alone.

WORKING MEN AND 'IHE

CHURCHES

"There has all along, tor some > thirty yearß, been a small contingent, ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 annually, who broke away from the State churches, but in 1906 there was a sudden jump all at once to 12,700 in Prussia alone, although the year before it had been 9,158 and 8802 in 1904. It is principally the working men who are affected by this away-from-the Church agitation, and in Berlin alone, during the past three years, more than 17,000 working people have left the church for good. At the present rate the losses to the Protestant churches are at least 30,000 per year. The reason assigned by most applicants is that they want to he freed from paying further Church taxes which they can do through such a declaration, and which is the only tax which the German can in any way escape.

"Conservative papers express surprise that the number who sever their connection with the church is not larger, aa those who do, it is claimed, are only dead branches of the church at any rate, and had not internally been members for years. Many hesitate because, by making such a declaration, they forego all claims on tha Church, such as the services of a minister at baptisms, marriages and funerals, pastoral visits for the sick and dyings participation in communion, and the like. As in rceent years the payment of the church taxes has been obligatory on not a few who before this had been excused because of their small incomes, it is thought that the sudden increase of these church insurgents is attributable to this cause.

"Both religious and social condi- | tions combine to produce this agita- j| tion. Radical religious thought, aa j expressed in the Monistenbuud, and , the failure of the Protestant Church ; to do justice to the social prbolem '! especially among the working men, are all factors in the trouble. j

ARE THEY UNDESIRABLE MEMBERS.

"Some Protestant periodicals profess to be fairly pleased with this insurgent propaganda on the ground that it rids the church of undesirable members; but it is very evident that they nevertheless are worried, and ask, What next? So far at leant the crusade has not brought forth any disestablishment prjoect, and church and State seem to be more closely united than ever in trying to stem the tide of an inner break-up of some of the Protestant State churches of ' the Fatherland. Liberal theologians, as well as conservatives, are trying to stem the tide."