FREEDOM OR NOT?
PACIFIST’S NEW OPINION. During and after the last war I was a pacifist: on Christian grounds and took an active part in pacifist propaganda. The development of events compelled me to reconsider my position, writes the Rev Hugh Martin, in “The Christian as Soldier.” a pamphlet giving Mr Marlin's reasons for altering his opinion. The pacifist is so moved by the evil of the use of military force, he continues, that he is in danger of forgetting other evils, to my mind no Jess terrible—the enslavement of whole nations, the torture of individuals. the suppression of freedom of thought and life, the prostitution of learning to Hie service of national aggrandisement. We cannot forye freedom upon nations that do not want il. lint, we might du something to prevent those nations from extinguishing Hie freedom of others. The innocent will suffer in any armed conflict. Bui more innocent people may suiter if you shrink from it. You do not get rid of evil by saying you will not fight against it. Is aggression Io go on until every nation is converted to pacifist principles, and should Hie unscrupulous meanwhile bo allowed Io ride roughshod over the world? Is il certain that il is the duty of a Christian to allow an aggressor to destroy Hie civilisation and spiritual heritage of his nation? That is not. unhappily, a hypothetical question in the modern I world.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 January 1940, Page 6
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237FREEDOM OR NOT? Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 January 1940, Page 6
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