Part 10 (2/2)
First of all they could pray for the sufferers; prayer from the heart availed and was a great bond of fellows.h.i.+p. Next they could feel deeply for and with them until something was done. Thirdly there was material help...
He asked for their (the a.s.sembly's) help and for the help of their const.i.tuents all over England and he asked for the awakening of conscience. They would not forget and he could not forget that their Master was a Jew, a non-Aryan. They thought in their hearts that if they saw their Master in sorrow they would wish to help him, but it was right to remember the parable that their Master uttered of judgment and what He said when He rebuked certain disciples: 'For I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger and ye took me not in: naked and ye clothed me not: sick and in prison and ye visited me not.' When the disciples in defending themselves asked what he meant, the Master added: 'Verily I say unto you, in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me'.
He was convinced that their att.i.tude in England and in the Church of England to the needs of those suffering non-Aryan Christians and members of the Jewish race was the test of their att.i.tude to their Master himself. It was because of that that he felt so deeply and that he asked them to give their prayers and sympathy and their material help.
The motion was carried. [191]
The Bishop of Chichester followed this move with a plea for more vigorous Government action in his maiden speech in the House of Lords, on July 27, 1938.
He began with a strong condemnation of the n.a.z.i persecution:
”I cannot understand - and I know many Germans - how our own kinsmen of the German race can lower themselves to such a level of dishonour and cowardice as to attack defenceless people in the way that the National-Socialists have attacked the non-Aryans. <77>
He then pleaded with the Government to follow up the initiative of President Roosevelt by increasing its facilities for training younger refugees in Great Britain, by providing greater scope for settlement in the Colonies, and by persuading the Dominions to open their doors more widely.
The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs a.s.sured him that the Government would do what it could. But Dr. Bell remarked a few weeks later in his Diocesan Gazette:
”It is almost as hard to understand the seeming apathy with which the fate of the Jews and the non-Aryan Christians is being regarded by the people of the British Empire...
These non-Aryans can no longer be called 'refugees' for they have as yet no country of refuge. We emphasize the responsibility of the British Empire in this connection, because the British Colonies and the British Dominions cover the larger part of the whole available globe. It seems to us impossible, both on the grounds of charity and on the grounds of statesmans.h.i.+p, that the doors can remain forever shut.” [192]
Resolutions adopted by the Presbyterian Church of England exposed the danger of anti-Semitism existing in England in those days.
In 1937, the General a.s.sembly stated:
”The a.s.sembly notes with concern the attempts which have been made to create racial antipathy against the Jews, with whom the a.s.sembly expresses its sympathy.
The a.s.sembly expresses its conviction, that in a nation professing Christianity, no discrimination on grounds of race must be recognised.
The a.s.sembly urges that the freedom accorded by law in this country to citizens of any faith to live in peace and pursue their lawful callings shall be specially safeguarded.
The a.s.sembly resolves to send a copy of this resolution to the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and to the Home Secretary.” [193]
In May, 1938, the General a.s.sembly adopted the following Resolution:
”The a.s.sembly urges its faithful people to encourage every effort to overcome the evil spirit of anti-Semitism which thing we hate.” <78>
There was hesitancy in the minds of some about the word 'hate', when the Convener moved this resolution, but the a.s.sembly overwhelmingly approved of it. [194]
The General a.s.sembly of the Church of Scotland certainly did not mince words.
It declared in 1936:
”The General a.s.sembly learn with profound regret that the past year has brought no alleviation of the sufferings caused to the Jewish people by the inhuman political, social and economic persecutions prevalent in Central and Eastern Europe.
They protest against the religious intolerance, the narrow nationalism and race-pride on which anti-semitic hatreds are based.
They call on the Christian people of Scotland, in loyalty to the law of Christ and their own high traditions of liberty and toleration, to rid their minds of all narrow anti-Jewish prejudice, and to broaden out their obedience to the Gospel ever commanding peace and goodwill to all men.
The General a.s.sembly again commend to the liberality of their faithful people appeals made on behalf of refugee Jews from Germany and other lands, specially remembering the Christians of Jewish race who are involved in the terrors of persecution.” [195]
In 1937, the General a.s.sembly declared:
”The General a.s.sembly renew in Christ's name their condemnation of the unabated brutality still being dealt to the Jewish minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, and lament that the protesting voice of the Christian Church has been so barren of result.
They deprecate the attempts in certain parts of England to create antipathy against the Jews.” [196]
The statement adopted in May 1938, reads as follows:
”The General a.s.sembly renew their protest against the virulence and cruelty of the attacks still being directed against helpless Jewish minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, and they affirm that no Church can be truly Christian and anti-semitic at one and the same time.” [197]
The first reaction to the horrors of the ”Crystal Night” pogroms was a letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury to ”The Times”:
”I believe that I speak for the Christian people of this country in giving immediate expression to the feelings of indignation with which we have read of the deeds of cruelty and destruction which were perpetrated last Thursday in Germany and Austria. <79> Whatever provocation may have been given by the deplorable act of a single irresponsible Jewish youth, reprisals on such a scale, so fierce, cruel and vindictive, cannot possibly be justified.
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