Religion: Church Militant

Twice last week the Christian Cross was raised in captive Europe to defy the will of the conquering Nazis.

In Norway the seven bishops of the Norwegian Lutheran Church, in a letter to the State’s Councilor, issued the boldest public indictment yet launched against the Nazi “new order.” Timed with the sinister visit to Norway of Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler, it militantly recalled broken Nazi promises to respect Norwegian church and civil laws, resoundingly detailed examples of brutal violence by Quisling’s “uniformed hooligans,” challenged Nazi banning of preachers’ vow of secrecy — “the foundation of the church, the Magna Charta of the conscience.” The Bishops expected no satisfactory answer from the State’s Councilor; the answer they listened for was that of the Norwegian people.

In The Netherlands last week the Arch bishop of Utrecht and four Catholic bishops, in a pastoral letter read in every Dutch Catholic church, proclaimed their refusal to administer extreme unction or bury with Catholic rites “Liberals, Socialists, Communists and National Socialists,” forbade Dutch Catholics to join Nazi groups.

Equally uncompromising is the attitude of Holland’s Calvinists. The Nazi-backed Deutsche Zeitung fur die Niederlanden complains that “The Dutch churches have been veritable centres of opposition to the Reich.” At a Protestant meeting in Amsterdam former Cabinet Minister J. R. Slotemaker de Bruine apostrophized the Nazis: “Do not expect us to drive out of public life that which is most holy. Spiritual freedom, freedom of church, school and opinion, lies in our very blood.” About a third of The Netherlands’ 8,700,000 population are Catholics, an other third strict Calvinists, the rest most ly Calvinists of broader denominations.

Holland’s 160,000 Jews (less than 2% of the population) are highly regarded. When Jews in one city were charged with harboring British agents and assessed a 50,000-guilder fine to be paid within six hours, the sum was raised in time by Christians who handed the money over to the local rabbi, while in five Protestant churches in Amsterdam protests were openly uttered. When a Jewish professor was forced out of the University of Delft (Dutch M. I. T.) the students struck. Nazis closed the university the next day. Said an alumnus in the U. S.: “It makes us very proud to have our alma mater the first to be closed.”

Many churchmen in The Netherlands are now behind the barbed wire of concentration camps. One pastor was sent there when, after the Nazis had sworn that only 300 people had been killed by their bombing of Rotterdam, he held a memorial service, said: “We are here to pray for those who have died of violence in this city. But before we pray for all the dead, let us pray first for the dead of our own congregation. In all Rotterdam 300 people have been killed. Let us pray for the 1,300 of this 300 that we of this church knew personally.”

A famed Protestant youth leader, Dr. Jo Eijkman was thrown into concentration camp for denouncing the Nazi policy, scoring the persecution of Jews as unChristian, and writing: “If we do not compromise, if we are willing to suffer for our faith, we will find the path to the heart of our people. There are in Holland more than 7,000 who do not want to bow before Baal. And behind these 7,000 and more, stand millions who are united today in one common creed. This union needs no demonstrations. One demonstration is made by them each week, every Sunday morning, when they go to church.” To the Nazis’ annoyance, Dutch churches still pray for “Her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina, other members of the Royal Family and The Netherlands Government.” A typical Calvinist leader is outspoken 71-year-old ex-Premier Hendrikus Colijn, editor of the Standaard. At a mass meeting recently at Scheveningen he said: “Whoever knows anything about our people knows that we will have nothing to do with imported extremism. . . . We have shown the occupying Power that we cannot shed our national characteristics in choosing the political path we wish to follow. . . . Nobody can lift the veil of the future, but those who take the Bible and the history of the Dutch people as their guide can have confidence that The Netherlands will rise again.”