July, 193S
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
252
Socialism, Communism, Fascism “ THREE UNCLEAN SPIR ITS L IKE FROGS” B y LOUIS S. BAUMAN* Long Beach, California
Germany is trained in endurance marches, digging trenches, tracking and spying, taking cover, silent forays on the “enemy,” the usé o f small caliber rifles, and throw ing models of hand grenades. Gerhart Seger, a former member o f the German Reich stag, and, until his imprisonment in 1930 for anti-Nazi sen timents, editor o f the Volksblatt (Berlin ), informs u s : “ The Krupp plant now has 62,000 employees—-this is more than twice as many as it ever had before, when the peak was 28,000 workers in 1928.” Germany is determined to regain her “ place in the sun,” and contemplates no other method for regaining it than that of violence. What is true o f Germany has been and is true o f other nations. Where “ Socialism” has been or is rampant, the spirits of violence have been or are rampant. The past and present history of the French nation is outstanding evi dence o f this fact. No one will deny that our own nation is being permeated as never before by the doctrines and spir its o f Socialism. Only recently, Senator Nye o f North Dakota, himself quite socialistically inclined* declared that the United States is putting more money back o f violent methods o f international procedure than is any other power on earth. He said: There is very conclusive evidence of a titanic race in armaments seemingly in preparation for war. Russia, Italy, France, and Great Britain have increased their mili tary budgets between 30 and 44 per cent. Japan has in creased hers 141 per cent. We, who would like to have our example followed, have increased our military budget 197 per cent! It seems that the more Socialistic we become, the more we think of the use o f gunpowder. The nations o f the earth appear to despair o f finding any way out of their present distress other than the old, timeworn path o f violence, which leads only into still deeper distress. C om m u n ism ? A S pirit of V iolence ! It is unnecessary to waste printer’s ink in any attempt to prove that violence is the essential stuff o f Communism. Communistic leaders openly and aboveboard so declare. So all their leaders have taught. So every attempt to establish Communism as a principle o f government has shown. Rus sia, the world’s most outstanding experiment, has fertilized her soil with the blood and the bones of her own sons. If Russia’s Communistic government would forsake rifle and bayonet, her whole political structure would collapse over night like a house of cards. No popular demand o f her peo ple would save it. It was rather amusing, to say the least, to note the cow ardly silence that enveloped the intelligentsia o f our Ameri can professors who loudly ballyhoo for “ the noble Russian experiment,” when D r/ John Haynes Holmes, of New York, for fifteen years a stanch defender o f said “ noble Russian experiment,” came home from his sojourn in that Communistic Paradise. As is well known, Dr. Holmes is anything but a capitalist or a “ rugged individualist.” He went; he saw; he came back to humbly confess, as a man would have to confess if he has a spark of honesty left in his soul:
“ A s It Was in the Days of Noe” A nd as it was in the days o f Noe, . . . Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Lk. 17 :26, 30). Thus spake our Lord as His eye pierced the centuries ahead and beheld the days immediately pre-> ceding His return. Wisdom, then, calls for an answer to the question: “ How was it in the days o f Noah?” In the description of those days, one inspired statement is out standing : “ And the earth was filled with violence . . . . And God said unto Noah, The end o f all flesh is come be fore m e; for the earth is filled w ith violence ” (Gen. 6:11, 13), Probably at no other time in history has the spirit of violence been so rampant in all the earth as it is today. And if world-wide violence is to be an indication that the hour of the revelation o f the Son o f man is at hand, then once again our hearts quicken in glorious expectation! In the great prophecy of Daniel, it is revealed that when the willful king— the Antichrist-M“ shall prosper . . . in his estate shall he honor the God o f forces” (Dan. 11 :36, 38). And, marching at the forefront of the hosts o f the violent today, worshiping at the shrine of “ the God of forces,” we find these same “ three unclean spirits” -—Social ism, Communism, and Fascism. S ocialism ? A S pirit of V iolence ! W e recognize the fact that some “ Socialists” today will be quick to defend Socialism against the charge that Social ism is a spirit of force. They will assert, rather, that one of its cardinal doctrines is opposition to violence. But what must we think when we hear the modern god o f a goodly group o f Socialists, Mr. Bernard Shaw, open his mouth to say: It is high time that we got rid of Jehovah. When the question is raised whether our children shall compound for their sins by sheltering themselves behind another’s sacrifice, whoever hesitates to bring down the knobkerry, is ludicrously unfit to have any part in the government of a modern state (Daily Sketch, London, Dec. 1, 1932). State violence against the pure Christian faith is thus openly advocated by a leading figure o f the British Empire — a Socialist and admirer of Russia— for the first time in our modern age. And the end is not y e t! As for nations, in no other nation, prior to the recent World War, had the experiment o f a Socialistic State been carried farther than in Germany. Need more be said? Adolf Hitler is recognized today as the “ fuehred [leader] of National Socialism.” In a report published only two months ago by Columbia University’s International Insti tute of Teachers’ Colleges, it was declared that through a masterly use o f propaganda and mob psychology Chan cellor Hitler and his satellites have engendered a “ vicious incitement to hatred, intolerance, violence and denial of ordinary human rights such as the civilized world has never before seen.” The report continues: The Hitler youth, which has absorbed all other youth organizations, is devoted in the main to military prepara tion, and through the open terrain sports, the youth of
* Pastor, First Brethren Church.
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs