Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1916-10-29
PEssMISM NOT WARRANTED.


The pastoral letter" issued by the
great convention of the Protestant
| Episcopal church, which closed It's
session at st. Louis, last Friday even
ing. Is eloquently pessmstic. The
tone OF It may be judged from the
following excerpt which chacterzes
the whole:
whatever apology may be made
! or local explanation, al home or
abroad for the world-confusion, IT IS
none the less an outcome ana reve-
! lation OF un-Christian principles that
! have dominated the life OF western
Christendom, and of which both the
| church and the nations have need to
repent.
"Greed Of possessions, Of honor or
pleasure, have literally dethroned God
from his supreme place among men"
The fact that the great nations Of
Christian Europe are at war, seems
to be the basis for the gloomy CON
illusions drawn by the churchmen.
Christianity at no stage of It's de-
velopment has ever sufficed TO keep
Christendom out Of war We might
ask If IL has been Christianity's bust
ness or mission to keep nations out
OF war.
What Christianity actually has done
is TO have introduced some humanity
into the conduct Of war and some
chivalry into the fighters Certainly
Christianity Is not failure because
wars have not been eliminated from
life on the planet
We talk Of the war proving the fall
IRE OF Christianity, whereas In truth
this war illustrates to every student
Of history the success Of Christianity.
The psychic nature that Christianity
developed In the race, Is exactly what
revolts US against the horrors inflict-
cd upon Belgium.
But had the conquerors Of Belgium
been Romans, Of the time of thel
Caesars, the population Of Louvain
would have beon crucified. Hundreds
of thousands OF Belgans would have
been sold into slavery as Caesar sold
whole Gallo tribes. These thingsl
the Romans considered natural and
usual Mercy to a woman captive was
unthought Of
II the sponsors of Christianity today |
doubt IFS success, the most advanced |
thought OF the time does not The |
very thinkers today who do not ac-
cept it's authority testify to the radi-
cal part Christianity played in the oV-
olution Of civilization during the last
two milleniums.
Those opponents Of Christianity
who were disposed to deny it eny
salutary influence at all, men Ike
Gibhon and Voltnire In the eighteenth
century ana Huxley and Haeckel In
the nineteenth, are displaced today |
by critics. who, however little Chris
tian themselves, give fun credit to
the enormous psychological transfer
nation which Christianity has
wrought upon Europe--upon the civ
ilizatiou OF the Mediterranean world,
known as the Roman empire, and up
on the descendants (ourseNesl of the
barbarian tribes who extinguished IT. |
Or Jung, Of Zurich, who is an ag-
nostic. said recently that the only
way to account for the sudden con
version of the whole Roman world
was that the people realized that they
had to be delivered from their own
brutal violence ana Christianity.
which he says invented personal val ,
les, was their actual savior,
Christianity has not failed even If
The churchmeu dispair because the
spirit OF Christianity has not yet
,jected the savage from civilized man,