The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-04-02

discussing the manifesto giving mor- q. approval to artificial birth control issued by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, speaks of the almost revolutionary significance" of the Federal Coun- cil's action. We think there is no question of it's being almost" revo- lutionary-on the contrary, we be- lieve the revolutionary significance of this event goes far beyond the birth control controversy. It may come to be recognized as the liqui- dation of historic Professionalism by it's own trustees; the voluntary bank rIptcy of the Reformation. If the theses nailed by Luther to the church door at Witenberg three cen- turies ago marked the birth of the Reformation, the theses of the Fed eral Council, when considered in connection with the similar approv- als of contraception by the Angli- can bishops at Lambeth, and by the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Unitarians in this country, may mark the death of the reformation.
 Much depends upon the question of how far and to what extent the Federal Council is really represent ative of the leadership and mem bership of American Professionalism.
 
 cial action, and the general CO., operation of the Protestant churches in such movements as the support of prohibition, international peace, economic problems, and similar hu- manitarian measures, many of them most commendable and practically useful, 1t is clear that the Federal Council achieves for American Prot estantism an effective and well-or-
 fn I,s however, we suppose it is fair to say that the leadership of this united action is almost exclusively in the hands of the "liberaP' element in Protestantism-using the word lib- eral in its theological connotation rather than in its political or social meaning.
 Millions of American Protestants who are ardent workers for social reform, and who willingly go along with their liberal brethren in that j CTS in the historic and traditional principles of supernatural Christi- anity. A spokesman for the great Lutheran Church has already dis avowed the action of the Federal Council. Probably other orthodox Protestant denominations will be equally opposed to the dogmas of the dissolution of Christian morality which are implicit in the declara- tions of the Federal Council. It is equally certain that millions of in- dividual Protestant Christians. be- longing to many denominations, including those represented in the federal Council, will also deny and repudiate them, and will fight against their being accepted as that Protestant view which the Federal Council explicitly declares them to be. No one can as yet safely proph- csy what the result of this conflict within Protestantism will be; but it is likely that the struggle of the or thodox will be futile; that at best they will only be able to maintain failing rear-guard action as they retreat to dig themselves in for their last battle; which they must fight on isolated groups.
 Apparently, the main body of modern American Protestantism has surrendered internationally to secu- larism. If the Federal Council cor rectly interprets the corporate con science" to use their own phrase, of the majority of American Protes- tants, it has really done more than merely surrender the historic moral ity of Protestantism-it has joined the massed enemies of orthodox Christianity, and now fights with them. Certainly, if this view be cor rect, Professionalism has been consist ent to the end. It came into organ ized existence as a revolt against the doctrine of authority in religion. It dissolves into secularism in the same fashion. Private judgment in re- ligion thus completes its fatal cycle.
 No one in the United States (so ,.xi$ vealing clarity on the subject of Protestant Christianity than Isaac Hecker. founder of the Paulist Fath- CTS, the pioneer American Catholic religious order, or congregation. Hecker and the foremost of his apos- tolic companions were converts from Protestant tmosphere and mental ity. Than Isaac Hecker. nobody could or did speak with more sym pathy and appreciation of the many splendid virtues, and the many truths, even if but partial and un- harmonized truths, possessed by historic Protestantism and still pos sessed by those groups and individ- uals who have retained their faith | in the supernatural and divinely re- | vealed character of Christianity. And | nobody ever saw more clearly the | fundamental error of Professionalism 1 than Father Hecker. In that great | and stirring book (which ought to be much more widely known than it | is). "The Church and the Age" he | says: "One of the chief features of | the church for these last three cen- turies has been it's conflict with the l religious revolution of the sixteenth !, century, properly called Protestant tisn. The nature of Protestantism | may be defined as the exaggerated | development of personal independ- ence. directed to the negation of the divine authority Of the church."
 If Hecker were alive to-day, he | would be witnessing the end of this e3a ggerated personal independence in~ the field of Christian religion. It has reached its term: which is it's own destruction. The denial of the divine authority of revealed re- gious truth Is now absolute: for 1t carries the deniers outside the boundaries of historic Christianity Liberal Professionalism is really (so it seems to us, and we speak with all respect for the noble solicitude it displays for human welfare, its pas- sion for the building up of better order of society," a new religion, but E it is no longer Protestantism--it is pagan humanitarianism. 1t is the