Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1934-11-22
CHURCH. IS NOT SISSIFIED

Editor Askov American:
Your Askov correspondent of last
issue helps me to while away rainy
day of the hunting season. When that
writer intimated that the church was
not "sissified" institution. He was
but voicing a platitude of which the
enemies of the church are always
keenly aware. 1t took the marvellous
organization of the Catholic church
fully a thousand years to Christianize
and civilize our barbarian ancestors;
and even then the dark continents of
Asia and Africa were practically I'M
touched.
The same boats that brought the
Spanish and French discoveries and
explorers to the American continent
brought also the missionaries, who
rallied the savage Indians round The
Cross. This was no job for "sissies."
The Crusades were fought to deter
mine whether The Cross: or The Cres-
cent should determine our civiliza-
ton; and the battle of Lepanto, finally
decided that issue.
And now in our day the lines Of
a great moral battle are being rapidly
drawn to determine whether it shall
be The Cross of Christ or the Soviet
Sickle Here are issues which go
far deeper than economics. 1t is "a
conflict between two PHILOSOPHERS of
Life radically repugnant to each
other Both of them have worldwide
and closely-knit organizations, the one
being directed from Moscow, the other
from Rome, or more correctly-frOm
Vatican City. Sooner or later all the
other systems (which do not seem to
know their own minds) will line up
with either the one or the other; just
as all the factions of the World war
finally took orders from either Foch
or Hindenburg.
Right now the Soviet church has
established a base in Mexico whence
to cross our borders in a bigger way.
They have driven thousands of the
Christian clergy of Mexico before them
into the United States; and we prefer
to support these clergy than to send to
Mexico an ambassador who would en-
courage them to stand their ground.
We. do not need the Mexican clergy
here whilst We have the American
church, the American Legion, and
1.-The New DEAL to keep the Soviet at
bay.
The philosophy of the New Deal
is based neither on the worship of the
state, as in Russia and elsewere, nor
on the worship of any rugged indi-
vidual," the favored child of rampant
capitalism. Prior to the philosophieS
of individualism, to which the religious
revolution of the XVI century gave a
logical birth, the cooperative Guild
system of economics prevailed. This
system was sponsored by the Chris
tian church which had influence be-
fore it's unity was shattered by those
who preferred the philosophy Of indi-
vidualism, and extreme nationalism
And the fundamentals of the New
Deal" are strikingly akin to those of
the medieval Guild system. Pope Leo
KITS "Rerum Novarum" universally
known as "the charter of the laboring
man." was promulgated many, many
years before the New Deal" which
experts agree is based on the LeOnine
letter. This encyclical has been
brought up to date by the present
sane, strcng, and scholarly comman-
der-in-chief of Christianity, Pious XII.
The Washington brain trust" has
been inspired by it; Father COughlin
breaches it, as we'll as the Father
VINO is heard Sundays at 5 p M, N.
B. C. system. Even our own Governor
Olson has often quoted from it to
justify some of his tenets. Dear read