The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-05-03
RELIGION MUST
SAVE MANKIND,
SILVER PLEADS
Famed Rabbi Urges Gener-
GUS and Tolerant Man.
ner of Living.
BY DR.. ABBA HILLEL SILVER
Rabbi. The Temple. Cleveland, o.


Rabbi The Temple. Cleveland, o.
1t is quite possible that in the new
era organized religion will have to
assume the role of the sole surviving
champion of the rights of the indi-
vidual.
In the face of the amazing pre-
tensions of the state, religion may
have to insist, and religious spokes-
men in Nazi Germany have already
had to insist, that man possesses
certain rights, over which the state,
however noble its purposes and
however exalted its program, has no
power whatsoever. There are
sovereign rights which are mans
own by virtue of his humanity and
not by virtue of his citizenship in
any given political group.
1t is clear that the new era is be-
ing ushered in by way of dictator
ships. Whether these are passing
or permanent, it is impossible to
say. These relationships, wherever
established, have so far been
characterized by their utter ruthless
ness. This is true both of capital
istic and of communistic dictator
ships. They are equally I'M
scrupulous when they get into ac-
ton.
In Age of RuthIessneSS
Both have no compunction what
soever about trampling upon the
PROSTATE body of human rights.
For both, the end justif1es the
means. Both raise political Violence
to a principle. In the fury of class
struggle the mandates of personal
morality and basic human decencies
and amenities are entirely lost sight
of.
We have entered an age of
Sapctified ruthleSSnesS and exalted
cruelty. The Dark Ages could offer
no comparable records of mass
brutality.
But even more alarming than the
toll of victims of relationships
physical violence is the tragic roll
of victims of its spiritual and in
tellectual violence. Men are driven
into terrified silence. Conformity is
prescribed. Men dare not dissent.
All opposition, all parties, all dis
senting opinion in press, pulpit,
classroom platform and book is
stamped out. The threat of all this
to mans spiritual life is clear.
1t tends to dry up the mainSprings
of his spiritual creativeness. When
man is not allowed to stand alone,
to dissent from the majority, to
proclaim the truth which has teen
born in him through his own souls
travail, his spiritual life is destroyed.
Church Must Save Men
The new era may thus burden the
church and Synagog with another
task-to save man from the dark,
CHASTITY heresy of Sanctif1ed ruth
lessness and brutality, to preach
anew and with increased fervor the
mandates of reaSonableneSs, toler-
ance and charity, and to safeguard
mans spiritual freedom and
autonomy in a world CONSTRUCTED by
encompassing walls of dictator
ships.
The new era is likely to witness
distress is leading to national
national intolerance. Bitter economic
the intenSification of racial and
economic isolationism. Each ma
ton is attempting to become
economically self sufficient. Ma
lions are entrenching themselves
behind tariff walls and other arti-
fetal economic barriers.
The world is becoming fraction
allied to a degree unknown in the
past. The universal idea which
fired the imagination of men in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
the idea of a federated world, of an
integrated humanity has been
pushed out of mans mind by the
demands of a blatant, militant and
provincial nationaliSm.
The youth of the world is being
taught to think not in terms of
international solidarity and human
ity, but in terms of exclusive,
aggressive and competitive nation
| aliSm.
In countries like Germany, nation
alism is even further restricted to
a fantastic race cult, and in its
name citizens not of the majority
race are being disfranchised, de-
graded, Inundated, and the very
means of livelihood denied them
Here race idolatry has run riot to
a point where all human virtues
have been sacrificed to it.
Cultural PluraliSm Needed
What is required in our day is
not superheated race or national
apologetics nor mystic yearning
after social or cultural coordination
but a generous and tolerant way of
life which will give each race and
nationality the opportunity to live
its own life, to express its own soul
and to contribute its unique values
to the commonalty of human life.
Our age needs form of good will
which will not only tolerate differ
ences but which will gladly use them
for the enrichment of life.
Judaism and Christianity have
message and mission which over
leap national boundaries and race
barriers. Iney speak not 10 the
racial man or the national man, but
to the man qua man. They speak
of truths and values which all men
need for their spiritual and moral
sustenance and which all men may
cherish regardless of their color,
their station or their nationality.
Neither Judaism nor Christianity
has always been faithful to the uni
versalistic, international implica-
tons of their respective teachings.
In the new era they will have an
historic opportunity to confront the
rampant, nationaIstic and racial
alterations of a confused and dis
integrated world with their strong,
ancient gospel of "One God in
Heaven and One Humanity on
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