Evening star., 1937-09-05

tton the church had left.
By the Associated Press.
BERLIN, September 4-Rebellious
Protestant pastors will boldly defy the
Nazi government tomorrow and charge
the regime on the eve OF the National
Socialist Party Congress, with six
glaring of1enses against church liberty.
Unless they are silenced by the
Gestapo, Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler's
secret police, the ministers will assert
flatly before their congregations that
the church cannot obey recent govern
ment religious dictates.
If the church were to submit to
this she would no longer be really .
church." is the keynote of a state
ment to be read from Confessional
Protestant pulpits.
1t cautions Protestants to remem-
Der that Nazi leaders hold Office by
the grace of God"
The open challenge will demand
full spiritual sway over the lives of
Protestants.
The statement, as drafted. comedies
that the government is entitled to full
civil obedience
Spurns Five DEGREES.
However, when the government in
tervenes in church affairs and "ex-
poets us to conform to measures which
are contrary to our duty to the word
of God we cannot obey them" the
statement asserts
1t enumerated five recent govern
ment DEGREES as ofIenses which the
church. being bound by the word of
God, cannot obey:
l. The whole financial adminiStra-
ton of the church has been placed in
the hands of the finance department.
appointed by the state with unlim-
tied power to represent the church;
2. The government prevents the
church from carrying out the task
OF teaching and training persons for
the clergy;
3. 1t forbade the church to discuss
publicly the proposed church cleo
tions;
4. 1t forbade the church to read out
publicly the names Of those who quit
the church. and
5. 1t forbade collections other than
those authorized by the state de-
partments
Interference"
sixth offense was charged in
that our brethren have been pun
ished for having offered prayers dur
ing divine services for prosecuted
members Of the church"
The DEGREES were issued within the
last seven months.
Through these measures and de-
crees, the state not only is endeavor-
ing to take possession Of the outer
church administration, but is inter-
fering with divine services and the
proclamation of the gospel" the state
ment said.
We cannot see in this anything
but the ever more apparent desire
to bring the church under domina-
ton Of the state
The statement was drafted August
28 at meeting, at which all eight
provinces OF the old Prussian union
were represented, at Lippstaet-birth-
place Of the now jailed militant
preacher, the Rev Martin Niemoeller.
Comes to Head Friday.
The pastors also will announce
that since February Is approximately
400 Protestant pastors and laymen
have been arrested.
(The church defiance is scheduled
to be issued on the heels of dismis-
sal Friday Of the entire Church Com
mlttee of the So-called old Prussian
Union. Hans Kerrl, head of the
governments department of church
affairs, transferred fuctions of the
committee to Friedrich Werner. the
Nazi president Of the Supreme Church
Council
(Dismissals were considered a re-
prisal against three confessional
bishops and % evangelical leaders
who warned the government last Sum-
day that they could not submit to
political powers because I'VE know
our people are served by the church
only if it breaches the living God"
(The church heads a week ago
warned the government that religious
strife was opening a "baneful cleft
in the nation)