Reaching Out for Liberty

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 23, 1913

Reaching Out for Liberty

ALMOST in direct proportion as the cause of the union of church-and-state principles is winning adherence in the New World it is growing in disfavor in the European countries. Nearly all the nations of Europe have been seeking to throw off the yoke of bondage that has enthralled them these long years. There is a growing unrest in many quarters, not alone against the state church in Catholic countries, but against this institution in the Protestant states of Europe. This is particularly indicated in the agitation of the last few years in the German Empire. Of this the Christian Observer of Sept. 18, 1912, says:—

For several years there has been a growing sentiment in Germany in favor of the entire separation of church and state. The question is now becoming one of tremendous importance, and is receiving more and more attention among the political parties.

The Social Democratic party has made it one of the “planks” in its platform for many years. The Radicals demanded the separation above sixty years ago, after the stirring events of 1848, and it is assumed that they will again support it if the question should come up for a vote in the Prussian legislature.

Even the Conservative party, which contains most of the orthodox Protestants of the country, is evidently viewing the idea of a separation with growing sympathy. The Kreuz-Zeitung, the organ of that party, has recently printed a leading editorial on the subject, in which it says: “In the Conservative party there is a rapidly growing disposition to prevent the further secularization and externalization of the church by separating it from the state.”

The growing estrangement of the German people from all churches is used as a strong argument for separation. It is said that not more than one person in one hundred in Berlin attends church. Several recent heresy trials in the Prussian Evangelical Church have also given a strong impetus to the sentiment for a separation. It is the opinion of the National Zeitung, a leading National Liberal organ, that there is already a clear majority in the country favoring the separation of church and state.