State Religions and the War
SINCE the war broke out in Europe much has been said in regard to the “breaking down of Christianity,” and the state religions of the Old World are being considered anew. In the North American Review for March Francis J. Peabody has the following to say: “The American abroad is profoundly impressed by the dignity and splendor which European religion assumes. An established church seems to share the permanence of an established state. The magnificence of European cathedrals makes a fitting frame for the pageant of European politics. How ephemeral and impertinent seem by contrast the petty denominations and mushroom sects and clapboard meetinghouses of American Christianity! How reassuring it is to live where religion has deep roots and expanding branches, so that the church becomes a great tree under which a nation may rest! Then, in an instant, this umbrageous beauty of an external, governmental, and superimposed religion crashes to the ground like a tree smitten by a tornado, and at its heart there is laid bare an interior rottenness and decay. Never was there such a disclosure of spiritual impotency as institutional Christianity has been condemned to reveal. The pomp of ritual, the pride of hierarchies, the immemorial traditions, which to many Americans abroad have made religion seem so substantial and permanent, suddenly prove themselves incapable of providing the most elementary support for national duty or international brotherhood. It may not unreasonably be believed that Christianity conceived as a form of government, an external organization, a state within a state, regulating a nation from above, can never again command the loyalty of thoughtful men.” Mr. Peabody thinks that the experiment in state religions has proved such a failure that they “can never again command the loyalty of thoughtful men.” Without question, state religions of every kind and in every age have been an utter failure. The state religions of heathenism have led many nations into degenerating vices and superstitions that have resulted in their overthrow. The countries that have made Christianity the basis of their state religions have found no exception to the rule that the religion of the souls of men cannot properly be made a subject of constitutional statement and legal decree. State religions, whether pagan or Christian, have invariably resulted in disaster. Men have depended upon them, and, as found in these recent experiences in Europe, they were depending upon a prop that could support neither weight nor strain. But regardless of these experiences, and contrary to the expectation of Mr. Peabody, the greatest experiment of all the ages in church and state religions lies just before us. The prophecies call for it, and the world conditions that will bring it about are shaping themselves. This next experiment will be world-wide. The text says that all the world will wonder after the church and state beast.