p. 20 | An Optimistic View by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Aug 29, 1912

An Optimistic View

By Editor

Generally speaking, the most intelligent leaders of the Jews in this country are heartily in favor of the separation of church and state, and labor earnestly to maintain this doctrine. We have heretofore printed notes from the Chicago Israelite dealing with this subject, and we here present another:—

"The separation of state and church is bound to become as general a part of the constitution of every civilized state as are parliamentary form of government, freedom of the press, and freedom of

worship. If indications do not deceive, we shall soon have this separation in Germany. To begin with, the growing power of the Social Democrats is bound to become a means to that end. The liberals, even of the moderate type, will adopt that part of the program of the socialists, just as compulsory accident insurance was adopted by such antisocialists as Bismarck. In addition, we have the liberal wing of the Protestant church, which has been aroused of late by some startling heresy trials. It is true enough that orthodoxy was perfectly right in those cases. If a man like the famous Jatho of Cologne preached a doctrine which might be termed theism or pantheism, but surely can not claim the title of evangelical Christianity, the Oberkirchenrath was in the right when it dismissed him from the ministry of the Evangelical Church. It is, however, well known that a great many pastors, if not in sympathy with such a radical, at least are in absolute opposition to the recognized creed of the church, which by the terms of their ordination vows they are pledged to teach. In such attitude they are encouraged by the vast majority of the professors in the Protestant divinity department of the German universities. It is more than likely that strict sectarians like the Lutherans, who in the forties emigrated to Wisconsin because they would not be members of the state church, as it was constituted by Frederick William III, will join hands with the liberals. It is to be hoped, but unfortunately not to be expected, that the Jews will appreciate the situation sufficiently to join in this movement. They would have ample reason for doing so, because in Prussia, the largest state of the federation, they are practically ignored; but even there, and still more in the smaller states of the federation, they are battling for the crumbs of bounties and recognition that fall from the government table."