Askov American

The Church And The Community
By REV. JOHS. KNUDSEN

Unless we are active in stifling it in the beginning, a full-grown anti-Semitic movement will presently sweep our own country. At the same time that the tragedy and inhumanity of the Jewish persecutions in Europe is being set in merciless relief by the heart-wringing failures of several steamships to unload their cargoes of Jewish refugees, voices are being raised in this country for the wholesale deportation of certain groups from our shores. Fascistic demagogues and rabble-rousers spreading their vicious propaganda via press and radio, and societies and organizations to the alleged number of 150 to 160 are engaged in Fascistic and anti-Semitic activities. They only need a definite leader around whom to rally in order to merge into a strongly-organized single group, and many things indicate that a former U. S. Major General, G. H. V. Moseley, has been selected for that spot.

This situation should alarm all citizens who believe in freedom and democracy. We are being seriously threatened with the same situation which projected Hitler into power in Germany. The same arguments and procedures are being used, and the same forces are undoubtedly at work behind the scenes. We must be on guard and alertly so even now, for the best time to combat such a movement is, as the "Christian Century" writes, "to put a stop to it before it is fairly started." We can put a stop to it now, and we can do so by using the democratic means at our disposal and without reverting to force and suppression, if we see the danger clearly and are active in opposing it.

But not only as citizens of our democracy should we condemn these trends; we should combat and condemn them from a Christian viewpoint. Racial persecutions, of which anti-Semitism (persecution of the Jews) is the most vicious and threatening at present, are most definitely in contrast to the Christian doctrine of fellowship and love. If we permit anti-Semitism to grow in our country we are failing in our Christian duty. St. John said: "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." Can we not say: "If a man say, I love God and love my neighbor, and sanctions or supports persecutions of other races, he is a liar."