"Gott Sei Mit Uns"

In World War I, Kaiser Wilhelm--who has since become a dilettante theologian ,nd preacher to his household--called upon his God so often that Gott Mit Uns ("God with us") became an international joke. On the Allied side, however, plenty of preachers dragged the deity into the war; some of them lived to apologize for it.

In World War II, King George VI and Prime Minister Chamberlain were quick to invoke God's blessings on their cause. Last week the Germans got around to doing the same. A prayer and a proclamation were issued by Dr. Friedrich Werner, who, in order to hold his job as head of the German Evangelical Church, must lick contemptuous Nazi boots. Excerpt from the prayer: "Bless our armed forces on land, sea and air. Bless our actions and labors on the German land and bless and protect our Fuehrer as you have hitherto blessed and preserved him. ..." Excerpt from the proclamation: "Let us ... as good Christians, courageously and trustfully, go forward in the path of obedience which war has ordained.

"God be with us [Gott sei mit uns] as He was with our Father."

> Said Rabbi Ephraim Levine, one of London's most respected: "The Jewish God is pacifist, but he commands you to fight in defense of your country."

> Rev. E. B. Cook to his Somerset parish: "In St. Cuthbert's, at least, there will be no war talks from the pulpit."

In the U. S. two parsons who had spent the summer exchange-preaching in Manhattan hastened to do their British bit. Said Rev. Dr. Donald Davidson, Bournemouth Presbyterian: "This dictator will find that he has not only France and England to reckon with but our Lord as well. God made the world and has every right to control it. If He did not take action in what we have seen at the present time, we would think He was indifferent." Dr. Frederick William Norwood, onetime pastor of London's City Temple, reproached the U. S.: "You are a little too big to cover yourself with sleek neutrality while we shed our blood."

But the vast majority of U. S. churchmen were, for the time being at least keeping God out of it. The president of the Federal Council of Churches plumped for strict neutrality. So did Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, Father Coughlin, the National Baptist Convention (Negro). The National Council of Methodist Youth vowed its refusal to participate in "any war in which the U. S. may engage."

In San Francisco, Presbyterian Dr. John Hayes Creighton, onetime chaplain, announced that he had oiled his army rifle But San Francisco Mormons, Buddhists Christian Scientists, Jews, Protestants drummed up a "Peace Day," subtitled "Keep America Out of War Day," at the Golden Gate Exposition. The Chicago

Presbytery cautioned its ministers not to take sides in their sermons. In these and other typical U. S. cities--Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Denver, Portland, Ore.--there was plenty of pulpitation about the War, but no preaching of crusades, no flag-waving. If, as has been suggested in recent months, the U. S. is more embittered against Germany than at the beginning of World War I, the nation's ministers had done their utmost to curb that bitterness last week.

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