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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1963)
MLDIOiiD MAIL illiBUNL. I LU1 CUD. ORLGON 1HUIISDAY, APRIL 11. 1063 J j German Minister Sees Christain Total Diminishing (Editor's note: After World War I. former U-boat com mander Martin Niemoeller joined the Protestant clergy and in a little more than a decade became one of Ger many's best-known t h e o 1 o gians. During the Nasi era. he spent seven years in a con centration camp for actively opposing Hitler. He resumed his ministry after World War II and now is one of six presi dents of the World Council of Churches. Dr. Niemoeller re cently discussed his views on the role of the Christian church in the contemporary world with a UPI reporter. A report on that conversation follows.) By FREDERICK H. TREESH United Press International Garden City. N.Y. (UPS One of the world's most emi nent Protestant churchmen offers this thought to Ameri can Christians for Lenten meditation: It is foolhardy to feel secure that your religion and your western culture will prevail in a changing world. "Every day the percentage of Christians in the world de creases and this will con tinue,'' said the Rev. Dr. Mar tin Niemoeller. a president of The World Council of Churches. Nationalism in non - Chris tian, non-white countries of the world is ending an era of Christian predominance, said Dr. Niemoeller, who heads the G e r m a n Evangelican church and is one of six mem bers of the presidium of the World Council. Decline Seen "The so-called Christian nations the w h i t e nations, will decline in relative num bers, influence, power and re sources." the German clergy man said. "By the end of this century there will be more than 5 billion non-whites and less than 2 billion whites among the world's popu lation." The non-white nations mainly are non-Christian. The present ratio of whites to non-whites is 3 to 2. Is this a matter of grave concern, perhaps despair, for the contemporary Christian? No. declares Dr. Nie moeller. "We need not be afraid. If we arc afraid, it is because we trusted in our superiority in numbers, not in Christ." Christian Duly The Christian's duty, said Dr. Niemoeller, is not to feel falsely secure in the belief that his religion will convert the world, nor is it to make plans and strategems for per petuating the church as a physical institution. It is to trust in his faith as a personal relationship between him and God and between himself and , his fellow beings. Dr. Niemoeller discussed , t with United Press Interna tional his views on the role of the Christian church in a world of exploding popula tion and nationalism during a visit to this Long Island community to keynote a Popularity of President Down, Palmer HoytSays Portland - fUPD - President j Kennedy's popularity has But ! fered a "pronounced decline" and America is in a "crisis of i confidence." according to Pal ! mer Hoyt, editor and publish. er of the Denver Post. Addressing t h e Portland Knife and Fork club. Hoyt at ! tributed the drop in the Presi j dent's popularity to the Cuban situation, controversial pro- posals for tax cuts and re- forms, and charges of im i proper "news management." He said America must re I capture a sense of motion and j of confidence in its presi dential leadership "in this time of international hazard." I He said the crisis o confi- dence was complicating the exercise of presidential lead j ership. j Haiy Program Since the popular Cuban j quarantine that forced Russia j to withdraw offensive mis siles from Cuba, Hoyt said, I the administration's Cuba policy had slipped into "a somewhat hazy program." "Managed news." w h i c h Hoyt said governments had tried since George Washing ton, caused an uproar based on the administration's at tempt to rationalize the prac tice and to play favorites in news dissemination. "No administration before has announced that it tries to mislead the public as a mat ter of high policy," he said. He urged the administra tion to adopt a "straightfor ward news policy," announc ing that it will withhold in formation of help to an en emy but will release all other news promptly to all media. world mission weekend at the . must Garden Citv Community I their church. The German theolo gian is spending the entire Lenten season in the United States, making appearances throughout the country. To honor God's command ments, a Christian must love his fellow man as a brother and God's love does not re spect national boundaries nor racial origins. Dr. Niemoeller said. Combat Hunger "You cannot love your neighbor and see him hun gry. If you love your neigh bor you have a responsibility for his body as well as his soul," said the 71-year-old clergyman, a man of diminu tive stature but great per sonal magnetism. The cold war is a mockery of God's wishes and all the blame cannot be laid at the door of communism, said Dr. Niemoller. Nor. despite the anti-God nature of commu nism, can it be said that reli gion is being stamped out be hind the iron curtain, he said. "We have more atheists in West Germany and In the western world than there arc in East Germany or Russia," said Dr. Niemoeller. He said that on a visit to the Soviet Union several years ago he asked an oid communist official what per centage of the Russian peo ple still believed in the ortho dox church. Russians Religious "He evaded by question twice. The third time I asked, he shook his head and said. 'There is no statistic . . . maybe Ii5 per cent,' " the balding, bespectacled clergy man said. Tile patriarch of the Russia church estimated 75 per cent. Then Dr. Niemoeller re called a conversation with his Soviet interpreter, a young man in his thirties. "He beamed when I asked him about his family; he was married and had two daugh ters. I said to him. "1 assume your daughters are not bap tized.' "He became furious! I tlio'ight that was some in sight into the Russian peo ple's feeling about religion." i Next, Dr. Niemoeller talked about East Germany. "The East Germans' hopes ! for reunification have been ! gone for four or five years : now. Nobody believes now ! that the West will save him. For 12 years, they waited pa I tiently but now they feel they do something about lives without waiting for the political situation to change. Closer to God "They now feel themselves closer to God They feel a personal bond to God. They have come to ask a deeper question: What is uur duty in this relationship'.'" Before and during the first World War. Martin Niemoel ler was an officer in the Geman Navy, commanding a U-boat. After the war. he en tered the Protestant clergy and. in the 1930's. his book. From U-Boat to Pulpit," w as a worldwide best seller. He rebelled against the Nazi demands against the Christian conscience and, in 1937, was cast into prison. Dr. Niemoeller. pastor of one of Berlin's major churches, spent the next seven years in concentration camps S a edi senhausen and Dachau. In 1939, he authored a book with the Nazi-baiting title of "God Is My Fuehrer " No Hero But, at war's end. Pastor Niemoeller did not emerge from the prison camps a hero at least not to himself. Had the German Christians done enough to thwart power-hungry, super-racist aims of Nazi national socialism which led to global war? Had he per sunally dune enough? For months after his lib eration. Dr. Niemoeller said, he was haunted by this dream: He looked into a bright light and heard a voice ask someone apparent ly near him. "What can you say for yourself for doing these terrible things?" Another voice he recog nized it as that of Adolf Hit ler replied. "I didn't know about the gospel . . . nobody told me." Then, Dr. Niemoeller re calls, he awoke, trembling and expecting the strange voice to :.sk him, "Why didn't you tell him?" 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