Spencer Heath Archive

Item 476

Pencilings on notepad paper, organization not clear, needs more study

No date

The extreme Christian Right frankly postpones the Christian ethic to another world as never intended for this earthly life and only suited for the souls of men in worlds to come. It goes even so far as to denounce its own gospel as a dreadful evil if sought to be followed in the organization of this earthly life and takes its stand upon the Machiavellian conventions of diplomacy and war —”means appropriate to the problems of this world”—as regards the Red menace of the East.

The Protestant Right, like the Ancient west, holds to the Heavenly origin of the Christian Faith and Christian ethic sent into the world as standards for the soul’s admis­sion to the mystic Kingdom while still on earth, with fore­taste in its earthly life of the great Reward beyond. For freedom to accept this Faith and to practice this morality in the earthly life it tends to rely on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as against the encroaching State and oppose totalitarian ambitions both Left and Right, leaving the pressing problems of this world’s goods to be solved as best they may within the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and without radical reform, by whatever is the preponderance of political power.

So much for the Christian Right, both protestant and extreme.

The Protestant Left, as represented by the World Council of Churches, derives in theory from the Protestant Right. It springs from leaders on the whole less affluent in pulpit as in pew, hence relatively more disposed by sympathy as well as interest towards the “social” gospel as they conceive it in its equalitarian aspects for greater “justice” in this world.

Holding the free contractual process of Society, with its equity of equality in exchange as somehow responsible for the inequities of the world, they are even more disposed than are their brethren of the Right towards sole dependence on political means to achieve their “social” aims and ends. Having always completely ignored the positive and self-operating ethic of the Golden Rule and the gospel warnings against any reliance on powers of “the world,” the false equalitarianism and Utopian promises of the Communists make powerful appeal. This considerable body of the Protestant clergy is reinforced by those who feel called upon not only to desist from evil but also to refrain from any resistance to it and hence do not scruple any more to betray than to submit.

 

With few exceptions the Christian Front has none too intelligently allowed preemption of the gospel teaching by socialists and collectivists of every shade. The extreme Christian Right goes so far as to denounce its own gospel as precept for earthly conduct

The Christian Right frankly postpones the Christian ethic as never intended for the earthly life and only suited for the souls of men in the world to come. It goes so far as to denounce its gospel precepts as a dreadful evil if applied in this world’s ‘secular’ affairs. It recognizes its own gospel only as a dreadful evil if applied to the earthly life and takes its stand upon diplomacy and war as regards the Red menace of the East.

The Christian Left is squarely opposed to this meta­physical view. It holds that the gospels are, above all, for governance of this world, nations as well as men. The Presbyterian letter shows

in Heaven is perfect” there. For the individual at least,
the Christian ethic no less than Christian faith is passport
to the Kingdom      The soul’s rebirth must be into the
Christian ethic no less than Christian faith, as passport to
the Kingdom now and_____________ of its glory here.                                            

 

 

 

/Where does the following go?/

 

This world of free relationships created vast new wealth and values for mankind. But it fell tributary to the sovereign powers of nationalistic states that grew great on tribute from the towns and trades.