Guard Spiritual Independence in Goodwill Movement, Hall Caine Warns

A warning that the goodwill movement between Jews and Christians might prove a danger “if it aims to do more than to cultivate a belief in their mutual sincerity and to disvoice the falsehoods that are born of malice and worldly interests” is sounded by Sir Hall Caine, in an article which will appear in the “American Hebrew” today.

Referring to the Permanent Commission on Better Understanding between Christian and Jew in America formed last winter. Sir Hall Caine writes:

“If the object of your Commission of representative and responsible Catholics, Protestants and Jews is to enable the peoples of these faiths, in spite of their differences of doctrine and dogma, to live together in social and political harmony, without suspicion, prejudice, ill-will or hatred, I am, of course, entirely with you. We are all children of one family and our only true interests are the same. If mankind had realized this from the beginning, the history of the world would have been different. Religious intolerance, with its progeny of ignorance, falsehood, avarice and craft, is the deadliest of poisons. It has contributed more than anything else to the age-long martyrdom of man.

“If therefore, your Commission can confine its united energies to the task of combating ill-will and hate, where they have no ground but differences of race and creed, and of creating or promoting a public opinion which desires nothing but human harmony, it will do an incalculable service to the world. It will be another League of Nations, unofficial but not therefore less effective, aiming at peace in the deepest interests of all–the interests of the spirit of man. Confronted, as we all are, and have ever been, by the greatest and gravest of all problems of life–the problem of man’s place in this world, his prospect in the world to come, the problem of man’s relation to God, and of God’s relation to man–what folly and madness are the struggles of the peoples of different creeds when they express themselves in acts of bitter hostility, of deliberate conspiracy and of wanton persecution. Differences of doctrine and dogma are no better than dust and ashes when brought face to face with the mighty issues in which humanity is one–one in purpose, one in aim and one in ultimate and everlasting welfare.

“But while saying this in full approval of the object of your Commission permit me in ail humility to add a word of warning. If your Commission or representative Catholics. Protestants and Jews goes farther than to seek to promote social harmony between the peoples of different faiths, to help them to live and work side by side in peace; if it aims to do more than to cultivate a belief in their mutual sincerity and to disvoice the falsehoods that are born of malice and worldly interests, and thereby lead to ill-will and hate, it will be treading a path of danger. It is right and good that creed and creed should, on the proper side of social peace and goodfellowship, contend with each to establish and confirm the Truth. Only so can the great spiritual problems of life here and hereafter be solved and the human spirit attain to its highest development. Without it the soul of man must come to stagnation. Therefore with complete spiritual toleration there should always be complete spiritual independence. And such independence should be free to express itself in whatsoever proper language it thinks best, without meaning or giving offence.”