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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 14, No. 8. July 12, 1951

On Articles of Faith — An Open Letter to Mr. Bollinger

page 4

On Articles of Faith

An Open Letter to Mr. Bollinger

Sir,—

All this notoriety and Conrad Bollinger, too! His repetition of our names, lovingly and invocatively, reads like a litany of the saints, latter-day though we be. And, in evading the issue, he introduces some exciting irrelevancies.

He speaks of his Anglican upbringing. Does Mr. Bollinger still claim to be an Anglican; or, having been brought up in and left one of the many mansions, does he merely use his upbringing as evidence of his supposedly more liberal outlook. I cannot accept it as evidence of the latter, and if he means the former then perhaps he can explain what is to me "a most ingenious paradox."

Article One of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Belief states: 'There is but one living and true God, and he is everlasting, without bodie, partes or passions, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the maker and preserver of all thinges bothe visible and invisible . . ."

Article Seven says: "The three credes, Nicene Crede, Anthanasius Crede, and that whiche is commonlie called the Apostles Crede, ought thoroughly be received . . ." Mr. Bollinger will record the habitual beginning of these creeds is "I believe in God. . ."

Against these place the following tenets.

"All religious ideas are an unspeakable abomination"—("Lenin on Religion," page 50).

"The philosophic basis of Marxism is dialetic materialism . . . which is absolutely atheistic and definitely hostile to religion."—Same book, same author, page 16.

"Religion is the opium of the people."

—Marx.

"All religion, however, is nothing but the fantastic reflection in men's minds of those external forces which control their daily life."—Engels in "Anti-Duhring," p.353.

"Religion and Communism are incompatible, both theoretically and practically."—"A.B.C. of Communism," Chapter XI).

"Communists will wage a campaign against Catholicism, against Protestantism, and against Orthodoxy in order to assure the triumph of the Socialist mentality."—(Stalin quoted in "Anti-religionznik." May June, 1935).

"Communists never seek to hide that Communism is anti-religious."—(Melbourne Communist "Worker's Voice." 30/7/38).

"The philosophy of the Communist Party is the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism Dialectical Materialism. . . . It excludes any reference by supernatural authorities. It therefore includes atheism."—(Sydney Communist "Worker's Weekly, 20/12/38).

I challenge Mr. Bollinger, or any one else, to prove in this paper that Anglicanism and Communism are not incompatible. And it will take more than the advantage of Mr. Bollinger's upbringing to do it!

I am very pleased to see Mr. Bollinger so worried lest we have forgotten Archbishop Stepinac. I suggest he read the pastoral letter issued by Cardinal Griffin, head of the Catholic Church in England, last month and demanding that Stepinac, Mindszenty, Beran and their fellow patriots be not forgotten. And let me add Archbishop Grosz to the list. When he speaks of them as traitors, let him remember that the judge who sentenced Mindszenty was a Nazi collaborator, but that Mindszenty served his term in Dachau for refusing collaboration with the Nazis. And that 111 Catholic priests of the German clergy alone, were killed by Hitler.

And lest Mr. Bollinger be too worried over our solicitude with Marshal Tito, I would hasten to let him into a secret which he, with the advantage of his Anglican upbringing, will appreciate most of all—remember the old established custom of casting out devils in the name of devils? Admittedly we have used the name of a lesser to cast out the greater, but the principle of the thing is, [unclear: a] Mr. Bollinger will agree, the same.

D. E. Huble