Article August 10, 1940 Issue

Signs of the Times

Topic: Christianity and Civilization

with contributions from Chiang Kai-shek, Frank C. Wyckoff, Ralph W. Sockman, Archdeacon Guy, William T. Ellis, Henry P. Van Dusen

[Madame Chiang Kai-shek, as quoted in the United Church Observer, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

If civilization is now to be saved we must recover that unselfish devotion and fervor which characterized the medieval crusader. We must regain power and stand unflinchingly for those high principles upon which democracy was originally formed so that the liberty of men and the sanctity of human rights shall not disappear from the earth. Without religion no state can long endure. That now should be clear enough. If religious principles governed all treaty makers there would be no treaty breakers. If religious feeling beat in the hearts of would-be destroyers there would be no destruction.

If religious thoughts entered the minds of those who profit from the sales of munitions to international lawbreakers for subjugation of victims by aggression, there would be no aggression and there would be no victims. We Chinese women and people are, however, victims—the original ones, in fact—of the resurrection of barbarism that has practically supplanted international treaties and codes and stained with shame this advanced period in our socalled civilization.

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