European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 25, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse                              Thursday july the stars and stripes Page f f. Buckley or. The world Council of Church a has Modi the Foiw endorsing the prone Fps of Selec Tive objection of particular wars. The effect of that Resolution i to put the Sanction of organized protestant christianity be Hind the movement to permit individuals to select the wars they desire to participate in. The prac tical effect for instance in this country is to assist the Campaign of which the Rev. William Sloane coffin is the most conspicuous spokesman to encourage the Defiance of the Laws of the United states which at this moment permit the government to conscript an army in order to implement its foreign policy. The argument for civil disobedience is in other words greatly assisted. The dissenter will now take Comfort in being Able to Jay that to be sure he is break ing the Law As narrowly under Era of holy wars be revived stood but the Law is an unjust Law Veldt the world Council of churches. Theoretically it is of no matter that there should be differences Between positive and religious Law. In fact Laws that defy strongly asserted religious positions Are greatly weakened particularly in an age of moral opportunism. The moral problem posed by the world Council is in the Long run even More disturbing than the political problem. The Council s declaration has the effect of saying that wars Are justified if they Are wars of personal passion. That statement is profoundly anti Christian and in deed recidivist suggesting the spirit of the More fanatical crusaders. The Christian doctrine As understood during the enlighten ment is that All wars should be painful and in human terms objectionable love thine enemy. Wars Are justified Only under clinical circumstances . And primarily in order to defend sacred things of great value to use the phrase of Pius Xii to de fend the Homeland. But who is to decide when those things of great value Are threatened the Western prac Tice is that such decisions Are made by elected governments. Under the reasoning of the coun cil what matters is the individual attitude toward a particular War. The individual becomes not merely the absolute moral arbiter on whether he is As a pacifist pre pared to commit violence under any circumstance but whether he is prepared to commit violence under this particular Circum stance. In other words if he Dis agrees with the political reason ing of the duly constituted authorities he is by the Council s reasoning free to Cut himself out. An Extension of this View of the individual s sovereignty is pretty frightening. The state is in the general moral understanding permitted under Given Circum stances . Eichmann to take a Man s life say for the crime of genocide. But the individual is never permitted to do so. Why Naif the individual is supreme if a Christian is going to deny the role of the impartial Mechan ism of the state in making bind ing decisions involving the use of violence whether War or electrocution or the use of tear Gas then what is to prevent the individual from asserting his own conscience at such moments when that conscience declares that he believes violence to be Neces sary Are we not being driven by the Well meaning lords spiritual of the world Council Back whence we came so painfully Back to the age when wars were holy wars Burn the heretics and individual acts of violence were the accepted protocols of ultimate moral self assertion the world Council is continuing in the general March of organized christianity towards a confused sort of secular idealism. The other two recommendations Call for admitting red China to the United nations concerning which problem the Council is As equipped to speak As Groucho Marx is to remove an infected appendix and for the economic boycotting of racist nations which is a splendid Way to in crease world misery and consid ering that the majority of the nations of the world Are racist in one sense or another to drive the nations of the world towards the aut Archy which the world minded Council theoretically opposes. If is a pity the mess the gentlemen Are promoting. Washington St or  a inc. Look  it s China new York a Young Man and a Young woman ran away from the communist chinese pm Baisy in London two weeks ago. Only peking puritans would Call their revolt ideological. They were in love and wanted to live together. They had been or dered Back to China in punish ment for their heresy. The Flora Lewis pair sought Asylum from the British government. It was refused not for Lack of romantic indulgence but because there Are still a few British subjects in China a few diplomats a few technicians on building projects a Reuters Cor respondent who has been kept under House arrest and totally incommunicado for a year now. So the British government secretly advised the couple to look for Refuge elsewhere preferably through the american embassy or some Neutral country. The Man whose name was not revealed told the British since i was five years old i have been brought up to hate and despise americans. I could not Pluck up courage to adjust my upbringing even at this moment of  the pair fled to Holland. The incident drives Home not just the extraordinary isolation of China and its people but also Hie intensity of hatred that the . Can expect to face when it gets around to trying to Deal with China. For Over a decade now Amer cams have become accustomed of thinking of China policy As an Issue of american politics. Should we or should t we let peking in hit United nations should we should t we recognize peking should we or should t we Trade with peking should we or should t we unleash Chiang Kai Shek was settled Long a9. It was never an honest ques on Only a euphemism for should we or should t we in a de China a Side Benefit of the 1968 election Campaign pressure is , if