Footnote
a See The Bible Students Monthly, Volume VI, No. 7, which said under the title “Rabbi Wise Blames Churches for War,” the following: “‘Failure of the churches and synagogues to maintain leadership over the people was the cause of the present war,’ said Rabbi Stephen S. Wise at the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall yesterday. Rabbi Wise characterized the present attitude of the churches as ‘feeble, faltering, halting and timid.’ He said the State has conquered the church and that the latter has become a follower instead of a leader of public opinion.
“‘They have enthroned a war devil,’ he said, ‘in the place of God. The churches do not take themselves seriously. They are satisfied to be a mere item of the social organization and to defend their countries and rulers—just or unjust. The church is muzzled and throttled into submission. It is like a dumb dog, old and toothless, that can no longer bite.
“‘Many of us expected the Socialist power to avert such a war as this, and were bitterly disappointed in the Socialists of Europe when they failed to do so. But we never looked to the churches, mosques and synagogues to prevent war. None of us expected such a thing from them, and we know what would happen to any leader of the Church of England who would dare raise his voice against his country’s part in the present strife.
“‘Franz Josef goes through the empty form of washing the feet of a dozen pilgrims every Easter and the church is satisfied with him. The Czar is the head of his church on Sunday and the head of his army during the week.
“‘And when the nations were preparing for this war they never consulted the churches because they knew that just as they relied upon their ambulance corps and their commissaries they could rely upon the churches to uphold them.
“‘It would be better for missionaries to teach Christianity at home first.’
“The rabbi concluded:
“‘Our souls are wounded when we read of the destruction of cathedrals at Rheims and elsewhere, yet these cathedrals were destroyed long ago and it is only their outer walls that have now fallen.
“‘War gods, money gods and power gods have been destroying these edifices century after century.’”—New York American, October 12, 1914, page 4.