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At a time when rumours of wars have been replaced by real wars at every turn Studdert Kennedy’s words warrant re-visiting. Written by a man trying to find out what ‘God is like’ in the context of war – The First World War – this is still relevant if only to make us think. The book is widely available in various formats. Take a look here

Extract – pertinent to a time when we elect governments…

God’s will has been a shibboleth for those who wished to bolster up the existing social order. God is Almighty, and God can do no wrong, and therefore, whatever is, is right.

The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate. God made them high or lowly
And ordered their estate.

So we sang with childish lips, and so we were taught and believed until we learned in the school of the world that the rich man often — not always, but often — entered his castle by filthy ways, paved with human miseries and wet with human blood, and that it was often not God but whisky that put the poor man at his gate.

Once the eyes of man are opened to the power and persistence of evil in the world, this pious or impious fatalism becomes impossible ; and when men have learned to hate evil with all their hearts, it becomes not only impossible but repulsive and dis gusting.