"The National Council of the Reformed Church of France, being convened for the first time since the application of measures against the Jews, among whom are many Christians, was informed of the demarches which its President had made, in writing and verbally, to the highest State authorities in the name of the Federation of French Protestants. The Council associated itself fully with the President. Without ignoring or belittling the extreme complexity of the situation with which the authorities of our country are faced and more than ever determined to exercise loyally - among the people - the spiritual vocation to which God has called her; although composed of people faithful to the old principle of abstaining from any intrusion into the sphere of politics, the Reformed Church of France cannot keep silent in face of the suffering of thousands of human beings who have received asylum on our soil. A Christian Church would lose its soul and the very reason for its existence, were it not to maintain - for the safeguard of the whole nation in the midst of which God has placed it - the Divine law above human contingencies. That Divine law does not permit families created by God to be broken up, children to be separated from their mothers, the right of human beings to asylum and pity to be disregarded; nor respect for human rights to be trodden upon, nor defenceless beings to be delivered to a tragic fate. Whatever the problems may be which are beyond the scope of the Church and which the Church is not called upon to resolve, it is its duty to assert that they shall not be resolved by means which contravene the law of God. The Gospel commands us to consider all men, without exception, as our brothers, for whom our Saviour has died on the cross... How can the Church ever forget that it was among the people from whom the Jews are physically descended, that the Saviour of the world was born? And how can it be anything but profoundly grieved - as a Church which must affirm the unity of the body of Christ - by measures which also effect non-Aryan Christians, who are members of our Protestant parishes? In the face of these painful facts the Church feels compelled to make heard the cry of its Christian conscience, and to implore, in the name of God, those who exercise authority in the world, not to aid to the natural horrors of war - in itself a violation of Christ's commandments - still worse violations which will in the most fearful manner hinder reconciliation between the nations, in a repentant and peaceful world, submissive to God. It calls upon the faithful to incline toward the distressed and the suffering with the compassion of the good Samaritan, and to intercede ceaselessly with God on their behalf, for He alone can deliver us from evil by the grace He has revealed in Jesus Christ." [338] <147>